Why aren’t airplanes really decorated like this?
It would be so much more fun to get on a plane that displayed some pizzaz!
All we hear about are plane delays, cancelled flights, mishandled baggage, and involuntary bumping.
Oh, and don’t forget the ever more cramped seating and the entertainment system that is habitually broken.
How does this industry get away with all this crap? 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I was in an Agile and Scrum Management class yesterday.Â
Always looking for new best practices and efficiencies for what we are doing in software development.Â
We did one exercise to compare the old Waterfall methodology with Agile.Â
And the instructor had us as a team build paper airplanes one way and then the other so see the difference in output and outcome.Â
Lo and behold, we had almost 40 planes in agile and only 6 in waterfall.Â
What you see in the photo is the testing phase: we actually had to see if they could fly at least 10 feet without taking a nosedive. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
This flight attendant is terrific here.Â
She delivers the typical hum-drum public service announcements in a whole new way–now (maybe) you’ll actually pay attention.
Smart cookie and fun sense of humor.Â
Happy Friday and enjoy!
(Thank you to Itzchak Ochayon for sharing this with me)
So the flight coming back from Israel was technologically challenged.Â
I’m sitting toward the front of the plane…more room, that’s good.
But there are a bunch of families with small children and babies…and that ends up being bad.Â
The flight attendants bring out this contraption to hook up a crib device to a front wall of the plane for the parents to put the baby in to sleep.Â
But there ends up being one small problem.
The overhead lights are seriously messed up.
This passenger with the baby tries to use his button next to his seat to turn the bright reading lights off–this is like row 10 or something.Â
But when he hits the lights off button–instead the lights go off in row 22.Â
And they stay on in his row keeping his baby awake and crying virtually the whole flight.
The stewardesses are going crazy trying to figure out where the “wires got crossed” here.Â
When they go to row 22 and ask them to turn off their lights–thinking maybe that will turn off the lights in row 10 that is keeping the baby up and crying–but instead that turns off the lights further in the back of the plane in row 30-something.Â
This was a really bad comedy going on this plane.
The baby keeps crying and crying.
The stewardesses keep running around trying to figure out how to get the lights working where they are supposed to be working.
And the parents are frustrated as hell trying to calm the baby and get some rest on this lengthy, cross-ocean flight.Â
Needless-to-say, all the other passengers trying to get some rest weren’t thrilled at this ridiculousness going on.
The plane got us home, but the electrical system didn’t inspire any confidence and kept the baby (and us) up almost the entire flight.Â
When you think that this was just the lights–oh boy! Â
Because what if the wires had gotten crossed between something important like the accelerator and the brake instead? 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
We can all fly.
Not necessarily through the air.
But through life and ultimately in death, we can fight and take flight and soar.Â
It is our attitude and determination to overcome the hardest of hardships that we face.Â
We feel the pain for the situations where we fell, failed, and lost control over outcomes.Â
People who told us what they thought we are and where we can go…our ego busted, our shame written all over us, our regret and fear over what we did or should’ve done differently.
We can’t go back.
We can only go forward.
We can learn, and we can grow.
We can compartmentalize the problems and hurt.Â
We can pick up the pieces wiser than before and more determined to succeed.
Wings are not just for angels, but also for sneakers and for souls.Â
I want to fly all around the world, and more so into the heavens to see my Heavenly father and be reunited for eternity with my family and loved ones.
Fly free and wide.
Fly high and unobstructed by poverty, illness, abuse, and loneliness.Â
Fly and soar beyond anything we could ever have imagined. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
(Source Video: Andy Blumenthal)
Thought this was an interesting way to get the garbage to the curbside truck.
This guy is standing in the yard of this brownstone building in the leftover snow.
Almost like an Olympian, he is picking up bag after bag of garbage and tossing them at least a dozen feet (or more).
The garbage in these big hefty bags are sailing through the air to his partner standing by the truck in the street.Â
This guy must be getting quite some exercise not only lifting, but also throwing these bags all day long.
And he actually seemed to be having some fun doing it too.
Like my wife said, “What if you get hit by the garbage…ew.
Fly garbage, fly! 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Should I do it or is it too risky?
That’s a question we ask ourselves many times a day.
– Open our mouths at work or keep a lid on it.
– Run to catch that train or bus or slow down and go more carefully.
– Eat that greasy burger and fries or opt for a salad and smoothie.
– Invest in that highflier stock or put your money in the “G” fund.
The Wall Street Journal presents risk management as both quantifiable and qualitative.
For example, a MicroMort (1 MM, and sounds like micro fart) is “equal to one-in-a million chance of death.”
An average American has a 1.3MMs chance of a “sudden, violent end” on any given day.
However, climb to the base camp at Mount Everest (at 29K feet), that’s over 12,000 MM, base jump at only 430 MMs per jump, parachute 7 MM, and go on a roller coaster at only .0015 MM.
So there you have it–statistics tell the risk story!
But not so fast, our risk calculations also take into account our qualitative values. For example, we tend to lower the risk in our minds of postpartum depression (10-15% or higher) because we value having a baby.
Similarly, we tend to think driving (1 MM per 240 miles) is safer than flying (1 MM per 7,500 miles) because we believe we are in control of the automobile, as opposed to a passenger jet flown by a couple of pilots.
The result, “Scariness of an activity isn’t necessarily proportionate to its risk.”
That means that you can easily make a mistake and underestimate risk, because of your personality or cultural and social biases.
Rock climb at your own risk…BUT do you really understand what that risk even is or are you driven to do something overly dangerous and maybe stupid. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Totally awesome viral video.
Looks like 3 flying people.
Really they are drones in the shape of human figures.
If only we could really fly that way–wow we! 😉
Had a wonderful time with Rebecca Blumenthal today.
We went air ballooning over Las Vegas.
I was surprised at how large the balloons were and how easy the ride was–didn’t even feel it when we lifted off the ground and before I knew it, we were 4,000 feet above sea level.
I shot the video standing in the balloon as it was being inflated–never knew you could do that!
And I took the photo of the balloon with the Vegas Strip in the background–you can see the Stratosphere on the left along with the other fancy hotels and sites.
The view from above was beautiful, the air outside was cool, but under the burners of the balloon we were warm and toasty.
Sheldon Grauberger was a terrific aeronaut and guide today and you could see, completely, the total passion he had for this sport.
He told us how he actually trains others for free–he “pays it forward,” since he was taught almost 20 years ago similarly.
The sky, mountains, city, breeze, and peace and quiet floating overhead was so amazing.
I sort of felt like the young boy, Pascal, in the movie, The Red Balloon.
He dreams of a better future and is carried off by the balloons into the wild blue yonder to live happily ever after, please G-d. 😉
(Source Photo and Video: Andy Blumenthal)
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