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| Christmas 2007 |
A wonderful holiday!
Shovel, Angel, Party, Outfit
Yes I know that my blog has become little more than a photo album but School and Work are consuming all of my time at present. The semester will be done on Thursday and then I will have slightly more time in my life for typing letters in cyberspace...
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| Shovel, angel, party, outfit |
Sunsets and a Sunrise
Tom and I at Island View after getting rained out of a golf round
Sunset on Eagle lake as we arrived at the cabin
Sunrise on my way to work
Sonja and Oliver out for a drive
Sonja and Oliver out for a spin at Liberty Custard. Thanks for all the well wishers regarding Sonja's trip to the E.R. nothing serious some dehydration due to a virus and since it was the Holidays we got to visit the Emergency Room vs. the regular old Dr. office. She is doing well now and wishes everyone a very happy thanksgiving! Oh yeah, and she has a new word... turtle. Video of that to come soon.
Handprint Turkeys and Macaroni Necklaces
Macaroni and Turkey Art by Sonja
I don't want to go all Hallmark card on my poor reader(s) today - writing a syrupy piece about how wonderful the holiday seasons are and how thankful I am for things. I do, however, want to say of all the holidays Thanksgiving is my favorite. It's my favorite for one reason. It's about family. No presents, no fireworks, no candy, no myths, no baloney (unless of course it's served on the table).
I think I am probably like many out there. I love my family but I am certain that I don't let them know this nearly enough.
Two weeks ago I visited my grandfather's grave on the second anniversary of his passing. It is always a little bit sad but I usually leave feeling more grateful for the life I have. This last visit I realized that I don't tell the people in my life how much they mean to me. Okay, okay I know some of you who know me are rolling your eyes and saying please, I hear you tell your sweetie 'I love you' about 5000 times per day. This is true and this will continue, but I mean more my extended family and friends.
To my extended family, my parents, my sister, my in-laws, my friends, I say this: You are very important to me. Through you I have become what I am today and I am thankful. With you I have lived life deeper than I would have otherwise. May your life be long and your laughs be frequent.
John 'future Hallmark card writer' Merland
I think I am probably like many out there. I love my family but I am certain that I don't let them know this nearly enough.
Two weeks ago I visited my grandfather's grave on the second anniversary of his passing. It is always a little bit sad but I usually leave feeling more grateful for the life I have. This last visit I realized that I don't tell the people in my life how much they mean to me. Okay, okay I know some of you who know me are rolling your eyes and saying please, I hear you tell your sweetie 'I love you' about 5000 times per day. This is true and this will continue, but I mean more my extended family and friends.
To my extended family, my parents, my sister, my in-laws, my friends, I say this: You are very important to me. Through you I have become what I am today and I am thankful. With you I have lived life deeper than I would have otherwise. May your life be long and your laughs be frequent.
John 'future Hallmark card writer' Merland
Organizational Communications Paper #1
Yes, I am back in school and it's a good thing. Just to bore all of you to tears here is my latest attempt at thinking... I will keep you posted on the grade I receive this week...
When an organization formally disseminates a message to its constituents the meaning of the message is often not fully comprehended until it makes its way through a complex process of informal communications. These informal networks enable employees to decipher the real meaning underlying many formal modes of communications, and can also allow for a greater range of creativity and ingenuity to enter into the communications process. The way in which these informal communications networks operate is fluid and complex but I find that there are a few essential elements that are almost always present: differentiation, fragmentation and integration. Each of these three elements plays a crucial role in making corporations’ informal methods of communications as valuable to a company as its formal methods.
At a recent quarterly global communications meeting I attended, the Vice President of the division and his business directors stood behind a podium and diligently slogged through an hour of PowerPoint propaganda. The audience sat quietly, obediently held all questions until the end of the presentation and then… asked no questions. Without exception, after every one of these meetings the audience funnels out into the hall and breaks off into small, impromptu discussion groups. The topic of choice is the meeting, of course, but rarely is the discussion simply a reiteration of the bullet points, facts and figures just presented. Rather, the goal of these groups is often to descramble the subtext of the presentation.
Following is an example of how a formal message might be informally interpreted:
Formal Message from Presentation: Despite increased profits, we must keep spending in check to ensure continued growth in the future.
Unofficial Message from Post-Presentation Discussion: Profits were artificially inflated by pulling sales forward a quarter, so next quarter’s sales numbers look bleak. To prop up the bottom line rumor has it that that the company will no longer pay for our morning doughnuts and coffee.
The communications example above illustrates differentiation in action. The official message communicated to the group did not correlate with the message received within informal peer groups. While our textbook views differentiation as detrimental to effective dialogue I view it as an essential element. Differentiation enables people to pull in information and messages from a large array of sources. It has a predisposition to question authority and to look deeper into official messages. Differentiation is often required to decode dogmatic corporate babble.
As an illustration, let’s suppose that management has sent out a memo detailing a plan to streamline the company’s supply chains by locating manufacturing operations closer to customers in emerging markets. Using a differentiation perspective, an employee may interpret this information to mean that her job is at risk of being cut and sent to lower cost labor markets closer to
Differentiation, however, can be critical for injecting new and creative ways of understanding and thinking into a corporation. Perhaps this employee happens to be an expert at local tax laws and now, being properly motivated, discover a few loopholes which could ultimately save the company millions. In this way the employee’s differentiated meaning could contribute to eliminating the necessity for “streamlining” the supply chain.
Differentiation is just one element in the triumvirate of effective informal organization communications. Differentiation works in conjunction with fragmentation. I like to think of fragmentation as the magnet of informal communications. Contained within this powerful communications perspective is both the power to attract and repel. The ambiguities and uncertainties we encounter as we attempt to process information open up possibilities for other ideas and perspectives to be considered, which ultimately either brings us closer to the intended meaning of the original communication, or sends us off in a different direction.
Take the example I originally gave regarding the quarterly communications meeting. After the meeting, suppose I go back to my desk and discuss the presentation with a group of coworkers who did not attend the meeting. The magnetic effect of fragmentation could play out in two very separate ways. After discussing the meeting some may agree that the true message was really a ruse to cut the doughnut fund. With that in mind we may decide to continue with our plans to run an advertisement despite the current spending restriction. Conversely, some in our ranks may actually believe the real message conveyed was the official one and conclude that we shouldn’t spend the money on placing an ad, to help ensure continued lower costs and higher profits for the upcoming quarter.
The built-in tensions that arise out of fragmentation mirror the tensions that also exist as a result of differentiation. This conflict between formal and informal communications is crucial for keeping employees engaged. Though it is true that engagement is not always positive, from my perspective any active engagement – whether positive or negative – in the communications process is better than no engagement at all. If an employee is upset or confused by the cacophony of messages that surround her I argue that this is an employee who is likely to be more productive and creative in her role within the company. Fragmentation is a chaotic landscape filled with conflicting symbols and messages that are prone to over-interpretation and misinterpretation, but this mosaic also the holds the potential for creative interpretation and new perspectives.
So how does integration function as the final component in the informal communication process? Cognitive dissonance and the resulting desire to reconcile conflicting information drive us to settle upon an acceptable meaning. Discord from differentiation and fragmentation perspectives is likely to produce many conflicting messages. This conflict is not a comfortable position to be in for any length of time so it is only natural that we will seek a way to quell this disquiet. We are prone to make meaning when one isn’t clearly, fully or convincingly provided to us - to rationalize the message and to move on.
This final step in the informal communications process is the most crucial. It is within this integration phase that we fully come to accept the meaning ultimately landed upon. This step in my experience rarely happens in the manner our text describes. For me integration is acceptance after careful reflection. Although the original intent of the formal meeting may have been to integrate meaning from the message delivered, it is not until we have wrestled with the message through differentiation and fragmentation frameworks that we are truly able to integrate its meaning.
To bring the original example full circle, through the process of integration I might ultimately come to understand that although upper management may have its sights set on eliminating the doughnut fund, they are behaving in a way that has the company’s and, by proxy, my best interests at heart. Therefore, I will try to limit my spending. I do this not just because I was told to through formal communication, but because I chose to accept the official message through my own informal process of meaning making.
I believe that the book falls short in relating the differentiation, fragmentation and integration organizational communications perspectives. I realize that these perspectives are primarily intended to serve as models or filters through which certain aspects of organizational communications are highlighted for further scrutiny. However, I think a more accurate reflection of organizational communications can be achieved when we view these models as parts of a complex system rather than as discrete elements. Differentiation, fragmentation and integration do work well as individual filters through which we can study communications. When we think of these three elements as composite parts of a complex system, however, we come to a richer understanding of how organizations communicate and how we interpret those communications.
Sonja, Sasha and Grandma Patty
Click to see all of the images:
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| Sonja, Sasha and Grandma Patty October 2007 |
Loituma
All strange things originate in Finland and slowly disseminate throughout the rest of the world...
Long day - Thursday
Thursday's tend to be long for me. I have class after work so I don't get home until 9:15pm. This means I am generally not at home for a total of 15 hours... No Sonja time, no Jenn time, just work then class.
Class is great and all but it's nothing compared to my family.
Plus today I have this splitting headache that I has come out of nowhere within the last hour. I am praying that we watch a video for the first half of class...
I have lots of bits of stories I would like to write or pieces of a train of thought I would like to explore further and I tell myself that I should write it down. Inevitably I do not and then the thought fades and I move on.
One such thought is that there are two types of Ah-ha moments one can experience... one is a moment of great insight or discovery and the other is more of an mmm-hmmm moment... this is a moment of compassion or understanding of others with no great insight or discovery of something new to you...
perhaps it's best I let sleeping thoughts lay.
Class is great and all but it's nothing compared to my family.
Plus today I have this splitting headache that I has come out of nowhere within the last hour. I am praying that we watch a video for the first half of class...
I have lots of bits of stories I would like to write or pieces of a train of thought I would like to explore further and I tell myself that I should write it down. Inevitably I do not and then the thought fades and I move on.
One such thought is that there are two types of Ah-ha moments one can experience... one is a moment of great insight or discovery and the other is more of an mmm-hmmm moment... this is a moment of compassion or understanding of others with no great insight or discovery of something new to you...
perhaps it's best I let sleeping thoughts lay.
Christmas List
Yes, I am 35 and yes, I still can have a Christmas list. This is America after all and wanting things is just a way of life...- Wireless Weather Station
- Bioshock
- Guitar Hero III
- Coin Set
- Sweater
- World Peace (And don't try to substitute with whirled peas I get the joke and I just don't like peas)
- Binoculars
- Golf Balls
Gimmie gimmie gimmie
Pony Tails
Sonja had her first day of daycare in the toddlers' room today. When I picked her up in the afternoon they had done this to her hair.
List of things to do
Like most people. I have a list of things I need to get done and a list of things I would like to do. A partial compilation of these lists can be seen below:
Need to do:
Need to do:
- Clean up blue room in house
- Buy a new rug for Family room
- Buy new toilet for the Bathroom
- Replace kitchen floor
- Clean out closets and garage for garage sale
- Finish painting Adirondack chair
- Set up college savings account for daughter
- Set up life insurance policies for me and wife
- Fill out health care directives
- Put together a will for wife and I
- Replace light fixture in dining room
- Replace dimmer switch in dinning room with non-dimming variety
- Replace all non-fluorescent bulbs with the earth friendly variety
- Baby proof more of the house
- Remove old bed frame in guest bedroom replace with new one
- Start exercising again
- Make broom closet in kitchen a usable pantry
- Visit friends in Mexico
- Visit friends in Singapore
- Visit friends in Scotland
- Visit friend in Puerto Rico
- Make bad music with friend
- Golf two more times this year
- Go to the boundary waters canoe area
- Compile videos/photos of daughter into usable DVDs
- Go skiing in Utah
- Play Halo 3 with my friends
- Spend quality time with my wife and daughter
- Watch the rest of the Ken Burn's TV series "The War"
Autumn is Here
Fall has arrived in Minnesota. Apart from massively bad hay fever, Fall is one of my favorite times. The temperature is just right and the days are getting shorter but still long enough to have some daylight left at the end of the workday.
Believe it or not, I feel like life has started to settle down a bit. Don't get me wrong it hasn't gotten any less hectic (Sonja got up at 4:15 am this morning), but I think I am getting acclimated to the new pace. Get home, feed change diaper, feed Sonja, clean up mess, change diaper, take bath, get in pj's, then bedtime, then dinner for Mom and Dad and dishes after that as well as preparing lunch for me and for Sonja for the next day and trying to pick up the big mess that is constantly our home and if time allows throw something in the laundry to wear to work the next day. Then bed and maybe 30 minutes of TV or a book.
Now with me back in school I have to throw homework in there somewhere - I am sure it will all work out...
Believe it or not, I feel like life has started to settle down a bit. Don't get me wrong it hasn't gotten any less hectic (Sonja got up at 4:15 am this morning), but I think I am getting acclimated to the new pace. Get home, feed change diaper, feed Sonja, clean up mess, change diaper, take bath, get in pj's, then bedtime, then dinner for Mom and Dad and dishes after that as well as preparing lunch for me and for Sonja for the next day and trying to pick up the big mess that is constantly our home and if time allows throw something in the laundry to wear to work the next day. Then bed and maybe 30 minutes of TV or a book.
Now with me back in school I have to throw homework in there somewhere - I am sure it will all work out...
August images and movies
Two movie clips in here but you have to click on the photos to get into the album....
Lost in Thought
"The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory."
- Paul Fix
I have not written in quite sometime in my blog. I do so wish to keep it going but as summer draws to a close and work is at a frenzied pace and Sonja is now walking all over the place, I find I hardly have time to check and write an email let alone sit at my desk and type out some mindless drivel (who doesn't want to read mindless drivel anyways?)
I have had lots going on and at the same time very little. I think that is a sign of a life full of mundane tasks. Part of me is content with this - doing the dishes, cleaning house, grocery shopping, changing diapers, playing with Sonja - but part of me wonders if there isn't something I am missing.
On those rare occasions where I have 30 minutes to spend doing what I want - say plopping down in front of the TV to play some xbox - I find that this task is not as satisfying as it once was. Sure it's still fun to bash virtual bad guys and find virtual treasure, but somehow it's just not as fun as it once was. Perhaps it's just the guilt of trying to unwind when I know that the list of things I should be doing is ever increasing perhaps I have just let my inner teenager grow older.
I now find that I worry about college for Sonja, I worry about how we are going to pay for it how we are going to pay for life insurance and car repairs and all sorts of responsible boring stuff. I don't find that I am every thinking about when am I going to get together with my friends for drinks...
Times change but sometimes change happens in tiny almost imperceptible intervals - when all of a sudden two years have gone by and the person you once were has changed. Still, there is perhaps the Johnny of my youth or the JP of my 20's but now I find that there is a new person crowding the scene - John. John is dad, he is responsible, hard working and honest. John mows the lawn, cooks dinner, tries to pack his lunch. John thinks of his wife and child and realizes that he is luckier than he had ever imagined he would be. John worries more than JP. John's golf game suffers due to lack of practice, but John is okay and realizes a life as a golf-pro was never in his future.
I now am truly lost in my own thoughts...
- Paul Fix
I have not written in quite sometime in my blog. I do so wish to keep it going but as summer draws to a close and work is at a frenzied pace and Sonja is now walking all over the place, I find I hardly have time to check and write an email let alone sit at my desk and type out some mindless drivel (who doesn't want to read mindless drivel anyways?)
I have had lots going on and at the same time very little. I think that is a sign of a life full of mundane tasks. Part of me is content with this - doing the dishes, cleaning house, grocery shopping, changing diapers, playing with Sonja - but part of me wonders if there isn't something I am missing.
On those rare occasions where I have 30 minutes to spend doing what I want - say plopping down in front of the TV to play some xbox - I find that this task is not as satisfying as it once was. Sure it's still fun to bash virtual bad guys and find virtual treasure, but somehow it's just not as fun as it once was. Perhaps it's just the guilt of trying to unwind when I know that the list of things I should be doing is ever increasing perhaps I have just let my inner teenager grow older.
I now find that I worry about college for Sonja, I worry about how we are going to pay for it how we are going to pay for life insurance and car repairs and all sorts of responsible boring stuff. I don't find that I am every thinking about when am I going to get together with my friends for drinks...
Times change but sometimes change happens in tiny almost imperceptible intervals - when all of a sudden two years have gone by and the person you once were has changed. Still, there is perhaps the Johnny of my youth or the JP of my 20's but now I find that there is a new person crowding the scene - John. John is dad, he is responsible, hard working and honest. John mows the lawn, cooks dinner, tries to pack his lunch. John thinks of his wife and child and realizes that he is luckier than he had ever imagined he would be. John worries more than JP. John's golf game suffers due to lack of practice, but John is okay and realizes a life as a golf-pro was never in his future.
I now am truly lost in my own thoughts...
August
August has been a big month so far for Sonja - The baby babble vocab is increasing and she is starting to walk! Not sure how we've made it this far but life is good.
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| Happy in August |
Sonja has the flu
Sonja during a better moment during the dayEven in college I never saw this much vomit. Sonja woke up at 10:00 pm last night in a pool of puke. The room had the sickly antiseptic stomach acid aroma to it and once the light was turned on... well let's just say that there was much liquid but I was really impressed by the only slightly digested blueberries and half-eaten pasta bits.
Funny thing about being a dad. As gross as it was, my only thought was how awful for Sonja and what can I do to ease her discomfort.
We changed the sheets, disinfected the mattress, changed her out of her sopping wet jammies, and did our best to hose off most of the chunks from her hair. She managed to go back to sleep after just a few more three dimensional burps.
Sadly, she has continued to be ill all of today, throwing up countless more times. The only good part is that it doesn't smell anymore. Apparently, once you void your tummy of all its contents any further regurgitation is mostly 'fresh' liquid. Oh joy. She is sleeping now, but only after having a HUGE cry fest that made me bust out the earplugs.
Tomorrow is my grandmother's 80th birthday celebration. The plan is for the family to go for a cruise on Lake Minnetonka, but that is up in the air for us and will all depend on how Sonja is feeling.
You smash those things like you're a white blood cell and they are infection!
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