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Almost every summer for the past 10 years, I purchase 50 group-discounted tickets to an appropriate concert at the Colorado Music Festival, and Ellen and Josh Taxman graciously agree to open their beautiful home and yard adjacent to Chautauqua for a wine, cheese and dessert reception. A signature ACE event, the CMF summer evening is always magical.
This year, choosing the concert was made easy by the festival's inclusion of Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman as artist in residence.
Noted internationally for extraordinary artistry that brings back to life the glorious violinistic tradition of the 19th and 20th centuries, Gluzman's wide repertoire embraces contemporary music and his performances are heard around the world through live broadcasts and a striking catalogue of award-winning recordings.
Born in the former Soviet Union in 1973, Vadim Gluzman began violin studies at age 7 before moving to Israel in 1990. A graduate of Julliard, Gluzman enjoyed the encouragement and support of Isaac Stern early in his career. The Israeli violinist appears regularly with major orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra and NHK Symphony; and with leading conductors and at prominent festivals around the world. Gluzman and pianist Angela Yoffe, his wife and long-standing recital partner, founded the North Shore Chamber Music Festival in Northbrook, Illinois. Vadim Gluzman plays the extraordinary 1690 'ex-Leopold Auer' Stradivari.
On Thursday, July 21 at 7:30 pm in Chautauqua Auditorium, Gluzman performs Russian Passions, a program that includes Liadov's The Enchanted Lake; Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major; and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. (See CMF description below.) There is a free talk in the tent prior to the concert at 6:30 pm.
A few tickets still remain, and anyone who already has tickets can attend the reception for $25. To purchase, CLICK HERE.


I thought I was going to share a weekly recap with you today, but I've got to be honest with you my week hasn't been all that exciting or picture worthy. My pictures from the week consisted of a lunch out I didn't really like and a pizza pic you guys have seen half a dozen times already. That's life though… it's not always blog worthy. Despite that though, my week was still relatively relaxing, beautiful and I got a lot done… which is just what I needed. So instead I decided to keep the Fashion Friday roll going with a new shirt I picked up that I thought you guys would like.
The most exciting thing that's happened this week is I've continued running with Makena. She's now up to 3 miles at a time. She's getting more used to passing people and bikes, but she has a complete meltdown when other dogs are in front of us or coming at us. She's so social all she wants to do is lunge at them and play. I've started stopping the run and having her sit on the side of the sidewalk where she can't lunge so she doesn't think she can do that, but it is getting a bit annoying. Does anyone have any ideas? Her problem is she LOVES playing with other dogs. Despite the struggles though, I think she is doing pretty good for only being a week and a half into it.
This weekend should be much more exciting with a much belated birthday tea and the Biltmore. I'm also hoping to hopefully go on a hike.
Moving on to some cute fashion inspo for the week. I picked up this adorable cold shoulder shirt to embrace the fall season for less than $30. YES- only $30! It's still been a little too hot to wear anything like this yet for longer that just taking pictures, but cooler weather is coming this weekend.
My shoes are my new Sam Edelman's for the season. They are a little pricey but honestly feel like I'm wearing slippers when I have them on. So many flats pinch my feet and these don't. I got them and bought them in black too because I love them so much. If you are looking for flats make sure to check them out. I can't gush enough about them.
I think the shoulder cutouts are super cute with this and I like the fresh take on the boho look. I also really like that it's flowy, but doesn't look like a tent on. So many shirts like this aren't flattering at all and I think this one is!
The colors and pattern in this fabric are so pretty in person too. It's such a great shirt and pretty soon our Asheville fall color is going to look just like this!
I hope you like the look. I share these to help you find new fashion finds without all the work. As always, if you like it and want to get it for yourself I do make a small commision though the links below. I really do appreciate your support. Have a beautiful weekend and happy shopping!
Love the shirt. Thank you for sharing this affordable find. It's a great way for me to update my wardrobe without breaking the bank. I never thought of Target having such nice choices.
That top is adorable – I love that you do Fashion Fridays!
I had a nice, relaxing weekend in the mountains in New Hampshire. Ready for a new week!
This is such a pretty top! I just saw your Insta story pre hike, so I hope Makena's first hike was a success!
Cute top. I don't normally do overnight oats but I love pumpkin right now.
I love the off the shoulder trend super cute!
I love the cold shoulder trend. The colors on the top look great on you! I popped into Target earlier this week and it seems like they are really stepping up their clothing options.
Love the top and shoes Julie and as always you look beautiful! My week-end will consist of watching college football, spending time with my grandchildren, and helping with a baby shower on Sunday. Have a wonderful week-end!
That shirt!!! I love it. And I totally get the tent comment. I wore a really comfy great dress I got from Stitch Fix that I thought looked great . When I looked at pictures later I realized that I had the tent look going on and that was NOT what I was going for! Have a great weekend!
Looks adorable! I have been checking out those kinds of shirts but haven't bought any yet. Have a wonderful weekend!
Sucha a cute shirt. Ridley is crazy for the first mile that we run, and then she settles down for the next time, and the last mile isnearly always a struggle for her. 3 miles seems to be her limit! You could try a gentle leader harness with Makena and see if that curbs the behavior. Have a great weekend!
I'll be visiting my daughter and grandson.
it is, but she said she's not " spilling the beans ".
We'll see . Looking forward to it ( smile ).


Wearing my new Hanseatic hat after my return from #PMCampBER in the Grosshesselohe forest restaurant.
Let me give you a short report on the PM Camp Berlin session on Culture Engineering before I will write about the "contradictions" in social systems. It was one of many exciting sessions I participated in at the anti-conference #PMCampBER.
The topic was "Culture Engineering" – as a method and tool that helps to influence, change and control the culture in a social system that has an economic goal, i.e., in an enterprise.
The person who had initiated the session himself had felt suspicious about the term "Culture Engineering". His "feeling uncomfortable" was due to his scepticism about question if a culture can actually be actively influenced with an "engineering-approach". He feared that such a concept could or would easily end in manipulation with negative or at least unpredictable results.
One session participant said that there is a successful "Culture Engineering" stream of studies in Leipzig and that the graduates of this school are actually quite sought after by the human resources departments of companies, especially huge companies. I find this rather exciting, which means that we are in the middle of the world of culture engineering and human resource (HR).
As far as titles are concerned, I constantly get visiting cards with job titles such as engineer, officer, manager or president on them. And I must admit that, of all these titles, the one I like best is the engineer who, for instance, is in charge of a project. But "German-English" is modern, so I am getting into it. Now we have the CEO, CTO and CIO and, more and more often, also the CHRO (HR as an abbreviation for human resources). That is where you will find the innovation manager and the culture engineer. In general, I am quite suspicious of officers and managers, and the same is true for presidents and vice presidents.
In our session, the first thing we approached was terminology. Someone proposed that maybe we could say "culture gardening", instead of "culture engineering". I found this rather appealing. But then I thought that, in analogy to "garden cultivation", the task could be called "cultural cultivation".
Entrepreneurial culture is the memory of an enterprise.
? Honi soit qui mal y pense, but, for me, this is immediately associated with "memory manipulation".
When I looked up the term in Wikipedia, I discovered a Wikipedia call on copyright.
I support this call with all my heart and consequently I publish it here.
However, I am not sure that it will suffice if you contact your representative in the European Parliament. You will probably have to do more than that.
Yet this is a good example for controlled change in values and rules. And the motives are very capitalist.
Back to Culture Engineering. As with many buzzwords, I find the term a little ridiculous. The same is true for a culture engineer or innovation manager at HR.
I certainly believe that you should be aware of and actively live the culture of an enterprise, just like that of all other social systems. And it is also quite legitimate to use modern technology and methods. But it is a something that must happen between the leaders and all the others. Leadership as defined in Google (see the article article by Dr. Marcus Raitner).
However, culture cultivation will only be a success if as many people as possible participate in the cultivation process – and I mean with a lot of attention and actively.
PMCamp Berlin – Experiences, Adventures, Contemplation.
Between September, 6, and September, 8, the sixth PM-Camp Berlin took place (PM-Camp Berlin). As always, it was an exceptional event. One of the reasons why it was excellent is the extraordinary quality of the organizational team and Ralf Eicher, another reason, naturally, are the more than 100 great people who took part.
As we all know, the train trip from Munich to Berlin is a mere "jump" these days, which means it was no problem for me to go there. Since I am one of the PM Camp founders, I went to Berlin for more than just nostalgic reasons. I also wanted to retrieve my knowledge and learn new things. And, above all, I wanted to exchange ideas with nice people and simply share my experiences. As always, it was a total success. The two days were particularly nice because I met so many old friends.
And I returned with many new considerations and various insights. I also learned about tools and methods that had been unknown to me before. Let me share some of it here.
Again, I was part of LSP (Lego serios play). Julian Kea (known as @kiLearning in Twittter) showed us that, in a team with modern methods, you can actually do such as thing as Story making. Besides, I heard about tools such as the Mentimeter. With this tool, you can represent the mentality found in a creative community (that is "the cultural standard of a social system or community", also known as mind set) as a tag cloud in no time. This is really quite convenient.
"culture engineering" as a science that strives towards finding methods that can change the entrepreneurial culture.
whether or not it makes sense for a medium-sized enterprise to position itself "against right-wing populism".
My experiences were so fundamental that I want to – and probably will – relate them in the IF blog.
Generally speaking, I once again realized to what a huge extent we are all responsible for our own actions. How it is important that we do not allow our rationality to suppress everything else. And during peer2peer conversations and rounds of different sizes, I also saw how many people, also as a community, can have a wonderful "mindset" – which makes me look forward to the future.
However, I also noticed that most people have a basic conviction that I need to contradict. They assume that, in many dimensions of our life, we have a speed-up process and an increase in complexity that forces us to be prepared to accept change and innovation at all times. And the hope is that we will be better equipped to do this if we increase the agility in our lives.
I will write a few articles on "the contradiction between processes and common sense" and "the contradiction between trust and secrecy" to illustrate this.
And I truly believe that an agile mindset – combined with a few shared values – can help considerably. The agile manifesto describes four huge contradictions and proposes positions that should be given priority (it is always the arguments on the left side that should have priority over those on the right side). I discussed this with many people and the majority of them saw it as I see it. Here is my link to the German version of the agile manifesto although I like the English version better.
Back to #PMCampBER. Yes, it was great. Many thanks to all the participants, and, of course, especially to the orga team.
I am inspired and look forward to writing about "contradictions" as a fundamental problem of the culture in social systems. I also believe this might be a good topic for a future PM Camp session – wherever it takes place.
As one of the initiators of the PM Camp movement, I still follow the development and events around the PM Camp, even though the original Dornbirn PM Camp is a thing of the past. And although project management is no longer something close to my heart.
🙂 Wise people will no longer need it – which is lucky for them.
As an inspiration, I quickly read Dr. Eberhard Huber's article on DIVERSITY this morning (together with Dr. Jens Hoffmann, Dr. Marcus Rainer, Dr. Stefan Hagen and yours truly, Eberhard initially formulated the PM Camp idea and then we put the idea into practice with a few more ladies and gentlemen).
And I will just as quickly and spontaneously – and a little emotionally – now write down my heartfelt ideas. And I will contradict my friend Eberhard – with whom I have many things in common; we judge many things similarly – and his "Ode on Project Management" to some extent. I will probably cause a wave of protest among almost all "Project Managers" with this article.
Diversity: an ode to project work must be an ode to life.
It is good to see that our PM Camps always have a considerably higher percentage of female participants than normal workshops on this or similar topics. PM Camp brings all the people together because it is based on respect and eye-level. Humanity is comprised about 50% of people and 50% of women. Consequently, it is also normal that about as many women as men attend.
Everything else should really be antiquated by now. The same is true for the unfortunate discussion whether women are better at some tasks than men and which tasks this is true for – and vice versa. This is all stupid, so let us stop it!
No, what really makes PM Camps so beautiful is that the hosts of a PM Camp take pains to create a fear-free and a humane atmosphere where you can and may actually thrive! This is because we want trust and openness to become central values of the Camp. And because the persons who give and take as they participate want to be considerate about meeting each other with respect and at eye-level, thus consciously trying not to make each other look SMALLER, but instead BIGGER!
Terms: like COMPLEX and COMPLICATED, terms like BLUE and RED can only be toleated as metaphors.
Thinking and having discussions in BLUE and RED might be helpful if these terms are accepted to be metaphors. But only then. The intellectual definitions and the scientific fuss they are making annoy me just as much as the seemingly so rational debates in the Social Media.
The same is true for the dispute about the exciting but totally useless question what is the difference between COMPLEX and COMPLICATED. Again, HUMANS want to find a solution to a problem that cannot be solved.
Terms: PROJECT is nonsense. And MANEGEMENT is stupid.
Also, I despair when I read the word PROJECT and the same is true for the word MANAGEMENT.
PROJECTS are nothing but somebody giving you the task to try and realize a pre-defined goal. Incidentally, more often than not, the pre-defined task does not really describe the goal sufficiently (because mostly that is not even possible).
The MANAGEMENT is given the task of achieving the goals. Or, at least, it should pretend to achieve the goal and give very good reasons why the goals were not achieved.
Third parties formulate the goals. If a goal is achieved, it is measured with the metrics of money. These metrics pre-define the ratio capital. It is based on a perverse society and economy and a very doubtful understanding of HUMANS and LIFE.
After all, our projects are always about growth, costs, efficiency, profit …! Life, human beings and values such as contentment, peace, the common good, … are not part of the concept!
PROJECTS: they should serve the PEOPLE, instead of the PEOPLE serving the PROJECT.
That is also true for POLITICS, the ECONOMY, EDUCATION and SCIENCE. Unfortunately, however, the reality is exactly the opposite. In some way or other, everything is related to money. It does no longer serve the people, instead only seeing humans as consumers. The main goal of the powerful enterprises is strengthening their own power – humans are only consumers whose money you want.
The project is the method and the management is the operative tool. This is how humans are made to "function". "The people are reduced to becoming a means to an end". We forget that this very sentence is a valid definition of "acting against human dignity"- which is also something that no longer seems to be of interest to anybody in our system.
Neither will "finding a way with the projects" probably help. There are some projects I am very much in favour of. For instance, we should try to make schools in Germany (and the entire world) more humane. Or perhaps we should include the "common-good economy" as a determining principle of our economical thinking and behaviour more often. Or maybe we should conserve our planet – both in a big way and in a small way. Or maybe we should try and create PEACE – also both in a big way and in a small way.
I tried to accomplish this last feat – and found out in no time that this is exactly one of the things that cannot be done with a project approach. Consequently, I believe that projects are only good for exploitation, rather than for the "bonum commune".
Source: I learned all this on the PM Camps I was lucky enough to have been part of.
And I am very grateful for it! One of the reasons is that my activities for PM Camp really paid on various levels. Because TO LIVE is TO LEARN and TO LEARN is TO LIVE. And as always, the rule "GIVE first, TAKE later" is not too bad.
It is certainly not breaking news, but next Friday, we will have our 2017 PM Camp meeting.
Once a year, the representatives of all organizational teams for PM Camps meet. This year, the organizational team Dornbirn (Eberhard, Marcus, Stefan, Roland), are the hosts. InterFace AG supports them logistically.
Consequently, representatives of the organizational teams for the PM Camps at Barcelona, Berlin, Dornbirn, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, München, Rhein-Main, Stuttgart and Zürich will meet on Friday, January, 20th, 2017 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the Unterhaching InterFace AG building.
What was the development of PM Camps over the last year? Reports about format experiments in 2016.
Where are we now? What is CURRENTLY important for us?
What do we have to be careful about and what do we need to actively promote to make sure that the PM Camp movement continues to give relevant impulses for the PM scene on the whole?
I am telling you the date because I want to enable all friends of the PM Camp movement and visitors of PM Camps to voice their opinions and ideas during the PM Camp Meeting.
If you have suggestions that might impact the future of PM Camps, please do not hesitate to send me an email. I will collect all emails and introduce the ideas during our meeting.
I look forward to many impulses by and inspiration from you!
On the evening before (Thursday, January, 19th, 2017), those who arrived early will meet for dinner at 7 p.m. at the Unterhaching Althaching restaurant. If you feel like meeting old friends, please come and join us.
Six years ago, the PM Camp movement started in Dornbirn. Since then, many PM Camps have been organized in many cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They were all very successful, the participants were always very happy with the results and went back home knowing that they had learned to understand many new things. They also always knew that they had made new friends!
The various organizational teams of all those many PM CMs always created great topics as impulses. In Dornbirn, I remember "Humans are not Resources", "Breaking Patterns", in Berlin, for example "Complex versus Complicated" or "Digital in Projects", in Stuttgart, among others: "Product as Project" and much more.
as in impulse for the upcoming Barcamp on November, 18th and 19th, 2016. It was Stefan's idea and I rather liked it. As I see it, this one sentence contains an important message in as little as three words. However, those three words will first need to be de-coded. Here is my attempt at doing so.
In the thesaurus, you will also find exciting associations with both terms. I chose not to mention them, because they would have made the list even longer.
In communication, terms have a central role. As I perceive it, the synonyms of "distinguish" mostly sound positive. They often have something to do with "humanity". As opposed to this, the synonyms of "separate" sound more negative to me, they are functional and cold at best. In a nutshell: what is meant by "distinguish" just sounds a lot better to me than "separate".
Can it be that simple? Distinguish without separating, just because the synonyms of "distinguish" sound better than those of "separate"? For me, this fits, because I prefer thinking positive to thinking negative. And I also practice the actual achievement of living this positive way of thinking. After all, I want to be a positive person, not a negative person. If I am positive myself, I will find it much easier to be positive towards other persons. And if I have something negative inside, I get frustrated. Which will want to get out of my system. Which means others get to suffer from it.
So basically, it is very easy: you want to distinguish, rather than separate. Because we want to work together, rather than against each other. It is the only way to promote your own happiness and your own success. And only if I respect and appreciate myself, I will also be able to respect and appreciate others. Consequently, the only way to make others happier and more successful is by doing the same for myself. And then, the happiness and success of others will again feel good to me. Because we are all individualists, yet as such always "PARTS OF THE WHOLE".
We are all different from each other. We should take this in account and appreciate it. It is nice but still it should not be a reason for moralizing, evaluating and separating. And it should certainly not be a reason to develop enmity, which can easily become destructive.
That is exactly what we want to avoid at all costs on our #PMCampDOR! As we distinguish without separating, it will turn into a really great and humane Camp! So why don't you register and then come? I look forward to seeing you all again!
For more articles on "DISTINGUISHING WITHOUT SEPARATING", see the Blog-Parade zu #PMCampDOR 2016. I truly believe it is worth browsing through.
After the PM Camp is before the PM Camp. That is also true for the original #PMCampDOR team. They will again open their doors on November, 18th and 19th, 2016. In 2015, the Dornbirn topic was "Breaking Patterns". Perhaps we simply wanted to counteract the growing complexity and dynamics that we find so confusing.
Today, it is easier for us to see how many options we have. We develop at high speed on a daily basis, the speed of learning increases. Thanks to the information society, we can see far beyond the horizon and can extend our limited image of the "world". This fills our hearts and brains more than ever.
We also no longer refuse to accept the simple understanding that the future cannot be predicted. Just like we see more and more clearly that humans are basically not the crown of creation but just a small part thereof and that our microcosm, which is so very important to us, is basically just an illusion we constructed ourselves and totally subconsciously.
We now accept that, for many centuries, we made the mistake of believing our cerebellum could understand everything and that we could decide rationally based on our knowledge. And we notice that the huge majority of our knowledge and experiences is basically not simply retrievable at our convenience. Instead, it will turn up in an almost sinister way.
In particular, we notice that our decisions are not based on ratio. Instead, our ratio will provide us with reasons and justifications afterwards. Slowly, we leave the path that led us astray and made us believe that we are the masters of our behaviour and thus can be held responsible. We will then use the new technologies to start going towards the true dimension of social inter-dependence.
In order to survive in this new life, we will probably have to discover and make use of differences and contradictions. It will not help us to simplify or trivialize if we want to live in peace with ourselves and thus be content. This is the requirement for learning to do without enemy images and for having social peace with nature and other persons. What we need to do is accept matters as they are and stop differentiating and classifying.
New Barcamps is What the Country Needs!
Diese Woche war This week, I was invited to attend the first (!) barcamp organized by one of the really huge German world concerns in their enterprise building. The "anti-conference" was announced as an experiment and was about "modern leadership principles".
They wanted to try something new and invited around 50 internal employees and a few external persons (one of whom was me). Almost all of the concern employees were young "high potentials", among them many personal assistants of directors or persons responsible for a sector of product.
But: the event was an extremely good experience.
To me, it seemed that, after a short phase of scepticism, all participants were really enthusiastic and active. And that it was a great thing for all parties concerned. Not one of the participants had actively prepared for the event by writing a presentation or some such! Consequently, all session givers formulated their problems, anxieties and experiences spontaneously after having spent only a short time pondering. And that really found its target – in the sessions, we always worked on topics that seemed really important and very exciting.
I, too, again, learned a lot and was truly glad to have been there. In particular, I now understand far better how huge concerned work today when it comes to leadership and management. As an extra knowledge increase, I also realized that, today, it is actually no longer the rule that new products need to be found useful by the customer.
In fact, first and foremost, it is all about evaluating where and if there are under-provided sectors on the market (product-free spaces), yet where the majority of persons who have been asked think they might need it.
As soon as this requirement is met, all you have to do is come up with a good marketing strategy and a concept that will make a basic scaling and good profit (production costs / price acceptable for the buyer) possible. I was actually a little taken aback when I heard that the usefulness of a product no longer plays any role when it comes to creative planning.
The longer you have had a barcamp, the more people come with topics they prepared at home. They no longer formulate what is on their minds spontaneously and/or in the context of what actually happens.
Unfortunately, this is a tendency I see more and more often in the once so much-loved PM-Camps that, so far, I have always remained true to. And when I am there, I mostly stay in the coffee room and talk to the many great persons present. Also, it seems to me that, as the years go by, other barcamps have more and more "ready-made" session, which causes the anti-conference to slightly differ only in one respect from the good old classical conference: its format-based freedom.
b) make the planning phases more iterative and "shared" (i.e. just fix the sessions for the morning after breakfast, then reflect in the forum for a short time what is going to happen and what should be continued).
To be sure, the constant tightrope walk between individually (alone) and collectively (together) and between agile and planned in advance is certainly not something easily done. But that does not mean we should not keep trying.
PM Camp Dornbirn – Between Pretension and Reality?
In retrospective, the Dornbirn PM Camp was rather a success. Most (well, basically all) of the participants felt great and drove home with a feeling of satisfaction. In my opinion, this is great.
Also, many participants filled in our feedback forms. This is how we (the organizational team) received many constructive comments. I am currently working my way through those, along with the twitter "timeline" of our anti-conference. You can read the timeline under the hashtag #PMCampDOR. Incidentally, it is a lot of fun: a retrospective view with many useful links.
Statistically spoken, the feedback was just as positive as the individual comments. This gave the organizational team a boost. Barcamps are something special. They are based on freedom, eyelevel, participation, equal rights. You can also see those factors as "weaknesses". But then, they are weaknesses I personally find rather attractive. A barcamp lives from the moment. You cannot control them, the sessions rise from the context of what you have just experienced. And that is a good thing!
Freedom and diversity can also polarize. You might get focal points and conclusions that not everybody will always like. Well, you have to cope with this, just like freedom is not always something you can easily cope with. It takes tolerance.
Democracy, too, has its problematic side. Even the question how to best organize democracy can be a problem. Just remember the passionate discussion about "direct versus parliamentary democracy" – one of which is considered the solution (for instance in Switzerland) while being considered extremely dangerous (for instance here in Germany, because we believe the people are stupid). On the other hand, many are no longer at all happy with our "parliamentary democracy".
Anti-conferences are democratic. Their dynamics depend very much on the persons attending. As opposed to conferences, you meet in a rather free room with only little formatting. This might trigger group dynamics that not everybody will welcome. But then, every participant can feel free to counteract.
PM Camps are very pluralistic meetings. Males and females meet, old and young persons, starters and almost-pensioners, successful and not-so-successful persons, persons who studied at university and persons who learned their trade in apprenticeships, no-nonsense types and laughing types, "not so wealthy ones" and "rich ones", etc. Maybe these barcamps can manage to bridge the gap between ME and WE and thus reduce the tension between "individual" and "collective" needs.
And what is true for projects is also true here: technology and tools are no longer the problem. The existing methods, too, are mostly more or less suitable. Yet most of the projects fail because of the "human factor". This is also a danger with barcamps. You can never please everybody. Consequently, both the tweets and the feedback forms showed us that some details were highly praised by some, yet criticized by others.
If someone criticizes something about a barcamp, he is also criticizing his own behaviour.
If the PM Camp would not exist, one would have to invent it!!
I was able to learn a lot, make experiences and meet very interesting persons!
Continue in this way, no regulations!
There was a very homely and cosy atmosphere, the discussions were all at eye-level!
Of course, reading this made us truly happy. We in the organizational team will process all the positive feedback with care and diligence. After all, what is true for persons when it comes to "personality development" (often also called management or leadership training) is also true for communities: first and foremost, you should promote your strengths, instead of always trying to work on the weaknesses. Because the latter will never be a success anyway and the former is so much more promising. Consequently, we want to make those things better that are already quite positive.
Yes, that is true. But I know how Stefan, in particular, took pains, both before and during the event, to improve the situation at the university. On the evening before, I also had a dialogue with one of the experts who had explained the problem to me. The specialists at the university, too, tried their best, but again, they did not manage it. Due to highly complicated security aspects, the systems are programmed in such a way that the technicians cannot do it. Naturally, we will try to do better in this respect next year. Yet we should also appreciate how much the Dornbirn Fachhochschule as a sponsor of the event is doing for us. Maybe we can be a little lenient in return.
There was no information about parking!
Yes – we forgot our dear car drivers.
More precise information on the event (start, end) on the website, please.
Yes, that is certainly something we can improve.
Pictures of those who organize a session would help with the orientation.
Unfortunately, "Aebby" (Eberhard Huber) had to cancel on short notice – consequently, his polaroid camera, too remained in Stuttgart.
very diverse. Some wanted a round of introductions, others not. Some wanted more moderation and/or ice-breaking, others less. I would say it was about equally distributed.
"Newbies" and "class meetings of old PM Camp attendants and how one could, maybe, improve the quality of sessions, for instance by coaching, mentoring or moderation.
A narrow majority wanted an explicit support for Newbies. The others thought it worked quite well automatically. To me, it also seems that this is easier with small PM Camps – such as Barcelona – than with big ones such as Dornbirn. So this was almost indirectly a criticism that Dornbirn is getting too big.
There was also some criticism on individual sessions and how they were offered.
Too much IT in the sessions.
It would be better if the sessions of the second day were better based on those of the first day.
The principle and variants of sessions should be better explained beforehand, especially for the newbies.
I support whatever improves the session concept. Yet I believe that the organizational team should not meddle with the content of the sessions. They belong to the "part-takers". The organizational team has the chance to motivate those who are interested in the messages or want a controversial discussion about them by formulating the mottoes and selecting the impulse given before the event. That should be enough.
It will be THE ONE challenge of the future to maintain the high standards.
That is exactly how I feel!
Incidentally, there is a lot of praise and some criticism of the Dornbirn PM Camp on the official GPM Blog. Reinhard Wagner reported on the Dornbirn PM Camp in a post, actually writing a few rather negative things in his last paragraph (…PM Camp only partially managed to deliver what it had promised. …).
Since I see a number of misunderstandings in this article and also because my name appears in it, I will now discuss Reinhard's theses "dialectically" and also try to explain a few things.
This is where I start with the text of the last paragraph written by Reinhard in the GPM blog. The sum of all the cursive text elements is the complete last paragraph, copied from his post 1 one 1 (RW). Whenever I use "normal" font directly afterwards, then those are my comments (RMD).
(RW) … The motto of this year's Dornbirn PM Camp was "breaking with patterns" (What patterns should we break and how can we do it?). This is something the PM Camp managed to deliver only to some extent. As I see it, that is also the dilemma of the entire "PM Camp" movement.
(RMD) Not only PM Camp, but the entire human society has the dilemma that it cannot manage change to a reasonable or at least desired extent. Current history alone is a good proof of this (wars, terrorism, the destruction of the planet…) .
The problem I have with what Reinhard writes is that, for me, the only thing a PM Camp is supposed to deliver is a) to be a good host and b) to find the right participants. That is also what the organization team for "our" Dornbirn PM Camp aimed at. And as I see it, the same is true for the entire "PM Camp Movement".
Each year, we meet at the PM Forum (our strategic organ for all PM Camps) amd discuss how to best do this. Here, the representatives of the regional organizational teams (the operative event managers who organize the Camps) and the core teams (the normative founders) meet. During this meeting, we exchange ideas on what could be improved in order to make it even easier for you – our guests and visitors – to exchange knowledge, find consensus and gain insights.
The basic role of an organizational team for a PM Camp is that of host. It looks for sponsors and, finances the event where it costs more than the participants' fees have brought. In addition, we, as a group, try to come up with mental concepts (for instance a motto like the metaphor of "breaking with patterns" before the event) and to promote the success of the entire affair through impulse presentations during the Camp (what?) and ideas about the methods of presentation (how?), without ever jeopardizing the core ideas of a barcamp.
We are very careful about not clandestinely turning our "anti-conference" into a conference or congress.
A PM Camp is nothing other than a barcamp directed towards project managers, entrepreneurs, leaders – basically all those persons who are prepared to take responsibility for our future. It provides them with a platform for the exchange of opinions and ideas and thus supports their networks.
(RW) The "young wild ones" (sorry Roland Dürre) try with all their might to distance themselves from the established big ones in the field, primarily from the GPM, the PMI and the PRINCE2-Community.
(RMD) As to the "young wild ones": personally, I must say that I do not see myself qualifying for "young". I meant quite a few young start-ups with this metaphor. They approach things totally differently from what I am used to with the "established enterprises". And whenever a start-up is a success, then it is definitely not because it thinks in terms of projects.
But back to the text. The very phrase "established big ones in the field" shows how problematically Reinhard is positioned. Personally, I do not see the PM Camp movement as competition of any "established big ones". Because we are not an association. If anything, we might be an alternative to it, meeting in a free area and exchanging knowledge and experience. During a PM Camp, what you do is motivate each other to start thinking. The "ME"s will meet as part of the "WE"s. That has nothing in common with an association or similar structures. This is also one of the reasons why the organizational team must not and will not give proactive recommendations.
Incidentally, the PM Camp Movement also always coordinates whatever they do with openPM, the open portal that provides a platform for the free exchange for all project managers. openPM is a non-profit-making club that, as I see it, is no competition for the "established big ones" either. Consequently, openPM has nothing to do with those clubs/associations.
My personal reason for shunning clubs and associations is that, to me, they all seem to think they alone possess the "truth", then they mould their truth into rules and laws and earn their (horrendous sums of) money with it. That is something I do not want to be part of. But I am not trying it with all my might. I am just clearly stating the fact.
(RW) The pattern "agile" versus "traditional" is used far too often. In almost all the discussions, you get the comparison between "industrial age is old and evil" versus "information age is young and good", the same is true for "waterfall" versus "Scrum".
(RMD) Here, Reinhard probably misunderstood something. It is quite possible that, years ago, there were such frontiers. In order to stop this nonsense, however, we started a PM Camp in Dornbirn in 2011. Its motto was "building bridges".
Consequently, I hardly noticed any conflicts between "agile" and "traditional" during the Dornbirn PM Camp. On the contrary: all the persons I heard – including the impulse presenters – made it quite clear that anything can be justified. All you have to do is consider what you want to use when for which purpose.
Incidentally, I believe that all you need to know about "agile" has been written down in the "agile manifesto". What you find there is a recommendation to use "common sense" in an "honest" way. And I cannot see where this is supposed to be a method. Basically, it should be something that goes without saying. Just like it goes without saying that you can make many mistakes in projects.
(RW) One presenter spoke against all rules and "patterns", before, a few pages into the presentation slides, saying that you should actually not do any projects (#noprojects).
(RMD) If this is referring to the impulse by Robert Weisgräber, then I have to say that his was one of the best presentations I have watched in a long time. This can also be seen from the feedback statistics. But perhaps the metaphor #noprojects is not all that easily understandable. Yet I did not really hear that you should not do any projects. What I heard is that you should think twice before deciding what to do.
(RW) In a workshop on "organizations as living organisms", they tried to show how such an organization works. When I asked if we could perhaps exemplify this with the – unfortunately very successful – organization "Islamic State", my request was rudely denied with the (killer) argument that this is not really the time to discuss that general topic.
(RMD) Naturally, what someone says in a session cannot meet the total approval of all participants. It has something to do with democracy. On the other hand, I would also not think it goal-oriented to discuss the IS as an example. Not just because, to me, the IS looks like a criminal, fascist organization (The Third Reich, too, was fascist. And still the "GröFaZ" generated fear for all the established generals with agile warfare).
To be sure, Reinhard Wagner could have organized a separate session on the IS, or perhaps, more precisely, a session about "modern guerrilla war of fascist organizations as a successful method for fighting against technologically superior armies". But I would not have attended such a session (or if, then just to tell everybody that I find it absurd).
(RW) Then, one participant tried to discuss the Cynefin framework. This discussion ended with the categorization of engineers and business economists on the right side (simple or complicated systems) and software developers, those creative wild ones, on the left side of the framework. Well, this does not really help anybody, does it?
(RW) Instead of breaking patterns, they dress old clichés in new clothes.
(RMD) I do not really understand this sentence. But I find it rather over the top to say something like this about the entire Dornbirn PM Camp. To me, this sounds a little like culture pessimism. But I admit that our entire society suffers from us constantly, again and again, using the same patterns. And that fantasy and creativity are things we tend to push away. Perhaps Reinhard and I actually lament the same state of affairs.
(RW) Finally, I have to ask the question what, in practice, the PM Camps actually want to achieve.
(RMD) Once again: PM Camps offer the general framework for meeting, communicating in an atmosphere of trust, sharing knowledge, gaining insights through honest discourse. There is no promise from the side of the Camp. If there is any goal, then it is that the persons who attend make each other look bigger – instead of smaller, as we have known it from many teaching systems. However, I believe it is amore valuable or practical application to "share knowledge" and to learn from the "other party" than to earn certificates or, what is worse, from the "certification of the world".
(RW) … but then my question what we could actually do was rather quickly cut short because everybody disappeared (wanting to have lunch).
(RMD) Well, that makes sense, doesn't it? This is something the second day – with its actual sessions – could have been used for.
(RW) To be sure, it was also rather hard to make the participants actually put into practice what we had been talking about at the GPM.
(RMD) I cannot imagine why it would be easier at the GPM than in real life.
(RW) Yet this is where they could have been proved that they can do more than "give nice Sunday speeches" , letting "beautiful words" be followed by "actual behaviour".
(RMD) Even Seneca said: "philosophy is not about talking, it is about acting". And we can all see that we all talk a lot yet do nothing from the climate change caused by the burning of fossil raw materials. But again, I discovered that I have something in common with Reinhard.
(RW) That is what I would wish for, but perhaps it will just remain wishful thinking at Christmas Time.
(RMD) My hope (I do not know if it is wishful thinking), not only at Christmas Time, is that humans become a little wiser.
How badly do we really need all those associations and clubs?
Because to me, it seems that many of them are totally unnecessary and I would certainly expect more from grass root movements.
The heading of this post is not my wording. It was directly taken from Reinhard.
The First Time I Experienced True "Project Management".
During the Berlin PM Camp, I told the stories of four projects from my vintage timethat were very important for me. And I also announced that I was going to write about all of them in the IF blog.
After my change of positions inside Siemens away from UB D WS DF 131, I shared the technological responsibility for a relevant and absolutely innovative huge project called DISPOL with a new colleague working with whom soon became my true pleasure.
Siemens had won the bid for replacing the telex network of the Bavarian Police Force by a trans-data network based on modern circuit switching. At the same time, the card index boxes were to be replaced by a database in a central host (mainframe – it was a BS 1000 system). Also, modern display units were to substitute the old teletype machines.
That was roughly between 1979 and 1981. I was still a regular Siemens employee, but I had just fled the "bureaucracy" that had started at the development department of Transdata/PDN, looking to have better luck with sales at UB D V S 3. That was short for "department data processing, sales and special projects 3".
See also my article on Vintage Projekt #2.
My move from the laboratory to the special projects necessitated that I now had to leave the private environment I had learned to love so much and found so nice at the Ortenburgstrasse (near Siemens Hofmannstrasse) and go to Neuperlach. And it did not take long for me to understand why the new building near the Neuperlach S-Bahn station was spitefully called "data sibirsk" or "Lego City" by many people.
For me, it was even worse: I had to move into a cold skyscraper surrounded by a fenced area that reminded me of barracks. Concrete and cold high-tech were the dominant features. And I also felt billeted. The only thing that looked halfway human in the entire areas was a fruit vendor who offered his goods on a stall inside the compound.
From day one, I felt uncomfortable in the concrete bunker that only looked colourful from the outside but was rather grey inside. Mind you, this was regardless of the fact that you actually could still open the windows and that there were quite a lot of green areas inside the fenced region. Yet, even the green was domesticated in a very prosaic way – it did not look as nice as you would, for instance, imagine it on castle grounds. Instead, it was techno-utilitarian.
But I was lucky. After all, I belonged to "special projects" – and they did not happen in the office. They happened outside, in the world. And since I was quasi equipped with privileged information, I felt like I was my own master and a little king.
Consequently, I preferred to mostly be where the customer resided (Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation in the Maillinger Straße) and to hardly ever be available in Neuperlach, except when it was absolutely unavoidable. To me, the rooms at the police station, regardless of all the very strict security regulations looked a lot more human than the new Siemens AG high-tech venue.
My flight from the "laboratory" that had fallen victim to bureaucracy had been a success and now I was allowed to experience real life. And the project DISPOL was a great thing. A total innovation. Together with the excellent partners of the Bavarian Police, we were a wonderful team. We cooperated with a maximum of efficiency and at eye-level. But I have to say that the project was already well under way at the time I became part of it.
And there was also a requirement in the contract that was rather hard to meet. Because the new product DISPOL was supposed to replace a teletype machine network. And these kinds of teletype machines had (at least in Bavaria) an availability of a hundred per cent over years, if not decades. In other words: they NEVER broke down.
And, of course, that is what the customer expected of the new solution, as well. Justly?! Since, (at the time), Siemens was, of course, not stupid, they had negotiated in the contract that the system at least did not have to be a hundred per cent available. Once in a while, it was allowed to break down. Perhaps they had a hunch that electronic data processing had its limits. But then, it said "once in a while"!
Consequently, it had been written in the contract that the product was only considered functioning if the system ran a certain amount of time (I think it was two weeks) without interruption and that the "down-time" during this time had to be only very few hours (I seem to remember it was only one).
(Note: we solved even this problem. If you are interested, I will gladly tell you how).
Basically, there was always a shut-down, because we had a number of sporadic and hard-to-reproduce errors, one of which would always occur shortly before those four weeks were over. Well, we just had to isolate them individually. But then, isolating errors takes time. Because you have to implement traps that catch the error and make it reproducible. And due to the contract, we did not have this sort of time.
The test was designed in such a way that the normal police procedures ran twice during the acceptance phase. The real run with the real data continued with the old technology of the well-functioning telex network. But then, the original data (punch strips) ran on the new system 1:1 after a little time had elapsed. For testing. To keep up appearances, critical data were made anonymous and less drastic, but this was not always possible. And (of course), nothing happened. We all knew that those were highly sensitive data and that we had a lot of responsibility. Today, the gentlemen of data security would probably make a huge ado about it.
But back to the topic: The stability problem of the system only arose during the end phase of the project (which had already gone on for quite a long time). Due to the aforementioned factors, there had been some problems earlier, as well.
A project manager was installed!
Let me first tell you about my experiences with the consultants and young persons, later about the project manager.
There were several of them. They were supposed to help us, but that was not really what they usually did. I particularly remember two colleagues from the PSE (that is the Austrian Siemens daughter for software development). One of them was from Vienna and the other from Graz. They both held doctorial titles, one of them in psychology, the other in physics.
They were both really nice persons. They were both not happy to be far from home. The one missed beautiful Vienna, the other Graz. To me, they both seemed extremely intelligent, if not ingenious. Both had first names beginning with an M. and both had not much knowledge about the system, and even less an idea what a good code should look like.
Yet I never told them, because I really rather liked them. Consequently, we let them play along, which they both did quite well. Except that they never really made their way to the middle of the project. One of the reasons was that, in this project, they were like mercenaries, "away on a construction job". Which actually does nothing to increase your motivation and readiness to make a huge effort. Consequently, their added value was not really relevant.
I remember a young lady and a young gentleman who were added to the group. Both of them were terribly young (early twenties, at the time, I was not yet 30). They both had trained in the IT sector somewhere at Siemens.
They were both highly motivated, listened carefully, did what they were told and thus they quickly understood the technology and their task. I assume that they were also quite cheap – especially compared to the two consultants with their doctorial titles – and they contributed enormously towards the project success. Incidentally, they both went on to become a success story. But not at Siemens.
The project manager was an earnest person who always wore ties and struck me as extremely nervous from day one. Said nervousness was easy to understand for me: after all, he was supposed to solve a problem he knew basically nothing about. He sat in our room a lot of the time writing reports. The rest of the time, he had meetings in Neuperlach. His role was something like being a translator between the worlds of management and the project that consisted of technology. Since he did not know the language of technology, he never understood the project. I assumed that he did not know the language of management, either. After all, during my time at the laboratory as a supplier for a huge project, I had learned some of it. He was a lonesome wanderer between two worlds.
Our project manager had a strange voice and consequently, he was soon stuck with a nickname (Schnarrie). The idea had come from our two ladies (W. and C.), who did a good job with the coordination and customer service. Perhaps because they were angry about their roles having been cut down.
So much about this. Incidentally, the project DISPOL was a huge success and ran for decades to the greatest satisfaction of the Bavarian Police Force. And in its wake, it brought quite a few good customers to Siemens AG, as well.
Because you assume that, in order to "improve" something, you have to change it. Yet you do not want to leave change to the evolutionary process or to "the masses". Since there is no trust that employees or the citizens really know how to do "change" (basically, citizens and employees are mostly considered more stupid than they actually are), you suppress "grass-root movements". Instead, you want change "from the top", forced by managers and controlled or somehow manipulated.
This idea makes me shudder. Because in my understanding, the term manager more and more refers to an at least slightly insane priest who thinks he has supernatural powers and can make miracles happen through witchcraft.
The miracle expected by "Change Management" is innovation. Even though nobody really knows what innovation is and how it is done. It goes without saying that the magician and his witchcraft, too, will not work. If, by accident (or through other influences) something actually happens, then the magician, naturally, willingly takes the credit and the "cash".
I often was frustrated because of the "this is how we always did it". Regardless, I never saw it totally negative. After all, it contains some kind of conservative warning that reminds you of the fact that innovation will always have a negative destruction in its wake, even if said destruction is creative. Consequently, the often criticized sentence admonishes us to also see and answer for the consequences, regardless of the cry for necessary change. If you see the positive side of it, you get the appeal to see a challenge with all its consequences.
Even though, basically, nobody can say why in the "social systems" created by people rules and regulations always exponentially multiply and develop lives of their own as a matter of course. Until they control the system. I like calling this effect "bureaucrazy".
And when "bureacrazy" has us by the neck it is really high time to "break with patterns". Even if it takes a lot of courage and you might actually get frightened. But still, it is important that, whenever we #break_with_patterns, we can answer the question: WHY!
A short time after his inauguration, our former Federal President, Mr. Roman Herzog allegedly said that the first thing one should do is abolish all laws with uneven numbers. And then look and see which laws you actually miss. You could easily re-introduce them. And then you should do the same thing with the laws that have even numbers.
Some way or other, that is also a good metaphor for #breaking_with_rules.
I took the picture from a Wikipedia article on Ganesha. It is a work in its own right by onoikobangali.


Maclin Bocock is indeed a citizen of the world, and through her stories, the reader travels from Virginia barns to Parisian bedrooms, from autobiography to magical realism and, eventually, to the end of civilization as we know it. It's a long, far-ranging journey, but if the reader can handle a few bumpy transitions--even in some cases, the literary equivalent of whiplash--they'll find this book well worth the trip. In the first section, nostalgic stories of a Southern girlhood explore the irrevocable divide between black and white worlds. In "The Funeral," for instance, a black servant fakes her own death and tells the narrator she's a witch. ("After midnight, several times a week, she raised her bedroom window and flew about the town doing nice things for people. 'Don't you ever go out the front door?' Aretha thought for a moment. 'No. I got to have the elevation.'") "Play Me 'Stormy Weather,' Please" takes a more tragic turn, as a young girl is forced to renounce an interracial friendship the adult world won't tolerate.


Update on Yesterday's Photo No. 496, published Sundays, April 13 and 20: The photo can be seen at www.poconorecord.com.
Thomas R. Wilkins knew immediately that the group shown in the photograph was affiliated with Stroudsburg High School. "The guys in that photo were from the class of 1969 — same as me," he wrote.
Dewain E. Arndt, also a member of the class of 1969, added that all five were associated with the school's varsity wrestling team.
"They were all good wrestlers," wrote Hank Stetler. He added that the photo may have been taken at a school Varsity S banquet.
William Lear and Ruth Millard also recognized the wrestlers, Charles "Charley" Zeller, Daniel "Danny" Kueler, Russell VanGorder or Coach Purdy, Ed "Eddie" Strunk and Jim Hopkins.


We found over 900 consumer ratings for this sewing machine (the bulk of them from Amazon) and when these were averaged they generated an overall score of 81.9 out of 100 (about 4.1 stars out of 5). This is a reasonable score but not spectacular. You can compare it to the scores of other machines we have reviewed in our list of sewing machine ratings (which we have been collecting since 2010).
A thorough review of Singer 2277 owner comments has yielded the following pros and cons.
Probably the most common comment about this sewing machine is how easy it is to setup and to get sewing. The 2277 is a basic, mechanical machine and many buy it for this reason. It is easy to thread (for most people) and it only has a few controls. While limited controls may be a turn off for some folks, it is actually popular with many people who want a simple sewing machine for tackling garment repairs or other straightforward projects. Some owners also allude to the fact that less features means there is less to go wrong. In addition, a simple sewing machine is often an intelligent choice for new sewists and the Tradition 2277 is indeed a good fit for the beginner.
The machine is fairly strong and is capable of sewing through some thicker materials and multiple layers of thinner materials. But there is a limit to its ability in this area and you may find it difficult to do something like hemming jeans for example.
Many people find the needle threader easy to use but, like with many sewing machines, there are some folks who struggle with it. There are also quite a few comments about the 2277 being sturdy which is likely, at least in part, due to its metal frame.
In addition, people are pleased with the pricing of the 2277. Some go so far as to say it is "amazingly well priced". We've seen this unit online for between $105 and $130 depending on where you shop.
Probably the most common problem with the 2277 is the issue of thread jamming. Some owners report that the thread spools around the bobbin and that it is very hard to get the tension right. These things result in the thread jamming or tangling.
This is also a very simple sewing machine so it is not a good fit for someone looking to do large or advanced projects. It also has a limited number of features and stitches.
Despite being fairly sturdy, it is not that heavy and when sewing, especially at high speeds, the machine can shake a little and even inch its way around the table/counter.
You can read more Singer 2277 owner reviews at Amazon.
- Fully automatic 1-step buttonhole.
The bobbin class for this machine is 15 and the needles are 2020 & 2045. This is also a 110 volt sewing machine so it is designed for use in the USA and Canada (it could be used in a 220 volt environment but one would need a proper transformer).
At 13.6 lbs this is hardly what we would call a heavy machine but it doesn't make the cut for our list of lightweight portable sewing machines either which are almost all under 12 lbs.
Don't be fooled into thinking all aspects of the sewing machine will be covered for a full 25 years.
Accessories can be stored in a pull out tray built into the 2277 and include: a zipper foot, a button sewing foot, an all-purpose foot, and a buttonhole foot. In addition, you get needles, bobbins, a lint-brush/seam-ripper, a screwdriver, thread spool cap holders, a darning plate, an edge/quilting guide, and an oil bottle. A 6 foot power cord, foot control, instruction manual and quick start guide are also provided.


Before the ink was even dry on any agreements moving A&M to the SEC, Mr. Gray and I had pretty much already decided we'd be taking at least one trip a year to see some of the great football venues that make up SEC football. We kicked this year off with Ole Miss. Their football team might not be the most decorated, but they pride themselves on never losing a party.
We set off Friday to see what Ole Miss football and The Grove were all about.
We got to Memphis Friday evening with just enough time to eat and head to Midnight Yell. Aggies were all over the place! It's always so fun to see Aggies come together like that.
on our way to eat some barbecue in a basement in an alley. It definitely wasn't Texas barbecue, but not too shabby.
I loved their slogan–great creative thinking!
It was a little cold and drizzly as we headed up Beale Street, but still a pretty neat scene. Think 6th Street, but toned down. Way down.
We headed to Silky O'Sullivans, the official Aggie hangout of the night, before walking over to Yell to freeze our booties off.
It didn't take us long to realize that we were way short on clothes for Saturday night's game. It was much colder than any of us thought it would be based on the forecast. So, instead of hitting up Graceland Saturday morning, we did some cold-weather shopping. Huge shoutout to Grey for being patient while I was picky! I got a really cute sweater out of the deal, but I was bummed we didn't make it to Graceland.
Also, huge shoutout to Grey for being patient while I was picky!
We had a 6:00 kick Saturday, so we headed to Oxford to tailgate a little about lunch time. Clouds were looming, but the radar kept showing it moving on through before the game. We figured we'd eat, check out the 12th Man tailgate, and then save The Grove for last.
We ate our prime rib Mr. Gray had cooked up and started packing our things. About the time we got ready to walk, it started to rain.
The guys were nice enough to wait while I headed for the car. It did rain hard enough that we all retreated to the car before it was all said and done. I was sure glad we hadn't left yet.
Radar looked good, sky was clearing out, and off we went. We made it about 200 yards before the drizzle started again, and I decided it was time to don the rain suit.
Good-bye, cute sweater. Good-bye, cute pants.
Despite the weather, The Grove was tailgating in full force. Tents were up, chandeliers were hung, meals were elaborate. It was really cool to see. Tables were dressed in table cloths and centerpieces. No detail was too small. People were still dressed in suits and dresses, even with the rain. Many of them didn't even have umbrellas or rain suits. I was disappointed we didn't get to see a beautiful weather tailgate, but The Grove is definitely an experience to be had–if you're into that sort of thing (yeah, no photos; my phone was tucked away in my layers of clothing).
After a roller coaster of emotions, the Aggies brought home the win. It was hard-fought, and pretty impressive how they pulled it together in the last seven minutes. You would have thought we were playing a title game the way everyone lost it when Swope caught that last touchdown pass in the endzone. Hurd's pick was the icing on the cake.
The players went nuts, the stands went crazy, and we came home with our first SEC road win.
It was a blast–once it was all said and done. We had great seats, as is evidenced in this photo, which actually makes us look farther back than we were.
I don't have a clue who to credit for this photo; it was floating around Twitter. If it's yours, please let me know so I can cite.
We had heard Oxford Square was the place to be after the game, so we headed there and happened upon a fun little cover band–they had a great mix.
We witnessed the worst proposal in the history of the world and had a fun time people watching.
Sunday morning, we headed home, and I finally caught a state sign (two road trips later).
Hello, Arkansas and your fried corn.
We made it home in record time, and I headed to get the boy. This was definitely a trip for the books.
What a fun road trip! I last went to Memphis is 2007, and we ate at the same rib place (and had fun on Beale Street). I'm glad the Aggies pulled out a win… wish the Horns could have done the same.


As an elementary school teacher, I see it all when it comes to lunches. I'm never surprised anymore to see what combinations students and their parents come up with. Some of the more creative ideas have involved using Fruit Roll-Ups and fruit snacks in place of jelly on a PB & J, and, my favorite, a mustard, Fruit Roll-Up, pickle, and peanut butter sandwich. Oh. My. I know making lunches can be crazy and rushed but I've found over the years with my own boys (and slightly more organized students) that there are a few tricks to using packaged foods to keep the job simple and even healthy. Here are 10 deliciously healthy (packaged!) foods for kids lunches.
Use packaged flatbread to make a much healthier version of sodium-loaded stackable lunch kits. I like to use fresh mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes instead of fakey tomato paste, and fresh herbs. My boys LOVE these pizzas! Our favorite flat bread brand is Flatout. Find some fun recipes on their website here.
What, with all the added sugars, hydrogenated oils, and preservatives, I've never loved the idea of giving my boys too many packaged sauces and dips. I don't worry so much when it comes to basic ingredient hummus. Packaged hummus with fresh veggies makes for a great side in kids' lunches! I trust Simple Truth hummus for quality and taste.
Ever have left over ingredients from party meat and cheese trays? Use chunked deli meat and veggies from party trays as fillers for healthy kid-approved lettuce wraps. My family has enjoyed these so much that I now buy party trays just to make lettuce wraps for all of our lunches!
Packaged tuna in water is about as lean and clean as it gets when it comes to meats and proteins. Mix your favorite tuna with tomato, lettuce, and ripe avocado all on whole grain bread. Your kids will be asking for it for dinner as well! Recipe.
Fill packaged pita pockets with your kids' favorite sandwich fillers for a fast and tasty pre-cut, crust-free lunch. We love Ezekiel 4:9 pitas in our house! Find 10 delicious pocket recipes here. For an even easier way to make yummy pita pockets, simply fill the pitas with on-the-go salad kits.
For a most quick and delicious fruit dip, just peel open a single serve tub of Greek yogurt. What an easy way to add a little extra dessert appeal to already tempting fruit! If you have a few spare minutes, try whipping up this A-MAZ-ING peanut butter Greek yogurt dip. Fage brand also shares Greek yogurt dip recipes here.
If you haven't discovered ready pasta yet, you're going to be thanking me. Barilla brand sells pre-cooked penne, rotini, pasta elbows, and gemelli that can easily be tossed together in a mason jar with veggies and a sauce. Your kids will love that they get mac & cheese and you'll love that you can fill their tummies with wholesome veggies! Find more details here.
Cream cheese and pre-sliced deli meats make for this kid-favorite finger food. Add sliced pickles for a bit of crunch and saltiness. My boys have loved eating these since they were toddlers. Source.
Packaged raw nuts, dried fruits, and pre-popped popcorn are all perfect choices for a healthy trail mix lunch snack. You can but don't have to add a bit of sweetness with chocolate chips or candies. We really like Simply Balanced lightly salted popcorn, but here's a complete guide to all the best ready-to-eat popcorn brands. Mom Spotted shares this tasty popcorn trail mix recipe on her blog.
To cut back on unnecessary preservatives, I try to make my own homemade version of packaged foods as much as possible. But Justin's nut butter snack packs are one exception I have no problem buying! Super tasty and perfectly portioned, these will be an instant hit with your kids as a lunch time favorite.
Great post! This is perfect! My kids love these so much!
I'm glad they like them!
Thanks for sharing this healthy meal list. Id like to star with the Avocado Tuna Sandwich, avocado has been a good source of fiber for me and it has helped me with digestion.


Blog Look to the Sky... Eagles!
Look to the Sky… Eagles!
The sky above Manchaug Pond has been the focus the last few weeks with a number of eagles hunting our waters. A member from Area 2 reported spotting two immature eagles feeding at Blueberry Island and circling the other islands of the lake on Christmas Eve. Since then other members from Areas 2, 3 and 8 have reported seeing 2 immatures and 1 adult soaring, hunting, and perched high in the trees.
The giant and majestic adult pictured here was caught this week circling high over a chicken coop in Area 3. After about 5 minutes of checking out the coop, it headed toward Steven's Pond.
For a closer look at an adult Bald Eagle click on to the title of this entry and it will take you to the recent Worcester Telegram article on the recent count results held each year in Massachusetts.


text:
The Kicker, Show 12 | Seeking Conviction
March 25, 2019 , by Frank Taylor
Illustration by Mariano Santillan
Welcome to The Kicker from Carolina Public Press, a North Carolina news show bringing you conversations with journalists, sources and newsmakers from across the state.
In this episode, Carolina Public Press's managing editor Frank Taylor talks with CPP lead investigative reporter Kate Martin about Seeking Conviction: Justice elusive for NC sexual assault survivors, a multi-part investigative reporting project that CPP led in collaboration with 10 other news media partners across the state. Seeking Conviction is a data-driven investigation looking at sexual assault prosecutions statewide and in individual jurisdictions.
As Taylor and Martin describe in this episode of The Kicker, the data-driven project used information collected by the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts. Carolina Public Press analyzed 4 1/2 years of this data for sexual assault defendants whose cases both began and ended between Jan. 1, 2014, and June 30, 2018. CPP news staff teamed up with 10 other news organizations across North Carolina to discuss findings with sexual assault survivors, law enforcement, rape crisis counselors, prosecutors, medical professionals and state officials.
The result was Seeking Conviction, a series released by all partners between March 18 and March 21, 2019. The Seeking Conviction partnership included The Fayetteville Observer; The (Durham) Herald-Sun, the Hickory Daily Record, The (Raleigh) News & Observer, the (Greensboro) News & Record, North Carolina Health News, the Winston-Salem Journal, WLOS News 13, WRAL-TV and WUNC North Carolina Public Radio.
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor is the managing editor of Carolina Public Press. Contact him at ftaylor@carolinapublicpress.org.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
    
The Power of Others
Helping Leaders Make Better Decisions Faster | Helping People Leverage The Power Of Others
The Peer Advantage
Overcoming Loneliness In The C-Suite #4017
Author: Randy Cantrell Published: March 28, 2016
http://media.blubrry.com/bulanetwork/p/bulanetwork.com/audio/2016/GG-4017.mp3
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Podcasts | Spotify | More
Late one night he sits in his office staring out of his 6th floor window. Only the cleaning crews remain. And the security guard posted at the desk downstairs. Plus all the thoughts and concerns that accompany the CEO peering out into the night sky and the surrounding buildings.
Three years into the job he figured himself bright enough to have figured it out by now. After all, he's successfully navigated most every water he's stepped into. Usually with moderate ease. But this is different. At this height the air is thinner along with the company. To be fair, he's surrounded by many more people than ever before. Sometimes nothing is so lonely as a crowd.
When he was the VP of Marketing he had peers. Six of them were the inner circle of leadership. He could always walk down the hall to his close friend, the VP of Engineering. They operated in very different worlds, but were always united in their quest to propel the business forward, along with their own climb up the mountain. Tonight, he's thinking of that friendship and how at an hour like this, they'd likely be sharing coffee, perhaps something stronger. That was then. This is now. Now he's alone.
Tonight's anxiety is driven by a recent lawsuit over alleged patent-infringement. The legal team has assured him it more nuisance then substance, but they've also warned it could be a prolonged battle. The expense is one consideration, but not the primary one. Instead, it's the lost years of development and the potential market losses of a new product that has been the focal point of all product development in the last 30 months.
There are risks of hitting the pause button on the project. What if the suit drags on? What if they lose? What if they don't?
All the same questions arise when considering the risk of moving forward. It could well be throwing more money down a dry hole.
And there are the sales and profit projections hinging on the project.
No one to be mad at. He's reviewed things with engineering, product design and the legal team. Consensus is the lawsuit is ill-founded by a company with a history of patent troll behavior. No matter, it must be fought and given serious consideration.
Tonight he's giving it the umpteenth hour of worry. In 2 days he's going to assemble the team again – for yet another meeting (he's forgotten how many they've had) – and they want to know what he'd have them do. On his desk are three bound proposals, one from each department (engineering, finance and legal). Smart people, all of them. But none of them bear the responsibility on him tonight. To make the decision.
To Whom Shall We Go?
In the gospel of John, chapter 6, the apostle Peter answered the Lord's question, "Will you too go away?" — and Peter answered, "To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." (John 6:67-69)
Many times leaders find themselves asking the question, but unlike Peter — it's because we have no place to go, and no one to whom we can go. Too often the answer is, "Nobody." There's nobody to whom we can go. We simply must go it alone because the burden of such decisions belongs to us.
Friends. Family. Team members. Outside advisors. Books. Journals. Buddies. Like most in the C-suite he sometimes stretches the boundaries of input hoping for an epiphany. It's less about helpful input, feedback or advice and more about hoping for a spark of enlightenment. No, it hardly ever happens, but it can make him feel like he's giving it all he's got.
It's about 9:45pm. He smiles. Just slightly. He hears the voice of his grandmother saying, "Be careful what you wish for." From before he entered an MBA program he had his eye on the top rung of the ladder. That's what drove him to get his MBA. Here he is barely 36 months in and he's afraid. It's a longer fall from this height. With more on the line – for himself and for the company. He needs to go home. His wife knew he'd be especially late tonight. She also knows why. She's at home wrestling her own mind gnomes because she knows she's not equipped to help him professionally. And sometimes – too frequently for her liking – she's not allowed to help him much personally during these kinds of things because he grows increasingly quiet. Preoccupation with work has wrecked more time off than she can remember. It's the price the whole family must pay. Be careful what you wish for.
He logs off the computer at 9:57pm. Locks down his desk, puts the three proposals in his backpack along with his MacBook and heads out the door. On the way to the elevator he calls home. "I'm heading home. Can I pick up anything?" he asks his wife. "No, I'll snack on something when I get home," he tells her. She'll be awake, waiting for him when he arrives. It's what she does. His anxiety spreads.
This scene and millions like it are repeated daily all over the world. The size of the company doesn't matter. Just add another zero. Maybe 3 or 4. Plug in a comma here or there. The scale of the problem may grow as the dollars involved do, but problems are problems whether you're running a $2M enterprise or a $200M or a $2B. Anxiety doesn't compute like calculators on our iPhone. The business owner who is barely scraping by earning $37K a year can't be judged on having lower worries simply because he's not running a multi-million dollar corporation. Leaders at every level know loneliness.
Endurance Isn't The Same As Overcoming
We grind it out. That's what all successful people do. Some challenges must be endured because they can't be overcome. Or maybe they have to be endured until they can be overcome.
Real pain is failing to overcome an issue that otherwise could be overcome. Sometimes there are answers to help us, but we can't find them inside ourselves. We're often lonelier than we need to be because we're stuck alone with ourselves. There's nobody to help us. Nobody to help us sort it out. Figure it out. And the pressure mounts in our mind to do this heavy lifting alone. We're the leader and it's up to us to find a way.
Yet none of us are judged or rewarded on our loneliness in getting it done. Rather, we're judged on getting it done. Our careers. Our lives. Our employees. Our family. Nobody cares how we find the solution. Just find a solution. We confuse outcome with methodology and in the process we vex ourselves more and more.
There are solutions. Quite a few of them actually. My work focuses on growing business and leaders: getting new customers, serving existing customers better and not going crazy in the process. It's not about social networking. It's not about passing out business cards. It's not about motivational speeches. It's not about therapy.
It's about improvement and growth.
It is inspirational.
It's also therapeutic.
But it's hardcore business building and growing as CEOs. It's the premise of all my work – coaching or consulting. Growing leaders grow enterprises.
It's still about people doing the best work of their lives. That doesn't happen when we're alone. It happens when we open ourselves up to the possibilities made available by people committed to helping us purely because they know we're there to help them. No other agenda.
That's how you overcome the loneliness inherent in the C-suite.
To subscribe, please use the links below:
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If you have a chance, please leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking Review on iTunes. It'll help the show rank better in iTunes.
About the author: Randy Cantrell is the founder of Bula Network, LLC – an executive leadership advisory company helping leaders leverage the power of others through peer advantage, online peer advisory groups. Interested in joining us? Visit ThePeerAdvantage.com
Next post: Managing The Energy Of The Workplace #4018
Previous post: 4015 Will You Make A Better Decision Today? (Refuse To Stay Stuck)
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There are varying opinions as to what constitutes innovation, but in our industry and in the engineering world as a whole, we typically think of innovation as being the use of technologies different from those we use at the moment to do things better, faster and cheaper.
The complete industry news section from the May 2018 issue of Gear Technology.
News on the latest products in the industry.
Accurate prediction of gear dynamic factors (also known as Kv factors) is necessary to be able to predict the fatigue life of gears. Standards-based calculations of gear dynamic factors have some limitations. In this paper we use a multibody dynamic model, with all 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) of a high-speed gearbox to calculate gear dynamic factors. The findings from this paper will help engineers to understand numerous factors that influence the prediction of dynamic factors and will help them to design more reliable gears.
Onshore and offshore wind turbines boast some of the most critical assets in order to run effectively.
The complete Industry News section from the June/July 2013 issue of Gear Technology.
News about the latest products in the industry.
Special Advertising Section featuring Gear Expo exhibitors.
News about all of the upcoming products int he industry.
Gear Technology magazine begins the celebration of our 30-year anniversary.
The complete Industry News section from the October 2013 issue of Gear Technology.
Publisher Michael Goldstein explores Gear Technology's history and its future as he introduces the back issue archive online and our new features and columns for 2013.
The gear industry is full of storytellers. It's a niche market that boasts a remarkable cast of characters that have been sharing their stories with us for 30 years. In that time, the editors and staff of Gear Technology magazine have had the privilege to report the ins and outs of this highly-specialized industry. From technical articles to case studies and features, the main focus of this magazine has been to "provide a forum of discovery and innovation for you, the gear manufacturing industry." Our Publisher, Michael Goldstein, said as much in our inaugural issue of May/June 1984.
The complete product news section from the September / October 2014 Issue Gear Technology.
Publisher Michael Goldstein describes what it means to him that Gear Technology is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
The complete Industry News section from the January/February 2019 issue of Gear Technology.
As most of you know by now, the trade show formerly known as Gear Expo is now the Motion + Power Technology Expo. If you're a gear-industry veteran, you might be confused by this change. If you've been coming to the show for years - or exhibiting at it - you might even feel a little betrayed. But I'm here to tell you it's going to be alright.
The complete Product News section from the March/April 2019 issue of Gear Technology.
Liebherr and Wenzel announce sales and service agreement; MPIF releases new powder metal standard; Gear Motions announces promotions; Profilator opens new factory and more gear industry news.
See the latest gear industry products from Marposs, GWJ Technology, Norton|Saint Gobain, Mitutoyo, C&B Machinery, DMG Mori, Gear Motions and LK Metrology.
Gear Technology's complete back issue archive is now available online. Read more about the archive in this issue's GT Extras. Also highlighted are a new video from Koepfer and the Gear Technology e-mail newsletter.
The complete Product News section from the July 2018 issue of Gear Technology.
You've been reading about it, talking about it, maybe even trying it. Gear Technology has jumped aboard it feet first and begun a voyage on the World Wide Web. Beginning with this issue, an electronic version of the magazine will be online. For those of us who still find the fax machine amazing technology, this is a great leap.
This issue of Gear Technology, The Journal of Gear Manufacturing, marks the end of our second year of publication. As we approach our third year, it is time to review our statement of purpose. Gear Technology's primary goal was and is to be a reference source and a forum for the American Gear industry, and to advance gear technology throughout the world.
As I travel around the country visiting with many of our customers, I am finding that not only are we, as an advertiser in the journal, meeting our advertising needs, but you are also meeting those very high ideals that you put before us during that meeting.
The last two months have been both a time of difficulty and of growth for Gear Technology. Unexpectedly, I found myself in the hospital having surgery, and consequently out of commission for several weeks. At the same time, two individuals on our staff lost family members, and most of this period saw us getting ready for this preshow IMTS issue while being seriously short-staffed.
Positive feedback regarding Gear Technology, the Journal of Gear Manufacturing, from some of its new readers.
As the time came to write this editorial, the replies to our survey from the last issue were just starting to pour in. We were gratified by the number of responses we received and by the amount of time many of you spent answering in great detail the text questions on the survey. Because of this unusually large response, it will take us some months to log, digest and respond to all the data. Thank you for this nice "problem."
As Gear Technology moves toward its third anniversary, we feel that we have reached a point in our development where it is time to pause, reflect on our accomplishments and plan for the future.
Have you ever been to Malaysia? How about Indonesia, Brazil, Slovakia or Russia? Well, we have. We go there every issue.
Michael Goldstein talks about 25 years of Gear Technology, looking behind as well as ahead.
Publisher Michael Goldstein describes the success of Gear Technology's new e-mail newsletter programs.
Publisher Michael Goldstein describes his experiences at the IPTEX 2012 show and the unveiling of Gear Technology India.
In India, "namaste" is used as a common greeting. Although it translates literally to "I bow to you," it's often used the same way we use "hello" or "good-bye." It's a phrase commonly exchanged between individuals when they meet, and it's also used as a salutation when they part. I'm using the phrase here because I'd like to introduce you to an exciting new project and venture for Randall Publications LLC.
Expertise is a resource that's hard to sustain. We're doing our part via our "Ask the Expert" feature. How about you?
Six years ago this month, the very first issue of Gear Technology, the Journal of Gear Manufacturing, went to press. The reason for starting the publication was a straightforward one: to provide a forum for the presentation of the best technical articles on gear-related subjects from around the world. We wanted to give our readers the information they need to solve specific problems, understanding new technologies, and to be informed about the latest applications in gear design and manufacturing. The premise behind Gear Technology was also a straightforward one: the better informed our readers were about the technology, the more competitive they and their companies would be int he world gear market.
Every now and then a magazine has to take its own pulse or lose sight of its key mission - providing its readers with information they want. We did it this last year through surveys, interviews with subscribers and focus groups. Our basic question was, how are we doing?
Sometimes in the pressure to meet deadlines and handle the Crisis of the Day, we lose sight of the forest for the trees. As a partial cure for this syndrome, I recently reviewed the six interviews with gear industry leaders that have appeared in our pages during the last year, trying to get a grasp of a larger picture. It struck me with renewed force how six men, each with a lifetime of experience in this business, see the gear industry forest the same way.
Just back from IMTS and once again, I'm struck by the enormous vitality and strength of the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy. It has made a phoenix-like rise from the grave dug for it by pundits in the '80s and has come back more robust and competitive than ever.
Every once in a while something happens to fundamentally change the nature of your business. Despite the best of intentions and the most careful planning, there's no way we can anticipate every event. What do you do, for example, when your two biggest competitors merge, when the economy collapses in the region that imports your products or when key employees leave your company? Your reactions may make the difference between success and struggling to survive.
Until recently, there was a void in the quality control of gear manufacturing in this country (Ref. 1). Gear measurements were not traceable to the international standard of length through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The U.S. military requirement for traceability was clearly specified in the military standard MIL-STD-45662A (Ref. 2). This standard has now been replaced by commercial sector standards including ISO 9001:1994 (Ref. 3), ISO/IEC Guide 25 (Ref, 4), and the U.S. equivalent of ISO/IEC Guide 25 - ANSI/NCSL Z540-2-1997 (Ref. 5). The draft replacement to ISO/IEC Guide 25 - ISO 17025 states that measurements must either be traceable to SI units or reference to a natural constant. The implications of traceability to the U.S. gear industry are significant. In order to meet the standards, gear manufacturers must either have calibrated artifacts or establish their own traceability to SI units.
Let's face it. The Internet is still, to many of us, exciting, confusing, terrifying and frustrating by turns. The buzzwords change so fast that even the most high tech companies have a hard time keeping up. Cyberspace. Firewall, Java. E-commerce. The list goes on.
Welcome to the new Gear Technology. With this issue we begin bringing you a new look - a new cover, new graphics, a new, broader and more inclusive editorial focus. Our goal is to be an even better resource for the entire gear industry.
It always strikes me as something of an irony that the brightest holidays of the year fall in the deepest part of the darkest season. They come when the days are the shortest, the clouds the thickest, the weather (at least in Chicago), the worst. And yet it is at precisely this time when we celebrate the happier human emotions of family, love, and charity and somewhat arbitrarily declare a "new" year.
Beginning with our next issue, some of the promised changes in format for Gear Technology will begin showing up in these pages. As part of our commitment to provide you with important information about the gear and gear products industry, we are expanding our coverage. In addition to continuing to publish some of the best results of gear research and development throughout the world, we will be adding special columns covering vital aspects of the gearing business.
Investigation of Gear Rattle Phenomena The article by Messrs. Rust, Brandl and Thien was very interesting in its description of the problem and of some of the interactions which occur.
This issue of Gear Technology marks another milestone in the life of our magazine. After publishing 51 issues - nearly 200 articles containing close to 2,500 pages - we're ready to try something new.


The night Caroline Presley makes a wish on the first star her life changes overnight. When Lila Cutler, Editor-in-Chief of Lilac, decides she wants to move on, she picks Caroline as her replacement. Despite Caroline's misgivings about whether the online magazine can continue its success, she accepts. Within a month, the media world is buzzing about Lilac's new stylemaker.
Soon the country's most fabulous aestheticians, stylists, make-up artists, chefs, and trainers are at Caroline's disposal and they are eager to please.
Her new position and popularity also bring new attention from the men in her life. Suddenly her rush Jack wants her attention. Brandon, the hot photographer, asks her out. Caroline doesn't mind the mysterious circumstances behind her newfound success, but when she looks in their eyes, she wants to know the attraction and feelings are real and not just the power of the stars.