Dennis Deery

Had a flashback to grade school today. I was probably in 3rd or 4th grade. We were on the playground for recess. We started to play a game. I don’t remember us giving it a name. Maybe my memory fails me, maybe I’m just blocking it. If we did give it a name, that name was surely “Smear the Queer”. You know the game - you were a kid once. The leaders of the gang would call out someone’s name, and the mob would chase them, and of course the mob would catch them, because a mob does.

The Circle by Dave Eggers My rating: [5 of 5 stars](http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/768164111) This is really a great and timely book. I think it demonstrates the best of fiction, science fiction especially, in that it posits a believable scenario that asks us to think about the world we live in from a different viewpoint. While we see millions of people adopting social media tools fairly rapidly, I think very few average users give much thought to what happens when a great amount of data is aggregated.

All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by Bethany McLean My rating: [5 of 5 stars](http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/726373279) This was a phenomenal telling of the story of the financial crisis. It's not a short read, but as the authors point out, it wasn't a simple crisis. There are a lot of players and a LOT of arcane jargon. But McLean and Nocera do a great job of explaining things, and they keep the story interesting.

The Belmont High class of ‘86 lost its first classmate this week, one of our best. Curt Novinski was visiting friends over Labor Day weekend when he began to feel ill. A visit to the hospital led to emergency brain surgery for a brain bleed, and he never recovered from surgery. As is the case with death at our age, it was unexpected, sudden, and leaves all of us stunned and saddened.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman My rating: [5 of 5 stars](http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/681288830) Another great read from one of my favorite authors. It's been several years since Neil Gaiman has written an adult novel. This one, clearly prompted by a trip home for his own father's funeral, is the story of a Gaiman-esque young man visiting his childhood home. The visit prompts reminiscence of a fantastical experience he had with the family living at the end of his lane when he was a boy.

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown My rating: [5 of 5 stars](http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/656947363) This book is a must-read for, well, everyone. Brown has done some incredibly thorough research to help us all understand some very difficult issues - shame and vulnerability. Tough topics. But she presents her ideas in a very readable form, with a lot of great first-hand stories to illustrate what she's discussing.

I just exported all my Instagram photos and deleted my account. I urge you to do the same. You can use http://web2.instaport.me/ to export your pics. Facebook has shown repeatedly that they will keep pushing the boundaries of acceptable behavior to attempt to secure a profit. Instagram (now owned by FB) thankfully backed off their stupidity this week, but more will come. I’ll keep using FB because many people I know are here (go to Google+ please!

Visiting Tom: A Man, a Highway, and the Road to Roughneck Grace by Michael Perry My rating: 5 of 5 stars I’ve been a huge Michael Perry fan since his first hit, Population 485. He’s back once again with stories of small town life. In this book (his best since Pop 485), he writes about his neighbor Tom. This book really struck a chord with me because Tom reminds me of my dad, and many of the other characters I met when I was a kid hanging out with my dad.

A few weeks ago we had the chance to spend a couple of days along Lake Michigan in Saugatuck and Holland. The tulips were in bloom in Holland and they were just amazing! Click here for slideshow

I was pleased to be invited by Leadership Wisconsin to speak at their annual conference in Wisconsin Dells this week. I did two sessions on social media, one an introductory session and the other an advanced session. You can find the presentations and all the links [here](http://irose.com/lw2011).

Major congratulations to my niece Stacy who was sworn in as a Wisconsin lawyer yesterday. This follows her admission to the Minnesota bar several months ago. Hope we don’t need your services too often Stacy!

Congratulations to our friend Maryrose Lyons of Brightspark Consulting, who recently took home a gold medal at the 2010 Digital Media Awards in Ireland. Her blog is definitely worth a read. 

Hey, it’s been a lotta fun. Especially gotta admire the way you lowered the bar to the level where a mentally-troubled weasel could leap over it. Thanks so much for knowing when to go. Don’t let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out!

Irish Rose Consulting client Hartung Brothers, Inc. was recently feature on the National Ag Report. Congratulations!

Hey, did you hear our economy is collapsing? Oh, what’s that, you haven’t heard anything BUT that? I figured it’s high time for a little bandwagon jumping. Everyone on the web has an opinion, so I’m not going to be left out. But I’m going to start with one stipulation. I contend, and I would hope you’d agree, that nobody really knows how the global economy works. Sure, there are lots of theories, and everyone’s got a favorite.

February in Wisconsin can tend to be quite a long month. We’ve all generally reached our limit in putting up with the cold weather. Things are usually at their grayest as we see some thawing and lose our snow cover. And winter usually works up a snow storm or extra-hard cold snap to remind us that she’s not quite done. Well this February has had all of that. And as our first real winter weather in two years, it’s been a hard go.

The Eau Claire Area Economic Development Corporation on November 25, 2008 launched a new web site called the SMARTT Network. SMARTT stands for Strategy for Marketing and Recruiting Top Talent. I’m sorry to say, two months on, it looks to me like this was a bad idea and unfortunately fairly poorly implemented. So what does SMARTT do? The idea is to provide an “online network that connects talent to career, business and technology-based opportunities in western Wisconsin.

David Jones recently lost his job. He quickly sat down and wrote a book about his experiences. A friend of ours, the ever-sunny Maryrose Lyons of Brightspark Consulting in Dublin, heard David talking about his book on the radio. She decided to tap her network to create a web site and marketing push for David and his book - in a week! A web designer, web developer, artist, photographer and several marketing folks all came together to pull off this project.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a former stock trader and now author of a couple of great books - Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan. I’ve read both books and they’re guaranteed to make you think. They’re especially timely in their discussion of how the stock markets work, or really, don’t work. Taleb recently did an interview with the Times Online where he discusses his books and his approach to life.

Northern Ireland Lake My good friend Renie Howard has always been someone that, for me, defines simple grace in the way that she interacts with the world. She was diagnosed a few months back with a rare form of cancer. A couple of weeks ago she gave a talk at the Common Ground Meditation Center in Minneapolis (where she also chairs the board of directors). In her talk she discusses her journey since learning of her diagnosis.