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Posts Tagged ‘wisdom’

Why I Love Google!

Any good sales person will tell you that packaging sells. Any good performer will tell you presentation is everything.  In magic, for example, the only person who really worries or even cares about the method is the magician.  If the performance is there, the rest falls by the wayside.  Sure you need substance, knowhow and skill.  But if you can’t present that skill then it doesn’t really do a whole lot of good, much like having intelligence without wisdom.

Many moons ago when I was working in the bank a co-worker of mine had obviously watched a magician make a solid object penetrate another solid object.  This co-worker came up to me the next day and asked if it was indeed possible to accomplish such a feat.  I performed Perfect Pen. In which you stab a pen through a dollar bill and when you remove the pen from the bill there is no hole in the bill   I had him write his name on a dollar bill and then proceeded to take the pen and punch a hole through the bill leaving the pen penetrating part way through the bill.  When I removed the pen and handed him the unharmed bill the look on his face was priceless, but I wasn’t going to lie.  As I handed him his bill back, I told him no, it is not possible, but as long as I can convince you that I can, then what difference does it make?

I don’t claim to be very smart, but I do believe I can make some people believe I am much smarter than I am.  Google is my favorite weapon.  Google makes me look absolutely brilliant.   I love it when I’m at work and somebody asks me a question.  It can be something as simple as, “Who sings that song?”  Or “How many pounds are in 40 kilograms?”  Or how about, “When did Napoleon die?”  The question doesn’t matter I have (or at least Google has and therefore I have) the answers. 

At work we have so many different types of equipment and for some reason each piece of equipment has a different power cord, (even thought each piece of equipment does the same thing) For example we may carry 5 different types of modems, each one takes its own type of power cord, but we get power cords from different companies so even through two may be the same they look different, worse some look the same and are completely different.  It is a constant battle to figure out what goes with what.  Some will give you the power in amps and others in watts.   I was sitting at my desk and a tech poked his head into the office and asked me what the equivalent of 450 amps was to watts.   I told him I would be right there.  Once he left I quickly typed it into Google and came back and showed him what he needed.  Now the tech thinks I’m brilliant.  The downside of course is now the tech thinks I’m brilliant and comes to me with all his questions. 

Thanks Google.

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Advice?

I like Plinky a lot of good questions are asked, or at least questions that make you think when you run out of things to write about, or have stuff to write but are trying to meet a self imposed deadline and need something that is quick and dirty.

A topic brought up was what is the best advice you ever recieved? Given more time I’m sure I can come up with plenty of pearls o’ wisdom I have gotten over the years but the one that comes to mind came from a teacher at Dawson College in Montreal.

The teacher wisely said: ‘If you have nothing to say, then say nothing’ I wish I would follow it more. I often think I say way to much. On the other side of this coin if I followed the advice, I could probably go for days without speaking. I just read this to my wife and she started to laugh and I am thinking others who know me well may agree I don’t really say all that much to begin with, I am not exactly what one would call a ‘social animal’ but honestly I often hear myself speaking and the voice in my head is screaming, ‘Brian! shut the heck up!‘ but I just keep talking.

Another great piece of advice that my wife just reminded me about was from the movie, The Big Lebowski If you have not seen the movie then you simply must go see it, NOW! Why are you still sitting here reading this blog, go on, get the Big Lebowski. Basically the mob storms into Lebowski’s house and wants the money he owes and they piss on his carpet. The only problem is they got the wrong guy. But Lebowski wants justice so he goes through all these shenanigans to get another carpet from the mob. At one point he is sitting on the sidewalk, his girlfriend is gone, he lost his job his house, and his car is on fire and all because he tried to get justice for a pissed on carpet. So he turns to his friend played by John Goodman and says, ‘…I could have just had a pissed on carpet.’ Point is don’t cut off your nose despite your face.

And one more from the book The Agony and the Ecstasy Michelangelo just recieved a gift of a horse from the Madici family. Of course the horse costs more in upkeep then Michelangelo can afford. Mike’s dad says, ‘Never accept a gift that eats’ A bit of advice we can all use now and again.

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