Smells of Switzerland....

Perhaps it is an act of indulgence. Perhaps it reifies an olfactory memory. Perhaps it is a longing to see those snowy mountains rising steeply outside my window in the morning, with a newly fallen 4 inches of snow clinging to branches in which slight birds chirp and flit and cause the just-melting snow to drop in clumps on the hillside below. Whatever the spirit is, it conjures a strong memory in me at the cellular level of eucalyptus that I smelled in Switzerland. So, I bought a few eucalyptus branches and brought them to my office. The smell is intense and provokes dreams and meditation:

From many of the small hotels in Grindelwald, Switzerland, where I was based for my visit, you can see the old Grindelwald church with Eiger Mountain as its backdrop. The scene has not changed much since this 1890 painting: We cling to that which has meaning for us.

 

A story I wrote about the Switzerland trip is posted on this blog.

"The world is flat"...a Thomas L. Friedman video

Tom Friedman, New York Times foreign affairs columnist spoke at MIT recently about his book, "The World is Flat." The video is here:

http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/266/ It's free!

Playing the market in human resource futures...

The web site is up for our presentation, "Playing the market in human resource futures," presented on 6 October at the HR Futures Forum. Here is the link:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/dlp/hrfutures/ Here is a screen capture of the web site:Give it a look!

Because Winnie asked, my Nike shoe...

My dear Winnie, who I miss every day she is gone away from Pennsylvania, asked to see a picture of the hiking boots I bought for 50% off in the Nike Employee Store during my recent trip to Oregon. Well, she asks, I do:

They fit well, Winnie. Great to walk over from Keller Building to Ferguson Building to teach data analysis. Miss you, Winnie!

Imminent Fall in the Pennsylvania woods...

Fall is a little late starting in Pennsylvania. I walked in the woods this morning, and took pictures shown at the web site linked below:

http://train.ed.psu.edu/family/gamelands2005 Here is a sample picture:It's a beautiful day, and Fall will get more beautiful as time passes. Then, it is cold and snowy when winter arrives.