The End

Like all things, this blog must come to an end.  Tonight, rather than discuss something new that I tried or relate a real world experience back to my readings, I'm simply going to take a step back and assess how I did on Dr. Anderson's criteria.

Try unexpected things

I may not have rode a unicycle to work or spoken only in 30 Rock quotes for a day (which, sadly, I'm pretty confident I could pull off), but I think I tried a few new things here and there.  Not only did I break from my normal routine, but I also made an effort to document what I learned from the experiences; so I'll give my self a modest mark- A++++

Live withs


Ray's book had what seemed like an endless supply to heuristics.  These combined with the ones we reviewed in class left me with no shortage of "live with" rules to try out.  Over the course of this experiment I documented a handful that I either actively followed or utilized in the moment.  Good enough for a solid B, in my opinion.

Creative Ideas

This is an area that I felt I did a fine job documenting in my journal.  Again, I personally didn't have any breakthrough moments of creativity or wildly original ideas over the course of the past month, but I think I did a good job of discussing how creativity is affected by a person's environment or lifestyle.  And if I understood this assignment, I think that was one of the points.  B?  A-?  It's not my decision, but I'm comfortable with the end product.

Try, Analyze, Learn, Observe


OK, time to stop patting myself on the back for a job well done. Although I feel that I thoroughly addressed the other three journal requirements, this is an area that I undoubtedly overlooked.  In fact, consider this message that I received from a real life reader:

Your blog sounds like a commercial for creativity self help books.  [...] I want you to be more critical of what "being creative" means, and how being more or less creative affects you in your work.


This criticism couldn't have been more on point, I just wish I would have received it earlier.  Although I discussed new things that I tried, methods recommended by research academics, and my own thoughts on creative ideas, I failed to analyze all the creative things I might have been doing over the past month.  Although I could say that the combination of school and work leaves me with no time to actually be critical of my creative ideas, that's nothing but a cop out.  So in this criteria, I'll have to give myself a slice of humble pie- F+  (hopefully Dr. Anderson will be a little kinder).

Well, that's it boys and girls.  Although I enjoyed invited you all into my life for a few weeks, I think my days in the blogosphere are coming to an end.  Special thanks to Dr. Laurie Anderson for her engaging lectures and assignments, to my readers for actually reading this, and last, but not least, to the guy talking on his cell phone in the library the whole time I wrote this final post.  That's a deal breaker, ladies.

Wexler out!

I HEART Excel

Gather round boys and girls and let me tell you a tale of a man who blazed his own trail, who played by his own rules, and who fearlessly tried things that had never been tried before. I am that man, and last Friday I made a decision that will likely change way corporations operate for decades to come.  Last Friday I said "no" to Oracle Discoverer and "yes' to Microsoft Excel.

OK, so maybe I overhyped my decision by just a bit, but considering the topic of tonight's post, I figured that it was the only way I'd be able to keep your attention.  So here's the story:

As I'm sure that my faithful readers are aware, I work as an analyst for US Airways.  I won't get into the details, but basically my job can be boiled down to using large amounts of data to help the airline make smart decisions.  In my department, more often than not said data is accessed using Oracle Discoverer.  Discoverer is a fantastic program that allows its user to access and sort ridiculously large amounts of data.  My main issue with the program is the amount of time it takes to do the sorting.  Before switching to excel (more on that in a moment) I often found myself waiting minutes any time I slightly changed the way I wanted to look at the data.  Unacceptable.

After mentioning the problem to several of my co-workers, it quickly became apparent that my department is split up into two camps: the Discoverer faithful and the Excel converts.  Although the version of Excel that we use has it's own set of annoying flaws, it is undeniably significantly faster at pivoting data than Discoverer.  This value proposition was good enough for me to at least give Excel a try.  So I spent my Friday morning creating a Discoverer report that pulls the data I want (data always comes from Discoverer, regardless if you use Discoverer or Excel to analyze it) and an Excel spreadsheet that displays the data in a useful fashion.

Yes, I am aware that it is pretty difficult to argue that switching from Discoverer to Excel was function of my creativity.  If anything, it was a function of necessity.  None the less, the change was an attempt to try something new and I believe that I have learned something from the experience.

Here I am, just two days after my initial decision to make the switch, and I'm glad to say that I am happy with my choice.  Not only has switching to Excel remedied the speed problem that I experienced with Discoverer, but I have also improved my knowledge of both programs because of the transition.  If you are somehow still reading this admittedly dry post, I'm glad you're still with me, because I'm just about ready to get to the point.

Don't be afraid to try new things because you never know what you will learn in the process.


Obviously, trying new things often results in improved performance for a business or increased excitement for an individual or group, but regardless of the situation, trying new things almost always involves simultaneously learning new things.  In my example, I improved my skills with two programs that I use often at work, but this "try new things and learn" philosophy can be applied to pretty much any activity.  Maybe a person who doesn't get outside often decides to go for a hike and learns about some of the local flora growing in their town; or an avid skier tries snowboarding for the first time only to learn that being talented in one activity doesn't automatically transfer to all related activities; or whatever- you get the point.

So go out there and try new things and maybe you're learn a thing or two along the way.  Just try not to hurt yourself in the process.

Justin Wexler: Building Settlements in the Desert

A little under a week ago I volunteered, along with twenty-nine of my colleagues, for Habitat for Humanity.  Before I go an further, I just need to mention a couple of things:

1) Habitat is a terrific organization and I had an absolutely blast volunteering for them;

and

2) Building a home in Phoenix was the most Jewish thing I've done since Birthright.

The reason I'm writing tonight, however, is not to shower praise on Habitat for Humanity or Jews building settlements in the West Bank.  The reason I'm writing tonight is to relate the experience back to- you guessed it- Thinking & Creativity.

It didn't hit me right away, but after reflecting on the experience I began to notice a parallel between the manual labor I had blissfully performed throughout the day and Marcus Buckingham's Attitude Adjustment #5.  For my readers whom aren't in the know, Marcus Buckingham's Attitude Adjustment #5 can be summed up in the following paragraph from Polly LaBarre's article in the December 19th, 2007 issue of Fast Company:

We say that we want to build world-class organizations.  That's meaningless if we don't value world-class performance in every role.  Yet the people who touch customers the most -- hotel housekeepers, outbound telemarketers -- get the least respect and the lowest paychecks.  The assumption is that anyone can do that job and that nobody would want to do it if they were given a choice to do something else.  Frontline talent has a prestige problem, and it's turning into a corporate-performance problem.

Before I go on it will likely be helpful to describe what I spent most of day with Habitat doing.  It's pretty complicated stuff, so try to stay with me:

I hammered nails into pieces of wood.

I did a few other odd jobs here and there, but the vast majority of my time was spent nailing together various pieces of wood.  Big pieces, small pieces, 2x4s, 2x6s- you name it.  The crazy thing is how much I enjoyed the simple job that I had been assigned.  Despite the satisfaction I received from the task at hand, this did not change the fact that I- the humble nail hammerer- represented the absolute lowest tier of the Habitat hierarchy.  I wasn't a board member, a regional director, a project leader, or even a power tool operator.  I was the guy that Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona had picked up off the streets of Tempe (kind of) and assigned the simplest duty possible within their organization (only after signing an unbelievable comprehensive waiver of liability, of course).  Now consider this quote also from the LaBarre article:

Unfortunately, the only way we have to reward excellence on the front lines is to promote people out of the very roles that they do best.  We turn great housekeepers into supervisors, virtuoso shelf stockers into salespeople, and managers into leaders.  A major challenge for CEOs is to define excellence in every role -- and pay on it, award titles on it, distribute prestige on it, and make it a genuine career choice.

Granted, non-profits- especially ones with a substantial volunteer workforce- likely appreciate the work of their lower tier employees at least slightly more than for-profit corporations.  None the less, working this role- and genuinely enjoying it- made me realize the truth in Marcus Buckingham's argument.

The Super Project: Part II (Late Night with Justin Wexler)

Part I of this post describes how I- unbeknownst to me at the time- used the if at first you don't succeed live-with to get focused on the task at hand.  I was able to use this strategy to begin working productively on the assignment, but that's not to say that completing the project went from unsurmountable to a cakewalk thanks to the brains at Stanford.  I still had quite a bit of work a head of me, only now I was confident that I had a shot of completing the assignment.

As discussed in my last post, I worked all day on the finance assignment; that is up until 4:30p, when I headed downtown for another engrossing marketing class.  Who would have thought that a TiVO discussion would get everyone all riled up?  After class I headed straight to bed knowing that I'd need every ounce of energy for the day that was ahead of me.  And boy was I right...

Tuesday:

- wake up
- work
- and the fun begins...

After work I headed straight to the downtown UCENT, knowing that I'd be much more productive there than at home.  After a quick stop at Starbucks, I headed to the library and got to work.

In one of my past posts I discussed my opinion on the affects being tired has on creativity.  Now I would like to revisit the topic as I have a real life example fresh in my memory.  My friend Scott commented on the post and made a great point.  He basically disagreed with my opinion, drawing from his own experience as an architect.  He argues that, in some situations, exhaustion can bring about levels of creativity that are unavailable to the well-rested mind.  For everyone out there who doesn't know Scott, I can confirm that throughout his career as an architect, he has put in his fair share of all-nighters, so he's without a doubt a reliable source on the subject (http://theexpatarchitect.blogspot.com/).

This being said, I don't think I have experienced the same creativity that he speaks of.  My experience with late night or tired creativity is that it is simply a muted version of my "regular" creativity.  And my work on this finance assignment displays that.  I worked until 2:00am this Tuesday on the assignment, so despite my best efforts to fight of the desire to sleep (i.e. coffee, coffee, and more coffee), I was getting tired as the night wore on.  As this yearning to call it a night grew stronger, I felt my work become less imaginative and more to the point.  I was no longer trying my best to find the links between the data, but rather I was just trying to get the damn thing over with.

None the less, I am interested type of thinking that Scott feels when his body and mind are at less than 100%.  Maybe it's simply a difference in the type of creativity needed in business and school vs. the type of creativity needed in architecture, which is traditionally considered a more "artsy" profession.  I wonder what all you artist folk think about the subject.  Does exhaustion help or hurt creativity?  Does it have an affect (if any) in all or just some cases?

Just a little bit more on the Super project, in a bit...

The Super Project: Part I (If at First You don't Succeed, Surrender)

Today marked the end of a particularly rough week.  What made this week more difficult than the typical work/school week was the FIN 502 assignment due on Wednesday.  This assignment was nothing more than a paper that had to address a few questions regarding an HBS study- nothing out of the ordinary, right?

Right... accept that I had MGT class all day Saturday, a marketing case that I needed to complete by Monday, and I was coming down with a cold.

So, needless to say, W.P. Carey had assassinated another one of my weekends.  But this is nothing out of the ordinary.  The only item that had become a wrench in the system was that pesky finance assignment due at 5:30pm PST on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, I did not get to to begin my work on the finance assignment until Sunday morning; and after  meeting with some of my classmates to work on the case, it quickly became apparent to me that I was behind schedule if I wanted to submit a quality paper by Wednesday.  My classmates had already calculated the free cash flows and NPV associated with the case whereas I had just finished reading the case for the first time.  And this is when my VOJ showed- up right on schedule.

I began to doubt myself; doubt whether I would be able to submit a quality paper- let alone any paper- by the assignment's due date.  I was trying my best to get work done on the assignment, but I found myself constantly distracted: bathroom break, food break, music break, TV break, walk the dog, another food break, and so on.  Despite working on the case almost all day, by Sunday evening I was nowhere near where I needed to be in order to finish the assignment by Wednesday.  My VOJ was winning; telling me that I would fail.

By the time Monday morning rolled around, I had developed a full blown cold.  I woke up, called out of work, and slept in.  Despite feeling like crap, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it gave me some much needed time to catch up on the finance assignment.  And catch up I did.  Maybe it was the good night's rest, maybe it was the nutritious breakfast that I ate, or maybe it was the effect that a steady stream of coffee was having on my body, but for one reason or another I was able to focus on Monday at a level that just wasn't happening on Sunday.  Without even realizing it (until after the fact, hence this post) I had experienced one Ray and Myers primary heuristics; that of, if at first you don't succeed, surrender.  I had completely let go of the stress associated with the assignment (the due date, quality, length of paper, etc) and just got down to business on the assignment itself.  And just like one of the students that Ray and Myers' describes in their book, once I started working on the assignment, all of the details began to fall into place.  By Monday evening, I was back on track to submit a quality paper by Wednesday.

More on this in a bit..

Biomimicry for Your Body!

During today's FLOW exercise (which I actually enjoyed quite a bit), I couldn't help but come to a realization during the portion when we transferred from being the apple to being the tree.  What caught my attention was when Dr. Anderson said something along the lines of, "Now imagine that you're the tree.  Feel the weight of your trunk.  Feel the strength necessary to support all the individual branches, each supporting the weight of multiple apples."

Although this was simply part of the FLOW exercise, I immediately related this thought to my fitness regime.  Although I am guilty (like many young men) of often focusing my workouts on the "vanity muscles," I have made a conscious effort to focus more of my attention towards my "core (i.e. mid-section and lower back)."  From what I understand, working out your core is important not because it helps you achieve those dreamy washboard abs, but because the core is where one derives their strength- the very strength that allows one to run faster, jump higher, and push harder.

This might not be a textbook example of biomimicry, but I was able to use the concept to relate the goals of my strength training regimen to the natural physical strength found in the world around us.  As bizarre as it might sound, I should strive to achieve the strength of the average tree.  If I can achieve the trunk to branch strength ratio of a tree, I should have no problem beating my opponents on the field or court- the same way an apple tree has no problem supporting the weight of its branches and apples.

The Death of Creativity

I put in my hours at work.  I went to class on Monday and Wednesday.  I worked on school assignments Tuesday, Thursday, and earlier today.  I woke up early and went to bed late.  I skipped dinners just to have more time to sleep.   It was another typical week, and here I am Friday evening- exhausted with class just nine hours away.  I couldn't think of a better time to discuss  fatigue's effects on creativity.

In my opinion, being tired seriously hinders creativity.  Reaching a state of exhaustion effectively murders creativity.  If you're tired and can no longer operate effectively, go to sleep.  The world's not going anywhere.  It will be there tomorrow, I promise.  Turn off your BlackBerry.  You're not that important, I promise.

I just don't see the benefit of trying to think creatively on no gas, when one could easily recharge and tackle the task at hand the next day.  If our assigned readings and class discussions have taught me anything, it's that there are a variety of ways to get the creative juices flowing- why waste your time running on empty when you're creativity- like any other trait- works best when you're at your best.

This idea made more sense in my head, but now I seem to be having difficulty fleshing it out into a coherent journal entry.  Maybe it's because I'm... well, tired (see paragraph one).  I'm going to bed.  I'm confident that my creative capabilities will still be there when I wake up.

Don't Think About It

I finally got around to reading chapter seven of Creativity and Business and I must say that I found it to be the most interesting chapter thus far.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but I just felt a sense of resonance with Ray's philosophy of "don't think about."  Unfortunately, despite my thoughts on the chapter, the heuristic is one that I practice quite rarely.  I just don't have the time to "empty my cup."  Lets take a look at my typical weekday:

Wake up

Walk Bruno

Eat Breakfast

Get ready for work (get dressed, brush teeth, etc.)

Feed Bruno and walk him again

Drive to work

Work

Eat Lunch

Go for a walk

Work some more

Go to class OR go to gym OR work on class assignments

eat dinner

shower

sleep

Don't get my wrong, an hour of meditation sounds like a fine idea.  In fact, an hour of any non school or work related activity is pretty sweet; but the fact remains that I don't seem to have the time available to empty my cup... or so it seems.

Maybe I already am experiencing a this sensation of letting go.  Am I at peace with myself when I'm focused on an intense workout at the gym?  When I'm cruising (see rocking out) from Tempe to Phoenix with my windows down and the stereo blasting?  Or what about I'm at work and it's just me and markets?  Although I definitely haven't spent much (any?) time formally meditating or studying zen buddhism, I do tend to get intensely focused on a handful of activities, focused to the point that I lose touch with the world around me.  If I understood Michael Ray, maybe this isn't a bad thing.

A Place for Creativity

Today I did tried something new, something definitely worth writing about.  This evening, for the first time, I took Bruno to the dog park.

Today was not Bruno's first trip to the park.  The dog park is located just one street down from Midwestern University- where my fiance (Kristin) attends medical school- so she has been been brining Bruno to the park for weeks now.  I've been meaning to bring Bruno there myself, but since W.P. Carey assassinated my free time, I have not had the time to swing over there with him.  But today was special.  Today was Bruno's first birthday.  Needless to say, I left work ASAP in order to beat traffic so that Kristin and I could spend our evening with our baby.  The birthday festivities began with a trip to the dog park, followed by a trip to Pet Market where we bought Bruno an ASU jersey, and concluded with a home cooked meal of grilled chicken, brown rice, and vegetables.

"Great Justin- you love your dog, we already knew that.  Why did you decide to waste your time with a journal posting?"

I'm glad you asked!  The key take away (creativity wise) from Bruno's birthday was my experience at the dog park.  To put it bluntly, I LOVED the dog park.  Maybe even more than Bruno did.  Watching Bruno run at max speed to and from; being outside on a beautiful valley evening with our baby; watching Bruno interact with the other dogs; and admiring all of the other dogs in the park.  There really wasn't anything that I didn't enjoy about the whole experience.

"Ok Justin- you love spending time with Bruno and your obsession with dogs is kind of strange, but why the journal posting?"

OK, OK, I'll get to the point.  What I took from the experience is that everyone should have a place to free their mind, to relax, and to allow creativity to come about.  I'm not quite sure if the dog park is that place for me, but it certainly had some of the characteristics I would expect from such a location.  In fact, I'm not quite sure what characteristics such a place would have, but I can think of a few locations where creativity might prosper:

- the beach (any time of day, but the quieter the better)

- a tavern with character

- a park on a beautiful day

- somewhere distant (not necessarily unfamiliar, just relatively far away from your normal routine)

- a densely-to-moderately populated urban area where you can easily blend in

- anywhere beautiful

What do all of these places have in common?  Everything and nothing!  You can be creative somewhere that provides solitude or a place where people can't help but bump into each other.  You can be creative when you're surrounded by nature's beauty or at the local tavern where you may not be surrounded by beauty, but at least you're around some familiar faces.  You can be creative five minutes from your home or at in neighboring town accessible primarily by spontaneous road trip.  An individual can be creative anywhere; but it doesn't hurt for one to know what environments foster their imaginative thinking.

Thank You for Sharing, Now Scram

It finally happened.  After a few weeks of trying to identify when my VOJ shows up, I finally noticed it just a few moments ago.  It was late and I decided that it was time to stop working on finance problems and get ready for tomorrow.  Then I realized that I have a case discussion tomorrow, and more problems to complete for class on Wednesday, and an eight hour elective on Saturday, and a paper due next Wednesday, and it's Bruno's birthday on Tuesday, and I have to get started on my marketing simulation, and I have a thousand or so flights to manage at work.  Needless to say, I felt a little overwhelmed; and that's when my VOJ crept into my consciousness.  I started to doubt myself, whether I would be able to handle my workload for the next few weeks.  Would I drop the ball on an assignment?  Would I let down my teammates?  Would I let down my co-workers?  Would I let down myself?

Once I noticed these thoughts entering my mind, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and followed last week's live with- thank you for sharing, now scram.

I know damn well I'm capable of handling the tasks at hand.  I just got a little frustrated with finance, that's all.  I already prepared for tomorrow's case discussion, I have all evening Tuesday to continue my finance work, I've read all of the finance chapters to prepare me for the paper, I'll have plenty of time to take Bruno to the dog park, any PharmaSim work is still weeks away, and my flights are doing just fine. So yeah, I appreciate your input VOJ, but I think I've got this situation under control.

Wexler out!

Nobody Stops the Blog! Part II

It's official!  Enjoy!

Nobody Stops the Blog!

I've decided that this journal makes more sense as a blog.  To be continued...

The J.Wex Report

Today for the first time I decided to multitask while at the gym.  Well, not really.  I can’t remember the last time I worked out without listening to music or podcasts on my iPod; but today, I worked out while doing something productive.  Specifically, I read my finance textbook while using the stationary bike.  Holy crap, it was an efficient use of my time!  As a full-time employee of US Airways and an evening MBA student at W.P. Carey I have approximately .23 hours of free time per week, which makes it extremely difficult to work out at the gym (or perform any other time of strenuous physical activity) regularly… until now!

OK, so reading while using a stationary bike is by no means a break through idea, I’m just stunned that I had never thought of it until now.  Up until today listening to The PTI Podcast, The B.S. Report, or high tempo music where the only options while working out.  Turns out that assumption was completely false.  Who says you can’t mix business with pleasure?

CAA! CAA!

This might not be the most creative endeavor considering that I took the idea straight from the syllabus, but today I spent my lunch break with people that I usually don’t.  I have already established my lunch break habits in my Monday entry, but today was different- today was the first day of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.  Although I am by no means a fan of college basketball (I’m an NBA guy- it’s an acquired taste), I am a pretty big fan of basketball in general, so I like to keep up with March Madness as much as I can. Since my department’s computer monitors have the resolution of a Nintendo Game Boy, the only viable option was to head over to one of Mill Avenue’s sports bars to catch the action.  When lunchtime came about I quickly ate my Saint Patrick’s Day leftovers and then headed over to The Tavern to watch a few minutes of the games on the bar’s large HD televisions.  After scanning the bar I quickly found the exact group of colleagues that I expected to be there watching the games, so I pulled up a chair and joined them for the remainder of lunch.

Like my other entries this is may seem like a fairly lackluster change in my normal life- and I can assure you, it was- but it’s what I learned from the experience that’s key.  Over the course of about forty minutes I learned that Jason’s mother is ill and that he visits her (in New Jersey) almost every weekend, and that he is an MBA candidate at U of A, that Jack is a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, that the lunchtime service at The Tavern is typically poor, and that none of us had any clue where Murray State University is located (Murray, Kentucky).  We all also discovered that Doug Parker- the CEO of US Airways Group- and his executive team are all either fans of basketball or the Tavern’s lunch special as we caught them leaving the Tavern.  Again, none of this is particularly noteworthy, but it’s vastly greater than what I would have learned had I followed my usual lunchtime routine- nothing.

Lastly, if Doug Parker doesn’t already have a nickname, Dougy P. is clearly the best choice. 

Silence on the Radio

Continuing with the newfound initiative to try things that I do not usually do, this morning I decided to slightly change my morning routine by not listening to the radio during my morning commute from the northwest valley to US Airways' corporate headquarters in Tempe.  To put this change into perspective, let me describe my usual morning routine:

-       Wake up at 5:00am; hit snooze a couple of times; actually leave my bed around 5:15am (fifteen minutes)

-       Take Bruno (my French bulldog) for a walk (five to ten minutes)

-       Eat Breakfast and feed Bruno (ten to fifteen minutes)

-       Get dressed for work (five minutes)

-       Take Bruno for a second walk (ten to fifteen minutes)

-       Pour a cup of coffee into a travel mug (one minute)

-       Get in the car and drive to Tempe (one hour to one hour and fifteen minutes)

Although each step is equally important in order to prepare for a workday, the actual commute takes up the majority of time of my morning routine.  Furthermore, it must be noted that I- like most working Americans- am not very fond of a long commute.  Ideally, I would live very close to where I work and would ride my bike to and from work everyday.  Unfortunately, this is not the case, so I make the best of a bad situation by listening to a mix sports talk radio, NPR, and top forty radio during my morning drive.

In the spirit of trying unexpected things and implementing some of the lessons from our readings, I decided to forgo the radio portion of today’s commute.  This morning is was just me, my car, and a fresh cup of mediocre coffee.

At first it was refreshing to experience a new version of a something that is almost always quite mundane.  Thanks to a hot cup of Maxwell House coffee I was my usual alert morning self, only this time I wasn’t focused in on the news stories of Morning Edition or the Arizona sports talk of Doug & Wolf.  Rather, I was noticing the people and activities that were going on all around me.  The construction workers already at work on road work in Glendale, the astoundingly diverse group of other commuters that I shared the road with, and the beautiful sight of the valley’s mountain skyline as the sun rose, just to name a few.  The same sights that undoubtedly surrounded me every other day on my way to work, but that I never took the time to notice or appreciate.  Not listening to the radio turned out to be an eye opening experience.

However, it must be noted that my commute is in fact over an hour long.  Although all of these “new” sights were refreshing and interesting at first, the delight of the experience wore off about the same time I hit the giant Spencer’s sign on I-17, or about half an hour into my commute. I know that Michael Ray stresses that I “pay attention,” but I could only watch so many people flying by me in the HOV lane before I surrendered to the poison of the latest hit music.  Nonetheless, the first half of my commute was a needed reminder to pay attention to the things going on around me; that even the most ordinary activities can stimulate questioning and creative thinking.

Lunch IN Tempe

My usual lunch break almost always usually consists of the following: 1) eat lunch at my desk while browsing news and sports articles on the Internet (about 20 minutes); followed by 2) a walk south on Mill Avenue from US Airways Corporate Headquarters to Mill Avenue and 7^th street and back (about 30 minutes); and ultimately pouring myself a cup of coffee from the galley (dorky airline talk for kitchen) in order to jump start the second half of the day.  Today, however, I did something completely different.  Once my stomach began to growl, I grabbed my brown paper bag out of the fridge and headed off to Mill Ave in search for a new and out-of-the-ordinary place to eat.  I was looking for somewhere relaxing with tables and chairs I could use to sit down and eat at.  After milling around Mill Avenue for about fifteen minutes (pun intended) I found exactly what I was looking for.  East of the ASU Engineering School / Bank of America Brickyard building, right off of Mill Ave, there is a ground level water fountain.  And no more than twenty yards away from the fountain is a nice little coffee shop (which I never knew existed) with tables outside for its customers to use.  Despite not being a customer (yet), I sat at one of their tables and began to enjoy my lunch.  Not to sound overly enthusiastic about a short break from work, but this lunch break turned out to be one of best of recent memory.  Instead of being tucked away in my cubicle eating lunch alone, I was out in the world enjoying a break with the rest of Tempe, Arizona.  I watched a young couple have coffee and cigarettes with their dog relaxing nearby in the sun.  I watched a boy admire the fountain while his parents supervised.  I even got to watch a woman check her blackberry from one of the fountain's benches, only to walk away after experiencing a light misting from the fountain's streams of water.

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While I'm on the subject of water, it should be noted that I didn't forget about the water "live with" and assignment.  In fact, I've been thinking about it regularly since class.  Working in Tempe, one of the few (only?) locations in the Valley with an natural water source, makes remembering to think about water much easier.  Today, however, it was the fountain that caught my attention.  I've always been a fan of water fountains.  Strange, I know, but from Six Flags Great Adventure to Disney World's Epcot Center to Westgate in Glendale, I've always enjoyed the sight of water being shot to great heights only to come gently splashing down.  Maybe it has something do with with admiring water's fluid movements and subtle power; or maybe it's because my hometown is a half hour drive away from the shore; or maybe it's because that same hometown is called Twin Rivers.  For one reason or another I've always enjoyed the sight of water and the manmade fountains that it often plays in.

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After finishing my meal and getting my fill of ''people watching,'' I figured it was time to return to work.  Keeping in the spirit of having a completely different lunch break, I decided to walk into the coffee shop that was kind enough to offer the tables that made this lunch possible.  Not surprisingly, it was a quaint little coffee and gelato shop that not only serves half-decent joe, but also offers discounts to Mill Avenue area employees (US Airways included!).

So what did I gain from this experience?  I learned that lunch break can act not only a time to refuel physically (i.e. eat food), but also as a time to refuel mentally.  I returned to the office recharged and ready to take on the second half of the day.  Not only was I ready to return to work, but I also wanted to return to work.