February 2007
Monthly Archive
Categories:
Communication,
Italy,
Photography,
Project Management,
Travel,
Uncategorized
Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 by cce
Taking a little break from zoo pics. Here’s a shot of Venice. There are many things I like about Venice as well as many things that make me never want to live there. This picture embodies much what I like: varied architectural styles, a startling amount of greenery, various docking and moorings, foot bridges and incredible light. I also love water doors, but you can’t see one here. I took this from one of the small ferries that loop all the way around and through Venice. It’s totally worth whatever small amount we spent on the trip. I can’t think of another city where you can get such a comprehensive “bus” tour with so little traffic and such unobstructed views. Of course, it was really really cold on the boat, but that’s a minor detail.
Congestion sucks. It sucks more when it causes massive headaches and persists through doses of Caritin. Today is somewhat better than yesterday – no active headache, but there’s definitely one waiting to swoop in if I’m not nice. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. I suspect a diagnosis of an on-going sinus infection that has finally become unbearable.
Technical Project Management – talk to people!
In other news, my work projects are moving right along though one of the project managers I’m supposedly assisting is ignoring my e-mail. Astounding. There’s a peculiar mindset I keep encountering in project managers, that is very insular, secretive and territorial. This is an utterly counterproductive attitude to have. You end up repeating mistakes, having to relearn alone everything your colleagues could help you figure out more quickly, and hitting all the pitfalls and delays along the way. Oh, and you end up alienating people from other departments who are supposed to be supporting you. I may pester my DBA or disk storage guy a little much, but they appreciate that I ask questions and make them clarify things until I understand things fully. I try to ask my stupid questions intelligently at least and I almost always take notes so I don’t end up asking the question again. It helps that I come from a technical background and can grasp what they’re talking about fairly quickly but I think even the non-technical project manager working on a technical project should be interested in some of the geeky underpinnings of their project.
Some project managers are afraid of tech-speak or technology concepts or just don’t want to get bogged down with the details. Me, I love the details. The details not only hold intellectual interest and provide additional perspective on my project but they give me a way to bond with my tech folks. Building a good relationship with the tech folks can be more valuable than you ever imagined. First, if you show that you value their input, skills and opinions, they are more likely to raise their concerns sooner and in a constructive manner. If crisis hits, they’re more likely to put in 110% for your project because they feel like part of your team.
Of course, communing with technical people doesn’t always work. Sometimes you just don’t click or accidentally take too much of the person’s time with your questions. Honestly, I’ve found most people respond well to a genuine, intelligent effort to learn more. Some people, regardless of field, are too bitter and jaded to care that I’m interested but I try anyway. About half the time I get through their sharp and pointy exteriors and forge an alliance of some sort. The other half of the time I end up with more information than I started with so it’s still a win.
Technology just seems to be the most common phobia I see but there are many others. Asking questions is a great way to form a relationship with your finance people, quality control team and process folks, to name a few. By learning more about what they’re doing for you and what you need to do for them you are making their jobs easier as well as your own. A 15 minute conversation may save everyone a day’s work. It doesn’t get better than that when you’re trying to deliver on-time and under budget.
venice, italy, canals, project management, technical project management, communication, technology
Categories:
Apple,
Entertainment,
iPhone,
Movies,
snow,
Technology,
Toys,
Travel,
Uncategorized,
Weather
Posted on Monday, February 26, 2007 by cce
Academy Awards
I didn’t actually watch the Oscars last night but I did catch Scorsese’s acceptance in Italian… which induced very entertaining dreams in Italian. I’m not even sure which award he was accepting at that point. This morning I browsed the results over at CNN. I loved The Departed so I’m delighted it took so many awards. Pan’s Labyrinth also deserved all the awards it got and more. Little Miss Sunshine, a film I never would have seen if it hadn’t been for slyppi, had a good showing too. I think Abigail Breslin should have been awarded the best supporting actress Oscar, having only heard about Jennifer Hudson’s performance in Dreamgirls (which was described to me as amazing except when she wasn’t talking or singing – apparently she showed no ability to react). Breslin was just amazing in every way.
Apple and Cisco and iPhones! Oh my!
Last week it was announced that Apple and Cisco will share the iPhone name. All lawsuits connected to the iPhone name dispute have been dismissed and both companies are quietly going about their business. Very quietly… like there aren’t any exciting details leaking out about the deal beyond, “Under the deal, they will also work together in the areas of security, consumer and business communications.” (BBC News) This agreement was just in time for them to debut the iPhone commercial during the Acadamy Awards though no actual product name is mentioned. It’s a cute commercial and says absolutely nothing about the product except that it’s coming in June. The montage of movie clips of famous actors and actresses answering phones is fun, with a final “Hello” harkening back to the original Mac commercial just in case you missed the implication of all those other hellos.
Weekend and SNOW!
It snowed here last night! Another couple of inches fell to cover over the greening areas of the lawn. Unfortunately this week is likely to be too warm for the snow to stick around long. It actually started snowing mid-afternoon sometime. I was driving back from visiting lisaf in NY. As soon as I crossed into PA the sleet started. Within 10 miles it had turned to snow. By the time I got home it was seriously snowing!
The weekend was good. We wore ourselves out romping around NYC Saturday. I didn’t spend nearly as much money as I feared I might. LUSH and Crumpler were my weaknesses, but I knew that going in. I did get a new camera bag (which was the whole pretense of going to Crumpler in the first place) but I also got an awesome green handbag too. Not that I carry handbags, but this one is GREEN! LUSH was… an adventure in impulse shopping. We ate good food, drank good wine then spent the evening being lazy (which was good since we were whole-heartedly exhausted). Sunday involved really tasty breakfast food and driving home (which was tiring before I hit exciting driving conditions).
academy awards, apple, cisco, iphone, movies, nyc, oscars, snow, travel, weekend
- Part the First: Bald eagle at the Philadelphia Zoo
The zoo has a pair of bald eagles who like to pose for the camera however last time I visited only one came out to strut about. I should take pictures of their claws as well. They are impressively powerful birds. Majestic? Not so much. But definitely powerful carnivores who are not to be messed with.
- Part the Second: In which I take a quick walk and don’t get rained on
I took a quick walk at lunch today – about 2 miles in 35 minutes or so. I enjoyed it despite the cold, gray, damp weather that was actively threatening rain. However, this afternoon I feel incredibly mellow and spacey. It’s been a while since I had such an exercise high. Once upon a time I lived in Vancouver and would go jogging in the morning along the Seawall. I ended up giving it up because the post-exercise high made me a danger to myself and others during my morning commute. I would be in such bliss that I simply wouldn’t care about traffic or potentially getting in an accident or anything. I considered this to be, generally, a bad state of mind to be in while driving, even in Vancouver. Thank goodness Vancouver has some of the most polite drivers on the planet otherwise I might not have lived through my morning jogging phase!
So I sit here all mellow, drinking my water, and wonder what I can do to counter act this annoying yet blissful state. I am vaguely useless … well, at least I think I am. Tomorrow morning I’ll look at the presentation I whipped up after lunch and see if it’s any good. Perhaps I shouldn’t have skipped making tea for lunch. At any rate, we’ll see if this is just a one-time relapse of mellow-spaceyness or if it persists. I think I’ll really like lunchtime walks. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely little high, just not a very productive one!
- Part the Third: In which I send a quick little e-mail and make a lot of folks happy
Communication is easy. I don’t know why more people don’t do it. Once my project was approved I sent a quick update to a group of potential users who had helped out with a questionnaire and providing their input. You’d think they’d never been updated before! Half of the group responded gleefully, grateful to have received the update and enthusiastic to do more. Each of the respondents mentioned that most often whenever they provide feedback it seems to go into a blackhole. I admit that I updated them specifically because I hoped they would volunteer to help more with the project but I didn’t expect quite the response I got. Even if I hadn’t wanted to leverage them for other work, I would have sent them a thank you note with the news of the project. That seems just simple common courtesy. Their feedback was incredibly useful in supporting the proposal I wanted to put forward. They responded quickly and on short notice.
My my mission shouldn’t be to become Wiki Queen but to instead ensure that no one feels their feedback is going into a blackhole in the future! (Of course, my master plan for this includes a wiki…)
wiki, technology, communication, zoo, philadelphia zoo, eagles, bald eagles, exercise, walking, vancouver
Categories:
Philadelphia Zoo,
Photography,
snow,
Uncategorized,
Weather,
Work
Posted on Wednesday, February 21, 2007 by cce
The lions wouldn’t even come out of their warm enclosure, but the cheetahs were hanging out as usual. You’d think the cheetahs would look more perturbed about the snow and yet they seem pretty content. I do suspect that they might be taking turns warming that spot on the rock though. They are such beautiful creatures, especially in the afternoon sun.
My snow here is seriously melting. It’s been in the high 40s the past couple of days. There are large green areas on the church lawn across the street now. I need more winter before I’m willing to give in to spring, thank you very much.
Under the heading of work glee: My wiki proposal was accepted yesterday afternoon. I’m really excited to get going on it too. There’s another side project that may be able to piggy-back nicely on it too. Hopefully we’ll be able to implement a useful enough wiki space that inspires our project managers to contribute to and actively reference the material. Well, really there are 2 side projects, but they go hand-in-hand.
work, cheetahs, zoo, philadelphia zoo, winter, snow, weather
Categories:
Apple,
coffee,
Cooking,
Food & Drink,
Philadelphia Zoo,
Photography,
Random,
snow,
Technology,
Uncategorized,
Weather
Posted on Monday, February 19, 2007 by cce
The house still smells like curry. Yum. Why does it smell like curry? Because last night I made tasty little turkey mini-burgers (not mini-turkey burgers) with curry, ginger, garlic and cumin happiness. I used slightly sweet Hawaiian rolls instead of dinner rolls since a) I couldn’t for the life of me find pre-baked dinner rolls in the grocery store and b) I thought the sweetness might compliment the curry nicely. I was right about the latter too. I tweaked the recipe (ripped, literally, from Bon Appetit) by cutting it in half and dropping the cilantro. I think I will tweak it further by adding a bit of garlic to the ground meat instead of just to the curry mayo.
Saturday was fun and productive on several levels. I did a large grocery shopping trip. I may shop on Saturday morning more often. The customers are nicer. I chatted over rump roast with a lovely little couple. We were trying to find smaller roasts for our small households. Then another older gentleman asked me about cooking pork chops. This is so much better than the usual grocery store experience I have. No one even tried to walk off with my cart! At the checkout, I was reminded why I prefer to bag my own groceries but even that wasn’t so bad. When I got home, the Fop (who woke up feeling not quite well) was off to an event.
For some reason I decided it was time to clean out, purge and organize the major cupboard of food stuffs in the kitchen. I hauled the step stool up from the basement and dove in. An unknown amount of time later, the cupboard of doom was under control. I have a little pile of old crackers to put out for the birds and squirrels (well, mostly the squirrels).
In the grinder this morning is Kenya AA from Armeno. It came out of my French press this morning positively perfect. Some people have good hair days, I have good coffee days. This morning I am sipping divine coffee: rich enough that I know I’m drinking coffee but gentle enough for a Monday morning. There’s not even a hint of bitterness or acidity. I love my coffee and my French press.
To our left, we have the elusive Giant River Otter. Actually, they’re not elusive at all! They just move too fast for me to catch uber-cute pictures of them. They also do cute little human things with their hands. The zoo announced that they have more Baby Giant River Otters (say that 3 times fast! it’s fun!) this spring so I’ll be going back to try to catch photos of more than just their backs.
In other weekend news, I got a small snow flurry yesterday much to my great glee. It’s going to warm up later this week so some of the snow we have now might melt. Then again, the snow is packed so solid right now that it might as well be ice. I had a great time (really!) Saturday morning when I finally decided to get the snow and ice off my car. It was actually much easier Saturday than it would have been mid-week. The bottom had iced up so that it all came off my car in big chunks. For my next trick I drove out of the driveway I hadn’t bothered to shovel. I was hoping for some dramatic crunchy of crusty snow or something. Nope, the trusty Subaru drove right on top of the 3-4 inches of packed snow and ice. There are barely tire prints. I’m not sure why this inspires such glee.
Alright, now time for another round of random links. From the open tabs section of my bookmarks:
And last week’s best comic award goes to Chickweed Lane:
Scary how apt it is, no?
And now my coffee is gone, many work e-mails written, some status reports reviewed, and other miscellaneous things have been addressed. Oh, and a couple of out of date applications are now updated. Did you know that Fetch (beloved FTP client of Dartmouth alums of a certain era) now has an OSX widget as well as its standard interface? There are lots of other cool features available, but the widget is shaped like a dog bone. Jim Matthews (the mastermind behind the cute little dog) purchased the source code from Dartmouth after being on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and started his own company. How exciting can an FTP client really be? For those of you not yet in the know, Fetch turns your cursor into a running dog while it’s uploading files. Beat that, Unix command-line ftp-ers!
coffee, cooking, fetch, food, ftp, ftp clients, giant river otters, links, philadelphia zoo, political cartoons, random, snow, technology, weather, weekend, widgets, zoo
Categories:
Philadelphia Zoo,
Photography,
snow,
Uncategorized,
Weather,
Work
Posted on Friday, February 16, 2007 by cce
The Amur leopard was very handsome and picturesque during my last visit to the zoo – handsome in that mysterious and dangerous way. His eyes were positively mesmorizing. I took many many photographs of his eyes and face. And I spent several minutes just staring into the intelligent depths of his beautiful green eyes. The glory of an empty zoo is that there’s no one else scaring the animals away. The Amur leopard is a cold weather cat as well which contributed to his mellow availability. He was even very tolerant of the flash. What struck me was how small he really is. He’s a lean and compact little cat – not as tall, long and lanky as the cheetahs.
While I won’t go as far as to call him friendly, he was quite content to sit there staring at me. I love the cute-face look in the first image below. He maintains his feline dignity yet still melts my heart. And those paws are just amazing.
Happy Friday, by the way! I am finishing up a great work week the likes of which I haven’t had in a while. My last project was huge and scary and chaotic so my weeks were often this productive but it was always reactive productivity. This week – proactive all the way, baby. This must be what it feels like to love your job and not be in fire-fighting mode! Talk about exciting! Oh plus, I got happy feedback from one of the big bosses today regarding my work on the new project. Not only am I having fun and enjoying the work but apparently doing a good enough job that people are noticing! It’s pretty cool to get praise out of the blue for something I’m already pretty happy about.
In other exciting (to me) news, it’s staying cold down here. The snow is staying put! It might really be winter after all! The Fop has mostly recovered from being sick and I have apparently avoided getting sick this round. Hurray! There was much excitement (where excitement = loud complaining) about how cold it was last night when he went to take out the trash. Well, it was 16° F out so I guess it wasn’t completely unwarranted but the silly Fop didn’t actually put on a coat either. Today the outside temp is hovering around 20-25° and there’s snow in the forecast for Sunday! Well, in one of the forecasts. Yahoo Weather does not concur with the weather forecast provided by my weather widget.
amur leopard, leopard, philadelphia zoo, zoo, weather, snow, work
Categories:
Philadelphia Zoo,
Photography,
snow,
Uncategorized,
Weather,
Work
Posted on Thursday, February 15, 2007 by cce
One possible drawback of working from home is that I don’t get snow days. As you might have guessed, this doesn’t bother me much because I’m far to excited about the snow to actually be disappointed. Yesterday’s snow turned out to be pretty heavy and icy – more like the little ice cubes you get from man-made snow than the light, fluffy stuff I’d cleared on Tuesday. My neighbor and his son helped me clear the rest of the sidewalk and in front of the driveway. He’s teaching his son (who is 16) how to properly clear snow. This was highly amusing. Shovel choices are important when dealing with snow with a crust (or snow that is all crust in this case). The son’s choices were rather backwards but he was great. (A pointy spade does not move snow very well but it does break it up nicely.)
Today I have a lovely blanket of snow to look out upon. It’s bright, sunny and cold. And I am really tempted to go to the Zoo and take more photos. Alas I have work to do this afternoon. Instead I will share a view of Flamingos in Winter. They get great afternoon sun in their little flamingo house! They also are quite actively wandering about inside. I suspect they’re chatting about the weather.
I just got volunteered for 2 more things in my team meeting. Oops. It’s fun stuff but I may become the Wiki Queen. That could be fun or it could end up being a great deal of work they don’t want to pay me for in the long run.
flamingos, philadelphia zoo, pink flamingos, snow, weather, work, zoo
Categories:
Philadelphia Zoo,
Photography,
snow,
Uncategorized,
Weather
Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2007 by cce
I woke up this morning to freezing rain. Now it’s snowing again and has been going all morning! At least I’m pretty sure theres new snow coming down along with the stuff that’s blowing around. The steps are buried in a drift. I’ll be going out after my afternoon meeting to clear again. YAY SNOW! I am so tempted to go up to Upstate NY to see their immense amount of snow. I can’t actually justify the trip (and I don’t think I know anyone up there whom I could use as a pretense for a visit) but 10+ feet of snow just sounds amazing. Utterly crippling, but amazing all the same.
This Canada Lynx stared and squinted at me while I took many, many pictures of him and his friend. He was quite the Cheshire Cat on his log. I think he was fascinated that I would come out in the sub-freezing weather to see him. I bet he’s a happy cat today! This is very much his kind of weather. It’s good to be a cat.
philadelphia zoo, zoo, lynx, canada lynx, snow, weather, winter
Categories:
Philadelphia Zoo,
Photography,
snow,
Uncategorized,
Weather
Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 by cce
Proving it’s never too cold to be cute: the fierce red panda stalks his … bellybutton. I love his little ears.
So back to that snow stuff. I’m pleased to announce that it is STILL SNOWING. I went out and cleared the first couple of inches out of the driveway and off the walks. It’s supposed to turn to sleet “any time now” and I wanted to get the first bits cleared before it got wet, heavy and icky. When I went out, it was snowing lightly and starting to look like the end of the storm. Now, we’re back to fine flakes coming down fast and steady. The wind has picked up a bit and it looks like proper winter out there!
I love shoveling snow. Why? Because shoveling snow means we have enough snow to actually shovel! I can’t see any grass now. The sidewalks are already white again. I’m going to have to brush off my car again when I go out later. This is so exciting! (Yes, I’m a freak. But I’m a HAPPY freak.)
philadelphia zoo, red panda, snow, weather
Categories:
Philadelphia Zoo,
Photography,
Uncategorized,
Weather
Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 by cce
It’s actually SNOWING here! Hurray! I’m happy to say that it’s that fine, fast, steady snow that means it’s going to snow for a little while. We’re only supposed to get about an inch but I’m inclined to be optimistic since the storm looks enthusiastic. Of course, I’d be optimistic even if the storm looked totally wimpy. The grass is already starting to just look like little green dots on fields of white. I’ve always loved staring into falling snow. Even in the gentlest breeze makes for captivating patterns. Down, up, sideways and around… where do I learn this dance? I woke up still feeling like I could get the Fop’s cold so I’m resisting running out there in my slippers.
I’ll have to go out later to shovel anyway. I think I’m the only girl in the area who gets excited about shoveling snow. It’s not like we get 24 inches at a whack like when I lived up in MA. I admit that it was still fun to dig my car out but I helped a lot of other people dig their cars out too. My condo building was inhabited by many ladies of a particular age and several little white dogs. Little white dogs are useless when it comes to digging out your car, plus you lose them quickly in the snow since white on white does not a contrast make. It did help me to determine that I do not want a minivan … ever. They are an utter pain in the butt to clear snow off and subsequently dig out. And then? You still might not be able to get out of thep parking space despite the protestations of the Little White Dog Mafia (more on them another time…).
So back to the polar bears! These polar bear pics are still from my last trip to the zoo on January 29th. If you look closely at the polar bear napping you can see that it’s such a good day for sleeping that his tongue is hanging out of his mouth a little. That’s a happy bear! Look at the happy bear feet! He had a monopoly on the sunny and comfy spot that afternoon.
The active bear spent a great deal of time sniffing and snuffling about. I think he was hoping he’d missed some greens somewhere. He loped about, sniffing and pawing at leaves, poking about and generally being boring to everyone but me. (However, since I was basically the only one at the zoo that day this worked out just fine.)
He paused in his sniffing to look longingly at his napping friend with that “I could nap” look in his eyes. Then he sat and sniffed the air so gracefully (photo directly to the left). He’s such a lanky bear. Yes, I want to take him home with me. I’d prefer a polar bear cub, but I’ll take a big bear in a pinch. So utterly cute.
The last picture is my favorite – you may want to click it for a larger version. This bear has a very sweet crooked face and kept making faces at me. This face was, “Yeah, I could nap but my buddy over there took the best spot.” Yes, I enjoy anthropomorphism. It’s a hobby.
Someday I hope to catch the polar bears actually playing about in their pool or mauling one of their giant bear toys! For now, I’m happy with sniffing and funny faces though.
Tennyson (Mr. Large and Gray Cat) is sitting on my desk watching the snow out the window. And now he’s watching me… hmm… perhaps it’s time to feed the cats.
little white dog mafia, philadelphia zoo, polar bears, snow, weather, zoo
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