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The Dog Channel

So there was a thread by a friend of mine about what channel they left their TV on for their dogs when the dogs were left home alone. The conversation wandered to the dog channel… The Dog Channel

My Father-in-Law and the MG

I have been very fortunate not only in whom I married but also with the parents that are part of the deal. Both my father-in-law, David Elow, and mother-in-law, Barbara Elow, are very special people.

Both of my daughters have had many valuable moments with both of them, especially as the daughters have become young adults; something I never had growing up having met my only surviving grandparent only one time. My father-in-law has provided me with great and useful, and sometimes necessary, business and life advice during my checkered personal history.

But here is the thing, my father-in-law has historically been a pretty buttoned-down personality. Serious. Adult. Appropriate. Sort of the anti-me.

Except for his long-time desire to own an MG. Years ago, he bought one, which he took great pride in, but after some number of years he sold it.

My Father-in-Law and the MG

Defining Genius

There is an interesting article in the current issue of Commentary Magazine, about the definition of genius, noting that the term is used pretty widely these days about many people, http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/i-dream-of-genius/. There was on particular quote… Defining Genius

GSA Planning to End Its HR Shared Services

An interesting article by Jason Miller from Federal News Radio, http://www.federalnewsradio.com/145/3451148/GSA-plans-to-stop-providing-HR-shared-services. GSA provides HR services to 40 agencies, per the article, covering approximately 30,000 employees, of which 18,000 are GSA employees.

Private companies have, in some cases, outsourced capabilities that were not ‘core’ to their value-add in the marketplace. They do so because it allows their management to focus on their core mission and, hopefully, allows that capability to be provided for lower cost. The term often used for the provider is “shared-service” since multiple organizations are sharing the costs and infrastructure of the provider.

The Federal Government has gone through a number of iterations of shared-services provisioning, ending up with small numbers of government agencies and departments providing shared capabilities in a number of areas, including as this article discusses, HR.

The GSA Administrator, Dan Tangherlini, decided to have GSA focus on its core missions and thus get out of the HR shared services ‘business’.

GSA Planning to End Its HR Shared Services

Genesis

This week, we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, which is sort of the Jewish New Year, though to me at least is more significant as it begins a ten day period of reflection. This period culminates with Yom Kippur, where we ask God to forgive us for our sins (past for some Jews, future for others) and hope for a happy and healthy coming year.

Part of Ellen’s rules for attending services is that it is okay for at least parts of the service to read a book brought with us, as long as the book has a Jewish theme. This year I have decided to reread Genesis, a relatively new translation of Genesis by Robert Alter, http://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Translation-Commentary-Robert-Alter/dp/039331670X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378560203&sr=8-1&keywords=genesis+alter.

Genesis

As Usual A Sports Team I Root For Is Toying With Me – Go Nationals

So after last year’s magical baseball carpet ride with the Nationals which ended when Drew Storen pulled on that thread hanging out of the carpet and unraveled the whole thing, THIS YEAR has been a tough go of it.

Terrible fielding, slumps by almost everyone not injured and not named Werth, and the off-season free agent signings not living up to expectations have kept the Nationals at or below .500. I must admit I liked it better when they had the best record in baseball, but as I said last year was pretty magical.

And yet, and yet – even though they only have a really small (imagine two fingers held very close together) chance of making the playoffs, the chance is still above zero (imagine two fingers held very close but still separate).

As Usual A Sports Team I Root For Is Toying With Me – Go Nationals