Category: Life

The theater and how to get there

This Sunday I was at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, to watch “Store balletskoledag. When a Danish ballet school is to show their best, this is the place to be. It gives even the youngest students an chance to try the stage and experience what life as a performer can be like. Great fun.

But first we had to get there, and that turned out more exciting than planned. It seemed so simple, and that is a reminder to always be careful about making assumptions. When planning it is not enough to know “when” to meet (or make delivery), the “where” also matters, be that a physical place (or a site or server somewhere). Also, accounting for delays in the overall plan can save the day if you stay cool and pragmatic.

This was first posted on LinkedIn

Summer reading 2023

Weather is getting better, so I will also do a summer book post.

‘How Big Things Get Done’ by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner, and ‘The Worlds Worst Warships’ by Antony Preston. Both take an interesting, readable and enjoyable look at mega projects and how they succeed or fail. Flyvbjerg and Gardner look forward at how we can do better; Preston’s view is more historical, but at a complex subject “…which encompasses engineering, economics, sociology , and even psychology”, with outcomes that may be ridiculous, often tragic and sometimes change the path of history.

As an IT manager of people and projects I particularly enjoyed these books because they provide an outside perspective on the challenges I meet in my daily work, including that IT projects aren’t worse or better than others (actually it depends: Flyvbjerg and Gardner got statistics).

Next up in my reading list in non-fiction must be ‘In Search of Stupidity’ by Merrill Chapman which is now out in a 3rd edition, with a fresh look at the latest mistakes within technology marketing.

This was first posted on LinkedIn

Repost: Tuckman’s model

I always find inspiration in Tuckman’s model of group development, which states that whenever a team is formed to resolve a task, the team will move through the stages of forming, storming, norming and finally performing. That is, some level of conflict (aka “disagreement” or “misalignment”) is inevitable when a team is created/changed, but once differences have been sorted out and a common ground has been found, the group can work and perform efficiently. I am so fortunate as to be working with highly competent and passionate people in different contexts, and while we may not initially agree on our direction, great things happen once we find it. Of course, meeting your collaborators with a professional, respectful, and open attitude is the shortcut to high performance.

This was first posted on LinkedIn

Last Days of Fall / Blogging again

One of my recent posts was inspired by the sales of Twitter to Elon Musk, and now I am at it again – once more with inspiration from John Scalzi, who is reiterating his point about taking ownership of one’s own content and generally encouraging people to start blogging again. I used to like Twitter, but am currently disillusioned with the entire social media thing. LinkedIn and Instagram still make sense to me, and I hope the events at Twitter will not drive LinkedIn further away from its professional networking purpose (I do see some Facebooky content, but no cat-pictures yet, so I am hopeful); nor that it will reduce the picturesque experience at Instagram.

So here I am again. If the blog is to be alternative to Twitter and maybe Instagram, then the posts may also be shorter and more graphical, rather than the usual essay-like thoughts about this and that. Let’s ser – every journey begins with the the first step.

Feature Image

Last weekend my employer hosted the annual Christmas Party for employee children at Ledreborg Castle. A great day where the kids had fun and we opportunity to experience the castle park enjoy a sunny, late-fall day before the last leaves are gone from the trees.

Princessology: Erata, Enchanted Etc.

Spoliers ahead

Erata

In my previous Princessology post I did thorough work to determine the scope of the study. Must of the usual suspects makes the cut and then there are several honorable mentions who didn’t make it to my list, for example because they aren’t animated or because they are not princesses at all.

One young lady I summarily excluded from the study was Giselle, the protagonist of Enchanted, on the grounds that the movie wasn’t animated. I realize that I should have been more precise: I obviously meant “fully animated”…

That said, further study into the character reveals that while Giselle not only wears a dress and has an animal sidekick, but also has most of the characteristics of the classical distressed damsels like Snow White and Cinderella, she lacks a defining trait: She is not a princess and neither does she become one during the movie. Therefor she is stricken from the list in any case and get to hang out with Mulan instead. I can imagine worse company. However, there is another character in the movie who might pass that criterion depending on the scheduling of wedding and coronation, but as already pointed out the movie must be fully animated.

Good to have that cleared up now.

Enchanted

I enjoyed casually watching Enchanted. It was interesting to see Amy Adams in one of her earlier roles before her career really took off. Also, watching and not just listening to Idina Menzell (the voice of Elsa) was interesting. It is fair to wonder what the ambition of the movie is – is it a retelling/mashup of the classical Disney fairy tales, or is it a satire of these movies, showing how absurd they are when watched through modern eyes? It may be age or movie watching experience, but I believe the latter, and as such the movie is fine – just think about the cleanup/singing scene – brilliant. I’ll rate it 3/5.

Etc.

Probationary Princess

Upon further consideration, Megara has been moved to probationary status. While hooking up with the Son of Zeus, King of Gods certainly count towards princess status, the fact that Hercules gave up his god-hood to be together with her counts against him being a prince, and her princesshood as a consequence. More research is required.

Likewise, Jane Porter needs to be reviewed, since she is romantically involved with Tarzan, who is often referred to as the King of the Jungle. This might make Jane a queen (but skipping the princess stage entirely). However, if Disney’s movie doesn’t make clear reference to Tarzan being king, the Esmeralda rule will be applied, since only the movie version count.

Rewatching Frozen II

When I published my previous Princessology Update Frozen II had just premiered on home video and as expected I have watched if several times since. A few times with the kids, several times by myself. I like the movie very much.

I guess there may have been many possible plot-lines to choose between, including the most obvious one with some new antagonist arriving and the sisters teaming up to win the day for Arendelle. Instead the relationship between sisters is explored and resolved. Maybe the creators took input from the senior Pixar people who receives thanks in the end credits. Especially if watching the movie through a neurodiversity lens, it tells story of the challenges sisters that are different may experience as they grow up. In that sense, Frozen II is not just a kids’ movie, but a movie for everyone with an interest in how siblings grow up and it is well worth watching. I’ll rate it 4/5.

Featured image

A landscape photo from Thy, where I just had vacation with the family. The landscape is something special, the light in midsummer is something special and the weather was cold and rainy, which was bad for beach trips, but great for photographing landscapes with interesting clouds.

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Princessology Update