Ok, so yesterday after my great surfing session I had to work. I am attending a conference (Executive Summit they are calling it). This may get a bit winded and boring for some of you out there. Normally at these things they bring in some speakers and sometimes they bring in people who are actually interesting and sometimes they are so boring I'm sure I'm going to startle everyone when my head hits the desk really hard when I fall asleep. When I heard who the speakers were yesterday I thought I was going to be either bored out of my mind or hopping mad, or both.
We are staying a mere 37 miles from one of the largest Marine bases in the country. The organization that puts this on is a Washington, DC based lobbying organization (getting the picture, think conservative, exactly the opposite of me). The 2 keynote speakers are a person named Erik Peterson, a member of a prominent thnk tank. The other person is a retired 4 Star Marine General. So I'm thinking this day is going to be made up of hoo-rah speaches. A complete downer afer my morning surf session with the dolphins. Boy couldn't have been more wrong.
Erik Peterson is scary smart with advanced degrees (real ones) from more places than I have degrees. He did a speach about where the world may be by the year 2025 based on current trends. Here is a link to his presentation Seven Revolutions It was fascination and scary at the same time. It was not the least bit political, just fact based, forward thinking. I won't bore any of you with the details as I'm sure most have stopped reading this dissertation by this point. But if you love things that make you think, go to the site and watch the presentation.
The second speaker (who's talk I almost didn't stay for just becuse of his title) was Retired General Anthony Zinny. I was scared because I grew up near where I am now and knew what some Marines can be like (I apologize to any of you with family or friends who are in the Marines). It seemed to me that anyone who was a career Marine was pretty conservative in their thinking and our political views weren't likely to mesh. I knew right away after he began to speak that he was different. He was smart, witty and thoughful. He said he retired because the only place left for him to go was Washington and he has no desire to join our government. It is too based in tradition, pandering and politicians are too beholden to their donors. He has spent almost 2 decades working in the middle east, learning about the cultures, the people and their beliefs. He was one of the first to speak out about going to war in Iraq (if you google him you will find some NY Times articles from several years back quoting him saying entering Iraq would be a mistake).
Anyway I won't go on. Suffice it to say it was actually fun. Then the day ended with lots of cocktails (some excellent Mojito's for me) and dinner.
Sorry for the long, probably boring blog. I just had to get that out there and encourage some of you to check out the site with the presentation.
We are staying a mere 37 miles from one of the largest Marine bases in the country. The organization that puts this on is a Washington, DC based lobbying organization (getting the picture, think conservative, exactly the opposite of me). The 2 keynote speakers are a person named Erik Peterson, a member of a prominent thnk tank. The other person is a retired 4 Star Marine General. So I'm thinking this day is going to be made up of hoo-rah speaches. A complete downer afer my morning surf session with the dolphins. Boy couldn't have been more wrong.
Erik Peterson is scary smart with advanced degrees (real ones) from more places than I have degrees. He did a speach about where the world may be by the year 2025 based on current trends. Here is a link to his presentation Seven Revolutions It was fascination and scary at the same time. It was not the least bit political, just fact based, forward thinking. I won't bore any of you with the details as I'm sure most have stopped reading this dissertation by this point. But if you love things that make you think, go to the site and watch the presentation.
The second speaker (who's talk I almost didn't stay for just becuse of his title) was Retired General Anthony Zinny. I was scared because I grew up near where I am now and knew what some Marines can be like (I apologize to any of you with family or friends who are in the Marines). It seemed to me that anyone who was a career Marine was pretty conservative in their thinking and our political views weren't likely to mesh. I knew right away after he began to speak that he was different. He was smart, witty and thoughful. He said he retired because the only place left for him to go was Washington and he has no desire to join our government. It is too based in tradition, pandering and politicians are too beholden to their donors. He has spent almost 2 decades working in the middle east, learning about the cultures, the people and their beliefs. He was one of the first to speak out about going to war in Iraq (if you google him you will find some NY Times articles from several years back quoting him saying entering Iraq would be a mistake).
Anyway I won't go on. Suffice it to say it was actually fun. Then the day ended with lots of cocktails (some excellent Mojito's for me) and dinner.
Sorry for the long, probably boring blog. I just had to get that out there and encourage some of you to check out the site with the presentation.
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I just wanna say hi, but sorry I didn't read your journal. It's is hard in English, I'm lazy
I promice tomorrow I will be a good girl!
kisses !