Bert’s Blog

Good public speaking technique is something that you constantly need to work on. I have been speaking in public in non-sales situations for over 20 years, and it is amazing how certain words that you should not use can creep in to your language again.
The two most common speech pauses that we vocalize are “umm” and “you know”. These take away from the professional manner in which the information might otherwise be received, and might even reflect negatively on the speaker. I know that this can be perceived as shallow thinking, but welcome to life.
I sat next to someone recently who became so annoyed at how many times the speaker used the pause of “you know”, that he stopped listening to the talk, and started counting how many times it was used. Childish? Yes. Real? Also yes.
Why take a chance on being shallowly judged if these word pauses have crept into your speech style? Here is a trick I learned, and teach my students. If you need that pause in your talk to gather up a thought, say the pause in your mind and not through you voice. You will be surprised how different you will sound. If you have a hard time listening to your speech carefully when you talk, record yourself and play it back later. Getting these verbal pauses out of your talking voice will make a world of difference in how professional you sound. Good luck, and as the person recording the pauses said at the end of that talk….no, I DON’T KNOW!

Have you ever wondered what motivates people to drive the way that they drive on a daily basis. I have noticed especially over the last few days that people have become less aware, less courteous, and a bit possessed while behind the wheel of a car. I know that I have become much more aware of my environment, since I began riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles over 2 1/2 years ago. Today, during my morning commute to Farmers Branch, I witnessed three different occurrences of drivers cutting another driver off, extreme tailgating, and tapping of the brakes when nobody was in front of their car.

I know that we are all in a hurry since there never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done we want to get done. Please understand that I am not implying that I always do the speed limit and am a perfect driver; I am not. I do try to be considerate of my fellow drivers, and it’s been a long time since somebody could accuse me of tailgating or really aggressive driving. For those of us who are courteous drivers, and most of the Harley riders that I know of in our chapter are pretty courteous drivers when in their cars, just be aware of the other guy. We know the risk and danger we are exposed to when riding motorcycles, and most of us take extra care when riding to avoid the distracted drivers.

Be aware, be safe, and “Screw it, let’s ride.”

Well we are back home after 8 days of riding from here to the East Coast and back through the Smokey Mountains. I am so proud of Peggy! She road her own bike over 2,700 miles on this trip, and never complained once. We had rain EVERY day except the last day home from Little Rock. We all have a new appreciation for dry riding.

Check out the selected pics in my gallery from the trip. We finished the trip by riding the Tail of the Dragon in Tennessee. 311 turns in 11 miles…..YES.

Thanks to Carla and Tracey for all their hard work planning the trip. Thanks to Judy, Daryl, Ray, Darlene, Michael, and Loyce for making it a memorable trip. We have many new rockers coming from this trip. A special thanks goes to Daryl, aka…Magic Fingers, for all his help keeping the bikes running. Darlene for her bike surgery; Ray for …..a well we will save that story; Michael for all his weather help, Loyce for her infectious laugh; Carla and Tracey for their mothering of the group; Judy for her positive attitude….let’s ride Dufus! And a special recognition to my darling wife…great job honey!! You did it!.

When it comes to technology, there are many different kinds of people in this world. There are those individuals who possess the latest and greatest technology; those that enjoy exploring new technology; those that get on board with new technology because they realize they need to; and those that fight new technology every step of the way. I believe that I fall into the second group; those who enjoy exploring new technology.

In fact this blog is being dictated into MacSpeech, which is translating my words into text. The advantage for me, is that I never really learned how to type properly, and the Bert Williams method of eight finger typing does give me about 50 words per minute. Although I have tried very hard to learn proper keyboarding techniques over the last six months, I get frustrated because I can’t type as fast as my own self developed method. It my case, you got a love technology.

We are heading off to the Carolinas and the Smoky Mountains tomorrow. For those of you that like to check-in with my blog from time to time, I intend to post pictures to my mobile blog as we are traveling on the trip, so you can track where we are and what were doing. A complete gallery of pictures will be posted shortly after our return.

Since our entire group has the best rain gear, we are confident that that will chase away the storm clouds for our eight-day trip. Ride safe everyone.

What is it with the media in this country? You would think from the way they are reporting swine flu, the world is coming to an end. Each year between 37,000 and 40,000 people die from influenza. This outcome is easily changed by getting a flu shot each and every year. In fact, this year’s flu shot appears to be working very effectively against the swine flu. This strain of flu is actually a milder form of influenza, lasting generally about one day. Not a single US citizen has died from swine flu, Rather they have affected people from Mexico. The young child that died recently in Texas, was actually a citizen of Mexico who came to El Paso to visit relatives. He became sick after he was here and was taken to a hospital in central Texas where he later died. The question that healthcare professionals are raising, is what other undiagnosed diseases are present in these individuals who are dying allegedly from the swine flu. Between the poorer state of air quality in Mexico City, undiagnosed AIDS and tuberculosis and other diseases, is what is actually attributing to the death rate.

One day maybe the media will wake up and decide to try and present factual and complete information in news stories to allow the public to decide for themselves on an issue. Closing an entire city’s school systems, such as Fort Worth, as a result of one confirmed case of swine flu, seems absolutely ridiculous. One of the ironic situations that’s already taking place, is that school officials have urged the children from those school systems who have closed their schools, to stay home and not interact with others to be safe from swine flu. They interviewed one teenager yesterday who was hanging around the shopping mall with his cousin because, after all, the school system did not say to avoid shopping malls. Wake up America! Do your homework and read the facts and relax. It is just the flu!

With everything happening around us, what do you do with all of the negative information surrounding you? How you handle your environment will determine who you are, and how your mental state remains. Do you let it get you down? Do you start to wonder, am I next? Negative thoughts tend to attract negative energy. I know it sounds “out there”, but it is a fact.

Someone asked me last Saturday why I was smiling most all of the time. In fact, he was having some difficulties in handling a challenging person in his life, and he said to his wife, “I am going to ask Smiley.” I never really thought of myself as being a perpetual smiler, but I do believe in the power of positive thought and positive energy. In fact, I make sure that I am smiling when I am engaged in phone conversations, because it does make a difference.

We are all surrounded by people every day. People that we like; people that we are neutral about; and people that can get to us. This last group can only get to you if you allow them to. Have you ever smiled and waved at the aggressive driver you flips you off? Funny how they respond. If you do not let it get to you, think about what they see after they flip you off. You are laughing, smiling and waving. Sort of takes that negative energy and bursts it.

Count the positive things in your life everyday. The family you have; the friends you have, and the fun times that are ahead. If you have survived this economy so far, rejoice in it. Coconuts, Got Nuts, Doc, PMS, Tee, Carla, Squeal Me, and X-X Ray, you are that core of fun time friends. Pam & Kevin, you guys are special. Can’t wait until May and then November, for our coming adventures. Hug someone today, hug someone today, and tell your significant other that you love them. It is a great day!

BTW- Go Mini-T with your quest to make the finals for The Biggest Loser. You AEHOG family supports you. Hmmm, who will be the Chapter’s Santa Claus this year? Ahh, we can stuff you with pillows!

Texas has much milder weather than our northern states, but 25 degrees is still cold. Now, to make us all feel better, Chicago was really cold this morning. I was talking to my sister at about 630am this morning as we were both driving in to the office, and it was -12 there. Too darn cold for me. She said that even if it was only 50 degrees and sunny when she comes to Dallas next weekend, she was going to sit outside in the sun. Love Texas!
At least the weather will be warming up tomorrow in time for the AEHOG Chili Contest. Daryl, Michael and I, AKA for this contest as the Three Papas, will be braving the early morning cold to have some fun with Daryl’s perfected recipe. If you love tasting chili, why not stop by the dealership on Saturday. Tasting all of the entries costs only $1.00, and starts at 12:00 noon.