On Thursday, October 4th, from 4pm-6pm, at DJ’s Dugout, located at 777 No. 114th Street. I met up with 27 other IT professionals from the metropolitan Omaha community that were selected for the 2018-19 AIM IT Leadership Academy
The purpose of the meeting was to review the AIM IT Leadership program. There were past program graduates there to explain the expectations for each participate. Each participant has a accountability partner to help the candidate through the program.
On June 2, 2012 I competed at the 2012 IBJJF World Championships. My reporting time was sometime between 9:00 a.m. & 10:00 a.m. Pacific time. I was there because I dream of being a champion. When you commit to living the champion’s life and dream. To dream big dreams requires going outside of the normal comfort zone. The challenge & tribulation of my daily life allows me go into this competition with the support from my beautiful wife Melani Carlson my wonderful family and the best martial arts gym in Omaha, Nebraska Mid-America Martial Arts. When you realize all this winning or losing doesn’t really matter.
My Good Samaritan deed was done on that day. Outside of the Pyramid in Long Beach California where the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation worlds are. I went up today to do my weight check. While walking back to my car there were these two men wondering up the sidewalk. The one in the white shirt asked for help. The spoke very little English and were in distress. So using a form of broken English, Charades, pointing and translate.google.com. I even called my good friend Matt Meyer who has not been working on his Japanese. I was able to figure out the one in the white shirt left his Kimino (GI) in the Yellow Cab from the Super 8 where they were staying. I was able to find a phone number. I then Called Yellow Cab which transferred me around until I made contact with the driver. He came back to the Pyramid with the lost GI. This took about an hour. These guys were so thankful they took pictures with me, invited me to train in Japan and bowed as I left.
Based upon some past advice I once gave. I figured this Sunday would be as good as time bring up the open and closed guard. No, I am not talking about our beloved Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but the relationships we have with significant others, family and friends. The Open and Closed guard is based on risk, trust and outcomes. I would not have learned the most important person in risk is me. So what works best for me. Trust is based on the expectation that something positive will happen. Trust is actually obtain from other people by outcomes. So anytime you take a risk you are looking for a positive outcome. Determining your own values and actions of trust, not others, leads to positive outcomes, I firmly believe this is the difference between looking back and reflecting on what two people accomplished and looking back with regret at what we wished we would have done. Which is why we open and close are guards with people.
For some reason I have been processing the term Conviction today. I am relating it to myself. Depending on the definition of conviction. The word can be reference as a fixed or strong belief. I have a strong belief that all people I associate truly care about me. I am fixed on the idea that I don’t make all the right decision. My conviction for today is to make sure I am a better man moving forward. That the caring of others and decisions I make lead me to a better tomorrow. I don’t say much, but when I do it means something. If you don’t know that then you may not really know me. So in becoming a better man at this moment. My conviction is I love my family and friends. Urban Legend
Almost 14 years ago today, I competed at a local grappling tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska. In the no-gi division I executed the far side spinning armbar from knee on belly.
In 2004 I traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan to compete in the 2004 Wolverine Classic. Now in 2018 if you ever talk to anyone that competes. You might hear the scissor sweep is never hit in competition. That was the first sweep I ever learned. Here is a video from 2004 as a white belt to prove the scissor sweep works. I also won my first gold medal ever in BJJ!
Martial Arts are supposed to make the community you live in better. In the Omaha area there are many dojo. Doing a google search is the fastest way to find a dojo. Remember no matter what dojo you go. The most important thing is you. How are you treated? How does the instructor help you become a better person? How do you fit in the culture? How are you valued as a person. Not everyone wants to compete. Sometimes influence or reputation puts a perspective before we ever step foot in a place. There is not one place that I will mention to anyone that I don’t believe can help someone out.
As I was driving upon the street from my house. I was thinking about good & direction. When you hit that “T” in the road. Which direction do you go? You go left, you go right, or maybe just stay in place. In all actuality either direction might not be good. I realize as a person my direction does not have to be good. Good is something we all agree upon. I don’t want to go and do something everyone has agreed upon. I have learned the more you vary your own direction from others. Then there never needs to be sufficient rationalization to have a good decision. The truth is the direction was the best decision at the time. So as long as you stick to good you’ll never have real direction.
For years I always said I should start blogging. So in 2018 I decided to finally start. I plan to start writing about my adventures these past 40 years, but also add entries about the next 40 plus years.
In 2016 I lead the Intern team. The name of the team was: Team 4OH!4 is on the second Floor.
Through out the next few weeks make sure to say hi.
June 6th the 4 Application Development and 2 Technology Services (where applicable) interns went through a week long training sessions at FCSA. Thank you to all the individuals who shared their passion about roles and teams here at FCSAmerica.
Here is a high level view of the Learning sessions.
The eight team member visited Red Oak, Iowa to learn more about how are team mates interact with customers. The route we took was through scenic Plattsmouth, Nebraska.
Spent the First hour with Doug Dickinson (Insurance Officer) . Doug gave us a Insurance 101 crash course.
We then met with Chad Jacobs (Financial Officer) . Chad broke down his relationship building with customers.
Best Quote. “We need more Chevy’s then Cadillacs”
External systems, AgDirect, AgriPoint, board of directors, 1500 internal employees, Gigabar vs Gigablock, laptop refresh, mobile devices service link, tech support document
The other two IT Interns Sara and Justin joined us.
Testing strategy, Testing Pyramid provide reliable tests, Service Level testing
Postman
Fitnesse
We attended another team’s standup to observe how a team does this Agile ritual. (Team Jedi). We then meet Team Furyan
in a conference room to hear about the roles and network with a team. We played a game with the help of ODL. The four app dev interns played four members of a appdev team in Jeopardy. Thank you so much to ODL for facilitating the game.
We gave the team a data tour. Learned about the data line connecting the two building. learned about the air conditioning units.
Dropped buzzwords: cloud, data center, Internet of things (security cameras, fridges, room devices) this rack cost millions of dollars. The team Also saw the NON-production in the Main Building.
Unit Test and TDD in Javascript.
The team played Lean Coffee with the IT Leaders. It was a informal way to get to know you. Plus any takeaways are a great way to building connections.
The Team has been working on a Angular 2 course to prepare us for our project. Learned other practices such as GIT, Builds,
One assignment was to read “Practices of an Agile Developer”. This personally is one of my favorite programming books.
