Dorky admission: I’m a member of Toastmasters International. It’s basically a club to improve your public speaking skills.
We meet every Monday at 6:45am at IHOP for about an hour and a half where everyone has to speak in front of the group in some fashion during each meeting, either as a prepared speaker, an evaluator, or extemporaneously. Since I was out of town I didn’t make it in for the last week’s meeting. That’s what caused this whole thing.
This evening the Texas skies treated us to an early summer thunderstorm that shook the windows and shut off the electricity. It’s an amazing thing to behold. Big clouds and masses of steamy air butting up against each other to produce jagged bolts of lightning that shoot down to the ground. I love that split second when you see the blinding lightning bolt and know the thunderclap is close behind and then “Boooom!” Nothing compares to the feeling of thunder shaking the world around you. When you are in the middle of a thunderstorm you understand the awe and terror of early people who worshipped the sky.
After an otherwise uneventful day, it was nice to see some of my now ex-coworkers up at Dave and Buster’s last night. In the week I’ve been gone a lot of things have already changed with people being promoted and moved around to different teams and departments. It’s weird how fast everything around you changes.
For those who are easily freaked the eff out I present, the cat with hands video.
Last night I went to bed without the A/C and only used one sheet. I didn’t sleep very well and was troubled with very weird dreams. I even woke up once from hitting the bed and gasping as I jumped out of my sleep. I dreamt of a dog with hands that kept making people around me disappear by consuming them. He would wait for me to turn then would stretch his mouth open and pull them in with his hands. When I wasn’t looking he would also mess everything up. This is probably due to the creepy video I watched about a cat who had hands.
This is the first week I’ve been without a normal “job”. This is the first week where I will be working for myself and making my decisions on a day to day basis. There is a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. First off, I need to figure out some way to track and manage leads and prospects. I get information all the time, but I need to get better at keeping track of it. I also need to put together a brochure to take with me on sales calls. It’s important to leave something with all the important information on it to make it easier for prospective customers to make a decision.
Today I’m at work where we’ll be in-game showing the game to E3 attendees. It should be interesting. Basically, we just run around and demo everything while members of the media and the game industry get to check out all the cool stuff. I’ve been having a hard time posting because I’ve been using the demo machine, which doesn’t have all my normal stuff like Firefox installed.
Friday will be my last day with my current employer. I need to remember to send out my contact information in case anyone needs to get a hold of me. This weekend I might go to Oklahoma, and then next week I will hit the ground running.
I have to give a 4-6 minute speech tomorrow morning in front of 25 or so people. I’ve done a little preparation so I hope my subconscious takes care of all the gaps while I sleep.