Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

I really like my job. It is very challenging, stressful and demanding. These attributes are clearly offset by a supportive boss, excellent executive leadership, and a sense of pending and enevitable success. Making presentations in the boardroom of a Fortune 500 company is fulfilling and enlightening. Every other place I have worked is/was envious of the situation I live. The company is less that 20 years old. There is great heritage with our divisions, smart dedicated people. It is a matter of drawing the best out and leveraging, not of dominance, not of cowardice and deception. Whereas my last place of employment was filled with impending doom, scorn, excoriation, belittlement, leadership embarrassment and some of the most backwards thinking I have ever experienced. Stuff that truly took decades at my old place of employment is done in my new experience in 6 month time frames. I laugh when I look at the facts. That's what happens when you have employees not appointed drones. ...

I am in NY for the weekend. Calisto the llama is dead. He was the white llama that Bonnie saved when I was in Antarctica. It was a miricle he lived. But, as we know, life (even prolonged) is a temporary thing. He leaves his three brothers, Artemis, Aires, and Professor. DJ and I are making plans for the Bakery. Decisions to be made, things to do. My Brazil trip left some significant impressions on me. I got to see a sugar cane operation from planting to finished product. I was most impressed by the sustainability. Brazil has the reputation as having non-sustainable business. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The US really needs to wake up. Brazil is becoming a world power, no doubt. I spent time in 4 different cities in 4 days. The sugar cane is processed from the raw can into sugar, ethenol, and electricity in the same plant. Very impressive. I have a cold again from moving about so much without sufficient rest and care. The snowy pic was not in Brazil but from Berks...