text:
We'd all like to know how our clients feel about our service. I find universal agreement on that idea.
Many lawyers survey their clients to find out what they're thinking about their experience with the law firm.
However, some lawyers hesitate. They'd like to do the surveys, but they're afraid of the responses. They don't want to hear bad news.
Relax. You're not going to get bad news.
You're going to hear some good stuff. You're going to gain some insights about how you can go from good to great. You'll like the feedback.
How do I know?
I know because the upset people usually don't need a survey in order to express their vexation. They've already voiced their concerns. They're the ones yelling and screaming at you and your staff.
The upset people don't hold back: they call, they e-mail, and they send nasty, certified letters. You already know what those folks have to say.
The other people—the majority of your clients—have thoughts that will help you grow and improve your practice.
Go ahead and ask them what they think. You'll be happy you did.


text:
Category: Projects
21:10 – Slides from heaven?
It's day ten of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.
When my dad passed away almost 4 years ago, he left behind a few things, among them a couple of boxes with slides, photos, letters, videos and audio tapes.
When he was a young man, my dad used to work on a ship. I was only a little girl, but I remembered he would travel to all sorts of "strange" places like Africa, Australia, Asia… I think he told me once it was easier for him to count the countries he had not been to than it was to count the places he had been.
When he was out and about, he would take pictures, video and even send messages home by reel-to-reel audio tape.
Quite a few of the pictures he took, seems to have been taken in the 60's, especially around the time, he worked on, what I think was, a survey ship.
I've been looking trough these boxes now and then, even gotten rid of a piece here or there… but… it's time to actually hit these boxes and do something with what's in them.
Quite a while back, I went through all of the slides, and picked out the ones I thought was worth keeping. I'll be scanning the keepers, so that I have them as files, should anyone ever want any of them. After the scanning I will most likely discard the originals as I have to borrow equipment to be able to look at them. If the result of the scans are OK, I might make a mini album of the best ones later on.
When I looked through them, I sorted them into discard and keep, but… I decided that my brother should really have a look at them, before the non keepers are thrown away.
You see, I loved looking back at the slides my dad took, and I thought my brother would love it too. Even though some of them were almost beyond recognition as they where pretty ruined, it still gave us a look into a life my dad had had. A life that we know very little about, as I was just a toddler, and my brother wasn't even on the horizon at that time.
Last time my brother visited, we had a little stroll through history, and decided together which ones we want to keep for us to scan 🙂
I will bring them in for scanning or do the scanning myself sometime this year, but for now at least… I can get rid of the ones that are not worth keeping.
It was never a big collection (actually it was pretty small) even so, there are 373 slides going out the doors today (we are keeping about 220).
There was a bit of a debate on how I should count these as items out-the-door, 1 slide as 1 item? 5 slides as 1 item? or 10 slides as 1 item.
I'll be doing regular photos soon, and to me it seems like 10 photos = 1 items is a ratio I'll be happy with, and as slides are photos, it makes sense to me that 10 slides = 1 item 😉
Throw in 5 empty slide boxes (not counting the boxes the slides are in) and we have 5 boxes + 37 items (373 slides) =
42 items going out-the-door!
Which brings my new grand total to 655 🙂
21:09 – Another closet purge!
It's day nine of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.
Over the last three or four years I've been chipping away at my closet.. and I'm finally making some headway (according to where I want my closet to be).
Now, mind you! My closet have never been particular huge. How can I say this? Well, every time I have found myself looking at what my friends have in their closets, mine has been positively "minimal" (sort off).
Even so, ever since I returned from Houston (where I had amassed a brand new wardrobe in addition to the one I had in Norway) I've felt the need to downsize my closet.
I've been reducing clothing and shoes as I've moved along this minimalist journey, and I am slowly getting to where I think I will be happy to leave my closet alone.. the only "problem"… my level of minimalism seem to change as I move further along on my minimalist path 😉
I think this is something a lot of you are familiar with, as we declutter the spaces around us (physically and mentally), we seem to shift the levels of where we would like to get to.
Now, I do not aspire to become a minimalist with less than a 100 things (well secretly I might be 😉 ), but I do aspire to get to a level, where there is a good flow of energy around me, where I could easily move house without getting totally stressed, where I could just pack a bag and never look back, because I would have the most important things with me and the things that didn't fit in a bag, could easily be taken care off by someone else.
But I digress, lets get back to my latest wardrobe purge, a purge that have now brought my wardrobe down to a total of 263 items, which includes everything clothing and shoe related (even things like flip-flops, caps, buffs, bike and golf gloves, garden attire, etc).
I know.. still quite a bit, and I can see another purge in the horizon.. but for right now… hey I'm below 300 pieces, and that was a goal in itself 😉
And what's leaving the house? Let's see now…
1 Dress
8 t-shirts
2 long sleeved t-shirts
2 pants
1 top
3 bras
1 scarf
1 belt
1 pair of flip-flops
1 pair of gym shorts
1 buff
3 pairs of socks
1 bikini top
1 bikini bottom
5 stockings
3 leggings
1 robe
3 long armed shirts
1 pair of dress pants
1 cardigan
1 blazer
1 outdoor jacket
That's 43 items out-the-door!
Which brings me to the grand total of = 613 so far this year.
PS. I just tallied up all the clothing and shoes I have gotten rid off since I started my "official" deluttering in 2015, and guess what, including this purge, I have more than halved my wardrobe (all of 315 items of clothing and 19 pairs of shoes, have left these premises) 🙂
21:08 – The colors of a rainbow!
It's day eight of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.
It's been a while (again) since my last post and there is a reason, why I've been on the quiet side.
My bestie from Houston (well US altogether) had to come over to Stavanger for a few days for work/meetings/seminar. He added a couple of days to his trip, to hang out with me 🙂
It turned out that there was quite a few people from our Houston office who was going to the same arrangement, so last week was filled with loads of fun, not only hanging out with my best friend but also hanging out with some of my former colleagues from my Houston days.
To clear up the house for the visit, I tucked all my small declutter projects back into cabinets and drawers, and now that I have the house for myself.. it's time to bring them all back out in the open 😉
I decided to start with one easy task, hoping to get my total past the 500 mark.
Today it's all about pens and paper!
I collected all my pens and coloring pencils in one "big" pile, and I found out I had a lot. A lot I no longer use, a lot of duplicates and some that was just broken… all in all.. I had way more than I could possible need.
Not only did I have loads of pens and pencils. Turns out I might be a tiny bit of a journal, post it note, paper pad and notebook hoarder as well!
So guess what? I decided to say bye, bye to a few on them.
Where are they going? Let's just say, I have an awesome neighbor with two kids who will happily take them off my hand 😉
Here we are – 59 pens/pencils
and 24 notebook/post-it pads/journals
That's 83 items leaving the house!
Which brings me to the grand total of = 570 (so far 😉 )
I know I'm taking my own sweet time on this challenge, and at this rate it might be summer before I'm done. But.. you know what? As long as the result is stuff leaving the premises, never to be seen again… I'm good with it taking a while 😉
And hey, you never know.. before I'm done with this challenge, I might be hitting a 1000 (a girl can wish, right) 😉
21:07 – Another random cull!
It's day seven of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.
Even though the flu, stopped me somewhat in the tracks, I have been collecting a few things here and there, that no longer serve a purpose.
It's a random bunch of stuff, mostly pulled out from a cabinet her, a cabinet there and items just in general hanging around in the house. I haven't been very organized about the culling, I've just been pulling things out as I have come across them, the last week or two.
You know how that is sometimes. You open a cabinet, drawer or just walk past something, and suddenly there is an item that catches your eye, that you wonder "What the heck am I holding on to this "junk" for"?
I have a box sitting in my guestroom, that I collect these random pieces in. I find that it's easier to shed my stuff when I have this designated box. I'll find an item, pop it into the box and presto, I no longer have to "think about" that particular item again.
I don't have to remember that I'm supposed to get rid of it next time I declutter, I don't have to make a decision on it over and over again (out of sight, out of mind), and since most of the time the declutter box sits around a few days, should I possible regret "tossing it" (which I never do) I do have a couple of days off grace 😉
And when the box is full… it "walks" right out of the house. And that's what happened today 🙂
Here it is, the random stuff that just left the house!
1 serving tray
1 pack of CD/DVD envelopes
1 metal tin
1 space-bag
1 set of sports glasses with extra lenses
1 decorative martini glass
1 small tea box
1 sweeping tray
2 shelves for a fridge
2 jewelry boxes
12 items
1 extension pad
3 food storage items
1 lamp
1 music CD
6 software Cd's
12 items
12 + 12 = 24 items going out-the-door 🙂
It's day seven, and I thought "why not tally it all up so far", so I did:
Day 1 = 22
Day 2 = 47
Day 3 = 9
Day 4 = 58
Day 5 = 147
Day 6 = 180
Day 7 = 24
Total so far = 487
Hey, that's almost 500!!! I think I can get to that.. no problem 🙂
21:06 – Shredding like a Looney Tune!
It's day six of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.
Whilst I've been sitting here, the last couple of weeks, feeling sorry for myself (that is what you do when you have the flu, isn't it?) I have at least been a tiny bit useful with my time.
I have been going through some of my paper monster. You might remember I started a paper scan/purge task in December, well.. rather I tried, doing a scan/purge run, and I flunked miserably since I got hit with bad migraines.
Well.. during this flu (which is getting much better now, thank you) I decided to do some more paper purging (scanning I'm leaving for later), and I've been shredding papers like a looney tune.
I have a portable shredder that I use with a specific trash bin, because they fit together like gloves. I can typically shred around 200-250 pieces of paper before the bin is full. Food store receipts? Well then we are talking probably 700-800.
Why am I telling you this? It's because as part of my 21 declutter challenge, I'm counting items, and I have decided that one full bin equals 10 items out-the-door.
So how did I do?
Well, let's see… the last week or so, I've shredded 8 overfilled bins, resulting in
3 big bags of shredded paper leaving the house!
With my fancy bin counting this makes
Why do I shred my papers?
It's because I value my privacy. Any information with personal details, I just shred by default.
It's a good habit to have, because then I don't have to worry to much about people finding a lot of details about me in the trash.
I'm hoping this will keep me safe from identity theft and such.
Am I done yet? Heck no.. I still have loads of paper to go through.. this was just shredding round number 1.
OK then… guess I should get back to the shredder then, for round 2…
21:05 – Stuff, stuff and more stuff!
It's day five of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.
You've been wondering if I've fallen of the face of the earth?
Naah! I'm still hanging around, and I have finally found my voice. No, no, I'm not talking writing voice, I'm talking voice voice 😉
Believe me, it's been a few fun days, me squeaking like a new born baby bird. Truth be told, I'm sure the bird would have one up on me… sounding waaaay better 😉
This flu is being a stubborn one, and even though I can talk now without people rolling over laughing, I'm not out of the woods quite yet. But, I'm better, and better means I'm getting restless, restless to get back to my decluttering tasks 🙂
So I'm back, chipping away at it…. again!
102 Computer/phone related items
47 DVD/craft related items
Yayyy… go me!
That brings me past my goal of 231, and I'm "only" 5 days in! Yeah.. that's a stretch, I know.. but what can I say? I am after all following MY rules of this particular 21 day challenge 😉
21:04 – A pile of magazines!
It's day four of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.
A few years back, I would buy a lot (a lot) of magazines every month. They were mostly interior/garden magazines, with a few technical ones thrown in. I have also been subscribing to a private economy magazine for years.
Around comes 2014 and I decided that one of the goals that year was to massively reduce the books/magazines I would buy. I did so well during 2014 that I continued in 2015 and also 2016. With the exception on the private economy magazine that I get 11 times a year, I think I have bought something like 3 maybe 4 magazines since the end of 2013.
As I love browsing through interior and garden magazines, I have kept a few of my old ones, all the ones that had good articles or was just fun to browse through for an home/garden "pick me up" 🙂
That was until a couple of day ago, when I decided it was time to let them go. Since some of the magazines still had some valid articles/photos, I decided to keep those particular ones.
What I have done over the years (every time I clear out my magazines) is to tear out stuff I would like to keep and I collect them all in a small magazine box.
When I need a interior/garden "hit", I will sit down with my box and look through it all. If anything in the box no longer takes my fancy, I will get rid off it. This way my tear out magazines box never fills up.
So the last few days, I've been going through my favorite magazines, and torn out goodies 🙂
The result?
A small pile to keep, and 58 magazines out-the door!
21:03 – Bagorama!
It's day three of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.
And today it's time for bags and backpacks.
You know how some people loves and collects purses? Uhu.. that's not quite my cup of tea.
What is me, you're asking?
I think I can clearly state, I'm a backpack kinda girl.
I've always been partial to backpacks, laptop bags, hip bags, travel bags and sport bags.
I'm not saying I don't own any purses, because I do 😉
What I am saying is you'll be finding more bags than purses in my home.
Well, that was, until today 😉
Today, I cut my "collection" almost in half.
I bet you are expecting to see this huge pile of bags on the floor, now, aren't you?
Sorry.. have to disappoint you!
Since I have been downsizing my bag "collection" a bit the last few years (at least 22 out-the-door), this pile is relatively small.
Even so, I just about cut my current collection in half.
What I'm left with?
8 bags; backpacks, gym sack, duffel bag, laptop bag and shoulder bag.
Leaving the house?
1 Eddie Bauer laptop backpack
1 30 liter backpack
1 Crumpler laptop bag
2 gym sacks
1 Camelbak runners hip-pack
1 Eagle Creek waterproof hip-pack
2 suitcase straps
7 bags and 2 travel related items out-the-door
21:02 – All kinds of Purple!
It's day two of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.
Sadly, Christmas is over, and all the Christmas stuff just got packed away 😦
Since this IS the year for getting rid off stuff, I thought it made sense to do a Christmas decoration review.
Most of my Christmas decoration is in the color of red and silver, but now and then I veer off into different color schemes. The last couple of years however, I've been going back to basic. So I figured it's time to let some the other colors go.
As I have decluttered my Christmas decoration a few times before, I'm mostly left with a bunch of extras in the color of purple.
So here we are, a bunch of purples (yes, Melinda… sacrilegious.. I know) and others leaving the house.
4 medium ball ornaments
5 smaller ball ornaments
7 tiny ball ornaments
2 purple tinsel garlands
1 box of fake snow
27 small ball ornaments
1 Christmas star (window hanging version)
47 Christmas ornaments out-the-door
21:01 – Books
Yesterday I mentioned I was going to start a new 21 day declutter challenge, to kick start another declutter year. Guess what.. that makes this day ONE 🙂
And what better to start, but with the most difficult thing in the world to declutter… books!
Hold on.. did you say books?
Yepp.. your heard right.. I'm starting with books.
You have most likely all heard about KonMari and how you should keep only the things that brings you JOY!
Well.. if I'm am going to follow KonMari on this, I will be in big trouble, as ALL my books brings me joy. So I figured I will have to go about it differently.
Back in 2014, I started reading myself through my bookshelves, and called it my "Read a book program". The idea was to read one of my books, grade it, and depending on the grade it got, either keep it or get rid of it.
When I started my "read a book program" I would sort the books into the following categories:
Books I love
Only books I love are keepers and deserve a place in my bookshelves. These are the ones that I will read over and over again, or they are part of a special collection, they have sentimental value, are an absolute keep for reference/work/hobby reasons or I just absolutely have to keep for one reason or another.
Books I like
Books I like, but which are not quite in the "I love" category, gets donated/tossed or sold. I did/do however check if they can be bought as Kindle e-books first.
Books that didn't excite me
Out the door – either as donate/toss or sell.
I did really good during 2014 and 2015, getting rid of quite a few books (about 1/3 of my collection). 2016 however, I hardly read a book 😦
So I really think it's time to start up my "Read a book program" again.
I have an overall goal when comes to my books.
My goal (sometime into the future) is to have most of my books as e-books (kindles)
There are two reasons for this,
1. My books will use less space in the house
2. It will be easy to bring my books with me when I travel the world (which is another dream of mine)
To kick start the whole BOOK thing, I figured an initial run through my books might be a good idea. I've just taken a serious look at them, and lo and behold.. I DID find a few that I'm quite sure I wont be reading again anytime soon (if ever) 😉 I checked, and they are all on kindle, so here we are..
One run through my bookshelves = 22 books leaving the house
Since I'm picking up on my reading program again, with the intention of "emptying my shelves", I'm sure you will see a few more books leaving this house in 2017 (at least I hope so).
I will keep some of my absolute LOVES (and some that I like and can't get as e-books, yep, I have a few of those too), and in general follow my old rules.
What I do for all the books I handle is; I write down the title and author, the grade I have given them, can they be bought as kindle books? I do this regardless of if they are loved, liked or discarded. I'm thinking it will help me get rid of more books, and the grades will tell me if they are worth getting as kindles later.
Also, this time I will try to be a bit more ruthless than I have been in the past. Hopefully this will help me reach my 2017 goal, of 100 books out-the-door!
I know this is not a lot of books, but I told you the books brings me JOY, right? And since I have culled my bookshelves several times before (I mean.. seriously culled them over and over and over again), my bookshelves consists of pretty much only books that I love/like!
For now though – as a start – and on day one – 22 books out-the-door 🙂

subset: commoncrawl


text:
We haven't heard anything about Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z for awhile now. A game that combines ninja and zombies? Sounds like a done deal. Knowing that we haven't seen or heard too much on the spin-off from the ridiculously difficult action game series, a new set of artwork has been released for the game.
Some details about the types of zombies have also been released to give you an idea of what you'll be facing. You can find each of these enemies in the photos below, but here's some details on them:
1. The Infected (Normal Stiff)
Most of our ex-neighbours and friends stink. You might have thought they stunk when they were alive too, but now their odour is unmistakeably horrible. They seem to be stronger, faster, (a hell of a lot) uglier and stupider than they were in life and if you have keen sense of smell you might be able to avoid them- for a minute or two.
2. Electric Infected (Electric Stiff)
These electricity-charged stiffs seem to be producing their own electric power. It's actually amusing, but if these guys were contained they could actually produce free electricity for all! However, given the fact that almost everyone is dead or hiding, TV and microwave ovens should be the least of your worries. Remember high school physics and either try to ground them or drown them. Either way you won't have much time to act.
3. Burning Infected (Fire Stiff)
Don't approach them unless you're cold or tired of living and want to leave life in flames. They are ever-burning, glow in the dark, hideously disfigured and smell disturbingly like BBQ.
4. Toxic Infected (Bile Stiff)
If you are an optimist who believes the army will come to this city's rescue- don't be. Those idiots already came and skilfully managed to get themselves infected WHILE WEARING THEIR SUITS. So now they are trapped in there, feeding on their own flesh and producing some sort of green toxic bile that looks extremely disgusting and highly corrosive.
5. The Priest (Scorcher)
On the other hand, if you look to the clergy for an answer to your prayers- look again. They are nowhere to be found. Apart from this one priest that roams the city with a scorching censer- hopefully reading everyone their posthumous last rites, but most likely wreaking vengeance on whoever he thinks is wicked and sinful; so pretty much everyone that walks past him.
6. The Brawler (Shredder)
The rich and famous did not escape this scourge either! Local celebrity and world famous ex-boxer and MMA fighter Vseslav Degtyarev has fallen victim to the infection and is now laying his award winning punches to everyone in range. Yes, some might judge him for that brief assault case, or for the fact his career didn't end in the most pleasant note, but look at him now! Strong as ever! Agile as a panther! Quick as a.. quickly rotting undead thing.
7. The Terrible Two (Baby Bruiser)
To be honest, no one really knows what this is. It seems to be some sort of experiment gone wrong as it has two heads and is slightly over-sized. It also seems to be hungry all the time and does cry a lot when it doesn't suck on some poor passer-by's bone marrow.
As it's the size of a truck you'll probably see and hear it long before it sees and hears you, but there's nowhere to left hide, is there?
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is set for a 2014 release for PS3, Xbox 360, and iOS. The game is being developed by Team Ninja, Comcept, and Spark Unlimited and published by Tecmo Koei.


text:
Sandy McVey has worked at the University of Delaware for nearly 11 years.
One of the biggest draws for employees, McVey said, are the benefits packages. She counts the education benefits -- which allow employees and family members to take classes -- among one of the best. She's also happy with the health insurance, a generous retirement plan and "exposure to people who care about their jobs," she said.
"It's all about fostering learning," McVey said.
Those feelings explain why the University of Delaware was awarded the special award this year for the workplace with the best benefits in the 2010 Top Workplaces survey, commissioned by The News Journal through Workplace Dynamics.
Creating a benefits package that's competitive is instrumental in employee recruitment, said J.J. Davis, vice president for administration at UD. The university aims to recruit the best people, she said.
"We know that compensation and benefits are key ingredients to that," she said.One of the areas where the university "really shines" is in the wellness benefits it offers, Davis said. To help keep employees healthy there is an on-site fitness center and a walking campaign. The university examines trends in health-care claims to decide what kinds of programs will be the more beneficial, she said.
Other benefits include: The university pays about 91 percent of the premium for medical, dental and vision insurance; generous vacation and sick leave benefits; pensions for some workers; and retiree benefits.
A program called "HealthyU" provides several wellness programs for staff. Each year, staff receive a certain amount of money they can spend at the wellness center on programs such as employee-only fitness classes, healthful cooking seminars and personal trainers.
"We do a lot to support employees throughout the year," Davis said.
About Sandy >