A Reflection Post – Asking the Right Questions

Dec 20, 2011 by Sami

I was having a drink some few weeks ago and started a conversation with a rather pretentious obnoxious fella. I’m not good with judging characters upon a first impression so I always try to give someone few meetings before I make a final call. I’m generous with my time. I’m sure I’ll talk to this gentleman again (maybe two more times) because he has great questions for me. See, having good questions is a great thing. A lot of times we meet people that just talk to us, about their work, love, etc. They do ask questions too- “How’s work?”, “did you have fun at your vacation?”, “what did you have for dinner?”.  We need to break away from those questions. If we’re going to contribute to a worthwhile conversation we should ask questions that questions more than the ingredients of someone’s dinner. It’s fine to start that way but the conversation needs to evolve after that. Ask something that drives someone into a corner. Ask them to question their way of thinking. This is not to be taken as convincing someone that rainbows are a sign of water pollution.

I sometimes try to stay away from connecting with folks I don’t agree with which I think is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. The problem is staying away from them before I’ve entertained the notion of engaging with them and trying to understand their thought process and ask them questions that challenges their reasoning while expecting to get the same in return. Only after that I should make the decision of retreating from any engagement with said person. I asked you why you think that polluted water is the cause of the rainbow you see instead of the scientific explanation that I showed you on Wikipedia. If you still chose to think the way you always did then I chose to leave you to your own devices.

I want someone to ask me why I think Japanese is hard. Why I think Salt Bread and Sami is not a waste of money and time. Why I think revolutions happen with or without social media.

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My 15 FANTASTIC minutes with #theKindnessCab & Leon Logothetis

Oct 31, 2011 by Sami

Sunday night was spent watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s since “people don’t belong to people” kept popping in my thoughts. As I’m watching it and checking my twitter feed (because we can’t do one thing only, anymore) something came up. I saw a tweet that said “this is so cool #thekindnesscab & Leon Logothetis will be in Chicago tomorrow.” I’m paraphrasing here and I wish I remembered who tweeted it (UPDATE: It was @CristerDelacruz that tweeted it! Oh Twitter, how do I love thee!).  Did some digging and found http://www.kindnesscab.com/. It might have taken me about 40 seconds to decide to call Leon and leave a message with my number in it. I didn’t know why or what I would get out of this experience but I knew I wanted to try it. Leon called me 15 minutes later and we confirmed the pick up time and location. I went to bed excited but still unsure of how things will go the next day.

18 hours since I spoke to Leon pass. Almost six pm and I do some Google action and find out that Leon wrote a book called Amazing Adventures of a Nobody and I make a mental note to check it out later because he just sent me a text that he’s downstairs. 

On my way to The Kindness Cab an epiphany of sorts struck me. This is exactly like that movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. If my memory serves me right, the action of that girl not picking up the phone (or was it the alarm?) triggered a sequence of events that lead to a disaster. Only this is the opposite. Leon picking me up out of the kindness of his heart triggered my happiness which will trigger a series of events, starting by me making another person happy. Like dominoes helping each other up instead of pushing down. Wow, is this how we can achieve world peace?

So I get in enthusiastically after taking a picture of The Kindness Cab and saying hi to Leon. He greets me back and says “pick up one of those books in backs, it’s for you”. I cannot believe it! It’s a copy of Amazing Adventures of a Nobody. My eyes immediately start to sparkle like those cartoon characters.

After 15 minutes of what words might have trouble describing, I walked away after meeting an amazing man, another kind man one from the Kind Village, a Halloween lollipop, a copy of the Amazing Adventures of a Nobody (that I’m so excited to start reading), a receipt that showed $45 dollar being donated to charity from Leon and inspiring conversations about traveling. I left my company wishing it was longer but even more, wishing Leon and #theKindnessCab all the best in the future. I left them with so much admiration with what Leon is trying to accomplish. I left them with so much inspiration.

Then I arrived home. I arrived home and found a package from a friend. It was a Daruma Doll from Japan. A hollow, round doll. These dolls are more than toys, Daruma dolls are seen as a symbol of perseverance and good luck, making them a popular gift of encouragement. And happiness overcomes me on top of the inspiration and the admiration.

Not a bad Monday. In fact, one of the best I’ve ever had.

Just like anything else, kindness starts with you.

 

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Summer Lovin’, Havin’ a Blast…

Aug 17, 2011 by Sami

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Tired of getting caught up in mass Facebook messages? I have a solution for you!

Jul 6, 2011 by Sami

Let’s face it, we love how easily you can chose “reply” versus “reply all”  when replying to an email. So why did Facebook make it so hard for us to chose one of the two? Countless times I get caught up in the spiderwebs of mass Facebook messages that I know I’m not interested in reading. I even ended up with 10 new phone numbers at some point in time!  Most times, I send a friendly reply to all to remind them that they’re replying to everyone in the thread and maybe they should not share that information with others. So every time you want to be left out of the mass messages, you have to do the same thing you’re complaining about and “reply all”? Not anymore! I’m sure Facebook officially told us at some point but I missed the memo!

Here’s how you do it. On the top right corner of the message, there should be an “Actions” button. Click that and drop-down menu will appear. From there you can select “Leave Conversation”. Viola! You are free from the curse of the mass Facebook messages. This option is only available on the web version of Facebook and not sure how it works on a mobile app.

Now go experiment!

 

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Saving the World, One Language at a Time.

Apr 4, 2011 by Sami

I wish I would stop worrying about the day that I’ll forget and leave the house without hair product. I wish that I could be in Tokyo watching cherry blossoms and sipping green tea. But I won’t and I’m not. Because life happens and instead of enjoying Hanami, I’m in Japanese class figuring out how to conjugate verbs. Not as much fun as speaking Japanese to Japanese people but for now I’m fine with that.

My mastery of Japanese language consists of asking the time, asking if someone would like to enjoy my company at their residence and things in between these two phrases. I have been obsessed with learning languages for a while now. Having a multicultural background gives me the advantage of, sometimes, being able to look from the outside in. I’ve always thought and will always believe that communication is everything. I want to learn how people communicate because I have a healthy obsession with the way people understand each other. If I am able to communicate with someone in their language then maybe I can understand people better. Maybe I will be able to help avoid disasters. Maybe, just maybe, I will help prevent fighting. I will help celebrate other people’s traditions. I will help unite the world.

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I Write Like and LibraryThing. Tools to Find your Next Read!

Mar 10, 2011 by Sami

So it goes again. I am done reading the last book I have picked up and I find myself wondering, dreaming, fantasizing about the next book to read. Will it make me laugh? Smile? Angry? Optimistic? I Still, I think Skinny Legs and All, by the same author of Jitterbug, is one of the best books I have ever read.

I am convinced that in the time it takes me to decide on what to read next I can double the amount of my reading inventory. That is why I am always trying to find a way to shorten the amount of breaks in between reading books as much as possible.

That’s where I Write Like and LibraryThing come into play. I can’t remember how I found them but they have tremendously helped me in finding the next great reading pleasure. In I Write Like, you copy a text inside a designated box. You then click analyze and it shows you who do you “write like”. I have always thought that my reading directly influences my writing and that’s why I Write was a great way for me to find authors that might use a similar style of writing to help me fine-tune mine. That said, I don’t know how accurate I Write is. In fact, I tried “analyzing 4 different posts in there and it gave me 3 different authors (I’m sure you’ve figured out why the numbers don’t match).  This might mean that the application needs a bit of tweaking or that I’m a very talented, very experienced in an array of writing styles.  Regardless of the reason, I love the site and it has introduced me to authors I’ve never read before.

In case you’re wondering, I write like David Foster Wallace, Dan Brown and Oscar Wilde.

LibraryThing works a little differently.  It’s a public library of everything you have read.  From there exists many options for you. The more books you have listed the better because based on your entries you can find recommendations that are generated from your library or from common threads that you have with LibraryThing users. Nifty, right?!  You can even find out why a certain book is recommended to you. Was it because you read 1984 in 1948 or because you’ve read the entire series of Harry Potter in one setting? What I also love about LibraryThing is that it acts as a catalog for everything I have read. I know there are many many many books I have read and completely forgot that I did. With LibraryThing I’ll always have list of those books.

Through both I Write and LibraryThing I have found great new books to read and I’m happy that I found them both so go ahead and give them a try if you’re looking for something new to read! I know I’ll be picking up a copy of an Andrew Holleran soon! How about you?

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