Meetings from Hell

Listening to NPR news item on Meetings from Hell. NPR And So we meet, again: Why The Workday is So Filled with Meetings. Parkingsons Law – meetings use the time allotted.

I’ve been in meetings from hell. I find it’s important to have an agenda and time allotted for each item to be discussed. It’s also important for each participant to know what they want to accomplish in the meeting and have time allocated within the meeting for the discussion.

Meetings are being used to defer responsibility. Very few people know how to run a good meeting.

I like Roberts Rules of Order. It’s certainly structured, but can be very useful when running a meeting with a large group of participants.

On a recent job, I participated on a webex meetings with colleagues. One of my colleagues tried to browbeat the other colleague into increasing the scope of the deliverable he was working on. This made the meeting run over more then 15 minutes. I excused myself as I had to take another call.
Can we please be considerate of each other and manage meetings so that they end on time and accomplish what the agenda says they must. Also – if a person isn’t needed, please make them optional in the invite.

Thank you,

Adam Selene

Meetings from Hell by Adam Selene is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nanny State

We are all humans. We grow within our Mothers and are born and begin our development over time outside our mothers. Independence grows over time.

As a young person near Boston, I used to take myself into the Boston Science Museum on Saturdays each weekend. I was not accompanied by another family member. I used the Mattapan High Speed Trolley and Red Line and then the Green Line to get to Science Park. I did this almost every weekend between the ages of 7 and 13.
My Route.

At age 7, I once took my younger siblings with me to see Woody Allen’s ‘Take the Money and Run‘. It was rated ‘M’.

I used to ride my bicycle around Milton, MA until the street lights came on during the summer. At Age 13 I rode my bicycle from Milton MA to North Falmouth MA. Later I participated in Centuries.

The likelihood of violence being inflicted upon any child is very low, but increases when the violence is being inflicted by another child. Bad stuff does happen, and the media does a terrific job of giving us the sordid details, but I’ve never seen them provide an analysis of the likelihood of the event happening to any individual. It’s sad certainly, but do we want to be total helicopter parents and restrict the development of the independence of our youth?

My kids are young people and growing older. They have their issues, sometimes not paying attention to their personal grooming. We had to visit DHS once when my youngest was reported for not changing his clothes and cleaning his nails. We have to pick our battles. Just getting him to bed can be a challenge.

Young people make mistakes. That’s one way that they grow and learn. Kids even do criminal acts. Rather than imprison them or take them away from their parents, how about educating all parties involved. It’s now known that a young person’s brain isn’t fully developed till about 24 years old or even later for some. Some consideration should be given to young persons and educating them about good behavior rather then reinforcing bad behavior by placing the in Prison .

Recent news show people calling police about a solitary child at the park or taking the subway by themselves. Don’t they remember being children themselves? I do.

Please be Good, not Evil.
God Bless America, Please.

Bernardo de la Paz

Nanny State by Bernardo de la Paz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Common Prayers

Prayers

Our Father

Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name
Your Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespassing as we forgive those who trespass against us and deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. AMEN.

Hail Mary
Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Amen.

Glory be
Glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
As it is now and ever shall l forever. Amen.

Act of Contrition

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee,and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven,and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God,Who are all good and deserving of all my love.I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace,to confess my sins, to do penance, and amend my life. Amen.

Morning Offering

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You all my prayer, works, joys and sufferings of this day, for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all of my associates, and for the general intention recommended this month by the Holy Father. Amen.

Angel of God

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom His love entrusts me here, ever this day be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.

Angelus

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death. Amen.
Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.
Hail Mary . . .
And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary . . .
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

A hope for the future

I enjoy reading, teaching and enjoy synthesizing what I read into ideas or taking them whole cloth if they are very good, giving credit if possible.

I met Iain Banks in I believe it was Liverpool at a convention. Mr. Banks wrote in The Culture universe. There’s a great writeup on the Culture Universe in Wikipedia.

I am a temporal Human. I am here now but will be gone in within likely the next 20 years. That’s fine with me. I just want to make a difference. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

I would love to see Americans and other humans making more of an effort to develop AI and other robotic technology to help other people. We could start with Robots to build housing and lay infrastructure. Of course, I won’t want to demean the work that my fellow humans do, but if it’s rolled out slowly over 30-40 years I’d like to see a post-scarcity culture. There’s a shortage of affordable housing, and I would like that to be eliminated. I’m not talking a handout, I’m talking a hand-up or helping hand.

There’s plenty fun things to do if you aren’t working all the time to make money for your enterprise and to support your family. And there is also plenty of work to do, perhaps as a volunteer.

Eventually, I could see us terraforming Mars, thanks Kim Stanley Robinson, and then perhaps building more shelter and developing resources elsewhere in the Solar System.

We are humans, and to the young all things seem possible are possible.

God Bless America, please.
Adam Selene
January 2015

A hope for the future by Adam Selene is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.