I've heard this time and time again, and truth be told I don't agree with it one bit. In fact, I'd say that you have two choices in this world; Laugh or Cry. I find that when I smile at someone their reaction varies. They either smile back or wonder what crazy scheme I have up my sleeve.
This, I use to my advantage. Any time I walk into a meeting (client, internal, personal, any meeting) I try and remember to smile. If I don't get a pleasant response I walk back out of the room and try it again. Usually after the third try people are smiling back at me or laughing because they can't figure out the joke.
If their is a party in the room that still doesn't get it, I hit them with a comment such as "Did I kill your dog in a previous life or something?" After a very bad experience I stay completely away from statements like "Who died?" You can fill in the blanks on that one.
By this point they have figured out that I'm going to be happy even if they are not. This has worked to my advantage on many occasions and only once has it got me into "Sensitivity Training" (apparently one member of the room though I was "too flirty", my though is screw them).
Many clients and people that I've heard referred to as close minded or strong willed suddenly become open to suggestions and interested in what you have to say. Obviously if your so happy all of the time you must be doing something right.
This isn't to say that I'm always happy, quite to the contrary I find myself aggravated or disappointed especially when I fail to make a connection with a person. Many times when I feel the worse is when I put this practice to work the most. Getting the people around you to enjoy their day will most times improve your own view of how your day is going.
After all, if you can't laugh about something then you simply have no choice but to cry about it and no one likes a cry baby :).
Mac's Blackberries, and more... OH MY!
So, I'm up to day 3 (or 4 depending on how you count) at Barkley. I must say I'm more than impressed with the company overall. There are few companies that you walk into on your first day and it feels like you have been their forever. There are even fewer that after a few days have past you really feel like your at home walking into the office. Barkley is one of those few, making you feel at home immediately and giving you a growing sense of that feeling over time (at least so far).
But, thats not what this is about. On Monday we got our laptops. These are lean and mean machines, duo core Mac based on the Intel processor, or at least thats what they tell me. Honestly I don't know how MS can compete with this so far. It's running a Windows distro faster than any of my machines at home and stability is really amazing.
Thats not to say I haven't had problems, oh boy have I had problems. To start getting Lazarus and other tools I'm used to installed has been anything but fun. In fact its been a hair removal process from hell. I now have almost everything installed and running, but can't figure out how to build any Lua or SDL applications and get them to run :(. Oh well, its not exactly part of my day job so IT isn't going to make the pain go away anytime soon, I'll fight it out and figure it out.
Yesterday (Tuesday) we got our Blackberries. This is one of those phones that comes with everything but a roll of toilet paper, and I'm pretty sure thats an option that you can get for it. Honestly, I hate this thing. It has more buttons and options then you can shake a stick at, it vibrates all the time (Voice calls, e-mail, text message, the time of day) and I can't figure out how to change it back to the default look and feel that they taught me how to use in class. Don't ask me how I managed to get it to a different look and feel, I don't know, all I know is nothing is where its supposed to be.
Thats enough ranting for now, look for more in the future.
- Jeremy
But, thats not what this is about. On Monday we got our laptops. These are lean and mean machines, duo core Mac based on the Intel processor, or at least thats what they tell me. Honestly I don't know how MS can compete with this so far. It's running a Windows distro faster than any of my machines at home and stability is really amazing.
Thats not to say I haven't had problems, oh boy have I had problems. To start getting Lazarus and other tools I'm used to installed has been anything but fun. In fact its been a hair removal process from hell. I now have almost everything installed and running, but can't figure out how to build any Lua or SDL applications and get them to run :(. Oh well, its not exactly part of my day job so IT isn't going to make the pain go away anytime soon, I'll fight it out and figure it out.
Yesterday (Tuesday) we got our Blackberries. This is one of those phones that comes with everything but a roll of toilet paper, and I'm pretty sure thats an option that you can get for it. Honestly, I hate this thing. It has more buttons and options then you can shake a stick at, it vibrates all the time (Voice calls, e-mail, text message, the time of day) and I can't figure out how to change it back to the default look and feel that they taught me how to use in class. Don't ask me how I managed to get it to a different look and feel, I don't know, all I know is nothing is where its supposed to be.
Thats enough ranting for now, look for more in the future.
- Jeremy
New job, new requirement
I started a new job at Barkley (yes they used to be called Barkley Evergreen and Partners) today as a Client Side Business Systems Analyst. To make a long title short, I'm a document jockey plain and simple.
I'm really excited about the position and the company as it promises to allow me to flex my technical skills quite a bit more then VML did. Also the team has been great so far and offers opportunity to learn more about other aspects of marketing I haven' t worked in.
Part of the "requirements of employment" is the Digital Ninja course. In short you have to have an online presence. Since I already have Eon Clash, Lad's Grin, and a few other sites most of the stuff is easy enough. Though they also require a blog, so here it is.
I hope to update this more than I do Eon Clash or Lad's Grin as this seems a nice common place to put non-business and non-family related topics. Look for some business and family stuff to sneak in though :).
Thats enough for a first post, more later...
- Jeremy
I'm really excited about the position and the company as it promises to allow me to flex my technical skills quite a bit more then VML did. Also the team has been great so far and offers opportunity to learn more about other aspects of marketing I haven' t worked in.
Part of the "requirements of employment" is the Digital Ninja course. In short you have to have an online presence. Since I already have Eon Clash, Lad's Grin, and a few other sites most of the stuff is easy enough. Though they also require a blog, so here it is.
I hope to update this more than I do Eon Clash or Lad's Grin as this seems a nice common place to put non-business and non-family related topics. Look for some business and family stuff to sneak in though :).
Thats enough for a first post, more later...
- Jeremy
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