TUTORIAL IT

and hey would you look at that heres a Brooks post for you!

Yep, thats right, my latest Brooks post is up, lucky you!


Ill let you know if any of my other guest-posting endeavors materializes during my absence, but pending that Im out until Tuesday September 6th.

Happy Laborious Day!

--Wildcat Rock Machine

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All You Need to Know About Vivien Leigh on Her 99th Birthday

The 5th of November is usually a day where people go and buy some sticks of colourful delight and light them of fire so they can look up at the sky being ignited for about five seconds. Since Ive never really relished in seeing fireworks go off in the sky (it hurts my neck and ears...I prefer to watch from a distance), Guy Fawkes might as well mean something else for me. On this day in 1913, my favourite actress, and generally my favourite person who ever walked this Earth, Vivien Leigh was born in Darjeeling, India.

If youve seen either Gone with the Wind or A Streetcar Named Desire, youll know just how amazing she was. If you havent seen either of them, do Vivien a favour on what would have been your 99th birthday: get out from under your rock and see what youve been missing. While youre at it, check out Waterloo Bridge, one of my absolute favourite films, which you can find on YouTube. Honestly, youll love me forever.

I thought that I may as well dedicate an entire post to my love for Vivien Leigh, which started when I was a mere 12 years old. Because I had the tendency to get over obsessed with things back then, I read around five biographies on her, and then wrote my own (honestly, it was just one of the biographies condensed down...all of the quotes and everything were from one of those biographies that Id read). Since I cant share the entire thing with you - and nor do I want to, I was an awful writer at age 13 - I thought Id just throw together a random birthday appreciation post, filled with lots of facts that you likely didnt know. I dedicated a whole period of my life to this woman, so hopefully you will find some interest in it. Alas, here we go:

-Viviens real name was Vivian Mary Hartley. The last name in her stage name is the first name of her first husband Leigh Holman, who she married in 1932 at the age of 19. They had a child, Suzanne, in 1933. Vivien divorced Holman in 1940 so she could marry Laurence Olivier, whom she met in 1935 when they starred together in a season of Romeo and Juliet on stage. At that time, Olivier was married to Jill Esmond, who was also pregnant with their son, Tarquin. Both Holman and Esmond granted their respective spouses a divorce in 1940 and Vivien and Laurence married. They would divorce in 1960, due to both Viviens mental illness and the fact that Laurence was having an affair with Joan Plowright.

-When she was at school, future actress Maureen OSullivan (probably best known for her involvement in the Tarzan films) asked Vivien what she wanted to be when she grew up. Vivien replied "an actress...a great actress."


-It is all because of Laurence Olivier that she got the role of Scarlett OHara in Gone with the Wind. As you probably know, producer David O. Selznick poured about $50,000 into his three year search for his perfect Scarlett. Vivien literally came in at the last minute. Originally, Vivien had wanted to star opposite Laurence in Wuthering Heights as Cathy, but the producers were set on Merle Oberon. They offered Vivien the role of Isabella, but she declined it. When it came time for Laurence to shoot it, Vivien missed Laurence terribly so she went to America to be with him.
In the lead up to finding his Scarlett, David O. Selznick asked the public to vote for their ideal Scarlett. The most votes went to people like Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Stanwyck, but one guy from New Zealand sent in a vote for Vivien. Yeah, us NZers have good taste.
That lone NZ vote didnt exactly do wonders, and Selznick said himself that he had "no interest in Vivien Leigh" when her name was put forward again in 1938. When Vivien came to America, Bette Davis had dropped out of contention as she played a similar character in 1938s Jezebel (which also won her an Oscar), and Paulette Godard was the main contender.
Vivien signed with Laurences boss, Myron Selznick, who was also David Selznicks brother. He took her onto the set of Gone with the Wind, where they were already filming the Burning of Atlanta scene (using stunt double for the unnamed Scarlett and Clark Gable as Rhett) on December 10th. Myron introduced Vivien to his brother by saying "Hey Genius. Meet your Scarlett OHara". She was instantly given a screen test.
The only actresses left in the race were Vivien, Joan Bennett, Jean Arthur and Paulette Godard. Bennett and Arthur were denied, leaving Godard and Leigh. They were given Technicolour screen tests, which sealed the deal for Vivien. Another factor in Godards failure to get the role was about her relationship with Charlie Chaplin, as no-one was really sure about how that was going down. Vivien was given the part on Christmas day, which was a great shock to her, as she thought that Katharine Hepburn had got the part.

-Waterloo Bridge was her favourite film that shed done.

-In 1944, Vivien started filming Caesar and Cleopatra. She was also pregnant at the time. While filming, she slipped and fell heavily, resulting in a miscarriage two days later. It was here when she contracted tuberculosis and her manic-depression started developing.

-One of the reasons I love Vivien so much is because she loved NZ. In her own words: "This must be the most subdued place in the world. The quiet is unearthly...Nevertheless much more couth and better mannered all round than the Australians and a much better audience."


-In 1949, she was introduced to the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, as she took the role for a London stage production. The show ran for 326 performances, and clearly took its toll on Vivien as shed often be seen shaking and distraught at the end of it, but she received rave reviews for her performance. It wasnt too long before a film adaptation was in the works. Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden were all a part of the stage production in New York, with Jessica Tandy playing Blanche. Kazan and writer Tennessee Williams favoured Vivien, so she was ultimately cast in the role. The role won her a second Oscar.

-She was going to star in Elephant Walk, which sent her to Ceylon, India. There, she started an affair with her co-star Peter Finch. She also suffered a mental breakdown, which resulted in her losing the role and being sent home. In one episode, she began reciting lines from A Streetcar Named Desire, and became so involved with that role again that when a nurse tried to calm her by saying "I know who you are, youre Scarlett OHara", she replied "Im not Scarlett OHara! Im Blanche DuBois!" She was deemed unfit to go back and finish Elephant Walk, so Elizabeth Taylor took the role.

-Vivien suffered another miscarriage in 1960. This had a clear effect on her relationship with Laurence, and they divorced that year.

-In 1963, Vivien won a Tony award for her performance in Tovarich. This was quite a remarkable feat as Vivien had never needed to sing before, and her voice was failing because of her tuberculosis.

-Vivien died on Friday July 7th, 1967, aged 53. She died of a severe tuberculosis attack. Many years later, Laurence Olivier was found watching one of Viviens old films on TV. He had tears in his eyes, and he said "This, this was love. This was the real thing."

Vivien Leigh had a pretty tough life, which is why her story is so fascinating. Seriously, if you ever want to know any more about her (this was a pretty brief overview), I know just about everything there is to know. But for now, a huge Happy Birthday to the most beautiful, interesting, talented woman who ever lived (in my opinion). May she go on in our hearts forever.

What do you think of Vivien Leigh? Got any favourite films/performances from her?

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An L D Consulting Tip you Shouldnt Miss Plan your Obsolescence

A few weeks back I was all set to start working with a friend of mine. I rate her very, very highly and she was going to be a real asset to ThoughtWorks when shed join. A couple of weeks before her joining date though, I spoke to her and learned that her client cant release her from her current project. When we caught up, it appeared that her employers hadnt communicated her planned exit to the clients and at the eleventh hour they threw a fit. My friend and I spoke at length about possible solutions, but it looked like she was irreplaceable on her project -- given that she was leading it. While I admire my friends decision to stay back on her current job to serve her existing customer, it seemed to me that her project was at a really high risk if it was so dependent on her.

On Agile teams we often talk about the truck factor:

While being hit by a truck isnt a very pleasant metaphor, you could easily substitute that occurrence by people leaving their jobs, going on vacation or falling sick. The smaller your truck factor, the more risk your project is at. The larger your truck factor, the better youre managing your risk. So if all that needs to happen for your project to fail is for you to leave the company and go, then I argue your project is already at a really high risk and theres something you need to do about it. Ive often heard my colleague and ThoughtWorks consultant, Angela Ferguson talk about the importance for consultants to plan their obsolescence. Its an interesting thought - because if youre the hero on your project, you perhaps want to retain that status. Unfortunately, being a hero isnt the best thing for your clients! So in todays post, I want to talk about three simple strategies that can help you plan your obsolescence in your team.

On typical, leader driven, command and control projects, theres only one person who has a vision for how the final product takes shape. They understand the strategy, the release plan and even plan the little bits of work that each member of the team performs. As it turns out, when these people leave, the project is in absolute shambles. Agile teams mitigate this risk by applying the practice of Collective Ownership. The idea is for all members of the team to contribute ideas to every segment of the project. This defies traditional wisdom where a single architect is responsible for unifying the vision for your project. Agile however, is based around real-life experiences with human behaviour, and the one thing we know about people is that they make mistakes! Architects/ Chief Designers/ Project Managers all make mistakes - and theyre not wrong to do so. Unless youre dealing with a trivial piece of transactional work, its impossible for one person to know everything about everything. By ensuring that everyone explicitly understands and contributes to the projects design and planning, you encourage diverse perspectives, and reduce the risk of letting one persons mistakes fail the project.

So the next time youre planning out some fancy solution-ing workshop, include the rest of your team members in it. Try an Agile Card Wall to track and manage your projects progress as against a plan on Microsoft Project, which only you can see. Yes, youll need an electronic version of your plan and you may have distributed teams as well -- in that case use a collaborative project management tool like Mingle. Remember, you need to move from a point where its your project plan, to a point where its the teams shared vision.
The other thing youll see on Agile teams is the act of Pairing. The idea is to have two heads solve a problem instead of just one, thereby achieving some interesting benefits. Firstly the quality of the work goes up, because while one person is creating the output, another person is checking it. The increased quality always leads to big savings on the project as time goes on.


The other, more intangible benefit of pairing is that of knowledge sharing. Constant rotation of pairs ensures that every understands every part of the project almost equally well. This again helps ensure a higher truck factor on the team. So think about this from the perspective of L&D and elearning projects - how about having instructional designers pair with builders and project managers. How about having builders pair with testers and how about having SMEs pair with all the different roles? You can build a truly cross-functional team that can deal with the risk of losing a random person.
Last year I read a really interesting article on the Harvard Business Review blog about why the wrong people get laid off at their jobs. From the blog, "Legend has it that Gordius, king of Gordium, tied a knot so intricate that no one could untangle it. There were no visible ends. It lasted for centuries." The article discovered that the people that often got laid off were the people whose work the company understood quite well. It often didnt matter that they were superb workers - the fact was that people understood the risk of doing without them. On the other hand, people who were Gordian Knots - who performed well, but whose work no one understood were the ones that seemed to keep their jobs. While this strategy may seem to help you as an individual, its more likely to backfire. Firstly, if no one understands your work and youre not as good as you think, youre likely to get fired anyway. More importantly, the mystery around what you do may protect your status but hurts your client, as a consequence hurts your employers and then hurts you. The examples of the AIG and Lehmann collapse, finally triggering the downturn there for us to see.

So if you really care about your clients and your employers, spend some time each day, demystifying what you do. Refine your job description, create standard work thatll help you teach others what you do, coach others to perform your tasks, write a wiki page for each of your individual capabilities. Create a toolkit for a potential replacement. Think as if you were going to roll off the project tomorrow!

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While Ive put my friend on the spot when writing this article, I realise that despite all the great wisdom out there, I havent been great at planning my own obsolescence. Which is why youll see this post when Im on vacation - I want to see how my pet project performs in my absence. Ive done what I can to narrate my work and hopefully the team is fully empowered to make my decisions when Im not around. Over the next few months, I want to ensure that I detail each piece of work that I do for my employers. If anything, thatll give me the opportunity to try different roles in the organisation - if the opportunity comes by.

What do you think about the idea of planning obsolescence? I can understand the choice of words can be a tad depressing - though Im keen to know from you if my argument made sense to you. Do let me know what you think - Ill look forward to your comments on this post.

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any time you need em slice and bake chocolate chip cookies

For a long time, I thought the New York Times chocolate chip cookie recipe had ruined me for good. Based on a recipe from famed chocolatier Jaques Torres, it makes a cookie SO GOOD that I find myself daydreaming about baking and eating it once a week. And I probably would, if it weren't incredibly, incredibly, incredibly fussy to make. The uses two types of flour and rare (not to mention, expensive!) disk-shaped chocolate chips called feves. And to add insult to injury, it makes you wait at least 24 hours before you can eat it.

So what happens when I just need a chocolate chip cookie right here, right now?

Tara, the incredibly talented blogger behind Seven Spoons, saves the day with her recipe for Basic, Great Chocolate Chip Cookies. The recipe, found in her beautiful cookbook, is pretty much the exact opposite of the New York Times recipe. It's the least fussy thing ever. There's no need for a mixer; heck, you don't even need to bring the butter in the ingredients list to room temperature before using! And even with the incredibly simplified baking process, it produces a chocolate chip cookie that's just as good as the one from the New York Times — crisp on the outside, chewy in the center, and the perfect balance of sweet and salty:


The only problem is that with Erlend all the way over in New York, it's literally just me, my cat, and two dozen incredibly delicious cookies in my apartment. And if you know me in real life (which, shameless plug, follow hummingbirdhigh on Snapchat for a glimpse, though I'll admit I have no idea what I'm doing or how to really use the damn thing), you know that I can plow through 24 chocolate chip cookies in just one sitting. Without even taking a breath. For real.

So in order to prevent myself from gaining 200lbs, you know what I do? I allow myself one on the day that I make the dough, and freeze the rest. After measuring the dough out into cookie dough balls, I unceremoniously stuff them into a square baking pan to basically create a homemade version of the Nestle Tollhouse slice-and-bake cookies from my childhood that I loved, loved, loved. Only this time, with homemade quality dough that doesn't use and any weird preservatives or ingredients.


Plus, the kicker? There's some crazy voodoo cookie dough magic that happens the longer the cookies sit in the freezer. That is, the longer the dough rests (and these babies keep for AGES — I'm still going through a batch that I first made about two months ago), the more flavorful and amazing the cookies will taste. Think: a chocolate chip cookie with strong notes of brown butter, toffee, and salted caramel. It's all there, even though I used none of those ingredients. I don't know how or why. The reigning theory is that the flour fully absorbs all flavored oil from the chocolate, butter, and other ingredients to produce all those new flavors, but honestly, I don't really care.

Because it's that good.


Now if you'll excuse me, writing this post actually made me crave one of these damn things again. I'm pretty sure I have one or two left in the back of my freezer somewhere. And if I don't, no biggie. Thanks to Tara, I'll just whip up another batch, give or take twenty minutes. Just like that.

Life is good.


Some baker's notes:

• Please note that the recipe calls for chocolate feves (that is, round chocolate disks) and NOT chocolate chips. Chocolate chips have some weird edible paraffin wax that helps them keep their shape while baking — we don't want that for these cookies! Chopped chocolate, on the other hand, melts into the cookies and helps infuse the dough with chocolate. This is an especially important quality if you're freezing the dough for an extended amount of time. If you can't find any feves, you can substitute with a bar of good-quality chocolate (if you're on a budget, consider using Trader Joe's Pound Plus bars — they're great quality considering their price). Be sure to chop the chocolate up unevenly and coarsely to create an interesting texture throughout the cookie; I even left some feves whole and it was awesome!

get the recipe »

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Answer Depends on You!

After noon March 14, Fayiz Harrat, 27 years, and his sister Fayiza, 35 years, were back together to their home, the both were teachers in the only school in al- Siffa village near Samara. Fayiza and her two kids Usama Yousif, 6 yeas, and Asma, 5 years, live with Fyiz after the Americans killed her husband last summer. Fayiz and his wife Sumaya had three kids Hawra, 4 yaers, Aysha 2 years and Husam 4 months. The granmother lived with them.. on the same day , they had two guests Aziz Khalil, the cousin of Fayiz, and his fiancée Nidhal who were arranging the preparation of their wedding on March 16..
After the midnight, their house was seiged.. Humves, Tanks, helicopters and tens from the Americans soldiers who rushed in the house serching and shooting, after a while the helicopter missiled the house..
The American official communiqué said that they raided a house harbored terrorists and they killed some of them and the collateral damage was 4 civilians..
Yet the truth according to the people of the village, the kids of the school and the relatives is:
The 4 women, 6 children and Fayiz were killed.. 11 civilians.. The photos are very painful, sorry, but you should see the truth; these are the "terrorists".
Send the photos and the names to your congressmen; ask them to be honest and noble.. sak them to see the quite smile of the face of martyr Aysha.. She was killed while sleeping; she was dreaming a colored dream without bombs, ashes, deads and Americans..
I am not asking your tears; I am asking your efforts..
Say NO to Bush the terrorist.. ask your congressmen and your conscious to define the word "TERRORISM".. is targeting and killing the children terrorism? the answer depends on your humanity..

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