text: Kevin Garber: [00:01] This week on the "It's A Monkey Podcast." Andy Molinsky: [00:03] The road diverges. Which road do you take? Do you take the avoidance road or do you take the "I'll try this" road? This "giving it a go" road? I think that's the tipping point because when you actually give something a go and you actually try it out and maybe make it your own a little bit too, people are often very surprised. [00:22] I talked about that in the book, the epiphanies people have that for instance, "You know what? This wasn't as hard as I thought it was. I'm actually a little bit more capable than i thought I was." On the other side of fear, there are some pretty amazing discoveries that can happen, but nothing can happen if you don't take the leap. [00:39] [background music] Kevin: [00:48] Good evening. Hello. Good afternoon. Good morning, wherever you are. My name is Kevin Garber. This is "It's A Monkey Podcast." We talk about everything related to the tech economy, startups, entrepreneurship, being the best version of yourself. Thank you for joining us. [01:06] I am the CEO of ManageFlitter. With me as usual is my co-host, Kate Frappell, who is the design lead at ManageFlitter. Kate, thank you so much for joining us. Kate Frappell: [01:15] Thanks for having me back again. Kevin: [01:17] How's your week been? Kate: [01:19] Not too bad, pretty busy. Just finished with the Social ROI chat this morning. Kevin: [01:24] It's actually something we should tell our podcast listeners about. Every Tuesday, America time, Wednesday, Australia time, we do a Twitter chat called #SocialROI, where we invite different guests. [01:41] We have a topic around social media and we have a Twitter chat, which we won't get into now, but it's essentially people tweeting around a topic and using a common hashtag. They're really fun. Join us at 8:00 AM Sydney time, which is about...What is it on the West Coast time? Kate: [01:57] 4:00 PM Eastern time. Kevin: [01:59] That's 4:00 PM on the East Coast and probably about 1:00 PM on the West Coast. Check out the ManageFlitter blog. The times are there. As always, thank you so much for joining us. [02:09] We have a great show lined up for you. Coming up later on in the show, I chat to Andy Molinsky. Andy's a Professor at Brandeis University in International Business and in the Psychology department. [02:21] He's written a book. His first book was "Global Dexterity," but he's also written a brand new book which only came out in January. That's "Reach -- A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone." I chat with him about his research into what holds us back into trying things that we find difficult. [02:42] I talk to him about strategies, well-defined methodologies that you can use to actually stretch yourself. Not just words of encouragement saying "You can achieve anything" or anything like that -- something more concrete. [02:57] That's coming up later on in the show. We're actually live on Periscope as well at the moment. We try to go live on Periscope. We record this on Wednesdays. At the moment, it fluctuates during the day sometime on Wednesday, and the podcast goes live on Friday or Saturday. [03:16] We're going to try eventually lock in a fixed time where you can join us on Periscope. We've got a few people popping in and out to the Periscope feed. That's great. Otherwise, if you're listening on your podcast app, thank you very much. [03:31] Please, if you can, take a moment to review us on iTunes. That helps people discover us. It takes two seconds. Just tell them that you love the podcast and we'll be appreciative. [03:42] As always, tech news, lots and lots happening. Kate, let's talk first about Facebook. We haven't spoken about Facebook for awhile. We've spoken about WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, and their new status feature, which I've been using and trialing out. Sort of a Snapchat Stories for WhatsApp. It's quite interesting. They've executed that quite well. [04:01] Facebook seems to have now opened up the ability for companies to list jobs that they have open, something that is the bread and butter of LinkedIn, is recruiting. Facebook are slowly trying to get into that territory. Tell us a little bit more about Facebook Jobs. Kate: [04:25] Small businesses now can create a status update on Facebook but mark it as a job. These jobs go into the newsfeed of potential candidates -- people that fit the criteria or that work in the field. You can apply straight from the newsfeed on a card. Similar to what you would see an ad in your newsfeed. Kevin: [04:49] Let's say for argument's sake you're Toyota. You would see just an ad for jobs at Toyota? Kate: [05:05] No. Facebook have a job board, essentially, now. You can also search for jobs. You would search for "automotive jobs," and Toyota's listing would be there. Kevin: [05:20] It's a job board service, essentially. Kate: [05:23] Yes, but in addition to this, if you, on your profile for example, are a mechanic, then the likelihood of you being presented that Toyota add in your newsfeed is likely. Kevin: [05:33] They can target that using the usual Facebook targeting. Do they provide tools for the companies on the backend side of things to manage the applicants? Do you know how far they've gone and on that side of things for the companies that are actually advertising these jobs? Kate: [05:54] Yes. At the moment, it's still very much in its infancy. Companies can obviously list the jobs and create the job ad. When somebody applies, some of that information is prefilled from your profile, your name, maybe your education and information like that. Then there's also a field to describe why you would be the best candidate for that position. [06:22] After that however, all communication between the business and the potential candidate is done through Facebook Messenger. Kevin: [06:29] Interesting. That's interesting. Facebook Messenger we've spoken about before as Facebook's long-term play so much. It's almost like the hub of a lot of what they doing. Why I asked that question is even if you're small business like ourselves, when you put a job at out there, managing the job ad's applicants and that whole process, it's actually really tricky to not get into yourself into a tangle. [06:58] If you just get emails and you're trying to flick them onto other team members etc, you can get yourself into a tangle and lose track really, really quickly. It's quite a big industry providing these type of platforms to help manage the candidate application process. [07:14] We use a product called Workable which does a fantastic job. It's not perfect. Wish there was some other things that it could do, but it had it really helps the different stages. You can collaborate and different team members can comment on a candidate. [07:32] I think Facebook would really need to take care of that side of things if they are to actually provide any value to companies that want to use their platform as a job board or to advertise for jobs. Kate: [07:46] Yeah I agree. I think that's where the biggest gap is at the moment. Speaking of getting into a tangle though, I think the candidates themselves can also get into a bit of a pickle. [07:56] Your potential employer has access to see your profile and now has more reason to look at your photos on Facebook and the information status updates that you've made in the past. If anything, it's a warning for people to clean up the public posts, at least on their Facebook profile. Kevin: [08:19] I've been cleaning up mine over time every day when the Facebook memories comes on. I've been looking at all the memories of those couple of days. Just cleaning up and seeing...I've never had anything significant public at all but I'm still, even the private side of things... [08:35] When Facebook first started and it was...You're only friends on Facebook with some of your closest friends. You were a little bit more liberal I guess, about what you said and shared. I'm, over time, cleaning up everything. It's interesting that some people might even start new Facebook accounts or things like that. [08:57] Definitely, it's become more relevant as to what you tweet or share publicly on social media or blogs or YouTube. It's very significant and most employers do have a look at that. If Facebook's integrating the job side of things, it's going to be easier if you apply through Facebook. They're going to have your Facebook account right there. They're not even going to have to search for it. Kate: [09:21] Exactly. The other thing is as well, that Facebook already have all these sort of tools to segment who you can share with. You can create favorites or groups. You can categorize people as acquaintances. [09:36] When you make a status update, you can choose who gets to see them. You can be just close friends, or just friends and acquaintances. It's all there but it's not often that I hear people using those features. Kevin: [09:48] No, most people don't. As far as I know, most people don't use targeting. I did once. A friend of a friend she shared something about a sign she saw in Sydney. It was bit of a controversial sign. She shared it on Facebook and she noted that, "I've only shared this with six targeted people, and I'm interested in your opinion." That's the only time I've actually really noticed. Kate: [10:14] That's a nice way to put it. If you let people know...I've fallen into this trap too. I credited the close friends, and then made a status update. I thought it would get more engagement. My close friends would reply more often, but they don't know that you've only shared it with them. [10:33] They still think you shared it with everyone. I suppose if you write or note at the bottom to say, I'm only sharing to six people... Kevin: [10:40] They might be more encouraged to comment about that. It will be interesting. Apparently, this Job Board side of things, only launching in the North America for the time being. It will be interesting to see what happens. Obviously LinkedIn, who's owned by Microsoft now, will be keeping a close eye on this. [10:58] Also, Facebook have been talking about their Facebook At Work platform for quite a while, which is in competition with Slack and other type of products. It will be interesting to see how this fits in. It's going to be hard. [11:14] Their brand is not exactly an enterprise brand. Not to say that it's going to be impossible, but it's going to be a little bit of a hard sell initially to have companies start using Facebook services on the enterprise level. Kate: [11:27] Sure. Interestingly as well, I was able to find the Jobs Board. They have released in Australia. Kevin: [11:38] They have? Kate: [11:38] Yes. There's a minimum amount of jobs there, and there's a lot of jobs overseas. There's a lot of American jobs listed there, but I can see it on my profile. Kevin: [11:52] Interesting. Look, it's a big business, jobs and job boards. It's all different niche job boards. LinkedIn just built on recruiting. Let's keep an eye on that one. [12:05] Other news story, which is exciting. A few months ago, we had Roy Benbenishti from an Israeli startup called Sesame Enable, which had a terrific app for disabled people to navigate around their mobile phones, using their head. Accessibility in helping people is definitely an interest of mine. The Internet is such a wonderful world for everyone. We should try to help everyone gain access. [12:31] I stumbled upon this article of "Mind-reading typing tool for paralyzed people is fastest yet." This is one of these articles that I love where you're just, "Wow, the future is here." [12:42] Kate, they've got some technology where you can almost just think and move, or type just by thinking. This is designed, at this stage, mainly for people that are paralyzed, that have degenerative diseases, or been in accidents. Tell us a little bit more about what's going on with this development. Kate: [13:05] Three people with paralysis have learned to type by thought alone. What they have done is they've put a silicon patch covered in hundreds of tiny probes onto the primary motor cortex. That's a region of your brain that controls movement. Basically, you can direct a cursor around the screen by thinking about moving your body parts. [13:34] There's a case study on the article will be on the website, which says that one of the guys who tested it, when he wanted to move something to the right, he had to imagine his hand on a ball, and then rotating it to the right. Obviously, he can't do that, but if he can imagine it and think about doing it, the cursor will move to the right. Kevin: [14:01] Fantastic. Obviously, the first stage is helping people that desperately need it and want to access. You can almost see a situation where people that are able-bodied, there may be an interface option where you train the mind around certain...Every time you think of hitting a tennis racket with your right hand, that moves something. Kate: [14:25] It triggers it. Another thing is this guy could think about selecting a particular letter on the screen. Essentially, on the screen with the cursor are letters. He's typing out an email, for example. He's going to move the cursor to the letters on the screen. To select the particular letter, he thought about clicking his fingers. He uses the ball motion to direct and then thinks about clicking to select. Kevin: [14:53] It's fantastic. Obviously, these thoughts all have a unique signature. They all have a unique signature that the software analyses. Every time you think about moving over the ball, it triggers that unique signature. Kate: [15:07] They are averaging about six to eight words a minute, which is two to four times faster than their previous efforts, which were used similar to the Sesame Enable, where they either use eye movements or head movements to direct something. Kevin: [15:21] Fantastic. The applications for this technology is really, really huge. As I say, if it gets into the area of mature development, it might even be for able-bodied people, a real option of navigating around just by thinking. Kate: [15:41] Yes, an interesting technology. The breakthrough here is the speed as well. The faster they can get the brainwave to talk to the computer and make that connection between what did the brainwave did and where the cursor needs to go. The faster you can do that, the faster they can type, essentially. Kevin: [16:05] Fantastic. We'll put a link to this article. There's a video there as well. I'll try even reach out to these people and see if we can get them on the show. I find there's two types of academics. As a lot of academics are real quiet achievers. They're not big on talking on podcasts. There was a similar type of article around brain hacking that I sent you a while ago. [16:33] I sent the lead researcher an email. She emailed me back and CC'd about four or five co-researchers and said, "There were lots of people involved and this. Is it possible if we can all come on the podcast?" Kate: [16:49] [laughs] Kevin: [16:49] I said to her, "I'd love to, and I can understand why you want to, but it will be really confusing for listeners if they hear lots of people." She didn't want that exclusive glory, but I'll try reach out to them and we'll put a link on our show notes. [17:06] When I see articles like this, this is what technology is about. If you're the person that's struggling to interact with the computer because you don't have one of this degenerative diseases, and it just suddenly opens up the world, your whole life is changed by this technology. That's very exciting stuff. [17:27] Anyway, you're listening to episode 83 of the It's A Monkey Podcast. We talk about everything relating to tech, startups, entrepreneurship, and being the best version of yourself within the professional framework and other. [17:40] If you do like what you hear, send us a tweet @MonkeyPodcast. Tell your friends about us. Check out our previous episodes in our website. We have some fantastic previous episodes with people like Dr. John Demartini, David Heinimeier Hansson. [17:56] Coming up in the next few months, we've got some great people we're going to be interviewing. I got confirmation. We're going to be talking to Kevin Kelly who's a really famous...He's one of the founders of "Wired" magazine, a very, very famous technology commentator. [18:11] He's written a new book, and hopefully, we're going to be chatting to him in June. It's a little way away, but I've locked that in. [18:18] Anil Dash, he's the CEO of Frog Creek Software. I'm hoping to chat to him sometime. It's semi-confirmed. We're working hard to bring you the guests. If you know anyone who wants to be in the podcast, drop us a line at firstname.lastname@example.com. [18:33] We're going to take a short break and we'll be back with our interview with Andy Molinsky, chatting about his new book, Reach -- A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone. Stick with us. [18:47] [commercial break] Kevin: [18:47] You're back with "It's a Monkey" podcast. Thank you for joining us. My name is Kevin Garber. I am the CEO of ManageFlitter, also, the co-host of this podcast. Now, as you know, if you're a regular listener to this podcast, one of the areas that I am very interested in is what I call the human layer of our industry. [19:23] Even though our industry is a technology industry in a way, but every business is actually a people business. Every business is made up of individuals with their own strengths and their weaknesses. One of my interests is this human journey and how to get the best out of yourself, how to get the best out of your team. [19:44] I stumbled upon a great book a couple of weeks ago. I managed to get hold of the author who's on my Skype line. I'd like to introduce to the show Professor Andy Molinsky, who's the author of the book Reach -- A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge, and Build Confidence. [20:05] It's hot off the presses. Professor Molinsky is also a Professor of International Management and Organizational Behavior at Brandeis University's International Business School with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychology, and has also written a previous book called "Global Dexterity: How to Adapt Behavior Across Cultures Without Losing Yourself in the Process." Professor Molinsky, thank you so much for joining us. Andy: [20:29] I am happy to be here. Thanks for inviting me. Kevin: [20:32] Whilst I was researching this book, something dawned on me, this getting outside of your comfort zone. An image came to me of all of our ancestors many, many thousands of years ago, sitting around a fire, and most of them quite happy just sitting and chatting and doing a bit of hunting. [20:49] Maybe one of them, just looking far out into the horizon, on to some hills, and thinking to himself or herself, "I wonder what's out there. It's pretty scary, but I'm just going to go for it." I think since the beginning of time, this tension between staying in our comfort zone and getting out of our comfort zone has probably been part of our makeup, right? Andy: [21:12] It's funny when you said that, when you're talking about our ancestors, I immediately was starting to think about my ancestors, not my ancient ancestors but more... [21:22] [laughter] Andy: [21:23] America is a country of immigrants, and so pretty much everyone's ancestors...Not everyone, but almost everyone I know at least, has ancestors who were doing exactly what you're talking about. Probably, not sitting around a fire... [21:36] [laughter] Andy: [21:39] Some degree of poverty, deprivation, some not-so-great situations somewhere else in the world, many times in Europe, and decided to take a leap. It's tremendously courageous when I hear the stories of my ancestors coming from Europe here, the travails that they endured to get here, and what it must have been like to absolutely step outside their comfort zones. [22:07] Yes, it's an apt image, [laughs] and I've never heard that before, so it's a nice way to start. Kevin: [22:13] Now, what I found quite interesting is we all have a sense of what's in our comfort zone and what's outside of our comfort zone. We're all different to what we find quite challenging. What I found quite interesting in your book is you actually break it down into why people find it tough to step out of a comfort zone. [22:32] You actually unpack it into a few specific reasons why it jars them. Can you talk about some of those findings that you talked about in your book? Andy: [22:43] Sure, absolutely. I know a lot of listeners are entrepreneurs or working in tech businesses. I certainly spoke with entrepreneurs and in tech businesses. I also spoke with and interviewed and observed managers delivering bad news, delivering negative performance reviews. [23:02] Doctors performing painful procedures on children -- I could tell you about that -- police officers evicting people from their homes. Actors, students, priests, rabbis, teachers, even a goat farmer, all sorts of people. [23:16] To get to your point, what I found and what was so striking and what, for my perspective, was really exciting is that the challenges of stepping outside your comfort zone across all these cases really did boil down to five different things that I've found. [23:32] The first was authenticity, the idea that me stepping into this role into this situation. This just doesn't feel like me. Because it doesn't feel like me, it's very uncomfortable and anxiety-producing. For example, I actually spoke with a bunch of young entrepreneurs here in the United States, who struggle to pitch their ideas to venture capitalists to get funding for their businesses. [23:56] They told me about how they never...They'd have to put on a suit. They'd say, and they never would wear a suit or they had to pretend to put their grownup voice on and really act in a way that just simply didn't feel authentic. That's very uncomfortable, so authenticity would be one. [24:11] Another one is likability, the idea that worrying people won't like or even hate this new version of you. There's a very poignant story in the book about a woman who was being undermined by a male colleague. It was so off-the-charts inappropriate that she simply had to confront him. [24:33] She was afraid to because, believe it or not, she was worried that he would hate her even though, of course, he was the incredibly unlikable one. We got authenticity, likability. Another one is competence, the idea that you're afraid you'd look like a fool, like giving a speech. [24:50] Another one could be resentment. A lot of people do feel resentful that they have to adapt. Logically, they know they do. "When in Rome, act like the Romans," or in a new role, I know I need to adapt logically, but psychologically, they felt resentful. [25:05] Finally, morality. I did find several cases of people who really struggled almost on moral grounds. I opened a book with the story about a young entrepreneur who ended up having to fire her best friend from her startup. [25:19] Authenticity, likability, competence, resentment, immorality, and of course, you're not going to experience necessarily all of these, but even one can make it hard to step outside your comfort zone. Kevin: [25:30] I found in our industry, tech startups, especially on the developer side of things, the engineers, authenticity is a really, really big one for them, and you see this where they don't like to do things like networking events a lot of the time. [25:47] I know you mentioned an example in your book of one of your MBA students from Israel who found that the networking events felt quite superficial, and was struggling with that. In our industry, developers and engineers, they've got big bullshit detectors. [26:04] As soon as that starts going off, they struggle to just even convince themselves. Also, in the tech industry, the resentment actually can...I've seen it rear of its head very, very quickly. If there's team changes or that someone who's being promoted that they think doesn't deserve to be promoted, I see the resentment building up very quickly. Andy: [26:28] I also see it in my experience in the tech world of people who have to go into sales who aren't salespeople by nature, and they feel it's almost slimy and dirty and just they feel so uncomfortable trying to convince someone of something. [26:45] They just want to create the product and make it just like the perfect product. When they have to sell, people I've talked with feel very uncomfortable. Kevin: [26:56] If someone feels uncomfortable, when is it a good uncomfortability? When is it a bad uncomfortability? Obviously, there's your hard and firm boundaries, like illegality and things like that, which should always be, in my opinion, a hard boundary. [27:15] Beyond that, if someone's working as a engineer in a company, and they start feeling butterflies in their stomach or uncomfortable, how can they self-reflect to know whether this process of pushing themselves, they're actually going to be better for it in the long run or they should remain true to their own selves and path and perhaps just shrink back? Andy: [27:37] That is a very good question and that's a dilemma that a lot of people struggle with. Actually, surfacing that dilemma is really important, because people unconsciously feel that and oftentimes, just veer towards avoidance. [27:53] The question I always suggest to people is if you could wave a magic wand and you could not feel any anxiety, not feel uncomfortable in the situation, would it be something that you'd want to go for? Would it be something that you'd want to improve at? Would it be something that would be valuable to your career, for instance? [28:11] If the answer is yes, that to round up my set of skills as an entrepreneur, I really do need to learn to network. I do need to do sales or whatever it is that makes me feel uncomfortable. I might feel like they think I'm a jerk, I might feel unauthentic, etc. but there's some value here. [28:31] If that's the case, and the answer is that this is a case where it probably is worth applying some of the tools and techniques I talk about in my book to really try to step outside your comfort zone. If the answer is no, if it's, "You know what? I just am not interested in this. This is just not me. It's not important. I don't want it to be part of my career," then you've got a different pathway. Kevin: [28:53] Also, it's about what ultimate outcomes someone wants to achieve. For instance, if someone is working as a senior developer in a tech company, but they'd like to be CEO one day, the outcome of being a CEO and having to be able to deal with different scenarios and have different skill sets... [29:10] It's going to require them to stretch and evolve and develop all sorts of other talents, which is going to mean that they need to get out of their comfort zone. I guess, it's what their end game is about as well, right? Andy: [29:22] Yeah, absolutely. It's what they're striving for. It's funny when you were talking about that, I was just thinking of an article I read in "The New York Times" magazine this weekend about how in the United States, and I imagine elsewhere in the world, there has to be a lot of personal reinvention now. [29:38] There are a lot of people who don't have certain skills and can't find jobs. This is on the lower end of the economy. There are actually jobs, but there's a misfit between the capabilities of the applicants and the qualities that employers want. [29:55] Of course, some of it's retraining, but some of it also is learning to step outside your comfort zone. It actually is a critical skill to bridge that gap, so that's at that level. The level you're talking about, absolutely, if you're striving to become a CEO, you're going to need...A lot of companies require their would-be senior leaders, their up-and-coming stars to have this rounded-out set of skills. [30:21] I know that from working with HR professionals, so I know that acting outside your comfort zone is critical. Kevin: [30:27] What's so exciting is human capability is so bendable in its potential. Sometimes, I look at my team and I've even had a couple of team members that have just grown into their roles so well. We're just this bundle of potential that if we channel our force and energy for good, I know it's a cliche, but really anything really is possible. [30:50] It really is true sometimes. It really is as simple as that. With some application and some focus and importantly, some motivation and interest, anything really is possible. Andy: [31:03] I agree and I think that's...My book is really oriented around helping people actually take the leap because that's the tipping point. It sounds sort of clichéd and obvious, but it's not actually that obvious to try to deconstruct and unpack what the critical capabilities you need to actually take a leap, to actually go for it. [31:25] The road diverges, and which road do you take? Do you take the avoidance road or do take the "I'll try this" road? The "giving it a go" road? I think that's the tipping point, because when you actually give something a go and you actually try it out and maybe kind of make it your own a little bit, too, people are often very surprised. [31:45] I talk about that in the book. The epiphanies people have that, for instance, "You know what? This actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was and you know what? I'm actually a little bit more capable than I thought I was." On the other side of fear, there's some pretty amazing discoveries that can happen, but nothing will happen if you don't take the leap. Kevin: [32:03] That's what I find so interesting about the mind. The mind serves us in many ways and it's engineered to protect us. But in this case, stretching ourselves, I don't think it always does the best job. [32:15] In a way the opportunity cost of not taking the risk, so to speak, of not stepping outside your comfort zone, is higher than the potential downside of whatever it is you're trying to do not working out. Somehow the mind gets that the wrong way around. Andy: [32:33] Yeah, I think that's the cognitive, cold side of the mind, but I think in these cases, the hot, emotional side of the mind wins the day. It trumps cognition and self-threat looms large. Those are the self-threats we talked about before. You're feeling inauthentic. [32:53] You're feeling anxious. You're feeling ashamed. You're feeling uncomfortable. You're feeling whatever it might be. All those types of anticipatory emotions that result from those, what we talked about, authenticity, likability, and so on. That's what dominates. You can't sort of bring to bear your logical structures because the emotions, I think, loom larger. Kevin: [33:13] There used to be a school of thought that if you wanted to be a CEO, you should start out doing some cold calling at some point in your business life. I started my first business when Internet was only still flapping its wings and I did do some cold calling to get my first few customers. [33:28] What was interesting is the psychology around that is you did have a lot of fear of rejection and you thought a lot more about that fear than the excitement that this could be the customer that could really launch your business and change everything. [33:44] You would get a real palpable sense of that. I still recommend people, if you want to be a CEO and get control over your mind and observe your mind, do some cold calling. You learn a lot when you cold call. Andy: [34:01] [laughs] It's true and that makes me think of yet another reason why it's critical to take the leap, which is the idea of sort of desensitization. The idea that you're afraid of doing something, but then you do it, and then you try it again, and then you try it again, as you're talking about with cold calling. [34:21] It doesn't mean that you're numb to the experience, but it means that you start to develop some control and confidence over it. It's not some sort of scary thing in the distance. It's something that you actually are sort of involved in. I think it loses some of its power over you in a sense. [34:37] That's why I think when you're learning to step outside your comfort zone as well, it's critical that you have multiple occasions to actually do it. If you're afraid of delivering bad news, and you only do it once a year, [laughs] it's probably not going to help to step outside your comfort zone. It's interesting about cold calling. Kevin: [34:58] What I found with cold calling, and now I try to apply it to any moments where I have that type of fear, is if I started thinking about it too much, I would paralyze myself. "What if this person gets annoyed? I'm annoying them. They've had a bad day. They're going to think I'm a sleazy salesperson," etc. etc. [35:17] But if I would almost just count to four, dial, chat to them, I found that technique has stood me in good stead. We'll chat shortly about you've given some resources of how people can sort of move ahead beyond their own comfort zone. [35:33] I've found that there are times in life where overthinking doesn't serve us. I would almost just count to four and go, "Right, on the count of four, I'm just calling them." There's nothing left to think about. One, two, three, four, call. [laughs] [35:45] It was just quite a simple technique that helped me get over the hump. I still use that one-two-three-four technique. If I have to have a difficult conversation that I'm gnawing, just say, "Right, on the count of four, let's bring them into the boardroom. Let's go for it and let's have this conversation." Andy: [35:59] [laughs] It's almost like a technique for getting past the final few paces, the final few steps. Although I think there are probably other strategies you might have used to get to the point where you were able to use the one-two-three-four technique. Kevin: [36:15] Perhaps. Well, let's get into your three critical resources for moving ahead that you chat about in the book, which are quite useful. Andy: [36:23] Sure. The first one's conviction. That might connect to your one-two-three-four. Before you even get to that point where you're on the cusp of doing something, you need to find the conviction, that sort of deep sense of purpose. [36:37] It's almost like giving yourself psychological permission to do something when every bone, metaphorically speaking, in your body is saying no. You need to say yes. That sense of conviction comes from very different places. [36:49] It might mean, this is something we talked about, people striving to be CEO, for example, or just to move up in their careers, or to round out their set of skills. You might decide, "Networking is really uncomfortable for me but if I want to achieve what I want to achieve, I've just got to do this." That's an example of conviction. [37:07] For some people, it's about helping others. "I've just got to do this to be able to help others." I remember when I spoke with Lily Chang, who is a young entrepreneur at the very outset of the book who had to fire her best friend, her source of conviction was...It felt awful. [37:22] Imagine having to fire your best friend. Maybe some of our listeners have had to do something like that. I certainly haven't. For her, in the end, she came to the realization that this is what she needed to do for her business, for her investors, and also for all the other employees who had sacrificed higher-paying, more stable jobs to join her startup. [37:46] With that in mind, she had the sense of conviction that got her to the top of the hill when she could then apply your one-two-three-four technique. Conviction. That's really critical. Another one was customization. [37:59] I'd have to say that this is probably the most surprising and maybe even the most exciting finding that I had is how much power people have to sculpt the situations that they find themselves in. I think in a lot of situations outside our comfort zones, we feel a little bit helpless and powerless, but if you think about it, you have more power than you think. [38:24] You can make subtle little tweaks to make something just that little bit more comfortable, just that little easier for you to get up the hill, push yourself up the hill. [38:33] You can change your body language. You can bring a prop. You can wear that power suit. No one else knows you're wearing it, but you know. That lucky charm. When I talk about it in the book, I'm pretty sure I do, how earlier in my career, I was really uncomfortable with public speaking about maybe 15 years ago. [38:52] Now, I'm very comfortable. I do it all the time, but I used to wear a lucky ring. That ring was actually a ring that my great uncle found on the beaches of the South Pacific during World War II. He was in the Navy. I always thought to myself that, "Gosh, if he could do that, I can do this." [39:10] It was sort of this little memory of courage for myself. No one else knew it. Anyways, there are all sorts of things. I have a student. This is not a work context, although it could be. This is really a social context. [39:23] She's very introverted and very awkward, but she really wants to meet friends and expand her social circles. She brings a prop to social situations like to a party or a get-together. Her prop is a selfie stick. Kevin: [39:35] I read about that, yes. [39:37] [laughter] Andy: [39:38] I love that. I love that. She went in great detail about how it sort of facilitates her social interaction in all sorts of ways, even to the point of enabling her to gather email addresses, to sort of connect after the fact and share the pictures and so on. [39:56] I think there are many, many, many more ways and I detail it very clearly in the book all the ways that you could do this, but I think it's really cool to know that you actually have more power than you think. That's some of what you can do to overcome the barriers. Kevin: [40:14] I think, as you mentioned, they don't have to be overhauls. They just can be tweaks. Right? You don't have to become someone you're not. You can stretch yourself. The beautiful thing about compounding is that it compounds. If you stretch yourself every week just a little bit and by the end of the year, boy, you've really shifted. Andy: [40:39] Absolutely. I think the point you made earlier is really important. I deeply believe that you should not be feeling like you're not yourself. In fact, the goal of these customization techniques is quite the opposite. It's actually to try to feel more like yourself in these situations that otherwise you might not feel very comfortable and you might feel ill at ease. [41:03] Try to make it that little tweak to make it feel just a little more comfortable. I was talking the other day with a colleague of mine, who's a very experienced banker, and he read my book. He emailed me and he said to me, "You know what? I just realized I did customization 20 years ago when I started out." "[41:21] I had to give this really big speech and I was terrified. I had a buddy of mine fly in from New York and sit eighth row center and have a big smiling face as I was talking. It eased my tension and it enabled me to give the speech." It's funny, there are all sorts of ways that people do this maybe not even thinking. Kevin: [41:40] You have to do what you need to do to sort of trick your mind. I think our mind's this wonderful, powerful machine, but in a way it can have these biases and these self-protective mechanisms that sometimes are not in our best interests that we've got to grapple with. [41:57] I've got one of my business mentors. He's very experienced, been in the industry for a long time. Our industry is very weighted towards younger people, obviously. He says sometimes if he's in a meeting and he starts thinking too much about the fact that he's the oldest person in the room by far, this is his words, I'm quoting him here. [42:20] He says, "I can feel the power drain out of my fingers." Often these biases about ourselves that we have, no one else notices and no one else cares. They're our own complexes. [42:39] This is what I like about even just the framework of always thinking about looking forward and outwards as opposed to contracting and being self-aware of things that are only really a problem to ourselves. Andy: [42:51] Yeah, that's very interesting. I've felt that myself as I'm getting older. [laughs] Kevin: [42:55] It is. We were chatting on last week's episode, when we were talking about work-life balance with Monique Valcour, an executive coach. She was saying that she's heard stories about people in our industry getting reconstructive surgery in their 30s to look younger, because they feel that they're looking too old for our industry, which I thought was really radical. Andy: [43:17] That's incredible. I know Monique. You have to tell her I say hello. [laughs] Kevin: [43:21] Oh, great. [laughs] Small world. Andy: [43:23] Small world. [laughs] Kevin: [43:23] Professor Andy Molinsky, thank you very much. Andy's book is fresh off the press. You can get it on Kindle, hard copy, hard cover, the works. I bought myself a Kindle version. [43:39] The name of the book is "Reach -- A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone, Rise To The Challenge and Build Confidence." Professor Molinsky is a professor of International Management and Organizational Behavior at Brandeis University's International Business School. [43:49] Also, his previous book, have a look at that as well, "Global Dexterity -- How to Adapt Behavior Across Cultures Without Losing Yourself in the Process." I thank you very much for joining us. We'll put the links to your book on the show notes. All the best. I hope it continues to do well. Andy: [44:09] Thanks so much. This was a really fun chat. I'm glad you had me on. Kevin: [44:14] I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. [44:20] [commercial break] Kevin: [44:20] Kate, do you know what I like about Andy's book? There's a lot of books that are telling, encouraging people to extend beyond your comfort zone, be the best that you can, etc. etc. What I like about Andy's book is he actually breaks it down. [45:18] He breaks down why people don't go beyond their comfort zone into this framework of people are worried about authenticity, competence, resentment, likability, and morality. There's a framework that people can actually reflect back upon if they're struggling to do something. [45:35] They go, "Right, which one am I hitting against? Is it that authenticity? Is it resentment? Is it the morality?" Then he's got a framework to move forward from that. Bridge it by using clarity, conviction, and customization. [45:55] I find I'm someone that I really work well with...Especially when it comes to slippery things like communication and managing your own psychology, I work really well with a framework and a methodology. Suddenly it's not abstract. [46:09] You're not saying to someone, "You can achieve everything you can achieve," or, "Try something you don't like and well..." But when they say right, have a look, there's obviously...Doing something you don't like, it's obviously either fitting into an issue with authenticity or competence, etc. etc. If I hit right, yeah, I am worried about authenticity that if I push myself to do this, I'm not being true to myself. [46:34] Yep, that makes sense. How can I tweak that to do that in an authentic way? Suddenly there's a formula and a methodology around that to move to the next state, not something just slippery when you say to people, "Right. Stretch yourself, do the best that you can." I find that really useful. Kate: [46:53] Yeah, there's a common practice around having big goals and then breaking them down into smaller tasks. The idea is that you only need to think of the next three steps and that's all that you can afford to put brain space into. [47:10] Even though it might take you 20 steps to get there, you don't worry about the other 17. You only worry about the next three. Then when you do those three, you go, "OK, what are my next three?" Kevin: [47:22] Dale Carnegie. Have you heard of the author Dale Carnegie? Kate: [47:24] No. Kevin: [47:25] Very, very famous guy. He died a long time ago. He wrote a few famous books, "The Art of Influencing People," or, sorry, no. "How to Make Friends and Influence People" is a very famous book of his. Kate: [47:36] I've heard the title. Kevin: [47:38] There was some other book he wrote about stress or anxiety or something, I can't remember, but the one thing I remember he said, it was a real nice phrase, "Live in day-tight compartments." [47:48] Meaning deal with today today, as a compartment. Don't worry about tomorrow and the next day, and the next day, and the next day. It's back to your point of only worry about the next two or three steps, as well. As I mentioned in my interview with him, I certainly find that overthinking things when you're trying to go beyond your own comfort zone can work against you as well. Kate: [48:15] Oh, definitely. I think there's a big, I guess, conversation lately around impostor syndrome and people feeling like they're not capable of doing something or not having the confidence to be in a certain role or pull off a certain gig, when really they are. [48:33] All they need very minimal training to be there type thing. It's mainly just sort of hacking your mind to believe that you can do these things if you really want to. Kevin: [48:41] What would you like to do that's beyond your comfort zone that you find difficult? Kate: [48:45] Oh, that's a tricky one. Kevin: [48:47] Don't mean to put you on the spot. Kate: [48:50] Yeah, no, you have. [48:51] [laughter] Kate: [48:54] There's no one thing that I would do. There's lots and lots of things I would do. Kevin: [49:00] Yeah? Give us one. Kate: [49:01] One would be I would really like to be a mural artist. Kevin: [49:09] Oh, yeah? Kate: [49:10] Which is kind of strange. Kevin: [49:11] Interesting. Of course, you come from an art background, so ties in with that, right? Kate: [49:16] Yeah. I'd love to just get away from a computer altogether, which is a scary thought, and paint murals all day. I've tried painting things at large scale before and it's much harder than you would think it is. Small scale's a lot easier. But yeah, something like that. You could set up a small business and target preschools or something that would want things painted on their walls. Kevin: [49:42] Or even startups. You did our mural with some help. Kate: [49:46] I did, with some help, but even that's not very complicated, it took us a very long time. Kevin: [49:50] It's tricky. Interesting, interesting. I don't know, I'm obviously a little bit older than you, and over the years, I've stretched myself to do things. I've actually got a bit of, I wouldn't say...I don't want to answer that question with, like you know when you ask someone in an interview, "What are you weaknesses?" and they say, "I work too hard?" [50:11] I don't want to answer it like that, but I do have a little bit of a challenge and another aspect is I'm a little bit of a sucker for punishment, as well. Sometimes I make my life tricky because I actually put myself in environments. Like when I was in year one or two I decided to try out for the big swimming carnival, the youngest kid. I didn't even make the one length and I didn't... [50:36] [laughter] Kevin: [50:36] I did two extra subjects for HSC and then I end up with all this extra work and stress and I'm, "What am I doing this for?" You obviously stretch yourself into it a little bit. Kate: [50:54] Another example for me would be this podcast. Initially, "No way. No way I'm going to public-speak. No way I'm going anywhere near a microphone." Even now it's not the most comfortable thing, but I just feel like I've come a long way since the first episode. Kevin: [51:10] Absolutely, you've done great. To your credit, I've worked with you for what, three years? Kate: [51:15] Something like that. Nearly three. Kevin: [51:17] Yeah, feels longer. You've definitely always risen to the challenge. One of my jobs as CEO is to actually see the potential in people that you can stretch. Definitely when you see someone that you feel that can stretch beyond where they're at, you throw them a few little extra pieces and see how it goes. [51:48] To your credit, you have dealt with a lot of tricky bits and pieces. Dealing with a tech startup where you're dealing with a lot of technical people whose language is a specific language and doing the podcast. It's exciting to be able to look back on the year and see how you've grown in certain ways, right? Kate: [52:07] Yeah, it's a good thing in terms of...I'll give nearly anything a go but at the same time, if someone says to you, "Do you consider yourself a podcaster?" I'll still be, "Uh, probably not." [52:23] [laughter] Kate: [52:23] I just sort of do one in the office boardroom sometimes. Kevin: [52:27] You've got the wonderful Australian quality of humility. It's definitely what Australia's...One of the many things it's known for is the humility. I think one of the challenges I'd like to take on is to get really, really fit. My fitness is OK, but I'd like to get really, really fit. Even just do whatever, fun triathlons or biathlons something like that. [52:53] I've never been that level of fitness. It's something that...I love that feeling when you start getting fit, addicted to those endorphins, and you start fantasizing about your exercise. The fittest I've ever been was after yoga retreat a few years ago and I was running and doing yoga at the same time. [53:11] I would think about the running when I was doing the yoga, and think about the yoga when I was doing the running. [laughs] That was quite interesting. I was enjoying the buzz of it all. Kate: [53:23] They do say with exercise one of the ways to get hooked, I guess, and really enjoy it is to dedicate yourself to doing it every day for...I can't remember. Kevin: [53:33] Six weeks? Kate: [53:34] I think six weeks. Kevin: [53:35] Eight weeks? Kate: [53:35] There's a particular time frame that... Kevin: [53:38] Breaking habits and creating habits. Kate: [53:41] That first time period is super hard, but don't break it. Push through. After that it becomes easier and you end up wanting to exercise. Kevin: [53:48] That's the only time I've actually been...I think when I was a teenager with working at a gym, I did get to that stage as well as pushing weights. In terms of the fitness side of things, that was the first the first time. [54:04] At first it was quite strange. It was really strange that I was...I've got a friend who's a runner. She's a real runner and she says when she's driving and she sees someone running, she actually has pangs of jealousy because that person's running and she's not, and she's really addicted to running. Kate: [54:22] That's true. I sometimes get that feeling for swimming, actually. I swam a lot when I was younger. Now, I still say that I love it but I can't even...I mean, to swim laps has been a long time. The day when I watch other people or I will see Olympics or something, I'm like, [scoffs] . You do. You get this pang of jealousy like, "Look how good they are." [54:43] [laughter] Kevin: [54:44] The amazing thing with fitness is that it is just about commitment and dedication. Sure, to be an Olympics swimmer's all a different story, but to get to a level of good competency...I love many things about Sydney, but the one of the things that I do love is that there is such a culture of getting fit here and being active. [55:03] Of course our weather lends itself so wonderfully. You go to the beach at 6:00 AM in the morning, any beach around Sydney, and you'll just see that at 06:00 AM, just chock-full of people doing all sorts of exercise. Some of them are triple your age and four times your fitness levels. [laughs] [55:19] Anyway, that's episode 83. Thank you for joining us. My name is Kevin Garber. I'm the CEO of ManageFlitter. With me has been my co-host Kate Frappell who's the design lead of ManageFlitter. We try to put together a entertaining, informational, conversational podcast every week. [55:37] We've committed to doing this every week, talking about getting outside our comfort zone as well. It's just many weeks, we're so busy, we'd like to just pass it over, but then we know that we'll never come back to it. [55:49] Thank you for your support and check in every Friday or Saturday for a new addition of this podcast. As usual, we will see you next week. Kate: [55:59] See you. [56:00] [background music]


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Accomplish The Fitness Goals That You May Have Set!
Whatever your goals — losing a few pounds or running in the triathlon — fitness is a key element of a properly-rounded life. A lot of people do not know where to start a fitness routine fortunately to suit your needs, this informative article below will teach you some simple and effective ways for you to start your fitness endeavors.
To hep yourself stick to physical exercise, pick one that you will enjoy each day. Ensure your exercise routine is enjoyable, to ensure that exercising becomes a treat as opposed to an ordeal.
Always maintain some spice inside your exercises and throw in some new workouts whenever you locate a good idea. Adding variety to your exercises can help keep your interest level and make you a little bit more eager to go back and work out again the very next time. Additionally, muscles could become too acclimated to particular exercises so you won't still benefit the maximum amount of from their store.
Be imaginative when discovering a fitness routine. Many exercise forms exist that can provide an incredible workout with no gym membership required. You need to ensure you are going to enjoy any exercise selected so that you can create the persistence for adhere to it.
Strenghtening your thighs can help prevent sports injuries for the knees. A ligament tear behind the kneecap can be a frequent sports injury that could create life-long issues. In the interests of the knees, incorporate exercises that strengthen the quads and hamstrings into the exercise program. There are many work outs which do this including leg lifts and curls.
If you don't such as a specific activity, you just have to power through it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVg6jBdOPGY You might be inclined to face up to doing exercises that you are currently not great at. It's the identical principal as conquering your fears. Perform exercises you hate probably the most at the start and keep adding these people to your routine.
If you are lifting and doing reps, you should count down as opposed to up. Counting backwards offers you a clearer picture of methods many reps you possess remaining, and keeps you motivated in order to complete.
Taking exercise to extremes is a bad idea. Such programs can cause bodily damage. Are aware of the facts prior to embark on any fitness regimen.
Do you need to make doing chin ups easier? Consider using a different means of thinking of how you do them. Imagine pulling down rather than pulling up while you are performing your chin-ups. It really is amazing the trickery that can be played around the brain to create any exercise less of a chore, including chin-ups.
Many people think of fitness as a physical pursuit, nevertheless it may have even farther-reaching benefits. By starting an ordinary training routine, you could possibly boost your emotional health, too. The endorphins released in a workout can cause a sense of well-being. Hitting the gym likewise helps your self-image in addition to your confidence level. In many ways, therefore, a number of workouts might be all of that stands between you and also happiness.
After reading this post, you have to be prepared to start getting in better shape. Now, there is not any reason you must not just just go and do it the proper way.
You will notice benefits soon, and they can last all through your daily life..

subset: commoncrawl


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Moving to another city with all your household goods can be really very daunting and hectic process. You have to take care of your goods and relocate them safely to your new house. Here in this articles I would like to share some important things that how you can move your goods especially your car in a scratch less condition. I still remember that day when I have to relocate from my native place to other state along with my entire household goods. Somehow I have managed to pack my goods but I don't know how I would move my car in scratch less condition. It requires great amount of care to be taken into consideration while moving a car.
I was worried about the safety of car as it was and I am very much attached to my beloved car so I didn't want to make any damages or even a single scratch in it. Then one of my friend suggested that why should not I drive my car to the state where I am relocating. I found his idea quite impressive and I then decided to drive my car to the destiny. But soon I realized that for driving my car I have to fill the fuel tank and as I was ran short of money i found it not so good idea. Driving the car overnight is also not a good idea as there are chances of accidents so I dropped the plan. I was disappointed that what to do and was also running short of money and time so I can't take much time also.
The next day I saw an advertisement near my house about packers and movers Bangalore that makes relocation easy and smooth. Then an idea struck into my mind that, why not to avail the services of packers and movers company for an easy and safe relocation. Then I hire packers and movers Bangalore to relocate my car in safe condition they came to my house and checked my car thoroughly. They have the right techniques and tools to move car in safe and damage less condition so hiring packers and movers is the best way to relocate your car in safe and scratch less condition. I was very happy with the final results they have made my worries clear and I enjoyed a stress free relocation with them. If you also want to relocate your car in scratch less condition then it is very important to hire the right and reliable company and not fraudsters. So be careful while selecting packers and Movers Company in Bangalore and relocate safe.
List of packers and movers in pune & delhi


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Benjamin: I heard that stupid Blues Traveler song today.Haha.
me: hook?
Benjamin: Mahler?
me: hahaha what?
Benjamin: Wait. What was the composer that gets pimped everywhere?
me: maybe?? I don't know
Benjamin: :(
me: does mahler get pimped?
Benjamin: You linked me a video of a guy complaining about a song in song and it was the basis for like 20 hits in the last year...?
me: ohhhh Pachelbel
Benjamin: THANKS
me: not mahler hahahahhaha
Benjamin: Mah bad.
me: wow, that made my day.


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((so i am not one to complain about warmth...we wait all year for this... or at least i do. but sitting at the computer (with no air moving in this house) today is making me sweat. so instead of writing a lot of words about jillian and laroy's wedding, i am going STRAIGHT to the pictures!))
thank you so much guys for having me there to photograph your wedding.


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Basketball: Newcastle Hunters' Hannah Young sets sights on WNBL title in rookie season with Canberra Capitals | photos
Hannah Young will return for the Newcastle Hunters in 2019, but first the Women's National Basketball League player is eyeing off a national title in her rookie season.
The 25-year-old Novocastrian will line-up for the Canberra Capitals against the Adelaide Lightning in the best-of-three grand-final series, starting at the AIS Arena on Saturday (5:30pm).
The hosts, minor premiers and favourites, find themselves on an 11-game winning streak and Young could barely have written a better debut script up until this point.
"Honestly no [I couldn't have written a better script]," she told the Newcastle Herald.
"If I win a championship in my rookie season I might have to retire. Just kidding, but it has been amazing."
Young's first taste of WNBL in season 2018-2019 came after helping the Hunters into the NSW Waratah League semi-finals in August.
Following six months in the nation's capital, alongside the likes of captain Kelsey Griffin, Leilani Mitchell, Marianna Tolo and Kelly Wilson, she already feels like a "better" player.
"I'm just so happy to be here," New Lambton-raised Young said.
"As a rookie I don't expect much, especially playing behind Olympians and WNBA players.
"Even just training with and against these girls has made me better.
"I'm just excited to be part of the team.
"Whether I play one minute or five, it doesn't matter because I'm just grateful for any opportunity I get to be honest."
Saturday's play-off fixture, the first decider between the sides in almost two decades, remains close to selling out.
Capacity at the Canberra facility is 5200, meaning it would be the biggest crowd the former Virginia Tech college student has played in front of.
"In the first four hours we had 1500 tickets sold and now they've sold out one of the sections so there's only limited seats available," Young said.
"That's massive. Even if they jump on the bandwagon that's fine. The crowd has helped us over the line in a few games this year."
In the stands will be Young's parents, former Harlem Globetrotter father Lewis and mother Louise, and potentially a couple of Hunters teammates.
Her boyfriend Sharif Watson, who won the state title with the Hunters in 2018, is away visiting family in the US but returns to play for Newcastle later this year.
Young has already knocked back a "few other offers" to stay in her junior club colours for 2019
"I'll come back to Newcastle and play for the Hunters," she said. "I'm excited to come home, especially because my boyfriend will be playing for them as well."
Last year fellow Hunters product and recently retired Suzy Batkovic won the WNBL crown, her fifth, with the Townsville Fire.
Game two will be played in Adelaide on Wednesday. Game three, if required, returns to Canberra next Saturday.
SPORTING DECLARATION:Suzy Batkovic rates as one of Newcastle sport's all-time greats


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This week, the meeting centred around finding a way to install Linux onto a Toshiba notebook owned by Tony.
The notebook has no CD or Floppy drive, and could not be set to boot from USB.
The solution was to take the hard disk out and attach it to another computer, install Linux then put the drive back in the notebook.
An adapter purchased on ebay for a couple of Pounds was used.
A second option was also suggested.
A network (pxe boot) install, using a server to host the distro to be installed.
This might turn out to be a project for the future.


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Do decentralized energy strategies promote women's involvement in energy governance?
Do decentralized energy strategies promote women's involvement in energy governance? How can the choice of household fuel promote energy justice in developing countries?
These questions illustrate some of the themes discussed at the workshop for the launching of the "Optimal Energy Efficiency Strategies to Promote Energy Justice and Low-carbon Development in West Africa" project. This workshop takes place March 6 – 8, 2018 in the capital of Senegal and will be attended by an Econoler delegation comprised of Laurent Jodoin, Kawther Lihideb, Roger M'Gbra N'Guessan, Joelle Matte, Laurent Kossivi Domegni and Victorien Ague. This research project is funded by the International Research and Development Center (IDRC) and will be implemented by Econoler and ECREEE. This project will employ a multidisciplinary approach to determine which energy policies should be favoured to promote energy justice for women in rural and peri-urban areas in three West African countries (Benin, Senegal and Togo). The project will run for three years and will involve a series of field research activities. Research partnerships have been established with the University of Lome (Togo), the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (Senegal), the Universities in Public Health and Epidemiology (Benin), the University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin) and the University of Parakou (Benin).
Photo: The Econoler and ECREEE team (Ibrahim Soumaila) with IDRC representatives (Bhim Adhikari and Kathryn Touré).


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Dear friends,
"Amos is a weird book. It is too weird to read. The most we can hope for is a few good quotes." This is a common belief of many people when they try to read Amos or any of the minor prophets. The book is filled with odd place names and people with odd names and we do not know who or what they are.
The book of Amos was written sometime between 793BC and 739BC. For the sake of conversation, let's say it was written in 750BC – that is almost 3000 years ago! How do we read such an old book and how do we "get" anything out of the process?
First. Remember the words of Jesus after His crucifixion and resurrection in Luke 24: 25-27; 44-47. The Old Testament speaks of Jesus and we are to use its books to bear witness to Jesus and know Him. So while it may take more work, it is not futile work. Jesus tells us there is relevance and value in our study of the Old Testament – so read Amos in hope.
Second, invest in a good, inexpensive study Bible like the ESV (English Standard Version) Study Bible or the new NIV (New International Version) Study Bible. The "notes" will be of some help in understanding the old place names and people names. The introductions also will help you place the book in the "history of salvation". In other words, how does the book of Amos fit into the overall flow of the Bible story?
Third, commit to praying for Daniel and me as we preach through the book of Amos. Pray that the Lord will help us to listen deeply and truly to His Word written. Pray that we can explain the text simply and clearly and faithfully. Pray that we can help people "connect" to the text. Pray that the Lord will use the sermon time to make the text come alive to you. Plan to attend or listen to the sermon afterwards online at http://www.messiahchurch.ca/sermon-archive/series/amos or via podcast (subscribe to Church of the Messiah on iTunes).
Fourth, pray that bridges are built. John Stott came up with a famous analogy. The book of Amos was written almost 2800 years ago in a foreign language and a very different culture. First, we need to try to understand the Biblical text in and of itself and in its own culture and context. This means reading each part of Amos carefully and in light of the Old and New Testament. Then, and only then, do we prayerfully "build a bridge" from Amos to life in Ottawa in 2016. Here are some sample questions in building such a bridge. What human problems is the Bible addressing here? What human longings or fears are being addressed here? What human questions is the Bible raising or addressing?
One final note. Amos, like most prophetic books, uses lots of images and metaphors. To read Amos literally does not mean to treat an image like a fact, but to read Amos on its own terms, letting an image/metaphor be an image/metaphor and learning what it is pointing to or telling.


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A shift in cloud governance outlook: From cloud infrastructu …
As enterprises embrace a multi cloud strategy, IT departments are tasked with ensuring compliance of security and governance policies. Traditionally, the enterprise IT governance policies were centered on the underlying infrastructure. With cloud computing, we are seeing a proliferation of higher order services that pushes IT to rethink how they deal with governance, driving a reassessment over infrastructure-centric governance to a more service-centric governance.
From virtual machines to containers to serverless containers to serverless functions, the diversity of cloud services is astounding. However, the term cloud in the multi cloud context has come to mean as cloud infrastructure from different cloud providers. This doesn't represent the breadth and depth of cloud services from different providers. As IT transforms themselves as an enabler of cloud services from different cloud providers, it is important to have a cloud service-centric mindset than an infrastructure-centric one. Modern developers use many services including serverless functions (or functions as a service) for their application needs.
When it comes to governance, IT should think in terms of cloud services than cloud infrastructure. For example, they should examine and determine solutions to issues such as
- How to ensure that various services are consumed?
- How to ascertain that higher order services like serverless, are compliant with the enterprise policies?
With this thinking around service, the very approach to security and governance changes dramatically. For instance, in the traditional cloud infrastructure-centric approach, one may worry about security patches for the operating system. It is different in the case of serverless and the security responsibility spans across both the cloud service provider and application developers. Multi cloud changes the governance mindset completely and having a cloud infrastructure-centric approach only offers a limited view of governance in today's world.
A cloud service-centric approach to governance helps IT organizations understand the responsibility clearly and they can ensure that the stakeholders are appropriately empowered to stay compliant. This also helps redefine the enterprise policies to be consistent with the kind of cloud services consumed by the developers. Decision makers are responsible to ensure that there is a complete buy-in for this mindset change and various stakeholders are appropriately trained. A service-centric approach also helps in cost management, thereby, helping organizations to realize better ROI.
CoreStack platform allows IT to enable many types of services from different cloud providers using the powerful orchestration tool. With a connector-less model and DSL based orchestration engine, CoreStack platform can be easily configured to support many services, including serverless functions, from different cloud providers. This will allow developers to use anything from virtual machines to serverless functions, thinking in terms of services as they tap into various cloud resources needed for the applications.While doing all of this, CoreStack also enables IT to easily and effectively manage the governance and security.
The platform is built from ground up with a cloud service-centric approach to governance. We will be happy to talk to you about the advantages of having this shift in mindset from cloud infrastructure centricity to cloud service centricity, thereby enabling you to take advantage of multi cloud. You can reach out to us here.


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Latest Studio Workings...
A big shout out to my friend Jennifer Drinkwater who helped me out these shots.
Leisure suit quilt block/string painting/abstraction[diffusion] - 39" x 5'
Latest drawings......a little obssessive, I know. Drawings made in the moments between watching a toddler, and trying to sleep.
Engraving, pen, silver ink, perforations. 2009 -->2014. Old prints/New Life Series.
Engraving, pen, colored pencil, perforations. 2009 --->2014. Old prints/New Life Series.
Silkscreen, pen, found textile labels. 2012 --->2014. Old prints/New Life Series 30"h x 22"w
Lithograph, colored pencil, cut paper. 2012 --->2014. Old prints/New Life Series.


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I'm sure Thanksgiving looks different for us all, but at the end of the day if you're shopping and preparing Thanksgiving dinner you'll most likely be stressed. Read ahead for tips on surviving the week with your sanity in tact.
1. MAKE LISTS! Planning is the number one tip to help you stay on track and sane. Start planning before Thanksgiving. Put down everything you'll need and when you'll need to get it by. Plan your dinner, entertainment etc.
2. DO NOT wait until last min to do the grocery shopping. You'll want to get what you can preferably a week or more before Thanksgiving day. Why? Do you enjoy waiting on massive lines and Hunger Games style food shopping? If you don't, shop early. You'll love yourself for it in the end.
3. DISTRACT the kids: I love my children. I really do. But when push comes to shove we know they're not going to sit around quietly while you cook and prepare. Have a plan and a way to distract the kids while you work. Have movies, games, art projects and snacks ready for them. You pick and choose the combination but have a distraction game plan! Have your spouse take them outside to play - that's always my fave.
4. GET HELP! I know you can do it all but everyone needs a little help. Recruit the kids, grandparents or your spouse to help out. What can they contribute? Table setting, cleanup? Does anyone have recipes they can prepare? What about the last minute grocery store run that no one wants to make that day? Who can help?
5. BREATHE & STAY CALM. Nothing and no one is perfect so breathe, relax and let go of crazy expectations of perfection. A little wine never hurts too!
Add an extra bit of "flavor" to your Turkey Day with Imagination Lane's fun & unique goodies.


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Our Sales & Management Team
Our people are here for you.
We're proud to have a team with over 500 years of combined experience in the electrical business. Our team members love their occupations, and take pride in doing a great job for customers and manufacturers alike.
If you'd like to get in touch with any of our team members, feel free to contact them using the info below!
If you're looking for a team member in your region, please select your area here to view only team members who work there.


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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- PNM Resources Inc. PNM, -0.43% said Thursday after the bell that it has reached an agreement in Texas and has obtained federal anti-trust clearance for its acquisition of TNP Enterprises. A representative for the Albuquerque, N.M.-based firm said, "This settlement is a result of everyone involved recognizing that our proposed acquisition of TNP makes sense for both companies and Texas consumers."
PNM Resources gets fed anti-trust OK for TNP purchase
Quote References
-0.22 -0.43%


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Tips For Getting Your Water Damage Insurance Claimed Handled Smoothly
Dealing with water damage in your home is stressful enough, so why should the claims process add more stress and frustration to your life? It doesn't have to! In this article we will provide you with some helpful tips that can make the claims process go smoothly and hassle free for you! The first thing is that water damage and flooding are two very different things, so don't just assume that your home is flooded, or has undergone a flood. Now, most insurance companies understand that when a pipe in your home bursts and causes water damage that it isn't the same thing as aRead More →


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Listen Live Saturdays at 9:00 am on AM770, and discover the secrets to protecting your family legacy!
Do you know how to ensure your charitable donations will be carried on long after your passing? Or how to safeguard your business during a transition? Do you know how to guarantee your cherished family properties will stay in the family for years to come? Listen to The Strongroom, and learn how to create a legacy for yourself and your family, with the help of expert host Sheri MacMillan.
UPCOMING BROADCAST: June 22nd, 2019
Tune-in to The Strongroom to learn the secrets of sound estate planning from one of Canada's premier estate planners. As the Senior Trust & Estate Practitioner and President of MacMillan Estate Planning, host Sheri MacMillan has helped hundreds of families attain their estate planning goals and has been a guest on Talk to the Experts for the last seven years.
Sheri will share her in-depth knowledge, offering insight and creative solutions to all your estate planning needs. Her advice and tips will help you protect what matters most – your family and your way of life.
The Strongroom focuses on estate plans and how they affect families just like yours. Discover how vitally important it is to prepare a proper estate plan and protect your family's legacy for generations to come.
Would you like to listen to previously broadcast Strongroom radio programs?
Listen to one of the three most recent playlists below or check out our Soundcloud and iTunes archive.
Recent Strongroom Radio Programs


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What's in a Name?
"Mother, where did I get my name?" asked young Ralph, the youngest of four siblings. "Why daddy and I gave it to you. Why do you ask?"
"Well, Mary said she was named after the mother of Jesus. And John said he was named after one of the disciples and David said he was named after a great Bible hero. Who was I named after?"
"Well, no one in particular, but people will learn to think well of you and of your name, as you do good deeds and are kind and friendly to them."
"Aw gee! I wish I were named after someone." said Ralph.
"Well," said the mother, "there was a great poet whose name was Ralph -- Ralph Waldo Emerson." "Great, that's what I'll tell them. I was named after a great poet."
It is true that bearing a name of someone with a great reputation has an encouraging influence on the namesake.
It is true that Bible names are related by the bearers of such names to their historic meanings.
"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold." Prov. 22:1


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Although I'm one to think that crockpots are great any time of year, there may be a couple reasons they are especially good in the summer:
- They don't heat up your kitchen
- You can usually just put the meal together in the crockpot, and then not think about it for the rest of the day
So whether you're busy working, taking your kids to summer volleyball practice, or hanging out at the pool, crockpot recipes are a life-saver.
Last week, when I was visiting my parents, my younger sister made this recipe for Cajun Chicken Pasta in the crockpot, and I was inspired to try it. While I have several favorite recipes, I tend to get stuck on the same ones, so I was ready to try something new.
Nothing like making something that tastes like it's from a fancy Italian restaurant to make your day better 🙂
A couple notes on this:
- Here is the Cajun seasoning mix that I made myself with spices I already had on hand.
- I also added 8 oz of chopped mushrooms with the rest of the veggies to add to the Italian flair.
- I actually cooked my chicken on high for almost 3 hours.
- The noodles took about an hour and a half, and I stirred at the 45 minute mark to even out the cooking.
- Although I have not tried making this recipe dairy-free yet, I think that it might work to substitute the heavy cream for almond milk…If you try this, let me know how it goes! I did have to add a little almond milk at the end just to give a little more moisture.
While this recipe may be one that you have to be in closer proximity to make (perhaps best on a Saturday when you are at home doing laundry and can check the chicken or stir the noodles when needed), it is still well worth adding to your recipe stash.


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Weigh In Stats
Le Gourmand Femme Weight : 176.2 pounds
Le Gourmand Homme Weight: 242.9 pounds
Day 1 arrived and we found ourselves unprepared. This morning Hubby woke at 5am to prepare for his workday and it was at this point we realized, no caffeine allowed! It'll be okay we said, things will get easier it will just take a few days to adjust to no caffeine and a 5 am schedule. He took off to work and I took off to prepare breakfast for the littles, then I remembered I didn't go to the grocery store yesterday so no breakfast for me! What a way to start the McDougall Plan and the day right!?
I busied myself all day, therefore I did not eat until this evening at 7pm- which is a no no on McDougall. I'm already making mistakes, but tomorrow is a new day and I'll do better right? I went to the grocery, 4 kids in tow, and grabbed a ton of beans, lentils, rice, vegetable broth, and a few Boca burger packages to test. I felt like I had at least the right ingredients, so that was a slight success. I arrived home and started cooking my fannie off because hubby would be home just after 6.
Tonight's Menu:
Boca Burger Patty
Long Grain and Wild Rice prepared with vegetable broth and water
Baked Sweet Potato
I placed the Boca patties on to a cast iron griddle and tossed those into the oven, no time to mess around flipping patties while I stirred rice and prepped the sweet potatoes and handled a toddler. I sprinkled them with garlic powder, Sauers Prime Rib seasoning, and salt, then cooked them first on 350 until I felt it was time to brown them was at hand and then I flipped it up to broil and browned them. During this process my dear, sweet, loving, husband and children looked in and declared they looked gross. This was a bit frustrating.
I prepped the rice with equal parts vegetable stock and water as the liquid portion. I did not use any butter or oil in the rice (even though it called for it). McDougall says no oils or fats, so that's what we did.
I popped 6 large sweet potatoes into the microwave and sent them spinning. What we'd put in them I had no idea but we were eating them because I was starving and they were on the approved list.
The review:
The Boca Burgers (All American Chargrilled) were a hit, but we can't eat those everyday of course because they do contain a small amount of fat. Hubby said they were meaty tasting, they weren't nearly as bad as he feared they would be. The kids all ate theirs and said they liked them as well. For me, I thought they tasted potato like and almost bready so I dipped them in ketchup and that made it good. Everyone loved the rice, as expected. The kids ate their sweet potatoes with butter, we of course did not. Hubby ate his sweet potato plain, meanwhile I stuffed mine with the rice which tasted buttery almost. Overall the meal was a success. We ate as much as we wanted, we did not feel bloated. We just might make it through this initial period after all……
Write Day 1 down as a success for LesDeuxGourmand


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Shares of Microtune TUNE, +0.00% are falling 49 cents, or 19 percent, to $2.12, the lowest level seen since Nov. 11, after the maker of radio frequency products said late Friday that it was delaying the release of its fourth quarter report. The company had originally said the results would be released on Jan. 27, but has rescheduled to after the close of trading on Feb. 20. The company did not provided a reason for the delay. Salomon Smith Barney has followed by downgrading Microtune to "underperform" from "in-line," saying such a delay is "highly extraordinary." Separately, Broadcom brcm said it filed a complaint alleging tuners, power amplifiers and other products made by Microtune infringed on Broadcom patents.
Microtune falls amid Q4 rep. delay, downgrade, lawsuit
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Concession tent
A concession tent for serving food and drink, ticket booth, sales tent – there are many possible uses for a concession tent. The set-up provides room for a number of sales points using counters that are set up in the tent – not to mention the opportunity to promote the product being sold.
Efficient sales space
When we talk about a concession tent, we are really talking about a stall for selling things, but on a larger scale, using a tent. The solution is especially popular for serving food and drink at major events and festivals.
During such events, customers often come in waves, e.g. between concerts or during breaks in matches. This means that service must be efficient to avoid long queues.
Promotional surfaces
Using a concession tent is an ideal opportunity to market goods and display prices/menus. There are large surfaces below and above counters and elsewhere in the tent where one can set up tarpaulins with printed price lists, sponsor names and logos, lists of goods for sale, and more. Such promotion contributes to displaying the product range and ensuring that sales are conducted quickly.
The concession tents are supplied with strong aluminium frames and flame-retardant PVC sheets.
Size: 5 x 5 metres.


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Grexit Drama Greenlighted For A 5th Season - New Characters, New Plot Twists
Season 5 of the popular drama GREXIT is now in production.
Silver is heading for $14.00 - will you have the cash to take advantage of these coming opportunities?
If you would like to know which stocks we are buying and selling please join us at 'Stock Trader' our premium investment service.
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Greater Victoria roller derby fans will be treated to two bouts Saturday night (June 2nd), as the hometown teams the Belles of the Brawl and the Margarita Villains face Port Angeles' Strait Shooters and Island Smash-Up respectively. The Belles of the Brawl met the Strait Shooters on the road in March and came away with a decisive win.
Belles of the Brawl Co-Captain Ruby Roughhouser says she is excited for this game:
"We had a great time visiting Port Angeles earlier this season and are excited to host the Strait Shooters. We know they will be playing with payback in mind and are looking forward to the challenge. They have strong jammers and dynamic walls and we know they have been working hard! "
The game marks the debut of the latest drafted skater for the Belles of the Brawl – rookie Lank the Tank – and the return of former Belles of the Brawl player Jack Widow. This game also features the return of Bony Banshee, who is playing her first game since incurring significant injury from last season.
The second game features the Island Smash-Up team, whose roster includes talented skaters from all over Vancouver Island. The Margarita Villains will also be debuting several of their newly drafted skaters for their first home game.
Tickets for the June 2 double header are available online at ticketrocket.co, and in person at Hive Hair, Esquimalt Rec Centre and Logan's Pub and at the door.
All the action takes place at Esquimalt's Archie Browning Arena. The event is family friendly (kids under 10 are free!), and includes a beer garden, half-time contest, 50-50 draw and a vendor village. Doors open at 5, first whistle is at 5:30.
The Eves of Destruction Roller Derby League was formed in 2006, has over 80 players, refs, and officials, and features five teams. Adult members play for The A-Team, The Belles of the Brawl, The Margarita Villains and The Hard Cores. The league also has a gender-inclusive junior team, The Rotten Apples, made up of players aged 10-18.


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Commercial Labor Cleaning
You may think it's cheaper to employ a cleaner than to pay for a specialized cleaning contractor but have you consider all the costs….? Hidden expenses such as the cost of recruiting and training, holiday pay and sick pay all add up or you may have experienced problems with your cleaners …. Commercial Labor Cleaning Contract cleaning can be more profitable and trouble-free than you think.
A cleaning contractor adds value to your business
Reliable Choice Contracting Inc, provides professional, reliable and consistently high-quality cleaning and contracting services for residential, commercial and industrial properties. We also provide ongoing site labour services for builders and developers within any stage of construction. We can make sure you access trained and qualified service workers, to fill any and all construction cleanup service or labour related cleaning services, within your organization, business or construction site.
We offer:
- Trained, supervise and insured staff, keeping the same team member(s) for your regular cleans so that he/she can build up a rapport and a good working relationship with you and your employees.
- A positive attitude and attention to detail.
- A tailored service that will fit your timetable and working schedules including an out-of-hours service and emergency cleans at short notice.
- Competitive pricing, affordable rates.
- Full health and safety compliance
Our service range from general floor cleaning or Labour Services, to a more comprehensive contracting services for builders, developers including commercial customers. Your property's cleanliness impacts the running of your business significantly. From first impressions to the health and safety of your employees, it is essential to have a cleaning contracting company that understands this.
If your premises require a top to bottom makeover or somewhere in between, please consider Reliable Choice Contracting Inc., as your specialized contracting cleaning company.
Commercial Labour Cleaning Photo Gallery
Are you using a Licensed, Insured and Bonded Contractor or Company?
Are you aware of the fact that, if the person providing services at your home or business is not insured or covered by WSIB/WCB (Workers compensation), you as the business, or property owner, can be held legally responsible for any injury, that occurs within your Property?
Therefore, if your current unlicensed or unregistered window cleaner or contractor, currently providing services at your business center, building, home or warehouse for several months or years, falls off the ladder, and end up with an injury, you can be legally required to pay for the hospital bills/therapy or any other related financial losses as a result of his/her injuries. Your home/property insurance can suffer a significant blow, including financial loses from your pocked as a result of the accident.
While it's nice to know that your current commercial liability insurance for your home or business might cover you in limited cases, where the window cleaner/contractor/staffing company damages your property, make sure you ask about worker's compensation insurance for Ontario (WSIB ONTARIO) or in Alberta (WCB ALBERTA) when hiring any company, to perform services at your property, building or business.…. just to avoid a major long term headache and financial lose.
Note that most insurance company's will require that all staffing company or contractors, providing services in your home, building or business, must carry general liability insurance of minimum 2 million. Therefore, you will not be covered in most cases where your staffing company or contractor damages your property or any accident related damage.
Are you also aware of the fact that Canada revenue can require you pay back money you never knew you owed..? because the cleaning contractor, service provider or workers you have been using for several years as an unlicensed company, decides he /she is tired of working for you and decides to leave but then files a claim or report….all because he or she is just upset at you for whatever reason ?…..
Note that you will regularly be considered as the employer, of the unlicensed worker/service workers/or your assumed contractor and service provider, regardless if you have any valid employment agreement or not. In this case, you will be required to pay back all statutory deduction, that you probably have not been deducting, including any applicable benefits, holidays, vacations etc through the time or years this person or workers have been providing services for you.
For your protection, as a homeowner/business, it is a BAD IDEA to allow a Staffing company, Window cleaning company or Contractors to perform services on your property unless they are Registered, Insured and Bonded with worker's compensation. It is your responsibility that you ask and require to see a copy….DO NOT BECOME A VICTIM !!.


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By Mr. Bryan Gatchell (IMCOM)September 23, 2016
ANSBACH, Germany (Sept. 23, 2016) -- As part of September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, U.S. Army Garrison Ansbach's Army Substance Abuse Program hosted a three-kilometer run / walk at Urlas Community here Wednesday.
Gary Deasy, suicide prevention program manager at ASAP, spoke to the gathered runners about the resources available to them to combat suicide, including the trained on-post personnel: himself, chaplains, embedded military Family life consultants, master resilience trainers, and behavioral health specialists.
Deasy also said that beyond making people aware of resources, it was a call for community members to look out for one another.
"We hope to refresh in [the runners'] minds that everyone can have hardships, so everybody's in need," said Deasy.
Col. Christopher Waters, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade commander, spoke to the crowd and emphasized the importance of prevention.
"You want to do things to prevent it from happening, not manage it after it happened," said Waters. "No matter what your troubles are in life, if you are emotionally sound, physically fit, mentally sharp and you believe in something bigger than yourself, you're going to be able to handle adversity. A big part of that is fitness, nutrition and sleep."
As part of physical health, Waters also touched upon the subject of substance abuse.
"Don't put chemicals in your body -- cigarettes, drugs, even alcohol," said Waters. "Alcohol is a depressant. It alters the way you think."
Waters also talked about the social aspect of suicide prevention.
"If every single one of us takes care of our mates and our squad, we don't have a problem," said Waters. "It is not offensive to ask somebody if they're doing OK."
Command Sgt. Maj. Derek R. Cuvellier, USAG Ansbach command sergeant major, also spoke.
"The Army and this garrison have great programs and resources, dedicated professionals with the skillsets and experience to handle any situation," said Cuvellier. "No problem is too big that the right attention, care and counseling can't address and fix."
"Suicide prevention is all about taking care of the other person and being there for them when they need it," said Michael Noyes, alcohol and drug control officer for ASAP, who was also at the event. "You're never alone."
Patricia Wilson, Amy RedCloud, and Eboni Bright sang before the run.
The run followed a course from the Urlas Exchange Mall parking lot around Army Lodging, into Urlas housing and then back to the mall where the USAG Ansbach Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) program and ASAP handed out promotional material. American Legion -- Ansbach Post 1982 handed out water, and Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers talked to Soldiers about their programs to connect Soldiers to each other and to the community.
For more on suicide prevention, including the USAREUR and U.S. Army websites, the Military Crisis Line, and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, visit the "Related Links" section on this page.


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THE MAGNESS' // fall family photography
Meet Lindsay, her husband Miller and their son Holt! We had such a lovely morning running around the Vanderbilt Campus here is Nashville. These fall family sessions have been such a joy :)
Lindsay told me that her husband and son both hated having their picture taken, but....... I'm not buying it. Looking good you three!
Lisa Diederich


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As I mentioned in my last post, I started up a kid-friendly makerspace at my library. This makerspace is open all day and kids are encouraged to use their creativity to make whatever they want. However, I also decided to have a monthly challenge for those kids who either 1) likes a challenge, or 2) needs a little help coming up with something to make.
I wanted this month's challenge to be something simple that required little to no prep work on my side. I also wanted it to be something that had kid appeal so that it could entice kids to use the new makerspace. So this month's challenge is…
A few things of note:
- My typed up instructions are for the traditional braided friendship bracelets, but I did put out several books on friendship bracelets for those who wanted to do something more challenging.
- Rainbow loom bracelets probably would have been more popular. I'm showing my age with the traditional friendship bracelet thing.
- We initially kept the thread at the computer sign up desk because we were afraid that it would go too quickly. A few kids asked for the thread, but mostly it just sat on the desk. After the first week, I moved the thread into the makerspace, and more kids have been participating in the challenge.
I'll be changing the makerspace challenge every month, and it'll be interesting to see which challenges will be popular and which ones will be ignored in favor of the child creating his/her own project. As of right now, I'd say that the friendship bracelet challenge has had a mild to moderate response. But that doesn't necessarily mean that I wouldn't do it again in the future.


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Fathers Day is a day for people to show their appreciation for fathers and father figures; celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds and the influence of fathers in society.
This year, Fathers Day falls on Sunday, September 6th 2015.
Take a look at our pick of the Top 10 Fathers Day Gifts (Home Based) for some great ideas.
1. Mini Bar Fridge
A mini bar fridge is compact while providing ample storage, making it perfect for small spaces in the office or garage.
2. Man Cave Sign
Sometimes all a bloke needs is a sign to mark his man-cave territory. If you have extra money to spare, consider getting him a customised sign with his name on it.
3. Ottoman
Have him put his feet up in style with an ottoman, with some ottomans even coming with inside storage space.
Has he got his tools laying all over the place? Consider getting him a pegboard (available from hardware stores like Bunnings) where he can easily store things vertically.
5. Portable Phone Charger
Oh how technology has advanced. A portable phone charger allows him to charge his phone on the go, without needing a wall socket. Great for a father on the go who works outdoors.
6. Bar Stools
Don't overlook the details in the home. Does he need new bar chairs/stools?
7. Golf Putting Machine
There are some great indoor games for the home you can buy him, such as the golf putting machine – great for those who have limited backyard space.
8. Classic Black Chaise Lounge
The iconic chaise lounge is a modern and sleek addition to any lounge room or bedroom. You may be able to find some second hand items on sites like GumTree.
9. USB Hub
How about this for his home office – a practical gift like a USB Hub to tidy up cords and stay organised. If your dad loves technology, he will appreciate this.
10. Whiskey Stones
For a father who enjoys some liquor at home, whiskey stones are a fun and suitable gift idea.