Happy Birthday to me...

Today I turned 39. I spent the day doing the usual tasks - getting the kids off to school and then up to the college office to get a dent put into the phone calls and emails that were missed while I was in Philly. I also wanted to get caught up on some reading of journal articles - it doesn't take long to get behind.

I ran across some books on leadership that I bought a years ago. It hit me, as I read over the margin notes, that I really believed I was going to make a difference. I really believed I was the 'bottle rocket and pepper pot' that my thesis advisor described me as.

Reality has an ironic way of pimp-slapping your life and it was kind of sad to come home and have to sort through the loose change container in my office to scrape up the $12 needed to pay for my birthday meal. I resolved myself to the reality that I was drastically changing the trajectory of my life when I stepped away from academics and consulting but that was a bit much! Fortunately my wife found the discount bin CDs I had misplaced so there was a gift for me.

I shouldn't be so mopey - the kids got me a football game for my birthday so we can play against each other. On a side note they played it all last week so they would be sure to beat me when we play!

Maybe its just realizing that I only have one year left to make it on one of those "Top 40 under 40" type lists and my career seems to have started into a screaming descent that would make a Stukka dive bomber pilot sweat rather than building to the planned crescendo. [okay that may be a bit drastic but there is some dissonance between where I want the church to be and where it is organizationally]

Maybe a good night's sleep is all I need. As Tony, my driver from the Philadelphia Airport, would say in his made-for-TV Italian accent "Whatevs...dats craze...fuggetabowdit!"

Migwec,

Ehkosit

A Crash Course in Community

Over the next four years a large part of my life (and therefore blog entries) will be marked by my pursuit of a PhD at Eastern University in Philadelphia.

The PhD program I am a part of is very interdisciplinary in nature. It involves students in three tracks: 1) Business, 2) Education and 3) Non-Profit. But from the word 'go' those three are mixed together. I am glad that I have had experience in all three because it would be quite daunting otherwise - it seems everybody is a heavy hitter in one of those those tracks (e.g., directors of programs at Ivy League institutions and addictions centres, leaders in major relief organizations, senior management in large corporations, etc.) . Not only are there people from different backgrounds but there is a geographic diversity as well. The cohort brings together people from all over the place - Left Coast, Right Coast, Africa, South America, and a growing number of Canucks (Eastern may need to consider starting a Ice Hockey Team). And in a field that will require us to study the impact of the Glass Ceiling, my cohort group has more women than men.

What is even more amazing than our differences is they way we have been able to connect with one another. Up until this week we were names on email headers - I didn't know anything about them, nor they about me. Before we travelled to Philadelphia we received a booklet that gave a little bio and picture of our fellow cohorters (cohortees ...cohortians...??) but I still had no idea what to expect. It did not take long to develop a sense of community within our group. Some people stepped up to make sure logistics were taken care of. Others became gatekeepers in online and in class discussions to make sure people were heard from. The locals made sure we all got the skinny on where to get the best Philly Cheese Steaks (whether locally or in historic Philadelphia) and have started to get a line on 76ers tickets (possibly even Eagles tickets for next Sept). There is a shared sense of mission in our midst - its not just about individuals achieving their goals - it is about the whole cohort graduating and being PHinisheD.

I have to admit that was a new experience for me. Most of my adult life I have been around doctoral students - my dad was a professor, I spent time in research-heavy degree at the honours and graduate levels. Doctoral students are a competitive lot - you don't get there without being determined and focused. There is certainly a comraderie in their ranks - but there is also a scarcity mentality that says there is only so much pie - resources like profs' time, research funding, TA positions, etc. - and the more pieces it is cut into means that there is less for me!! At times it can be quite cut-throat.

Although it is early into this journey it seems that this won't be experience at Eastern. We spent one afternoon in our interdisciplinary groups sharing research interests and how they could relate to Leadership Studies (and ultimately our dissertations). Nobody hogged the conch - everybody shared ideas from their backgrounds, suggested different angles to pursue or other resources to explore so that we all had the benefit from the diverse expertise around us.

My church's tagline is "A place to Belong, Believe and Become." We see these as the ways that we create true Christian Community (not just a buzz-word version of it). This is what my week in Phillie felt like. There is a long way to go but it is great to now I won't be journeying alone - I have my cohort, my church and my family with me. In an initiative as solitary as a PhD it is comforting to have this growing sense of community around me!

Migwec,
Ehkosit.

Not such a great start...

I got to the airport in good time, but when I tried to get checked in they told me that my suitcase was too heavy. This means I have to unpack it and transfer some books into my carry-on. The reason I had them in my checked luggage is that they are stinking heavy. As I do this I can feel the Superman stares of the other passengers waiting in line behind me...at this point the Air Canada representative announces that she's going to go on her break as it looks like it will take me awhile to get my stuff all together (I feel the stares intensify into something more like the laser blasts from Cyclops than xray vision from Clark Kent).

I hobble off to the boarding gate like a hobbit on laundry day - an odd assortment of socks books and various sundry spilling out of my computer bags. I catch the attentive eye of the Security staff and I know this is not going to be a laid back start to my trip. At 5am I look like a crazed terrorist in general - but now I am definitely marked as a person of interest. The guard makes me take off my shoes and belt (and manages to break the button on my jeans in the process). I think everything will be fine once I get to my plane - but I am wrong. Nothing is in its proper spot - I can't find my earphones, the book and notepad are no longer together and I can't find where I re-stuffed my pens. I feel a familiar warming of my neck as the passengers I held up at the check and security gate are now waiting for me to solve the case study in chaos theory that is my carry-on luggage!

Things seem to settle down as we start the first leg of the journey. However once we get to cruising altitude the guy beside me pulls out the newspaper and starts to read it. But not in the "I'm on an airplane so I should confine myself to the small amount of space represented by my seats footprint" manner - no he decides to stretch out and read like he is at home and has picked this week to be the time he has decided to take the William Shatner / All-Bran Challenge. In synchronised swimming precision the person in front decides to adjust his seat into full recline mode. He only stops when the chair cannot go any further back without driving my knees into the cargo hold (but he takes a few runs at it before being sure this is the case).

I decide to resign myself to the discomfort - but I am not making this journey alone and decide to take these two travelers along with me. I move the magazines and drive one knee into Capt Lazy Boys kidney (if I am going to lose the feeling in my legs I decide to make him pee blood for the rest of the week). I also decide to claim my fair share of the arm rest so that Bowel Buddy can't get his arms into a comfortable 90-degree angle.

UPDATE: In a touching homage to Patrick Swazey's passing the guy in front of me has managed to pass my guard and has me in a position where I am straddling him...if he starts to throw a pot (a la Ghost) on his drop down tray I may need to strangle him with the dorky vest he is wearing - or at least stare at his neck until he feels my disapproval.

Oh Well we can only go up from here!

Migwec,
Ehkosit.

new heights of Nerd-ines

Return of the N.E.R.D. pt II

As a part of my PhD there are three site visits to Eastern University. Beyond those three weeks I also have a number of "Synchronous" and "Asynchronous" online classes...also known as "Webinars." In preparation for these I have had to dig out my old webcam and throw on a microphone headset. Yikes it is too Geekalicious for ya babee...

Its neat to have the classroom interaction and dialogue but since these will be the first images I have of everybody in my cohort I am afraid I won't recognize them without dorky headsets on - I may pack my to wear around the hotel just in case.

Every time I see myself up on my computer screen I think I look like an aging version of that youtube kid singing that stupid Numa Numa song.

I Got Me Some Great Kids...

While I was taking the CELTA my daughter went in for minor surgery - she was having her tonsils and adenoids taken out. That went well and she beat me home that day. However, the next week was a string of late night visits to emergency until, finally, she wound up back in the Alberta Children's Hospital with IVs and tubes.

Needless to say it made the coursework a little less of a priority and created a few long nights. I am 6'3" and am somewhat 'big-boned' so the sleep that I got in the window-sill in her room was not the REM-producing ideal I would normally shoot for while taking classes being
'offered under the auspices' of the University of Cambridge. Long story less long - she is fine except for a voice that I still don't instantly recognize and I think I will still get my Pass Plus credential from the course (equivalent to honours or distinction).

It made me spend a lot of my spare time at class thinking about how much I love my kids. They really are great.

Seoul Savvy Fashions

I haven't been very diligent in posting - not that anybody would notice b/c I'm the only person that actually visits this blog (and I have to admit it bores me to tears). But just so I can claim to be a blogger (very important so that I can keep up with the other cool cats out there) I had better actually blog. I think that I could single handedly bring down the the whole twitter/tweeting craze by posting frequent updates from my life!! Anyhoo I was busy with a class all last month (I mentioned it in an earlier post that nobody read) and so I wasn't able to keep up with my usual torrid pace of 1 post every 3 weeks.

I did, however, squeeze in some time to doodle fellow commuters, learners and diners during my CELTA course in downtown Calgary. I was especially enthralled by the panoply of Almost-English fashion items...although by far my favourite was one young chap with a t-shirt commemerating the death of Michael Jackson. For those not acquainted with the subtle nuances of Konglish (Korean-English) fashion - the lower case 'l' and upper case 'i' look very similar (l and I) which would have never been noticed by any but the most veteran of Seoul Savvy fashionistas if the manufacturer hadn't in turn capitalised the l making it L...which is actually quite easy to differentiate (L and I). The end result is a splendid t-shirt saying "MJ RLP 2009"

Here are some lunch time/commute time sketches as well:

Move over Soul Patch...its the Forehead Mustache

The school my kids go to doesn't offer bus service - some days its a pain but most often it is good because it is one more point of intersection in their lives. I was listening to my kids talking about their day and they were talking about some adults they saw when they were doing some community service. As my oldest son struggled to describe and differentiate two men that were there he dropped the funniest description of a man with (somewhat) unique facial hair growth. The fella apparently had a world-class "unibrow" going, but this is a common (read 'overused') term my son is (thankfully) unfamiliar with and so he described the gent as "the man that was growing a mustache where his eyebrows should be." The best part is he wasn't trying to be mean - its just the way he saw the man.