Thursday, September 16, 2010

Volunteering: ESL Tutoring; SOHO SME Training; Fringe Performance

Read this blog entry for a general description of what happened, yesterday.

Read the upcoming blog entry on Sep. 20th, for a hosiery review of Hanes Alive.

Today, I wore these things.

  • volunteer pass [for the Fringe Festival; had an orange strap, so that we could wear the pass around our necks]
  • yellow volunteer t-shirt
  • my favourite black pair of shorts
  • semi opaque black Hanes Alive
  • black dress shoes

I went to the ESL volunteering, as usual, and as usual, nothing really happened.

Next, I went to the SOHO SME training session. During the session, they mentioned the dress code: men had to wear black pants. At the end of the session, I asked if I could wear "these shorts" and hosiery, since I was trying to wear them as business casual. The trainer asked if I had any black dress pants. I said, "Yeah.". She then said that I could wear those, because I would be attending the evening networking session.

In hindsight, I kind of wonder if I was not confident enough in asking, because when I did, I said, "Regarding dress code, I'm trying to wear these shorts, and hosiery, and shoes, as business casual. Is it okay if I wear this, or would it be pushing the envelope?". I phrased my question that way, because I wanted to show an awareness that it was not conventional business casual.

I sensed, from her response, that she might have actually allowed the shorts and hosiery during the day, if I was willing to change into pants, later on. Changing clothes is always worth considering, but I hate changing when I am away from the home.

That being said, I should give it some serious thought, because if I can expose my outfits to business people, at least once, then that should be considered progress. Not doing that, just because I do not feel like getting changed, is not a very proactive idea.

After that, I went to my next volunteer session: ticket sales for the Fringe Festival. I appreciated the opportunity to get to know more people. Nothing spectacular happened.

Throughout the day, I noticed many women wearing hosiery. It was a visual buffet. Because I am now in the market for an opaque black pair of hosiery, I asked many of them, where they got theirs. If I heard correctly, then I can say without a doubt, that every single 1 of them, came from a foreign country. I was shocked. I do not think that I spoke to a single native born Canadian. Only 1 person might have bought her hosiery from here. I think that we, North Americans, have some work to do.

I came up with an interesting idea, today. I noticed that I felt like a very official and important man, today, because of the wide orange strap, and the pass. It basically implied that I was doing something that involved other people. If I am wearing a uniform shirt, a pair of shorts, and a pair of hosiery, then "obviously" the people, that I work with, do not mind me looking that way. So, on lookers would not only see me, they would "see" other people approving of me. It is as if 100 people made the official statement that shorts and hosiery on men is an acceptable thing, and that the onlookers were not allowed to have a say in the matter. That is exactly how the situation was. Nobody was allowed to criticize, because the Fringe Festival encouraged us to wear whatever we wanted, plus the uniform t-shirt.

So, in short, if you want people to think that a lot of other people approve of our style, then wear it as part of a uniform.

I bet that we could take it a step further, by carrying a clipboard or a bunch of printed reports. Maybe, if we wore 1 of those head sets, then we would look really important.

Next year, if I am still available, then I will try to get into a position where I will wear a head set. I know that it sounds silly, but props really do sell an idea.

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