Friday, April 29, 2011

Take our kids to work

Yesterday I enjoyed my first paid speaking engagement.  Now I can put "professional speaker" on my resume, along with my public speaking prizes.

The crowd wasn't very demanding: 3- to 12-year-olds visiting the office for Take Our Kids to Work day.  After my speech, they had pizza and then they were supposed to go across the street for cotton candy and bean bag tosses.

My speech, of course, was entertaining and educational.  But for the rest of the day, what did these children learn?  That when Daddy and Mommy go to the office their bosses shake their hands and offer them hot chocolate?

When I visited my father in the office I saw the stock tickers.  When I visited my stepmother I saw the Linotype and the manual exchange switchboard.  That photocopy machine made my day.  Once I figured out how to use it, I wrote and illustrated books.  Unfortunately I wasn't invited back...

When my kids visited me in the office they watched me stare at the computer and yell at them if they interrupted me in mid-sentence.  Or they helped me address mass mailings. 

When they visit Lloyd, they see a real chem lab with spectrometers and safety glasses and everything.

In other words, my children and I saw real work.  I hope all those children who participated in Take Our Kids to Work Day yesterday saw a little of that as well.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Product Mix

A hint to the ladies of the Landmark Apostolic Church:

If the lady at the Shell Station at the Danville, PA, exit off Route 80 tells you that you need to bring in more peanut butter chocolates, do it.

She knows what her customers are asking for.

I like to buy local products, so I bought the coconut kind--that's all that was left.  I was sorry to have missed the peanut butter ones, though.

Anyway, good luck with your fundraising and happy Easter.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

We need more Brazilians

After hours of research, I conclude that the world would be a better place if more of us were Brazilian.

The research was at the airport, where I looked for people who flew more or less regularly to South America.  The Brazilians were uniformly courteous, even the ones who declined to take my survey.  How pleasant the world would be if more people were so civil.  I didn't even have to use my Googlely-translated script. I can't even fake Portuguese.

Though fewer of them actually took the survey, I'm proud to say that Spanish-speaking travelers complimented my pronunciation.  I credit Pimsleur, which is a great way to learn a language, better, in my opinion, than Rosetta Stone.  (Travel, of course, is the best way, but I don't do enough of that.)

Gracias lo mismo y buen viaje.

Friday, April 1, 2011

What the ???

Here's my LinkedIn "People You May Know" page today

It took me at least 22 seconds to figure out what was going on.

Poisson d'avril!