The Alan Zone…

by JegErAlan on May 21, 2019 at 2:04 am

Have you ever read a book and said to yourself, “I want to lock my executives in a room and make them read this”? Okay, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration :-), but Mark Schwartz’s latest work is one that all levels of IT management should digest, especially executives. My copy is filled why highlights […]

by JegErAlan on May 19, 2019 at 12:41 am

These are rough notes I put together for a ~90 minute presentation to my company’s Agile Community of Interest. I have edited them to remove any direct references to who I work for…not because you aren’t smart enough to use Google, Bing, or your favorite search engine to figure that out :-)…but because it has […]

by JegErAlan on May 7, 2019 at 3:01 pm

Over the weekend I ran into this tweet by Charles Betz, whose Twittter bio describes him as “Digital management analyst, author, and instructor. DevOps lead @ Forrester. Adjunct @ U of St Thomas – MN. Occasional jazz riffs.”: Study questions to the original waterfall paper by Royce. Great work by @Morendil. This is what we […]

by JegErAlan on May 5, 2019 at 11:33 pm

Today Nicole Forsgren started an inspiring conversation on Twitter with these three tweets: I want to do a talk: Hidden Figures of DevOps. Women’s contributions thru history. I know we’re there. I we’re erased or forgotten. Help me remember. Give me dates and names and what we did. Please RT. — nicole forsgren PHD IN […]

by Alan on April 28, 2019 at 11:02 pm

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by JegErAlan on April 25, 2019 at 3:44 pm

If you are a people manager, how many direct reports should you have? I had an Executive VP who thought it should never be more than 6. Other companies set guidelines by management level (e.g. a Manager should have 15-20, a Director less, etc.) Is there a good way to establish this number? I’m partway […]

by JegErAlan on April 24, 2019 at 3:40 pm

I’m not 100% sure where I heard about it last week, but I was intrigued by a mention that Ben Franklin had a 5-hour rule around learning. Short version: he spent an hour a day, 5 days a week, learning. I’ve basically been trying to do that myself, mainly through reading (but hoping to expand to spending more time […]

by JegErAlan on April 14, 2019 at 11:03 pm

Since I stepped more into the Agile and DevOps world, I’ve been blessed by getting to meet and/or talk to some great people, including authors of books everyone should read. Now, I have not met Carmen DeArdo in person yet, but I have spoken with him a couple times (and exchanged e-mails), so I was […]

by Alan on April 14, 2019 at 7:33 pm

Don’t Judge Mephibosheth Too Quickly Pronouncing Names Am I the only person, when they run into a hard name in the Bible, basically reads past it? And there are a lot of names like that in Scripture, eh? 🙂 However, before we try to pronounce the name of the main biblical character in today’s message, […]

by JegErAlan on April 8, 2019 at 2:43 am

I’ve just started what looks to be a tremendous work by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World. I’m in a section about realities, which starts off quickly discussing “objective” and “subjective” ones. Then: But Harari goes on to argue that there is a third […]

by JegErAlan on April 7, 2019 at 7:32 pm

I was blessed to be able to work in the tremendous country of Australia for a couple of years on the Olympics, but I came close to being buried there. I almost drowned. I enjoyed body surfing, but because I am a tall guy, I needed to go out relatively far to decrease the chance […]

by Alan on March 31, 2019 at 5:42 pm

If there is one thing I should hate my wife for, it’s training my youngest to like food channels. For instance, when you are in a hotel (like we are right now), who would put on the Food Network (or whatever other horrible one this one is)?! Either way, there is a program on that […]

by JegErAlan on March 26, 2019 at 3:15 pm

I am very impressed with these new business cards from Vistaprint. (What you cannot see is how well they also did raised graphics and text.) Beautiful and professional visually and tactilely. Way to go Vistaprint! […]

by JegErAlan on March 22, 2019 at 2:55 pm

This awesome mathematics teaching tool came in yesterday from Amazon: Okay, it was a bit hard to hold my Note9 and flip it…but you get the idea! The Bell curve and standard distribution are obvious, but it also… Both the Galton Board and the superimposed Pascal’s Triangle incorporate many related mathematical, statistical and probability concepts. […]

by Alan on March 17, 2019 at 7:00 pm

My Samsung Galaxy Watch Okay, I’ll admit it. I like to have the latest and greatest toys when it comes to technology. Latest smartphone. Latest tablet. Latest watch. And, sure enough, I am wearing the Galaxy Watch…Samsung’s latest wearable offering if you don’t count the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active. (But, I am not sure Active […]

by JegErAlan on March 16, 2019 at 10:32 pm

A week and a half ago, I attended a 90 minute talk by Mike Rognlien in Denver thanks to VitalSmarts. A bonus was getting a free copy of Mike’s 2018 book, This Is Now Your Company. That unexpected gift was quite serendipitous given I’ll be presenting “Counterintuitive IT™: How Do We Change Culture?” at my […]

by JegErAlan on March 16, 2019 at 8:10 pm

A “must read” book for anyone is Crucial Conversatons. This video gives a great summary. Please check it out…but still read the book! 🙂 […]

by JegErAlan on March 11, 2019 at 8:02 pm

I have been so busy rebuilding my home office with a Human Solution UPLIFT Desk (more on that another day), I have been remiss in not noting how much I enjoyed a presentation by Mike Rognlien at a morning VitalSmarts conference last Thursday. Considering how much I am highlighting passages, his book, This Is Now […]

by JegErAlan on March 2, 2019 at 10:35 pm

Figured I’d repeat a post I put on LinkedIn this morning: You know that when a book starts off with a forward by Gene Kim and then immediately quotes something written in 1159, it’s going to be great. Congrats to Carmen DeArdo on the release of Standing on Shoulders: A Leader’s Guide to Digital Transformation […]

by JegErAlan on February 25, 2019 at 7:15 am

As I said on Twitter, this is like having Eddie Van Halen complement your guitar work. ‘Night all. This is the article Gene is referring to: “Shook Change Model” P.S. I have gotten to speak to Gene Kim a couple times. He is one of the nicest guys I’ve met, and the epitome of my […]

by JegErAlan on February 25, 2019 at 2:45 am

After church and lunch at IHOP, I spent the rest of the afternoon creating a Microsoft Teams team (with channels) for a new DevOps & Agile Book Club at work. One of the things I love about both DevOps and Agile is the complete commitment to continual learning. Reading is one of the best ways […]

by Alan on February 24, 2019 at 8:41 pm

Bad Spies This is going to be a short sermon with one basic point…so let’s jump right into Scripture, specifically Numbers 13:1-3: 13 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send […]

by JegErAlan on February 23, 2019 at 8:42 pm

As I work on research for a sermon about why God, when He can accomplish whatever He wants without us, has us help, I recalled of something that Gene Kim said in Beyond the Phoenix Project (a recording he did with John Willis): John Shook wrote about his NUMMI experience in the Fremont plant, a joint […]

by JegErAlan on February 21, 2019 at 3:00 pm

Intuition is a handy thing to have in IT. As a former IT Jack-of-all-trades, I could join an outage call and frequently identify what was wrong more quickly than the experts. As a newbie with DevOps, data science, and other emerging IT fields, I don’t have that advantage anymore. It is uncomfortable. But, it is […]

by JegErAlan on February 19, 2019 at 3:15 pm

During a quick road trip this past weekend to Goodland, Kansas with my 11-year-old son, I finally opened Theory of Constraints by Eliyahu Goldratt. I didn’t read as much as I hoped (but you don’t go on a mini-vacation with your munchkin to ignore him). However, I loved Goldratt’s discussion of how change induces emotion (and […]

by Alan on February 10, 2019 at 9:14 pm

Old Testament or New Testament Let’s pretend that right now I said, “Instead of a sermon, we are going to read the Bible for an hour.” Would you want to spend that hour reading the Old Testament or the New Testament? [Wait for answers. ] Why? [Wait for answers.] I think in a crowd of […]

by Alan on February 3, 2019 at 9:14 pm

In Search of Connor MacLeod Who is Connor MacLeod? No…he’s not a real person…but a movie character. Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. Who is he? He’s the fictional hero in the sci-fi film, “The Highlander.” Beyond having one of the most awesome movie soundtracks of all time thanks to Queen, it has an interesting […]

by Alan on January 20, 2019 at 9:14 pm

Carl’s Jr in Bennett, Colorado During our weekly Saturday morning breakfast excursion, a song came on overhead at the Carl’s Junior in Bennett. It was catchy, and I thought it was a new release by Aloe Blacc…but when I looked it up on my Samsung Galaxy Note9, it was actually by a guy called Rag’n’Bone Man…a […]

by Alan on January 13, 2019 at 8:50 pm

Kevin Hart Anyone familiar with Kevin Hart and the Oscars? Short version is that the comedian, Kevin Hart, was chosen to host the Oscars this year. Some folks looked through his Twitter history and found some old jokes that could be taken negatively against homosexuals. Tweets from back from 2009 to 2011. He apologized. Do you […]

by Alan on December 30, 2018 at 10:00 pm

Being Held Accountable Let’s hop directly into Scripture today, turning Ezekiel 18:19-20: 19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. 20 The soul who sins shall […]

by Alan on December 27, 2018 at 7:18 pm

I’ve been blessed by a brother in Christ who recently moved to Strasburg (he and his wife being potential attendees of the church I am minister for). When I meet with a possible new member who especially cares about theology, I figure it is best to be up front about anything he or she might […]

by Alan on December 23, 2018 at 8:57 pm

Your All Time Favorite Christmas Gift Christmas is how many days away kids? Part of today, all of tomorrow…so just two days! Everyone…what is your favorite Christmas gift ever? One that causes you to smile whenever you think back about it? Growing up, there was a period where everything I wanted was G.I. Joe related…but […]

by Alan on December 10, 2018 at 1:26 am

We here at Countdown2.Christmas Radio could not be more thankful for two people right now: Gayla Peevey (of “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” fame) and Joe Bonall (of…well…The Oak Ridge Boys fame :-)). We reached out to Gayla because, each week during our live program (6PM Mountain every Sunday, more here), we always have a […]

by Alan on December 2, 2018 at 8:55 pm

Knowing How You Are Going to Die Let’s all pretend that we are alone and God asks us a question… “Alan, do you want to know when and how you are going to die?” How would you answer? Yes? No? Let’s just assume you answer yes…and God tells you something like… When a blood-red moon […]

by Alan on November 26, 2018 at 12:17 am

Now, I caution Christians not to jump on the bandwagon whenever a scientist, archeologist, or other scholar says something that confirms a Christian belief, but it was kind of neat to read the title of an article that said, “All humans are descended from just TWO people…” The article said (in part): Scientists surveyed the genetic […]

by Alan on November 25, 2018 at 8:00 pm

Facebook Recently, I stirred up a bit of controversy on Facebook with this post: I am a live and let live kind of guy (so I will support your freedom of religion), but the Bible does not have kind words for witchcraft, and for those practicing it, it’s at best a Monkey’s Paw (with eternal […]

by Alan on November 11, 2018 at 8:45 pm

Mac Davis Anyone familiar with Mac Davis? Mac Davis is a songwriter, singer, and actor who was most popular in the 70s. Although his biggest hit, based on how high it charted, was “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me,” perhaps his most fun song is “Hard to Be Humble”…whose chorus goes like this: Oh Lord […]

by Alan on October 21, 2018 at 8:19 pm

20 There are over 7 billion people on our planet. What percentage, when they wake up, do you believe think to themselves, “Today is the day I am going to die”? If you aren’t a soldier heading into a hopeless battle, on death row and today is your execution, or are at the end of […]

by Alan on October 15, 2018 at 11:32 pm

Okay. Please set aside your political leanings. Pretend you have no clue about what these folks are potesting: If you are a Christian, should you have been part of this protest? Why or why not? Now, let’s just stipulate that it is for a genuinely good cause. To support the downtrodden. To right a major […]

by Alan on October 7, 2018 at 7:55 pm

18 Years 10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed […]

by Alan on September 23, 2018 at 7:00 pm

Late Night Thoughts Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night…have an inspiration…go back to sleep… And when you wake up, only really recall you had an inspiration…and no matter how much you torture yourself to remember…you cannot clear your foggy memory? Well, this sermon is based on one of those situations…where […]

by Alan on September 9, 2018 at 7:30 pm

Hate If you are on social media and you see the acronym, TDS, what does it mean? Trump Derangement Syndrome. Now…don’t worry…this is not going to be a political sermon. However, Trump Derangement Syndrome came to mind after I recently read the story of Lazarus. However, before we review a portion of that… What is […]

by Alan on April 29, 2018 at 7:53 pm

Introduction Has anyone here ever been friends with someone very long…close friends… And then, one day, they ask a question or make a statement that makes you scratch your head, turn to them, and ask… “You’ve known me this long, and you say that?” They should know better than that! If you’ve ever been in […]

by Alan on April 22, 2018 at 8:25 pm

PowerPoint Presentations As part of my work, I often have to put together PowerPoint presentations. One rule for effective slides is to show some data…for instance, a graph…and then make three points or conclusion. Not two points. Not four points. Definitely not ten points. But three. It’s like a golden number. And it is effective. […]

by Alan on April 8, 2018 at 8:05 pm

Karen Carpenter Is there anybody else who, when they hear a song from a certain group or artist…no matter how much they enjoy it…cannot help but feel some sadness because of what happened to someone involved with the tune? For me, this is true when I hear a Carpenters hit. Are you familiar with that […]

by Alan on March 26, 2018 at 4:16 am

Today, I unhooked from the Matrix. It is disorienting, but I needed to take the red pill. […]

by Alan on March 25, 2018 at 9:54 pm

In the Beginning “In the beginning…” Are there any more famous words than “in the beginning”? Let’s turn back to “in the beginning” and look God’s handiwork: 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the […]

by Alan on March 11, 2018 at 6:00 pm

“These Boots Were Made for Walkin'” Ideas for sermons come from all kinds of things…although I’ll admit I especially like it when folks ask for me to preach on a topic. However, music is often what puts a topic into my head, although sometimes it is tangental to the subject of the song itself. This […]

by Alan on March 4, 2018 at 7:25 pm

AC/DC Who remembers the album that caused the Australian group, AC/DC, to finally explode in America? That’s right…”Back in Black.” I remember it because I was a normal rock-and-roll loving, 16 year-old teenager when it came out. Nothing like it ever was released before and, I would argue, nothing equal has come out since…even from […]

by Alan on February 25, 2018 at 8:19 pm

Faith, Hope, and Love This is sermon three of three based on a wonderful verse in the Bible. Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 13:13: 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Although it is the third in the series, it is second in that list. We […]

by Alan on January 28, 2018 at 8:49 pm

The Beatles I can’t say I was ever much of a Beatles fan. They broke up before I started really enjoying music…and, other than a few of their tunes like “Hey Jude,” “Yesterday,” and “Come Together,” none were my favorites. However, they did one song that is fitting for this sermon: Love, love, love Love, […]

by Alan on January 14, 2018 at 7:32 pm

He Allegedly Did It Again I want everyone to know that I actually decided on the subject of this sermon before President Donald Trump allegedly decided to use an obscene word to describe some countries. I find it interesting that so many in society that warranted this talk are now acting so aghast at his […]

by Alan on January 2, 2018 at 8:37 pm

Beware of overconcern for money, or position, or glory. Someday you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are. The new year is here. Neil deGrass Tyson may be right and it “is a cosmically arbitrary event, carrying no Astronomical significance at all,” but […]

by Mathematician on January 2, 2018 at 4:40 am

Who says math isn’t fun?! Well, actually, lots of people do. 🙂 However, that just means they haven’t had a chance to play Mind Your Numbers by Kitki. I was lucky enough to learn about the game during its Indiegogo campaign, and grabbed two copies. Good news is it is now available through Amazon, so […]

by Mathematician on January 1, 2018 at 9:21 pm

Happy New Year! Well, 2018 has officially arrived…and so has Winifred, our new, beautiful Bearded Dragon. We here at Math.Promo not only love mathematics…we are also pretty fond of a bunch of critters we have running around the house. Winifred joined our small zoo today and is already bringing joy to the clan…although Chewie isn’t […]

by Alan on January 1, 2018 at 7:29 pm

Happy New Year! We enter the new year with a new family member, Winifred. Augie did his research (which included creating a PowerPoint presentation) to learn about how to care for Bearded Dragons, so mom and dad allowed this beautiful girl to join our household. (A big thanks to our friend Dave, who not only […]

by Mathematician on December 31, 2017 at 11:25 pm

Well, I should have been spending this Sunday afternoon hanging out with family, but Math.Promo wasn’t going to publish itself! 🙂 What you see on this page is the book that is going to bring me back into the mathematics fold. As of January 8 I’ll be a student at Indiana University East, getting a […]

by Alan on December 31, 2017 at 7:24 pm

Right after the 2016-2017 school year started, the Strasburg Church of Christ opened its doors. It has been a blessing, at least to me. The congregation has remained pretty steady at three to five families (depending on how you count), although not all the same ones from the beginning. Today, however, was just this minister, […]

by Alan on December 8, 2017 at 4:57 am

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by Alan on December 4, 2017 at 12:47 am

Hot off the presses! […]