Now, 23rd March 2016
Thinking aboutThere are 36 Quality Advocates at Asynchrony Labs, in three offices across two states. It's a lot of people and I don't want to be a bottleneck for them getting stuff done. How do I best enable them to do good work?
About the best parts of my work day are when I get to spend a half hour with one of my team for some one to one time. It feels like a privilege to steer them past potholes I fell in, and watch them progress and grow in their careers. Kind of scary sometimes too.
I taught the Agile QA class in March to a room of fifteen people, my biggest lesson was that letting them dictate the topics to cover was a win. Also frequent breaks, several different teachers, and some wake-up activities before going back in.
Hoping to get some leadership training from AAIM EA soon.
Stimuli and inputThree more chapters to go in "The Accidental Creative" and I got to the Stimulus chapter again, lots of good advice here. Wondering how to continue the practices after next week when book club is officially over. It's down to just me, Angie, and MaryJo.
I stalled on week two of The Focus Course and I need to get back into that. I also want to finish reading "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius. I devoured Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book" and I still haven't found who sent it to me.
Sometime in the last few months, I stopped reading blogs on Feedly, and I haven't missed them either. It's an interesting data point.
CraftThe elbow pain is less, I'm knitting again, but it still hurts when I stretch. Wound a skein of yarn that I got at the 2015 Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival to make a hat, that feels good. Gave some coffee cup cozies to various friends, all were happy with them. It's a simple little project and wool (or yak, or silk) feels nicer than a cardboard sleeve. I modified the pattern slightly (cast on 48st, decrease to 36st, skip round 4 of the decreases).
Made some of these origami bookmarks and I like the simplicity of them.
Exercise and healthStill working on the Chinese Kenpo black belt, my instructor has gone from critiquing the moves, to the focus, attitude, and confidence with which I make them. Plus the power that goes into the strikes, the expression on my face, I really hope I'm getting close to my test. My endurance level is up from circuit training in the gym, I'm always hungry and a bit tired. Possibly not eating enough. The worst thing to hear from your trainer is "No more bagels."
My Garmin Vivofit 2 has been a permanent fixture on my wrist since I got it back in July 2015. No need to charge it, it's waterproof, and it tells the time as its default action. The sleep tracking has been useful, pairing it with a Bluetooth chest-band heart rate sensor was a good experiment that felt more realistic than a wrist heart rate detector.