No Big Thing

Saturday, January 27th

Blog Move

Moved the blog to blogger, it's still here at No Big Thing but the RSS feed has moved to here. This old blog is where you find it at oldblog. See ya.
james on 01.27.07 @ 09:21 AM EST [link]

Monday, January 15th

Riding With Mary

mood: Good
I saw a video about Chris Haston on Current TV, here is a small gallery of the images that they talked about: Riding With Mary. Watching what he was doing made me curious about "light painting" and I liked his images a lot as well.
james on 01.15.07 @ 08:49 AM EST [link]

Sunday, January 14th

Light Painting

music: Lonnie's Lament John Coltrane
mood: Good

I took this one using a 15 second exposure and shining a flashlight at the cat (and her mirror ball). She moved so I got the ghostly image as well.
james on 01.14.07 @ 04:49 PM EST [link]

Monday, November 20th

Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School

music: Angel Jimi Hendrix
mood: Good
Last week I attended a two day course in technology negotiation put on by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. The course was very well constructed and run, and the process of Mutual Gains Negotiation that they recommend is very logical and intuitive. They brought in people from industry and interviewed them as part of the course, this was helpful because you could hear what was effective from people who were successful and then relate the process to their real-world comments. We also went through some problems submitted by members of the class, and we learned from lots of other folks in the class as well as the instructors. The class attracted people from very diverse industries and companies, and so the interactions were great. I know that what I learned is going to influence the way that I do my work going forward, and help me to prepare and get more value out of negotiations. The great thing about the PON is that they do the research, and they work in the industry of mediation and arbitration, so they bring a very practical process oriented approach to the subject. In an earlier post, I recommended "Difficult Conversations" and that book came out of earlier work by this program. I highly recommend the course and the methodology.
james on 11.20.06 @ 07:52 AM EST [link]

Tuesday, November 14th

Jacqui Naylor

music: My Funny Valentine Jacqui Naylor
mood: Good

I've been a fan of Jacqui Naylor for a few months now after hearing her doing an "acoustic smashup" of the Jazz standard My Funny Valentine with AC/DC's Back in Black on Sirus radio's Classic Jazz station. A "smashup" is where two unrelated pieces of music are played together and they "work" or are made to "work" usually this is done by re-mixers using lots of digital equipment. Jacqui and her band do it live and on the fly, and for the songs where it works it adds humor, and a lot of new life into songs everyone has heard before. She and her band have great chops in general, Jacqui is a very good singer with excellent interpretive skills, not one of the great voices of the 21st century (yet) but an all around excellent performer. Art Khu is her pianist and guitar player and his playing is a great pleasure to listen to, the rhythm section is very talented and versatile. They are on tour now, I just saw them in Boston, try to catch them if they show up near you.
james on 11.14.06 @ 01:57 PM EST [link]

Wednesday, October 4th

Books

Recently I've read a couple of books that really had a big impact on me, one was "Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model" by RC Schwartz . Dr Schwartz has documented a really innovative way of modeling how a persons' mind/personality works based on looking at every person as a collection of "personalities" or "parts" plus a core identity the "self." The parts are personalities that live inside us and interact with each other and the "self" in a systemic way like a family. Each part has a role and a job and can be identified and interacted with. One of the great things is that it breaks out of a lot of the paradoxes of normal monolithic psychology like "if this person loves me, why are they being hurtful towards me" and allows an explanation that can lead to negotiated solutions. The focus is in achieving a state where the self is the leader and is trusted by the parts and each part has a satisfying and balanced role in the system. It has really changed the way that I look at other people and how I look at myself. The book describes the model and the process of therapy that is based on it.

The second book was Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen , Roger Fisher. This book looks at conversations and negotiations and provides a model producing better outcomes for everyone involved. I had found myself in more and more situations in work where I was trying negotiate with someone or come to an agreement where the situation turned out very polarized and I was at a loss as to exactly why. This book provided a model and a process that I was able to immediately start using and getting better results and to understand my contribution to the problem and change it.

james on 10.04.06 @ 05:08 PM EST [link]

Thursday, September 28th

Constellation

music: How long has this been going on Carmen McRae
mood: Good
A group of stars, older than almost everything,
generations name them by association:
lion, dragon, warrior, fish. Each name is a story.
Patterns agreed upon, relied upon, navigated by.

A long time ago, one star detonated with a local cataclysm,
a long time later, it's light stream trickles to a stop.
People look up, use the old names, some notice the missing,
eye, or hand, or fin, a nagging omission.

Later other patterns are imagined and inspired,
new names proposed: squid, rabbit, woman.
A new 'always' forms, admitting different threads of light,
and their stories.
james on 09.28.06 @ 12:11 PM EST [link]

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