Walk this way... japee

The jumble of thoughts going through my head while walking the streets of Charleston, SC with my little camera...

The photos are wonderful. The commentary well written. Having briefly visited Charleston, SC earlier this year, I can verify that she is capturing the area very well. I am learning more each time I come to her page so that when I get a chance to return, I'll feel more at home.

Check out how she works her page; different, cool.

Run Strong / Run Long - LisaLeese

LisaLeese writes at Run Strong / Run Long. In her about me section, she answers the question why?

So, why do I keep at it? My mother asked me that recently, after looking at a list of my various injuries. "Don't they hurt a lot? Aren't you doing some permanent damage?" I reassured her the best I could that my knees would not go to mush, or that I would not cripple myself. I guess the only people who really understand why I keep coming back for more would be other runners. I do it for my physical health. I do it so I can eat BAD food and not feel too bad about it. I do it to keep my head clear. I do it for the challenge of training and the pain of speedwork, and realizing I am strong enough to triumph over that pain. I do it to be part of a greater community of runners who feel the same way about the road or trails under their feet, with nothing but their own thoughts to pace them. I do the marathons because.. they're there.. and why not?

If you want to hear about the trials of running and living in Houston, TX read LisaLeese!

Talking Story - Rosa Say

Rosa Say writes at Talking Story. She is the author of Managing with Aloha, a wonderful business text about managing with Hawaiian values. I recently finished reading it and will be doing a review on it shortly.

She has created a wonderful Ho'ohana community with her blog. Ho'ohana is the Hawaiian value for meaningful work.

Her posting today is from her archives for Thanksgiving 2004.
It is a good today as it was then.

Read Rosa!

Consider joining the Ho'ohana community.

You'll be glad you did.

Songs of Experience - Joan Nesbit Mabe

Joan Nesbit Mabe, a quality runner, member of several US National teams also coaches seejanerun (a club for running mothers) and blogs about running. New Englander's may recall her first place finish at Falmouth but she lists as

Greatest lifetime achievements:
3 daughters … Sarah Jane (12), Rosie (8), and Lizzie (4)

There is some balance to this lady runner. You can learn a lot by reading her!

The Bumble Bee - Ken Thompson

Ken Thompson writes at The Bumble Bee.

He has a manifesto on Bioteaming:

Cooperative processes are not the automatic results of implementing collaborative, real-time communication technologies, but the result of a carefully designed and systematically maintained virtual team development plan.

For those of you who have already exposed themselves to the positive advantages made available by the use of cutting-edge communication and collaboration technologies, this should sound as a familiar melody. How many times have you been witness to technologically-based collaboration projects that have miserably failed? Why is there so much disjoint between technology potential and the productive use that business team members make of them?

If the solution is not in the technology enabling such networked business teams to easily interoperate, where is it then?

Read more of Ken and bioteaming!

Woulda Coulda Shoulda (Redux)

Yes, Mir was Hitchhiked here on March 22, 2005.

I have laughed so much since then, I had to do something and ended up with this.

If you had not read Mir before, maybe you will now.

Enjoy!

Island of Spice - James Ainsworth

James Ainsworth writes that he is

a freelance writer and journalist in Denver. I write features about music, entertainment and popular culture, particularly in relation to Africa and African Americans, and I also do copywriting and scriptwriting. I've traveled extensively in Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore, and I lived in Johannesburg, South Africa for 8 years, from the historic April, 1994 national elections until March, 2002.

In "On African and African American Actors" he writes:

Ah, Bra John, "Their blacks are better than yours"? I think you're a little misguided on this...

Much respect, John Matshikiza--much respect... Don't get me wrong--your work in theater, stage, film and television is uncompromising. I loved you in that artful, stupendous film, "The Heart of the Country." Between the breathtaking scenery, shining cinematography, and passionate portrayals of idiosyncratic characters karmically entwined in the Free State, I saw a glimpse of the possibility of what real, world-class South African cinema could be.

Read the full posting here.

Read all of James!

What was I thinking? - Sela Carsen

So why is it that in the "Occupation" section, there's not a spot for Wife, Mom or Writer? Those are the things that occupy my days, but I suppose they're a bit nebulous.

Sela is a writer and shares her writing struggles with all who stop by. For example:

Wrote Synopsis

Did not die.

Actually, it didn't even hurt. Maybe it's the slash and burn writer in me, but I hacked my novella down to half a page in about half an hour this morning. Before my first cup of coffee.

Read more of Sela here.

Ypulse - Anastasia Goodstein

Anastasia Goodstein publishes Ypulse. It focuses on what matters for the Y generation.

For those of us not part of that group, this is a good place to keep current.

Read Ypulse!

Jonathan's Blog - Jonathan Schwartz

Jonathan Schwartz is the CEO of Sun Microsystems writes a blog.

As I wrote a week or so ago, building a user base isn't about rewriting unctionality that works well today, it's about identifying efficiencies and differentiation, and innovating to create value for consumers.

Read the remainder of his "Simple Future" here.

As a software guy, here's a simple (though often irritating) rule behind user oriented software: The language in which a product is written has nothing to do with the value it conveys. Coming from the company that produced Java technology, that probably sounds a little odd. But it's a simple truth, especially when it comes to users: if the app's no good, it's no good, even if it's implemented in Java. Or PHP. Or Rails.

Read the remainder of his posting on Open Office.org, Ajax and Common Sense here.

This should be enough of a teaser to lead you to set up to read Jonathan's Blog regularly.

Dilbert Blog - Scott Adams

Yes, another celebrity blogger.

Well, not JUST another celebrity.

Scott Adams. Dilbert's creator.

And it is a worthy blog.

Check it out!



Kudos to Average Jane for bringing this to my attention.

The Sneeze - Steven

Hey, how many Steves talk abut their Dolores?

Can't be that many of us, so this guy's gotta be good. I mean, we have something in common right away.

Except he eats this. And I won't go near that.

He blogs. I blog. See what I mean!

He even TiVo's Good Eats! I can't get enough of Alton Brown cause I don't have a TiVo.

Read more of Steven here.


Kudos to Average Jane for bringing this site to my attention.

Teach Me Team Work - Tom Heck

Tom Heck blogs on the coach approach to team and leadership development games and theory.

Tom writes

... there are six stages of development:
1. Restoration Stage
2. Personal Foundation Stage
3. Adult Stage
4. Attraction Stage
5. Fulfillment Stage
6. Legacy Stage (the most advanced stage)

The length of time a team has been together does not necessarily reflect where they are along their path of development. There are many well-established teams that are at the Personal Foundation Stage (and may remain there for the life of the team).

One way to determine the stage of the team is to administer the assessment to all the team members. Compile the data from all of the individual assessments and average the scores and you’ll get a clear sense of where the team is along their path of development.

This is good stuff on team work and team building.

Read Tom here!

Hog Blog - Sally Hogshead

Hey, when you have a name like Hogshead, you can't call your blog "straight from the horses mouth" can you?

Hence, the Hog Blog, is Sally's voice, which is behind her recent book Radical Careering and her recent interview as a Cool Friend of Tom.

Read Sally here at the Hog Blog!

eye 2 eye - Ian Macarthur

From the land down under comes this blogger discussing multidisciplinary, cross-cultural design practice, innovation & creativity.

Ian is also a frequent reader of cph127 (also noted in this hitchhiker guide)

In his blogger profile, Ian says of himself:

My focus and professional interests and practice are in the area of design management. I consider China, India and Asia more generally to be of greatest importance in terms of opportunities for design as a profession to make significant difference to the future of all people on the planet. I am interested in contributing to the process of educating industry and people about the need to utilise design in these regions in order to maximise the potentials of collaborative practice, new technologies and education to solve the problems we face as a global community.

Ian writes on East | West behavioural and thinking dichotomies

The Shanghai Swiss Chamber of Commerce swisscham.org recently commissioned Birds & Fish Communications to work on the development of a quarterly magazine appropriately titled “The Bridge”. Designed to foster more awareness of Swiss Chinese business relations in Shanghai and China generally the publication’s March 2005 issue featured a wonderful article “10 differences between Western and Eastern Behaviour and Thinking” by Hans J.Roth, Consul General of Switzerland in Shanghai. The article describes the most significant differences between European and Chinese cultural environments. Although quite broad brushstrokes the observations can be considered a solid general guideline. I thought it would be positive to share the main points of difference highlighted in the article.

Read the remainder of this posting here.

So if you are interested in design and opportunities in China, read Ian!

hypocritical - Rick Turoczy

Rick Turoczy is hypocritical. In his own words:

Sometimes I write hypocritical, a blog on marketing. Its purpose, beyond feeding my pure unadulterated hubris, is to provide yet another forum for yet another a) frustrated writer, b) misunderstood genius, c) marketing slob to critique concepts, capture thoughts, pose questions, and share ideas, in hopes of gaining a better understanding of the art of communication. While it is doubtful I will uncover anything new, perhaps I will provoke thought or provide the right sugarcoating to make an idea digestible or inspire you, gentle reader, to comment, critique, and return.

He writes with Blogger, has been having problems with trackbacks and wrote about it when he identified the problem.

In his posting on Take my RSS feed, please:

Just think. A few magic clicks of your mouse and you could be hosting such previous gems as:

* Want comments on your blog?

* RSS feeds: Can't we just all agree on a common home?

…. and much much more

But that's not all, act now and you'll get all the lame posts, too. At no additional cost. Hearken back to the times we all groaned when I wrote:

* St. Patrick's Day, an increasingly vulgar brand that continues to remain popular

* Don't recreate the wheel that has already been created: The fine art of creating a satirical marketing site (and using the word "create")

…. and much much more

Well worth taking the feed for!

Idea Sandbox Blog - Paul Williams

The background page says:

Idea Sandbox is about connecting people with solutions.

Solutions come in many packages. It may be a person, a place or thing. When you have a problem at your organization - where do you turn? Who can you call? What do you Google?

Idea Sandbox is all about bringing those people, places and things together to help solve your business problems.

The blog is the creation of Paul Williams.

Did you know you could turn your photos into real postage?

If you read this blog, you would have found out.

Make it a place to visit. Who knows what we'll learn next?

Improbable Research -- What's New

News about research that first makes people LAUGH, and then makes them THINK. This is the official blog of the Ig Nobel Prizes and of the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).

Good stuff!

Is it really?

This blog is worth $6,209.94.
How much is your blog worth?

Some would say: This isn't a new blog posting, what are you doing?

I would say: Patience, my friend, all good things take time.

What would you say?

Through the wall - Wil

The trial and tribulations of being a mother, a wife, and a triathlete come together in the writings of Wil.

Getting ready for my first Ironman in September, 2006, and I'm starting to feel like I might just be able to pull it off. A married mom of two preschoolers, here you'll find my insane account of juggling family, career and triathlon. Never a dull moment on this ride; promptly departing at 4:00 a.m. daily.

From The Plan

THE PLAN is the mile marker that jumps into the path of the oncoming emotional blob and slaps it around a bit – whips it into shape, you might say. Look at this, it’s almost over. Get it together - this isn’t so bad, have a gel, drink some water, get over yourself already and breathe. You know that spot when you get your wind back – well, all of the emotional smelling salt stuff of that spot is THE PLAN.

From Back to the Beginning

Physical ability can be carved, mental toughness can be forged, but passion must be born – it takes flesh and blood and heart and guts. And that’s why you must bleed to be the best.

Read more of Wil here.