Posts
Thursday, May 05, 2011
The Wall returns
Context International returns to Toronto with their first offering of The Wall after a lengthy absence. This video is a tribute to the participants of the May 2011 "The Wall" weekend.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Hello, Bruce!
I’ve decided to go do some shooting on the Bruce Trail this afternoon. Planning to shoot around the Southern Cairn in Queenston.
Putting on my old hiking boots, squeezing my feet into them. Baby needs a new pair of hiking boots. Especially before I go to Machu Picchu.
Going to try out the Cine mode on my camcorder for that dramatic look. I’ve got lots of memory capacity available on my camcorder and about 80 minutes of battery time so that’s my critical operating constraint.
Course to Southern Cairn is plotted and laid in. ETA is 17 minutes with traffic. That’s one thing I love about living in St. Catharines, is its proximity to the Bruce Trail. I would be remiss if I did not drop by and say hello while I was in town.
2:46pm There’s the cairn. For all the fame and celebrity accorded to it yet it just stands there, unassuming, without ceremony, as though it was just plopped into place. Hello old friend. I’m back.
The earth is awakening and she has dabbed on her fragrance, a familiar and warming scent.
It is spring, and spring means mud. I have encountered the muddy side of Bruce.
5:30pm I’m well past the point of no return. This is much harder in my fourties than it was in my twenties. Thank God I’ve been doing those squat exercises!
It’s almost not even fun any more; it’s almost just sheer survival. Almost, but not really. However, I am driven. I want to get to where the trail crosses the highway so I can pick up my shooting from there on the next turn.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Goodbye Mr. Glicksohn
Mr. Glicksohn – although you taught Math rather than English, my longest lasting memory of having you as a teacher in two Grade 13 classes is that you inspired me to research and write an essay about the differences between the Julian and Gregorian calendars as my explanation of why I missed school on the day of Ukrainian Christmas.
Perhaps I had additional motivation in hearing a rumor that there may be a prize awarded for the most creative note of absence, and perhaps I had additional motivation in the rumor that the prize would be a 40 ounce bottle containing a liquid that I was too young at the time too drink. I never did receive that bottle but it’s just as well for it would have been long ago emptied by now.
I was largely a slacker in my early high school years and it was in your classes, Relations & Functions and Algebra, that I learned what results I could attain when I truly applied myself. This was a lesson by which I transformed from a slacker in high school to a student who worked hard in university, and beyond.
Mr. Glicksohn – as a teacher you were cool, you were fun, you gave and commanded great respect.
Goodbye Mr. Glicksohn. Be sure to say hello to Douglas Adams and Georg Purbach in your new journey.
Perhaps I had additional motivation in hearing a rumor that there may be a prize awarded for the most creative note of absence, and perhaps I had additional motivation in the rumor that the prize would be a 40 ounce bottle containing a liquid that I was too young at the time too drink. I never did receive that bottle but it’s just as well for it would have been long ago emptied by now.
I was largely a slacker in my early high school years and it was in your classes, Relations & Functions and Algebra, that I learned what results I could attain when I truly applied myself. This was a lesson by which I transformed from a slacker in high school to a student who worked hard in university, and beyond.
Mr. Glicksohn – as a teacher you were cool, you were fun, you gave and commanded great respect.
Goodbye Mr. Glicksohn. Be sure to say hello to Douglas Adams and Georg Purbach in your new journey.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Three minutes of entertainment
The phone rings. I answer it. “Hello, Orest here.”
The silence and the click are my first clues that this is a telephone solicitation call.
A moment later she speaks. “Hello, is this Mr. ...” and she mangles my last name. If she had paid attention when I answered the phone she’d have known who this was. “Did I pronounce your last name correctly, Mr. ...?” she asks and mangles my last name again.
“No,” I say in an unfriendly tone.
She just continues with her script. “This call may be monitored or recorded for quality purposes.”
Excellent. This recording should be an educational case study for whoever ends up reviewing the call. Perhaps I should have told her “This call may be blogged for entertainment purposes.”
She asks me a bunch of questions such as “Do you have a personal computer”, and “Do you make purchases online”, to which I answer no to all, in the same tone.
She just continues with her script and tries to sell me insurance anyways. She is using the “assumed close” approach. I let her go through her script, during which period I become all the more convinced that I do not want to buy what she is selling.
She finishes her script and asks me the question to confirm my identity so that they can send me their package which I can cancel after so many days if I don’t want it.
“Thank you for your call. I’m going to pass on your offer. Have a nice day,” I tell her in a kind, final, and guilt free tone. I decline without actually using the word "no". Verbal kung fu - I give her no resistance that she could push back against.
She thanks me for my time. I say goodbye and hang up the phone.
I think about the Tony Robbins lesson about the noisy train that goes by and disrupts one of his seminars, and how he responded.
Woo hoo! A telephone solicitation call! Three minutes of entertainment, and I get to practice saying no, and I get to contribute to the amount of quality in the world. Woo hoo!
The silence and the click are my first clues that this is a telephone solicitation call.
A moment later she speaks. “Hello, is this Mr. ...” and she mangles my last name. If she had paid attention when I answered the phone she’d have known who this was. “Did I pronounce your last name correctly, Mr. ...?” she asks and mangles my last name again.
“No,” I say in an unfriendly tone.
She just continues with her script. “This call may be monitored or recorded for quality purposes.”
Excellent. This recording should be an educational case study for whoever ends up reviewing the call. Perhaps I should have told her “This call may be blogged for entertainment purposes.”
She asks me a bunch of questions such as “Do you have a personal computer”, and “Do you make purchases online”, to which I answer no to all, in the same tone.
She just continues with her script and tries to sell me insurance anyways. She is using the “assumed close” approach. I let her go through her script, during which period I become all the more convinced that I do not want to buy what she is selling.
She finishes her script and asks me the question to confirm my identity so that they can send me their package which I can cancel after so many days if I don’t want it.
“Thank you for your call. I’m going to pass on your offer. Have a nice day,” I tell her in a kind, final, and guilt free tone. I decline without actually using the word "no". Verbal kung fu - I give her no resistance that she could push back against.
She thanks me for my time. I say goodbye and hang up the phone.
I think about the Tony Robbins lesson about the noisy train that goes by and disrupts one of his seminars, and how he responded.
Woo hoo! A telephone solicitation call! Three minutes of entertainment, and I get to practice saying no, and I get to contribute to the amount of quality in the world. Woo hoo!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Revisiting the spirit of Fiji
It's coming up to one year since my trip to Fiji. I've been working on my Fiji movie and it's shaping up nicely. Or, to restate that using the language of ownership - I am well pleased with where I've been taking it.
Why am I making this video now, almost a year later? I had previously made a short video last year that I had posted to my Facebook account, and a couple of slideshows using iPhoto, but none of those projects encapsulated the full scope of the video that I envisioned making while I was there. I've just really really really wanted to do it, and I've been having a slow period with regard to client projects, so I just started doing it.
While I was in Fiji I did the pole-climb. I also took over 400 photographs and recorded several hours of video. I had it in my mind that I would make a movie out of all that and I started thinking about what my soundtrack would be. One song I kept hearing was Faith of the Heart. That's the theme song from the series Star Trek: Enterprise, performed by Russell Watson.
I was really hearing that song, I was really hearing the words, and they seemed totally, completely, appropriate for the experience I was having in Fiji.
It certainly was a long road getting from Toronto to Fiji. I took something like five planes, crossed the International Date Line, crossed the equator, and crossed so many time zones that I'm not even sure how long it took me to get there. I think it was about twenty four hours.
Physically, it was a long road getting from here to there, but also metaphorically - my life journey has been a long road.
Some of the other lines I was hearing...
Those words - I could just hear those words and they completely went with the images I had, climbing the pole. It's what the pole climb is about - I can do anything, I can reach any star.
It's now, almost a year later, I'm going back to that video and man, I need that inspiration now. For a couple of weeks now I've been feeling down and discouraged about my fund raising efforts for the trek in Machu Picchu for Joints In Motion. As I'm watching the pictures of me climbing that pole and hearing that music and listening to those words, I feel a reconnection with inspiration.
I've had some kick-ass wins recently so it seems irrational that I should be feeling down and discouraged. I should just focus on my wins and feel positive, right?
Maybe, but I don't believe in so-called Positive Thinking. I equate that with putting on a mask. I think I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge my negative feelings to myself and pretended I didn't have them. I think that sweeping them under the rug allows them to gain power over me. I've learned that I become stronger in the end when I acknowledge and respect my negative feelings and know that I won't stay in them for too long.
Why am I making this video now, almost a year later? I had previously made a short video last year that I had posted to my Facebook account, and a couple of slideshows using iPhoto, but none of those projects encapsulated the full scope of the video that I envisioned making while I was there. I've just really really really wanted to do it, and I've been having a slow period with regard to client projects, so I just started doing it.
While I was in Fiji I did the pole-climb. I also took over 400 photographs and recorded several hours of video. I had it in my mind that I would make a movie out of all that and I started thinking about what my soundtrack would be. One song I kept hearing was Faith of the Heart. That's the theme song from the series Star Trek: Enterprise, performed by Russell Watson.
I was really hearing that song, I was really hearing the words, and they seemed totally, completely, appropriate for the experience I was having in Fiji.
It's been a long road
Getting from there to here...
It certainly was a long road getting from Toronto to Fiji. I took something like five planes, crossed the International Date Line, crossed the equator, and crossed so many time zones that I'm not even sure how long it took me to get there. I think it was about twenty four hours.
Physically, it was a long road getting from here to there, but also metaphorically - my life journey has been a long road.
Some of the other lines I was hearing...
I'm going where my heart will take me
I've got faith to believe
I can do anything
I've got strength of the soul
And no one's gonna bend or break me
I can reach any star...
Those words - I could just hear those words and they completely went with the images I had, climbing the pole. It's what the pole climb is about - I can do anything, I can reach any star.
It's now, almost a year later, I'm going back to that video and man, I need that inspiration now. For a couple of weeks now I've been feeling down and discouraged about my fund raising efforts for the trek in Machu Picchu for Joints In Motion. As I'm watching the pictures of me climbing that pole and hearing that music and listening to those words, I feel a reconnection with inspiration.
I've had some kick-ass wins recently so it seems irrational that I should be feeling down and discouraged. I should just focus on my wins and feel positive, right?
Maybe, but I don't believe in so-called Positive Thinking. I equate that with putting on a mask. I think I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge my negative feelings to myself and pretended I didn't have them. I think that sweeping them under the rug allows them to gain power over me. I've learned that I become stronger in the end when I acknowledge and respect my negative feelings and know that I won't stay in them for too long.
They're not gonna hold me down no more, no, they're not gonna hold me down.
I will see my dream come alive at last. I will touch the sky.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Playing the game like it matters
Tonight at my men's team meeting we took a break and played a game of street hockey.
I did not want to play. It was cold, I was feeling stiff, I wasn't feeling up to playing.
I didn't want to be a suck either so I agreed to play goalie. At least I wouldn't have to move around too much, wouldn't have to chase the ball down the road in the dark, wouldn't be getting jostled and bumped by guys bigger than me trying to get the ball away from me, or me futilely trying to get the ball away from them.
For a good three quarters of the game I had a really sucky context - how much longer will we be playing?
The opposing side scored at least four goals on me where I was just moving too slow to block the ball. A few of them just went right between my feet and through the goal line. How much longer will we be playing?
When I heard one of the men call out "Next goal wins!" I felt relief. At least the game would end soon. I didn't care which side scored that winning goal because either way would mean that the best team won.
Then I started thinking, what if I played this game as if it did really matter? What if I played it as if I really did have something on the line? There is a saying that the way we do anything is the way we do everything. I have a revenue target of $180,000+ for 2011. I have a fund raising target of $8,000 that I'm raising to help find a cure for arthritis which affects 4 million Canadians. Am I going to play the revenue game, the fundraising game, the way I've been playing this hockey game?
And then the hockey game did begin to matter, and it mattered which side got the winning goal. It mattered because now I had something on the line. I had $180,000+ revenue on the line. I had $8,000 fundraising on the line. I had 4 million Canadians with arthritis on the line.
Once I shifted those thoughts into my mindset I started noticing different results. The ball didn't just roll through my feet over the goal line, it bounced off my stick. Or it landed right under my foot and stopped. I noticed that the big guy who had been repeatedly scoring against me was losing control of the ball more often when he came near me.
Yes, the game was taking longer to finish now and that was okay because now it mattered. And in the end it was our side that scored the next goal and thereby won the game.
It makes a difference to play the game like it really matters. For those 4 million Canadians with arthritis it matters.
I did not want to play. It was cold, I was feeling stiff, I wasn't feeling up to playing.
I didn't want to be a suck either so I agreed to play goalie. At least I wouldn't have to move around too much, wouldn't have to chase the ball down the road in the dark, wouldn't be getting jostled and bumped by guys bigger than me trying to get the ball away from me, or me futilely trying to get the ball away from them.
For a good three quarters of the game I had a really sucky context - how much longer will we be playing?
The opposing side scored at least four goals on me where I was just moving too slow to block the ball. A few of them just went right between my feet and through the goal line. How much longer will we be playing?
When I heard one of the men call out "Next goal wins!" I felt relief. At least the game would end soon. I didn't care which side scored that winning goal because either way would mean that the best team won.
Then I started thinking, what if I played this game as if it did really matter? What if I played it as if I really did have something on the line? There is a saying that the way we do anything is the way we do everything. I have a revenue target of $180,000+ for 2011. I have a fund raising target of $8,000 that I'm raising to help find a cure for arthritis which affects 4 million Canadians. Am I going to play the revenue game, the fundraising game, the way I've been playing this hockey game?
And then the hockey game did begin to matter, and it mattered which side got the winning goal. It mattered because now I had something on the line. I had $180,000+ revenue on the line. I had $8,000 fundraising on the line. I had 4 million Canadians with arthritis on the line.
Once I shifted those thoughts into my mindset I started noticing different results. The ball didn't just roll through my feet over the goal line, it bounced off my stick. Or it landed right under my foot and stopped. I noticed that the big guy who had been repeatedly scoring against me was losing control of the ball more often when he came near me.
Yes, the game was taking longer to finish now and that was okay because now it mattered. And in the end it was our side that scored the next goal and thereby won the game.
It makes a difference to play the game like it really matters. For those 4 million Canadians with arthritis it matters.
Friday, February 11, 2011
In Motion for Joints In Motion
I gave a successful presentation at the MDI Division meeting this week in Oakville.
I had a dilemma because on the same evening I also had the completion evening for the recent Pursuit of Excellence workshop that I attended. I ended up coming for the first hour of the completion event and made it for the second half of the Division meeting.
After I gave my presentation men started coming up to me with twenties in their hands. They ended up contributing over $300 towards my Joints In Motion fund raising campaign. That was with only half of the Division being present at the meeting.
I have a lot of thank you's to write.
I had a dilemma because on the same evening I also had the completion evening for the recent Pursuit of Excellence workshop that I attended. I ended up coming for the first hour of the completion event and made it for the second half of the Division meeting.
After I gave my presentation men started coming up to me with twenties in their hands. They ended up contributing over $300 towards my Joints In Motion fund raising campaign. That was with only half of the Division being present at the meeting.
I have a lot of thank you's to write.
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