I took Uber to airport and chatted with the driver, a young African American lady. I learned that she is originally from Uganda. She works 2 jobs while studying criminal justice. When she said her dream is to be a ‘cop’…to be honest, I’m surprised…then I quickly realized the ‘bias’…by the news scrutiny, assumptions (e.g. …
Category Archives: Creativity
Energy
After an intense yoga practice, everybody was exhausted on the floor, the instructor said…think of your energy, you probably used 10% right now, where do you want to spend the rest of your energy today? Would you rather to spend on love, kindness or anger, hate…pretty ‘easy’ choice, right? Spend energy on what we want …
Story-Telling
Through Toastmaster, I’ve enjoyed and learned to tell stories in speech and conversation. In the past 2 weeks, I’ve learned a different kind of story-telling, to craft a story for the entire presentation, beyond/ besides stories (examples) in the presentation. One way is to use a timeline then dive deeper into key milestones or topics. …
Creativity
What is creativity? I attended my Toastmaster club’s Halloween-themed meeting and people brought in candy, pastry, desserts, etc. They were all tasty; one particularly stand out. It’s pealed tangerine with a little piece of celery stick out in the middle. It’s like a mini pumpkin, so simple and original, plus a bonus as the healthiest …
Halloween
Happy Halloween! A couple ‘first’ for me… 1st time to wear a costume – I’m a surgeon, thanks to my friend’s scrub. I made a necklace with a 3D-printed larynx and used a silicone spatula as a ‘knife’. 1st time to take all-level yoga class – a good sweat and taught by a high-energy ‘fox’ …
Straw
A few weeks ago I attended the Green Festival in Boston and one of the stand gave away a ‘straw kit’: a bag with a stainless steel straw and a thin brush (cleaner). I read that Starbucks is working a ‘strawless’ cap. Today I sipped a cocktail at happy hour through a ‘paper’ straw. The …
Toastmaster
I joined Saturday Toastmasters of Arlington meeting today. H was the table topic (impromptu speaking) master. Instead of simply asking people question/ giving topics. H gave us a structure ‘What, How, and Why’ and 3 minutes to think of the content (pick 1 thing to evaluate the speaker). The structure makes thinking on your feet …
Just Ask!
I arrived at airport and found out there is an earlier flight so I asked the agent if I can change. He looked at my check-in monitor and said changing option didn’t appear. There might not be seat left but I could ask the gate agent. I went to the gate and the agent told …
Special Trip
A special trip to visit aunt who has been through chemo, explore Iowa (a new state for me and getting close to achieve 1 of my bucket list to visit all 50 US states), and stay overnight on a tree house (another bucket list item). Aunt seems skinner, thinner-haired, yet in good spirit. As always, …
Work Around
In the first meeting to discuss the new initiative ‘code name’ and structure with key stakeholders, we encountered strong resistance (A expressed the objection and B walked out of the meeting). Later, I talked to A, a senior executive, privately to seek her support and advice before gathering the core team. I didn’t get a …