Robert Not Bob

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Robertnotbob.net: A Look Back at Year 1

Published February 2, 2013 Life Leave a Comment
Tags: Year in Review

It’s been a year since I had the crazy idea to start a blog. During the following 12 months, I cranked out 24 entries. Not all of them were widely read, but I got something out of writing each of them. In fact I found writing those entries to be therapeutic. It allowed me to bring together random thoughts that were bouncing around my head.

As I approached the 1 year anniversary of RobertnotBob.net, I decided to look back at the activity on the site. One of the most surprising statisitics was the number of different countries represented by the visitors to the site. There were visitors from over 30 countries. While most were from the good ole US of A, the United Kingdom, India, Belgium and Australia were also well represented. Heck, I even had a visitor from Qatar, and I don’t even know where that is in the world. I guess I can now legitimately say that I am an internationally known and read author.

It was also interesting to see how people ended up on the site. While most clicked through links I posted on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; there were numerous visitors that ended up there via search engines. The most popular search string that pointed to my site was “The Jerk” or some variation of references to that classic Steve Martin movie. You may recall I had a post titled “Have a Little Respect: Don’t Be the Jerk.” And somehow a handful of people reached RobertnotBob.net after searching on “Aretha Franklin.” I am not sure how I ended up connected to Aretha, but you can’t complain about being attached to the Queen of Soul.

That brings us to which entries made a big splash and which ones failed to wow. Out of the 24 entries, the most read was the above mentioned “Have a Little Respect: Don’t Be the Jerk.” I have to say that I too like that entry. Other popular entries were:

1) What’s Love Got to Do With It – which touched on Jesuit teachings, Conscious Capitalism, and one of my favorite CEOs Kip Tindell of the Container Store.

2) Lessons From the Course: A Reflecting on Golf and Business – which tied together my time on the golf course with my daughter and the importance of planning and execution in the business world

3) What’s in a Name? – the entry that started it all.

I also had some posts that just fell flat. These included “The Love Train” which was a follow up to “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and “Where Did You Go JFK? – a little off the wall rambling about the fifty-cent piece. I actually liked both of these, but based on the stats it was obvious that people from over 30 countries thought differently. I guess some thoughts might just be better off staying in my head.

I am not sure I will hit 24 entries in 2013, but I will certainly keep blogging. It’s cheaper than seeing a therapist. Not that I have a reason to see one and not that there is anything wrong with seeing one.

And one more thing – for all those that have read my blog, even if just once, THANK YOU!

Darrell Royal: An IT Visionary?

I recently received a copy of DKR: A Royal Scrapbook as a gift. As you have probably figured out by now, I am a huge University of Texas fan and receiving a gift like this book is a special to me.

The book chronicles the life and coaching career of what I consider one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. It is a book I will certainly pick and read many many times. Darrell Royal was known for espousing words of wisdom and the book is full of his quotes. While the quotes were typically spoken in the context of football, many of them can be thought about in a much broader context.

During my first read through the book, I came across one particular quote that as soon as I read I knew it was the start of a blog entry.

“Climbing is a thrill. Maintaining is a bitch.”

The quote was said in the context of the thrill of building up a winning football program and the huge challenges that must be overcome to maintain that football program at a consistently high level. Recent football seasons have proven that to be the case – just look at the recent struggles of USC, Auburn and my beloved Longhorns. All three have gone from being National Champions during the past decade to having average or below average teams in the past couple of years.

However, when I read it I thought about the challenges faced everyday by IT organizations. On a frequent basis I read white papers about the percentage of an IT organization’s budget and resources that is spent on day-to-day operations versus spent on implementing new technology to improve and benefit the business. Many of these papers peg that breakdown at around 80% on “keeping the lights on” and 20% on moving the business forward. I recently heard the CIO at Dell proudly state that they run around the 70-30 mark.

When you see figures like 70-80% of IT resources being consumed on maintaining the existing environment, you can see how one could agree with the idea that “maintaining is a bitch.” I know I can relate to that idea.

Maintaining a complex IT environment is challenging. While many technologist want to ignore the existing and just focus on the thrill of rolling out the new technology, I think there is value in having staff that see the value in maintaining what is already installed. Especially when that staff takes the concept of maintaining to a different level of not just being content with the “as is” but instead look for ways to make the maintaining more efficient and more effective.

I have worked with many talented technology professionals that were consumed with just working on new stuff. They never wanted to spend time on maintaining what was built. It was build, build, build all the time. During my stint in the Big 4 Consulting world, the climbers were everywhere – me included. We were all about the thrill of the implementation.

However, as I moved out of the consulting world and into corporate IT, I started to appreciate the maintainers. This appreciation grew when the economy slowed down and then dipped, and then dipped again. While talented, many of the “I just want to work on new” employees in our IT organization were near the top of the list for staff reductions. Meanwhile the “maintainers with a twist of efficiency” types became the rock stars of IT. Even as business picks up, I still find these employees to be extremely valuable. In my eyes, employees that are finding ways to maintain the technology environment in more effective and efficient ways are not only brining stability to the business, they are also innovating. They are finding ways to reduce the cost of maintaining so that there is more capital available for pure innovation.

Now don’t get me wrong, businesses need technology climbers. The climbers take us to new heights through implementing bold new technology. However, once we reach those new heights, we need to the maintainers to keep as from tumbling back down the mountain.

Is maintaining IT a bitch? I think so. I am just happy that some people like dealing with the “bitch.”

Oh and one more thing: Hook’em Horns!!

Where Did You Go JFK?

Published November 14, 2012 Coins , Life 1 Comment
Tags: Coins, DKR, fifty-cent piece, JFK, Kennedy Half-Dollar

Well it’s, turn and face the stars and stripes
It’s fightin’ back them butterflies
It’s call it in the air alright yes sir we want the ball
And it’s knockin’ heads and talkin’ trash
It’s slingin’ mud and dirt and grass
It’s I got your number, I got your back
When your back’s against the wall
You mess with one man, you got us all
The boys of fall

Those lyrics belted out by Kenny Chesney always make you get worked up for football season. Like many others in Texas, football season is one of my favorite times of the year. For me it means spending five or six Saturdays at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium (DKR) on the campus of The University of Texas – Austin watching my Longhorns. It also means the chance to catch a sighting of something you don’t see on a daily basis – the Kennedy Half Dollar.

Pretty much every item you can purchase at a concession stand at DKR is priced at an even dollar amount or a half dollar amount. So your overpriced watered-down drink is either $5.00 or $6.50 and the day old popcorn is $4.00 or $5.50. That being the case, when your total purchase ends in .50, the change you get back is in the form of the rarely used Kennedy Half Dollar – the good ole fifty-cent piece. I am not sure why, other than I guess someone thinks it’s easier to hand back one coin instead of two quarters.

After the first two games this season, I had accumulated three of these coin oddities. For some reason this year, unlike the past 20 years I have been attending games, I started wondering why the half dollar had all but disappeared from our daily lives. We all still use the pesky penny, but rarely do you see someone throw down a fifty-cent piece.

Well it turns out that the disappearance of the half-dollar was the result of two things that were happening in 1964 and 1965. The first was the decision to honor JFK by placing his likeness on the half-dollar soon after his assassination. The second was the increase in the price of silver in the mid-1960s. In 1964-65 there were more than 430 million Kennedy half-dollars minted – all with a silver content of 90%. These coins quickly became a collectors items by those wanting to have something that honored JFK – people got the coins and stuck them in boxes, drawers, etc. In addition silver prices at the time were nearing $1.30 a troy ounce. A half-dollar contained approx .35 troy ounces of silver which meant the silver value in the coin was approaching the face value of the coin. This resulted in silver speculators hoarding half-dollars as well. This all added up to the half-dollar disappearing from circulation over that two year period.

In late 1965, the silver content of half-dollars was lowered to 40% and in 1971 the silver content was removed altogether. This stopped the silver speculators from hoarding half-dollars but the damage was done. People had stopped using the half-dollar on a daily basis and new coin production volumes declined dramatically.

So enough of coin history. With three of these coins in my possession I decided it was time to circulate the coins. I did this only after making sure that none of them were minted before 1971 – as a 1964 version would be worth around $12 and a 1965-1970 version would be worth around $5 at current silver prices. They were all post-1971 so I set my sights on spending all three of them. I wanted to see how people reacted to them and maybe just start a retro trend.

First up, we had to send a couple of digital files off for printing those old school photographs. The total came to $0.42 at the local Walgreens. A perfect amount for throwing down a fifty-cent piece. We ordered the prints online and I headed to the store to pick them up. I somewhat nervously placed my half-dollar on the counter, not sure what to expect. The cashier just took and gave me back my $.08 in change. Mission accomplished and one half-dollar temporarily in circulation.

Next up, a trip through the drive-thru at Starbucks. My daughter’s caramel mocha frap rang up at $4.22. I whipped out four ones and a trusty fifty-cent piece. The cashier at the window proceeded to give $0.78 back. What seemed like five minutes later and cars now backing up onto then main road, I successfully explained to her that I only gave her $4.50. Another JFK in circulation, albeit with some confusion.

The final spot, the local Cinemark movie theatre. A trip to concession stand for popcorn and some drinks came to $17.50 – another chance to use the half-dollar. I quickly slid a $20 bill and a fifty-cent piece across the counter. The fifty-cent went flying and clanged to the floor. But the cashier picked it up and he knew what it was. He even commented on not seeing one very often. My third JFK made it into the real world.

I wouldn’t be surprised if all three coins went straight back to the bank, but maybe one of them is still floating around out there changing hands like a normal coin. I have a few more half-dollars left to spend and I fully expect to spend them – no more hoarding for me. In fact I might go get a roll of them and try starting a renaissance of fifty-cent piece usage.

Happy 100th, UT Department of Accounting

Published September 24, 2012 College , Life Leave a Comment
Tags: Accounting Programs, McCombs School of Business, PPA, Texas Accounting, UT-Austin

Debits on the left,

Credits on the right,

Stand up, sit down,

Fight, fight, fight!

If you don’t know that one, then you are probably not an accountant.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the University of Texas McCombs School of Business Department of Accounting. I am proud to say that I was a part of that history for five of those one hundred years and that I received 2 of the 25,605 accounting degrees conferred since 1912. In fact I even went down to the campus recently to take a picture of The Tower lit up in honor of the occasion.

While I left the accounting profession fairly early on in my career, I attribute much of my professional success to the educational foundation I received while attending the McCombs School of Business in pursuit of an accounting degree. I call my accounting degrees from UT “my dirty little secrets” since technology professionals tend to have less than high regard for accountants. But not very closely held secrets – since my diplomas are proudly displayed on the wall behind my desk.

Many people think that majoring in accounting means just learning the mechanics of debits and credits, memorizing all those mind numbing Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and just adding and subtracting numbers. At some schools that may be the case, but at UT the professors actually taught us about business – not just how to keep score. They also brought in real world business leaders that brought the theoretical to life.

You may think that I am just a homer that thinks that his university has better academics than the rest of the schools in the country. But in this case, I think it is more than just my opinion. Just check out these facts and figures about the McCombs Accounting Department:

So Happy 100th to the best accounting program in the country, and thanks for shaping my business mind and the minds of so many others. Hook’em!

The Love Train

Published September 19, 2012 Career Development , Leadership , Life , Music 1 Comment
Tags: BB King, Container Store, Jesuits, Kip Tindell, Leadership, Love, Love Train, U2

When love comes to town,
I’m gonna jump that train
When love comes to town,
I’m gonna catch that flame
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down,
But I did what I did before love came to town

Nothing like a little BB King and U2 to start things off.

I have written a little on this idea of love in business in the past. You may recall a blog centered on Kip Tindell from Container Store and a keynote speach I heard from Chris Lowney reflecting on the Jesuit philosophy on leadership. Since then I have not been able to shake this idea of business love.

I will be the first to admit that I have never been the poster child for touchy feely leadership. For the most part the places I have worked over the past 20 years had management teams that were cut from the same cloth – the cloth of management with a good dose of fear perhaps sprinkled in with a jagged version of tough love. Now don’t get me wrong, I have worked under some highly intelligent, highy motivated, and sucessful leadership teams. But I doubt many would use the word “love” to describe those leaders.

Those radical Jesuits had a different idea about this leadership thing. Their version of leadership was to see the potential in each employee, to make a commitment to unleash that potential and to cultivate the resulting loyalty and support to unite and drive a team to success. That is their idea of love-based leadership. To see the potential in a person and to help that person reach that potential. It is a concept that is based on the thought that all employees are self-motivated to achieve success and that the leader’s role is to help by putting each person in situations to succeed and to give them the tools they need to succeed.

For me, I doubt the majority of the management teams I have worked under in my career would ever be considered as the face of “love-based” management. There may have been moments of love and compassion but for the most part the management styles have been motivation by fear and tension. That said, those teams and the resulting business results were generally succesful, but it makes you wonder if the results could have been even greater with a more loved based leadership approach. There is no way to go back and replay the past, so all we can do is ponder that thought and perhaps learn from it.

It is said that your style of management is shaped by those who have managed you, and I think that is true to an extent. While I don’t think I am as hard core as some of my former bosses, I do think my style has been influenced by them. Fortunately, I also think that you are influenced by others around you and what you read and hear. I am grateful to have been able to watch strong leaders succeed using techniques more in line with the Jesuit style of leaderhship and to be exposed to books, articles and speakers that get there is more than one way to lead. Whether it is listening to the likes of Kip Tindell, watching how my own father lead a school district or reading books on the subject; I have come to realize that one can lead and manage without using fear as the main motivator.

I am not fully on the “love train” just yet, but I have jumped into the boxcar and am slowly pulling my body all the way in. Hopefully some day I will make my way to the engine and drive that train.

So once again, here’s to love in business and hoping it comes to a company near your soon.

2012 – The Summer of Long Anticipated Concerts

Published September 16, 2012 Life , Music Leave a Comment
Tags: 2012 Concerts, Dwight Yoakam, Everclear, Lyle Lovett

As you can probably tell by the long list of concerts I have on this site and my frequent use of song lyrics in my writings, I love music. While the number of concerts attended tailed off over the last decade (seems to coincide with start of fatherhood), I have not lost my passion for live music.

Fortunately the Summer of 2012 brought the opportunity for me and the Lovely Mrs. Neill to see three acts that for many years I had wanted to see but for one reason or the other had not seen. The three acts: Everclear, Dwight Yoakam, Lyle Lovett.

Everclear was first up on our Summer of Music tour. I have been an Everclear fan since the early 90s. Those that only know the 40+ me may find this surprising but it’s true. There is just something about that hard SoCal alternative rock sound. Everclear was a part of a five band lineup in the Summerland tour. We decided to make a long weekend around the concert so we headed to Ft Worth to see the show at Billy Bobs – the world’s largest honkytonk. It was a strange place to watch a bunch of alternative 90s bands to say the least. The weekend was great, but Everclear failed to wow me. In fact I was disappointed – the sound was bad and the energy that made me love their music was just not there. I am still happy to be able to check them off the list, but this was one concert I probably should have seen in my 20s, not in my 40s.

Concert number 2 was Dwight Yoakam. While I wouldn’t put Dwight in my Top 10 of musicians I just had to see, there is a history here that made this one special. Back in 1993, I had fallen madly in love with a recent UT graduate but she wasn’t feeling quite the same way just yet. I scored some free tickets to a Dwight Yoakam concert in Austin and invited her to go to the show with me. Long story short, she cancelled last minute on me and I ended up not going to concert. So fast forward to 2011. I had ended up marrying that fellow UT grad in 1994 and 17 years later we yet again had tickets to go see Dwight Yoakam. I was excited about it because it was the “date” that never happened back in 1993. Well as fate would have it, days before the show, I ended up having to make a last minute trip to the Philipines for work. So I had to cancel and dump the tickets. Luckily less than a year later Dwight booked a return gig in Austin at the ACL-Live venue. This time we bought 4 tickets so our daughters could go with us. What a treat it was. This time I got to go with three beautiful girls. We had a fun dinner beforehand, the venue was great, and Dwight put on a fantastic show. I have no doubt it was better in 2012 than it would have been back in 1993.

The final show in the trio was the legendary Lyle Lovett. I am almost ashamed as a born and bred Texan to admit that I waited this long to see Lyle. He is hands down a true Texas music legend. The show was once again at the ACL-Live venue. This time we left the kids out home and grabbed a great meal downtown before the show. Lyle brought along his Large Band for this show, and I think it may have been one of the most enjoyable concerts ever. There was also a special guest appearance by Shawn Colvin – one of my Austin favorites. The small venue feel was awesome and the musical talent was off the charts good. It was a fitting end to the trio of concerts. I would go watch Lyle anytime, anywhere.

Overall the Summer of Music was a success even if Everclear did not live up to my expectations. All three shows gave me a chance to relax and forget the chaos of work and life in general. I got to relieve some memories and hang out with my best friend. I can’t wait to do it again in the Summer 2013.

No Slam Dunks – An Update on the Qwest for IT Perfection

Published August 27, 2012 Information Technology 2 Comments

You may have recalled that way back in January of this year, I started a campaign within my company to eliminate self-inflicted technology outages. The slogan for the campaign was “There are No Slam Dunks in IT.” After a rocky start in January and February, our team got on a roll and posted an impressive 190 days without a self induced outage.

During this time we made numerous changes within our environment. We added new locations; we upgraded major network infrastructure within our data centers; we replaced telephone systems; we virtualized servers like crazy; and we did a major email/collaboration platform upgrade. Through it all we followed our steps of good change management. We planned. We communicated. We executed. We tested. We communicated. It was a beautiful site to see.

But I noticed something as the days started piling up. Slowly but surely the confidence of the team swelled. Unfortunately it swelled to a point, where it felt like as a team we began to think that there were indeed “slam dunks in IT.” It seemed the more success we had, the more corners we cut. We slid in extras during maintenance windows. We stopped doing some of the double checks we were doing earlier in the year. Our communications lacked sufficient details. We were still following our change management steps, but to some extent we started going through the motions. We reached a point of being too confident.

After a few near misses in early August, our streak of days without a self-inflicted outage came to an end last week and two days later we stumbled again. While you never like to have outages, I was almost relieved that we stumbled. I wish it had just been one stumble and not two, but I think the issues brought our team back down to earth and reminded us that we have to continue to be diligent in following our change management processes. It highlighted that going through the motions doesn’t cut it.

We have reset the clock, but I am confident that we can once again get on a good roll of days without IT causing an outage. I just hope this time around the confidence does not go to our heads because Slam Dunks aren’t allowed on this court!!

Disney World Made Me Think About Business

Published July 11, 2012 Career Development , Leadership Leave a Comment
Tags: Disney

It’s a world of laughter
A world of tears
It’s a world of hopes
And a world of fears
There’s so much that we share
That it’s time we’re aware
It’s a small world after all

Once that song is stuck in your head, it’s hard to get it out. At the start of June, we headed off on a family trip to Disney World. Unlike all our past trips which involved flying, we decided to make this one a good old fashion road trip. So we loaded up the family truckster and headed east. While I am not to a point of saying that every trip should be a road trip, it was a nice change of pace to see parts of the country from 2 feet of the ground instead of 30,000 feet.

Disney World was great – even if the weather was not. We road many a ride, spent some time getting to know some of our newer friends and most importantly got to watch our daughters’ dance teams perform on stage at Disney World. Great memories were made that we will all have for a lifetime.

But since this is not a travel blog, I am going to change gears a little. As we were walking through Fantasyland on our first day at the park headed to the It’s a Small World ride, we passed by a new area of the park that is under construction. The site was surrounded by tall walls and posted on the walls were insightful quotes from Walt Disney. There had to be 40-50 quotes in total and as much as I wanted to read each and every one of them, I did not. I doubt the rest of the family would have thought that was a good use of our time – especially when you consider the cost of tickets to get into the park. But I was able to read a few of them and there were two that really hit home – so much that I quickly snapped pictures of the signs.

The first sign that caught my eye was this one.

It’s a short quote of just three words, but how profound those three words are in the world of business. Once I read that sign, I immediately started thinking about all the projects that I had going on back at work. I know that is a pretty sad thing to think about while on vacation, but when something hits you, you go with it. While I don’t have any projects as big as building an entirely new Fantasyland at the most famous amusement park in the world, they are still important to the success of our company.

I started mentally going through the list of projects asking myself if we had set firm deadlines for each of them. Sadly the answer was “no.” We had way too many projects for which we had not set hard deadlines for completion. We might have said something like “we are going to get that done before the end of the year” or “that will happen in Q3” we were not consistently setting specific dates. We were setting those dates for some, but not all.

I then starting thinking about how each of those projects were progressing, and in most cases the ones that had well defined deadlines were moving along as planned, while the “we will get it done when we can” projects were idling or making painfully slow progress. It made me mad at myself (not so mad that I didn’t enjoy WDW) for not managing those projects better and set in my mind that when I returned from vacation that things were going to change.

The week after returning from Disney, I met with the rest of the technology services management team and talked about the revelation I had at Disney World. We all agreed (well they said they agreed) that every project needed a deadline and every project needed a defined project manager. If there was a project that did not have a deadline and did not have an “owner” we needed to step back and ask if this was really a project.

To support this effort we also began leveraging features within Microsoft Sharepoint to manage our portfolio of projects and keep track of deadlines and progress on each of our projects. As we populated that portfolio, I was surprised to see that we had over 30 projects in progress, with another 15 in planning stages and another 15 that had been identified but not yet been started. Wow , 60 plus projects – that’s a big number of projects for a team of less than 50 people.

We also changed up the structure of our weekly management calls. Prior to this revelation, our weekly calls were me talking about whatever was on my mind for 10-15 minutes and then opening up “the floor” for updates from the group. Now we still spend 10-15 minutes of me talking about what’s on my mind but we now spend the remaining 15-20 minutes going through our project portfolio and discussing projects that are either at risk (Yellow or Red status) or have target deadlines coming up in the next two weeks. We have only done a couple of calls under this new format, but it feels like we are have more targeted discussions and talking about the things that really matter. Hopefully this translates into better overall execution on all of our projects.

So thanks Walt for having a vision to create Disney World – without it I might not have had this revelation.

And one more thing, I love the Rock-n-Roll roller coaster. Aerosmith, high speed and loops – how could it be anything but awesome.

Hey! You! Should You Be on That Cloud?

Published May 11, 2012 Information Technology , Risk Management 1 Comment
Tags: Cloud, Cloud Computing, IT, Risk Management, SaaS

I said, Hey! You! Get off of my cloud

Hey! You! Get off of my cloud

Don’t hang around ’cause two’s a crowd on my cloud, baby

I am fairly certain that Mick and the boys were not singing about today’s clouds – computing clouds that is. I guess they could have been advocating private clouds, but I highly doubt it. However, if any of the Stones were current day CIOs, they might be singing “Hey, you! Should you be on THAT cloud?”

It seems these days that everybody in business has a cloud, is on a cloud or wants to be on a cloud. It feels like every tech article I read, every discussion I have with my technology partners, every request I get from my internal business partners includes the cloud word or one of the “X” as a service phrases – where “X” = software, platform, infrastructure. In fact I just read about a new company that has created a SaaS offering for farmers – not exactly an industry synomonous with leading edge technology.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love this cloud stuff. I have even gone on record as saying I would love to one day be the CIO of a company that has no data centers and owns no servers. But that day is not today – but its getting closer everyday.

There is still much to be sorted out with these clouds. While I meet with company after company that wants to talk about sellling me a cloud, not one of them wants to talk about how to manage them. How do you best evaluate the risks associated with cloud computing? How do you keep non-IT parts of the business from jumping on every cloud that drifts by them without fully thinking through all the ramifications of doing so? Without strong governance you have cloud chaos. In my part of the world, out of control clouds are called thunderstorms. While thunderstorms can bring much needed rain, they can also cause a large amount of upredictable damage.

To avoid the thunderstorms of cloud computing, companies must implement comprehensive cloud management procedures throughout the organization. The non-IT parts of the business need to include IT in the evaluation, selection and implementation of all cloud-based services. At the same time, IT cannot be the “department of NO” in an effort to keep everything within the four walls of the corporate data center. In addition, any ventures into the cloud need to involve those dreaded people in legal/contracts departments and whatever role(s) within the company responsible for risk management functions.

An easy place to start with cloud governance is to create and publish a simple “X as a Service” risk assessment form. The form asks 15-20 basic questions about the proposed cloud offering. The group within the company that is driving the effort completes the form and submits to the InfoSec or similar group within the company. The information about the proposed service is reviewed and where needed additional information can be requested. Where needed, the Infosec team can engage other functions – legal, privacy, finance, etc. – within the company to obtain specific feedback. It’s not an overly elaborate process, but it gets information about the use of cloud computing flowing through the organization and rasies awareness about potential risks associated with such services. Once risks are identified, efforts can be undertaken to address those risks and beging enjoying the benefits of the cloud.

Not all clouds are created equal – so make sure you choose wisely. If after looking at a cloud offering, there is a level of doubt about it, stop and ask yourself, “what would Mick do?”

Say it Ain’t So: Thoughts on The End of a 100 Year Rivalry

Published May 2, 2012 College Sports , Life , Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Aggies, Big XII, Longhorns, Rivalries, SEC, Texas

Texas Fight, Texas Fight; And it’s goodbye to a&m…….

Good-bye to texas university; So long to the Orange and the White……

If you are from the State of Texas or have even ever been in the state, especially in the Fall, then there’s a pretty good chance you know these words are from the fight songs of the two flagship public universities in Texas. One lays claim to being the first public university in the state and the other claims to be “the university of the first class” in the state.

I am a proud graduate of the “university of the first class,” also known as THE University of Texas and as expected I have many friends that are as well. But I also have many friends (and a few family members) that attended that other university over in College Station. This scenario of “mixed friendships” and “mixed families” has created an intense rivalry both on and off the athletic field.

Believe or not I did not grow up a hardcore Texas Longhorn fan. I was actually more interested in the SMU Mustangs – growing up back in the days of the Pony Express. It was not until I chose to go to UT that my attention really turned to this crazy rivalry. My first in-person exposure to the heated rivalry between Texas and Texas A&M was in the Spring of 1987 during my senior year in high school. By that time I had been accepted to the University of Texas (I chose UT for it’s top ranked Accounting program, not it’s sports teams) and several of my friends had been accepted to Texas A&M. Somehow we convinced our parents to let us take an overnight road trip to College Station to watch a baseball game – without any parents tagging along. It was not just any baseball game; it was a baseball game between the Horns and Aggies.

I don’t recall the score of that game, but the Horns were pretty good that season so I am guessing Texas came out on top. But I do recall the feeling of being out of place in a sea of maroon and white and having a burning desire to talk trash to my Aggie friends when the Horns made a good play. Needless to say, one exposure and I was hooked on the rivalry.

Fast forward 25 years to the Spring 2012, the last year in which the Horns and Aggies will be in the same conference. And for the foreseeable future, the last year the two schools will line up against each other in any sport. I had the pleasure of watching the final baseball game between these two schools this past weekend in Austin with one of my newer Aggie friends – and a former Aggie Yell Leader at that. Texas A&M had already won the series thanks to two solid victories, but bragging rights for that final game were still on the line. As we watched the game we both talked about what a shame it was for such a great rivalry to come to a halt. The trash talk was kept to a minimum, although I did catch my friend mouthing the Aggie version of Texas Fight a time or two. For that most part we were just two guys watching “America’s pastime” – Texas-style.

Lucky for me, the Horns came out on top of the final game with a thrilling come from behind in the 9th inning 2-1 victory. Much like in football, basketball, volleyball, and softball, the Horns baseball team won the final regular season meeting against the Aggies. The Aggies do get to claim wins in soccer, a Big XII title in golf and more than likely conference championships in track, so there is some balance in perpetual bragging rights.

I found it fitting that the last sporting event I watched in person between these two schools was the same as the first sporting event I watched between them. It started with baseball and for now has ended with baseball.

I for one hate to see this rivalry end. Both schools will survive without it, but a little something will be missing. Coca-Cola has Pepsi; McDonalds has Burger King; Superman has Lex Luthor. It’s fun to have a rival.

One can only hope that in time, the two schools will agree to play each other again. Until then we can only hope for some chance meetings in post-season play and hang onto the memories of past contests. And if we are lucky, this is not the death of the rivalry but merely a temporary suspension. But for now, it is (much like the songs say) “goodbye” to the rivalry.

Hook’em!!!

And as painful as it is to type, Gig’em!!!

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