Having Faith in a December Sunset

The December sunset will deliver a spectacular show. There are just days that you will not be able to follow the sun descending into the horizon of the Pacific Ocean because of heavy cloud cover. Just have faith in the sun that it will pierce through the sky once it's behind the horizon.

Ala Wai Boat Harbor - Honolulu

The Bad and Good Teachers

Teachers play such an important role in developing our children at an early age. 

My memories of a bad teacher recounts a Monday morning when I was in the First Grade. On the agenda for the day was sharing about what you did over the weekend. When it was my turn I stood up and said I could see the wind blowing when my dad took us up to a scenic lookout. There were a lot of clouds blowing around the mountains. It was very windy that day. I was so excited to share that with the class. To my surprise the teacher barked at me and to the class "You can't see the wind it's invisible and Drake said he could see the wind blowing." I remember students starting to laugh. I was so humiliated that day. I did report that incident to my mom and she had a nice talk with that teacher to make sure she never behaves that way again. A good teacher would have used my story to explain to the class how the wind works and thank me for my story.

Memories of a good teacher recounts a very dedicated teacher that offered to tutor me after school to bring me up to speed on a subject. Mission accomplished and she rewarded me after school by taking me across the street to get a milkshake. Such a precious moment I remember when I was in the Second Grade.

My advice to new teachers and veteran teachers is that you need to remind yourself daily that you are setting lifelong memories that are good and bad for your students. You play an important role in the development of young minds to be good students. Make a difference and be that good teacher.

The Scout Elves Return for the Christmas Season

The Scout Elves visit children between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. They will depart on Christmas Day to return to the North Pole. They will return every year.

Get ready for some fun!

The Scout Elf Team

Santa has his Scout Elves hide in homes with children to watch over them to see if they been good or naughty. The fun starts when the children go to bed. The Elf will seek out a place in the house to hide. The Elf loves to play hide and seek. The Elf will have a message for the children or the Elf will do something funny. Leave it to your imagination what a Elf would do. Sometimes the Elf does not hide and wants to be found easily to show off what he or she did. This fun goes on everyday. Encourage your children to leave messages for the Elf. The Elf will respond back.

Join me for some pancakes

Start this annual tradition by granting Santa permission to send a Scout Elf into your house to observe your children. Believe me your kids will love it and look forward to waking up each morning to find a new surprise everyday.

The 2016 Christmas Season Has Arrived in Hawaii

The Sheraton Waikiki has a tradition of displaying a Santa & Mrs. Santa sand sculpture in the hotel lobby every year to welcome in the Christmas season. If you are in Waikiki take a snapshot with the sand sculpture.

Mele Kalikimaka! 
Merry Christmas in Hawaiian.

Sheraton Waikiki - Lobby 

 

The Waikiki November Sunset

Just sitting on a bench taking in the view

A calm Friday afternoon in Waikiki sitting on a bench watching the sun make its descent into the Pacific Ocean is a beautiful experience.

Queen's Surf Beach

Nature is an artist 

The golden sunset is so beautiful when it interacts with the ocean and clouds.

Queen's Surf Beach

Sundown silhouettes 

Just a beautiful sight to watch sailboats grace the calm Pacific Ocean as the day comes to an end to welcome in the evening.  

Queen's Surf Beach

Keep Stakeholders Happy with Transparent Project Management

Project Management should be transparent for Stakeholders to have a good insight on the progress. That will put some pressure on the Project Manager. Project Managers do provide periodic reporting, but is that enough? Go a step further and provide Stakeholders with the ability to have access to real time status that they can get on their smartphones or laptops. Select a Project Management Software that will provide mobile access. 

A Project Manager should welcome transparency. Transparency will demonstrate a confident Project Manager that is leading a team that will deliver results to their Stakeholders.

Transparency will get your Stakeholders engaged in the project by having real time updates on the progress. Good and bad news will be known now and not on a periodic status report.

How to Win and Lose like a Team

Leadership through difficult times 

A good lesson was illustrated in a Sunday Night NFL Football game on 10-23-2016 between the Seattle Seahawks and the Arizona Cardinals that ended in an overtime tie of 6 - 6. The lowest overtime score in NFL history.

Arizona was the first to strike with a winning field goal. The ball hit the left goal post. The Arizona coach slammed his playboard to the ground from his head with an angry face when he realized the kick was bad. Seattle received a big gift from Arizona. 

Seattle was able to get in position with a game winning field goal with time running out. The kick went wide missing the inside of the left goal post. The Seattle coach reacted with anticipation for the kick and then showed disappointment in his face with the bad kick.

The Seahawks coach Carroll:

“I love him and he’s our guy,’’ Carroll said of Hauschka.

The Cardinals coach Arians:

Arians said of Catanzaro “Make it. He’s a professional. This ain’t high school. You get paid to make it.”

Two different reactions and comments towards players that could have been a game hero. 

The Cardinals coach is not a leader. Slamming a player is poor leadership. Develop and work with the player.

The Seahawks coach is a real leader. He knows he will need that kicker in the future and he stands by him.

In the business world we should lose as a team and win as a team. No finger pointing. Learn from failure and regroup. Move on with synergy. It's all about a cohesive team.

A Stunning October Sunset On The Beach

Pause for a Moment in Time

Hawaii has some of the most spectacular sunsets in the world. Take a walk on the beach in Hawaii before the sun goes down to get your front row view of the sun descending into the edge of the Pacific Ocean. 

The Hawaiian sun has a special palette to paint the horizon with spectacular colors. The clouds and sailboats add to the beauty too.

View from Fort Derussy Beach Park - Oahu

I captured this moment in time to preserve it forever to enjoy. These people on the beach are capturing their moments too. 

Project Management Gone Wild

Project Management Methodologies  

So many methodologies to choose from you can't go wrong. Right? We have Critical Path Method (CPM), Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and Prince2. There are many more out there. The point I'm stressing is that you select the right methodology. Go wild with a hybrid if you feel constrained. Remember that you have a budget to track and a delivery date to meet. 

Flexibility might look good, but too much flexibility will come at a cost if you are not careful. Keeping within the scope of the project is key when you deviate from traditional methodologies. Keeping the stakeholders in the loop is imperative so they are fully aware of where you are at in the project. 

   
Tracking The Project

No matter what methodology you use, you better track your approved budget all the time or you will have some explaining to do later if you happen to go over it. It's better to explain along the way and justify that you need more money for unforeseen bumps in the road. 

Update your project plan to make sure your target dates will be met. If the dates are sliding you need to meet with the stakeholders to present options to them. Time for you to work some magic now. Throw some bones to those stakeholders to keep them happy.

I suggest you track your budget on a weekly project status report. Include key tasks that have been completed and tasks planned for the next week. Always have weekly targets, don't just wing it because you see some flexibility in your schedule. Always keep your eye on the finish line.

The Light Between Oceans - Movie Review

Now playing The Light Between Oceans at a theater near you.  

The movie is 2 hour & 13 minutes with Michael Fassbender (Tom), Alicia Vikander (Isabel), and Rachel Weisz (Hannah). The story takes place in Western Australia. The story is about a returning veteran from the First World War in Europe. He accepts a lighthouse keeper job on an island to have solitude. He meets his future wife when he returns to the mainland for a short visit. She proposes to him. He latter accepts her proposal and she lives with him on the island. Just the two of them. She has multiple miscarriages. She really wants a baby.  

I give it (5) *****

One day an infant is seen floating in a rowboat. Tom rescues the infant and wants to report the baby to the authorities. Isabel begs Tom to not report the infant so she can become a mother. They raise the child as their own and are very happy. One fateful day on a visit to the mainland Tom discovers their child's mother when he passed by a cemetery. Tom sees Hannah visiting a memorial for her husband and daughter lost a sea. The time frame that Tom and Isabel claimed the baby matches the dates on the memorial.

Tom and Isabel are now faced with a moral dilemma that will rip out their hearts. What should they do? So many lives are affected by the lie they have been living.

• I highly recommend seeing this movie.

The Project Management Horse Blanket Report

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) - Reporting

Having the ability to capture valuable metrics from your project management software and report on it is the key to successful project management. Delivering projects on time within the budget is what all Project Managers work for. 

Reporting via The Horse Blanket 

What is a Horse Blanket? It's a large sheet of continuous paper that is used in plotter printers. You can drape the paper over a horse. The plotter printer will produce quality graphic prints from the large paper that lets you create a masterpiece of any size. Create a collage of various reports and screenshots to tell the story. A visual picture of various reports and screenshots that are all displayed at the same time will open eyes. All the dots should connect. The key is selecting the right reports and screenshots that tell the story. This is a continuous work in progress to keep evolving the reporting. Keep designing reports and screens with valuable information.

Wrike Screenshot 

Wrike Screenshot

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) - Software

To accomplish your reporting you will need a robust project management software that supports PPM. Monitoring the progress of projects is very critical to spot deficiencies so that they may be addressed with the appropriate remediation to get the project back on track. 

Pokemon Go time in Hawaii

Everywhere you go you see people glued to their phones. Take a closer look and you will see that they are on a serious quest to catch that virtual Pokemon. 

Beach Walk - Waikiki 

Tourists and locals are chasing down that Pokemon. 

Waikiki Aquarium 

The September Sunset in Hawaii

Hawaii sunsets just keep on delivering every month. Hurricane Lester is out there somewhere. The hurricane took a turn to the north missing the Hawaiian Islands on the Labor Day Weekend. 

A big Aloha to Hurricane Lester for deciding to pass on Hawaii and not visit us.

Blessed! 

Ala Wai Boat Harbor - Oahu

What's going on in the world?

We have the President of the United States claiming the dubious honor of the biggest liar ever for telling Americans you can keep your insurance and doctors with a convincing speech maintaining a straight face while promoting his Obamacare. What a good role model for our children.

Our Schools and Colleges. What is going on with all these crazy shooters. Our children are not safe getting an education. We have to teach lock downs in our schools.

Going to the Malls we have crazy shooters. We need to be on guard wth an action plan if an active shooter situation occurs.

Our Airports are not safe. Home grown terrorist uses his clearance to sneak a bomb in to cause harm to innocent people. 

The World is not a safe place. I'm sad that our children have to grow up in a dangerous world now. We have to turn it around one day at a time. 

I remember as a child going to the Airport and all the way to the boarding gate to say goodbye to a loved one. Going to the Mall was safe.

I wrote this post two years ago. Not much has changed since then. It's 2016 now.

Peanuts kept the tradition in The Peanuts Movie (2015)

I'm impressed with the new movie on the peanuts gang. It's not a re-boot type of movie to modernize the characters and make the storyline to reflect 2015. The movie preserved all the peanut characters personalities. If you are a fan of Peanuts it will bring back memories. If you are not familiar with Peanuts you will love them and follow them after watching the new movie. 

Go see this movie it's for all ages. It's on DVD now.

Budget Creep a Project Manager's Nightmare

Going over budget within the scope of a project can happen. You think you covered all the possibilities that could occur in the project. You submitted a budget with padding so you can avoid a budget overrun. You are now at the one third milestone in the project and your funds are being depleted faster than anticipated. How did I not see this happening?

Reporting any budget variances on a monthly Project Stop Light Report will expose your budget creep. You will see how your monthly expenditures keep going up for the project. That is your cue to stop the project and revisit the budget. Are the projected estimates accurate or grossly underestimated? The faith of the project is in jeopardy now. Will the project be shutdown or will additional funds be allocated for it? A big decision needs to be made based on an accurate big picture on what the new realistic funding will be to keep the project moving.  

Project Managers need to always keep an eye on the budget and raise the red flag when the project funds are depleting ahead of time. Avoid what I call Budget Creep.

Mechanic: Resurrection - Movie Review

Now playing Mechanic: Resurrection at a theater near you.  

The movie is 1 hour & 39 minutes with Jason Statham and Jessica Alba. The story of a master assassin brought out of retirement after the woman he loves is kidnapped by an old enemy. His enemy directs him to assassinate three powerful gangsters that live in different parts of the world. He must make the assassinations look like accidents. If he can pull it off his girlfriend will be released to him. There is a big twist in the plot after the second successful assassination. 

I give it (3.5) ***

It's action packed with with the typical Jason Statham fight scenes. Jessica Alba delivers an eye candy performance. I had a good time watching this movie. This movie is full of violence with a love story inserted into it. It's worth watching if you like Jason and Jessica. 

The Project Management Office Dashboard

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) - Reporting

Having the ability to have real time status reporting of all the projects in the organization is a goal that the Project Management Office (PMO) should undertake. The reporting will be dashboards displayed in the PMO on a large LCD monitor. Project teams will be directed to update their tasks throughout the day to give the PMO the ability to have fresh data on their dashboards. There might be resistance if the teams update their status weekly. Just give it time and it will become part of the team's daily routine. To accomplish your reporting you will need a robust project management software that supports PPM.

The Live Dashboard

Hang a large LCD monitor in the PMO in a good location to be viewed. The dashboard will give you a glance at how all the projects are doing. Why wait for weekly, on request and monthly reports to find out good or bad news. Daily monitoring of a dashboard will ensure that projects are on track within the budget. Define various dashboard views of your project metrics to display throughout the day. A large visual view with the colors of Green, Yellow and Red to highlight important information will make an impact on how you monitor your project portfolio. Call it the Project Command Center Dashboard.

Sample Dashboard 

Big Brother is Watching

The main objectives for the PMO dashboards is budgets and project timelines. It's all about being proactive to address potential problems in the early stages. If a budget keeps increasing the project could go way over the approved budget. Missing milestones could be a resource issue. Just naming a few issues that you can detect on a well designed dashboard. Your dashboard is a work in progress. You should always look for ways to keep improving your dashboards with valuable metrics. 

Have a Meet and Greet 

Invite stakeholders, executive management, managers, project managers and project teams to see your dashboards in action on the big screen. Ask for feedback on how you can improve your dashboards reporting. Give it a try and drop me a note how it worked out for your organization. 

Let's get together gang

Coordinating a get together using technology

It should be a piece of cake with the neat technology at our disposal on our smartphones and digital devices to round up the gang. Well that's what I thought. Reality check time what year is it? It's 2016! I assumed everyone knew how to use their smartphones and the apps. Wait, what is an app? Just joking. The technology is not being embraced on our smart devices. That's the problem. The games are what these devices are used for the most. Smartphones and apps keep getting better and better, but the users are not even tapping 30% of their capabilities. The mainstream users are just not ready yet for all this technology. 

Schedule an event on Facebook

Facebook for scheduling events

Facebook let's you create an event to invite people to attend. It's easy creating events on Facebook. The invited people will be notified and all they need to do is read about the event and respond to the event by selecting one of the three choices (Going, Maybe and Can't Go). Simple and to the point end of story. They can post comments on the event to ask questions or make suggestions. Very simple and efficient way to coordinate events. Sending text messages back and forth is not the way to go. 

Good to see all of you

War Dogs - Movie Review

Now playing War Dogs at a theater near you.  

The movie is 1 hour & 54 minutes with Jonah Hill and Miles Teller. They will keep you engaged throughout the movie. I had a good time watching this movie. It's based on a true story of a successful bid by two young international arms dealers for a $300 million dollar contract to supply arms to Afghan forces. There is drama, comedy and violence in this movie so it's action packed. Go see it. 

I give it (5) *****

A Hawaii Summer Sunset in August

Summer sunsets are spectacular to watch from Waikiki. Find a bench or sit on a mat and enjoy the beauty of natures colors that will grace the evening sky after the sun goes down.

Get your cameras ready to capture some precious memories.  

The view from the beach near the Hale Koa Hotel

Sausage Party - Movie Review

Now playing Sausage Party at a theater near you.  

****** Warning Warning Warning  ****** 

Do not bring children to this movie it's very very inappropriate. 

If you are offended by crude humor don't see this raunchy animated movie.

Now where do I start? I had a good time watching this movie. You have to see it. It's action packed with humor and violence. This movie is politically incorrect and that's what makes it work. The lines in the movie will have you laughing. The sausage Frank (Seth Rogen) and his crush on Brenda the sexy hot dog bun (Kristen Wiig) give a hilarious performance with an all star supporting cast.

The plot is simple. The food in a grocery store dream about a good life when they get purchased and leave the store. It's a dream because they don't realize they will be eaten when they leave the store. I'll leave it for you to find out what happens.

Very entertaining movie. Go see it with a hot dog to snack on.

I give it (5) *****

Nine Lives - Movie Review

Now playing Nine Lives at a theater near you. 

I recommend seeing this movie. It was very entertaining. A classic story about a businessman married to his company neglecting his family. He gets a second chance in life to appreciate his family after a near death experience in the presence of a cat that he just bought for his daughter's birthday gift. His body in a comma and his mind in the cat now. 

Dad in the cat will observe his family and bond with his daughter. He also has to watch an attempt of a hostile takeover of his company due to his condition. He will use his cat skills to stop the takeover.

Very entertaining movie. Go see it!

I give it (5) *****

Get Outside it's Summer Time in Hawaii

Enjoy the hot summer days with the extended daylight. It's hot out there reaching the low to mid 90 degrees in fahrenheit so do put on some sunscreen lotion to protect your skin. For Hawaii standards anything over 89 degrees fahrenheit is hot. 

I remember a conversation with a good friend that I worked with about having a good day at work. I said if the sun is still up when you leave work it was a good day. I'm an Information Technology professional so you have those days that you leave work and the moon is shining on you. 

I live in Hawaii and I don't take this beauty for granted. I'm blessed to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. 

Visit Hawaii and experience this beauty in person and make some priceless awesome memories with your loved ones. If you live in Hawaii what are you waiting for? Get out there! 

Hilton Hawaiian Village

Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort

Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort

Hilton Hawaiian Village

Bad Moms - Movie Review

Now playing Bad Moms at a theater near you. 

I highly recommend seeing this movie. I feel it's not just a chick flick, it's for everyone to see. I enjoyed watching this movie it was very entertaining. It gives you a look at what moms have to go through raising their kids in a fast paced world that we live in.

I give it (5) * * * * *

Group text messaging tips

We all love to text each other to communicate instead of calling each other because texting is just a faster way of communicating. The native text app on your smartphone is not efficient to handle group texting. It's fine for one on one texting.

When you are group texting to communicate among friends the text messages can flood in left and right that will require a sexy user interface on your chat app to make it easier to read and communicate. I recommend the Viber app that is available for download on your smartphone. Go to the Apple - App Store or Android - Google Play store to get it. It's free.

Viber is a simple app to use. Tell your friends to install it. Grant Viber access to your contacts so it can discover all your contacts that are using Viber. You will be able to message anyone with a Viber app installed on their smartphone. Upload a selfie to your profile so when you start your group texting your picture and name will be on the message to make it easier to identify the texter.

Give Viber a try and have fun using it. Viber is a powerful app with many more features that you can explore. I have feeling you will like it.

The High Risk Project

Project Management has been around from the beginning of time. Just think about the wonders of the world that have been built. A form of project management had to have been used to accomplish such feats. The Romans and Egyptians are examples of accomplishing amazing construction projects with only primitive tools and slaves. The use of slaves must have been ingrained into project teams through the years to joke about Project Managers being slave drivers.      

Fast forward to modern times. Project Management is a critical discipline to ensure successful delivery of projects on time within the budget. Projects are tied to a budget with a reasonable variance for the bumps in the road that could pop up. The bumps in the road are the project risks that should be identified and monitored all the time. The entire team needs to be onboard with open communication to immediately report any risks that are starting to materialize. If you stick your head in the sand and hope that the risk goes away without any mitigation, good luck, get your resume ready. 

The person overseaing the entire high profile project needs to be transparent, accessible and have integrity. Knowing when to say timeout takes guts when it's starting to look bad. Slapping on workarounds for deficiencies that eventually catch up with the project is just pure stupidity. Money and time are just wasted and your competency will questioned. 

Having an unrealistic attitude that we have put in many hours and spent big money on the project already so it's unstoppable because we are at the point of no return will not work in your favor. Any failing project can be shutdown to repurpose it or dismantle it to stop further financial loss. Repurpose or dismantling will come at a cost, but if you continue on with a poorly planned project that should have never gotten a green light to proceed, you better have deep pockets to keep funding that White Elephant. A lot of people will be outraged and at the same time relieved that bleeding will be stopped. 

It's all about gathering the required cost and time to complete a project on-time within the budget. Not an easy job for some projects, but it needs to be done properly without cutting corners to get an approval. That's the expectation you expect when you entrust a project team to embark on a major high risk project that is very expensive. 

Providing for your family in hard times

The plight of working overseas to provide financial support for your family. 

When you can't earn a decent wage to support your family in your country you have the option to seek employment overseas. The sacrifice you make to separate from your family to live in a foreign country at the mercy of employers that don't observe labor laws. You have to adjust to customs in their country or you will standout and that's not good.

It's a dangerous endeavor working overseas. You are at the mercy of your employer. Not all employers are bad. It's a dice roll on who you get to work for. I have made some nice friends that have made the difficult choice to work overseas. The employers can be nice to very demanding. They own you. They control your life.

I dedicate this blog post to a dear friend working in the Middle East. That person lost a family member and was unable to return home to be with that loved one. Can you imagine the sorrow in your heart and the strength you need to continue on to perform your job duties. Think about what my friend went through the next time you feel that life is dealing you bad cards.