Bud Gallant's Questions And Answers (Q & A)

Bud Gallant is a online marketer and freelance writer located in Ontario, Canada. Ask Bud anything or read the answers to previous questions here.

Is that a phallic symbol in the photograph with you, or are just happy to see me again? If nothing is coincidental, as an online marketer what’s the message you’re projecting about yourself? You’re on the market …ready ….willing & monumentally able?

Haha. That is indeed the Washington Monument in the background. That picture is from the first of two trips I’ve made to D.C. What I found particularly ironic about choosing that image, is it’s conflict with my personal branding as a Canadian. Although it’s not used on my main site, it is used very liberally on profiles. Perhaps, though, there is something fitting about being a Canadian with an American image? Honestly, I wouldn’t read into it too much. It’s just one of the more photographically interesting pictures I have in my judgement, so I’ve kept using it, although it is now a couple years old and not quite as relevant as it was to me at the time it was taken.

The Reflecting Pool is quite amazing, and I’d recommend seeing that whole area of D.C. Don’t forget to bring your own bottles of water, though, unless you want to spend $5.

Interesting side-note, is that the Washington Monument is 555 feet tall, and being a North American obelisk, it certainly has occasioned a lot of speculation.

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The “aesthetics” of smoking can help make it an addictive crutch. Does your commitment to health and fitness mean you don’t smoke? For people who claim it’s a necessary habit, doesn’t that mean that they’re victims of their past, ignoring the present?

This is a very enlightened question. I have to admit that at present I am in a conflict there. I do smoke, and I enjoy it at times, though the primary reason that I continue to spoke cigarettes regularly is addiction.

I have moments where I am painfully aware that managing food and drink on the basis of health, and continuing to directly poison my body with cigarettes, is indefensible. Ultimately, I view it as a conflict, though others may not, and for them it might be within their ethics to be health-conscious smokers.

For myself, I think it clearly is a counter-intention both from a money management and a health and wellness perspective. That being said, I’ve decided to tackle that dragon at a later date. I have drastically decreased the amount of cigarettes I smoke. A single pack lasts me nearly a week. Stopping altogether, while it is my ultimate goal, is not something in the short-term, I can commit myself to pursuing seriously.

I do recognize it as a problem, but it’s a problem I’m accepting leaving mostly unconfronted in lieu of putting attention on other matters. What I am doing in that direction now is managing the amount I smoke and decreasing it overtime to ultimately make giving it up completely more realistic to me.

As far as the idea of smoking being a “necessary habit”, I don’t personally see how it could be necessary, but I definitely understand how it becomes a habit, and while I do not necessarily accept all of the anti-tobacco sentiment as far as negative impact on health is concerned, I do think addiction, in itself is a de-powering influence.

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If you could become any fictional character, who would you be?

There’s a character named “Gaius Baltar” in the TV series Battlestar Galatica that I have a lot of affinity for. He’s an eccentric genius with complex loyalties. In a very short span, his character develops in a variety of directions, and his interests and my own overlap to a very high degree. I don’t want to ruin one of the highlights of the entire series for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, so I’ll leave it at that.

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How many languages do you speak?

I speak English natively. I can speak a very small amount of Hebrew and French, as well. By small, I mean pretty insignificant and definitely not enough to carry on a conversation, however I can read Hebrew and pronounce the words. The trouble is I often do not know what they mean! I picked that up several years ago. I found the Hebrew alphabet is actually very simple.

Growing up in Canada, French class is not optional, although most people here seem to have managed to retain nearly none of what they learned in the classes. That was the case for myself, as well, except that, frankly, I didn’t learn much French to begin with even during the classes!

These days I’m more interested in Mandarin, and perhaps one day I will learn it. I would love to be able to go to China and speak and read Mandarin while there.

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Do you live more in the past or the present?

I definitely live more in the present. In fact, that’s a personal conviction of mine. If you’re not living in the present, you’re not truly appreciating life, in my view. For me, living in the past is absolutely not tempting. I do sometimes find myself a bit too focused on the future, though, and sometimes need to remember to take time to just be in the moment and in present time.

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What would you try if you had no fear?

If I had no fear, I’d swim across a small lake at night. I’ve wondered sometimes how long I could keep swimming for, and there’s been times at night I’ve thought about just swimming and swimming to a point where the only light is from the stars.

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