Scotland Landscape You thought it was hard to take care of YOUR lawn. I saw this worker edging Duthie Park...and it isn't a small park either. No gas or electric devices, just manual labor on 44 acres. I'm sure they use some big lawn mower for the fields, but I thought this was interesting that they edge by hand. Just their muscles and a long pair of scissors. posted by tia@farleyfamily.net on 07/20/2008Kalani's on her way to becoming a true HighlanderIn Texas I was somewhat of a self-induced hermit. Waking up at 5:30am, returning at 6:30pm, and back to bed by 9:30pm made time at home feel ever so scarce. My three hour window each night was just enough for dinner and a shower. The result was that I never, ever, ever, wanted to leave the house. The weekends were spent on pet projects, shopping, basketball, Discovery/History Channel, and avoiding anything that might otherwise remove me from my family and lovely home.Having lived in Europe during my mission, I knew what it had to offer in terms of tourism. So when this assignment to Scotland came up, I made a commitment to myself and Tia (to her delight) that we would get out of the house as often as possible to take advantage of what this beautiful country has to offer. We've only been here as a family for five weeks, but I feel like we've done more "outings" in this short time than we did during our entire year in Texas.
PS - I know Kalani dancing to electronic bagpipes has nothing to do with the content of this post, but she's just so cute. posted by matt@farleyfamily.net on 07/13/2008Together in Scotland My wonderful sisters-in-law came to visit us in Scotland. Well, Felicia was doing "study abroad" in London for a term and Angela planned on picking her up and touring the country with her. After they had their plans in place Matt got the offer to come to Scotland...but we will just say that they came to see us! Kalani and I hadn't seen them for almost a year, so it was fantastic to see them again. We met up with them at Inverness, Scotland. We arranged to have a boat trip on the Loch Ness and then toured Urquhart Castle. This castle is where the most siting of Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster has been recorded. We were also able to tour the Culloden Battlefield. This is the location of one of the bloodiest battles fought. Near 2,000 Jacobites and English men died in about 40 minutes in close hand to hand combat. Our next stop was at Cawdor Castle. This castle is still lived in during the winter months.We were also able to take the girls back to our house and show them Glenburnie Park...our home. Kalani loved to show her aunts her own room, her back yard and stream. Matt also made his mission "famous" creme fresh pizza. He has been telling his family about this pizza he would make weekly while he was a missionary. Finally they were able to sample his pizza...and they liked it. Thanks for making room in your schedule to come see us!    posted by tia@farleyfamily.net on 07/10/2008Skinny Slides Hazelhead Park
is a WONDERFUL park and near our home. It takes me about 15 minutes to
walk to the park, or just a couple of minutes in the car. Kalani and I
recently discovered the "Pet Corner" at the park. We also found a mini
golf course and maze. I know that there are more things to discover at
the park, but Kalani's only focus is to play on the playground
equipment. The park does have a wide variety of equipment for kids to
play on. The first thing that I noticed was how skinny the slides are
at the park. I guess that is one way to help with childhood
obesity...create equipment at the park that only works correctly if you
are so many inches wide!
posted by tia@farleyfamily.net on 07/10/2008What I do for a living...I often get asked about my job and what in the world it means to be a ScrumMaster. So I thought it'd be worthwhile to take the time and explain both: Scrum, and my job at Chevron as a ScrumMaster.What is Scrum? Scrum is a project management framework which is especially suited for software development projects. Most big hitters in the software industry such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google are taking up Scrum (or something similar to Scrum) as the framework in which they manage their software projects. Scrum's also seeing a large uptake in the financial sector. Check out the Firms-using-scrum-wiki to see just how pervasive Scrum has become. What makes Scrum different from other project management frameworks? Traditional styles of project management involve long phases or steps through which a project moves over its life-cycle. During my senior year at CSUS we spent two full semesters walking through a classic SDLC (Systems Development Life Cycle): Planning, Analysis, Design, Build, Test, Implement (and Maintenance). In theory, the project would move linearly through each phase in a single cycle. The desired result is a well documented and fully functional application. Scrum is going to argue that the above model breaks down when the requirements are not fully understood and will likely change and morph throughout the life of the project. By the time the project has moved through each phase and is delivered to the customer, it may not look anything like what they had originally envisioned (think of the whispering telephone game we all played as kids). In essence, Scrum takes the entire SDLC and calls for a small, cross-functional, and well-disciplined team to compress it into short iterations (cycles) called sprints. A Scrum team on two week sprints will attempt to deliver slices of shippable functionality to the customer every two weeks. A sprint will have concurrent analysis, design, and testing, always taking into account the changes and feedback given by the customer(s) at the end of each sprint. In this sense, compared to traditional methods, Scrum is much better suited for software projects where customers often don't know what they want until they see it and play with it.  What Mike taught me about the role of a ScrumMaster: In Waterfall, it's the Project Manager's job to stand behind the team, crack the whip, and ensure delivery. The PM identifies the tasks, deliverables, timelines, etc, and then dictates to the team the manner in which they will deliver. In most cases, the PM is an authoritative figure to whom the team reports and answers. Mike refers to this style of management as Command & Control. A ScrumMaster is the exact opposite of a PM. The ScrumMaster is described as a servant-leader / facilitator as opposed to a figure of authority. Scrum encourages team ownership, self-organization, team mentality, etc. For example, a ScrumMaster doesn't give the team deadlines, the team gives the ScrumMaster their best estimates. Some examples of ScrumMaster duties:
A traditional Project Manager may do much of the same, however, the philosophical difference is that the PM often feels it's their job to come up with the solution and enforce implementation; whereas the ScrumMaster solicits the team for their solutions and facilitates the agreed implementation.  So what are we actually building? Rumor has it that many of the supermajors (Chevron, Shell, BP, etc) are in the process of leveraging business intelligence (BI) to better manage their energy assets. Our team is one of many in Chevron who are developing such applications. The accompanying diagram does a great job of illustrating BI and how it applies to the oil field. It's proven to be somewhat challenging, but the potential payoff is quite rewarding when you consider the previous system(s): disparate excel spreadsheets, aging applications and delayed reports which often involve a degree of time-consuming manual labor. Credit goes to the amazing pool of talent we have on these projects. As intangible as the ScrumMaster's output may appear, I'd like to think we play an important role in the process! :) posted by matt@farleyfamily.net on 07/06/2008Favorite Time of the Day My Favorite Time of the Day...8pm (view from our living room window at 8pm) I am not sure why but for the past two weeks that we have been here in Scotland the weather is FANTASTIC when 8pm comes around. Yesterday the whole day was gray and raining. But, then 8 o'clock came around and the clouds lifted and the sun came shining through. I can always tell when it is about 8pm. Dinner is done, we are together as a family and the sun is shining. It is the most perfect time of the day for me. posted by tia@farleyfamily.net on 06/26/2008Rinse this in your mouth but don't swallowWe were visiting the large sand dunes of Balmedie Beach when Kalani unfortunately got a mouthful of sand (I had lovingly pushed her down the sand cliff -- she rolled about 15-20 ft). It's hard to catch at the end of the video, but she did the opposite of what we told her to.
posted by matt@farleyfamily.net on 06/23/2008Cold Blanket When I was younger I sucked my thumb and I had a silky night gown that I would sleep with. I would hold the night gown over the edge of my bed to make it cold and then pull it up to my face and go to sleep.Matt too sucked his thumb and had a softy that he would sleep with. He remembers putting his softy in the fridge to make it cold. So, Kalani sucking her thumb doesn't bother us since we both did that. And when she rolled down her window and stuck her blanket out to make it cold, we understood. Who knows what the other drivers were thinking as they saw this small blue blanket hanging out the window...but at least it kept her happy on our car ride. I guess that the apple really does not fall far from the tree! posted by tia@farleyfamily.net on 06/21/2008 |