Book Review: Crucial Conversations

One of my goals at work this year was to read the book, "Crucial Conversations" by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler. "Crucial Conversations" tackles the topic of how to maintain your cool and progress through meaningful dialogue when the stakes are high and emotions are running higher. This is definitely a talent I could use, and I understand why my boss gave me this goal.

I thought this was a good book, though it did take me more than a month to get through. As with any non-fun book, it read a lot slower than "Harry Potter" or "Percy Jackson." And...well...I didn't read it for 2-3 hours every night like I would those type of books. But, it was good reading. I learned a lot, and I think I picked up some good strategies that I can apply. In fact, I think that I will have to use some of these strategies to get through some difficult meetings when work resumes on January 4th. Yes, that's right, I'm off work until January 4th...woohoo. I've already successfully applied some of these strategies in conversations with my wife, and these conversations went significantly better than history would indicate they should have gone.

If you think you need to work on your conversation skills because you find you struggle to get your meaning on the table when emotions run high, or you tend to lose control when the stakes rise, I think "Crucial Conversations" would help you. I'm going to get made fun of by a lot of the people I work with who read this blog, but I'm really glad I got assigned this book as a goal.

Movie Review: Avalon High

I have a weak spot for many things in my life. Buffalo Wings, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and lightweight golf shirts...to name just three. Well, a couple of other weaknesses are Cheesy Feel Good Disney Movies and King Arthur stories. Add to that, the fact that I thought the Patriots/Packers game last night would be a blow out, I wanted to try out the Netflix streaming on my new TV now that I have 3 Mbps speed at home and the fact that I was feeling ultra lazy...well let's just say we had the perfect storm of circumstances to prompt me to watch Disney's "Avalon High."

Frankly, this was just an average Disney movie, so I won't spend much time on it. The story was a bit weak, though it did throw two plot twists at me, and I really only saw one of them coming. The lead actress was actually pretty good, but the rest of the cast was just average, which was surprising considering Molly Quinn, from "Castle" was part of that cast. I guess it just wasn't a great role for her. Overall, "Avalon High" is a 3 star movie...maybe trending towards 2.8.

The Netflix streaming, on the other hand, was terrific. I experienced near HD quality from my streaming video. Everything loaded up very quickly and it was extremely easy to use. This is going to be a great way to take better advantage of my Netflix subscription. Oh, and the Patriots/Packers game ended up being a nail biter. The Patriots won 31-27...guess maybe I should have watched that...or, you know, done something productive with my life.