tales from the rock

interesting article about being a good father.  nothing revolutionary in my mind here, and not a scientific review at all, but always nice to see someone else on the same page as you.

lot’s of discussion tombo and I have is around #s 4, 5 and 7.  not so much about us, but our observations of other parents in our families.

4. Staying involved:  this really boils down to being around.  you shouldn’t use the time your kid is doing something to do something else.

5. Scheduling family recreation: the work week is busy.  while it may not be any less hectic for you if your weekend revolves around entertaining your kid, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.  playtime is for everyone.

7. Creating family rituals: directly related to 4 and 5 (although not necessarily dedicated to playtime), this one also helps you to manage a full schedule.  however, if your ritual is bundling up your kid’s stuff so grandma can watch him while you go out and play, you missed the point.

http://ririanproject.com/2007/10/25/the-7-habits-of-highly-successful-fathers/

passion

we talk about it so much, but mostly in terms of hunting for it. I suppose in that light, I am lucky enough to have things I am passionate about: my family, my home, my career, etc. obviously, not everyone has these things. I also believe though, that we make our own luck. G-Money is trying to manufacture some with a major move. I think it was a good idea.

in any event, the article has some keys to manufacture some passion, much like you manufacture luck.

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/find-your-passion/

I have conquered the Rubik’s cube.  as part of my mind training exercises (along with sudoku, chess, and learning the 50 states), I decided to learn how to solve the Rubik’s cube.  rather than use a straight algorithmic approach, I learned a more methodical approach.  I did the same thing with learning the states - rather than learn a song or something, I really needed to hard wire the knowledge.  science tells me doing this kind of learning keeps my brain young.  I really think it gives me energy to do the things I already know.  I find myself more productive, and just livelier in general.

writing was supposed to be one of those things as well, but I haven’t been really good at keeping up.  I started reading the Joel Spolsky books, and while the guy states a lot of obvious things, sometimes the obvious needs to be pointed out.  interestingly, he covers a lot about writing in general, and the tough act of ‘getting started’.  bottom line - you just have to do it.

having conquered the cube, I now redirect a part of my newly generated energy towards my writing.  I’ll try and make sure at least some of it winds up here.

did I ever mention I read the ‘Getting Things Done’ book, and was trying to implement the methodology?  I set up my outlook and PDA, even bought this Outlook add-in to help.  pretty good stuff I must say.  I could not bring myself to setup the 43 folders on my desk (although I did buy a labeler, and redid all my files at home).

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so I want to be a better communicator. I think one of my biggest deficiencies right now is that I have lost the ability to express my professional opinions to people outside of my field. now that I work at the ‘hou, this is a daily requirement. not only can I not find the right words, but actually using them once found seems way to hard. I can’t write a decent email/memo/white paper without rambling on and on. in meetings, I’m totally comfortable standing in front of whoever and sharing my thoughts and ideas, but when no one gets them, my level of frustration quickly escalates, and I regress into a mumbling fool.

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