Decisions decisions

Going skiing to Kimberley for 4 days leaving Weds Dec 31 when brother Glen arrives.

If

by Rudyard Kipling 1910

If you can keep your head when all about you
  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
  But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
  Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
  And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
  If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
  And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
  Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
  And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
  And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
  And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
  To serve your turn long after they are gone.
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
  Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
  Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
  If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
  With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
  And – which is more – you'll be a Man, my son!

Change at Cybera?

Long story.... some people are very resistant to change.  There is a shift from HPC to shared services, pooling resources, "the cloud" a-coming...

Snowed in Party

Was supposed to have the Cybera Christmas Party at my house last night. But it snowed all night and day and night and day and it was impossible to get around the city, so it was effectively cancelled. Except for Adam and his girlfriend, Shannon, who had driven in from Edmonton. They got to the house around 8:00 PM (party was supposed to start at 6:00). We proceeded to have a really good time until 1:30 AM. Lots of talking, played some pinball and pool. And ate and drank a large part of the wine and some munchines that were prepared for 20. Here's a web cam so you can see what Calgary is like now.

Finally Relax

It's been a busy November. 2 days in Toronto, 2 days in Winnipeg, 2 days in Montreal. A couple of visits to Edmonton. Had a business visitor from Australia for 2 days. And just finished an important report on eScience for Alberta. Finally no deadlines and only one more trip to Edmonton before Christmas (as far as I know right now). Today is Brett's 15th birthday. Wow, time flies and he is a big boy now. So, I can relax for a while. Good. I need some sleep!

Jagermeister

Barry's office party in Banff last night was a blast. 60 or so people. Lots of good cheer. Brett did not have a party. Lots of snow overnight and driving home. Maybe 10-15 cms.

Cybera Assets & Markets

We had a great staff workshop yesterday to help us identify our target markets/customers and what are our products/services. Instead of products and services, we used the term "assets" and this helps. At first pass, we come up with "Virtual Organization Management" as what it is we really do. This is a somewhat strange and non-obvious thing. Our potential customers are a huge variety. It's now time for us to refine what we did yesterday, make a plan, and then deliver.

Thought about going skiing today, but snow conditions are not great. Going to Banff for Barry's company Christmas party tonight.

Brett is staying home alone. Told him not to have a party.

Busy with a Purpose

Paste of an e-converstion today that shows the number of interesting things going on:

"I will join you all for breakfast with BA Tuesday AM.

I then have a 10:00AM unusual meeting that I initiated with a group that invests in infrastructure - they structure investment products. I met CC, VP operations, BI, (she's a speaker at this PPP event) at a Queen's event where David Dodge (new chancellor) was speaking. Long story, but when I said, "cyberinfrastructure", she said, "I really want to know what that is". So, we're meeting. I want to explain about data centres and communications networks as next-generation, new-economy, investable infrastructure.

There is so much going on, that maybe we should meet for lunch, but I have a 12:00 - 1:00 and then a 2:30 -3:30 on Tuesday and don't know your plans. Many of us will be in Edmonton on Dec. 16, maybe we should meet then."

I used to think about Nilsson's The Point, "a point in every direction is the same as no point at all" (I can't believe there is no wikipedia for this. The best reference I could find is this - you've probably heard, "Me and my arrow") applied to Randy - not to me.

Things at Cybera seem like a lot of directions right now, lots of excited energy and pent-up potential. But, ultimately, my goal is to simplify, focus, find repeatable processes, but not yet ;) -Lynn

Elephants and Tectonic Shifts

Drove to Edmonton and back on Wednesday. So it's now Thursday 12:58 AM. Nothing much today. Arranged some contracts. Talked to Randy about elephants in the room and tectonic shifts. Then hit a random connection incorrectly looking up the word teutonic and found an article on disruptive innovation shifts here where they talk about The Innovation Spectrum from Improving, Evolving, Game Changing. All for now.

A Coup in Canada

The world is in the middle of the worst international economic system collapse since The Great Depression. Canadian and US market indexes have dropped from around 15,000 to as low as 7,500 in the past 3 months. The world was awash in financial products that were derivatives of derivatives that masked the risks and the house came tumbling down.

Meanwhile in Canada, the Conservative government had a minority government and were frustrated that they cold have their way. So they called an election and won another minority government (35% of seats/votes). So the other 3 major parties, Liberals, New Democrats, and Bloc Quebecois, are getting together and trying to topple the government by using a vote of non-confidence, which cold lead to a coalition government of three parties that hate each other - but not as much as they hate the conservatives!

Strange and scary times. It would be funny if it wasn't so important. Not only do we have a financial crisis, we have looming impacts coming from global warming, and leaders who are into playground politics - bullying, name-calling, cheap-shots and ganging up. Sheesh.

Dittoheads

Also from wordspy.com: dittoheads n. People who mindlessly agree on an issue or idea because it fits in with their ideology or because they are followers of the person who put forth the idea in the first place.

Skin in the Game

The idiom, "skin in the game", came up in conversation today. The person's native language is French and she noted that there was no equivalent in French. I started looking up the origin of this idiom, and find it attributed to Warren Buffet. I'm not so sure about this, but I suppose it could be true. I thought that it might be much older than Buffet. I thought that it might derive back to Shakespeare and "Pound of Flesh". My husband thought that "skin" somehow means money, as in a beaver pelt or skin.

From wordspy.com: put skin in the game idiom. To take an active interest in a company or undertaking by making a significant investment or financial commitment

Warhol exhibit

So it is now Sunday in Calgary. When I was in Montreal yesterday I met up with an old high school friend, Sue Simatos, and we went to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and saw an exhibit on Warhol and music. It was really good. He designed the covers of 50 albums, including some really early ink sketches and then did the Sticky Fingers cover for the Stones. Good exhibits on The Velvet Underground and the Stones and the psychedelic era. Warhol was a very prolific and iconic artist and could capture an image with a few strokes of a pencil but it's his silkscreens that most people know.

Saturday night in Calgary

Back in Calgary. Not much happening. Flames game on. Brett's sleeping over at Mark's so Barry and I will go out. Reading Scar Tissue the biography of Anthony Kiedis. Wild life. Wildlife.

How I started this blog

I am in Montreal 6:00 pm, Friday night, November 28, 2008. I have been here for two days of CANARIE meetings. My meeting today ended at 4:00, so I returned to my hotel. I phoned two friends and will meet one tomorrow morning before catching a plane back to Calgary. I started reading email and surfing the web. Eventually I started looking for Trenholme Park (now Parc Trenholme) where my dad used to play in the Snowdon Fastball league in the mid 1950s. I found a strange link to the park at Coolopolis a random blogspot and decided to start a blog myself.

My old nickname is Suds. I sometimes use SudsIam. My licence plate is Grok. None of these were available for my blog. So, GrokIam.

Although lots of things seem random. They are not. Everything is connected.