Don’t Break the Elastic – Maya Anlelou

In April, Maya Angelou was interviewed by Oprah on her 70 birthday. Oprah asked her what she thought of growing older.

And, there on television, she said it was ‘exciting.’ Regarding body changes, she said there were many, occurring every day…like her breasts. They seem to be in a race to see which will reach her waist, first.

The audience laughed so hard they cried. She is such an honest woman, with so much wisdom in her words!

Maya Angelou said this:

“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
 
“I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.

“I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life.’ 

“I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.

“I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.

“I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

“I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.

“I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.

“I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

 

Happy Mother’s Day!!

Celebrating motherhood is a historical tradition dating back almost as far as mothers themselves. A number of ancient cultures paid tribute to mothers as goddesses, including the ancient Greeks, who celebrated Rhea, the mother of all gods. The ancient Romans also honored their mother goddess, Cybele, in a notoriously rowdy springtime celebration and the Celtic Pagans marked the coming of spring with a fertility celebration linking their goddess Brigid together with the first milk of the ewes.

 

During the 17th century, those living on the British isles initiated a religious celebration of motherhood, called Mothering Sunday, which was held on the forth Sunday during the Lenten season. This holiday featured the reunification of mothers and their children, separated when working class families had to send off their young children to be employed as house servants. On Mothering Sunday, the child servants were allowed to return home for the day to visit with their parents. The holiday’s popularity faded in the 19th century, only to be reincarnated during World War II when U.S. servicemen reintroduced the sentimental (and commercial) aspects of the celebration American counterpart.
In the aftermath of World War I, Washington D.C. resident Grace Darling Seibold formed an organization called Gold Star Mothers, to support the moms who had lost sons and daughters to the war. Grace’s son, First Lieutenant George Vaughn Seybold, was an aviator who had been killed in combat over France in 1918.

 

In 1928, the small D.C.-based group decided to nationalize its efforts. The Gold Star Mothers grew from a support group of 60 women to an extensive nation-wide network with tens of thousands of members and hundreds of local chapters. Today, any American woman who has lost a child in the line of duty can join the Gold Star Mothers.

 

The organization’s primary role then and now is to provide emotional support to bereaved mothers. Members also actively volunteer with the veteran community and act as patriotic supporters of the United States military.

 

In 1936, a Joint Congressional resolution established the last Sunday in September as Gold Star Mother’s Day, a holiday that has been observed ever since by Presidential proclamation.

 

Early in President George W. Bush’s tenure as president, he renewed that proclamation, declaring on September 28, 2001:

“Today, the nation’s Gold Star Mothers still stand as symbols of purpose, perseverance, and grace in the face of personal tragedy. Each year, the Nation remembers their sacrifice by honoring the Gold Star Mothers for their steadfast commitment to the legacy of their fallen children and their devotion to the United States of America.”

The name the Gold Star Mothers was derived from the custom of military families to hang a service flag in their front window. The flag featured a star for each member of the family serving in the military; living members were denoted in blue, while gold stars honored family members killed in the line of duty.

 

                                                                        Happy Mother’s Day to all Moms – You are Awesome!

Hug That Fills you with Love

Jesus Hugs

Scope Control

Who hasn’t been on a project where scope creep is an issue? One of my pet peeves is when people try to add functionality (or even a bug fix) and don’t realize they need to inform the Project Manager and all prior documentation has to be changed. An engineer may be able to code a fix very quickly, but if he does that has ramifications on documentation, schedule management and quality control (to name a few). When someone tries to pull this, I always draw the infamous triangle of scope, time/cost and resources. If one changes, the others will as well.

 

One way to formally control this is to implement a formal scope verification process where you require a change to be communicated to the stakeholders’ for formal acceptance of the completed project scope and associated deliverables. Verifying the project scope includes reviewing deliverables to ensure that each is completed satisfactorily. If the project is terminated early, the project scope verification process should establish and document the level and extent of completion.

 

Scope verification differs from quality control in that scope verification is primarily concerned with acceptance of the deliverables, while quality control is primarily concerned with meeting the quality requirements specified for the deliverables.

 

Quality control is generally performed before scope verification, but these two processes can be performed in parallel; and when a change occurs (that is accepted) all project team members need to re-examine their project documents and schedule. Any corrective changes go to the project manager and new plans and schedules are produced. Then a process of verifying the scope occurs. The following lists potential outputs from Scope verification:

 

·         Accepted Deliverables The Scope Verification process documents those completed deliverables that have been accepted. Those completed deliverables that have not been accepted are documented, along with the reasons for non-acceptance. Scope verification includes supporting documentation received from the customer or sponsor and acknowledging stakeholder acceptance of the project’s deliverables.

·         Requested Changes Requested changes may be generated from the Scope Verification process, and are processed for review and disposition through the Integrated Change Control process.

·         Recommended Corrective Actions

 

 

For a successful project, the Project Manager is in charge of scope control. Scope control is concerned with influencing the factors that create project scope changes and controlling the impact of those changes. Scope control assures all requested changes and recommended corrective actions are processed through the project Integrated Change Control process. Project scope control is also used to manage the actual changes when they occur and is integrated with the other control processes. Uncontrolled changes are often referred to as project scope creep. Change is inevitable, thereby mandating some type of change control process. The biggest thing to remember is to communicate to all team members and stake holders during this process. It is wise to institute a formal change control system.

 

A project scope change control system, documented in the project scope management plan, defines the procedures by which the project scope and product scope can be changed. The system includes the documentation, tracking systems, and approval levels necessary for authorizing changes. The scope change control system is integrated with any overall project management information system to control project scope. When the project is managed under a contract, the change control system also complies with all relevant contractual provisions.

 

Project performance measurements are used to assess the magnitude of variation. Important aspects of project scope control include determining the cause of variance relative to the scope baseline and deciding whether corrective action is required. Earned value management is very helpful here.

 

Approved change requests affecting the project scope can require modifications to the WBS and WBS dictionary, the project scope statement, and the project scope management plan. These approved change requests can cause updates to components of the project management plan.

 

A formal configuration management system provides procedures for the status of the deliverables, and assures that requested changes to the project scope and product scope are thoroughly considered and documented before being processed through the Integrated Change Control process.

 

 

Do You Know what it means to miss New Orleans

you’ve never heard of a dry county. you don’t know what a county is. when you hear gambling is illegal in some other states and are surprised. you know the 12 Yats of Christmas by heart. you know what Schwegman’s is. when you know what “LAGNIAPPE” and “LAISSEZ LE BON TEMPS ROULER” mean. when you go away for college, and when you tell people where you’re from they automatically know you can drink more than everyone at the school put together u tried “cajun” food somewhere else and u thought it tasted like shit You reinforce your attic to store Mardi Gras beads. Your sunglasses fog up when you step outside. When you give directions you use “lakeside and riverside” not north & south. Your ancestors are buried above the ground. You get on a green streetcar to go to the park and a red one to the French Quarter. You take a bite of five-alarm chili and reach for the Tabasco. You don’t learn until high school that Mardi Gras is not a national holiday. You push little old ladies out of the way to catch Mardi Gras beads. Little old ladies push YOU out of the way to catch Mardi Gras beads. You leave a parade with footprints on your hands. You believe that purple, green, and gold look good together. Your last name isn’t pronounced the way it’s spelled. you get aggrevated when 1. people think mardi gras takes place in the french quarter and 2. that people think that no matter what time of the year it is if they go to the french quarter they will get a boob shot! when you get pissed at people who pronounce it nawlins, norlens, or new or leans. You know what a nutria is but you still pick it to represent your baseball team. No matter where else you go in the world, you are always disappointed in the food. Your town is low on the education chart, high on the obesity chart and you don’t care because you’re No. 1 on the party chart. Your house payment is less than your utility bill. You don’t show your “pretties” during Mardi Gras. You know that Tchoupitoulas is a street and not a disease. Your grandparents are called “Maw-Maw” and “Paw-Paw.” Your Santa Claus rides an alligator and your favorite Saint is a football player. You cringe every time you hear an actor with a Southern or Cajun accent in a “New Orleans-based” movie or TV show. You have to reset your clocks after every thunderstorm. You’re walking in the French Quarter with a plastic cup of beer. When it starts to rain, you cover your beer instead of your head. You eat dinner out and spend the entire meal talking about all the other good places you’ve eaten. You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Louisiana. you know what is meant by ‘K&B purple You know what it means for food to come ‘dressed’… you ‘ax’ for things… you see a van taxi with spinners you know your from new orleans if you recognize at least one person in a parade You save newspapers, not for recycling but for tablecloths at crawfishboils when you travel abroad you always remember to pack 2 things: bottle of tabasco and a salt shaker of tony’s in your purse Drive-thru daquiris — it’s not drinking and driving until you put the straw in. You drive east to get to the West Bank. You stand on the neutral ground at parades and have no idea what a ‘median’ is. You get annoyed when you wear a Perlis shirt and people ask you if you work at Red Lobster. You know how to pronounce Mignon Faget. pulling a baby out of a cake is completely normal. you know McKenzie is both a football player and a landmark you made one bad turn and you end up on the twin span at least once. you know what the twin span is. you shop at Lakeside. you listen to people represent their ward on Q93. you know that the Riverwalk is for tourists. sock hops were cool in middle school (and not the 70s) AND you think its stupid when people ask you if you actually took your socks off. someone asks you for starbucks and you give them CCs or PJs you have waited in the ridiculously long line for Camellia Grill during lunch at least once. The only Bush you respect is a Black man. You refuse to believe that there is such a thing as the “Utah Jazz”. There is a color called “Bur-GUN-dee”. The concept of a basement never crossed your mind. You get your car’s suspension repaired at least twice a year. You know at least two best places for sno-balls. You’ve seen roaches bigger than rats. You’ve seen rats bigger than cats. the roof of your house was at sea level, and your stuff was at the “bottom of the sea” WHEN YOU DONT REFER ”MARDI GRAS” AS THE CARNIVAL…WHO SAYS THAT??? If someone in a Lowe’s store offers you assistance and they don’t work there, you may live in Louisiana If you’ve worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Louisiana If you’ve had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Louisiana. If “Vacation” means going to Dallas for the weekend, you may live in Louisiana. If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Louisiana . If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Louisiana. If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Louisiana. If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them , you may live in Louisiana. If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph — you’re going 80 and everybody is passing you, you may live in Louisiana You know that there is one “Original Lee’s Hamburgers” even though they all say they are the one. If there’s a major hurricane headed straight for you and all you’re worried about is that they changed the time of the LSU game.