I thought I’d have a lot to write about this week, but I don’t — I’ve been too busy at work to do anything fun or noteworthy!

But despite the best efforts of the stockholders of IBM to keep me busy, I did manage to find a few things to talk about.

The most interesting, at least at this writing, is the Hebrew Beginner’s Course at Milingua. Diane actually discovered this one, not me, but when she sent Jeff and me a note when their word of the day was “Kehillah” (which is the name of the high school he will be attending in the fall (yikes!)), I took a look at the site and decided to give it a try. I’d gone to Hebrew School when I was a kid, and I can sound out the words in the prayerbook, but I can’t understand Hebrew, nor can I read it for meaning (barring the words I recognize from prayers). I just finished lesson two, the alphabet — so far, so good. Of course, I haven’t gotten into anything new yet, either!

I’m still pleased with XM Radio. I had to have it on in my office today to mask conversations in nearby offices — but I left it on long after the conversations ended. I really enjoyed calling Earle Bailey at Deep Tracks and asking him to play some Seatrain, and having him play it five minutes later. I wish I’d thought to ask for their version of “Flute Thing”, though.

Next week, I’m off to the wilds of Westchester County for the kickoff meeting on an IBM Academy study on Wikis and Weblogs; it should be interesting. I hope so, anyway!

Shabbat Shalom!

I read two very interesting books this week:

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell, and Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.

I’d had Tuesdays with Morrie sitting on my bookshelf for quite a while (we bought it at Costco, so that must have been at its peak of popularity), but hadn’t ever gotten around to opening it. But one of the people at the Shir Hadash Book Group was very vocal about recommending Albom’s next book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, so I decided to read the one I had in hand.

And it was very definitely worth reading, especially as I’m trying to figure out what I should be doing at work to have a more significant impact, and as I’m trying to build a proposal to look at work practices and productivity. Sometimes, when looking at the way people work, it’s possible to forget that they are, first and foremost, people — not Human Resources or headcount; Tuesdays with Morrie is a good way to remember.

Unlike Tuesdays with Morrie, I had had no plans to read The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership; in fact, I’d never even heard of it or its author. But I had a request in to the Almaden Library for Rudy Giuliani’s Leadership, and when I asked the librarian about the status, she mentioned that she had Maxwell’s book in hand if I was interested in the meantime. So I borrowed it, and read it in one sitting.

There’s nothing profound in this book — in fact, all of the 21 Laws are obvious. Once you think of them, anyway. But seeing them in one place was good as a starting place for some thinking.

So that’s been my reading for the week — much more inspirational than anything in the papers lately, too.

Shabbat Shalom!