Hello, my name is Paul. It’s been 10 months since my last blog post.
Seriously. How many of us start a blog, go all out for the first few weeks, then a month goes by. And then 6 months. The road to Hell is paved with good blogging intentions.
A while back I said something about resetting my personal OS. I think the reset is done. Paul 3.0 or something like that. (I’m not actually certain which version I am. Maybe that’s a small side-track I’ll pursue another time.)
How did I know that the reboot is complete? It’s partly due to the lovely lady pictured above. For those who are not nerdy geeks, that’s Marina Sirtis. For those who still don’t know, click the link in her name. In the past, I was loud, cocky, and could fake a good extravert for a period of time. The friends I was with pushed me to get a photo with her. And I hesitated. Because I was nervous. I’m not usually nervous. So the entire time I was doing this photo – all of maybe 7 minutes – I couldn’t speak. Not very well, anyways. My friends spoke for me. And in that moment it occurred to me: My OS has reset. Gone is some of the arrogance. And hubris. Ms Sirtis is a nice person. She isn’t Deanna Troi in real life. She is (very likely) a normal human being. I speak to normal human beings all the time. How is this different?
The old Paul would have entered schmooze mode. Old Paul would have sat happily in the arrogance that “of course Ms S would want a picture with me, Paul, the famous (21st century) psychologist”. This time it was different. Nerves. No arrogance. Finally some humility? Yes. Paul 3.0.
Now what’s next?
Digital Crossroads 