Understanding Your Leadership Style

Toastmasters Advanced Communication Series. 
Public Relations. Project 1. The Goodwill Speech.

Objectives:

• Prepare a talk that will build goodwill for your organization by supplying useful information of interest to the audience.
• Favorably influence the audience by skillful and friendly delivery of your talk

Time: Five to seven minutes.

Summary

Each one of us is a leader. We may just have different leadership styles. This talk and exercise* will help you to identify your particular style.

*using material by Brenda Herchmer from Active Engaged Creative Communities (http://acecommunities.ca/)

Presentation Slides

Speech Evaluator Comments

• The audience was curious about the topic
• Use remote control to improve the flow
• Watch out "pen in hand" when talking
• Suggestions for a stronger opening
• A YOU question: "What kind of leader are YOU?"
• A story: "I had a boss whose leadership style was ..."
• Good energy, body language, eye contact and pace

February '12. Merry-Go-Round of Life 3

Song of the week: Crazy - Gnarls Barkley"And I hope that you are having the time of your life
But think twice, that's my only advice"

Movie of the week: La vita è bella"Guarda i girasoli: si inchinano al sole, ma se vedi uno che è inchinato un pò troppo significa che è morto. Tu stai servendo, però non sei un servo. Servire è l'arte suprema. Dio è il primo servitore; Lui serve gli uomini, ma non è servo degli uomini."

Food of the week:Walnut-Parmesan Fish Fillets with Fennel-scented Rice and Lentils.

Book of the week: José Saramago - Ensaio sobre a cegueira"Há esperanças que é loucura ter. Pois eu digo-te que se não fossem essas já eu teria desistido da vida."

Show of the week: Twin PeaksDale Cooper: "Diane, 7:30 am, February twenty-fourth. Entering town of Twin Peaks. Five miles south of the Canadian border, twelve miles west of the state line. Never seen so many trees in my life. As W.C. Fields would say, I'd rather be here than Philadelphia. It's fifty-four degrees on a slightly overcast day. Weatherman said rain. If you could get paid that kind of money for being wrong sixty percent of the time it'd beat working. Mileage is 79,345, gauge is on reserve, I'm riding on fumes here, I've got to tank up when I get into town. Remind me to tell you how much that is. Lunch was $6.31 at the Lamplighter Inn. That's on Highway Two near Lewis Fork. That was a tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat, a slice of cherry pie and a cup of coffee. Damn good food. Diane, if you ever get up this way, that cherry pie is worth a stop."

February '12. Merry-Go-Round of Life 2

Song of the week: Rolling in the deep - Adele"Throw your soul threw every open door
Count your blessings to find what you look for
Turn my sorrow into treasured gold
You pay me back in kind and reap just what you sow"

Movie of the week: Wings of DesireDamiel: I'm going to enter the river. Now or never, moment of the ford. But there is no other bank, there is only the river. Into the ford of time, the ford of death. We are not yet born, so let's descend. To look is not to look from on high, but at eye-level.

Food of the week:Greek yogurt with a spoon of honey, sprinkled with walnuts, almonds and banana chips.

Book of the week: Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse"She taught him that lovers should not separate from each other after making love without admiring each other, without being conquered as well as conquering, so that no feeling of satiation or desolation arises nor the horrid feeling of misusing or having been misused."

Show of the week: Twin PeaksDale Cooper: Diane... 10:00 a.m. at the Great Northern. I've just been in a hotel room with the One-armed Man... or what's left of him. In another time, another culture, this man would have been a seer, a shaman priest... possibly a leader. In our world, he's a shoe peddler, and lives in the shadows.

A Valentine's unexpected story

My friend's beloved one, John, lives in Australia. My friend Jane lives in Canada. Some days ago Jane wanted to give John a surprise for Valentine's and phoned a bakery in the nearest town to his remote place. She wanted to order a pie and have flowers and the pie delivered to his dear John. The baker was excited about the idea but the bakery didn't take credit cards. Later, Jane will email the baker enquiring for possible alternatives. Because she didn't receive a reply, she let her beloved one know her previous intentions on the 13th. In this way at least John would know that she tried something. He, informed of her plans, phoned the bakery, just to find out that the baker had arranged, without expecting payment, to send the flowers to a post office and have a bus driver deliver them. This will be the beginning of an unexpected chain of reactions.

John decided that, instead of having the pie and the flowers for himself, he will redirect them to a friend of his whose daughter recently passed away. While at his local post office, he told the story of the pie and the flowers to others. Some of those others, who also know the man whose daughter passed away, joined him wanting to send flowers to the mourning man. John then took himself the pie, his flowers and other's flowers to his friend, spend some time with him, listening to what he had to say, joining him in his mourning.

Love sent from one place, to an unexpected recipient on the other side of the world.

February '12 Merry-Go-Round of Life 1

Music of the week: Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor"

Movie of the week: Barney's version
Barney Panofsky: ...and I'm just gonna keep talking here, 'cause I'm afraid that if I stop there's gonna be a pause or a break and you're gonna say 'It's getting late' or 'I should get going', and I'm not ready for that to happen. I don't want that to happen. Ever.
[they pause]
Miriam: There it was. The pause.
Barney Panofsky: Yeah.
Miriam: I'm still here.

Food of the week:
French crepes galore, made by a French friend. Savoury and sweet alike.

Book of the week: Sense and sensibility - Jane Austen
"You have no ambition, I well know. Your wishes are all moderate."

"As moderate as those of the rest of the world, I believe. I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way. Greatness will not make me so."

Show of the week: Californication
Becca: I'm not twelve, you can't bribe me anymore. Well you can, but you have to adjust for lifestyle and inflation.

January Merry-Go-Round of Life

Song of the week: K'naan - Take a minute
And any man who knows a thing knows He knows not a damn, damn thing at all And every time I felt the hurt And I felt the givin' gettin' me up off the wall

Movie of the week: My life without me
[Ann writes in journal] Ann: THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE. Ann: 1. Tell my daughters I love them several times. Ann: 2. Find Don a new wife who the girls like. Ann: 3. Record birthday messages for the girls for every year until they're 18. Ann: 4. Go to Whalebay Beach together and have a big picnic. Ann: 5. Smoke and drink as much as I want. Ann: 6. Say what I'm thinking. Ann: 7. Make love with other men to see what it's like. Ann: 8. Make someone fall in love with me. Ann: 9. Go and see Dad in Jail. Ann: 10. Get false nails. And do something with my hair.

Food of the week: Fried chicken drumsticks with sauteed onions, spinach and olives

Book of the week: After the Ecstasy, the Laundry - Jack Kornfield

"For minds obsessed by compulsive thinking and grasping, you simplify your meditation practices to just two words-'let go'-rather than try to develop this practice, and then develop that, achieve this and go into that [...] Instead of becoming the world's expert on Buddhism and being invited to great international conferences, why not just 'let go', 'let go', 'let go'? [...] So I'm making it very simple for you, to save you from getting caught in an incredible amount of suffering. There's nothing more sorrowful than having to attend international Buddhist conferences."

Show of the week: House MD

Boyd: "God says you look for excuses to be alone." House: "See, that is exactly the kind of brilliance that sounds deep, but you could say it about any person who doesn't pine for the social approval of everyone he meets - which you were cleverly able to deduce about me by not being a moron. Next time, tell God to be more specific."

Waking up

Last night I had a dream where I saw myself as a child, waking up in the morning, standing on the bed and stretching my arms up and wide.

I thank my mind for the reminder!

Are you a/do you have hyper-parents?

Here is an interesting documentary and food for thought about the past, present and future of our families and society.

Hyper parent check list:

- Do you see your child's first birthday as an achievement?
- Do you consider yourself your children's best friend?
- Are you competing with other parents for the biggest number of activities/attention for your children?
- Are your children in college/university giving you their username/password so you can check their schedules/grades/email?
- Will you give them a wake-up call so they don't miss a class in university?
- Will you try to negotiate the salary with your children's employer in their new job?

Hyper Parents & Coddled Kids. A CBC documentary.

In memoriam, Mario Benedetti

There was a poet who was for me like the grandparents I never met. He had in his words, the advice needed to navigate those years of my youth, when the usual concerns about love, women and life could make the brightest day obscure.

He was Mario Benedetti and he died last Sunday, May the 17h, 2009.

"... don't save yourself

now or ever ..."

No te salves



No te quedes inmóvil
al borde del camino
no congeles el júbilo
no quieras con desgana
no te salves ahora
ni nunca
no te salves

no te llenes de calma

no reserves del mundo
sólo un rincón tranquilo
no dejes caer los párpados
pesados como juicios

no te quedes sin labios
no te duermas sin sueño
no te pienses sin sangre
no te juzgues sin tiempo

pero si
pese a todo
no puedes evitarlo
y congelas el júbilo
y quieres con desgana

y te salvas ahora
y te llenas de calma
y reservas del mundo
sólo un rincón tranquilo
y dejas caer los párpados
pesados como juicios
y te secas sin labios
y te duermes sin sueño
y te piensas sin sangre
y te juzgas sin tiempo
y te quedas inmóvil
al borde del camino
y te salvas
entonces
no te quedes conmigo

Mario Benedetti (September 14, 1920 – May 17, 2009)

August Sky

Aug. 13, 2008 A Perseid Meteor Shower was happening in the sky since the last night. I sighted more than 10 in a half an hour period. Unfortunately I only could capture the slight trace of a meteor on camera and the quality of the uploaded movie is not as good as to show it. Nevertheless, try to see (imagine!?) it in the centre between 00:21s and 00:27s.

Sakura

Yuki interpreting Sakura in a night of love and goodbyes =)

Cold, alcohol, agave and life's water

originally uploaded by Garas.

Yesterday night, with temperatures of -28 C, which felt like -36C with the wind chill, my bike's lock froze and refused to open. Fortunately, a friend's bottle of Isopropyl alcohol (freezes around -89 C when it's highly concentrated) saved my night. No, I didn't drink it ... we just poured it into the lock's keyhole to ease the frozen pins inside. However, the occasion brought to me the memory of wanting to write some of mine and other's wonderings about alcoholic liquors. So here are these fragments of information... enjoy, and stay warm this season.

A note by Ryan Thomas about the differences between Tequila and Mezcal...

"Few understand the difference between tequila and mezcal, and many don’t even know there is a difference. While traditionally, all tequilas were known as a type of mezcal. Today, they are distinct products, differentiated by the production process and taste, much the same way rye whisky differs from Scotch whiskey. Most mezcal is made today in the state of Oaxaca, although some is also made in Guerrero and other states. Tequila comes from the northwestern state of Jalisco (and a few nearby areas). They both derive from varieties of the Agave plant, known to the natives as mexcalmetl. Tequila is made from only agave tequilana Weber, blue variety. Mezcal, on the other hand, can be made from five different varieties of agave. Tequila is double distilled and a few brands even boast triple distillation. Mezcal is often only distilled once.

"To make mezcal, the sugar-rich heart of the agave called the piña, is baked in a rock-lined pit oven over charcoal, and covered with layers of palm-fiber mats and earth, giving mezcal a strong, smoky flavor. Tequila piñas are baked or steamed in aboveground ovens or autoclaves.

"Tequila and mezcal share a similar amount of alcohol in the bottle (around 38-40%), although mezcals tend to be a little stronger."

Some scattered notes about Whisky (Whiskey) from Wikipedia...

It is always Scotch and Canadian whisky (plural: whiskies), but Irish and American whiskey (whiskeys).

Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and maize (corn).

Malting is a process applied to cereal grains, in which the grains are made to germinate by soaking in water and are then quickly halted from germinating further by drying/heating with hot air.

Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted shakes, malt vinegar, and some baked goods, such as bagels. Malting grains develops the enzymes that are required to modify the grain's starches into sugars, including monosaccharides (glucose, fructose, etc.) and disaccharides (sucrose, etc.). It also develops other enzymes, such as proteases which break down the proteins in the grain into forms which can be utilized by yeast. Barley is the most commonly malted grain in part because of its high diastatic power or enzyme content.

Yeasts are eukaryotic microorganisms classified in the kingdom Fungi.

Barley (cebada in Spanish) (Hordeum vulgare) is an annual cereal grain, which serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food.

Rye (centeno in Spanish) (Secale cereale) is a grass grown extensively as a grain and forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskies, some vodkas, and animal fodder. It can also be eaten whole, either as boiled rye berries, or by being rolled, similar to rolled oats.

Notes aside:

Baker's yeast is the common name for the strains of yeast commonly used as a leavening agent in baking bread and related products, where it converts the fermentable sugars present in the dough into carbon dioxide and ethanol.

Vodka is a distilled beverage. It is a clear liquid which consists of mostly water and ethanol purified by distillation — often multiple distillation — from a fermented substance, such as grain (usually rye or wheat), potatoes or sugar beet molasses, and an insignificant amount of other substances such as flavorings or unintended impurities.

A bird's eye view of Canada

Flying from Toronto to Edmonton.

January 2008

Spin

"... the calculated, 'this is not the whole truth' part."


This is a story of deception. Not very dramatical, but a quite common story these days... at least for those who, like Spin documentary's director Bryan Springer, gets to notice the everyday doings of the "spin doctors". No, not the rock band but the professionals that specialize in elaborating a discourse which "often, though not always, implies disingenuous, deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics."

As G.H. Lewmer writes in his review of this very recommendable 57 minutes feature:

"Springer spent a year accessing live satellite feeds—raw feeds that are pumped directly to television networks and news channels before being packaged, processed, and regurgitated for your consumption—to create a funny and frightening look on how information is manipulated, suppressed and influenced by Big Media. ".... expressing that... "The footage is terrifying and telling because it presents all the off-camera comments, all the preening and maneuvering of the powers who are more concerned about protecting their interests than thorough reporting." Terrifying, without loosing the sense of humor and the good laugh that the discovering of how gullible one can be towards main stream media awakes.

Which makes me think, what is behind the words of those who I listen to...? =)

"It's less important to get a good answer than to get someone to listen to your question in the first place"

At least that seems to apply to millions of people on the Web as Jacob Leibenluft finds in his article:

A Librarian's Worst Nightmare. Yahoo! Answers, where 120 million users can be wrong.

Also worth to notice is his comparison with the Wikipedia model.

I made the above video clip from still pictures of the total lunar eclipse on February 20, 2008.

The “human network” needs to overcome language barriers

“Welcome to the human network”, the Cisco corporation’s tagline, should not come as a surprise in these times where the Web continues expanding and finding more applications. From a technical point of view, it is a slogan that makes sense coming from a networking and communications technology company. But, what do they mean with human? Do they only mean “English speaking humans”? Why the language barriers are impediments for a real human network? Find out more below…

If at home or work you use a Linksys router to connect to internet you are using one of Cisco’s products to be part of a network, a communications network. But these are also the times of Web 2.0 and Cisco and others are also talking of how we use the technological products. As their ad says, these are times where “people subscribe to people, not magazines”. If you use internet for something more than checking your email perhaps you have had a taste of Web 2.0 (like the one I am having) and therefore an impression of what they mean with "the human network".

As a non-native English speaker, who has lived in English speaking countries, I know that watching their TV gives me an idea of what is their present culture and everyday life. Of course, I also know that this vision is biased by the filters that the broadcasters, the media and the governments apply to it. That's why the Web has come as a valuable space where individuals are writing, singing and speaking their thoughts. Their thoughts and lives are expressed in ways that we have the opportunity to see in sites as YouTube, Blogger, OpenDiary and Jamendo, to give a few examples.

I find the development of Web 2.0 fantastic but I also have noticed an important piece missing in the development of this human network: THE OVERCOMING OF THE LANGUAGE BARRIERS. My observation is based on my belief that you only can understand your neighbor if you understand their background. And it’s many times their language what shapes that complex thing which makes them be what they are and how they see you. For this network to be really human it needs to provide a way to overcome cultural and language limitations, of course, without annulling them.

More and more websites are taking one step to overcome the language barriers: the inclusion of their service in different languages. Take for example the popular social-networking site Facebook which now has been open to the Spanish language. Actions like this allow different groups of humans to have access to the same service. Nevertheless, the challenge of making these groups to interact and mix with each other remains.

Finally, let’s not forget that only a small percentage of the total population in the Earth has access to internet. The optimistic in me wants to believe that, as an inherent effect of the development of the human network, eventually more and more people could have access to it. We will see.

You know it's bitter cold when... (II)

continues from part I...

I still have the image in my mind of my red hands. They felt like two gloves that are being inflated but, at the same time, crushed by an external invisible force. The feeling was a slightly painful immobility and lack of sensitivity to the touch.

Locking the bike looked futile with such a pair of hands (by the way, did I mention that the vapour from my breath had formed an icy layer in my eyeglasses that partially blocked my vision?) With a sense of urgency I reached for my backpack, searching for the pair of gloves that I usually wear convinced now that the new ones were useless under these conditions.

With the bicycle workshop closed my worry for my hands was stronger than the embarrassment of seeking refuge in the property next door, an Audiology clinic...

The answer to my introduction, "The chain of my bike just broke, would you mind if I take refuge here to warm up my hands" was amazing. They not only didn't mind me staying inside but asked if I needed to make a call and offered to prepare coffee for me, offer that I exchanged for plain hot water.

The fact that not only the receptionists were empathic with my situation, but also the understanding showed by a costumer waiting for his appointment, an old man born in Edmonton, made me realize how extreme was the weather that particular day. In part, I had underestimated what a difference of 70 degrees C with respect to the body temperature can do, but also, as it happens many times, my lack of experience was being replaced with painful lessons.

If my "balloon" hands were hurting while frozen (frostnip is the technical term) the slower recovery of my hands was many times more painful. Small needles were stinging with torturous slowness all around outside and inside my hands.

But the pain eventually subsided and it was time to attend my bike, which I had left leaning against the wall, at the entrance of the clinic. Resolved to lock the bike, the best place nearby was where I had failed before. Having left my backpack at the care of the receptionists in the clinic, now with "fresh" hands and clear eyeglasses, I was convinced that this time I would succeed in my attempt.

When I returned to the clinic I couldn't refrain myself to share with my kind hosts what just had happened saying: "There is no doubt that life is an adventure in Edmonton, if you don't die frozen trying to lock a bike, you die asphyxiated by the gases from the exhaust of a car besides in auto-start" We laughed at this as it was funny and odd that my second attempt to lock the bike had an unexpected extra difficulty. Yes, I succeeded this time and later at night I picked up the bike on my way back home, but why, why if it was difficult enough to deal with the 50cm of snow, the frozen lock and hurting hands, why a car without a driver has to auto-start, delivering all its gases to my face in the middle of my struggle, why? =)

Days later after my little "adventure" the tips of my fingers are still "burned" and lacking sensitivity, with no chance of change while this winter lasts...and of course while I keep insisting on biking after I had the bike repaired one week later.

Now that you have followed this "chilling" story until this end, allow me to warm you up with a bit of humor from real life happenings in Edmonton during Winter...

You know it's bitter cold when...

...when you open the fridge in the kitchen and it feels warmer inside it. =)

When is bitter cold for you? Feel free to leave your answers in the comments section below... and keep yourself warm!

You know it's bitter cold when...

In short, when you loose any feeling in your fingers... apart from a slowly appearing, hurting sensation that your hands are growing in size.

The more extended explanation goes like this: I was cycling from home to work at -33 C (lower than that with the wind chill). I did it the last day under the same conditions and though I used to say that the experience is like bike-skating now it looked more like bike-skiing. At each pedalling movement there was a drift sideways of the back of the bike =)

However, this time the accumulation of snow (about 15 cm. in the parts where I still could try to slowly cycle) made it harder resulting in the breaking of the chain. Bad luck I said and because I was not very far from home decided to go back there to leave the bike. But I changed my mind remembering a bicycle workshop nearby and on my way to work. I headed there...

While walking and pushing my bike I started feeling my hands colder than usual. Of course, with a metal handle this is a situation that I have experienced before, despite the plastic covers in the handle and gloves in my hands. But this time I was surprised that my hands were feeling cold so quickly. It seemed that the skiing gloves that I have decided to try this time were not as good as my usual combination of leather gloves under fingerless gloves with a mitten cover.

I found the workshop in 109 St. closed, not surprising after previous experiences but worrying given my cold hands (I was hoping to warm them inside). Ok, the plan was now to lock the bike to a signal post and go to work. It proved to be an ill-conceived plan. In the first place the lock was frozen so the key could not open it to insert the bar. Secondly I made the mistake of removing my gloves to handle the lock better. The metallic lock was damn cold!! Almost unbearable to touch it with bare hands and despite the plastic around it. Plus the snow around the post (something like 50 cm.) made difficult to handle the bike. Then is when the slowly appearing, hurting sensation that my hands were growing in size made me take another course of action.

To be continued...

If your mind were a dwelling... how it would be?

And the answer for jAz is:

Roulotte (caravana). 1955. Remedios Varo

A man with a birthday... Leonard Cohen

Happy birthday Leonard Cohen! Three years ago you turned 70 and the novelty of a new decade is fading away. But maybe it feels more like the revolution of being 23 than the slowing down of 33. One way or another we managed to celebrate it in Edmonton... one way or another.

The whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the devil and once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights
we're busted in the blinding lights,
busted in the blinding lights
of CLOSING TIME




"Ay, ay, ay, ay! Take this close-mouthed waltz..." wrote Federico García Lorca, and for your hero you wrote a waltz for his words, that you made yours, very yours. Not many birthdays I have been where the celebrated one gives the presents to the guests.

Perhaps that is the secret to have the guests back every year =)

Yeah I missed you since the place got wrecked
By the winds of change and the weeds of sex
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's CLOSING TIME