Lise's Ramblings

Mentoring ensures individuals acquire new skills by working alongside those who have more experience. For centuries, tradespeople have valued structured mentoring, in the form of apprenticeship. Up-and-coming athletes improve by training hard with mentors or coaches. In labs, researchers take less experienced, but curious individuals under their wing. Doctors work as interns under the watchful eyes of physicians and nurses with years under their collective belts. I can attest that identifying a mentor and fostering a relationship with that person will benefit you in all sorts of ways. How can you spot someone who has the making of a mentor? Seek out those who: ·           encourage growth and learning; ·           show leadership by example, even when they aren’t in formal management roles; ·           share their knowledge at any point...

True zingers are perfectly timed and witty remarks.   Not all zingers are mean-spirited, though I confess that I tend to revel in the zingers aimed squarely at someone who was due for a healthy dose of karma. One of my favourites cropped up in the early 1990s in a song written and performed by a Canadian band called The Northern Pikes. “She Ain’t Pretty” features the following line: “Her ego wrote cheques incredibly fast, but her personality didn’t have the cash.” Shakespeare had an incredible knack for composing zingers. But unlike for writers, when the rest of us are in want of a witty comeback, there isn’t the luxury of time to dream one up. Even if zingers aren’t on the tip of your tongue when you need them most, you can still value a zinger delivered by someone else. Clever, funny and a bit edgy…       AWESOME! Any zingers stand out for you?

Has the following situation ever happened to you? You’re filling in a lengthy Web form, but when you hit the submit button an error message indicates you forgot to complete all the required fields. You return to the Web form only to find that all of your information has vanished. POOF! After weighing whether it’s worth your while, you begin to fill in the form again. I can’t speak for you, but situations like that happen often enough to me that I let out a whoop of joy whenever my browser retains my info in the form. Not having to start over, because your browser behaves…       AWESOME!

Do you recall the first time you locked eyes on a painting by one of the masters (e.g., Rembrandt, Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Matisse, Munch, da Vinci, Group of Seven)?   Most of us do, but while you may admire famous works of art, those aren’t necessarily the pieces that truly speak to you. The ones you connect with do so for reasons beyond mere appreciation. Those particular works of art simultaneously communicate with you in many ways, including on sensory and emotional levels.   Just as artists are inspired in various ways and express themselves through different media, we respond to art in our own fashion. So you won’t find a picture to accompany this blog entry, because art that speaks to me may not resonate with you at all. In your case, the art may be a poem, a sketch, a musical score, a sculpture, a photo, a movie, a play, a piece of pottery, a novel or a painting. Keep all your senses alert and open both your mind and your heart to those connectio...

“Lest we forget” is a term connected with Remembrance Day, so we tend to think of people who gave the ultimate sacrifice: life itself. But beyond Red Fridays, November 11 th is also a time to honour all the men and women who serve their country in wartime, peacekeeping missions and emergency situations in Canada . For me, Remembrance Day always means thanking the heavens that my grandfather, Sgt. Harold C. Lampman (a.k.a. Dad Lampman), made it home to Canada from World War II. Dad and his war bride, Betty (Mom-Mom) Dad was a self-professed pacifist, family man and keen student, so going to war wasn’t something to which he aspired. When he was young, his love of music and interest in signaling were what he enjoyed in the cadet corps and the Oxford Rifles band. Atrocities overseas eventually drove Dad to sign up for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). As he put it, he and others were “forced by circumstances and people like Hitler and the Japanese Emperor to ...

Tailspins from global financial woes have countries struggling to regain stable economic footings. Full recovery is far off and requires varied steps, but early moves involve industries and governments alike searching for efficiencies, paring budgets, dropping services and product lines, and cutting jobs. At times like these, you’ll find employees react by evolving into one of the following four characters: the ostrich – those who adopt this head-in-the-sand response believe that as long as they ignore the situation it doesn’t really exist Chicken Little – apart from spreading rumours and cynicism in a sky-is-falling way, poultry tend to accomplish little more than dampen morale and play the martyr    the fairy-tale villain – colleagues who never pulled their weight before suddenly seem busy and engaged, but then their self-protectionism becomes obvious as they kiss butt, throw adversaries (anyone at all) under the proverbial bus, manipulate people and situati...

The Bay of Fundy region presents visitors with breathtaking vistas and memorable experiences. For those of you who are right-brain dominant, who can resist these wonders: fossil cliffs, reversing rapids, the world’s highest tides, incredible trails and lookouts, diverse wildlife, quaint lighthouses, Hopewell Rocks and other geological treasures, tidal bores, covered bridges, the world's oldest Red Spruce tree, waterfalls and much more. If you’re driven by the left side of your brain, then below you’ll find numbers pointing out how lucky we are to have the Bay of Fundy . 100 billion tons of water flow in and out of the Bay of Fundy twice every 24 hours 1 billion years of geological evidence making up the 300 million years ago the Joggins Fossil Cliffs formed 2,500 square kilometers – size of the Fundy Geopark (Stonehammer) – North America ’s only UNESCO recognized geopark   350 migrating bird species feed along the Bay of Fundy’s Nova Scotia shore...