Journeyman Stories

It was with surprise that I learned from my friend Emmanuel that reading my last blog about him really made his day. I was just sharing what has been my experience with him, but I didn't know that it would have a great impact on him. I started writing my blog on October 16, 2009 (yes, it has been 3 years!!!), and I haven't missed a week ever since. I have been late posting it, but I haven't missed a week. I will take it as a huge accomplishment on my part (standing ovation for me please...) To tell the truth (not that I was lying before), I did not want to publish my posts at first. What would people think of me? That was my fear. Or, would people even read them? That was another one. It took me several weeks before I could post them on my Facebook page. I have never looked back. I must admit that it took every bit of courage that I had to put myself out there. I had to accept to be vulnerable, and understand that, once the story is out there, it won't belo...

I have been friend with Emmanuel for years now. I call him the Movie Guru. He lives and breathes by movies. He even has a blog called “Movies that Motivate/The Adventures of Motivatorman”. I have a weekly talk with Emmanuel, and very often we share about what we learned through movies. This guy can watch at least ten movies a week. It's hard to keep up with him. One movie caught my attention last week. It is called “The Change-Up” with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman. One drunken night, two friends admit that they wish they had the other's life. Mitch (Reynolds) thinks Dave has it all: a beautiful, loving family and a high-paying job at a prestigious law firm. But Dave (Bateman) thinks Mitch's stress-free life without obligation or consequence is the real dream come true. The next morning they wake up, hungover, in each other's bodies, and proceed to freak out! With time not on their side, Mitch and Dave comically struggle to avoid completely destroying ea...

For us Basketball fans, we have been enjoying some NBA games, but the intensity is not there yet (I guess we will have to wait until the play offs). I didn't think the Raptors would have a slow start given the fact that they won so many games in pre-season. But again, that was pre-season. Now the serious stuff is happening. There is also high expectations from the Lakers fans now that they have a bunch of Superstars playing together. Their management doesn't play games though. They just fired the coach after only five games into the season. I was shocked when I heard that. I mean, it is an 82 game season and the coach is fired after only five games!?!! They don't mess around. A few weeks ago I was doing some homework that my coach Charlie gave me, and I was surprised how coaching basketball was coming back all the times as the one thing I miss the most doing. I have been involved with the game for almost twenty seven years (now you have an idea how old I am), b...

It's been a quite interesting week. First, I caught a cold last week, by Wednesday I was doing better, ready to go play Basketball, just to find out that my wife was getting a cold too (I know, I know...it's my fault). Next thing you know, our daughter caught it too. Back to square one.... We are now almost a hundred percent, thanks to a week-end of rest. Yes we did rest. I brought seventeen movies (yes you got it right, 17 is the number) from the library, and now we are down to four movies to go. We have watched comedies, action movies, you name it. I don't remember the last time I watched so many movies. What else could we do? We didn't want to go out there and spread what we got. Our daughter is almost five months old now. I have learned that it's at that time that babies want their parents full attention. She has been making funny noises just to get our attention, and when we look at her she just smiles. It's hard to watch a movie when she is aw...

Last Friday, our friend Motivatorman came to visit us (special invitation from my wife). We had really good time (that of course included great food). As it was time for him to go home, I decided to walk him out to the Subway station. I didn't know how was the weather outside and I put on a light jacket. Result? I have been under the weather these last two days. My productivity has been close to nothing. Even though I was not a hundred percent on Saturday, I went to do a 3 hour presentation about networking. The house was packed and we had people following us on video from Ottawa and Sudbury. It was great fun. I can teach a thing or two about networking, but I have met people who are masters in the matter. One of them is my friend Bonnie Chan. She is a master networker (does this word exist, or I just made it up?) I met Bonnie last year at a networking event (where else would you meet Bonnie?). Right away the connection was made. She knew me thanks to a mutual fri...

It's been over ten years now that I am in Canada, but I am always amazed by the season changes. A few weeks ago, I was doing some work cleaning the front of the house (leafs were everywhere). I was proud of my job until, a few minutes later I came back to the place I was cleaning to find out that there were more leaves on the ground than before. What a waste of time! Everywhere I go, trees are changing colours. It is a beautiful scene, but I know that in a few weeks there will be no leaves at all. Trees will have to wait for months before they can have their leaves back. That is how it is. I think that, as human beings, we are like trees. We go through seasons. During some seasons, we also lose our leaves. These are pruning seasons. In my opinion, the difference between trees and us is that trees don't complain about season changes the way we do. They wait patiently until next season. During winter, when we look at the trees, they seem to be lifeless. Are they real...

Once again I have to find an excuse why I did not post my blog yesterday. What can I say? I am thinking of a few reasons why, but the one I am thinking about the most is that our daughter is four months old today (is that a good enough reason?) I am writing from an Internet café, on my way home from a presentation that I just did at a job fair. I know that by the time I get home, there will be no time on the computer. Our daughter now dictates our schedule lol Yesterday was one of those days. I had planned my day with a number of items on my to do list, especially people that I would call, then I got a emergency phone call. My wife had to go out to give a hand to a family that needed  help. I had to stay home with Skylar. This had happened in the past, so I was confident I can keep everything under control. Oh boy, little did I know what was coming next. At first she was calm, nothing to be concerned about, I even promised some people that I would call them shortly. Then she...