Utah Open Source Planet

Well, if you don’t blog about forming a new company and getting ready to launch a new product, what do you blog about? I guess when you’re busy, that’s what it takes to get you posting again.

I don’t have much to say right now, but we’ve worked our guts out, spent much of our savings and gave a slice of our lives –it’s the American dream. There will be time to talk more about what we are doing; right now, I just need to get some sleep.

Before I do… now’s a good time to give thanks to my wife for putting up with all kinds of nonsense. I love you Emily. Thanks for your support :)

Now head on over to Izeni’s website and sign up for announcements.

There’s been a lot of talk about this thing called ‘Family Day’, being held on Saturday, August 30.  Its been in the planning for some time now and things are very close to finalization.  Because of this, its time to reveal what family day is and how it will work.

Some of the items should be clear, the general idea is that any attendee can bring their family along and enjoy some family activities.  Because Utah is a very family based community, UTOSC 2008 is focusing on technologies for the family.

Bring the Whole Family

Located just outside the SI Building at the Salt Lake Community College, will be large inflated activities for children young and old.  Volunteers from UTOSC will be stationed around this area making sure the kids have a safe and fun time.

If the kids are a bit older, they might enjoy our try-it lab, and parents will get an opportunity to see the OLPC (one laptop per child) as well as some machines running educational software and possibly a mythtv setup as well.

For Lunch

Lunch will be picnic style where families can bring blankets and sit out on the grassy knolls near the venue and enjoy the BBQ food from The Smokehouse restaurant.  There will be chairs and tables near the student center for your use as well.  The Smokehouse will be offering southern bbq meals for a good price.  They did a great job for us last year so expect some great food.

The Plan

Drop the kids off at the bouncy houses and plan on spending an hour or two in sessions you’d like to see with your significant other.  After the sessions, feel free to kick around for lunch and then peruse the try-it lab.  Sounds like a great day for the family!

About this conference thing

The 2008 Utah Open Source Conference is the second annual gathering of open source enthusiasts in Utah. Following the amazingly successful first conference held in 2007 at Novell’s Open Source Technology Center in Provo, UT, this year’s conference is being held on the Redwood campus of Salt Lake Community College near Salt Lake City.

For more information about this conference, to register to attend, or to see a really neat website driven by open source software, go over to <http://2008.utosc.com/>.

How to register for the conference

UTOSC 2008 has chosen to utilize eventbrite as its registration system this year.  To register for the Utah Open Source Conference 2008, visit <http://utosc2008.eventbrite.com/> and sign up today.  We accept credit cards (through paypal) and payment at the door.  We’re looking forward to seeing you soon.

We are at the first soccer practice of the season. It is awesome to see the vast improvement in Taylor’s and Andrew’s ball handling abilities and listening skills over last year.

Taylor is a bit more serious about playing and Andrew is doing quite well even if he is a bit distracted.

They both have school friends on the team. Andrew gave one of his friends a great big hug when he saw him. Taylor has one of his best friends from last years team and first grade class. The coach is quite serious about the game, which I really like. It is still very early to tell if this will be their sport. One can only hope.

UPDATE:  I am now the assistant coach.

Maya and Lucy started school today. Our neighborhood elementary school, Foothills Elementary, is on a year-round schedule, so that is why they're starting so early compared to traditional schools. Maya started fifth grade and Lucy started second grade. Eli will be starting kindergarten, but he'll be on a traditional schedule as he is attending an all-day kindergarten program provided by our day care provider.

Christine went with the girls to school this morning and took a camera, but it had dead batteries, so I went this afternoon and got some pictures after school. You can see those at <http://picasaweb.google.com/fozzmoo/MayaAndLucyStartSchool2008/> or enjoy the embedded slideshow below.

Our little baby boy was born June 23, 2008. Lakin (pronounced “lay-kin”) is our 8th child and we brought him into our family through the blessing of adoption. For long-time shmula readers, you might remember that we just adopted Mylie in November 2007 and we adopted Preston in November 2006. Yup, we did it again, and we’re very, very happy.

Some people ask why we have so many kids, or why we’ve adopted so much. I’ll attempt to answer those in the People Are Dang Nosy Section Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section at the end of this post but, first, I want to explain a little about the Adoption Process.

• Search for Adoption Agency
  • Download Packet
  • Print Packet
  • Fill-out Packet
  • Mail-in Application

• Submission
  • 3 Reference Letters
  • Fingerprints (6 week wait)
  • Health Assessment for everyone in family
  • Proof of Marriage
  • Employment Check including Financial Health
  • Homestudy (took about 1 month)
  • Family interview
  • 1:1 interviews
  • Agency Write-up

• Approval
  • Agency Committee reviews file
  • Accepted as Adoptive Family
  • Create Profile (parallel process above, 2 weeks)

• Matching
  • Agency calls us to tell us situation & ask permission to show our profile
  • If no, then we continue to wait
  • If yes, then Agency shows our profile to Birth Mother
  • If Birth Mother chooses our profile, then we meet Birth Mother
  • If we like birth mother and she likes us, then we are matched.

• Birth
  • Make arrangements for day of delivery
  • Relinquishment in Utah is 24 hours after delivery
  • After Birth Mother signs relinquishment papers, then Adoptive parents sign documents & pay Agency Fees.
  • Bring baby home.

• Post-Placement
  • 3 post-placement visits by the Agency at 2, 4, 6 months.
  • After last post-placement & 6 months after relinquishment, then can finalize with attorney and judge.

Adopted Versus Biological

Guy Kawasaki — a fellow Asian and someone I admire — has adopted a few kids also and said this — something that I believe is true and important:

You can love an adopted child as much as a biological one. A man’s contribution to a pregnancy lasts about ten seconds — five if he told the truth — three if you asked the mother. And yet I’ve met many men who who were skeptical about adoption because they didn’t think they could “bond” with a child that didn’t have their DNA — ie, the ten-second commitment. This is simply not true: when you hold your precious jewel for the first time, no one cares if none of those chromosomes came from you. Certainly not the baby. Certainly not your wife. So get over it. Your DNA isn’t the Holy Grail — to mix several metaphors.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Dude, so why so many kids?

My wife and I love children and we believe in the institution of the family. We have 5 biological kids — 3 singletons and 1 doubleton and 3 adopted — but they are all thankfully ours. By the way, the ’singleton’ and ‘doubleton’ talk is old Set Theory talk coming out. Fun.

Even more fundamental, though, is this: when all is said and done, on my death bed, I will not wish that I had spent more time at work or other similar activities. All I will take with me are my relationships and my memories. The most meaningful relationships are those with family and with dear friends. We believe in the family; it’s where my wife and I receive our greatest joy, experience our toughest challenges, and also where we gain our deepest learning.

So, are you a white guy? What are you, bro?

Actually, I’m not Caucasian. I’m Filipino, my wife is Caucasian, we have 5 biological kids together (so they are 1/2 Filipino and 1/2 White, and 3 kids that are African American.

Hey man, why adopt? — Why you gotta be doin’ that?

Good question. My wife and I can produce biological children. My wife has always wanted to adopt — her heart is big, kind, and charitable — and she teaches me everyday. I have come to believe in adoption and am a huge proponent of it now.

There are many children in the world that need loving parents. We are doing our part to help in the most meaningful way we know how: bringing children into our family, parenting them, teaching them to be the best they can be, and watch them grow and contribute back to society. We’re really blessed to be the parents of our children.

What kind of car fits all ya’ll?

We drive a big 15 passenger Ford Econoline Van. I’ll be the first to admit that the Van is not cool, incredibly offensive to our environment (I’m really sorry), but it’s what fits our family. I have attempted to make it less uncool by installing 2 DVD players in it that drop from the ceiling. The 2 DVD thing is pretty cool.

Ummm, so wachu tizzle, wizzle?

I’m not sure what you mean, but drizzle, fizzle.

Hey, so where’d your hair go? — You are balder than an eagle, man. Dang, you ugly.

Thanks for noticing. Yes, I have no hair. I am developing a theory about hair and here it is: I believe that hair is for the insecure. Deep inside, you’re hiding something.

Do you drive like a big ‘ol bus or something?

Please see response above but, to answer you briefly — Yes.

Man, your house must be packed. How many bedrooms you got in that thing?

We live in a modest home. We have 10 bedrooms, but our kitchen and living room are a little smaller. Pretty much all of the square footage in our house is in bedrooms, but every child has their own room and my wife and I have our own room that she let’s me share with her.

That’s pretty cool that you’ve adopted so much. Good job, man.

Thank you.

Articles on Ethnography and Design:

1. Feature? What Feature?
   
2. Simplify The Product
3. Ask Aza Raskin
4. Aza Raskin on Poka-Yoke & The Humane Interface
5. Aza Raskin on Quasimodal Design and The ATM
6. Aza on Feature-Bloat and Site Clutter
7. Aza on Google Search Results Page
8. Aza on Cooperation and Team Size
9. Design Thinking in Medicine
10. On Designing a Watering Can for Little Hands
11. Queueing Theory and Visual Management
12. An Interview with the Inventor of “Clocky”
13. Bad Breath but Good Design
14. What is Ethnography

Articles on Leadership:

1. Overmanaged and Underled
2. Colin Powell on Leadership
3. Team or Staff?
4. Tipping-Point Leadership
5. Abraham Lincoln on Leadership
6. How to transform an Organization: Chime-in Before Buy-in

Articles on Queueing Theory:

• Queueing Theory: Part 1
• Queueing Theory: Part 2
• Queueing Theory: Part 3
• Queueing Theory: Part 4
• What is Waste?
• On Time-Traps and Waste
• Call Centers as Queueing Systems
• Travel Time & Waste
• Little’s Law for Product Development
• YouTube’s Queueing Properties
• Psychology of Queueing and Disneyland
• Queueing, Disneyland, and FastPass
• Multi-Tasking Leads to Lower Productivity
• Queueing Theory and Terrorism
• On Queueing Theory and Elevator Mirrors
• Psychology of Queueing, Haunted Houses, and Halloween
• The Variability Tree
• Attitude and the Psychology of Waiting - The Psychology of Queueing

Articles on Operations, lean and six sigma:

• Managing Constraints Under Peak Volumes
• Order Pipeline of Events
• On Game Theory
• Applied Regression Analysis
• 5S
• Click-to-Ship Processes
• Kanban Sizing and “Pull”
• Lean at Krispy Kreme
• Theory of Constraints and Camping
• Lean for Software Development
• Don’t Waste the Customer’s Time
• Featuritis and the Focus on the Customer

The blogosphere is rife with discussion on gay marriage and the LDS Church’s involvement in California. I would like to do my part in the battle for family. I pray this post will have positive effect in that battle, however modest it might be.

First of all, I’ve already said how I feel about group rights. Gays don’t have rights. Human beings have rights. Gays happen to be human beings. Good, we’re on the same page.

That said, this isn’t really about gay rights as much as it is about gay marriage, but it brings me to my first point.

Marriage is not a right.

For all the talk about gay rights you can mostly chalk it up to human rights that need to transcend prejudice. In other words, instead of clamoring for “gay rights” they should instead be insisting that they be afforded the already existing human rights. Gay marriage, on the other hand, is a prime example of a group inventing new rights so they can feel the same as everyone else regardless of their decisions. It’s like a people with dreadlocks inventing a right to lay their heads on your table simply because you don’t mind another person without dreadlocks doing it.

Marriage is fundamental to society.

This is entirely incident to marriage not being a right, but is yet a powerful argument against the thought that marriage should be a right. Marriage is the very institution by which children have parents, both mother and father. It is the core of the fundamental unit of society—family.

Marriage involves more than the couple.

Intimate relations are not just about consenting adults having a good time. There is ever present the possibility of new life. This new life has rights just the same. It has needs, physical, emotional, spiritual.

Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalms 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God [etc.]

Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.

—The Family: A Proclamation to the World

It is because of this sticky situation that marriage is instituted. The very purpose of marriage is to give children stable homes, to assure where possible that when children are created they have a mother and a father. Once you realize this, you realize that gay marriage isn’t the only thing you ought to be worried about. Fornication, adultery and divorce come to mind. Alas, this post is about gay marriage. Indeed, homosexual relations cannot result in offspring, so the very reasons for instituting marriage don’t even apply to the deviants. Yet they insist they have a right to marry. Again I propose it’s merely about them feeling the same as everyone else, regardless of their personal choices. It’s validation, nothing more.

Government should be involved in marriage.

Many of my libertarian friends throw around the idea that government should step out of marriage completely, leaving it a private and religious matter concerning only those involved. This is one of few places where I diverge from the libertarian camp (though not necessarily libertarian ideals). As stated previously, marriage inherently involves more than the parties involved. It involves family and new life; it involves society as a whole. It is in the interests of everyone involved (and everyone is involved, who among us was not born of a mother and a father?) and we should take every opportunity to encourage marriage over promiscuity and counseling over divorce. We should take every opportunity to afford children the privilege of being born into the marriage relation, and where that’s not possible to be adopted into such (no, I’m not saying single parents should give up their children, though they shouldn’t be discouraged to do so). The government is the vehicle by which the people are governed. Whereas the people deem it in society’s interest to afford children the opportunity to develop under the guidance of bonded mother and father, encouraged to stay together, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, thus is born the state sanctioned institution of marriage.

Noah and I decided to camp in the back yard for the first day of summer. John helped setup the tent. Having a two-year-old help setup an old dome tent with fiberglass poles can be frustrating but we got through it.

We looked at stars some but mostly we talked. I told him about memories I have of camping and the kinds of things I talked to my Dad about. I also told him other stories from my childhood. Now he asks me to retell those stories and says how fun he thinks my family is.

I highly recommend air mattresses. They’re good for overnight guests too. Way more comfortable than a hide-a-bed couch and way cheaper too. Thinner is better. The thicker the mattress is the wider the margins you can roll off of. Leaks are a fact of life so save the box and receipt and abuse the 1-year warranty ad infinitum.

A battery powered pump is also a must-have unless your lungs are in really good shape. No, you can’t run your canister vacuum off your car power inverter. I found that out the hard way last year.

I'm happy to announce that Sophia Rose Edwards was born this morning at 10:35 weighing 6 pounds (2.7 kg) and measuring 19 inches (48 cm). She's a cutie and is doing well.

read more

Some time ago I started to write an entry about kites. It was about the fun my family and I were able to have with a pair of kites we bought for a dollar. The cheapness of the kite adds a little to the challenge of keeping it up in the air. Economics nuts will agree that I get to realize a lot of consumer surplus.  They really are fun once you figure them out.  You even have some control over how it flies though you only have one string.

I highly recommend getting one at your local dollar store or supermarket. But that’s not what this post is about anymore.

Yesterday Marc Christensen took some of his co-workers to fly kites during lunch.  He owns a variety of stunt and power kites.  The smaller stunt kite is a lot of fun.  It’s amazing how much control you have with just two strings.  Marc also has some much larger kites including one that requires a harness and a variety of safety features.

Rusty had a reasonably easy time of it so I thought I’d have a go.  Honestly I didn’t really think about it much.  If I had I would have declined.

With your back to the wind there is a cone-shaped area in front of you toward the center of which the pull of the kite gets stronger. The idea is that you keep the kite to the sides of that cone or above it.

This is what happens when you cross through the middle of that cone. I brought the kite over from left to right safely and then started to turn it back to the left. Apparently I brought it too low and lost control. I was launched about 20 feet forward and was very lucky that the kite crashed into the ground. I have several nice bruises and some sore muscles. It was fun, yes, but not a good value proposition for me. I’ll be sticking with smaller kites (or a good deal less wind) from now on.

As I mentioned, I’m selling my home.  I’ve listed it for about $375K because I think it’s worth $400K but I want it to sell.  I’m worried that people coming from out of state or even out of area are missing it because they’re looking for houses in the $400 - 450K range or the $350-400K range.  So here’s the question:

In this day of SEO and saturation, am I hurting myself because I’m in the middle of the range, thus requiring potential buyers to sift though lots of houses from either end?  Do you search from the top or bottom of a price range?  Would I be better served moving the price up to $399,999 or $400,000 so that I’m at least at the top of one search?  I’m really not trying to get more money, I’m trying to get in front of more eyeballs so that I can get sold, packed up and move to California. Thoughts?

Further reading:
www.pghouse.info
Utah MLS Listing
I’m on page 17 of a county wide search (164 of 435)

When we finally got a new camera a while back we gave our old one to Noah. He loves to take pictures. The fun thing is that every once in a while he gets a really good shot. Seriously, check out the composition on this photo:

See more of his photos in his own album in our gallery.

The old camera in question is an Olympus D-360L Eric sold me for $5 after picking it up at DI and fixing it. I promptly destroyed the SmartMedia (smart for manufacturers, not so for consumers) and Rebecca and I had to run down to Circuit City to put it in a camera smart enough to format it.

We baked a cake for dinner with the Browns last week. It was a cake Rebecca and I had sampled at my Mom’s house and I needed to have again.

While it’s obvious my dusting technique is wanting, that didn’t affect the taste. Given the opportunity the Browns and Jorgensens would have devoured at least half a cake more.

Cake mixes are awesome. They’ve got all kinds of neat stuff in them to make it hard to fail. They can also be boring. People will even try to fix a boring cake by putting frosting on it. Yuck! By contrast cakes from scratch require some education and some care to get right. Luckily you can have your cake and eat it to. Cake mixes can be used as the basis for tastier, more interesting baked goods.

The cake in question here is Almond Cream Cheese Pound Cake from The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn.

We were once given a bag of some unknown mix and directions for cookies. Months later we finally gave it a try and were delighted at the results. We hungered for more only to discover weeks later what you have already surmised.

Regarding dusting: If someone knows of a store in Utah County where I can get some Baker’s Joy please let me know, or just bring me some. Pam makes a similar spray but I am told that lecithin can leave a sticky residue on my Bundt® pan.

For nearly a year we’ve had these crayon colorings on our fridge. They’re from a family home evening lesson about the creation story. They’ve been falling off the fridge lately. I wanted to share them because to me they’re an interesting example of the difference between Rebecca’s style and my own.

Ignore the subject and the outlines, of course, as they were drawn by a professional. Rebecca colored the plants, I did the animals.

The 2008 Utah Open Source Conference, to be held at Salt Lake Community College’s Redwood Campus August 28-30, 2008, will be a great opportunity for open source enthusiasts to gather, socialize, learn, and exchange ideas. In these ways, the 2008 UTOSC won’t be a lot different than the 2007 UTOSC. However, the planning and organizing team behind UTOSC 2008 does have some new and exciting changes for the 2008 conference.

In our previous blog posting, we described the theme the 2008 UTOSC is designed around: HOWTO. In this article, we’ll explain some of the ways we’re planning to abide by this theme.

Friends and Family

The 2008 UTOSC is designed to be more friendly to “newbies,” people who have only had a limited amount of exposure to the open source world, and to family members of those who eat, drink, sleep and roll around in open source every moment of their geeky lives.

Conference sessions on Friday, August 29, will include sessions targeted at those just getting their feet wet. Topics may include “Installing Linux,” “Using OpenOffice.org,” “Introduction to open source social networking tools,” and “Understanding SSH.”

The planning and organizing committee is excited about getting family members involved in what would ordinarily be considered fairly exclusive to geeks. There will be plenty of activities and conference sessions Saturday, August 30 targeting children and significant others so they can learn how open source may benefit them. We’ll have games and educational software for the kids like SuperTuxCart, SuperTux, Planet Penguin Racer, Gcompris, and KDEEDU. Session topics may include “Open source digital scrapbooking,” “Open source for the musician and music enthusiast,” “Open source and family history,” and “Open source artistry.” Great fun for the entire family!

To make this happen, admission on Saturday will be free to those who attend with a registered conference attendee.

Bar what?

Earlier this year, Utah Open Source Foundation (UTOSF) Head Cheese, Clint Savage, attended FUDCon, a conference for users and developers of the Fedora Linux distribution. One of the days of this conference was set up as a BarCamp, where attendees meet at the beginning of the day and decide, as a group, what conference topics and activities will take place that day. The BarCamp process is fairly informal, but there is one rule: Every attendee has to participate either by presenting or facilitating in at least one session.

Clint was totally amazed by this process and said it was one of the most satisfying conference experiences he’s had. He vowed that the 2008 Utah Open Source Conference would include one day of BarCamp. As a result, Thursday, August 28, the first day of the conference, will be held BarCamp-style. Be sure to show up early so you can participate in the entire process.

What now?

We’ll be posting more information in the days and weeks to come with more information about UTOSC 2008 including a Call For Papers and a Call For Volunteers. If you haven’t already, start thinking of topics you could present at this year’s conference with the above information in mind. Because this conference caters to a very diverse audience of varying levels of experience using open source or even using computers, nobody should feel they don’t have something to contribute.

Today I am 30 years old. I remember when Rebecca turned 30 last year I was pretty excited to be married to an older woman. We get to be the same age for two months out of the year.

Rebecca went crazy with office decorations with the help of Wade, my co-worker and friend, and Devon, a security guard. It was pretty embarrassing.

Traditionally in my parent’s family we’d have a dinner on Sunday to celebrate a birthday but that tradition is giving way to a Saturday brunch that can stretch on into the night. I look forward to these events. Unfortunately I’m allergic to Amanda’s dog. I can usually go several hours at Jorgensen Manor before it gets to me.

In our own family we have a tradition of inviting my friends over for cake on the evening of my birthday. This year I had essentially called it off because I was too allergic to want to go pick up a cake (we had a coupon for Costco’s huge chocolate cake that expired Saturday) but apparently Rebecca had other plans. Wade showed up and said he was just in the area and thought he’d stop by. I believed him because I trust my friends. Then the Browns showed up, then Jim, then the Jobes’. I was delighted!

Cameron didn’t show up because he doesn’t check his messages. He even says so but really he could be more clear. We’ll make it up to him.

Thank you all for your thoughts, wishes, and presence.

My flight out of Islip was delayed for weather.  Once we hit the gate in Atlanta, I had two minutes before my connecting flight to Salt Lake was to leave.  Needless to say, I didn’t quite make it.  I hate the Atlanta Airport.  I always have.  I have yet to have a connection in Atlanta where first and second legs were both in the same terminal. (Try running with two kids in a double strolle, with all their carry-on, plus your own across 2 concourses.  Not fun.)

So they put me up in a Comfort Suites.  Not the nicest place, but it is a bed.  Up at 5:30 to get my shuttle back to the airport.  Now waiting for seat confirmation.  I want to be on this flight.  I am ready to be home.  It is funny, I can complain about the noise the kids make…all the time….at home.  But these trips bring home to me that I wouldn’t want it any other way.  The quiet of the hotel gets to me.  I love being able to sit down and have one of the kids to talk to.  I love in the morning have Olivia come into my office, give me a hug, and ask for breakfast. I love talking computer games with with boys, or playing Go with Taylor. I love having Adrienne next to me.  I miss her the most.  It will be good to be back home.

"Hello!" to the couple of people who actually visit my blog and to the hundreds of people who accidentally read it in syndication.

Our family just got back yesterday from southern California. My parents took everyone to Disneyland and we did some other stuff as well. This was my first time to Disneyland since I was five years old and the first time for my wife Christine and our children.

Weather was an issue while we were in California. A tornado warning was in effect on Thursday -- the night we arrived and flood watches were in effect on Saturday evening. We were fortunate to have pretty decent weather on Friday and Saturday, the days we actually spent walking around inside Disneyland. Being that this time of year is about as off-season as Disneyland gets, we were able to visit a seemingly maximum number of attractions within the park due to short or non-existent lines.

The kids got their mouse-ears hats with their names embroidered on them, and got to spend a lot of time with their cousins. On Sunday, we drove down to Long Beach and walked through the aquarium exhibit there and then, between torrential bursts of rain, drove up the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and visited a beach so the kids could see the ocean. Unfortunately, the weather didn't really lend well to actually playing in the water. Oh well. There's always next time.

When we returned to Utah Monday afternoon, our flight was delayed over an hour due to blizzard conditions in Utah. All in all, however, it worked out great and we all had a relatively good time.

One of my primary goals in life is to teach my kids to be eventually good, productive, and self-reliant adults.  One area of life-skills that my wife and I are focused on in teaching our children, is teaching them the principle of work: how to work, the value of work, to take ownership over their responsibilities, and to be proud of their accomplishments, and to learn to work as a team and family.  One way we are reinforcing the principle of work is through the use of effective Visual Management.

Visual Management has the following purposes:

• Visual Management provides instruction
• Visual Management conveys information
• Visual Management provides immediate feedback
• Visual Management quickly exposes abnormalities in a process or work area
• Visual Management quickly conveys progress or lack thereof

My wife created a wonderful job chart, which you find below:

This Job Chart is in our kitchen, where there is frequent foot traffic and where our family spends most of our time.  There are a few items I’d like to note:

• My kid’s ages are (from top-to-bottom): 9,8,7,3,3
• The Kid’s Heads: Visually representing each child with their face is much more effective than using their names.  The Kid’s Heads are laminated and have Velcro on the back, to facilitate ease-of-job-rotation.  This approach is also very environmentally friendly, since the pictures and the board are laminated — there’s no waste.
• We have jobs over 6 days — Monday through Saturday and the jobs are fixed, but the heads are rotateable.  The younger boys (the twins) rotate with each other at the bottom 2 rows — those jobs are designed for their age and ability.  The top-3 rows contain jobs for the older kids and those jobs are designed for their age and ability. 
• Every Sunday, we rotate the heads for the upcoming week.

Deploying The Program

When my wife and I first met about this during our end-of-the-year meeting, we were quite excited and saw a lot of promise in helping our kids learn the value of work. 

Plan:

• My wife and I first met together to discuss our goals for the year 2008 and how we could accomplish those goals and the expected outcomes at the end of 2008.  We then brainstormed all the jobs that needed to get done in our household on a daily and weekly basis.  We, then, categorized the jobs based on age and abilities of our children.  For example, we had to be sensitive to the child’s height or the size of their hand and matched the work to their physical and mental abilities.

Do:

• We gathered the family together and explained our goals and vision for 2008 as it relates to the principle of work.  I explained to the kids how important work is and I also shared my personal stories about the principle of work.  I showed encouragement and excitement to the kids and that learning the principle of work will help them "feel big" and not little anymore. 
• My wife and I explained our expectations  and discussed rewards and consequences and also the start-date.
• We provided training on some jobs that the kids were not familiar with.  This is especially true for my twins, as this is their first foray into a more structured world of chores and work.

Check:

• Every night during our family prayer, we discuss how the day went and how their jobs are going. 
• The 3 older kids have other diversions also like homework, piano, playing the Wii, and hanging out with friends.  We want to make sure that they can still do other stuff and not be too burdened by any single item. 

Act:

• Depending on the findings during our daily discussions, then we adjust.  For some kids, they might have to double-up on work the next day so they can do homework.  We do not want to Batch work like that, but that is an option until further discussions can be had on whether there might be too much work.

Respect For The Kids

The Job Chart conveys information so that Mom and Dad don’t have to.  When Mom or Dad have to convey the information, it usually ends-up as nagging.  That approach is irritating, disrespectful, and polarizes people.  We want, instead, to teach self-reliance, demonstrate our trust in the kids, and help them grow in their own terms, but with our loving guidance.

How Can This Be Improved?

What we haven’t done yet is to provide Standard Work Cards for each job, showing in text how to do the job and also a picture of what a "good job" looks like.  One example might be to show a side-by-side comparison of a dirty toilet next to a clean toilet, with a marker on the clean toilet, indicating to the reader what the ideal finished good should look like. 

Can you think of other ways could we improve?

Just So You Know

Yes, I have jobs also.  My jobs are usually of the "Ask Mom" variety.  This means that I get all the hard work, inconvenient errands, and other random but necessary to-do items.  And, yes: my wife is pretty much the best.

+++++

Please find originally-written articles on Queueing Theory below:

• Queueing Theory: Part 1
• Queueing Theory: Part 2
• Queueing Theory: Part 3
• Queueing Theory: Part 4
• What is Waste?
• On Time-Traps and Waste
• Call Centers as Queueing Systems
• Travel Time & Waste
• Little’s Law for Product Development
• YouTube’s Queueing Properties
• Psychology of Queueing and Disneyland
• Queueing, Disneyland, and FastPass
• Multi-Tasking Leads to Lower Productivity
• Queueing Theory and Terrorism
• On Queueing Theory and Elevator Mirrors
• Queueing Psychology at the Gas Pump
• Psychology of Queueing, Haunted Houses, and Halloween
• The Variability Tree

For a few articles on Operations, lean and six sigma, please visit the links below:

• The Gemba is the Dojo

• Managing Constraints Under Peak Volumes

• Order Pipeline of Events

• On Game Theory

• Series on Queueing Theory

• Applied Regression Analysis

• 5S

• Click-to-Ship Processes

• Kanban Sizing and "Pull"

• Lean at Krispy Kreme

• Theory of Constraints and Camping

• Lean for Software Development

• Don’t Waste the Customer’s Time

• Featuritis and the Focus on the Customer

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Pretty scary stuff. I don’t think that we necessarily will face another great depression. We are, however, really on the verge of a recession (which is just a specific level being reached in the current trend we’re already in). Inflation is absolutely happening quite consistently. And I do think another great depression is completely within our grasp if we really want it, and wanting it may very well be no more than being content with the current trend.

I have felt the effects of this poor money management in very real ways. Gas is an obvious example which I’m sure we all feel, monthly grocery costs rise, you can even see it in vending machines and laundromats. The price just goes up and up, never down. Tuition is more imposing year after year after year, with no end in sight. Will the next generation be able to afford college? If they do manage to “afford” it, will they ever pay off the debt in their lifetime? I wonder if my youngest brother will even be able to afford it.

Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate I’m aware of whose platform is less government, less spending, less inflation, less debt, less war, less interference in our personal lives, all in all, LESS INSANITY.

Anyway, here’s the article that prompted my rant.
http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/2008/jan/14/protect_your_money
I’ve seen similar figures from other sources.

And if you don’t know who Ron Paul is, or especially if you’ve heard of him and your knee-jerk reaction is “lunatic” (thanks to our glorious media), please check out his website. (please also note that those donations are from common folk, not big lobbyists).

We built this cool snow tower with Noah inside and then knocked it down. The real purpose of this post, though, is to show Françoise that I can put a video on wordpress.

In July, Adrienne and I were up in Park City, for a weekend without the kids.  We stopped at a bookstore…yes we like books…and found a LEGO advent calendar.

It has been a big hit with the kids.  One that I hope will become a family tradition.

What are things that you do during the holidays, to express your, or your families inner Geek?

Friday, November 30. It was a dark and stormy night. Erin began having regular contractions and about 5 hours later Lachlan Pádraig Fugal was born. He escaped just in time to see most of the last half hour of November.

He weighed 3.86kg and was 49.5cm long. For those of you stuck in the past, that's 0.6 stone and 58 barleycorns.

We're glad to have him with us and we're happy to report that we're all doing fine, even Jonathan.

I suppose you're dying to know more about the name. Lachlan is of Gaelic origin and means "from the land of the lochs," i.e. the Vikings. Pádraig is the old Gaelic spelling of Patrick, and is pronounced something like PAH-drig but leaning towards Patrick. You can just say Patrick, but don't say "pa-DRAYG" or we'll laugh at you. Fugal of course comes from the Danish Fugl which means bird. Erin wasn't going for my "crazy" Scandinavian names, and I was not too keen on Christopher or Christian, so we were at an impasse for awhile. Somehow Lachlan slipped through her "craziness" filters and we tried it out for a day. We think it's a delightful name; strong and cute and with lots of meaning and family heritage, just like Jonathan Frederik Fugal, his older brother.

Goozbach, AKA Derek Carter, former Guru, Xen master, and all-around great guy got married this last Tuesday to the beautiful (and smart) Charity Hammock. I took my family down to an open house for Derek and Charity in Derek's (sleepy) home town of Milford, UT.

I wasn't sure I was going to make it out of this reception, however. They had a dessert fondue table with an assortment of yummy finger foods you could skewer and rinse inside fountains of chocolate and white chocolate. In summary: A diabetic's worst nightmare. But, man, it was SO good.

Derek and Charity will be heading back to Atlanta, GA soon where they will be starting a new life together.

Here are some pictures! First, the lucky guy and lady:

Next, a couple of that dessert fondue y'all missed out on:

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!!! Sorry I haven’t been keeping up on this for the handful of readers. It has been a crazy few months.  Hope to update things soon.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I'm not sure I've ever felt so obligated to feel thankful for everything in my life as I do this year. What better way to express this than by posting a long-ass entry in my blog, right?

(Or, as our friends over at xkcd would say: "a long ass-entry".)

So, I've been creating a list in my head of things I'm thankful for, in no particular order.

I'm thankful to Robb Kunz at KnowledgeBlue for believing in the value Iodynamics could bring to his company and absorbing us so we can work together toward a common goal. It hasn't been the easiest thing for me to do, having been "my own boss" pretty much since 2003, but it has been a tremendous learning experience and II've tried very hard to keep looking at it as such.

I'm thankful to Thom, Adam, and Mike -- my colleagues and friends that shared the experience of running Iodynamics with me. They work alongside me now at KnowledgeBlue and I value their friendship, talents, and zeal. I'm also thankful to Stephen for working with us at Iodynamics. I'm glad we were able to teach him a lot of neat stuff and become great friends before he went off to teach for Guru Labs.

Dave and Chadd were instrumental along the way in making Iodynamics what it became, so I am very thankful for their contributions and for their friendship, which continues to this day despite the fact we no longer work together or see each other very often.

Where would I be today without Linus Torvalds and the open source community? I can't imagine where I would be. While I was a Unix person for a few years before Linux hit the scene, I didn't turn my back on the world of living under Bill Gates' thumb until Red Hat Linux was released. It's been about ten years now that I've been running Linux as my primary desktop operating system and twelve years I've been running it on servers as part of my jobs. While I would undoubtably still be doing something with computers had Linux not existed, I woudln't have been able to do the very cool things I've done and it woudln't have been as fun or as productive. Linux and open source software just rocks!

Before we leave the topic of Linux and the open source community, I want to shout out to some local folks that I'm very grateful for. Clint, for following through with the creation of the Utah Open Source Conference and the Utah Open Source Foundation and realizing a vision of a regional community of open source enthusiasts and supporters. Jayce, for his constant friendship and leadership.

I also can't go onto the next topic without expressing my thanks for the IRC community from the #utah channel on Freenode.net. The comradery and friendship I've enjoyed from #utah has been a great joy to me over the years. This has got to be perhaps one of the most fun, considerate, and polite groups of geeks I've had the opportunity to hang out with online in all my years on the Net.

I am very grateful to my church -- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints -- and my local church leaders. I have been very standoffish in my participation in my religion for most of my life until this last year. While I'm still not a social butterfly as far as that is concerned, I have come to gain a much-needed new appreciation for the value of service to my fellow man during this last year. This began in April when I spent the entire day volunteering on Temple Square in Salt Lake City during the Spring session of General Conference. I was helping to direct vehicle and pedestrian traffic and over the course of the day, I saw thousands of fellow church members going to and from conference meetings and strolling about on the grounds of Temple Square. I came away from this experience with one very distinct impression: We are a beautiful people! I'm not just saying that because I saw a lot of pretty women (I did), but because just about everyone I saw was glowing, not just with happiness, but with a wonderful purpose. It was a subtle reminder that we're all in this life together and I can't think of a better group of people to be traveling through this life with.

I am thankful, of course, to my parents and my siblings. As I have grown older, I have realized two things: They are far from perfect; They are wonderful, good people. My mom and dad have been wonderful role models of service. Both of them are a lot more comfortable dealing with people than I am and it encourages me to get out of my shell. Many reading this may not know that my dad was a Utah state senator for twelve years when I was growing up. During that time, he worked hard to support the passage of bills that promoted conservative policies that were pro-Free Enterprise and personal responsibility. When I think back of some of the stupid ideas I had when I was younger and how tolerant my dad was of my misguided beliefs, it only increases my respect for him.

A couple years ago, I enjoyed listening to Jerry Doyle on the radio. He's a pretty cool guy, used to work as a Hollywood actor and now broadcasts his syndicated conservative talk radio program out of Las Vegas. His affiliate in Salt Lake removed his show and I was ticked off. I think they replaced him with Michael Savage who is angry, bitter, crotchety and not very satifying to listen to unless you are also angry, bitter, and crotchety. I wrote to the radio station to complain and, of course, got absolutely no response back. A few weeks later, my brother-in-law, Adam, asked me what I thought of this new guy they put in the afternoon spot Jerry Doyle used to occupy. I hadn't heard him, but I was happy they got rid of Michael Savage. Adam told me this guy was really funny, did a good show, and his name was Glenn Beck.

I gave Glenn a listen and was hooked immediately. In early 2006, I let my Rush Limbaugh 24/7 subscription expire and became a Glenn Beck Insider and a regular listener. It was also in 2006 that Glenn started up his TV show on CNN's Headline News and I was there from Day 1... even though the first episode really sucked. There were only about five of us that "got it."

Glenn's political philosophy mirrors mine almost perfectly and his re-embracing of religion in middle age is entirely relateable to me. His honesty, humility and sarcasm are refreshing. If I ever meet him in person, I'll probably bawl my head off.

In April of this year, right after radio personality Don Imus was fired for making a racial slur on the air, Glenn complained about the political correctness of the move without apologizing for Don Imus's comments. There was some talk of other prominent radio personalities like Glenn being taken off the air because their comments could be offensive to some people. Glenn took an extended vacation beginning April 16 but before he left, he appealed to his audience for more voices, not less. As he signed off he said, "You have your voice and others will start losing their voice if you don't start using yours."

I remember these words had a profound effect on me. I don't have a radio program, but I do have a couple ways of sharing thoughts with other people. One is this blog. Another is video. I decided I would work on creating my own brand of education and opinion through my blog and through my own video productions online. Thus, Solitary World was born. I haven't done much with it yet; Still trying to feel it out and find the best approach. I don't even know if it will be political, but it may be. We'll see.

I am very thankful to Glenn Beck... for everything he is and everything he does. Thanks, man.

Finally, there's my wife and kids. Sure, Glenn Beck is a nice guy and all, but if there was one person in this world who is singlehandedly responsible for me becoming a better person over the last decade or so, it's my wife. Her support (and tolerance) of me seems to have no boundaries. I don't know where I would be without her. I know it wouldn't be quite as nice as it is here.

My kids are wonderful and I can't be thankful enough for what the experience of being their earthly father has brought into my life. They are the most precious part of my life and I thorougly enjoy teaching them, guiding them, and helping them grow up.

If you've made it this far without falling asleep or bashing your computer into pieces, then have a Happy Thanksgiving!

It has now been three years since you joined our dysfunctional family.  And a happy three years it has been.  One of the perks about working from home is that I get to see you all when you wake up.  I love how you search me out in the morning and coming running to me with your beautiful smile and give me a great big hug.  I love how excited you are about all things girl: ballerinas, princesses, dolls, but that you can turn around and play legos, star wars and cars with your brothers.  You are the perfect fit for our family. Happy third birthday.  I love you little princess.

We went to Cameron’s preschool this afternoon for his Thanksgiving program. He has been singing one of the songs for his program all week. It was fun to see it all come together.

My Sister-in-law forwarded the following to me a few weeks ago. Typically, they go right in the trash. But I just felt the need to respond to it. My response is at the end. (Just to note, I grew up in New Orleans and some of my wife’s family is still there.)

The forward:

How do we pass a law?
Very Fair URINE TEST…

(I sure would like to know who wrote this one! They deserve a HUGE pat on the back!)

Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test with which I have no problem. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them? Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their BUTT , doing drugs, while I work. . . . Can you imagine how much money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check.
Pass this along if you agree or simply delete if you don’t. Hope you all will pass it along, though . . . something has to change in this country — and soon!

My response:

Let us say that, maybe, 25% of the people getting a welfare check are abusing. (Which would be a staggering number [1]). Do you think that this would really save money? Here is how I see it breaking down:

0/ We have increased costs, paying people to collect, process and administer urine tests
1/ We have also increased the illegal urine trade ;-) [2]
2/ Storage of all the data (Just think urine warehouses) [3]
3/ We have people disputing the results (I had a poppy seed muffin top in the waiting room!) Which means more attorneys, more testing, more money!

And what does this result in? Either, you lost all of your cost savings or, you have increased your costs. And who pays for increased government costs? You, and your children, and your children’s children and their children’s children…..

But on the other hand, you have created new jobs and could reduce the number those that need welfare [4]. So it could be a boom to the economy!

This could be just the thing we need to stop the recession we are about to experience.

/me

PS I have *never* had to have a urine test for any of my employers. (White collar workers have it so easy….sitting on our butts, getting fat, looking at youtube, all day long!)

[1] “Since TANF was enacted, the number of people on welfare has declined dramatically. By 1999, there were only 7.2 million recipients, including 2.6 million families and 5.1 million children, roughly half the caseload of the 1994 peak..” http://www.policyalmanac.org/social_welfare/welfare.shtml (I know the numbers don’t add, but they are not suppose to. You aren’t actually suppose to add them. They are sliced representations of he total. )

[2] Additional tests could be run to match urine to an individual. (We don’t need any more pregnant men, menopausal 20/30 year old women, etc ) So, 0/ You could have someone watch them pee (another person you have to pay and monitor. They could be taking bribes, peeing in the cup for you!). 1/ You could DNA test, mouth swab, which you could then type to the urine sample (this results in more tests, more people to administer it, etc. which means more costs)

[3] This might be a good thing. The real estate market is coming crashing down. More companies are going out of business, downsizing, off shoring and near shoring. There could be a lot of [refrigerated] warehouse space available on the market (do you know of any?) It could also be a boom to the construction market, building more warehouses. (I can’t think of any major cities in the US that need major reconstruction efforts at the moment, so the construction workers should be available to build new ones.) There is a lot of land, I understand, available in St. Bernard Parish. But if you built the urine storage facilities down there, what happens if you have another hurricane come through? Just think of all the pee and all the plastic cups! Al Gore would be livid.

[4] There are so many trained urine techs on the dole these days. You could train new ones. But they would need to be urine tested as well. Where could we find them? Oh yeah! The people on welfare, they need jobs, but we just accused them of using drugs (and remember 25% of them are) are we sure we want former drug addicts running urine tests?