I was browsing around different WW Wiki’s. I stumbled upon Monochrome and Shuhui’s Wiki. Check this out:

Quests? Ranks? Items?

Wow! Can’t wait for launch! Only one more hour.

It’s not just the Winter Solstice, kiddies. It’s also the perfect day to dedicate an orgasm to peace. Sure, it’s the shortest day of the year, but you can still have a nice, long, Big O for all the right reasons. The folks at Global Orgasm for Peace list three reasons for their movement. They’re pretty damn convincing:

Peace

We live in a vibrational world of moving energy.  In the afterglow of love making there is usually a sense of peace, fulfillment, and pleasure.  These qualities vibrate at a higher resonance than violence.  Consider the energy of orgasm as a prayer and dedicate it consciously to world peace.  If millions of people send their orgasmic energies toward world peace perhaps we can affect a shift in the collective consciousness to end war and violence.  Picture an energetic grid surrounding our planet that is enhanced with more energy and light when we send out our orgasmic prayers for peace.

Gender & Social Justice

Justice starts with compassionate understanding. Only when we can visualize ourselves in someone else’s place can we understand what drives them to behave the way they do. Empathy, compassion, love – these are the Feminine traits with which all women and men are born in varying ratios. When they are used in our interactions with others and with the other species, justice will prevail. Differences in gender, social status and race are not delineators of bad and good. We are all worthy of justice. To combine the energy of orgasm with a conscious empathy for all beings, human and otherwise, would be a powerful boost to the well-being of our planet and species. Visualize true partnership to heal the planet.

Global Warming

The planet needs a rest from all our other desires, so what better way to get us to take a rest from over-consumption than an orgasm? And if we can combine that energy with a resolution to be satisfied with less of everything (except love-increasing orgasms, of course), perhaps the collective mindset will change. And since a major cause of global warming, peak oil, peak water, peak everything is overpopulation by humans, lets put in a collective request for fewer offspring. Every cute baby is another consumer. Let’s make children even more valued by making fewer of them.

The saying goes that history is written by the victors. This is of course true because the reality is that the victors are the only ones left to write it most often. But in sports I find that history remembers more than just the victors, the first placers, and the number ones; sports history records, more than any other kind of history, the unbelievable errors and losses in the annals of history. The three instances that come to mind are Bill Buckner, with his missed ground ball in game six; Chris Webber’s TO at Michigan in the NCAA Championship game; and most recently the fourth & 2 call by Bill Belicheck against the Colts. There are so many more and any fan of any team has their own specific list of worst moves ever they can prattle on about endlessly over beers in Any Tavern, USA.

The ball gets dropped from time to time, and in sports they make note. It becomes part of the myth and history of your franchise, not unlike in politics. Republicans/Democrats in America is treated the same way as a Lakers/Celtics rivalry discussion. Every little mistake, over-rated player, bad call, and crushing defeat is tallied and exploited for your opponents humiliation just as every victory and all-time legendary record is hoisted above your head like a Heavyweight Championship belt. This, in the end, is how we decide winners and losers in sports, but not in this endless game of musical house majority that is democracy. There is no W-L record we can really rely on for this, so we simply point out all-time bad calls and presidents while trying to defend our worst moments with crooked refs and no instant replay…wait, I’m confusing my metaphor with reality now.

Well on the list of great political bloopers on the Democrats side we have some doozies; McGovern in ’68, fucking Eagleton; Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky; public option/death panels, just to name a recent few. The Republicans are no slouches though; they got Iran/Contra; Korea, which one might say was the beginning of defense spending so thanks for that Truman; and the greatest scandal in American history, Watergate, and Nixon overall; republicans win the ‘lousiest president’ debate. But now we have Obama to thank for possibly topping the all-time list of ‘disappointing/ineffective’ presidents with his most recent motion to support extension and only minor language changes to the Patriot Act; he called it a hastily written piece of shoddy legislature during his campaign and promised to see that it was changed to restore civil liberties and rights…doesn’t look so “shoddy” from the oval office now, does it.

Barack has been on a rampage, it seems, to make every bad decision he can and this is no different. He flat-out broke a promise, extending three specific portions of the Patriot Act set to expire at the end of this year, but worst of all he tried to sneak it in under the radar attached to the Pentagon bill which was mostly about spending issues. The genius of this was that 95% of the items voted on were on finances, from military budget, federal debt ceiling increase (if it’s a ceiling, why can we just raise it, we remodel our debt/income house when ever we want, not much of a ‘ceiling’ if you ask me), and a myriad of other items. This is also going on in the quagmire that is health care debate and voting. With all this, the white house issued letters and statements to get this voted on and that they supported an extension.

After this and all his other blunders thus far I have become completely soured on him. First watering down the health care reform, then ridiculous spending, the lack of reform, lack of transparency, the Afghan surge, the Guantanamo Bay BS, now the Patriot Act!? I now understand that Obama really does not care for the civil liberties and the human rights of the American people or those in our custody. It appears he is simply writing another chapter in the “Bush” book, not getting a new book of his own. He has green lit continued wire-tapping, e-mail tapping, and seizing of business records under the Patriot Act. There is also the system of the “sneak-and-peak”, where any agency is allowed to break in to your home, without warrant or notifying you in any way, just to see if they can find evidence to get a legit warrant to prosecute you, and come back with that, and seize all evidence legally.

This is in addition to the suspension of Habeas Corpus for prisoners, which is in effect in America, Guantanamo Bay, as well as military detention bases in ‘war zones’ like in Bar’am. So in addition to not closing Guantanamo Bay, denying rights to trial, prosecution, and legal council, he is now continuing the legislation expanding government power beyond the letter of the law, allowing his administration to continue the rights violating practices that were fear-mongered in to place by Dick Cheney and his administration, I mean the Bush administration. This is the greatest disappointment for me, I was sure the Obama would become a great leader repealing and discontinuing heinous practices as these mentioned, returning America to the level headed, diplomatic nation that it once was. All I can see is continued war and abuse of extended powers like a military junta more than anything else.

You have to understand that these laws were put in place under extensive stress, fear, and panic. The nation as a whole was willing to hear any argument and willing to sacrifice a little now for the greater good on the back end. We gave up civil rights to restore relative safety. What happened was illegal activities and use of laws that was never intended; the “sneak-and-peak” has been used for drug related activities in far more instances than in any terrorist investigation. The abuse was ok then, we needed someone to throw down the gauntlet and go to town for this country, and we had just the redneck to do it. In that time of uncertainty this nation was impressionable and easily swayed, so laws were broken and we were able to accept it as a temporary, necessary invasion in the name of peace and security.

What we have now though is a complete disregard for the lessons we should be learning from those most bloody times. We need to admit that these laws were unconstitutional, hasty, and did not even serve a purpose to the end for which they were designed. As a nation we gave the thumbs-up to the Patriot Act, then, because we knew that a full review and a long drawn out debate would come to pass when the Act’s time was up. This did not occur, no discuss happened, it was a small part of a massive bill that was up for a vote. More time was allotted for the defense budget and estate tax than went to the reinstatement of my God-damned civil liberties. As far back as November of 2008, people like Adam Cohen of the NYTimes was writing that many were feeling that Obama could hear and weigh the arguments of those that see him as a chance to end this Act and take governmental power back to a pre-9/11 status. Barack Obama would be a voice of reason, as he said he would be during his campaign, and pull back the reigns of a government run amok, restoring this country to a time of innocence, before our vulnerability was so savagely revealed to us.

Still, today our prisoners with suspected ties to terrorism don’t get their rights, none at all in a war zone prison; we can still put prisoners under rendition, the practice of changing custody of one of our prisoners to a foreign country with more lax standards of human rights in order to extract what we want; we can wire tap; read your e-mail; break in to your home or business LOOKING for cause to come back with a legal warrant, and all this in the greatest country in the world!? The proletariate, you, should be up in arms over the laws of a savage time continuing in to this presidency one more day than they set to last for. An abuse of power like this is something we would embargo Cuba for, threaten Iran for, speak strongly against N. Korea for, and yet you and I are the victims here with no one to speak for us except condescending senators and representatives.

The fear we live in and the concerns of the American people have changed. We have now allowed our foreign policy to determine domestic issues; this is the way to ruin and a state of martial law now continues on our soil despite having the eyes for 20/20 hindsight. You must realize that your stripped away civil liberties will continue on simply for political gain. Same as with the increased debt ceiling and dropped public option, the Patriot Act was extended so the republican party had less cannon fodder for the 2010 mid-term elections. These crucial policy decisions were made not for what was best for the American people, but what was best for the democratic power structure. Time and time again this country, the people that make it more than just real estate between Mexico and Canada, has been dropped by the wayside for the good of political power and industry. The trickle down effect works in reverse when it comes to policy, we at the bottom of the pile get pissed on first.

The gavel was replaced with a gun eight years ago. Justice was found on the business end of an M-16, and we were fine with justifying the means to the end through the red filter of rage. America was willing to set aside the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as well as grant the President powers far beyond those set forth by the checks and balances our founding fathers created, or those approved of by the U.N. From 2001 to 2004 we were willing to believe anything and from 2004 until 2008 we were powerless to stop the monster we had created in our post-9/11 Frankenstein phase as we watched it tear countries asunder, including our own. With Obama we were to get all of the benefits of living in the greatest country on earth, from the bottom up. He stood as a beacon of hope for change; not to something new, but to something old, from a time before we lost our innocence in Manhattan and became afraid of our own shadows and those that operated in them. For me the last of those dreams, the constitutional rights of 2000, has died, leaving me no longer hopeful, but weary, of Obama’s last three years in office. You are my Buckner, Barack Obama, you made the list.

Stationary and stationery.

Many people don’t know the latter spelling of the word. Let’s clear the air:

sta•tion•ary – adjective

1. standing still; not moving.
2. having a fixed position; not movable.
3. established in one place; not itinerant or migratory.
4. remaining in the same condition or state; not changing: The market price has remained stationary for a week.

sta•tion•ery – noun

1. writing paper.
2. writing materials, as pens, pencils, paper, and envelopes.

Next up: peek, peak and pique.

Let’s start with the double e’s.

Think of the two e's in peek as eyes.

peek – verb (used without object)

Though Windows 7 is just out the door, Microsoft is already in the making of its successor. We don’t yet have confirmation of what it will be codenamed, however, the public has taken a liking to “Windows 8.” Windows 7 was a HUGE improvement over Windows 7, however, I believe that there is still a lot of work to be done to truly show Microsoft’s potential.

The Taskbar

My favorite thing about Windows 7 is the new taskbar. The amazing functionality makes it a pleasure to use. I think Microsoft should work on further improving the taskbar to make it even more useful.

There are always times when people (well, at least I) want to mute just one window, but keep the rest noisy. An example would be when there is an Internet game without a mute button, but you want to listen to your music. You can always just open up the Audio Mixer, but I think this can be added to the thumbnail preview at the bottom, just as the “x” to close a window was added. This would make muting a window much simpler than before. Also, I think they should add a volume meter along the edge of a preview, to maximize volume functionality of a window.

Another change I’d like to see to the taskbar is to have all open windows go to the right. This is just a small pet peeve of mine. When I go to open a window from the taskbar in Windows 7, I always move it to the right, just because it bothers me to see an open window in the middle of a bunch of icons.

Start Menu

The start menu is something introduced in Windows 95 that hasn’t changed much over the course of its lifetime. It has gained another column, however I’d like to see it change even more.

I’d like to see the start menu consume more of the page (kind of like the “File” button in Microsoft Office Word 2010). This is something that is a bother to me because I, like many others, don’t have the best eyesight, and I don’t want to have to strain to see the words. Also I’d like to see more functionality, such as a calendar in the start menu that can either sync with your Windows Calendar or your Windows Live Calendar.

Maintenance

It would also be nice if Microsoft would create a virus software (other than Microsoft Security Essentials) that runs without you even knowing it in the background, checking all downloaded items, and constantly scanning your computer for harmful materials. If they can do all of this without using too much RAM, this would be a HUGE improvement.

Hidden Peak

A mountain peak. This mountain was covered by morning mist.
This photo was taken on the way from Mandalay to Myitkyina train rail. A little out of focus and blur.

A young Stevens scales the Aggro-Crag. The highlight of his life. Lots of confetti, angst.

Joshua Stevens, 27, of Richmond, Virginia, has claimed that his life peaked 14 years ago after winning a Nickelodeon game show called Guts.

“I can’t compare it to anything else in my life, present or future,” stated Stevens, who had recently annexed his parents’ attic in order to “Spread his wings.”

“Being on that show is the only thing I have not regretted in my life. I mean, I—scaled the fuckin’ Aggro-Crag! Who else can say that?”

Not many, apparently, but that doesn’t stop Stevens from being treated as a regular human being. “I scale the Aggro, and what have I got to show for it?”

It’s true. Joshua has no employment, not even prospects. “My dad tells me I shouldn’t even mention the show on my resume, let alone have a picture of the trophy at the top of the page, but he doesn’t know. He don’t know the respect you earn from even mentioning the trophy.”

His last interview for a marketing firm started with some basic skill questions, but ended with an angry dispute when the show “Double Dare” was mentioned by a prospective employer.

“Double Dare was for fags,” I told him. “Fags and old blue-hairs who don’t like a sense of adventure with their shows. I was about to undo my dress shirt and show him my red Guts jersey from ’92, but he said the interview was over.” Stevens did not get the job.

“Times are tough, I know that,” explained Stevens, “But there has to be some sort of hope for the elite Guts players out there. This trophy is equivalent to Superman’s green crystal from Krypton.”

When not polishing his jade trophy of yesteryear, Stevens ponders the idea of a reunion show. “Get the ol’ gang back together. That girl I played with, Allison, I think her name was, and that Asian kid. I pummeled the shit out of him in the Spirals competition. Man, we had some fun!”

Rest assured, if there will be a reunion show, it will be entirely up to Stevens to get the wheels rolling. “Mike (O’Malley) is busy with his sitcoms and whatnot, and Mo, well, I think she is doing a lot of voice-over work. But I’ll give them a call. Ya know, see what they’re up to.”

Vondrook reporters were about to end the interview when Stevens wanted to have one last confession of triumph. “I—I slapped Mo on the ass.”

Snowdon, originally uploaded by Petra Brown.

Well, after about four months, the film is finally finished! Creative Realms had it’s first screening last Friday in front of fellow student film makers and has had positive feedback so far. All that is left is to finish getting the music rights and it is on to the distribution phase…

Over the next year or so I plan to submit to a handful of international short film festivals. Hopefully these can help me to get my name out there, and get some prizes to help pay off my Europe expenses this coming spring. I’ll be sure to keep everybody informed as to what festivals the film will be screening at, and how it does, so check back here and there for updates.

This show was supposedly being readied before Michael Jackson’s death, which is weird that the logo has a five in it (“Jack5ons”) to emphasize the Michael factor. At any rate, Jermaine is the only Jackson sybling we don’t really like. And this whole vehicle is being spun around him. This is the same brother that sold his story to make a TV movie about his brother and the one who originally broke up the Jackson 5. But, Tito’s always fun. So, we’ll watch in hopes of some Rebbie or LaToya or maybe even some Janet, which is unlikely.

Having been on my new university course for 3 months now, and having made some really close friends who are generally a few years older than me (my closest friends on the course are 33 and 35), I’ve really been able to see how far I’ve come as a person.

Looking back at myself even 4 months ago when I had only started writing this blog, I knew myself, but myself was unsure and nervous.  I felt as if I was in a rut professionally after graduating with a good degree from a prestigious university, personally I had had “friends” who turned out not to be friends at all slander me and accuse me of things (theft, bullying) that I had and have never done, and would never do in a million years.  I took it all on the chin and just had faith that things would get better, but I knew in my heart that I didn’t know what would happen.  Would this careers guidance course be the right decision for me?  What was going to happen to me?  Had I peaked already in my life?

The answer to that last question, now I see, is an emphatic NO! Obviously I was only 23 (now 24) and to paint myself as an underdog who had it all and then lost it was more than a little unfair to myself.  I now know that I have so much going for me, so much to offer, and I am not an ugly or stupid person no matter how much certain people may endeavour to make me feel that about myself.  I deserve the best, and with this new qualification, new friends who seem to value me for me from the jump, and new confidence, I feel that I can get the best.  Once again, I’m back on track, and more than anything I’m so relieved.  I may paint myself as confident and assertive – and I am those things – but underneath I still get nervous and insecure.  Now, I finally see that I really am worth more.

I guess it’s a part of natural evolution.  I’ve grown up a lot, and although it took pointing out, I am older than my years.  I don’t feel out of place hanging out with 30-year-olds, because we have the same mentality and experiences.  People generally have trouble guessing my age (I still get ID’d for buying cigarettes on the one hand – which makes Mike LOL and envious at the same time!; on the other hand, a couple of people on my course originally thought I was late 20s because of the fact I can articulate myself and hold my own in discussions), but although I may tease my colleagues at university about receding hairlines, wrinkles and old age, I don’t feel any difference between us.  Aaliyah really had it right – age ain’t nothin’ but a number.  Usually it correlates to maturity, but not always.  At the end of the day, people are people, and we are all human.

These are things that I already knew to be true, but having them held up in front of me has forced me to accept these things as positives about myself.  It’s finally really sinking in.  And the truth of who I am as a man, as a human being, is finally coming out.  This is what I wanted to write about really, but it took the backstory above to get there! (Sorry… but I always give you the main course – no snacks here!)  I thought that I was an adult after university (by which I mean my undergraduate degree at Oxford), but it took me a bit longer.  Working at the Perfume Shop gave me a taste of the hard grind, working for not enough money and being treated like I didn’t have a brain (the saving grace was superficially decent friendships and getting to work with fragrance and deepen my knowledge of it).  My newer job at the hospital has made me see how people can be valued in their work, both monetarily and in terms of being treated like an intelligent human being.  My new course at university has helped me see what I really want to do, and now having that thrust forward has completed me and erased some of my doubts (not all, but some is certainly a step forward) about my future and my life’s purpose.

As things around me have been moving in the right direction, so I’ve been able to spread my wings and become more of who I am.  I love smoking – I’m not a moron and I know it’s not good for my health nor my voice, but I enjoy the feeling from it, the fact it kills time, and the socialising aspect of it – I think it goes hand in hand with being confident and conversational, as you often get approached by people who want a light / spare fag, and you end up conversing with strangers because you share an appreciation of nicotine!  In turn, smoking has reduced my hunger (allowing me to stick to my no-evening-snacking policy) and I’ve dropped a waist size – people at uni have christened me “good looking”, “pretty boy” and lots of other complimentary things referencing both my physical looks and my fashion style. I feel more confident in and out of my clothes – although I’m such a perfectionist that I’ll never be satisfied!  But looking at my vanity and my past issues with my own body and self-esteem, I’ve come a long way.  I feel happier in my skin physically as well as emotionally – and I’m feeling more confident to express the edgier, darker sides of myself which set me apart from others.

After years of deliberation, changing my mind and refining my ideas, I’m finally set on getting tattoos!  One is a stylised A, which you can see here; the other will be above my left collarbone mirroring it, and will be a gun.  I’ve been inspired by Rihanna’s gun tattoo, but I want it because to me a gun is a symbol of strength and power, of aggression and conflict, of edginess and darkness.  These are all things that I embody – I am tougher than some people initially assume, and I want an emblem of that grit and fire.  I feel it’s applicable to me, and also quite exciting and sexy.  And whereas before I might have balked at the permanence of a tattoo like that, now I feel mature and comfortable enough in myself to be able to wear it and pull it off.  This is me – maybe I’m a good boy gone bad, but I still have a good heart; I have just spent too long in my life pleasing others, and now I’ve finally lunged for myself with this course and am reaping the rewards much more than I ever did listening to other people’s opinions on what was best for me, I believe in my own capacity to make decisions.  I’m not an angel, I’m not a good boy, and I’m tired of portraying that.  I am me and I have a good heart and an intelligent mind, but sometimes I enjoy being provocative or sexy or pushing the boundaries.  That is just as valid a part of me, and my new friendships embrace that part of me too and love me for it.  My infatuation with a married man who has become my best friend and is actively ok with my affection and flirting and actively returns it has been a revelation to me.  We understand each other, we can control our affections (he feels the same way about someone else) and be mature adults, but we also have fun with it – we accept each other and I never felt so comfortable to be able to be so emotionally honest with someone I knew would accept me for who I am. From him I learned what it is to be a good father, a good husband, a good man, and also that whatever I’m feeling, I am a rational person and I should never feel guilty for my feelings.  I should never feel stupid, and the sign of a good friendship is being able to admit how you’re feeling and that other person accepting you for it and not telling you it’s wrong or silly.  Again, these are things I superficially knew, but feeling and living them is a whole other revelation.  I hope that my friends can one day think of me in the same way.

So my embracing my dark side instead of being afraid of it; my becoming edgier is a natural emancipation, a natural evolution of me.  I am free to be who I am, and I am proud of who I am.  I’ve felt ashamed, even in small doses, for too long.  It took a long time to get here, and I’m sure in the future I will still make mistakes and waver, but hopefully I can come back and read this post and remember my feelings right now, and that’ll keep me going.  Once a good boy goes bad, we’re gone forever – but I wish I’d gone sooner and I look forward to where I’m going and whom I’m going with.

Sunday Afternoon with the warming sun, the dress that she likes,
salted quail eggs for snacks, and Kannie happily running!

More pictures at:
http://gallery.me.com/andrewkwan#100436&bgcolor=black&view=grid

A Five Star rating from E-Theory!

So roughly a year ago I found this guy just browsing youtube.com .   His Channel has since grown from 50,000 views per video post to over 1 million!  That is incredible!  What is more important though is the content.  It is the perfect size for a person to manage two post a week.  His videos are only 4 minutes long and packed with punchy comedy with great timing.

It takes a lot to impress my funny bone and get me to share with others someone that has something good going for themselves…and believe me it is rare that I give props to anyone here, but this guy deserves his own 30 minute series.  If a million and half youtubers find it entertaining weekly it has to be a great thing!  So take a peak and check out this very funny college student! It is at least worth 4 minutes of your life…

~Best Regards~

Bob Marino, vice president and chief operating officer of Café Press, is tall and slender. He has dark hair and a goatee. While he may not look a lot like jolly old Saint Nick, he has several of the same characteristics: He is full of charisma and energy, has a band of merry elves who keep his factory running, makes gifts for all those who are naughty and nice and most importantly… has a big brown “sleigh,” better known as a UPS truck, there to support him.

Café Press is a unique company founded in October 1999 that specializes in providing its customers “self-expression through merchandise.” According to the company, “it’s not about wearing a shirt or drinking from a mug, it’s about what’s on it and what it means.” 

Café Press has come a long way from two people in a dusty garage to 6.5 million customers and nearly 400 employees. From its storefront on the Internet, the company sells everything from T-shirts to ornaments… all personalized. They offer a unique network of artistic entrepreneurs who become shopkeepers and sell over 250 million unique gifts. As Bob puts it, “we put the YOU in unique.”

Café Press is much like UPS in that during gift-giving season, its business will spike. In fact, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, Café Press’ business will increase anywhere from 50% to 150% above a normal day. This can mean as many as 30,000 shipments a day. 

How does UPS handle this increase in volume? Very skillfully, of course. We do whatever it takes. During the holidays, we fill five large truck trailers a day with Café Press shipments. Many are bound for Worldport®, just minutes away, where they will be sorted and flown on UPS jets to customers in mere hours.

Now back to Bob…Bob is charged with the task of overseeing the daily activities of Café Press and shepherding new initiatives. He says he enjoys walking through the operation and looking at all the unique products. According to Bob, Café Press must match the quality and delivery times of mass-produced items. He has an incredible team of engineers and inventors who create what they need on the fly.

Bob says, “You would think after all the ingenuity that gives me all this, I could have what the guy at the North Pole has, right? We can make the red suit and black boots…but I don’t have the sleigh. So for that, we’re going to rely on UPS.”

Club Penguin just released a new login screen picture!Check it out:

In the lover right site you can see that there will be a magic sled ride for members from  December18-27.I cant wait,and you?

Hey Guys, I’m Back! and im gonna update my site again the new penguin im using is Hubba Bubbuz . So Lets get started Here’s The Christmas Party Sneak Peak ;]

What do you think? We’ll have more details about the party soon!

It’s pretty busy on the island – Everyone seems to be getting geared up for the holidays! Check out what’s coming up this week:

• Coins for Change will begin – start saving!
• New Postcards – with a Christmas surprise!
• Rockhopper arrives with the Treasure Hunt game!
• New catalogs – Holiday igloo stuff!

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Hello and welcome to my first upside peak-season post. Join me as I talk to various UPSers who each play a different role during the busiest time of year.

Peak season is aptly named for the influx of packages shipped to loved ones during the holidays. Daily air volumes for the world’s largest package delivery company can double during this time. But what many people don’t know is that a small team of 16 unassuming people in Louisville work hard all year to make these few weeks run as smoothly as possible for UPS Airlines.

One of those people is Peak Planning Manager Leslie Hamilton. Leslie is going on her 20th year with UPS, and this is her third season as a peak planner.

Q: First of all, what is involved in planning peak?

A: A lot. People tend to think that we prepare for peak shortly before it happens, but we begin planning right after the previous year’s peak. The first thing we do is go over the previous year and see what needs to be improved. Then over the next few months, we look at the number of shipments and how smoothly they flowed through our system to make a plan for the next peak, which changes constantly because of network and operation updates along with guidelines from corporate. We incorporate these changes and always monitor current trends. Right now is a perfect example, we are trying to plan for an unpredictable economy. It is very challenging.

Q: What does your plan take into account?

A: Our job is to get the Next Day Air, 2nd Day Air and 3 Day Select packages to customers on time and in the most efficient way possible. We work with flight schedules to get the right aircraft to the right airports. We also work with aircraft lease schedules, as well as rail and truck schedules. I like to compare it to a puzzle. We start out with all of these little pieces that fit perfectly together, that’s our plan. Once peak starts, something may change and the pieces may no longer fit—it’s a constant challenge to rework and re-solve this puzzle.

Q: What’s the best part of your job?

A: The people I work with in Louisville and in the regions. Plus, I love seeing what can be accomplished when everyone works together.

Q: You’ve talked about how you plan all year, but what does the group do during peak itself?

A: A week before Thanksgiving, we leave our normal work area and move over to the Global Operations Center in Louisville, that’s where the heart of the airline is. Our peak plan is put into action across the country. We’re there to support the Contingency group and help them rework the puzzle every time it changes. We go back to our normal work area in January and start planning for the next peak.

Angel Wings

Each time I drive to Truchas ,New Mexico I always stop at the cemetery . This particular grave, Angel Wings, as I call it, is always adorned differently each time I visit.  Last visit at Christmas, snow covered the ground and there on the cross hung a Santa’s Cap.  Each adornment tells a story. In the back ground is Truchas (Spanish for “trout”) Peak, which is located in the Pecos Wilderness Area in the Sangre de Cristo mountain.

The movie “The Milagro Beanfield War” was filmed by Robert Redford  in Truchas, New Mexico in 1988.

Iglesia San Jose de Cabezon by Evangeline Chavez

Iglesia San Jose de Cabezon, originally built in 1894, is now on private land.  It is open to the public during the year for a mass in honor of San Jose. In the background you can see Cabezone Peak.  Cabezone Peak is derived from the Spanish noun “cabeza,” meaning “head,” and “Cabezon” translates as “big head.

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