Time for a Sabbatical – EVERYBODY Needs One Sometime!

YES – I am taking a sabbatical and YES I know that the term “sabbatical” generally refers to a “period of paid leave” and typically refers to a college/university professor. However, in my case:

A – I will NOT be getting “paid” (in the conventional sense). In actuality I’ll be spending some bucks.

B – I am NOT a college or university professor. However I am a (PSIA) Certified Professional SnowSports Instructor/Coach. The level of education/training required to be one certainly ranks up there in the “teaching profession” for sure!

There are many terms that pop to mind.. “boring”, “not fun”, “a drag”, “monotonous”, “tired”…(and many more).. finally the big one “burnout”. Any/all which get one thinking seriously about “am I going in the right direction?”.. “is the light at the end of the tunnel a train (heading toward me)?.. “this is the pits”.. You might even start to wonder if you are heading into (or are in) depression!

Over the last couple of months all of this stuff has been tossing about in my head as I attempt to “quiet myself” and get to a place where everything is stable and calm. A place where the day to day.. minute to minute noise of the world just does not exist (or at least I feel it has zero impact on me). It’s tough but I’ve arrived.. and it’s time to put things in prospective and in order. Add in the CV business and it’s a no-brainer to take an extended sabbatical.

Interesting Quotes

“If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.” – Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (often referred to as “the wise”)- Emperor of the Roman Empire from 161 to 180

“Imagine you are an idiot. Now imagine you are a member of Congress – But I repeat myself” – Mark Twain

“It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction” – Albert Einstein

“I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity” – Edgar Alan Poe

“.. full blown batsh*t crazy..” – unknown

“..Crazy Has No Party..” – NYP

“..a penny for your thoughts..” – John Heywood (in 1546)

“..the more, the merrier..” – John Heywood (in 1546)

“..the moon is made of green cheese..” – John Heywood (in 1546)

“No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot” – Mark Twain

“the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” – Edmund Burke

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes” – Mark Twain

“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the losers” – Socrates

“People will forget what you said… they will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel” – Maya Angelou

“Political Correctness Is Intellectual Dishonesty” – unknown

“If it’s not mobile – it’s not worth it!” – RJ Ledger

“Worry is a BULLY. It does nothing but take.” – unknown

“If you find in yourself in a hole, stop digging.” – Will Rogers

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending” – C.S. Lewis

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it” – Pablo Picasso

“No man can get rich in politics unless he’s a crook. It cannot be done.” – Harry S Truman

“If you have the guts to be yourself, other people will pay your price.” – John Updike

“Once you become fearless, life becomes limitless” – unknown

“I did my best, God Bless the rest” – my mother-in-law (Simone Lavoie)

“Be so good they can’t ignore you” – Steve Martin

“Givers have to set limits, because takers rarely do” – unknown

“Everybody should be quiet near a little stream and listen” – George Santayana

“1 Year = 365 Opportunities” – unknown

“Political correctness is a weapon used to silence people who tell the truth” – Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Distraction – Yes or No?

Whether engaged in active conversation with others (or yourself 😉 and all of a sudden you find you are distracted by thoughts that probably have nothing to do with the present conversation – what do you do?

Most of us will attempt to push those “wandering” thoughts aside and try to get back on track. BUT is it the right thing to do?

Our subconscious is trying to tell us something – it has raised a flag and we should pay attention and salute it!

First it was Helicopter… Now it is Lawnmower!

Was casually cruising news sources on the internet and ran into an article titled:

Lawn mower parents’ are the new ‘helicopter moms’

This immediately drew my attention since I teach/instruct in the snow-sports industry – specifically Alpine & Telemark skiing. Most of my students have been “kids” (aren’t we ALL kids ?) and having experienced the helicopter parent(s) in some of the “never/ever/beginner” classes, I knew what that was about … so what to heck is a “Lawn Mower Parent”?!?

Well.. it’s actually simple – what is a lawnmower used for – It’s for “mowing” down the tall grass to make everything nice and smooth… and neat… and clean. Get the picture?

Something tells me this is NOT a step in the right direction. If we move from a “hovering” approach to be there to fix every problem/issue in our kids’ lives to clearing every obstacle then just what are they learning? IMHO absolutely NOTHING – except there will be someone to smooth the path for them and iron out every wrinkle in their lives. Guess what happens the first time things get “bumpy” – I’ll tell you what happens – a total meltdown/crash.

Lawn Mower Parenting is the perfect path to create completely dis-functional kids (and later adults). Do we really want that?

Is the “FREE” Windows 10 Really the Beginning of a Major “Rip-Off”?

OK.. OK.. sounds like I am being an alarmist..

It started several weeks ago when Stargazer (my Windows 7 laptop pc) had some (Windows) updates and it asked me if I wanted to get a FREE upgrade to Windows 10 when it is released. Of course I registered for it (can you really refuse??)? Now I have a “NAG” sitting on my system reminding me.. “.. it’s coming ..” (so is winter).

I was aware Microsquish was going to do this because of general info flying around the net for some time. It looked “good” to me.. a FREE upgrade – yea right… There had to be a catch somewhere and now (thanks to Gordon Kelley – contributor to Forbes) we ALL know just what it is.. and it’s really nasty “rat hole”.

Once you upgrade they will have their hooks in solid.. and the “free” will turn into a cash stream for them.. from your pocket to theirs.

Here’s a link to Gordon’s article. Please read and get educated FAST!

It is NOT about Guns – it is about (financial) Greed (and Incompetence)!

My blogging tends to be technical but as a small business owner this was something I just could not let pass without saying something:

Colt Defense – a company that goes back to the “old west” – has filed for Chapter 11 protection.

Direct quote: “.. Colt’s current problems lie in its reliance upon government contracts for sustenance; ignoring the consumer market until it was too late; and being owned by private equity interests with a knack more for financial engineering than gunsmithing. ..”

How many businesses out there are “.. owned by private equity interests..” and doing well.. and actually growing? My gut tells me there are a lot mote “Colt’s” out there than we want to admit.

This is yet another example where the folks pulling the strings do “not have a clue”.

 

NOTE: Quote was from: a post on Fool.com

Look It Up in the HELP file – Are You Kidding??!!??

Nope – I am not!

Anywhere from one to a half-dozen times a day I see  on-line communities/forums where individuals are posting a “help me” type of question. The subject matter runs from something very simple (ex: “.. how do I select a filter….”) to something very complex (ex: “…how do I move my SQL db from on-site to cloud…”).

Now there is NOTHING WRONG with posting to a group to tap into the collective “crowd knowledge” (did I really write that?.. sounds like a good subject for a blog one of these days ;-). However, you are probably missing a source of info which is right at your fingertips (or mouse click away). I am talking about the “HELP” facility that most programs have.

Over the years we have moved from having a manual supplied w/the app to having an icon and/or menu item that connects to the built-in manual – the HELP facility. Most of these help setups are context sensitive and/or have a search mechanism . One such application is Saleslogix. It’s got a really great context-sensitive help facility.. and a lot of internal hyper-links. Every time I poke around it I am amazed as to what I find.

SO – don’t stop posting to on-line communities/forums – but do take a peek at the help facilities that are right in front of you.

“Work Smarter – Not Harder”.. Really??? – How Stupid!

The internet is full of garbage postings about how we should “… work smarter – not harder..”

Here’s the REAL Secret: Smart people are HARD Workers!

Mike Rowe (host of “Dirty Jobs”) has a great blog/post that debunks the “Work Smarter – Not Harder” myth.

The definition of work is:

Work equals Force times distance time the cosine of “theta”  – where theta is the angle between the force and displacement vector(s). SO when theta is zero degrees the Force and displacement are in the same direction and you get the biggest bang for your effort! The more Force (the “harder” you work) you put into it the more you get out of it. Force is the Agent Of Change.

For you “DIY” folks out there.. here’s a great example of why Work Smarter – Not Harder falls apart:
Scenario:
House full of squeaky (door) hinges. How do you fix them?
Plan A: Oil them – Not Hard – but NOT Smart! You end up with mess and a quiet hinge for a very short time.
Plan B: “WD-40” (Remember it stands for “Water Displacement formula number 40 😉 – It’s not “oil” – but it’s messy and does not last long either! Another  Not Hard – but NOT Smart!

Plan C: Use Vaseline – Definitely Smart and Hard! You have to:
1 – remove each hinge pin (one at a time) – can be hard but a small hammer, a pin punch and a flat blade screwdriver really help)
2 – clean the pin (maybe use “409” to really get it clean)
3 – wipe the pin with Vaseline ad put a “dob” on the hole on the top of the hinge where the pin goes
4 – put the pin back and tap it down (hard/flush)
5 – Repeat steps 1 thru 4 for the remaining 2 (or 3) hinges on that door
6 – clean up any mess (paper towels and 409 helps here
7 – repeat steps 1 thru 6 for each door in your home
This will take you some time to do (the “hard”/Force in the Work equation). However, when you are done you have nice quiet door hinges and it lasts for a quite a while. (Good) Work has a satisfaction factor to it that you do not see in the basic (physics) formula. There is something about doing something and doing it right which makes us feel really good (and ready for a nice cool beer – or two 😉

So if we are just trying to be “Smart” and not putting any FORCE into our Work.. we are just going nowhere 😉

File Transfer Without Wires!

Most of us own a smartphone (w/camera) and/or a tablet (w/camera). So HOW do you transfer all those pictures to your laptop/desktop?

Do you:

A – use a “cloud service” (like dropbox)?

B – Use a memory card?

C – a usb cable

D – ????

I just found a BETTER WAY – WiFi File Transfer by smarterDroid (yep – this is an Android tool 😉 It comes in two “versions”: A FREE one and a paid for one ($1.40 – yes a dollar forty) the free one is limited to 5mb files.

To use it, just download from the play store (look for wifi file) to your droid device(s).. fire it up.. open a browser to the ip address:port specified and have at it.

NOTE: The app is really a web server and you are connectling directly – NOT thru a “cloud service” so your data is protected.

SalesLogix Mobile Web Application 2.0 – A Video

A while back there was a video made/posted by the SalesLogix Training group on the Mobile Web Application (version 1.x). Along with the recent release of SalesLogix Version 8.0 was the release of Mobile 2.0.

2.0 builds on the the original functionality of the 1.x release (specifically 1.2) and gives us a much nicer (mobile) user experience. One of the things I especially like are what are called “List Actions” (I call them “Immediate Actions”). “IA’s” are available on all of the “List Views”. You get to them by simply clicking on the Icon (rather than the text) and they appear  in a new line just below the list item.

For a look at “IA’s” and other things, jump over to uTube and take a look:

 

Oh yes, you do NOT have to upgrade your 7.5.4 SalesLogix to 8.0 to run Mobile 2.0 – BUT there are some features which ONLY work with 8.0 (SData).  I’ll be posting just what these things are in a future blog.