Blair's Blog

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

This is what appeared for dinner today.  It’s is hard to imagine how the Irish survived prior to the invention of green food colouring!  Everything looked like it should have a slight minty flavour, but thankfully it did not. I do have to say that green rice is oddly mind-bending.  For dessert, I think that Brenda has found a recipe for home-made “Shamrock Shakes”, that has got to be an improvement over the green-tinged dinner.

And, of course, in other news – today is my license plate game anniversary.  As you surely recall, I began the noble quest on St Paddy’s Day back in 2003.  Sadly, I have to report that the pace of progress remains woefully slow.  This year ended at plate 865, only 46 new plates seen in the last 12 months.  I definitely have settled to a new lower level of plates spotted per month ever since my commute has switched to public transit. The 4-digit plates haven’t helped, particularly as they make up the majority of plates now. At this rate, you can look forward to about 3 more annual updates!

Tags: CNPS, Food&Drink

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Friday is our usual pizza dinner and movie with the kids evening.  Back in Chestermere, we quite often would buy pizza, either at the local Domino’s (which was actually quite good) or we would buy the 4-pack of Costco pizzas.  Now, though, the local pizza places are kind of expensive and the drive to Domino’s is more hassle than it’s worth.

So, lately Brenda has been making pizza dough in the bread machine and then we create our own pizzas with as much pepperoni as we want.  Tonight Alyssa has been helping to punch down the dough, form it and add the toppings.  This is Bobby, the sauce guy.  I am sure he will be delicious.

Especially with all that pepperoni.

Tags: Food&Drink

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We headed up to Rocky Mountain House on the Family Day weekend to hang out with family there. It was also Valentine’s Day, so we had the older kids pick up pizza and keep an eye on the younger cousins at Barry and Breana’s while the adults had a nice dinner together at Ronny and Carla’s. We made it a bit of a pot luck and had a really nice evening with the 6 of us.

Brenda brought hibiscus flowers (in syrup) that we floated in the sparking wine, it was very exotic!

This was the view on the drive up – a glorious late winter day.

Tags: Food&Drink

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Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion by David Zweig (ISBN: 978-1591846345) 2014

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, personal branding – the current wisdom seems to be that if you aren’t promoting yourself, what you’ve accomplished and where you are going then you are in danger of being left behind or not noticed. In the modern workplace, many behave as if not being recognized will inevitably relegate you to the back bench.  Yet, for some people their experience does not support this notion.  In fact, invisibility allows some to find a particular kind and degree of satisfaction in their work that recognition and praise just cannot compete with.

In this book, author David Zweig looks at a number of people working in widely different fields who appear to not simply survive in obscurity, but actually thrive on it.  These individuals in some ways form the backbone of the organization in which they work, delivering solid results in a way that is understated and un-noticed.

Zweig’s premise, in fact, is that the intrinsic rewards of ambivalence toward recognition, meticulousness and savouring responsibility comprise three key traits embodied by many who work in roles and positions well out of the spotlight. Such individuals are the “invisibles” in our midst. Critically, the invisibles seem to find lengthy, rewarding careers out of the spotlight in ways that the more renowned and recognized people sometimes do not.  The invisibles have a sense of curiosity and engagement directly in their work that sustains them.

Who are the invisibles?  Just about anyone who operates in a supporting role – fact checkers at a newspaper, cinematographers, interpreters, roadies, designers and many others.  The common thread is that the work goes largely unseen and unrecognized when it is done well.  In fact, the better the job is done, the less likely anyone is even be aware of the work; and the invisibles that do the work couldn’t be happier.  Chasing rewards fades into insignificance compared to the compensation of mastery over work that resembles and art more than a task.

When considering motivation, Zweig offers an entire book full of case studies that demonstrate the principles found in Daniel Pink’s work, Drive.

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