Damien at the Speed of Life – DATSOL

For centuries, man has wondered at the power of the moon on people’s psyche. Fiction exists about werewolves and such but there is some real scientific data out there that shows the full moon produces more craziness in people. I saw one study that showed large city mental health lock-down facilities had more of an influx of patients on full moons than on other parts of the moon cycle. Coincidence?

Tonight I went out to my jacuzzi and the full moon was white filling up the backyard with its milky light. As I gazed at it it seemed to swallow up the pool and the whole backyard. It was fascinating, hypnotic, and spooky all at the same time. I could see the detail on the moon’s surface, it appeared closer. I started thinking about why these things have been said about the moon for so long. The other day I even read it was a cure for mesothelioma. What’s your take on the moon?

I think the two words are oxymorons sometimes.  Even though that has been my experience, I will not give up on the good people can do in friendships.  Like most people, I have been betrayed and stabbed in the back at work.  At the same time though, I’ve met people who were truly good to the core and these people keep me trusting in humanity. I hate it when people make loaded comments and seemingly keep you in the dark about things.  I am the kind of person who will tell you if I have a problem with you.  Unfortunately, not everyone is like that.  Many people see advancement or recognition as more important than people.  While I enjoy advancement and recognition, I take care to make sure they are never my primary motivator for doing what I do (I teach elementary school).  The trick for me with trust at work is learning the paramaters of healthy boundaries.

Another issue to discuss along these lines is the issue of boasting at work.  One person may innocently share at the water cooler about his/her new tv and another will feel the need to describe in vivid details his/her home theater furniture.

Do you trust people at work?

I want to gather all bloggers together and disscuss why we care so much about our posts.  After all, most of us are lucky if ten people read our posts each day.  There are a few bloggers who get huge and thousands of bloggers tune in (or, click in) to read their stuff every day.  It’s just a cold hard fact that the majority of bloggers will never enjoy that fat of an audience.  So what does that mean to our posts?  It means we are stupid if we stress over crafting posts.  Think of James Dean in “Rebel without a Cause.”  He just didn’t give a shi**.  When I blog now I think of the ten people that might read my post.  I give them something good that could be profound.  I keep it short and without assumptions.  After all, tomorrow it will be forgotten for the most part and a new thought will replace it.  To bloggers out there:  Do yourself a favor and stop thinking of your posts as important.  If someone decides they are then that is fine, but you shouldn’t be the one to assume anything.

I thought it would be an interesting topic for a post if I did a search with that string (minus the not).  I found a few cool ones, but for the most part, it was the same old “This is my last post” on blogger, or with this University, etc.  I was looking for the dramatic stuff.  I run across these sometimes and they are profound.  I recall one saying: “Don’t look for me for I will go into the night.”  I mean that stuff is thick with romance don’t you think?  I have found Blogging to be highly dramatic for many people, especially the online diarists.  Seth Godin says on his blog to imagine the post you are writing is your last post.  That thought never occured to me and it’s a good one.

I think blogging brings out another side of us that no one sees in the real world.  I also think it’s a bit sad when someone swears off blogging because that side ought to be nurtured.  I know blogging for me has left me much more rounded in my personality.  I think of things in discussion that I never would have thought up before blogging.  No this is not my last post and don’t hold your breath.  I think I am the type to just let the blog expire before I concoct a romantic farewell.

Randy Pausch left this world last week after leaving an amazing legacy of teaching and wisdom to all of us. I watched his Last Lecture months ago and wrote a post on it. Now, after his passing, I’ve seen the Diane Sawyer interview and I’ve watched the Last Lecture again with more attention to the details. It contains priceless information but for me one of the best pieces of wisdom he gives is the one about the Brick Walls.

He says that the brick walls are not our enemy, instead they serve to show how much we want something. Then later in the talk he says that brick walls are our friends because they keep the less serious people out.

What a great way to look at competition and success. The next time I get rejected or otherwise denied something I really want, I am going to remember Randy Pausch and the Last Lecture and what he said about brick walls. This is especially relevant to me since I start teaching for the new school year tomorrow.

For a long time I’ve wanted a static IM chatbox in my sidebar and today I finally chose one. I tested every one on this list of 10 and found MeeboMe to be the best hands down. It has great features, good looks, and best of all it is integration with the major IM clients. I am a Yahoo! Messenger user myself and the transfer was seamless.

There are many other ways to interact in real time with your visitors besides chat. I also have researched a few ways to properly get “Asides” into my sidebar. I settled on the Twitter Tools Plugin by Alex King. Below is the code I use for that. In the event that Twitter goes under (which people in the industry have speculated might happen) I also have a dormant backup plan to use the Sideblog plugin for wordpress. You can see that option commented out below. I like this option but they stay as posts which can cause future feed and spidering issues. What you see below is from my sidebar directly if you want to grab the idea and make it your own:

I think the future of blogging and web 2.0 is the connections one makes through social media. After that, interaction with the blog owner will be a huge perk for people seeking knowledge and connections in the blogosphere.

A quick post-note: When I write “asides” I recognize that a 20-something created the term. That should be a charge for Matt Mullenwegg knowing he made that a blogging word. Of course, it isn’t quite as cool as how William Shakespeare first coined the term “lonely,” but it ranks up there pretty close ;) Good job Matt.

I have to remind myself the people who sell at my door are humans. They seem like the lowest form of life sometimes. Maybe it’s because of my experiences. I wrote months ago at my psychology blog about the Kirby salesman that refused to leave. There have been countless others. One problem is that they are bad salesman. I just had one tonight who would leave. I was in my spa when i came to the door. he was 18-20 thereabouts and I told him right away we didn’t want an alarm. But he took that as a challenge. Who trains the salesmen of the world and why aren’t they teaching them that no thank you means no money will be changing hands. What’s your take on salesmen at the door?