Enjoying or Enduring?

Are you just enduing life? Or are you enjoying life?

Granted, some days are better than others, but everyday has the potential to be a great day.

Some people have their mind preset to expect the best. Having this mindset can make you a self-fulling prophet for the good that happens in your life.

If you fill your mind with at least 80% of good thoughts, the 80/20 rule will work in your favor.

If your mindset is to just get by everyday - you are enduring life.

When you look forward to all the good that is going to happen each day, you are enjoying life.

Life is way too short to endure life. Enjoy life and get the most out of it.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. It could be as simple as helping someone enjoy life.

Totem Poles

I was talking to a buddy (Stuart Celarier) at work the other day about work in general. I made a comment to Stuart about where I stood on the totem pole, so he needed to take my comment for what it was worth.

Stuart said that he had to disagree with my place on the totem pole. His point was the totems higher on the pole might be seen more, but without all of the the lower totems, the higher totems would not be the presence that they are. If the base of the totem pole crumbles, the hole pole crumbles.

Garth Brooks has a song entitled Friends in Low Places. I am not exactly sure of the intended meaning of the song, but I like to think that if you want something done, it is better to know people in low places that can actually get the work done than knowing someone at the very top who may or may not have time to try to find someone further down the totem pole to get the task done for you.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. It could be as simple as reminding them that they are important to the totem pole even if they are not seen as they are towards the bottom - or on the bottom.

India - Day 10 (Thursday)

One of the cool things about the Bangalore office is its proximity to many different restaurants all within walking distance. There are numerous different cuisines, so it was not like I had to eat the same kind of food every single day. I think I only ate at the same restaurant, other than eating breakfast at the hotel, one time while I was there.

Today was probably the best food I have eaten so far. We ate at a restaurant called Serengeti that was like eating in a rain forest. The atmosphere was great and the food was even better. The only thing I did not eat were the prawns, which is something I would not eat back home. I tried them just to say I that I at least tried them, but I could not get past the chewing, leathery texture.

One of the items we order was a soup called Murgh Shorba Badami. It was served in a glass (this was the second time I have had soup in a glass, so I was not surprised this time) and it had a good balance of spice and sweetness to make the soup very enjoyable. I think this was Suzy's first soup in a glass, as she seemed a bit surprised as to what was being served.

A couple of different rices were part of the lunch. Both were vegetarian rices (Vamsi is a vegetarian) and both had flavors that did not require meat to make it taste good. I need to find a cookbook that shows me how to make rices like this.

I took a tour around the restaurant to see soak up the atmosphere. The whole restaurant was setup to make you feel like you were in the jungle including waterfalls and streams running throughout the restaurant. There were various semi-animated animals and birds in different areas, but the one that I thought was best was the elephant at the entrance; it was motion activated that would raise its trunk and trumpet whenever anyone walked by. My daughter loves elephants, so it was special to me because it made me think of her.

The rest of the CheckFree team that was touring the different India centers made it to our office later in the afternoon. Like the other sites they saw, they came to see what was happening at the Bangalore office with all the different groups. Each group had a presentation that they gave to the group.

After the presentations were over, we called it a day and went back to the hotel. The CheckFree crew was staying at the same hotel that Suzy and I were staying at, so it made it easy for meeting for dinner. We ended up eating at the cafe at the hotel where we have breakfast each morning. What was kind of interesting though, they seated us at the bar where all the breakfast items are set out, due the large number of people we had in our party.

Today is two days before the elections in Bangalore. The reason I mention this factoid is because starting two days prior to the election through the election day no alcohol is served anywhere in the city legally. This did not bother me at all, because I don't drink, but the majority of the other members of the party were definitely saddened by this. Suzy said that she was very happy she had her beers the previous night at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Dinners were somewhat optional while I have been here because I generally was fed extremely well during lunch that I was not overly hungry come dinner time. Today, was one of those days when I was not overly hungry, so I ordered a four-cheese pizza. The pizza used naan for the crust and there was no mozzarella used at all. The sauce was a light garlic olive oil. For not being very hungry, this was a very good pizza. Suzy was the only person at the table that ordered Indian food. The rest of the party tried their hand at Italian food and most of them found it too spicy to eat; a couple of the ladies sent it back (with a little urging) to get something less spicy - even at that, it was a bit too spicy for them.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. It could be as simple as asking the waiter to redo an order because the person is too shy to ask him/herself.

India - Day 9 (Wednesday)

Today is the day we decided to really go out for dinner; we wanted to go to a place that was not in walking distance of the hotel. We decided that we were going to go to the Hard Rock Cafe. There was a minor problem - the driver had never heard of it and the people he was calling had never heard of it either. Suzy and I could not really figure out how such a big named place was unknown in such a big city. We were about to give up and just head back to the hotel when the driver found someone who not only had heard of the place but knew where it was located. I give Rambas, our driver, credit; he did not give up looking for the Hard Rock Cafe, just because a couple of people had never heard of it.

The Hard Rock Cafe was pretty much what I expected, as it had music blaring (note to self - you are not 19 any more and cannot handle music at decibels that rival a jet airplane) and musical paraphernalia hanging from the walls. The majority of the wait staff looked out of place, except for our waiter. He had the rocker-motif going and he looked like he was supposed to be working at HRC. He spoke with an Indian accent, which is what he should be speaking with since he is from India, but that is the only thing that seemed strange for him. I wanted to take a picture of him because he so looked the part, but I did not want to insult him, so I didn't.

The menu was set to cater to Americans as there were hamburgers and other meals that had beef. The oddity about ordering a hamburger was that it was either 7 ounces or 10 ounces instead of half-pound or 3/4 pound. I ordered the Hickory BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger (7 oz.). It was a very juicy burger and very messy. It ended up being a burger that I ate with a fork and knife. I was barely able to finish the burger - it was very big and very tasty; because it tasted so good is why I finished it.

You can't go to a HRC and not get a t-shirt. Remember when I mentioned in a previous blog that I towered over the majority of the people every where I went? They did not have an XXL t-shirt there. When I asked the attendant, she thought I wanted 2 shirts size XL. I did end up buying an XL shirt, as it looked like it would fit me, as long as I never put it in the dryer.

We were done with dinner and my souvenir shopping so we called Rambas to pick us up. He came by shortly thereafter and drove us back to the hotel - all of about 10 minutes away.

Well, after a little research, I found out why no one had heard of the Hard Rock Cafe - it had only been in Bangalore since December 29, 2007. HRC had only been open about 5 months when we went.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. It could be as simple as taking them somewhere they would really like to go.

India - Day 8 (Tuesday)

What a difference a day makes. I feel tremendously better today than I did yesterday.

The trip to the office was uneventful, which was a blessing in comparison to the 2-hour trip back to the hotel last night.

No matter how well you try to plan things out during the day, things don't always go the way that you want them to happen. An itinerary was planned out for a couple of days and it was off schedule from the first day.

After work, Suzy said she had some energy and was willing to check out some of places next to hotel. Walking the streets in Bangalore is a challenge as the pedestrians do not have the right of way like they do back home. Fortunately, the walk to the mall was very close.

We checked out the various different restaurants and decided on a Chinese restaurant called Noodles. I think it served Cantonese-style food, as the food centered more around the sweet tastes rather than spicy. Most of the items on the menu I have not seen at the Chinese restaurants back home, but the food was tasty. One idiosyncrasy that I have yet to grow accustomed to at the local restaurants is the staff serving you food all the time. You are not supposed to serve yourself.

We completed our dinner and made our way back to the hotel without anything eventful happening. Suzy says that I am her protector on the streets; I am big enough to scare most people off and since I survived the car accident earlier in the year, the small cars here don't stand a chance.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. It could be as simple as having dinner with someone who would normally have to eat alone.

India - Day 7 (Monday)

Today is the first day that I won't be the only Hillsboro person here at EDC. Suzy, one of my big bosses, came in this morning at about 1:30 AM and we are going to be at the office at 9:00 AM this morning. She gets the same sleep, or lack there of, that I got on my first night in Bangalore.

To the left is a cow walking the streets of Bangalore that I saw from my hotel room window.

Getting to the office was the easy part. Getting back to the hotel was the challenging part. The average time to go from the hotel to the office was about 20 minutes, when there were no special events or cricket matches. Today, there was a cricket match in town. It took us 2 hours to get back to the hotel from the office. And we even left a little earlier than normal; if we left at the normal time, I think it could have taken 3 hours. I don't think this was exactly the experience that Suzy was expecting.

Up to this point, my visit to India was uneventful when it came to health. All was good. Until late this morning. I did not do anything out of the ordinary for me. I ate breakfast - and the only thing that I tried new from any of the other days was an apricot danish. A custodial crew came walking through the office spraying an air freshener today and it was overpowering. By 10 AM I was starting to feel miserable. I was hot and nauseous. The watermelon juice that I had at breakfast was the only thing I could taste. The boss at the office took Suzy and I out for lunch, but I could not eat more than a couple of bites. The waiter brought cool towels for us to wipe ourselves down, but came by to pick up the towel before I was ready for him to take it back. I had to ask for another cool towel so I could keep myself in check. I was able to make it through lunch without tossing my cookies.

I got back to the office and the air freshener smell was still strong, and I started to feel bad again. We had a meeting in a different room a few minutes later and the lack of smell in that room made me feel a little better. Lucky for me, jet lag started hitting Suzy and she was ready to leave early.

I got back to the hotel and food was not sounding appealing at all. I went back to my room and laid down to try to shake this feeling. I kept going between hot and cold and used the shower to try to regulate my temperature.

I was never so happy to see the end of a day as I was today.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. It could be as simple as providing a cold towel.

India - Day 6 - (Sunday)

Yesterday was a full day and then some. Suman said that we could go see a movie or something today and I was hoping that it would be later in the day.

I ate breakfast at the cafe Lido at the Ista Hotel, where I stayed, most mornings, both because of its proximity to where I was and because the breakfast buffet was good. Lido was not considered to be their restaurant, but the staff was always waiting on you and willing to get you whatever you wanted.

Being Sunday, things were not like they were during the week. There was a brunch rather than a breakfast - which started at noon. I figured that I could wait until noon and just have a long meal; the food was very good, so I am glad I did. The best part of the meal was the lamb shank with a rosemary au jus. There was live entertainment, which I really like. There were only two guys - a guitar player and a saxophone player and they played songs from mostly the 70s, but were good enough to keep me entertained. I found that people in India were not much on applauding the guys, but I did anyway.


After eating brunch and taking a nap, Suman and I went to the mall to see a movie. We saw Death at a Funeral. If you like British humor, this is the movie for you. If you are not into the Monty Python type humor, you had better skip it.

When you go to see a movie, there are always snacks. Not only did I find normal popcorn at the theater, but there was also sweet corn that you could get seasoned in one of many fashions. I decided on the black pepper corn and sweet butter. It was pretty good, but it does not compare to regular popcorn. One of the other oddities at seeing a movie in Bangalore was that they created an intermission about half way through the movie so you could take a bio-break and buy some more snacks. Not a bad idea.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. It could be as simple as taking them to the movie when they could really use it.