I thought today that I would write about a few of my favorite authors.  They are detailed here in no particular order and I guess a valid question would be which is my favorite. Generally speaking it is the one I am currently reading.  So here we go.

The main character in Vince Flynn’s books is Mitch Rapp, a CIA operative.  Rapp is portrayed as somewhat of a loose cannon that does what is necessary to get the job done. But it is this attitude that is what many will find most enjoyable about the stories. There are 11 books in the series and while one does not have to read them in order there is a continuation of actions that does make it more enjoyable.  His last book, American Assassin is actually a prequel in that it follows Rapp’s recruitment into the CIA.  While these are works of fiction on at least one occasion evidently Flynn got too close to the truth as it generated interest from the Department of Energy.  There is a new book, Kill Shot, coming out in February 2012.

Next we have Dan Silva whose protagonist is Gabriel Allon an art restorer, Mossad spy and assassin and in a lot of ways is the Israeli version of Mitch Rapp.  Which probably explains my attraction to both Silva and Flynn.  There are 11 books in the Allon series with the last one, Portrait of a Spy, was published earlier this year.  Here we have interesting character development, both in those that Allon is pursuing and at the “Office”, Mossad headquarters on King Saul Boulevard. As is also the case with Flynn’s books, one expects that there is an element of truth in these works of fiction and a part of the fun is trying to decide “which is what”.

The central character in Lee Child’s book is another kettle of fish.  Jack Reacher is a retired U S Army Major whose service was as Military Policeman.  Reacher travels the country with only a folding tooth brush.  No luggage no nothing.  When he needs clean clothes, he buys new ones and throws away the old ones.  Reacher has no car and either rides buses, hitchhikes or walks his way around the country happening upon towns with serious troubles that he feels compelled to fix.  While the basic premise may seem a little far fetched, the character development and story lines are compelling and always a satisfying read.

In 2010 we lost Robert Parker, a prolific writer who spawned a number of intriguing characters.  Notably among the characters is probably Spencer which gave birth the the Spencer for Hire TV series.  Spencer is a private detective who surrounds himself with a broad range of colorful associates.  My favorite is Hawk, a large African American man who is portrayed as one that nobody messes with.  Other Parker protagonists include Sunny Randall, a southern police chief turned private investigator who also has colorful characters around her, not the least of which is Spike, “the world’s toughest Queer”. Police chief Jesse Stone who after trouble in Los Angles matriculates to a small New England Town, again with an interesting mix of characters that sometimes includes Sunny Randall. Since Mr. Parker’s death his estate has decided that the Spencer series will continue with Michael Brandman, who collaborated with Mr. Parker on a number of occasions,who  has written the first Stone novel. Titled Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues, it was published Sept. 13, 2011.  I haven’t decided if I will read that one or not. Parker’s skill at character development was such that if I do decide to read the book, I will look at it as if it is something totally new.

There are more but that is enough for today. Early on I posed the question as to which is my favorite author and if I were pressed to choose I would say Vince Flynn. Having said that I think that if you try any of these authors you will be rewarded with a pleasant and sometimes intriguing experience and will have the opportunity to choose your favorite.

This is something that I received today and think it is important enough to put on the Blog.

STROKE HAS A NEW INDICATOR

They say if you e-mail this to ten people, you stand a chance of saving one life.

Blood Clots/Stroke – They Now Have a Fourth Indicator:  The Tongue

STROKE: Remember the 1st Three Letters….. S. T. R.

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

During a BBQ, a woman stumbled and took a little fall – she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) …she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.

They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Jane went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening.

Jane’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital – (at 6:00 PM Jane passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Jane would be with us today. Some don’t die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.

It only takes a minute to read this.

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke…totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Thank God for the sense to remember the ‘3’ steps, STR. Read and

Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S  *Ask the individual to SMILE.

T  *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE  (Coherently)  (i.e. “It is sunny out today.”)

R  *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call 911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

New Sign of a Stroke ——– Stick out Your Tongue

NOTE:  Another ‘sign’ of a stroke is this: Ask the person to ‘stick’ out his tongue. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, or if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

I have done my part. Will you? They say if you e-mail this to ten people, you stand a chance of saving one life.

Blood Clots/Stroke – They Now Have a Fourth Indicator:  The Tongue

I do not know how many of you use or are familiar with the Keurig single cup coffee brewer but we have one and find it great.  Dee, my wife, and I have very different tastes in coffee – I love the Bold (read strong) coffees and Dee is on the other end of the spectrum (read weak – like a mocha).  So we had a choice, brew two pots of coffee daily or up until about a year ago drive from our Arizona residence 11 plus miles each way to Fountain Hills to get two very different brews at Starbucks.  In Minnesota during the summer it was a little better only about 4 miles each way to Caribou Coffee.  At either location the tab was usually a little over $6.00. Enter the Keurig and the K-Cup and now no long trip for coffee and the cost per cup ranges from $0.42 to about $0.85 – and no gas expense.

What got me to thinking about this today is an article from the on-line Wall Street Journal that contained a Power Point presentation by an investor in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters – the corporate entity that owns Keurig and the K-Cup – highlighting what he saw as challenges for the company.  The article is at http://linkd.in/qKXbTW and contains a 110 slide presentation.  But what struck me about Mr. Einhorn’s presentation was the points he missed.  When he calculated the relative cost per cup compared with traditional brewed coffee he assumed that all of the coffee brewed each time was consumed.  Think about it, how many times have you dumped a half a pot or more down the drain?  Second he utilized the standard price for K-Cup offerings but forgot about places like CostCo where I purchase an 80 cup package that yields a cost per cup of $0.42 not the $0.63 to $0.85 in his comparison and this for one of their higher end coffees.  Thirdly, he missed the real competition, at least at our house, Starbucks and Caribou with cost of $2.00 to $4.00 per cup. As an aside, there is a reusable and refillable insert that allows one to use any coffee with the Keurig and with that all bets are off.  However, the brews from the K-Cups are so good that I have not been tempted.

As I read and reflected on the article I was struck by how easy it is to miss the forest for the trees and that is something that we all can identify with and do well to avoid.

As we approach the 2012 elections, I got to thinking about the importance of  the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.  It seems to me that Iowa with less than 1% (.97%) of the US population and New Hampshire with less that 1/2% (.42%), the numbers are from the April 2010 census and can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population, can drive candidates out of the race before the vast majority of the voting population gets to weigh-in. Now I understand small states not wanting to be marginalized by the larger states, but doesn’t this perverse setup marginalize the larger states?

Now comes Florida, the 4th largest state by population with 6% of the US population, that wants to have more of a say in the process and moves it’s primary up and everybody has their shorts in a bunch.  Both Iowa, to January 3rd, and New Hampshire, possibly into December, more their selections up to stay ahead of Florida and Florida is condemned for having the temerity to do such a thing! Watching this comic theater play out makes me wonder if we have not lost sight of the objective – that being to select the best candidate.

This cycle it is the Republicans but in 2016 it will be either the Democrats or both parties. Regardless of your political leaning all of this gnashing of teeth has to come off as absurd and unnecessary..

I upgraded my iPhone 4 today and the experience was the antithesis of the two days before on my iPad.  Everything went very smoothly and when finished everything that was supposed to be on the iPhone was there. I suspect that a few things played into the difference.  One, I had the experience of doing the iPad and was able to avoid some of the mis-steps.  Two, for some reason the issue of syncing with a different library did not come up – do not know why as the iPhone was also synced with my earlier Mac.  Third, and probably quite important, I suspect the volume of those hitting the Apple servers for the upgrade to iOS5 had decreased substantially.

First impressions of the new operating system are good.  Especially like the new tab layout in Safari on the iPad.  No more little icon with a number in it at the top left of the screen. There are actual labeled taba across the top!  Haven’t had a lot of time to test the other upgrades but will get to that in time.

Things do not get easier as I now have the challenge of upgrading my wife’s iPad and iPhone.  The big obstacle is that her iTunes library is on a PC – not a Mac – and also is not the one the devices were originally synced with.  I had fiddled with this a couple of months ago with little progress but will have to begin anew.  It seems there might be non-Apple programs that make this work so I will continue to investigate and let you know what I find. If anybody has ideas on how best to make this work, please let me know.

In an earlier post I detailed my “adventure” of dumping a cup of coffee on my MacBook and it’s resulting demise.  The new MacBook Air that replaced the damaged item is a true joy but the gymnastics of changing the computer that iTunes for my iPad and iPhone are synced to has been something else.  As you Apple folks are aware, all updates, such as the move to the new iOS5, are accomplished through iTunes and devices can only be synced to one library (MAC) so the problem.  Well it took me four calls to Apple Care to get through the process.  It turned out that the last call was really not necessary as the problem was the result of too many people updating to iOS5 yesterday and the problem resolved itself this morning.  Having said that, the restore is running slower and slower as evidently more and more are hitting the Apple servers for the update.

As I write this post, my iPad is being restored from the backup – when you switch libraries it becomes necessary to fully backup the iPad as what is on the iPad will be replaced with what is on iTunes.  Well, it looked like it was being restored but none of the apps that are in my iTunes library made the trip.  Waiting for call number five with Apple Care. Finally got everything resolved.  Turns out you have to tell iTunes to sync the apps separately.

Given the volume of people attempting to upgrade to iOS5 I am going to wait a couple of days before I update my iPhone.  Although I now know the little tricks I do not want to have things get fouled up with the volume.

“Many people have explained what one can learn from Steve Jobs. But few, if any, of these people have been inside the tent and experienced first hand what it was like to work with him. I don’t want any lessons to be lost or forgotten, so here is my list of the top 12 lessons that I learned from Steve Jobs.” Guy Kawasaki.

Go to http://www.openforum.com/articles/what-i-learned-from-steve-jobs?extlink=sm-openforum-tw.  It’s worth the read.

In addition to his time at Apple, Guy Kawasaki is a serial entrepreneur and author.

This morning something popped up on one of my Twitter feeds that struck a chord.  At first I said that being retired this had no application to what I do today, which is to volunteer and work on a couple of boards. After a little more thought I think there is something in this for anybody, regardless of their current circumstances.  So here they are and how I see them applying.

1. Wake up early. Early in the morning is a great time to get work done because most of your associates have not started emailing, tweeting, IMing, or posting yet.

I have always been an early riser and this fits for me.  It is truly amazing how much more productive you can be without interruptions.

2. Read the headlines and watch the news. Not only should you know what is going on in the world, you will also be the first to recognize opportunities (if you followed #1) for you and your business–long before the competition has even had their first cup of coffee.

This morning I came across three different items that had impact for things that I am involved with and sent emails with attachments and explanations to about twenty people, who are also involved, all before 6:30 a.m. They may also have come across these items but they may not have and at the very least I saved them some time.

3. Send something to one person who can hire you or buy your product–something you promised to follow-up with, a quick email with a link to something relevant or a “Hey, just checking in to see how thing are going” email.

See what I said about #2. Also, while I am not looking for a job or selling a product, I think that we can add value by doing things like this.  In our daily life we often promise to get something to someone and the followup is truly important.

4. Touch base with an old friend or associate you haven’t talked to in ages. Ask how they are, what are they working on and ask or suggest how you might help. You’ll make their day. 

This may well be one of the oldest suggestions in this group.  How many times have you called someone only to find out that they really needed a call?  I bet it is often.  Doing this once a day or so takes little time and produces great dividends.

5. Write a handwritten note to someone. Seriously. It is a lost art and makes quite an impression. There is always someone you can send a thank you note to–or you aren’t doing things correctly.

While this is not one for me, my handwriting is borderline unintelligible even to me, but find other ways, usually a phone call, to work around my handicap.

Let me know your thoughts on this topic and maybe we can get a conversation going on how to leverage these ideas.

Anybody but me tired of the “Stupid White Guy” commercials?  If any advertiser tried to put a minority or woman in that light they would be metaphorically tarred and feathered! Here are a few examples:

• The Verizon Wireless commercial where three “office workers” are rocking on their cell phones.
• The Toyota commercial with the white guy bouncing around the show floor and poking his head through the open sun roofs.
• A whole raft of Progressive Insurance commercials that portray white men as either buffoons or clueless.
• The Nationwide Insurance commercials with the guy walking around with a traditional telephone strapped to his chest.

Having watched and been involved, as a retailer in the 70’s and early 80’s, with Apple and Steve Jobs since the Apple IIe I originally thought that Jobs was a cocky kid. But since his return to Apple he proved that he was a true genius at a level that does not happen even every generation. He had the gift of knowing what we wanted before we knew it and that is magical.