oh I'll make it I reckon.

God can always be counted on.  Did I say that before?  Here I am going through the month, money is just barely going to last me until my first paycheck and then my bank card stops working.  I managed to get it all scratched up in my wallet.  I go to the bank to deal with it and the lady at the counter says, “Okay, that’ll be 20€.”  ... “Okay,” said I, “hold that thought, I don’t have 20€ this second.”  So I go home in a rather stressed way inwardly, and get to counting all my loose change and doing a little math.  If I’m super careful, I could possibly make it to next friday when my paycheck comes, but who knows, it’ll be close. Then I remembered that Monday being a holiday, everything would be closed, including the bakery where I get some free food on Mondays for the week... Eating will be even a bigger challenge.  I think God tried to remind me that he was God and could handle it that evening when I was so stressed, but he said it in German and it didn’t really sink in. So I decide I can just maybe kind of afford the card, which I need actually to collect money when it does come so I can pay for my visa on next Monday.  Well I get to the bank all ready to buy a new card, and what should I find, but it’s a different lady who gives me a card for free, along with a case that will protect my card from future scratches!  With an extra 20€ in hand, I can undoubtedly make it through the week.  God has yet to leave me hanging.  Maybe I’ll start trusting him soon.

"Hey Slave"

Common Bavarian greating, "Servus," came straight out of Latin - means slave.  Not sure how that got popular.

A Moment of Excitement

So this was really cool.  I don’t have any other good adjectives right now so be content with that and let’s move into the crux of the issue.

After 3 full weeks I had begun to wonder about the technology involved in shoes that PUMA makes.  When you read footwear catalogues, particularly in soccer, a pastime I frequented much in my high school days, there are always these little blurbs next to each shoe, “made with power frame technology for more powerful shots!” etc. etc.  So after being here a bit I began wondering who is responsible for those tidbits of selling power.  I’ve seen most of the process and haven’t seen a whole lot of science.  It’s just kinda whateva looks right.  That actually works too.  Why?  because adidas and Nike research and make shoes and so we know what a good shoe looks like, so why actually research?  Well, to be ahead.  PUMA has always, in recent history, been ahead in style but behind in technology.  I hadn’t really noticed that before, but now looking back, I suppose I new it all along and as it became more apparent I decided to just enjoy the aesthetic design side of things, which has been going well I must say.  But anyways, that’s not the direction this story is going.  Let me introduce you to another intern who got here two months before me.  Mechanical engineer from Canada.  Let’s call her Kate for privacy’s sake.  Kate went through basically the same thing I did, except not having much design interest, and loving biomechanics, hunted down the two people that do technology, and said, “I want to make a shoe that is biomechanically advanced!”  They thought to themselves shortly, discussed with some important people and decided it wasn’t a bad idea after all!

While all that went down I was taking finals, going to weddings, packing, and all manor of things that needed to be done.  Now that I’m here and poking my head around I ran into this project, still in it’s infancy, and after getting a few more go-aheads from my department, will hopefully be involved in developing some really awesome stuff.  It’s kinda hard to explain without being too specific but here is why this is so cool.

For quite some time I’ve wanted to be the guy who was the link between the design and the engineering.  I arrive at PUMA, and it turns out that that is exactly what they are in desperate need of.  The technology and design people don’t really know anything about each other or how to integrate their work together into masterful shoes.  The work I expect to begin doing would basically include bridging that gap myself, along with Kate.  Now I’m hoping that the work we do, which is starting as just a sort of side project because we asked, would turn into something so valuable to the company that they decide to make this gap bridger thing a full time gig, and of course that they are so enthralled in my work that they beg me to take the spot.  This would be so terrific, and so awesome, that I suddenly find myself terrified.  I know that if this doesn’t happen that there are certainly other good alternatives, but I don’t know what they are right now so they might as well not exist as far as my excitement and terror are concerned.  This seems like a once in a lifetime chance to make something awesome happen that could have such a lasting impact on the next 50 odd years, and it’s suddenly upon me.  Time to make the most of it.  I don’t want to look back and regret how I blew a marvelous chance.  So here goes, say a prayer for me.  I’m diving in.

Hope that makes sense.

Yes.

That's all for now.

I need to think more about how this affects my life and what my priorities are, but what you just read is the immediate flood of thoughts responding to the issue.  More on this throughout the year.

The Flying Steps

The flying steps.
Break dancing to Classical Music
from Berlin

Small Town, Big Aspirations

So I finally got pictures around where I work.  I needed to visit the bank and so I made a run out of it and took pics along the way.  These first pictures are down Main Street (Hauptstraße) in Herzo which is about a mile and a quarter from where I work.

The above building is the Alte Wache.  We had a PUMA social event there a few days ago.  It is an old house converted into a restaurant.  They have a handful of American burgers on their menu.  Not what I expected going in the door.  Let’s head over to PUMA now.  I hadn’t noticed until I went to take these pictures, but check out the manhole covers!

And the bathroom sinks!  That is PUMA design style right there.  Crisp, bold, classy, no drainage hole in the middle.  I almost feel like I’m washing my hands on a macbook.  Btw, the sinks are in a different room than the toilets, so it’s not entirely weird that I took that picture =P

 The picture above is the PUMA Vision side of the building where we show off our history and cool products inside.  The top level is the cafeteria which spills out onto the roof.  Below is the outlet which is on the right.  Note the solar panels on the roof and PUMA's parking garage just past it, looking out over Herzo.  Both pictures are taken from the window near my desk.

 Below is the parking garage again with some cool advertising.

 And the main entrance is in the middle next to the little PUMA cat.  I work on the top floor of the building on the right.

 And here is the other side of PUMA vision, which is one of the first things you see from the bus on your way into work.

 And this last one combines everything.  I like the place a lot, but then I like RIT's architecture as well so maybe my opinion is null and void.

Got to play soccer last night with a bunch of PUMA guys.  Such a great feeling.  I love soccer and I can't believe I've gone so long not playing it.  One of the things I'm dreading about my senior year at RIT is being too busy to play.  The people I've worked with here do a great job at working hard all day, sometimes long days, but also making sure they have fun and get in their vacation times too.  It can be challenging to work with important people on vacation all the time, but since it goes both ways, I think it's definitely worth it overall.


Lastly, I'm using a dell when working.  I need to get back to a macbook.  I took for granted that you can do things like change the language on a mac.  Not an option on my dell...  If I'm ever there long tern I'll be able to convince them to get me one.  All the designers have them, but the developers usually have dell, just because.  No particular reason.

A Tale of Two Cities

I hope you all watched wishbone growing up. If you didnʼt you really missed out. Well
most of what I knew about Charles Dickensʼ A Tale of Two Cities I knew from Wishbone
and even that I remember very faintly. Their rendition was made all the more confusing
because a key in the book is that there are two men who look almost identical, but in the
Wishbone rendition one role is played by an man, and his doppelganger is played by
Wishbone (a dog), so I didnʼt realize they were supposed to look a like.


I just finished reading the book the first time. Absolutely brilliant. Charles Dickensʼ way
of introducing and developing characters and weaving their lives through each othersʼ is
fascinating. The incredible evil during the French Revolution is so vivid and so near,
both in time and space, just a few generations removed from us, one country away from
me where my cousin is now studying fashion (or actually just finished). Itʼs so hard to
imagine living under such oppression, leading to so much revenge and bloodshed, and
yet on this very planet, just out of earshot from most of us, there are still similar things
going on.


Another theme throughout the book is living a life that was worth it, not wasted,
remembered by posterity, unselfish, quiet heroism. We always feel though like such
acts of courage are of another time because none of my friends are on their way to La
Guillotine, but as noted just a paragraph earlier, Iʼm fairly sure that there are
opportunities in this world for us to risk our lives to make life better for those that are
suffering. It would really be a shame to come to the end of life and realize you had
been pretending that everything was good and just, and that no innocent were dying, or
poor were starving while your eyes were closed to it. In the story is seems so blatant,
as the Marquis de Monseigneur runs over a baby with his carriage and he drops $50 to the parents and
continues on his way to his summer cottage built of the oppression of the town in the
valley below it, whom he has taxed to itʼs starvation. Every luxury he has comes at the
expense of the abused. In our case we have a few layers of middle men to buffer us
from the poor that support our needs, but itʼs there nonetheless, and in our day of world
wide communication at our fingertips, ignorance is not an excuse.


Work hard and be profitable, but not to your own end. Pull those up underneath you
who have allowed you to rise in the first place and have woven your shoelaces by hand.
Sorry for getting all intense. Iʼm really scolding myself first and foremost. Read the
book to yourself, and keep some of those thoughts in mind. Even if it doesnʼt bring you
to the same place, it is at the very least brilliant literature and you wonʼt have lost
anything by reading it.


Iʼm still trying to figure out how this post fits with my post on JOY. I donʼt support living
in wretched misery so that you can save all the worldʼs poor (though I may come to that
conclusion before long, who knows?).


“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” - that would be a good sentence to finish my life with I think.

Joy at PUMA

There has always been something that has struck me as brilliant about PUMA. In a
market dominated by adidas and Nike, PUMA has stayed alive. They do it by staying
ahead. The company was revived in the 90s when they invented the concept of “sports
lifestyle.” The idea of everyday clothing for athletes was PUMAʼs idea and followed
shortly after by giants adidas and Nike. adidas and Nike combine for 60% of the sports
market in comparison to PUMAʼs 6%. PUMA has to be different and ahead to stay
alive. So whatʼs the idea now? Joy.


Joy is one of my favorite things and itʼs a good feeling to work for a company in full
support of it. Sure sports are hard and involve blood, sweat, and tears, but to dwell on
that? Thatʼs just masochistic, we donʼt do sports for the
pain. Sure pain comes along some time and is necessary sometimes, but we do it for
the joy. The feeling of the win, the feeling of speed, the love of competition, the benefits
of a healthy lifestyle, the love of the game, thatʼs what itʼs about! That carries over
outside of sports too as a “sports lifestyle.” Enjoy every moment, love what you do,
laugh!


Take it how you will but we can all use joy in our lives. There are temporary joys
(PUMAʼs focus) and full long-term joy (that comes from Christ). I think healthy doses of
both are... healthy!


At the welcome day we had recently PUMA showed us some really awesome videos
driving this home, but unfortunately I canʼt post them to the internet, but I may show you
some time on my computer =)


Another area where PUMA is leading the way is sustainability. Hereʼs a video about
one of PUMAʼs newer innovations. I present to you, “The Clever Little Bag”: