A review of #2011
I started 2011 making a major change in my life. I moved out of my own consulting business into a normal day job. I started to work as the MIS manager. My mission was to establish the discipline of Information Resource Management. When I started their was only an Information and communication technology strategy but no information strategy. In April I did my first presentation to the ICT Steering committee, putting forward the concept of an Information management framework. The presentation set into motion a process of evolving the concept of performance management and business intelligence through a management dashboard. I focused on getting a common requirement defined for an management dashboard that can be used for institutional performance management, monitoring and evaluation and oversight. In November the solution design was confirmed when I attended a Conference. The business case itself was developed with input from key stakeholders and finally included in a larger more expansive business case. So the process moved from concept to a solution design and business case in the year. I hope that in 2011 the funds will be released so that this project moves from solution design into an actual implemented solution. Getting the solution to work might be another two to three years. In terms of the team I had to managed I put into place more frequent team meetings and progress reports so that the team can cooperate better in achieving the targets we set as a team. I got involved in a number of acquisition decisions of large scale solutions and learned much about how the politics of the institution works. Overall an enjoyable year with acceptable progress.
In March/April 2011 I started with my PhD in Industrial Engineering. Over the year I developed my thesis proposal and presented the ideas twice. The proposal has not been finally accepted but I hope that I can reach that point early in 2012.
In October 2011 I expanded my stav to include Tai Chi. This was a wonderful new adventure and I am totally in love with Tai Chi. The slow movement and focus on breathing and meditation added further to me feeling much more healthy. I am still maintaining my Stav training. In terms of stav, just before October, I bought myself an actual fighting staff to practice with. I hurt my stomach muscles badly initially with a twisting movement. I was in pain for several days before my muscles returned to normal. I hope to continue my Tai Chi training in 2012.
I started in all seriousness doing practical alchemy in May this year working with herbs. I made my tinctures and use them to maintain my health through a daily herbal tincture, using a different tincture for every day of the week. This successfully kept me healthy throughout the winter. Near the end of the year, I struggled to find the time for Alchemy and slipped a bit in making my tinctures...and failing to make a plant stone. However the interest is not past...I hope to get fully involved into the process and my study of herbal theories in 2012.
My finances did not improve much over the year. Rather the trend is backwards rather than forwards even though my job gave some stability. The year was one of increased costs. In South Africa the cost of petrol and electricity increased the burden on all South Africans giving secondary inflation pressure on basic food and services. The world wide recession did not assist at all. At least my debt burden (excluding the fact that I bought a car) did not increase. So Finances was flat with a slight declining trend.
I was the club president of my Toastmasters club until June when we reach the Toastmaster's year end and give over to a new exco. The transition was fluid and my club achieved a Select distinguished club status. I supported my club further after that in terms of being the Past President of the club at exco meetings. My role is mainly to support the new executive and ensure a continuation across the different clubs. Since my own club is very active I did not had many opportunities to do presentations. I only did three presentations from the advanced manual - Speeches by management. My big accomplishment in this year was actually to get my eldest daughter to join Toastmasters in May 2011. Since she is mentally challenged and could not complete normal school it was a huge challenge for her. However in Toastmasters there is the spirit of mutual support and she blossomed. Her interpersonal communication skills developed and she did three speeches in six months.
I participated successfully in the the evaluations competition and later in the humorous competition. In terms of the humorous competition I outdid myself by winning on both club level and area level. Truly a major breakthrough for me, since I never saw myself as a humorous person.
I continued with my studies in the Rosicrucian philosophy and it remains to me a valued path of inner exploration that leads to outer service to humanity. In November I had the honor of being able to do a presentation to the group of active participants during a full day away. This was also the first time I brought by middle daughter with me. She is very interested in the mystical path and was overjoyed to meet other similar thinking people.
I started a series of writings, in May 2011, exploring the deeper meaning of the Havamal...the rune song of Odin according to the Armanen Futhork interpretation. I covered the first 8 of 18 songs and will continue with the series in this year. Not a very popular series in terms of getting comments but a valuable exercise for myself.
I did my first oil painting at the end of 2010 and continued with a few paintings in 2012 of which my most successful one was a paining of David Garrett the violin player, painted in April 2011. I continued with my sketch a day project but really neglected my sketching in the last six months. I only did 20 pencil sketches in the whole of 2011. I hope to finish another two paintings before the end of 2011.
I played the role of a registration officer for a group of Afrikaners who held an election to select leaders to negotiate with the current government for their independence. This is based on the country's constitution and international law which recognises the right of independence. I also volunteered my house as an election point and played the role of chief election officer. Participation in this process was fun and something I am proud to have been part off. Whether the process would achieve what it sets out to achieve...I do not know. It remains a highlight of 2011 to have been part of such a process based on order and peaceful negotiation. After all it was the first Boer elections in a hundred years.
In May 2011 we had our local elections where I voted. My party showed no growth which was a disappointment.
In September 2011 I participated in South Africa The National Planning Council's online debate about South Africa in 2030. This was a unique event where South African's used the networking technology to converse with each other across the country to share their vision for South Africa.
I bought a new car in February 2011 after much deliberation...A 2.5 Subaru Legacy with all the bells and whistles I always wanted in a car. The price was heavy but I got it at a good price below its book value.
I moved onto BlackBerry for my mobile technology and loved the change. I did my first blog entry on a cell phone and started to use Xanga's mobile site more and more for checking on my blog and following some of my favorite bloggers. I did my first Xanga Vlog...which was no great success but I am no longer a virgin to the vlog.
I participated in Xanga's member participation program. Was lovely to have an hour long discussion over Skype with Xanga on how I feel about Xanga, the mobile site and sharing ideas for improvement. I do not know if any of the thoughts went into an actual change on Xanga but the process was great. Xanga introduced the @ function to reference other Xangans as well as the # to add in-text tags.
I posted this year my sketch a day series, Armanen futhark series and my dream journal series. The first always gets good comments while the latter was a very interesting exercise as I began to see patterns in my dream world.
I participated in the Blogathon week in March by @john and the Short Fiction Summer Scavenger Hunt hosted by @anvilsandedelweiss in July 2011 - although I never got to all the entries I was supposed to write. In October I participated in the Winnetou writing contest by @bmojsilo. And in November I participated in the Positivity Week Blog Challenge by @Shining_Garnet.
My most precious entry for the year was Mystical prayer of 7 August 2011 got only 3 comments but it is truly the best of my blogging. On 9 October I shared how to write your own spiritual book.
My most commented on entry was Contemplating suicide which I wrote on 9 January 2011, shortly followed by an entry Xanga ethics written on 4 May 2011
In the news
South Africa continues in its usual trend. A highlight was the rugby World Cup even though South Africa was robbed by the referee of reaching the semi-finals. In the Cricket world-cup South Africa also did not made the top position. On the political landscape the ruling party seems to continue to try and reduce the governance of the law. However the local elections was peaceful and without any incidents...in some ways despite crime levels the Democracy of South Africa is still vibrant. The prodical son of the ruling party, Julius Malema, met his match when he was finally disciplined by the party....he has appealed the outcome of the hearing.
On an international front the biggest events that caught my attention were the killing of Osama bin Laden and later Muammar Gadafi.
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