June 17, 2007
It’s been a strange week.
I’ve learned of several deaths in friends’ and colleagues’ families. Two of my favorite yoga teachers in town are moving to Chicago. My yoga studio ripped out a wall of equipment.
DTE decided to tear up my front garden again, this time to insert plastic pipes, 6 months after tearing up the [...]
May 23, 2007
Stand-up may be the highlight of my workday. There’s something about it–quick status updates, celebrating achievements, sharing milestones, the rhythm of it, team bonding, flagging confusion or misunderstandings, in-jokes (ending of course with “let’s be careful out there”), the ritual…
We briefly tried chat standup, but it was annoying and boring, so we went back to [...]
April 29, 2007
While I’m still playing with the idea of ridding myself of my automobile, more angst is coming from wrestling with whether I need to leave my job, or how I can change it so that I can stay.
It’s funny. I have been reading Go Put Your Strengths to Work, and after the exercises in which [...]
March 27, 2007
I have been meaning to write a blog entry about 12: The Elements of Great Managing since I finished it in December. I have a few excuses, none of them particularly good. Let’s see:
I liked it so much I loaned it to a friend (HSG Consulting’s Principal),
I liked it so well that I actually spoke [...]
March 22, 2007
Here’s my statement of interest for becoming an officer of the local chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association.
I am ready to volunteer as an officer of the Michigan UPA. I have enjoyed the UPA events I have attended over the years - they often provide me some nugget I can go back and apply. And, [...]
February 5, 2007
I finally got to The Art of War. I had been intrigued by this book for a while. Tony Soprano praised it in one of the first seasons of the Sopranos. Someone else recommended it to me as a book for people interested in management.
Maybe I’m just unimaginative, but most of The Art of War really is about war, [...]
January 29, 2007
So, I’ve owned a copy of Michael E. Gerber’s E-Myth Mastery for about a year and a half now. Something about its size (over 400 pages) and the grandiose subtitle “The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company” put me off.
I think the timing was also bad. I purchased it near the end [...]
December 10, 2006
We went to my former employer’s holiday party last night. Even though it has been two years since I worked there, my husband and I still go to catch up with the people and enjoy the celebrations.
My old boss’ wife is a trained opera singer, and each year she brings in live music. She sings [...]
October 3, 2006
From Stephen: another variant on remote standup from 37 signals. Want to try it?
August 25, 2006
I find it astonishing that I am writing this: I have found a project management software that actually saves me time and makes my life easier. It is 37 signals’ basecamp software. Basecamp website
Basecamp was recommended by several folks as I searched around. We were using the established and familiar but otherwise horrifying timeassistant, and [...]
not particularly objective musings on odds and ends - Dunrie Greiling, Ann Arbor, MI 48103