At Long Last

I have my wonderful dream dog, and she’s everything and more I thought she would be. At 8 weeks, Eleanor Marguerite Hyacinth Crecendo Rigby came into my life as a bundle of love and energy. she is now 10 months old, and has become quite the young lady. It’s been a lot of work, and sometimes quite frustrating, but overall, extremely rewarding and she is a loyal and faithful friend. Ellie is responsive and obedient, needs her excercise and loves to please. Here she is at 8 months.

Defintely worth it!

See more progress on: own a weimaraner

Be Popular at Work: Four Steps

I came across this excellent article today and It made sense to me. It seems to me that if we are to relate better to each other, both in our business and personal relationships we need to look at how we present ourselves.

Be Popular at Work: Four Steps

By Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com

For years we've heard that it's more important to be respected than liked. Yet study after study is proving conventional wisdom wrong -- finding instead that the road to success is more often a series of popularity contests.Research at Columbia University shows that jobs, pay raises and promotions are more apt to be awarded based on a worker's charisma than on his or her academic background or professional qualifications.Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas found that during corporate downsizings, hiring and firing decisions boil down to how well people are liked by their supervisors. "It's not enough just to do a good job; you have to be likeable in the eyes of your employer," says company president James Challenger.

The good news is likeability is a skill that can be learned. After two years and a quarter million pages of research, Tim Sanders, leadership coach at Yahoo! and author of "The Likeability Factor," has unlocked the secrets to having a magnetic personality. "When people encounter you, they subconsciously ask themselves four questions that determine your likeability or 'L-Factor'," Sanders explains. "First, they seek friendliness. Then, they ask themselves if you are relevant to them. Next, they ponder whether you have empathy for them. Finally, they ask themselves if you are 'real' -- that is, authentic and honest.

If the answers to those four questions are affirmative, you receive a high Likeability Factor."To up your "L-factor," Sanders offers a four-step process:

Step One: Increase Your FriendlinessYour friendliness is a function of your ability to communicate openness and welcome to others. Make an effort to greet people cheerfully, smile often and adopt a friendly mindset that you communicate through positive body language and words.

Step Two: Raise Your RelevanceYour relevance has to do with your connection to others' interests, wants and needs. The more relevant you are, the more people like you. Relevance has three levels:
· Contact. The odds are, likeability will increase with "functional distance," such as sitting next to someone at a party or living nearby.
· Mutual Interests. Having common interests or experiences makes people feel validated and generates a sense of community and personal respect.
· Value. Relevance is strongest when the value you offer meets another person's wants and needs. This produces positive attitudes in the person's mind and contributes to your allure.To become more relevant, find ways to connect with the interests and needs of others. Know what they're passionate about outside of work. Be aware of their emotional needs and willing to respond to them.

Step Three: Show EmpathyYour empathy reflects your capacity to see things from another person's point of view and to experience his or her feelings yourself. When you connect with someone's feelings, and they believe you're "with them," it delivers a psychological hug. Ask yourself, do I:
· Know how that person is feeling about his or her life situation these days?
· Understand what it must feel like to perform the person's tasks day after day -- be it caring for an elderly relative at home or managing a heavy workload?
· Share the same emotions about key issues?By making yourself more emotionally available, your connection with people -- and your likeability -- will grow dramatically.

Step Four: Keep It RealRealness is consistency between your beliefs and actions. To be true to yourself and others, you need to:
· Do what you want to be doing in life.
· Live with purpose.
· Commit to the principles of your work.
· Be the same person on the outside as you are on the inside.
· Be direct and honest with others.The more you live by your values, the more your perceived realness will elevate.

Conversely, if people decide you're not real, they will discount your friendliness, relevance and empathy -- and probably dislike you."Basically, likeability comes down to creating positive emotional experiences in others," Sanders concludes. "When you make others feel good, they tend to gravitate to you."

A test from my BlackBerry

This is a test on how I can 'blog from abroad'. I can now blog from anywhere I have cell coverage!

Cool

What a difference!

It’s been over two months now for me since I've given up caffeine, and I feel great. I gave it up because of many reasons, one of which was the way it made me feel; racing heart, nervous, and it made me feel so dependent on it. Because I was.

Without the caffeine, I really feel my health is better, my concentration is more…well…concentrated, and I’m not ricocheting off the walls anymore. :)

I highly recommend it, and encourage those who are aspiring to this goal.

See more progress on: give up caffeine

After many years

of having cable and/or DSL for high speed, and then the last three years of having nothing but dial-up with an accelerator, the long awaited day finally arrived. Today! I now have a wonderful high speed connection at 1.5Mbps down and 700Mbps upload. It is an incredible feeling being out here in the middle of the country and having high speed! It brings the feeling of being in a remote area, but still having that very connected feeling.

The Technology is a wireless 2.4GHz system, not satellite. No phone lines, just radio frequencies. They mounted the dish on the top of my roof with a tripod and a 13 foot mast to make sure it went above the trees. How sweet it is.

House Update

Finally…
A long overdue update on where I’m at:
Exterior: My siding is completely finished. I had quite a time with it; the company I hired was professional enough – seemed to be doing a great job – until the vertical got too high. First point: My house front isn’t really that high. From the ground in the front, it’s 33 feet to the tip of the peak. I’ve seen higher. Granted, the prow is kind of unique in that the angle of the roof extends from 2 feet at the bottom of the roof, to a 4 foot overhang at the top, making it a bit interesting when putting on soffit and fascia in the front. But it’s when we got to the prow, that I started really hearing the complaining about how high it was and how unsafe he felt, and how he couldn’t do it. I finally had to come home early from work and get up on the ladder myself at the highest point and do it myself. I was not pleased about that. I mean, if you’re in the siding business, shouldn’t you be used to heights? And if you’re afraid of heights, then you should probably find a different vocation IMHO. Anyway, it’s done now, and I’m glad.

On The Plumbing Front
My plumbing inspection has finally been done – and I had deficiencies!!! I had to put in two extra vents one for the second sink in the kitchen and one for the sink in the ensuite. Now fixed, and once again graced by the inspectors holy presence, the pontiff of permits, came out today and sprinkled his holy water of approval, thus declaring my sewer vents adequately fit for the noxious fumes they were designed for.

And None Too Soon
My insulator, who was scheduled to be on site on Saturday, decided he would pay a surprise visit, declaring that another of his jobs had cancelled on him, giving him the opportunity to do my job sooner than expected. I thought this would have been wonderful, had I only known and been able to arrange the scaffold and materials to be delivered two days earlier as well. But, as that was not the case, I was left scrambling to make these arrangements in a very short, flustered and stressed out timeframe. I set up an account at a place called Urban Scaffolds and was able to procure 3 sections of 5’ scaffold, 3 planks, guard rails and castors for $79.41 for 28 days. Not too shabby if you ask me. At the end of the day, I now have made arrangements for the scaffold to get to the house on Thursday, and the materials hopefully following shortly thereafter. Whew… I’m glad that part is over. As fate would have it, the insulator and crew were able to get all my exterior walls filled today, due to the surplus of insulation I had taken out of my sub-floor earlier. All is well that ends well.

But The Grand Finale is
that tonight, I actually managed energize a circuit upstairs!!! Oh yeah, the master bedroom pot lights went live tonight at 8:15pm. It may sound rather trite to you, but it was a huge milestone to me. Flipping the switch for the first time and seeing those lights turn on was another step closer to getting this house done. I’m really pleased about it. Next thing is to finish the two bathroom fans before the insulation goes in the ceiling!

Drywall
is scheduled to start next Thursday. If all goes according to plan, I should be mudded, taped and sanded within two weeks. After that comes all the finishing. Woo Hoo.

I Ran My First 5K Today!

I Ran My First 5K Today!
What a day. This morning was cool, sunny and still. Perfect for a run. I was up at 6:00am and took a long, hot shower to loosen up. I then ate a light breakfast of oranges/bananas, and some peanut butter, washing it all down with water. At seven, I arrived at the home of my best friend Dave, who was to run the 10K, and together went to exhibition grounds where the race was to start/finish. We already had our number bibs, but as this was a Timex event we there were the chips to pick up etc. I was disappointed that they didn’t chip the 5K run…oh well, next year it will be a minimum of a 10K, if not the half Marathon. This is an annual race in my area which is called the Rotary Run for life – a run which raises funds and awareness for suicide prevention. A noteworthy cause.

We also met up with another of our friends, who was to run the half marathon. This summer he had completed a half Ironman by himself…and he had a heart transplant 19 years ago. An amazing man, and instrumental in inspiring me to run, as well as the gentle cajoling of Dave, of course!

At 8:00, the half marathoners started, at 8:10 the 10K’ers at 8:20, it was my turn. I was nervous, but I was only racing against my own time…all I wanted was a personal best. With family and friends cheering on, the gun fired, and off we went. What struck my heart the most was that, along the way, there were those who were cheering on the runners, sitting by the side of the road with signs that were testaments to those they had lost to suicide. It was a fantastic run, the best part by far was coming in to the finish with the everybody cheering and the feeling of accomplishment. and I’m so glad I did it! I definitely set a personal best: 30:55.
Afterward there was a large breakfast for the participants and their families – it was completely first class.

I loved it and will definitely do it again, 10K, half marathon, marathon, who knows… the ironman?