kaiyen: pepper

kaiyen: pepper

the life and times of Allan Chen

Latest Posts

The frustration of the 360 eval

Recently, I was asked to completed a 360 degree eval of a colleague.  I’m sure most either know what this type of evaluation is or can make a pretty good guess, but the idea is that everyone around the individual – superiors, peers, subordinates, outside and inside the organization – are asked to evaluate that person.

For the most part, it’s all numbers.  1 = never, 10 = always, and everything in between.  Anonymity is very safe.

However, in this case there were also written responses.  These were optional, but I feel that, if someone is seeking feedback in order to become a better leader, then something more than just number is necessary.  But once I put my own words down…I rather think it is easy to spot when I’m writing versus someone else.  Not that I’m Dickensian or anything, but I speak and write a certain way when I’m doing so formally (which I don’t always do in this blog, btw) and I fear that it’ll be obvious which responses are mine.

And thus the problem of the 360 – no one wants to be honest lest that honesty comes back to haunt him or her.  I took my chances.  But I’m worried, sure.  Don’t ask questions if you aren’t ready for what types of answers you’ll get back, but that doesn’t stop people from getting upset anyway…

October 6, 2008 Musings, Rants, and Random Thoughts, , , , 2 Read more >

A truly terrible commercial

There is a commercial for Sobe Life Water, starring Naomi Campbell, that is so bad, so stupid, that when I am having trouble waking up in the morning and turn on SportsCenter as some random background noise to keep me awake, I jump out of bed to avoid watching or even hearing it.  It involves her walking our out of the water onto a beach, dripping with water, and then these crazy friggin’ lizards jumping up to drink the Life Water that she is spilling now and then.  It turns into a lizard dance-dance-revolution party of sorts where they all fall out of an umbrella and start groovin on a table.

Now, if a lizard started hoping up like it was on acid to drink water I was also drinking, I’d stop drinking that water.  And if I opened an umbrella and a bunch of friggin’ lizards fell out, I’d go to a different resort or beach.  And if I saw lizards dancing at all’well, I better be on acid, too.

October 5, 2008 Can't be Contained, , 0 Read more >

Alaska Excursions: The Misty Fjords of Ketchikan


Basalt

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

Perhaps more so than on a cruise to, say, the Caribbean or around Europe, an Alaskan cruise really requires booking a few excursions. Most of the ports of call are tiny cities – Ketchikan does not even have roads leading to it – so getting away from the city to see the surrounding areas is a good idea. In comparison, walking around a city in Europe or lying on the beach in the Caribbean does not require special bookings.

The first excursion that I did on my trip to Alaska was in our first port of call – Ketchikan. As alluded to above, one cannot get to this city by road. Plane or boat only. That tells you that it’s pretty remote, though it’s also a big, big fishing city. So interesting place.

We decided to go on an excursion that took us by floatplane to a ‘dock’ then on a boat through the ‘Misty Fjords.’ Photos can be found throughout our Alaska flickr set , and this one and this one are among my favorites so far (we took a lot of photos’).

This is a short review, but click on ‘more’ to read the rest.

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October 5, 2008 General reviews, , , 0 Read more >

Review: Calero County Park, Los Cerritos Trail, McKean Rd entrance

This afternoon I decided to try a new park and went to Calero County Park, in San Jose.  It’s about 30 minutes south of my home in Santa Clara to the entrance just a bit past the intersection of McKean and Bailey Roads.  Unlike most of the parks in the area, Calero is equestrian and hiking only – no bikes – which means it’s pretty quiet, and you don’t run into a lot of people whizzing by.  It’s also probably why it’s simply not as crowded, even on a nice Sunday.  Since the quiet is a big part of why I like to go hiking, I thought this might be a good start.

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October 5, 2008 General reviews, , 0 Read more >

Joe Torre makes the playoffs. The Yankees don’t.

The LA Dodgers, managed by Joe Torre, just completed their sweep of the Chicago Cubs, their first postseason series win since they went all the way in 1988.  The Yankees missed the postseason for the first time since 1993 (which sounds longer than it really is – 1994 was the strike year).  Since the last couple of years of Torre’s time in NY were a bit rough with The Boss, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and he was rather dramatically let go, it is…ironic that Torre has managed the Dodgers to the playoffs, and the Yankees have missed it.

If there is such a headline – suggesting that it’s the departure of Joe Torre that caused the Yankees to miss the playoffs – then it’s sensationlism and complety missing the point.

I’m incredibly sad that the Yankees didn’t make it.  I routinely zone out on the playoffs when the Yankees get bounced (as they have each year since 2003, when they lost to the Marlins in the World Series).  But Torre isn’t the reason the Yankees didn’t make it, or the reason why the Dodgers did.  I’m no baseball analyst, just a fan, but, for instance:

  • Asking 2 rookies (Hughes and Kennedy) to be aces rather than just rookies
  • Not making up their mind about Joba
  • When dealing with the offensive problems, not dealing with the biggest issue – Robinson Cano.  With that hole in the lineup it made things really tough.
  • I really like Melky Cabrera, but he isn’t ever really going to hit more than about .270 or so.  If we have the production elsewhere, then great.  But otherwise he’s an offensive liability.
  • Losing a little bit of focus on how the Yankees should go about their offense, especially killing the base-stealing side of things.

And as for the Dodgers?

  • Manny Ramirez.  ’nuff said

Do I have some thoughts on next year?  Sure…

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October 4, 2008 Musings, Rants, and Random Thoughts, , , , , 0 Read more >

Lucas Hall (Santa Clara U. School of Business), Quick Review

Just some random observations while walking the halls here before class…

  • Seriously, why are there no doors on the group study rooms?
  • Apparently groups are all too big to meet in these rooms.  They’re only about 5-7 people but they’re all forced to stand.  The rooms and tables are just too small.
  • No one uses the RoomWizard system.  Even just to list it as blocked off for the time.
  • I really want to walk into a room in use and say “oh, it says ‘available’ outside…”
  • They really need to put up real signs and get rid of these paper ones…

October 2, 2008 General reviews, , , , 0 Read more >