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The importance of character

Who remembers their high school commencement speaker? Or what he or she talked about? I do. 15 years ago, at my high school graduation, Dr. John Hull did a speech that has stuck with me. He spoke about the importance of character and shared a John Wooden quote:

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there

It’s no secret that Gen Y’s (those born between early 1980s and mid 1990s depending on the study) have a bad rap in the workforce for being entitled. I was born in 1981 and fall into this generation and seeing that I’m at the beginning of this generation, I've gone through some character building lessons (mostly ingrained in me from Chinese parents and some from humbling experiences at work and play) that I’d like to share, particularly with those who will soon be graduating and entering the workforce.

  • Remember your manners. This is a good general rule for life but in this case I’m talking about your interactions with recruiters and hiring managers. Especially new grads who already have a job lined up after school or are sought after because of your abilities, good character in these situations go along way. Be engaged and be polite when you turn down job offers you are not interested in. I’ve seen so many new grads be rude to those trying to woo them. Rudeness is a sign of how short-sightedness because 1) you don’t know who that hiring manager/recruiter knows and 2) people move around and constantly have different roles they are trying to fill. In the future, this person may hold the job of your dreams at the company you have been dying to get into.
     
  • Work ethic is different from ethics. You probably took an ethics class in university but work ethics is something different. Ethics is about doing the right thing (important, yes) but work ethics is about valuing hard work and diligence. More and more companies, especially technology companies including the organization I work for, are upping their game in terms of fun factor. (At RL, we have a gym, a full Irish pub with open bar 24/7, free food and drinks, ping pong stadium, etc.) For someone just entering into the workforce I can understand that it may be confusing about what the company wants you to do… work or play? But don’t confuse casual work environments with casual work ethics. Particularly in relaxed work environments, good work ethic and character is even more important. Remember, ability got you in the door. Character is what keeps you there.
     
  • Doing meaningful work sometimes includes work that you don’t like to do. Sometimes the work you are assigned includes things that are not fun, like counting how many pens we have in the marketing closet or doing manual data entry or cleaning a spreadsheet. I know it sucks but it is not beneath you. Everyone has stuff in their job that sucks. Sometimes I have to manually clean stuff in our database so others can have clean data. It sucks but it’s important and if I don’t do it, no one else will and it’s the right thing to do.

    Also, it helps if your manager gives you context in why this is important (see my post on management and mentorship here), but if they don’t then you should ask (in a non-whiny way) for example, “I’m curious, how do these pens/data/spreadsheet get used?”
     
  • Give credit where credit is due. There is nothing worse than not acknowledging the people who helped you achieve your success. It’s tempting to take all the glory but, not only is it dishonest, if you keep telling everyone you did it all yourself, you’ll find yourself truly having to do it by yourself because people will stop wanting to help you.

I can’t stress enough how important good character is. The colleagues that I respect the most are those who understand the importance of good work ethics and good character.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
— John Wooden

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Love <3

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In the spirit of Valentine's day, when better than today to talk about the things I love!

  • 90s 00s HipHop R&B
  • Back scratches
  • Bicycles
  • Brunch
  • Bubbles
  • Cereal for any and all meals
  • Crosswords except when they're too hard
  • Furry animals
  • History and archaeology especially Chinese and biblical
  • Museum audio tours
  • My sisters
  • Pop art
  • Retro modern furniture
  • Smart girls
  • Snugglez
  • Spreadsheets
  • Street photography
  • Tackling complex problems
  • Tech & gadgets
  • Tin or waffle ceilings

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Feeling foreign

I guess you could say I'm a well seasoned traveler. I have stacks of US customs forms at home so I can fill them out before I get to the airport, I can get from curb to gate in 20 mins on a good day with Nexus and status and I know the airplane entertainment system like the back of my hand. This weekend I went to Montreal for a mini vacation and, weirdly, it was traveling in Canada that threw me off the most.

1) I flew out of Toronto City Center (Billy Bishop) airport Which was a first, I usually fly out of Pearson. Riding the ferry was both frustrating and fascinating at the same time.

2) No passport required Flying on a driver's license was really weird. And I looked like such a newbie because I kept trying to show my ID at every turn and not showing it when I was supposed to.

3) Canadian money I think it's that all the signs and billboards were in a language that I can only half understand that makes me feel like I should be using a different currency.

4) No spend limit I kept trying to keep track of my receipts the whole time and was delighted to remember... I don't need to! I can buy as much as I want and not worry about being interogated at the border for the pair of jeans and magnets I bought.

5) Lounge Last year I had Elite status but only made it to Prestige this year. While Billy Bishop has a great waiting area, not having status sucks. I got to Montreal airport early and wandered around the terminal to waste time.

All in all, I really liked Montreal (and their cheese!). It was like going to a foreign country without all the hassles of conversion rates, passports and customs. I just really need to brush up on my French.

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G20: Arrested and detained at Queen and Spadina June 27, 2010

Saturday, June 26 was a crazy day in Toronto with police cruisers on fire, store windows smashed, mayhem on our streets. Tensions and tempers were high on Sunday.  My friend and I were optimistic when we decided to walk from her place near Harbourfront to Lee's Palace for an Esthero concert.  Half curious, half on route we went through the Queen and Spadina intersection and saw a crowd of people.

Being the shutter bugs that we are, we started snapping photos:

Moments before the riot cops closed in on us.

We tried to head north because the commotion seemed to be down on the west and south side. But as we turned around we saw a line of riot police closing in on the intersection.  They hammered their batons on their shields and inched closer.  I wasn't sure if I should run towards the fleeing, panicking crowd and risk being trampled or towards the riot police and risk being whacked with a stick.

North side of the blockade

We decided it was safest if we were against a wall in case there was a stampede. So we went over to the north east corner where CIBC was.  There was still a lot of conflict on the south side so we stayed north even though we were right up against the north line of riot police.

Blockade on north east side of the box in

View from above (not taken by me, I stole it from Twitter, not sure who took it)

Queen and Spadina - View from above - Taken from Twitter not sure who took it

After hours in the pouring rain we found out that they were letting people out on the south side.  You had to line up and they cuffed and arrested us one at a time.  The charge was conspiracy to commit mischief.

After being cuffed, arrested, standing in the rain waiting to be written up, we were put into a van with 10 other girls.  It was stuffy and really claustrophobic. We joked with each other to keep our spirits up but it was pretty hard to breathe in there sometimes.  They were going to drive us to the detention center but we ended up sitting at Queen and Spadina in the van for what felt like forever (we took off our watches knowing they'd handcuff us, so we didn't know what time it was) but at 10:30pm they opened the back of the van and let us out 1 by 1.  They told each of us we were being released with no charges.

FREEDOM! Released with no charges at 10:30pm

All in all, it wasn't fun, it was very scary at times but on the same token I sympathize with our officers.  It's a fine line between protection and infringement of rights. I understand it's against human rights to be detained for no reason and it's easy to say they should have let innocent bystanders go, but how do you pick out "innocent bystanders".

If they let some go and not others because they "looked like" innocent bystanders then we accuse them of profiling.

If something did happen, then we say they didn't do enough. If something didn't happen, then we say the $1.1 billion was a waste of money.

I'm not saying they were entirely right in everything they did, there are many questions in my head.  Out of all the thousands of protesters, there were a handful of anarchists, you're telling me $1.1 billion dollars worth of police on the street weren't able to control them and protect businesses from being vandalized? How did they even get close enough to THREE cop cruisers AND have the time to set it on fire.

There are also rumors that the detention center is inhumanely treating those arrested, lack of food, medication, water, etc which police are saying isn't true.  Then why not let us see exactly what's going on in there, let us send a TV crew in there, why the media block?

Overall, the police that blocked us in (at least in my little north east corner) they treated us with professionalism.  When we joked about wanting to go home and just relax with a beer, they said they wanted that too.  They didn't want to be in the rain either.  The police officer who watched over me while I was in handcuffs was stern but polite and very helpful she wasn't overly rough and assured me things would be fine.  She laughed with me when I asked if I'm allowed to smile in my mug shot.

People are also only looking for the stories with dirt.  When we were released, a girl with a recorder asked if she could interview us.  Her questions were leading and biased "did they hurt you? were you put in inhumane environments? etc etc" and when I answered that for the most part I felt it was appropriate and professional, that the police that I met had a sense of humor but were also stern, the lady interviewing us was no longer interested in my story.

Just as a few violent protesters taint the image of all those who were peacefully protesting, there are bad apples in the police force too.  I sympathize with both groups... I find it hard to pick a side and I missed an Esthero concert!! I've been waiting for months, years for her to play in Toronto again.

Videos I found on YouTube where we're spotted: http://bit.ly/dtO16n (Fast forward to 3:54, I'm wearing green behind the girl in plaid)

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Love hate relationship with my newspaper

I have this love hate relationship with my newspaper subscription to the Globe & Mail.

On the one hand I love picking it up off my porch in the morning and smelling the newspaper print, it's like picking up a new suspense novel every day, you never know what's going to happen next.  It makes me feel smart knowing what's going on in the world and the crossword puzzle (especially in the Globe) gives my brain a run for it's money.

I hate it when I can't keep up with it though.  Usually because I get really busy at work and don't have time to read it and it just piles up and piles up.  Then I feel like I don't know what's going on, like I'm skipping chapters in a novel, and that I'm wasting precious environmental resources.

The order in which I read my paper:

  • First section with all the Breaking, Local and World news
  • Globe Life
  • Report on Business
  • Globe Review
  • The Obituaries section on the back of the Sports section (they feature a person who recently died but contributed extraordinary things in their lifetime)

Anyways, that's my story for today.

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Look back and laugh... thats all you can do

I had a streak of bad luck in San Francisco...

  • First I got scammed out of $300 on the SF bus.
  • Then I twisted my ankle walking down the stairs going to the exhibition hall at OpenWorld's Moscone South
  • Then I lose my blackberry at the Deloitte Sun event at the Bently Reserve
  • And to end it all off, I went clubbing and a guy harassed me and my friend for 2 hours.

The next night, instead of going out, I went back to the hotel and stayed in in an effort to try and stay out of trouble.

Double007

What kills me is this picture, taken 5 minutes before I left the Bently Reserve.  Look verrrrry closely!! As Monique and I are goofing off with the camera and lights, there is my blackberry sitting in the background on the table behind me!!

Bye Curve... we had some fun times... I hope your new owners treat you well! :(

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Deloitte's Impact Day

I am pooped!  Today is Deloitte's annual Impact Day.  Where all Deloitte employees, yes all 7000+ of us, go out into the community to give back. Last year I led a project at a women's shelter and went back to do it again this year.  We cleaned the kitchen and cleaned up their yard so that it's a comfortable place for these women, and often their children, to stay while they are transitioning out of abusive situations.

While we ate lunch, one of the ladies that works there gave us some background into the history of the shelter and I had heard it last year but still the story makes me tear up.  Even she teared up, which I think is so amazing, because she's has been working there for 20+ years and I'm sure she's told this story over and over and over again.  It really does take a special kind of person to do this kind of work.

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