I Forgot to Blog About Nightscape
I owe a Nightscape blog. I forgot that I haven't blogged about that yet. I'm about to head to sleep... Soo for now... Here's the Nightscape teaser video...
An Open Letter To The Girl I Will One Day Marry
You're gonna hate me. It's true. You're really going to hate me. Because I'm going to love you like crazy.
I'm going to tell you every single day multiple times a day that I love you.
I'm going to always try to sneak little kisses.
I'm going to buy you flowers... ALL the time. Your favorite ones.
I'm going to be super cheesy when it comes to anniversaries and things like that.
I'm going to take notes of EVERY single little thing that makes you happy and then on your birthday from day break to the time you fall asleep you'll get every one of those things you love.
I'm going to plan over the top romantic dinners.
I'm going to learn all your favorite songs on guitar and sing them to you.
I'm going to let you choose the movies we watch, and the TV shows we watch.
I'm going to remind you every day why you're with me and not with any other guy.
I'm going to make you feel like the luckiest girl on the planet, because I'll be the luckiest guy to have you.
I'll make you my number one priority.
I'll always be there for you when you need me. No matter what is going on, you just call on me.
I'll make you laugh. Constantly think of ways to make you laugh and smile.
I'll leave you cute little comments on all your social media sites.
I'll just constantly tell you how beautiful you are. Because you are. You're the most beautiful girl in the world. I know that for a fact and I haven't even met you yet.
I'll be supportive of you. No matter what you decide to do in life, or what turns come our way in the road once we're together... I'll be 100 percent right by your side. No matter what life throws our way.
I'll let you steal the covers. Even on those cold winter nights. I'll be completely fine freezing my butt off in the middle of the night as long as I know that you're warm and cozy.
I'll remember your favorite food, and surprise you with a candlelit dinner.
I'll go out of my way to drive all over town to get that last minute thing that you need that you forgot to get.
I'll remember every detail of the day we first met and constantly remind you how that, and every day after have been the best days of my life.
My number one goal in life will be to make you super SUPER happy.
That's all I could think of right now... but I'll be sure to make a longer list in time for when I eventually meet you. I can't wait to one day meet you. I just know you're out there and that we just haven't crossed paths yet. But I know that one day... we'll collide with one another...
And then we'll suddenly find ourselves intertwined and inseparable. And we'll be driving down the road listening to cute love songs together in the car. And we'll hate every moment that we aren't near one another.
To the girl that I will one day marry... I can't wait to meet you.
Ok, so this isn't the most romantic of songs... But, I just really love this song at the moment, and I don't know what your favorite song is yet anyways... since I haven't met you yet...
But here's to you mystery girl!
Because as Jason Derulo says... Girl you're the one I want to want me... and if you want... girl you got me.
There's nothing I wouldn't do to get up next to you (see the above list).
Also, just the thought of you gets me so high. See you in the future... I'll just be here waiting patiently for us to walk into one another's lives.
Event Photo
I think it would be cool to have a website where... everyone that takes a photo at a specific event can tag or upload their photos so that everyone else can share in that photo. What I mean is...
When you go to an event, like for example we just had the pope in Philly, or I was just at Celtic Fest, or there was that spectacular blood moon thing.
I've noticed that we're starting to share these greater experiences as one. We're all watching each other post things online of all the same things...
But it's all scattered across various social media sites. There's no order to the chaos. There's photos here and there. And they aren't properly synced up. Or indexed.
If I wanted to, say, show me all photos of the blood moon taken in Philly. Or all Pope pix... It would be a pain to search and find that.
Or show me all photos of a concert I went to, because I want to see if someone else got a better shot of my favorite artist on stage. Or that one moment when that artist invited a special guest up on stage and I happened to be in the bathroom when that occurred, and my friend's phone broke. And I got someone's cell number to swap photos but the number was transfixed and some old grumpy guy named Herman picks up.
But what if there were an event site where you could upload or tag all the photos that you take for others to enjoy. What if you took the same photo as someone else, but yours was better. Or maybe theirs was!
Now you both have the best photo of the two. And maybe now you two can be friends too!
Maybe you get to vote on the best photos.
Let's say there's a fireworks display and a thousand people all went to watch and take photos. You all upload your photos to the site... Let's say out of the 10 photos that EACH person took, or the 10 thousand total photos, there were 100 that were AMAZING.
Now every single one of those thousand people have those 100 amazing photos from that experience to share together.
Event photo... dot com... or something.
Maybe I'll work on a business model. I'm not sure if it would take existing sites and pull photos into it, or if people would need to upload photos to this site in addition to the other places they post to: Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr...
Maybe I'll call this site Eventr... seems to be a theme.
Or maybe I'll reverse it and call it REvent. Because you're reliving an event.
REvent, sounds cool. reVENT... no... that just sounds like a site to vent to strangers all day long. Although that might be a good site too. We just post complaints to random strangers and we all just reply to each other and vent to each other anonymously.
Hmm...
Actually that's not bad either. Wow. I'm just full of ideas, I am.
Well there you have it. So the next time you're venting about how you wish you had a better photo of an event you were at over the weekend...
There's REvent and reVENT.
Actually, I just went to google the word "Photo" to add a stock image to this blog, and I misspelled it as phtoo and then it wanted me to put in .com. Phtoo.com seems to be available to purchase, sort of... "phtoo.com expired on 09/18/2015 and is pending renewal or deletion". Maybe I'll call it that? Phtoo, pronounced: Fii-Too.
Celtic Classic
Yesterday I went up to the Celtic Classic Festival up in Bethlehem.
I really liked it. I'd never been to this specific festival previously even though it's been a thing now for quite some time. Actually, they apparently are big on festivals up there in the little town o' Bethlehem. There's an Oktoberfest coming up next month. I may or may not attend. We'll see what my prior plans are and how the weather is. The way up there started out not so great... As I was driving north on 476 I rounded a bend and noticed a bit of smoke in the air. It wasn't smoke, but dirt from the embankment. Then I saw a couple of cars already pulled off to the side. Then I saw an SUV turned around 180 degrees in the left lane in very bad shape. Pieces of the car were strewn about the road. The couple in the car had already started to try and climb out of the car, stunned, in disbelief.
I parked my car and threw on the flashers. Then got out and ran towards them pulling out my phone to call 911. My instinct was to make the victims of the crash the number one priority and make their safety and well being of utmost importance. I asked if anyone had called yet and one person waved and pointed to their ear, they were on the phone currently. A couple cars came up behind us and we waved them to slow down/stop pointing to the accident. We then ran towards the couple that were making their way to the side of the road with the help of someone who had reached them first. Another person brought over a bottle of water. I didn't agree with this, if the person needed emergency surgery, having ANYTHING in their stomach can make things worse. I didn't fight it. Water would be absorbed in the stomach fairly quickly and she only took a few sips anyway. But if you are helping an accident victim don't give them any food or drink until a medical professional OKs it. It may seem mean, but if they have to go straight to surgery, having any food or drink contents in the stomach is bad. Especially don't give them any kind of pills. Just wait for the EMTs to arrive.
We inquired if anyone had any sort of medical training... no one seemed to directly but a few of us knew people that did. The husband was walking around but had a pretty bad gash on his lip from the airbag deployment, I presumed. The wife had pain in her hip. I mentioned that it's best for both of them to sit tight (I didn't mention, as not to worry them, that they could have had injuries that they aren't aware of yet and any sort of further movement could make it worse). Shock can block pain, or inflammation from damaged tissue doesn't always happen upon the initial impact of the injury. It's always best to just stay still and calm and wait until medical professionals arrive, unless there's an immediate or greater threat such as the car possibly catching fire or exploding.
It didn't appear that this was the case. In most accidents moving the victim isn't advised.
Here's a great 10 things to do if you witness an accent: http://jalopnik.com/ten-things-to-do-when-you-see-a-car-crash-506699111
I feel like our little makeshift accident team of a dozen or so people really did most of these. I can't speak for the others but I definitely had a beer when I got to Celtic Fest. Someone ran back to their truck and brought some tools to disconnect the car battery as a precaution. A few of us stayed with the victims to comfort them and assure them everything would be ok. Some people started to clear the debris from the roadway to open up one lane in order for the traffic to start moving the distance sirens of the emergency vehicles to get through. We also helped piece together some witness information for when the police arrived. A green 4 door sedan, that had passed several of us driving very fast, ended up cutting off the SUV causing it to lose control. The car didn't stop. At least as far as we could tell on the scene it had left. We found the car upon leaving the accident a half mile up the road pulled over on the shoulder. The driver wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but a few people were waiting with that driver until police could arrive.
I decided to continue on to Celtic Fest since I wasn't of any additional help. Sometimes the best help you can be is just to keep clear if you can't be of any further help. A lot of accidents have actually been made worse due to onlookers hindering the ability of the emergency workers to do their jobs effectively. If it looks like the situation is already under control and you can't be of any help... Back away and leave the situation. Everyone is curious when an accident happens... but sometimes it's best to just go about your way and let people assigned to that task do their job effectively.
I arrived at the parking garage and paid my 10 bucks all day parking fee. The first thing I did was grab that beer. And relax. I met up with a friend of mine and was introduced to more people. We walked around as a small group finding the highland games. I sipped on my beer and watched as very muscular men tossed large logs attempting to get these 200 pound telephone pole objects to topple one end over another. A few were successful. Most were not. There was a lot of 'oohing and aahhhing'.
After this interesting display of might we decided to walk onwards to browse the various wares that the vendors had for sale in tents surrounding the field games. While they had all kinds of crazy things for sale, kilts and swords and funky hats...This was my favorite item...
Oh I get it. On the rocks... Because it's a rock but it dispenses whisky that can be served on the rocks. #CelticThings #CelticFestival #Bethlehem A photo posted by Kenny (@kennywest82) on
I just liked the pun. Rocks, on the rocks. Some of these items though, I have to wonder how many houses have attics/garages/basements filled with stuff bought at these kinds of events that never get used.
I finished my beer and the group headed up the hill away from all the tents and the highland games field place to the main street. Now, if I backup a moment, I have to explain that in order to buy beer or food, you have to buy tickets.
I bought 20 dollars in tickets thinking that other people in the group might want a beer, or that we'd be there for a while. After about 45 minutes everyone was ready to head back up the hill. It wasn't long before there was talk of turning it in. A little over an hour into the day and it was about to be me, myself and I. That was about when I finished my beer. Now the problem was that the tents up the hill only took cash. So if you wanted to use your tickets, you had to trek all the way back across a river, around some bends, under and over a troll bridge...
And all this in some pretty packed crowds. I made an executive decision to brave the wild packs of screaming babies in strollers and kids on parents' backs to use my remaining tickets. I stood in line for a beer. This took me from 15 tickets to 10. Awesome, now all I had to do was use my remaining 10 tickets on a food item. Then I'd run back up the hill to join my friends until they decided to leave for the day.
I surveyed the plethora of plain text signs stating what meals they served at which station. There, in the distance, a turkey leg, on a stick. Suddenly a man with a baby strapped to his back passed by me devouring one of these seven wonders of the world monstrosities. It was bigger than his head and the kid's head combined! I received text from my friend that they were waiting for my return... Like Bilbo Baggins returning from his ring quest... kind of... not really. You get the idea.
I made another executive decision and got in line. I waited... and waited. Finally when I reached the turkey leg station they stated they were out. What now... I failed to use my tickets exactly. I failed at my quest! Nooooooo.
The festival had won.
Then, I saw a small sign stating that bottled water was 3 tickets. Wait, I thought, I need water! I'm on my second beer already and drinking water is always a responsible course of actions when consuming alcoholic beverages. I then asked what they had for 7 tickets. The girl, that obviously did not want to be there another moment replied in an unenthusiastic voice they had a lamb burger with or without sautéed onions for 7 tickets. I ordered it without onions to avoid a small onion on my shirt catastrophe that was bound to occur when attempting to juggle a bottle of water, a beer, and a lamb burger...
The lady behind me in line stepped in, she wouldn't allow me to disgrace a lamb burger in such way.
"You have to get onions! Have you ever had a lamb burger?"
"No... I can't say I have."
"Get the onions. I'm not letting you order it without them." She signaled the girl behind the table under the tent and explained that I had no idea what I was talking about by ordering without onions.
The catastrophe waiting to happen arrived dripping slightly, and wrapped in aluminum foil. The unenthused teenage girl forced to wait on demanding Celtic Fest goers for minimum wage tossed the bottle of water in my direction as well.
Somehow I returned from my quest without my shirt succumbing to dripping sautéed onion syndrome.
Some of the friends of my friend had already left as they needed to tend to a dog, or something like that. So it was just my friend and I. We walked up the street when she said that she needed to get going as well. Since I'd just had a beer I needed to walk around for a while before driving. I found another place that supplied water, this time for cash. I also found a place that sold ice cream. Yum. It was the Penn State Creamery place... I'd never had Penn State ice cream before. It was quite delicious if I do say so myself! I walked up and down the main street waiting for the buzz to wear off. I found an interesting sign outside of a bar...
I decided to have some coffee after watching a celtic band play. I also decided that I'd experienced enough of this Celtic/Bethlehem event for one afternoon/evening. Finally I made my way home. Instead of taking the Turnpike, I opted to take 309. I stopped halfway for a bathroom break at Wawa.
Well, that concludes my Celtic Fest experience. Tonight I'm hanging out at Bahama Breeze having a margarita and mojito... I just devoured a delicious mahi and shrimp rice bowl something or other. I'm about to head over to watch a movie... Since I'm playing it by ear it looks like the movie that I'll be seeing will be...
Drumroll please...
Hotel Transylvania 2. I saw the first one a few years ago on a second OKCupid date... I thought it was a really funny/cute movie... So I'm excited to see the second one. Margarita and movie date for one? Check.
Missed Marketing Opportunity
This is my editorial blog post of sorts. I'm commenting/weighing in on that emissions issue with VW that I had a thought about.
As everyone knows there's this whole scandalous debacle thing going on with Volkswagen. Here's a related article:
Volkswagen models sale halted in Switzerland (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34365794)
As a business, this isn't the kind of news you want going around about your company. It's like walking into a party and the first thing everyone gossips about is how you cheated on your tests in school. Who's going to want to come up to you and be your friend? Probably only the other people that also cheated. Ok, maybe not, and maybe that's not a great comparison... But... Do you want to be known for cheating? No matter what the situation is? Unless it's like helping some hiker cheat death in a special mountain pass rescue operation and you scaled some mountain side in a snow storm with ice picks and your barehands to bring a lost and cold and confused hiker that had run out of supplies back to basecamp...
In that case every single person would be hanging on your every word!
I feel like there's a pun in there somewhere. Well, anyways...
I follow lots of business news because I'm full on invested in lots of different companies. While, I don't own any shares in VW, one of the world's largest car manufactures...
According to this article here they are number 2: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andreamurphy/2015/05/06/2015-global-2000-the-worlds-biggest-auto-companies/
I have owned shares in the past in other companies. I also own shares in a paint/chemical company that makes the paints used in some aspects of building new cars. As well I have shares in a car auction company. So I follow a good amount news related to the automotive industry.
Recalling memories of my basic business classes back in college, there's a general concept of a SWOT analysis.
Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis
If I were to do this analysis on Volkswagen, I'd file the current emissions issue under both a weakness and a threat.
While the origin of the issue is really an internal problem, and it's a weakness... I'd say it presents a threat externally because other car companies would potentially benefit from grabbing the number 2 spot from this competitor. After all, when you're at top of your game in any industry, there's only one way down that mountainside. And the fall can be a rough one.
One competitor trying to climb to the top that could potentially benefit from the bad news currently making headlines worldwide is Telsa Motors...
Maybe I just haven't seen anything yet. Maybe they are using this as a marketing opportunity. Or maybe they just decided that they don't need the PR...
But, I think that they should be running an ad campaign currently to the tune of...
"Emissions? What emissions?" Tesla Motors Premium Electric Vehicles. We don't bother to test emissions because... There are none to test.
How powerful is that? I just kind of pulled that out of the air, so I'm sure a team of marketing PR professionals around a table could think of something better.
Obviously that statement could actually not be true depending on the power source used to recharge the vehicle. If coal is being used to generate the electricity, it gets complicated. As well there are various other environmental factors to consider in the manufacturing of the vehicle itself.
But the main issue we're dealing with are emissions coming from the tailpipe. Since Tesla vehicles don't have tailpipes, I think they could run an effective marketing campaign that they would be able to file under external opportunities in a SWOT analysis.
Tesla has everything to gain and Volkswagen has everything to lose on this. It will be interesting to see what effect this might have. Nissan makes the Leaf so they could also take advantage of this. Or, if VW is smart, maybe they could introduce an electric, or hybrid vehicle themselves. Or possibly use this as an a reason to boost their strengths in the SWOT analysis as a company and do an internal review to fix their weaknesses. Why did this even happen in the first place?
One could perhaps consider this a very large catastrophic failure in quality control... Swiss Cheese Model anyone? I imagine lots of things went wrong in a row to upset the swiss so much that they have halted sales.
Even the cheese models in Switzerland aren't happy about the cheating! From the linked news article at the top of this blog post:
"Switzerland has temporarily banned the sale of Volkswagen (VW) diesel-engine models which could have devices capable of tricking emission tests.
It said the move could affect 180,000 cars - not yet sold or registered - in the Euro5 emission category."
Depending on how VW customers react to their beloved car maker, it might be time to call in the mountain rescue team for Volkswagen. Tesla to the rescue-la!
Missed marketing opportunity part two:
My other random thought is that PayPal should be sponsoring Papal mass here in Philly. I mean... That would just stick in everyone's mind. Every time someone mentions the word papal, I just keep thinking... PayPal. Ohhhhh you mean the PayPal mass? No. Oh. Wait... Are you sure? Yes. It's papal. Hmmm, well ok.
"Papal mass, brought to you by PayPal! The papal mass won't take 3 to 5 business days to be completed, why should your online payments? PayPal! Because this papal mass will be completed before you know it, and if you had used PayPal, so will your online payments."
Cut to a shot of the Pope using the PayPal website. Or app on his phone. Then he smiles and gives a thumbs up. PopePal!
The Pope uses PopePal for his online payments... For everyone else, there's PayPal!
Again, I just took that randomly off the top of my mind. But I think it's kind of catchy. I should get into marketing!
Speaking of which I think I have money in my PayPal account actually. I forgot all about that!
Wow. I just checked and I do have money in my PayPal account. This is like when you find five bucks in the pocket of your jeans that you just sent through the laundry and somehow the bill survived miraculously unscathed. Sweet.
Toasted Graham Latte
Starbucks has this new toasted graham latte thing to compliment their pumpkin spice one. Now, I've actually never had the pumpkin spice one. I plan to try that out. But I also wanted to try this one out. I haven't actually tried it out yet so I can't weigh in my own opinion here. I'll keep everyone posted with a "part two" blog of both lattes when I give them a whirl.
For now I Googled up all about it to see what other people thought...
So this reviewer thinks it's pretty delightful: http://greatideas.people.com/2015/09/23/starbucks-toasted-graham-latte-pumpkin-spice/
"Overall, a solid ‘A’, though we wouldn’t mind a dollop of marshmallow creme to make it full-on s’mores-flavored."
This reviewer though? Not so much: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/sep/24/starbucks-toasted-graham-latte-review
"Here is my report: it’s disgusting."
I guess beauty, or deliciousness, is in the eye of the beholder. I'm not going to let either one sway me. I'll give it a shot myself. I think that things like drink or food tastes can be quite subjective. What one person absolutely loves... someone else loathes. That's what makes the world go round.
I think that's why it's best to try lots of things. You never know what might strike your fancy! Might find something you totally dig that is completely out of the realm of your normal interests.
Maybe I'll like the pumpkin but not the graham, or maybe the opposite, or maybe I won't like either, or maybe I'll like both.
One thing I know for sure, I certainly can't wait to try them out!
Happy Fall!
Well, it's the Autumnal Equinox, so it's officially fall. That means cooler nights and days ahead. I'm already had my fair share of pumpkin and Oktoberfest beers. The leaves will soon change their various shades of orange and yellow and red. It's a good time of the year.
I always think of Fall as a night of drinking. Coming out of winter is like the hang over from the previous night. You're thinking never again. Screw cold weather forever. Bring on the sun and heat! But then by the end of summer... it's like hey. Ohh, this colder weather isn't too bad. Oh yeah I kind of enjoy this. As the night progresses and the alcohol increases you start to really feel nice good. As fall progresses it starts to feel nifty and fun. Seeing your breath for the first time is equal to a good little buzz happening. But then... we hit the real frost and chill of winter...
The spins. That's damn spins. I had too much. Crap. Give me water and food. Uh oh. It's too late. And then hangover. The Winter hangover. Snow. And cold.
But then Spring comes again and we start to feel pretty decent again. As the temps warm up the cycle begins again. And after another hot summer, we're ready for that night of drinking again. Slow sips at first... and soon we're in another drunken Autumn buzz.
Right now as far as Fall goes, I've just taken my first few sips of my first drink of the night. I'm anticipating the very first bits of that Autumn buzz.
Bring on the hay rides and pumpkins and Fall leaves and Halloween decorations and Oktoberfest beers!
It's a good time to curl up and read new and interesting things over a cozy cup of pumpkin spice something or other...
Speaking of reading, one of the things I kind of want to check out is from the post I talked about yesterday on management things. At the end of the presentation the speaker, Melissa, listed some references to check out.
One of them sounded super interesting... The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
http://www.tablegroup.com/books/dysfunctions
According to the website, the five dysfunctions are as follows:
Dysfunction #1: Absence of Trust
The fear of being vulnerable with team members prevents the building of trust within the team.
Dysfunction #2: Fear of Conflict
The desire to preserve artificial harmony stifles the occurrence of productive ideological conflict.
Dysfunction #3: Lack of Commitment
The lack of clarity or buy-in prevents team members from making decisions they will stick to.
Dysfunction #4: Avoidance of Accountability
The need to avoid interpersonal discomfort prevents team members from holding one another accountable.
Dysfunction #5: Inattention to Results
The pursuit of individual goals and personal status erodes the focus on collective success.
I'm going to see if they have the book in the library at work and check it out. It'll probably be a good coffeeshop type read. If they don't have it I'll just probably end up purchasing it.
I really love link learning. That's probably not a real term (or it's called something else) but it's where you learn about one thing from something else. So, from consuming one piece of information you find something new and interesting out of that. And then if the chain continues it becomes almost like an adventure or a story. As though it's leading somewhere to the Holy Grail of information that will be super crucial to you at some point in your life. You'll be sitting in that meeting, or in that one situations and a light bulb will go off and you'll be like... I READ about this!!!
That's the best. I've had that happen on several occasions.
I like when that happens with meeting new people too. Meeting one person from someone else that you met from some other person that you totally met by accident. Keeps life fun and interesting.
Happy Autumn and happy reading.
Melissa Greene – Climbing the Totem Pole – from Dev to Dev Manager
So I am just about nearing the end of listening to this presentation....
http://www.infoq.com/presentations/dev-manager
Melissa has a LOT of interesting things to say about management. Though I'm not technically in management myself, I do mange student workers from time to time at my job. But even if you aren't in a management position at your work place there is SOOOO much great stuff in this presentation.
I downloaded the MP3 to listen to while driving/when I was on a run instead of watching the presentation.
I think one of my favorite little tidbits of information that she mentioned was about how if you aren't learning, it's time to move to something new. You should always be learning. The day you stop learning where you are or at your job or in your position.... That's how you know it's time to take the next step.
You should always be learning new things.
I agree. I think that just doing the same stuff over and over again can really make it so that you kind of get bored with work and then you become underproductive. You aren't engaged. Or the people that you manage aren't engaged.
She actually talks about how workers that aren't engaged or managed properly can be something like 50 percent less productive than workers that are managed right. I was driving at that time when she said that, so don't quote me exactly on that.
There was another bit where she discussed the phrase "It's not personal, it's just business." She counters that saying that work IS personal. That people, a lot of people, take pride in their jobs and it is very personal because they are very passionate about what they do. That people are people and they have emotions. So we have to take into account the emotion and human aspect and not just making decisions based on stats or bottom or top lines.
I think, though, my absolute favorite bit was where she mentioned that if her team was going to be working on a project until 2am in the morning to reach a deadline...
She would be RIGHT there with them. I agree. I think that just makes sense. You can't tell someone to go do something and then go home and kick your feet up. The best leaders in my personal opinion are right there with the people they are meant to be in charge of.
I remember when I was a counselor at camp... The worst counselors would just tell the kids something, and then go read a magazine with headphones on. Do you think any of the kids listened? No. Not one bit. If you instruct kids in your cabin as a summer camp counselor to clean the cabin.... You better be right there with them, a broom or dustpan in hand.
I think she's spot on. I think being there with anyone you are leading isn't a nicety, nor is it just an option. It's a requirement. And shouldn't even be something to think twice about.
I just really liked this talk a lot.
I'm going to give this talk a second listen to see if I can glean any additional information that I might have missed from the first listen. Now, this talk mostly has to do with development, as in coding... but I think it could apply to lots of other roles in any company.
It's worth downloading the slides too. I looked over the PDF and found a lot of very relevant things to my own workplace.
So definitely if you are into anything related to workplace management practices or just learning a little more about how to better yourself in your job check this out for sure!
I will say that this has kind of sparked my interest in what it would be like to lead/manage/motivate people. I've often wondered about leadership type of roles, and how that would fit for me. I'm more of the kind of person that will quietly work on a project on my own... But it would definitely be interesting to be in a leadership position and motivate people to work on projects.
Well here's, to always learning in whatever it is that you do for your job.
Song Obsession of the Week: “On My Mind”
This song. Is like... My obsession of the week. I don't normally curse... but HOLY EFFIN' CRAP. THIS EFFIN' SONG! SO EFFIN' GOOD.
Sorry. I'm sorry for the profanity.
But goodness. This song has been on repeat. I don't know. I just can't get enough of it. The melody is so hauntingly good. It's dark... But seductive. It draws me in. Raw talent.
Now, I've always been a fan of Ellie Goulding. I LOVE her voice. I love her melodies. I love everything about this girl... well, almost everything... from a "my type" standpoint, she's a little too skinny for my taste. But everyone knows my preference in the dating world has always been girls on the curvy, chunky, thick side... But I'm not dating her... And I'm not talking about dating or attraction here, actually I kind of hate to have even mentioned or brought up physical attractiveness of a woman in this blog post since now I just feel like a typical jerk of a guy looking at a woman THAT way... but since I had the thought in the first place, I'm going to leave it in instead of editing it out as raw honesty.
I'm talking about her as a woman. So successful. So driven. So awesome. She's just doing her thing, expecially in this video and I love it.
Go Ellie G. You just keep on be-be-bein' lovely. More power to you.
Philly Popefest 2015
I'm not going to lie... these new reports are kind of starting to freak me out a little. Some of the reports claim it's going to be just like a blizzard. Stock up on food. Stay in your houses... weather the storm.
The Pope-storm.
At least I don't live IN the city. But still, I'm imagining it being like a scene from that one movie from the 90s where Bruce Willis had to save the world and people are just wandering the streets abandoning their cars in gridlock traffic. And Aerosmith is all like "AND I DON'T WANNA MISS A THAAAAAANG!!!!"
Even my work has decided running classes and having students/staff/faculty try to travel to the college is going to be just way too treacherous...
They canceled classes and closed offices Friday through Monday. So I get a four day weekend out of it. Now they also said that since there will be no work or classes... anyone that would like to... could use the time off to experience this once in a lifetime event...
I'd love to. I'd really love to. But... I can't do massive crowds. I mean I can. I've gone to concerts before... I've gone into the city countless times (even though I've gotten unfair and unjust parking tickets out of it, which apparently I learned today from a co-worker, I'm one of many others that have suffered the same fate)... I've even gone to overnight festival music camping events, although that was all the way back in 2007 so I haven't done that in forever, and it was just a one time thing...
I don't feel like... it would be a very comfortable experience once there are a million people all around me and I'm packed in like sardines and the bathroom has a line wait of over an hour.
I feel like I'd get antsy. I get claustrophobic and I need to get out. But you can't get out because there are A MILLION PEOPLE!!!!! Seriously. They keep saying there are supposed to be so many people that you won't be even be able to walk more than a mile an hour.
Soooo... I'll just look for friends to go and tag the Pope in their photos and take Pope selfies (Pelfies) and what not.
Instead I'm going to use my 4 day weekend to relax and rest and work on creative things and recharge and maybe do a little work remotely even. I'll head to Longwood and the winery probably. Coffee shop. I plan to meet up with a friend to head to Celtic Festival up in Bethlehem which will have MUCH less than a million people present... presumably everyone will chilling with the Pope so maybe it will be an even lighter crowd than it usually is each year and I can just sit and enjoy a beer and watch some of the demonstrations or acts or shows or whatever they are called and then walk around and listen to music and maybe buy a fun little craft nicknack thing or two.
It actually looks like it's going to be a lot of fun!
But, all in all, I'm actually really thankful that the Pope has caused my work to graciously gift me a 4 day weekend. Go Pope! Pope power. Pope in a half shell. You're welcome back next year so I can get another 4 day weekend.
I'll be sure to update on the outcome of Pope-a-palooza for sure.
For now, I'll leave everyone with this...
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/09/13/pope-in-philly-survival-guide/
Stay safe out there this weekend my friends. Or just relax, take it easy. Or just go wild and get your Pope party on! When in Rome... Or Philly.