Well, given the frequency with which I’ve been updated this blog lately, I figured it was about time to do something with it, anything… so at the tail end of a fine Family Day, I’ve just poured myself a glass of homemade wine (from a kit; none of that squish-the-grapes-yourself stuff…too much work!) and sat down to write something. The wine isn’t too terrible… but still plonk-ish at best. Maybe it will get better with age? Well, at least it’s saving money, right? This low quality wine would cost at least $10.00… I can make and bottle my own for about $3.00, plus my labour… And it is a wine that doesn’t dry my mouth out completely… Normally I would drink scotch. I’ve found that scotch does not affect my dry mouth syndrome, strangely enough. But I’m just about out, I can’t bring my self to venture into the -15 C, regardless of how sunny it is…
“It never rains, but it pours…” I’m sure where that quote comes from, originally, but it sure seems to be a valid truism. Just when I was beginning to question my effectiveness at work, all sorts of things have reared up to demand my attention! Things are so busy right now that our little team had to have a meeting to try to coordinate all the work, set priorities and generally attempt to get a handle on how we’re going to get to the end of March without upsetting any of our clients. I was asked to shift a couple of process assessments to April so that I could take on an increased role for the special evaluation of a set of processes at Alberta Justice. I’m also working through the build of an instruction manual for a new assessment tool, but have had to hand a big chunk of it off to another consultant…. but I am expected to guide her through it. It appears that my approach to the design of the manual is a big hit with the gentleman in charge of the project. That’s two items that are really good for my ego!
At the end of next week (Saturday) G. and I fly off to Las Vegas. I am attending an ITSM Conference… she is just coming along for the ride. Kinda cool is the ability to meet with some of the minds that we consult with on a fairly regular basis… team members from as far away as Halifax, Montreal and Toronto will be there… It should be very interesting. And entertaining… we still haven’t decided which shows we will try to see this time.
And speaking of conferences, I’ve been shortlisted as a speaker for a major ITSM conference being held in Houston, TX during September of 2009. I have a phone interview tomorrow with the selection board… who will decide if I should be permitted to pursue the opportunity. Pursuit means that I have to actually sit down and write the presentation and submit it to them by the end of March… which isn’t a big deal except that…
I have two white paper proposals that have been accepted as finalists in the corporate National ‘Call for Papers’ competition. The finished papers are due by March 20th… One paper is ‘shared’ with Zubair, and the other is mine and mine alone. Unfortunately, the competition is a wee bit high profile within the firm, so I can’t back out of either paper… But on the upside, the winning paper gets $5000.00, with good money for a second or third place finish as well. Hell, even being an ‘also ran’ after this point is a good thing, so long as the final product is of reasonable quality.
And we’re embarking on a new national training initiative. We have a team of four who are prepared to present ITIL V3 certification training under the corporate logo… at this time, I’ve got something like fourteen three day sessions, beginning with one the week of March 9th in Edmonton, that will take me to Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Halifax, all before December 2009. I’m seriously thinking of contacting the various cancer institutes along the way to offer to do some ‘guest speaking’ while I’m in town… if there is a need/desire. But if the response I’ve had from the Cross Cancer Institute is any indication, I won’t be doing much…
I’m really looking forward to the training… it is something that I really enjoy. The challenge is whether or not my voice, tongue and throat are up to talking for three days straight. I certainly hope so!