People who did not meet me until at or around my 25th birthday would never believe it, but in school, I was the Queen of Slackers. Truly. School was too easy, too routine and I spent too long doing it to be able to breath new life into the experience. I could dodge classes, do [ Read More ]
The last speaking quality I want to cover in my series on what makes a quality public speaker is the ability of a speaker to connect with their audience. There are thousands of ways to do this, and how a speaker goes about it will often be dictated by a combination of their content (as [ Read More ]
It’s probably a weird thing for a vocal atheist to quote, but there is something about the famous prayer that has been resonating with me more and more lately. Well, maybe not the “God” part of it, but the recognition part. Grant me strength to accept the things that I can’t change, the courage to [ Read More ]
The hardest thing about leaving JetBlue last year was giving up the travel benefits that helped ease the difficulty of living 3,000 miles away from my family and so many of my friends. One of the things I’ve realized lately is that, even though I am really loving being in Austin, I have been horrendously [ Read More ]
Today seems to be the opposite of my previous two days. After deliberately taking everyone’s advice on taking a ‘go with the flow’ approach to the SXSW experience, somehow today has proven crazy-ass busy. 10:30 panel: Beyond Aggregation This was a great panel where we got to hear wonderful speakers, including blogger Louis Gray, discuss [ Read More ]
This book review was written for Joyful Jubilant Learning‘s March book reviews. I am posting it here for my own personal timeline. Barbara Stanny‘s “Prince Charming Isn’t Coming: How Women Get Smart About Money” is a great story with a problematic title. Unfortunately, it is also billed as a How To book, which is where [ Read More ]
There may be no more pervasive and unsavory cliché about lawyers than ‘the ambulance chaser.’ The lawyer who follows an emergency medical team to the scene of an accident for the express purpose of leeching off the pain and misery of others – for the less-than-noble reason of making money – is generally regarded as [ Read More ]
The words every man dreads hearing from his wife: “Does this dress make me look fat?” I’ll skip past the endless stream of jokes that have arisen regarding this quintessential battle-of-the-sexes cliche, and cut to the chase: what are you looking for when you ask someone for feedback? And, just as importantly, what do you [ Read More ]
I have recently gone through a series of interviews/screenings where the net result was, “I’m sorry, but you are just over-qualified for this position.” In response to that highly frustrating designation, I propose the following: Being classified as “over-qualified” is usually less “You cost too much” and more “I’m afraid you’ll be bored and leave [ Read More ]
Watching all of my co-workers drag themselves into work this morning (green, exhausted and in pain), after a late night of partying (to say good-bye to two employees who left this week for other opportunities), has got me thinking again… Since arriving at my current job, I have found myself in a new and rather [ Read More ]
I find it amazing that the times when I typically realize I am having the best days are the days when I am peddle-to-the-metal, no-holds-barred, hair-on-fire busy as hell. Why is that? Today was spectacular… and I’m not entirely sure I can adequately quantify precisely why. I think the bottom line was that I had [ Read More ]