Ramblings on Monday

LAS VEGAS
*Not much to report about Vegas because "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas".
*Stayed at this hotel - Aria which is part of City Center (Jerry Jones $1B palace doesn't have squat on this place, in excess of $8.5B - various sources but could be less and it could be more...no one knows - my estimate that it's going to take a whole lot of quarters to pay it off and my $7 contribution (more on that later) won't even cover 1 minute of water use in the entire facility)
*Heard from CEO of Motorola Solutions, Greg Brown (great leader and speaker); spoke about the taking the CEO position at a difficult time in Motorola's history and guiding it to the split in January of 2011 and now the exciting future of Motorola Solutions.  Found this video on Youtube:


*Motorola Solutions is an 80 year old company that is now 3 months old
*I'm excited because Motorola Mobility won't be sucking the life out of the company and the success of a smartphone doesn't determine the success of the company and the investors perception...Motorola Solutions gets to keep all its profits for R and D instead of covering the loses in the phone division.  It will bring more scrutiny to Motorola Solutions  because they will be one step closer to the investor and good or bad will not be able to hide.
*Heard from Pat Croce, former owner/president of Philadelphia 76'ers (this guy is high energy, he makes Jenn Williams look like the a snail), great story - grab your dreams, pursue your passions and to not let the "should's" rule your world (should have done this, should have done that), "should happens" and "get that "should" off your face"
*Heard from Roy Spence, CEO of GDS&M - a marketing firm in Austin, TX - check out the website, they do marketing for all the big boys and are behind the Southwest ads "bags fly free", author "It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand For", message was that every company has to focus on purpose - What is the purpose of your company and insure that every decision you make regarding your business is viewed through the prism of your purpose of your organization.
(Editor's Note: PC and RS summaries copied from 3rd party - PWarren)
*Motorola Solutions purpose - To Help People Be Their Best In The Moments That Matter"


*I couldn't convince LA that we should take all our cash, cash in our assets and go all or nothing on one spin of the roulette wheel - betting on black for a one in a lifetime trip to the poor house for the rest of our lives or immediate retirement
*I won nothing.  One of my employees won a Jason Kidd basketball.  Not to bad except that it was the low tier prize($100 on Ebay, which is more than I would pay by about $99 dollars) compared to the Kobe jersey, Lebron jersey (which a guy from Cleveland won and burned it on the dance floor), Michael Jordan signed basketball and Super Bowl 2012 tickets(which might be the crappiest prize since there might not be a Super Bowl next year)...I lied about winning.  I was a winner - I turned $7 into $99 and the greed of wanting another dollar to make $100 caused me to lose it all and thinking all the time, one more spin (roulette) and I can get it all back...pretty sure, if I gambled more often or wagered more money that would be signs of a gambling problem...anybody want to loan me $20 dollars?
*Almost bought LA a Harry Winston diamond...Sorry that was ALMOST...pretty sure they didn't have the 0% interest, 30 year plan and pretty sure they wouldn't even let me in the store.
*Vegas figured out that they don't have to give away food or $.49 shrimp cocktails and can actually charge full resort price for food and beverages...for example $10 for blueberry muffin and oj (and the bad part was a $1.29 Otis Spunkmeyer muffin is better)
*Pretty sure our taxi driver was planning a bombing or talking about robbing us and made me wonder, if the taxi company has to do background checks on it's employees...things that make you go hummmm
*Airplane middle seat sucks...what engineer thought that would be a great idea?  Nothing good all the way around about sitting middle or sitting next to person in middle - PS - "Hey, Tiny in the middle seat next to me those are my ribs"
*Tiny was reading - 2010 US Tax Code.  It looked like about 4,000 pages, small type and I am 100% sure he was the only person who bought a copy and I am 100% sure he wasn't a lawyer or accountant...Hell's Angel probably...but I shouldn't judge
*A window seat is really nice except when you see smoke coming from the engine...the rest of the story, as we backed away from the gate in Vegas,  I noticed smoke coming from the engine and thought it was weird and probably not something you should be seeing.  We stopped and after a few minutes our pilot or the head stewardess tells us the following "As you noticed, we pushed back from the gate and have now stopped.  We are having a problem with engine 1 (the one I saw smoking) coming up to full power.  It is running a little rough.  We are going to pull back to the gate and have our ground crew check it out".  Sounds like an excellent plan and I also suggest we go ahead and deplane and get on another jet.  It is obviously a sign.  We are then told the following after not moving back to the gate "We have talked to ground control and they have suggested that we power the engine down and start everything up again and this is a common problem."  I pushed my stewardess light and asked to speak to ground control.  The engine was smoking and I am thinking a different plane is in order and this isn't a common problem (unless the engine is getting ready to blow...not interested in taking off in a mosquito fogger on a 3.5 hour flight...doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling).  After about 5 minutes, I can hear the engine running and no smoke is coming out and we are told "Everyone, just to keep you updated, the pilots have restarted engine 1 and everything is fine, ground control was correct and it just needed to be rebooted like your computer. We will be on our way now."  Excuse me, did you just compare the jet engine to a computer?  I don't think so but if you must are you familiar with the Microsoft blue screen of death?  We didn't deplane, we went full power to the runway and I crossed my fingers and said a few prayers.  It made me think about Ron White and this bit...




*Had a great welcome home from LA, Aubrey and Wyatt at the airport - They didn't have signs (which I would have liked) but that's okay...ha!ha!  I was only gone for four days
*Wyatt gave me a present for being home while taking his bath with Aubrey.  He dropped a couple of floaters in tub.  That is a CODE RED EVACUATION.  LA was laughing and said "Welcome, home daddy!".

MISC
*Not going to complain but the mosquitoes are back and the "no seeums" are out...I was hoping they had become extinct over the winter
*Hoping for some rain to knock the pollen down.
*Remember, the NCAA is concerned for the student athlete...expanded basketball tournament to 68 teams with 4 play in games...let's look at the past two weeks for Clemson as an example - last week ACC tournament kids missed at least 3 days (probably 4 days) of class; as one of the last teams in the tournament, they get to play on Tuesday night in Dayton, OH, if they win they then travel to Tampa for a game on Thursday...lose home Friday, back to class on Monday - nope it's Spring Break. 
*Why isn't the play in game played in the city where you will play your round 2 game?
*Why aren't the eight worst teams matched to play each other and why aren't all the play in game winners playing the number 1 seed?  I am sure someone has the answers to these questions...maybe it doesn't matter, seems goofy to me