Here's a portion of our reply to you...."  I know you're probably kidding about being adopted, but  the more we thought about it, the more we talked and yes we  do want to "adopt" you into our hearts.  How that plays itself out in real life is totally up to you....I wouldn't be surprised if you never write back, and I wouldn't be surprised if you do."

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     Jennifer,

     I've been writing a series of notes celebrating my children.   I told you before I was finished, I wanted to write one for you too,  here it is...

      One of the highlights of this past year was crossing paths with you.  I never dreamed that before the year was out, we would meet you in person.  I told you after you left, but want  to say it again,  next to my wife and eldest daughter, , you probably know me better than  any other person because you've read my blog and  gotten to know the real me..

      and still you accept me....wow.

     I can't tell you how empowering that has been.   I think most of us long to be known and accepted for who they really are...you have given me that gift by your friendship.

     Here are some other things I appreciate about you...

      Your humility.  It takes a lot of guts to admit when you're struggling and could use some encouragement and direction.  I believe in you young lady ;-)

     You're passion for  helping hurting people.

     You're a giver..not an energy sucker.  You meet some people in life, and all  they do is suck you dry.  You come along side them, you listen, you love them...and all they do is want more, more more.  I think one of the things about you that has been exciting is to watch you fight and scrap your way through your brokenness...we pray for you regularly, you know that don't you? :-)

     You are a great mommy!  As we've  read your letters, and watched you in person, I can see that  you have a better handle on parenting than I did when I was your age.

     You are an encourager.  I so appreciated the time you told me to pick up the phone and call if ever I needed to talk with someone...didn't matter what time it was.  Just knowing that the offer was there, encouraged me...and the offer still stands, right? :-)

We love you as one of our own :-)    D and M

    If you're wondering what's behind this recent flurry of posts, I'll tell you. 

     Two weeks ago we rented the movie 300  

     In the movie, there's a scene  where a dad laments he'd never taken the time to tell his son how proud he was of him, but then it was too late....

       WOW, I thought to myself, "I don't want to make the same mistake."

              I have had different ones tell me over the years how proud my dad was of me....yet I  rarely  heard it.   Our family was not outwardly affectionate growing up.  We didn't hug, didn't say "I love you", It wasn't until I was out of the house and my mom had a run in with cancer that things began to change, but by then I was pretty set in my ways.....so I've had to work at expressing affection,  I mentioned to Vanessa I  feel like I've  been in  uncharted waters.  Fortunately for me my wife's family is  a bunch of huggers so it's not like I haven't been squeezed on. :-) 

   And now to John.....

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     John will be heading to  college this Fall after attending a  one year college preparatory program 

       (He's been working for me)  ;-)

     There are so many things  I appreciate about John. 

     I appreciate that he still tells us he loves us.  I appreciate his hugs.  I appreciate the fact that he is both tough and tender, and has a spiritual side to his life .   I appreciate the fact that he is a hard worker.  He's got a sense of humor, though sometimes it has gotten him in trouble with the law.    I appreciate the way he cares about his sisters.  

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        Dear John,

       I love you!  It has been good to have you back in the house the past 6 months as you've worked to get your bearings.  I appreciate the way you keep us informed (for the most part) on your plans each night.  As a dad, I've never sensed any disrespect coming from you...I can't tell you how much that means to me.

       I hate to bring this up again, but the odds are pretty good that you too  will start loosing your hair before too long...it runs in both sides of the family.

     I am proud of the way you handled yourself those years you transitioned into high school.   As one of your teachers commented, she'd never seen a student make as radical a personal transformation as you did.  You have guts young man.   Love, Dad

Author-illustrator Sarah Ackerley signs "Patrick the Somnambulist" (Blooming Tree Press) for a young fan at Bookpeople.

The prose is just so beguiling that I want to quote the whole thing -- word for word -- the whole picture book up here on the blog. 

The book would be Patrick the Somnambulist, published by Blooming Tree Press.

The author-illustrator would be Sarah Ackerley, a member of our Austin, Texas  SCBWI group (who recently moved with her husband to San Francisco.)

It's about a normal penguin child -- normal except for one thing: He gets into crazy  situations in the middle of the night.

His parents take him to a doctor who assesses his problem: somnambulism. "a fancy word for sleepwalking," we are told.  With the diagnosis comes acceptance and with acceptance comes confidence, and -- well, I've already given away too much.  Oh, well with confidence ...let's just say you too could end up on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Inspiration came from Sarah's own husband who will sometimes do silly things while asleep, like look for his 'missing wallet' in the blender, or prepare a bowl of cereal for himself. 

"Loving Your Label"  was the headline of a recent Canadian review podcast about Sarah's book. Husband and wife/parent team Mark and Andrea  devote an entire six minute episode to "Patrick the Somnambulist" on Just One More Book :(A podcast about the childrens books we love and why we love them, recorded in our favorite coffee shop) .  "It's an instant hit with everyone in the family," exclaims Mark.

Andrea exults how a label and the understanding that comes with it can sometimes free a self. "It's like I'm an introvert. I'm acting freaky because I'm an introvert," she says.

You can listen to their fun conversation here.

While making ready to move from Texas to the S.F. Bay area,  Sarah graciously conceded to an interview by How to be a children's book illustrator.

"The story started with a sketch," she says. "The way I write is I usually have a mental image of the funniest page where it all grows from."

You can see that sketch above. The parents discover the sleep-walking Patrick standing in the bathroom, a roll of toilet paper over one arm, a toothbrush in his hand, and a toilet plunger stuck on top of his head.

"The parents are looking up like he's weird, and the whole story absolutely did unfold around that image," Sarah says. "It took me like an hour to write. I was seeing the pictures as I wrote.  The words kind of poured out like I had the complete story. Then I just went back and crossed out the weaker lines."

Drawing a Patrick character that satisfied her took a little longer. "I have all kind of images for him. It's pretty funny to see where he started and where he wound up. He looked really bad for a while. He started out looking like a squash.

"I checked out an enormous stack of books on penguins and I started drawing them from all angles. I l looked at no cartoons, because I wanted him to look like a real penguin. HIs lack of personality is almost the point -- I wanted to capture his animal 'penguineness.'"

Sarah had not worked in watercolor before Patrick.  But she knew a thing or two about the art making process. She'd earned a BFA at the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in studio art. (She later finished an M.A. in Elementary Education.) 

She'd never illustrated a book. "I thought every picture book was done in watercolor. That was the medium that illustrators used," she says.

With a little guidance from a $5 watercolor 'how to' book, "I did these tiny, tiny images the size of my fist.. on cheap watercolor paper with blocks of typewritten text glued in...I scanned it in at Walgreens and had it bound with a spiral binder at Kinko's Copies."

She brought her creation to an Austin SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) picture book dummy-making demonstration given by artist Regan Johnson. 

Regan, who had just taken the job of art director for Austin-based publisher Blooming Tree Press, worked with Sarah to come up with a second, larger more professional dummy.

"I wasn't straight up accepted," Sarah says, "But it was, 'Can you develop this a little further and we'll talk?'"

For her finished art Sarah used professional grade Grumbacher watercolor tube paints. On 140 lb. cold pressed watercolor paper she painted  over outlines she'd made with a Calligraphy pen. The pen lines smeared a little because the ink was not waterproof, "but I kind of liked the results," she says.

"I had a lot of troubleshooting problems that I solved in a round-about-way. But it worked out. Making the book was how I taught myself watercolor."

Sarah's busy on a number of great new projects, including a picture book about a delightful owl character  with...well, let's just say a different sleep disorder. 

See Sarah's blog, and her website,  Sarah Ackerley Illustration.   

Writer Mark Mitchell teachers a children’s book illustration class at the  Austin Museum of Art Art School at 3809 West 35th Street, Austin, Texas 78703.  He’ll  teach a special weekend watercolor workshop , “Watercolor for Children’s Book illustration” August 9 -10.  For more information on any of the dozens of AMOA summer art classes (for adults or children) call the Art School at (512) 323-6380 or visit the AMOA  website. 

To receive eight free lessons in a new online course on children’s book illustration  that Mark has started teaching, go to this ASK survey page and answer the survey question you see.

Organisations looking to sign up to the No Limits Route 2 Zero programme should contact Donna at No Limits directly.

If anyone is looking for route2zero images please contact me directly.

       Got to warn you,  there is one swear word in it

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      When I think of staff meetings, board meetings, or time served on almost any committee, I think of the one man who triumphed over "meeting madness."  The man whose style I sometimes wish I had. 

     David Dugan was his name.  Though he had a college degree in civil engineering, and though he read history for pleasure, he enjoyed the pose of the simpleminded common man.  Popeye was his model.

     While in college, he had started as right defensive tackle on the football team for four years.  After college he made his living as  a heavy construction contractor, specializing in sewer systems and pipelines.    He ran his life and business in the way he played football- straight ahead up the middle, full power, nothing fancy.

     Plainspoken in his conversation, he used one adjective: "sumbitch."  After you got used to it, you didn't notice when he spoke of his "sumbitch" wife and his "sumbitch" kids and his "sumbitch" friends any more than when he spoke of the "sumbitch" government and the "sumbitch" Russians.  He varied the tone a little, but it was all "sumbitch" to him.

     I met him at a poker game.  I liked him right away.  He came to church the next Sunday saying he'd never heard a sumbitch poker player preach.  He stayed on to become an active member of the church.  We found him kind and generous behind his facade.  His laughter kept us loose in tense moments, and his resources kept us in business when we needed help.  Dugan's way was large, and he didn't hold back when it came to his part in the life of the church.  If we had some trash to haul, he'd drive up in a four-ton dump truck.  He sent a road grader to move some gravel around, and to fetch a Christmas tree he sent a diesel truck hitched to a Low Boy trailer- the kind used to transport bulldozers.  For Dugan there were very few of life's problems that could not be addressed with heavy equipment and a go- get-'em attitude.

      Dugan lured me to his construction site one fall with the promise of being allowed to drive a D 8 Caterpillar tractor.  Sitting in his office trailer drinking coffee, he astonished me by throwing open his briefcase to reveal bundles and bundles of hundred-dollar bills, and a .38 caliber pistol.  It was like being in a movie when the bank robbers were about to split the loot.  Not to worry, He explained that because his projects were often far from town and he had to hire a lot of temporary labor, he made his payroll in cash.  He was bonded to carry as much as half a million dollars.  And licensed to carry the gun to protect himself.

      Because he was often away for long stretches of time, Dugan refused an invitation to serve as an officer of the board of trustees.  But when he was in town, he came to board meetings anyhow.  He thought he ought to contribute to the life of the church beyond just sitting in a pew, and he wanted to know what was going on from the source, not a newsletter.

      As is often the case, "Member of the Board of Trustee" sounds like an important honor,  when in fact, the work of the board is more often mundane than not.  During the year when Dugan attended meetings, the board's entire time and energy were devoted to a leaking roof, parking problems, and the difficulty of getting wholesale prices for paper towels and toilet paper.  Dugan never said a word.  He listened- with chagrin written on his face.

      One January evening the board shifted to an even more fascinating problem.  On the entrance side of the church, the driveway had developed potholes.  Patching had not helped, so it seemed the driveway would have to be repaved.  An expensive proposition.  However, on the exit  side, nearest the church school, the driveway was smooth, encouraging a level of speed thought dangerous to children.  Speed bumps would have to be built there and signs posted.  More expense.

     Three hours had drained away while every possible dimension of this driveway problem had been considered.  No solution in sight, the meeting fumbled on.

     From his seat outside the board circle, Dugan raised his hand to make a proposal.  "Leave the potholes on the entrance side and dig potholes on the exit side.  Spray a little tar in them.  Call them "speedholes."  He could do it with a shovel and a couple of cans of hot tar in a couple of hours.  Free.

      The board gnawed on the problem for another hour- worried about being sued and what the neighbors would think.

     In exasperation Dugan stood up, placed his briefcase on the table, and asked forcefully, "What's this sumbitch church worth- the whole sumbitch thing, buildings, land, everything- gimme a round figure."

      They didn't know about the briefcase.

     The church treasurer replied, "Oh, maybe three hundred thousand dollars."

     "Great," cried Dugan, "I'm gonna buy the sumbitch!"

     And he opened his briefcase, laid his pistol aside, and began throwing out bundles of hundred-dollar bills until he reached the established price.

     Silence- stunned silence.

     "Gimme the deed, and it's done." said Dugan.

      "What are you going to do with it?" someone asked.

     "I'm going to get my crew and equipment over here, and  we'll level the sumbitch and haul it to the sumbitch dump before sundown.  And I'll use the land for the cemetery you guys are headed toward in these meetings of the living dead.  I'm going to put up a  sumbitch monument to the Unknown God."

      "What's the gun for, Dugan?" an anxious member asked.

      "I was thinking of putting every last one of you sumbitches out of your misery.  Too bad it's against the law."

     Then he chewed the board members up one side and down the other for not spending their time on important things and how he came to church for religion and what he got was pissant construction workers he wouldn't hire for a day, and bygod if they decided they wanted to get serious about all the things a church ought to be doing in this world, to let him know.

      Packing up his money, and his gun, he stomped off out the door, shouting from down the hall, "The sumbitch offer still stands."

     What Dugan said and did had a familiar ring to it.

     For all those who have the noble work of the world to do, the question is essentially the same, yes?  Fish or cut bait?  Dream or do?

     Dugan's acts are nothing new in religious circles,  The prophet Jeremiah didn't use quite those same words, but his message was about the same......

     No, we didn't dig the speedholes.  Just too simple a solution.

     But there were more than a few times that the board members thought they'd made a great mistake- they should have sold the sumbitch.

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     I was telling one of the guys at work about this story last week.  He said something that made me feel good....."Doug, you kind of remind me of him just a little." (straight ahead up the middle, full power, nothing fancy.)

     Hope you have  a great day.

www.noahkalina.com

After searching for a while, and finding not that much about goals in the peer-reviewed pain management literature, it's nice to have an article that specifically discussed goals and the effect of not meeting goals on participants. This article by Guck and colleagues from the University of Nebraska, examines how a group of participants in a pain management programme view their achievement of goals - do they blame themselves, or external factors for their 'lapse' or 'relapse'.
It's interesting that this piece of research is based around the concepts of relapse prevention, because one of the main reasons for considering the place of goal-setting is to ensure participants make changes in their lives that matter to them - and retain those changes over time. So relapse prevention theory will have much to add for therapists wanting to help their clients stick with the 'programme'. I'm not sure that many therapists would have really considered this body of knowledge in relation to physical exercise or using coping skills, because much of the theory is directly related to smoking cessation, dietary change or alcohol abstinence.

Anyway, onto the research.
In this study 100 particpants from 263 people who entered an interdisciplinary programme over a five-year period were asked to participate. Of the original 263, 30 failed to complete the programme, and of the remaining people, 100 provided complete information.

From the description, the programme sounds very similar generic and consisted of a four-week programme of exercise, medication review, active coping strategies and other issues such as work, family and social issues were also addressed in both individual and group sessions.

In the final week of the programme, relapse prevention sessions were held, covering high risk situations, and how to reduce the likelihood of the rule violation effect.

Interestingly, the group developed their goals for after the programme at the time of this discussion - in full awareness of the role of 'slips' and 'lapses'. Participants develop between 4 - 6 goals, and staff assisted them to ensure goals met the 'SMART' goal schema. The goals were to be achieved in the next six months.

Six months after discharge from the programme, participants were contacted with a copy of their goals list, and were asked to identify whether they had met the goal, and for each unmet goal, to record on four attributional rating scales, the reason for not doing so. The attributional scales were 1 - 7 likert-type scales, with 'internal' to 'external', 'stable' to 'unstable', 'gobal' to 'specific' and 'uncontrollable' to 'controllable' factors as the anchors.

Results - Overall, the 100 participants identified 487 goals they intended to meet - 322 of these goals were recorded as met, while 165 goals were not. 46 of the 100 participants met most of their goals, while 16 failed to meet more than 2/3 of their goals. Chi-squared analysis indicated that more goals than not were met in most of the goals categories - except for work.

The causes for not meeting work and social activity goals were attributed to external rather than internal factors more often than were causes for not meeting coping skills, medication change, or exercise goals. Work goals were more often to be thought to be uncontrollable.

So, it seems that goals that were set during this programme by and large were met - except in the two areas that depend a lot on other people (social and work). And the attributions that people made as to why these goals were met or not met differed depending on the type of goal. This suggests that it's not helpful to use the same relapse prevention model for some of the goals - that is, people do tend to believe that when they can't manage work or social goals, it's about external factors, uncontrollable factors, and global factors that are stable.

This makes it very difficult for people to reconsider how to cope with these demands, and from other research in relapse prevention, makes it more likely for them to feel there is nothing they can do to change the situation, and reduce the likelihood they will attempt again.

The researchers in this study suggest that people who need to set goals in social and work areas need to be taught how to cope with factors that affect work and social goals that are external and uncontrollable - unfortunately, as many pain management programmes don't even consider return to work as a goal, and certainly don't seem to break that goal into manageable 'chunks', this may remain a concern within New Zealand at least.

Once again I'm left with the impression that developing pain management skills and goals to help people return to work despite chronic pain is different from and more complex than simply helping people develop generic pain management skills. The workplace is different from the home - and goals made for using pain coping strategies, exercise and medication at home seem to be much more easily achieved than those about using them at work. Food for thought: perhaps pain management at work is a specialised area for pain management, and not simply the same as 'any old pain management'?

Gluck, T.P., Willcockson, J.C., Schmidt, R.L., Criscuolo, C.M. (2008). Attributions regarding unmet treatment goals after interdisciplinary chronic pain rehabilitation. Clinical Journal of Pain, 24(5), 415-420.

Thanks to my colleagues at PMC (who shall remain nameless!) I have attached a copy of the ways-i-want-my-life-to-change-wish-list that people can use at the very beginning of a programme to help identify the areas they want to influence by developing pain management coping skills.  It can be used instead of the menu I showed yesterday, or it can be used alongside it.

There are quite a lot of areas that people would like to change or learn about with regard to chronic pain, and this list isn't designed to be exhaustive. It's also not especially specific in terms of making measureable goals based on research into goal-setting that we've discussed a few days ago.

What it does do is give you, as the clinician, a really good idea of the sorts of needs the person has already identified. In terms of motivation or readiness for change, it can indicate areas that the person is already 'contemplating', or is even perhaps in 'preparation' for change. Prochaska and DiClemente's model (oh yes, I've talked about this a LOT!) and work around this model clearly supports the finding that people need to be in the right space to even start to consider making changes.

If the person is never asked to consider an area that could change, though, it's fairly difficult for them to actually decide that they would like it to be different, so part of our role is to help open up the possibility for change - and you can see this in the 'Wish List'.

I use this Wish List at the very beginning of the programme, asking people to tick all the areas they would like to see changes in. Then after a week or so, I ask them to indicate their three most important 'wishes'. Then we can start working on importance and confidence: why these areas are important (providing the person with the opportunity to reflect on how important it is to them, and uncovering personally-relevant values to support their change process), and how confident they are to achieve them. Once we've identified their level of confidence, it's part of my work to help the person build the confidence to start taking steps towards achieving the changes they want to see in their lives.

To me, pain management is not simply about developing a set of new coping strategies that can be employed while the person continues on in their life. It's much more about reconceptualising who they are: to move from a person who has become quite experienced at being a patient, and following other people's requests or directions, into someone who has their own life to live, their own direction to follow and is becoming a person again.

This is why I feel quite frustrated with many self-help books, even for chronic pain, that are chock-full of new ways to cope, but leave the integration of these coping skills to the person.  Integrating new skills is critical for the skills to actually be used. If you've ever been to a workshop and come away with a whole set of new ideas - only two weeks later find yourself doing just what you've always done, you'll know exactly what I mean!

In industrial and organisational psychology, a lot of research has been undertaken into 'transfer of training' - and things like ongoing support in different contexts, refresher courses, memory prompts, support from 'important people' (eg line managers in a factory) are all known to be both effective and almost essential before training can be implemented in a workplace. (For some good information on transfer of training, this site provides some good resources).

Now, start to think of how we as health providers, support transfer of skills developed in a clinic: how many of us get the support of the 'important people' in the person's life to help them use the new skills? How often do we consider the network of relationships that are a part of an individual's context? How could we help that person make the links between what we show them and what they can readily use in their own environment?

This is really important as far as developing pain management skills in the workplace goes. Without specific support to help someone use their skills, in the context of work where all the cues for old behaviour exist, it's going to be very difficult for them to recall and do something different. Especially when they are perhaps not entirely convinced that this new way of working is helpful.

So while pain management itself is not about 'personality makeover', it is all about reconceptualising the person-as-patient into the-person-as-person. Without that essential 'new belief' the person will likely return to old habits.

Your challenge for today? What about taking some time to think about one method you could use to support someone to recall a skill that you are helping them develop? How could you transfer what they are starting to learn with you into their home or work situation - hey, even into their car!

Well the first step is to realize that you really need to fight with a group, because the group is going to be your confusing meat shield. You need a solid group of no less than five toons to help hide your under seasoned body. If you pick a group that has a healer with it you will probably live longer (although frankly heals in a BG are more of a bonus then a given.) So decide if you are going with the Offence or sticking with the Defence, then stick to your group like glue. Really do use them as a meat shield – you are going to be the guy that either stands fairly well behind them dealing ranged damage/heals or you are going to be the guy that stands back and lets the group engage the enemy so you can pick the back of your unsuspecting melee target (Useful PVE skill that.) The main name of the game is RANGE –attempt to keep distance from the enemy, ranged damage/heals if you have them are your friend. In fact anything that keeps you at the back of the crowd is your friend (except perhaps shaman chain heal which just screams *kill the healers - oh look there she is at the end of the great green booger*).

The second thing will be to realize that you may actually be standing out like a sore thumb back there – keep your eyes out for rogues and druids and the other types that circle scrums looking for the weak to pick off.

Now take 5mins out and think of how you can contribute. This is the time to think about all the spells and things you can do which have very little to do with damage. So a basic list of some things a low level toon can contribute:

Can you buff anyone? - All buffs are greatly appreciated because unless you are with a premade they too are more of a BG bonus than a BG right. Buff whenever you have the opportunity because it will make other toons in ‘the group’ fond of you. (They don’t see the meat shield – bwhahahaha) If they like you they may toss a heal or /assist your way.

Can you heal? – This ones a biggy. Any healing at all is appreciated in a BG (including bandages), no group is really going to foul mouth an under levelled toon that is actually attempting to heal. Even if its not what you are specced for, if you can heal go at it, it’s a good hobby for the little fishy.

Can you type a call out? - All toons have a voice & you can use yours to yell incomings and aid communication about troop movement. Stick to useful info and avoid telling people how to play though as you don’t want to attract a ‘hey man you’re not even 70!’ bitch fest.

Can you interrupt? – meh since you are unlikely to be able to be a force of mass destruction it’s time to make like Bin Laden and be a force of total annoyance. Interrupt flag taps (heals and casting if you can), then run away when they look at you, circle round and interrupt their flag tap again. This can actually be rather relaxing because the aim is to put all your frustration on another player ... death be damned... just annoy the crap out of an enemy player and foil whatever their original goal was :)

Can you see something that needs doing? - Take the jobs other people may avoid, since in this pond you are not a big damage dealer or an uber healer you are now the guy who has the time to mind a flag, watch a choke and play the D.

Can you love your CC? – It will be resisted sometimes but CC is probably going to help your group more than piddly damage. Screams and sheeps and traps and totems and flares and banishes. CC what you can whenever you can even if you just fear some hunter pet off another player. (Aye I know your usual form of CC is probably to simply bash it to death, but being a little fish is a chance to get creative.)

Do you have any utility abilities that can help out? – Like bombs, or stealth, or the ability to float, or mana your group up should they happen to be anywhere near you. Working these kinda things into your game play makes BGs a lot more fun, and it can make you unpredictable – being unpredictable will help you live longer.

Are there any BG objectives you can help achieve? – This is a normal consideration, remember the actual goals of the BG and look for opportunities to help meet them: help a flag carrier, defend a node, tap flags if everyone is fighting away from them, cash in AV quests etc etc.

AV Specific:
Well AV is actually really friendly to the small fish.
The groups are huge so the odd under 70 doesn’t stand out and you are not going to get bad mouthed as soon as you step foot in the cave. Both the defence and offence require a significant chunk of toon bodies that you can happily hide in. There are a number of relevant quests you can complete for rep and still feel like you are contributing (everyone gets rep and buffs etc from your cash ins), in fact you can even run around on clean up duty collecting pieces of corpses to cash in back at the base.
A stealthy type can make a solo journey to take a mine or a tower (if you whisper another lvl 70 stealth toon for assistance you can even rustle up that ever required ‘meat shield’ again.) There is always GY guarding further back from the main defence or offence – someone has ta do it.

Important goals to keep in mind:
Do not die so often you are a burden to your team when it comes to lowering the reinforcements. If you picked Offense and you are dying consistently it is time for you to pack your bags and move further back on the map.

AB Specific:
AB can be fairly friendly to the lower level player. I find it’s wise to either stick to the main body of toons or to stick with a really well geared melee type. (The usual oh hey he has Glad gear - be my friend shenanigans.) I usually end up with unpleasant guard duties, but this happens at even 70 because someone’s gotta go it.

WSG Specific:
Probably the worst BG for the under levelled because everyone notices… on the other hand, a lot of 70s don’t play WSG so maybe you will fit right in. I however, find it is the BG most likely to bitch-blame losses on the percentage of under levelled toons.
Buffs are less likely to happen in WSG – so if you can, buff away whenever you are near party members as it really stands out and party members will notice and appreciate it.
As a hunter - setting yourself up to hamper and defend can be a good way to go (depending on your team. I mean if everyone is turtling it’s not so good an idea.) There are some great places to stand in WSG if you can deal ranged damage because map movements are pretty predictable; toons will be going Graveyard (gy), Ramp or Tunnel (tun) and moving from one end of the map to the other. You can easily set yourself up in a hard to reach place and deal damage on the masses below. (I have even seen lvl 70 warlocks and mages plant themselves on this one stump in midfield to do just that.)

I do not know how to speak Tamil, the language spoken in the fishing village we visited in Nagapattiman, India but I discovered that I knew one language that these kids know by heart - smile.

Nagapattinam lies on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. They were among the hardest hit in the 2004 Tsunami. To date, the rehabilitation is still going on, but as I walked and tried to talk to villagers about their experiences, everyone still remembers it as if it happened yesterday.

Mothers talked on how they held on to their daughters hair just to keep her from being swept away.

We heard of stories about mothers who had to choose which child to save and to let go. One of those stories is about one mother named Priya.

During the tsunami, Priya held on to her two kids, a boy and a girl. They were being swept by the tsunami and the mom held on to her kids tightly. Priya held on to a tree. On her left was her son, her daughter on her right and she in the middle facing the tree. The waters were too powerful for her that she had to choose to let go of one child to be able to save the other and herself.

What is a mother supposed to do? How can she choose which child dies and which one survives? In the end, the waters won and she had to let go of her son.

Until now the memory haunts her and forgetting is impossible.

But one cannot fathom the resilience of the human spirit the kids remember the tsunami, but they can smile amidst all bad memories.

May I be like them, a person who can smile even if things do not go as planned.

If you will remember who you are, you will find your way through it.”

It’s been a long time since I came across this line. It was uttered by a character — the heroine’s father — in the prologue of one of my favorite books by Richard Paul Evans, “The Looking Glass.”

The first time I read the line, I did not grasp what it meant. For then, I did not yet understand what the father was trying to do. But when it was repeated toward the end of the book, my tears flowed freely like dam breaking free. Finally, I realized that the father was trying to save his daughter, Quaye. The line was the father’s desperate attempt to make his daughter understand that what he was to do was his only hope to save her.

And he did save his daughter. Quaye lived, and she did get through life.

There are times when I feel as though I were Quaye, and it was my father who had whispered those words to me. Since I read that line, many trials, big and small, had come my way. And this line had greatly helped me to get through them. Every time I had doubts, I would repeat that line in my head, and a stronger resolve come over me, allowing me to keep going.

As I continue with my journey, I know there will be humps I will have to pass through, diversions I may have to deal with, and dead ends around which I will have to try to find my way. There will be stopovers, and there will be accidents I may personally be involved in or simply witness. There will be times that I would stumble, and there will be moments I would feel too tired to go on with my journey.

But I believe, like Quaye, I will get everything that will come my way — intact, though scathed — because I have not forgotten one moment who I am and that I am loved.

I will keep walking on. Because for every slippery and unpaved road I need to pass through, there will also be sceneries whose unfolding I would witness. There will be friends I will meet along the way who will make my load seem lighter. There will be laughter and there will be music as there will be flowers blooming.

//Sherma E. Benosa

16 November 2007; 2:35pm

What's your favorite line (in a song, book, poem)? And why?

As I mentioned yesterday, finding research articles on goal-setting in chronic pain is not easy - there are not many out there! So this article is reasonably old, but an interesting one because it deals with something I've wondered about for a while: flexibility. To be flexible doesn't just mean being able to touch your toes! it does mean being able to change tactics, direction and even focus in order to achieve fulfilment in life.

This study looks at the difference between assimilative coping: 'active attempts to alter unsatisfactory life circumstances and situational constraints in accordance with personal preferences' and accommodative coping: 'revising self-evaluative and personal goal standards in accordance with perceived deficits and losses'.

We have a good body of research that suggests 'active coping' is better for people seeking treatment for chronic pain (e.g. Jensen et al., 1991), but coping isn't well defined, and there doesn't seem to be a good theoretical model that most people can agree on.  Coping strategies haven't been derived from people who don't seek treatment (and therefore cope well) use for their pain, and most coping assessment measures don't recognise that what may be helpful in one situation may not be in another.

So this study was based instead on Brandtstadter's (from the University of Trier) work on developmental problems and role transitions in adult life, where he studied assimilative and accommodative modes of coping.
As I described yesterday, goals are developed from a discrepancy between what is and what the individual would like to see happen. These discrepancies are often instigated by the individual, but can also be triggered by a change in the context, environment or demands from another person. Coping refers to efforts an individual takes to achieve - neutralise a threat or avoid loss, or perhaps achieve a success.

Brandtstadter identified that assimilative coping strategies involve altering the situation - for example, asking another person to help, using gadgets, or developing new skills based on feedback, changing the way an activity is done. Accommodative coping strategies involve altering expectations - changing desires or preferences, perhaps changing the expected outcome, giving up ideals (working to 100% for example), or even comparing how the person is going with other people who are more disabled.

The researchers in this paper identified that a 'healthy pain patient' is someone who is managing their pain in a way that ensures he or she has good quality of life, and feels well, and this probably requires the person to make 'accommodative adjustments' to existing goals and standards.

The recruits in this study were 120 people receiving inpatient treatment at a facility in Germany. More women than men were recruited, and most were married. The average pain duration was 11 years, and half of the participants had been away from work, and of that group, 40% had been so for at least 6 months. Most of the patients had headache (40%) while the remainder had low back pain, whole body pain, or pain in other sites as well as headahce.

The participants were assessed using the Pain Disablity Index (Tait et al, 1990), and the mean score in this study was 31.67 (SD=15.71). Psychological distress was measured using the CES-D, with a mean of 19.65 (SD=10.60), meaning that 53% of this group scored at or above the cut-off score usually used in the German version of this questionnaire. 24% of the respondents were diagnosed with an affective disorder using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnosis (SCID).

In terms of pain coping, three cognitive and three behavioural aspects of coping were assessed using likert-type scales from 1 (not at all true) to 6 (absolutely true). Finally, 'dispositional coping tendencies' following the Brandtstadter model were assessed using a questionnaire developed by Brandtstadter & Renner (1990). Two scales are formed by the questionnaire: 'flexible goal adjustment' such as 'I adapt quite easily to changes in plans' and 'I find it easy to see something positive even in a serious event'; and 'tenacious goal pursuit', such as 'when faced with obstacles, I usually double my efforts', and 'even when things seem hopeless, I keep on fighting to reach my goals'.

What did they find out?
Coping and pain intensity weren't correlated, but a negative relationship was found between disability and distraction. Cognitive restructuring and self-efficacy were strongly associated with less depression. Both 'flexible goal adjustment' and 'tenacious goal pursuit' were negatively correlated with depression, although flexible goal adjustment had a stronger relationship than tenacious goal pursuit.

With further multiple regression analyses, it was found that flexible goals adjustment played a protective role when pain intensity and disability were high - that is, the ability to adjust goals flexibly seems to be a resource which 'buffers the negative effect of chronic pain on psychological well-being'. This same positive relationship wasn't found for people who continued to pursue their original goals by working harder.

The authors finally conclude that pain-related coping is only adaptive (that is, reduces pain severity or perceived disability) when the person has both 'an accepting attitude' towards chronic pain and uses positive coping strategies. In saying this, Schmitz, Saile & Nilges make a point that today has been empirically studied by researchers such as Lance McCracken and Kevin Vowles at Bath University: accepting chronic pain makes a difference to how well a person copes with ongoing disability.

A final point to make about this study - of the cognitive coping strategies, cognitive restructuring was the only strategy that moderated the relationship between depression and disability. Cognitive restructuring involves things like positively reinterpreting pain, reducing pain's significance, or directly accepting pain.

Some cautions to consider when interpreting this study: it is a correlational study, so can't demonstrate cause and effect. It's also in a small group of people presenting to a specialised pain management centre. To date, it seems to be only study on this type of coping in people with chronic pain.

Food for thought from this study, however. Goals are all about achieving things. For some people, as I mentioned yesterday, having high goals and feeling dissatisfied with the 'way things are' can be a way of life that has helped them succeed. When chronic pain is present, this style of coping can become unhelpful - and it will be important to identify other ways for the person to retain their sense of self efficacy and achievement.

I think that identifying 'different' ways to act according to values that are important is one way to help someone live well despite their disability. This suggests that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) may be an appropriate approach especially for people who have previously been high achievers. On the other hand, helping people who have lowered their expectations to re-set their 'satisfaction' set-point might involve helping them recruit new and different strategies to improve their ability to commit to 'tenacious goal pursuit'.

Next post: another study on goals in chronic pain, and (with any luck) a worksheet!
Have a great day - and leave a comment if you've enjoyed this series, or have any questions.

Jensen, M., Turner, J., Romano, J., & Karoly, P. (1991). Coping with chronic pain: a critical review of the literature. Pain, 47, 249-283.

Schmitz, U., Saile, H., Nilges, P. (1996). Coping with chronic pain: flexible goal adjustment as an interactio buffer against pain-related distress. Pain, 67, 41-51.

I just saw a really fine movie about the Great Depression and the theme was: Don't let it beat you!

Kit Kittredge is a well-made film about tough times, everyone pulling together and important lessons in resilience for those of us of all ages.

Kit is ten and she wants to be a writer more than anything else, so I could relate to that part! But her happy, comfortable family life appears to be falling apart when her Dad loses his job. Her neighbors are losing their homes up and down her block (does this sound familiar?) and her Dad has to move to Chicago to try and find work.

We all know the story of the Great Depression, but I found a story within the story, and that is: How well can each of us cope when things start going wrong. Do we fall apart and start blaming everyone else? Or do we pull together and help each other survive the toughest time of our lives?

I found this to be one of my own important lessons when I was confronted with round after round of midlife crisis in the past few years. Tough times can either destroy us, make us blame everyone but ourselves, or instead encourage us to step up, take full responsibility, and become even more independent, creative and resourceful than ever before. In fact, we may learn quite a bit about ourselves by facing the kind of adversity we thought we could never survive.

Just like my favorite saying when times were really tough: "Hang on, it all changes," "Don't let it beat you" tells us not to give in or lower our standards for ourselves just because we sometimes feel defeated.

There will always be tough times, but are you tough enough to weather the storm, and perhaps become a better person because of the challenges you face?

Some people doubt the existance of a theory that happens to be either practical or useful, but perhaps this review (which is now relatively old, but still good!) will prove the rule. While this review covers goal-setting within an industrial/organisational context, it still offers some helpful advice and findings from both experimental and 'field' research. I'll comment, of course, in terms of how this may fit within a clinical pain management context!

So, what is a goal? Locke and Latham (2002) define goals as 'the object or aim of an action, for example, to attain a specific standard of proficiency, usually within a specified time limit.' Their definition refers to performance of work-related tasks rather than 'discrete intentions to take specific actions' (and they give the example of applying to graduate school, to get a medical examination). Their definition relates quite well to those in chronic pain management, where the goals referred to are often 'to increase sitting tolerance to 20 minutes', or 'to be able to take a shower safely'.

How difficult should a goal be? Although during the 1950's it had been found there was a curvilinear inverse relationship between difficulty and performance, (that is, a goal shouldn't be too low, nor too high, or performance was affected), Locke and Latham proposed there was a positive, linear relationship between difficulty and level of performance. They found that performance levelled off only once the limits of ability were reached, or when commitment to that goal lapsed.

Additionally, Locke and Latham found that specific, difficult goals consistently lead to better performance than just telling people to 'do their best'. Having a target seems to work better because people have something to aim for, and are clear on what needs to be done.

What this implies for pain management, is that without a specific target to achieve, people have trouble knowing whether they're 'doing enough'. It seems to be important to have goals that the person feels are 'just out of reach' but are actually within their ability, and to be very specific about how often, how much, or exactly what they have to do, in order for them to be committed to making it happen. This suggests that a vague goal to 'try using relaxation during the next week' probably will work less effectively than identifying exactly how often, what time of day, and what type of relaxation should be attempted.

Social cognitive theory (I've posted on this before! Remember Bandura?) suggests that self-efficacy, or confidence that the individual can successfully achieve his or her goals plays an important part in goal-setting. Latham and Locke state that 'when goals are self-set, people with high self-efficacy set higher goals than do people with lower self-efficacy'.

We know that self-efficacy for many activities can be affected by pain - the Pain Self Efficacy Questionnaire (Nicholas, 1989) measures self-efficacy to participate in a range of daily activities such as work, future goals, social activities and leisure despite pain using a 1 - 10 Likert-type scale, and although the maximum score is 60, most of the people we see at Pain Management Centre will achieve less than 20.

Goals appear to affect performance through four mechanisms, according to Locke and Latham (2002).
They are directive - that is, they 'direct attention and effort toward goal-relevant activities and away from irrelevant activities'.
They energise - high goals lead to greater effort than low goals. This has been demonstrated with goals that require physical effort, repeated performance of cognitive tasks, subjective effort as well as physiological indicators of effort.
They affect persistence - when people can control how long they spend on tasks, hard goals elicit more time being spent on them. But what often happens is that people increase their work pace in order to achieve a goal rather than work more slowly but less intensely over a longer period of time.
They affect action indirectly by leading people to discover relevant information and strategies that they can use to achieve the goal. So it seems that people actively seek and use the information they have around them to solve problems in order to achieve goals - without them, the information they have may never be integrated.

There seems to be a hierarchy of ways that people search for, and use information relevant to the task:
1. People automatically use knowledge and skills they already have to achieve a goal.
2. If already existing knowledge and skills don't quite cut it, people draw from related skills they may have used elsewhere.
3. If the task is actually new, they will deliberately plan to develop the skills necessary to achieve the goal.
4. People with high self-efficacy are more likely than those with low self-efficacy to develop effective task strategies. People may take some time to look for ways to achieve goals they are set.
5. When people are asked to address a complex task, sometimes encouraging them to do their best can work more effectively than the usual specific performance goal because anxiety to succeed can make them look for strategies to deliver in an unsystematic way and fail to learn what actually works.
6. When people are, instead, trained to use systematic strategies, people who are given specific high-demand goals are more likely to use those strategies than people who are given either nonspecific goals, or goals that don't really demand high performance.

Commitment to goals moderates, or changes the goal and performance relationship. This is most important when goals are difficult because they require persistence. As I mentioned yesterday, importance and confidence drive commitment to goals.

Some things seem, from Locke and Latham's research, to increase commitment - being public about a goal can increase importance and therefore commitment (maybe because of a desire to maintain integrity in other's eyes), others inspiring action and being supportive can create demand characteristics that can enhance commitment. Goals that are imposed on people may or may not influence commitment - it seems to be more about the way in which the purpose of the goal is given than whether the person participates in the goal setting process.

Self-efficacy or confidence is influenced by ensuring adequate training is available (so the person knows what to do, especially if that training leads to a successful experience prior to the goal), role models that demonstrate success, and through verbal communication that expresses confidence that the person can achieveit, including information about ways that goals can be achieved.

For more information on feedback, complexity and other factors known to influence goal-setting - come on back tomorrow!

For today, here is a specific goal - read one of the goals you have written with or for a client with chronic pain before tomorrow.
Check these four things:
1. Does your goal have specific actions that the client needs to do?
2. Does your goal include a timeframe?
3. Does your client think this goal is important?
4. Does your client believe he or she can successfully achieve this goal?

If you can answer these four questions, and feel like stretching yourself - check these things:
1. Does your client know exactly how to do the goal?
2. If this goals requires using skills that are new to the client, have they had a successful attempt with your support?
3. Has your client had an opportunity to see anyone else achieve this goal?
4. Has your client been given the opportunity to make his or her goal public? Have they told anyone?

Let me know in the comments section if you've been able to achieve these goals. More tomorrow!

Locke, E.A., Latham, G.P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey.. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705-717. DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705

She  was beautiful,

an athlete,  popular.

They'd visited for 30 seconds after class and now he was thinking the impossible....

to ask her out on a date.

He'd just turned 16. Never been on a date in his entire life.  And yet, as  he sat there looking at the phone, the idea wouldn't go away.  He rehearsed his words a hundred times.

 He picks up the phone, begins to dial , his fingers shaking,  heart pounding.  He isn't  even sure he had the right number.  After the 3rd ring, a woman answers-  probably her  mother. 

 He asks to  talk with Sara

  "Just a minute" she says. 

30 seconds later, Sara gets on the phone,

 "Hello "

______________________________________________________________________________

Flash forward 35 years.....I am that farm boy.....and Sara (not her real name) is my wife. 

I discovered something inside myself that night- If I  feel strongly enough about something , I will put it all on the line.

Sure there are times when things don't work out,  but there are times when it does.

And when it does,  the pay off  for  facing your fears head on, more than make up for the times you've  landed  on your butt. 

There's  a quote  by Theodore Roosevelt I like:

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."

So what are you waiting for? :-)

God's probably not going to wave a magic wand over your life and make the fear go away.  I don't know who this post is for..but I'm thinking  there's someone  who knows what they need to do, but fear has them stuck in their tracks.  Take this as a little nudge to move out.   Thanks for reading and posting a comment if you're so inclined.

I have no doubt that terrorists will attempt, and it is highly probable that they will at some point succeed, to indiscriminately kill more innocent people in our country, be it in the capital or elsewhere. I have no doubt that they will continue to seek to divide us and to scare us. However, I have no doubt that they will not succeed in dividing us and scaring us. For that is the strength of the people as a whole - they fight, but not with murderous attacks. The resilience shown by those who travelled by tube the next day is a testimony to how we will stand strong against those who seek to hurt us and we will prevail. Our numbers are far, far greater than theirs and even if they strike us, we will get straight back up and be ready to retaliate with love and moral compassion - our 'weapon' to be used against them.

This feeling was echoed by many on 7th July 2005. Scott Mills rounded off his show with the song 'Tubthumping' due to high listener demand. The lyrics "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down" represented the defiant attitude of the people in this country. A small, seemingly anecdotal fact, but one of great importance nonetheless.

I think that Ken Livingstone, ex-Mayor of London, has said it best, so I shall end this post with his wise words.

Praying for those mean dark clouds to clear the skies,
Convincing babies to believe that it's a bird that flies,
Oh! The child with the twine, launch those collaged kites.

Flying stars with its thread are those dark gray clouds,
Suspended beyond the nebulae and emerging from ruby shroud,
Oh! The child with the twine, see them race for the abode.

Twirling the manja to breach our enemy's defense,
Cutting the threads of aggressors with magical offense,
Oh! The child with the twine, see your kite clear the sky's fence.

Deafening silence was your friend when your kite was felled,
Gusts carried it to the badlands where you have never delved,
Oh! The child with the twine, don't you cry for being beguiled.

But what will you do when the wind stops blowing,
When your empire on the skies starts vanishing?
Oh! The child with the twine, where is it flying?

Tasting this loss makes you know when the current is right,
Falling down paves a way to gain the force to get up and fight,
Oh! The child with the twine, sun is never hindered by the night.

       I've been thinking it would be fun to take you to work with me. I'm a general contractor, which simply  means if I don't know how to do it , I probably  know someone who does.     Keep in mind, every week  is different.     This week started  Sunday night.

     Sunday 6:30 PM  I got a phone call,  the roof we shingled last week has a leak...that doesn't sound good  so I jump into the truck, return to the job site where I meet Casey the homeowner.      We get on the roof,  spot the probable cause,  I  promise to come back first thing Monday morning.

_________________________________________________________________________

     Monday morning 1st thing- back to the leak.  Decide to tear into roof and siding and redo area.  Sure enough, I discover one of the "step flashing" pieces is out of sequence next to sidewall.  I have no one to blame but myself because I was the one who worked on that area.   An  hour and 1/2 later  Ben and I have  everything put back together.   Next we drive to  job  # 2 a new addition, (see photo above)  where we will pour a one sided wall 2 feet high by 18 feet long.    A one sided concrete wall is where you only form up one side because you are attaching it to an existing structure, in this  case an old basement.    

      I enjoy these type of projects because there is a certain element of risk involved.  The hydraulic pressure of liquid concrete will surprise you.  The higher the wall, the pressure increases exponentially.  We get the wall poured, finish by 3:30

__________________________________________________________________________

Tuesday we form another wall on top of the 2 ft wall.  Again it is a one sided form but this time it is 8 foot high.  I brace the living tar out of it, but even then, the forms start cracking and bowing as we get to the top,  decide to stop pouring, leave a pile of concrete on the ground and fill the rest of the wall  30 minutes later with 5 gallon buckets. We finish by 4:30

_________________________________________________________________________

Wednesday morning.  My job today is to install a string of lights in an attic we will insulate next week.  The homeowner had an energy audit and the utility company recommended additional insulation.   It should be interesting.  I have four obstacles:   the heat, the  shallow roof, no lights  and an  attic  full of duct work.

    There are areas that are only  16 inches tall  so picture me on my belly crawling over top of that stuff.  I felt like I was spelunking.  Fortunately, it was a cloudy day so the attic is  relatively cool.  Today we layed fiberglass blanket insulation over the piping, next week we will blow additional loose insulation over everything.    After we finish prepping for next week, Dave the homeowner asks me to rip some oak boards for extension jambs on my job site table saw.  We're working by the hour, so it's not a big deal.   We're out of there  by 11 AM, head back to the  Job #2  where we work on getting the basement floor ready to pour for Thursday morning.   2 PM it starts to rain so we pack it up.      There is a verse of scripture that comes to mind quite regularly on days like today....

    "Do all things without grumbling or questioning..."   Philippians chapter 2 verse 14  if you care to look it up

     So tell me, what your days are like.  The more details the better.

resilience |rəˈzɪliəns| |rəˈzɪljəns

noun

• (of a substance or object) able to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed. See note at flexible.
• (of a person or animal) able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions : the fish are resilient to most infections.

ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin resilient- ‘leaping back,’ from the verb resilire (see resile ).

It's one thing to say someone or something is resilient, but it's another to demonstrate resilience. Resilient would definitely be an adjective that you could apply to CitySquares and to it's people. We've known that for some time, but as the company grows we continue to be tested, and we continue to pass those tests.

Like any company we face challenges, hurdles, obstacles. Some of them we face daily, others only rarely. Along the way this past quarter a few challenges popped up, big ones. Despite any number of factors that might work against us, we overcame them, we bounced back and with smiles on our faces. Executing falls on everyone's shoulders, especially in a start-up company. It's up to everyone, the entire company, the team, the tribe, to work together, pull their weight, and overcome these challenges. It begins and ends with the members of the tribe! And as the old expression goes, "you're only as strong as your weakest link." Well, this is one strong chain.

While this past quarter we overcame the challenges in front of us, we face others now. But we face them with a new found confidence, and with new knowledge and experience behind us. Over time we'll face similar challenges with more wisdom, and we'll even be able to prevent them from happening. That's really the big challenge isn't it? Learning from these things, gaining the experience, applying that wisdom correctly.

-- Michael Jordan

Last night was crazy..I thought I wanted to have a long and good sleep..I turned-off my laptop and light, and went to bed early..ended-up I was thinking about my research..about my discussion with my supervisory team yesterday. Thinking about my framework of my research.  Where to put the "resilience" in my framework? gosh!  I need to find 'the answer'!  This is my phd challenge..hua hua hua.. i feel like to go swimming...i need water....hahahaha

Why do I need to use 'resilience' term? because of there are a lot of study on it.  gosh! 

Is resilience an outcome from the coping?  or they are together in the process?  like they are cousins. Are they? hua hua hua...

Resilience is a positive word..so what? It's not necessarily under the protective factors in adjusting in a new environment.  Gosh!  I want to find the trait of resilience...I found few..well...resilience is part of our personality.

Let me askyou -  what is personality?  Ok.. Personality is us- you and me. We have our own characteristics, traits, differences.  We also have feelings and thoughts that make us behave in certain ways.  Ok, next question, what is trait? Trait is quality or feature characteristics of us.  See..these are interrelated.  And I am going to study about resilience. Many researchers say- everyone has resiliency. No matter how hard the adversity we face,   at the end we resilient.  Why? Because it is in us? Nah..that's not a good answer.  :D

To be a resilient person, there is a process. But is it coping is the only process towards resilience?  Gosh!  Headache...

I believe my personality interacts each other 'inside' me.  Sometime my traits can be dependant variable and sometime they become independant variables in making decision or facing any difficulties...I am stuck in my own brain!!! 

Oh well..let me figure out about this. Thanks for listening guys!  hahaha..sorry..just that..I couldn't stand not to sleep at night.  I know.. i know..If i continue to behave like this, I am going to be sick. Even my prof always asks me, why do I always stay up until 2-3 in the morning?  She knows, because sometime I write emails to my supervisory team. hahaha...Because I am afraid, I get up late in the morning and forget the whole thing. oh well...i need to change my lifestyles.

To start, tonight (it's unfair because tonight is friday night- time to relax hahahah) I am going to hang-out with my Aussie friend. We are going to play Wii.  My first time to play Wii. hahahaha...Here, everyone is so crazy about Wii. No more playstation or Xbox.  So, those who are still play these two things, get Wii. mmm..I will let you know if I like to play Wii later. hahahah..If yes, I am going to get myself one! hahahaha..Oh..I have headache and flu...hahaha..normal reaction..i think my body is overeacting...

Ok..talk to you some more. I hope I can sleep better tonight and tomorrow night, and the following nights...So, this is Phd's life..Like Sze told me..." inilah Phd sayang ooii" - this is Phd, love...mmm..I am not good in translation. hahaha..May be Kak Shaz could help me here. hahahah...

Don't be like me.  ;) always sleepless in London...  :D

I want to go back..I want to go back...I want to go back...to sleep..... na na na na na..I think I can  write a song...hahahah..

Hugs and kisses from me to you all.  I wish that I could have hugs and kisses from my loved ones now...comfort me in my sleep. Then my adrenalin will relax..i think..i am not a neurologist. hehehe...

Love ~ Emma xx.

The paper defines the concept of vulnerability as it applies to production systems and is built around three concepts:

• A taxonomy of vulnerability factors as a basis for or guideline in establishing scenarios
• An input/output model to describe production systems
• A two-step vulnerability analysis for productions systems

I found the paper interesting in many ways, and that is why I decided to take a closer look at it and see if it fits into the context of supply chain vulnerability.

The concept of vulnerability

In 1997 the concept of vulnerability was still relatively unexplored. Resilience and vulnerability are two terms that have grown in both the
research literature and the popular literature in recent years, yet, surprisingly, already in 1997, the authors draw a clear line of distinction between the terms vulnerability, robustness and resilience.

A robust or resilient system is able to withstand or absorb disturbances without catastrophic failure and still persist.

Robust means being able to resist an accidental event and return to the same stable situation than before the event. Resilient means being able to return to a new (often "lower") stable situation than  before the event.

The key message is that a robust system will retain its system structure intact, while a resilient system has to adapt to regain a new stable position. There is a distinct notion of severity in these definitions. In a business setting, the ability to survive (resilience) is much more important than the ability to quickly regain stability (robustness).

This figure, taken from the article is very similar to Sheffi's disruption profile and the description of Resilient Organizations in New Zealand.

Vulnerability factors

The paper distinguishes between two sets of factors, external and internal factors. Within these factors there may be latent threats that can cause potential harm if the factors manifest an accidental event. The figure may not be directly transferable to the realm of supply chains, but one could propose that internal factors are "in-house" or directly controllable, whereas external factors are "out-house" or "outsourced" to use SCM lingo, and only indirectly controllable, if at all controllable.

Input/output model

The input/output model, see figure below, is transferable, if, the flow through the production system is  replaced with a supply chain going from supplier via focal firm to the customer.

[caption id="attachment_224" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Input-Output Model, from: Asbjørnslett (1997)"][/caption]

The external and internal factors can no be used as a checklist against the inputs (and outputs) and form the basis of a vulnerability analysis. Similarly, these factors can be used vis-a-vis a supply chain, to assess its vulnerability.

Vulnerability versus Risk Analysis

A vulnerability analysis is not the same as a risk analysis. A risk analysis is focused on the human, environmental and property impacts of an accidental event, while a vulnerability analysis is focused towards the survivability of the system.

[caption id="attachment_225" align="aligncenter" width="414" caption="Risk analysis vs. vulnerability analysis, from: Asbjørnslett (1997)"][/caption]

A vulnerability analysis then, focuses on 1) an extended set of threats and consequences, 2) adequate resources to tackle the event and bring the system back to new stability, and 3) the length of disruption before the new stability is established. Clearly, Vulnerability analysis has a wider scope than risk analysis. In particular vulnerability analysis addresses how to mitigate the identified threats and restore and restart the system after an accidental event. This is akin to the distinction between mitigative and contingent actions in Tomlin (2002).

Analysis

Finally then the paper describes the stepped vulnerability analysis. First, a scenario assessment is developed, listing threats and likelihood of potential scenarios and whether or not there are contingent or mitigative measures already in place. Second, a quantitative analysis of the former is performed, ranking threats and scenarios by criticality in terms of human, environmental, business and property impacts. Third, the ranked threats are plotted in a vulnerability matrix similar to the one below.

The fourth step is to take the most critical events in the vulnerability matrix and list how these threats are to be dealt with, in order to reduce a) the likelihood of the event occurring and b) the consequences should the event occur.

Conclusion

The paper is short, but to the point. Albeit not directly supply chain related, the vulnerability analysis described in this paper can indeed serve as a framework for analysis of supply chain vulnerability, and as such is now in fact widely employed by supply chain risk management professionals.

Reference:
Asbjørnslett, B E and Rausand, M (1997) Assess the vulnerability of your production system. Report NTNU 97018. Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU, Department of Production and Quality Engineering, Trondheim Norway.

Image 1-3 (figure 1+4+5), copyright by Asbjørnslett and Rausand (1997)