I normally only publish on Mondays (comments on the news), Wednesdays (recycling old posts) and Saturdays (substantial new pieces). A couple things happened this morning that seem to me urgent enough to warrant an off-schedule post.
I’d invite e-mail subscribers to hold on to their e-mail copy of this post, and will explain why.
Bookmarks:
Give from abundance • Out on a limb
… can make a hard situation easy, or make an easy situation hard.
To enter the shelter, you walk across this parking lot to an iron gate, and then down these steps to the “smoke pit,” an 8 x 20′ area with benches where we sit until they call us in, in groups of six, to register for this night. One does this every day.
(Originally posted 2012-07-26 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 2018-06-14.)
How Swearing at Work Could Ruin Your @#*! Career
[See also the William Tell Show page, “Word of the Day.”]
(Reblogged from Brain Sweets.)
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Posted by Tracy Seekins ⋅ February 3, 2014 ⋅ Leave a Comment
Filed Under communication, conversation, interrupting, listening, talking
Are you listening? Really listening? When you are in a conversation with a friend or anyone, are you hearing what the other says? Or are you thinking about what you will say next? Are you waiting for your opportunity to tell some story? Do you get so excited or impatient that you interrupt? When the other person stops speaking do you begin immediately or do you wait 3 seconds?
Listening is an integral part of communication. Sometimes real listening means you don’t get to tell the story you had in your mind or say the comment you had 3 sentences ago. Real listening means when the other speaker is done and it is your turn that you are continuing the thought, commenting on what they actually said. Waiting 3 seconds after the other person is done speaking is a way to allow your thoughts to form and shows you were listening.
So are you a good listener?
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Another good post from Tracy:
(Reblogged 2018-02-15.)
Bookmarks:
Job search update
Crisis for D.C. homeless families
(Composed 2014-02-01)
Things are moving full steam ahead on my application for a Secretary II position with the City, as I’ve probably described in previous posts. The hours are 8:30-4:30, which under normal circumstances will let me get to the shelter in time to (1) actually get in and (2) take a shower each day. I will need to phone the office Monday morning 02/03/14 to confirm that all’s in line, and possibly find out a start date.
Continue reading * Job search update, 02/03/14; and other news
If you’re in a boat out on the water, and a storm comes up, and the boat’s rocking and at risk of tipping over; it’s critical to turn the boat to face into the wind. This won’t stop the wind, but will keep it from rocking the boat.
Emotional intelligence is like that. It won’t make life’s storms go away, but can help keep them from rocking your boat.
In my view, emotional intelligence is the same as emotional maturity or psychological or spiritual maturity. This is what spiritual growth is all about.
Continue reading * How emotionally intelligent are you? Here’s how to tell.
In the process of “recycling” old posts on Wednesdays, I am now coming upon a number of posts with which I’m not completely comfortable. I probably would not write them, now or in the future, the way I did at the time; but I’m also still not sure exactly how I’d write them differently.
At the time I wrote those posts, I supposed my homelessness would be brief, and William Tell would soon enough become a public figure able to speak to what he saw as the pressing social issues. My homelessness continues eighteen months later, and my perceptions of those issues have changed.
Continue reading * Issues with upcoming posts
David Farenthold, “Austerity is a hard nut to crack”
George F. Will, “2013’s lesson for conservatives”
Farenthold asks what’s best for the country. Will asks what’s best for conservatives. That difference illustrates what Trojan Horse Productions and The William Tell Show are all about.
Continue reading * The Gospel vs. George F. Will
The mission principally serves two groups.
First (in too many ways) are the “clients,” 450 men enrolled in the 12-month residential drug-and-alcohol treatment program; for which reason they are commonly called “programmers.” Each of them has a permanently assigned bunk and some form of closet space, and can use the mission as a mailing address.
I need to keep in mind that, but for the program, most of them would be homeless.
Second (in too many ways) are the “guests,” no more than 60 homeless men on any day, who are provided accommodations overnight; for which reason we are commonly called “overnighters.” We must vacate the premises no later than 6:00 a.m. daily, cannot leave anything behind, and cannot return until 3:00 p.m. We cannot use the mission as a mailing address.
Note the distinction between “clients” and “guests.”
At the end of the work day one day last week, I walked toward the parking lot carrying my two heavy bags. Programmer W____ P__ came toward me, walking in the opposite direction, and said, “Bill, you look like you’re taking off for the weekend!”
I said to myself, even programmers don’t get it.
He can take off for the weekend; I can’t. I have nowhere to go and nowhere to come back to.
The way he saw me is the way I look all the time.
(Originally posted 05/10/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reposted 10/05/17.)
(Composed 2014-01-01.)
Here are the positions I applied to in December:
MC Administrative Asst, Cardiac Care Nursing Admn Job – UMMS
MC Administrative Asst, Staffing Office Job – UMMS
Production Assistant (Part Time) – Sinclair Broadcast Group
Logistics Administrative Assistant – Cowan Systems, LLC – Baltimore, MD
Administrative Assistant – ABC Behavioral Health
Secretary – Union Memorial Hospital
MC Administrative Asst, Staffing Office Job (#29951) – UMMS
Administrative Assistant III – 1st Choice Staffing
MC Administrative Asst, Cardiac Care Nursing Admn Job (#29837) – UMMS (again)
I’m embarrassed that there weren’t more.
Continue reading o Job search update, 01/06/14
The Homeless Blogger 