Planet-Warren.com

Panama Canal Cruise 2008-09

Travel Dates: November 18, 2008 – December 3, 2009
Ship: SilverSeas Silver Shadow

Nov 18 2008    Tue    Los Angeles, California
Nov 19 2008    Wed    Day At Sea
Nov 20 2008    Thu    Day At Sea
Nov 21 2008    Fri    Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Nov 22 2008    Sat    Day At Sea
Nov 23 2008    Sun    Acapulco, Mexico
Nov 24 2008    Mon    Day At Sea
Nov 25 2008    Tue    Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
Nov 26 2008    Wed    Day At Sea
Nov 27 2008    Thu    Day At Sea
Nov 28 2008    Fri    Panama Canal, Panama
Nov 29 2008    Sat    Cartagena, Colombia
Nov 30 2008    Sun    Santa Marta, Colombia
Dec 01 2008    Mon    Day At Sea
Dec 02 2008    Tue    Day At Sea
Dec 03 2008    Wed    Fort Lauderdale, Florida

To view all of my pictures you must first have an account on Flickr (free) and then be tagged as a “friend”. Click here if you would like to see all of my sets and here if you would like to see just the Alaska photos.

Alaska Cruise and West Coast Train Trip 2008

Travel Dates: July 12 – July 28, 2008

July 13 2008   Sun   San Francisco, California  6:00 PM
July 14 2008   Mon   Day At Sea
July 15 2008   Tue   Victoria, British Columbia   3:00 PM  7:00 PM
July 16 2008   Wed   Day At Sea
July 17 2008   Thu   Sitka, Alaska   2:00 PM  7:00 PM
July 18 2008   Fri     Juneau, Alaska   8:00 AM  10:00 PM
July 19 2008   Sat    Skagway, Alaska   8:00 AM  7:00 PM
July 20 2008   Sun   Cruising Sawyer Glacier
July 21 2008   Mon  Wrangell, Alaska   8:00 AM  4:00 PM
July 22 2008   Tue   Cruising The Inside Passage
July 23 2008   Wed   Vancouver, British Columbia   8:00 AM
July 23 2008   Wed   Vancouver, British Columbia   -  Hyatt Regency Hotel
July 24 2008   Thu    Board Train to Seattle
July 25 2008   Fri      Seattle, Washington  -  Hotel Vintage Park
July 26 2008   Sat     Seattle, Washington  -  Hotel Vintage Park
July 26 2008   Sun    Board Amtak “Coast Starlight” for trip to San Diego
July 27 2008  Mon   Train
July 28 2008  Tue    Train arrival in San Diego

To view all of my pictures you must first have an account on Flickr (free) and then be tagged as a “friend”. Click here if you would like to see all of my sets and here if you would like to see just the Alaska photos.

Las Vegas & Jersey Boys!

It’s May 2008 and the opening of Jersey Boys at the Palazzo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The show is as good as ever and sure to run a long time. Also took a side trip to Hoover Dam. Here are some pics of Vegas, Hoover Dam and Jersey Boys opening and after party.

Click on the individual picture to view larger image or on teh link below to see them all.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/warrenkendrick/sets/72157604918767201/

 

 

Where Have All The Leaders Gone?

The following has been verified to come from Lee Iacocca. The excerpt is from his book titled “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?”  Released in 2007.

‘Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage?  We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, ‘Stay the course’

Stay the course?  You’ve got to be kidding.  This is America, not the damned ‘Titanic’.  I’ll give you a sound bite: ‘Throw all the bums out!’

You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have but someone has to speak up.  I hardly recognize this country anymore.

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs.  While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do.  And the press is waving ‘pom-poms’ instead of asking hard questions.  That’s not the promise of the ‘ America ‘ my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough.  How about you?

I’ll go a step further.  You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged.  This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have. The Biggest ‘C’ is Crisis !

Leaders are made, not born.  Leadership is forged in times of crisis.   It’s easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory.  Or send someone else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a battlefield yourself.  It’s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history.  We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes.  A Hell of a Mess So here’s where we stand.  We’re immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving.  We’re running the biggest deficit in the history of the country.  We’re losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs.  Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy.  Our schools are in trouble.  Our borders are like sieves.  The middle class is being squeezed every which way these are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you’ve got to ask: ‘Where have all the leaders gone?’  Where are the curious, creative communicators?  Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?  We’ve spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina.   Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm.

Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just crazy.  Storms happen.  Deal with it.  Make a plan. Figure out what you’re going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing.  Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when ‘The Big Three’ referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debit, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening.  But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress.  We didn’t elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of?  That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name?  Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough?
Hey, I’m not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here.  I’m trying to light a fire.  I’m speaking out because I have hope I believe in America.  In my lifetime I’ve had the privilege of living through some of America’s greatest moments.  I’ve also experienced some of our worst crises: the ‘Great Depression’, ‘World War II’, the ‘Korean War’, the ‘Kennedy Assassination’, the ‘Vietnam War’, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11.  If I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: ‘You don’t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it’s building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play.  That’s the challenge I’m raising in this book.  It’s a call to ‘Action’ for people who, like me, believe in America.  It’s not too late, but it’s getting pretty close.  So let’s shake off the crap and go to work.  Let’s tell ‘em all we’ve had ‘enough.’

A Moment of Truth and Trust

A friend recently wrote the following words so I thought I would share them. I couldn’t agree with him more with the exception of his choice for President. I am not sure Obama is the man to fix America but for sure, the course we are on now is definitely the wrong one. Given the choice between Hillary or Obama I think Clinton is a better person to get things done. Barak is inexperienced and, so far, does not yet have the track record to convince me. America is hardly ready for a woman President so I am not sure if a black man in the White House will be widely accepted. It is sad, but as much as we would like to think America is open minded and progressive, it just plain is not. Maybe we will be ready in another 100 years.

A Moment of Truth and Trust
By David P. Dolgen   May 3, 2008

There come moments in all our lives when we have to seek to trust what we know to be the truth, our own individual truth.  It appears to me that we, both as individuals and collectively as a nation are at that point in the decisions we are about to make in the selection of our next President.

This is no small task, particularly at this particular juncture in our history.  We find ourselves faced with a nation in economic decline.  The prospects for prosperity and a hopeful future that the lives of the post World War II Baby Boomer generation were steeped appear to be crumbling before us in a magnified and instantaneously broadcast manner.  As of yesterday we have officially finished our fourth month of significant job losses, particularly in the manufacturing sector.  The mammoth industrial engine that was America seems humbled.  Those jobs are being lost to countries for which most American used to have little knowledge, or even respect.  The greed of finance industry and financial manipulators has resulted in unprecedented foreclosures of the very homes that all Americans were taught to dream about and strive to own.  The banking industry is stretched to a snap, causing many banks to find themselves illiquid and perhaps insolvent.  The FDIC has just hired almost one hundred and fifty people to prepare for the closure of many community banks, and more bad news is almost certain to be soon announced. The price of oil has hit highs never imagined except in the fantasies and dreams of OPEC oil ministers.  The price of gas at the pump is creating havoc with the pocket books of average and poor Americans.  The Big Three auto producers are losing money and ground daily to their more adept foreign competitors.  The working men and women who manufactured those cars are being laid off, taking early retirement and losing ground on their lifestyles that they and their unions worked so hard to secure.

In short, the American working and middle classes are in trauma.

Anyone who has studied any moderate degree of world history  knows that during times like these, where societies have been pressed with economic hardship, people throughout the ages have fallen victim to their insecurities and fears and have found themselves in politically exploitable positions, prone to those who would manipulate and capitalize on those conditions.  It is not because people are bad or weak that they fall victim to this.  No, it is quite the opposite.  It is because people, mothers, fathers, breadwinners, and homemakers, all have within them the instincts to survive and protect themselves and the people they love.  They respond to those who promise much and deliver little, those that preach fear, divisiveness and capitalize on emotional vulnerabilities that economic insecurity creates.

Typical politicians of our day are keenly aware of this and this is why the least advanced of them do what they can to pray upon the emotional vulnerabilities of the electorate.  It is no coincidence that the whole Jeremiah Wright hoopla has been made to be such a big deal by Senators McCain and Clinton.  They saw their opportunity and they took it.  They know full well, that it is the easiest way to reach into the deep seated history of the American soul and extract from it the fears, emotions and anxieties that have constituted the American conflict over race and race relations.

At times such as these, it is pretty easy to manipulate the electorate and nudge them back to a place of fear and familiar prejudices.

Can there be a time where it is clearer for this nation that we must step up and out of our old patterns of behavior and away from our fears and towards a higher ground?  Can there be a time when it is more evident that repeating the ways of the past can bring us only more of what we wish to avoid and change?  To fall back, or should I say allow ourselves to be pushed back, into patterns of fear and behavior that result in electing the same type of leadership beholding to the same types of special interests that have caused us to arrive at this unfortunate place in our history would be a mistake of catastrophic proportions.

We are faced with two wars, one in Iraq (which both McCain and Clinton supported) and one in Afghanistan.  Even today the news reports of us having to send another seven thousands troops to Afghanistan to make up for diminished Allied forces there.  McCain and Bush are making noise about engaging in a conflict with Iran.  We have, the “experts” say, at least another year of housing decline.  The U.S. Dollar can hardly buy a stick of gum in Europe (and maybe a half a stick in England).  Things as they say “stink”.

To allow politicians and the forces of fear to back us away from our greatness and our future would be disastrous for America.  To allow ourselves to repeat behaviors that cause us hardship and pain is simply crazy behavior.  Why expect different results from the same behaviors that have created the very conditions which we want to change?  If you observed someone in an insane asylum doing that you would say, “yeh the guy’s crazy, he keeps on hitting his head on the wall over and over again”.  Isn’t that what we are being asked to do?  Yes it is!  Elect the same old people doing the same old stuff and you will get the same old results.  That is simply crazy political behavior!

So what must we do?  For one thing, I suggest we sit back and take a deep breath and relax for a moment.  Let’s take a calm and rational look at where we are.

Obama offered us Hope.  The country appeared enthralled by the concept. We wanted to believe in it.  That is because we wanted to believe in ourselves and America.  We wanted to trust what we know the real truths are. We are all American. We do share common challenges, even though we have diverse backgrounds.  We know we can make America better, but we also know that we all must work to do it.  In our guts we all know that none of the typical politicians will do it for us.  It is way too late for that. But we do need a leader. 

What we need is leaders that we can trust and who can inspire us embrace the truths that we know to be real about ourselves and America:  We are better than we now seem to be. We can make this a better place.  We can do this with respect for each other and we can honor this country in the process.  To fall victim to the exploitations of manipulative politicians who would exploit our vulnerabilities, fears and our current weaknesses is to dishonor ourselves and The United States of America.

Trust the truth and embrace the Hope that we all know can empower us to move on to a greater place and a better future for us all.

Obama for President!

 

 

Bill Gates Didn’t Say It

There is a list of 11 points is often attributed in Internet emails as a speech Bill Gates made to a High School or College class. Often misattributed and somewhat altered piece is actually the work of Dr. Charles J. Sykes from the book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write, or Add (St. Martin’s Press, 1995). Dr Sikes hit the nail on the head and considering it was published in 1995, we are just now beginning to see the results of our educational and political ideology.  Three additional thoughts are generally omitted so I added these to the bottom.

Rule 1. Life is not fair-get used to it!

Rule 2. The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3. You will not make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone-until you earn both.

Rule 4. If you think your teacher is tough-wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.

Rule 5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a word for burger flipping-they called it opportunity.

Rule 6. If you mess up-it’s not your parent’s fault-so don’t whine about your mistakes-learn from them.

Rule 7. Before your were born-your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills-cleaning your clothes-and listening about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ generation-try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers-but life has not. In some schools they have done away with failing grades and they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.

Rule 9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers and Christmas break off-and few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10. Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11. Be nice to nerds-chances are you’ll end up working for one.

The following are those usually omitted:

Rule 12. Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you’re out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That’s what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for “expressing yourself” with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

Rule 13. You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven’t seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

Rule 14. Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school’s a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you’ll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now.