Portraits of Barb
Barb wanted some new photos to play around with. Here are a couple of the dozen or so that I liked:
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March 24, 2007
March 21, 2007
The Seven Pillars to Wankerhood.
Bribery works. I'm not normally the sort of guy who would go listen to a motivational speaker. However, when my professor offers me a bonus 5% to attend a "lecture" I'll consider it. The lecture in question was a talk by Raymond Aaron. He claims to be one of North America's most sought after motivational speakers. This week, the 'Centre for Spirituality in the Workplace' invited him to give a speech about his "Seven Pillars to Success." So, with thoughts of an A+ as opposed to A in mind, I headed to the talk last night.
As soon as he started I knew I wouldn't be able to buy what he was selling. Admittedly, I didn't approach the talk with a completely open mind. I have my preconceived notions about motivational speakers. I couldn't help but compare him to the downtrodden motivational speaker played by Greg Kinnear in 'Little Miss Sunshine.' He had all of the necessary traits. Smarmy enthusiasm. Off-putting self assurance. Cheesy sense of humour. A reliance on overly simplistic metaphors and parables to explain life's difficult situations. He was the real deal.
Most of what he 'taught' was good advice. For the record, his seven pillars are: total commitment, give more, always learn, obey your weaknesses, clean messes, power team, and follow mentors. Nothing ground-breaking, and mostly good advice. Commitment to one's task inevitably produces better outcomes. Being giving has its rewards. Learning is the bee's knees. Realizing one's weaknesses is important. The mess bit I wasn't really with. He adamantly proclaimed that anyone with messes (and he meant physical messes) in their life was held back by them. I know people who thrive in states of apparent disorganization, so I couldn't really agree with Aaron on this one. The power team sounds super-heroish, but simply meant demand excellence of your peers and associates, and don't associate with those not willing to provide said excellence. Finally, his insistence on the integral nature of mentors to anyone's personal growth was unsurprising for a man who runs a number of mentoring oriented businesses.
While most of the advice was simplistic but sensible, it all originated from a curious and, to me at least, unattractive perspective. There was an almost oppressive sense of self-centeredness emanating from the man. Everything was about him him him, and his instructions on how to improve one's life revolved around you you you. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not the least self-absorbed person in the world. I've got nothing against self-centeredness. It's as good a place as any to centre one's perspective. However, Mr. Aaron's life philosophy left almost no room for other people. His approach was guided by what I'll call a utopian individualism, which dictated that everything one does should be for the benefit of one's self. His two pillars which did involve other people 'power team' and 'follow mentors' only granted importance to these other people if they offered some benefit to one's self.
Aaron gave a good example of this sort of utopian individualism while he was explaining the 'obey your weaknesses' pillar. He explained that when he moved in with one of his previous life-in girlfriends, he and she had made a list of those chores they liked to do and those chores they did not like to do. Things on the 'like list' that corresponded would be done together, while things they disliked doing would be done by the "housekeeping lady." Aaron claimed that by using this approach in day-to-day life and only doing what one loves, one will ultimately be more successful. Maybe so. But my question is, what about what the housekeeping lady loves to do? Mr. Aaron's seven pillars take no account of her, except of her degree of utility to Mr. Aaron.
This (dis)utopian individualism came up again and again in Mr. Aaron's anecdotes. Everyone but himself, was simply serving a function for him to increase his wealth or happiness. Perhaps this is one of the reasons he has been through so many failed romantic relationships, as he repeatedly pointed out during his story telling.
The clincher for me, which made me mentally shift Mr. Aaron from the 'harmless eccentric' column to the 'nutbag charlatan' column, was when he gave us his "added bonus" by demonstrating "the Power Exercise." The power exercise involved Mr. Aaron grunting, flailing his arms about, aggressively breathing, and turning purple in the face. This all took about four seconds (which he repeatedly reminded us). Then, once he had reached his "heightened state of consciousness" where apparently anything is possible, Mr. Aaron broke an arrow by pressing the tip on his throat and the other end on a table and walking towards the table. YOWZA! Maybe if I didn't have years of sideshow and circus experience I would have been impressed. However, it just made me even more aware of the theatricality of his speech. It made him seem more like a snake oil salesman, than a legitimate businessman. Nonetheless, in the end, if I apply the universal performance assessment technique to his song and dance, I have to give Mr. Aaron a passing grade. After all, the punters did like it...
March 07, 2007
Juggle This
I got back from NY a few days ago. The fest was great. I haven't juggled that much in ages. It was nice to get a chance to perform for other jugglers.
Here's a photo of Sean Blue taken during the public show:
