Not too cool to admit I loved it!

OK, I admit it: the Rolling Stones coming to my town was a big deal.
I've lived in Ottawa all my life, and have always really appreciated our "best of both worlds" quality -- mostly small and intimate, but with great culture and a zillion things to do.
But I never thought I'd see the day when the freakin' STONES would come to Ottawa. For the first three songs, I was still somewhat in a daze of amazement -- they're actually here, in our little football stadium. Because man, you know, they really are the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the world.

The Rolling Stones defined rock 'n roll for me as I was growing up. Charlie Watts defined what a rock drummer should do. Keef's riffs set the bar for guts and gusto. And I still say that Exile On Main Street was the best album of all time.

Now before you read the lineup, please know that I have even geekier friends in the communications business -- one of whom actually took the time to scribe the entire setlist down during the show. You can tease him about taking his Blackberry to the concert -- don't blame me! But as a true flack, I'm not ashamed to use his work for my own purposes. Thanks, Bill, for the following (some of the comments are mine).

8:40 - Pink Floyd style movie clip
1. Start Me Up (of course! I wonder if Microsoft is still paying them?)
2. You Got Me Rocking
Mick: "Last time we played here was at, uh, the YMCA..." !!!
3. Shattered (according to Bill, Mick replaces the line "Bedbugs uptown" with "Bedbugs in Hull" - I guess I was still pinching myself, 'cause I missed that!)
4. Tumblin' Dice: (Ronnie rips off the most awful, out of tune solo -- I'm thinking "there's a switch -- Keef's the straight guy tonight!")
5. Rough Justice (love the new single -- and Ronnie starts redeeming himself...)
6. Back of My Hand (Mick on slide guitar -- cool!)
7. Beast of Burden
8. She's So Cold
9. Night Time is the Right Time (a tribute to Ray Charles; Lisa Steele (sp-?) belts out vocals to make Gladys Knight pay attention)
10. The Worst (Keith; new country song -- jury's still out on this one)
11. Infamy (Keith, rocker - another winner!)
12. Miss You (we're watching, and the stage starts to lift up, and next thing you know, the whole thing is moving down the catwalk/track to the middle of the floor -- and no more than 20 metres away from us! Time to start pinching again!)
13. Oh No, Not You Again (another kickin' new one)
14. Satisfaction (Mick's headset mike malfunctions -- as buddy's sliding the new battery pack down the back of his trousers, you couldn't help but be reminded that Mick's still a sexy boy...)
15. Honky Tonk Woman (from B-stage, moves back to original spot)
16. Out of Control
17. Sympathy for the Devil (I thought he said they'd never play it again? Too cool to hear it performed live! Mick's likely into his third or fourth mile of running around the stage by now)
18. Jumpin' Jack Flash (Keith wanders out stage left for the first time)
19. Brown Sugar (band leaves the stage)
20. (10:30 p.m.) Encore: You Can't Always Get What You Want
21. It's Only Rock'n'Roll
10:45 Fireworks (I kid you not -- fireworks -- these guys brought the house down!)
Sound system: "I Shot the Sheriff" - The Wailers

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505

Steve Jobs says it best: you can only connect events backwards through time. We can't always predict -- and often fear -- how things will work out, but somehow, things always seem to work out for the best. So why don't we just trust that that is so? We need to take more risks, be more spontaneous, and have more faith in ourselves -- as long as we are following our hearts' desire.

I've lacked the true courage of my convictions when it's come to my dreams: to sing, to write, to reach out and talk to people, all in my dreams, all in my grasp, but never in my plans. I've feared the worst, and settled for the safe thing.

Life's too short. It's time to take stock of the cards I've been dealt, and try to see that I'm holding a damned Royal Flush!

Thanks, Steve, and thanks, Dad, for telling me to Google "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish". I wish for all of you reading that you take true inspiration from Steve's message -- trust us, it will all work out for the best. Just let your light shine, and follow your passion.
I'm going to.

I get it

It's taken me 44 years, but I finally get golf.
I've always gotten parts of it, I guess -- I like walking, and I like being in the sun; I certainly like having a couple of beers with my friends. (Lately, the cart's been fun, too...:-)
But I never really got it. Maybe the golf sucked (likely!). Maybe the company. Maybe, as my friend Mike says, "I'm still making love to my wife -- I'm not ready for golf yet!"

But last weekend, I got it. The perfect day, the sun not too hot, the shots not too bad, and the company perfect.
Nice little course, great people I don't have enough occasion to see otherwise, and I was in my happy place.

It's a great way to get some business done, too. Trapped together for a few hours, what else is there to do but chat? And if business is what you have in common, it's hard to talk of much else. It's a nice, defined, safe area for conversation if you're shy or awkward (or into things people have no business knowing about! :-) But then again, you can "bond" and all that -- I've met some of my best friends through my work. Generally speaking, the people you meet through work are often like-minded in many ways.

Yep, I can handle the golf.
As long as the shots are ok.
- And I'll still do the other thing, too, so so much for that theory, Mike!

Proudly Serving Canadians

This is National Public Service Week, an annual observance solemnly entrenched by an Act of Parliament; it is meant to be an annual week-long celebration of public servants, and as anyone who reads a paper in Ottawa knows, we are criticized annually for spending any money to do it.

As an employee of Public Works, I'm here to say that this week represents a chance for a bunch of very stressed out people who work in scattered work units all across the city to hang out together, interact, be given important information, then maybe have a few laughs and share a BBQ meal.

There's nothing like a game of golf, or volleyball, or softball, or racing in a sack. Bill Gates knows that, so does every Fortune 500 CEO. Employees should be celebrated at least once a year.

A PWGSC staffer is a curiously schizophrenic creature -- we have survived two reorganizations, four Ministers, three Deputies, and two elections in the last four years. Our mandate is transforming dramatically, and we have an enormous change management challenge. We run hot and cold: we can be extremely passionate about our work, enthusiastic and creative. Then we run smack into our own system: the bureaucracy takes hold, and all of the foibles of working in an enormous ecosystem of egos and rules can turn you into the biggest bunch of cynics. I have young friends who are in therapy, on medication, whose marriages are being stressed by the uncertainty and paranoia which is raging around us. Will we still have work? Who's going to be around next week? OK, so it's not Northern-Telecom-stress, but it chips away at your joy like some kind of demented water torture.

So we laugh about it. Our favourite lunch buddies are the ones who can help us laugh. And then maybe once or twice a year, you go off and do something fun together. And it keeps you going.

So tomorrow, we're getting together for a Town Hall, a BBQ and some games, and are celebrating our stressed-out team.

But we're getting to the Sportsplex on our own steam -- no buses, I promise.

why I hate special events

it's the waiting. You know how it is, it's three weeks to go -- time to make firm commitments, and spend some coin -- and you've got six people signed up. A week away, and there might be 30. It drives me right up the wall.

The waiting. Arrrggghhh!! And when you're running with a crowd that is notorious for leaving things to the last minute, it drives you even crazier. For a special event, the stakes are so much higher, than, say waiting for Part Two of a great two-part episode of Buffy, you know? Reputations are at stake; funds are needed. No, those months of waiting to see how Spike has come through the summer -- at least, for those of us who don't visit spoiler sites -- is a blissful agony. That I can enjoy. But for special events, just shoot me now.

Or sign up early, OK?

monkey see, monkey blog...

my friend Johnny, as usual, got here first. We talked about it, attended the seminar together, but Johnny set up his blog first.
Thanks, Johnny, you always stick your toe in for me, and tell me how the water is.
So how is it so far?

It's hard not to get excited about yet another place for us all to meet and talk, no matter where we are in the world. Even a jaded old flack like I can't help but see the potential for influence, and salivate just a little... at last, an audience!

I only wish I could explore this further for my current employer, the federal government. Our internet security rules prohibit us -- electronically -- from visiting any such outside sites. Just think, there are hundreds of revealing conversations taking place right now amongst Canadians regarding their government, conversations anyone can join -- except for the government itself.

I think that's the biggest frustration for a communicator in a bureaucratic setting this size. It's like trying to turn the Titanic on a dime -- it's physically impossible to respond at all nimbly to changes in technology. I just wish it weren't so very, very slow...

ah, well, as my father always says, "evolution, not revolution"....