Beating a dead horse...but couldn't help it...

Accenture must want a refund, big time...their whole campaign plays into these jokes way too easily.  Oh well... 

I don't think the fame and money we throw at our celebreties is good for anyone.  It's not good for them, it's not good for kids who grow up thinking they have to be megarich/megasuccessful/megabeautiful to have made it...  What's that song out right now?  Drake? "I just wanna be, I just wanna be successful..."  He sings about how he wants the money and the cars and the clothes, and he equates that with being successful.

I bet Tiger Woods doesn't feel very successful.  He's the epitome of success, but he's failed himself and his family.  I feel for him, though.  If from the time you are young, you are meant to feel like a god, invicible, you're going to start believing it.  It's not healthy.  That's not to say he doesn't have free will, but I think we can find more examples of "successful" celebrities that are really just a big hot mess, than the examples who have used their fame and fortune to live good, healthy lives.  It's human nature.

Our celebrities are kind of like our false gods...yet our worship for them is what ends up destroying them.  It's kind of interesting to see.  We chew them up and spit them out when we no longer have any use for them.

Dance, monkey, dance!

It's no wonder child stars end up being the dregs of society.  What else have they been set up for?  They are hearing they are the center of the universe during their formative years, and then the reality is that no one has any use for them anymore, and the highlight of their life was at age 5 or 8 or 14.  The rest of life is a giant disappointment. 

Part of my job involves compensation strategy.  We look at the market, the job duties, etc... and we deterimine what each job is worth.  Generally, with more responsibility, comes greater compensation.

Not that I think government should regulate compensation, but how is it that a paramedic, responsible for saving lives, is paid half of what a customer service rep at Verizon makes?  Why does the president of the US make far less than a CEO of any old company in the US?  Why do our actors and athletes make millions more than the scientists and researchers who are responsible for curing cancer, or national defense?

Why do we even allow athletes and actors to make 10s of millions of dollars, when we could just take a fraction of their salaries and feed the hungry?  It seems a bit corrupt and immoral or at least amoral, when you look at it that way.

In the mean time, our misguided values will create and destry more Tiger Woods', Charlie Sheen's and Britney Murphy's.

Holiday travel

I tend to avoid situations that are unpleasant, so as of yet, I have never flown anywhere in peak travel times.  In general, I take my vacations Wednesday to Wednesday because it's a good day to travel.  I almost never fly on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday because I know they are such high volume days.  When we flew to Dallas 2 weekends ago, we flew out on a Friday night and back on a Sunday afternoon.  The flight was one of the only direct flights from Boston to Dallas, so it was packed, as you can imagine.  There flights were sold out, and Darcy and I couldn't even sit next to each other on the way home. 

That's generally not how I roll.  I think that we can cut out a lot of the annoyances of life, just by planning to do so.  I know that we are wired to think a vacation lasts from one weekend to the next, but why not book a trip mid week to mid week?  Airfare is cheaper, and planes are less crowded.  Plus, you get 2 half weeks of work shouldering the trip, so it's kind of like a longer vacation.  ;-)

Today, we are flying to Atlanta.  It's 2 days before Christmas, and the airports are still playing catch up from the cancelled flights from the weekend.  I can't imagine how busy the airport is going to be, but I'm mentally preparing myself already.  We are already checked in, with boarding passes printed up, and we aren't checking any luggage, but we plan to arrive at the airport 2 hrs before take off. 

That should give us plenty of time to get through security, and if we have extra time, we can enjoy a relaxing meal before we depart.  Philadelphia may be a bit more dicey.  We have a layover there, and our flight has a winter advisory attached to it.  I know they were hit worse with the snow, so I'm sure it will be a zoo.  We don't have a ton of time to get from one plane to the next, but we never check any luggage, so all we need to worry about is getting ourselves to the gate on time.

I always prepare myself for the worst, while hoping for the best.  If our flights get cancelled, we'll make it there eventually, and everything will be just fine.  I do not understand worry.  Worry changes nothing, while inhibiting your ability to flex with change.  How is that useful?

In life, I try to avoid situations that could be stressful.  It's easier than you would think.  When potentially stressful situations are unavoidable, I find a plan to manage the possible variances up front.  There are always going to be things that are out of our control, and that's fine too.  Things in our control, however, can be managed in a way to reduce stress and limit worry.  Why leave things to chance that don't need to be?

Limiting stress and anxiety is within our control.  Planning and organization are key components, but also finding the ability to let go...  "Don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff"  ?? - exactly.  :)

The Holiday Spirit

We are winding down with our holiday work, as we have cookie exchanges, team breakfasts, gift swapping and the like.  It's a fun time of year, when people cast aside the layers of trouble and stress and we can all focus on what it means to be alive and to love...so why is everyone so stressed out?

I have talked to so many people already today, and the overall theme has been stress!  How will they finish shopping?  How can they accommodate all the extra guests who are coming?  How can they possibly fit it all in???!!!

Are we missing the point here?  Just a little bit?  I know my observations are nothing new, so why are we still here?  Loved ones, I promise you that I don't care what you get me for gifts.  I do appreciate the thought and the efforts, but I'm far more interested in spending time with you, enjoying the holiday spirit, following old traditions and creating new ones...  I don't care if the turkey is dry (not that we're having turkey, and certainly not that anyone in my family would ever make a cooking error!  LOL), and I don't mind if the houses I visit are not perfectly neat....nobody does.  :)

If I ever start to stress out over something that is meant to be a time of peace, love and goodwill, I will no longer celebrate the holidays because I will have clearly missed the point.  Our kids will not remember the Zhu Zhu pets they received or the tickle me elmo or the crazy eyed stuffed toy that was so popular years back.  They will remember the things we remember from our childhoods - the smell of apple cider in the crock pot, the way Mrs. Post used to corral us to drink her wassail bowl, the big green and red felt "Merry Christmas" sign Mom would hang each black Friday, the straw from the manger scene that I sometimes picked off the roof of the manger when playing with the first family, the songs we would sing that warmed our hearts and souls, the wax from the Christmas Eve candles that would drip through the cups onto our hands, the Christmas Eve gift I would open each year that would always turn out to be warm, cuddley pajamas, Mrs. Porbundawala's lemon bread and the feeling of profound love for my family and celebration as we remembered the story of the birth of Christ.

No amount of advertising or media pressure can take that away from me.  That is Christmas to me.  The rest of it, I chalk up to accessories to our memories, and they should be treated as just that.

I'm flying to Atlanta for Christmas this year.  I'm doing all of my shopping on 12/24.  I realize to some, that would cause stress, but I'm not worried about it.  Last year, all the gifts I ordered online didn't arrive in time, so I had to do all of my shopping all over again at the last minute when I arrived in Georgia, and it was fine.  I won't have the time to hunt down that perfect present for everyone, but who cares?  I haven't seen my sister and her family in a year - that's all that matters. 

So, gentle readers, if you have been plagued with a bit of the yuletide yucks, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and remember the holidays through you childhood eyes. 

Be well!

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

On the off chance that you happen to live under a rock, and yet still manage to follow this blog, "The Art of French Cooking" is the cookbook that not only put Julia Child on the map, but also transformed the way we cook and eat in America.  It consists of 536 recipes, and I've often heard that once you have been able to cook your way through this book, you can cook just about anything.  The skills you learn in this book will enable you to master Italian, Mexican and any other cuisine out there.  I've always wanted to cook my way through this book, but who has the time?

This weekend, I finally had a chance to watch Julie and Julia - the tale of a blogger who cooked her way through Julia's cookbook in one year, blogging all the way, and now has a book and movie deal.  I had asked for the cookbook for my birthday this year, because I knew when I saw the movie, I would need to cook my way through the cookbook as well.

Yesterday, I took my first step into cooking french cuisine.  I ended up making 3 recipes from the book, since one of them was dependent upon another.  I made Sauté de boeuf à la Parisienne with Champignons Sautés Au Beurre and Pommes de Terre Sautés.  Everything sounds so much better in French.  Really, what I made was Beef Sauté with Cream and Mushroom Sauce with Mushrooms sauteed in butter and herbs and potatos sauteed in butter.  LOL - Healthy!  :)  Here is a picture of the finished product:

I believe these were some of her easier recipes, and I probably spent at least 90 minutes preparing the meal.  Normally, I *never* follow any receipes - I'll take ideas from recipes, but I just do my own thing, and everything usually turns out quite well.  The kind of cooking I do, however, and the kind of cooking   described in this book are not the same thing at all.  It's like the difference between coloring in a coloring book and learning to paint from Picasso.  Seriously.  But Picasso has somehow learned to teach someone with only skills to color, how to paint pretty close to a professional level. 

Julia's genious was not in her cooking, although it was certainly there, but more in relating the most exquisite of techniques into layman's terms.  I had a wonderful time following the recipes, and it was a bit challenging.  I can only imagine the more robust recipes that are in my future.  I can't wait to cook all of them. 

The food was absolutely phenomenal.  I can say that because I give full credit to Ms. Child.  It was abolutely fine dining restaurant quality food that I would confidently serve to any guest I would ever have.  I can't believe the difference using the techniques taught in this book makes. 

I was supposed to work all day yesterday, but we had a snow storm, and I decided to cook and enjoy wonderful food instead of working.  I do not regret my decision at all, even though I'll have to work extra late tonight - we had a *wonderful* day, and I learned a lot!

Friends rock

When I walked in from the airport yesterday, I was greeted by this BEAUTIFUL bouquet of flowers with all of these cute CD cut outs of the face of my CD.  Thank you so much, Alison!

It really made my day, and I brought one of the cut outs to work with me and taped it to my wall.  :)

Oh what fun...

We decorated for Christmas when my parents were here, but we didn't get a tree yet.  I think today is going to be the day!  It's supposed to snow tonight, and I thought it would be fun to play Christmas songs, have cider or egg nog, and decorate the tree with the backdrop of snow falling.  How very Norman Rockwell...

We are going to Noel's Tree Farm in Litchfield to cut down our own tree.  They also have hayrides, hot chocolate, marshmallow roasting, live animals and more.  I'm excited!  I heard their trees are a little on the short side, but that's okay with me.  I usually buy a giant tree for the great room, and it always looks dwarfed, in addition to being a giant nuisance.

This year, we are going to put the tree in the parlor room (LOL), near the fireplace.  I think it will be very cute there...possibly even darling.

I can't wait! 

Public Speaking

I have spent a great deal of time this week giving presentations, and I don't see that ending any time soon.  In my new role, it seems they want me to talk a lot.  I don't mind, but it can be hard to get work done if I'm constantly "performing."

I wonder to myself...am I going to have some role or some next step in life that involves a lot of public speaking?  Is that why I'm suddenly in public speaking bootcamp?  Now, as you know, I've done a good share of public speaking for years, but over the next few months, I'll be doing about 4 presentations each week, on various topics, to various audiences.

I'm wondering if Oprah is behind all this, somehow grooming me to take her place.  Oh, O, that is so you!

I gave one presentation this morning, and it went well, and the people were so interested in the topic, that I launched into a condensed version of a separate presentation after, and did both for them.  Tadaaaaa!

Look what I can do!

haha

I've been invited to speak at the local prison to help the inmates with job seeking skills when they are released.  I think it's a great program, and naturally, I love the opportunity to visit a prison, and of course, I'm bringing TJ.  I knew he'd want in on this action too. 

It's a great experience to be able to speak to all different kinds of audiences.  In fact, perhaps I am the answer to Palin's 2012 run? 

LOL - no thanks, Oprah makes way more money and is way more respected and beloved than any president.  ;-)

Delusions of grandeur aside, I'm wondering when I'm supposed to get all my work done when I'm presenting or planning for presentations all the time. 

Hmmmmmmmm.....

Oh well - I'll git er done.

Oh my, I am a loser

I'm an envelope pusher.  We know this.  I like to know how far I can go - I like to know where my boundaries are.  So I have a newish car, and I thought I remembered that it wasn't as generous on the empty side as my BMW that seemed to run for 100 miles once it was on E (no exagerration).  As it turns out, my memory was correct, and the Mercedes means business when it hits E!

Now, in fairness to my new car, the E light probably went on 3 days ago, but it wasn't until yesterday that it actually hit the bottom line.  Still, I drove to and from work to my house, but it wasn't very far under that bottom line, so I thought I'd see if I could make it to work (today, my office was only 3 miles away) with the gas that I had, and I'd stop to refuel on the way home.

When I was 2 blocks from the office, I sat at a red light for what seemed like an eternity when my car stalled out.  I was also only 2 blocks from a gas station, so I put my hazards on, thanked my lucky stars I had cash with me b/c I didn't have any credit cards on me, and I had just spent my "emergency" car cash on the movies the other day.

It was cold, but not freezing, so I walked to the gas station, bought a gas container (I have about a thousand at the house) - it was just a one gallon one, and it may as well have been a rocket ship, because it was that confusing to use.  The very nice attendant showed me how to assemble it, and work all the gears (yes, there were gears on the thing!!), and I got my gallon of gas and headed back to my car.

I finally figured out how to pump the thing, and I released the lonely gallon of gas into my car.  While I was doing this, a few nice people asked if I needed help because NH is a nice state to live in.  With the gallon of gas in the tank, I climbed into the drivers' seat and turned the key....nothing.

It turned over, but it kept dying.  I called a friend who's a mechanic to ask him if perhaps I just hadn't put enough gas in, because it was *so* empty, that the one gallon wasn't enough for it to go vroom.  He said that was doubtful.

I have emergency roadside assistance that I could have used, but naturally, I didn't believe the mechanic.  Of course I know more about cars than someone who has worked on them his whole life.  After sitting in the car for a while to let it dry out (worried I'd flooded it with all the attempts to start it), it still wouldn't start.  Rather than calling my roadside assistance (still), I went back up the hill to the gas station, and bought another gallon of gas.

It was getting colder and windier out, and I was uncomfortable in my attire.  My suit looks perfectly fine, but our wonderful new dryer makes all of my shirts too short, so the shirt I had on underneath the suit was only acceptable under the best of conditions.  Hiking up hills and bending over to assemble a gas container on a windy day were not compatible conditions to this outfit.  I reminded myself how it's so important to wear nice, comfortable clothing that is not dependent upon perfect conditions.  LOL

I couldn't open the contraption, so I had to go back into the store (for a third time) to ask the attendant to help me with it.  I'm not a person who likes to ask for help, but I didn't suppose I could abandon my car and just go home, so I didn't have much of a choice.  I sucked it up, and he helped me.

I brought my second gallon of gas back to my car, emptied it into the tank, and voila - it worked.  I was right about this, at least. 

Now, this is how much of a loser I really am.  When I came back with the first gallon, I had thought to myself that I'd just go to work and fill the tank on my way home.  I was going to drive around with less than one gallon in a tank that I had already managed to empty this day.

I think it was karma slapping my face that the first gallon didn't work.  ;-)  By the time I emptied the second gallon in and it worked, I drove directly to the gas station and filled my tank to the brim.

I have learned my lesson.  The Mercedes likes to run on a full tank - you get better gas mileage that way anyway.

I will continue to push envelopes, but not with gas tanks, and not with shirts that need to be longer.

:)

My first webinar

Yesterday, I presented to my first webinar audience.  It probably would have been better if I had given my first webinar within my own company, or in a more familiar forum, but I'm kind of a jump in feet first type of person, so of course, I presented my first webinar to over 300 people from all around the US.  I really didn't know what to expect, because I haven't even attended many webinars, but I figured I'd get the hang of it.

When we did our trial run, I realized that the software we were using didn't allow some of the formatting I'd planned for in my powerpoint presentation.  I also learned that because of the group size, interactivity was limited to poll questions and questions that were typed up that I could read on the side of my screen as I presented, rather than just asking the audience a question and listening to their answers.

There's a lot more multi-tasking that goes into a webinar than a live presentation, I quickly found.  I thought that presenting to a group over the phone would be easier than an in person presentation, but I found that was not the case at all.  I can't see anyone, so I have no idea if they are with me or not.  When I'm presenting, I look for eye contact, nodding of heads, etc... to let me know if I'm on the right track.  If certain topics seem to be losing people, I shift gears.

There was none of that.  It was me, in my office, talking to a computer screen.  Very odd.  The whole process made me feel quite old, actually.  LOL. 

In the end, it turned out very well, as I mentioned, I had over 300 attendees, and only 5 left during the presentation, which is very good for a group that size.  You can see the amount of attendees in the top screen, and I've attended webinars that have lost half their audience, easily.  People are dialing in from work, and if they are called away, or if the material doesn't resonate, it's very easy to just sign off.

I was really surprised how many people stayed with it.  In the end, the feedback I received was very favorable, and they've asked me to present again shortly.  As much as I don't love doing these things, I'm sure I will agree to do it again.

It's a good thing to push yourself out of your comfort zone.  As humans, we can adapt to just about anything, and each new experience is an opportunity to grow and learn and connect.  I saw the movie "Yes, Man" a while back, and while the premise of saying yes to *everything* you are presented with is a bit implausible, saying yes to things that you may not be comfortable with, can be a great life experience for you.

All of our life experiences prepare us for our future, and the greater our capacity, the more we can accomplish.