Friday night – Haunted forest

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It’s almost 2AM.. I’m finally sitting down to blog after a busy day.. I’d planned to take the day off.. but ended up working until 5:00 ..

I was psyched because tonight Gabe and I and several of his friends were going to do Scareforce at the Haunted forest. It’s been a family tradition for abut 10 years..w e dress in black and then scare the @#$% out of folks going through the trails of the haunted forest.   We got there about 6 to find out that they were already full for the night. I had to use my full Jedi powers to get us a place in the forest..

 

First stop for me was to check out Project x and see if it was running.. it wasn’t. it’s arm had fallen off yesterday and none had fixed it.. we bolted and tiewraped it back on.. I tried to repair the pneumatics.. but one of the hoses appeared damaged.. even so.. we got the thing working.. and it performed quite well. They have it set up behind a wall. it’s really effective as it comes up and talks. They have a GREAT guy on the voice.. very convincing.

 

being here brought back so many good memories  of being here with all three boys.. all three kids were in scare force. Max was an actor.. and I believe  dinae , max and sam were all guides at one time or another.  I stuck a AmaStone on the beast because I was thinking of sam

 


here’s our fearless crew.. Ben and John and another gentleman .

 

I got away from tere after about an hour and went off to find gabe and his freinds at the other side of the trail

my job was to stand near the crowds and distract them so gabe and freinds coud jump out an scare.
here’ I am lit up lke an xmas tree.

here’s gabe in his stealth outfit ..

 

here’s me in my not so stealth outfit .. I’m wearning a paper tablecloth I found on the ground.

 

here’s our new freind star (aka morning star) .. a very interesting woman playing the saw.. very incredible.

 

It was almost idnight when the last group went throgh.. we were all exhausted.

OK.. now I just gotta sleep.. more tomorrow..

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

 

Thursday night – Bad hair day

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OK, I admit I have a Google query that flags me when someone posts soemthing on the interweb with my name on it.. I did it during the Colony days to see what people thought of the show.. .. or… more honestly.. what people thought of me on the show. Anyway never turned it off. Most of the time it gives me mention of talks I’ve done.. which I already know about.. occasionally it turns up something surprising … like today it turned up this..

Here’s the text of that article

Does a bad hair day = a bad manager?

Submitted by Adrian Gaskell MCMI on Thu, 20/10/2011 – 11:03

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Towards the back end of last year I wrote about a study investigating the influence our appearance has on our success at job interviews.  The research suggested that the prettiness of the candidate had a big impact on their success at interview, with the rate of success dependant upon the sex and attractiveness of those doing the hiring.

This followed previous research from Kent University proposing an ideal ‘face’ for management.  The study found that appearance was as crucial as attitude and looked at which characteristics were seen to be best for male managers and female managers.

For a male manager, a pronounced brow and forehead were found to be trusted more, while for women, thin eyebrows, wider eyes and fuller lips made up the face of a future inspirational leader.

What risks do we take by employing such stereotyping however, be they conscious or unconscious?  Have a look at the photo below.  It’s of a man called John Cohn.

john cohn

He’s an IBM fellow and all round inspirational chap.  See this article for some of his thoughts on leadership.  At first glance though, would you believe him to be an inspiring thinker?  Does he fit the identikit manager our subconcious forms for us?

After all, such prejudices are sadly commonplace.  For instance research earlier this year revealed how our weight impacts our earning potential.  Likewise height has been linked to earning, with taller men found to earn more than us vertically challenged ones.

In an age when we should be striving to get the very best talent working in our teams, are our in built prejudices hindering the chances of otherwise exceptional candidates?

LOL !..   Bad hair day ?!.. every day is a bad hair day for me… but I make do.. in fact.. the only reason I was told I got the job on the Colony was that I had ‘weird hair’.. I know I’ve talked about this here once before when I was called out in another article (cited above) for looking deranged. .. but I actually don’t mind the way I look.. would I like to be handsome and youthful. . sure.. but since I can’t change that.. I  don’t mind looking weird and crazy…..  especially if it gets people to listen to me 🙂

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

Wednesday night – projectX

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Long, busy day today… then a quick stop over at the Haunted Forest to work for an hour or so with John S. We put the final touches (we hope0 on the retrofit of the ProjectX pumpkin robot for the year. This years changes include wireless control of the arms and wireless audio for the mouth.John S did that.. it’s really nice being able ot work with him on this.. very clever guy. I also modified the code to ‘park’ the arms after 15 seconds of inactivity to prevent someone from inadvertently crashing them into the ground as the beast is lowered. after several visits from the F-U fairy, er were able to get the arm controllers reprogrammed.. (the processor on the right controls the left arm and visa versa.. and the control on one of the arms is backwards because of the plumbing on the pneumatics ).. Nothing like figuring out a mix of code, high pressure air and electronics in the rain in the woods… … while talking to nice newspaper lady (Megan).. and listening to an early evening work call.. . well. it could have been worse.. it could have been rainy. cold and dark like it was on sunday.

Anyway.. I’ve got my fingers crossed…. hope it holds up..

Here’s a quick vid I took of one of the tests.. the vids is on it’s side.. right now.. I rotated it and am waiting for that to push through youtube..
not a great movie.. but you get the picture..

ok.. off to bed..
nite all, nite sam
-me

Tuesday night – unhinged

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Last couple of weeks I’ve been circling round this common theme of ‘becoming’.. somehow moving to the next level of something. I haven’t figured out quite yet. .. I keep thinkign I’m holding myself back somehow out of.. what… fear ? habit ? .. obsessiveness ? .. Not sure.. I was having with a freind today when he started talking about the same sort of thing.. regarding his own creativity. .. he described it as being “hinged” .. as in .. he was having trouble becoming “unhinged” .. i.e. able to totally let go and be mindlessly creative.. .I’ve been thinking about that all day.. He’s right, . obsessing about becoming more creative most often has the opposite effect. The more I concentrate on finding the next perfect outlet ..or next perfect project, the more clouded my judgment seems to be.. I think I am looking for a way to become “unhinged” too.. or at least less hinged. … (without obsessing about it so much.. ) wish me luck