"From the text, write a comment," is the teacher's instruction. What text? Where am I supposed to write the comment? I try to get an answer, but get ignored, while the rest of the class seems to get it. I wake up in panic. What was the teacher's instruction? Am I getting dementia? 

Just read an article the other day about Alzheimers, and how to delay its development. Maybe I need to read it again. How come everybody else in the class seems to get it? Maybe I am not smart enough. Why does the teacher ignore me? Can't get rid of the thought. It's like the police officer, who clocked a driver speeding 84 mph in a 45 mph zone and prepares to chase him and give him a ticket. But his cruiser won't start. Fining the speeder is an un-enforceable rule, just as understanding the teacher's assignment in my dream. C.S. Lewis states we are always trying to be somewhere we are not, trying to be inside the inner ring. Instead, do what you love to do and create your own inner ring. 

 I get out of bed to work on a computer project for a while. I can't find the project! More frustration. 

In looking for my project, I find a podcast about "not giving up". Stop listening to that voice of not understanding the teacher; that is only a feeling left over from a dream, but it is not necessarily true. Look for the facts. Every prudent man acts out of knowledge, but a fool exposes his folly. He who answers before listening - that is his folly and his shame. 

I follow "Storyworthy" by Matthew Dicks. The purpose of this course is to help you find stories. Even if you never want to tell a story to another person in the world, you should be actively, aggressively, relentlessly looking for stories in your life to tell yourself. You are the most important audience you will ever have for your stories. And as you start to collect stories in the ways that I'm going to teach you over the course of the next several lessons, you're going to discover that you lead a life that you never understood before. You'll discover that your life is filled with stories, and the more stories you start to see, collect, and hold on to, the better you'll feel about your life. 

Looking for facts requires knowing how to Google them, or looking them up in my Brain app. Not exactly do-able if you have dementia. We all have scary dreams from time to time. What do we do with them?  

Matthew Dicks continues with: We're here to collect stories. We're here to find them. hold on to them, and speak them, maybe to other people, but first to ourselves. But my promise to you is this. At the end of this course, you will have many strategies to find new stories in your life.

• You can stay outside in the cockpit or go down in the cabin.
• Always hold on with one hand when you move around the boat.
• Watch your head for the boom at all times.
• Wear a lifejacket when outside in the cockpit.

"Dad, can you jump off and undo the front line? Since the boat is ass-backwards in the slip, I can easily lift off the line on the back."

The family thoroughly enjoyed the sail trip. They have their own family challenges. One of the daughters has an un-treatable terminal illness. She has may have two - three years left to live, based on her condition and history. The family felt moments of relief on this unique sailboat tour in San Fransisco Bay.

The boat cruised nicely through the water, the fog lifted, and the Golden Gate bridge became visible.

Today, the island is a tourist attraction, accessible by ferry or private boat. Sailboats are a common sight. Just before entering the little harbor, the sails came down and we motored in to moor at one of the docks. The harbor is a little cove, secluded by the hill from the prevailing West wind, on the North-East corner of the island. There are trails to walk all around the island as well. The captain and his wife prepared sandwiches, fruit, chips, and drinks to be consumed on the boat or at the picnic tables. 

This trip is added to the Folalier history, which started in France, where the boat was built. The first owners sailed it across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Panama Canal, up to San Fransisco where they sold it. Mark, my son, bought it, becoming the next owner, he actually lived on the boat for a couple of years. 

Thus ended a memorable excursion on the Folalier, for a raffle-ticket winning family.

Cheetahs, how  70 mph chasing can run prey while many?

1. Immerse Yourself In New Experiences. ...
2. Learn Something New. ...
3. Ask More Questions. ...

• Curious. Creative people enjoy learning new things, so their free time may include reading books or watching videos about topics they find interesting. ...
• Playful. ...
• Open-minded. ...
• Flexible. ...
• Sensitive. ...
• Independent. ...
• Risk-taking. ...
• Intuitive.

Logic uses reasoning and analytical abilities. It seeks to identify the cause and effect. Creativity involves elements of innovation, emotion, and chance. It seeks to discover new solutions.

There is a difference in brain structure between artists and non-artists, which accounts for the difference in ability. Artists view the world differently, focusing on the whole visual field rather than individual objects. This allows them to see shadows and contours that non-artists would miss.

That is Wikipedia so far, differentiating between creative and logic. Maybe you are more comfortable with logic than creativity, but that does not mean you can use it as an excuse. I am co-teaching in a beginners TESOL class. Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Learning another language is not the same as a math class; a chemistry or history class. In those classes you learn something new; how to apply calculus, or learn the table of elements. In language study you learn to say something you already know, in a different way. Grammar? Yes, but that is just part of it. In our native tongue, we all express ourself different, depending on our upbringing, the environment we live in - our culture - and how we relate to others. 

I lived in five different cultures; really six, because California and Florida are not the same even though they speak (more or less...) the same language. California is to the far left and Florida is to the far right... geographically. By "lived in", I mean at least five years in each. Not having spoken Spanish for ten years, I picked it up again in California with our sanitation foreman at the tomato cannery. He noticed I spoke more of Castillano, rather than the more common Spanglish spoken in California. He came from southern Mexico where Castillano is more prevalent as it is in Venezuela. 

Going back to our first phrase: Cheetahs, how 70 mph chasing can run prey while many? To make this more understandable, we need some constraints, best explained in the following table:                          

lt was 1954. Opa and Oma came to visit us in Caracas, Venezuela, from the Netherlands. We went on a vacation trip to the Andes mountains with oma. Opa, a visiting professor from the University of Utrecht, went to the Veterinary University in Maracai. His field focussed on big farm animals; mostly cows and horses. I still remember our trip to the Andes, where we stayed just east of the big Lago de Maracaibo, where they drill for oil. Venezuela lacked sufficient refinery capacity at the time, so a significant amount was sent to refineries on the Dutch West Indies islands of Aruba and Curaçao. In the Andes, we stayed in a cottage, much like in the Swiss Alps. We went on horses into the valley on a steep trail one day. My face showed tense in an old photograph! The trip was very impressive, though, driving southward and back east through the llanos to Caracas. 

My opa had an enormous influence on my career choice of agriculture and animal husbandry. I remember little of visiting the university, but he always went on his bicycle, even after he purchased their first car when he was in his late fifties. The car was for trips and convenience as needed. The university had their own vehicles for business trips. When we came on furlough from Surabaya, or later, Caracas, we always stayed at opa and oma's on the Oudwijkerlaan 37 in Utrecht. I inherited my mother's old room in the attic. Back then, every bedroom had a sink that could freeze over in winter during extended periods of frost. Looking out the window, I spotted men carrying bags of coal and storing them in a brick bin. To reach the maintenance shack in the backyard, they covered the hallway, kitchen, and created a path through the house from the front. The brick bin opened along the bottom to fill the coal shuttle and take it to the cellar under the kitchen where the coal heater was. 

                                                          Opa (on the left) and colleagues inspecting a milk cow

Inseminating cows involved leading the steer to the pasture until after WW II. The university developed a method for artificial insemination. By doing this, there was no need to transport the steer back and forth. Additionally, when there were multiple cows in the pasture, the farmer could choose the exact cow that required insemination from a specific steer. They kept accurate records so they could identify the offspring later. In short: A.I. artificial insemination. Today, they still perform artificial insemination in that manner, but the current generation consumes milk from a plastic or carton container. Unless they are in the livestock business, they have no idea what A.I. means. 

Moving forward 60 years and A.I. gets a different meaning. The focus shifted from creating artificial life to intelligence. Artificial intelligence is the science of making machines that can think like humans. It has the ability to perform "smart" actions. AI aims to perform tasks like pattern recognition, decision-making, and human-like judgment. (Sep 16, 2021 Wikipedia) 

Although experts list AI's ability to free people from repetitive and mundane tasks as a positive, some believe this benefit comes with a downside: a loss of skills in people. (Jun 16, 2023 Wikipedia) 

Alan Turing published his work “Computer Machinery and Intelligence” which became The Turing Test, which experts used to measure computer intelligence. Someone coined the term "artificial intelligence" and it became popular. 

(Mar 24, 2023 Wikipedia)

So, there you have it! Yet, people are afraid of it. It is a fast-growing technology. Like everything else, people can use it for good and bad purposes.

In my planner there is a roadmap starting with a wishlist organized by time categories: 3 months, 1 year, 3 years, and lifetime. Once I have filled those out the first time around, the next steps are: prioritize, visualize, add specifics, strategize, schedule, work at it. Exhausting! It sounds like a New Year's resolution plan, that will last only a few months. It is the proverbial exercise class. People fill up the aerobics classes and exercise machines for the first 2-3 months. By April, attendance has shrunk and by June you can pick any machine you want, anytime. 

It took me 81 years to figure it out ... Last week I wrote about David Allen's levels. I am already tired of just reading that again. That's not how life works.  We got a quick lunch today, so we would be here in time, but when we get home, I still have to do the dishes. That is not on my "wishlist". How big is your e-mail list? Is your desk cleaned off, ready for your next project? Mine isn't! I keep papers lying around so I won't forget. 

Filling in that "Ground Level" as to what tasks that include, I realized there are many things in life we have to do. My bed does not get made up by itself. The clothes I have worn for exercise are a bit raunchy, but don't get clean by themself. My car does not get serviced unless I get it to the shop. Big jobs? No, but they are not exactly on my "wish list".  When I go back and schedule the tasks from my "wish list" it looks good, but by the middle of the week I am frustrated because I am not as far as planned. Other things get in the way. Things I have not planned for. Granted, some of those I could not have for-seen, but I did not allow time for them in my plan. 

The four categories in the first sentence seem to be comparable to four levels, but the lifetime level can also include the ground level because I learned washing dishes from my mother, probably before I even was a teenager, and I am still washing dishes. No system is perfect. Many systems are right because mathematically ... etc. Why bother spending time on that? 

Making a list for each of those levels triggers my thinking process. Making those lists requires me to select what to put where, and why. I justify time spent on that by gaining insight. It does something more. When I look at those lists, it makes sense why I cannot implement my wish list as fast as I would like. It reminds me I have responsibilities. When I feel like I am lost, not making enough progress, not able to decide what to do next, looking at those lists will remind me what I should do or like to do, next. 

Believe it or not, but as a little boy I was teased for being fat. I was overweight! I did not like to be called fat boy. At 17, or 18, I lived in Haarlem, Netherlands, because the school I attended was there. Maybe it was through a girlfriend I had, that I got involved in skulling. Don't remember... You start in a wherry, which is a pretty wide boat for two rowers and a steer. From there you graduate to a four-with-one-oar each. Then it depends on the individual where you end up. I ended up in a skiff most of the time, but got in an eight as well, and a two with one oar each, which is the most difficult boat to balance. I did participate in races, but that required discipline. During the season, spring, summer, and a bit of the fall, no drinking, no smoking, and no girls. Well, the latter was somewhat ok... That is where I learned discipline. Later in life, I started bicycling because running turned into a hurt nerve in my right thigh. I also followed aerobic classes. My point is: I cannot identify with people not so lucky to be able to do all that. For a long time I believed that if people would be more disciplined, they could do a lot more. I still believe 50% of people can do better, physically. That is why I admire Jerry-Jo and  Lynn coming up with renewed exercises for 2024. Their objective: use weights one size heavier than you are used to. I am physically in better shape than residents 10 years younger. Everyone is different, so I cannot brag but believe discipline has played a big role. 

1.  My point? Progress gets stretched out over a long time, for some projects. 
2.  No program is perfect. You can keep looking forever, or scan the subject and quickly pass up on steps you have already taken. "What are you trying to accomplish? ... is a for-ever question.
3. Replace the exercise story with: filing documents once / week. In one paragraph describe the steps, just like the exercise story. Conclusion will be the same: discipline.
4. Replace filing documents once /  week with ..... Conclusion will be the same: .....  You got it. 

When I built my career, it was in a generation where a person could stay with one company for 25 years. I did, not knowing I entered at a time of growth, of new inventions and adaptations at an accelerating rate! New varieties of tomatoes were developed, which no longer were picked by hand in multiple pickings. You know, tomatoes grown on trellises and only the ripe ones were picked each time a picking crew went through the field. Those tomatoes had to be handled with some care so as not to break. The new varieties stayed low to the ground and 95% would ripen at the same time, so harvesters had to be invented to pick a crop all at once. Tomatoes had to be separated from the vine mechanically, then dropped on a belt where sorters picked out the green, as well as blemished fruit. Next a transfer conveyor would drop the fruit into a bin for transport to the cannery. Those tomatoes had to have a tough skin, so they would not break with all that mechanical handling.

I ended up in Woodland,12 miles from the University where all these tomato variety, and harvester innovations were happening; University of California, Davis. The company was Contadina Foods, which had been acquired by Carnation Company a few years before I joined them. Contadina Foods was founded by a family in Chicago, but when the Mafia found them, they fled to California where they did well, establishing 3 canneries mainly for tomatoes, but also peaches and fruit cocktail in one of the plants. Red Kiehn was the plant manager in Woodland at that time. He came up through the ranks, did not have a college degree, but was an effective manager, who knew how to manage the operators, mechanics and electricians who kept the plant running. He ran a tight ship! He commanded respect, even if they were not always fond of his decisions. His boss relocated to Los Angeles, to the Carnation Headquarters building. Both Red and his boss had sons in the business. To some extend it was still a family run business. The same was the case at the San Jose site. The plant manager had two sons, one who remained in the business. 

Like most fresh fruit and vegetable canning, it is a very seasonal industry. A tomato season is 100 days long and in process 24/7. Concentrates are processed 24 hours for 6-12 days straight. Peeled and whole tomatoes are processed for two shifts / day. This means warehousing is year-round with all the costs thereof. Hourly workers work 8 hrs / day and salaried staff however many hours are needed, day and night, until the season is over. Especially the Woodland plant saw major capital improvements in the form of evaporators, a (55 gal.) drum fill system and a 300 gal. box filler. The latter two provided product that was re-constituted in the off-season into Spaghetti Sauce, Italian Sauce, Sweet and Sour sauce, and various other products. Those production lines only ran 5 days / week. 

After two years in the Field Dept., contracting with growers and managing deliveries to the cannery, my boss moved me to Woodland, where soon enough I was urged to join the Research Dept. This was the most advanced dept. in the industry after UC Davis. It was headed up by the "wild Hungarian", as he was known. Wild, in that he was not afraid to speak his mind. He did not care if toes were stepped on. My boss in the Field Dept. was also his boss. He was confident I made a mistake joining the Hungarian. Problem was: the Hungarian was right, most of the time. He worked very well with the UC Davis "father of canning tomato varieties", Jack Hanna. He shared his findings with Jack, to give him some direction for future variety developments. We had test plots with replica variety trials our competitors only dreamed of. The Hungarian was very secretive with our findings. We ran into all kinds of people in the field, picking his brain, but he kept the findings to himself. After the season he made up a report with our findings which not only went to the Field Dept. Manager, but as high as the VP of Operations in Los Angeles. After a couple of seasons it became very clear that the Roma pear shaped tomatoes were the most efficient variety for canning. This variety had a high soluble solids content, but more important, a high pectin / insoluble solids content, which made it most attractive for puree. Tomato puree had a different quality standard than tomato paste. The latter is processed strictly on concentration, 24% solids being the standard. Raw tomatoes have a solids content of 5-6%. The higher the solids, the fewer tomatoes were needed. Puree, on the other hand, is qualified by thickness, which means the solids range from 11.5 - 13% in the finished product, as long as a minimum thickness was attained. So the lower the solids the more efficient the product. 

Only one problem: growers were paid by the ton, and the Roma variety was not the highest producer in that sense. The "7879" round tomato variety was much more preferred by the growers. That is where the Hungarian and Field Dept. Manager got into arguments! Since they were paid by the ton, the grower won out and planted 7879 and only some Roma for the pear-shaped whole-peel product. To further prove his point the Hungarian got together with the Maintenance Foreman, who was open to the testing done in the Research Dept. and built us a little evaporator to test the end product of the different varieties. We also worked very well with the Quality Control Manager at the plant, learning how and what to measure, like acidity, % solids, Bostwick (a flow rate measurement), and others. 

This gave the Field Dept. Manager an idea: Since the Research Dept. was doing more work in line of quality control, that Dept. should fall under QC, instead of the Field Dept. That way he would not have to argue with the Hungarian anymore... It worked; Corporate Mgt. went for it! Alas, the Research reports still were critical of the Field Dept. 

At the Plant Manager level the culture also went up and down. Red could look back on a gratifying career upon retirement. The Assistant Plant Manager followed him up. He was more personable, but after a few years had the misfortune of sterilization problems at the drum filler and box filler. Because the of the larger containers for the the thicker paste, (32%), the fill chamber was pre-sterilized. The fill and cap procedures were performed under sterile conditions. Any leaks and the drum or box would go bad and blow up. It took two seasons of many leakers. Those were immediately re-processed into Spaghetti Sauce or other products to at least salvage the paste. All through the year, boxes would blow up. It required constant inspection, and if a shipped container blew up, the customer had to be refunded or another bin shipped. This cost him his job and an outside manager was brought in. Interestingly, this was one of those situations where an executive is let go temporarily to gain outside experience. After a given amount of time, 2 years in this case, he goes back to his former employer. He was followed up by another type. This was a manager good at fixing problems in a troubled company. He came from another division in Carnation company where he had performed such a task. 

In addition, Carnation Company had been taken over by Nestle. That included the Contadina Foods operations. The Nestle presence was clearly sensed by all of us. Contadina did not fit in the Nestle plan. Nestle is used to move products in a quick movement from production to client. Having to store product year round, because it could only be produced 100 days of the year, and not moved out or re-processed fast enough was foreign to Nestle. All Contadina plants were sold and now operated by farmer cooperatives. The growth spurts are gone. The tomato canning industry still has a big influence on California business, but has become more routine based on demand and supply.