life reflections

Baja, a.k.a. Mr. Kitty, was gentle, kind, and had the unique ability of befriending anyone he met.  When visitor would come to our front door, he was there to meet them. When guest would sit down, he would make his way over to say hello.  When a guest would spend the night at our house and left the door open, Mr. Kitty would go visit them before returning back to “his” room. People who disliked cats said they would change their opinion if all cats were like him. Baja has been there through every milestone of my adult life. He was there when I finishedRead More →

Ainsley Elaine Bale was born last Wednesday August 15th at 8:24 PM. Everyone is doing very well. Weâ��re back at home now, feeding her every 3 or so hours, changing diapers more often than that, and loving every minute of it.Read More →

10 years ago today was my first day of work at Cummins. I just received my company logo tie tack with an emerald, to go next to my 5-year sapphire version. During this time I’ve: had 5 different jobs had 8 different bosses had jobs where I spent more time in the field than at my desk had jobs where I spent had jobs where I spent 100% of my time at my desk gained experience in engine performance and design, control systems, product validation. new product launches, project management with small/large suppliers, interaction with small/large customer, IT project manage/specification/validation/launch, and financial reporting/forecasting switched fromRead More →

That little ticker is going strong. It’s always a little nerve-racking just before a doctors visit, but everything is perfect. In 3 weeks, we’ll know the answer to the boy/girl question.Read More →

We experienced a loss in my family today and my wife Nicole wrote a beautiful post about it.Read More →

Nicole visited the doctor again today. It was just a quick check-up and not a big deal. They made sure speck is still growing and checked the heart beat. Everything is just fine. Nicole got a bit worried when the nurse couldn’t find the heartbeat, but the doctor was much more skilled and found it within a few seconds. Too bad she had to endure 5 minutes of stress and uncertainty. Anyway, all is well. Looking forward to the next checkup.Read More →

Nicole just sent me a message on my phone – our little spec just “kicked” for the first time!Read More →

Nicole had another doctors appointment today. Since it was going to be a multi-hour ordeal and I was working, I didn’t go with her. She called me and I was nervous as to whether or not it would be good news or bad news. I was afraid to ask and we talked for a minute or two before she casually mentioned that she heard the heart beat. I can’t believe it — our little speck has a heart beat! I could hardly speak I was so surprised and excited! This is definitely good news! I was curious what our little speck was like, so IRead More →

It was Warren Buffett that summed it up best: The odds for me to have been born in the US were 1 in 50. I won the ovarian lottery. If I had been born in Bangladesh, the chances are that I would not have had such great opportunity. If you don’t believe him, visit GlobalRichList.com.  Spoiler Alert: if you earn $850/year, you are more wealthy than half of the worlds population. The idea of the site seemed a bit snobbish at first, but the purpose of it is to show people that they earn much more than they think they do, to encourage charity.Read More →

I don't own a Mac but Steve Jobs makes me wish I did every time I see one of his keynote addresses.  Today my friend Luke sent me this link to a non-Apple speech Jobs gave at Stanford in 2005.  Although I'm somewhat skeptical of inspirational speeches give by the 0.00001% who become extremely successful (while ignoring the other 99.99999%), I couldn't help but feel inspired.Read More →