Update?  
No i'm not updating you on anything. It used to be that my portal of choice was www.msnbc.com then when the stocks got put in a funny place i discoved the new (at the time) www.msn.com portal. It was cool. Stocks were customizable and you could hit this sweet update button that just updated the stocks (for you geeks out there the page loaded an invisible IFrame and then loaded the data, used microsoft's DHTML to touch up the values in the table. Sweet? )

Then they created "my msn" its another page... it has my stocks my weather all that on it, but still the market was on the front and the lil update button worked. It so happens that I had diversified all of my msft stock by then so the market was (and still is) a reasonable indicator of whats going on with my stuff. So ok.

I liked the update button becuase it didn't redraw the page it was a tidy thing to do. Felt like I wasn't bothering the internet for all that other stuff. Just what I really wanted.

Seems MSN wanted to be bothered. I think in an effort to change their ads more often they re rigged the update button. They wired it straight to refresh. I was bummed, the whole page would go when i hit update. Doh. I got used to it. I would hit it all the time still and it didn't even bother me that the stories from one Diva's breast size to another's... I still got my market update...

3 days ago they redid the page again. Nothing major, no new pages, no benificial features... no god damn update button at all... progress.

I learned a new word at the PTSA meeting  
So when you're taking a test you have short answer (thats ok i guess, short answer) and "extended response"... Thats right they have stomped out long answer. Its no extended response.

You are probly thinking right now I'm gonna slam them for adding to the euphamistic bullshit we call PC. If so, i say to you, NO.

Finally someone with some damn marketing skills has gotten into the school system. Lets face it they tried to sell us "long division". Ok children now for something completely diffrent we're going to do problems that are hard and long. You take this number and you draw a bracket around it then you just look at it and decide the answer and multiply it by this number and subtract here. Did you get a negative number? well fuck you, you got the top wrong. (That last part sounded pretty funny coming out of sister mary john). Now when you get to the bottom and you get a remainder you better doubt yourself and have some inner monologue about how you probly got the wrong answer because sometimes there is no remainder and we say that divides evenly... Of course none of you will ever see that because these are hard and long. It is long division after all.

Even when i got to college and i'm sitting in a seriously advanced computer architecture course. The guy goes to us. I just have a small fact to share with you. "Division is hard... Even for a computer". He says, "you think long division was bad? Well we're gonna do it by hand just like the machine does it..." great.

Last night at the PTSA meeting I cornered a 6th grade teacher and I said if you call "long answer" extended response what do they call long division. She looked at me like i'm a fucking nut. (If you know me I'm sure you've shared your version of the same look with me) then she said shook her head just slightly and said. "We don't teach processes anymore really. We get them to understand what the problem is your trying to solve and then we let them figure out how to divide the stuff up". I was shocked. I think she was afraid i was gonna yell or something, but I was shocked in a good way. She followed that up with. You just use a calculator once you understand what is going to happen and what the answer should be.

From now on I'm going to use my new word and urge you to do the same. Its not that they stopped making them divide, they still do it, they just have to figure out for themselves the best way for them. So keep on dividing and keep on short answering but don't forget once in a while you'll need an extended response...

When is a no brainer a NO brainer  
When the person you are negotiating with has none.

Earlier, like an hour ago, I was mad enough to write a whole page about this, but now that i've taken care of it and I know that people I respect are not calling into question my integrity I am not longer angry enough to go into details, but I do see where the sentiment, "No good deed goes unpunished" comes from...

Groove update  
All my A's are checked off today and i'm moving on to my B's.

I noticed today that i usually put QI as A, QII as B and the other quadrants as C. So i need to stop doing the C's all together. Move some of the B's up to the A's.

Next thing to tackle will be weekly planning with my compass cards again. After that is slice integration....

Play  
So I played today with my workflow goal. Tomorrow I'll spec the goal into a project or maybe a slice. I just time activated to print up more slice forms. Should be a useful tool. I may just need to use project to deal with this system.

Its a big QII thing. To have a smooth work flow app to help us do business is a key factor to success. The ultimate goal is automation from the bidding process through image delivery where policies are enforced by the system so we stay on track.

It also interests me to get it right. Its not only in my self interest, its also just plain fun.

I'll keep it posted here how it's going...

Workflow Goal  
My goal is to have my image/shoot/invoice DB up and running by the end of november. I need to make a project for it I think.

I'm gonna print some slice forms up too. I need to try that again since this is working so well...

Clean feels so much better  
I'm planning still. Getting stuff done too. Clean just feels so good in my office. I forgot how important that is.

When I worked at Microsoft, i had extra table space removed from my office. It just got stuff all over it and it was more space to clean. So I had it removed. It worked out well. In my current office I have not too much desk space but some. I really like being in my office especially when its clean.

I just have to tackle my images. negs and slides all piled up in one place. I need a better way to store them....

Groove rating for today?  
I'll give it a 5 for today.

I planned, but it was late. I booked some work, thats always good and I did some QII work on the database. I'm a little behind on some QI stuff, but i'm headed in the right direction with it...

oh and another thing, I am a photographer now...

Better planning tomorrow... weekly coming up soon... and I feel like i need to bring life back to slices...

The shortest path between two points is always a straight line  
I haven't been moving in a straight line much lately. Why? No planning. I've been in a bit of reactive mode rather than proactive mode and its time to move out of that and back in QII the quadrant of proactivity. Non urgent, yet important stuff...

What is a True QII for me that I haven't been getting done?

Planning. Every month, every week, every god* damn day.

Blogging. Why? Because it makes me think about what i've done and evaluate it

Daily Record of Events. If you look at my planner you can tell when i've been doing shitty, no DRE

YMCA... It's not the song, I don't dress up like a construction worker and run around without a shirt and sing... It's building capacity through exercise

Eating right. Along the same lines actually planning, shopping and cooking for meals is up there. It makes for more family time, better diet and you know what they say... if you eat regular... you are regular.

Ok that last part about being regular, that is a joke. Not a problem for me... nope... It's not that I am regular, its that i don't give a shit. I do love self referential jokes, don't I? Also for those of you who know i usually frown on potty humor, well its late and my kids aren't reading this.


* some people think that becuase i'm an atheist I can't say god damn. I say its ok as long as it's in violation of commandment #2...