Showing posts with label partner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label partner. Show all posts

March 18, 2021

Appreciate Who You Have In Your Life


Thought this was a brilliant depiction of appreciating the invaluable people in our lives.

You don't know what you have until you don't have it anymore. 

Often, people become lazy in their relationships or they stop appreciating what/who they have--we end up taking them for granted, not paying them our loving attention or worse mistreating them.

But one day, those people won't necessarily be there for us anymore. 

That's when our eyes are opened to what we've done, but then it's too late to go back and undo the mistakes we made. 

One good friend told me that marriage is not like Hollywood; it's not all loving all the time:

"There are good days and bad, but it's better to have 5 even really bad days a month with your partner than 30 bad days a month by yourself, alone."

Don't wait until it's too late to love and care for your spouse, children, grandchildren, etc. 

Eventually, the clock runs out and regret won't bring anyone back. 

(Source Photo: Millionaire Tutor via Facebook)


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March 7, 2021

The Beauty of Women

Great artistic depiction of the beauty of women. 

Simple yet elegant. 

Mysterious yet familiar. 

Intense yet tender and caring. 

Thoughtful yet expressive. 

Dark yet full of light. 

Natural yet sensual. 

Fantasy yet reality. 

A best friend, a partner, a lover.

Together a home.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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October 23, 2014

Israel-America 2gether 4ever

The other day, I passed the prestigious George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and someone had quite prominently graffitied the wall with "Free Palestine."

But then yesterday again, we saw another terrorist attack strike Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel, and a 3-month old baby from America was murdered after being thrown 30 feet in the air and landing on it's head.

I applaud the GW students who came out today to celebrate the enduring relationship between the United States and Israel.

At the event, a banner hung high with the promise from President Obama, as of those similarly who came before in the Oval Office that "The bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable today, unbreakable tomorrow, and unbreakable forever."

Moreover, last month, the Senate unanimously passed a bill upgrading and declaring Israel a "Major Strategic Partner" of the United States.

The defense of Israel as a secure and sovereign nation is an imperative as freedom and democracy shine forth as a beacon of hope and peace for humanity.

May G-d bless the 2 countries and may their flags fly as one--2gether 4ever. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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August 23, 2014

Can You Love A Robot?

Pew Research reports that by 2025, "Robotic sex partners will be commonplace."

While I certainly understand loving (new helpful) technology, actually making love to a machine is taking things a little too far.

Even with great advances in artificial intelligence (AI), a robot can be nothing more than an artificial partner...a humanoid is not a human!

Despite portrayals in the movie Her (2013) of a nerdy writer who falls in love with his life-like operating system, the reality of human and machine love is more a desperate call for companionship and understanding than a real connection of equals--physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. 

While a computer may be programmed to say the things you want to hear, to laugh at your jokes, and even to succumb to your advances, love cannot be programmed or even artificially learned. 

The complex dynamics between two real people locked-in the emotional roller coaster of life with its ups and downs, pulling together and pushing apart, of shared experiences, challenges, and conflicts, can only be met head on with a best friend, soulmate, diametric opposite, and at the same time congruent equal. 

Only another human being can love you and be your love.

A machine, however beautiful designed, charming, and learning of you, can be just a poor surrogate for the sad person screaming out for connection in a large lonely world. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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September 28, 2013

What True Love Means


A Walk To Remember--what an absolutely amazing movie.

This girl with a beautiful soul, Jamie, turns around the life of this lost boy, Landon. 

She warns him not to fall in love with her, but he does. 

She reveals that she has Leukemia and is no longer responding to medicine. 

Landon is head over heels for her and marries her despite the prognosis. 

They enjoy one summer of love before she passes. 

But she has changed his life forever. 

I cried like a baby at this one. 

It was a movie of faith, love, and turnaround--it made me believe again. ;-)

"Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude of selfish. It does not offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes." - Nicholas Sparks
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April 18, 2008

10 Obstacles to Enterprise Architecture

Here is an interesting list of 10 obstacles to the enterprise architecture from a colleague and friend, Andy Wasser, Associate Dean, Carnegie Mellon University School of Information Systems Management:

  1. Lack of Senior Management [Commitment] Support
  2. Inability to obtain necessary resources (funds, personnel, time)
  3. Business partner alienation
  4. Internal IT conflicts and turf issues (no centralized authority)
  5. Lack of credibility of the EA team
  6. Inexperience with enterprise architecture planning or inexperience with the organization
  7. Entrenched IT team [operational focus versus strategic]
  8. Focus on EAP methodologies and tools [rather than on outputs and outcomes]
  9. Uncertain payback and ROI
  10. Disharmony between sharing data vs. protecting data

This is a good list for the chief enterprise architect to work with and develop strategies for addressing these. If I may, here are some thoughts on overcoming them:

1-4,7,9: Obtain Senior management commitment/support, resources, and business/IT partnership by articulating a powerful vision for the EA; identify the benefits (and mandates); preparing an EA program assessment, including lessons learned and what you need to do to make things “right”; developing an EA program plan with milestones that shows you have a clear way ahead. Providing program metrics of how you intend to evaluate and demonstrate progress and value for the business/IT.

5,6,8: Build credibility for EA planning, governance, and organizational awareness by hiring the best and the brightest and train, train, train; getting out of the ivory tower and working hand-in-hand in concert with business partners; building information products and governance services that are useful and usable to the organization (no shelfware!); using a three-tier metamodel (profiles, models, and inventories) to provide information in multiple levels of details that makes it valuable and actionable from everyone from the analyst to the chief executive officer; looking for opportunities (those that value EA and want to participate) and build incrementally (“one success at a time”).

10: Harmonize information sharing and security by developing an information governance board (that includes the chief information security officer) to vet information sharing and security issues; establishing data stewards to manage day-to-day issues including metadata development, information exchange package descriptions, discovery, accessibility, and security; creating a culture that values and promotes information sharing, but also protects information from inappropriate access and modification.


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November 26, 2007

The "Right" Way to Introduce New Technology and Enterprise Architecture

I came across some interesting lessons learned on rolling out new technology (from the perspective of franchisers/franchisees) that apply nicely to user-centric enterprise architects (adapted from The Wall Street Journal, 26 November 2007):

1)
Partner with the user--"if you can get a franchisee really excited about the new technology, it's a lot simpler to get it rolled out...if I can convince you, and you can see the difference, you will be my best spokesman."

2)
Testing it first--"finding a guinea pig...we have a lot of people telling us they have great concepts. We want to see that it works with our customer base, our menu, our procedures first."

3)
Show the cost-benefit--"an enhancement may look promising, but if its payback is years away, the investment may not compute." Why fix it, if it ain't broke.

4)
Keep it simple--"most franchisees are focused on their business, not technology...so they're not looking for something to complicate their lives." Also, focus the solution on the operators in the field and not on the headquarters staff, who may not be completely in tune with the realities on the front lines with the customers.
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