Monday Morning Links – 2nd November

Posted on | November 2, 2009 | Author: | DanS | No Comments

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Oh, Lisa! You and your stories! “Dad, Bart is a vampire.” “Beer kills brain cells.” Now, let’s get back to that… building thingy… where our beds and T.V… is.
Homer Simpson

The supposed horrors of halloween have given way over the years to the laughable manner in which we try to amuse ourselves. In my case, the humor is condescending, cynical, often good for a mere chuckle. Condescending, you ask? Indeed. To wit: I see Michael Myers walking slowly as Laurie Strode runs frantically, apply simple physics to determine there’s no way he can keep up with her, and chuckle at the sheer tomfoolery that allows Myers to catch up with her nevertheless, knife in hand, butcher in the making. It seeps into other related horror films as an iconic motif for villains, too cool to actually run after their prey.

I laugh and shake my head.

Couple that with the 20-year-run of “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween specials from The Simpsons, and you can bet the 31st of October is nothing but an extended run of jokes and head shakes. While “Treehouse” ups the ante of my laughter significantly, I’m about as scared as Harry Callahan.

The theme is humour – “Humour, people!!!” – for this week’s installment of the Monday Morning Links. But there’s also a touch of reality-vs-spin, press relations and the ‘horrors’ your project might encounter.

Five For Linking

Cinda Voegtli of Project Connections leads off with a link to a Slate article review of the new Michael Jackson doc and how certains points described project managers to a T. Who says there was nobody like him? –http://blog.projectconnections.com/project_practitioners/2009/10/michael-jacksons-display-of-key-pm-traits.html
Ron Rosenhead of his self-titled blog has a past that should have us talking in the PM community – about the inability to decipher what is truly wrong with the Single Payment Scheme recently condemned by the NAO. With a link to an editorial by Computer Weekly, Rosenhead was left to wonder how far from reality spin control can place a company – http://www.ronrosenhead.co.uk/?p=336
Brad Egeland of Project Management Tips does not want to relinquish that parking space. The Ege once again schools us with reference to Carl Pritchard’s “The Project Management Communications Toolkit” on how proejct managers should deal with the press – http://pmtips.net/project-manager-press-briefings/
Mark Mullaly, PMP at Gantthead (NOTE: Registration Required) themes a piece around Halloween and the horrors your project may encounter. Don’t run from it scared or dubious: it’s well thought out, relatable and written exeprtly. Which the PMP designation should have given away in the first place! – http://www.gantthead.com/article.cfm?ID=252519&authenticated=1
Ron Holohan at pm411 hosts experienced PM, engineer and president/co-founder of Intaver Institute Lev Verine for a podcast about event chain project management. Ever the helpful Chicagoan, Holohan enhances the experience by featuring articles that accompany the podcasts like study guides – http://pm411.org/2009/10/24/podcast-episode-049-event-chain-project-management/

Tweeter to Watch: @BackFromRed – Todd Williams is a project audit and recovery specialist (primarily IT and manufacturing) who has reached must-follow status on my TweetDeck. If your stuff is sound, he’ll re-tweet you. But he’ll also compliment your work by pointing to other things project managers need to know – this week he alerted us to making changes during a project recovery, developing a Professional Development curriculum at Portland State University, and even injected some humour with the increasingly common phrase “itshouldbeillegal”:

‘…Thought it meant “IT should be illegal.” Now that’s a way to curb IT failure.’

Shameless Arras / Camel Plug: If you want some help in your search for a job, last week was a good week to peruse How to Manage a Camel. In the past, we’ve remind you of our collaboration with the JobCentre Plus on the JobSearch Support Services, but in the past few weeks we’ve also handed out some of that advice, practically giving away our expertise in exchange for your patronage and the expressed reading consent that you’ll take it all on board. How can one pass up our own John Thorpe willfully offering ways to succeed in a job interview, for instance? Or take Friday, when Lindsay Scott talks about the perfect cover letter?