~Wednesday~ This morning I rode in to work on the Wolfline (NCSU’s bus line) instead of the city bus. An international student from India standing in the aisle in front of my seat had on a t-shirt with this imprinted on it, which made me chuckle:
In the category of: [hover over image for help]
I received an e-mail from Miss Jennifer Oswald, 21, from the Sudan, who among other conflama (conflict + drama), lost both of her parents in a plane crash, has an uncle who conspired and sold her father’s belongings and has now threatened to assassinate her, and would like me to help her place $8.5 million in a more profitable business venture in my country.
Whew! You got a lot going on, girl! Regretfully, you have violated the number one communication consideration: Know your audience.
You lost me at:
- All caps in the subject line of your e-mail
- A typo in your subject line
- An ejaculation of thanks to the (capital G) God
To your credit however, in spite of including a description of yourself as “dark in complexion, a loving romantic and caring angel,” you did have the good sense to say later in the letter, “I have chosen to contact you after my prayers and I believe that you will not betray my trust. But rather take me as your own sister,” and not as “your own wife.” Good job.
If anyone would like to see the full extent of Ms. Oswald’s conflama, her letter in its entirety has conveniently been posted on 419baiter.com.
At the end of the day on Monday, I showed my boss’s boss, Stan, a presentation I had fleshed out for him, and in going over it, he had several ideas of things he’d like to change, which was fine with me. I’m a firm believer in making a presentation “your own” when you’re giving one that you’ve asked someone else to help create.
My contribution to this one was in organizing the way we might present what we had to present for the particular audience we were presenting to. I was happy for him to then take it, and as I said, make it his own.
I try not to get “married” to pieces that I write or information that I develop at work. The important thing is that, in the end, they evolve into something that meets their purpose. Besides, it’s not like I didn’t get paid for the time I put into doing my part, even if it gets changed or even discarded. 🙂
Well, this morning, about an hour before the presentation, I looked at the final update that Stan had made, to which he’d added a few bullets here and there to a couple of slides, and broke up at least one slide into two slides.
He stuck his head into my office just as I had finished looking at it, and I said, “It looks great Stan!”
To which he replied, “I hardly made any changes to it at all.”
“I know,” I said, and then we both cracked up. I was grateful that he laughed with me. 😉
An hour later he did the presentation to the Staff Senate and it all went well. Sarah and I were there, but we didn’t say much as our real goal was to let the Staff Senate articulate their communication problems so that we could go back and think about what IT tools might help solve some of their problems.
I walked back from the meeting purposely to pass through The Brickyard, where today starts a three-month stint of “bringing the farmers’ market to campus.” I thought it was going to be a much bigger thing than it actually was, so in that sense, I was disappointed.
What they did have looked good, though, and I could see myself making some purchases over the next few months. It’s going to be every Wednesday, from 10-3, on the Brickyard—specifically over in front of the library breezeway.
Dancing was fun tonight. It started off way dead in there, but picked up significantly by 9:45-10:00. Carl taught Georgia Winder for the lesson.
I had a great swing dance with Tom (bearzendurham). He’s a great lead, and that dance is always fun with him even though I start off with trepidation doing a dance I’m not that familiar with in front of a crowd. Thanks, Tom!
With regards to affirmations, two different people tonight started a conversation with me to the effect of, “Hey, I’d like to confide in you about something…”