Brighton 🇬🇧 ➡️ Portland, OR 🇺🇸 // 👨👩👧👦 // 👷🏻 & 👨💻 // 🌿 💪🏼 🚶🏻♂️ // ❤️
Everything that intrigues me, makes me think or that I reminisce about
Waitress: And what would you like to drink?
Me: Just water, please.
Waitress: Er, I’m sorry, what was that?
Me: Water…
Waitress: Is that on the menu? Can you show me?
Me: It’s just water. Water. Water. H2O. Water.
Waitress: *blank stare*…
Me: *sigh* Woddah
Waitress: Oh, water! Yes, certainly.
It is not chivalrous to stand awkwardly at the front of the lift to let the women squeeze by you and get off first. It’s idiotic. If you’re not in the way, then by all means let the women off first, but if you’re in the way, then use some common sense and get out of the way.
As I was writing my last blog post, I was interrupted by someone who just wanted to have a quick chat and make small talk to break up the morning. She does this on a somewhat regular basis, peering over the cubicle wall and staring at me, waiting for me to recognise her, even though she can see that I’m deep in thought and have my headphones on.
Society commands that we stop in our tracks and respond to the person who is addressing is, which is part of the reason that Jason Fried thinks that offices are so unproductive. Despite being in the middle of a sentence, I had to stop, take my headphones and engage her in her own desires for communication.
It is always a pleasure to listen to Ken Robinson speak. He’s one of my favourite orators and even though his delivery is very calm and controlled, it always stokes a fire inside of me. In this talk, he discusses the current state of education and how the culture of schools is failing the children that attend them. In particular, the emphasis on standardised testing and “No Child Left Behind” are ironically, leaving millions of children behind.
Insist on changing the current school culture and filling the gaps created by your child’s education: it’s critical to well-rounded children who enjoy learning who go on to be independent thinkers and creators.
Dan Ariely gave an insightful talk into just how much what we do matters. In blind tests, he showed how much better received people’s efforts were when they were valued as opposed to when they were destroyed in front of them. Just goes to show how a little recognition can go an incredibly long way, and similarly how doing something of worth is so important.
It doesn’t matter how old you get: if you we’re born in the 80s, the mere sight of some PEZ sweets excites you and stirs in you a great nostalgia, recalling the days of popping those little treats in your favourite PEZ dispenser and chomping them all down in about ten minutes.
It makes me inordinately happy to have an empty inbox, or an empty to-do list. If both should happen on the same day, there’s no telling what could happen!
Why do we stop putting crisps in our sandwiches as we grow up? Crisp sandwiches are awesome! Whether on their own, or as a supplement to provide some crunch and/or extra flavour, crisp sandwiches are the future!
How in the hell are cats born knowing the sound of an opening can? You can’t open a can of beans without them going nuts!
I remember seeing this on a TED podcast several years ago and getting the wrong answer like most other people, and it’s a simple example of just how biased or blind our brains can make us.
