改善: Continous Process Improvement

One of my deep interests is in the "art & science of process improvement". Maybe this is due to the fact that I've had the misfortune of having worked at some organizations that were seemingly mired in an endless purgatory of making the same mistakes over & over. Or maybe it's due to the nature of my personality. Probably a bit of both.

In the past, I've noticed the most fundamentally repeated mistake is the treatment of skilled employees as an expendable resource, however that's a subject for a different post :-)

The Japanese even have a word in their business terminology for the "art & science of process improvement". It's 改善, which in Chinese we would say "gai shan". In Japanese they say it "kai zen". The meaning of these two characters are: 改 (gai: to improve), 善(shan: gentle like a sheep). Together this word means improvement, but it stands for an entire methodology.

It's interesting because they have a formal methodology for something that alot of companies here in the US don't even take seriously. It might as well be the tooth-fairy.

I think this concept is important to truly take to heart, because process improvement not only helps companies gain competitive advantages, but it makes the lives of employees better, through the strengthening of "collective purpose". Companies can only be as good the quality of their employees.

So I've been studying this concept in my spare time. I found a great article on it here.

IT Gets The Geek Staff it Deserves

POSTED BY: Laurie M. Orlov in Rants
TOPIC: IT Organization Management
BLOG: Reinventing IT

Forget what CIOs say. IT organizations keep their tech profile by recruiting geeks.
Last year, forty-one percent of CIOs surveyed by Robert Half said they place greater emphasis today on a job candidate's knowledge of business fundamentals than they did five years ago. Today’s Robert Half study results indicated that there is no hiring downturn for IT, at least not in Q1, and that windows administrators remain the top position CIOs are trying to fill, then network administrators, followed by database managers and firewall administrators.

Who are CIOs kidding? CIOs repeatedly say that they want to be better at their jobs, have more business impact and do a better job of delivering and communicating business value. They want to be aligned with the business, blah, blah, blah. Forget it. With the tech-centric focus of IT hiring -- at all levels, if you review websites like CareerBuilder and Monster -- CIOs may soon go the way of UK’s Boots CIO, gone and not replaced, with the computer services staff now reporting into the COO, and their “IT transformation done."

Read The Rest Here

10 Career-killers To Avoid

Like other workers, IT pros can unintentionally sabotage their careers
Nov 7 2007

To help IT professionals become more aware of potential career blunders, Computerworld spoke with John M. McKee, president of BusinessSuccessCoach.net, a Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based career coaching and consulting firm. McKee is the author of author of Career Wisdom: 101 Proven Strategies to Ensure Workplace Success. Here are 10 career-killers, with McKee's advice about how to recognize and avoid them.

1. Failing to have a life plan. "This is the No. 1 biggest mistake that I run into with my clients. I work with a number of clients in IT, many of whom are in C-level roles. A life plan is a business plan, in the same way that a company leader creates an annual business plan for what the future is going to bring from a corporate perspective. Three life aspects to focus on include one's career, personal and family, and financial goals. If someone has a good title and a satisfactory personal and family life but they're struggling to make monthly payments, then they're not going to be satisfied. They should look at those aspects for themselves. They should look at the competitive environment, the job marketplace and whether their skill set is current. If someone can replace them because they're cheaper, faster or better, it's no different than looking at your IT requirements. Most importantly, this plan should be written down. Only 14% of people do that. 86% are putting their futures in the hands of others. It's not a good place to be in."

2. Not keeping your skills current. "The business landscape is ever-changing and there is more demand for jobs than supply. Not staying on par with colleagues and those vying for your job will be a death knell. With individuals able to do the same work that someone is doing anywhere in the world today and the prospect that organizations will chase skill sets around the world, if you're not up to date with your skill sets in IT, you're significantly at risk of being replaced. This includes the need to stay up to date in technical skills, business skills and soft skills."

3. Failing to deliver results. "Winners in business know that it's all about accountability. Those who harbor a sense of entitlement for simply having put forth effort, irrespective of the results of those efforts, are guaranteed to fall by the wayside. It's very easy in a corporation to believe that becoming more efficient will translate into becoming more effective. So becoming preoccupied with creating greater efficiency may be a short-term solution to helping the bottom line, but it doesn't help the organization to grow. I rarely see people get the big bonuses in the organization simply because they understand the policies and procedures of the company. It has to do with delivering the goods. You have to know your customers, know what your marketplace wants. Great leadership is all about asking questions."

4. Confusing efficiency with effectiveness. "Those who think that communicating via e-mail replaces the need to actually talk with people around them fail to recognize the importance of personally connecting with others in today's highly automated and technological environment. Communicating in person whenever possible is imperative for success-seekers."

5. Believing that you are irreplaceable. "There is no room for divas in the workplace. As soon as you convince yourself that you and only you can do the job 'right,' your star will surely start to fall. In any organization, any person can have a good couple of ideas, a good couple of years and a few successes under their belts and they start to think that the company can't do without them. They start to sit on their laurels and find themselves in greater jeopardy of losing their jobs. Comparing notes with others in the organization helps keep people grounded. It helps anyone in the organization to have different trusted advisers' perspective on what's going on and how their performance is being viewed."

6. Knowing all the answers. "This old adage remains true: Knowledge is power. Professing to know it all can readily stagnate a career. Winners remain unceasingly interested in learning new ideas and approaches. Asking a lot of questions is a hallmark of great leaders and great managers. When one stops asking questions and starts believing they've seen it all, they are devaluing the amount of change going on in the world today."

7. Surrounding yourself with "brown-nosers." "Losers like having people tell them how smart they are, whether or not it's true, while successful managers and other professionals accept and encourage intelligence and creativity in others. If you're constantly being told by your peers that everything you're doing is wonderful, you need a better group of advisers. If your supervisor believes that you're doing a great job, that's terrific -- it's probably reflecting well on him or her."

8. Forgetting to give credit to others. "Losers inappropriately take full credit for positive events despite the help or input received by others, while winners give credit where credit is due. Losers inevitably reap what they sow. If your boss is a real pumpkinhead, you can probably get away with this a few times. But if you keep doing this, chances are your boss is going to catch on that you're a glory hog."

9. Failing to self-promote. "Bragging is one thing, but letting colleagues throughout your industry know of your success through case studies, promotion bulletins, or other such tools is quite another. Losers often fail to recognize the importance of letting others know about their successes, or go about it in entirely the wrong way. In today's disconnected business world, where many people work at a distance from their supervisors, it's important to let your boss and leadership know your contributions and that you are a valuable asset. This could be as simple as providing your supervisor with an e-mail once a week to inform him about what you're working on and your progress. By doing that, when decisions are made for promotions or job transfers, you're more likely to get what's due to you."

10. Losing perspective. "Intuitive businesspeople recognize that, despite their best attempts to do everything right, sometimes they approach roadblocks and seek the advice and perspective of a respected friend, colleague or even a business coach. Those who fail to recognize their shortcomings are destined for the unemployment line. It has everything to do with forgetting the reasons why their business exists, why they're in this business, and what it is they intended to accomplish when they entered this industry. You need to be excited about what it is you're doing, and you need to put more enthusiasm into what it is you're doing. If you're not looking forward to getting out of bed in the morning, you're working on a downward trend -- you just don't know it yet."

This article reprinted by permission of www.computerworld.com

Seven Important Rules For Networking

1. Ask for Information, Not a Job.
Networking is not about asking everyone you know for a job. As a matter of fact, when you network you should never ask someone for a job. Instead, you ask them for information that will help you in your search. Your goal is to build a relationship and establish rapport so that if a potential opportunity becomes available in the future, you'll be the first person they want to refer.
 
2. Be Considerate of Other's Time.
Any time you have a networking meeting, be sure to have an agenda written up before hand and stick to it. It's hard to ask someone to cram yet another meeting into their already jam packed day, so promise a specific time and don't go over it, even if you haven't covered everything you wanted to.

3. Listen First. Then Ask Questions.
Now that you've successfully landed the meeting, it's time to listen and learn. Since you're asking another person for advice, make sure they have the opportunity to offer it rather than you dominating the entire conversation. To keep the conversation going and to follow your meeting agenda, have a list of strong, open-ended questions prepared.

4. Expand Your Network.
The main goal of networking? To network! Think about it, each person you meet knows 200 or more people. If you can gain contact or introductions to some of them, you quickly increase your own network and therefore your chances of finding the right connection, which is what networking is all about!

5. Follow up.
The key to becoming a great networker is simple: establish a relationship. So, ask the person you're meeting with if you may keep them informed of your search progress. Then, find ways to follow up. For example, if you read an article that pertains to a discussion you had at a networking meeting cut it out and send it to them with a brief note. Try to find at least two to three opportunities per year to reconnect with members of your network.

6. Reciprocate.
Building a network is about creating genuine, caring relationships. Most of the time, politeness and courtesy are all it takes. Thank your contact for meeting with you and mention the specific information they've shared. Then, ask if you can help them in some way.
Maybe your contact is interested in living in an area that you are familiar with. Or maybe he or she has a child interested in attending the same school you graduated from. Share your knowledge! Keep notes on what you learn about your contacts so that future correspondence can have a personalized touch like "How was Jane's first year of school?"

7. Send a Thank You Letter.
Always, always, always thank your contacts in person and also with follow up with a letter. If your handwriting is legible, the personalized touch of a handwritten note is always appreciated, though an email works just as well.

Shift The Blame

10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT

This article reprinted by permission of TechRepublic. This is part of Jason Hiner's regular [Tech Sanity Check http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/] series.

August 31st, 2007
by Jason Hiner, Executive Editor

If you are preparing for a career in IT or are new to IT, many of the "dirty little
secrets" listed below may surprise you because we don't usually talk about them out loud. If you are an IT veteran, you've probably encountered most of these issues and
have a few of your own to add - and please, by all means, take a moment to add them to the discussion. Most of these secrets are aimed at network administrators, IT managers, and desktop support professionals. This list is not aimed at developers and programmers - they have their own set of additional dirty little secrets - but some of these will apply to them as well.

10. The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you
Although the pay for IT professionals is not as great as it was before the dot-com flameout and the IT backlash in 2001-2002, IT workers still make very good money compared to many other professions (at least the ones that require only an associate's or bachelor's degree). And there is every reason to believe that IT pros will continue to be in demand in the coming decades, as technology continues to play a growing role in business and society. However, because IT professionals can be so expensive, some companies treat IT pros like they own them. If you have to answer a tech call at 9:00 PM because someone is working late, you hear, "That's just part of the job." If you need to work six hours on a Saturday to deploy a software update to avoid downtime during business hours, you get, "There's no comp time for that since you're on salary. That's why we pay you the big bucks!"

9. It will be your fault when users make silly errors
Some users will angrily snap at you when they are frustrated. They will yell, "What's wrong with this thing?" or "This computer is NOT working!" or (my personal favorite), "What did you do to the computers?" In fact, the problem is that they accidentally deleted the Internet Explorer icon from the desktop, or unplugged the mouse from the back of the computer with their foot, or spilled their coffee on the keyboard.

8. You will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day
When you miraculously fix something that had been keeping multiple employees from being able to work for the past 10 minutes - and they don't realize how simple the fix really was - you will become the hero of the moment and everyone's favorite employee. But they will conveniently forget about your hero anointment a few hours later when they have trouble printing because of a network slowdown - you will be enemy No. 1 at that moment. But if you show users a handy little Microsoft Outlook trick before the end of the day, you'll soon return to hero status.

7. Certifications won't always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raise
Headhunters and human resources departments love IT certifications. They make it easy to match up job candidates with job openings. They also make it easy for HR to screen candidates. You'll hear a lot of veteran IT pros whine about techies who were hired based on certifications but who don't have the experience to effectively do the job. They are often right. That has happened in plenty of places. But the fact is that certifications open up your career options. They show that you are organized and ambitious and have a desire to educate yourself and expand your skills. If you are an experienced IT pro and have certifications to match your experience, you will find yourself to be extremely marketable. Tech certifications are simply a way to prove your baseline knowledge and to market yourself as a professional. However, most of them are not a good indicator of how good you will be at the job.

6. Your nontechnical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs
Your co-workers (in addition to your friends, family, and neighbors) will view you as their personal tech support department for their home PCs and home networks. They will e-mail you, call you, and/or stop by your office to talk about how to deal with the virus that took over their home PC or the wireless router that stopped working after the last power outage and to ask you how to put their photos and videos on the Web so their grandparents in Iowa can view them. Some of them might even ask you if they can bring their home PC to the office for you to fix it. The polite ones will offer to pay you, but some of them will just hope or expect you can help them for free. Helping these folks can be very rewarding, but you have to be careful about where to draw the line and know when to decline. For help, take a look at TechRepublic's free download "Ten ways to decline a request for free tech support."

5. Vendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong
Working with IT consultants is an important part of the job and can be one of the more challenging things to manage. Consultants bring niche expertise to help you deploy specialized systems, and when everything works right, it's a great partnership. But you have to be careful. When things go wrong, some consultants will try to push the blame off on you by arguing that their solution works great everywhere else so it must be a problem with the local IT infrastructure. Conversely, when a project is wildly successful, there are consultants who will try to take all of the credit and ignore the substantial work you did to customize and implement the solution for your company.

4. You'll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new ones
One of the most attractive things about working in IT is the idea that we'll get to play with the latest cutting edge technologies. However, that's not usually the case in most IT jobs. The truth is that IT professionals typically spend far more time maintaining, babysitting, and nursing established technologies than implementing new ones. Even IT consultants, who work with more of the latest and greatest technologies, still tend to work primarily with established, proven solutions rather than the real cutting edge stuff.

3. Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies
A lot of companies could implement more cutting edge stuff than they do. There are plenty of times when upgrading or replacing software or infrastructure can potentially save money and/or increase productivity and profitability. However, it's often the case that one of the largest roadblocks to migrating to new technologies is not budget constraints or management objections; it's the veteran techies in the IT department. Once they have something up and running, they are reluctant to change it. This can be a good thing because their jobs depend on keeping the infrastructure stable, but they also use that as an excuse to not spend the time to learn new things or stretch themselves in new directions. They get lazy, complacent, and self-satisfied.

2. Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business
Another subtle but blameworthy thing that some IT professionals do is select and implement technologies based on how well those technologies make the business dependent on the IT pros to run them, rather than which ones are truly best for the business itself. For example, IT pros might select a solution that requires specialized skills to maintain instead of a more turnkey solution. Or an IT manager might have more of a Linux/UNIX background and so chooses a Linux-based solution over a Windows solution, even though the Windows solution is a better business decision (or, vice versa, a Windows admin might bypass a Linux-based appliance, for example). There are often excuses and justifications given for this type of behavior, but most of them are disingenuous.

1. IT pros frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business managers and hide the fact that they screwed up
All IT pros - even the very best - screw things up once in a while. This is a profession where a lot is at stake and the systems that are being managed are complex and often difficult to integrate. However, not all IT pros are good at admitting when they make a mistake. Many of them take advantage of the fact that business managers (and even some high-level technical managers) don't have a good understanding of technology, and so the techies will use jargon to confuse them (and cover up the truth) when explaining why a problem or an outage occurred. For example, to tell a business manager why a financial application went down for three hours, the techie might say, "We had a blue screen of death on the SQL Server that runs that app. Damn Microsoft!" What the techie would fail to mention was that the BSOD was caused by a driver update he applied to the server without first testing it on a staging machine.

Maria From Metropolis

This photo was taken the last time I was in Los Angeles (visiting family and friends), around 5/15/07. Here I am with the robot "Maria" from the influential 1927 Fritz Lang movie "Metropolis". This is especially signifiicant for me, because Metropolis was one of the movies we studied while I was in Architecture school, in order to understand some of the design motifs during the German Weimar Republic period.

Top Ten Things That Bad Managers Do

By Cyndi Maxey, CSP

Managers are busy people. Every day brings new challenges and not enough hours to accomplish what they need to do. But no matter how busy they are, the best make time for their people. Indeed, a manager’s style figures more heavily than anything else in keeping employees productive and loyal. According to management researcher Chandra Louise, 80% of the employees who quit their jobs do so because of problems with their bosses. While they may give the human resources staff other reasons for quitting, they will tell their friends, "I’d still be there even for that pittance of a salary if it weren’t for that awful boss."

The following list of ten actions will clarify what awful bosses do. This list of "don’t do’s" is anchored in employees’ actual workplace experiences. Proceed with caution. If you manage your employees with consistent use of these ten actions, you’ll eventually find yourself in a very peaceful, quiet workplace. Why? You’ll be alone!

1. Embarrass employees in public. At some point, nearly everyone has observed someone being ridiculed in public at work. Yet, public humiliation is an old, outdated habit of the classic authoritarian management style. Unfortunately, it is still commonly used, as employees’ stories attest. Jim, a new IT engineer for a large financial services firm, recalls being chastised almost daily in front of his team members for not understanding new code instructions. Susan, a clerk at Walgreen’s left her job because her manager would yell criticisms at her in front of long lines of people at the check-out.

2. Don’t follow up on employee ideas. Employees thrive on providing ideas and feedback, but if mistrust is part of the set-up, they won’t commit to results. Joe, a manager in the advertising field, was once invited to an offsite lunch with a group of other managers by the company’s elite directors. The managers were told in advance that, at the luncheon, they would have a part in planning initiatives for the future of the company. However, once there, they discovered that the directors had already put together a list of twenty initiatives and were really just asking them to volunteer to work on them. What resulted was the assignment of initiatives to unprepared, uninterested managers. Due to lack of interest, no actions were taken and the initiatives were never mentioned again.

Sometimes, even the best managers fall prey to the lack of appropriate follow up. Speaker Christine Corelli tells such a story in her book, Wake up and Smell the Competition: Tim, a well-liked sales manager, would conduct extensive "Blue Skies" meetings with his field sales force. He would listen carefully during the two-day meetings, which elicited countless ideas for beating the competition. Everyone left feeling energized. However, when the CFO analyzed the funds needed to implement the ideas, they were dropped. Tim couldn’t provide the follow up needed and it took a long time for the sales force to get enthused about meetings again.

3. Withhold praise. A 1998 Gallup Study asked thousands of employees to cite indicators of a good workplace. Among the responses, one of the most frequently mentioned comments was, "I have received praise during the last seven days at work." Giving employees sincere praise is a deceptively simple action that many managers are unable to perform.

Richard, now a VP with a security services firm, recalls a manager who had few interpersonal skills, was a stickler for rules, and reserved opinions only for other supervisors. One day, though, without plan, the manager approached him saying, "How’s it going? " Waiting for the inevitable reprimand, Richard was surprised when he said, "I just want to let you know you’re doing a great job." Stunned, Richard was also surprised by what followed, "They told me to say that at supervisor school." With that comment, he left. Richard never trusted him again.

Even when employees take the initiative, praise is impossible for some managers. Mary, a former Chicago television news producer, recalls, "I had a news director who refused to acknowledge my winning an Emmy. I had to confront him about it, saying, "Did you know I won an Emmy Saturday night?" His response was, "Oh, that’s nice when that happens," and walked away.

4. Ignore professional growth needs. When employees take steps for self-development, it’s important for managers to be their biggest cheerleaders. Adult learning research repeatedly shows that management reinforcement of training is what makes it stick, yet too often trainers have heard managers’ last minute excuses to not attend a training initiative. How many of you reading this article have been denied a professional development opportunity because your own manager said that it would take too much time away from work?

5. Demand unrealistic rules of order. Managers enforce rules and regulations. Poor managers enforce unrealistic rules that cause employees to feel like children. Jennifer, a former senior editor with a national magazine, recalls working for a manager who stormed out of her office one day to proclaim that thenceforth there was to be no laughter in the office. She said it was unprofessional.
Meg, a marketing director, describes a former boss in an executive search firm who was upset that employees took too long to come to his office and say, "Good morning." He called a special staff meeting to explain that this was to be done the minute staff members walked in the door, before taking off their coats. This same boss also strongly discouraged co-workers from going to lunch together. Perhaps this boss was unaware that workplace friendships are a leading factor in keeping employees on the job.


6. Be vague and indirect. Poor managers communicate with assumptions, generalities, lack of direction, and impatience. One manager recalls a director who gave projects without clearly specifying desired outcomes. When employees attempted to turn in results, she would say, "No that’s not it. I’ll know it when I see it." She was unwilling to tell her staff what she wanted or even what she didn’t want. Needless to say, turnover was high in her area, and nobody mourned her final departure to another department.

A staff development manager for a major airline, Donald shares an instance when a department director, who needed some numbers for the CEO, gave the assignment to a new hire with few instructions and a quick due date. Unfortunately, the numbers were held in a seldom-used database, and the new employee, who had never been trained in that database, was not able to get the numbers on time. He failed in the director’s eyes and, to this day, is flustered with even the simplest of inquiries.
Douglas, a former news production assistant, recalls a similar example working with a manager who wanted certain stories in a show, but gave no resource help. His response to her questions was, "Just do it." How many employees can function well with instructions like that?

7. Show you don’t care. The bulk of horror stories reported by employees on websites that bemoan bad management describe uncaring bosses. One example is a tale from an employee who counseled his manager not to interfere with an intricate computer program during the time he would be out for nasal surgery. Unfortunately, the manager did not heed the advice, tampered with the data, and then called the employee in to fix it. The employee, still in outpatient recovery, drug-laden and eyes swollen, arrived at work to fix the program and fell asleep at his desk during the process. The manager saw this and chastised him on the spot for sleeping on the job.

In another sad tale, an employee who had lost three friends to a devastating auto accident the night before found out at work the next day that a fourth had also died. Grief stricken, the employee was dumbfounded when her manager scolded her for allowing grief to interfere with her work.

8. Be all-knowing all of the time. Most managers get to where they are because they’ve demonstrated skill in their areas. Poor managers use that expertise to lord over employees and micromanage projects. Columnist Tom Shay, of Profits + Plus Coaching, writes that managers who micromanage are guilty of crimes such as–

* Never saying to a customer, "I do know a lot about this service, but one of my employees knows more than I do. Let’s ask him about it."
* Taking every suggestion made by an employee and tweaking it so as to add a personal touch.
* Allowing employees to have the office key and thus access to thousands of dollars of company-owned information and equipment, yet not allowing them to adjust the amount of an account without approval.

All-knowing managers are very busy managers; they have to be everywhere all the time to make sure their expertise is known.


9. Ignore individual differences. Managers are coached to be fair and consistent, but, in reality, all employees are different. Poor managers put employees in one big box with little regard for individuals. Culturally and behaviorally, people are brought up with different values and methods of operating in the world of work. Too often, managers get caught up in the habit of rewarding individuals who are most like them and punishing those who are different.

10. Never say you’re sorry or wrong. Being able to say you’re sorry or wrong is a mark of healthy self-esteem. It’s the first step to getting a problem situation back on track. In association management, which functions among volunteers, deadlines, policy changes, and member turnover, there is ample opportunity for miscommunications and frequent mistakes. There is also ample opportunity for apology and correction.


Authors Kaye and Jordan-Evans, in their book, Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em encourage managers to ask employees, "What keeps you here?" They assert that too many managers are afraid to ask the question for fear that they can’t give people what they really want. In reality, employees simply like being asked the question. Their research shows that 50% of work-life satisfaction is determined by the relationship a worker has with a boss.

In conclusion, your workplace climate can be as de-motivating or motivating as you make it. As a manager, how will you avoid the former list of "don’ts" and reinforce this list of "must’s"? It’s up to you to make the time.

Ten Motivating Musts

1. Give constructive feedback in private.
2. Follow up on employee ideas.
3. Give frequent praise.
4. Support employee development.
5. Allow flexibility and realistic freedoms.
6. Communicate directly and specifically.
7. Demonstrate that you care.
8. Allow employees to share and shine.
9. Respect individual differences.
10. Admit it when you’re wrong.

©2002 Cyndi Maxey
Cyndi Maxey (Maxey Creative Inc., Chicago, IL) is a speaker, trainer, and co-author of two books, The Communication Coach (1998) and Training from the Heart (2000). Contact Cyndi at 773/561-6252, cmaxey@cyndimaxey.com or visit her website at www.cyndimaxey.com

Good Books About Being Hapa

For all of you other hapa (half-Asian, half-Caucasian) folks out there. Here are some excellent books that have been published on the subject of the what it's like being caught between two radically different cultures, languages and set of expectations. I highly recommend them.

What Are You? Voices of Mixed-Race Young People, By Pearl Fuyo Gaskins In this sensitive, thoughtful collection of interviews, essays, and poetry, over 40 young adults ranging in age from 14 to 26 relate their experiences growing up in the United States. Arranged thematically with occasional author notes offering clarification and transition, the primarily upbeat testimonies address issues of discrimination, dating, family dynamics, and self-esteem. The contributors have had to respond to prejudice both inside and outside their own ethnic groups in addition to universal problems, such as financial worries, divorce, parent and sibling conflicts, and academic pressures. Although American society challenged them to "check one box," declaring the race they belong to, they have resisted categorization, seeking instead to understand and express the rich blend that is their personal heritage.

Part Asian, 100% Hapa - By Kip Fulbeck, Sean Lennon & Paul Spickard This one is by Kip Fulbeck, an artist..a teacher..a fellow hapa. He has taken over 1,000 portraits of mixed race people (asian mixes) and has each of them answer the question "what are you?" I had an opportunity to communicate with the author during the writing process of this book. I really enjoyed and related to his introduction as well. it's a must have for hapa peeps.

Check All That Apply: Finding Wholeness as a Multiracial Person Sundee Frazier tackles the ambiguities of being a multiracial woman of faith. In this book she cogently describes the particular tension of multiracial identity, the sense of never quite belonging anywhere; she also insists that one's core identity comes only from God. Considering that the number of interracial marriages has swelled from 310,000 in 1970 to 1.3 million in 1994, there is an ever-enlarging audience for Frazier's thoughtful reflections.

Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural - By Claudine Chiawei O'Hearn New Yorker O'Hearn, who was born in Hong Kong of an Irish-American father and a Chinese mother, first tells her own story. She found she could pass as Hawaiian, Italian or even Russian. Then goes on to collect first-person accounts of 17 others with biracial or bicultural backgrounds who grew up in the U.S. or emigrated here. The tone throughout ranges from bitter and self-absorbed to satirical, most reveal a quiet sense of humor. Several of the entries have been published previously in anthologies or magazines.

Hunger - By Lan Samantha Chang Not a book specifically about being Hapa or bi-cultural/bi-racial, however it is one of the most outstanding books I have ever read on the experience of Asian-Americans in the US. A DEFINITE must-read!

Great Article: 10 REASONS WHY IDENTITY MATTERS TO ASIAN AMERICAN PROFESSIONALS

After years of sleep-deprivation, hobo chic and ramen dinners, you've arrived! You're behind a walnut desk, backed up by a wall of framed sheepskins, hanging with colleagues in Armani and Prada, or at least Banana Republic fitted T's and Von Dutch jeans. Beware! You are now a prime candidate for identity amnesia. You know, where you start forgetting the people and things that made you who you are and sustained you through your long climb.

You're tempted to shuck off the messy hodgepodge of your past and remake yourself from whole cloth, preferably English lambs wool and Egyptian cotton, or maybe Irish linen and Italian leather.

Here are 10 great reasons to resist that temptation and get back in touch with who you are, a glorious by-product of the clash of two (or three, or four...) rich and dynamic cultures.

The Original Article is posted here.

Great Article: Screening out Lecherous Bosses

As we all know, a bad manager can make our lives hell, and a good one can make otherwise difficult tasks, well, a little less difficult :-)

This is a great article on how to avoid the former, when looking for a better job.

TV Jones finally did it!

So of all of the things I could talk about that have happened recently, ie: new house, new job, etc.. I find myself once again talking about guitars. Yes, if I didn' have to work for a living, I think I would probably be playing music all day. But alas, cold reality sets in :-)

I regularly check out the TV Jones website, as he is my very favorite pickup winder. Lo and behold, He as announced that they will soon be selling a Telecaster-style bridge with a cut-out to fit a Gretsch-style TV Jones pickup. Check it out in the above photo.

I am of course going to have to get one of these as soon as they are released. Those who know me, know that I like to build guitars that are as hybridized by my family tree. I think that my cherryburst Mahogany Tele needs a TV Jones pickup in the bridge (it also needs a name, as all my other guitars have names)! A full tone report will follow.

Beavis & Butthead Watch The Cure's "Caterpillar"

So the link to this little video clip was posted on a Cure fan forum that I am on. We found it most amusing, so of course I had to share it here :-)

Beavis & Butthead Watch The Cure's "Caterpillar"

The impersonation of Robert's voice, and the "why doesn't he look at the camera?" Too funny.

The Smiths: Johnny Marr looks back

One of my good friends in Taipei, Genghiz Chen, forwarded me this great article. It's an interview of Johnny Marr reflecting on The Smiths, 20 years later (has it been that long?) I've re-printed the first section of the article here, as well as the link to the original. Thanks alot for the great article my friend! I hope you had a happy new year! Everyone enjoy the article!

The Smiths: Johnny Marr looks back
The Smiths' most celebrated album, The Queen Is Dead, was recorded 20 years ago. Here, their celebrated guitarist reflects
Published: 24 February 2006

When Morrissey and I started The Smiths, we thought pop music was the most important thing in the world. It was almost a spiritual thing for us, and because of that, we knew what it meant to be a fan. Our relationship was very emotional, complex and deep. We were with each other constantly for five years.

The Queen Is Dead was our third album and we knew it had to be special. Our trajectory and gone up from day one, but although we were enjoying massive critical and commercial success, it had reached a plateau. I was thinking that if we wanted to be in the same league as The Who or The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, we had to do it now.

Read The Original Article Here

Roger O'Donnell Interview About Synths in The Cure

This relates to a post I made last month about enjoying Roger O'Donnell's (former keyboard player for The Cure) new album, entitled The Truth in Me. I found an interesting interview of Roger where he discusses the synths used on the legendary Cure album "Disintegration".


"The others may shout me down for this, but I think the Cure does a very keyboard-based show," O'Donnell points out. "When I joined, it was the first time that the band had an actual dedicated keyboard player who didn't do anything but play keyboards. It opened up the arrangements, and allowed keyboards to play their proper role. Before, they held more of a secondary role. Now they're an equal part of the group. In fact, everything seems to be hinged on the keyboards. This allows Porl [Thompson] to play guitar all of the time, and Robert to concentrate only on singing. It makes the band more whole."

Read the Entire Interview Here