Weapons of Mass Reduction
Fri, May 4th 2012 12:00p John Roling Earlier this week, my office at work embarked on a Biggest Loser weight loss challenge. I had planned on attempting to lose weight soon, so this was the perfect thing to jump start me. Myself and three of my colleagues formed a team, and we weighed in this past Wednesday. We are up against seven other teams of four people each. So with the competition so rough, we trained… by eating total crap.
For the week leading up to the weigh in, I ate all the nasty stuff I wanted as a last hurrah.
P [read] Keywords: office
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It's not you, it's me!
Wed, Apr 20th 2011 10:50a John Roling Hey baby. Yeah, I know it's been quite awhile, and I'm sorry for leaving you hanging for so long. It's just that I've been so busy lately... I know, I know, that's never an excuse, it's just the way it is. Work has been insane, I've been travelling a lot, and I haven't had time to devote to us, and for that I'm sorry.
What's that? Facebook and Twitter? C'mon honey, you know that you and I were never exclusive. Those two don't have nearly as in-depth of a relationship and you and [read] Keywords: facebook
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My Lotusphere 2011 Photo Album
Thu, Feb 10th 2011 8:35a John Roling Finally got around to developing all of my RAW files so I could post my Lotusphere 2011 photo album on flickr. If you've never seen any of my Lotusphere shots, you can see a collection of the last 8 years of Lotusphere pics here.
I shot with a new camera (the awesome Canon 7D) this year, and tried to adjust everything manually. I also only brought one lens, so I wasn't AS happy with my photos this year as in year's past, but I still think things turned out pretty well. You'll find pictu [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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Lotusphere 2011 Blogger Photo
Tue, Feb 8th 2011 3:30p John Roling BloggersLS11-1, originally uploaded by Greyhawk68.
Here's this year's annual on-stage blogger photo. I have two more that you can also check out on flickr and figure out which one you like the best. Needed a lens hood as we got some flare from the lighting, and I didn't have the camera set up quite right before I handed it off, but they still turned out okay and captured the moment. Enjoy. Many of these folks are like family to me. It's a shame we only meet in person once or twice a y [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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I take it back, Lotus IS Dead
Tue, Feb 8th 2011 12:22p John Roling Okay, okay I know. That was an attention seeking headline, but after the Lotus - Not Dead Yet post of a couple weeks ago, I figured I needed to eat some words a bit. That said, truth be told, 'Lotus' IS fading.
Not the software mind you, that's as strong or stronger than it's ever been, it's the branding that seems to be changing. Lotusphere saw little mention of the word Lotus, and almost no glimpses of the Lotus logo anywhere. This was obviously by design. Ed Brill has a great post o [read] Keywords: connections
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Customer and Vendor panels CAN be cool
Mon, Feb 7th 2011 12:10p John Roling With all of the complaining about the panel discussions at the Lotusphere Opening General Session, imagine my initial thoughts when some of my press and blogger events included customer and vendor panel discussions. It was kind of a 'oh here we go again' reaction when I entered a couple of these special events. I was thinking that we might get more of the same generalizations as were seen during the OGS.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
The special events were so much better and mor [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Lotusphere 2011 OGS Live blog
Mon, Jan 31st 2011 6:00a John Roling Alright folks, I'll be live blogging and putting the newest info at the top of the post, replicating every 2 to 5 minutes or so. Sitting in the Blogger's Den as they are calling it this year. Couches, power and hard wired connections. We're ready to rock. [read] Keywords: connections
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Leaving the Bullshit Behind
Mon, Jan 17th 2011 6:38p John Roling There's something I've really been trying my damnedest to do over the last while, and that's simply purge my life of bullshit that I don't need. Get rid of things that bring me down, and cast away people that are nothing but downers.
Now I know that this might seem like it's aimed at the Lotus community right now, but it's not. It's to everyone. If you get rid of all the bad, you can start to really concentrate on the good. Some people are too quick to tear each other down, or engage [read] Keywords: lotus
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Resolutions: Making 2011 My Bitch!
Mon, Jan 3rd 2011 3:50p John Roling As is the tradition here, every year I come up with resolutions to try to make myself and my life better in some way in the upcoming year. I've had varying levels of success in the past, but I've also been fairly specific. So this year, I'll be a little more general. So without further adieu:
Nurture my family relationships - This is just making sure I make time to spend with my family without distraction. More Daddy/Daughter dates, more trips to "do stuff" rather than just hanging [read] Keywords:
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2010 Wrap-Up
Fri, Dec 31st 2010 9:20p John Roling I kick off every year with my resolutions for the new year, and then I recap them here just to keep myself honest. So without further adieu, how did I do?
Keep up the Health kick - Well I wanted to keep the weight down, and possibly drop to 175. Well until the end of the summer I did pretty well. I played softball in the spring and really enjoyed it, and can't wait to play again next summer. My body at 40 takes a little more maintenance, but I can make it happen. Now, this fall, our sc [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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SIUED: Delicious Bookmarks
Fri, Dec 10th 2010 5:30p John Roling In the latest installment of Shit I Use Every Day, I give you the bookmarking service Delicious. Delicious is simply a website that allows you to save your internet bookmarks to it's website. The main thing this does for you, is that it makes your bookmarks available from any web browser. It also serves as a backup for your bookmarks. I'm sure you know people, or have been one of those people, that have all of their bookmarks on a computer, and once that computer crashes they lose them all. De [read] Keywords: firefox
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Wishes CAN come true
Fri, Dec 10th 2010 5:30p John Roling About a year or so ago. The Make-A-Wish foundation granted the wish of a seven year old little girl. This little girl wanted her and her family to go to Disney. Now for those of you that don't know, Make-A-Wish is a wonderful organization that grants wishes to children who are very sick, many of whom are probably not going to live much longer due to their illness. Well this little girl was stricken with cancer, and she wanted, just for a little while, to enjoy a vacation with her family. She go [read] Keywords:
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Well Thank You!
Wed, Nov 24th 2010 2:49p John Roling Tomorrow in the US, we celebrate Thanksgiving. A time punctuated by NFL football, family and tons of food. You are also supposed to reflect on what you are thankful for. I'm feeling particularly thankful this year, so I wanted to jot down a couple of reasons why.
The health of my family - I'm so glad that myself and my family are healthy. I've seen too much bad shit in recent years happen to friends of mine. So not having to deal with sickness is a true blessing.
Having a job I love [read] Keywords:
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SIUED: 1Password
Thu, Nov 18th 2010 2:30p John Roling The second installment in Shit I Use Every Day is a password management program called 1Password. I first installed 1Password as part of a bundle of Mac software I had purchased, and then it quickly became essential in my day-to-day world.
1Password is simply a vault for storing all the passwords you use on various websites. You protect it with your master password, and it remembers all the rest. It can also generate random passwords for you with more security than something you might use y [read] Keywords: notes
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Shit I Use Every Day (SIUED) : Dropbox
Fri, Nov 12th 2010 1:30p John Roling I often get asked by people what software I utilize a lot, so I thought that I would start writing articles letting people know the software I find useful and use nearly every day. The first installment is Dropbox.
Dropbox is a nifty little utility that does one thing, and one thing perfectly. It synchronizes your files between computers, the web and mobile devices. You install a small piece of software wherever you want access to your files, and anytime you add a new file to your Dropbox f [read] Keywords: desktop
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Oh No, Four Oh.
Thu, Oct 21st 2010 1:30p John Roling This Friday, Oct. 22nd, I turn 40 years old. 40. It’s actually kind of hard to comprehend hitting this milestone. It doesn’t seem so far away that I was a punk high school kid working in fast food and chasing tail. Or a college student working as a local radio DJ to pay the bills. Or living in a van down by the river with my future wife.
None of those things seem that long ago, and I have vivid memories of them, but each were a minimum of a decade and a half ago.
Overall, b [read] Keywords:
Letting Go
Mon, Oct 18th 2010 1:10p John Roling Over the past year or so, I've been trying really hard to not let little things bother me. Part of that whole mentality came about with my epiphany post after a rather tumultuous summer.
Since then, life has been much better. That said, that doesn't mean everything is roses all the time, far from it. I've had some really trying weeks where it became increasingly more difficult to just "let go" of the small stuff. Add to that the fact that I'm ending my thirties at the end of this week [read] Keywords:
Seven Year Blogoversary
Fri, Sep 24th 2010 1:10p John Roling Wow. Time flies when you are having fun I guess, and I’ve definitely had a lot of fun here over the last seven years. On Sept. 24th, 2003 I posted here for the first time, and it really changed a lot of things for me.
Blogging has obviously always been a personal creative outlet for me, but even more than that, it allowed me to join a community of professionals centered around Lotus Notes and the companion products. I’ve made so many friends through this medium, and for that I a [read] Keywords: lotus
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Reviewing Soon: IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 User Guide
Wed, Sep 8th 2010 12:00p John Roling Packt Publishing has a new book out. It's called the IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 User Guide. I'll be reviewing it soon, but in the meantime, you can download Chapter 2 : To Chat or Not to Chat and check it out for yourself.
The book promises the following:
(To help you) Understand and master the features of Lotus Notes and put them to work in your business quickly
Contains comprehensive coverage of new Lotus Notes 8.5 features
Includes easy-to-follow real-world examples with plenty of sc [read] Keywords: ibm
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XKCD: Falling Asleep
Wed, Aug 25th 2010 1:30p John Roling I've always loved xkcd, and this comic reminded me of my wife. Thanks for being my rock honey... [read] Keywords:
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Embers
Mon, Aug 16th 2010 10:40a John Roling The smoke rolls across my lips
Fading like the days
Spreading wings through darkness
The night clings to me
Like an embrace in the rain
It all feels so heavy sometimes
So yet another drag
So intent on the flames
So often I want to burn this whole world down
The last notes trail off
And the silence remains
"you're welcome" seems so empty today
Another grain tumbles down
And the coastline trails on for miles
It seems so vast sometimes
So strike [read] Keywords: notes
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