The more I can learn, share, and laugh, the better the day!

Time for #the5 today:

"In the end, patience and understanding are key when advocating" http://j.mp/k9DYh3 goodness from @GlendaWH #sobcon #the5

I would go so far as to say this applies to more than advocating...

"We need to take the time to revisit the ‘why?’ – it takes us to the very core of things" http://j.mp/j6MIX5 #the5

Using patience and understanding to work towards the why is better than being aggressive or hard nosed about asking "Why?"

"setting up the ability to accept payments from one's Website" http://j.mp/laS9YQ #the5

Picking up on some of the technical details for accessibility, in particular, enabling web based payment systems for the Franklin Food Pantry is one of my current items.

"how they could possibly turn bottles into plants and such" http://j.mp/kc9E3q from @chrisbrogan 1 for #the5

This reminds me of the "words make worlds" series which I have shared here before.

"All of us have lost something when wars are fought; some have lost everything" http://j.mp/ix5UnE goodness from @pattidigh #the5

My father has always said that the real heroes did not come home.

What are you about today? What can you learn and share? During the course of my day, amongst my learning and sharing, I also like to find at least one laugh. The more I can learn, share, and laugh, the better the day!

Matching Gift Opportunity

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Graduation Party

Steve, Jerry, Carolyn and Helen



Dan shows how to ace the ladder ball game




First pass at the food spread




Lining up for the second pass, this time for desserts




And the Sherlock cousins rest for a moment to take a picture

hello world, just me this morning

On my recent trip to Chicago for SOBCon 2011, I got out to run one morning and found myself alone at the 'Bean'. Officially called the "Could Gate", it is a wonderfully attractive outdoor sculpture. Most times I have been there, the place was full of people. But this morning, it was too early I guess.




It was just me and the bean.

6 kegs to Bottle

The "Band of Brewers" visited DejaBrew on Monday evening to bottle and bring home the following:


Lobster Claw = A highly aromatic barley wine. Very Potent.   L
Hungarian Accent = A Hungarian Pilsner that is a little dry. Nice hoppy accent.  H
Miner’s Bock = Our version of a famous Bock from Texas, we make it better here   M
Salzburg Dunkel Weiss = An awesome easy drinking beer by Dave. Seriously, I said that.   D
Madras Pale = Madras is an India Pale style  (blank)
German Dry = A medium bodied German lager. Well hopped for a clean finish   G








And the usual reminder on how to clean and store the empties

Deja Brew, to drink
In good health
Rinse cleanly right away
And store bottoms up

The sherku was originally posted here

Then and now

The old towpath along the Blackstone River canal has luxurious growth along both sides. It was NOT like this when the canal was in use. Along the right side as you look in this photo, the canal boats moved. The space between the path and the water was clear of all obstacles so the tow ropes could be used.

It is a nice place now. Quiet. Green.



In the working days of the canal, the calls of the muleskinner would be heard amongst the crack of the whip and creaking of the ropes.

Maple blight reappears

It took about a week for the buds to burst, the trees to loose their skinny nakedness, and put on their cloaks of green.

Seemingly at the same time as the leaves were spreading out, the maple blight has appeared.




What does this mean? for the trees, for their growth, for impact on us?

Honor flight

Jerry is one of the lucky ones. His sons took him to the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC in 2007. Others still need to go.



Jerry, his sons and one grandson in front of the Iwo Jima Monument can be viewed here


Honor Flight Network raises money to bring veterans of all the armed forces to visit their memorial in Washington, DC.  http://www.honorflight.org/

Community and the fire circle

This image tells the story for how you want to and need to get your message out.

You have your community, these you can reach. These you can talk to. Those folks have their network. Your message will spread via their conversations if compelling enough. If the message is indeed, clear, consistent, and has a compelling call to action - then the larger crowd can join in.

You don't focus on the crowd. You feed the community, the circle that is close to you.

I talk more about this in my "Fire Circle Story" which is written here and you can find an audio version of here


Thanks to Rachel Happe at the Community Roundtable for the pointer to Amy Sample Ward's image

10 Days to fly

The baby robins are about midway to leaving their nest. From the time they hatch until they fly is about 10 days.

10 days!

How long does it take to put one of your ideas into reality?

unfolding powered by wetness

Time for #the5

"When an object is moving fast, local detectors don't have much time to register a colour change" #the5 http://j.mp/mHgZvG

This optical illusion is slick. Helps to reinforce asking the question: "What do you base your reality upon?"

"Each was placed right shoulder down, left side up. In this way, all of the dead men faced Mecca" #the5 http://j.mp/itNYhO

Death comes at unexpected times but adherence to ritual helps.

"Facebook needs to keep its users actively engaged to continue driving page" views http://j.mp/kQHkYa #the5 #sobcon

Facebook's growth curve seems to be finally settling. If true, then with penetration as far as they will go for now, the next levels of page view growth will come from existing users.

Take a quick survey? - This American Life http://j.mp/mOC702 me: from the questions seems to be Bing sponsored #the5

When I have used Bing, every once in a while, it doesn't seem to be satisfactory for me. Do you use it? How does it work for you?

"paradox between the fragility of things and the disturbing potential of micro and nanotechnology" http://j.mp/iYBv7G #the5

Simply a good experience. The patience and skill required to create such folds and then to see the unfolding powered by wetness, amazing!

A bonus link for today - for a good cause:

Vote to give this idea 50K: Purchase and maintain 15 cars over the course of a year through WWDF #pepsirefresh @Pepsihttp://t.co/1Lrk1yJ

What have you learned that you want to share today?

How do you frame your work?

When running the other morning, I stopped to take this photo. I knew I'd be able to use it sometime



and there is no better time than the present. How do you frame your work?

What motivates you? Do you have an overarching goal against which there are individual tasks and objectives?

Does everything you do all tie together?

Robert Fulghum for $1.00!

At Stop & Shop for the weekly food shopping, this sign caused me to do a double take.



Yes, it is not often that you see such a sale. 90%! So what do they have?

There was this block of a book, actually two of them on the table. The authors name caught my eye. Robert Fulghum. Yes, he I have quoted often and read frequently. His essays are great writing. For him to have tackled the epic novel, well it can't be bad.



And when I swiped the bar code, it really did come out as $1.00! I can't go wrong with all this for only a buck. I put the block into my cart and went back to the table to take the first photo here. As I did so a lady came over. "I saw you picked up the book, do you know the author?" I told her of what I know and that for a $1.00 I was surprised to find such a deal. I had almost considered getting the second copy but alas, I was too late. She snapped it right up.

You can read Robert's essays on his website here

The all important smile!

What is more effective and less calories than chocolate?

What is better than finding $25,000 (And way easier, like when are you going to find that amount?)




Enjoy!

Why aren't you smiling now!

Mother's Day hike

It was almost a 10 day to walk along the Blackstone River Bike Path on Mother's Day:



I ran out and back to catch up with the ladies doing their walk and we all finished together.

Stamp Out Hunger - May 14

With 1 in 6 affected by hunger, they can be found all around us.



Help your neighbor.

Stamp Out Hunger - flyer2011


Help us help your neighbor.

You can contribute by leaving some non-perishable goods for your postal carrier on Saturday, or help volunteer as the donations are delivered by the carriers to the Food Pantry on Saturday afternoon, or make a monetary contribution on the Food Pantry website http://franklinfoodpantry.org/


Franklin, MA

What color is your sandbox?

Time for #the5

Color code your Google Calendar events http://bit.ly/moUiCp me: yes, you can color your world! #the5

I don't approve of color coding in spreadsheets as that generally doesn't help with any sorting or filtering, but the visualization effect on a calendar is a good use.

Read, Run, Ride, Write http://bit.ly/lp8BJz "to find the story that must be told" #the5 from @daveatkins

Dave Atkins has popped up to write of where he has been recently. Rhythm is something I have been finding does take time shifting to.

Not Speaking IS the New Black http://bit.ly/mpyy6I @lizstrauss with an entry in #the5 today #sobcon

The text of Liz Strauss's closing remarks from SOBCon are now available for reading. There is a sherku coming later this week on this same topic.

Connecting Social Media Marketing with Buyer Behaviorhttp://bit.ly/lXHJ0U "they are not the preferred options" #the5

I need to spend more time with this study to digest it, marking it here for future reading.

What is the scaffolding for learning in public? http://bit.ly/kANyJW "networked learning happens in the context of an ecosystem" #the5

Creating the appropriate sandbox for learning and collaborating I do think is key to success of the learning/collaborating performed. One of the reasons that the unconference format works so well is that it can meet the needs of the folks involved in that particular content matter. One of the reasons there is some variability in success for unconferences is in the setup, creating the expectations for, enabling the proper use of the tools in the sandbox.



Bonus - another sherku from the SOBCon series:

sherku: Bigg Success - His laugh, her voice/ A great combo/ Working together/ Creating Bigg Success// http://t.co/8ApQuUd@gkrue @marylynn3

Surprise Musical

As much as SOBCon is a good time, I do miss the GEL Conference which is usually scheduled the same time. ImprovEverywhere was one of the presentations I did see. They talked with Mark Hurst and created this session especially for GEL.



Enjoy!

Graduation day

Carolyn graduated from Northeastern University on Friday. Her hard work for 5 years, including 3 co-op positions and one semester overseas, culminates in a well earned degree and a job starting Tuesday.




Congratulations, my dear. I am very proud of this moment!

#the5 for Wednesday

A quick review of today's #the5 before I run and then head to work

Google Voice and Sprint integration is live http://bit.ly/itrtte me: good move, would like to see Verizon do this too! #the5

Causes to Bring the Big Donor Communication Experience to All Donors and Facebook Pages http://bit.ly/l29Bb7 #the5 @franklinfoodpan

The Wedding of Kate and Prince William http://bit.ly/lquync "So English. So egalitarian. So Cinderella" #the5

"still unhappily dragooned into quite distinct family roles, as main carers and main earners respectively" #the5 http://bit.ly/iJDIRg

"before I knew it, I was finished" @sandersays How To Deal With Failure http://bit.ly/jUkqrv #the5

And as a bonus the explanation of #the5 hashtag

For all my new followers in answer to your Q on what is #the5 tag all about - @cspenn started, I added Twitter Bingo -http://shar.es/HvUm3

SOBCon 2011: Photos 1

A quick post this morning with a slide show of the photos I took with my Droid camera this weekend in Chicago. I'll have more photos from my Nikon to share later this week.

SOBCon 2011 - Notes from Women with Drive session

Importance of landing page
Use a template for the guest bloggers with the built in links to donate now, or call to action
video with Molly’s story
use a pop up as people come to the page following a RSS link
look for endorsement from the blogger; you are getting attention, building understanding, and driving to a donation
incorporate vendor network with video tips; i.e. oil change from approved vendor network
others bloggers can link to a special landing/splash page with call to action
provide messages to share
“not interested in a band aid, want to provide a cure”
two way street
get out of park into drive
jump start a woman’s future
people need to know the way, the path out of a problem (i.e. homeless, etc.)
a day without cars - another awareness project

Mike McCurry stepped up to help do incorporate