The i.c. stars Technology "Boot Camp"

Here's a recent article from the Tribune about a technology training program in Chicago I'm proud to be a part of called i.c. stars.

Thankful

Are you thankful today? Of course you are. "If you've got three or more TV's in your house, you're richer than 95.4% of the world; if you've got two refrigerators, you're richer than... etc."

Are you humble today? (Be careful - as soon as you take any pride in it, you're not humble anymore!) I think these two are hard to separate. It's hard to be proud and thankful.

It seems to me there are three areas where we are most often thankful. There are probably more but to keep it simple let's say we're thankful for things, people and ideas.

We have a lot of great stuff that improves the quality of our daily lives, no question about it. And of course a lot of that is recent technology that makes us more fortunate than those before us. Beyond that, we know we should be thankful for our relationships. Pop stars are thankful for their fans, authors are thankful for people who buy their books, athletes are thankful for season ticket holders and bloggers are just happy for people's attention.

At another level, we are thankful for the bigger things -- the goodness in the world. Freedom, for example. The freedom to do what we should (and not necessarily what we want to) do is a true cause for thanks. Things like mercy and kindness, hope and forgiveness. To me, these are the things we need to be more thankful for. And only when we are humble enough to realize we don't deserve them can we be truly thankful for them. And that true thankfulness motivates us to give them to others.

In just a few lines I hope this is an encouragement to you. A friend of mine, Josh, expresses it better talking about his own genuine thankfulness in spite of circumstances in his iTunes download here.

Persistence

Are you persistent?

Really persistent when you believe in something?

More persistent than the other guys?

Watch the difference in the responses of these two division 3 college teams as the play gets more and more incredible.

On Giving Thanks

At the risk of recommending something that those who are inclined to appreciate already know about (because it's been out for awhile now)... I was picking some music out for Thanksgiving and came across Chip Davis' Holiday Musik from 1996. If you like this one, there's a #2 album also, but this one is the best, imho. In an era of specific, splintered, niche collections on your iPod, this is one everyone should have. Pop it in your playlist and see if it helps you to think of things you're thankful for.

And to start things off, find someone who is a veteran today and thank them for their part in our continuing freedoms in the most free nation on this earth. Lots of great people, our veterans. People who know how much something costs always appreciate it more.

Technology in Vancouver

I visited Vancouver, British Columbia for the first time last week at a conference -- what a beautiful city! Just over the border, things are familiar enough but have a European air about them. You know you're not in Iowa (no offense, I love Iowa). BC and Canada in general seem to have a larger share of long-haired men, demure women, cigarette smokers and panhandlers. Vancouver is bustling with construction projects everywhere.

And payphones. Hard to figure out why, unless they are subsidized by the government. There seems to be a Telus payphone every couple blocks while in the states the only one I can remember seeing recently is the one in the basement of the library.

Here are some photos and I recommend it as a place to visit - be sure to see Stanley Park and Granville Island, formerly an industrial park now converted to a quaint shopping area. The photo with the two gentlemen is of Doug Mueller, the father of the top-rated Remedy Service Desk and our presenter Marc Thames, who spoke to a packed out Friday morning session on the difference between asset and configuration management.