2 Phish Shows and Michael Domsky

So I wanted to go to more concerts and when the opportunity to go to see Phish at Fenway arose I felt I had to oblige. Granted it took pat and becca going to sit outside Fenway at 2:30 the night before tickets went on sale, then the next weekend one Michael "the man, the myth, the legend" Domsky showed up for another Phish show down in Mansfield. And that is 2 birds with one stone my friend.

Although I will add an editors note that when creating the list one of the most difficult things is to choose numbers for items your not really sure whats a lot of something until you start doing it.h Expect some changes to list items with numbers such as the score for a round of golf, and this one although i haven't come up with a new number yet

I think for this one I am going to let the pictures do the talking but it was good to see Domsky, I hope he goes to Alumni weekend and stays in touch over the years because he can be very elusive

Mansfield Show

^Michael Domsky ^

blink - The Power of Thinking without Thinking

So I just finished blink, Malcolm Gladwell’s book about the power of thinking without thinking. It is about how we make snap judgments and how those influence our behavior. This is my 2nd Gladwell book. I read The Tipping Point a couple of years ago when I was taking some time between college and looking for a job. I had actually had the book for a few years before I finally got around to reading it but I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to try and gain a new understanding about the world around them.

So what blink really boils down to is our own judgment. How can we know when to trust our gut and when do we need to gather more information. What I found most interesting was that Gladwell actually argues that more often than not we try and use too much information to make our decisions. He uses a series of stories that if not for the common theme of snap second decisions are otherwise unrelated.

The book opens with a story about a historical statue that supposedly dated back to 6,000 BC. The museum in question spent years trying to verify its authenticity, brought in all kinds of experts to run numbers and statistics to prove it was real. Then they brought in 2 statue experts and based on seeing the statue for a split second they knew it was a fake.
If I was to see this statue I probably wouldn’t know any better then all of the other experts’ whose numbers were wrong. The main issue is that these types of decisions are made by people with a very extensive knowledge of the subject matter they are being asked about. For example one man who spent years working with couples could tell based on a 5 minute conversation if that couple will stay together with 90% accuracy.

One of the most interesting chapters was about being able to read emotions on people’s faces. Not just being able to understand how someone feels without them ever speaking, but that everyone’s real emotions are worn on their face, if only for a split second, weather or not they know it. As I have a left a few open items on my list I might use one of them to learn how to read faces.

Being able to train ourselves to trust our instincts knowing that more times then not they will be correct is a big leap. There are many different examples of snap judgments, right and wrong, illustrating how our mind can know something before we are even cognitively aware of it in this book. As this isn’t a topic I have ever thought about before I hope I am able to continue to develop my judgment abilities as they could be very valuable over the course of my life and career.

I wasn’t sure how to record the books that I read in this blog so I decided to go with this kind of format, as I just finished this book, I immediately came in and got some thoughts down. In the interest of full disclosure I started to write this blog before I read the afterword. In retrospect that was a mistake as I changed quite a bit of this blog after finishing the book. I could probably have used more of the examples from the book but I didn’t want to ruin it for anyone who is interested in it.

In the end I would highly recommend either of the Gladwell books talked about here. At some point I will get to Outliers then I can let you about that as well.

PS. Once I gather the pic’s I need to blog about Phish & Michael Domsky, crossing things off left and right

MICHAEL DOMSKY IS HERE!!!

Domsky is in the building and we are about to leave for Phish, He told me at 11:54 he would be here at 1:30 and hit it to the minute. Absolutely shocking. I am excited to get Domsky in his natural habitat. I couldn’t ask for anything more when decided on wording it “hang out with Michael Domsky”

Getting Back into Golf + notes

So I put a number of golf things on my list because I used to play a lot when I was younger but once I got into high school I just slowed down and basically stopped playing. It seemed like a good idea to start playing again since it is a great way to network and spend time with family. So I started talking about it last fall although didn’t play. My dad got me new Nike clubs, a new bag and a Taylor Made Burner driver for Christmas probably to encourage me to play with him.

I finally went out the Saturday before my sisters wedding with my uncle Peter Belanger, my grandfather Peter Belanger, and my grandfather’s nephew (whatever that makes him to me) Peter Belanger (my 3 partners) my brother, my dad, my dad’s cousin Denis, and my now bother in law (still weird to say that). In the end shot a 101 on the day. 57 on the front 9 and 44 on the back. So you might say that I needed to shake the rust off, as that was my 1st time playing since last yr for father’s day. Also probably my 1st time keeping a legitimate score in at least a decade (also weird to be able to say that).

Overall I am pretty happy with the performance. It may cause me to have to change one of my list items though. Since I shot a 101 on my 1st legitimate time in a decade I am going to drop number 46. Play a round of golf under 100 to 85. I picked 85 because I figured that my baseline, which I will use as the back nine, since I was properly warmed up, times 2 is 88. So I would like to improve on that since I think it is unlikely I will start throwing up compete rounds of 44 on a regular basis but with some more practice we will see

So some other random things to make note of:

38. Try 5 different types of Sushi- I have tried a California Roll, a Spicy Roll, and a Tuna Roll – Overall I am warming up to Sushi, and hopefully fish in general, we will see

55. Learn How to make 2 appetizers really well- I will declare my Taco dip ready to be consider “really well”. I should have worded this one better but what are you gonna do. But for all future events if you want a Taco dip, I am your man