bc Archives - Page 733 of 959

Change the World: Share a Mini-Vacation at a Favorite Place

January 25, 2007 by Liz

Meet Me in Tuscany — the Restaurant

When I commuted to Massachusetts, I often spent the weekend there. Every Sunday I was there, a couple of friends would plan a drive to show me one of their favorite spots in Maine or New Hampshire. We called it “airing out our minds.”

Last Saturday, I got the chance to do the same with two incredible women and blogger friends, Wendy Piersall and Jessica Duquette. They drove into Chicago, and I got to share a favorite place — a restaurant called Tuscany.

The cool thing about inviting folks to a favorite place, especially if they help choose which one, is that I’m inviting them into a part of my life, and they’re saying they want to come. I get to discover my favorite place again, this time with them and through their eyes.

Jessica and Wendy brought a feeling of family and an anticipation of a night that would be enjoyed. That was perfect because I had done the same. The change of scenery, the fine company, the laughter, the conversation, the food, the wine turned a simple blogger dinner into a mini-vacation.

Three bloggers talked about our blogs, our goals, our lives. We asked questions. We challenged assumptions. We told silly stories and important ones too. I doubt that any one of us could describe the other people in the restaurant — except the lovely lady who was our server. She seemed to understand that something important was happening between close friends. That’s right, we skipped the showier, more surface, poking-around sort of talk that comes before the authentic and real part. Bloggers are good at doing that.

We shared food off common plates while we shared moments of each other’s lives. Jessica and Wendy touched my world and made it better in so many words and smiles that night.

WendyPiersall, Jessica Duquette, Liz Strauss, Chicago 01-20-07

It’s that easy to touch a life.

We can change the world today — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.

Wrap-up from Open Mic: Great Places to Visit!

January 24, 2007 by Liz

Wow, we were busy. . .

This week on we talked about great places to visit. Some places mentioned were bareback sailing in the British Virgin Islands, Australia, Quebec City, San Francisco, . . . Ireland, Sydney, Perth, Colorado, Breckenridge, Rocky Mountains, PA, New England mountains, Maine, New Hampshire, . . . boat trips down the Rhine River, Indiana, the Berkshires, . . . Taroko Gorge in Taiwan, Italy, Europe, the Alps, . . . Belarus, Carnival in Trinidad, Umbria, Switzerland, . . . the Bahamas, New England, the Caribbean, Scotland, Venezuela, France, Holland, . . . Aruba, Toronto, Banff, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Florida, Montana, Kansas City, . . . . the Humidity and Mosquito Festival, Central America, South America, Atlanta, Atlantis Resort in Bahamas, . . . Vancouver, Sherman Texas, Bastrop State Park near Austin, . . . the Amazon, Ren Faire in Alabama, Kentucky, Tahiti, . . . Thailand, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Route 66, . . . the Cowboy Hall of Fame, Disney World, England, China, Jamaica, . . . Oklahoma, the Cowboy Hall of Fame in OKC, Osage Hill State Park, Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Cambodia, . . . and Angkor Wat.

There was also mention of hot weather, beaches, cold drinks, cream and coffee, . . .no worries, “sugar pie”, snorkeling, restaurants, diving, underwater photography, . . . horse-drawn carriages, artisans, crayons, . . . Feedburner, CSS files, . . . skiing, condos, lodges, fireplaces, . . . insurance, Eurail passes, WordPress, castles, blizzards, . . . air guitar, boats, Super Bowl, snow, . . . “cocoa locos”, BBQ, fountains, travel agents, art museums, . . . ice hockey, tornadoes, sumo wrestlers, . . . movies, belly button lint, State of the Union speeches, Askimet, lions and tigers, safaris, . . . Tardis, wigwams, good books, passions, . . . cold drinks, birthday parties, iphones, car traveling, . . . ipods, podcasts, lack of sleep, . . . sunscreen, buffalo, camping, itunes, . . . Starbucks, Basil the code writing donkey, . . . and Lyle Lovett.

We shared beverages and snacks, hot cocoa, and Klondike bars.

Here’s some of the links that were shared:

Thanks for the cool links and for being part of the conversation. I wish I could quote you all, but I know you have an idea of how much time it takes to make that long link summary happen each week. I hate to let it go, but I thought you’d understand.

So, for 2007, we’ll just tell the story and share the links that you bring. You can always read the comments – they’re all there.

After all, how DO YOU explain Open Comment Night, if you’ve never experienced it?

See you next Tuesday? We sure hope so. . . .
Boy, that sugar pie sounded good.
–ME “Liz” Strauss and Sandy Renshaw

Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

The Politics of Money and Race in the South

January 24, 2007 by Chris Cree

Storm on the Horizon

There’s a political storm brewing in my current home state that I only became aware of because of an attention grabbing headline at the Drudge Report this morning.

White Atlanta suburbs push for secession…

It’s just the sort of thing to make this former New York Yankee now living in the Deep South here in Savannah perk up and take notice of some state politics. So I did a little quick poking around ala Google and here is what I found out.

Background

Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton county although a portion of the city extends over into DeKalb county, which seems to be a curious result of the original sight selection for a railroad terminal. Apparently there was a strong “not in my back yard” mindset in North Georgia in the 1830’s because the residents of Decatur were worried about train noise and insisted the proposed terminal be built well outside of town to the west across the Chattahoochee River. From what I can gather Fulton county was formed from the western half of DeKalb count round about 1853 as the area west of the river grew (due to the railroad terminal, of course).

Then skip ahead to the Great Depression in the early 1930’s. The two poor, rural, scarcely populated counties just to the south (Campbell county) and north (Milton county) of Fulton county were all merged together because the poorer counties were going bankrupt at the time. It created a sprawling elongated Fulton county, with the areas of the two former counties being referred to as North Fulton and South Fulton. It seemed all was well. [Read more…]

Business Rule 5: Never Underestimate the Power of a Voice on the Telephone

January 24, 2007 by Liz

What I Learned from the Black Box

I was working for a company just outside of Boston. I was living just outside of Laguna Beach. The job was a great fit. At 13.5 hours door-to-door when the weather gods were on my side, the commute was not.

I was part of a team hell-bent on turning around a company in crisis. They had lost 10% for three years before I got there. About six months earlier, the staff had been cut from 200 people to 40. The culture was hurt. Everyone had ideas about what went wrong, but no one was sure about what to do right. The process models had fallen apart.

ItÃ¢â¬â¢s so easy to talk about negatives in a situation like that.

Because of my circumstances, I attended two executive meetings each month via telephone — a black box on the table. IÃ¢â¬â¢d say hello to the group. TheyÃ¢â¬â¢d place the food of the day near the phone, and the meeting would start. They would forget I was there. I got to be the proverbial fly on the wall.

Three important things happened over that telephone.

Attending the meetings via telephone raised my concentration level. It was almost like eavesdropping. I was less inclined to speak. It required crossing a barrier. I had to feel strongly to add my opinion. Instead, I listened more intently, just to imagine what was happening.
When I did speak, IÃ¢â¬â¢m told, all eyes went to the forgotten box on the tableÃ¢â¬âmy voice got the complete attention of the room. I wasn’t freely spouting information. So when I spoke, they listened.
Like me at the other end, they had to Ã¢â¬ÅworkÃ¢â¬Â to hear the message. They had to rely on interpretting data through only one of their senses and so, it was information they had earned.

It was the absence of the visual that made our words so powerful. We actually heard each other better and valued each other’s words more.

The difference was that we had to listen.

The common wisdom is that we lose more when we lose the visual. In this case we gained. Learning to listen wasn’t the only lesson that I learned that day.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help with your PRM, check out the Perfect Virtual Manager on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

The Mic Is On: Great Places to Visit!

January 23, 2007 by Liz

It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

Where do you want to go for winter vacation?

This is the view from a porch in Jamaica. There’s lots of places to go though. Would you rather go skiing?

We might also talk about

Places we’ve been
Places we want to go
How to get away from technology – or not
Best places to take the family
Best times to travel
How to travel
Vacations in our imaginations

including THE EVER POPULAR,
Basil the code-writing donkey.

–ME “Liz” Strauss