I’ve never been good at finding the right words to communicate my feelings, so these photos will have to fill in the thousands of words out of reach.

Miss you sis

1. Make your requirements less dumb: “The requirements are definitely dumb, it doesn’t matter who gave them to you. It’s particularly dangerous if a smart person gave you the requirements because you might not question them as thoroughly as you would if a dumb person gave you them.”
   • Any requirement/constrain needs to be attached to person, not a department. You can question a person, you can’t question a department. This ensures ownership and avoids “that’s the way it has always been done” thinking.
2. Try to delete the part or process: Find what is truly required, “if you aren’t occasionally adding things back in, you’re not deleting enough. This bias tends to be very strongly towards, let’s add this part or process step in case we need it” It is easy to overengineer, but difficult to keep things simple.
3. Simplify or Optimize: “possibly the most common error of a smart engineer is to optimize a thing that should not exist” Perfect the part or processes for quality before engineering for speed. Reduce or eliminate variation and defects in the process.
4. Accelerate Cycle Time: “Go Faster, but not until you’ve worked on the other three things first… if you’re digging your grave, don’t dig it faster, stop digging your grave.” Now that you have a quality part or process, eliminate waste where possible to accelerate the process.
5. Automate: Eliminate waste, don’t automate waste. “I’ve made the mistake of going backwards on all 5 steps, multiple times…” Elon describes a great example from the Telsa Model 3 battery pack manufacturing process that included a fiberglass mat that wasn’t even really required once Elon dove deep on the process.

Flying into IAH is of special interest to me because of the unique subway system that runs in the lower level of the airport. Outside the secure perimeter, in the plain, windowless lower level of the airport, is the only People Mover system built by Disney’s WED Enterprises that isn’t inside a theme park. Opened in 1981, the linear induction propelled train cars share little resemblance to their Orlando siblings except for the unique feel and sounds of the linear induction system and the train cars make the almost 20 minute loop around the airport terminals and hotel.

Having made the round trip on the “Subway” enough times to raise the eyebrows of airports employees, I grabbed my rental car and headed to my next stop, the 1940 Air Terminal Museum. This hidden gem of a museum is well worth the trip. The lovingly restored 1940 Art Deco terminal transports you to back rise of commercial air travel in Texas, its rooms filled with artifacts and models of bygone airlines and airplanes. The museum volunteers bring the history to life, an experience reminiscent of spending an afternoon listening to my grandfather’s stories.

My final stop before flying back to Dallas, was The Printing Museum in downtown Houston. Detailing the history of printing from woodcuts dating back to the 1300s up through modern day, the museum also hosts live demonstrations of historical printing process and in person classes. Another hidden gem in downtown Houston, The Printing Museum is certainly worth checking out.

Austin has always been my goto for weekend getaways.from Dallas, but with a little digging, you can find the weirder side in any city, even Houston.

32 miles West of the Dairy Queen in Marfa, is “Prada Marfa.” Along the drive, I spot a white speck amongst the lines of stratocumulus clouds stretch along the west Texas horizon, but this speck doesn’t move and I tick down the mils toward the West Texas Prada outpost, an ever increasing refrain of “what the fuck is that” echoes within the Toyota Rav 4 as the stationary speck increasingly grows in size. The speck then begins to take the form of a blimp; now having ruled out aliens but not yet being able to identify said flying object, I’m left to ponder why the Goodyear blimp would be in West Texas. Maybe in these Covid times without many major sports going on the blimp finds itself covering a high school football game, Friday Night Lights style.

Past the large cutouts paying homage to the 1956 James Dean film “Giant” that was partially shot in and around Marfa, I see the answer to now identified flying blimp that is used by customs and border patrol as part of a radar network scouting low flying aircraft crossing the border from Mexico (Wiki- Tetherd Aerostat Radar System)

Having crossed “Prada Marfa” off the instagram bucket list, I set about exploring the rest of Marfa. There are pretty much 2 main streets in Marfa, dotted with eclectic shops, restaurants and galleries that would have been packed on any weekend in the before COVID times, but are struggling like so many small businesses. I wasn’t able to make reservations to visit The Chinati Foundation that arguably put Marfa on the map with their collection of its founder work, Donald Judd, who moved to Marfa in 1977. Next time.

The next day, following the only other other road out of town, I headed south toward Presidio and East along the Rio Grande River, traveling the scenic FM 170 towards Big Bend National Park. The picturesque and roller coaster like FM 170, where I actually saw a road runner and I have got to say cartoons have been lying and road runners(at least this one) are more like road speed walkers; also there was no coyote to be seen. My short trip only allowed me a couple hours to explore Big Bend, another thing to add to the list for the next trip…

Pic of the week:

• Video: “Lego Train Journey Through the Forest”(YouTube) You think you get made when you step on a lego barefoot, just imagine if you were a bear
• Video: “8:46 – Dave Chappelle(YouTube) Watch it, process it, watch it again
• Book: “Pizza Girl” (Amazon, Audible) Smart, dark, funny; an totally enthralling distraction from covid craziness

Photo of the week