Showing posts with label at. Show all posts
Showing posts with label at. Show all posts
Monday, May 15, 2017
Our Morning at the Circus
Our Morning at the Circus
I have been hard at work finishing the Finley and Oliver Spring 2011 line. Originally, I had scheduled to shoot the line in February with my dear friend Laura of Laura Winslow Photography. However, the line is inspired by the circus so when we heard that the Zoppe Italian Family Circus was in town, we were all over it.
We packed up our kids early yesterday morning and headed over to the circus. I had emailed the circus folks to ask for permission but we never heard back so we had no idea if wed be allowed to shoot or not. We were fully prepared to sneak around and take photographs under the radar.
However, as soon as we arrived a woman came up to our cars and invited us inside for a little performance that they were putting on for our local news channel. We were so stoked and the kids were in heaven. After the performance, Laura asked the folks in charge if we could take some shots in their circus tent. They were happy to give us permission and let us have free reign. This tent is the coolest little circus tent I have ever seen. So intimate, charming, and vintage - it really transported us to a different time.
Once we finished up shooting inside, we moved outside and were honored with the presence of Nino the Clown. Nino is played by Giovanni Zoppe who is a 6th generation circus performer and runs the circus with his siblings. I used to have major clown phobia until I met Nino.
Giovanni was so incredibly gracious and actually brought me back to his trailer to meet his wife Amy who did an incredible performance up on some crazy high ropes that morning. We also got to meet his son Julian who is just 14 months old and the cutest little clown ever. The fact that I got to go into the trailer of a family of circus performers is probably the highlight of my year. I read "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen this past summer so Im a bit circus obsessed lately.
They even offered to have us back to shoot some more photos with the kids on ponies and on tight rope platforms. Unfortunately, none of us have the time to make it back as the circus leaves at the end of the week.
If you are local to the Metro Phoenix area, you should definitely check out the Zoppe Italian Family Circus in Chandler. They have performances twice a day through January 2nd. We have tickets for the New Years Eve performance and cant wait! (And a note to other animal friendly folks like myself, the only animals involved are some very lucky dogs and a happy little pony).
A huge thank you to Laura Winslow for being so amazing to work with - not to mention up for anything! Thank you also to the Zoppe family for allowing us to shoot and creating some really fun memories for our kids! Lastly, thank you to Mia of Dolce Vita Mia for letting me borrow your little model :)
We still have several more pieces to shoot so these will be available in the shop in a few weeks.
Photography - Laura Winslow Photography
Flower Headband - Dolce Vita Mia
Pink Hat - Gracylu Originals
Circus - Zoppe Italian Family Circus
Available link for download
Friday, April 28, 2017
One day at a time One thing at a time
One day at a time One thing at a time
Hi there!
Thanks for popping in.
Beautiful sunny day here in the south of England.
The leafy lanes of Kent and Sussex are a wondrous thing
at this time of year.
Mind you!
That pretty much goes for the whole of Britain
when the sun’s out!
Wednesday’s blog, so it’s time to reflect on what’s what,
and get mindful.
Just coming down from a marathon TV weekend.
Seven hours of live TV is no mean feat, I can tell you!
Takes a week to recover!
But once again, it shows me that my way of tackling things one at a time works !
Last week I was dealing with the art prep for the shows,
so I tackled it ONE HOUR AT A TIME.
Which is exactly how I approached the live shows -
ONE AT A TIME.
It’s how I do my housework -
ONE ROOM AT A TIME.
And how I cope with my finances -
ONE BILL AT A TIME.
I can only speak for myself, and you may have it totally sussed,
but when I look ahead at the future,
whether it be the whole weekend of shows,
the next two months of exhibitions,
or the 2017 new year of Clarity and Groovi,
it can get really overwhelming and frightening.
I am prone to anxiety, you see.
Years ago, before I figured out my
ONE DAY ONE THING AT A TIME kinda Life strategy,
I used to get the most terrible chest pains.
It would feel as though somebody had put a metal strap around my chest and was tightening it with a ratchet.
I lived like that for years.
When the chest pains reached a certain pitch,
the panic breathing would kick in, and I would
start snatching for breath and hyperventilating.
If I couldn’t calm my mind down and slow my breathing down,
a full blown panic attack would ensue.
Bloody terrible. And not just for me.
It must have been awful to watch.
So yeah.
I get it. Been there. Not going back if I can help it.
So I look at what needs to be done, and then
screw whatever it is right down to the smallest,
most manageable increment I can handle.
ONE AT A TIME.
Move to the next one, whatever it is.
TICK.
Move to the next one.
TICK.
This is my way of not projecting and fretting
about what’s on my plate.
Let’s face it - I can only eat ONE meal at a time,
so why worry about what’s on the menu all month !!
I used to panic a lot about money and bills too,
which is possibly why I am a workaholic!
I always tried to work my way out of the problem;
still do!!
I still get occasional waves of insecurity around money,
but that’s a human trait I think, and nothing abnormal,
unless you’re minted but think you still need more!
Let’s look at the ONE THING AT A TIME idea from another perspective....
I have wanted to write a book for many years.
But a whole book ???
When’s that going to happen, apart from never ?!
 |
(I love this photo! If you can think of a good caption, write it below...... ) |
So what I need to do, and I know it, is tackle a chapter at a time,
or even a page or a paragraph at a time.
My goodness! I have written artbooks galore in the form of a daily blog for the past 3 years!
Do you get what I mean?
Sometimes we look at a project or a dream in its entirety,
and are very quick to surrender to the enormity of the task.
But if we were to break it down into manageable, bitesize pieces, wouldn’t it all become far more feasible?
And the amazing thing that I have found is that when you do that, and you tackle the smaller parts
ONE AT A TIME,
then the larger task which seemed unachievable happens,
despite our fears of inadequacy.
That’ll do for now.
I have a little list of things which need ticking, one at a time,
LIKE PACK !!!!
Before Paul and I go off on our jolly to New York for a few days.
Can’t wait !
Dave is holding the fort while Paul and I go have fun.
I get to see Grace too!
I shall certainly be a-bloggin from the BIG APPLE though -
One day at a time.
Love & hugs.
Barb
xx
Available link for download
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
over at HodgePodge today come by!
over at HodgePodge today come by!
Its a sunday, not a usual blogging day round here,
but the amazing DIY extraodinaire Barbara of the HodgePodge blog
recently asked me to take part in her So Canadian, eh? series,
and of course I said yes!
You can pop over and read it if you like...
Such an honour to be featured alongside the talented designers she always has lined up for us,
and its always so interesting to read how they got started, their best advice, and so on.
Thank you very much, Barbara, for having me over today!!
Hope that one day we manage to meet somewhere between Vancouver and Toronto...
maybe we can do a vintage run together somewhere around Calgary :)
I have a feeling you would be a fabulous thrifting partner, lol.
maybe we can do a vintage run together somewhere around Calgary :)
I have a feeling you would be a fabulous thrifting partner, lol.
On the colour front, since weve already talked about
choosing a grey for your walls, pink and grey, and green and grey,
I thought next week maybe wed talk about one of the most common challenges my clients
are dealing with when trying to bring grey into their palettes -
hope youll stop and in share your thoughts.
choosing a grey for your walls, pink and grey, and green and grey,
I thought next week maybe wed talk about one of the most common challenges my clients
are dealing with when trying to bring grey into their palettes -
hope youll stop and in share your thoughts.
happy Sunday, lovelies - x
Available link for download
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Our Workshops at XP 2010 in Norway
Our Workshops at XP 2010 in Norway
Yesterday I delivered two workshops at the XP 2010 conference in Trondheim, Norway. The run up to this conference has been awfully busy for me from a work perspective, so Im extremely pleased that the sessions went quite well, despite my lack of obsessive preparation. I just want to quickly share the artifacts from each workshop.
Facilitating Dialogue in situations of conflict
Facilitating Dialogue In Situations Of Conflict
I presented this session with Rixt Wiersma. As with other runs of this workshop, we got a decent list of ideas for conflict management in the Agile context, though my guess is that these ideas can be equally useful for any other context. The premise of our workshop was that while we place a huge emphasis on communication and collaboration in Agile teams, a high degree of communication can mean a high degree of conflict. The secret to managing this conflict, is in facilitating dialogue so you can get all the interests on the table. While the slide deck above will give you an idea of what our recipes for such situations are, here are some ideas the group came up with: - Take another perspective to the problem. Try to have smaller group approach the problem from different perspectives.
- It could be that everyones thinking of the same thing. So a rapid-first-cut solution will help you detect this and establish common ground.
- Start fast - dont spend too much time looking a toad you have to eat.
- Decide generalities first and then go into the specifics. This helps to understand if every agrees in principle with a certain approach. (a lot of people recommend this)
- Grouping similar decision items helps with generalising.
- Visualisation helps a lot, use big, visible charts in meeting to make mental models explicit.
- Use an explicit criteria; agree this with the group and keep referring back to it on a big visible chart.
- First agree on the most important criteria.
- Destroy the psychological binding between people and problems. Try to unentangle the two. When necessary, you may even want to create a psychological binding to help people be more associated with their decisions.
- Time matters and a time-box helps.
- Have more of the last minutes by keeping focus on the timebox and having at least some kind of a decision by that time.
- Creating smaller timeboxes for various parts of the decision helps.
- Start with a flawed version of your solution and then iterate from there with everyones inputs.
- Have a solution ASAP, then try to refine it.
- Ship early! Get version 1 out as soon as possible.
- Gather all opinions in a group.
- Be an active part in deciding ground rules for the decisions that follow.
- Consider actually appointing an observer when the team must discuss controversial issues.
- Sometimes being an observer is a good way of dispassionately evaluating a situation.
- Make the value system open. Dont make an assumption about other peoples values.
- As a facilitator and participant, ask:
- Does everyone agree?
- What problems do you have?
- Make the options visible to everyone involved in the decision.
- Mountain Goat Software has some interesting tools that can help deal with conflict situations in very Agile specific contexts; project success criteria, prioritisation, etc.
- The Evaporating Cloud is an interesting bit of literature/ technique that helps you reach a win-win solution. Its also known as the conflict resolution diagram.
- The Thomas Killman instrument is a tool that helps measure an individuals response to conflict situations. This is interesting because a number of people are genuinely comfortable in conflict, while others are highly disturbed. The TKI is quick to administer and interpret. It takes about 15 minutes to answer the questions, and an hour or so for interpretation by a trainer.
- Type Talk at Work is another interesting book that helps groups explore their similarities and differences in personality through the science of the Myers Briggs Type Indicators. Getting these personality differences to be explicit helps in a big way with team creation, which in turn helps people understand each others peculiarities in a conflict situation.
- I also recommend Strengths Finder as another way of building awareness about people in the team, so you can deal with conflict situations with a fair understanding of the people involved and their strengths.
The Distributed Agile Game
The Distributed Agile Game
I ran this workshop with Chirag Doshi. As usual, three hours passed by without any trouble whatsoever. We had a small group, but no issues with energy whatsoever! All I have to share with you is my deck from the session is my slide deck. Want a copy of either of the above games?
If you want a copy of either of these two games we played at these workshops, please send me a direct message on Twitter and Ill be happy to share the materials with you. If youd like to know more about ThoughtWorks, then please visit us at www.thoughtworks.comAvailable link for download
Friday, April 7, 2017
Online Battling at PHDays 2012
Online Battling at PHDays 2012
If by any reason you do not get into the participant list of Positive Hack Days 2012 or cannot visit Digital October Center, the forum’s platform, on May 30 and 31, you still have an opportunity to participate in this event. Join the online battle with competitors from all over the world at Positive Hack Days 2012! Description and participation terms are under the cut.
Hash runner
The competitors will be provided with a list of hash functions generated according to various algorithms (MD5, SHA-1, BlowFish, GOST3411, etc.). Points for each decrypted password are scored according to the algorithm’s level of difficulty. To become a winner, a competitor should gain the most points in a limited period of time, leaving the rivals behind.
Any Internet user can participate in the competition. Competitors can register during PHDays on the forums website. The competition will be held as part of PHDays 2012 and will last through the forum days.
WAF Bypass
This competition is for enthusiasts and experts engaged in web application security. The competitors are to attack vulnerable web applications protected by Web Application Firewall using SQL Injection technique. The applications function in connection with DBMSes of various vendors.
Participants will be offered to attack (or demonstrate the attack possibility) for the purpose of gaining data from a DBMS. There are four vulnerable web applications employed in the contest, each of them uses its own DBMS type. All attacks exploiting any SQL injection vector, inclusive of gaining file system access, OS commanding, brute force and binary search attacks are counted.
The winner is the first who implements an SQL injection exploitation technique in one of the web applications.
The winner will be awarded Apple iPad 3. The best ten competitors will receive prizes and gifts from Positive Technologies (the PHDays organizers) and from the forum sponsors.
Hacked in 137 seconds
This competition enables the members of the hackspaces supporting PHDays 2012 forum online to demonstrate their skills in cracking Cisco IOS network devices.
Within 3 hours the competition participants should gain unauthorized access to a specified Cisco network device consecutively increasing privileges up to level 15. With every new level gained, the participant obtains a flag in MD5 format, which should be entered into a form on a specified interface.
After 3 hours, during exactly 137 seconds the organizers will demonstrate every participant’s achievements in speeded-up mode and decide the winner. The winner is the person who obtains the highest level of privilege for the shortest time.
WikiLeaks
The competition will enable participants of the forum to find out how quickly and accurately they can find hidden information on the Internet.
The competition web page will contain questions about certain organization, information about which can be found online. The task of the competition participants is to find as many correct answers to the questions as possible in the shortest time. Results will be announced at the end of the second day of the PHDays 2012 forum.
Best Reverser
This competition enables the participants to try their skills in reverse engineering of executable files for MS Windows platform. Every participant gets a program specially crafted for analysis. There are no limitations on techniques or software used for capturing the flags (except for the applicable laws of the Russian Federation). The winner is the first who gets all three flags and shortly describes the ways to get them.
The participants who deal with the competition tasks later than the winner or get less than three flags take the second and third places by the jury’s decision.
PHDays Online HackQuest
The PHDays 2012 program will include Online HackQuest, a competition for the Internet users that offers participants to try their hands at solving various information security tasks. On the forum’s second day, Online HackQuest participants will have a chance to influence the results of PHDays CTF 2012, the on-site contest.
For the competition, participants are provided with access to a VPN gateway. After connecting to it, the participants are to identify target systems and detect their vulnerabilities. If exploitation of a vulnerability is successful, the participant gains access to a key (a flag), which should be submitted to the jury via the form on the participant’s personal page. If the flag is valid, the participant gains the corresponding number of points.
All flags are in the MD5 format. The winner is the first participant to gain 100 points (which is the maximum possible amount). Participants who manage to gain more than 100 points are traditionally awarded with individual prizes :)
Online HackQuest will also be available for out-of-competition participation during 14 days after PHDays 2012.
Details on the competitions and prizes are available on the official web site of Positive Hack Days 2012.
Available link for download
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Now Make A Natural Hand Sanitizer At Home !
Now Make A Natural Hand Sanitizer At Home !
A few years ago, a hand sanitizer was a lesser or a not heard term. But now a days, a hand sanitizer is a common thing. Many use it on a daily basis. It comes in handy in case there is no water available. One can carry it anywhere with them. However, some may be against buying it, may be due to its price. Branded ones may come at a cost.
But, heres the kicker,
Now you can prepare a natural hand sanitizer at home! Thats true! CRB Tech reviews would tell you how to do it. It will cost you cheap as well. So, read further and you can try it out as well.
Many individuals keep little containers of shop purchased hand sanitizer in their bags, glove compartments, and back pockets. They are depended upon to clean hands in the wake of touching shopping carts, and in a few cases, are utilized as a part of place of hand washing in the wake of utilizing the bathroom.
This practice, as indicated by Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, can really be risky. This is on account of hand sanitizers dont kill all germs and are inadequate against hurtful chemicals like pesticides and heavy metals. It is, in this manner, most astute to dependably wash hands using soap and water.
Be that as it may, in the event that you get a kick out of the chance to have a container of hand sanitizer for those minutes when you or your children are not having access to water – e.g. on the metro or in the recreation center - we prescribe making your own wonderful smelling formula utilizing one of the beneath formulas.
1. Recipe for an orange sanitizer:
- 10 drops of cinnamon essential oil
- 10 drops of lavender essential oil
- 5 drops of rosemary essential oil
- 1/4 cup aloe vera gel
- 20 drops orange essential oil
- 5 drops clove essential oil
2. Mind refreshing sanitizer:
- 1/8 cup vegetable glycerin
- 10 drops cinnamon, rosemary, and lemon essential oils.
- 1/4 cup aloe vera gel
- 3/4 cup rubbing alcohol (at least 91 percent)
3. Bacteria-destroying musk:
- 10 drops cinnamon essential oil
- 10 drops tea tree oil
- 1/4 cup aloe vera gel
- 1 tablespoon rubbing alcohol
Always have in mind when using essential oils. Remember these are extremely concentrated, intense plant extracts. On the off chance that you are new to utilizing essential oils you might need to test for an unfavorably susceptible response before slathering on this hand sanitizer. Similarly as with any regular plant, many could be allergic to it. For taking a patch test blend one drop of essential oil with around 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Rub a bit within your elbow, cover with a swathe, and hold up 24 hours to check whether there is any negative response.
Some of the times its great to permit our bodies to tackle germs and fortify our immunity, however once in a while its decent to have a hand sanitizer accessible for crises times. (Think filthy porta potty, or a child besides you having a sniffle fest.) In these cases, this tender home prepared formula is one of the best other options to commercial hand sanitizers.
CRB Tech reviews would like to advice you to wash your hands whenever possible, even though you have a hand sanitizer.
Available link for download
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Open rank education and media tech position at Teachers College New York City
Open rank education and media tech position at Teachers College New York City
Available link for download
Friday, March 17, 2017
One day at a time
One day at a time
Im continuing to follow some sort of training plan albeight just one day at a time. Its to the point right now where I am not thinking about training at all. Ive entered about 3 months worth of workouts onto my Yahoo Calender. Every morning Ill get up and have my cup of coffee first w/o eating breakfast. Ill check my email first thing and there will be a reminder from the Calendar service with the workout.
If it is an interval ride Ill go right down to the basement w/o eating first. If it is an off day or easy day I might go out for 1/2hr on the road bike or commute or do nothing at all.
Right now the MSP intervals have increased to about 12 minutes. In addition there have been some workouts with shorter intervals but also with decreased rest. Earlier in the year everything was 1:1 work:rest. Some of the workouts have been 1on :45 off or 3on 1off. Those 1xs didnt go so well. The 3 min intervals went decently. The cool thing is that my 12 min intervals are only 10 W less than the 3 min intervals.
For the longer intervals it is much more about mental toughness than about fitness. It takes concentration to keep the mind wandering and the power output consistent. Ive found my cadence slowly start to decrease through the interval, and then the electronic brake starts to overcome my pedaling. I have to wake up get on it a little to maintain the steady state.
Ive done one MSP workout outside on a long hill. It felt real good. There is no electronic brake just gravity so if you start to fade a little you wont stop dead, just slow down a tad.
The weather is starting to improve and its time to get outside more. My primary motivation for the moment is to just have fun. Training for now is sort of an insurance policy that supports the having fun aspect. Its enough to keep me fit but not so much that it is becoming a job. Ill admit the past few years it was more task/goal oriented because that was the goal Id set. Those goals may come back to the fore front shortly or may not.
The constant though is just the cycling itself and the fun, freedom, social, and empowerment aspects that it provides. It can be slightly expensive to get tooled up but cycling has got to be one of the best bang/buck activities there is. Running is probably the best but I dont do running.
One thing Ive been thinking of is all the incredible riding around me that I havent been doing. Places like
Fort Lewis
Carvins Cove
Mountain Lake
Mt. Rodgers/Iron Mountain
Sherando
Arcadia
Harrisonburg
Douthat
Potts Mountain
All these places are within 2hrs of here but I have rarely been out to any except for a race in the past years.
Available link for download
Friday, March 10, 2017
October 3 Albert Woodfox to speak at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge LA
October 3 Albert Woodfox to speak at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge LA
On Monday, October 3, as part of Southern University Law Centers 2016-2017 Speakers Series, Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3 will be speaking about: "Use of International Laws and Coalitions in Justice Movements / Prison Reform."
The event will be held from 12-1 pm in 129 A.A. Lenoir Hall at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is free and open to the public.
Available link for download
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Outlander at Wilton House
Outlander at Wilton House
I’ve been suffering from, Droughtlander, but it is almost over now that the second season of the Starz TV Series “Outlander” will FINALLY premiere on April 9. While last season was all about rainy, freezing, and gray Scotland, this season is Paris – as in 18th century Paris.
Heaven!
Instead of drab stone interiors in Scottish castles, the show is now all gilt and crystal and silks and satins. The previews of Outlander’s Parisian sets look luscious.
No, we aren’t in merry ol’ Scotland anymore. Here, Claire and Jamie are shown on their way to a ball at Versailles and they couldn’t look any more gorgeous.
I’ll be blogging about the beautiful sets – especially since I’m so excited about Outlander’s Parisian settings. But Hollywood isn’t always what it seems.
While Outlanders’ Season 2 is set in Paris, the filming of interiors actually was done on the Scottish soundstage and for exteriors – in Prague. Some Scottish castles and gardens filled in for Versailles, including the famous Drummond gardens and the fabulous Wilton House.
Wilton House & The Palladian Bridge:
You are probably familiar with Wilton House through the artist Rex Whistler and his friend Edith Olivier. Edith lived at Daye House which was actually on the Wilton House Estate. And Whistler visited often – his paintings (above) of the house and it’s famous bridge are legendary.
Edith Olivier shown in front of Wilton House’s Palladian Bridge. Olivier is the one who found nearby Ashcombe for her friend, society photographer Cecil Beaton, to rent. And Beaton was a long-time friend of the Pembrokes, the family who has lived at Wilton House for over 400 years.
Note: Last year I wrote a story about Beaton and later, Madonna, at Ashcombe HERE.
But if you aren’t familiar with Wilton House through the Beaton/Rex Whistler connection, you probably will recognize it through Hollywood – the house has starred in numerous movies and cable shows.
If you have seen a few of the following movies, then you have been to Wilton House: The Music Lover, Barry Lyndon, Scandal, The Madness of King George, Sense & Sensibility, Mrs. Brown, The Young Victoria, The Crossing, and any number of TV shows in Britain like The Antique Roadshow. That Outlander would choose to film at Wilton House is no surprise. It just makes the anticipation of the new season all that more exciting.
Why Wilton House? It’s not the biggest house in England, like Blenheim, nor is it the grandest like Chatsworth, and it is not the most famous like Althorp. Yet, critic after critic cite Wilton House with its stunning art collection and its gardens as one of their favorite estates.
It should be no surprise that Outlander chose to film there – its main drawing room is drop dead gorgeous and it can certainly fill in for Versailles even though it is located in Salisbury, a hop, skip and jump from Stonehenge.
Wilton House has been the seat of the Earl of Pembroke for over 400 years. The estate was originally a priory in 871, funded by King Egbert – the remains of this early monastery were uncovered during recent renovations. Later, King Alfred added land to the priory, making it very wealthy and powerful. In the 12th century it became a Benedictine Abbey and in 1544, King Henry VIII seized it, awarding it to William Herbert, the 1st Earl of Pembroke.
Today, the 18th Earl, William Herbert, lives on the estate with his wife and three children. Wilton House, once over 60,000 acres, today now has 14,500 acres, 140 employees, 14 farms, and 200 residential properties. In 1983 1/3 of the estate became a charitable trust which helps to insure its survival. Today, the family actually has to pay rent to live in the private section!
William Herbert, The First Earl of Pembroke (love his mini bubble skirt!!!) was noted for his fierce temper and hot-headed nature. His first wife was Anne Parr, sister of Catherine Parr the sixth wife of King Henry VIII. Herbert was knighted after his sister-in-law married the King, who then gave him Wilton Abbey along with other lands, which he had “seized.”
Here the 14th Earl dressed up as the 1st Earl – in a very similar mini bubble skirt!
The current 18th Earl of Pembroke is known as Right Honorable, the 18th Earl of Pembroke, the 15th earl of Montgomery, Baron Herbert of Cardiff, Baron Herbert of Shurland and Baron Herbert of Lea. Whew.
He inherited the title in 2005, when he was just 25, still single and very lonely; he was even scared at night to be living in the huge house – alone. To keep him company, he bought a dog, Tate, a deerhound – named for his great-great grandfather who started Tate Gallery.
The current Earl, Will, as he is known by his friends. Official portrait by Adrian Gottlieb HERE.
When Will became the Earl, he also became England’s most eligible bachelor. He talked of his need for a wife and a male heir in the few interviews he gave. Model handsome, it didn’t hurt that he was also, overnight, worth more than $15o million.
Wilton House & the Bridge.
Will & his wife.
Will’s father, the 17th Earl, had started a very large and important restoration project and the current Earl, along with his wife, an interior designer, have continued the work, for which they have won numerous awards.
The renovation includes new gardens and the complete restoration of the Inigo Jones South Front. All the state rooms are also being restored, and so is the Dining Room which was singled out for several prestigious awards.
Through the years, many of the Earls and the Countesses have been exceptional people – architects, artists, and philanthropists. The family was enormously wealthy and they were friends and patrons to the finest of the Renaissance: Philip Sidney, Walter Raleigh, Shakespeare, John Donne, George Herbert, Inigo Jones, Isaac de Caus and van Dyck – are but a few names associated with the Pembrokes.
Whew!!!! Amazing!!!!
In more recent times, during both world wars, the house was used as a military hospital and during WWII, Eisenhower planned the D-Day invasion with Churchill at Wilton House. The family has had a long association with the royals. Prince Charles attended a house party that honored the birth of the current Earl (he was the much anticipated heir born after three older sisters.) His father, the 17th Earl, was a film director and producer and even dated Princess Diana in between marriages!!
The present Earl is quite an interesting man – he collects vintage and race cars and each year he spends 10 months planning a large, world class auto event at Wilton. He also hosts all sorts of events such as horse trials and antique fairs. He was a published designer – known as Will Herbert - at Conran & Partners - before he inherited his title and he truly has an artistic eye. He loves photography and collects antique cameras. He says he lives in about 1/3 of the house and is lucky to do so. Many others with these historic houses use the small back apartments. And he says he lucky to be able to heat the house, another luxury. Many people freeze in large houses, but he has heat and lots of fireplaces. He says he loves to cook and he loves to wear blue jeans. He’s as normal as you and me!!
The house. The red circle shows the romantic and very beautiful Palladian bridge on the River Nadder. It was built on an axis to the front entrance of the house. Wilton House is a large square with 4 connecting wings which create an internal courtyard.
The Palladian Bridge over the River Nadder is world famous. The bridge was used in outdoor scenes when Outlander filmed its Season Two at Wilton House.
Another view of the bridge with a huge Cedar of Lebanon shown on the left.
Available link for download
Over a 100 perspectives on L D at this blog Part 1
Over a 100 perspectives on L D at this blog Part 1
"Its easy to sound smart, when you parrot the wise" - Someone I cant remember.
I have absolutely no remorse in saying that most of my ideas are not original. In fact I dont even believe in originality. To me originality is the fine art of hiding the source, which unfortunately Im crap at - so I like to give credit to the sources I steal from. After all, isnt synthesis one way of way of expressing your creativity? Im stealing another idea today, but before I tell you what that idea is let me tell you what Im trying to do. Until sometime in 2008, my blog was just a catch all for everything that made its way into my stream of consciousness. Since then, Ive made a concerted effort to focus this blog on issues related to modern learning and development. Were halfway through 2010 now and before I write anymore, I wanted to provide my readers a map to this blog. This is also my way to reiterate the how I think about L&D and where I as a practitioner see things going.
So whats the idea Im stealing? I loved Tom Kuhlmanns format where he provided answers to frequently asked questions about rapid elearning. I have no pretensions to being an expert like Tom, but I do get into a lot of conversations in the community and I often get asked questions too. So Id love to use a similar format to explain how I think and to give you a map for the content on this blog. Given how much of a common man I am in the learning industry, this is as close Ill get to an interview! Incidentally, I have over a 100 links that Im sharing through this and the next blogpost - so keep track of them! In fact for your browsing ease, Ive also catalogued them on my delicious bookmarks. Allright, these are going to be fairly long blogposts so I wont waste any of your time - lets get going.
I confess to being an L&D industry common man. I work at ThoughtWorks, a company that defies traditional theories of management, as director of workplace learning. Of the many things I do, I run one of the best graduate induction programs in the IT industry - ThoughtWorks University. As part of my technology education background, I have a strong bias for free and open-source software, though Im also a hard-core Apple fanboy. Youll often see me as a participant on various webinars. I tweet using the handle sumeet_moghe and heres my Linkedin profile.
The most important thing you need to know about me is that I hate being a one trick pony. In fact, I prefer being a learning generalist, more appropriately a versatilist. Having said that, you cant take me too seriously because Im neither a researcher nor an academic. I cant vouch for the statistical accuracy of what I write or profess. All I can say is that what I write is true for me and my experience.
To be very frank, theres only so much I can do as an individual. I think theres heaps of interesting stuff happening all across the industry and Im particularly interested to see how people are using their skills to solve real business problems. So thats the reason I like attending webinars. Now the reportings a completely different story. You must remember that Im not the only live blogger out there. In fact, Ive taken inspiration for this from Cammy Bean, whos just fantastic when live-blogging events. Shes just so good that its impossible to match up the number of events she reports and the quality she brings to her reporting. Im just following her lead trying to share what I learn in each of these events with the rest of the world.
Theres a lot of interesting stuff youll see on my webinar reports and conference reports. Theres over 30 different events where Ive learnt interesting stuff ranging from Ruth Clarks approach to scenario based learning, to Jane Harts approach to selecting a social learning platform. And then there are brilliant experience reports by folks like Steve Ash and Lars Hyland, so I think that theres a lot going on with the webinar circuit that deserves reporting.
I dont think I do a very good job of keeping up. I have a 12 hour day at work on the best days and theres very little time I have otherwise to stay abreast with everything in the industry. That said, I think over time Ive learned how to learn and all the informal networks Im part of, are helping me grow as a professional. In addition, some thought around how to structure my personal knowledge management framework has helped, so when I do dip my toe into the river of information, I end up making the dip fruitful!
First things first, I like to believe that theres a shift happening in the way we collaborate on teams. This is not to say that things have turned on their head, but I definitely think that theres a change in the control structure and the dogma around the best ways to collaborate. I still love face to face communication (who doesnt), but I like to believe that if you cant collaborate without being colocated, youre perhaps not agile enough. There are so many great tools that can help your team collaboration soar, that you need to keep your eyes open for things that are changing in the technology space.
Well my views on presentation skills have evolved over time. To me, the McKinsey Mind quote, “Presentation is the ‘Killer Skill’ we take into the real world. It’s almost an unfair advantage.”; is an indication of how important this craft is. To contrast that with the amount of slideumentation we see in the corporate world, is depressing to say the least! This said, I dont think its rocket science to do good presentations. If you plan effectively, choose the right tool for your presentation, use simple techniques to create meaningful visuals, and avoid some of the common mistakes, you should be well and truly on your way to matching Steve Jobs!
Yes and no! I started off my career as a training facilitator and thats perhaps my strongest skill even today. I look at training as a distinct discipline from presentations, so while media skills are crucial to training, they arent all trainings about. As a trainer, the biggest virtue you can have is patience - you need to believe that your learners can do it! You need to know how the brain remembers, the effective use of language patterns in the class, ways to encourage participation and to handle QnA. There are various subtelties in being a trainer. For example, competition lends momentum to training, but how do you ensure that people learn to collaborate amongst all the fun? Another example I love to talk about is around the issue of entertainment in the classroom - how much is enough? As a trainer Im always looking to improve my skills in leading socratic discussion, eliciting well formed outcomes, reviewing concepts effectively -- and student feedback always helps. After all, its a performance of sorts and we need to ensure that its of the highest quality.
Again, most of this is experiential and I cant vouch for the academic authenticity of my opinions. Im big on rapid design of any kind. Back in the day, I was thinking about rapid instructional design with Powerpoint and Ive come down that road thinking how we can apply Agile principles to elearning design as well. Theres however an aspect of this which Im extremely passionate about - the role of an instructional designer. I strongly believe that its not about the tools - creativity is key. The typical elearning projects are late, poorly designed and just dont solve performance problems. We need a breed of passionate instructional designers, who have more skills than just writing. When we start leveraging our SMEs effectively instead of looking at them as barriers to our instructional process, were likely to produce high quality outputs.
Why just elearning? If were creative enough we can not just apply them to transactions such as simulation design, but also solve complex problems like induction. But coming to the topic of elearning - I like to apply the rapid paradigm. On this blog Ive demonstrated that it is possible to produce elearning on a shoestring. Its important to remember that you dont need to do everything within elearning - you need to find a way to integrate all of the rich media from the web. If youre big on rapid elearning just in the same way that I am, you should take a look at my 6 tips for rapid elearning success. In addition, pay attention to meaningful interactivity, your navigation scheme and your information architecture and youll find that it isnt rocket science to create high quality, yet low cost elearning.
This brings me to the end of this blogpost - in my next post, Ill cover off other stuff that I usually write about. Do let me know if you like this map to my blog. Ill look forward to your commentary.
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