"My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's." - Oscar Wilde

Motivation:

"What lies behind us and what lies before us

are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Diary:

D: 2 short beers - hamburger (explained in notes below)
---------
B: eggs and turkey bacon
S: protien bar
L: chicken, tomato, peas, vitamins
S: salmon and mayo OR chicken cubes and mayo (haven't decided), Rye Krisps.
G: eliptical 1.81 miles, 358+ calories, walk 1 mile, sauna

Notes:

I am tired of talking about my challenge today, and have been just plugging along. Today I think I will discuss other stuff. I had an encounter last night that took me by surprise.

I had a short period of time between end of work and a meeting. I decided to stop in at the Bees and see who was in and have a salad. I ended up having a rather involved discussion with a former co-worker and decided to cool off with a short beer. The majority of the conversation is going to be left private, however one of the comments that he made (not sure if it was the alcohol speaking, or if it was real) was "You are one of the smarter people I know. Put the smartest people in a room to build something usable, and you would be one of them."

Now, I am not trying to toot my own horn, becuase I will be the first one to tell you what I complete moron that I am on a constant basis, but I do hear this statement from all kinds of people. At work, I am always be referred to as "the expert", which is actually the good term that they use. They also still lovingly call me the "P-Dog" although this doesn't float my boat as much anymore, if you know what I mean. My clients, co-workers, and peers at the office know that I am very smart and like to think about things and different ways to approach problems. People at my church think I am freaking genious and my family and friends all look up to me in the area of pure brain power. (ha ha ha - ooohhhh, I have a side-ache from the last two sentences.... for those who may not be able to detect it, the last two sentences were laced with sarcasm.) My intelligence matches my Myers-Briggs personality type - ENTP - which has the following attributes:

• challenging the status quo, and encouraging others to achieve more than they thought they could
• leading others to a greater understanding of the concepts and principles involved
• involving people who are competent in relevant skills
• contributing creative ideas on how the task can be achieved or quality improved
• creating new ideas out of confrontational discussion
• finding ways to overcome apparently insurmountable difficulties
• generating team spirit though energy and enthusiasm
• spend time brainstorming ideas, and debating or critiquing what needs to be done
• draft in people with proven skills to work on the problem

I have always thought of myself as a classic 'jack of all trades - master of none' a modern day renaissance man. At my last job, I wore many hats, probably too many hats for the compensation that I received, but I really loved the variety of the job. Now I am doing just one project, but it still requires me to be creative. I am a nerd, and when I get into a project that I enjoy, I can be very anal about my nerdiness. I am also a writer (duh, the blog) and the nerd side + the writer side = my current job of "Technical Communicator".

What does a Technical communicator do? I am assigned projects that typically fall under business analysis, software validation, information design, usability testing, training, graphic design and manipulation and some marketing. Each of these roles requires a basic foundation of technical writing.

• Business Analysis involves providing data mapping, documentation, and communication throughout the life cycle of a project. I have to gather business requirements, create requirements documents, use cases, and map data and processes.
• Software Validation is applicable for any software or process that affects controlled items. Controlled items are anything that has rules regarding it's use. (examples: Drugs- FDA, Money - Federal Reserve, Medical Records - SOX, etc) There are concerns in these industries that require documentation for validation efforts including requirements gathering, design, testing, user access and auditing, change control and parallels with regulatory bodies.
• Information Design and/or information architecture is the structuring and organizing of large amounts of information and the methods to present information to users. Sometimes this is called "chunking." I use a "step-by-step" methodology that not only tells users how to use a product, but shows users the most efficient and effective way to utilize the tool to solve a business problem.
• Usability Testing is one of the techniques product designers and usability engineers use to design appealing, effective, useful and easy-to-use products and guides, manuals, and interactive media to support the products.

This is just a small subset of the types of roles that a Technical Communicator can do, so as you can see I am very busy and valuable for my clients. However, as a contractor, or consultant, I usually only have a funded contract for 3-month or 6-month periods of time, so every few months I have to decide if I want to continue to do the job, and beg and plead for additional funding, OR if I am ready to move on to a new position and try on a new hat.

Back to the story - after thinking about that statement "You are one of the smarter people I know. Put the smartest people in a room to build something usable, and you would be one of them.", I thought to myself. "If I am so damn smart, why am I fat, lazy and lonely?"

I stopped for a moment and thought about my connection between Fat and Intelligence. It would seem that others have this connection, that someone who is obese must be so stupid for letting themselves become so large. I know that studies have been done regarding obese people and the ability to get a job or get a raise. Slim looking people would get better jobs and have more interviews than fatter people. Is it a perception issue, cultural issue or is it part of some basic "survival of the fittest" that is just part of nature?

I think that my weight loss might have another side affect. Not that I am going to be smarter, but maybe that the experience I have had will make me more mature and wiser about the choices that I make, not only about food and excercise, but also about money, work, relationships and other situations that I encounter. Either way, I won't be able to hide behind the fat layer on my body as an excuse for not getting a raise or accomplishing some task. I will have to come up with some other reason for me being an incompetant failure.

Ok, I just read the blog at this point in time, and I am really sounding holier than thou. Let me add some humility, by pointing out some of my flaws. Being an ENTP is not all peaches and creme. Here is the bad side of ENTP that plagues my life:

• initiating too many projects, and not being able to deliver on all of them
• introducing too much change, and not leaving well-established, workable routines alone
• not taking sufficient account of current realities
• appearing competitive and unappreciative of the contribution of others
• leaving someone else to do the routine work
• make errors of fact, or ignore routine matters that might be essential
• doing things to excess - e.g.: eating, drinking or exercising (uh, hello?!? Who is to blame for my personality type? Is it genetic, or something my parents, teachers or siblings did during my childhood?)
• expressing emotions in an intensive and uncontrolled way (uh, hello?!?)
• being very sensitive to criticism (uh, hello?!?)

Ok, I feel a little less guilty about this now. Hopefully the blog will end up to be the same depressive ramblings that you have come to enjoy reading.

So, about the renaissance man. Here is one definition of the Renaissance man: "A man who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences." It occurs to me that my friend Mike was planning on making a list of things that he could check off that would make him a renaissance man, but that doesn't feel right. It would seem that you cannot deem yourself a renaissance man, as that would negate part of the requisite. The renaissance man would be confident, but also humble. Others would have to see the attributes in you.

If you have thoughts, please leave a comment. At this point, I am not sure and think I have put myself in a corner.

Ok, back to the original story now - thinking about what life would be like if I was both the SMARTEST PERSON EVER, which is already proven and a PHYSICAL SPECIMAN, which is yet to come. (ha ha ha, I can't help but laugh out loud as I write this..let me take a second to gather composure....) I was reading a pamphlet from my mother about a diet plan, (which is one of my new hobbies = reading diet books to poke holes in their logic or just gleaning tips that actually might work) and read the following paragraph, which was timely in my current track of thoughts:

"As you enter the final phase of your plan (The Chazz Vader 2006 Challenge), you are already feeling like a new chapter of your life has begun. You will put the finshing touches on a set of habits - new ways of eating, moving and relaxing - designed for maximum energy and health. You will use your increased energy to step up your movement, you will eat more varied and rich foods and you will learn a method of positive thinking that promotes all-around happiness."

I guess this is where I am going to, I just hate the wait and the time in-between. I know they say that the journey is half the fun, but I would like to strangle whoever invented that saying, cause it is pure bull$#!*.

more later

Chazz