text:
Skylanders Giants Starter Kit
Daniel Hirshleifer
If you have a kid or know anyone who has them, chances are you've heard of 'Skylanders'. The game, which combines toys and video gaming into one wallet-depleting package, was a huge hit that sold over 30 million copies. The game requires that you purchase figures before you can play with that character. The cynic in me feels like this is nothing but a cash grab. Playing through the new title, 'Skylanders Giants', only reinforces that impression.
'Giants' focuses on the titular large-size characters, an older generation of Skylanders that disappeared after an epic battle. The plot is threadbare and mainly irrelevant, and you can easily skip the entire story and still understand the whole game. The gameplay is no more complex. You head through the level, punch, shooting, or blasting whatever gets in your way. Every so often you have to solve a basic puzzle or procure an item to get past an obstacle. Nothing that will keep the interest of a gamer for more than ten minutes.
Of course, the game is designed for kids, and everyone I've talked to who has kids says that 'Skylanders' is practically perfect children's entertainment. Not too difficult for the kids, and the multiplayer is easy to drop in and out of, allowing parents to play along too. In that regard, 'Skylanders Giants' doesn't do anything too drastic to rock the boat.
The giants do slightly change the dynamics. Big bruisers, the giants can get through practically anything, including smashing through walls that used to require a bomb. They have double the hit points of some of the other Skylanders, meaning they can take on any enemy in the game without trouble. Their hits do a lot more damage, making them complete tanks. The game has even added obstacles like boulders and cracked earth that only the giants can get past. And the figures do look cool sitting on the portal pad, with eyes and other elements that light up.
The thing is, the giants make the game even easier than it already was. I was able to play through entire levels of 'Skylanders Giants' on the hardest difficulty without taking a single hit because of the power that the giants have. The only drawback of playing with a giant is that they are incredibly slow, making progress through the levels tedious. But you can apply hats to increase their speed, almost entirely negating the need to every play with another Skylander.
Of course, the developers must have realized that it would be easy to play through either 'Skylanders' game with a single character, so they add in areas where certain types of characters are stronger than others, and areas that can only be accessed by certain characters. Even more insidiously, the game includes "soul gems" that prompt on-screen trailers for new figures. At $15 per figure, with forty-eight figures available, I can't help but feel like this is less of a video game and more of a way to print cash.
That being said, the figure/game connection is well designed. You get a portal pad that plugs in to your system (the original game's pad required batteries, so at least here you'll save money constantly replacing those), and at any time in the game you can drop a figure on to play using that character. Each character levels up and gains their own items, and the data is stored in the figure itself. You can take figures over to a friend's house and they'll have all the upgrades they received from your play-through at home. Even better, upgrades you got from playing the first game still work in the new title. Of course, you can't take new characters and use them in the old game, but that's to be expected.
When it comes to basic gameplay, though, 'Skylanders' pales in comparison to the Lego games, which not only are fun for gamers of all ages, but include collectability and a wide range of characters built into the game without additional purchases. And they have a great sense of humor, while 'Skylanders' is juvenile. What's the incentive for a parent to get this over the Lego titles?
The one place that 'Skylanders' does shine is in the competitive multiplayer, which pits two Skylanders against each other in a 'Super Smash Bros' style fight. Playing against another person is far more satisfying than bashing the brain-dead AI, and the match-ups feel more epic when it's two characters you've played with throughout the game. 'Skylanders Giants' does not allow online multiplayer, nor does it allow more than two people to play together at once.
'Skylanders Giants' takes place in another world, populated by floating islands, which are a neat visual theme. However, the graphics themselves look cheap and rushed. There's not much detail to the characters or the surroundings, and textures look low-res. The characters themselves look mildly grotesque in their attempts to anthropomorphize everything from whales to molten lava. Even compared to other children's games, 'Skylanders' underwhelms in the visual department.
'Skylanders Giants' improves the audio over its predecessor. The biggest change is that many of the Skylanders now get voices, which is a big improvement over the muddled fake language they spoke last time. There are a few surprises on the voice acting list, such as Bobcat Goldthwait and George Takei. Patrick Warburton returns and remains one of the highlights of the game.
The gameplay itself doesn't offer anything that would promote repeat plays, but the fact that you level up each character individually means that your kids will probably want too play the game for each figure that you buy them. Additionally, the competitive multiplayer remains fun long after the main story has become a drag. The game does support drop-in and drop-out co-op, so you can play with your kids when you have some spare time, and jump back out when you need to do something.
If you have a child, and that child liked 'Skylanders', they will also like 'Skylanders Giants', as it's virtually the same game with some minor improvements. As the adult buying all the 'Skylanders' figures, you might be less than thrilled that there are now even more expensive toys to buy. The total cost of ownership is high, with the cost of all the figures coming out to over $500. If 'Skylanders Giants' was a complete blast to play, it might be worth the investment, but as it is, the series can't touch the quality or fun of the Lego series of games. And those cost significantly less, leaving me to wonder why anyone would bother to get 'Skylanders Giants' at all. The one bit of good news is that if you did purchase the last game, you can use all those figures in the new one with their upgrades intact. If you haven't yet gotten into the series, you'd be better off staying away from the money-sink that is 'Skylanders'.
Portal Pad
3 Action Figures
Audio Formats


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Q: Making WebApi method asynchronous - ASP.NET I have the following action in my Web Api controller:
[HttpPost]
[Route("api/geom")]
public HttpResponseMessage AddRef([FromBody]Peticion empObj)
{
    using (SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection("Server=xx;database=xx;User Id=xx;Password=xx"))
    {
        string query = "UPDATE [dbo].[tmp_parcelas] SET[geom] = geometry::STGeomFromText('" + empObj.geom + "',25830) WHERE[idparcela] = " + empObj.id + ";";
        using (SqlCommand querySaveStaff = new SqlCommand(query))
        {
            querySaveStaff.Connection = con;
            con.Open();
            querySaveStaff.ExecuteNonQuery();
            con.Close();
        }
    }
    return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK);
}

It receives a lot of requests in a very short period of time (like 60 in 1 second or so), so I guess it is necessary to make the method asynchronous.

How can I make the controller action run asynchronously?

Thanks in advance.

A: In order to make it truly asynchronous, you need to do few things:

*

*Change return type of the method to Task<HttpResponseMessage>

*Mark it with async keyword so you can asynchronously wait (await) on other tasks inside of it

*Use asynchronous version of methods for opening database connection and query execution

So, after refactoring, method should look like this:
[HttpPost]
[Route("api/geom")]
public async Task<HttpResponseMessage> AddRef([FromBody]Peticion empObj)
{
    using (SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection("connection-string"))
    {
        string query = "query";
        using (SqlCommand querySaveStaff = new SqlCommand(query))
        {
            querySaveStaff.Connection = con;
            await con.OpenAsync();
            await querySaveStaff.ExecuteNonQueryAsync();
            con.Close(); // in this case not needed will be closed when disposed
        }
    }
    return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Fresh crispy cabbage w/ garlic flavored dipping miso sauce.
Original Japanese style mashed potato w/ soft boiled egg.
Pan fried bitter gourd vegetable & sausage topped w/ dried bonito flakes in a spectacular sizzling bowl.
Deep fried round green eyes fish.
Marinated celery w/ dry chili, garlic & seaweed.
Cucumber stick w/ garlic flavored miso paste & special wasabi mayonnaise dipping sauce.


The relationship between conductors defines a cable's most basic electrical values (capacitance and inductance). However, even when those variables are kept in a reasonable balance, the relationship between conductors can be varied in ways that greatly affect the sound. The Star-Quad construction of GO-4 allows for significantly better dynamic contrast and information intelligibility than if the same conductors were run in parallel.
Any single size or shape of conductor has a specific distortion profile. Even though radially symmetrical conductors (solid or tubular) have the fewest discontinuities, any conductor of a particular size does have a sonic signature. SST is a method for significantly reducing the awareness of these character flaws by using a precise combination of different size conductors. The different SST-determined conductor sizes used in GO-4 allow an exceptionally clear, clean and dynamic sound.
The metal breakouts on either end of GO-4 are marked "Speaker End" or "Amp End." Please use cables in the direction required.


text:
import React, { Component } from 'react';

export default class PhoneGraphic extends Component {
  props: { sources: { android: string, iphone: string } };
  state = { activeExample: this.props.alt ? 'android' : 'iphone' };
  render() {
    const {activeExample} = this.state;
    return (

           this.setState({ activeExample: 'android' })}>
            Android

           this.setState({ activeExample: 'iphone' })}>
            iPhone

          <div className={`android ${activeExample === 'android'}`}>

          <div className={`iphone ${activeExample === 'iphone'}`}>

    );
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


". . lemme see a little wrath! Smite me, O mighty smiter!
We have ALOT of poor, meek, and hungry in this country too, but unfortunately, we have ALOT of people infected with that plague of stupidity called political correctness, who think it's perfectly sensible to solve everybody else's problems in the world before our own.
"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? "
And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?"
But he (Jesus the Jew) turned, and rebuked them, and said, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of."
Or were you referring to the wrath of Mexico? Sorry, I get confused when people use words like "wrath" and mighty smiter stuff . . please clarify.
people are being treated? Where in his scriptures does he say that the Mexican people are not as good or worthy than the Americans?
Terrific post! Wish I could rep you but I have to spread the love.
Mexico is actually not a poor country. The fact that so many of it's citizens are very poor is the fault of Mexicans, not us who have a more just society.
Maybe Jesus would like to see a Mexican stand up and work for justice for his people in their own country.
Illegal immigration is actually a very selfish act. It benefits the larger society not at all, the illegal gets out, often abandoning his children in order to do so, breaks many laws and commits fraud and theft to come here, pays organized crime rings to help smuggle him over.
What good does any of that do the rest? The illegal may or may not send money back to his family -- and if he does it just creates inflation that harms those who aren't getting remittance money.
Also as long as everyone is just packing up planning to head into the USA, no one is working for reforms or long overdue change. No one is trying to end corruption, no one is working to improve a damn thing. Illegal immigration is nothing but every man for himself.
It may not be on topic, but my church's youth group just got back from Mexico. Yes, they did the job that most pro-illegals wont do and went to Mexico and actually tried to make a difference. Most of them did not speak english and they still went to Mexico to attack the problems that cause Mexican illegal immigration.
I wish pro-illegals would go to the countries that most illegals come from and try to improve life there instead of interfereing with life here at our expense.
Our groups take turns going down there. so there is a group there 6 days of the week.
Man, why do charity if youre going to gloat over it? lol.
And you dont know what people do or don't do, so easy on the speculation.
Okay how many of your pro-illegal friends actually make the commitment to go to Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, etc? I dont hear of many US-born pro-illegals actually going to these poor foreign countries to help improve conditions. I believe that would be more effective than rallying for illegals unlimited rights here in the US. BTW that rallying is falling on deafer ears.
Very good point. Just like all the Mexican protestors who protest at the drop of a hat here but won't do a thing about their beloved patria. They're so quick to pull out their Mexican flags but will not take their marches to Mexico.
GLOAT!! I see that you are a tad 'light' in what is written in the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth book. God still loves you.


The North Carolina Community Development Association (NCCDA) was formed in 1979 to serve as a resource to community and economic development practitioners statewide.
NCCDA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in North Carolina.
Provide connecting opportunities for practitioners across the State.
As a member, you will have access to members-only content such as presentations from past workshops.
Become a member today by going to our Join Us page!
Our members are doing wonderful things to promote community development throughout North Carolina! Send us information about what you're doing and we'll highlight your work here.


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text:
Andrew in Drag by The Magnetic Fields More
One Track Tracks/Albums
Written By Michael Wood Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
The first track to reach the ears with 2012 stamped on the label and it will be hard to find better than The Magnetic Fields playful gender romp Andrew In Drag which at a brisk 2:12 revisits the joy of early 1980s Sheffield electro-pop, adds a customary dash of Bowie and delivers all in Stephin Merritt's acerbic New York tones. It promises much for the album to come.
That promise not having been fulfilled on the 2010 album Realism which seemed to be exactly the album that The Magnetic Fields wanted to make but not really the album that those who had been in awe of 69 Love Songs or impressed by the inventiveness of Distortion wanted to hear. Too picked, too much of a project and not enough of the sardonic take on pop that the band have become known for.
"I've always been a ladies man/and I don't have to brag/but I've become a ladies by/for Andrew in drag". Its rare to have a band so impressive and funny at the same time.
This post is about The Magnetic Fields
Posted in One Track, Tracks/Albums | Add Your Review
The Magnetic Fields Play Place Like This More
Written By Michael Wood Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
The Magnetic Fields at Manchester Cathedral, Manchester
On a low stage at the grand auspice of Manchester Cathedral The Magnetic Fields are a curious enchantment. The first popular music band to perform in the religious hall since the 17th century Stephin Merritt - perched on a stool some two meets from the front row of the audience growls through Popa Was A Rodeo intoning "What are we doing in this dive bar/how can we live in a place like this? sweeping his arm behind him to the grandiose splendour.
The question is valid and sticks in the mind. How did the dour gay New Yorker, a refined singer, a cello player, a classic guitarist and the omni-talented Claudia Gonson end up with this level of respectability? One doubts that this night was ever part of any plan. It is a delicious irony and one which does not go unmentioned. From the underrated last twenty three of 69 Love Songs comes Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget - a double header:
Merritt: I'll turn into God Himself and then you'll come to me
Gonson: Well I will not believe in you and then where will you be...
Arriving late three seats in the front row are waiting for us for no good reason as if Merritt were about to dismount his stool and in the style of the new offensive comedians start abusing audience members who feared being sighted.
The inner workings of The Magnetic Fields at close range is a sight to behold and for a time one wonders if Merritt is really permanently annoyed - it would seem from his expression he is tonight - and that Gonson is that vivacious. An attempt to swipe guitarist John Woo and cello man Sam Devol's shared songbook is rebuffed by one of the crew after the gig. "They keep working on it, you know, changing things each night" he says "so they still need it."
For some it is as entrancing as music gets. Seated and discouraged from applauding it is more a performance than a gig and as such it obeys rules if not of the classic theatre then of the theatrical review. Kiss Me Like You Mean It is chutzpah, Shipwrecked bawdy comedy, Night Falls Like A Grand Piano definitive, and heartbreaking.
The Magnetic Fields are an acquired taste though - there are elements of tweeness and reverence in the audience which border on the grotesque - but one with substance. Departing on train it is speculated that should all be killed in a hideous ball of fire in a crash then, on balance, it would have been a good night.
Inspiring cynical lyricism in that way before The Magnetic Fields are infectious.
Posted in Live Review | Add Your Review
Navigated, Priceless More
Written By Michael Wood Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
The Magnetic Fields at Town Hall, New York City
Strung along the stage at New York's Town Hall are Magnetic Fields. "We are here to promote our new record, erm, Distortion" says Claudia Gonson sitting behind a piano looking nervously across to the mercurial yet miserable Stephin Merritt and in the next hour and a half they will craft music worth crossing the Earth for.
For the uninitiated Magnetic Fields are a strange combination of New York curio quirks. The lead performer Merritt pushes a finger in is ear to deaden the sound of applause - a medical thing - but as a symbol of the band's reluctance to conform to a norm of pop music it is telling.
More a recital than a gig they are a mandolin, a piano, a cello, am acoustic guitar and drafted in singer Shirley Simms who begins the night with the ironic yet bitter paean to axe attacks California Girls.
So the scene is set with Gonson - all Annie Hall chic and disorganisation - playing good wife to Merritt's sniped, self depreciating one liners and perhaps this would not play elsewhere but this is the home town and Magnetic Fields are in accepting company.
They run through the love song for the City - Come Back From San Francisco - which sounds like it is on the edge of shattering and Gonson offers that that tune comes from the seminal 69 Love Songs which is a hard to follow work and one that has forced the band into new directions over the past decade. The noise pop of Distortion is missing tonight and tracks are acoustic, beautiful, chipped from marble.
Old Fools is a typical example with the strings of a cello replacing feedback howls it is rendered different and softer and the snide Merritt is replaced by one heartfelt and tender. For a band that delight in playfulness the soul shows bright tonight.
The set list meanders around the newer work dipping back to include Lovers On The Moon which is shorn of its electro pop beginnings of fifteen years ago and arrives fresh and wholeheartedly. They fiddle with tracks from spin off band The Gothic Archies and as if to underline the point that this is a performance and not a gig they take a break, an interval.
I Thought I Was Your Boyfriend is plucked from quirky to quality and The Nun's Litany has vocal changed from Shirley to Stephin and raises chuckles. No chuckle, no not even the sound of a pin dropping as Stephin pours heart, soul, energy and endeavour into a breaking rendition of Papa Was A Rodeo which stands as the greatest version of any song I've heard live. Every line filled with bittersweet promise and hope for a love not lost.
There are dry eyes in the house but they are not mine.
Am encore includes a funky version of Three Way, a stripped back Claudia moving through Take Ecstacy With Me and ends on Stephin's solo rendition of The Book Of Love and the night is done.
The globe navigated and the prize priceless.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Grassroots campaign by small business owners seeks to address the unfair advantage given to big retailers this year – encouraging people to #ShopEthicalInstead
November 24, 2020 November 20, 2020 Stuart Mitchell
A community of small businesses has banded together to encourage people to #ShopEthicalInstead and think about the positive impact their purchases could have this Christmas, at a time when many are re-evaluating their choices as a result of Covid-19, and other issues such as climate change.
32 million people have been supporting local and small businesses online since the country first went into lockdown in March – almost half the UK's population! 55% of the population intend to consciously spend more in local shops after lockdown as a show of support, according to Business Mole.
This consumer support couldn't come at a better time, with many independent businesses forced to close for a second lockdown, and others remaining open online but experiencing a significant drop in sales. British Independent Retail Association (BIRA) found that 21,000 independent shops across the UK did not re-open after the first lockdown, and the country is set to lose up to 50% of independent retail by March 2021 if the sector does not receive more support.
Meanwhile, large "essential" retailers remain open, with shelves stocked high with Christmas gifts, toys and clothes alongside groceries and essentials – providing an unfair competitive advantage to these companies. Amazon have also reported a 37% increase in earnings during the pandemic and are expecting sales to soar again as Black Friday and Cyber Monday entice deal-hungry shoppers at the end of the month, despite some backlashes about their tax payments.
This month, the small business community has rallied behind the grassroots #ShopEthicalInstead campaign, to encourage shoppers to "vote with their wallets" and support small businesses with an ethical and environmental focus instead of the big retail giants.
The campaign is running across social media until Christmas Eve, and includes an online marketplace, digital advent calendar recommending ethical and sustainable products and a social media challenge to help small business owners tell their story and showcase their products.
#ShopEthicalInstead was originally launched by the small business membership organisation, #EthicalHour in 2017, as a positive alternative to Black Friday for those who don't want to boycott it, but are keen to avoid the excessive mass consumerism at this time of year.
Since Sunday 1 November 2020, the #ShopEthicalInstead hashtag has already been used over 541,000 times across social media by small businesses and their supporters, showcasing their products, recommending businesses to support and sharing their purchases.
Hellen Stirling-Baker is the Founder of Small Stuff UK, an independent toy shop in Crookes, Sheffield, who has been campaigning for more clarity around the unfair lockdown rules and participating in #ShopEthicalInstead. Hellen's sales have already dropped by -40% year on year due to lack of footfall and forced closures. She says campaigns like this are essential:
"In the run-up to Christmas a shop like mine would normally be incredibly busy; the hustle and bustle of the high street, late night openings for pubs and shops and the local Christmas markets encourage both locals and people from further a-field to shop with us for their toys, gifts, cards and children's clothes.
We don't have the same brand awareness as the big retailers, so on our own we can't compete. Campaigns like this help us reach new audiences, drive more traffic to our website and give us a sense of connection and community at what is proving to be a worrying and uncertain time for small business owners. It's reassuring to know you're not alone, and there's a whole audience of people who want to support you."
In a poll of their 20K Twitter audience, #EthicalHour found that 74% of people are planning to support small businesses this holiday season, with 25% saying they will shop from small businesses exclusively.
Shoppers can discover an array of ethical Christmas gifts through #ShopEthicalInstead by:
Visiting the virtual marketplace featuring 30 independent ethical & sustainable shops, launching on Thursday 26 November. [http://shop.ethicalhour.com/]
visiting the virtual advent calendar every day from Tuesday 1 December, where 24 ethical and sustainable products will be revealed day by day. [www.instagram.com/shopethicalinstead]
following the #ShopEthicalInstead hashtag on Twitter and Instagram, and @shopethicalinstead on Instagram.
Sian Conway, Founder of Ethical Hour, who started the #ShopEthicalInstead campaign in 2017, says:
"It's incredibly empowering to bring small businesses together through a campaign that strives to shift attention away from the shopping frenzy of Black Friday, to independent businesses offering gorgeous ethical products. I urge shoppers to buy mindfully this year and support independent businesses that rely on the Christmas period to survive."
Ethical businesses can also get involved by following @shopethicalinstead on Instagram and using #ShopEthicalInstead in their posts.
Useful statistics:
Last year #ShopEthicalInstead reached 495,000 people on social media (source: EthicalHour)
Eight in ten Black Friday purchases – and the plastic they are wrapped in – end up in landfill, incineration or low quality recycling (source: Green Alliance).
During Black Friday and Cyber Monday air pollution spikes due to more delivery vans on the road (source: The Guardian).
According to research 93% of people surveyed said they're concerned about the environment (source: Forbes).
Further reading on the impact lockdown is having on independent businesses can be found here.
News#ShopEthicalInstead, Ethical Hour
Co-op wraps up the year with plastic and glitter free festive range
PR and marketing executives from major companies among the largest and most influential panel of judges ever assembled for a journalism prize in Africa
June 11, 2021 Stuart Mitchell 1
Ethical Marketing Podcast Episode 1 – Sian Conway-Wood on Greenwashing
Today we launch our very first podcast! Apologies for some of the sound issues, we will...
January 19, 2021 Stuart Mitchell 0
Ethical Hour and ContentCal join forces to boost small businesses
The world's largest online community for purpose-driven business founders, #EthicalHour, is launching a new partnership with...
July 8, 2019 Stuart Mitchell 0
Small business community commit to the Sustainable Development Goals with month long campaign showcasing social and environmental action
Small business owners are renewing their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals this July, through a...


text:
As Maine hospitals see another surge of COVID patients, hopeful signs emerge
Preliminary trends in other parts of the Northeast indicate that Maine could see a downturn in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks.
By Joe LawlorPortland Press Herald
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Disaster Medical Assistance Team members treat a patient at Maine Medical Center in December. Photo contributed by Maine Medical Center
COVID-19 hospitalizations reached another record on Wednesday, further stretching the capacity of the state's health care system as hospitals await help from the Maine Army National Guard and a federal surge response team.
Despite the spike in overall patients, the number of people in intensive care remained virtually unchanged. No additional deaths were reported Wednesday.
New COVID-19 cases: 1,377
Total cases: 156,532
New cases, 7-day average: 998.4
New deaths: 0
Total deaths: 1,623
Hospitalizations: 413
Total critical care beds: 382
Available critical care beds: 49
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention again revised its vaccination web page Wednesday and blamed a computer algorithm failure for a series of data swings over the past week.
On Tuesday, the CDC's vaccine dashboard said 66 percent of Maine residents were fully vaccinated, a significant drop from the 71 percent vaccination rate the agency posted a week before. It issued an explanation saying the problem was that "some vaccine clinics" had miscounted booster shots as second doses and those doses had to be removed from the count.
On Wednesday, however, the agency updated the web page once again to say 72 percent of Maine residents are fully vaccinated.
"It is correct as of now," Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the CDC, said during a media briefing Wednesday.
Shah also provided a new explanation: a problem with a computer algorithm.
Shah said the state's raw data was correct all along, but the computer program used to present the data on its web page was misclassifying doses. The problem began with the recent expansion of booster eligibility, he said. State officials noticed the error last week and worked with the website vendor to correct the algorithm, according to Shah.
And there are some preliminary signs – based on what is happening in the Boston area and New York – that the omicron wave in Maine soon could peak and begin subsiding.
The number of people hospitalized in Maine jumped to 413 on Wednesday from 395 on Tuesday, eclipsing the previous pandemic record set Monday. COVID-19 patients in intensive care, meanwhile, ticked up from 105 on Tuesday to 106 on Wednesday. Patients requiring mechanical ventilation declined from 60 to 57.
The trends in Maine so far appear to mirror what has been reported in other U.S. cities where omicron has become dominant, with hospitalizations increasing but ICU utilization flat or declining slightly. Hospitals are straining under the surge of patients and staff absences, but COVID-19 patients infected with the omicron variant are less likely to need critical care or life support.
Meanwhile, there are signs in other parts of the country that the omicron surge already is on the downslope. That is consistent with the experience of other countries where omicron arrived earlier – the United Kingdom, South Africa and Denmark – that suggests the U.S. could experience a huge spike in cases followed by a quick downward turn in just a few weeks.
SIGNS OF EASING
In Greater Boston, the wastewater is routinely surveyed for the presence of COVID-19, and levels that rose dramatically in mid-December to early January have dropped about 40 percent in one week. There also are signs that omicron is easing in New York, with cases plateauing recently in the state, and declining in New York City.
Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a media briefing Wednesday that the wastewater data from Boston is "a little uplifting."
"In epidemiological time, Maine is approximately a week behind the Greater Boston area, and about 10 to 12 days behind New York," Shah said.
In Maine, neither the state nor any large city is testing wastewater for COVID-19. However, Yarmouth has been testing its wastewater for COVID-19 since September 2020. In the latest report, which covers sampling done Jan. 3-4, the coronavirus's presence in the town's wastewater reached its highest level since Yarmouth began testing. However, the rate of increase had begun to slow, and testing results in Yarmouth are about a week behind the Greater Boston results.
"The current stretch of high viral levels has lasted longer and had consistently higher levels than any previous period (including January 2021)," according to an explanation of the results on Yarmouth's website. "Fortunately, the rate of increase of 18 percent in the wastewater viral concentration since the December 21 test is slightly lower than the rates of increase of 30 percent, 54 percent and 33 percent during the previous three weeks. … Let's hope that this trend continues."
NEW CONTACT TRACING RULES
Meanwhile, the Maine CDC and Maine Department of Education announced new rules Wednesday that ease the requirements for contact tracing of COVID-19 cases in school districts that have mask mandates in place. The change is the latest response to the more contagious omicron variant, which can be transmitted through more casual contact than previous strains.
"Schools enforcing a universal masking policy may choose to suspend contact tracing in light of the transmissibility of the omicron variant and its impact on the effectiveness of contact tracing," the department said in a news release. Schools that do not have a masking policy must still conduct contact tracing.
Shah said contact tracing is less effective considering how contagious omicron is and its shorter incubation period, making it harder to detect in time to make quarantine and isolation strategies effective. He said "trying to catch omicron by contact tracing is like trying to catch a bullet train by bicycle."
Kelli Deveaux, Maine DOE spokeswoman, said in a statement that the agency does not keep a list of school districts that don't have mask mandates.
"We continue to urge communities to demand that their schools utilize the strategies that have been proven to reduce transmission of COVID-19, thereby keeping staff and students safer and in school," Deveaux said.
Also on Wednesday, Maine reported 1,377 more COVID-19 cases, while Gov. Janet Mills called on the Maine Army National Guard to assist health care systems strained during the omicron wave.
CASE COUNT DE-EMPHASIZED
The case count is increasingly being de-emphasized by public health experts as a way to track the virus and assess the risk of infection. Because state officials are dealing with so many tests, and because many people are taking at-home tests and not reporting the results to the state, the daily case counts from the Maine CDC don't necessarily capture the entirety of the current picture. Only a portion of new infections are included and many are from positive tests that are a week or more old.
With Maine hospitals strained, Mills is deploying up to 169 Guard members to non-clinical support roles at health care facilities across the state. It's the second time during the pandemic that Mills has activated the Guard to assist hospitals. The Guard will begin its work next week and continue through the end of February.
"The Guard members will help hospitals maintain capacity by freeing up clinical staff to focus on patient care," Mills said in a news release. "Their assistance will open up additional beds at nursing facilities, in swing bed units and at other 'decompression sites' that accept patients discharged from hospitals.
"I wish we did not have to take this step, but the rise in hospitalizations – caused primarily by those who are not vaccinated – is stretching the capacity of our health care system thin, jeopardizing care for Maine people, and putting increased strain on our already exhausted health care workers."
Gov. Mills to send 169 more National Guard members to help Maine's hospitals
Mainers respond to Westbrook woman's grief over headstone kept from husband's grave
Gulf of Maine waters warmed to highest fall temperatures on record
coronavirus, coronavirus maine, COVID-19, Times Record News, vaccine


If you Live in or Near Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
Or Morecambe and Lancaster Areas.
If you are having problems with your computer.
at a time which suits you.
They will drive to your premises, spend half an hour on your computer diagnosing and correcting faults and any computer malfunctions.
You will then be sent a report showing any major faults and any recommendations which would improve your computer.


Cartoon Network Enterprises has unveiled a custom DVD-on-demand programs that lets users create fully customizable discs featuring their choice of some 100 episodes from the network's Adult Swim series.
The program, called Adult Swim's Build a Custom DVD, will let users pick their favorite episodes and design the cover and disc art. The custom DVDs are priced at a flat rate of $20 and are shipped to the buyer within 48 hours.
About 100 episodes are now available to the program from such series as Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Venture. Bros., Sealab 2021, Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, The Drinky Crow Show and Lucy, Daughter of the Devil.


text:
Eric Steven Raymond (né le  à Boston, Massachusetts, aux États-Unis), connu également sous les initiales ESR, est un hacker américain célèbre à qui l'on doit notamment la popularisation du terme « open source » par opposition à celui de « free software » (logiciel libre). Il est l'auteur du livre La Cathédrale et le Bazar qui résume ses points de vue sur ce sujet.

Open source / Free software
La différence terminologique entre « open source » et « logiciel libre » a pour but de souligner une divergence de vues idéologique avec Richard Stallman, fondateur de la Free Software Foundation. Alors que ce dernier met en avant les mérites plutôt éthiques et philosophiques des logiciels libres, Eric Raymond quant à lui rejette cette rhétorique qu'il qualifie de « très séduisante » mais qu'il juge moralisatrice et normative. Il préfère souligner, de manière plus pragmatique, la qualité des logiciels à code source ouvert d'un point de vue purement technique, utilitaire et économique. Il pense notamment que c'est beaucoup plus efficace pour convaincre le grand public ainsi que les entreprises.
En outre pour lui le terme « Free Software » est un objet de confusion du fait qu'en anglais free signifie gratuit (or il n'y a pas forcément d'identité entre un logiciel libre et un logiciel gratuit).

Eric Raymond a souvent critiqué de manière virulente la Free Software Foundation et la licence GNU GPL, et notamment sa volonté hégémonique. Il pense que si ces licences ont été utiles au départ, elles ne le sont plus : étant donné que le développement libre est plus efficace que le développement non-libre, un auteur qui développerait un code non-libre à partir d'un code libre serait immanquablement puni économiquement par la production d'un code moins efficace que les améliorations libres du code libre. L'économie de marché (rapport coût-avantage, choix du public…) ferait tout le travail du copyleft ou de ces contre-licences, sans décourager les nouveaux arrivants.

Éléments biographiques
Avant de s'installer en Pennsylvanie en 1971, Eric Raymond a vécu au Venezuela. Il affirme que c'est sa paralysie cérébrale congénitale qui l'a motivé à envisager un avenir dans l'informatique.

Il commence sa carrière dans le développement de logiciel propriétaire entre 1979 et 1985, expérience qu'il regrette et dont il dit avoir beaucoup souffert à titre personnel.

Utilisant internet depuis 1976, il s'est impliqué dans ses activités d'ingénierie en 1983. Il a influencé le design du système de noms de domaines (DNS), écrit une bonne partie du transport SMTP, participé aux RFC.
Il a été éditeur du Jargon File depuis qu'il l'a adopté en 1990.

C'est en 1997, qu'il acquiert une notoriété comme un des importants leaders et théoriciens du mouvement open source, qui est en fait une scission de la FSF, certains membres voulant prendre leurs distances avec une attitude qu'ils jugeaient sectaire ou intégriste de la part de certains autres.

À partir de la fin des années 1990, en partie grâce à la popularité de son essai La Cathédrale et le Bazar, Raymond devient une voix importante dans le mouvement open source. Il cofonde l'Open Source Initiative (OSI) en 1998, assumant le rôle autoproclamé d'ambassadeur de l'open source auprès de la presse, des entreprises et du public. Il reste actif au sein de l'OSI, mais quitte la présidence de l'OSI en . Au début du mois de , il est retiré de deux listes de diffusion de l'Open Source Initiative en raison de messages qui violaient le code de conduite de l'OSI.

Les productions informatiques d'Eric Raymond sont moins connues que celles d'autres hackers célèbres tels que Richard Stallman ou Linus Torvalds. On lui doit notamment quelques contributions à GNU Emacs et à des bibliothèques Unix, puis au jeu vidéo La Bataille pour Wesnoth. Il est surtout connu comme le principal hacker des bibliothèques Lisp de GNU Emacs des années 1991 à 1993, mais également pour ses mises à jour du client de messagerie Fetchmail. Il est aussi l'auteur de nombreux didacticiels, Howto et de FAQ, dont un certain nombre font partie du Projet de Documentation Linux (), et a publié en 2003 The Art of Unix Programming.

En 2005, il réduit ses activités dans l'Open Source Initiative et rejoint en  l'équipe de Freespire, une distribution Linux dérivée du système d'exploitation Linspire.

En , Raymond participe à la création du site hacktiviste NedaNet, fondé en hommage à Neda Soltan, pour  à travers des serveurs proxy, des anonymiseurs À ce titre, il a été l'objet de menaces, dont une menace de mort sur son blog qu'il affirme avoir signalée au FBI, qui la prendrait au sérieux.

Autres intérêts
En plus de son intérêt pour l'informatique, et parfois de manière complémentaire, Raymond est passionné par la science-fiction et par son fandom. Il est ceinture noire de taekwondo et est également néopaganiste. Fervent défenseur du droit de détenir et de porter une arme à feu, ses positions à ce sujet comme pour les logiciels open source sont présentées par Eric Raymond, qui se revendique anarchiste, comme les éléments d'une idéologie politique plus vaste appelée libertarianisme , . Il est membre du Parti libertarien.

Bibliographie
Eric Raymond a exposé ses idées dans plusieurs textes-clés du mouvement open source, notamment :
 The Art of Unix Programming (Addison-Wesley,
 Une tétralogie ayant pour thème les modèles de développement logiciel :
 La Cathédrale et le Bazar

 Le Chaudron magique
 ( et dernier texte non encore sorti à ce jour)
 Son historique du logiciel libre :
 Une brève histoire des hackers
 La revanche des hackers
 Défense de la liberté du réseau

Notes et références

Voir aussi

Articles connexes
 Fetchmail
 Jargon File
 Documents d'Halloween
 Problème XY

Liens externes

  Site personnel d'Eric Raymond
  Blog personnel d'Eric Raymond
  Le site de l'Open Source Initiative
 Libre comme Liberté, chapitre 11 (L'apparition du mouvement open source, raconté par Sam Williams)

Personnalité américaine de l'informatique
Personnalité liée au logiciel libre
Naissance à Boston
Naissance en décembre 1957
Hacker
Emacs
Anarcho-capitaliste américain
Libertarien américain
Étudiant de l'université de Pennsylvanie
Infraction au code de conduite

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


This page is devoted to Liza Minnelli's eighth album, The Singer.
As Liza was the biggest and hottest "new" star during the spring and summer of 1972 thanks to Cabaret, her new label decided her new album ought to reflect this, as well as her youthful age, in an attempt to appeal to a younger crowd. The song list comprises mostly of songs that were hits at the time by other artists doing "light pop" (aka AM radio/Top 40), and Liza tried her hand at them as well. It was a winning combination, as the album sold quite well. It joined Billboard's charts on March 24, 1973, and stayed there for 20 weeks, peaking at number 38. This was the last time to date that a Minnelli solo album would hit the Top 40. Also, the "Dancing in the Moonlight" single reached number 22 on the British pop charts. The album itself reached number 45 in the British charts.
The album was issued on CD in 1988 by Columbia/Sony, #CK 32149. It has long since gone out of print, but in 2001 it was made available once again from Sony as part of a two-CD set import from Australia, called the Liza Minnelli: Double Pack; the other album being Liza with a "Z".


The assignment for the 8 of us was to pray that the U.S. Constitution will be upheld and the U.S. Supreme Court confirmation will be completed. We opened in prayer welcoming Holy Spirit's plan to manifest in our midst. Psalm 67 was ministered unto The Lord.
A prophetic Word from Cindy Jacobs surrounding Isaiah 60 was shared. "Stand on my holy mountain. I am blowing the trumpet on my holy mountain. Calling my people together to pray. I am calling my people together to assemble. I'm calling my people together to go forward," says the Lord…. Worship then ensued to Paul Wilbur's "His Great Name" CD. Many powerful Holy Spirit inspired prophetic declarations and acts came forth. The Glory of God was released over the United States of America. Holy worship continued with the communion of The Lord's Supper. We closed in heartfelt victorious prayer covered in The Blood of The Lamb. Amen.
Celebrating Jesus and the new month of Nissan 5777. This will be our 5th Anniversary for celebrating Firstfruits in this location. Fellowship, Pot Bless Meal, Worship, and Teaching Impartation of the new month's blessings. Halleluyah!!!!!


text:
Dionne / June 18, 2019 / Poetry
I clicked on the page
she held out to me
as if I were a pigeon
pecking seeds from her
cupped palm –
here,
te-te-te,
I was searching for
the scientific term
for that gap between
rocks that elbow
splintered
bones into the sky
and cannot be crossed
without rope –
caving is a whole different story,
a whole different story.
The author had spent
Dionne / June 18, 2019 / Spirituality
I had recalled some lines
I write poetry
because I breathe
three,
to be exact
and do not know why –
a number that
had waved at me
from the ribs of a passing truck
earlier that day
lime green –
it sang,
loping by the café –
but why,
I asked, had these
I am walking down the road
thinking about
on roads like this
that the dusk is quietly erasing
people on trams
in trains
that whip about on fixed axles
pressing their bevelled feet
into the rails
I don't know their names, so
I hold them
in a sweet anonymity
I once shared
not mattering in the proper
way,
in the way in which
the waitress who smiles warmly
I am sitting at the table
in front of an empty fireplace
heater blaring
the smell of bolognaise and
for James –
his brother
is probably on the way to a jazz club by now
stuffing baked potatoes
with pulled pork –
'corn?' he asks and
the two
tilt their heads
as if robins,
she from one
and he the other side
of the counter,
waiting for the glutinous
'plop' that will come
Dionne / October 30, 2017 / emotion
What I have learned is that there are different types of respect.
The problem is that in English, we only have one word for it.
That means we grow up thinking respect is a single and exclusionary thing:
Either you respect someone, or you don't.
Either you are respected, or you aren't.
In reality, it's a lot more complex.
This type of thinking leads to a lot of 'I am better than you', insider/outsider behaviour:
You're one of us.
If you're not with us, you're against us.
You don't share my values.
There are different degrees and types of trust
Dionne / July 25, 2016 / Uncertainty
The Underneathness tries to share intelligent, fresh perspectives on what shapes us and our world.
I've put together a curation of pieces my readers have loved most and you can download it here.
The Underneathness – a curation of thoughts
Dionne / March 10, 2016 / Synthesis
We often fail to notice things that we are not expecting. Dr Lisa Randall, Physicist
Note: additional links to newly published material may be added after you have read this.
Can we please stop pretending we have the answers or are on a knowledge home run where the main issues are settled with only scraps to be tidied up?
The reality is –
We hardly know anything
What we think we know changes constantly, often in astounding ways
The best method we have for discovering facts, scientific method, is limited
Science is not reality, but provides models of reality
Science is robust not unequivocal, it can produce wrong answers that are useful and seemingly right answers that are wrong
What is real varies between systems, people and within ourselves
We cannot even conceive of what is yet to be asked, making imagination as important as science for progress.
To claim to know for certain, in particular about issues that do not yield to testing, is unscientific and given history, likely unwise.
Dionne / December 19, 2015 / Spirituality
All that is visible clings to the invisible,
the audible to the inaudible,
the tangible to the intangible,
Perhaps the thinkable to the unthinkable.
Lama Anagarika Govinda
Dionne / December 14, 2015 / Synthesis
I am I plus my circumstances. Jose Ortega y Gasset
While it's true that the way we perceive and interpret events impacts how we experience them, it's only part of the story.
Too much emphasis has been placed on our ability to withstand the environment as if it were somehow separate from us.
Instead, we are a continuation of our environment, visible and invisible forces within it profoundly impact how we behave.
Of course, how people see and construe things differs.
We know that perception is influenced by expectations and unconscious biases. Prejudices we may not be aware of profoundly impact what we pay attention to and recall.
We are as we think
We're told we are as we think.
Perception can have a dramatic impact on wellbeing but the reality is far more complex.
We are as we are treated
Mostly we believe we are as we are treated.
When we're treated well, we presume that who we are and what we do is okay and can withstand a bit of ebb and flow.
But when we're treated badly we worry that we caused it, deserve it or even worse – are fundamentally bad.
This is particularly true for those who are mistreated young and do not understand that adults are flawed.
Abusers know this intuitively and depend on it.
Dionne / December 7, 2015 / Reality
You see, the strangeness of my case is that now I no longer fear the invisible, I'm terrified by reality. Jean Lorrain
We assume our reality –
Is reality
Is right.
But we have access to only the tiniest amount of information that's out there, whether in the electromagnetic spectrum or conscious brain.
This means that our reality –
Is a reality (one of many)
Is shaped by limited information.
Despite this, we are happy to stake a claim to being right and dismiss others' experiences as inferior or wrong.
It does a lot of damage. People go to war over it.
Instead, being open to different realities enables us to pool information, articulate a view and consider other options without needing to narrow every discussion down to 'a winner'.
Dionne Lew / November 5, 2015 / emotion, imperfection
How many times have you heard that you have to love yourself?
Worse, that you have to learn to love yourself first, as if without this magical substructure, little else is possible.
Some stretch the friendship further, demanding you love yourself unconditionally.
Unconditionally? Is that even possible, desirable?
For example, in the middle of a mess that I've made by not acting soon enough, which upends my world but also those who depend on me for whatever reasons (stability, security) – should I love myself? Not necessarily. I can resent myself. I can resent myself and care. I can resent myself and still rebuild.
What about the wo/man who deliberately deliberately setting up a friend? Or the psychopath slowly and deliberately executing a colleague's fall? Should they love themselves? No. Get thee to a nunnery, they should admonish themselves. Get help. Go.
To those who love themselves I would like to say 'wow how great' but I don't know if it is. I need more information.
I assume that a degree of self like, that includes reproof when needed, allows us to get on with things. But I've seen too many people walk away from the ruins without a backward glance, because they've convinced themselves it's okay, they're okay. And I think this is why self-love is on the nose for me.
Dionne Lew / July 21, 2015 / Myths, Synthesis
I think it would be very foolish not to take the irrational seriously. Jeanette Winterson
Be rational, people say as if –
It's (fully) possible
The counterpart is unhealthy.
In reality –
We all behave on a continuum from rational to irrational
Those who put irrationality down are just as susceptible to it as those they criticise
Knowing we are irrational will not stop us being irrational
Rationality is not good or bad, nor is irrationality.
None of this absolves us from responsibility for our decisions or suggests we can't improve awareness or emotional IQ. But it does challenge the idea that rationality is an endpoint or that rational thinking leads to rational or desirable behaviour.
Why the focus on rationality?
There are many reasons we elevate rationality, including – (more…)
Dionne Lew / March 13, 2015 / awareness
Hope is life-affirming, a longing for the particular that gives energy to go on despite struggle and disappointment.
Hope teaches the value of persistence when there are scant results and we doubt the worth of our efforts. We learn to value the process of working towards a goal, not just reaching it.
This is not blind hope, it's hopefulness underpinned by hard work.
Many great accomplishments have been made this way, from dismantling segregation to life-changing scientific discoveries.
False hope
But false hope is deadly. It chains us to an outcome we hope for but cannot achieve.
It locks us into an idea – of a person, job, institution – that has little bearing on reality. We are seduced by the idea of what could be, instead of what is.
Dionne Lew / January 15, 2015 / awareness
These seemingly contradictory, yet complementary insights may be of value –
Pay no attention to what people say; but pay close attention to what people say.
Focus on evidence; but don't let evidence narrow your focus.
Pay no attention to what people say (when it contradicts what they do)
It's easy to say – I am honest, I am good, I have values. In fact, it's easy to say anything – just open your mouth. Doing so is a different ballgame but if you want to know who someone is, take a look.
For example –
You can't say you are loyal but have affairs, unless you have an explicit agreement with your partner that 'loyalty' includes having sex with other people. You can't redefine what sex (or commitment or partnership or marriage for that matter) means for the purpose of squeezing yourself back into the loyal box. A one-night stand is still sex. An intermittent but ongoing romp with an old friend is still sex. Orchestrating a weekend away with a colleague even if both parties are married just for sex, is sex. Sex as a transaction is sex. If there's nothing wrong with what you're doing in your mind, tell your partner so that they have information and can make an adult choice about whether they're happy with that in their mind too. Otherwise call it what it is. Is it loyal? No it is disloyal. You can apply this to any quality you ascribe to yourself or others.
You can't claim to be trustworthy if on Monday you're lobbying for better treatment of women but on Tuesday diminish working women as selfish and self-centred, argue human rights Wednesday but whip up the troops around anti-Semitism (add in any issue you like here) the next. Who is this person? No one knows. We can change our minds about what we believe over time but that's not what chameleons are about. What else do they say that has no bearing on the way they live? Look at what you say and ask yourself – do you live by it? If not, why say it at all?
It may seem overly obvious to say these things but it is the primary human instinct to trust other people. Most of us believe what people say about who they are and it's hard to shake early impressions, positive or negative. This is what makes political leanings or emotional beliefs about the existence of loaded beliefs like climate change so difficult to shift.
Dionne Lew / July 21, 2014 / emotion
We're told that it's compassionate to forgive ourselves and other people.
It's a great principle, sorely lacking in detail.
When, for example, is the time to forgive? And how do we do it?
By rushing to forgive we risk pushing legitimate feelings underground. On the other hand refusing to forgive is a lost opportunity for deeper connection and means that we carry unnecessary pain.
People react along the continuum of fast to slow depending on who they are and the situation, some things have a greater impact than others.
But at the extremes are:
Those who never forgive.
Those who forgive instantaneously.
There's a fine line between demanding people and fault-finders.
Demanding people bring out the best in us by showing us what worked and didn't.
We may feel upset that a report we slaved over doesn't meet expectations and keeps coming back. But the feedback enables us to see what worked and where we've made wrong assumptions, left things out or there are areas that can be strengthened. Not only do the insights improve the current report but they also provide a mechanism for review that improves our work in the long term. Every iteration is an improvement. This is constructive.
Picky people are a different beast. They're not interested in what's good and bad, what worked and did not they head straight for what's wrong and focus on nothing else.
There are other ways to describe these types: nitpicking, fault-finding, carping, critical.
The picky can be parents, partners, colleagues, friends, ourselves. What they have in common is that no matter how hard you try or what you accomplish it is never enough. The subtext of course is that: nor are you.
Dionne Lew / May 18, 2014 / Consciousness
It's absurd to me that someone would vote a certain way because their parents did; but no less that they would only vote contrary to them (extrapolate broadly).
When the impetus for decision-making is based on pushing against something for the sake of it, conformity and rebellion look remarkably alike.
This pattern works its way out differently – parents give way to friends, bosses, or even ideas but we still have:
The desire to differentiate ourselves; and
The desire to belong.
Although this may be in sharper focus during certain developmental phases (the famed teenage years) the process continues through life.
It goes without saying that something isn't true just because someone tells us it is, even if we love and respect that person. This is regardless of whether it's a fact or set of values.
Dionne Lew / April 15, 2014 / awareness
We're all so busy; what we're doing is very important too.
Strange then that ours is neither a culture of elite productivity nor meaningfulness.
That's because most of the busyness is a hoax.
But we've built an altar to it.
You at least, must name it for what it is.
Often being busy is little more than a distraction.
Being busy forgives just about anything.
I am so busy I –
Forgot your birthday.
Was late for lunch.
Snapped when I got home at 8pm (I'm just so stressed).
Here are the proper names for those events – (more…)
Dionne Lew / March 2, 2014 / awareness
How do we —
Respect grassroots views without being held hostage to ignorance?
Privilege a standpoint without slipping into elitism about whose views count?
Accept the right for people to have a view if that view seems damaging?
Value knowledge while accepting that what was once true we now know to be false but that creativity & scientific method matter.
Become aware of, let alone challenge, personal assumptions, ideas, beliefs?
Sometimes we do so easily and at others with great difficulty.
But in relation to each of the five above we can —
Accept we have prejudices we're not aware of — desire to become more conscious — withstand the pressure to agree because it's easier without condemning people for not sharing our views.
Place being humane above all else — drop the need to be right or better — admit how gut wrenching it feels when we're wrong but also how humbling & human it makes us.
Say no. ("NO")
Value knowledge without deifying it — remember that ideas predate data — value scientific method, strive for the right questions and measures but do not let the limit of current measures set the boundaries for your thinking — refuse to make experts into gods but value genuine expertise — accept the right for people to have a view, but be discerning about the quality of information behind them (not all views are equally well informed).
Be insatiably curious — read constantly including from opposing views — the established and from the edges — process that through writing, painting, reflecting, talking, walking or what works for you — get external inputs without needing to accept or reject them — be willing to tolerate discomfort.
Dionne Lew / February 20, 2014 / Kindness
When you're on the receiving end of kindness — it's milk — a honeyed sap with associations of mothering & the cosseted dark womb.
But being kind is an altogether different experience.
It's rising in the dark to run despite rain & icy winds while the world is sleeping.
Being kind can mean:
Suppressing the urge to lash out because you feel momentarily better.
Letting it go through to the keeper.
Putting your needs second, third or taking them off the table, this time.
Not adding fuel to the fire though you're desperate to do so.
Refusing to let someone else's feelings determine yours.
Sometimes, not speaking out.
Sometimes, not saying what you really think.
Appreciating a person is not just their last encounter with you.
Remembering the good when you don't want to.
Knowing that when someone strikes at your sense of self it's because they desperately need to affirm theirs and feeling compassion, rather than anger, for that humanness.
Seeing yourself in the above.
Admitting that you too can be unkind.
It's not for the meek. Kindness demands vigilance, acute self-awareness and internal restraint, for which the rewards are not always obvious.
You also need to know the border at which kindness transmutes into self-abuse and not step over it.
That's the sharper edge of the practice that means you must also know when to: (more…)
Dionne Lew / February 20, 2014 / creativity
Elitists put up barriers to entry to art. They use alienating jargon to send outsiders a message that they're not clever or worthy enough to get it. "Get it?"
But there are those who diminish art and people who love it because they don't get it. They crumple it underfoot. Or say that it is purely subjective. "I like what I like."
That part, about personal preference, can't be refuted; but you can make creative judgements.
I may like blues and you pop but we can both hear when the singer is out of tune.
There is unaccomplished art. There is skilled composition & technique, intention. There is also great art that we neither like nor comprehend.
Dionne Lew / January 1, 2014 / emotion
If you want to be more deeply connected, spend time alone.
That's not a fact, underpinned by research. It's a reflection. An anecdote. But it may have value.
If you came to me and said – I feel empty, or – as if something is missing – if you complained about feeling blocked or stagnant or that negative drama (gossip, shouting, pointing the finger) made you feel more alive – I would say: think about spending some more time alone.
That's regardless of being an extravert, introvert, or even ambivert (think happy middle ground).
These are just personality types.
The value of being alone transcends categories. It's a deliberate practice of not seeking someone (or something) other to fill you up. I believe it's a deep human need, as vital as connection.
Dionne Lew / December 8, 2013 / intention
I believe we can learn more about what it takes to succeed from the closing assertion of Beckett's The Unnamable than any other motivational book
You must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.
This insight about the need for persistence in the face of obstacles and even despair offers no illusions about what it takes to keep going or false promises that success will be great when you get 'there' (wherever that is).
This is useful advice. We should be given more of it.
Instead, we're meant to be inspired by motivational cries and images of a positive Duracell-style achiever who stares doubt in the face and relentlessly bangs the drum; pitting the emotional equivalent of an airbrushed model against our puny efforts.
This makes us feel bad.
Dionne Lew / November 22, 2013 / intention
How many people do you know who can –
Identify the biases they bring to the table and understand how they can be used (for good or bad)?
Listen to and respect all views while recognising ideas are not equal?
Bring others along but not at the cost of sound decision-making, even when that means standing alone?
Encourage a style of dissent that does not veer to chaos or produce fake consent?
Coherence is so strongly associated with survival and its value so deeply embedded in management practice that we would rather deal with the future consequences of a bad decision than the discomfort of going against the group here and now.
This is called groupthink and it's what happens when members of any in-group try to minimise conflict by agreeing to something without critically evaluating alternatives.Disagreement is often perceived as disloyalty, rather than as a path to better decision-making.
Groupthink has been implicated in many disasters, from the Bay of Pigs to the GFC. What has emerged in much of the research that follows these events is that many people had doubts about what was happening but did not speak out, sometimes to remain 'in' but also because of an understandable concern they might lose their jobs.
Dionne Lew / November 15, 2013 / emotion
I'm not a fan of the saccharinely positive with no off-button but cynicism – that can be a poison.
The kind of cynicism I am talking about here has little to do with discernment or healthy realism; the critical thinking required to analyze information or challenge norms, which leads to better outcomes.
I am talking about the kind of person who pans everything.
A hundred great things happen during the day and the only thing the cynic reports: the train was late.
The variations are endless:
The boss is stupid
The government useless
The incompetent supplier stuffed up again.
Perhaps all those things are true. But so are adjacent realities like the 93 percent of times the trains ran on time or many occasions the boss had a great idea.
Dionne Lew / October 13, 2013 / awareness
We're told that jealousy is bad and we should rise above it so people deny or suppress the feeling.
The problem? They are still jealous but now feel guilty and ashamed too and are no closer to understanding why the jealousy emerged or what they can do to manage the discomfort.
But if you really want to know what you value, then jealousy is a merciless guide.
Nothing cuts through the theoretical idea of what you think you value to what you actually value faster. Learning to read it is invaluable.
For example, tell me about a runner who broke the world record for the 100 meters and while I am glad for them I am otherwise unmoved. The same can be said for the Oscar winners, Grand Prix drivers, math geniuses, amazing business people or International Most Fabulous Persons Of All Time.
But mention a 20-year old novelist who has managed to shortcut the tortuous path to publishing and create an immediate best seller and that gets the heart pumping.
Why? Because my path to publishing has been long and at times tortuous. Apart from the published works I have 11 unpublished novels, umpteen plays and short stories in the drawer (of my Mac that is).
Dionne Lew / September 16, 2013 / intention
If I offer you my trust am I –
Agreeing with you?
Doing what you ask of me?
Offering robust feedback?
Protecting your feelings?
None of the above?
What is considered a sign of trust to one may appear as a betrayal to another.
We cannot define the minutia of every interaction, but without a shared understanding of what trust means it becomes another meaningless word on the annual report next to 'integrity' and 'collaboration'.
And yet, because trust is vital to personal and professional life, we need to understand what it is and how to build it.
One way to understand trust is as a set of agreements about how we will behave towards one another. These agreements may be implicit or explicit and, over time, they may change.
For example, an implicit agreement is that parents feed their children. While parenting obviously requires more than this, a child's dependency demonstrates the way in which obligations emerge by virtue of the type of relationship that exists.
Dionne Lew / August 5, 2013 / authenticity
If you gave me a few seconds to share what I believed could add the most to a person's life I'd say – be curious.
What about?
Everything and everyone.
When you're curious, every day is rich.
This doesn't mean every day is great, that's impossible and undesirable; but you can be up or down, relaxed, anxious, angry, sad and you're learning, adding colour and texture, cracking open walls.
But you've got to pay attention. You've got to be awake so that you take in what you are experiencing and start making it into something, rather than being asleep to it and letting it pass you by.
Curiosity is intrinsic although the instinct can fade if it's not encouraged or used. But it can be rekindled.
Curiosity leads to unexpected synergies, it reveals new patterns and generates startling serendipity.
Dionne Lew / July 31, 2013 / Uncertainty
When leadership is confused with the need to know everything it can lead to cultures of bluff where people feel it's more important to give a response (including a wrong one) than acknowledge doubt.
Instead, these three simple words from a leader can establish a very different context: I don't know.
"I don't know" puts the focus on rigour and says many things including:
Let's not assume;
We need data not anecdotes;
Then why is saying it so difficult?
For one, we like to believe that certainty is possible.
This is despite knowing that many of the things we once through to be true we now know to be false (that the earth is flat or that ulcers are caused by stress, for example) and that this will most likely happen again in the future.
Dionne Lew / July 16, 2013 / imperfection
Therefore certainty is not only something of no use but is also in fact damaging, if we value reliability. Carlo Rovelli
We seem so desperate to know things 'for certain'.
I think there are many reasons why.
At the nice end, 'knowing' is an anchor that gives us a sense of ground, even if it's illusory. We need that. It helps us navigate ambiguity and provided we're open to reassessing ideas as more evidence emerges or as we're impacted by experience that's okay.
The problem is when we attach to being certain or confuse our sense of self with being right. That's one of the more destructive sides of being human. We need to know, to be right and then: to assert that rightness.
You see it in relationships where people who loved each other wake up one day to find that they have dug trenches around that need and created a no-man's land instead of a life between them.
Or on the contrary, when we cling to an earlier idea about the other, who or what they should be (our idea of them really) refusing to recognize that we, or they, or circumstances, have changed.
I was recently at a workshop where a participant introduced himself by listing his Ivy League credentials; while impressive, his doctorate was in a discipline unrelated to the discussion and the act was out of context.
Notwithstanding this, many people subsequently looked to him to lead or tacitly sought his approval when speaking.
What he had done was to anchor the group around his primacy as an intellect and limit challenges to his authority before they occurred.
These sorts of dynamics are damaging for everyone involved:
People who resist questioning often need to appear right. In this way the need to be right is more important than the right information. Frequently a flag for insecurity, it keeps them stuck but also prevents the healthy debate needed to get measured outcomes.
By automatically deferring to others we feel disempowered and inadvertently contribute to cultures of misinformation. However, more importantly from my perspective, we fail to exercise a faculty vital for development: critical thinking.
Understanding how people use anchoring as a form of control helps us better navigate discussions.
Dionne Lew / May 31, 2013 / authenticity
The leadership space is peculiarly susceptible to platitudes.
But oversimplification makes them inadequate for dealing with the real difficulties that people face.
We relate to the grain of truth that a platitude embodies but often apply them in the wrong context in ways that do not fully reflect the complexities of a situation.
Part of a leader's role is to help others be stretched but not overwhelmed by a problem.
Think about the leader who says bring me solutions not problems. In such cultures, employees may lose confidence if they don't have an answer or feel it's pointless to raise real issues that require multiple inputs to solve and that could become problematic and expensive down the track.
A more balanced approach might be to say: let's talk this through. First tell me what you've done so far and some of your ideas.
It's less snappy to be sure.
Dionne Lew / May 8, 2013 / awareness
I was chatting to a friend recently who told me he could no longer be bothered with people, his choice, as far as he was concerned sooner or later everyone disappointed him.
With him you're either totally out or you're totally in, that's just the type of guy he is.
But I could see that he was paying a price for this all-or-nothing thinking.
His 'absolutism' was reflected in the shrinking of his social life to his wife, daughter and the odd precariously positioned friend but also in the narrowing of his exposure to different world views.
I also wondered, given its ubiquity as a symptom of depression, whether there was more to his glum mood than he was letting on.
For him people were right or wrong, brilliant or idiots. There was little room in between.
So I asked him if he'd ever made a mistake.
Dionne Lew / April 29, 2013 / Congruency
I heard a woman who doesn't work but overtly disparages friends who aren't able to participate in her luxurious designer-clothing-five-star-travel-restaurant lifestyle say that she was not materialistic.
Now there's nothing wrong with enjoying material things but there's clearly a gap here between what's expressed and lived.
And the examples are everywhere.
A friend worked with an executive who touted himself as a mentor until it was later revealed that he set about coming on to menses and sabotaging those who refused his advances.
Spot the difference? It's only in the details.
What these examples have in common is that they point to a gap between who people say they are and what they, in fact, do.
But it's the latter that counts (with a caveat around intention).
Dionne Lew / April 9, 2013 / imperfection
Like so many platitudes there is some value to: be positive.
It suggests that the way we view life impacts our experience and that is borne out by research.
Shawn Achor shows that knowing someone's circumstances predicts as little as 10 per cent of their long-term happiness, wellbeing is largely determined by what we make of things. Achor believes that being authentically positive creates a 'happiness advantage' that increases intelligence and creativity.
It's destructive when 'be positive' is used as a catch-all-cure-all with no bearing on the circumstances of the person who is reaching out for support, which is challenging enough for most people as it is.
Say you're struggling with a complex project that keeps getting derailed. What you need is insight, advice, and suggestions on how you might approach it differently and instead you get: just be positive. How useless.
Chin up darling, solider on.
Dionne Lew / April 4, 2013 / authenticity
Let's face it most of us take rejection badly.
I am no different, in that I take things personally. We know that when we first learn something, we're usually bad at it. We also understand that we get better with practice and that it takes up to 10,000 hours if author Malcolm Gladwell is right to master a skill. (Although the psychologist on whose original work his observation was made disagrees.)
We get the theory. But it does not always translate when we most need it: at the moment of a rejection.
We get a rejection (a missed promotion, no second date, a failed business case) and it leaves us feeling awful and filled with self-doubt: we are still just not good enough.
But what if we could turn this on its head?
Dionne Lew / April 4, 2013 / authenticity, Leadership
It may seem counterintuitive but formal processes are not a panacea for good governance; post-mortems of Enron and WorldCom, or closer to home Centro, reinforce that these companies failed despite entrenched controls.
What leaders can learn from these high profile failures it that risk-taking is a cultural issue and that with respect to decision-making, a culture that encourages independence and debate is an asset.
Yet in many companies, disagreement continues to be seen as disloyalty.
Worse, as in the case of Enron, active collusion can be seen as a precondition for maintaining a seat at the table.
In his book Innovation Corrupted: The Origins and Legacy of Enron's Collapse, Harvard's Professor Malcolm Salter highlights sophisticated internal controls failed to impact the behaviour that led to Enron's demise.
Dionne Lew / March 17, 2013 / authenticity
Faith and doubt both are needed – not as antagonists, but working side by side to take us around the unknown curve. Lillian Smith
I get so frustrated when I'm struggling with something (personal or professional) and I approach someone for input and they come back with something like: just be confident.
Have faith in yourself
Clout the doubt
Success is can, not can't.
The variations are endless.
However well-meaning the advice (and it usually is) these platitudes don't help.
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive. James Baldwin.
One of the great self-development leaps we make that catapults us out of childhood and into being adult is when we realize we should not take things personally.
Apparently.
We get a rejection letter in response to the submission we sent – not personal.
In the past we used to throw ourselves on the couch, weeping and leaping to all sorts of conclusions about our self-worth (and the lack of it).
Dionne Lew / January 1, 2013 / Leadership
I was talking to a friend about a situation in which he felt powerless in the face of change. He was 'waiting' for an outcome about his future in the volatile manufacturing sector that was making him increasingly anxious and he was struggling to stay engaged. At times, he admitted, he felt depressed.
Waiting for what I asked?
Fate? Providence? Godot?
The difficulty with waiting for something to determine what happens to you is that it makes you feel less an adult than a child.
Your 'locus of control' (or the extent to which you believe you impact life) is farmed out to something beyond your self rather than remaining inside.
Given the demonstrated impact of the latter on job performance and satisfaction, it's any wonder that adults in such an environment feel debilitated.
While there's no doubt our superiors can and do make decisions that influence our lives, what remains in hand is our response.
Dionne Lew / December 7, 2012 / awareness, emotion
A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. Joseph Joubert
While we are supposedly more open to softness and emotion, the reality is that we still privilege disconnection.
What do I mean by this?
Simply that the hard-nosed, cut off and detached can be perceived as more capable and grown up than their more sensitive peers.
Although they are rarely more capable and grown up or in fact even hard-nosed, the image is revered and therefore, reinforced.
But it's a myth. Underneath, we are all vulnerable.
This doesn't mean we can't manage emotions appropriately or make difficult decisions. We navigate complexity daily.
In fact studies show that survivors of abuse accept vulnerability as a way to build strength and authenticity.
Dionne Lew / November 13, 2012 / Uncategorized
"You cannot look in a new direction by looking harder in the same direction." De Bono, Lateral Thinking
Innovation is touted as a 'must have' future capability with evidence that innovative leadership is critical for translating ideas into action and to a company's success.
At the individual level, creative adaptation is vital as technology impacts everything from the way we meet to what we eat and how we work and play.
Although biologically nothing much has changed for us in the last 200 000 years and we need to respect that through rigorous self-care, the plasticity of the brain allows us to rewire and skill-up to coming challenges.
The speed of change is speeding up with futurists like Kurzweilai predicting 20,000 years of progress will be stuffed into the next hundred years.
Dionne Lew / November 1, 2012 / authenticity
"I have a dream", this refrain, woven through Martin Luther King's 1963 March on Washington speech embodies the concentrated pain of his (and many) people and the deep longing for a just society.
Although a cry to free America from racial segregation, ostensibly it arouses that which in us seeks a nobler vision for humanity.
We all express that differently.
For some – it is a revolutionary cry. For others it is holding to learned and self-evident truths "that all wo/men are created equal". It could be a sincere commitment to the Buddhist principles of good in the beginning, good in the middle, good in the end. The detail does not matter so much as the intention and that is progress.
Great leaders embody these ideals. Gifted with the ability to inspire those around them, they make them real. Sometimes romanticised, these leaders evoke the particular: a time, a place, the cause that pushed us forward.
Dionne Lew / October 3, 2012 / awareness
Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty. Jacob Bronowski.
How can you lead with optimism given these difficult times?
The legacy of global financial mismanagement and the unresolved European debt crisis mean phrases like 'economic collapse' are brandished about, clubbing into us the fear (or reality) of job cuts, foreclosures and other terrors.
Last year there were race riots in Britain, apocalyptic floods in Brazil and Thailand and in Tunisia a fruit seller set himself and the Arab world alight when his protest spurred the dismantling of dictatorships in Tunisia, Jordon, Egypt and Libya.
As I write the ever-ticking worldometer tells me there have been 100 million births and 43 million deaths since the new year stared and in the last 24 hours writers published over 3 million blogs, a statistic that will be outdated by the time you read this.
With such interminable disruption and the accelerating speed at which we know about it, it's no wonder many of us feel afraid or at the very least, anxious.
Dionne Lew / September 30, 2012 / awareness, emotion
Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult. Warren G. Bennis
I was recently part of a discussion where it was put that people perform better uplifted and leaders were responsible for the happiness of their teams.
The underpinning philosophy: positivity activates the heart.
This did not sit well with me.
While I believe we need to be emotionally aware, to be positive all the time is inauthentic.
We go up and down, veering from anger to joy and every emotion in between and that is natural.
What we do with those emotions though, is critical.
We need to be aware that our mood impacts others (although how they respond is largely up to them) and deal with our feelings rather than taking them out on the people around us.
Dionne Lew / September 16, 2012 / awareness
The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind. Albert Camus.
Last time I wrote about the need to value expertise, without deferring to it.
This is amongst other things because knowledge is not static and experts disagree, although often off a higher base.
And while I don't like the way some people use their credentials as weapons to anchor others, knowledge is gold.
Specialists exist in every field; people know more or less about certain topics. Facts have weight.
And yet how frequently we argue without them.
Dionne Lew / August 30, 2012 / awareness
I was at a workshop where a man introduced himself like this: when I did my doctorate at Insert Ivy League University Here.
Now there's nothing wrong with establishing credentials in particular when they are relevant to the discussion, which in this case they were not.
What he had done was to anchor the rest of the group around his primacy as an intellect, which he certainly was. Without needing to say it directly, he had sent a signal that his views were ipso facto going to be better and to disagree with him if you dared .
Many subsequently and unconsciously looked to him to lead. Those who dared speak cast glances in his direction, tacitly seeking his approval.
This is how individually and collectively we agree to defer and give away power.
People anchor others in many ways, sometimes overtly (which makes it easier to detect) but often subtly.
Dionne Lew / August 17, 2012 / awareness, intention
In his book Innovation Corrupted: The Origins and Legacy of Enron's Collapse, Harvard Business School Emeritus Professor Malcolm S Salter highlights sophisticated internal controls failed to impact the behaviour that led to Enron's demise.
Dionne Lew / July 18, 2012 / awareness, creativity
We learn by failing, iff failing means not getting things right all of the time.
Whether it's those first steps, our running style or scientific discoveries that come only after trials are ditched and techniques refined, learning is process.
We are not built for perfection.
Experiments have conclusively shown that we are hard-wired to think in ways that may help us survive, but are innately flawed and that we shape realities on shaky foundations and false evidence as visual illusions show.
Even where there are no apparent flaws, we are born into cultures that define value relative to colour, creed and sex (to name but a few) and so a healthy, thinking wo/man can as easily become an enemy of the state if the circumstances allow.
So why I ask myself, has perfection become an acceptable goal? And why do we let it define our value?
We want the perfect body, partner, boss or job, a Vogue house, ideal parents, faultless kids, it seems there's no end to our list (or lust) to achieve it.
Dionne Lew / June 29, 2012 / intention
In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true. Buddha
You know how your hair is straight but you've always wanted it curly and as you jealously ogle someone's tresses and confess your envy s/he says: gee I've always wanted mine straight like yours. (Extrapolate example broadly.)
Why do we do that?
There seems to be something in us that longs for what we don't have and believes there's a greener other side.
To make the point.
We find what we search for – or if we don't find it we become it. Jessamyn West
For years I loved the idea of retreat – an ashram – the top of a mountain – anywhere so long as it was far from the madding crowd.
Here I would wake with the dawn, enjoy deep meditation and contemplative walks, be struck by profound insights between bowls of rice and green tea and later descend: enlightened.
(Not to mention skinny and with glowing skin.)
After that, truth in hand (as if such a thing exists), my proper life could begin.
Thankfully the need to earn a living prevented it then and has continued to thwart me to this day.
Dionne Lew / June 6, 2012 / awareness, intention
There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet. Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot)
I was talking to a friend this week about a situation in which he feels powerless in the face of change.
He was 'waiting' for an outcome about his future in the volatile manufacturing sector that was making him increasingly anxious and he was struggling to stay engaged. At times, he admitted, he felt depressed.
Dionne Lew / June 4, 2012 / imperfection
A friend told me about an exhibition she went to recently where the artist had created an installation by weaving together the responses of people to questions about their fears.
Freed by anonymity to express what they truly felt, the work was a poignant tale about a fragile species, compensating for its vulnerability with defenses and masks.
Not surprisingly old and young, women and men, corporates, labourers, poor, rich echoed the same moving narrative: we are afraid of being real.
Although we are all imperfect we live in a world that demands it be reigned in, tempered, hidden away.
Ironic that others ask us for perfection, which they cannot provide.
There are many reasons why we hide feelings.
Dionne Lew / May 29, 2012 / awareness, intention
Whatever we think we are, or say we are; our own and others' perceptions largely result from: what we do.
Of course, we are not wholly defined by behaviours nor should we be.
Sometimes life demands we reveal only a sanctioned side of ourselves, such as in an oppressive regime or unsafe family/relationships where it is prudent to keep parts tucked away.
We've probably all been in states at some time or another where we've acted 'out of character'. A normally loving parent may lose their temper, a trusted colleague unable to hold their ground might kowtow to a decision they do not like, a partner forget to call the other to advise of a change of plan.
But the very expression suggests that these are anomalous events that do not reflect the way we normally behave. Want to know what truly drives someone? Listen to the words but pay acute attention to the patterns that appear in their lives. These are the shape of accumulated choices, some deliberate, others not, and a powerful narrative.
It's also important to recognize that how we behave is in part situational.
Emotionally aware people know that different times call for different styles. We may need to be tough in driving a legal outcome but empathetic delivering bad news or responding to someone's pain. This does not lead us away from the core, on the contrary, values act as an anchor from which we extend our reach into the world.
Dionne Lew / May 11, 2012 / authenticity, intention
We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin. Andre Berthiaume
We all wear masks, although the extent to which we layer ourselves varies greatly.
Masks are the personality layer, or persona, that we put on top of the 'real thing' (caveats assumed).
They are the edited and decorated versions we prefer to show the world, shielding what we don't like or accept or that others ask (typically without words) us to hide. They're a protective barrier.
At the extreme con wo/men construct a palatable false self to divert people from darker intentions. The compulsive liar who says they hate lies, the wo/maniser who prides themselves on fidelity.
With these types charm is a decoy. These mask-makers have no desire to lift the mask, they know very well why it is there. Seeing through them can be difficult, in particular when they are well practiced.
Masks exist on a continuum from the passive-aggressive friend to the sociopath. However for the most part, we don't realise the masks are there.
Dionne Lew / May 3, 2012 / authenticity, awareness
The fact that you needed to know was not known at the time that the now known need to know was known… and therefore there was no authority for the authority to be informed because the need to know was not, at that time, known or needed. (Bernard in Yes Minister, Episode 8).
Yes Minister is a brilliant TV satire that pits the conflicting desires of numerous players in the British government against each other. The battle of wills between bureaucrats, staffers and the political incumbent generates much humour and head nodding on our parts.
Inevitably though as reform goes head to head with perks, prestige and pragmatism only one winner emerges; as reflected in the trademark closer of the go-between who predictably defers with the obsequious: yes Minister.
But it's not a show about politics as much as life, which is why we relate so readily to the power and control dynamics.
These games are played all the time in our professional and personal lives.
Dionne Lew / April 1, 2012 / creativity
Given that innovation is practically a mantra for CEOs globally and that countless studies have laid out the conditions for creating it, you'd think workplaces would be operating a little differently from a decade or so ago.
The literature is overflowing with cries for agility, decentralized networks, collaborative architecture or cultures that enable creativity through play.
Yet few organizations walk their talk, demanding innovation while pinning people to desks and archaic behaviours that confer credibility simply because they are familiar.
Companies continue to worry about absenteeism rather than the far more concerning trend of what Harvard Business Review's Paul Hemp calls presenteeism – where workers turn up without really being there, and which is far more costly than paid sick leave.
Why do we still measure inputs rather than outputs, promote head-down-bum-up cultures that drive outcomes from A to B when we know that quantum leaps result from more haphazard associations?
We have entrenched views on what a serious workplace looks like. And despite studies that suggest serious is not synonymous with productive, many of us cling to old ideas rather than pushing against them. But push we should.
Dionne Lew / March 9, 2012 / intention
Trust is essential to human endeavour. Despite the excuses we use to wriggle out of the obligations that come with it, all relationship or work need trust to survive.
From before birth until our last breath, our lives are an intricate web of interconnectivities and interdependencies; arguably kept alive even after we die through memories and the legacies we leave behind.
In simple terms, trust is an agreement with one another about how we behave. These agreements may be both implicit and explicit, unvoiced as well as constructed. And they change.
One such implicit agreement: parents must feed and shelter a child. While parenting requires much more than just meeting these basic needs, a child's dependency demonstrates the way in which obligations emerge by virtue of people's relationship to each other.
This idea extends easily into the social realm. We are pack animals. We cannot escape that. Trust keeps the group functioning, in balance.
Whether we like it or not, relationships trigger accountability, as do decisions, actions.