Little Cow Harbor 4 Mile Run for Hope

Well it is cloudy, 45 degrees with winds gusting out of the South to about 20 MPH and 9:00 AM.  Welcome to a typical late winter Long Island morning and the day of the Little Cow Harbor Run for Hope.

Maryann and I are participating in the Little Cow Harbor Run for Hope....only we are walking.  Yes, we will walk for Hope.  I think Hope will still be well served with a walk.

It has been a while since we have signed up and completed one of these events so I'm feeling pretty good about it.  The event is incredibly well organized and the location is absolutely beautiful.

The adjectives are well earned in both cases.  The organizers deserve a hearty round of applause. We love a well organized event

We finished in just over an hour averaging out to about 15 minutes per mile which is about average, but not bad considereing I had surgery only last Thursday.  The miracles of modern medicine!  My next significant event is not until June but I'll be training for that and plan to post my progress out here for posterity

Big Day

My wife is flying in from Florida today.  I'm glad she is coming up to NY.  I need to go into the hospital tomorrow for an operation and I was not thrilled at the idea of having to manage everything afterwards on my own. She is way better at keeping things moving in such situations than I am and anyway I like having her around to look after me.

I miss my daughter and I'm thinking of her right now.  I really need to get the journal started

The Next Book....

Beginning today I'll be reading Getting Things Done by David Allen.  There are 256 pages and I'm committing to reading 15 pages daily.  My target complete date is March 14th.  What I hope to get out of this book is some inspiration and tips for squeezing all the important things into every day.  I need to do this.

I don't know how much time I have left to live but time is a conscious factor in my life now.  As a younger man time seemed to be an inexhaustible resource.  I am now quite aware that this is a very incorrect assumption with far reaching consequences.  To start my spiritual journey I'm focusing on what was known in my time as the 7 Deadly Sins which are:

1. Pride-excessive belief in one's own abilities to the point that the individual's ability to recognize the need for the grace of God is interfered with.  Pride has been called the sin from which all others arise.
2. Envy-the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situations
3. Gluttony-is the inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires
4. Lust-is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body
5. Anger-is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury.  It is also known as wrath
6. Greed-is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual.  It is also called avarice or covetousness
7. Sloth-is the avoidance of physical or spiritual or physical work

Although the list of the 7 deadly sins has it's roots in Catholicism, it doesn't really matter what you think about organized religion or spirituality, these notions definitely have a bad vibe and have caused endless human suffering and grief.  Oddly enough they have also served as inspiration for hundreds, maybe thousands, of books, movies and plays.

My plan is to honestly evaluate myself against each of these behaviors and ensure I'm not immersed in any of them.  Right now I feel the closest draw to Gluttony, Anger and Sloth.  My next ring of trouble includes Pride, Lust and Greed with Envy a distant number 7.  We'll see if the evaluation changes the pecking order.

Now back to "Getting Things Done".  Following up on my self evaluation I need to assume that my days are numbered (and they are), then determine what I will do today if tomorrow is my last day on the planet.

Well enough for now.  As Arnold might say "I'll be back"

Slan...... 

 

A Repost from 2/14/2008

A Repost from 2/14/2008

Great Moments In Gender Sports

"I demanded a strange bride-gift such as no woman before me had dared ask of a man....to wit I desired a husband without meanness, without jealousy and without fear"....Madb (Mauve) from the Tain Bo Cualnge, a great Irish epic -----first documented circa 11th century

Abducted by Paris from Menelaus of Sparta, Helen became the reason for the Trojan Wars and was reknowned as "the face that launced a thousand ships" She also plays a significant role in both the Illiad and the Odessey---circa 5th century. Nations go to war over women like you. It's just a form of appreciation"......from a modern pop song

The plain fact is men have always liked women and love to please them. However, there has always been a major difference in how we each look at life, in what we value and in what we offer in tribute. Lysistrada, one of my all time favorite stories" is a wonderful study of the clash in perception of what pleases a woman (and what can happen when you don't succeed). For a more modern version of this tale try "To Marry an Irish Rogue" by Lisa Hendrix.

I'm certain that after nearly the entire civilized world went to war to claim Helen....men would call this a romantic notion worthy of the full attention and favors that not only Helen, but any woman, of these nation's might have to offer. On the other hand, dare I even write what I believe women think of such endeavors.

Likewise, the Tain is in a sense the Irish version of the Illiad and centers around the exploits of Ailill, Madb and Cúchulainn along with a cast of other characters. Why this is relevant is that Madb is a very influencial woman and daughter of a powerful Irish King. She marries under her own terms, finds a man who adores her, treats her as an equal and together they go off to conquer Ulster and take possession of the great bull, Donn Cuailnge. If you want to know why you will have to read the story. Bottom line though (from a man's perspective) is that Madb could have had anything she wanted by just taking her lead from Ailill. Instead, she wants the bull, so Connaught and Ulster go to war. Everybody ends up a mess or dead and in the end Madb is still miserable. The good news is that Helen and Madb both inspired some of the greatest literature in the world. The bad news is that the characterer differences between men and women haven't changed much over the centuries.....and for my money I hope these differences always remain. At heart, I am (and will remain) a caveman romantic as are most of my friends. We love our women, want to provide for them, keep them safe and out of harm's way. I want to be king of the cave and have my word accepted as law. I don't want to sit and watch sad movies, or shop six months before Christmas Eve, I don't always remember birthdays, anniversaries or the date and time of my first kiss (I do remember who though.....trophy!). It was sweet, sweet Christine Maloney.....at 13 years old I thought she was a goddess, ahhhhhhhhhh! Oops, back to reality, because it pleases my wife I try to be attentive and always let her know where I am, I'll do my best to remember stuff and I try to listen. I really do try to do all this sensitive stuff, but at the end of the day I'd rather just bring home a fish that I caught myself, have her tell me that it was the finest fish she ever saw and then kiss me for being her hero! Oops....back to reality AGAIN!

Later....................

A Not So Very Presidential Day

Here it is 12:00 PM on President's Day and I'm not doing much of anything.  I awoke to snow....what a surprise.  I sort of tired of being in snow and am looking forward to signs of Spring.  I'll try and get some things done today, but I don't feel very motivated.  I have some ideas as to why, but too soon to say for sure.  I'll just need to push through it as with every other similar time

Am I Serious?

Ride my bicycle 100 miles from Babylon, Long Island to Montauk Point.  I'm not sure yet if this is a question or a statement.  I registered back in January to ride in this event which is being held on June 18th.  As of this post there are 117 days until ride day which means there are approximately 100 days to prepare

Why do I want to do this?  Riding to Montauk in a car is a pretty far drive and still beautiful.  So what is the allure of making this journey on a bicycle. I don't know.  I've done several of these long distance rides but never 100 miles. I'm 60 years old now.  Is 100 miles a little out of my reach?

I never did this when I was in my 20's, 30's 40's or 50's.  Why now?  I think precisely because I am 60 now.  That is correct, spell it; S-I-X-T-Y.  Somehow, the thought of what 60 should feel like and what I actually feel like at 60 don't reconcile.  Don't get me wrong, I am now paying for a multitude of sins in my younger years.  My knees hurt and I've recently had surgery to repair a torn meniscus. I shoveled snow several weeks back and tore a muscle in my left arm and now I'm headed into Huntington Hospital to repair a hernia that was originally repaired several years back. I have problems with my blood pressure and my sugar.  This just doesn't sound like the promising physical profile for an athletic event like riding a bicycle 100 miles in a single day.  Even if I do a good job of preparing, I'm looking at nearly 7 hours of bicycle riding at 15 miles per hour.  I'm more of a 12 to 14 mile an hour kind of rider so I'm looking at nearly 8 hours.  This is a major undertaking.  Am I up to it?  Am I committed to even trying?

Signing up was the easy part.  I need to give myself a hard stop date to decide if I'm committed to this event or not. If I am then a training plan and execution is in order.  If not, then I need to walk away gracefully and blame my surrender to being 60.  I think resolution here is still very much a question. Am I serious?  We shall see.

By the way Blue Point Brewing is a major sponsor of this bicycling event, ergo the logo up front

Slan....

Thoughts on a Sunday Afternoon

Well the day has sort of faded away without me accomplishing anything of note.  I did do the wash and mail a few letters.  Beyond that the day has been sort of a lull. I would guess I have mixed feeling on this.  I've decided that I'm going to try this journaling business for certain. Don't know where it will lead or what will be accomplished, but I feel an urge to follow this path, at least for a while. 

I just finished reading a book titled Journal to the Self by Kathleen Adams.  To practice each of the techniques in the toolbox section of the book I'm going to use them in turn and see what comes of the experience.  The first one we will try is called Springboards.

Springboards are designed to aid in focusing one's thinking around a central theme or topic, similar to the way a springboard or diving board launches a diver into a specific trajectory and direction.  There are two types of Springboards; questions and statements.  Questions tend to stimulate right brain or emotionally driven thoughts while statements focus your attention on facts and demonstrative thinking.

I need to think of a topic to use as a Springboard and come back to write my post

Later.....

Just A Thought

I received this Blue Mountain card from  Maryann on Valentine's Day this year. Maryann and I  have known each other since 1969.  In retrospect our relationship has not been one of tender love or the sappy love like the kind they put you to sleep with on the television.  It has not always been a collaborative love where we would sit and work all our problems out together and come up with the optimal solution.



I would say our relationship has been more an evolution fueled by confrontation and bounded by some loosely scripted rules always subject to change.  It has been an interesting love and one I'm thankful for

Slan.....

Here again after nearly 3 years.

How quickly the time passes.  I've been up here in New York since September 2008.  I work for a company here that specializes in the development and sale of software to automobile dealerships.  I like what I do and I hope that I'll be doing it for a while yet to come.  I've rediscovered this BLOG and I think at least for a while now I'll come out here from time to time and shape my thoughts or record an observation or two.  I like the idea that I can write in public for the world to see yet rarely if ever be seen.

My first order of business is to put some order to my life and maybe, just maybe, get some insight into what I'm all about these days.  I'm really just not sure.  I hope over time some patterns will emerge and I can say with some certainty "Now I understand!"

This is tough

Well my Uncle passed away several weeks ago. That's a mother, an uncle and a daughter on the fringe of death all as the toll for 2008. I am still out in jobless land and beginning to see that the system sucks as badly as I suspected.

Have you ever used those job boards? They are pure unadulterated bullshit....have about the same functional value as the wailing wall...gives you a place to go and get it off your chest, but the net affect is you are absolutely no better off for the experience. I think I am going to plan a test, because I am pretty certain nobody even looks at these things.

You fill out inordinate amounts of information, "apply for a position", sometimes receive a computer generated acknowledgment and sometimes not, and the process seems to stop there. If I am correct, nobody even looks at these things. I would like to know of all the applicants how many people have actually received a call back from a company as the result of posting out on these boards. My guess is that the number on a percentage of all who use these boards is actually very small.

We shall see

Some News

I heard from my cousin Shaun today that his dad is very ill and not expected to live much longer. It is moving at how much sadness there has been on a personal level this year. I'm not sure what this all means...if anything, in the cosmic sense. For me though as an individual it is difficult to assimilate. These people that I have known and loved my whole life, the loss of my job, the ugly economy and yada, yada, yada. Where is it all going? I wonder!

Some Interesting Reading

How to Develop an IT Change Management Program

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

"It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things."
Machiavelli (1446-1507)
The purpose of the Change Management Program (CMP) is to assure that the negative impact of changes to a company’s Information Technology system are minimized by using a standardized process of governance. Some changes are not optional. If, for example, the bar code standard is changing, you must adapt; if a tax withholding structure changes, you must have a change. Nevertheless, all changes of this kind are still subject to governance.
It must never be the case that ad-hoc changes are made to the system or to procedures without some oversight. This idea must originate with senior management and be passed down, with no exceptions, to everyone in the company. Without backing at the highest level, the CMP is a useless waste of time and money. With proper backing, this program will save your company from some very costly errors.

Steps

1. Develop a Request for Change (RFC): This may originate from problem management where an issue, or a series of related issues, is identified and a mitigating change is necessary to prevent (or minimize) future effects. The RFC may also originate as a result of a business decision that will require some modification (add, delete, change) to the supporting technology. An RFC may also be necessary due to outside influences (i.e. governmental regulations or changes made by business partners).
   
2. Obtain Business Change Acceptance: The decision to make a change is typically a business decision where costs vs. benefits are weighed. Even in situations where the change is strictly infrastructure oriented (component or system failure) the decision to spend money resides with the business, not with the IT department. There are occasions when procedures are developed in advance to preauthorize changes such as emergency system maintenance, but regardless of the timing of the authorization, the decision still rests with the business management.
   
3. Initiate the Development Project: Development of the change (including testing) is an IT-guided function. In the event of an emergency change (server is down) those functions are typically predetermined. When a new system is to be developed, there is a collaborative effort between the business users and the IT team. The systems are designed by IT, the design is approved by the business partners (users), developed by IT, tested by a combination of IT and the users, and the final product is approved by both. Careful attention must be given to ancillary effects the new change may have on existing systems.
   
4. Pass the Change Management Gate: The Change Advisory Board (CAB) reviews all changes before they can be put into production. Normally, the CAB will consist of a group of people with different perspectives, backgrounds and areas of expertise. Their function is to review the change from a process and governance standpoint to assure that all foreseeable risks have been identified and mitigated, and that compensatory techniques are in place for any elements of exposure (things that could go wrong). The development team and the change sponsor will present the change to the CAB. Evaluation of risk will be the focus. Implementation strategies, communication to affected stakeholders, backout plans and post-implementation monitoring are elements on which the CAB is required to focus. The CAB is not responsible for determining if the change is appropriate – that decision has already been made. The CAB is also not responsible for determining if the change is cost effective. Again, that is strictly a business decision.
   
5. Implement the Change: If the CAB does not approve the change, the reasons are listed (this is always because certain risks have not been mitigated or communications have not been planned) and the development team will be given time to fix those issues and reschedule a meeting before the CAB. If the change is approved, the implementation is scheduled. It is not normally the case that the CAB is represented at implementation although it is possible that some members of the CAB have expertise that is necessary during the implementation, but they will not be present as official CAB representatives, but rather as subject matter experts (SME). How the change is implemented, the checklist and steps, are predefined and were presented to and approved by the CAB. The entire process must be thoroughly documented and the approved process must be precisely followed.
   
6. Report the Results: Either the change was implemented successfully with no issues, the change was implemented with issues that were corrected during implementation, the change was implemented with issues that were deemed acceptable, issues arose that were unacceptable and the change was rolled back, or in the worst case the change was implemented with unacceptable issues and could not be rolled back. Whatever the result, that is documented and returned to the CAB. The CAB is then responsible for distributing that information to the stakeholders and for storing and maintaining those results in the Change Management system (that may either be an automated database or a paper filing system, but the documents must be maintained for audit purposes).
   
7. Link Problem Management to Changes: Issues that arise should be compared to the CAB documentation of changes so any unanticipated adverse effects of a change can be isolated. It is often the case that undesirable effects of a change are not noticed immediately, but are identified by the emergence of problems in ancillary systems. For example, the addition of several fields to a database might not have a direct negative effect on the users but could impact network performance that would be apparent to other users who are not directly involved with the modified system.
   
8. Periodically Audit the CMP: At least once each year an audit of the CMP should be conducted to assure that all change documentation is maintained and available. Every change approval document should be examined to assure that the proper signatures are in place and that the results of the implementation are properly documented.
   

Tips

• Procedures should be subject to Change Management. If there is a change in system backup scheduling, that must go through Change Management. Analyze every change of any kind (system or procedure) to determine if there is any possible risk.
  
• Standard periodic maintenance should be preapproved. If it is a normal process to reboot a server on Sunday morning at 2:00 AM, it is not necessary to submit an RFC each time, but that process must be approved in advance.
  
• Ad-hoc maintenance must adhere to the CMP. Include such things as testing the fire suppression systems, cleaning sub-flooring in the data center, HVAC inspection and testing and even pest control maintenance. Some companies go so far as to require an RFC if a light bulb is changed in the data center (the ladder fell and damaged the network).
  

Warnings

• Politics can often get in the way of the CAB. "This change is required" may be true, but it could also be a personal agenda from one of the executives. The CAB must have ultimate authority to make decisions on implementation.
  
• Rotate CAB members frequently. Always having the same members can lead to favoritism, and it can lead to burnout. You want your CAB to be fresh, pay attention, and not be subject to outside political influences.
  

Related wikiHows

How to Develop a Risk Management Plan
How to Establish an IT Project
How to Use the Decision Making Process
How to Be an Effective Project Manager
How to Conduct a Simulation Analysis
How to Run an Effective Meeting

Citations

International Standards Organization
COBIT
ITIL
Wikipedia Reference

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Develop an IT Change Management Program. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Moving Right Along

In the spirit of things I am beginning to be less angry and to have a more optimistic spin on what the future holds. I realize that much of what I need to do is squarely in my hands and in some ways this unemployment thing could turn out to be a good experience for me. So far nothing horrific has befallen me or my family. Hopefully this will not be the case

Gary