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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.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
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.
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