Fun Memories

Yesterday, we had a party to celebrate Kades 5th birthday! A tradition seems to have fallen into place of having themed birthday parties. Kade has chosen them all out except for #1. So far we have had:
#1- Teddy Bears
#2- Cars and Trucks
#3- Mickey Mouse
#4- Yellow Lion
.....and this year we did Spongebob. Im not sure hell want to do a "theme" every time... he might be getting too old for that in a few years. Ill enjoy it while it lasts! We always do the parties at one of the grandparents houses, because our house is a bit too small for a crowd. This year we even invited more than normal- there were over 30 people there, and 11 of them were under the age of 8! Everybody was able to make it, which we were very thankful for! I got to see some great friends that I havent been able to see for a long time! Kade got so excited as each of his cousins and other friends came through the door. I heard him say several times, "HI!!! Welcome to my Spongebob birthday party!!!" I think the best gift for Kade was getting to play with them all together!

So, one of the things that I noticed while browsing the net for ideas, was that there are not many pictures of these ideas! And since I am a visual person, I thought maybe there are others out there who would appreciate the pictures. Many of these things could be applied to any type of birthday party. We made most everything ourselves. It was a fun project to do together, plus it kept costs down, which is always good! First, I made invitations using Print Shop.

I downloaded a free Spongebob font, and found all the images using Google. The little song at the top was an idea from this party website.

Next I created a banner in Print Shop, 4 pages in width. Jer and Kade colored it in for me after it was printed. This was hung above the front door.


I decided to include a game at the party, which is a first. I also got this idea from the party website linked above. I drew and colored Squidward on poster board. I drew, colored, and cut out the 4 funny noses, and about 10 Squidward noses. For the game, I asked the kids what was missing from the picture. I told them I happened to have some noses, and stuck each one on and said, "is this the right nose?" It had all the kids laughing, it was really cute! Finally I found the correct nose, and then each child got a chance to spin around, close their eyes, and try to stick the nose in the right place. They each chose a little prize out from the prize bucket. After the party, I stuck the game up on Kades door, so he can switch the noses around or play the game whenever he wants.


The party decorations were done by Jers parents - they went all out! The place looked awesome... here is a view of the atrium:

To top it all off, they had a bubble machine and a fan to blow around the streamers and jelly fish hanging from the ceiling! They did a great job!

I decided to make treat bags this year, but I forgot to take a picture of them. Kade loved picking out special things to include. I made a small coloring book using some of these images. We also put in a few crayons, a noise blower, Spongebob fruit snacks, animal crackers, chocolate coin, gummy krabby patty, bubbles, and a Spongebob tattoo. Kade decorated some lunch bags with stickers, and we tied the tops with blue ribbon and added a tag with the childs name.

Jers mom made most of the food, and I made little signs for each thing, to keep in the Spongebob theme. We had:















Last but not least, the BIRTHDAY CAKE! My mom made it for us. She could sell these cakes that she makes, they are amazing! I always feel bad cutting into them! This cake was so yummy, it disappeared in no time :)


Kade loved his cake, loved the party, loved playing with all his friends, loved all the awesome presents, and had a great time... all the preparation was worth it to see his smiling face!


When the party was over, Kade looked completely overwhelmed, exhausted, and ready to go. Later in the night he came down with a fever, and today he is sick. Maybe he just partied too hard! Or maybe he was just hanging on to get through Thanksgiving and his party, and finally let the fever take over. He hasnt had one in over a month, so it was about due. Its so sad to see him sick, but right now hes cuddled up on the couch in some new Spongebob pjs, watching a new Planet Heroes movie, drinking apple juice, and playing Spiderman checkers. He doesnt let a fever get him down!

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Fun Retrospective workshop at Agile2014

Are you going to be at Orlando (July 28 – Aug 1) for the Agile2014 conference? If yes, Please check out our proposal (Taina TC Caetano and I,  Paulo Caroli) at https://submissions.agilealliance.org/sessions/1751 and leave a comment/review letting us know what you think. See you there!

Come, learn and practice two dozen of simple yet very effective Retrospectives´ activities and ideas. In this session, you will take part on performing proven retrospectives activities that help agile improve this practice execution and results. This session’s dynamics has been designed to provide you with hands-on facilitation, group discussion and experience sharing.

Retrospectives improve communication, productivity and quality by providing a space to support knowledge and experience sharing. Effective retrospectives not only reflect upon the past, but also allow the participants to discuss the future and be proactive, instead of reactive.

You will be invited to facilitate a set of activities, such as the Role Expectations Matrix and the General Behavior Activity for team building. We will discuss and show ways of diversifying retrospectives, such as the Peaks and Valleys Timeline Activity, the Happiness Radar -> Lessons Learned Sequence and the Speed Car - Abyss Activity. Finally, for those looking to increase their toolset of activities to look ahead, there will be activities such as Path to Nirvana and Plan of Action. And much more! Please check out FunRetrospectives.com for a quick taste on the activities... (more at the conference submission system)

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Fun Run 2 Hack Cheat Tool

Check Fun Run 2 Hack Proof and How to use

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Come here you! You found the best application Fun Run 2 Hack Cheat Tool to add Unlimited Coins for free. All you have to do is download it free from Zippyshare or Mega and start using it how you want.

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The instructions on how to use the application are written bellow but you will know how to use the hack tool even if you don’t read them because we made it so easy to function.

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Screenshots

 

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Fun with Statistics

Statistics is a science that makes order out of a mess. It studies data, detects and analyzes patterns, and utilizes them to make predictions. We use it daily, packing or ordering school lunches for our kids and analyzing past experiences to predict what they are likely to eat or not. We rely on it when making a credit card payment over the phone and trying to convince the voice recognition system that we would like to use the same bank account on file. However, I always find myself in the outliers: "I said Yes, I didnt say ten dollars!"

Statistics is also a touchy topic. A slightly different analysis of the same data or even a slightly different presentation of the same data could lead to vastly different results. Famous British intellectual and politician, Benjamin Disraeli, once said "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." So, make sure to have your lawyer by your side when making any kind of statistical statement. And, be scrupulous when trusting any statistical results.

This week TED posted an entertaining short talk that utilized statistics to tell people how to give the best TED talk. What is TED? It is an online community of "riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world." Every invited talk is video recorded and available online to enjoy, learn and rate. Sebastian Wernicke analyzed how seemingly superficial talk parameters. such as the color of power-point slides, the color of a presenters clothes, and more logical parameters, like talk length and key sentences, affect TED talk rating. And he has a recipe for you: when invited to give a TED talk, wear blue or green, stick to the same color for your slides, talk long and talk about French coffee, happiness and the brain, and do not mention "The New York Times." Well worth watching (8 min):
Sebastian Wernicke: Lies, damned lies and statistics (about TEDTalks)

Top image by kgradinger, distributed under Creative Commons license

Available link for download

fun flare

Dress: Milly (also got this one). Shoes: Sam Edelman (new faves). Hat: Nordstrom. Sunglasses: Karen Walker. Bag: Chanel. Choker: Bauble Bar.

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Fun is Serious in Social Business

When I went to Ranthambore this year, I was pretty awestruck by the glory of the mens moustaches there. As some of you know, I was inspired enough to grow my own moustache. A week down the line, when I was back at work I thought of the Movember tradition and wondered if people would be willing to donate to a charity if I kept growing my moustache. My colleague Nikhils been growing one of his own -- we could potentially double up. Without a second thought, I posted a poll on our social business platform - myThoughtWorks. Now wait a minute - was that related to work in anyway? Was there an ROI to allowing a posting of that nature? Errrm... no! I personally think theres value in such a thing though. That value is fun.

In a way, I consider myself fortunate to work for a company that lists Fun as a value. Its quite easy to get very uptight in social business. Its quite easy to forget that the water cooler has gossip, the team rooms have jokes, colleagues have fun with each other and that we often strike strong personal relationships at work. A true social business platform needs to mirror these real aspects of human behaviour. In todays blogpost, I want to outline a few patterns that you may actively want to foster in your community to encourage the value of fun.

Help people find others with similar interests

If youve read the book First Break all the Rules, it links to a Gallup study that claims to reveal the formula for innovation in the enterprise.


There obviously is a certain importance of emotional connection to the enterprise. Youre less likely to leave if you have friends in the company. Friendship stems from common ground. Common ground emerges from common interests. Simple implementations such as profile tags and people search can help people find other people with similar interests. Whats the ROI? Is retaining your employees valuable for you? Is 96% employee satisfaction valuable for you? Does employee engagement mean much to you? If the answer to either of these is yes, then you perhaps should care.

Simulate the Gossip Lounge

Whether you like it or not, your people are saying things. Some of these are useful pieces of information, some are musings, some are questions, some are pieces of feedback for you to react on. Think of the way you react to your network on Facebook. Simulating the gossip room on your social business platform allows you to have a constantly updating view of what people are saying to each other. Its fun for people to broadcast their views - its valuable for you to listen to them. What do people care about? In my case it seems to be the speed of myThoughtWorks in Australia. In your case it could be a fascination with moustaches!

The Gamification Phenomenon

Still a topic of debate, but we cant deny that were brushing shoulders in the workplace with a gamer generation. Heck, this may not even be a new phenomenon. As Byron Reeves says though, the current gamer generation has a few strong beliefs:

• competition is fun
• failure doesnt hurt
• risk is part of the game
• feedback is best when its immediate
• trial and error is the best plan
• bosses and rules are less important
• group action is common

In his talk at DevLearn, Byron argued that play is not the opposite of work. Play on the other hand can facilitate interest in work. In that talk, Byron showed us how doctors are playing games at $15 an hour to only improve their diagnosis skills. This cant be opposite of work. Theres some obvious benefit that gamification has towards individual motivation. Theres perhaps a reason why youre so addicted to Angry Birds on your iPhone or Harbour Master on your iPad. Dont get me wrong, Im not saying that you can make a dull job interesting by gamifying it. Thats just putting lipstick on a pig. What is interesting is how badges, points, reputation systems can help add a fresh level of interest and motivation to knowledge sharing, feedback, personal learning and challenging work. How can people get immediate feedback for desirable behaviour on your platform? How can you recognise the most active contributors? How can you reward achievements without promoting a class culture? Check how Foursquare gives badges - can you try something similar?

Learning at work, but not just about work

People are people and have more dimensions to them than just work. People want to learn about photography, origami, art. They may want to practice a sport. Going back to the thought about helping people find others with similar interests, its also crucial to help people pursue their non-work passions through the company. For example, Ive discovered a passion for photography; I work in a company of geeks and many geeks like photography. The fact that ThoughtWorks allows us to have a special interest group on photography on the social business platform means a great deal to some of us. Its an opportunity to share our work amongst people we know and learn from each other about lenses, photography tips and what not. This has no direct impact on the companys bottomline but again it tells me that the company is willing to share their investment in my personal growth and also it allows me to make connections with others in the enterprise. If you believe Granovetter, then its the weak acquaintances that have solutions to your toughest problems. The guy who runs the photography interest group could be the business analyst who can help you with that tough problem on your project. Who knows what solutions some of these weak ties can lead to?

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While I think were starting to cross the chasm with adoption of social business platforms in the enterprise, theres still a great amount of thought we need to put in so these platforms mirror common human behaviour. To overuse a cliche, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and perhaps an even duller knowledge worker. The ideas Ive put out on this blogpost dont even cover the tip of the iceberg for this crucial aspect of social business. At ThoughtWorks, we take fun seriously but even we have miles to go with the way were integrating fun into our collaboration platforms. Id love to hear of ideas that you may have in this space - fun means heaps to this company. Comment unabashedly so I can learn from you!

On a sidenote, Im hosting RubyConf India this week and while its quite unrelated to the stuff I blog about Im quite excited to be master of ceremonies for a second time. If you happen to be there by any chance, do say hello. Im sure itll be great to catch up.

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