Books and Work and NCAA

Update on the reading (three more done). Am tracking all of them on this Pinterest board cause I'm lousy at the running count ! It says 21 so far, so I'm well ahead of the goal. I am sure real life will stop me at some point LOL.

• 700 Sundays by Billy Crystal
• The Blessing by John Trent
• League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth by ESPN reporters

I tried to read a Rex Stout mystery but just could not bring myself to sort through the old-fashioned language and sexist attitudes. I know that noir literature is like that but I just was not in the mood.

So, next I'm going to read the Divergent series. We have a rule in my house that you are not supposed to see a movie until you have read the book. As Maggie points out regularly, I have not held Matthew to that standard all the time. But he was a baby when we started reading Harry Potter and I wasn't going to stop him from enjoying those movies. However, I am enforcing that rule with the Hunger Games, Enders Game and Divergent. So, now I have to read those books!

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Off Peak Update
I am in the process of launching some new initiatives for the Tri-State Consortium including surveys to help with their research, an experts roster and expanded LinkedIn options. I'm excited to work on their materials because it is such a great way for me to connect all of my marketing and highered experience.  Plus, it helps me to start new projects because it keeps me current. I find sometimes that we just let things ride until we are forced to change. By continuing to expand my skills, I can bring new ideas to work and vice versa. Grateful for these opportunities. 

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Just a note about the NCAA.  Boy, the brackets are broken. I don't recall any other tourney where there have been so many upsets. But the basketball has been amazing to watch. I love March Madness !

Another snow storm

Buffalo had another snow storm yesterday. As my friend Arlene said on facebook "You know you are from Buffalo when everyone is complaining that ONLY 14 inches of snow and 30-40 mph winds and 1/4 mile visibility is hardly a blizzard and doesn't measure up to our standards."

I have to agree that it was never a blizzard yesterday, but thundersnow was a new experience. 

Got to finish reading The Monuments Men while home and had a mini movie marathon with the kids. Watched Red 2 and Despicable Me 2. Both were Christmas gifts we have not had any time to watch. Also did a bunch of computer work and got organized to try to make a spring dress, while Pete worked on the kitchen some more. I think we need more days off like that. Totally random where you are up and moving (both Pete and I went to work) but as the city shut down we both came home at noon and were energized to get some things done. Quite a gift actually.

Have two mysteries to read and two more kindle possibilities. We'll see how I do this weekend. 

18 books finished so far in 2014.

Reading update

So at least I'm going to blog about the books :)

Managed to read around/during the volleyball tournament this weekend. The last time I blogged I was reading Kenobi by John Miller and Necromancer by William Gibson. Yesterday I finished Tipping Point and started David and Goliath.

Total count for the year is 7 completed (still on track for a book a week)

As I only skimmed The River of Doubt, I'm not including it in my count for the year.  I was disappointed with that book. I ended up reading the beginning, part of the middle and the end. Nothing made me want to read every page.

On deck is Altered Carbon (recommended by co-worker Mike Conroy, I will fear no evil by Heinlein and Blink by Malcom Gladwell (totally working my way through his books on my kindle!


Of course, the Olympics are going on in Sochi, I have to do the taxes, I have a lot of work to do for Off Peak and the kids have winter breaks coming up. But I can always find time to read :)

PS: Watched World War Z. Disappointing after the book although I did see some pieces that were similar. I just don't understand why they had to change it SO MUCH! 

Cloud Fails

So today, the unofficial day Skynet tried to terminate the human race (revised Terminator time line courtesy of the Sarah Connor Chronicles) Amazon's cloud failed. I find that somewhat funny.

I'm not in the cloud quite yet...here is a list of posts about it: (http://blog.hootsuite.com/notes-on-todays-outage/) I use twitter not hootsuite (although I like Social Oomph), I don't like foursquare(see my previous post on privacy and robberies) and I'm not in the other affected tools. I think Amazon has a great business model (scale up as you get bigger) but its failure today shows the weaknesses inherent in these tools.

I agree that the times are changing; I use twitter more than email, I use facebook more than the phone, I text to my kids instead of call them. But, I still remain firmly grounded with the understanding that stuff breaks, I need to know the basic tools and a sharpened pencil can still be useful.