Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

• Photos from Shanghai

  Date: 2009.07.06 | Category: Personal, Travel | Response: 0

  Here is a collection of pictures I took while in Shanghai.  I am glad to be home.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• Going to People’s Republic of China

  Date: 2009.06.14 | Category: Coaching, Travel | Response: 0

  Today I am starting a journey where I will spend the next three weeks in Shanghai coaching Scrum teams and training ScrumMasters.  I have never been to China before, so this should be an interesting trip.  I truly have no expectations or preconceived notion about what I will see or experience.

  

• Why Do I Do This Stuff?

  Date: 2009.05.04 | Category: Coaching, Personal, Retrospectives | Response: 0

  I finally got a chance to listen to Software Engineering Radio’s podcast of Linda Rising about retrospectives after it was recommended by a friend.  If you facilitate retrospectives and have not listened to Linda’s interview, make the time to listen to this podcast.  It is full of interesting tips, tricks and techniques.  Linda made a comment about halfway though her interview which resonated with me and I wanted to share it with you since it helps explain my motivation to work with software teams and why I am passionate about Agile software development.  

  During the interview Linda said, and I am paraphrasing here, that retrospectives are a way for people to break free from their old behaviors and become the people they want to be at work.  So many times in our careers, we play this role that is assigned to us by our peers or management.  Or we perform this role out of some misguided habit, even if it is not helping us.  In Linda’s opinion, through the ritual of a retrospective, we are given the opportunity to pause, reflect and decide what behaviors we want to take forward with us.  In this way, a retrospective can be both transformative to the individuals and by allowing the people to change, the organization is redefined by the actions of the reenergized individuals

  This is one of the reasons of why I am a consultant – I want to give people the opportunity to be the person they want to be at work.   So often in our careers we are chained to our past behaviors and decisions we feel we cannot escape them.  However, I feel the only thing holding us back from change at our workplace is accepting that all the authority and power to change resides in us, we just have to choose it.  We don’t need our manager’s permission to change our attitude or start being helpful.  We just have to want the change and recognize change starts with us.  We just have to decide that we don’t want to carry around all those chains and links to the past.

  

  When this is the case, then role of someone like me is to buy enough space for people to feel secure enough to take the first steps.  Most of the business and technical practices I recommend are about creating safety, trust and breathing room so the organization can be transformed not by me, but by the participants.  Now that is powerful!

• Happy Anniversary Blog!

  Date: 2009.04.22 | Category: Personal | Response: 0

  Turns out I started this blog on this day one year ago today which also happens to be Earth Day, too!  Just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to my readers and I look forward keeping in touch in the next year.  

  

• Vicky Christina Barcelona

  Date: 2009.03.26 | Category: Movies, Personal, Spain, Travel | Response: 1

   

  

  Park Guell

  After sitting around on our coffee table for about two weeks, we finally took the time to watch Vicky Christina Barcelona.  This was a very thoughtful romantic comedy and I enjoyed it for many reasons.  One, it dealt with complex relationships in a mature and honest manner.  Because there was truly no “right answer” on how to live your life, I thought Woody Allen did an excellent job leaving the ending ambiguous and true to the story – one could read the ending two ways depending on what one believed the “right answer” was for the protagonists.  Two, it was fun to watch the various characters play the neurotic, over-analyzing Woody Allen character – mostly Rebecca Hall, but Scarlett Johansson and Kevin Dunn also got in on the fun, too.  Three, I see why Penelope Cruz won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.  Her presence on-screen was mesmerizing and invigorating.

  However, the best part of the movie were the lovely shots of Barcelona.  Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in the world and Woody Allen showed a lot of the great sites – Ramblas, the Gaudi architecture, the beaches, the beautiful Spanish sun.  For anyone who knows and loves Barcelona, this film is friendly reminder of this wonderful corner of Spain.

• The Happening

  Date: 2009.02.10 | Category: Movies, Personal | Response: 0

  I watched this film the other night after it had been sitting around on my coffee table for at least a week (I am so swamped right now).  M. Night Shyamalan definitely understands how to tell a suspenseful story – put broken people in a bewildering, disorienting situation and then slowly crank up the tension and raise the stakes.  As a horror or suspense film, it worked OK.  There also were some beautiful shots – I distinctly remember a scene with Zooey Deschanel’s dress blowing in the wind against a backdrop of the green fields.

  It is always a little sad when the actors you grew up with, or were considered to be heartthrobs,  start to hit middle age.  Both John Leguiziamo and Mark Wahlberg were playing roles that showed they are starting to hit the middle of their careers – they were both fathers and teachers.

• New Home

  Date: 2009.01.31 | Category: Personal | Response: 0

  I moved  from my old domain and just wanted to assure my old friends that they are indeed in the right place.  I think you will find the new home a little nicer than the old place and a bit more comfortable.  I look forward to more good times with all of you and making many more new friends at my new location.  Thanks for dropping by and come back often.

• Conversational Spanish

  Date: 2009.01.10 | Category: Personal, Spain, Travel | Response: 0

  This week I began conversational Spanish lessons from Carolina Mery-Wood at Pura Buena Onda.  Before the Holidays, I met with Caro for a short one-on-one interview\conversation to gauge my skill level.  She told me that while my vocabulary was excellent, I needed to improve my listening comprehension – I was between a beginner and intermediate.  She said it was up to me if I wanted to be the star pupil in the beginner class or perhaps the weaker of the intermediate students.

  I had my first class today with six other people and it was a lot of fun!  I was a bit anxious about my ability coming into the class, but I just dove in.  It was not as bad as I imagined it to be.  This is going to be fun and I am really looking forward to next week.

  

• Merry Xmas

  Date: 2008.12.24 | Category: Personal | Response: 0

  Just wanted to wish everyone peace, glad tiddings, good times with family and friends.

  I also wanted to share one of my favorite (and best) Christmas spoofs out there - Futurama’s Xmas.  How can you go wrong with an evil Santa who delivers retribution instead of toys?

  

  When the random number generator reaches zero (23…45…86…3…167…9…51…0), Bender’s execution will commence – now that is funny.

• Lost Boys: The Tribe

  Date: 2008.12.23 | Category: Movies, Personal | Response: 0

  This movie shows everything that is wrong with Hollywood – I think the only people who would be pleased with this movie would be 15-year-old teenage boys.  They so ripped off Supernatural, all the way down to the creaking sound of the dog opening – so lame!  Oh, Corey Feldman, how low have you gone?  Everytime this guy was on screen I was LMAO.