Time to catch up

Writing my last post inspired me to get back on track with my blog. I have ignored it all summer. There has been so much to do that I have barely been able to stay on top of work and school, let alone chat with everyone.

So, I got to Colorado in May. Have spent the summer working out of the house. It’s just awesome. When I need a break, I walk out the door – two steps from my desk and wander around my mom’s beautiful garden or go take a walk up over the hill and around the pond. All the while enjoying the sight of the wonderful Rocky Mountains. I have been visiting some of my old favorite haunts – the reservoirs, Owen’s Canyon, Monument Rock, etc.

All summer I have been enjoying the bounty of my dad’s vegetable gardens. Every lunch and dinner is a veritable cornucopia of garden fresh veggies – radish, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, crookneck squash, zuccini, beans, peas, corn, turnips, beats, snow peas, and we are waiting for the butternut, acorn, and buttercup to ripen up a bit. It has been chilly at night but we have lucked out and not had a freeze yet, so should have a nice crop of winter squash and pumpkins.

I’m down to three months left of school. I can hardly believe that it’s almost over. I spend way too much time hunched over my computer working and doing school work. Speaking of work. I have been working for my old boss from the cabinet place. This time, though, I’ve been doing commercial shop drawings, and have been handed a couple of projects to manage. Since my degree is in project management, that worked out nicely! So, I moved right from my old job at AANEM to my new job at my old job!! I’m actually contracting for him for now so we’ll see how that goes. It’s money rolling in and for that I’m truly grateful.

It looks like Doug may not get out here now until mid-October. We’re both trying to be patient and go with the flow. Thank heavens for technology. Instant Messenger has been a godsend. It is not nearly so hard to be apart when we can chat briefly throughout the day. Doug has had some great opportunities this summer – recording music, playing music, producing audio and video, and learning lots of valuable things. We know that God’s hand is in all of this and we’re just sitting back and watching how the Universe rolls out and orchestrates when we get out of the way.

Julie is in Daytona Beach, Florida at Wyotech doing the motorcycle tech program. Josh and his family are in Rock Springs, Wyoming where the oil business is booming. He has opened a new division of Tuttle & Tuttle Trucking up there. I’m so proud of both of the kids for adventuring out and following their dreams!

Levi and Doug got to spend a few days together this summer having some guy time.

Quick Catch up

Ok, I know I haven’t posted anything for a long time – just about as long as I have been holding my breath about this house thing, so here goes – I’m giving you a quicky.

House sold… well, contract signed… inspection performed… money pit needs more attention… trying to figure out what to do-what not to do, how much can we afford? How much is just over the top? This house is almost a hundred years old – sorry it’s not perfect. It is close to the clinic so deal!

Part of the madness is living in Rochester – a socialist town/state to the MAX – “we (the government) can enforce any rules and laws we desire and you better just get in step. ” The things they say are code-even on an older home are just insane. That’s what we are dealing with – an insane world.

I know… I’m on my band wagon, but how much longer can this go on? How much longer are people going to get in line like cattle letting the government enforce every rule that strikes them?

‘Nough said about that. I’m moving. May 19th I’m out of here and off to my beloved home. Hubby will be here for a while yet. I’ll be job hunting so if you haven’t done it yet, now’s your chance to help a friend, relative or stranger – put on your networking gear and give it a go… it could be an interesting ride.

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes. I appreciate. Now go vote Libertarian before we have to brush our teeth the right way, cut our hair the way they want us to and put on uniforms because the government says so.

Here’s a dream job

Wouldn’t it be great to get paid to try out new software and gadgets? What a dream to be the expert tester for new web services and a large variety of software applications and hardware. I realize, of course, that there are a multitude of users who are much more advanced than I am, and that in a lot of cases there is no need to pay anyone because the web makes it possible to easily access a multitude of beta testers for free. I am also fully aware that larger organizations have people on staff to do this job. But, a girl has to dream, right?

I want to sit at home, or wherever I am at the moment, and put the application through its paces. It would be amazingly cool to be one of the first people to use a software or widget that will help people do their jobs better, or have fun or network, or in some way make their lives better or easier. Imagine helping to make the software better. It’s all about constantly learning something new, wrapping my head around the workings of someone else’s mind – the way they choose to create. It’s about helping to keep advancing technology and advancing humanity. 

I have dozens of dream jobs … how to choose? … maybe it will choose me.

Project Management

If you decide to go to school, especially if you decide to go to school a little later in life, my advice is, have a little fun. I’m in a project management theory class right now, and while I’m not in any way belittling project management – I mean it is the degree I chose, after all, sometimes it’s just way too much fun to be a little silly with it all. For example….

Whether as a formal part of a job or tackling a project around the house, the 5 phases of a project life cycle, as well as many of the sub phases of the lifecycle, are almost always present in one form or another. Saturday mornings when it’s time to clean house (initiation), I create a list (planning), I gather together the materials I need to get the job done – vacuum, glass cleaner, rags, dusting wax, etc. (resources), divide tasks between my husband and myself (forming team), do the housework (execution). I suppose that if you asked my husband he’d probably say, that I’m pretty good at the controlling phase, perhaps, more so than is required. Then we come to the closing phase which might be a simple glance back at the list to see if we got everything on it. We might also talk about future tasks and projects we need to do around the house. One could include many of the other subsets of the 5 phases in the list. Risk assessment might include acknowledging the possibility that we could be interrupted or sidetracked with other tasks or company dropping by. I might have an uncooperative team member (i.e., my husband) who thinks that the Saturday morning project should be sleeping in or going out for coffee. I’ll need to create a contingency plan like cleaning house on Sunday instead of Saturday, so I’ve built-in a contingency plan for a possible time delay. If we look at any task from taking a shower to organizing a global network for the corporation, the project life cycle is present. A project can’t really be completed without each of these steps. Even when the steps are somewhat subconscious like pulling out the vacuum cleaner to clean the carpets, it’s still a phase of the project.

Well, ok, so it’s not all just fun and games. There is the more serious aspect, and while I do want to have fun, this blog, at the moment anyway, is truly about finding a job in Colorado. So, I’ll post the rest of my paper below to keep things on an even keel.

The more complex a project the more important it is that we understand PMBOK. The project life cycle include the 5 steps: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. However the project management life cycle includes several processes within each phase. The Project Management Institute divides the project life cycle into 44 management process (Egan, 2006). An understanding of these processes will help to make the LRH project a smooth efficient project.

Unlike my housecleaning scenario above, the LRH project is a complex project involving many people and sub projects. Within the planning process, for example, I need to have a plan for each of the subprojects, such as updating the display and the presentation, training the sales people, making travel and shipping arrangements, evaluating the need for clothing and placing the orders. All of this planning involves processes such as cost estimating and budgeting, human resource planning, risk management and identification. During the controlling phase, processes such as cost and schedule control, managing the team, reporting and risk monitoring, will be necessary to complete this phase.

The project management life cycle phases are present in all projects, large or small, to one extent or another. The project management processes may not all be necessary in all projects, but awareness of them and a conscious decision to include or not includes each of the processes is beneficial. Most of the project life cycle is just the natural order of things. The more one follows the phases in a conscious and orderly manner, while utilizing the project management process, the less likely it will be that major problems will occur.

Meanderings

If I was going to create the perfect job, it would somehow combine all of these things

• Technology
• graphic design
• gardening/flowers
• Libertarianism
• cooking
• spirituality/philosophy
• writing
• reading
• research

Some of the things I miss about Colorado:

Spring Beauties and anemones (Pasque flowers) will be blooming soon. Mom’s fried chicken. Venus setting over the mountains early in the evening. The clouds rolling in over the mountains: ominous thunderclouds, heavy fog, wisps – all of them. Thunderbirds flying over the Air Force Academy for the cadets’ graduation. Fresh vegetables from mom and dad’s prolific gardens. Sports Talk on KOA radio. Windy, steep, narrow, dirt mountain roads. Fresh mountain water. Aspen trees, their sound, their colors, their pretty pussy tails in spring. Holidays with the family. Bumping into people I know at the grocery store. Serano’s coffee house. Music nights at Pike’s Perk with all of our friends. 4th of July in Palmer Lake.

Pig Skins and Pastimes

Inquiring minds want to know the Palmer Lake perspective on sports… bearing in mind that the all-time fabulous KOA Sports Talk is not, at the moment, a part of my daily commute home, uhm, let’s just clear up a couple of things. What avid Rockies fan would not say that the Rockies CAN get to the World Series again? I mean, really? Granted, they’ve had a bit of a slow start this year, but don’t be fooled, they’ll come along just fine.

Haven’t paid the slightest attention to college basketball this year. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love basketball, and it’s been a constant heartbreak that the Nuggets haven’t fared well over the years. I can’t even begin to count the number of times my hopes have risen that the Nuggets will make it “this year.” They are kind of like my high school basketball team. Year after year after year after year we went to the high school basketball championships and each year we’d lose — often in the first game. About 9 or 10 years after I graduated, when Patrick Garrity (Notre Dame, Phoenix Suns) played for my good old LP they finally went to state and took the championship.

Snowboard, silly… everyone knows that. Besides, who can resist the charms of Shaun White? Let me make one thing clear, unless hell freezes over you’ll not see me on one… sadly, I’m a spectator. I’ve been on the boards several times and the sight just isn’t a pretty one. There’s something about me and balancing that just doesn’t work. Skates, balance beam, skis, snowboard, skateboard – it’s just plain pathetic! I didn’t ever say I was good at sports. I just said I love them.

Of course, then there are the motor sports too… Mile High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway is an all-time favorite. Texas Motor Speedway, surrounded by a couple hundred thousand, yes a couple hundred thousand, people all jammed in together to bear witness to the creativity and skill of man/woman and his/her machine. Yeehaw!

And then there is football. One of the greatest consolations for the end of gardening season is the beginning of football season. Now, I’m not going to be painting my house orange and blue or plastering Bronco memorabilia everywhere, but I’ve stuck with them since the beginning and I can’t imagine changing my allegiance at this point.

The list goes on and on. There are so many great sports, so many great athletes. There is beauty in all things. Michael Jordan soaring toward the hoop, John Elway sailing one into the end zone in the final seconds of the game, Shaun White flipping end over end down the half pipe, Michael McDowell walking away from his spectacular crash… moments of glory, moments of stupendous, heroic, miraculous feats beyond imagination… what could be more fun than bearing witness to those moments?

Social Networking Experiment – A brief report

Celebrate with me today! A few daring souls are reading this blog, a few brave souls are posting on this blog! And perhaps there are even a few out there that are joining in my little experiment and sharing my experiment with their connections. Life is very cool! In addition, this is just plain fun. I’ve been writing off and on since I was in elementary school. When I was in the third grade I won a poetry contest that was judged by a published writer who encouraged me to keep writing, and I think my love for writing started then.

For those who have heavily leveraged the social networking technologies of the World Wide Web, my little exploration/experiment in this realm may seem blaise – even cliche. For those who just said, “Uh, Yeah!” let me just say, do you remember your first (fill in the blank)? We all get to have new experiences at different times in our lives. It is incredibly cool to be able to continue to have new experiences that leave me breathless – that fill me with bliss.

Any suggestions from a seasoned veteran about growing my network is always greatly appreciated!

Cabbages and Kings

I married a man who has some really bizarre ideas. Those of you who know Doug will just chuckle and nod knowingly. For newbies to Doug’s world, you just have to bend your mind slightly, ok, greatly, in a way that may cause a great deal of pain, if you are not already slightly bent. Think of it as Yoga for the mind. Incredibly painful the first few times, but wondrous results will occur if you just stick with it.

I said to my dear, darling, and (say it with me) weird husband tonight, “I’m feeling uninspired, I need a subject for my blog post.” He said, “cabbages and kings.” With my left eyebrow seeking my hairline, I looked at him and asked, “now, how does that relate in any way, shape or form with Colorado, a new groovy job in tech/design/web (see, I just can’t commit…I want to do it all), my life, or anything that would be remotely interesting to write about?” And then I realized that he had a good point. Not that he realized it, but there is a time to set goals and talkabout goals, and make plans and share plans, and then for crying out loud just take a breather.

Hey, I just looked down at the bottom of my Firefox browser window and there is a message saying “Well Formed Error”. That’s good, right? I mean, if you’re going to have an error, at least let it be well formed. I wonder what a badly formed error might look like.

Did I mention that school is back in session? 5 sessions to go… I’m on the downhill side.

Twitter

I’ve been listening to people on my favorite tech podcasts talk about Twitter and Jaiku for months and although I have dropped in to each site, I hadn’t joined either one. So, as a part of my social networking experiment I decided it was high time to take the plunge. It’s kind of fun, although as I said in one of my twitter posts, I feel a bit like a wallflower/stalker… if you don’t have people who are following you and you’re just quietly following others through their day, it’s a little weird. Since I don’t have any friends on Twitter (that I know of), I decided to follow some of the techies I listen to. So, there I am lurking, watching, and listening… oh yeah! I’m posting too… but, well, you know… need the network. If you want to come hang out at Twitter, you can find me: sebritt.

Hey – and thanks for posting comments! Keep ‘em coming.

What are you doing in the tech world that you think is fun? What’s your favorite social networking tool or site? Jump in here or at Twitter – join the conversation. Oh and don’t forget… networking – that’s what this particular exercise is all about. Send this to your friends, your coworkers, your relatives, your in-laws. You never know if someone you know in Arkansas knows someone in California who knows someone in Colorado who needs someone just like me!

Real World Surprises

When I decide I’m going to do something, set a goal, outline a plan, I tell myself a story about it. I create this whole little enactment of how it’s going to work out. It’s actually pretty funny because no matter how many times the stories turn out to be vastly different from anything I had imagined, I can’t seem to stop telling myself stories. Sometimes the stories are on a subconscious level… I don’t even realize that I have a story until the outer world picture turns out to be entirely different from the picture I was carrying inside my head. For instance, when I had this “great idea” to do a little social networking experiment and network my way to the virtual doorstep of my next employer, I had this picture of those close to me reading my email, and at least a few of them sending the link to my blog on to another person or two or 10 or a hundred (in my ultimate fantasy). My surprise has been how differently everyone thinks! Some people have wished me luck. Some have told me who I should email, some have said in a joking kind of way that I should be relying on strangers for social networking, the list goes on…. none of these things are bad, mind you – just surprises. The scenarios that are humming away in the background of my mind are just a derivative of my mental conditioning, and I fully realize that just because I want everyone in Susan’s world to play their parts on cue, there is no reason in the world why they should.

I have a strong suspicion that this will be yet another opportunity for me to learn some valuable lesson (insert a wee bit of sarcasm here).

Back to the whole job conversation…

You know about handy men (yes, politically incorrect as it is, handy women just doesn’t roll off the tongue, or in this case, fingers)? I’m kind of one of those. I know a good bit about an extremely wide variety of things. I can manage a project or figure out the software accounting package and manage the books. I can design you a kitchen or bath, or whip you up a brochure . I can build you a website – it will be built out of HTML and CSS, but it will work. I can even set up the site through IIS and map ColdFusion tags in CF administrator. If your web page is broken, if it’s HTML, I can definitely fix it. If it’s ColdFusion, odds are good that I can figure out the problem and maybe even fix that too. The benefit of working in a small office is the opportunity to learn how to do a wide variety of things and I’ve worked in several small offices. The drawback is that one doesn’t tend to develop a high level of expertise in one or two areas.   Let’s just say I’m well rounded, shall we?