The Constant Gardener

Last May, I posted Gardening for Dummies wondering if I should get one of the Dummy book series to start my planter garden. Instead of the book, I asked for suggestions and tips from friends, colleagues, and gardeners, and paid close attention to all gardening related TV shows, radio segments, and internet articles. Since last summer, I have not only successfully grown tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, and various herbs, I have also had delicious planter box vegetables and countless servings of organic pesto dishes! This year, in addition to the planter boxes, I got really fancy and expanded our gardening space! As part of our backyard landscaping project, we ripped out most of the shrubs and gained a lot of real estate for gardening. Before executing phase II of our landscaping plan in September, we have one growing season so we went absolutely wild! After reaping the fruits of my labor from last year, Jim decided that he's going to plant 9 tomato plants and 15 various peppers. With the gardening confidence that I gained from last year's crops, I bought 24 heads of various lettuce varietals, cantaloupes, honeydews, parsley, oreganos, thyme, and of course, sweet basils. The most fancy gardening thing that I incorporated this year was to release ladybirds (ladybugs) to fight off aphids!

I couldn't wait until the sunset last night to release 1,500 ladybirds that came in a cheap plastic container... When I turned the container up side down in the tomato planter, they crawled on to the plants, making themselves at home. 7am this morning, I rushed out of bed to check on the headcount, they were busy buzzing around the plants getting a morning tan. I watched them in fascination with just a slight tampering. I gardened for the most part of the morning and a few hours after sunset. Jim and I are both exhausted after two days of digging, planting, watering, and more digging. Tomorrow will be another gardening day but the hard work will be all worth it when that delicious balsamic vinaigrette salad comes from the backyard.


It's time to let the ladybirds work their magic and for us to head to bed. Tomorrow will be another gardening day and we will be one day closer to having those fruits and vegetables in our plates!

Maximizing Shareholder Value

If I sound a little too passionate about this subject, it's because I am.

Maximizing shareholder value has been taught in virtually all investment and finance related courses in school. The notion of maximizing shareholder value by cutting cost, reducing head count, increasing revenue, etc have been practiced and awarded in the corporate world. Manager bonuses are based on it, worker productivity is driven by it, and investor selection is reliant on it... However, is this the right thing to do for us as human beings? Has it become a sickness and maybe an obsession for us as managers, workers, and investors to maximize shareholder value?

The West Virginia mine that recently killed 29 people was operated by Massey Energy company. The company violated safety standards and was cited repeatedly by regulators due to safety concerns. Instead of spending money to correct the safety violations, the company fought the citations and ignored the high injury rate of the mineworkers. This kind of attitude eventually led to 29 deaths in 2010. Due to lack of safety precautions, in 2005, BP's accident at the refinery in Texas killed 15 people and injured 170. The oil spill today not only caused tremendous environmental damage, it also killed 11 workers. These are preventable 'accidents' that killed not just workers, but humans, one of us.

You and I will never hold a gun to someone's head and pull the trigger. If we did, we'd be arrested as murderers. We will never detonate an explosive to kill or injure anyone. If we did, we'd be hunted as terrorists. So, why is it acceptable for us as managers, workers, and investors to take others' lives in the name of maximizing shareholder value?

"Lifed"

Apologies for not posting more often and thank you for continuing to read and check on my blog.  During the past few months of not blogging, I got messages from people that I didn't expect who read my blog and complimented the postings, people that I haven't talked to much that followed the blog, and friends & family that supported me in writing.  I want to thank all of you for reading and your comments, keep them coming!

I blog because I want to share what I have learned and experienced and writing things down helps me move forward.  I don't necessarily want to share "positive" experiences, but I want to write about topics that are at least interesting and thought provoking (if I'm lucky).

It has been two and some months since my trip home from Thailand and I have been wanting to write and trying to share but I had no time, no energy, and no inspiration.  Life has been busy and I have been doing life instead of living life.  Yes, I was "lifed" by life and have been struggling to get off that hampster wheel...  Spinning on the hampster wheel faster, slower, harder, lighter didn't make a difference.  As long as I am on that wheel of life spinning, life becomes the master and I the slave.  So, I decided to take life one day at a time.  Not to deal with life but to live my life the way I choose to - one day at a time. 

Instead of cancelling our action-packed weekend because our weekdays were tiring, Jim and I attended all the events over the weekend.  Jim went to the beer fest with his friends, I cooked and we enjoyed dinner at Suzanne's, and we attended the 99th annual Bay to Breakers in San Francisco.  Life became ours again by living it one day at a time the way we choose to... When you are on that hampster wheel, what do you do to get off of it?