Closure
Today I went to a funeral. I have never been to a funeral before, and to add to the emotional stress that comes with a funeral, i went by myslef. The funeral was for a dear friend of mine named Brad Howell. We grew up together in okotoks, and in 2002 he moved away to Halifax. Before that we were always together. We always hung out, it was almost every weekend that i was at his house, or at my friend Rob's. Words cannot compose such a feeling that i have right now. I feel like breaking down and sobbing, but i also feel happy because i know that i will see him again because i know he is in Heaven. It really is bitter sweet. A few times during the service I was crying so hard i couldn't stop, it really was hard. He was such an amazing person, he made everyone around him happy, there was no way that you could not be happy around him. That is a rare gift that not many people have. I can't think of anything else that could pay homage to such a brillant soul.
Blue Sky Brad, Blue Sky
People
I've come to realize more and more how similar people are to each other. For example we all have the same needs, this is based on Mazlows (if that spelling is right i'll be surprised) need pyramid. We all need food, shelter, clothing, then comes human contact. Such as love and affection, feelings of success is also a need. This thought came to the surface as i was reading a blog by The Wandering Scribe (
http://wanderingscribe.blogspot.com/) she is a lady that is living in her car on the out-skirts of London. She's just trying to make her way in the world. It is quite riviting. You can tell from the emotion behind her beautiful writing that this is not a fraud or a hoax, but for real. But more to the point, she talks about her life and her realationships with society and the people around her. As you appear grungier, you become more outcast. This does make sense. This is typical of human nature, we judge by what we see on the outside, thus not getting to judge on the inside. We are all guilty of it, I know i sure am. This is one thing that i am really trying to work on in my life right now. How to not judge people. It is very hard, im trying to beat the whole first thought of judgement. Not that attitude that comes after you judge someone, but not even having the thought of it in the first place. I wish i could treat everyone the same, but it is hard. For instance, and i'll use my job as a prime example: Two men walk into the shoe department, one man picks up the $49.00 sale shoes, the other picks up the $300.00+ nice shoes. Who do you show better service to. In an ideal world you serve both equally. But in the world of numbers and sales, you almost ignore the sales shoes guy and go onto expensive shoes guy. Another one that i come across a lot is the effect of apperances. Here is one thing i know for sure: If you look rich; you are treated rich, similarily, if you appear poor; you are treated as if you are poor. This has been brought to my attention a few times by customers and friends and through personal experience. One man came into our department dressed in dirty sweatpants, an old tee-shirt and he hadn't shaved in a couple of days. He said that no one in clubs would help him because he looked homeless. So i helped him try on some shoes. Then he asked about the $275.00 callaway shoes, so i let him try a pair on in his size. He proceded to pull a gold watch out of his pocket to check the time, he then said i'll take em, picked up his shoes and left. Another man in a suit and tie that i was helping at the same time bought the cheapest shoes that we had, he looked rich, but wasn't.
Before this gets too long, i'll tell you about an experice of mine that i had on tuesday. My dad's work, The Calgary Dream Centre, just had a baby grand piano donated to them, so i went down to check it out and practice on it. It was, by the way, very nice except for the C below middle C would stick 75% of the time, so i brought it to my dads attention and he said it would be fixed.
But anyway, what the Dream Centre is, is a rehablitation centre for recovering addicts.
So i went upstairs to have supper, and ended up having supper with a guy that is recovering from a crack. It was sad and upraisning as well. You could tell he was a man on the brink. One misstep, and he was back in his hell living on the street. One right step and he was back living with his family.
Thats all for now i guess. I'm tired
peace
don
hooray for skydiving
Don, you're a Skydiver!
You're open minded, extroverted, free-spirited, and independent. Chances are you're pretty liberal. You're like a magnet for love and affection. People adore you. And, thanks to that healthy dose of self-confidence, you're super-flexible. Chances are, you're a great leader at work. You're also a self-starter and will always volunteer to take on a job. You're also an excellent communicator and tend to spread your enthusiasm to others.And that's just scratching the surface!
hmm... i'll take that i guess. Notice these things never give you bad results. Theirs no: " because of your laziness you will consistantly fair at all you attempt". Guess that would be a downer
clean...
so i got a hair cu, shorter than its been in a long while. I also completly, so i look a wee bit diffrent. The thing is, everyone keeps telling me i look so much cleaner. What did they think before?
Mini Putter
Yes, that is a mini putter, I thought it was cute. And it was only 30.00
umm...awesome
Ah, Music
So recently i've come to realize that i have one month until my Grade 9 RCM test. For all you out there who don't know what that is, i will explain. RCM stands for Royal Conservatory of Music. Basically it is an organization that umm... charges people to take tests that they write. But its very prestigious (apparantly) and everyone has to do it for school and yada yada so on and so forth. The big problem with the conservatory is that they are so stuck in the the idea that the way it is written is the way it MUST be played, or else it is wrong. I can understand why they think that, and i except that they believe that, i just don't that's all. Why should the fact that i feel that the song should crescendo to a forte here make a huge diffrence. Okay i could see them being upset if i did a jazz swing version of one of Bach's preludes, but come on...
Anyway the true nature of this post is to rant about the one song that i am completely distraught and yet intriuged and even still in love with. Its Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C minor. The Prelude aspect is very fast, relativly hard, but its attainable. Every time i hear it, i pick something else out that i didn't hear before, and love it even more. (huh that rhymed) Its very fast and technical, by the end of the piece my fingers are burning, which is probably a bad thing but what they hey. The second part is the Fugue. Any musician out there knows what is wrong with a fugue, for all you non-musician folk i will explain. It is a God -awfull mix of about 4 parts going at once. One of the most technically challengeing pieces to learn. It is basically a round in 4 parts, played with two hands and one person. It is extremely mentally exausting. Problem is, I love it so much that i just have to learn it. The other songs pale in comparison, at least the ones that i'm learning. They go as follows: Fantasie in d minor; Mozart, June; Tchakovsky, Variations in d minor; kabalesky, and Bridge Over Troulbed Water; Simon.
The Heirarchy of Golf...
So today i was working a GT doing what i do, selling shoes and bags and these three guys come into my depertment. I knew who they were imediatly. Well not "who" they were but "who" sent them. They were from Callaway Golf. Which if you don't know much about Golf, Callaway could be like a Rolls Royce in the Car World, or a Steinway and Sons piano. So they make some of the best, an consiquently, some of the most pricy "stuff" out there. But i digress... Anyway i go up and shake their hands. You can tell a lot about a man from his handshake. You can tell first whether or not he is confident, or shy. You can tell if he has a big ego, if he's a control freak, you can tell if they carry a fake-self-confidence. Lots of stuff, all through the meer exchange of names and a brief shake of a hand. In the movie Narnia Mr. Tumnus and Lucy meet. Lucy puts out her hand for Tumnus to shake. And he questioned her of why would he "shake" her hand. She didn't know. I think sizing each other up is the point of the handshake. But more to the point. I shook the hands of the three men. One was in charge of marketing for Callaway, One was in charge of Sales for Callaway, and one was our area rep. The Last one not so high up the callaway ladder, but the first two were. They kind of reminded me of the guys on "The Apprentice" Very clean-cut, confident, charistatic... straight buissness men. So the point of my story is to tell you what happened in our chance meeting. They were very intrested in my oppinions because, well, i sell their stuff. Unfortunatly for them i don't kiss up to them like some of the other staff. Basically I treated them like customers. Now im not all that great in bags. Bags are bags. He's a tip if you ever are looking for a new Golf Bag. Just spend the money and get and Ogio. There. So they tested me a little and asked me to sell them one of their bags. So i did and gave them a bunch of consumer feed back. But shoes is were i really shine. No pun intended. They asked whats your most popular shoe. I told them the footjoy contour. They asked why. I said because they are more comfortable than yours. Now whats funny when you take someone from a buisness world that lives in a bubble and put them in the real world with real data sometimes they get surprised. I told them the Contour has been our best selling shoe for 5 years in a row and on its way to a 6th and i told them its got a good price point. They were very intrested. I went company by company and told them what they were doing. Good and bad. Then i went into salesperson mode and got them onto our niffty foot scanning machine. I impressed them i guess with my knowlegde of feet and shoes and yada yada. In the end they said they were very glad to meet me and they will be back. So i don't know if they fed me the line to make me feel good, but hey, it worked.
this is really me
| Your Birthdate: November 4 |
 You have an extraordinary character - moral, responsible, and disciplined.
Your sincerely and honesty shine through in almost every situation.
Driven and focused, you rarely let your emotions get the better of you.
You're level headed and rational. People count on your to look at things objectively.
Your strength: Your unwavering loyalty and ethics
Your weakness: Your rock solid stubbornness
Your power color: Navy blue
Your power symbol: Shield
Your power month: April |
What Does Your Birth Date Mean?
something that struck me as funny
| Your IQ Is 110 |
 Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average
Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional
Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius
Your General Knowledge is Exceptional |
A Quick and Dirty IQ Test
which is funny cus i'm bad in math
| Your IQ Is 110 |
Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average
Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional
Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius
Your General Knowledge is Exceptional |
Let Me Introduce Myself
Well, this is my first post. Don't really know what i'll write on this blog, but we'll see what comes of it. So about me... I live on an acerage outside the town of Okotoks, in the province of Alberta; which is in the lovely country of Canada. I LOVE music. I'm going to school next year for my BA in arts with a major in music. I don't know yet if i'll do voice of piano though. I really want to explore my voice, but i've been playing piano for years. If anyone out there wants to chat about ANY music just write me.
I am currently employed at the corporation known to many as Golf Town. Its not much a town though, more of a store. We don't have houses or anything. Sometimes i wish we did, 'cus then i could escape from the frenzy that is Saturday and Sunday shoppers.
More about me i guess... I'm a very shy and quiet guy but over this last year i've found that the best mask in life is self confidence. It can cover all of your short comings. For example; At work i have to sell shoes, which means i have to talk to strangers, which because i am paid to do it i can. I put on Don the Sales Person mask and act like i know what the heck i'm talking about. But it works i guess, i haven't been fired yet.
I, like the rest of my peer group, have a myspace page that you can check out. Its
www.myspace.com/duckman_canada. Its got pics and stuff and more meaningless writings on it.
Well thats enough for now i guess.
above is a picture from the golf sim at work. Apparantly i should join the tour is this shot is from a six iron. Just in case you can't read it, it says Last Shot Went: 785 yards.
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