The Trying Road From Journalism to Truck Driving

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long distance trucking, digital journalism, trucker, journalistHow do you go from digital journalism to long distance truck driving? This isn’t a riddle; for me it’s my disjointed career path in progress.

In 2011 I was content in my work at CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. I was part of a great team producing a fantastic project, the CBC Digital Archives website. The site is a treasure trove of Canadian historical content through the eyes of the national broadcaster. I’ve never had a better job or worked with better people. Then cuts to the team hit me and I got moved to the post production department. I did well but was never a good fit. Then in late 2012 the entire department was eliminated. That was that for my CBC years.

What came next started with hope and optimism. I applied crazily for jobs and started to build an online presence with a simple LinkedIn profile. Then slowly, throughout long weeks and months, I was hit with brutal reality. The world of journalism – and digital communications – was in a perpetual state of chaos. There was little room for an experienced and skilled worker who demanded reasonable pay and benefits.

The four years that followed would lead us to about now. I can’t easily condense the heartache and disappointment that I’ve endured into one short blog article, so I’ll try to summarize. You might be amazed if I told you the combined number of jobs I applied for, interviews I had for jobs that didn’t fit my skills and experience, networking meetings I attended, emails and letters I sent and responded to, resume and LinkedIn profile revisions I did, former colleagues I spoke with about my plight, politicians I contacted about said plight, job search programs I completed, counselors and therapists and doctors I consulted about losing hope in my life, freelance projects that I did and hated, freelance projects that I tried in vain to get and wasted a lot of time trying, one four-month contract that proved slightly fruitful and not too painful, and (whew!) number of hours I spent running and working out just trying to keep my sanity intact. Continue reading →

Intuition: The Road to … Hamilton?

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Hamilton, Ontario; blog article about the power of intuition

Hamilton, Ontario in the 1960s

When I was 22, I was still a confused and directionless kid when I plucked myself out of my comfort zone and moved from Hamilton to Montreal, to begin school at Concordia University as a mature student. I attended classes on a part-time basis because I wasn’t yet accepted for full-time studies. There were so many reasons that I shouldn’t have gone – it’s far away from home, it’s expensive, I wouldn’t be studying full-time right away, I might get lonely and homesick, I don’t know what the hell I’m getting into – but I went anyway. Looking back – years after graduating with my degree in Political Science, which preceded my career in digital journalism – I can think of only one reason why I made the leap of faith: my intuition led me to it.

I’ve been guided by my intuition many times since, and almost every time I’ve given in to the inner voice that instructs me to take a certain road even though another road might be easier and may bring results sooner. Often I don’t understand my intuition but I’ve gotten so used to deferring to it, unquestioned. I sometimes believe there’s no longer much point of giving in to my oft-ignored rational thoughts, even in light of repeated upheaval in my professional life. Continue reading →

From Taxes to Infinity: A Writer’s Epiphany In A World of Numbers

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taxes, writing

Writing about taxes has made me feel stronger.

In four months of working in the realm of taxes and tax returns, I learned one startling certainty about myself: I can be curious about anything.

If my curiosity can be piqued or even subtly provoked by matters of RRSPs, investments, capital gains, tax deductions, the Canada Revenue Agency and the electronic filing of tax returns, it’s possible that I could be curious about an astoundingly wide range of subjects: perhaps denture adhesives, nail polish removal tactics, residential rodent removal and practical uses for dryer lint.

If I can turn a day of research into an informative article on how to claim your dependents on your tax return, I may have to search deeper inside myself for other hidden talents, such as latent aptitudes for soft tissue massage or lathe operation.

If I can elevate my mind and spirit into a singular force that can teach you about completing your tax return – once you summon the patience to absorb the information – I might be able to lead an unruly group of underachieving teenagers to excel on their EQAO exams. Forget that I never even fleetingly considered going into teaching. This revelation has opened up new fields of consideration. Continue reading →

I Sell Sincerity, Just Like John Wayne

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This is the John Wayne I remember

This is the John Wayne I remember

I’m not necessarily a fan of John Wayne but we do have something in common, besides our shared tallness. We both sell sincerity, in droves. He still sells it, from the great beyond, with a no nonsense tough guy reputation that resonates 35 years after his passing. As for me, I’m doing my damnedest to sell it here on Mother Earth.

Before we go any further, here is Wayne’s sincerity quote: “In my acting, I have to identify with something in the character. The big tough boy on the side of right – that’s me. Simple themes. Same me from the nuances. All I do is sell sincerity and I’ve been selling the hell out of that ever since I started.” — Time Magazine, June 1967

Consider another of his quotes: “Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much.” It seems clear that he would have hated social media. But he had his talents to sell and a place to sell them, and I have mine. Continue reading →

Revise Revise vs. Get It Out There

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The desire to revise is the key to clarity

The desire to revise carefully is the key to clear communication.

I advise you to revise if you ache to be great

In an online world of daily and often by-the-minute production and publication, I am the novelist-at-heart who wants to produce only his best work and not let it be seen until it is utterly revised.

“But you have to get it out there: market it and spread the word,” the blogger in me beseeches. There is much daily infighting between him and the novelist.

“You can’t sell what the world doesn’t see repeatedly,” echo the voices of countless sale people I’ve met at networking events.

The retort comes quickly.

“If it’s not been carefully moulded and diligently reworked, it can’t be much good and shouldn’t be exposed to the light of day until such editing has occurred,” ring the voices of discontent from the writing workshop I attended with religious regularity in my 20s.

Continue reading →

My Teenager and Her iPhone6s

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iPhone6S, iPhone, smartphone, phone, handheld, technology, device, communications

The iPhone6S and the hand of the teenager that owns it

The iPhone6s was released a few weeks ago with much fanfare, including the tagline “The only thing that’s changed is everything.” This state-of-the-art smartphone promised such unique must-have features as 3D Touch, a more advanced camera, “the next generation of multi‑touch,” the most advanced chip ever in a smart phone, a breakthrough design, advanced security and faster Wi-Fi, all topped off by another omniscient tagline: “An experience unlike any other. On a phone unlike any other.”

Here in my house, its arrival was met with instant jubilation. My 14-year-old daughter made no bones about the fact that she wanted one to replace her quickly obscuring iPhone5. She was ready and willing to pay for it with the money she had saved from her birthday. What could we say? We called our service provider and negotiated the best possible deal on the yet-to-be-released device and within two weeks, it was in her hands. A few hours later it was fully charged and ready to use, much to my daughter’s delight.

Now it’s been in her possession about three weeks and I was curious about it as the focus of a blog article. I wanted to get the scoop from her on what’s so cool about this phone and why it’s such an important part of her life. Here is our interview. Continue reading →

The Funny Thing About Eye Contact

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eye contact, looking, communicating, communication, attention

The funny thing about eye contact is that it remains so critical in communication, yet few put in the effort and interest required to achieve it.

In the neighbourhood where I grew up in West Hamilton, there was a charismatic kid a few years older than me named Steve Lewis. I feel safe in using his surname because I have only positive recollections of him. He was a popular guy who was fortunate to have perfect hair for the times: it was longish and straight and was feathered perfectly in the middle.

The one thing that Steve could do better than any kid we knew was talk to parents. He didn’t talk down to them; he actually carried on conversations with them. I don’t recall the contents of these conversations but because of them, parents liked him and trusted him. My mom knew that if we – my brother Rob and I – were at Steve’s house (where all the neighbourhood kids congregated) everything would be okay. It always was.

I don’t know what became of Steve. He’s not on Facebook, as far as I can see. What I remember about him specifically was his knack for making direct eye contact with everyone he met. He had no airs about him so eye contact came easily to him. He followed it up with talk that was relaxed, casual, polite and positive. Unlike a lot of the other kids, Steve rarely swore. Continue reading →

“Eat It,” in Baseball & Social Media

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baseball, eat it, social media, posting, facebook, twitter, instagram, linkedin

Before posting on social media, think of baseball

When you hear the expression “eat it” you might reflect on several things: a command from your mom when you were young and refused to devour what she put on your plate; years ago, your friends daring you to taste something revolting (i.e. goldfish, in the olden days); or a parody of Michael Jackson’s 1982 classic “Beat It” by Weird Al Jankovic.

“Eat it” is also an expression often heard on the baseball diamond. It’s used when a fielder is about to make an ill-advised throw of a “live” ball: a ball that has just been hit and is in play. The fielder wants to make an out because that’s the name of the game on defence: to get outs. The throw may be considered ill-advised when the hitter or other base runner is likely going to beat the throw. The other fielders see that throwing the ball likely won’t result in an out, any may mean the ball is thrown away and the runners advance. So, they yell out “eat it” in an attempt to get the fielder to hold on to the ball and minimize the offensive damage.

In this case, “eat it” is a command to devour it yourself: don’t give it away, surrender its effects, or push it on someone else. It means that you, the one holding the ball, needs to take the most advisable action: NOTHING. Continue reading →

Generosity, a la Subban & Myers

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giving, generosity, donation

Picasso had the right idea.

I want to take a short while here and break from my usual talk about words and how to use them. I turn instead to the notion of generosity and the reasons I’m contemplating it.

Recently, a Facebook friend posted an article about a grandiose donation made by Montreal Canadiens hockey player P.K. Subban. He gave 10 million dollars to the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

When you consider that P.K.’s seven million dollar US annual salary, his long term contract and all the extra money he earns from endorsements, this may not seem like a huge deal. Certainly it’s not as stunning as a retired plumber giving 25 million dollars to Vancouver’s Lions Gate Hospital. Continue reading →