When people in the coaching and consulting world started buzzing about Twitter, I tried hard to be part. I tried to learn how it worked and how it was useful for gathering information, sharing information, and keeping in touch with colleagues. I complained early on that I didn’t see what had everyone so excited. I think I finally get it now– what it’s about, that is, but not why people are so enthusiastic.
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This post first appeared April 23, 2007, on the original Blogger format for this blog. I’m reposting it on this hosted site as I slowly move the blog to its new home. I rearranged it, edited it, and rewrote a bit, but only the parts that really bothered me. I left a lot of the crummy stuff intact.
Do you know a middle school or high school student who has had a group project assigned, been told their individual grade is based on the group’s performance, and then been stuck in a group with the unavailable slacker who won’t do his part? If you’re a parent you know exactly what I mean. Your A or A/B student got her summary paragraphs done and e-mailed some photos to the person who was supposed to print things out for the presentation, or put together the PowerPoint. A night or two before the presentation, your child and the other two productive group members are scrambling to create the visual part of the project because the slacker can’t cowboy up.
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Just remembered to repost this now that this new home for Steve’s Not Nice is kind-of sort-of unpacked.
For many years, I think, Pedro Almodovar was directing my life. That’s when I would see things like an old minivan full of clowns driving down the street. Clowns in full makeup and costume, not just goofy people. It was weird, but it was quirky. My life had these bizarre but whimsical moments.
I still have bizarre moments, but they’re less whimsical. For a while I thought maybe Guillermo del Toro had taken over the role of director. I was even more certain when I saw Pan’s Labyrinth.
But that was before I learned about Chris Rentzel, director of The Many Strange Stories of Triangle Woman. I’ve just seen the trailer and a description, but I’m pretty sure he’s directed a vignette or two of my life lately!
This post first appeared April 12, 2007, on the original Blogger format for this blog. It addresses what were immediate news events at the time: the dismissal of the criminal case against the Duke lacrosse players and Don Imus being fired for sexist and racist remarks. And how does that have anything to do with Respect?
What a weird, paradoxical day it was in the news! Yesterday two windows focused the country on the deep and complicated wounds of racism and sexism.
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This post first appeared April 4, 2007, on the original Blogger format for this blog. As I move the blog to this hosted site I will be reintroducing past posts along with new content.
So I was driving along Grapevine Highway with my 16-yr-old son in the car and we passed this new ice cream place, “Woolley’s.” Actually, it’s frozen custard, which I think means a little softer and a lot more fattening than ice cream.
I told him, “I finally got to try that place the other day when I took your little brother.”
He said, “I know you’ve been there. You took me. Remember?”
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Nearly two years ago, in October 2007, I debuted the Chasing Wisdom Blog-Zine. With six sections to write per month, I set myself up with a pretty demanding schedule. I kept at it for nine months, ending in June 2008. Then I stopped. I didn’t stop chasing wisdom, but I did stop aggressively hunting it down and writing about it.
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Over the years I’ve been accused of being nice. I used to feel very worried when I heard that, thinking that somehow I had misrepresented myself and given people the wrong impression. Don’t blame me, I would think. I didn’t do anything to give you that idea. I figured that comments like that came from people who had only seen a little bit of me trying to put my best foot forward, or were simply too hasty in their judgment.
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I am grateful to the handful of you who have followed along while I was Chasing Wisdom, then veered down the Twisting Road, stayed On The Twisting Road, and then tried to update my Travel Log regularly. You are the ones who know I have never settled on a title for the work I do in this business I am growing. I can’t say I’ve decided for sure, but I am very close when I call myself a “Life and Work Design Coach.” This begs the question: How is my own custom life and work plan coming along?
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There’s a whimsical scene in Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets where the boy wizard is waiting in Professor Dumbledore’s office to speak with the headmaster. He notices many curious and amazing devices, but he also notices a sickly looking bird in a cage. Just as Harry is most anxious about not messing up anything in the office, the bird bursts into flames. Soon afterwards Professor Dumbledore enters. Instead of being upset, he is delighted that his pet phoenix, recently cantankerous in old age, has finally died so he can be reborn from his ashes as a young and spry chick. It’s ashes time for the Travel Log.
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