Comments (0) I’ve always liked the quote, “life is a journey.” Canon’s play on words in one of its commercial series makes me revisit it time and again.
Photography is a journey.
I wish I could find my favorite commerical of the series, but alas, this one will have to do:
Where do your photographs take you? Mine take me HOME.
Anyway you slice it, it sounds silly. And yes, I still feel silly explaining and getting excited about things like “Tweeter” (how all my coworkers pronounce it) and this crazy thing called “Facebook Connect”.
Every time we go live with a major change I question why large corporations are moronic. The easy answer? Corporations are so caught up in “processes” and “forms” that they forget the backbone of their business.
In the past three years, I’ve watched a lot of programs launch. Most have taken years to implement. You know, two years in contract, six months figuring out the order in which products would migrate to the new system, four months approving test plans and developing “what if” situations and finally, on the last day, bringing in people who know the right questions to ask.
Today, we launched a whole new booking engine. We literally spent over two years in contract for the system. In fact, I think we’re still negotiating shit. We then spent eight months fighting over tracking and tagging capabilities. Then, we spent six months figuring out who would be the first to launch. After that, we spent eleven months in limbo and delays. Don’t ask me why.
A month ago, the training for the “real” people (aka the daily users) started. For whatever reason, I missed the first two training sessions. Why they couldn’t conference me in, the world will never know. So yes, ONE day before our “Go Live” date someone was kind enough to set up a meeting with me.
We chit chatted. Questions were asked. Questions I considered no brainers. Instead of answers, blank stares were given. Words were said. Words like, “Haha. Yea, that doesn’t work for me.” and “Nope. That definitely does not fly.” and “Yes, this needs to be rectified immediately. Why wasn’t this an issue for anyone else?” Oh yeah, and, “Why wasn’t this brought to anyone’s attention sooner?” Again, blank stares.
Sadly and surprisingly, this is not the first time this scene has played out. The Lesson? When implementing something, make sure to ask the OPERATIONAL department if what you’re doing fits their needs. More often than not, IT, legal and marketing forget the OPERATIONAL side of the equation. If you can’t make something work operationally it is 100% UTTERLY USELESS.
P.S. – The IT person that QA’d the system? Yep, they missed that the phone number went to a porn site, the “Contact Us” form didn’t work, no confirmation email was sent, our brand was spelled wrong, etc., etc., etc. Yes, you guessed correctly, I WANTED TO DIE.
I wrote about pet peeves here and here, but both times I forgot my #1 Pet Peeve. Yes, I am flabbergasted as well. So what is my biggest pet peeve you ask? Well, drum roll please…
NOT WALKING THE WALK aka breaking promises.
Don’t:
If you can’t walk the walk, don’t talk the talk. It drives me INSANE and completely pisses me off. And yes, 25 years later, I still hold a grudge with my dad over his promise to get me a real pony. No, he never actually got me one. Yes, I still bring it up anytime he makes a so-called promise.
If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies
Yes, I finally took the time to move to WordPress.org. Not sure why I waited so long… as promised, it literally took five minutes. And then two hours to re-format and redesign 
I’m not in love with the theme/layout, but we’ll see what it evolves into.
Happy reading! The best is yet to come.
This is how I feel about the last 30 days. I hope the craptastic bullshit that I’ve been dealing with ends soon. Personally, I thought I had fairly decent karma, but apparently I pissed the hell out of someone somewhere.
Growing up, swimming shaped my whole life. When you spend 40+ hours per week at the pool, how can it not?
I don’t regret the long hours nor the wrinkled fingers nor swimming til I puked blood. And, I certainly don’t regret the lessons I learned and have carried with me into everything I do.
My wish is that one day, my kids’ get a swim coach just as amazing (and scary) who will impart similar lessons unto them:
Never walk when you can swim.
Never take the easy way out. Never miss an opportunity to practice.
Not racing is like practicing for a spelling test and then not taking it.
It’s not enough to show up to practice. Take the risk and race. Otherwise, all your work is for nothing.
Practice doesn’t start until the lactic acid kicks in.
If you’re not pushing yourself out of comfort zones, you’ll never get better.
There’s no reason not to show up to practice.
Take your commitments seriously. Don’t make silly excuses. Play like a champion.
Coach never explained his lessons. He repeated them until they were second nature and let us figure out what each one truly meant. Twenty years later? I still say to myself, “Never walk when you can swim,” any time I’m about to get out of the water.
Making the same mistake twice? $1,947
Hopefully, I won’t be dumb enough to make the same mistake a third time.
Every feel like this about the person you’re currently dating? Never settle… always wait for the butterflies
Mark my words, Michael Phelps will not compete in the 2012 Olympics. With his fiasco this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I’m still struggling with the decision but, from one swimmer to another here’s why:
Why do I think he might participate? Six months before the Olympics he’ll get motivated. He’ll hop back in the water, practice hard and once again dominate. But, if he starts practicing or honestly considering 2012 before then, I’ll be shocked.
