Backflip

Alaska 8-07-10

Got up this mornin’ and went on a 30 min. run. Found a path Alex told me about that is a bike path around Anchorage near the ocean. Along this path there is a great view of the ocean and it was so tempting that I decided to take a quick hike. My only obstacle was a long stretch of mud flats. Not deterred by such things I made my way over the soggy ground. My five finger shoes became quite muddy and I almost lost one in the muck. But I prevailed and made it to the shore. On the way back I decided to go barefoot and this crossing proved much easier. It’s easier to slide down mud hills in bare feet. Upon returning to the bike path I tried to get the mud off in some grass and then sat down to put my shoes back onto my feet.

While completing this process two ladies came walking along the path and I struck up a conversation with them. They were shocked I had ventured out onto the mud flats and pointed out a sign which read “Danger…”. I somehow missed this in my way out. They went on to tell me that they had heard a story of a Moose getting stuck stuck in the mud and dying because it could not get out. And they even heard that humans had become stuck and died. Apparently I was lucky to survive with my life.

I spent the rest of the day sight seeing around Anchorage, shopping for some souvenirs, and checking out some festivals that were taking place. The goal was to get some gifts for folks back home and completely ware myself out so I could fall asleep on the plane.

In my travels I was trying to find a smashed penny machine since they are cheap souvenirs and my family already has quite a collection. The smashed penny machine was stuck so I told an employee inside. She checked it out then said, “Wait a second, let me get my drill.” Went off and drilled the machine open and while she was not able to fix it, it was pretty awesome.

I checked out an Irish Folk Festival, a City Folk Festival and a Friar Festival put on by one of the local churches. The highlight from these was getting a reindeer hot dog on a stick which was delicious. Hearing a band called Amaranth Cerise which was quite good. And seeing a group of people attempt to dance some sort of Irish Riverdance.

On a side note, the main occupants of the hostel seem to be older people. One dude was on unemployment and other guys would just sit around all day and watch TV. At $25 a night it is easy to see why they would choose the hostel as a temporary home.

Alaska 8-06-10

Last day at the Chalet. Amy and I hung out all mornin’. Grabbed some grub at the Black Bear with her and Brian. It’s pretty fun hanging out with them. Lots of laughs.

Through talking with Brian found out he is planning on moving from one seasonal job to another for an undefined period of time. It is interesting to hear stories of how these guys move around from one job to another. So different from what I’m used to and how I live.

Brian got called away from the Bear to go pick up some fellow raft guides who had gone out camping to the narrows (like we did the other night) and they had missed the morning trip so they needed a ride back.

Amy and I journeyed with him back to camp and ended up just hanging out for the hour before I left. We discussed life, the past, the future, friends, expectations, and some other fun stuff. It was a good time.

Met Alex at the main office in the Chalet at noon, said goodbye to Amy and headed to Anchorage. Took about 5 hours and we had some good discussions about family and friends. Stopped for some gas and some groceries and arrived in Anchorage to eat at the Moose’s Tooth. It’s a local pizza place that served some excellent pizza.

Chatted at dinner and then headed to REI and then my hostel for the night. It was great to hang out with Alex and to get to know him. I never knew him well growing up but we share a lot in common and had some interesting talks. A good portion of the time was talking about our families and how they differ/are the same and growing up.

Now hanging out at the hostel gettin’ ready to head to bed to try to reset to EST. Jarhead is on the TV. May stay till the end.

Last day in Alaska is tomorrow. Gonna check out Anchorage and see if I can find a few more gifts.

Whoa. Jarhead is a crazy movie. War horks people up.

Alaska 8-05-10

Woke up super early at Wonder Lake in order to catch the first bus out of the park. Amy had to work at either noon or one so we needed to be back in time for her. The first bus left around 6:30 so we were up bright and early.

Turns out it was raining so we packed all our stuff in a hurry and high tailed it out towards the bus. We picked up the bear canisters that we left on the trail and continued on, getting soaked in the process.

As stated before, there are very few trial in Denali and this turned out to be a minor issue on this day. We were following some social trails trying to get back to the campground but it was difficult to find the right one in the rain and in our hurry.

So we ended up past the camp and were quickly running out of time. As a result, once we found an access road that we had taken the other day we booked it to the bus. I imagine it was quite a spectacle. 4 rain drenched backpackers with packs running down the road, splashing through the puddles on the way. Good times.

Thankfully we made it to the bus depot with a few minutes to spare and were able to catch the first bus out. We scored seats by some heaters and were able to thaw out over the course of the 4+ hour trip. The trip was also beneficial in the fact that we saw way more wildlife early in the morning than we had on the previous day. There were multiple bear sightings, caribou, moose and even a wolf which was super rare.

It was pretty cool, one of our fellow passengers was celebrating a birthday and the bus driver kept joking that he should wish to see a wolf on his birthday. As we passed buses going the other direction we got signs (the bus drivers have their own sign language for telling about animals) that there were wolf sightings but we were always too late.

However, the elusive wolf finally came within our sights and there was much rejoicing. It was a good time.

We got back to the park office, dropped off our bear canisters and Amy and I headed back to the Chalet while Nate and Dana headed to the Chevron which was near where they were camping.

Any got back in plenty of time to get ready for work and she headed out. I spent some time drying out all our gear and relaxing before heading over to a row of tourists shops to do some touristing. After a bit of that, I headed down to the river to get some reading accomplished. It was very peaceful and I kept thinking, “Wow, I’m in Alaska!”

After work Amy and I met up for some dinner at the dining hall with some of her rafting friends and then did some hanging out and packing. Checked out a slack line, hung out with Amy’s roomate, chilled for a bit.

We eventually met up with some of her friends and headed to a toga party at a bar called Panorama. It was decent. I wore a toga over all my clothes so I was quite warm. Other people just wore toga’s and it got quite cold. I guess the alcohol helped keep them warm. We played some cornhole, some Foosball and did a tiny bit of dancing before calling it a night and heading home.

It was a nice relaxing day. It was my last full day with Amy as tomorrow I’d be meeting Alex and heading to Anchorage to catch my flight on Saturday night.

Alaska 8-04-10

The Alaska trip continues. Still have 4 more days to cover.

Spent the night on top of Mount Margaret. Nothing too crazy occurred other than the fact that it was super windy and the wind never ceased. This wasn’t a big issue (it kept the bugs away) but it made setting up and taking down the tents quite interesting. It also made eating an adventure and we ended up hiding behind a rocky outcropping to find some solace from the ceaseless bellows.

We headed down the mountain in the morning to Park Road. We chose our own path for the majority of the trip until we found a social path that ran along a mountain ridge. It’s discouraged to take social paths since walking them makes them last a little bit longer, but it was the easiest way down and it led where we were going so we took it anyway. Saw some Arctic Squirrels on the way down which were cool. They are a cross between a chipmunk and a squirrel, they have little tails and are a bit pudgy. We did discover some blueberry patches on the way down and the berries were delicious. I’m not one to go to the store and buy blueberries, or go to the store much at all. But these fresh blueberries were very tasty.

We made the road and caught a bus that would take us to unit 26 and Wonder Lake. I can’t remember now but it was about 55 miles or a 4 or 5 hour trip on a slow moving bus. Denali is HUGE! On the way we kept a close lookout for any signs of wildlife and were rewarded with a few bear, moose and caribou sightings. Did you know that a reindeer is just a tamed caribou. Yup, learn all sorts of interesting facts while travelling. Apparently some bus drivers give speeches and tell stories. Well our bus driver was silent as a thing that can’t make noise. It was actually kinda nice because we were able to catch some cat naps and not be bothered by constant talking.

After some visitor stops and a bus switch we finally reached Wonder Lake. O, when we switched buses we got a new bus driver who had white hair that was fiery orange at the tips. We couldn’t determine if he was a natural orange head and it was just turning white or if he died the ends of his hair a bright orange but it was interesting. I guess some of the bus drivers have been working every summer since the 60’s so there are quite a few old hippies still driving the trails out there.

Wonder Lake was vastly different from Mount Margaret. First off there were tons of bugs. With no wind to scare them away the mosquitoes were out in droves and they made sure to let us know. Also, the terrain and foliage were more like Ohio, lots of ground cover and deciduous trees/plants. It was an interesting change of scenery. After filling our water bottles at the campsite we decided to hike on out into the back country. We didn’t want to go too far because we needed to catch the 6-something o’clock bus back to the visitors center which was 85 miles away. Amy had to work at noon or 1 so we needed to get back in time for her to catch her shift.

With that in mind we also had to hike away from the Wonder Lake Campsite and get into unit 26 since that’s where we were supposed to be staying. So we found a nice ridge that seemed the correct distance away from the campsite, made sure our tents were out of sight of the road and setup camp. Since it didn’t really get dark we had plenty of time to eat, collect berries, read and hang out on the ridge. Bug spray was used in great quantity and we found some relief from the bugs. It was quite cloudy and it appeared that a storm was on its way.

One memorial memory from the night was reading the book Alaska by Michner while sitting on a ridge in Alaska looking at the mountains and the big sky. It was quite spectacular.

A big thanks to Amy for all these pictures. My camera battery went dead (it’s had issues every since I switched my sister batteries at her wedding) so my camera was out for the count.

We wisely made the decision to put our bear canisters on the trail that we would take back to Wonder Lake and the bus in the morning. It was 100 yards from our camp but on our way so all we’d have to do would be to pick them up in the morning. Thus ended another great day in Alaska.

Alaska 8-03-10

Woke up under the stars on a beach. Had some excitement during the night when Jake stopped my tent from blowing into the fire because the wind picked up. No one was in it but I set it up in case someone wanted to use. No one did so I ended up taking it down in the middle of the night and going back to sleep.

Woke up and enjoyed watching the river flow. Woke up the rest of the crew and we packed up the raft. Then waited for the Chalet rafting crew to venture down the river. We nade a water gun out of our pump and also Brian was jumping off a cliff and doing cannonballs. We all took a go at jumping and it was pretty fun. Brian had some great splashes  (see pictures from Day 3, jumped the gun a little bit).

Jumped into the raft and did some more rafting, I took a turn at steering some more as did Amy. I have no clue how to read a river. It takes some getting used to.

Met up with the drop point and headed back to the Chalet. Amy and I did a quick turn around, packed our bags for hiking, grabbed some lunch and food for the hike and headed out to meet Nate and Dana at the Back Country Office (BCO).

Talked to a guy named Alanzo at the BCO and discovered that many of the units were full. The park itself is broken into around 40 different units based on geography and other unknown means. He recommended a unit but Amy wasn’t too keen on taking it. So we reserved it and waited for Nate and Dana to show.

While waiting, Jess (met her at Alex’s neighbors Salmon Bake) came into the BCO and gave us a spectacular recommendation that we ended up taking. Spend the first night in unit 26 on Mt. Margaret and the next night in unit 15 at Wonder Lake.

Dana and Nate showed up and after a joyous greeting we headed over for some food (where we got 50% off, thanks Amy!) at the visitor center before hoping on a shuttle into the park. Departed at Snake River and headed up Mt. Margaret.

The scenery is amazing. Mountains everywhere! So different than Ohio. So exciting and awesome. Hard to describe but truly awe-inspiring.

Also amazing is the fact that there is virtually no path. You can choose any way you want to climb the mountain. Any path at all. It is very strange to not follow a path. To choose your own way. So different than usual. To not have a direct line or way, to choose where you go and how. Not knowing if it’s the best way or even if it will lead you to your destination.

Thankfully, when the destination is the top of a mountain it’s pretty difficult to get lost. If ever in doubt, just keep going up. Which is what we did till we reached the top. It was surprisingly flat and there were plenty of places to setup camp. One factor that was interesting was the wind. It was super windy, I’m no wind expert but I imagine it was winds of 15-20 mph all night long. They never ceased. I was concerned my tent would blow away when I went off to dinner (in a sheltered rock outcropping that blocked the wind). Thankfully no tents went flying and we had a great night.

One thing of note was the sheer amount of food we packed. Amy and I were sharing a bear canister and we didn’t plan too far ahead for the trip so we ended up with a ton of random food. For instance, we had a whole tupperware thing of Fruit Loops (no milk), 4 pieces of pizza (already cooked), beef jerkey, 6 bagels, some fruit, some dried fruit, cheese, trail mix, cheese and peanut butter on crackers, granola bars, twizzlers, and possibly some other odds and ends. This trip was only going to be 3 days and 2 nights so it was a ridiculous amount of food for 2 people. Nate and Dana carried all their own food so we had plenty to go around. One thing we didn’t have that Amy was craving was a Snickers bar. Somehow we overcame this oversight and survived the first night.

I also took some pretty sweet panorama picture. They give a little glimpse of the immense size of the mountains and the breathtaking views we saw. They are huge, so they may do crazy things to your computer. Hopefully they are viewable.

Alaska8-02-10

Yowza, had a busy day.

Writing this on 8-03 while sitting on the side of the river by our camp. Laser, Cupcake, Brian, Mitch, Amy and I went on quite a white water rafting adventure yesterday on the Nanana (I liked calling it the Na-na na-na). We embarked around 10 or 11 pm. It never really gets dark so leaving late wasn’t an issue. Hard to explain all the fun we had, just doesn’t seem like writing it down will give it justice.

We did hit some big rapids, checked out an old train tunnel, ran from a train (not in the tunnel), did some riding of the bull, some mistrust activities and had a great time. Started a fire with some shavings and a handkerchief. Listened to some ridiculous stories from Jake. One involving a stupid box and a hitchhiker and another one involving a orchestra conductor. Both ridiculous but told very well.

Backing up to the beginning of the day, this was my first day at the Chalet. Hung out with Amy in the morning and picked up some meal tickets. Amy had to work at noon so we grabbed some grub. Amy found out that some peeps were going to go Kayak rolling that day, one of the guys being her good friend Brian. So I gave Brian my number and headed out to give Alex his car back.

Alex was working at the visitors center and so I went in and asked the dude at the front desk where Alex Lindeman worked. He must not have been expecting a question not relating to the park because he just looked at me and said, “huh?” So I repeated the question and he pointed me to an employees only door and said “Go upstairs”. So I did but there were a few different rooms at the top of the stairs. I found it strange that I was allowed to just wander around aimlessly. I took a guess and found Alex on the first try. Gave him his keys and promised to call him once I got out of the back country on Thursday.

Then caught a shuttle back to the Chalet and met up with Brian and Mitch to head out to do some rolling. Headed to a lake (can’t remember the name) and got all suited up in a dry suit (doesn’t let any water in), helmet, life jacket and headed out on the lake.

Rolling a kayak is pretty technical, it is when a kayaker flips his boat and is sitting upside down in the water with his whole body underwater. Obviously this is a bad position to be in so it’s important he knows how to flip himself back over if and when this event occurs.

Mitch is a great teacher and though baby steps and lots of patience I was able to do a hand roll (a roll with no paddle). It was pretty sweet and a lot of it is a mental game. It’s so easy to psych oneself out. The biggest thing is to not panic. It’s quite amazing how long someone can stay underwater.

Ate dinner with the guys and then headed up to see when Amy got off and what was going on that night. Decided to go on the rafting trip mentioned above and ended up chilling down by the river a bit till Amy got off work and we made plans to head out on the river.

Sunday, August 1st. Woke up early to catch the train up to Denali where my cousin Alex is going to pick me up. Train left Anchorage at 8:15 and will arrive in Denali at 3:45. Once in Denali, I hang out with Alex and Amy the rest of the day. Excerpts from my Blackberry journal are below. Random Alaska facts come from either the tour guides on the train or Michener’s book Alaska which I started reading during the trip. It’s very good.

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Dreams – had some pretty interesting dreams last night. One in which I missed the train because I was playing the lead role in a musical I hardly knew and was just ad libbing. Crazy stuff.

Also Eddie arrived and left about 3 times during the night. Not sure what the hork was going on. It wasn’t an issue, I just went back to sleep but it was strange.

My calves are super sore from running yesterday in my 5 fingers. Haha, did it to wear myself out and got more than I bargained. I’m sure they will loosen up as the day progresses.

Headin’ to the train in a bit. That should be pretty sweet.

On the Train from Anchorage to Denali and due to a plane crash at the air force base which the train passes though we had to take a bus ride to the train. And as it turns out we are going to be riding the train backwards. Since the train can’t pass through the base to get to the main depot to turn around. Should be interesting.

I’m sitting next to Emily who is a law student from St. Louis who has an internship in Anchorage for the summer. Her and her parents are traveling to Denali to see the sites.

One of the leading causes of death for Eagles in Alaska is drowning. This is due to the fact that once eagles grab a fish with their talons they cannot let go. Sometimes the salmon is heavy enough and strong enough that it can pull the eagle underwater and drown it.

Which journey sounds more difficult?

• 100 men set out to cross Alaska. They cross 5,000 miles over rough terrain over the course of 3 years and 3 winters. 50 of the men perished.
• 50 men set out across Russia. They crossed 7,000 miles over rough terrain over the course of 3 years and 3 winters. There were no casualties

Interesting how we determine the difficulty of something by the percent of failure.

Met Alex at the train station and he met me with a hug. It was great to see him. We caught up on each others lives a bit as we waited for my luggage and then jumped in his jeep with his dog scout to head to the McKinley Chalet where Amy works.

Seeing Amy was great. She got super excited and I was able to introduce her to Alex. The plans for the evening involved going over to Alex’s and helping his neighbors package the 100 Salmon they caught and then having a fish fry. Amy was gonna get off early so Alex and I headed out to get drinks while she finished her shift.

Hanging out with Alex is sweet. I haven’t seen him in about 5 years and didn’t know him too well as he was growing up. But we found plenty to discuss and it was good to hear how he was doing.

Amy caught up with us and we headed up past Healy to Alex’s place. Checked out his sweet house, his green house and then headed over to his neighbors, Jared and Bridgets. There we joined in a fish packaging operation with lots of Alex’s friends that I can’t recall all their names. But it was a good time. 4 people had caught and cleaned over 100 Salmon and we were packaging them up to be stored in the freezer. We were also smoking some and baking some to be eaten. It was delicious.

While at Jared and Bridget’s we checked out their dog kennel operation which was pretty sweet. Tons of dogs (perhaps 15 or so) were all chilling together and it was something to experience.

It was interesting meeting so many peeps. All of whom were not native to Alaska. Still have yet to meet a native. But people come here from other states with a high majority seeming to originate from the west. Not sure why that is the trend.

Alex let Amy and I borrow his car and we gave Stephanie a lift back to her cabin since it was on the way.

Once back at McKinley Chalet we met up with Becca and Brian to form a funeral procession for their friend Thanksgiving. He (or she) was a small bunny they found while camping. It had a broken leg and they were going to try to nurse it back to health. But it perished after a few nights. Becca made a funeral boat so we marched to the river where there was a group of their friends celebrating a birthday. We momentarily interrupted the birthday bash and after some debate decided to put Thanksgiving on the roaring bonfire instead of the burning ship. The bunny returned to the earth from where it came.

And we returned to the chalet and ended up watching an old James Bond movie. Went to bed around 2ish.

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I left for Alaska at 11:30 am on Saturday, July 31st. My parents picked me up at the house and we headed on over to Dayton International. I was flying Delta from Dayton to Minneapolis and then Minneapolis to Anchorage. In Anchorage I spent the night in a hostel called Alaska Backpackers Inn which was excellent. The plan was to travel up to Denali by train on Sunday and meet my cousin Alex and friend Amy. Below are notes taken on my Blackberry throughout the trip:

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Trip so far is great. Plane ride was a bit long but sat next to Arron from Day to Minn. He’s a defense contractor for the airforce and goes to AFG to work for extra moolah. Talked about daily rocket attacks against his base. The Base over there is the size of Troy. Crazy! He was going to his friends wedding in Troy. Paul Atkins. Drives a red and white charger type car and lives on Heather road. I don’t know him but apparently he went to Troy High School and is my age. Interesting stuff.

Thing I wouldn’t see in Troy – 3 High School age girls standing outside a coffee shop in Anchorage. Dually truck with full tailer with army-type jeep vehicle on the trailer and room to spare pulls up. The girls excitedly jump in and drive off.

Ate dinner at the Downtown Deli. Had Halibut Fish and chips, coleslaw and tarter sauce. It was all delicious. Interestingly, I have never liked coleslaw but decided to try it out and found it quite agreeable.

Gonna try to stay up till 9. Timezone is 4 hours behind so 9 is about 1am eastern time. Gotta catch a train at 8:15 tomorrow so I’ll be up early.

MOUNTAINS! So cool.

Roomate is named Eddie. He’s a dock worker up north and in town for his daughters birthday. Cool guy, talked about seeing a bear at work and how he’s never been to Denali. He also really wants to visit Cleveland and Akrin to see where they make the Goodyear blimps. Didn’t realize that was an attraction.

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One interesting experience is eating dinner alone in public. I didn’t have any problems but it was a bit strange. I’d recommend trying it out just because it’s so different. It’s as if all the things society expects one to do while eating are gone and it’s interesting discovering ways of staying occupied throughout the meal. I solved this by people watching, luckily I was by a window and has a whole street full of people to watch.

My first night in Alaska went great. Adjusting the the almost eternal daylight wasn’t a big issue. I usually don’t have an issue falling asleep and this trip was no exception. I did wake up a few times when Eddie came in and out of the room. I can’t quite remember what times but it was very strange, seemed like it was around 11, around 1 and then at 4. When I woke up in the morning he was gone but his stuff was still in the room. No idea what was going on with that and I never saw him again so it’s going to be a mystery. It didn’t bother me since I just rolled over and went back to sleep each time I awoke.

I just got back from a week trip to Alaska. It was awesome! I’ll be posting my journal entries as well as pictures in the upcoming days. Until then, this is a bit late in arriving but I wrote an article about my Gi Yu Dojo rank testing experience a few weeks ago and would like to post it. It can also be found here:

http://www.giyudojo.com/Articles.html

Recently I had the honor to test for the rank of San Kyu (Green Belt) at the Gi Yu Dojo. As a Mu Kyu (White Belt) I was looking to advance to a Green Belt as the next step in my training. I approached the challenge knowing I would learn new techniques, become more confident and gain more mental fortitude. I was surprised to find that on top of these skills I also learned about my character and how I interact with the world, something I desperately needed to see.

I vividly recall standing in front of Sensei Sukh and the Black Belts at the end of my testing. I was physically exhausted with sweat dripping off my face onto my already drenched gi. Mentally, I was aware and alive. It was as if nothing mattered more in the world than being present at that very moment in that very place. It was exhilarating. I had just passed through a trial by fire and was able to stand at the end. Having survived through the application of my training and experiences learned at the dojo.

The verdict was still out as to whether I passed or not and one by one Sensei Sukh called us White Belts forward to inform us of the collective decision of the teachers present. As I walked forward I was uncertain as to whether or not I passed. Before he let me know, Sensei Sukh gave me a blindingly accurate snapshot of my life and how I was living. He said that while I showed innate talent and ability for the martial arts, my lack of discipline and dedication was evident in my execution of the techniques. He called me a natural but at the same time showed his disappointment in the fact that I chose to not apply myself to gain my full potential. He went on to inform me that I did successfully gain the rank of San Kyu but the real victory that day was a glimpse of myself that I had not seen before.

When I first started training Sensei Sukh told a story from his past. I shall attempt to summarize it. There were two boxers who trained at the same school. One was a naturally gifted boxer, he had the moves and techniques without practicing or giving them much thought. He was made for boxing and he knew it. The other was very poor at boxing, but what he lacked in skill he made up for in discipline and determination. As the story goes, the naturally gifted boxer would skip out on practice and not take boxing seriously since it came so easy to him. While the disciplined boxer spent every available minute training and striving to improve himself. Time passed and the boxers had a fight in the ring. The disciplined boxer emerged victorious and the moral of the story is sealed. No matter how gifted or talented we may be, without hard work and discipline that talent is wasted.

Now that I know I am the “gifted” slacker, I can see that pattern repeated through my past. I can see myself in college doing just enough to get by without actually applying myself and excelling. I was content with mediocre grades because it was easy and didn’t require much work. But I’ve found through my experience at the Gi Yu Dojo that many things in life are worth fighting for and worth mastering. It isn’t enough to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. That is the same as being a lukewarm drink, it’s boring and will be spit out. It’s much better to focus ones energy to become a master at disciplines that truly matter in life.

This stark analysis of my behavior has given me a new outlook on life. I now recognize where I am lacking discipline and choosing to drift by on skill alone. Now that I can see the problem I can take steps to correct it. I am working on strengthening my spirit and will power. To choose discipline and hard work over laziness and mediocrity. It won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight. But each step in the right direction is one less step in the wrong direction.  And by choosing the right direction one step at a time, I will reach my goal.

Testing for San Kyu taught me a valuable lesson on how I am living my life. I am very grateful to have a Dojo and a Sensei that care about my personal well being with such sincerity. Who strive to show me a better way of living. And who are setting examples of how a true warrior should live in the way they conduct themselves. It is a lesson I will remember for the rest of my life.

Like most things I do, I’ve procrastinated over a week to finally put this online. This is a reader participation post. And I’ve been hesitant to post it because it’s quite strange. But what the heck, let’s do this.

I’m interested in what you think. Specifically, what you think of me. This question cropped up from a recent situation at work where we hired a new person whom some of my coworkers met before me. This got me thinking of how a person who knows me would describe me to someone who did not. So my question to you is, how would you describe me? Leave out any physical traits, a mirror is all I need to see that side of myself.

This curiosity is by no means a way of fishing for compliments, please be completely truthful and don’t worry about hurting my feelings. My friend Greg setup a way for you to remain completely anonymous so I’ll have no idea where the comments are originating. This whole exercise is an effort to get a better grasp of what other people think of me and to take a good look at myself to see areas where I might improve my public relations.

Head on over to http://greghendricks.net/survey.aspx and take your best shot.