my little addiction ...

books ... i love to read, but more so, i enjoy going to the book store for my down time, especially after some sort of intense information processing - preparing for taxes, researching data, receiving emotional news, cranking on my cubeopolis project, or simply participating in my saturday class.

my retail therapy ... for some reason, walking through stacks, searching for a book or three, and reading book jackets of books i may read AND those that i would normally not read quiets my mind somehow (or maybe just allows me to process information differently - who knows?!).

and along with books, as shared in #10 of my 25 blah-blah things, i've dabbled in the more conventional retail therapy for wallets, purses, or shoes (fluevogs, of course), as well. (fortunately, i have been curbing the purse tendency with my little policy of buy one purse, release two purses.) but i digress.

bookcase buddies ... new, used additions (via half price books) to my bookcase (and nightstands, coffee table, end table, ...) - a somewhat random collection of books - two books which i was looking for, one i've thought about getting, and others that caught my cubeopolis-eye and may or may not be relevant at this time -

• vonnegut's player piano
• brooks's world war Z
• rousseau's the social contract and discourses
  
• magnetic quotes and humor's office wisdom
  
• de bono's six frames
• pierre's the artist in the office

random? ... perhaps. looking forward to seeing which books are keepers and which will be passed along.

f|break: monday morn

franco fascination ... when my friend rennie reviewed the movie howl, i made a point to check out the movie. love rennie. loved the movie, loved james franco. and then came the SNL character skit interview with seth meyers.

for this morning's fiber break, here is the recent stephen colbert interview (in two parts) of franco and james franco's monologue on SNL (and in text over here).

enjoy stephen colbert (over here)
interviewing james franco (part 1) for ~ 5:23 min for the first time

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
James Franco Pt. 1
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

and now for franco part 2 (over here)
for ~ 5:30+ minutes

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
James Franco Pt. 2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

enjoy the SNL monologue with james franco (over here)
for ~ 3:30+ minute with the idea slips

idea slips ...

the day after ...

april 9 ... yesterday with @greenleafcenter (first saturday of each month), i started - foundations of servant leadership with several others around the globe who are interested in and/or living the servant-leader philosophy.

isabel lopez (over here as course faculty and her web) is our instructor, and dolores jones (over here) is our program coordinator. as stated for the course, we must -

• Read all assigned required material on listening and developing your colleagues
• Undertake a project during which the participant uses listening skills or survey instruments to learn about and report on the needs of colleagues or customers
• Write a short paper (8-12 pages reflecting learning, knowledge and insights that merit the certificate)
• Participate in telephone conference calls (approx. 5 telephone conference calls lasting 1.5 hours each) with faculty members and other participants
• Participate in discussions using the Wiki

yesterday's class ... what a treat to have don frick, the author of robert k. greenleaf's biography, as part of our first class. admittedly, i shared with the class that i had not yet finished our reading assignment and specifically was at the "LSD" part of greenleaf's biography. yes - THAT is part of greenleaf's life. so amidst the many moved-to-tears, heartfelt moments, i must say i am enjoying the many life experiences that don has had the wonderful opportunity to explore and share.

journal for our class ... as part of writing our paper, the following questions are prompts for our keeping a journal as we go through our class over the next several months -

• What are concepts that speak to you... that cause you struggles... that create questions for you?
• How does Greenleaf's work make meaning for you?
• There is a reason you took this class, what are your hopes for yourself in this class?
• What can you use from your readings and discussions today to help you chart your life course?
  

therefore, as part of my classwork journal which is part of a class wiki, i will have blog posts that relate to class. or in a case like this, i am sharing what i have written in my class journal. because our wiki is restricted to class members, there are links in my copied journal posts that will not be accessible from this blog. oh well.

FOR YOU reading any of my journal entries ... Thank you in advance for taking the time to do so, and do feel free to comment, or if there is information I share that you would like to edit (presuming you may have edit privileges), share/edit away!

JUST SHARING THOUGHTS with class - I am trying out our wiki for journaling. As suggested for writing the Final Paper and as encouraged by Isabel for us to share thoughts with our class, a dedicated place in our wiki will certainly be convenient for me. I will make sure to use links for any "cross-cutting" comments I may contribute.

If you would like to do something similar in this wiki for your journal and need some help or a little kick-start, I'm not an expert, but I certainly am willing to help you out. Just let me know.

Overview of intended folder contents ... I have created this folder - Shirley - Journal - with the intention of including pages that are related to our class work and discussions -

• my random thoughts and ah-ha moments,
• answers to questions posed for our reflection,
• additional thoughts on class discussions/meetings or comments I may share with others on a different part of this wiki, and
• other resources for which I come across that may be of interest to others.

I have only used a wiki once, so I am looking forward to learning more of this format. In fact, I am using this page to explore some of the features.

About "Entries and Overview" ... Over the course of the next 5 months, I expect this folder will be populated with several pages. Therefore, I will include links to subsequent journal entries as a sort of "table of contents" of my Shirley-Journal folder for ease of navigation and reference. I also may include links to others' comments/entries as part of my journal.

On journaling ... I started journaling a bit more formally many years ago in the '90s when someone introduced me to J.Cameron's The Artist's Way. For those of you familiar with this book, although I have not kept up my morning pages, perhaps blogging has been a bit of a surrogate, along with other writing practices I have developed through the years that serve a somewhat similar purpose - however, admittedly, nothing as powerful as my experiences when I wrote my 3-4 pages each morning back in the day. For those unfamiliar with this book and interested in journaling, I feel Cameron has an interesting perspective of sparking and tapping into creativity through her approach.

[NOTE: I have come across several on-line journal resources. I will make sure to write a blog post about those at a later time and include a link as part of journal.]

What I typically do when I journal ... Typically, I am always with a method to "capture" my thoughts (or as I've often refer - "the voices in my head, chills up my spine, tilt of the head, tingling or knot in my stomach") that often will morph into a personal journal entry. I capture my thoughts either on paper or electronically - always with me are a purse-size moleskine, an action runner notepad (mainly for moving forward my "ah-ha" moments), and my droid (presuming batteries charged) where i keep my springpad app, which syncs to the on-line version. (I'm including some images and links (when you press the image) as examples and NOT as endorsements. Some people may prefer visuals/examples.)

(my home page on springpad)

[NOTE: Just a little note about springpad - I have NOT yet used the springpad app to its potential. A few friends of mine use or have talked about evernote. If you use or intend to use a tool like springpad or evernote, I certainly am interested in your opinion about what features/benefits you like (and don't like).]

On blogging ... I've not been blogging as regularly and frequently during the past month, however, as a complement to this journal, I also will share thoughts on my blog, which serves as a typical, "personal life observed/experienced" blog - girl nutkin in the BA. To keep things a bit more orderly, I am using on my blog the label/tag greenleaf for class-related entries, so one does not have to search around the blog for class-related posts. It's likely my classwork journal entries may be inspired by a blog entry or vice-verse. My blog entries likely will reflect more thoughts beyond what I write in my class journal entries or perhaps a blog entry will be verbatim from my journal entry. Also, my blog entries may be a little more free-form and cheeky, however, I will do my best to make sure that any blog entries I reference in my journal are relevant.

thanks for letting me share -
the voices in my head,
chills up my spine,
tilt of the head,
tingling or knot in my stomach

f|break: happy thoughts with peggy and dr. jones

just a shout out to peggy, the instructor for 7 habits in last december's whirlwind week as whirlwind #6. she also sent over a slow-down reminder in early march. peggy reminded me yesterday (yes, she and i stay in touch) that i had shared with her one of the many quotes that my fabulous chiropractor, dr. jones, posts in his office. peggy said she incorporated the quote into her keynote presentation. in fact, he gave me the quote to share with others. so before i head into cubeopolis, here is the friday morning zen moment (from the Zen Buddhist text) ...

MASTER THE ART OF LIVING

The person who is a master in the art of living makes little
distinction between their work and their play,
their labor and their leisure, their mind and their body,
their education and their recreation,
their love and their religion.

They hardly know which is which.
They simply pursue their vision of excellence and grace in whatever they do,
leaving others to decide whether they are working or playing.

To them, they are always doing both.

got servant leadership? ...

foundations ... with @greenleafcenter and other participants, this saturday morning will be my first of 5 saturday morning classes in the foundations of servant leadership in the coming months with the greenleaf center for servant leadership.

blog post introduction ... although i did provide a short bio and a few comments on our course wiki, i figured i also would share a little more through my blog.

synchronicity ... in 1999 while i had been running my consulting practice for about 5 years, another small business owner, ron, introduced me to joseph jaworski's synchronicity: the inner path of leadership. ron and his management team and staff were given several books to read as part of being on a consulting team for a relatively large, international corporation that was preparing to expand their business to include cleaner energy sources such as renewables. jaworski's book, among several others, was mandatory reading. i was very intrigued that this kind of team building and foundation was happening as part of a consulting project. and although i was not part of that consulting team, ron's recommendation to read the book was enough for me to give it a whirl.

my leisure reading ... i took jaworski's book with me as part of a little 10-day vacation in July '99 - the first real vacation since leaving corporate america. part of my reason for leaving corporate america? my 1994 epiphany.

during my vacation, i was fascinated by what i read. and while jaworski mainly discussed his path, journey, moments, and insights, he also provided a bounty of resources and references - quite the bibliography. as a result, my book collection grew over several weeks. and even with my consulting practice on-hold, i certainly enjoy and continue reading various business, self-improvement, philosophy, and the occasional woo-woo books that, it turns out, are quite in line with servant leadership principles.

getting started ... at this point, all i can say is that i am intrigued and excited about engaging in this program. because i signed up a little later than i had intended, i am power-(re)reading don frick's robert k. greenleaf: a life of servant leadership, which i received this week, along with other class material. (thank you!) and as inscribed on a ring that i wear -

be the change you want to see in the world

f|break: sunday morn

it's a guy thing ... shared by folks from made up theater, so, i figure i'd also share this clip which eventually leads to urinary arrogance ...

enjoy a fiber break with guy-pee-tips (over here)
for ~ 7+ minutes of how to piss in public

crucial move ... no one saw that, right?
i'm doing the pushes
i'm letting some drips go down
awkward part, awkward part, putting it back ...
and walk ... and zip ... back in the undies
urinary arrogance

a l'il about the love project 2011 ...

what is the love project?

the love project is a the creation of yvette francino. yvette started the love project, as described more over here, to honor her friendship with a man named craig dunham, who died of ALS last year.

the love project is a year long project with bit-sized, weekly assignments - all encouraging one to explore, experience, and share love with others and with ourself. so whether you do each week's assignment or weave in and out of the project, know you are helping out yvette as she writes her book, and you are doing a little self-awareness and self-improvement along the way. here is my take on the love project. and as mentioned in my post, yvette shared as part of the love project roll-out -

"I'm copying Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project idea. I'll blog and learn about love and write a book about it. ... This one will be completely non-fiction and will not reveal the mysterious details of my own love life. ... I chatted with Gretchen briefly and got her thumbs up for me to go ahead with my project and I have some fun stuff in mind... Prompts for bloggers (similar to reverb10), a "website of the week" segment, themes, videos. Stay tuned for more information!"

as a side note, i met yvette through reverb10 and shared mutual thanks for our virtual budding friendship with my gratitude to her (over here) and yvette's to me (over here). and i also have been enjoying her book, the laptop dancer diaries. puffy heart!

where can one check it out?
as of february, the love project has been part of yvette's current blog, lessons of  love from a laptop dancer. yvette's love project posts have the label - love project (of course). and as always, using the love project's main page (over here), you can keep up on the week's assignments.

how can i let others know about the love project?
there is the old school way of telling your friends via face-to-face over coffee, tea, food, etc., but of course there is the virtual and electronic world.  you can help spread the word by cutting and pasting the following (or some form of the following) -

"Join The Love Project: http://bit.ly/aJWbG0 #love2011"

- into a tweet or facebook post or even point them to this page.

how can someone join the love project? 

you can simply start - by commenting on yvette's blog post for whichever week's assignment you are doing. and if you want to do more, you can do so many ways-

• privately as part of your own journal,
• with and for your friends on facebook, twitter, flickr, youtube,etc.,
• as part of your on-line presence via blogger, wordpress, or even your own site, and/or
• coffee-or tea-talk with friends

just let yvette know what you are thinking about the love project. again, it will help her as she does her research and writes her book.

my fun with the love project - a work-in-progress
with my nutshell monthlies, it is apparent that the love project fun can (and will) be regularly posted. i use the label love2011 for my love project posts. here are my monthly shares -

• january '11 - this month's theme is self love. i did a bit of playing catch-up on the weekly assignments of wk1 affirmations and wk2 love goals. some of my contributions crossed over in other posts - a fiberbreak with lamb's beautiful song gorecki, on initiating contact (through on-line dating) with younger men, getting the love project's week 2's MVP for my younger men contribution, dovetailing the project with operation beautiful for week 3 assignment on beauty over here for my week 3 game plan and over here for results of a couple of make-overs (home and hair). week 4 was all about self-portrait, so i shared a pic while visiting my dad (and got MVP for the week). week 5's assignment was know yourself; i shared my thoughts and results of friend's one word descriptions for me (albeit in february).

• february '11 - continuing with week 5's assignment of know yourself, i shared my results of friend's one word descriptions for me (albeit in february). week 6 began with love notes (coincident with the 2011 valentine's day fun), sharing some activities in progress, and more show & tell. week 7's assignment was kindness, and i kicked it off sharing about my friend christina's "kindness tapas"; dove-tailed with random acts of kindness (RAK), i share a few thoughts, a few more thoughts, and a bit of a donation inspired by RAK. week 8 was about reframing rejection and gathering a few more thoughts.
  
• march '11 - rounding out the end february with the beginning of week 9 on celebrating age, some of my random thoughts about age, and about being over 40. for whatever reason, i didn't do something romantic for week 10. restarting with week 11,     we began the assignment with gratefulness - thank you! and as march was rounding out, i didn't participate the in remaining end of the first quarter assignments which included week 12 on "what's your story?", however, i appreciate yvette's sharing on her wednesday website a post of mine about a jeremy passion song - stephanie. and the last week of the project being week 13 - go on a date!

thanks, yvette, 

for a great 

first quarter of 2011!