Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Tuesday, March 26, 2002 Getting nervousThe Prime Minister of Namibia and I attended the American Society of Public Administration (ASPA) conference in Phoenix. I had to keep myself out of trouble. But, the PM had security.Everywhere the PM went, you'd see a group of guys in suits with little wires coming out of their ears. I took these guys to be secret service agents. I spent a few minutes watching the security and wondering what they look for. Obviously they must be looking for any violent attack. But, I suppose they also look for anyone acting nervous. Was I acting nervous? Yes. I realized, as I was watching, that I was fidgeting, looking around, twirling a pen and frequently glancing at my watch. I wondered if they noticed me. Then I wondered what would happen if I tried to act even more nervous. How nervous could I get before they'd do something? For all I know, my nervous behaviour put these trained secret service-types on alert. Maybe their ear pieces were buzzing -- "white male, green blazer, chair near the hotel door is acting nervous; keep an eye on him." I wasn't just acting nervous. I was nervous. But, I wasn't nervous because I was planning to take out the PM. I was nervous because I had just a couple of hours left before I had to make a presentation. Making a presentation before a bunch of people is not my idea of fun. (Though now that the presentation is over, I think it went ok.) Sometimes I like being nervous. It is fun to stand at the starting line of a World Champs -- feeling nervous, but also realizing this is what you really want to do. Presenting a paper to ASPA is not as fun as running at World Champs. posted by Michael | 6:48 PM 
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