I feel like a kid at Christmas — I feel like I used to feel. You know: counting down the days, making crafts at school and bringing the felt-draped, Popsicle-stick-glued mess home to mom to hang on the tree?
That’s like what it is for me, except it’s the Olympics! And the popscicle stick ornament is actual work I get paid to do (of much higher calibre, naturally)! And it’s like living in Santa’s home-town except it’s +10 degrees and with no elves or reindeer and more aerial patrols.
That’s what it’s like.
I’m like Ralphie with a dozen Red Ryder BB guns with compasses in the stock and this thing which tells time.
It just can’t get there fast enough, but instead of one day of celebration, we get 17 whole days! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!
photo credi: Miss Barabanov
If you want to get in the Olympic spirit, I suggest searching these hash tags on Twitter. You want to know what’s going on? Check it out: #olympics, #van2010, #vancouver2010. I’m certainly not the authority on Olympic hash tags, so check out the Vancouver 2010 Guide to Twitter Hash Tags courtesy of Miss 604.
Lastly, as with all Christmases, there are Grinches and Scrooges. Less than a handful of mainstream journalists have said the people of Vancouver are miserable or the Games are going to be no good — whatever. Mark my words, these are the same writers who will be scribbling articles about a “Post-Olympics hangover” regardless of the outcome. To give you something to think about, if it gets your blood up, we have an old saying in social media for folks like that, and it goes like this: Don’t feed the trolls.
As you long-time readers know, I’m fascinated with academic study of crisis communication and since finishing my MA and pursuing work in PR, I’ve posted nothing on this. It’s time I shared something I came across.
Peters found that five factors determine the communicative roles of international organizations:
1. the role of the member states
2. the need for domestic ratification
3. the possibility of promoting the international organization through the operation
4. the international organization communicative capabilities
5. the importance of the foreign public to the success of the operation
The member states’ communicative activity largely determines the communicative tasks of international organisations. If member states require domestic ratification, they are likely to boost their domestic communication efforts, which makes a ‘unity of message’ difficult for international organisations that then have to focus primarily on coordinating member states’ domestic communication efforts. Additionally, member states are generally more reluctant to communicate to foreign publics, forcing international organisations to assume communicative leadership.
Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? Why don’t you make half-year resolutions, or any-time-of-the-year resolutions? I’d say if you’re going to make a commitment to yourself worth keeping, you don’t need to wait until the beginning of the year to make it — you’re just setting yourself up to fail.
One half-hearted New Year’s “wish” I thought about for 2009 was to read more — boy, did I read more. For the first three quarters of the year, I had a lot more time on my hands, and I started reading much more than I had before. A benefit of that was I continued reading in my spare time, after things got busy again. It’s been great.
I can’t think of any other resolution or 2010 commitment to make other than to get better at what I’m already doing (something that should be always desired), and if something comes up that I want to put my mind to –whether it’s February 18 or July 12 — I’ll start it then.
I was reading through Obama’s Nobel acceptance speech.
War, in one form or another, appeared with the first man. At the dawn of history, its morality was not questioned; it was simply a fact, like drought or disease – the manner in which tribes and then civilizations sought power and settled their differences.
Do you know someone who can acknowledge something that seems immutable but wants to change it?
Is it possible?
A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism – it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.
I’m almost halfway between 21, “city girls who lived up the stairs” and 35, “blue-blooded girls of independent means” in Ervin Drake’s It was a Very Good Year, a song made famous by Frank Sinatra. Instead of my life as a vintage wine, though, I’d say it’s more like a ripe 40 oz. of Colt 45 — for now.
In 44 days I’ll have made it longer than Kurt Cobain. I’ve already beaten Tupac Shakur by 641 days. I still prefer beer over wine and do a poor job at feigning adult sophistication for anything better than Baby Duck. I’m sure I’ll get there.
Am I apprehensive about segueing gracefully into the autumn of my twenties? No. Judging by some guys I’ve met in their mid-thirties, I’ve got plenty of time to mature.
When people feel uncomfortable about their age, I think they feel uncomfortable with where they’re at in life. Sure, Alexander the Great conquered something like a quarter of the civilized world before 20 — we can’t all be that great, but we can try, set goals and aim the best we can at the modern-day equivalent of what we think is greatness. Those who have made a living off inspiring others claim it’s doable, but achieving a fraction of what your mind can imagine one step at a time maybe will lead you to greatness. Bitterness is the product of being denied something you think is owed to you. Think of the goal and the end result as something you must earn and you won’t have that problem. And even if you don’t ultimately succeed, it’ll still be a lot more rewarding — and a lot more fun — than if you had never tried.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got my slippers and a comfortable-looking chair waiting for me to ease myself into…we’ll re-visit the philosophy of aging when I’m 32.
I’m thankful for American Thanksgiving. Audible, the world’s most popular audio book download service is offering users a free audio book before American Thanksgiving Day (November 26, 2009, at 11:59 PM.). Click here for your free audio book — no credit card required. (I hope it works for everyone and not just previous members). There’s a limited choice of what they offer, but there are some new ones in there as well as a couple classics.
Recently, I’ve found audio books quite efficient. I listen to them on my walks to and from work, at the gym and during car trips out to the ferry. I listen to them while also reading a paper book, and more often than not, I finish the audio book first.
I just used my free pass to download Richard Matheson’sI Am Legend, most recently known for the Will Smith film adaptation, but there are various movie versions, and the Wikipedia article portrays the novel as more involved in various themes than the film versions.
We’ve all heard it: “Your ’stache is trash,” “Your beard is weird” and other gems from Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Keith Hernandez in the Just for Men commercials (I don’t know who they are, but…they’ve got to be important, they’re on TV).
After taking these proclamations to heart, and after seeing all the colour-filled upper-lip foliage at the Movember Tweetup on Thursday, I thought it would take this opportunity to get further into the Movember spirit (Note: this has nothing to do with a number of people commenting that it was hard to see my moustache in the low light of Diamond that night).
You know what? I try. I try to present the societally-accepted intensity and meter of moustachitude. It’s what’s required of men these days — just part of life. I don’t know if others really feel it. But I feel it…in my heart.
Just for Men is hard to find. Security at the London Drugs on Robson and Bute will not have me back, but that shouldn’t stop you. And don’t give up just because the sales assistant at the drug store gives you a funny look when you ask her for “male hair dye.”
Nothing says salon colour, at home, like two lines of goo in a clear plastic tray.
It was on sale for 9.99, okay?
I will just let the photo speak for itself. That’s right. Drink it in. I feel like Tom Hanks in Castaway finding Wilson. This is me. No more words.
So, if you’d like to help me in my quest for $1,000 for prostate cancer research, please pass this on and donate on my page:
Vancouver’s speaker list has been unveiled, and it’s quite an eclectic group of individuals. I met one of the speakers, Nicholas Molnar, one afternoon in the office of Tommy Humphreys of PACWEBCO who I’ve done work for in my freelancing days.
TEDx Vancouver is being held this Saturday, November 21 in Burnaby. I look forward to what kinds of knowledge sharing comes out of it.
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