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Idle hands, it’s said, are the Devil’s workshop. Let me say, though, if the Devil is still relying on human handwork, then he’s extremely behind on technology! Someone should tell him we’ve invented computers and robotics, and he can start shutting down some of those idle hand workshops and laying off the workers.
A [...]

In the cult classic “Fight Club”, Brad Pitt plays as Tyler Durden, a charismatic anarcho-primitivist who frees lots of men from the lethargic oppression of consumer society. Encouraging men to pick fights with one another, Tyler dismantles deep-held patterns of social interaction, short-circuiting the autopilot mechanisms by which those men used to lead their [...]

My biggest problem making conversation was I’d run out of things to say. And then, to make matters worse, I’d consciously try to come up with something. The universal law of conversation is spontaneity: if you think about what you’re gonna say before the words come out of your mouth, they’re guaranteed to [...]

It has been said that our entire lives are just preparation for the few brief moments that really matter. Aside from those precious fleeting moments, the rest is autopilot. Days slip through our fingers like grains of sand while we act out scripts. Nor are these the scripts of an exciting play; it would be [...]

In civilized society, we go to any extreme to avoid fighting. Long gone are the duels of the past, long outgrown is the namecalling of grade school. And yet, cruelty continues to manifest itself in our actions, sneaking in as passive aggressiveness. We give the “cold shoulder” to our most dearly loved ones, even though [...]

This is Part 2 of my liveblog of the February 10, 2009 club-level Toastmasters Speech Contest. The evaluation portion of the contest, where evaluators compete for the best evaluation. You can read part 1 here: Speech Contest Part 1. In case you don’t know, in Toastmasters, not only are there speakers, who prepare speeches in [...]

I recently participated in the club level of the bi-annual Toastmasters International Speech and Evaluation Contest. In case you didn’t know, Toastmasters is an international speaking club, and you can read more about it at my article, Introduction To Toastmasters. It’s a way to practice your public speaking skills, no matter where you are in [...]

When you hang out with the same person, you tend to borrow language patterns from each other. What my girlfriend and I discovered is that there’s actually a certain leader-follower interaction going on. In a relationship where both partners have the same first language and dialect, the difference between the languages is so small that [...]

I just got back from a Toastmasters meeting. This time, I took copious notes so that I can share the whole thing with you as a Toastmasters Liveblog. In case you don’t know, Toastmasters is an international public speaking and leadership club. Members take turns filling speaking roles as well as leadership roles. It’s an [...]

In a relationship, it’s important that someone take leadership and initiative. Without leadership or initiative, the relationship is in danger of stagnating or becoming boring. It takes some leadership to keep a relationship fresh and new. Leadership to move the relationship in new directions, so that it increases in depth and dimension.
The Dating Dilemma is [...]