It’s the third week of my new position here at Northwest Cadence. I’m an ALM Consultant, which means all the process- and tools-related nagging I did for years at my previous employer is what I get paid to do now. On purpose. Here’s hoping NWC will continue to think that was a good idea.
My colleague Martin has been exhorting me to blog since before I actually started. See, here, blogging earned a prominent place on my personal office Kanban board…
Behold, the power of a Big Visible Display.
… where, as with many Kanban boards in my acquaintance, it didn’t move for a while and didn’t bring about transformative change solely by being stuck there. Disappointing.
Martin encouraged me to blog about my workday experiences. He does this and manages to make it awesomely interesting and useful. I think it’s a good approach. He has the advantage that writing about his workday experiences (for clients) is part of his current job and he can adapt billable material for use in blogs (that’s what makes it interesting and useful). Not true for me yet. Writing is overhead. (Me writing is like double secret overhead, because I still overthink it so much.)
So, until I have a chance to settle into an everyday voice, please enjoy this example of something that is certain to be another regular feature of my blog: whimsy.
I requested a cheap USB hub for my desktop and mentioned that the “squid” hubs are most convenient to use. Amanda showed up today with this…
"... I took you literally about the squid. I hope that's OK."
It has googly eyes and a red indicator light on the top of its adorable little head. The instructions that came with it are even more awesome:
"... this time the Octopus of four USB connections have transmission data function."
I keep finding little reasons to love it here: a pile of brightly colored Post-Its and a sharp Sharpie; Diet Dr. Pepper from Costco in the fridge; a small-business DIY attitude about everything. Bottom line, when someone who’s known me a short time understands that Octopus of Four USB Connections is exactly what I want, it seems clear I’ve found a great place to be.
What, you can't tell that it's moved? Clearly "in progress" now!
