How Not To Make A Complete Ass Of Oneself In A Funny Situation

Do you ever laugh or at least smile at a joke that's directed at you? Do you? I don't. I believe I have a good sense of humor as long as that humor is directed at someone else. But if the joke is on me, a good laugh is the last thing on my mind. I'm sure some of you are like that too. They say that the ability to laugh at oneself is one of the toughest qualities a person can have. IMHO, its a must-have. Funny! we can't see the lighter side of ourselves. When reading a newspaper or a magazine I sometimes wonder how do these politicians and celebrities tolerate all those funny caricatures and cartoons the mean cartoonists make of them. If someone did such a thing to me, I'd go through the roof. Which in my opinion, is a bad thing. In some funny situations or in some not-so-funny situations, you need to know how to grin and bear it. Or just know how to laugh at yourself. That's going to save you a lot of trouble. But getting a smile on your face at that moment seems to be the last thing in the world you'd think about. Strange! how some simple things which can stop you from tipping over don't happen. I guess its because we react first and then think later.

My friend has a simple solution to this. When you're about to explode, just take a deep breath and put yourself in the other guy's shoes. See how he feels about it or why he thought what you did was funny. Then you will realize that you're not the perfect guy (the way you look everytime you see yourself in the mirror) about town. You might even find that you are as geeky or as quirky as the guy who you always poked fun at. But let that not overly hurt you. Learn to live with it. Or try to make sure that the you won't give them a chance the next time (easy to say but hard to practice). Well, that's what friends are for, to give such free advices.

My boss has a similar belief. He says when he's with his long-time and childhood friends, and they goof up, its his undeniable duty(!!!) to give them a hard time (or in his words "crap"). Just because they're his best buddies. And they seem to take it in good humor too. Because he does it in a good-natured way. He's also nice enough to admit that when he slips up, he gets a lot of crap in return. But he sure does have a good sense of humor. He has the whole team in splits during meetings. He says that its his way of keeping himself from going mad. Cool.

And that's another thing we need to keep in mind. If we want to tick someone off, do it the right way. At the same time be ready to face it like a man when you are at the receiving end. We forget this paradigm and make a complete ass of ourselves. At least I keep forgeting this paradigm and end up making a complete ass of myself. But I am learning and I guess I will keep on learning. Its not an easy subject to master. Rocket Science should be a piece of cake. Don't get mad, get even!

Jet Lag and Boiling Oil

It has been one of those traveling weeks again. Hopefully, I’ll be getting my silver club membership soon with the airline I fly. That’s the least of my problems. Long flights can be tiresome. And jet lags can be horrendous. Hence, I am awake and writing this blog in the middle of the night. So, I’ve picked up this new hobby besides Origami. And that is Stocks. I have been religiously following the world of stock markets. And the reason I am following the Markets (as they are known in the world of finance) is because I have invested in stocks. My portfolio boasts of stocks which when sold today would fetch me enough for precisely one oil change for the car and leave me with enough spare change to buy jujubes. I am sure you’ve never come across another guy who’d invest so much of his time mulling over oil change and jujubes. Well, when I first decided to invest, I was under the opinion that a few years from now on, the same portfolio will let me buy a good car. So, I started to worry over how I would invest my hard-earned money. My friends say that I should stop worrying and might as well spend the money on oil change and buy jujubes and be done with. I’m giving this idea a serious thought with the way the Markets are playing around with my investments.

Another suggestion from my friends is that I should place my bets on oil. Seems crude oil is getting more expensive by the minute on the NYMEX. Speaking of which, I read this interesting article in the WSJ (yea, yea the very same Wall Street Journal. I read it. No kidding. Thanks to my investments). I read it in more detail than any Wall Street Investment Banker would do. And I’m not one of them. Speaking of which, nowadays, it seems to be uncool to associate yourself even remotely to investment banking. Such is life. Have I told you that I have invested in stocks? So, coming back to the article (in case you lost track, I wanted to mention about an article in WSJ). This article I am talking about was actually an interview with the Chevron boss David O’ Reilly. And from the interview you could gather that despite the good profits, the Oil Boss was a bit skeptical as to how the oil markets were changing. He was skeptical about foodgrains being used for bio-fuels; he was skeptical about how the oil policies are working or not working and so on. But the part that caught my attention was that this big man has switched from Cadillac Escalade to Cadillac STS!! Whoa! Oil baron who earned $45m downgrading his car is a little scary! Or maybe he is becoming environmentally responsible, which could be a good thing. Whichever way you look at it, it’s a sign of changing times. And I hope it will not be the “There will be blood” type. Maybe I should stick to my friends’ first advice and go for that oil change and buy those jujubes while I can still afford them.