Rendai

I’m in Phoenix this week attending the AYE (Amplify Your Effectiveness) conference. Even though the name is a little silly sounding, it’s been a great experience so far. This is an open space conference, where people are expected to participate. There are no powerpoint presentations and in most cases, no handouts at all. It’s all about understanding the topic through dialog with the presenter and those around you. Each session does an experiment where subgroups do some activity and discuss what happened.

I’m really liking it. It’s put me outside my comfort zone though. I talked more (and to people I don’t know) yesterday than I normally do in half a week. It should be good for personal growth, but has been uncomfortable at best. It’s weird. I guess I haven’t been around people I don’t know for so long that I’m not used to the ‘getting to know you’ dialog that needs to be done.

Yesterday I took two sessions, one about comfort with change and how to deal with it and another on better use of retrospectives. Today I’m taking sessions on making teams more effective and better ways on making the speed/quality tradeoff when developing software. Both are extremely applicable to my current job so should be great.

I didn’t bring my camera, but others have them. The hotel where the conference is located is really nice, and I’m digging the Phoenix weather. Should have brought sunscreen, but I’m not out in the sun too much. It would be really nice to live out here, but I say that about any place that I travel to. Must be something with Houston (ha).

My personal DNA:

These things are always interesting to do. I don’t know where the empathy thing came from though…

Before we sold the house, I gave my old B&W speakers to my family. Warren and I agreed that we should upgrade the A/V equipment once we get to the new place. We’ve been dealing with the TV’s internal speakers for the past month or so, and it’s been a pain. We cannot watch movies, since most DVDs lack stereo tracks nowadays.

Queue this week, when the internal speakers seemed to break after one of the heavy storms overnight

(continue reading…)

You are The Hierophant

Divine Wisdom. Manifestation. Explanation. Teaching.

All things relating to education, patience, help from superiors.The Hierophant is often considered to be a Guardian Angel.

The Hierophant’s purpose is to bring the spiritual down to Earth. Where the High Priestess between her two pillars deals with realms beyond this Earth, the Hierophant (or High Priest) deals with worldly problems. He is well suited to do this because he strives to create harmony and peace in the midst of a crisis. The Hierophant’s only problem is that he can be stubborn and hidebound. At his best, he is wise and soothing, at his worst, he is an unbending traditionalist.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.