WALKING THIS EVENING
FOR THE GENTLE RAIN HAD STOPPED
THIS COOL EVEBING AIR
Author: Carl Setzer
A blogger blogging from just north of Seattle.
Google’s Tea Uglow Featured On This Week’s Design Matters
I’m sad to say that I’ve never heard of Tea Uglow until this evening when I was able to listen to the most recent Design Matters podcast (if you haven’t subscribed, you need to change that). Tea is the Creative Director of Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney, which sounds like an invigorating role.
Tea comes to tech with a delightfully unique mindset. Not from the computer science world, but art and design. A mindset that’s critically important right now, at this point in tech history. I deeply believe that design thinking is the future of tech. And, really, the now of tech. She’s done some other videoed talks, which I’ll explore later. It’s awfully late today.
This talk covers a lot of ground, from sexuality and gender identity to diversity and inclusion in tech. Such broad wandering inspires and engages me.
Give it a listen. It’s well worth your time.
A Rainy Tuesday #Haiku
Even though it’s rained
Summer’s breath still dominates
And sunlight has returned
Transitions and Next Steps
Currently, I’m on a six-week plan to change roles. Permitting and feasibility process (what I’ve done for the past 2.5 years) is not what I want for the rest of my life. And it’s time to do what I love. Mike, the owner of Eagle Country and I worked out the 6 week plan, giving the company time for a transition and me a window to shift. I find this a glorious win-win and am deeply grateful.
I’m working on transitioning from construction to, ideally, communications. Writing is my first love, and I’ve appreciated every opportunity to do so. I’m also love photography and video. And connecting people delights me.
I define “communications” as this overarching concept encompassing everything from marketing to PR to public affairs to internal comms. I love writing everything from newsletters to creating flyers to PowerPoint presentations.
I have a plan in place. This week I’ll get my resume out in front of key people, update LinkedIn, my website, Indeed and any other useful websites. And I completed most of all that yesterday. So I’m feeling pretty awesome right now. I need to research what other websites to utilize, if any. Also, I need to work on expanding my list of focus companies.
Boeing is first. As a boy, I fell in love with “space” and aircraft. Growing up in Navy based family gave me visibility to all kinds of aircraft. And at one point I could name off all the different military and civilian aircraft: A6, Tomcat, 707, 747….and on and on. I still get excited watching spacecraft footage.
As a professional, the scale of Boeing and their unique challenges fascinate me. As a truly global company I expect the myriad languages, cultures and time zones to make for interesting and fun challenges. That’s true with both internal and external communication. And I see many opportunities within the current OR challenges the company faces. Challenge presented opportunity.
Other local companies intrigue me, too. Whether Premera here in South Snohomish county, to places I’ve worked before (Microsoft, Starbucks). My goal now is to find work I love. And I’m in my way.
Any advice? Especially web tools and such would be great. Please leave a comment and let me know. Cheers!
Sunlight’s Grace: A #Haiku
Looking towards the sky
And summer’s not quite here yet
This graceful sunlight
Update On My Son’s Progress 6/17/19
Well, another week has passed and we’re moving forward. Braeden had 2 separate appointments at Children’s Hospital of Seattle giving us some much needed info and direction.
Monday he met with a Speech Language Pathologist. We found out he still has some issues with memory and word retrieval. For that, come July, he will start weekly sessions in a group of teens called Return To Learn. They focus on developing executive functioning skills (such as tools for remembering things that need to get done, as well as increasing cognitive stamina). That’s a 12 week program, after which he should be back in full form.
Then on Friday we went to Children’s TBI Clinic (Traumatic Brain Injury). The doctor commented that Braeden is doing remarkably well given his injury. But we still have healing to accomplish. Braeden was hoping for clearance to drive again, but she told him “no”. But we now have information about the return to driving process. She gave us information about driving rehabilitation services. Once she gives us the go ahead, we will contact them to evaluate Braeden’s fitness to drive. As you can imagine, he really misses the level of independence driving provides.
The clinician also told us that Braeden has to keep both feet on the ground for about 3 months – until the skull fracture heals. This means some of the items that are cleared for activities when concussion sufferers “feel up to it” are off the list. Which provides him some more frustrations.
School ends next Wednesday. We are trying to encourage Braeden to attend at least 1 class each day, but the issues with memory, word retrieval and focus do make school hard and unpleasant. With things like finals, it’s even more challenging. But there is end of year fun that might make school more appealing and less exhausting.
We want to extend a big thank you for your prayers and warm wishes, and all the support we’ve received.
An Almost Summer Haiku
Love this reddened sky
The darkness bringing cool air
Summer’s antidote
More Life Changes Coming
I have some major changes in my career coming up. I’ll write more about this shortly. Endings, beginnings and transitions. Fear and excitement. Opportunities…
I’m in the process of reviewing, and refining, my goals and objectives. I need to pull together a vision.
Advice and counsel will be requested and encouraged. As one of my mentors outs it: no one succeeds alone. And I’m not alone.
Good Morning Haiku
The morning’s progress
Resisting the snooze alarm
Listening to birds
The need to create: A #haiku
Must create new stuff
While honoring tradition
There’s so much to learn