Christos Kalantzis’ Blog

I am tired of constantly being expected to answer every email, SMS or every voice mail immediately.  Since when does sending an email off to someone guarantee delivery and transfer of responsibility?

I created a flowchart to set expectations of when you will get a response  for a particular form of communication:

So no more telling me I emailed you the thing and I expected it today, when you never even got a confirmation that I received it at all!  If its really important, then one should get off their butts and talk to that person directly, or pick up your phone.  Something is obviously not important if you don’t put in the effort yourself to communicate its importance.

I was driving to work the other day and paid attention to the carpool lane, since I was rolling along at 10 mph in morning traffic.  I was annoyed to see a few cars go by with what clearly seemed like one person in the car.  I thought about chancing it, but I already got one ticket in the last 6 months and got it cleared through traffic school.  Besides, the early morning meeting I was headed towards was going to be a snoozer.

As I approached my exit I noticed a minivan merging away from the carpool lane and headed towards the same exit as me.  We ended up side by side at a red light.  I rolled down my window and actually asked her if she gets nervous about driving alone in the carpool lane.  She had a confused look on her face and pointed my attention to the back seat.  “I have my baby in the back seat, so I am carpooling.”  The light turned green and she drove off leaving me there with my mouth wide open.

Since when does a baby count for carpooling?  It doesn’t, right?  Carpooling should be the pooling of 2 potential drivers.  A baby doesn’t count, because it would never drive on its own, in the first place.  One would think with California’s budget issues, police (CHP) would be out in full force ticketing to fill the deficit.  So watch out lady.

Friday night I attended the Πλούταρχο concert in Montreal. I have been to many such concerts. Μαζωνάκης, Πετρέλης and Καρά to name a few. Although they were all great concerts, some with interesting miss-haps , this one was particularly different.

All the artists which I have seen, seem genuinely interested in giving the audience their money’s worth. However Πλούταρχο, not only went out of his way to make every “guest” feel welcome by actually getting off the stage and shaking anyone’s and everyone’s hand and taking pictures without it seeming to be a drag. Just the opposite, he genuinly looked happy to oblige everyone’s request.

In an age where perfomers take themselves way too seriously and create a divide between themselves and their fans, which in my opinion is self-destructive, since they are buying their stuff and paying tickets to see them, Πλούταρχο is very down to earth, approachable and a really nice guy. He actually seemed to be enjoying performing for us more than the audience enjoyed listening to him.

This was the first time I saw Πλούταρχο, and it certainly won’t be the last!

Embeded is a little video with exerts from the concert taken on my N95. I wasn’t always that close, so please keep the quality comments to a minimum .

I just got back from Salt Lake City. Its really a beautiful city, but the graffiti on the sidewalks needs to be addressed!

This is literally spray painted on sidewalks every so often.