Performance Zen

Author: spierzchala

  • Most days….

    Once again, thanks Hugh.

  • FeedBurner Feeds Back

    After a couple of days vacation, the FeedBurner feeds are back.

    I bought the domain forwarding option from WordPress.com (http://crazycanuck.org/), and then waited. I reactivated the feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/crazycanuck this morning, and you can start using that again.

    Rick Klau from FeedBurner left a comment last night, which prompted me to try again.

    Hopefully things will remain stable now.

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  • WordPress.com: BUILD A SKYPE WIDGET!

    I do not want to host my own blog.

    Even if I wanted to, WordPress.com does not make it easy to export content. This, however, is a separate discussion.

    Skype and Web 2.0 (I hate the term, but I am using it) are inextricably linked.

    WordPress and Web 2.0 are inextricably linked.

    WordPress.com hates Skype. It’s that simple.

    According to a WordPress.com forum post:

    Actually in this case it’s because skype and callme are being stripped. They’re not XML recognized tags and staff has stated that they won’t be supported.

    And

    Fraid not. Javascripts are still removed from input for security concerns. If you really need Skype, I would suggest getting a paid host.

    See here.

    WordPress.com: BUILD A SKYPE WIDGET!

    Thank you.

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  • New header image

    This is a shot I took at Sweetgrass Farm Winery in November 2005.

    One of my favourite places in the world.

    PS: Keith Bodine, vintner and distiller at Sweetgrass Farm Winery got the last of his necessary permits and licenses this week. Wine and spirits shall start flowing from Maine soon! Well, as soon as one can expect fine wine and spirits to flow.

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  • Back to Performancing

    After a few months using the Microsoft Live Writer, I am giving the Performancing Blogging Extension for Firefox another try. Just seems more natural that since I use Firefox as my daily work platform, I should use it for everything.

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  • The Joy and Stigma of Burnout

    Today, the sun is shining and I am working from home, so things don’t seems as bad.

    The last few days have been interesting, as I have become more aware that the my work-related anger and dissatisfaction does not originate with the people at work, or the place I work, or the work itself, but from that beast that so many white-collar professionals suffer from: burnout.

    Burnout is not sexy. In the US and Canada, it is seen as a sign of weakness, a lack of the American Work Ethic. NPR had a great discussion of burnout this week, and New York Magazine published a cover article on it this week.

    Listening to NPR on Monday, there was a story of how the US armed forces are punishing soldiers who return from Iraq and are diagnosed with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) [here]. The successful soldiers see the soldiers (what defines success for a soldier?) with PTSD as weaklings, people who should be punished, pushed out onto the streets, stripped of their American citizenship as cowards and traitors.

    I do not claim that PTSD and work-related burnout are equal; my focus here is on the stigma that the US culture places on doing the job, regardless of what the job does to you.

    You can do the job. Good. What kind of person are you?

    I am a rebel. I do not fit the US success criteria. I don’t want a title. I don’t want a box on an org chart. I don’t want to have the biggest bank account. And I have no respect for people who worship at the temple of US success until they show me that they can do something that I respect.

    Today. I wrote an email to my manager and VP stating that during my Christmas break this year, I will be completely unreachable for anything work-related.

    Unreachable for EVERYTHING work-related.

    It is likely that I will be seen as “letting the team down”, as it is not only end-of-quarter, but end-of-year.

    You know what? I don’t care. I am more important than my job. If the company I work for now doesn’t recognize that, I will find a new company.

    You know who the most successful people I know are? My friends who “dropped out” of the corporate world, moved to Maine, and are slaving, day and night, to get their under-funded winery project off the ground. While raising three kids. While renovating and repairing 200-year old farm buildings.

    Success does not come from money, power, or a title. I comes from having the respect of the people around you. I comes from a desire to get up in the morning and do something that completes you, fills a void inside you.

    Right now, when I get up, I step into a void.

    Burnout. It’s here to stay.

  • Changes at work — your thoughts?

    Yesterday, I read Anne Zelenka’s post on ROWE at Best Buy. I was heartened to see that this idea was getting mentioned again, and that it was getting front-page interest from Big Media.

    On a lark, I forwarded the post to my director and VP. Their responses frightened me. They were written in management-ese, and indicated that timesheets are soon to be added to my daily routine.

    Hugh Mcleod — Sheep/Wolf

    I can help cure the first, starting with Why Business People Speak Like Idiots, and George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language.

    The second plague, timesheets, I see as more odious. It goes along with the new measurement-focused management culture in our company. Sometimes, I wonder what’s more important to the managers and executives: measurements or results.

    As a person who is difficult enough to manage due to my bipolar, and my deep-rooted desire to do things that have meaning, timesheets are a problem for me. I don’t work to timesheets; I work to goals.

    Structured environments have always been a serious problem for me. They trigger a deep resentment, some deep rooted need in my soul not to conform. I know that they serve a purpose, and that some people take a great deal of comfort in the process of knowing how they spent their day. My comfort comes from delivering meaningful results, not in worshipping the almighty bureaucracy.

    I suppose that as the company I work for grows and has more people to manage, timesheets are inevitable. However, it’s about the time that timesheets appear that I feel the need to find more results-oriented, dynamic organizations.

    Timesheets are a sign of corporate doublespeak, freeing people from the need to excel.

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  • Skype: FIX THE VOICEMAIL PROBLEM!

    Dear Skype:

    I love the software. I am using it more for personal and work calls.

    But I need to know when I have a voicemail. Now, not 24 hours from now.

    I know you know about the problem. But it’s been over a month. I assume the voicemail notification wasn’t a problem before. So you know how to fix the problem, right?

    Are you working on it?

    Is anyone out there?

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  • What American Accent do I have?

    What American accent do you have?

    Your Result: The Midland

    “You have a Midland accent” is just another way of saying “you don’t have an accent.” You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
    The West
    Boston
    North Central
    Philadelphia
    The Northeast
    The Inland North
    The South
    What American accent do you have?
    Take More Quizzes

    This is good to know. I have been spending years trying to make my speech sound as non-descript as possible. It was interesting this summer to go home and talk to my family. They have a uniquely Southeastern BC/Southwestern Alberta accent. Hey, even Canada has unique accents.

    You don’t think so? Well, the stereotypical “Canadian” accent that is portrayed in the US popular media is actually a Southern Ontario / Toronto Area accent. It is easily recognizable and immediately pegs you in the rest of Canada as someone who should be distrusted as a likely carpetbagger. 😉

    The only spoken/written giveaways I have retained are:

    — “a- bowt” and “owt”
    — “prawcess”
    — “sheduel”, although I do alternate this with “skeduel”
    — I spell “theatre”, “centre”, “colour”, etc. correctly

    However, if you call me American, I will be very quick to correct you.

  • FeedBurner Feeds Removed

    Well, for some reason that I can’t determine, FeedBurner and my WordPress.com feed stopped playing nicely this afternoon. And they won’t reload, because WordPress.com wants to send all 1400+ articles in the database back to FeedBurner.
    Sorry to do this to you all, but the FeedBurner feed is removed. Deleted.
    Hope y’all switch to the WordPress.com feed.
    UPDATE: The FeedBurner Feed is back.