I’m going to whine. After the previous blog where I criticized whiners, I’m going to whine. I love words. I love to play Scrabulous and now Facebook put it down.
What am I going to do? I thought about creating my own word game to play with my friends. But that might take some effort. So all I can do is whine.
What if I started a petition to the makers of Scrabble to get over their fear of losing profits and accept that Scrabulous only motivates people to purchase their product? Appeal to their baser instincts of greed, anger and foolishness. For what else would motivate a giant corporation to sue another corporation?
Maybe I need to find other pursuits that don’t fill the pockets of greedy corporate giants.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Autocorrect or Intuitive Responding
Whenever I want to write my blog, I start out writing “I don’t know what to write” repeatedly until I think of something to write. I finished my to do list today except for writing this blog but I don’t know what to write. I keep misspelling what, but my auto correct feature corrects me. That’s nice. How about auto correct every time we make a misstep. How would that work? Well, when I put my foot in my mouth, autocorrect would erase the blunder and make something more appropriate come out of my mouth.
I guess the GPS has an auto correct so if you make the wrong turn, GPS can recalibrate the trip and guide you back to your route.
What about procrastination? How many times do I have to remind myself to do something that’s waiting to get done? Would autocorrect put me smack in front of the task and keep me frozen there until I did it? What about when I want to do something but shouldn’t? Like it would be a big mistake if I started smoking pot. But never having done it, I might want to try before I die. What keeps me from doing it? Worry about getting caught? I don’t think that motivates users negatively. Not enough money? Again, not a big deterrent. My conscience? Not so great there either.
I guess I’m better at not doing things than I am at doing things. I wonder why that is? Some people are just the opposite. They spend, spend, spend, or eat, eat, eat and can’t put on the brakes. I don’t have a problem with that. My problem is with do, do, do what must get done in order to get to the next place. Is it a failure phobia or success phobia?
What’s the difference between eat, eat, eat and procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate? One puts things in and the other avoids putting things out.
But I have no trouble with elimination. And that’s putting out, I think. I do that a lot.
So do I have a behavior disorder related to holding back? If I gave out more, I would have diarrhea constantly. I just overcame that behavior. So now I’m struggling with the opposite, but I’m not constipated.
Maybe I’m not really procrastinating. Maybe I’m just being true to my theory that I have to wait until the time is right and I use my intuition to feel that it’s the right time. So is that why I don’t take action until the time is right?
Does this mean that I’m healthy? That I’m doing the right thing? That chanting puts me on the right path? That I’m beating myself up over nothing? That I don’t need autocorrect to motivate me to do the right thing? I’m already doing it.
I guess the GPS has an auto correct so if you make the wrong turn, GPS can recalibrate the trip and guide you back to your route.
What about procrastination? How many times do I have to remind myself to do something that’s waiting to get done? Would autocorrect put me smack in front of the task and keep me frozen there until I did it? What about when I want to do something but shouldn’t? Like it would be a big mistake if I started smoking pot. But never having done it, I might want to try before I die. What keeps me from doing it? Worry about getting caught? I don’t think that motivates users negatively. Not enough money? Again, not a big deterrent. My conscience? Not so great there either.
I guess I’m better at not doing things than I am at doing things. I wonder why that is? Some people are just the opposite. They spend, spend, spend, or eat, eat, eat and can’t put on the brakes. I don’t have a problem with that. My problem is with do, do, do what must get done in order to get to the next place. Is it a failure phobia or success phobia?
What’s the difference between eat, eat, eat and procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate? One puts things in and the other avoids putting things out.
But I have no trouble with elimination. And that’s putting out, I think. I do that a lot.
So do I have a behavior disorder related to holding back? If I gave out more, I would have diarrhea constantly. I just overcame that behavior. So now I’m struggling with the opposite, but I’m not constipated.
Maybe I’m not really procrastinating. Maybe I’m just being true to my theory that I have to wait until the time is right and I use my intuition to feel that it’s the right time. So is that why I don’t take action until the time is right?
Does this mean that I’m healthy? That I’m doing the right thing? That chanting puts me on the right path? That I’m beating myself up over nothing? That I don’t need autocorrect to motivate me to do the right thing? I’m already doing it.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Reframe Bullying, Achieve Goals
Do you avoid being alone? Do you keep yourself busy so that you don’t feel the space of aloneness crowding in on you? Do you substitute feeling alone with drugs or alcohol? I received a book to review that spent the first two-thirds of its verbiage on bemoaning the sad life of self–absorbed women victims of misguided parents, friends, relatives, sick uncles, alcoholics, self-absorbed partners and employers.
I’m a compassionate person, but after reading 150 pages relating events about these sad, desperate people, I’m feeling burned out. Within these pages, I found two solutions to this sorry state of aloneness: become more self-absorbed by finding your life force, and return to your secret garden. Granted, there are still about a hundred pages left, but I don’t think I can endure the potential for self-absorption much longer.
I am reminded of a time when my daughter, Debbie, started playing clarinet. Yes, the first year of playing an instrument can be difficult for the listeners, but Debbie had a natural musical talent and in the spring of that first year, she was preparing for her fifth-grade band concert, soloing with “Pop! Goes the Weasel” and adding her own little improvisation to the end of the tune. She decided one beautiful day to practice outside on the side porch.
As she practiced, our neighbor walked by and said, “Debbie, you sound like a sick cow!” I heard the comment and waited for Debbie’s response. Debbie continued to practice and when she finished and came back inside, she said, “Mom, I think our neighbor doesn’t feel very good about herself.” She played beautifully in her concert and continued to study clarinet and is now an accomplished clarinetist with a doctorate in clarinet performance. Had she been one of those self-absorbed victims, I shudder to think what might have become of her. But rather, she saw through our neighbor’s ugly comment and labeled it low-self esteem instead of a personal attack.
Although I understand that there may be people in this world who suffer at the hands of bullies, abusers, inept parents, and others, I’m sorry to say that this book I’m reading probably does not offer the solution to their pain.
I’m a compassionate person, but after reading 150 pages relating events about these sad, desperate people, I’m feeling burned out. Within these pages, I found two solutions to this sorry state of aloneness: become more self-absorbed by finding your life force, and return to your secret garden. Granted, there are still about a hundred pages left, but I don’t think I can endure the potential for self-absorption much longer.
I am reminded of a time when my daughter, Debbie, started playing clarinet. Yes, the first year of playing an instrument can be difficult for the listeners, but Debbie had a natural musical talent and in the spring of that first year, she was preparing for her fifth-grade band concert, soloing with “Pop! Goes the Weasel” and adding her own little improvisation to the end of the tune. She decided one beautiful day to practice outside on the side porch.
As she practiced, our neighbor walked by and said, “Debbie, you sound like a sick cow!” I heard the comment and waited for Debbie’s response. Debbie continued to practice and when she finished and came back inside, she said, “Mom, I think our neighbor doesn’t feel very good about herself.” She played beautifully in her concert and continued to study clarinet and is now an accomplished clarinetist with a doctorate in clarinet performance. Had she been one of those self-absorbed victims, I shudder to think what might have become of her. But rather, she saw through our neighbor’s ugly comment and labeled it low-self esteem instead of a personal attack.
Although I understand that there may be people in this world who suffer at the hands of bullies, abusers, inept parents, and others, I’m sorry to say that this book I’m reading probably does not offer the solution to their pain.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Grit Gets Me out of My Slump
I’m in a slump as can be seen by the dearth of entries in this blog. What is in my way? For the past several months, I have been feeling at loose ends, not focused, starting and not finishing projects, setting goals and failing to follow through on many of them. Being self-employed I sabotage my own ambitions by wanting to spend more time playing Scrabulous on Facebook than on anything else on my to-do list. I’m good at Scrabulous and I’ve won all the games I have played so far (which isn’t all that many) but all I really want to do is play Scrabulous and win, win, win. Maybe there should be an Olympic Scrabulous event.
What is it about the psychology of winning? Why do we want to win? To show that we’re better than others? Better than the best? What is so important about winning? Why do I like it when my score is higher than my opponents? It makes me feel good about myself, yes. Is that it? Does it make me feel less about others? No. I appreciate their wanting to play. But I’m afraid that if I win too much, they won’t want to play anymore. But I don’t want to cheat just to let them win. That’s why I was wondering whether I could play Scrabulous solitaire. But that would not be as much fun because of the social interaction. So do I let up a little or try to win? If someone lets up a little and lets me win, would I like it better than losing? No. I wouldn’t like the absence of a challenge.
So to figure out the answers to these questions, I Googled “the psychology of winning” and found an article in Psychology Today Magazine by Peter Doskoch called “The Winning Edge.” In it he outlines several qualities of people of average intelligence who accomplish their goals to solve difficult mathematical problems or get good grades in school. These qualities like grit, passion, ambition, self-discipline, optimism, and persistence comprise the winning edge. In addition Doskoch says, “Truly gritty people, however, tend to set especially challenging long-term goals” like the mathematician who spent ten years working on proving a theory as opposed to those who fail to show grit. And concerning getting good grades, he says, “The data demonstrate the need for parents and teachers to praise effort rather than ability.” It’s not how smart people are, it’s how much effort they put into achieving their goals.
So winning has nothing to do with besting someone else. It has to do with setting a goal and focused effort toward accomplishing it that might mean indirectly being better than someone else, but mostly it means achieving a personal goal to have a better time, get a higher score, of make longer, higher point words. So it looks like I have substituted playing Scrabulous for accomplishing my goals.
Does that get me out of my slump? It helps me see that without persistence, passion, self-discipline, ambition, optimism and grit, I’m not going to achieve my goals. Maybe that’s all I need to get started again on my goal of selling ten books a day, writing eight articles a month, earning more money, and starting an investment portfolio.
Source:
Doskoch, Peter. “The Winning Edge.” Psychology Today Magazine. Nov/Dec 2005.
What is it about the psychology of winning? Why do we want to win? To show that we’re better than others? Better than the best? What is so important about winning? Why do I like it when my score is higher than my opponents? It makes me feel good about myself, yes. Is that it? Does it make me feel less about others? No. I appreciate their wanting to play. But I’m afraid that if I win too much, they won’t want to play anymore. But I don’t want to cheat just to let them win. That’s why I was wondering whether I could play Scrabulous solitaire. But that would not be as much fun because of the social interaction. So do I let up a little or try to win? If someone lets up a little and lets me win, would I like it better than losing? No. I wouldn’t like the absence of a challenge.
So to figure out the answers to these questions, I Googled “the psychology of winning” and found an article in Psychology Today Magazine by Peter Doskoch called “The Winning Edge.” In it he outlines several qualities of people of average intelligence who accomplish their goals to solve difficult mathematical problems or get good grades in school. These qualities like grit, passion, ambition, self-discipline, optimism, and persistence comprise the winning edge. In addition Doskoch says, “Truly gritty people, however, tend to set especially challenging long-term goals” like the mathematician who spent ten years working on proving a theory as opposed to those who fail to show grit. And concerning getting good grades, he says, “The data demonstrate the need for parents and teachers to praise effort rather than ability.” It’s not how smart people are, it’s how much effort they put into achieving their goals.
So winning has nothing to do with besting someone else. It has to do with setting a goal and focused effort toward accomplishing it that might mean indirectly being better than someone else, but mostly it means achieving a personal goal to have a better time, get a higher score, of make longer, higher point words. So it looks like I have substituted playing Scrabulous for accomplishing my goals.
Does that get me out of my slump? It helps me see that without persistence, passion, self-discipline, ambition, optimism and grit, I’m not going to achieve my goals. Maybe that’s all I need to get started again on my goal of selling ten books a day, writing eight articles a month, earning more money, and starting an investment portfolio.
Source:
Doskoch, Peter. “The Winning Edge.” Psychology Today Magazine. Nov/Dec 2005.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Learning from History
What if someone told you that you had to change your religion? Would you do it?
For more than twenty years during the Middle Ages, a king in Europe battled a group of people to force them to become Christian. They resisted and he brought his armies back three times, killing, burning their places of worship, building his own churches, and replacing their priests with his.
Charlemagne (king Charles) thought that his religion was better than the religions people practiced during his reign so he tried to force them to become Christians. Not everyone thought this was a good idea, so they resisted even though it might cost them their lives. Some of those religions survived Charlemagne’s attacks, but many died out due to the pressure he put on them.
One of the ways people resisted was by building castles. Many of these castles in Europe and the Middle East were constructed to prevent Christians from invading their lands during the Crusades. Muslims, Pagans, Druids, and other religious people tried to protect their religions and their people from being forced to adopt Christianity.
After the Christian invaders defeated the castle owners, they still had to defend themselves from attack from other enemies who wanted their land. These enemies and their greed for more land, because it equaled more power, tried to defeat the Christians and take their castles. In some castles, we can find both churches and mosques because of the many times they changed hands. In Spain, many synagogues and mosques were converted into Christian churches when Queen Isabella ruled Spain and the Jewish and Muslim features of these buildings remain today.
When unbiased researchers look at history, many atrocities emerge that had their origins in human characteristics of greed, anger, and foolishness. As related above, greed makes people want to have things that other people own, just because they want more wealth, power, or food. In today’s events we can see the same force causing people to attack and subdue other people due to these goals.
Anger shows in history when one leader wants to take revenge on another for past offenses or simply to show that he’s stronger, or better than someone else. Anger comes from a desire to punish others, often due to a lack of understanding. In today’s world, the attack on September 11th stemmed from anger at the US. Then the US attacked Afghanistan and Iraq to retaliate for that attack. Then suicide bombers attack others to retaliate for these military actions. And the vicious cycle of anger continues unabated as we also see in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Foolishness results from a lack of good judgment. Charlemagne’s actions in the Middle Ages could be described as foolish as his ignorance of other religions made him believe that they were inferior to his. Whenever someone acts out of foolishness, it often stems from ignorance, fear of the unknown, or a lack of compassion.
Greed, anger, and foolishness lead to much suffering. Maybe our prayer should be to apologize for these actions, rather than to fulfill our selfish desires for our daily bread.
For more than twenty years during the Middle Ages, a king in Europe battled a group of people to force them to become Christian. They resisted and he brought his armies back three times, killing, burning their places of worship, building his own churches, and replacing their priests with his.
Charlemagne (king Charles) thought that his religion was better than the religions people practiced during his reign so he tried to force them to become Christians. Not everyone thought this was a good idea, so they resisted even though it might cost them their lives. Some of those religions survived Charlemagne’s attacks, but many died out due to the pressure he put on them.
One of the ways people resisted was by building castles. Many of these castles in Europe and the Middle East were constructed to prevent Christians from invading their lands during the Crusades. Muslims, Pagans, Druids, and other religious people tried to protect their religions and their people from being forced to adopt Christianity.
After the Christian invaders defeated the castle owners, they still had to defend themselves from attack from other enemies who wanted their land. These enemies and their greed for more land, because it equaled more power, tried to defeat the Christians and take their castles. In some castles, we can find both churches and mosques because of the many times they changed hands. In Spain, many synagogues and mosques were converted into Christian churches when Queen Isabella ruled Spain and the Jewish and Muslim features of these buildings remain today.
When unbiased researchers look at history, many atrocities emerge that had their origins in human characteristics of greed, anger, and foolishness. As related above, greed makes people want to have things that other people own, just because they want more wealth, power, or food. In today’s events we can see the same force causing people to attack and subdue other people due to these goals.
Anger shows in history when one leader wants to take revenge on another for past offenses or simply to show that he’s stronger, or better than someone else. Anger comes from a desire to punish others, often due to a lack of understanding. In today’s world, the attack on September 11th stemmed from anger at the US. Then the US attacked Afghanistan and Iraq to retaliate for that attack. Then suicide bombers attack others to retaliate for these military actions. And the vicious cycle of anger continues unabated as we also see in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Foolishness results from a lack of good judgment. Charlemagne’s actions in the Middle Ages could be described as foolish as his ignorance of other religions made him believe that they were inferior to his. Whenever someone acts out of foolishness, it often stems from ignorance, fear of the unknown, or a lack of compassion.
Greed, anger, and foolishness lead to much suffering. Maybe our prayer should be to apologize for these actions, rather than to fulfill our selfish desires for our daily bread.
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