Many people will make fun of Jimmy's campaign in the next few months. Lots of laughter and "wow this guy is crazy." I can't wait for AutoTune the News to do something with it. However, in the elevator this morning I was thinking: You know, I get Jimmy's campaign.
I know he thinks the rent is too damn high. I know he thinks that the rent being too high impacts the social living standards of people in his district. I know that he believes businesses could hire more people if they didn't pay so much for rent (word, Jimmy, word).
Clean, simple, understandable.
Contract this to "Vote for a change!" or "Your City / My City / Our City" - I don't get it. Stability. Accountability. "I won't raise taxes" (You have to raise taxes, it's called inflation. Look it up). The current slate of political candidates seem to speak political mumbo-jumbo rather than a clear, articulated vision.
I think it's the best political campaign I have ever heard as I fully understand what he is about, what his mission is, and where his accountability lays. Perhaps the fact that he is so articulate and definitive in a political realm is why people will think he's crazy?
Or it could be the "As a karate master I won't speak about anyone badly here" line.
In this episode, Charlie gets asked what he ordered for dinner. He forgets to mention his french fries, and Anna helps him out by trying to circle the fries on his menu (with a crayon) so he knows what else to say.
I figured for a kid in Me to We club that the whole environmental impact of forgetting her lunch bag would work. But apparently it didn't, because only 2 days later she forgot her re-usable lunch bag again.
Now, let me explain briefly that her forgetting her lunch bag is a huge pain in the butt, as we only have enough re-usable containers to send each kid with their lunch and snacks - if there's a set missing, I have to hunt for odds and ends of tupperwear to put food in, and that kind of ticks me off.
Largely thanks to a suggestion by my friend Jason I decided to perhaps escalate to a more aggressive set of messaging than "hey kid, you're destroying the environment."
I figured I can also now keep a running score - so far she has forgotten it 4 times already this year!
Her response when she saw the lunch bag this morning was "aw man, does it have to be kittens?"
So, my daughter forgot her re-usable, environmentally friendly lunch bag at school again. I once again used art to remind her of the environmental impact of her carelessness. Unlike last time (http://dbillson.posterous.com/i-am-not-a-normal-parent-heres-how-i-react-to) where I had a story and narrative, I went back to my roots as simple art that conveys a complex message.
On the first half of the bag, I show the planet earth vomiting in rage. I don't bother to define the rage, as I believe that the viewer of the art should supplant their own feelings and engage with the art itself, so I don't go out of my way to explain the piece.
Then I realized people may only see one side of the bag, so I decided to put another message on the opposite side; in this case it is a tree crying blood. Yes, I know trees have sap, not blood, and if a tree could cry it'd probably cry sap, or something, but it's art people. Deal.
I remember about 2 or 3 years ago I conducted a job interview with a young adult who was just out of college. Typically interviews with recent grads are awkward, nervous affairs. I believe most recent grads would rather face a firing squad then their first rounds of job interviews. However, this candidate was different. He was confident, made great eye contact, and simply exuded confidence.
We hired him even though the position that was open was for a more intermmediate developer.
Through later discussions it became clear that his confidence came from his training as a brown belt in Karate. I was somewhat skeptical until today. Afterall, how can a full contact sport make you more confident in an interview room?
Today we had our local tournament for our Karate School called a Shiai. It is a great opportunity for people who do not normally compete on the tournament teams to have some fun and test their skills in a non threatening manner. The judges, observers, etc are all friends and parents from the school.
However, it is still a fairly intense experience. I competed this year as an adult as well. We started our day early, and were ready to compete. Adults started first, and then Cole's division started shortly thereafter.
The first competition I competed in was forms, or kata. I placed first in my division, which earned me a sword. Now, to be fair there were only 3 of us in the division but I wasn't complaining about the sword prize! The sword is a ninja sword, complete with cloth sheath.
It did not take long for somebody to clue in that I needed the rest of the ninja outfit. Noel and I went into the men's room to perfect the T-Shirt Ninja look.
Second event for adults was sparring..... let's move on.
Third event for adults was the Iron Man Challenge. You had to break 1, 2 or 3 boards, then drag a heavy bag, and finally do an agility drill (if you're familiar with windsprints, picture that). The first adult up was Noel, and he chose 3 boards and quite quickly dispatched them. Of course after that I had to go for 3 as well. I surprised myself just a little bit. I do feel a bit sorry for the poor pencils that were innocent bystanders.
I was very impressed that a few parents from the audience came and participated - everyone that tried was able to break the 3 boards cleanly after a little bit of instruction. Next up? Ice perhaps a-la-karate kid part 2?
I placed 2nd overall with 2nd place in both the heavy bag-drag and agility test. I can see several prospective readers thinking AGILITY TEST? Yes, that's right.
I missed most of Cole's competition because I was competing at the same time, but he did very well with his forms and sparring. Cole has been to 3 other Shiai's and new the drill - his competition pool was also very full, the older the kids go the less competition there is for them.
Next up was Thomas and the little guy blew me away. Thomas is a kid who was diagnosed with gross motor delay and has struggled to keep up with his peers in physical learning. I have watched him in class or practice at home and he does pretty good. However, you put him out there in front of judges and an audience and he performs!
The same was true with Arthur and Haley. Haley is always good, but they both put on a little extra ritz for the judges and it paid off for them. The total tally of 6 firsts and 7 seconds across 17 events shows how hard our family came to compete.
Now let me take you back to my job interview story.
Picture a 7 - 12 year old, standing up in front of a panel of 5 judges, 20-30 people looking cheering you on. The judges will then give you a score out of 10 - and they will be looking very closely at how you do your routine. Now picture that same child 10-15 years later on a job interview with one, maybe two people interviewing and asking questions.
I can picture the child in that scenario thinking "this is easy there's only two of them this time!"
Our Karate school's motto is "Life skills through karate" - at first it sounded a bit like marketing fluff - really? Life skills? Now I don't doubt it.
If you don't believe me, watch this, and tell me if you think this child is going to have confidence issues in the future:
