Ravenweb Blog

The Maxims of Manhood isn't as outrageously funny (or perhaps as embellished) as something like I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell , but it's well-crafted, entertaining, and true to life. As the sub-title indicates, the book includes "100 rules every real man must live by", and below are some partial examples of what you'll find among the maxims: Your dog must be larger than a toaster. Tip well. Never use the word "blossom." Know how to chug a beer (and know that you shouldn't). Always hold the door.Never use emoticons. The Maxims of Manhood is definitely light reading and targeted at men, but it's funny and I recommend it.

I am an optimist. I believe that people are basically decent, and I believe in the kindness of strangers. I feel that despite the immense challenges of climate change, we will all come together and figure out a way forward. I believe that in the U.S. we will reduce the deficit and eventually make health-care work for everyone. I sense that my daughter and others in her generation will find new ways to solve old problems. I know that there really are second chances and people can succeed when they are determined and work hard. I believe in spring dawning and the promise of a new day. I suspect that it's not a coincidence that people with a positive outlook have more good luck than their more negative counterparts. I embrace sport, and truly believe that there's always next year, and next season. I believe that you play to the end , and keep your head held high, no matter the score. I resist misery loving company, and never cheer against a team that hasn'...

Seth Godin contends that the modern workplace has evolved such that many old jobs and functions have become automated, ossified, or completely eliminated. So, to succeed nowadays, you must make yourself indispensable or an artist at what you do. To do this, Godin says that you need to become "the artist you already are. To make a difference. To stand for something. To get the respect and security you deserve." I thought Linchpin was a personal book for Godin and appreciate that he wrote it. Intellectually, I agreed with him on most points, although, in full disclosure, I found myself more motivated and inspired after reading Rework .

Here Comes Everybody provides a penetrating analysis of how the Internet and social media have fundamentally and irrevocably changed the rules and costs of forming groups. By effectively eliminating the costs associated with organizing, groups formed from the bottom-up are now not only possible but increasing in number and influence. Shirky looks at organizations thriving under this new model, including Wikipedia, Flickr, and Twitter. Conversely, he also surveys entities becoming obsolete, such as the (traditional) newspaper publishing industry. I definitely recommend Here Comes Everybody , and not just for those interested in business or marketing books.

I'm very excited to be a part of the March of Dimes' March for Babies event this year. Please help me reach my goal by making a donation to my walk. It's easy and secure - just access the linke below to make a donation. http://www.marchforbabies.org/ravenweb

Rework cuts through a number of accepted business practices and notions and, in their place, provides clear, untangled opinions about working better and faster. For example, in one passage, the authors contend that meetings and detailed procedures often waste time and don't yield that much value. You may not agree with everything in Rework and possibly find parts of it reductive or even discomforting. But it's worth reading and, at its best, inspiring. It's also hard not to appreciate the authors' openness and willingness to reveal what's worked for them, personally and in their business.

Checklists are at once so simple and utilitarian that it's hard to conceive of them as aids in the resolution of complex procedures and problems. Yet help they do, as author Atul Gawande contends, in complex and wide-ranging procedures, like flying a plane, performing surgery, and assessing an investment. There's more research to be done to show the utility and versatility of checklists, and to demonstrate what they can and can't do, but with this readable and accessible book, Gawande begins the discovery. For my part, this book intuitively felt right. I use checklists regularly, and I am a fan of simple project tracking software, like Basecamp , that orients toward simple tasks and checklists.

Malcolm Gladwell is like that brilliant, lively guy at the party who is able to articulate and make accessible a number of complicated ideas to a large group of people huddled around. In Outliers , Gladwell presents some interesting ideas, mostly concerned with notions of success. Gladwell examines both the traditional drivers of success, like hard-work and practice, as well as other contribuing factors, like luck and opportunity, to try and establish some conclusions about success and why some people achieve it and others don't. Outliers is thought-provoking and worth reading, but it's worth noting that the research is limited and Gladwell tends toward oversimplification. It's hard to fault him too much, though. His natural function and style seems to be to present ideas and problems, not do the research and solve them.

Kristin Cashore continues to soldify her reputation as a top fantasy novelist with Fire , an imaginative novel about "monsters" -- beautiful but mutated versions of various animal species. Fire is also the name of the main character, who is a human monster with the ability to manipulate minds. The book portrays Fire's struggle to accept herself and her extraordinary abilities while helping out a kingdom at war. I enjoyed the novel and recommend it, but I had a few nits. Specifically, I felt the explicit tie-in with the villain Leck from Cashore's previous novel, Graceling , was forced and unnecessary. It was enough to set the novel in the same world as Graceling without bringing back the character. Beyond that and a few other small things, though, the book was great, and I look forward to many more good things from this author.

As a follow up to my last post , I wanted to highlight a portion of a tribute delivered at William Greiner's memorial service. Judith E. Albino , one of the speakers and a President Emerita and Professor at the Colorado School of Public Health, gave a heartfelt and memorable speech in which she recalled ten life lessons she learned from William Greiner. I've reproduced her list below: Do the right thing, and if you do, you won’t need lawyers – at least not often. There are few real obstacles to reaching our goals, only different, sometimes circuitous – but often, far more interesting – routes for getting there. Ambiguity is good – it means that everything is still possible. Words are powerful – know what they mean; use them well, and use them precisely. The influence of history is real and undeniable; in other words, context is critical in every decision. There’s always another way to look at a problem, and the best solutions require multiple perspectives. Peop...

I attended the public memorial service for former UB President William Greiner this week, and it was a tribute and celebration I will not soon forget. The speakers ranged from former colleagues and associates of Greiner to close friends and family. All evoked the prodigious intelligence and big warmth of a man who left an indelible impression on all those who knew him and a lasting legacy on the university where he served as President. While I was an undergraduate at UB when Greiner became President, it wasn't until much later that I had a personal encounter with him. It was actually only a few years ago, at one of my wife's Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) events when many of the Kappa's brought their spouses. We were eating lunch, and I found myself sitting across from Carol Greiner (a Kappa like my wife) and her husband -- Bill Greiner. Conversation flowed as my wife and I began to pepper Bill with questions. He realized we were very interested in talking to him and spoke a...

UPDATE - 2/2/2010 After a trip to Florida to pick up Geoffrey, the Lancers returned to Buffalo with Geoffrey on Friday , January 29. We're so grateful for this happy outcome, and have even had the opportunity to meet Geoffrey. He's a remarkably well-adjusted, happy boy, and my daughter loved playing with him. UPDATE - 1/21/2010 Erin returned home last Friday on the 15th, but without Geoffrey . However, Erin and her husband Mike continue to work with the U.S. State Department to secure a visa to bring Geoffrey to the U.S. Things appear to be progressing well, and we hope to see Geoffrey on our street soon. ORIGINAL POST - 1/14/2010 My family and I are very fortunate to live in a friendly, welcoming neighborhood. We've especially enjoyed residing beside our next door neighbors, a couple named Mike and Erin and their two children. They welcomed us into the neighborhood from the start and have always been great. Lately, they've initiated an adoption for a beauti...

A pair of work colleagues and I were enjoying beers the other night when discussion briefly turned to The Clash and how 2010 is the 30th anniversary of London Calling . We then talked about favorite songs and realized that we all had our distinct, preferred Clash songs. I thought the selections were varied but excellent and wanted to list them here. Note that we did not intentionally all pick songs from London Calling. It just turned out that way, although it shows the depth of the album. The songs: Lost in the Supermarket Jimmy Jazz Rudie Can't Fail

When I conceived and started the 25 Days of Christmas blog series , I didn't know all the topics I would post about or the item I would feature on Christmas Day. I figured my bias would slant toward It's a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol , because of their strong, emotional stories and staying power. I knew I always liked A Christmas Story, but it wasn't until I started thinking about just how well the movie captured what it felt like to be nine years old during Christmas that I knew it would be my Day 25 choice. When you're nine, there's that one gift you want for Christmas above all else that interjects so much high drama and gravitas to the Christmas season. You're so excited for Christmas that the days leading up to the holiday seem to go on forever and you wonder if Christmas will ever arrive. Though there's some anxiety that accompanies the wait for Santa and the uncertainty that you'll get that one gift you want, the relative slow-moving ...

At some point in It's a Wonderful Life , George Bailey begins to resemble one of the many men Thoreau foresaw leading lives of "quiet desperation". There are so many reasons why this is a great Christmas movie, but what's always stood out for me is the honesty of George's desperation. Many of us know what it's like to pine for better opportunities and are one medical illness away from financial ruin. What the movie does so well is remind us to keep perspective, and remember our family and friends and all the things we have instead of what we don't. This is part of my 25 Days of Christmas blog series.

A Christmas Carol is of course one of the most celebrated and timeless Christmas stories of all time. The redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge -- in both the original text and movie sources -- is one of those moments that transcends its material and is truly timeless. Everybody has a favorite, of course, and I'm no different. I prefer reading the original Dickens novella and watching the 1984 George C. Scott film version . Every year I try and read the novella or watch the movie. I love the story. It's a tale of hope with a stirring message that it's never too late to change. Perhaps Scrooge's nephew, Fred, says it best: I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come around apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-...

Do They Know It's Christmas? is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to raise money for famine relief in Africa. Those of you who are my age surely remember this recording, when a young Bono and Sting sang side by side for a cause. Sadly, while it's now been 25 years since the original recording, we still have a long way to go to eradicate poverty, malnourishment, and disease. If it's been a while since you've heard this, or if the song is new to you, have a listen: Link to video on YouTube This is part of my  25 Days of Christmas  blog series.

Now we're talking. Bad Santa is crude, lewd, and utterly irreverent. But it's also hilarious and, in my opinion, the best Christmas comedy of them all. This movie works and is funny in so many ways that a lesser film like Scrooged is not because it starts with a bad, drunken Santa (played by Billie Bob Thornton) premise and carries it through for the whole movie. It doesn't compromise or cheat to a happy ending. Yes, there is a lonely uncool kid who attaches himself to Santa. But instead of the redemption arc, where the kid helps the bad Santa become a better person, it's Santa who helps the kid become a little bad and less of a loser. Of course this film isn't for everyone. My wife, for one, detests the movie, and refuses to watch it with me. But for people who know that sometimes a movie is very funny and "not about what it is about" [1] , Bad Santa is a holiday gem. [1] Roger Ebert, Review of "Bad Santa" This is part of my  25 Days...

Rob is a non-fiction column I wrote a few years ago in remembrance of my cousin. Though in the strictest terms it's not a Christmas piece, I am inclined to include it here, as I invariably think of Rob during the holidays. I've reproduced the piece in its entirety below and also linked to an audio clip that features me reading the column for a local radio station. ## Rob by Frank Gullo Our current mythology views ghosts as wayward, incomplete, or even destructive spirits. Films and horror fiction typically depict ghosts as vengeful entities, lingering to haunt or mete punishment for forgotten victims and wrongs that have not been brought to justice. Often, ghosts characterized in this fashion act as they do because they cannot pass on to a higher state until some unfinished matter on the earthly plane is resolved. Sometimes, though, ghosts are not apparitions that linger because they are trapped by their past earthly life. Instead, ghosts are more often memorials ...

Of all the Christmas specials for children, in my opinion, A Charlie Brown Christmas is the best. Funny and ultimately affirming for both kids and adults, A Charlie Brown Christmas achieves what few specials can match: it manages to keep a balanced perspective about Christmas, even admitting to the commercialism of the holiday with a healthy cynicism. But as it teeters toward becoming something more jaded, the story turns and we learn that one of the reasons Christmas is so special is that it's one of the few days when people really come together, when your nemesis doesn't pull the football away before you can kick it, and when a little love and caring go a long way, to dress up a scraggly looking tree and to comfort and cheer each other. Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown! This is part of my  25 Days of Christmas  blog series.