Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

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Daily Reading List — May 8th

May 8, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Practice – It's been 13 years. Never forget.

Exercise or Games? Why Not Both! – Bring it! I have high hopes for stuff like this motivating people to get moving. #NotAvailableOnGarminDevices

Your online project management software tools – I don't think there's a one size fits all tool out there. And if there was, it would probably be too complicated to use. But this one seems worth checking out.

13 Recipes That Take Boxed Wine To The Next Level – Boxed wine is already next level–if you get the right box. It's important for the box to open easily so you can get in there and squeeze every drop out of the bag.

Hey, part of the reason you bought this was to save money, right? No sense in being ashamed of that fact once you've almost emptied it.

The Case Against Competing – HBR – Competition and "beating the other guy" is so overrated. Unless you are talking about rugby. That changes things.

I once heard a very inspiring pre-match speech in which the (very gifted) orator stated the team's objective of the day should be to not only wanted to defeat the enemy and spend the night in the arms of their women, but also cause their club to fold and burn their town to the ground. Additionally, we were encouraged to do everything possible to ensure that, even if the town was rebuilt, no one would ever dare consider starting a rugby club there again.

Salting the pitch, if you will.

Holsteins’ Cereal Bowl Bamboozled Shake puts Cap’n Crunch to good use – I will be making this with Cinnamon Toast Crunch instead of Cap'n Crunch.

Oooooh…or Apple Jacks!

Innovation is Eating Consumer Finance | ThoughtWorks – This series focuses on financial services, but every industry that hasn't been disrupted yet is ripe for disruption.

What’s the Hurry? Building a Digital Enterprise – "Again, the strategies of the past that focused on efficiency led many CEOs to view IT as a cost center to be run as efficiently as possible. The legacy leaves many organizations with huge technical debts—from poorly maintained legacy systems to outdated processes to staff with trailing-edge capabilities. Organizations are, in general, moving far too slowly to build their technical capabilities for the burgeoning digital era."

Daily Reading List — April 28th

April 28, 2015 / / 0 Comments

SoundCloud Opens Its Podcasting Features To Everyone – This is cool. I could see it being used for doing things like leaving really long voicemails for people. Why would you want to do that? Well, if you do it as a podcast, it’s like leaving a voicemail without having to call and take the risk that they’ll actually pick up the phone.

“Soundcloud – Talk To The People You Don’t Want To Listen To”

Help out South Doyle Boys Rugby – Nationally ranked, and in need of travel money!

If You Add Drunk People to Fitness Quotes, Things Get Hilarious – Finally someone speaks the truth.

4 Reasons Introverts Make Some Of The Best Entrepreneurs – Also, we’re probably less likely to say something that ticks someone off. That is, until we say something.

The Future Of Big Data Looks Like Streaming

Nevada among most financially illiterate states – The hell you say!

10 Small, Unexpected Things That Will Make You Happier – And a tiny speck of dust rugby.

‘Millionaire Next Door’ author dies in crash – Sad to hear. As I was opened up my feed reader this morning and scrolling through the posts of all the blogs I followed, I actually thought, “Man…Thomas Stanley’s is one of the only blogs I read every single post from.”

National Parks Tour – Grand Canyon

March 23, 2015 / / 0 Comments

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After our February trip to Death Valley National Park, we were all pretty excited to go to see The Grand Canyon. As an added bonus, we were taking the scenic route via Flagstaff, AZ to visit some of our best friends, which paid unexpected dividends later.

We left Las Vegas in the late afternoon for the drive to Flagstaff, and we loved how the scenery seemed to change every 30 minutes or so as we changed elevation.

2015-03-21As we arrived in Flagstaff, 4 of the 5 people in the Adventure Van were worked into a fevered pitch by the sight of a Chik-Fil-A sign. It was the first chance to eat that stuff since September, and we fell off the gluten-free wagon (again) to take advantage.

The kids were excited to see old friends, but crashed pretty quickly after we got to their house. The next morning we were treated to pancakes (glad we were off the wagon) and cartoons while we got everyone prepped for the day. Flagstaff is cold in March.

We piled into our cars and headed toward the Grand Canyon. First stop, Desert View Watchtower. The only other time I’d been to the Canyon, I’d come straight from Las Vegas, so this was new to all of us. I don’t think the views are as “grand” here, so it doesn’t make the impression for first time visitors the way Mather Point does. But, while not as impressive for The Missus, the kids loved the tower, and we spent a good deal of time here.

Which brings me to a couple of things to consider regarding the downside of taking young kids to the Grand Canyon. Our kids really like to hike and experience things hands on. At the Grand Canyon, there are big crowds, and it’s sometimes tough to keep your eyes on them to make sure they are staying safe. There are also limited opportunities for them to hike, but luckily we were able to remedy this.

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Our next stop was the Visitor’s Center. Again, really crowded. But we at least needed to get our passports stamped and let the kids pick out a souvenir.

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Now the good part. Our friends are both biologists who work or have work for the Parks Service. Luckily, one of them spent lots of time working at the Canyon and knew just the spot to get away from the crowds and allow the kids to rampage. We took a nice mile long hike through the forest to a secluded part of the south rim. Really nice because their kids are the same ages as ours, and it gave them an opportunity to climb around on fallen trees and do lots of exploring. Plus, the quiet and uncrowded spot was nice!

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Before heading back the next day we decided to check out Sunset Crater National Monument in Flagstaff. Really cool, and zero crowds! There’s an amazing lava flow to explore and a short but steep hike to the top of a crater with beautiful views. It was the perfect stop to stretch our legs a little to prepare for the drive back to southern Nevada.

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Daily Reading List — February 24th

February 24, 2015 / / 0 Comments

What Tinder Did For Dating, Tableau Wants To Do For Spreadsheets – Very cool, but my issue with this is that it seems to encourage spreadsheets and emails. I guess if you can't beat 'em…

50 Kitchen Tricks to Help You Become a Master Chef – In our kitchen, we cook them good groceries. So good it will make you smack your mammaw down. Still, there's always room for improvement.

New Cosmopolitan CEO shares vision for improvements – @soximus Step 1: Replace outdoor furniture on balconies

Sean O’Brien’s monster ruck cleanout against France – After a weekend of watching a bunch of fast guys play in space at USA 7s, it does my heart good to see some good grunt work happening.

6 Flavorful Affordable Whiskeys – "Affordable" and "Whiskey" are two of my favorite words.

USA Sevens Rugby tournament bringing its party atmosphere to Las Vegas – I'm just going for the rucking.

The Matrix of Vodka Mixology – Spent so much on vodka that you can't afford all the mixers? Then this chart isn't for you.

IKEA land purchase sets post-recession high | Las Vegas Review-Journal – Uh oh. I thought I'd escaped the IKEA death grip. Now it will be 11 miles away.

National Parks Tour – Death Valley

February 8, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Death Valley National Park

Ussie at Badwater BasinSince it’s so close, we decided to make our first big “National Parks Family Trip” venture to Death Valley in a single day. January and February are the prime visiting times for this park, and it still wasn’t very crowded. Maybe people have the idea that there isn’t anything to see here, but that’s not the case at all. As soon as we arrived at the visitors’ center and saw the campground, we wished we made it a two day trip. This place is absolutely amazing. There’s a ton of cool stuff to see in Death Valley, even with little kids, and we’ll definitely be making another trip when the weather cools off again in the late fall.

Death Valley Stamp

At the Furnace Creek Visitors’ Center we bought each of the kids a National Parks Passport book to collect cancellations–we plan on hitting a lot of parks, and wanted them to have something they could use for their rest of their lives. I hope they’ll try to see as many of the Parks as possible. And hopefully, this is the first stamp of many we’ll collect in 2015!

Pupfish at Salt Creek Interpretive Trail

Our first stop was at the Salt Creek Interpretive Trail. We love to see stuff that you can only see at one (or at least only a few) places in the world. Believe it or not, there are fish in Death Valley. This trail is a boardwalk that crosses Salt Creek several times, and it gave the kids a chance to get a close up look at the Death Valley Pupfish. They were stranded in Death Valley at the end of the last ice age and have adapted to this environment. Pretty cool!

Death Valley Pupfish

Sand Dunes

Hiking the Death Valley Sand Dunes

The first time I ever came to the Mojave Desert, I was surprised that weren’t at least some sand dunes to see. I was just looking in the wrong place. For our next stop, we visited Death Valley’s Sand Dunes. This was definitely one of the highlights of our visit. You go for a couple of miles on these dunes, and when we come back we’ll definitely come armed with more water and some snacks. The kids had a great time running down these–almost as good as playing in snow. Almost.

Death Valley Sand Dunes

Badwater Basin

Badwater Basin at Death Valley National Park

This was the stop I was most excited about personally. Being here in January, I can’t imagine getting out of the car here in July, much less running 135 miles from here to Mt. Whitney. Temperatures were in the upper 70s for us, but it felt much hotter, even with a little bit of an overcast sky. The girls had fun pretending the salt flats we were walking on was snow–any chance they get to play “Elsa and Anna”. It was a little tough keeping them off the untouched cracked sections. I’m sure that was very tempting to them. What kid wouldn’t love to feel that crunch under their feet?

Salt Flats at Death Valley National Park
DSC_0476Because of its proximity to Las Vegas, Death Valley was the first on our long list of National Parks we want to visit while we’re living out West. One of the best things about living in Las Vegas so far has been the proximity to so many amazing things we never had access to on the East Coast, and we’re taking full advantage.

If you’re ever in Vegas on a cold day and want to see something cool, I’d definitely recommend a quick road trip to Death Valley. Much closer than the Grand Canyon, and you can enjoy the warm sunshine on a cold winter day.

[amzn_product_inline asin=’0307268969′]We’re also enjoying the Ken Burns documentary on the United States National Parks (my second time watching) and found this great companion to the show.

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We can’t to return to Death Valley this November or December. It’s such an easy drive from Las Vegas, and stopping in Pahrump for dinner on the way back was a treat as well!

Daily Reading List — January 26th

January 26, 2015 / / 0 Comments

An Exercise to Get Your Team Thinking Differently About the Future – Looks like a good investment of a couple of hours. We may not be able to predict the future, but we can skill up to more effectively handle what it throws at us.

Why Telecommuting Can Be Dangerous For Your Company Culture – It's with great sadness that I have to agree with this. I was telecommuting for 6.5 years, and as that time came to an end I was beginning to realize I wasn't getting (or giving) all I could by being remote exclusively.

But the productivity and life satisfaction you can gain from working at home at least a few days a week is no joke.

Want to Have Successful Kids? Let Them Fail. – Agile parenting–fail fast. That means making mistakes (such as not listening to your wise Old Man) early, while the stakes are relatively low.

What’s Your Big Data Resolution for 2015? –

Ditch The Five Year Plan – It is a mantra at our house–"If you'd told me five years ago, this is where I'd in the situation I'm in today, I'd have told you that you were insane." Life doesn't care about your plans.

There should be a 6th piece of advice here though–don't take career advice from a blog post.

How to create a data lake for fun and profit – Everything I work on seems to lead back to this stuff. Thankfully.

For Goodness’ Sake, Get Your Enterprise Mobile Act Together in 2015 – Should we take comfort in the fact that this situation exists in lots of large enterprises? I don't think so…seems like an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage is just being missed by a lot of people. It's turning into a missed opportunity to stay average.

What Type of Legacy Do You Want to Leave? – I don't make resolutions, but if you do, you'll find some good potential resolutions rightcheer.

White Rock Loop Trail Run

January 19, 2015 / / 0 Comments

My intention was to write a long descriptive post about how awsum this run was. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to blog, and have now forgotten most of the details.

That’s a good thing, because the sooner I forget how much this run beat me up, the sooner I’ll go out and do it again.

Enjoy the photos!!!

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January 10, 2015 / / 2 Comments

The best thing about this hike was that we never finished it. The kids got distracted at the creek and played there for a long time, and we had to go back before it got dark.
January 4, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Finished my run, went outside to cool off and check out what I just ran back from. Uh, yeah…we get a nice sunset here just about every day.

Daily Reading List — December 18th

December 18, 2014 / / 0 Comments

The 16 Best Books Read by the AoM Team in 2014 – Need to get my nose back into some books as well now that things have settled down with the move a little.

Why a Hyped New Lottery Game Went Bust in a Hurry – If only they'd rented a hot air balloon…

App Calculates Where You Need To Go And Sends You A Bike Or A Tesla In Five Minutes – I got to go by and see Shift's place a couple of weeks ago, and they have a really cool model. One of the most innovative ideas they have is to include Shift memberships as part of ownership in high-rise condos–saving the builders a big chunk on dedicated parking spaces for each tenant, and eliminating the need of car ownership for residents. There would always be an appropriate vehicle available for use in your building's garage if you had to drive.

Finding the Right Metaphor – This one resonated with me like an episode of Grizzly Adams!

Can IBM’s Mountain Of Data Fix Your Email Nightmare? – "Everyone is doing something about solving email nightmares. Except the people who are responsible for causing email nightmares." Mark Twain (paraphrased)

An Exercise to Become a More Powerful Listener – Wait…what'd you say?

5 Sun Belt Getaways for Trail Runners – Coming to an out of shape jabroni like me this weekend!

F1 Race in Las Vegas? – I'm not big on auto racing at all. But..

This. Would. Be. Awsum.

Daily Reading List — October 17th

October 17, 2014 / / 0 Comments

"Let’s go around the room" – Dang. Seth Godin has smarts real good. I was in this exact situation a couple of weeks ago. I always feel challenged to make whatever I'm sharing the best…

Or the shortest if I don't think I can pull off being the best.

More than just driverless cars – "Driverless cars are the Ptolemaic Systems of transportation. They’re an over-engineered solution to a relatively simple problem., but because they are compatible with things like existing infrastructure, cultural expectations, and well-established economic and political power structures, they probably have a much better chance of success in areas where public transportation hasn’t already taken hold."

Don't discount those cultural expectations. People love having their own little pod.

4 Ways to Retain Gen Xers – Gawsh. Hewlett has me so pegged. She names the four most important things to me much better than I could for myself. So I guess I'm stereotypical Gen X. And, being Gen X, I'm very irritated that I'm so typical.

I banned email at my company – Hopefully he didn't use email to announce the ban. But stranger things have happened.

Why You Should Hire For Potential, Not Experience – I would add to this that, at least for technology and information systems, much of your experience past the last couple of years is irrelevant to the current environment. But the ability to learn and adapt is a skill that you can take with you into any situation.

IT Departments as Disney Parks–Learn to “Plus” – I think there's a lot of catching up to do here before we can even begin to "Plus". Even as an IT group member, it's frustrating to have so many great tools available to you as a consumer, only to open a hatch and crawl into a time capsule to work in "a-few-years-ago" style.

Big Data May Be Hot, But The Server-Management Tool Puppet Is Hotter – Is that writing I see on the wall?

One thing I think is really interesting with stuff like DevOps and Big Data is that the technology matures faster than the workforce's skills do. I know that I'm constantly trying to keep up, just to be *aware* of what's out there, much less knowledgeable about it.

Technology doesn't seem to be a limiter for anyone. It's the skills that are holding us back.

The renovating Casino Royale is a sliver of independence (and affordability) on the Strip – Hard to believe that Casino Royale can get any better than it already is. The only suggestion I'd make to management would be to bring back $2 craps with 100x odds. This $5/20x stuff is a little high dollar for some of us.

"Make a pass line bet for the price of a footlong!"

And, for the record, I'm not joking or making fun. I <3 this place!

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