My dad asks me, “You know what’s a good thing about getting old?”
“A lot of people you don’t like are dead?” I suggest.
“No, you can hide your own Easter eggs.”
“What?”
Twitter: 2009-12-14
- HarvardBusiness.org: Take Back 10 Minutes http://web.hbr.org/e/?e=mt&d=121409 #
Regarding My Behavior at Last Night’s Holiday Party
I was somewhat drunk and somewhat belligerent — although in my defense, I’m somewhat belligerent even when sober — but I did not get so drunk that I wound up vomiting on the host’s front lawn like some people I could mention because really — aren’t we all getting a little too old for that kind of thing?
Twitter: 2009-12-13
- The Content Strategist as Digital Curator: http://bit.ly/7haS0a #
Evolution of a Mission Statement
From TheCoreProtocols Yahoo group:
This one is pretty good:
IMPROVE THE HEALTH OF THOSE WE SERVE.
Compare that to the previous one:
Our mission is to make a significant, positive impact on the healthcare system by changing behaviors and improving outcomes.
And before that:
APS is dedicated to providing user-friendly, accessible, comprehensive and innovative behavioral healthcare systems that promote teamwork, relationships, and provider partnerships; add value to our client’s services; and improve upon members’ quality of care and outcomes. APS believes that quality is achieved by providing access to the most appropriate care and in the least restrictive setting.
And originally:
The mission is to be a premier care management company that can flexibly, yet cost effectively, deliver the full continuum of care management services needed to improve total health outcomes; and, more specifically, to assure quality care is provided in the most appropriate and cost-effective setting based on individual patient needs and within the guidelines of the particular insurance contract.
Anne Frank
Five years ago, I wrote a post about Anne Frank.
Today a young lady named Max added a comment:
In my 8th grade language class we just finished watching the Anne Frank movie, and we have also been studying Anne Frank and the Holocaust for about 2 weeks now. The story made about 3 girls cry. Me, my friend Jade, and my friend Kierra. There may have been more but i didn’t see.
There are now over 400 comments on this post, many of them very poignant, and I’ve enjoyed reading them. Thank you to everyone who’s contributed.
It has continued to amaze me how many people around the world have been touched by the life of this one girl.
R.I.P. Anne Frank
Mascots: Trojan vs. Bruin
USC’s mascot is a guy on horseback waving a sword. UCLA’s is a kid in a homemade bear suit.
Twitter: 2009-12-11
- RT @smithsonian: A city built from $32k of discarded lottery tickets? Artist Jean Shin did it. Watch her work: http://ow.ly/L0oN #
I Don’t Think Anybody Knows
One of the hardest things to convey to students is how often the answer to a question is, “I don’t know, and I don’t think anybody does know.”
The Three Requirements for Happiness
To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless.
Mad World
Christmas in Capetown
Twitter: 2009-12-10
- RT @capricecrane: US Weekly: "Gosselin Kids Tell School There's No Santa." Really? Then who took your show off the air you little creeps? #
Why Is This Making Me Think About Monica Lewinsky?
Swedish group renames hymen ‘vaginal corona’
I Was Personally Selected by God Himself
Please forgive me…but sometimes I get very emotional…when I talk about my son…. My heart…fills with so…much…joy…when I realize…that this young man…is going to be able…to help so many people…. He will transcend this game…and bring to the world…a humanitarianism…which has never been known before. The world will be a better place to live in…by virtue of his existence…and his presence…. I acknowledge only a small part in that…in that I know that I was personally selected by God himself…to nurture this young man…and bring him to the point where he can make his contribution to humanity…. This is my treasure…. Please accept it…and use it wisely…. Thank you.
I’ve learned to trust the subconscious. My instincts have never lied to me.
That’s why I know I can handle all this, no matter how big it gets. I grew up in the media’s eye, but I was taught never to lose sight of where I came from. Athletes aren’t as gentlemanly as they used to be. I don’t like that change. I like the idea of being a role model. It’s an honor. People took the time to help me as a kid, and they impacted my life. I want to do the same for kids.
Playing Politics
Steven Landsburg on a public healthcare option:
The [General Motors] takeover started with this promise from the President:
GM will be run by a private board of directors and management team…They — and not the government — will call the shots and make the decisions about how to turn this company around.
Within one month, powerful lawmakers had successfully “encouraged” General Motors to retool factories in their home states, and Senator Jay Rockefeller had prevented the closing of a dealership owned by one of his wealthy constituents.
Or recall what happened with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who succumbed to so many political pressure [sic] that–well, you already know the rest of that story.
When you politicize an industry, be it cars, mortgage lending or health insurance, you invite interventions on behalf of the rich and powerful. The less rich and the less powerful foot the bill.
Twitter: 2009-12-09
- RT @smithsonian: How about a slide show of artists’ homemade holiday cards? http://ow.ly/Ki2k #
Why Tiger Woods Gets All the Girls
I get home from the gym and say to my wife, “I’m in such great physical condition, it’s a shame I’m not having an affair with 10 women like Tiger Woods.”
“Women care about money,” she says. “You don’t have 10 billion dollars so forget it.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Remember When?
Remember when Barack Obama was a brilliant and inspiring young leader who was going to revive an America that had gotten dangerously off track? To be honest, neither do we, but we were reliably informed of it at the time.
Adventures in Agile: The Scrum Board
For 3-1/2 months, we’ve been using a scrum board — not the one in the photo, but similar — to track tasks on a development project. Tasks start out on the left side of the board in a Not Started column, then move through In Progress, Code Complete and User Testing on the way to Done.
Today someone said, “We need a list of everything that still needs to be done — like the scrum board, but could you put it in a spreadsheet?”
Ummm, I could, but it wouldn’t contain any additional information than what’s on the board.
That was an eye-opener to me. I like the scrum board format because it keeps things visible. It’s easy to see what all the tasks are and it’s easy to see the status of each task.
It never occurred to me that if you record information on Post-Its and stick them on a wall, rather than recording the same information in an “official” format like Excel or Project, there will be people who assume that you’re just screwing around.
NB: It’s not their fault for not getting it; it’s a communication failure by me because I didn’t anticipate the situation.
Thus spoke The Programmer.