Tom Leslie
Toronto, Canada

The airport was open. Unfortunately, Colorado Springs' airport was closed. An incredibly thick fog had moved in and when we got to Denver we found that all flights onward were cancelled. After about an hour of annoying delays, we set off in buses and eventually I got to bed at the resort here at 11:45 local (1:45 am Toronto time). So my resolution to get more sleep has suffered another night's neglect.

Our class today has covered a quick overview of the Seven Habits and we're now in a Personal Mission Statement activity. So far, I've come up with a bunch of goals and principles, but haven't found many common themes or ways to condense the list. But here are a few of my most brilliant ideas: (tongue firmly in cheek)

• Don't confuse having an opinion for being educated.
• Always look on the bright side of life, and remember there's always ways to make it brighter.
• Don't confuse money with success.
• I am truly happy when I am singing music that is important to me with people I love.

posted by Tom Leslie at 7:01 PM | link

I'm on my way off to Colorado in about an hour. There's a blizzard outside, and I hope the airport is still open or it's going to be a really long day.

The decision point for the week is whether or not I should pursue a project that's come up in the U.S. working with the same Associate Partner I reported to last year. On the one hand I really want to get home and try and get more of a personal life, but on the other hand there are no obvious projects to join in Toronto and it sounds like the U.S. project would be a really good idea from a career standpoint. It would have been much easier if I had been able to sell some work up here as I'd planned, but the client's rather lukewarm response turned to total silence so there's almost no chance at this point. Too bad, as that would have been *great* for the career and let me work from home as well.

Next weekend I'll be in rehearsal for a Consort Caritatis concert with Ben Heppner coming up in a couple of weeks. More training at home for a couple of days, then back to Seattle.
posted by Tom Leslie at 2:35 PM | link

Ok. Life got busy in a hurry last week and over the weekend.

The course ended up very well. Thursday night we went for dinner at 302 West in Geneva, IL, which was excellent although quite expensive: US $65 per person. Friday the course teams presented their final results to the "steering committee" (their peers) and the course ended on a high point.

On the weekend I went up to the Snymans' cottage and had a wonderful time. They've recently bought a snowmobile, which fits into the category of things that I disapprove of in principle, but enjoy in practice. We went zipping across the lakes (frozen at the time, mostly) and other than one rather scary moment where Christine and I almost rolled the thing (we hit an ice block with one ski as the other one went into a depression) we did fine. I hadn't realized how fast those things go -- 90 km/h -- and how much ground you can cover in the open. I can see why the northern communities in Canada use them all the time. Still, they're smelly and loud and somewhat dangerous, and I think I'll stick to cross country skis (better exercise and ability to enjoy the environment) for my own winter excursions.

Today I rebranded my stored documents at work, which for 75% of them meant the circular file. We have sheets of Accenture stickers around the office to paste over the Andersen Consulting logos on anything that's worth keeping. Seems excessive, but we're under a deadline to no longer even refer to the old name after March 31. Which reminds me that the superbowl was last weekend and the Accenture ads were quite prominent (not that I watched the superbowl). They did, however, get a mixed reception. It wasn't clear what message the bacteria forming a chip was supposed to convey, for example. Branding is a complicated subject, and I'm glad I'm not in the marketing department which must be coming under some fire.
posted by Tom Leslie at 4:13 PM | link