Psalm 65

The big green bank stopped showing me love, and so I wrapped up my contract there about a month ago. Now for the average old school Jamaican living abroad, being unemployed is one of the horrifying things imaginable. So I thought it was really cute when I told my aunt Rose that I wasn't working at the moment.

Well didn't you know it, my old auntie go into crisis mode. She immediately set about putting together a prayer plan for me, assuring me that she'd pray for me every day. She then made me commit to repeating the following phrase daily - "God is my source of supply, and I am prosperous" (Psalm 65). Sadly, I have not been very diligent with repeating that phrase. Perhaps posting it hear will help to keep it top of mind.

She also made me call this toll free number - 800-669-7729 for Silent Unity so they could pray with me. Not being the most devout of Christians, I have to say I felt a bit awkward doing this, and had I had the foresight to Google the term first, I would have found the website and made my prayer request that way. I'm sure Aunt Rose would have been content with me doing an online prayer rather than a phone-based one.

Anyhow, I've now learnt and experienced something new, there really is such a thing as a prayer line. Who would have thought...

Toronto's Public Libraries - the crappiest Libraries in the GTA

Living in Brampton comes with much stigma. Judging by public perception, I've got to be East Indian or Black. Furthermore I've apparently got to dodge a hail of bullets in order to get home.

So it stands to reason that Toronto should be in much better shape, right? And what better place to judge the quality of a city than its libraries.

So I had occasion to find myself in one of the Tdot's magnificent institutions of the written word the other day, and Oh My Gosh! What a shithole! Check out Pic 1 and Pic 2 of the descent into the bowels of the library on a much needed potty break and tell me I'm wrong.

So if we were to judge a city by its libraries, then Brampton's kicking Toronto's ass, at least in the upkeep / hygiene department.

Am I the balding, middle-aged microsoft guy?

I've had my curve for about a year, and its been a great ride. My biggest complaints? Lack of power, and no scroll wheel.

Now the power issue is easily dealt with by upgrading to the new Curve or Bold.

However, the scroll wheel? Unless I want to pick up a 5 year old 8700 on Craigslist and resign myself to living in the dark ages with no media capabilities and the storage ability of a Palm Vx, I'm s.o.l.

Apparently, although there are some who like to kick it old school with the scroll wheel, the roaring majority are 'ballers. So does this make me the middle aged microsoft guy from those Mac commercials? (vs. the cool apple dude). I really hope not!

What's wrong with being laid back?

I had lunch with my chubby friend today. Well, he's actually not really chubby anymore, but I'm so used to calling him that now, that he's kind of stuck with the name. So anyhow, we're talking about our various career choices, when Chubby (who's in sales) says to me - "you're too laid back to be in sales"... Me? Laid back? After giving him a verbal beat down, I conclude that maybe Chubby sees one side of me, but what do my co workers think?

I decide to use a lifeline and ask a colleague. So as my frame of reference, I use the SVP of my team as a parallel, and go ask my pal Ang for feedback. Here's our convo:

Me: Ang, would you describe P as laid back?
Ang (1 minute later)......: outside of work yes
Me: Would you describe me as laid back?
Ang (1 Second later): no
Me: Holy Crap! No hesitation there! Ouch.
Ang (words of wisdom): Its not an insult.. 1st off you are in a contract position.. so I wouldnt be laid back either. No one hires the laid back person.
Me: I didn't take it as an insult.
Ang: high strung would be an insult.
Me: Oh.
Ang: you arent high strung...

So what's the big deal anyhow? What's wrong with being laid back? Well let's see. For starters, dictionary.com defines laid back as "relaxed or unhurried:... 2.free from stress; easygoing; carefree:...". I don't think any leader (especially in an efficiency focused Financial Services institution) wants a senior manager who would be tagged with the label "laid back". In fact, the Impact Factory states that if you appear too laid back, you're unlikely to get a job you're interviewing for as it gives the interviewer the impression that you just don't care. The same logic applies to managing perception on the job.

So what's the conclusion? Well, be yourself, definitely - but be aware of the image you project, and make sure it aligns with who you are and what you're all about.

New to Facebook

In spite of my (not too) recent post - I did an about face (no pun intended) and joined Facebook. The way I saw it was - my background is in the online world, both in terms of eBusiness and online marketing. But my knowledge of social media tools such as Facebook is more limited. I am on LinkedIn, and I use that fairly extensively, but the professional flavour necessary for LinkedIn is pretty different from the much more social flavour of Facebook.

I find it remarkable how much time people spend keeping their Facebook profiles up to date. In effect though, its a pretty powerful tool for mapping out your life story. I'm sure it'll enrich (or even become!) many an autobiography.

For me, I'll continue to be the observer, and let the other Facebookers live that much more out loud.

Black Man Coming

The night is warm

Streetlights shining bright

You're walking with your lover

Arm in arm, I'm the only one in sight

your breath kinda shallow

You force a smile

Footsteps now sounding hollow

911 ready to dial

I calmly walk by

With a friendly nod, a calm goodnight

You turn to your lover and say

"See baby", they're not so bad, no need for your fright"

Reentry

Ok so its been over 6 months since my last entry, but I'm BACK!!!

Of course that doesn't mean much, since I'm the only one reading this blog (proof, 67 hits, how pitiful is that). Of course it might just be a case of "if you build it they will come", but come on now, only 67 hits??? Clearly my writing is not for the masses.

So anyhow, My lil' sis Nat calls me the other day, to tell me how baby sis Chris has been posting very mean things on various family member's Facebook pages, resulting in a virtual Facebook war.

The end result of this virtual war is an all too real family strife, split along not very clear familial lines. At times like this I'm glad I'm not on Facebook. I can now safely play Switzerland and remain neutral. That is, unless they discover this blog and decide to take the family war to a new medium. Luckily I'm in control of this land (courtesy of Google) and can choose to exterminate any ugly sentiment that dares to rear its ugly head here.

Of course, you can do the same thing on Facebook, but then it kind of defeats the point of having, Facebook, doesn't it?