Leadership course finished

Yesterday I finished my leadership education that has been going on for the last 18 months. So what have I learned?
I have learned the value of trusting people and not always thinking the worst of them. Not everybody is out there to hurt me. I also have a more relaxed attitude in arguments. There is no point in getting aggravated. It usually doesn’t make things go smoother. This also includes trusting other people that they are doing their their best.
I have learned that prestige is not the most important thing in life and that I don’t have to prove myself over and over again. Be satisfied with less!
I have learned that there is no meaning in having internal struggles (so called top-dog vs. under-dog), i.e. arguing with yourself. This just costs energy, and a lot of it. If I have done something wrong or acted in some way in some situation that I want to change and I cannot do that then there is no point in arguing it with myself, is there? But I have done it for many years and I know many others out there do as well.
I have learned the value of being here and now. Concentrate on the situation at hand. If you are at a meeting or playing with your daughter then your mind should be focused on that and not always be 2 days ahead thinking about something else.
I have learned to accept that all issues should be solved at the appropriate time to solve them. 4 am is usually not a good time to solve them ;-|. This relates to being here and now and usually it is good decide for yourself a time when you are going to deal with an issue. E.g. if you have to talk to somebody to solve a problem, then accept that leave it until you can talk to the person in question. Do not continue to “solve” it in your mind but come back to it later.
I have learned what coaching means and the real value of coaching.
Also during the course I have gotten to learn 17 other persons very very very well and I feel that most of them will be friends for life and especially the people in my six-group (Britta, Maggan, Lars-Erik, Magnus and Håkan). Writing this gives to goosebumps, not because it is cold or scary but that they really are my friends and that you cannot get to many of those in life!
I was in group 5 of the program and yesterday a member of group 1 told me that your personal change will continue over the coming years. With or without the help of the leaders of the course.
The people that has helped us during the process from PMI Nordic, have been incredible good. Always being in there with their minds “in focus”, always finding another thread to pull at to go deeper and also being there when it has gone deep enough to help you come back again. You are John, Sören and Barbro and of course Freddy that is no longer with us. It was a pity that he couldn’t get be with us for the whole course. Freddy, where ever you are I miss you!
Before each meeting in the course and I had thoughts like “oh no, this will take so much time and energy” but every time I come back from the meetings I feel energized and I cannot wait for the next one. Just like somebody has put you in a charger or pushed the turbo button. Well, now there won’t be any next meeting other than our six-group which is also very good that as well!
All in all it has been a tremendous course and I am going miss its meetings!It is one of the best things that has happened in my so far short life.

Sun Java Desktop System

I installed Suns Java Desktop System yesterday and took it out for a spinn. Here are my reflections. Feel free to ask more questions!!
SUN Java Desktop System
Hardware: Dell Dimension 8300, 3.2GHz with 2GB RAM, Hyper threading enabled (virtual dual CPU), dual graphics card (NVidia Quadro4 dual DVI AGP and NVidia DVI PCI).
*** Installation
The installation was very smooth and extremely fast. Full installation occupied about 2.8GB disk.
* Problems
If serial ATA disk was enabled then the system (and installer) would not boot. Solution: disable SATA disk in BIOS.
Installation in graphics mode did NOT work. Just blank screen.
If Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 sound card was in the system, then once again the system wouldn’t boot.
Could not get dual display output from Quadro4 Nvidia card. It only saw one screen.
Could not get Dell 2001FP (newest 20″ TFT from Dell) to work. No matter what frequencies I tried, all I got was flicker.
Could not get higher resolution than 1600×1200 on a Apple 23″ TFT screen (1920×1200).
The only sound card I could get working was an Griffin iMic.
I have to manually enable USB mouse support every time I boot.
*** Usage
The system is very responsive and fast and most functionality needed for a basic system is there. EMail, Web, Staroffice 7 for word, excel, powerpoint.
The system crashed once (hanged hard really) when running the default screen saver (the flag which looked rather ugly on my system by the way).
* Annoyances
StarOffice couldn’t open files that were on SMB disks (i.e. on a disk server) which I found rather strange.
**************
But to summarize, the system is very nice. Simple install and easy to use. Might be enough for basic users but I think most users would want something with more applications but compared to a bare Windows XP installation it was ok.

Snow

It is snowing, AGAIN. I want spring. I need spring and I need it now. I need to get out on my Spirit. Zooming about town and high pace. Have I said that I need it? Well I do.
The snow is just pouring down…..
We just got back from some snow riding and now I am going to make Sunday dinner, sushi. A real Swedish dish that is just perfect as a Sunday dinner, every Sunday.

Where is Peter?

Well, where am I? I have been rather invisible here and I haven’t been able to find the time to write anything here. I know it is just a question of prioritizing but my evening just seem to vanish these days (movies, reading, surfing, working).
February has been a rather eventful month… We went on a very spontaneous vacation where Tovah broke her arm the first night there and we had to spend two days at the local hospital. We were at the hospital yesterday removing the plaster and pulling out the pins in her arm! That was actually quite scary. She had to 10cm long pins inside her arm sticking out from her elbow and the doctor pulled them out using pliers!! Scary!!! Tovah is doing very well but is not allowed to go to daycare this week as there is still a small small fracture so she is spending time at home with Johanna. We will get money back via the insurance company but I don’t know how much yet. The total cost excluding food was about 19500:-
Work wise my application for associate professor is now being reviewed by the “sakkunniga” and I have applied for the professor in Media Technology. Otherwise it has been rather uneventful now when I no longer is division head.
I became with an iPod as well!! Cool little device but I must admit that they could have done the user interface much much better. I am a bit disappointed in Apple. They are supposed to be the best on UI, right?
Yesterday, I updated the flash on my Tungsten C with the update 2 which was release March 1 in the US. Unfortunately it didn’t work on the international version of the device and I got sync problems and totally lost wavelan functionality. Called support and they told my I am a stupid user and I have to pay 140€ to get it fixed 🙁 Well, I found a solution after a nights bad sleep. I copied the flash from Johnny’s Palm using the JackSprat application. Beta 3.0b3 supports Tungsten C. WOOHOO!!
Last week I started reading a new book on how to loose weight without training and I actually lost 4 KG in 5 days!!! It is all about eating right. This morning I was actually up 1 KG (i.e. 3 KG loss total since I started). Not bad at all and I feel much better. Less fat, more fibers and more vegetables.
I have also been trying to live more in the present and that has allowed me to attend a few parties during the last month. The D-sektion 20 year dinner where we were 4 oldies (hey I was on the 10-year dinner as well 🙂 and here I am on the scene making a fool out of myself. I was actually supposed to go out and party the day after the dinner as well but I didn’t succeed with that. I guess I am getting to old 🙂 The weekend after that it was Ludd Taco-party and to that party this old man brought his daughter and wife 🙂 Two very good parties indeed! I had very much fun and just by being myself in the present I guess I can have very much fun even though I don’t know to many people there.
I have watched a few good movies such as the Calendar Girls, Lost in Translation, Stolen Summer and Love Actually just to mention a few.
I think that is all that has happened during February! 🙂
At 19.45 I have a date with my wife and we are going to watch Tears of the Sun with Bruce Willis. Perhaps not the most romantic movie but it seems good.