I generally check the weather using Weatherunderground. It’s reasonably reliable and its name carries a certain wisp of nostalgia for me. I started doing it in earnest a few years ago, when my then 10-year-old daughter started asking me every morning so she would know how to dress for school.

Today, before I left the house, it was raining so I made sure to read the special weather statement and learn what was going on. It seems the remnants of Hurricane Blanca are bringing a fair amount of instability and a substantial possibility of rain and thunderstorms, including cloud-to-ground lightning. The time of day when the odds for precipitation are the greatest coincides with the time I’ll be leaving work for home.

 

 So . . . since it was already in my car from the last time (which, amazingly enough, wasn’t all that long ago) I used it, I carried my umbrella into the building with me. I noticed others didn’t have umbrellas and, in fact, there seems to be a direct correlation between age and the use of an umbrella. Then, as I thought of it, I remembered there is generally a stigma associated with men and umbrellas, esp. young, virile men and . . . well . . . no umbrellas. As proof, I offer the following article from last fall, as well as these two pictures, which I believe represent the most vulnerable – with respect to securing their manliness – among us.

Why Real Men Don’t Use Umbrellas
 

 

I’ve been back at work less than five months and I’m already on my third CEO!

 

 Today I am going to the ophthalmologist to begin the process of having cataract surgery. The thought of having my eyeball sliced open has always kind of creeped me out so, although I’ve known it was coming, I’ve put it off until I can no longer wait. The other day I was working with the team on a schedule, which was on the screen in a conference room. I had to sit at the back and use the screen to see what I was doing. I had difficulty reading some of the numbers (e.g. dates, durations, unique IDs, etc.) and it was very uncomfortable. Not being able to do my job to the best of my abilities is scary and uncomfortable.

If you want to know what it’s like, and you wear glasses, just take a little petroleum jelly and smear it on one of your lenses. You’ll still see reasonably well because your good eye will compensate to an extent. Depth perception won’t be affected at all. Unfortunately for me, my “good” eye isn’t all that good anymore either. I’m pretty sure a cataract is developing there as well and, to top it off, I’ve long had a small blind spot dead center in that eye. It’s seldom affected me in the past because my other eye (pre-cataract) has compensated well. Now they’re both going.

According to what I’ve read, the surgery is the most widely performed worldwide and is also extremely successful. I’ve talked to numerous people who have had the surgery or who know someone who’s had it and they all say it corrects their vision so well that many no longer require glasses. I’m not expecting that outcome, but it’s comforting to know the procedure is routine. One person told me he felt like he was on an assembly line when he had it done. I’m ready. Can’t wait to see the Moon, planets, and the stars again in all their glory. 

I don’t know if you’ll be able to tell, but I’m easing myself back into writing. I got a bit sidetracked for a few months with two worthwhile and important projects. The first was serving as Marcia Conner’s “Developmental Editor” (that’s the title she gave me) in creating a revised, updated second edition of the book she co-authored with Tony Bingham – The New Social Learning.

As a side note here, let me say that working with Marcia is something I did about a year ago and, now as then, she is one of the best people I have ever had the pleasure of sharing work with. She is focused, brilliant, indefatigable (unlike moi), as well as kind, understanding, and generous. There were times when I felt a bit burned out, but it wasn’t because of Marcia and, truth to tell, her energy helped me get cracking when all I felt like was creaking.

At any rate, it was a decent sized project and, unfortunately, it came to fruition at just about the same time I returned to Rocketdyne (now Aerojet Rocketdyne) as a full-time contractor. So I was working all day at Rocketdyne, then spending my evenings (not all of them, but plenty) working with Marcia. I took two Wednesdays off toward the deadline we had set and I worked Saturdays and Sundays (again, not all of them).

I’ve been a wee tad distracted, is what I’m getting at here and, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fit in writing during this time, with the exception of some fairly extensive posts on Facebook, where I get the most feedback. I thought I would take a moment to share a little bit of info about the City I live in, Simi Valley, CA.

Simi is quite (in)famous for at least two, frequently three, major things. I wasn’t going to point them out, because I’d like to see some of it go away. I decided, however, to name them as they are primarily negative. Even the one thing that many in the City see as a major positive accomplishment, is not without its controversy. Those things are, in no particular order: The Rodney King acquittals, which triggered the 1992 Los Angeles riots; what is inarguably the worst nuclear meltdown in U.S. history; and we are home to the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum.

There is another thing, but I’m pretty sure it’s only meaningful to the people who live here in Simi. We call it “Happy Face Hill” and it even has its own Facebook page. Actually, the story surrounding its creation in 1998 and its evolution since then is a strange, wonderful, yet torturous one. You can read more about it here and here. There’s a sentence in the first story that, given the historical drought we find ourselves in, I find ironic – “The restoration ecologist said the happy face will look more natural once it rains.” Part of the story involves the Rotary Club I belong to, The Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise which, now that I think about it, is responsible for another thing Simi is well known for, The Simi Valley Cajun & Blues Festival. Our 26th annual affair, which attracts thousands of Blues and Zydeco fans from around the globe takes place every Memorial Day weekend, which means it’s in two days. I’m volunteering about 16 hours over the weekend.

So this is me, welcoming me back, just like Happy Face Hill welcomes me home when I return from work or visiting family. Now that I’m working, I have quite a few things I’d like to write about. I’ve been somewhat apprehensive about doing so, as I don’t wish to invoke the corporate immune system which, since Rocketdyne was purchase by Aerojet, may have a bit more of a hair trigger than I’ve experienced in the past. I’m working on it. Stay tuned!

My first encounter with project scheduling software was somewhere around 1990, when I learned Artemis 9000, a mainframe tool from a company called Metier. I wasn’t all that keen for it, as I was already convinced PCs would soon be the computing platform of choice for the average knowledge worker (I think we just called ourselves office workers back then).

Shortly thereafter, a company by the name of Advanced Management Solutions came out with a PC based scheduling tool called Schedule Publisher. It was much friendlier than Artemis and I took to it immediately, eventually becoming the goto guy for using it at Rocketdyne. When the company also started using MS Project, I wasn’t impressed, as it was not as powerful as SP.

I moved on to bigger and better things, but always retained a deep interest in program/project management and, by the time I left in 2010, I reported to the Director of the PMO, where we had been struggling mightily to move the organization to a portfolio approach to PM. I have to say, since returning, I’m disappointed to see there are still larger issues related to access to machines, processes, and the technicians and mechanics who know how to operate or perform them. Nobody seems to be “minding the store”, merely attending to their own department or program.

Now that I’m back, I’ve been presented with the opportunity to become truly proficient in the use of MS Project (I have 2007) and I’ve been experimenting like crazy once I’ve completed the work I have to do to support my program. My former boss and I used to discuss how program/project management was both a science and an art. The use of a tool such as Project comes down squarely on the science side, except when it comes to the hardest part of scheduling; getting honest, accurate status information from the people doing the work. Then the art part is invoked.

Mostly, though, because I’m just a temp contractor, I don’t get to exercise my artistic chops, so I’m concentrating on the science part. This is where MS Project comes in. Granted, it’s only a tool, but it’s a fearfully complex tool; far more capable and complex than most people realize. My experience is a large percentage of users only scratch the surface and use it mostly as a shield (reactively reporting on progress) rather than as a sword (proactively managing the downstream work).

I asked a friend in IT, who is in charge of these things, for a list of people in my building and the one next door who have Project licenses. I then sent an email to about a dozen of the ones I know and asked them if they could help me by answering some questions. So far, only three have responded and they all have demurred, claiming they only use it occasionally and in a very limited way. One of them, however, when prodded further gave me the name of someone he thought might be a “power user”. I have contacted her, as well as another person she suggested, and we have a meeting in a couple of weeks (she’s going on vacation) to discuss how we might help each other.

I have a feeling, at the rate I’m learning, by then I will be able to teach them a thing or two. I have also purchased three used books, one of which has arrived. The other two are, according to Amazon, on their way, presumably by dogsled. I’m already getting views, tables, groups, and filters (as they’re combined) down. I have every intention of moving into customized fields and, a blast from the past, digging into a little VB as well.

This is fun!

Finding it more and more interesting to be back working after nearly five years of (sort of) retirement. I’m thinking I’m the poster boy for a new form of the twilight years of one’s career. In my case, I am doing work that I did a couple of decades ago; not using my real strengths – other than my ability to come up-to-speed quickly and move far ahead from where I’m expected to be. The pay ain’t too shabby, either. On the other hand, I’m not exactly doing anything terribly stressful (there is the occasional moment) and it’s giving me the opportunity to become a Microsoft Project expert. I don’t believe there are more than a handful of people here who really know how to use all the functionality Project offers. I don’t think it has much to do with them, either. Between the existence of numerous legacy systems for scheduling and accounting, as well as the mess that three separate, major acquisitions in less than two decades has wrought, expedience and efficiency aren’t exactly hallmarks of how things get done.