Mayday!

In lieu of well-formulated arguments and philosophical musings, I give you FLOWERS:



David and I have been busy little bees. (no fertility jokes, thanks)


We spent the last two weekends at local parks trying out some new techniques with our fab lenses. Say hello to my carpal tunnel (too much photoshop driven mouse gripping).


I know, not flowers. But, pretty!


Ecinacia is the most fun to photograph.






I love purple.





And my favorite, waterlilies:


If you want to see the growing collection of spring photos, go here or here.

Spring!

First, flowers!








It's so great to see all this color.

Work has been really fun lately. It seems like spring has really amped up my creative process. I spoke at a conference in Austin a few weeks ago called RISE, it was really fun. It was especially great to be around a bunch of entrepreneurs. It reminded me of the first time I went to music/arts summer camp in high school. Instead of being a weirdo, I was with my own kind, people who shared my values and ideals. In this case, it was fun to be with other irrationally optimistic, creative, driven people who persistently see our country's financial difficulties as an opportunity for growth and change. It was cool.

My session was on defining and identifying core vision, values, and mission. It went really well, and has got me thinking about some very exciting possibilities to expand on the parts people responded to especially well. Next week, I'm guest speaking at Wisdom at Work, which you can read about here, if you're interested.

Speaking of entrepreneurs, I got to meet one of my idols yesterday, Perez Hilton. What? That snarky gossip blogger who draws on pictures of movie stars in MS Paint? Yep. I have to admit his blog is a guilty pleasure of mine. But what I find more interesting is how he's managed to go from just some dude who writes a goofy blog to a media mogul. Seriously - the guy had one of the hottest shows at SXSW, has a clothing line at Hot Topic, a book, tv shows, and more. I expect him to be in the company of Oprah as far as media influence is concerned in the next ten years. He is wicked smart. Anyway, I'll quit gushing and just show you the picture:



I am such a dork.

I've been better about keeping my business blog updated, but less so here. I've got some new website stuff in the work, so stay tuned for updates. Oh - and I also have a new article in a journal called The Systems Thinker. Sweet! It's on organizational politics and ethics, if you're interested email me and I'll send you a copy.

That's all for now. I have to go wash some terriers.

I'm a Busy Bee

My life has changed pretty dramatically in the last month or so. My new job is good, but challenging and very, very different. I go to meetings, and we talk about things. Actual things. No posturing, no circular conversations about something completely different than what is being discussed. Actual problem-solving. This is a good thing, but it also calls into sharp relief how comfortable I was with my rapidly atrophying brain in my last work situation.

Add to that the first class at school that has thoroughly kicked my ass. Not that the other classes weren't challenging, they were. But I've recently been reminded of the difference between a challenge and a struggle. This is no fault of my own or anyone else, the class is good, the material is good, the teacher is good. When it comes to most academic learning, I tend to work hard, but hit kind of a groove where I know I'm working with most of my mental capacity. When it comes to finance, it's an incredibly uphill battle.

This is great stuff to know, but I feel completely illiterate, and as if I have no talent for understanding it at all. Which I probably don't. Doesn't mean I can't learn some of it, but this is definitely not a "follow your bliss" type of topic for me. It's more like a "trudge unwillingly after your degree requirements" type of topic. I feel like I've worked harder and actually learned less than in any class so far. In reality, I have probably learned a great deal, but it's kind of like someone telling me I don't know how to read English at age 35. A wee bit disheartening. In 3-6 months I will have a much better idea of what I learned and will feel the beginnings of comfort with the topic, but seven weeks is never enough, even when I have an affinity for the subject.

Winter in Austin (all two months of it) seemed really cold, mostly because I'm a wimp. But it's in the low 80s this week, so it should be full-on spring by March 1.

In other news, two of my long-time girlfriends gave birth to baby girls halfway across the world from each other at approximately the same time. I get to meet one of them in a few weeks.

I hope all my millions of readers are having a prosperous and happy year so far. I'll write more when I find where I stashed my clever.