Richard Frank-Huff's Seattle Social Blog - General

Best Umbrella Made.

nospam@example.com (Richard D. Huff) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:03:25 -0500

While in New Zealand I ran across a company that makes, arguably, the best umbrella on the market. I'm not saying that lightly. As a resident of Seattle, I have to give rain more respect than the average American. There are days when it rains so hard that just the splash-back will soak your clothes to the middle of your thighs. I've been through hundreds of umbrellas that performed more like a disposable trinket than a shield. Moderate wind would turn them inside out as if that were their natural state. The fabric detached from the ribs and the ribs crumpled like dry grass. Generally useless. The whole lot of them. Small, compact, golf-sized -- they all were designed with the lowest common denominator as a goal.

But then I read about the Blunt Umbrella in a magazine on my flight back to Los Angeles. Blunt appeared to have solved all of the failure points typical in existing umbrella designs. They attached the canopy to a set of ribs with expanding anchors inside of sown pockets -- not just a single thread snaking through tiny eyelet. The ribs are several times the diameter of those on a typical umbrella, and I can't imagine that they would buckle under any wind force still within a person's ability to keep hold of the umbrella. To top all that off, the Blunt Umbrellas are aesthetically pleasing.

I've been using one of the Blunt Umbrellas since late October 2009, and I couldn't be happier. Don't let the NZ$110 (~US$77) price tag frighten you away -- this will be the last umbrella you'll ever need to buy.

[Full disclosure: Although I've never received any monetary compensation for my product endorsements, Blunt gave me a second umbrella for free after I ordered and paid for the first one. The second, free umbrella was an unexpected gift for the help I provided them in debugging a foreign payment problem with their online storefront.]

Career Analysis.

nospam@example.com (Richard D. Huff) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:00:12 -0500

It's the beginning of 2010. I'm approaching the beginning of middle age. It's a good time to evaluate many aspects of my life, especially career. But what's the best approach? Do I buy the latest edition of What Color Is Your Parachute? Should I meet with my mentors to ask for their wisdom and insight? What can be learned from looking back at the jobs I've held over the past two decades? I don't have a fully formed plan, but I can start by giving some critical thought to what my past jobs may have to say about future career opportunities.

Below is a collection of all the business cards from my various roles since college in the early 1990's. They make it look like I've had a lot of different jobs, right? The fact is that there are far fewer roles than the business cards and company names may suggest. For example, Pacific Rim Network was acquired by VERIO (which did result in a title change from President & CEO to General Manager). The design division at Media Access was shuttered during the dotcom crash, but Peak Systems picked up the hosting division and I transitioned from a President & CEO to a Director of a division. Geckowerx was a company I ran while also getting a Sociology degree at the University of Washington. Following receipt of that degree, I joined an analytics group at Atlas almost to the day that they were acquired by Microsoft. So, the last four business cards are technically the same company with some variation in roles as I advanced.

In reality, there isn't a great deal of variation over the past twenty years. In fact, a case could be made that there has only been two real roles over that period: business leader with deep technical involvement and researcher with medium technical involvement.

Another quality that all the roles share is that they are entirely dependent on the existence of the Internet. The Internet wasn't publicly available when I entered college in 1990 and, yet, all of my jobs have been Internet jobs. Sure, there was business management and research disciplines before I started -- they just weren't associated with this "new economy" that was enable by the advent of public access to a global computer network.

What else can be divined from the cards? Well,...most of the roles have been entrepreneurial. I was a founder at Pacific Rim Network, Media Access, and Geckowerx. Only my latest role has required that I be a little more of a passenger than a driver (which hasn't always been easy). Luckily, I've had the good fortune to work in that latest role under somebody who commands my utmost admiration. Unluckily (for me), that person has recently moved on.

If the past is any indication of the future and my job choices any indication of my preferences, I will be working in some leadership capacity with an Internet-related business. I guess I just need to translate that into the terminology hiring managers use when writing and posting job descriptions. Or, I need to start a new business.

Wedding Slide Show.

nospam@example.com (Richard D. Huff) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:49:35 -0500

Our wedding photographer -- David A. Barss -- recently made the first batch of our wedding photos available for review. We couldn't be happier with his work! I took some of the photos and made the slide show seen here in Apple's iPhoto, synchronized to the song (Pink Martini's "Let's Never Stop Falling in Love") we used for our first dance.

The video player should show in this space.

Wedding Video.

nospam@example.com (Richard D. Huff) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:43:19 -0400

Sarah Bang used her little Flip Video camcorder to make a video of Melissa and my wedding. We have lots of photos (taken by friends) that we'll make available on the wedding web site. The professional photos won't be ready for a couple months. I'm posting Sarah's video on my blog before posting it on the wedding web site simply because I've already added to code to play the video in-line on my blog. The wedding blog will require extra coding that I don't have time for right at this very second.

The wedding was a complete success. Although the weather sought to derail a year's work, we ended up without the forecast rain. The 15 - 20 mph winds didn't wreck havoc either. In fact, it made for some dramatic photos. Our reward for toughing it out was a rare double rainbow in the vineyard. And,...yes,...the photographer we hired was able to capture us with the rainbow. Gavin caught a photo of us running down the stairs to be in place for what will likely be an award-winning photo.

The video player should show in this space.

Patio Farming (Updated)

nospam@example.com (Richard D. Huff) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:38:19 -0400

July 14th, 2009

August 8th, 2009

My ~~patio farm~~ single tomato plant is growing like crazy. There are already more than ten fruits on the vine. Take a look at the same plant just two months ago. Using the back of a battery operated tooth brush to simulate the native South American bumble bee that used to pollinate tomato blossoms before they were abducted to Europe and then to North America appears to have worked. I don't know that for a fact since I'm not running a true experiment where multiple plants are given the treatment and multiple plants are kept from the treatment. What I do know is that the number of flowers that have turned into fruit is much higher this year than last. Could be that the electric toothbrush is working; could be that the "patio" plant variety and the weather are making all of the difference.

Update: With work and the wedding taking so much of my time, it seems that all I have time to blog about is my tomato plant. ;) It has more than twenty tomatoes and is starting to ripen. We can't wait to have some of these for dinner.

Patio Garden Redux.

nospam@example.com (Richard D. Huff) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:34:41 -0400

Remember when I tried to grow tomatoes on the patio? Well, I'm giving it another go. All new container. All new dirt. A wire trellis, this time. A dwarf tomato hybrid recommended specifically for patio gardens. My fingers are crossed that this year will be more successful than the last. That what I learned last year will make all the difference, and we will have a bounty of vine ripened tomatoes come August.

I'm planning an herb garden too. Basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and sage. Rosemary is already in, but I'm having a hard time finding good starts for the other herbs. Luckily, herbs tend to do well on the patio. I'm not concerned about their success.

What about potatoes? Despite Sara's claim that there is nothing better than potatoes grown in trashcans, I won't be growing patio potatoes. She'll just have to share part of her crop.

I realize that the patio does not make much of a garden, but the local P-Patches have three year waiting lists.

Update: Himalayan Salt Block Cooking.

nospam@example.com (Richard D. Huff) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:02:43 -0500

The Himalayan Salt Block cooking has started to catch on. I've received several comments about my original post, and there is an Eats & Treats demonstration video on Oodlesboxtv.com (seen to the left) that I highly recommend anyone interested in cooking with Himalayan Salt Blocks watch.

Also, I'll try to be better about posting photos of dishes I've tried with the salt blocks. For now, I'll link to a photo of the pork chops I cooked on a bed of apple slices. The indirect heat and salt made them some of the best pork chops I've ever had.

Will I ever be able to return to a vegetarian lifestyle? I sure hope so, but it won't be made easy with such fun things to cook.

December Snow Storm - 2008.

nospam@example.com (Richard D. Huff) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:27:28 -0500

We woke up to a couple inches of snow this morning on Queen Anne hill. It only happens once every couple years now. Even then, it tends to happen in January -- not December. So, it's a rare treat to have the city blanketed with snow so close to Christmas. The 52 years in NOAA's snowfall record for Seattle averages to only 2.4 inches in December. I'm pretty sure that we exceeded the average with just today's weather, and it's still coming down.

Should I attempt the trek to my office? I think I should. It would be an adventure, and would surely help me get some work done (since the office is likely empty). I wonder how long it would take to get there by foot and public transit. (There's no way I'm stupid enough to try and drive when so many locals don't know how to drive in the snow.)

The local TV channels are having a field day with the weather news. You'd think we had eight feet of snow the way they're talking it up. KIRO has live feeds from several locations in the region. I guess they're just happy to have something to talk about.

(The photo was taken from our balcony.)