The Urban Legend

Have you ever heard of certain Urban Legends? It's funny how these things seem to have a life of their own in their retelling. Some can be suspenseful or down right frightening - others come with lessons learned. Maybe even acutionary tales. But what if the urban legend is about you? Or in this case, me?

This talk started as an attempt to be humorous. In hindsight, of course, I can now laugh at what happened. I normally start with how the story had to be told.

One day, when I was still head of the training team for the Institute of Advanced Comtuper Tehcnology, a.k.a. I/ACT,I came upon a few of my staff. One of them opens up to me saying "Sir... si (let's call him Ariel - not his real name) nagpaalam. Di daw makakapasok kasi may hangover. Naparami nang inom. (trnslated as the staff can't come to work, because of a major hangover).

I stared at them and simply said, "Unacceptable" "If you want to know why, ask (I point to our inhouse house-cleaning staff, let's call him Terry - not his real name either). So my staff proceed to interview Terry.

THey find out about the time I went to work, sporting a major hangover. How I looked tired, and upon realizing that the manuals were not yet bound (using a plastic spiiral binder), I called Terry to ask if he know how to bind the manuals. Naturally, he said no. So I look at the equipment, assess how it is used. Experimented with one manual, with Terry all the while watching me. And I successfully bind one manual. I turn to him and ask if he cna now do them, and he says 'yes'.

Thank God... I proceed to the rest room to hurl.

Back tracking a bit. How did I get to this predicament? I was an active member of the Junior Chamber of the Quezon City "Capitol" chapter. It so happened that at that time, I was a Director of the club, and we had Japanese counterparts in the country. Naturally, we had to take care of them - and this meant entertaining them - meaning a binge night out. One that lasted too long (at 2am), and with too many to drink.

I was meaning to call a counterpart to take my place for a class the next day - a Saturday. Unfortunately, I got too busy to call. Sooo... I got home really drunk - it was a wonder how I drove home - but drive (oh so slowly and carefully) I did. I noticed my wife was asleep, so I went to take a shower... and hurled... with the presence of mind to hurl in the toilet bowl and not the sink. I was still lucid enough to know that if I used the sink, it would clog. I even hugged the bowl lovingly because it felt cool to my acheing head.

I wnet to bed exhausted. and slept soundly.

Until I bolted up four hours later. I realized I had a class and no one to replace me. So I took a cold shower - anything to wake me up and make me aware. I drove to work (in Greenhills) still smelling the alcohol in my breath despite the toothbrush. I needed to get to work and try calling my colleague form there. If he could take my place, that would be great. If not, at least I'm there.

It was a whole day of lecture, with just manuals to distribute - yes, those manuals that remained unbound in the technician's room.

It seemed that Terry did a great job, and he noticed my favoring the water dispenser - drinking a lot of liquid. I finally called my colleague, and got an answering machine instaed. He was being cute and composed the message this way. "Woof woof, hehe, this is Gali (the dog), my master isn't home right now, but if yo leave your message and contact details, he will get to you as soon as he returns.

Out of frustration I said "Gali, this is Butch, please tell your boss to come to the office as soon as he hears this message. I;m not feeling well, and I need him to take over my class." I was impatiendt and used a rather pissed tone.

I then got ready to start the class - but before I did, I hurled again in the rest room. Wet my face, and wiped - then proceeded to do the lessons. The topic was Into to Local Area Networking, a topic I know in and out... but that morning, it was difficult to compose my thoughts - but I soldiered on.

Eventually, the morning break happened - which gave me a moment to rest my head. I think I asked for a paracetamol, or something. There was none, so I asked Terry to buy some in the nearest drug store. I took in more water, then prepared my next set of lectures.

To say that the day was difficult would be an understatement... but to my credit, I was able to bridge the topics together ans still sound believable (at least I hoped). Come lunchtime my colleague - Gali's boss, finally came. Thing is there was just around two more hours of training left, so it seemed useles for him to still take over. I said I could continue - though I explained the situation to him. To his credit, he did not laugh at me - his boss.

My addled brain being what it was, I had a participant who looked intersting, and started oepning and closing her legs - I don't know if she was aware of what she was doing, and honestly... I was not in my right mind to appreciate it. :D The class eventually ended, my colleague stayed on - just in case, and when we studied the evaluation forms, I averaged 4 out of 5 in my scale... five being Excellent, and four above average. I couldn't care less. I went home, exhausted but having done my job despite my predicament. I think I slept when I got home. I'm sure I did.

Now... imagine how Terry saw things.

Wanting to impress upon my staff, he most likely told everything he observed. How I helped him with the manuals, how I went to the restroom to hurl several times... note, I was careful not to make a mess, lest any guest use the rest room and complain. And how I soldiered on despite experiencing a hangover. How I taught despite my condition, and still got good eval results.

How my staff realized how things went and how their colleague really could not use a hangover as an excuse, because if I could come in and teach in that predicament, i would not accept such as an excuse form them. :D

Thanks to Terry, my urban legend; that of being a tough as nails professional - 'take and give no excuse', show up even with a real bad hangover kind of trainer. was born.

I cna now laugh about it - and when I tell the tale, I'm sure my friends would laugh about it as well. My staff's resepct for me rose by sevearl notches. :D

It pays to be an urban legend.

Understanding Me

This is a project that I've done at least three times before. So I try to find a different angle or way to tackle the project. In this case, I tried a different approach - going outside the box to describe my style. It makes the project feel fresh, at the very least.

How do I communicate? That is a question I rarely ask myself. After all, we’re taught to talk at an early age. But talking isn’t communicating. After all, Communicating is a sharing of ideas - and talking is just one of two sides… the talker, and the listener.

So… am I a listener? Any Toastmaster can be a talker - we’re trained to talk… and talk real good. But are we also trained to listen?

Yes. After all, if we are to give feedback later, we need to listen, we need to absorb, discern what we heard, then consider alternatives to making the talk better… then, and only then can we give feedback.

But how about outside of Toastmasters? Do I practice this as well? Here’s how I’d look like in a meeting.

I’m quiet:

I am normally the quiet guy - but not because I’m shy. If I need to report, I can easily do that - but I’m not one to hog the limelight and speak for hours in front of others. Not that I can’t mind you - I have been a Corporate Trainer for decades. I’m used to lecturing for hours.

So when I say I’m the quiet guy in the room, it doesn’t mean I can’t participate - on the contrary, I am participating by listening, understanding, maybe asking a clarificatory questions. I’m in absorbing and observing mode - specially during team meetings.

I’m a sponge:

Soaking up the ideas and or contents presented me.

Given what I hear or get shared with, I can think, I can extrapolate - then squeeze out what I’ve absorbed - I share what I know, or understand… maybe even infer some things.
This is another speech I composed for a Toastmaster Pathwya project. One that focuses on communication styles.

This is me showing you that I listened, and understand.

I’m like crystal… or I’d like to be.

I try to break down complex ideas into something easier to understand. Again, this is from my background as a Business Analyst.

I know how systems work (with procedur)
I know how developers think (logically),
I know how business owners think (what is easier to implement and does not cost too much),
I know how end users think - okay… maybe that last one can be a challenge.

But I can explain to them in simple terms what the system, as designed, is suppose to help them.

In that sense, you could say I’m an interpreter. I tell management what can be done and how things can be more logical - and I tell the developers what needs to be done… what rules need to be followed - even if they sound illogical.

Lastly… I can be a conductor.

Communicating how to put things together - which must come first, and why.

I appreciate a symphony - not cacophony. And you get such symphony when people collaborate smoothly.

If that happens, I know I communicated well. If not… well, we try again.

Bonus (if there is time), I do a plus / delta analysis with my team, always emphasizing the lessons learned… and great things we could repeat

This is me… this is what I do, and how you can understand me.

How about you? Have you given yourself a thought? Do you understand you?

Pasigarbo DisCon - Sunday: B Reunion, International Speech Contest Finals, lunch, and back to Manila

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A bit of a confession. I drank a lot Saturday evening, so much so that I felt it Sunday morning. In fact I was thinking of sleeping off the morning. However I had a shceduled Division B past Governors and Directors reunion with Dennies Siongco, a Cebu-based past Governor at 7am. You could say I did not really enjoy my buffet breakfast that morning. I enjoyed the reunion, but was in passive mode the entire time.

I even felt like hurtling in the middle of the get , so I excused myself and went to the rest room to hurle my breakfast - thankfully, Dennies and the otehrs did not really notice how I looked and felt (yes, I did not shower for this reunion either - but that's okay since my room was airconditioned, and I did not really sweat.

The next activity was a talk by Aaron Beverly, but I opted to go back to sleep some more. Get up later and attend whatever else I can. I dozed for at least two more hours - took a hot shower, then showed up late at the pavillion. After all, it wouldn't do any good for me to skip the rest of the DisCon. I had to represent N in whatever capacity I still could.

I would like to thank, my good friend Glenda, who offered to return to her hotel room to get me a bottle of water mixed with Berocca. This really helped me counter my hangover, and I could continue with the day. The rest of it was breezing through the International Speech contest, and taking group shots because we know after luch would be the closing ceremonies, and wveryone would then be getting ready to check out and leave for the airport.

While I was having lunch, my HOLA colleagues went to ollect me so we could finally get a group picture by the beach. You see, we'd planned this since day one, but we were all too busy with different things to get the gang together.

As my flight was around 9pm, and apparently, was in the same plane as Dan and a few other Toastmasters, we were to be brought to the airport around 7pm. Meanwhile, it was enjoy the rest of the day. At the airport we again saw Toastmasters - all ounging around, waiting for their respective flights. Ours was a much delayes one though, and what was supposed to be a 10pm arrival at Manila, turned into a 4am arrival instead. Man, that was bad. But as you can see, while waiting at Mactan airport, we were still all smiles - that was until we had to crowd around to board the plane. That in itslef deserves anotehr entry. After all, it shouldn't affect the overall positive vibe of Pasigarbo sa Sugbu.

Daghang Salamat to all the organizers of this DisCon. It was highly enjoyable and meorable despite some hiccups. Looking forward to the next Discon, this time, in Angeles, Pampanga.

Now I just have one question... what do I do with all these new wardrobes?

Pasigarbo DisCon - Saturday: Finals, DTM Aaron's fun talk, lunch and Director's Ball

Saturday... in Mactan... I'd think it was the 4th of July... (from Saturday in the Park by Chicago)

After breakfast, we all trooped to the pavillion to listne to our special guest, World Champion for Public Speaking Aaron (of the Indian wedding, groom's best man protect shoes at all costs talk - look it up in YouTube). It was a light talk, and I was half listening and half going around the venue. My first action? I noticed PDD Ninio enjoying a massage, so I opted to have one as well. Shiatsu pressure points massage, and the guy really did a number on my arms and shoulders. Man... that hurt... so... good. (Yes I can be a masochist when it comes to massages). The masseus offered to use lotion, but hot as it was in the tant, I did not want to feel sticky with intructions not to take a shower soon. Luckily, no picture of me grimmacing was taken.

One other thing the organizers wanted us to do was to have an outfit per occasion. This time, it was to come across as Havanna inspired outfits. So don't judge me - this was as Havanna-inspired as I could get.

I think it would have been better to wear the shirt out than tucked in. And did I mention the heat? THe Pavillion's aircon could not handle the heat - I would also say it was because the canvas roof did not have any insulation against the sun's heat. Suffice to say, my favorite location was near the Airconditioner's cool air release path. Aaron's talk came and went - and I did not have the notes taken - anyway, it's supposed to be recorded, so we'll eventually get to watch it again later.

We then all witnessed the Finals for Table Topics and Evaluation contests.

After this hot morning, we had a hotter lunch time. I simply wanted toeat and return to the pavillion - while others had the patience to walk around and have pictures taken by the beach and elsewhere. I just wanted to enjoy the cool atmosphere.

The afternoon also saw us witnessing the Humorous Finals. A prelude to what was to come next.

Next on the agenda was the one thing that many expected to be difficult. It was election time, and one of the things we were looking forward to was having the passing of a resolution by the Reallignment Committee, chaired by Past International Director Dotty Du, and as members of the committee, she opted to tap all the Division Directors to have a complete representation of District 75.

Honestly, we (the committee members) expected some pushback from certain people / divisions because they were not fans of our suggestion for all new Divisions to start fresh with an all new lettering process. Some simply wanted the option to choose and keep their old Division letters. It wa a bit sad that one such proponent for this move was Division B, my old Division from the vantage point that I was a Past Division B Governor. Many were simply adamant to keep the old letter simply because they did not see why everyone needed to start from scratch.

During our deliberations in the committee and votation, we had a close votation - and a tie-breaker for such an idea. But the thing is, we throughly discussed all these options. Anyway, we were finally surprised when the motion was passed with hardly ang oposition. Yes, there was a discussion - which got a bit heated, and lord knows I was ready to talk as well, butafter all was said... the motion to adapt the committee's realignment suggestions as a whole, passed. Whem...

We ended up really late, but there was still one more event to attend, plus it needed another attire cahnge.

It was a night of Sunset colors. The Director's ball - something that usually is a formal occasion, was now being presented as an outdoor, tropical, sunset event. I was really tempted to just stay put and not change clothes anymore, but it was also a chance to take a quick shower after all that hot morning and afternoon. So yeah, backto the hotle, have a quick shower, cool down a bit, then take teh shuttle to the Director's Ball dinner. Shouldn't be hard and complicated, right? Except that while we were in teh shuttle, it suddenly rained - hard. Now mind you, the Ball was happening in the outdoors. I can only imagine the chaos that ensued then the downpour occured.

When I arrived with the rest of the shuttle delgates, we were met with a table of people under tenst with the outdoor tenst unoccupied, waiters moving tirelessly drying places up - changing table cloths, or simply removing them. The food, unfortunately was not all saved - water-logged server trays and some were moved undert tenst - but not all. Plates were also wet. I had to seek some dry tissues or table cloths to dry up a plate I could use from the wet buffet table, and then go to the dry ones to grab what I could eat.

this proves that we had resilience. After all, what would we do? Complain? Leave? Gripe?

As the night went on, we all decided to forget the incident. Eat what we could then enjoy the entertainment - after all, the rain stopped, and the party continued. Goes to show how game we all can be. Focusing on what we can enjoy.

As Toastmasters, we still showed our smiles. One downpour will not spoil our evening.

Pasigarbo DisCon - Friday: Run-offs, and Opening Ceremonies

Friday morning started with an early Buffet breakfast for Director Dan and myself. After all, call time to the District Run-offs was at 7:30am. So we wend down to eataround six - ready to face the day. I won't bore you with details as to what we ate - this isn't the blog entry for that.I'll just say that breakfast was filling - and we would need the energy to work through a long day. You see, the Convention has not yet started, so there would be no lunch served to the delegates - unless you were party to helping the Run-offs er... run off.

As Division N's Director, I needed to be on Batch two's location to watch my contestants compete. Though I would have also wanted to watch Batch one, because HOLA's contestants were there. Ah, the travails of having these simultaneous events happening. THe venue of batch two was also st the Belmont Hotel - just beside Savoy, So after breakfast, Direk Dan and I went to Belmont. He as a judge for the first two contests. He would later transfer back to Savoy to catch the last two contests.

A bit of a back story, before we continue. The evening before run-offs, and before the welcome dinner, we - District Council, had a quick meeting to discuss what would happen (hence my watching Division N's competition, as the Director), and I volunteered for an additional task - that of being a 'watcher'. My role, disuade Toastmasters from taking pictures and videos of the contest. There would be assigned media coverage people for the constest, so the DisCon organizers thought that the members should sit back and watch - and not take pictures, nor videos. As a watcher, I (and anotehr volunteer) would watch the audience - and if we see someone taking photos or videos, we would be armed with laser pointers to signal the Toastmaster to stop what they were doing.

So, there I was, watching and monitoring the crowd - and true enough, I caught two Toastmasters in the act. I later caught a third one - but the point was, our group was able to limit the taking of videos and pictures. I watched Division N's contestants - noticing a few discrepancies in their delivery, but in the end, two N contestant moved on to the Finals - Humorous and Evaluation. On a side note, we later heard that our room had the better acoustics, and the otehr site was not strict with the picture-taking consideration. This is something that future organizers will have to consider. After all, it didn't seem fair to the people at our location that we were strict and the other side lax.

Anyway...

The next call time for us was 4:30pm for the Street Dance / parade to the event's place where the Opening Ceremonies would be.` All Directors were to also wear a Pasigarbo t-shirt... basically a limited release shirt only for organizers, Directors and VIPS, so yeah, glad I have one, as seen in this picture with Director Dan, myself and TM Marge. Direk Dan and I were wearing the shirt. Marge was a bit more formal because she would be singing the National Anthem later. We paraded to the beach area of Newtown where the Opening Ceremonies started as evening came - and boy were we glad for that too, because the heat and humidity was intense. Despite this, we were all having fun. The trio started the parade of Toastmasters after some street dancers, then we all followed, and as Division N, we arrived last. Along the way, posing with the tarpoline posters of N's contestants.

A minor huccup for the organizers... when we arrived there was no reserved table for us, hence we ran our of a tableto use. I asked the organizers to correct this and they later added another table for us. It took some time, but it finally happened. Meanwhile everyone else was linnig up for dinner - so yeah, we kinda ran out of food too. Bummer... but both eventually got resolved. Still, it was a ggod time, and the Fiesta Atmosphere that I mentioned I'd be looking for was finally here.

As the program officially started, we had the parade of banners, and I carried Division N's banner to the stage.

There were dance exhibits with Lapu Lapu and Magellan, and the rest of the evening was a large party with music, fireworks and fellowship. I hopped around between the N corwd and the H crowd as much as I could - but I also wandered around greeting friends and having pictures taken. The crowd enjoyed themselves and I eventually got tired and had to walk back to the hotel because there was also a free concert nearby, and the streets were closed with a sea of humanity. As I was winding down to sleep, Dan comes into the room and says a group of people from H were thinking of having more beers at a place nearby, so I got up and accompanied him to Chicken and Beer where we met up with a couple more Toastmasters to continue talking, and laughing.

We ended around 1am... so much for sleeping early. Tomorrow would be another activity-filled day - but before that, breakfast buffet again around 6am.

Pasigarbo DisCon! - Thursday, pre-DisCon

In a previous entry, I talked about how I was expecting the Cebu DisCon to have a Fiesta atmosphere... and it did not dissapoint! In fact, the DisCon delivered in spades. Let me share my personal experience here.

I'll post things on a per day basis, so the blog itself won't be too long a read. Thurday, April 24:
My flight to Cebu was at 7am, and touchdown was around 9. Umfortunately, I was unable to disembark on time to join a morning boat activity (with jet skis and para-sailing), ah well... I got to rest a bit in the room I shared with another Division Director, Dan. Dan arrived earlier, and got ot join said trip, so I had the room to myself for the rest of the morning and lunchtime.

I decided to sleep, since I had not slept properly the night before while waiting for my arranged pick-up and trip to the airport. Unfortunately, I was awakened by someone in the doorbell - and I apparently received a welcome platter. Unfortunately, the name in the card was someone else, so I did not touch the platter's contents until I got a 'go signal' from District Director Jot. After all, it would be poor form for me to eat someone else's welcome platter. I later learned that the platter was given most arriving Toastmasters, so it really was safe for me to eat someone else's platter - he probably got mine. Anyway, I took a shower, then slept. I would eat later when I felt more rested.

When I finally went down to the lobby and out the hotel to seek out lunch, I bumped into Direk Jonathan (Division L Director), and Area Directors Karen, and Jon - all three are members of CITI Toastmasters, and apparently, their club President, Nancy came a day earlier, and was enjoying some cayak time, even as we met in the lobby.. I then sought out lunch; ending up getting a chicken with rice meal in 7-11 (what can I say, I'm cheap). The other places were full, so I avoided them. The weather reminded me of summer, and why I would prefer staing in the hotel. So I bought lunch 'to go', and returned to my room.

The next activity would be the Welcome Dinner for foreign Toastmaster guests and VIPs (past District Governors/Directors) and World Champion for Public Speaking, Aaron. So I opted to go register and get my DisCon kit. in the afternoon, then just resting until the time to get to the poolside area where the dinner would be held. I got in early and sat in on Sulo Advanced TMC's meeting, get together - leading up to dinner.

My first option for dinner? Why, the lechon, of course. After all... when in Cebu, we need to have Cebu Lechon. After which I selected other items in tidbits, then some non-alcoholic drinks, and dessert.

Some Toastmasters from Divison N started arriving, and since we had more than enough food, I said it was okay for them to join us. Most of them were from the ING Toastmasters club and GSM. Then the fellowship started. Aside from chatting with each other and having pictures taken, we were regaled by a singer, and guitarist - purely a laid back atmosphere. Then people were asked to render a song - one per table (at least) and I was selecte to represent our table. I gamely agreed, and when it was finally my turn to sing, I chose a simple, yet poignant classic - Misty. Even the female singer agreed that my choice was a great song. I rendered it with little effort, and that was that. I opted to return to our room, looking forward to a good sleep, and need to wake up and go down for Buffet breakfast.