what we have..is a failure to communicate

email - gotta love it, right?  it's become our primary form of communication.  there's a problem.  email doesn't let you hear emotion in the sender's voice - often there's no inflection in what's been written, so you really are at a loss as to how to interpret what is being said unless you know the sender very well.

we have become so dependent upon this form of communication, yet most don't have a clue how to properly use the medium.  they don't carefully choose their words to convey the correct meaning, no, instead they spew whatever words come forth from their meager vocabularies and don't even think about the ramifications of their impact on the other party without the benefit of inflection or emotion.  this can and often does have devastating results.

at least when we speak with someone face to face or even on the phone or chat on the internet, we have the benefit of seeing their face and or hearing the inflection of their voice and can often tell if they are joking, smiling, laughing, angry, sad, etc.   with email we get none of that.

communication is the bedrock of every relationship - friend, lover, work, person you meet on the street, customer -  essentially, every interaction you have with another human being requires communication of some sort.  it is far too important to leave to chance or guesswork by the other when you create an email.  take the time to think about what you want to convey with your words and then put it down.  yes, it may take a few extra seconds, but those few extra seconds may make the difference between understanding and misunderstanding and save a lot of heartache in the end.

Why, oh, why...

I can't quite get my head around the notion that someone would actually feel that there was no other way to deal with their life than to end it with their own hands.  

I'm not talking about someone with a terminal disease - I'm talking about someone with from all signs a decent life.  A good wife, good kids, good friends...then BAM! gone.  What was so bad that they couldn't talk to somebody?  One of their friends?  

So many questions left unanswered...never to be known.  What signs did we miss?  What lessons can we learn to keep this from happening again?  This is happening with frightening frequency.  These are not children doing this - these are grown men in their 40's and 50's.  What is happening here?  This is a problem that needs to be addressed.

smellyvision...

i'm peeling wallpaper off the kitchen walls.  paper that had been steeped in cigarette smoke for years.  i'm finding that now that the paper is coming off, the acrid smell of old cigarettes is permeating the house.  it got me thinking - it's kind of an interesting metaphor for the effects cigarettes have on the body even after you have quit smoking. 

chamomile tea? tried that...thanks

in previous posts i have vented about what i consider to be social issues.  not so, this post.  no, this post is more concerned with the with the personal.   

it would appear that there are forces taking over my sleep center.  i now have an internal clock that has reset to awaken me at anywhere from 1:30 am to 3:00 am and it doesn't matter what time i go to bed!  this has been going on for 3 (yes that is three) months now and if i don't get some sleep soon, i can't be held responsible for my actions.   i try napping during the day, but those naps only last about 20 minutes at best.  power naps- it seems.

friends have commented that they don't know how i have managed to keep such a nice demeanor.  my thinking is - that it doesn't do anybody any good to be a grouch - there's nothing i or anybody can do about the situation currently, other than ride it out.  right?  the biggest issue i find i face, is the problem with typing.  i can't seem to type worth a sh*t  right now and it is really frustrating.  letters get transposed,  words get left out even though my brain says they are there.  i have to read and re-read every thing i write.  the rest of my life seems to be running in slow motion while everything around me is running normal speed.  what a weird feeling that is.

on the plus side - my house is really, really clean - i'm sure my neighbors love hearing the vacuum running at all hours of the morning but that's too bad...  

a great billboard...

I saw this great billboard the other day:

"Half the people in this country know about Darfur - 

the voting half" 

ROCK ON!!!

more maniacs join the fray...

There are now more maniacs to post their opinions here.  Yes, my sister and her friends thought it would be fun to join in on this venture so, welcome to you all and jump in with your salient venting anytime.

making mudpies...

Here in the midwest we have had our share of rain this year so we could easily sit in all the mud left over and make mud pies suitable for slinging until probably the next decade arrives.  We choose to instead find a way to use that mud to create something better for ourselves.  

Not so John McCain.  Instead of focusing on what the issues are and how he might run the country, he has to find a way to tear down the other candidate.  So typical of the Republican tactics a la Karl Rove and his ilk.  If you can't win focused on the issues- try to win by negative campaigning.  It is so transparent and so inauthentic and yet there are, sadly, those who will blindly follow his rhetoric.  

I had truly hoped that by this time, almost a decade into the the new millennium, we would have gotten beyond the negative ad campaign and been able to truly focus on what was important for the voters in America to understand about the candidates in order to make an informed decision.

OH! Silly me, it's happening - just not the way I expected!  Go ahead, John keep on keepin' on - the rest of us will focus on what's important for the country and you will become even less relevant than you are right now.  Does anyone else hear fingernails on a chalk board?