I think the Amazon Kindle is a long way from becoming a replacement for paper books.

I would like to thank my wonderful children, Kerri and Kevin, for giving me Amazon gift cards for father’s day.  If they hadn’t given me AMAZON gift cards, I never would have though about buying myself a Kindle.

I had been watching people on planes using their Kindles for a long time.  I was even so bold as to ask a few people how they liked their Kindle.  Everyone I talked to told me that they loved it and that I should get one as soon as possible.  It was just hard for me to spring for $300 on an electronic book that I didn’t even know if I would like.

The Amazon gift cards combined with a new lower price of $189 was all that it took.  Now I’m glad I broke down and bought one.  The Kindle is light and easy to read.  There are a ton of books available for it.  I’m still amazed that there is so much free or cheap content available for it.

I’m still learning new things about my Kindle every day and will report back when I have had some time to work through all of its functionality.  Stay tuned...

Many project managers who I have worked with over the years have been unhappy when they were assigned to a project that was in jeopardy because of people issues.  As a contract project manager, I seem to always inherit these kinds of projects.  At first, I felt the same way as my peers.  However, after bringing in several projects that were in jeopardy, I changed my tune and started asking for the hard cases.  The reasons that I like this kind of project so well are the same reasons that put them in jeopardy in the first place:  relationships, communication, and expectations. 

The MOST important role of a project manager is first to establish a good working relationship with all of the project stakeholders. The faster you can establish the fact that you do know what you’re talking about, that you’re here for the long haul, and you are able to make things happen and keep the project focused and moving along, the faster you will gain the respect of the project stakeholders be able to get down to business. It...