Customer: “Are we going to finish on time?I am not seeing a lot of progress, but I am still paying the same amount every week.” Contractor: “Yes, we will finish on time. You don’t see a lot, but a lot of work is going into creating the base for the rest of work. If we…
Homeless, Broke and Ugly. It’s one of the panhandler’s signs from the popular spot at the intersection of the freeway, police station, cannabis shop two blocks from the place I now call home. One of the daily reminders I am out of the suburban bubble. There is a Starbucks in the building where I live…
Thursday was take your child to work day. While I work from home that day and did not see the display of kids in the office, every day I am privy to people bringing their “inner child” to work, i.e. people who use childlike logic to explain what something didn’t get done, to rationalized what…
This week, I got nothing. Nothing is ready for posting. Sure, I have three partial posts with great themes, a day of hooky, discussion versus decision and the feeling of joy when you find out, it’s not just you. So what? Nothing is ready for this week’s post. The last couple of weeks at work, I’ve maniacally researched, questioned and shown a new program is not ready for release. The implementation team discounted my findings.
“This development is agile and this release is a minimum viable product, like a cake with no icing. The icing comes later”
“But your cake is not baked; you have nothing to serve.”
Me, “Wait, you were pumping gas at 5:30 am and someone opened the door and stole your iPad off the passenger seat?” James, “Yes, and I’m in small remote town. David, “The security cameras that caught it, right? The police can see who did it.” James, “Not really, the image on the camera wasn’t good.…
Leaving to spend time with family and hospitalized for exhaustion. Recognize these as code speak? In the business world, an executive is “fired” but the reason is given as spend time with family. A celebrity parties to hard or has a drug overdose the reason is the half truth of hospitalized for exhaustion. This is…
There is that moment when I am barely awake and I want to stay in curled up in bed, but I need to go the bathroom. Need wins and I get up immediately. Today, the need is losing. I want to relax. I want to do nothing all day and sit on the balcony and watch the sunset. However,…
Crazy Time. Oh yes, you’ve been in it. A meeting goes on to long and people start talking crazy. Unfortunately, crazy talk has gotten confused with “innovative ideas” and “out of the box” thinking. If you watch small kids, when they get tired, but fear they may miss something, they do everything they can to…
The first beep made me laugh. The second beep, well. really? Someone blew his/her horn at me twice, apparently with the goal of hurrying me along so he/she could park in a space occupied by me and my car. Friday, I had fifteen minutes before I needed to leave for my next appointment, Perfect, I…
I hate “planning.” which is ironic since people who know me would raise an eyebrow and tell you I would plan my dreams if I could. I hate planning, but, I know it is necessary to get good results. I had an all day meeting this week and we spent a good two hours talking to…
There is a hidden camera. I need a new washer and dryer for the condo, there are three brands I will buy, yet, the salesman insists on the one brand I said I don’t want. This must be a hidden camera joke. Me: That is the brand I am replacing; I don’t want it. Salesman:…
I am sick and it’s from stress. There I said it and I meant it. When there are things I am slow to admit, I have to ask why. This discussion reminds me I am not imbued with super powers and an admission while maybe a little embarrassing is usually more helpful than harmful. Admitting, I am…
There are 6 people, one is playing a game on an iPad, another is answering email, two are having a conversation and in hushed tones, two are listening to one person speak. This isn’t a group of random people at Starbucks at any given time of day, these are coworkers in a meeting. Thus was…
I began the move into my new condo. The previous owners had their cleaners clean. I hired cleaners to clean and yet I still spent two hours removing a film a grease and a quarter inch layer thick of grim and dust off the kitchen stove. That was just wrong. But it was also, subjective.…
I have an address after 7 weeks of hotel living, I have the keys to the new place. Does it feel like home? NO, but I have felt “at home” this week. The laughter during and camaraderie at dinner with a couple of colleagues from Europe felt like home. Spending time with an old friend …
Ouch. This week, I will travel to a conference for two days of design and development, move to a new city into a new house, and find a new job or make significant inroads on the job search. A few people have observed, I have a sense of calm and centeredness and to my surprise,…
Sunday morning and ‘m in a hotel lobby trying to write but really stressing out about all the things I have to do in the next 10 days, like move and find a job. The universe is supporting me in this. I look out the window, I have a view of Mount Diablo Yes, I…
“Life is too short,” is an over used, misguided cliché of fill in the blank babble. At least from an analytical view. The average lifespan for American men is about 76 years and for American women it’s around 81 years. Not that short. You don’t know when you will die, you don’t know the day,…
Sheila, your year-end write-up doesn’t look like you did anything last year. I sent you an example of what to include but all you wrote was the area and the results, you didn’t include what you had to do get there. <FLASH> Yes, she was right. I didn’t want to seem like I was whining…
As 2017 begins, I question the word “worst.” Politically speaking, some say President Obama was the worst thing to have happened to the US, while others say president-elect Trump is the worst event in the history of the nation. The US is still a young country at 240 years old, still, to say something is the worst is to …
I have blogged weekly for 30 months and have published 139 posts. But this year has been different. A seemingly subtle shift happened 10 months ago, with my post about Apple versus the FBI. For 20 months, I’d pretty much avoided social commentary but there were all these thoughts demanding a voice. After that post,…
If you’d told me in 2001, when I moved into my house, people would recognize my kitchen and me from photographs, I’d not be able to imagine in what sort of world this would be possible. Yet, this year, I had 4 instances of people recognizing me from Instagram. Me and my kitchen yoga. I’m selling…
Move is to displace a thing from one place to another. That simplified meaning mocks me. Were it that simple, I’d be packed and done in 2 days,* Fueled with Dr Pepper and Lay’s sour cream and onion chips (family sized bag) I can power through mechanical tasks like painting a room, cleaning a house or raking leaves. The word…
Arghh. I have a huge project at work to finish in two weeks, I am selling a house and I’m trying to buy a house. Every time I open my mouth, there is this competition of all the things in my head trying to escape. My eyes are darting about and my conversation is punctuated with…
It’s the end of the year when I start to clear out stuff. In the past, I went room to room. This year, I’m using a new strategy, purge first. I mean a serious purge of gathering all like items in one place and starting to toss stuff out. When I finally got all my books…
Who you are in good times is what you want to be. What you do in challenging times is your nature. How you treat people in victory or defeat is your character. It’s easy to be your best self when things are good. Challenges fray nerves, shake beliefs and reveal truths. Is graciousness and compassion something you aspire to in either…
It was a spirited discussion of Trump versus Clinton with supporters on both sides. There was a moment when I just listened, observed and smiled; it was the coolest thing. This wasn’t some news program, debate or viral meme. This was dinner with a diverse group of friends having honest discussion. This was a group…
We can’t stop time, we can’t freeze the action or pause life. We can be still for just a moment. In all the craziness of opinions, information and general noise right now, I choose to calm down, sit still and be quiet. In this calmness, I can take inventory of what’s working and what’s not, what…
Lurking in the shadows of the sustainable energy efficient lightening of corporate offices are vampires. I am not kidding. This is not a Halloween fluff piece. This is the alarming truth about an epidemic in the workplace. The savvy office worker knows it is essential to show value, be it sales, numbers, creativity, etc. Then,…
The mind is the future, the body is the past and the breath is the present. This was a stressful week. Years ago when people would tell me to calm down and take a deep breath. What I called a deep breath, was actually a humph of indignation. Don’t tell me to calm down and…
Some years back, I was groped by an executive at a work event while my male peers looked on. It was disturbing, not only due to what was happening, but because my co-workers looked on and did nothing. This was a group of men I’d worked with everyday work with every day for three years. No…
I had a gourmet breakfast today. In terms of today’s food trends it was the butter crunch bowl, crisp cereal and organic milk with just a hint of caramel and sea salt. Yes, that’s one way I could rationalized the fact I just ate a bowl of sea salt caramel gelato with butter crisp cookies…
I’ve already hosed down, scrubbed and applied a coat of protectant and shine to the garbage bins (Amor All makes them look really good.) I’ve arranged the contents of the refrigerator to reflect a sense of whimsy should someone open it. I’ve used a toothpick to dislodge any debris from the corners of the windows.…
One of the cool things about good mirrors, they reflect what’s there. There is no opinion, nothing that tries to make you feel good or bad, they just reflect. The mirror does not say, oh those pants make you look fat, that shirt is to tight or that color is wrong for you. The mirror…
Executive: Look at these numbers, they have given up.They aren’t trying. Business Development Manager: Yup. I see the same thing when I coach. There is a bad play and you can physically see the whole team has give up. You see it in their body language Hearing this conversation this week made me think about resignation and…
Me: “Sorry, I cannot go, I have to write.” Them: “Why, it’s not like you’re getting paid?” It’s not an excuse to get out of doing things, it is my commitment. During the two years of my blog launch, I’ve posted weekly and I am not getting paid. But should “getting paid” be a measure of what…
How do you reset yourself? You know, sometimes your phone goes wonky and you just need to shut it off and turn it on again. You restart your computer when it goes slow and starts to flicker. So, how do you reset? What do you do when life seems wonky and you just can’t seem…
I have had it. I saw a t shirt that said, “keep clam, it’s all about me.” People say, mostly in jest, well, it is all about me. STOP. Let’s just stop it. Time for a moratorium on it’s all about me. It’s not cute and it’s not all about you. How many times have…
I know I’m right, but I must not engage and tell someone else they are wrong. No good can come of this, but it is taking everything in me to avoid a verbal smack down on Instagram. I did a post this week for a yoga challenge and someone commented I did the wrong pose.…
Teacher/Me: Your audience has to care about your topic. Look at them, ask them do they want to hear you speak about why the Cavaliers beat the Warriors. Student: But I’ve got facts and points in the game I can describe that show the Cavaliers are a superior team. Teacher/Me: Look at the 15 people in…
Ugh, I hate trying to put in codes for gated communities. It’s stressful, I feel like people are watching me as I fumble to lower my window, read the instructions and fumble with my phone to read the code. As I’m doing my routine, a residence pulls up to the gate and it opens. I…
I heard a pedestrian shout, “Hey, what are you doing?” I was so focused on listening to my driving directions after paying the parking lot attendant and fumbling for the button to raise my window I did not see the guy on the sidewalk I was about to hit. I yelled back, “Oh no, I’m…
I got nothing for my blog post this week. I drafted three different topics and nothing is fully thought out. With that, I realized, there are times to remain silent. We’ve all experienced at work or in everyday life when someone is talking and you realize, they have no idea what they are talking about. Worse…
Teen Kills Younger Brother Because He Thought He Deleted His Pokémon. This is a hoax. The phenomenon of Pokémon Go this week has unleashed a multitude of stories, many with no foundation in reality. Recent examples of non-factual facts are a hoax and a meme. Posting a legal notice on your Facebook wall will protect…
“Those shootings had nothing to do with racial profiling me were justified .” “Yes, but you know how they always get upset. “ “There is no more racism, Black Lives Matter is bull. That was part of a conversation I heard in Starbucks early Friday morning spoken so loudly, I could not help but think, are…
Don’t fear failure. Fear being in the exact same place next year as you are today. My plans for this fourth of July? I plan to stare at the sky and daydream. I’ll think about how I have been spending my time; what I have done and what I want to do next. Then comes…
If one more person tells me drinking hot drinks will give me esophageal cancer, according to the latest study, well, I’ll probably nod and smile politely like I have been doing all week. I order my drinks extra hot – 180 degrees BECAUSE, when the chai syrup is added the temperature drops 20 degrees and…
Val: “I don’t know, is it ok to wear a little makeup to work out?” Me: “Of course, it is just putting our best selves forward.” Val: Yes, but is it being authentic or is it being fake? Am I being my natural self?” Me: “Oh please, my “natural self” has flatulence but that doesn’t…
“I’m different. Always have been. It took a while but I have accepted I am a magic not meant for everyone to understand, so they question. That’s ok. I will stay in my lane being all magical and stuff.” 1 I’ve got lots of different. One is this blog. My posts are about the adventures…
I got sick this week. I was on a business trip and early afternoon of day one, I started to feel unwell. Strange. I don’t get sick. I was a little dizzy and a little nauseous. I attributed it jet lag and dehydration, and drank water. Three hours later, still dizzy and nauseous. I am perplexed. I don’t…
