Book: QBQ! The Question Behind The Question by John G. Miller

A new book came across my desk this week, QBQ! The Question Behind The Question by John G. Miller. It is subtitled, “What to Really Ask Yourself to Eliminate Blame, Complaining and Procrastination.”

This thin volume (115 pages) seeks to help people move beyond the typical “blame game” that occurs in business and life in general. Too often, we concentrate on getting the other person to change, instead of concentrating our attentions where they really matter, on ourselves.

Instead of asking Why? and Who?, Miller consels us to ask What and How? “What can I do to contribute? How can I help solve the problem?” Even the best of us can fall into blaming others for our problems, but it is more important to ask the QBQ to help us move beyond the problems in productivity.

It is unfortunate that many people who could really use this book may never pick it up. It is a difficult task to accept our own battles with blame and for many people, it never happens. Simply reading this book can take a large dose of courage.

If you want to challenge yourself and your thinking, even just a little, pick up a copy of QBQ! And start asking the Question Behind the Question yourself.

QBQ Web SIte

Event: 4th Annual Cider at Circle X

4th Annual Cider at Circle X

SAT 10/30 10am - 4pm
Circle X Ranch

Come to a park site high in the Santa Monica Mountains. We’ll have cider, cookies and candy at the Circle X Contact Station. National Park Service staff will be available to provide trail information for self-guided exploration. Contact station is 5.4 miles north on Yerba Buena Rd from Pacific Coast Highway.

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Career-Op: Getting Serious Part 3 - w/ MP3 Podcast

Career-Op: Getting Serious Part 3
by Douglas E. Welch, ComputorEdge Magazine

Over the past two weeks I have talked about the thinking that goes into maintaining client relationships. This week I turn to the practical ideas that I use to maintain my client relationships and build my career. These methods can be used as they are or adapted for your own use. The biggest benefit you will gain, though, is in the thinking they provoke and the action that comes from that thinking.

(Continued)

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Book: All Fisherman are Liars by Linda Greenlaw

I just finished All Fisherman are Liars: True Tales from the Dry Dock Bar by Linda Greenlaw, a wonderful, small book of fishing stories, told by real. commercial fishermen, including herself. Greenlaw has a lovely touch for telling stories full of life, and sometimes, death. While her life as a fisherman seems to have suited her well, she has discovered an entirely new career as a writer.

The author's first book arose out of her personal involvement in the the tragic story that was re-counted in the the book The Perfect Storm. Greenlaw was caught out in the same storm, but lived to tell the tale. The Hungry Ocean, takes that story as a starting point, but goes well beyond into previously unknown territory, especially for a landlubber like me. The Lobster Chronicles, recounts her return to the nominally safer work of "lobstering" and gives her an opportunity to tell more stories about the sea and the lives that surround it.

This book easily qualifies as one of my "One Day Reads". Within a few hours, over lunch, over dinner and before bedtime, I joined the crew at the Dry Dock Bar and followed their stories out to sea. I love reading stories about people and lives I might not otherwise encounter and Greenlaw's books are a perfect example.

Event: Star gazing and Lunar Eclipse viewing - Oct 27

Star Gazing

WED 10/27 10pm
Charmlee Wilderness Park

View the lunar eclipse set to happen at 11:12pm.
Please call 3 1 0-3 1 7-1 3 6 4 to verify viewing.
All ages welcome. 1hr CWP

Career-Op: A little crazy ...from the archives

Career-Op: A little crazy

I hear it all the time; “You must be crazy to turn down that job.” “Take a month’s vacation, are you crazy?” “You would be crazy to quit your job now!” The truth is, a little craziness is something to be cultivated, not quashed. If you don’t have a little craziness in you, you are in danger of locking yourself into a life and career of staid boredom. Is that what you really want? [Continued]

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Event: Farther Afield - Candlelight tours of Fort Point, San Francisco

My copy of Sunset arrived today (November 2004) and right up front I noticed a great activity.

Monthly candlelight tours are offered of this fort, "the only brick fortress ont he West Coast." The fort is located almost directly beneath the Golden Gate Bridge.

The tours are free, but reservations are required. The next tour is November 27.

For more information about Fort Point, see: http://nps.gov/fopo/

Web: Sharpening Digital Images

Sharpening Digital Images is an excellent page dedicated to the issue of "sharpening" your digital images.

If you are trying to get the best quality possible out of your digital pictures, this is one method to try.

Quote: Emergence by Steven Johnson

This quote had me laughing out loud earlier today...

"...once you've absorbed enough DNA [in the game], you can pop over to the "mutation" screen and tinker with your genetic makeup -- adding new genes and mutating your existing ones, expanding your character's skills in the process. It's like suddenly learning how to program in C++, only you have to eat the guy from tech support to see the benefits."

-- Emergence: the connected lives of ants, brains, cities, and software by Steven Johnson

I've worked in some rough companies, but, thankfully, never anything quite that bad! (SMILE)