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The following text is part of a presentation I’m scheduled to give in a few hours. The assignment was to discuss a topic of our choosing, for example a book, political issue, a charity and get the listeners to take action.

I decided to go with “What is Identity?” as the topic, mainly because I think that identity plays a very important role in our lives, yet most people never stop to think about “identity” or the effect it has on a society.

FYI: the first reference I make is in regards of a presentation I gave a few days ago. The topic was the Dutch PM J. P. Balkenende and as part of my assignment I discussed his personal life and his identity. Hope that clears things up a little.

The presenation is available as a PDF file here, an updated version is available here.

[SLIDE #0]
Good afternoon ladies and gentleman, today I’m _NOT_ gonna discuss anything relating to politics, but rather something entirely different. Last week, as most of you will remember, we discussed [SLIDE #1] the identity of the Dutch PM, today [PAUSE 1] today I’m [SLIDE #2] gonna talk about identity and I’ll try to explain [SLIDE #3] what it really is.

Before we start out with the presentation, I’d like to explain that there is not [SLIDE #4] just one form of identity, but rather half a dozen, well [PAUSE 1], that count anyway.

So first of all there’s [SLIDE #5] personal identity, it basically defines who you are. Then there’s [SLIDE #6] the psychological identity, which truly defines who you are and what makes you unique. Those two are an essential part of your social [SLIDE #7] identity. [PAUSE 1] next we have the [SLIDE #8] cultural identity, which defines your identity within a group of people. It may also influence your [SLIDE #9] online identity, which of course is part of your [SLIDE #10] digital identity.

[PAUSE 2]

As you can see, there are many forms of [SLIDE #11] identity and to keep things from getting too complicated, I’ll just discuss one of the above mentioned - [SLIDE #12] the personal identity. [PAUSE 1] As the name suggests, the personal identity defines who you are, it tells others who you are and it stands for what [SLIDE #13] makes you you.

When I asked a colleague of mine what identity meant to her, she responded that personal identity was synonymous with characteristics to her. I beg to differ. While the person I spoke to is right as that characteristics form a part of our identity, she confused the “social identity” with “personal identity”.

Here’s an example: Think of two guys, both have [SLIDE #14] brown hair, it’s even [SLIDE #15] short. They both have grey [SLIDE #16] eyes and they’re medium [SLIDE #17] tall. [PAUSE 1] Would you say the guys are [SLIDE #18] identical, based on these characteristics? She did and I hope you wouldn’t.

A personal [SLIDE #19] identity is a lot more than just looks, it defines who [SLIDE #20] you are, what you [SLIDE #21] are and what you could [SLIDE #22] have been.

[PAUSE 1] To be perfectly honest, you could think about this for hours on end and not come to a conclusive answer, trust me, I tried. So why am I bothering you with this?

[PAUSE 1] Basically, what I want you to do is to take a break sometime today, tomorrow, whenever you feel like it, sit back, try to focus on your being. Not your soul, but rather your … character, your … “you”. Think about what you are, more importantly who you are, how you came to be the person that you are and what you think you could be [PAUSE 1]. Then, think some more … try to find out how you can be the person you could be, think about what you have to do to get there. Then forget about it.[SLIDE #23]

[PAUSE 1] Sure, it’s important to think about the future, about possible ways it all could have been; [SLIDE #24] You could have been born 50 years ago, maybe even a hundred, you could be born in ten years, you could have been a a girl or a boy. It all really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you accept who you are. _Be_ content with what you are, who you are. Don’t frown about things you have no control over, but rather accept that you already are a great person.

If you can manage that, you have reached a level of selfrespect, maybe even bliss, that most people never reach. Congratulations, you’re now a lot more unique than before.

The red, green and blue tags you’re seeing are something I came up with about a year ago. I call it PPML - the PowerPoint Markup Language. Basically it’s a way of writing a text and working the important events of your presentation into it. I’ve bee using it for about five presentations so far and to be honest, it rocks. It makes presenting a whole lot easier, not only for me, but also for any assistant who is helping out with switching slides and stuff.

During the last presentations, I came up with a few tags, stuff that is easy to remember and easy to spot (especially if you color code it).

[SLIDE #X] - basically tells you (your assistant) that the next slide should be displayed now. “X” here stands for any number. My first slide is always empty (so as to not give away the topic too early) and as such it’s #0.

[PAUSE X] - tells you to take a pause, I find that 1, 2 and 5 seconds are the most efficient uses. “1 second” if I’m switching from subtopic to subtopic, “2 seconds” if I’m switching to an entirely new topic and “5 seconds” if I’m giving the word to another speaker.

[LOOK X] - tells you that you should make some eye contact. It’s quite basic to do it, but sometimes I just forget, so when I see it in my notes, I know what to do. “X” can either be left, right or center. You’ll hardly ever have to look anywhere else.

Human life, probably like all life on Earth, is tainted by decisions.

There are the important ones like the ones that influence your life, the semi-important ones and the unimportant ones. Naturally, everyone regards various decisions differently. What qualifies as a high priority item for one, is of no importance at all to another.

Right now, I’m facing quite a few important and semi-important issues and some input would be appreciated:

I’ve been offered a job from a person I’ve known for about a year now, while the agreement I signed prohibits me from going into specifics, I can at least tell that it is rather techy. It involves lots of coding, probably some out-sourcing and most certainly lots of learning. The company I’d be representing has a killer concept and from what I’ve heard it would most certainly be something I’d love to do. The question is, am I able to do it.

I know my own skills and I (think I) know what they want. Do I think that I have what it takes? No, not right now anyway. Maybe a few months from now, after I’ve gained enough knowledge, I’d be a more suitable candidate. Granted, they, too, know what my skills are and they still asked me, so probably they are more convinced of my skills than I am, which is nice. It’s still a decision I’ve got to make though. The salary would be great, but with great money comes great(er) responsibility. The only peeve, so to speak is that it’s really technical and my goal for the next three years was actually to further develop my artistic skills. Naturally, code (and thus coding too) is poetry and poetry is art, but it’s not really the kind of art I was thinking about.

As part of my interview with the company, I had to write up a dossier of technologies and solutions I’d recommend (and sometimes be able to implement) for the concept they’ve planned out. I think, I did a fairly thorough job, only including the stuff I considered essential and stripping away marketing spiel no one cares about anyway.

We’ll see how this pans out and if it remains a decision I have to make or if it will be made for me.

Another decision I’m facing right now is as to what I should further specialize in … the options I have are audio / video editing or 3D design. If I look at it from a possible income perspective, I’m quite certain that 3D design is the best choice of the three, however, being the math-tard I am, I might have to struggle too long with the tools needed to get the job done.

A/V editing on the other hand is something I’ve been interested for quite some time. I started a machinima movie in the summer which I’m editing, cutting, producing and it’s fun to work with the tools. You get instant results, it’s straight forward and interesting. It also links up nicely with the stuff I’ve been doing for Scott so far.

As should be obvious from the two last paragraphs, I’m kinda partial to A/V editing, not only because it’s something I’ve already done, but also because it’s something which I can translate into marketable skills in the near future. Yes, I’m like that - on the other hand, it’s also something I’d love to do in the future. Not full-time, but certainly every now and then, even if it’s just for homevideos that leave the viewers gaping…

A few hours ago I returned from my first CMD (my college) party - basically a themed party made by and for students from my faculty. “themed” is really the keyword here - the topic of yesterday’s party was “the Eighties” and I kinda managed to miss that little fact completely.

Still, the party was awesome, even though I only spotted like three or four freshmen, which is odd, considering that this, first, party was organized especially for freshmen, to make it easier for them to get in touch with sophomores, middlers, juniors and seniors and probably even alumni.

The producers planned out a karaoke event which was fun to listen to and I’d even taken part, but somehow no one I talked to had the guts to get up on stage and embarrass themselves in front of an audience that was just shy of 120 people. Too bad, maybe better luck next time?

Kudos go out to Geoffrey who hooked me up with a place to crash (which we both did, quite literally) after the party.

That said, if you’re still reading and want to get a better impression of the whole party, head over to my gallery and check out the party album

… it’s also the name of a hot new show premiering on CBS later tonight.. I’ve watched the preview a couple of times now and I think you should too.

Jericho is about a fictional city, located in Kansas. The pilot suggests that the city is caught between not just one, but two possible nuclear explosions. Power in and around the city starts to fail and the people are cut off from the outside world.

Unsure as to what exactly happened, groups start to form and most people only care about their own well-being … or do they? Watch the episode to see what I mean.

This show has potential. Let’s see what the rest of the season brings…

While walking home today, the weather suddenly changed and it started raining like mad. Now, all in all this wouldn’t be anything worth blogging about, since this kind of weather is to be expected in the Netherlands, but something worth mentioning occured.

Before I continue, I’d just like to mention that you should try walking home some time. Be it from your office (if possible) or from a train / bus station … it’s relaxing after sitting all day long, it’s healthy and most important of all, it gives you time to reminisce on the events of the days, big or small. Treat yourself to a good walk home sometime, it’s cheap and you’ll most probably love it.

So, while I was walking in the rain, which is awesome (if you don’t have to walk for more than ten to fifteen minutes), I came to a ped crossing and was just drifting away mentally when all of a sudden a car stops in the middle of the street, in front of a green traffic light, a door opens and the driver asks me if I “still had a long way home” and if I needed a lift. Since I only had a few hundred meters left, I declined and thanked the guy.

My first thoughts, when the car stopped, were that someone I know must have recognized me and wanted to give me a lift - which would be perfectly normal, but no - a total stranger. I think that’s awesome. In today’s world, these random acts of kindness seems to be very rare … heck, if I’d been in his position, I don’t know if I’d have done the same.

I talked about this with a friend of mine and he mentioned the dangers associated with this kind of “help” … like getting into the car of a total stranger and all and I think that’s where it’s all going down the drain. If the first thing you think about, when someone you don’t know helps you, is that the person might try to rip you off / scam you / whatever … then there’s something really wrong.

Being alert is one thing, suspecting everyone of malintention is something else.

Either way, what I wanted to say is “Thank you!” to all those people-who-offer-a-lift-to-someone-who-has-to-walk-in-the-rain out there. You make our society a little bit better.