A man with a hump-backed uncle mustn't make fun of another man's cross-eyed aunt...

What is criticism? What is change? What is challenges? What is good? What is bad?

I have just finished reading a controversial blog article written by Mark Cuban who is a major IT geek like me turned into a leader of several companies including the Dallas Mavericks. He is also the IT guy behind HDnet and HDTV which is making headways in the Tech industry.

Although criticism is typically perceived as a negative, it can be one of the most positive and motivating forces any of us can experience. The key to turning criticism into a positive is understanding the nature of the criticism.

Daily, I face tremendous amount of criticism in my work as Information Technology is about radicial change and also using technology as a tool for students and teachers. Every time I make a change on the file server, email server or website, there will always been someone who is critical and rather place blame instead of accepting the situation and work around it. As Mark states in his article "People criticized where, when and how I did things. Not a single person criticized or challenged why" which brings to my next topic to the reason why we initate change, why we initate challenges and why we initate criticism.

My school, my culture, my environment is too conservative to obey the changes that come to them. I am living in a culture that very close, people living on the surface, people taking advantage of others, lack of emotional support and leaving little room for peace and patience. I also work in an environment with other foreigners from different wakes of life bringing in different experience of how things should be done. Yes I admit, this is good experience but at the same time with the large range of diversity, it's easily for someone to fall into the negative criticism trap and choose to place irrational blame when something breaks through the status quo or the situational norms.

Here is one of my favorite comments from his web-blog:

I've been thinking about emailing you for a little bit, but I think this is the best chance. I don't wanna harp on you because I think you've been amazing for the Mavericks, but recently you've been under attack for your NBA Finals activity and I think I have a positive solution.

Dealing with the NBA and its refs should be no different than training a dog or raising your children. If you're always telling your kid they are fat, ugly, stupid, etc., they start to believe it (unless that kid has the strength of mind to ignore it--but those kids are rare). If your dog does something good and you reward that behavior, after time, your dog will continue to do that positive behavior.

So, may I advocate for the "positive reinforcement" concept as applied to the NBA's refs. Be public and appreciative about those refs that do good. Mention the bad, but accentuate the positive. These guys are people, and they have to go home at night and explain why Cuban called daddy a bad name. A little positive treatment will go the distance in getting the benefit of the doubt when the benefit is really necessary.

Take it as a suggestion, but I think a different stance could pay dividends later on down the road. And this is my criticism--keep making us proud Mark!!!

I could not agree more. "Positive Reinforcement" is what should make the new breed of criticism because it allows us to feel comfortable with the acceptance of the situation and more or less does not degrade us "human into animals" with no respect for its feelings or existance. That should be how criticism be constructed because its allows us and fellow people like Mark Cuban to initiate healthy change to the masses who follow us.

Click here to read his article and comments from others regarding criticism.

Google Rankings

Wow...

This morning, I googled the word "passionate traveler" and found out that my blog website is ranked 2nd in the searches... WOOT WOOT...

As most of you already know that my wallet was stolen in April leaving me without credit cards, insurance cards, UNIS ID card (the same card to prove I am a United Nations diplomat) and endless peices of yellow post it notes that we keep in our wallets. The sad thing is that I could not renew my www.velox.ca domain in time and later found out that I lost the domain registration to an a@#h@le in Toronto who is holding the name for selling purposes. GRRRRR... Time to register for a new domain.

Other interesting google rankings I found out this morning:

Did a search of my uncle gene's name and of course he is ranked #1 with Golf associated with his name. Indeed, I am not surprised of course.

Did a search of my father and step mother's name and my father's name is more popular with another man in vancouver who has been in the securities and brokage business for 30 years with endless years of service for board of directors, charities, etc... has he been that busy and not tell me? On the other hand, my step mother has endless credits for her work in the Library industry in B.C. Her google name produces 2 full pages of results.. WOW...

Sadly, my mother and my baby brother does not exist on the internet. I have to speak with them about this...

My aunts Susan and Carol are not in the searches but their names come up as judges and lawyer which gave me an amusing smile.

My other uncle Jim has nearly 2 pages of google searches but all of them are related to his retirement from the City of Calgary. That will be a party that I do not want to miss.

All my baby cuzs are not listed at all in any google searches except actors, lawyers, a U-boat captain and a house cleaner... certainly not the occupations that they are doing today.

And the number one family member with the most searches goes to my step father with over 15 pages including websites in japanese as part of his wonderful music career. I hope that he is reading this as it might inspire him to go to each page to check it out. ;)

Why don't you do a search on your own name to see what results may come up and write me a comment.

When the referee becomes the center of the match...

Watching world cup football has really provided the drama and flair of how much a referee can influence the game. Last night, England was denied to reach the semi finals vs. France (Who later beat Brazil in a 1-0 match) lost to Portugal in a dramatic penalty kick shoot out.

The South American based official change the outcome /flow of the match when he issued a red card to Wayne Rooney for supposely "stamping" on the opponent's testicles. How is this possible? I honestly don't know. Everyone was yelling a foul but the official took in account his own emotions of the result afterwards and brought out the danger colour that no one (fan, players , coaches) wants to see in the playoff finals.

Why did this happen? Was it an intentional hit? Was the referee influence by the moaning and groaning of the Portugal players? If you were watching the match, it was very clear the referee let his decision to be influence by the players and the anger came out rejecting Rooney leaving England to fight with only 10 players left on the field.

You know what they say that World Cup football is the battle of countries, the events where political people watch, events where millions of dollars flow through the air like the wind passing over farmer's fields there is bound to be a level of bribery and corruption behind the people who run the matches, officiate the matches and even though who play the matches.

It stinks and knowing the reality of sports; it occurs everywhere!