Voicemail

In a recent posting on Yahoo finance, Penelope Trunk wrote that you should generally try to avoid voicemail, essentially for efficiency reasons. She makes a good point, often I find myself at work using voicemail only because I want the transfer experience.

Pray Big!

A few weeks ago, Andy Stanley at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA gave an excellent message titled "Asking Big" regarding having big prayers. I do not know what my big prayer is in regards to stuttering.

What are you working on big?

ISAD Conference 9

Every October, Minnesota State University, Makato hosts the International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD) Online Conference. I always find some interesting reading in all of the stories and papers presented.

Other Ways to Blow an Interview

Yesterday, MSN had an article discussing things not to do in an interview. For that lucky 1% of us, stuttering could also be on that list. In my 9 year professional career, I have had 6 different accounting jobs (though only 2 jobs in the last 5 1/2 years), so I have a good bit of experience in job interviews.

In this time, I believe I have developed a good approach to job interviews. In the days leading up to an interview, I try to really focus on monitoring my best targets. In the morning and on the way to an interview, I will really key-in on monitoring my full breath target. In the 30 minutes before the interview, I will sit in my car and do my PFSP CD. I will get into the interview and then do really well for about 20-30 minutes. After that I tend to get tired and my fluency falls off, so I try really hard to sale myself earlier in the interview as opposed to later.

When I am pursuing a new job, I go through a lot of interviews. I don't really (nor do I care to know) how big a role my stuttering plays in the positions that I am not considered for after I interview. During one interview I was doing really well and then missed one class IV sound and the interviewer looked at my like I had just spontaneously burst into flames. He was clearly rattled after that and started asking questions which made no sense.

Earlier I mentioned my prep for an interview; one time I woke up late (imagine that?), and barely made it to the interview on time and did not have a chance to prepare as I normally do. I have never been less fluent during an interview in my life. My speech was awful and I got so distracted by that, I started giving really bad answers and doing lame things like word substitutions. The interview got so bad that halfway through I was tempted to just end it early and excuse myself. However, a few days after the interview mercifully ended, I was called and offered the position (on the same morning I was downsized from my then-current position). It is funny how things work out sometimes.

Antarctica

It has been 5+ months since my last post, but I thought I would try to ease back into this.

I have been going to Refreshers with my friend Dan for 8 years. He is currently in meteorology grad school at Ohio State. He left last Sunday on a trip to Antarctica to do something meteorology type stuff. He has set-up a blog for the trip.

Refresher time

I am leaving Saturday morning for my annual Refresher at the PFSP at the Eastern Virginia Medical School. I will be meeting my friend Dan in Baltimore (who is driving down from Ohio) and we will then drive down to Norfolk.

I obsessively look forward to this every year. I love fine-tuning my speech, and even though I am unable to maintain the near perfect fluency I have on the Friday I come home, every year my speech shows a consistent improvement from where it was at that time the previous year.

What I don't enjoy is leaving Novelchick and the little one for the entire week. The first 2 years we were together, Novelchick would come with me, but for the last few years that has not really been viable for a variety of reasons. I am very grateful that my wife is so tremendously supportive of me in this. There are many reasons why I love her, but this is certainly on the list.

Curious George

I have always been a big Curious George fan. My home office is filled with items either relating to baseball or Curious George. After plenty of encouragement the last 2 years, the little one has finally given in to the allure of "Monkey George" as she calls him. She now asks to be read a Monkey George story every night at bedtime.

Reading to her every night is excellent practice for me to transfer my targets. I could easily read the stories fluently (except for some class IV's) without targets, however I have been trying my best to make sure that I am monitoring targets while I read. She is off to visit the Grandparents for a few days, so I guess if I really want to practice, I could read Curious George stories to the cats.

If I am not available, sometimes Novelchick will read to her. It is quite funny to listen to my wife make some of the Curious George stories more politically correct. Most of the stories of written by the Rey's in the 40's as they were fleeing from the Nazi's. George being sent to prison, smoking a pipe after a meal and his kidnapping from the African jungle are examples of some of the stories details which are changed in Novelchick's interpretations.

Movie Night

Since our "unofficial" Northpoint Community Group wrapped up Beth Moore last week and disbanded, Novelchick (who currently has a great post on her blog about our attempts to de-clutter our house) and I took the opportunity of having a night of arranged babysitting to go to the movies and see The DaVinci Code. As we had the book, we both enjoyed the movie a great deal. Irregardless of what you think of the fiction aspect of the book, (and I do generally love conspiracy theories), the book and the movie seemed to have generated some healthy debate regarding Christianity and the Bible, which certainly cannot be a bad thing.

Going to the movies, made me think that is another transfer opportunity that might be eliminated if you are not careful. Most big theatres have the ticket kiosk now where you can either order online and pick it up at the machine, or just purchase your tickets there. Usually the ticket kiosk line is shorter than the line to buy from a real person, but last night there was no wait in the regular line, so I had the opportunity to pick-up a transfer there. Talking to the person behind the glass who is using a microphone to respond always make a transfer challenging for me, so it is generally a good opportunity whenever the situation presents itself.

Seattle

I did not post anything last week as Novelchick, the little one and myself were in Seattle on vacation. Everyone had a great time going to Pike Place Market, the Zoo, the Children's Museum, the Tiny Tot Symphony, the Salish Lodge for breakfast, Alki Beach, a folklife festival and a Mariners game (where the little one and I wore our new Ichiro jerseys). We flew there using our Air Tran credits from last year's Wendy's/AirTran promotion and we got some great deals on Priceline to stay at the Westin and Hotel Monaco (where they sent Henry to Goldfish up to our room to stay with us during our visit).

Overall, my speech was not as sharp the whole week as I would have wanted as I became so focused on all of the details of getting ready for the trip itself, I neglected to incorporate any formal practice into my schedule. Thankfully, I leave for my next Refresher in less than 3 weeks.

Eye Exam

Today, I have to go for my annual eye exam. That reminds me how much I used to hate to do things like eye exams before I went through my PFSP therapy. I would go there and stutter through the whole thing, and if that was not bad enough, I would feel like whomever I was talking too was feeling sorry for me. I can't tell you how much I hated feeling like that. Thankfully, those days are long gone.

Speaking of eye exams, a few weeks ago Novelchick got new glasses, giving up her sexy Lisa Loeb-style glasses. Though, Novelchick is still plenty hot, with or without glasses.