It is possible to hang on to tradition while injecting innovation :: make THINGS great again.

I really don't read or perceive that there has been declared the official winner of the race for CLOUD computing:  one of three things that the technical sector has decided is the cool things we need:

IofT:  Internet of things or intelligence of things?

The best way I would be able to explain to a non-layperson what this acronym means is that you can control things designed to have enhanced technical capabilities.  I would use General Motors as a prime example.  In my view, opinion and limited observation.  I don't have to work there, all I have to do is pick up on the consistency of being on message flowing neighborly along that appeals to the largest percentage of people.  

Again, I've never worked for GM or read any prospectus or proposal on how they were going to prove that they were savable after a big government bail out.

I saw it before, just as a user of products, a major accounts rep, a vendor and a buyer perspective:  Xerox.   Anne Mulcahey (need to check spelling) put some building blocks in place on how they were going to rebuild a once great company from the basement of the downward steps to rock bottom to recovery and rethinking innovation and deciding to self-consciously or corporate self-examination:  what would they be known for?

So a lot of these almost washed up companies are having an injection of innovation or continued creation of a historical identity.  

Most would say that Xerox discovered xerography and became this really big company, until it delved out significant intelligence to Apple and Adobe.  Well yes, that is correct.

My guess would be how Xerox, through stringent quality control, strove to replace dust pollutant of toner dust, toxic for our water systems and ecosystems.  They made new toner that was sustainable, really smartly reusing natural resources that does not upset the universe's eco-structure from emitting toxins.

Safe to say, Xerox is a prime example of something highly identifiable can decoy from staying static and holding true to being innovative.

The best companies in the world, in my opinion are not bricks and motor, factory, industry, on the "try" at the end - see that?  Or maybe I'm psychic and see the pattern emerging.  How?

From watching the numbers.  Looking for patterns.  That information is out there and it is free.  When it goes to the cloud, someone is going to make heaps of money storing their customer's information. 

AI:  Artificial intelligence.  

I guess somewhere, somehow, someone decided that it was hip or cool to include "intelligence" to create an acronym that rings with distinction, like a battle cry to the trod on economic forces blow over.

Robots have been around for decades.  I haven't fact check, however, I'm going to say they started surfacing when more and more companies starting realizing, by looking at numbers with a strong focus on profit, they had to try to get rid of people, which is the highest expense .... yet few would survive without its people.

Has anyone written about a theme of companies who become so bloated with their own ego and self-importance, that complacency would never reside.  Quickly replaced with value, rate of return, key performance indicators.

Disruption.

Is when someone comes up with an idea that totally transforms the way we do or think of things.  Think of the smart phone as a disruption to mobility telecommunications.  

Taking something that we use every single day, is as familiar to us as our television or automobile:  the telephone.  As it evolved from a communications device into a hand held computer that uses wireless or the internet in order to transmit.  

A telegram is something we consider as old, war era communications of great importance has now been developed into something immediate.  Every day is special because we can communicate with others, convey our thoughts or feelings by the click of fingers or twiddle of thumbs.

What else is out there that hasn't been thought up yet or uncovered a need for?  The first things to look at are those every day indispensable items we use and then make them better, causing a ripple effect that requires traditional means to update their technology or capabilities or they will be stuck in the mud at the side of the super highway of happening things.

Want to know what it means to get the PINK slip?

Original content by:*

Jeannette Marshall

@optioneerJM

optioneerJM+

aboutME.com

If you're around my age [ 50 on a good day or 56 on a bad one ] and you have a daughter or niece or granddaughter around the millennial set (is this the Y? Generation? ] fact check [ ) --> i first called it the Y Generation on one of my first INbeTWEENers blog [ via #WordPress ] aka now as YUPPYdom > target audience & readers born 1960 or later, but before the Millennial (otherwise known separately as The Baby Boomers :: those born of the Elvis and 50s era and vibe, became adults of GENX which is sandwiched [aka squeezed] between the Baby Boomers, inBETWEENers (1960-1969) & what I like to  I call the war babies (those babies born after either World War I ] fact check [date when WWI ended?].

Phew, what a mouthful, eh?  Sometimes I get multiple thoughts that run like a freight train, full speed ahead.  It drives a lot of people crazy [the Hunkster Hubster in particular] ::.... sometimes I am telling him something and 2/3 of the way through, I go "um ah" multiple times until he barks at me:  "Um uh!  You didn't finish!  

Luckily for me, and the loyal few, I sometimes take the time to capture some cool moments.  Or, not so cool moments.

The PINK SLIP?

It is when you mess up with your Millennial daughter and she goes ape shit all over you.  If that isn't suffice, she goes into IGNORE mode, and often BLOCK mode.  Thus is the PINK SLIP.

It doesn't seem fair that father's rarely, if ever, get the PINK SLIP.  It seems a
blessing in disguise when the ticked off goes into overdrive.  It is a process.
It is quite inevitable, particularly if you're the "Mother".    Sometimes it can actually be funny, payback for when 2 PINK GIRLS change the Alpha Pink Girl's status under family that "she is adopted".  

That is the distinction between the battle hardy inBETWEENers:  we've been pushing water up hill all our lives [ saying credit to Wade Sparks, former boss and President of a SMB:  Small Medium Business; selling to very BIG companies and running a branch ].

What obstacles don't 1960 to 1965 in particular share with Millennials?  A-LOT!  Remember we were the original hipsters, aka Yuppies, adulting in the 80s [ exact same age as they are in my case - 27(Kyle) etc.  My girls are wise beyond their years and really have some great attributes that I envy if I could only have known back at the same age, how magnificent everything would be.  

YUPPIES:  Eternal optimists
What would this world really be like, if Yuppies weren't born [ other than cult culture of the 1980s skippy high bangs and big hoops and slouch socks with tights, ankle runners, big oversized sweaters, perms galore, fresh eyed trusters after being abolished and quietened by our very loud Baby Boomer siblings [ brother or sister ].   Being the object of teasing at the edge of tormenting their younger, devoted sibling who iconized their every move [ except thinking he is Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin with his electric guitar and amp turned up to the max, "WAHW.... wahwm .... WAHW" be still my pounding ears:  no wonder I don't like waking up and jumping out of beg:  clear bad memory of when having to do so ].

Yuppies had to prop each other up and really boost each other's morale.  We were either in college or at our first REAL job(s) in the 1980s.  Amidst recessions, world war threats between the US and Russia, joblessness skyrocketed with the increasing temperature of world affairs.  Just graduating from high school, we were surrounded about hostages, capture, and hijacks and we only had the radio or television where we were likely to get our news.  [ Others would say newspapers, but some of us gal Yuppies didn't like how the ink came off on our fingers so we weren't a fan of newspapers but we were the dawn of capitalism in the 1980s, with greed on most corporate executive's manifesto.  Today, layoffs, downsizing, let go, fired, laid off, work force reduction, reorganization, restructuring are more the norm.  

Loyalty has left the atmosphere.  Neither company nor employee get what they want out of the deal and their is a parting of ways.  The Pink Slip was probably coined in the 1980s ] FACT CHECK [.  Another tie in to the nifty headline I was particularly impressed with ( pat on back to Jeannette ).

Another characteristic of those arriving at adulthood, parenthood in that decade is that Yuppies really like recognition.  More sore than any other generation, simply because being sounded out by our louder siblings, who took credit for a clean car [ trick:  ask younger sibling to help wash car and he would drive them around town for "a while"; so you help them and they take you for a drive to main street and back [ in my life, never really that far:: walkable ]. 

So having a Millennial child is about setting and understanding boundaries.  A familiar song we sang as parents coming back full circle upon our ears.  From that really smart child who snaps it up and snaps it out, except louder.  Probably because we likely seethed but didn't shout in anger, or clenched our teeth akin to biting our tongue.  We were born of the parents who believed that how you dressed {stylish and polished} and how you behaved [ impeccable manners ] were a direct mirror into their inner soul.  

Ask a War Baby what it means to go without (ahem, attention Yuppies and Millennials, take note here)?  You better sit down and grab that cup of coffee anyhow because their answer is going to take a while.  What is amazing is when you actually recognize the sacrifice that War Babies had both as children, growing up and as adults, parents:  having to make do with very little.  Appreciating value over squandering money, which Yuppies and Millennials are apt to do.

Wanting to climb the ladder?  
There's a big leap between The Baby Boomers who are retiring to the tipping point beginning of the Millennial leaders, pioneers.  Yuppies and GEN-X likely skipped over.  Why not?  More educated, Millennials can bring fresh ideas, latest technological improvements [ which is a HOAX by GenXers letting others think that Yuppies aren't technologically inclined ].

Ask yourself, when was the birth of the computer?  Technically, it began a long long time ago, before Yuppies were even born.  What I mean is the birth of the personal computer?  Some of us went to school in 1979 to have hands on computer in our post secondary, either by instinct or natural survival mode.  If you want to have someone project manage something to perfection, you would be wise to consider a Yuppy:  they've been coming up with solutions and fixing problems by the time The Beatles broke up (a long long time ago).

Since I'm already in trouble and she doesn't read my blog * giggles *

So I apologized to my daughter.  Fingers crossed the PINK slip won't last long.  I will try to continue to be optimistic that she'll reconsider her reaction (ah-hem scale 1-10 ticked off:  9.5 degrees out of 10.)   

Maybe the next Millennial will read this, think about their mom mostly, or their dad if it happens, tone down the reaction and embrace the differences between you, with the added value of life experience that COULD spare them a lot of grief.  Knowing that rarely is advice heeded.  Swash-buckling their way to their future in their own brave style.

You have to remember, that your Yuppy mom or Yuppy dad, are prone to recognize how well you are doing.  Driving you crazy for posting about an accomplishment or re-sharing a picture, simply because you thought it was beautiful, unconsciously unaware that so many would agree.  They see the inner beauty paired with the outer strikingness as a formidable force, into the stratosphere when it is blended with intelligence and street smarts, common sense.  With a twist of humor, knowing that laughing at one's self is the biggest show of humility.

Even more if they are a Millennial 

Feeling very thankful on a Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend

Personal repurposed art by the author, Jeannette Marshall

by Jeannette Marshall

@optioneerJM

Sunday, October 8, 2017

I really cannot recall whether I've ever blogged on Thanksgiving before, then I realize I haven't!!  For that:  I truly am sorry!!

My blogs where I write straight from the heart or emptying knowledge in my head, seem to be the more popular.

I started to write this on Friday, and didn't get very far, obviously.  Now, just on the phone with my mother, I realized I have to try to capture those memories.

I remember with my father, up to three years, leading up to his death.  Whenever we got on the phone together, he would get wrapped up doing some wandering back into memory row.  I remember being fascinated by these versions of famous family lore.  Maybe it was sketchy for me to recall, because I was in my youth.

Now, I want to catch some of these words of wisdom that is being shared from the heart.  A mother's love flows in mysterious ways.  Sometimes it seems that the substance is repetitive, then one moment you realize, like catching a falling star, take that wisdom and try to capture.

My mom was telling me plays bridge, crib at her seniors' condos.  I couldn't capture everything she said.  She told me that she competes and how great the tournaments, which are $25, but includes a breakfast, nice luncheon, then you can win some money.  (Depends, if a slam $10 each you can win back).  Which is a good deal for the entertainment, the food, the competition with the potential wins.   

She was telling me how she doesn't have Alzeimer's to her girlfriends from the complex, because she remembered how you can put the TV on to music.  She said she goes to the Classic Country Music.  She could make the names with the music.  Remembering, she grew up with classic country music.  So she remembered being able to name songs with artists and dates.  So she was saying that joking about Alzeimers is a kindred joke among the ladies in the complex.

3 ways your brain goes:

1) old age (forgetfulness)

2) short term memory loss that happens to many of us, more as we get older

3) Alzeimers - once it is gone, it doesn't come back, unless you've talked about it

She said this Priest talked about that you may fall into one of those compartments:  1) 2) or 3) .. but you couldn't remember which compartment it was filed under.

I recalled Mom and Dad having conversations with Donna & Mac, from lots of memories, I remembered:  " Trying to fall asleep, but the committee upstairs decides to call a meeting. "

That is my thing.  I've been having a lot of meetings with the committee upstairs, which has inhibited my sleep.

Perhaps it is because I am being diagnosed with anxiety, developed from being bullied.  That is an example of one symptom.  Part of the debate, is whether anxiety is a mental disorder, it appears.

When my mom was born, she was left with only one piece of this left part of her brain, causing her with silent vowels, spelling words.  It doesn't stop her from doing other things.

The brain is quite the function.  When I was going to write something.  When she saw someone who was at a good writer I would.  That person so adored and flourished under that praise, which made me very embraced being blessed under praise.

But if there was an area that she saw needed improvement, she doesn't hesitate to give her opinion, which seemed harsh.  Before she wouldn't directly.  She has decided that today, she is going to give honest feedback, without sugar-coating it.  People are more educated.  They are more smart in one area, i.e. violin or singer, other's had certain niches the were excellent, but not good in a bunch of other things.  Her father's mom constantly bragged about my father's eldest brother.  It was "Bob, this and Bob that".  My mother similarly had this similar battle with her mother, because she constantly said:  "Bertha this and Bertha that".  My mom started to try to excel at cooking.   When we returned from Germany after five years, how she had to rebond and build a new relationship with her mother as her mother was aging.  Making her aware of mistakes, and saying she was sorry.

Sometimes parents do the best they can.  My mom sewed all of our clothes and we were dressed to the nines from her sewing.  She told me she had to wear sacks of flour as underwear.  She said in those days, you didn't waste anything.  In those days you used everything.  She said her mother would buy flour sacks because the material was finer and made better underwear.  She was reflecting how she learned not to be a waster as she's grown with age.  People didn't waste anything in those days.  She was ten years when the Second World War II was ending.  She said they had learned to go without because "that's the way it was" back then.  She said that is why it was so important that we would always be dressed in nice clothes.  She said she had everything pressed.  We had play clothes, we had school and we had Sunday church clothes.  We hung up our school every day.  The only pair of shoes we had were runners and a pair of Sunday shoes.  No wonder I'm shoe aholic now.