Christopher Wink

The boy in the train station coffee shop

By Christopher Wink | Oct. 8, 2008 | WeDontSpeaktheLanguage.com

Worlds – yes, disparate worlds – come to some form of a cross-section in red-eyed, late nights in train stations.

Early Tuesday morning, we were doing that, surfing the intersection of the young and the acutely itinerant – being reminded of the sociological difference between situational and generational poverty.

We, three, were in a 24-hour coffee shop just before 1 A.M., waiting on a 6 A.M. train. A security guard recommended the spot, a few modern chairs off to the side where people buy cups of foam and cream. A young man, a year or two my junior, sat beside me, tapping his foot and twitching in his chair, regularly, if subtly. The kind of movements you might expect at 1 A.M. in a late-night train station coffee shop.

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What can you do?: have a mental resume

You need to know what is special about you. Now.

You have a resume, clips, maybe even a standard cover letter you dust off for applications or to forward to new contacts. But do you have any idea what it is that actually makes you special – if you think you’re special at all?

Get on board and get yourself a checklist of the qualities or experiences you have that make you special, that you can share in an interview or even in a casual conversation with a potential network. You need a mental resume.

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One year anniversary of ChristopherWink.com

Today is the one-year anniversary of this site.

Yes, you may use the comments section to review some of your favorite moments, most of which I will assume brought you to tears.

If you can’t do that on your own, I’ll help you out, mostly because we all know I would.

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Welcomed by the children

By Christopher Wink | Oct 26, 2008 | WeDontSpeaktheLanguage.com

He liked the movement of the mouse cursor on my computer screen. So I pried his hands from the keys and opened up Microsoft Paint. With a few interruptions to change color and tool, a four-year-old who stumbled upon me in a park in Budapest, Hungary drew me a computer-generated painting.

Children don’t likely understand the concept of language. I certainly don’t remember when I learned of the six billion people in the world, most don’t speak like me. The little boy with the dirty sweatsuit, dirt on his brown-olive skin, and sand in his bushy, black hair spoke on to me, in a language I couldn’t understand.

He shrieked, too. First when – hoping to get him to stop smacking my laptop – I took his underarms and lifted him into the hanging leaves of a nearby tree.

He was positively gleeful.

He got on toy horse near the swings and – with a strong-armed point and another high-pitched shout – demanded I get on one nearby. For a few good moments, he and I raced fast and long toward a Soviet-era apartment complex across the street.

Then he got off and wanted to be lifted more. Offering demand I still couldn’t understand, but smiling in a way I could.

I don’t know where he went. Someone called what I thought was a name – a woman in the distance. He asked me to lift him once more – into the branches and leaves. He spoke more to me, grabbed some leaves and tossed them at me – sand included – and was gone.

Running off with a green soccer ball. A young boy I’ll never know. Who shrieked in my ears, threw sand at my face and gave me a pleasant picture to keep.

Originally written for the travel blog WeDontSpeaktheLanguage.com.

Look at the comments, stupid

Man, who doesn’t have a blog.

Any newspaper that can even be tossed in the conversation has someone adding to it. There is no end to the number of jerks like me doing much of the same, with less experience and knowledge but increasingly more interest than the more professional.

The question, of course, is if any of it is working. One of the simpler answers, I’d say, is, well, look at the comments. If they’re improving, you’re improving.

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New home, no Internet: My world in turmoil, give me a moment

Excitedly pulling out the Wink/Dolan family turkey on Thanksgiving 2008.

I am sitting in the Frankford Library, stealing wireless Internet by using a fake library card ID number I schmoozed out of a kind librarian.

Philadelphia, you have just earned yourself one more unemployed resident.

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Happy Thanksgiving

WDSTL: My first podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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My good friend Sean Blanda and I put together a weekly podcast on our travel blog WeDontSpeaktheLanguage.com during our European backpacking trip. We returned earlier this month but only now got the last of our posts up and put some finishing touches on the site, where we broadcast our weekly Sunday night episodes.

See our last episode below or all the episodes here.

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Professional versus personal: My Web presence explained

Last month I introduced a personal blog, where I intend on updating about meaningful experiences in my life, as part of pursuit of a Life To Do List.

In truth, I tend to lose interest when someone has a legion of online presences, blogs begetting other blogs.

That’s not what this is meant to be. Instead, I believe a professional outlet is of paramount importance — develop and share perspective on your industry, become a thought leader and all that good stuff. To do that, you ought not muddle it all up with too many personal stories. …I think.

To be honest, I’m still figuring it out. While our brands need personal attention too, of course, I think there’s a line. I suppose that’s what I’m trying to figure it out.

If you’re going to have a professional and personal split online, that’s one I can understand, though I am still developing an opinion on whether I agree with myself.