TW-3 for August 17-19, 2007.....

[poltr1]

Fri 8/17: Mostly uneventful. Finished the initial pass at updating the SQL queries in all the Perl scripts so that the queries conform with the new database structure. The next two weeks will be sent testing and re-tweaking. Had dinner at Jersey Mike's. Watched the last half of Doctor Who and an episode of Babylon 5.

Sat 8/18: Ran some needed errands. Attended an introductory session on Landmark Education, which was held at the local UU Fellowship. Spent some time talking to Gwen (one of the hosts) afterward. She invited me to join the UU congregation. My Sunday mornings will be busy from early September until early November, so my response to her was a passive-aggresive "Not yet".

The late afternoon and evening were spent at a housefilk hosted by jalapenoman. This was Phil's annual "Basefilk", held at an alternate location. I got to sing a few songs, which is something I don't usually do. (I have a hard time jumping in to chaos circles.) It was good to touch base with people I haven't seen or talked to in months. A full list of attendees is forthcoming (it's in the car), but I know that fuzzyvanman, rms_butterfly, andreweigel, jinny_e, joecoustic, infobits, Maureen, Juanita, and Renee were there.

Sun 8/19: Had a busy day with M as R had plans to go to amazon_42's baby shower. M and I went swimming at the local rec center pool, then had an early dinner at Golden Dragon Chinese Buffet, then had dessert at Cold Stone Creamery. We went on a short ride and eded up at the playground at Stubbs Park. I hope she sleeps well tonight.

Comments

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

FWIW, although I had mixed feelings on Landmark while doing their "Curriculum for Living" program (and afterwards) during the duration of a year, I gotta say that I nonetheless felt it to be one of the most valuable experiences I've ever had in my life (especially the final class in the series where you manage a volunteer community project).

YMMV.

[poltr1]

I knew going in it was a sales pitch for their Landmark Forum weekend training. To which my response was "Not yet" (as in "not for a few years" because I can't afford it until then).

Doing some research on the internet has uncovered some rather interesting sites and revelations about the organization.

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

FWIW, my employer was happy to pay for the second part of the training (the advanced program) as a leadership course. So for me, the total cost of a year's worth of personal growth training was well under a thousand bucks, which is pretty awesome.

Although one should do one's own research, my own after-the-experience review of some of these "interesting sites and revelations" shows that one can reach a wide variety of conclusions given the same set of facts based on one's purpose in asking.

e.g. the French TV crew that went in and taped the forum could have actually asked the participants what they got out of it after-the-fact (especially a few months later), rather than showing "shocking" footage of the instructor using aggressive rhetorical methods to pressure someone to confront what she didn't want to at the time. But I guess they just wanted sensationalist footage.