Time to get Gael's face off the front posting. You all might get confused and think I'm good looking as he is. Well, I am, but not in the conventional sense. Har har.
Anyways, my topic tonight is California optimism. It amazes me sometimes how positive people are here on the West Coast. I always knew that Americans are by nature optimists and positively inclined. It has precedent. We beat the British, we built the atom bomb, we sent a man to the moon. But Californians top even this optimism and "positivism". First off, people out here rarely criticize eachother publicly, and when they do, it's usually couched in terms that makes you feel just a little less glowing. For instance, when I screw up, my experience with "a regular boss" is he / she would say something like "you were a complete fool" or "don't do that again". Or, worse yet, they freeze me out for a while, and then complain to me weeks or even months later about this or that "problem" that came up (this was the habit of my old German boss, good guy though he was, he never was up front with me like I wished). In California it's totally different. If you have a bad moment, people react by telling you "that's ok", and "you'll do it better next time". Absolutely blows my mind sometimes. I should feel lucky.
Second, Californians will laugh and find funny absolutely anything that is humorous, and many things that aren't, on just about any occasion. I know I am generalizing. It just strikes me sometimes when I am sitting around being my usual introverted self in a room full of high-spirited Bay Area residents, that I am somehow different. This for instance happens when I attend my local "Toastmasters" club once a week. I've been part of this organization for about 3 years now. The whole excercise is public speaking, and going "out of your comfort level" in front of a crowd of 20-30 people. Anyways, I do it, partly out of intellectual curiosity (you hear very interesting things during these speeches), partly out of a feeling of obligation (don't want to quit the club just yet). The thing is, at least here in Oakland, when I go to a TM meeting I am sometimes practically assaulted by extroverted people. Hey , it gives me one more thing to work on myself.
