ralam snapshots

Tribes and life

2009-10-15T22:24:00.005+03:00

A nice talk by David Logan about how people form 'tribes' and the stages they can be in, based on the way the see the world.

Stage 1: Life sucks
Stage 2: My life sucks
Stage 3: I am great (...and you are not)
Stage 4: We are great
Stage 5: Life is great

"As people see the world so they behave."

I particularly love the description for the description for stages 3 and 4.

The talk remembered me of the T-shirts we made at a previous job with a picture of the team and 'we were great' written on it. I still miss that team. Also I remembered of another team I've been in, that was good, but not so great, with all the team members great, but not the team.

Martisor

2009-03-01T22:35:00.009+02:00

This year I was proud to be the Grinch of all the holidays like St Valentine's Day, Dragobete and Martisor, holidays when many people celebrate at command and buy kitsches.

Ignoring completely any 'deprecated' customs, this morning I was just happy that the spring is finally close. I was driving around when I was shocked to be pulled over by the police. It was the first time in the last 5 years or more. So I was staring at the police officer to find out why I was stopped, trying to remember everything I did in the last 5 minutes, without remembering doing anything wrong. That moment felt like a thousand seconds. Then, the explanation came: it was the 1st of March and I was stopped to be given a "martisor".

That brought a big big smile on my face. A total stranger enlightened my day. The next moment I remember, I was buying "martisoare", symbols of spring that regained their place in my heart.

I guess that means I'll stop being a Grinch and that I will have to celebrate the 8th of March.

Designed by Otto

2009-01-08T23:17:00.016+02:00

In august I got a new hairy friend and named him Otto. We chose the same breed, rottweiler, because they are very intelligent and, contrary to the appearances, very affectionate, friendly and loyal.

His temperament is a little different from the one of my first rotti. He has a lot of energy, is very active and manifests a special interest in design. Apparently he had design lessons in private and already started to practice. He specialized in garden design and feng shui and you can see the proof below:


designed by Otto

So if you ever need help with design you know where to find.

Comfort zone

2009-01-04T22:20:00.005+02:00

Extending the comfort zone helps us grow and unfortunately I feel that in the second half of 2008 I stayed mostly in my comfort zone. Everything familiar, almost nothing new, unpredictable or unmanageable. I am happy with both my personal and professional life but I also like trying new things and always improving. I don't expect that every step will be breathtaking like all the steps from the Ropes Course in 2005 ( as a volunteer in Impact program), but at least some of them should.

The last 2 weeks of vacation were great. All I did was having fun, relax, read, take walks as long as the cold weather allowed, play with my dog and sleep. 100% comfort zone. I was very happy. But I wouldn't be happy doing only that for a longer period of time.

I hope in 2009 I will walk toward the border of the comfort zone and beyond. I already have some clues. Being 'agile' and new type of database will keep me busy for a while In the mid-summer I will learn about sharing life, space and I guess it will be a tough challenge for an only child. I'll have to remember how to skate since I just bought a new pair of ice skates. And I'm sure I will have many other good surprises this year.

Perfect Christmas

2008-12-26T21:14:00.003+02:00

My recipe for a perfect Christmas: snow, family, love, giving and receiving presents, music, Christmas tree, friends, dancing. Nothing more and nothing less. Just happiness.

Borsa

2008-12-10T22:51:00.007+02:00

Borsa in images

and numbers:
- summit: 1400m (4593 feet)
- vertical fall: 500m (1640feet)
- run: 2000m- 2500m (6561 - 8202 feet)
- no of falls : unknown

Pubs and Planes

2008-11-28T01:12:00.000+02:00

Is there any connection between the pubs and and planes? Well...they both start with p, are full of people and usually don't have enough space. But in pubs people feel good and in planes that fly for a long time is exactly the opposite (no matter how good the movies are, although they help).

What really brings them together is that they are both recommended for a better communication and greater success for teams distributed in space and time. The recommended frequency P&P of 1.5 months can scare both the travelers and the budget. Finding alternative solutions is a challenge I took. As a start I am writing here and I intend to write a summary of what I would tell my friends when we go out to pubs. I'm sure a lot of the pub interaction and fun is missed, but it may be an acceptable surrogate.

Jet Lagged

2008-11-25T23:27:00.000+02:00

Admiring for more than an hour the ceiling that has no interesting painting or puzzle on it is a bad idea. Counting sheep is worse. I wonder about writing on a blog. It's just that my body clock is synchronized to pacific time and it will take me another day to convince it to add 10h and work on EET(or at least closer to EET). So I'm spending some time throwing letters here and hopefully I will get some sleep afterwards.

I just got back from the Jim Shore's training on agile development and it worth all the sleepless nights. His book, The Art of Agile Development, is great, but an on-site training is even better. It links stronger the theory with the project, your experience and your co-workers experience. I have to admit I didn't believe that a coach can help a development team but my assumption proved to be wrong. It was very useful and I'm looking forward to see everything in practice.