Immediate Introductions

Tagged as: Life, Tip-For-Life Jun 19

Meeting new people is a fact of life. However, have you ever met someone after you initially saw them and recognized them? Now I might be the only one, but I doubt it. I’m not strange enough to be completely alone here.

In any case, I’ve realized something that I think that we would all do well to know. Not meeting someone initially creates an awkward environment. After you’ve already seen them and come to recognize them without having actually met them is a situation in which both of you know that the other exists, but neither of you feel comfortable talking to the other. Not having an introduction can come about in a variety of ways:

1. Someone didn’t do their duty when they know both of you and introduced you.
2. You are both slightly uncomfortable with meeting strangers.
3. Somehow you already know about the other person, but you know that they have no idea who you are. That makes you afraid to approach them.

Okay I’m sure that there are more ways that this can happen. However it came about, if it happens to you you should know that the longer you wait to talk and/or meet the other person, the more strange it will be when you actually do. So just go for it and introduce yourself. Remember that they might feel just as strange about without knowing your name while seeing you in the halls. Or in a group of people. Or around the neighborhood. Or living right next door to you.

The only thing that you have to do after that is not forget that you met them. Because the other person likely did not forget. And then they’ll know that you didn’t care to remember your name. Or even that they met you.

Meet ‘em early, not often.

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear

Tagged as: Quote, Tip-For-Life Jun 06

Good or bad, you do yourself a great disservice when you start to believe what other people say about you.
-Derek Wong

Jury Duty Scam

Tagged as: Life, Tip-For-Life, Useful May 25

So in addition to my thoughts on jury duty, I wanted to inform anyone out there of a scam that I heard about at jury duty.

It involves getting told that there is a fine for missing jury duty. The scammers will call and ask for you social security number to verify who you are as well as your credit card number in order to process your fine. Now a word to the wise: be very careful whenever you are asked for either of these pieces of information no matter what the situation is. That is a reasonable thing to remember whenever you are confronted with things like this.

So obviously after that you get taken for much more than your supposed fine. You get taken for your identity. And that is just no good.

Music Piracy Makes People Stupid

Tagged as: Entertainment, Humor, Life, Money, Rant, Read-It, Ridiculous, Tip-For-Life May 14

In an article at Yahoo! about cracking down on college music pirates, I read about one Sarah Barg, a sophomore from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It portrayed her as a girl who was just taking part in what everyone else was doing. The article wanted to put her in the role of one who is definitely not the worst (I mean she only downloaded 381 songs when others were downloading thousands!). In response to it all, Barg says

Obviously I knew it was illegal, but no one got in trouble for it

Now, I know that all higher education is not equal. And I know that maybe not all of them are as good as the University of California, San Diego, but that does not allow for such ridiculous thoughts. I think that ignorance is not a good excuse for doing wrong. The onus is on you to do what’s right. However, I think that actually knowing that something is wrong and yet still doing it speaks of some darker black.

In any case, I don’t think that it’s a matter of intelligence. I think it’s a sign of the times.

Piracy does not just affect music as I wrote in Even Worse Than At First Glance, Cheain’ Chinese, and (in regards to cheating in general) Cheaters 4 Life. Wow I did not realize that I had so many entries devoted to ranting about cheaters! But I digress.

Reasons why you shouldn’t be a (music) pirate:

1. You can afford the music (or whatever it is that you’re pirating).
• If you can’t afford it, you don’t need it.
• If you really can’t afford it, you have things that you should be doing other than listening to music anyways.
2. You can support and encourage the artists that you like to keep making music. It’s kind of like writing a blog and getting encouraged by people leaving comments. Except for them it’s people giving them money. I’m applying my energy to the wrong thing.
3. You know it’s morally wrong.
4. It’s actually against the law.

Now I admit that I’m not perfect, but I would like to think that once I knew the truth then I would change my behavior to match what I know. Not everyone is like this. But they should be. It just makes sense to have your behavior in line with your opinions, does it not? Don’t be the person who gets laughed at for coming off as stupid. Nobody wants 15 minutes of infamy.

Sometimes Fight, Sometimes Flight

Tagged as: Amusing, Humor, Learn, Life, Pictures, Tip-For-Life May 08

Let us rewind back to the days of our youth. Let us go to health class. Ah the fight or flight response.

A novel stimulus (which could include a perception of danger or an environmental stresser signal such as elevated sound levels or over-illumination), once perceived, is relayed from the sensory cortex of the brain through the thalamus to the brain stem. That route of signaling increases the rate of noradrenergic activity in the locus ceruleus, and the person becomes alert and attentive to the environment.
-Wikipedia article

Does this happen in your life? Of course it does! Everyday it happens! When that person cuts you off and then stares you down because they think that you got too close to them, what happens? When a bully starts to belittle you, how do you react?

Yes, I lived it. Yes, you might also. The lesson to be learned is that sometimes you fight and sometimes you flight. It’s not always good to have a headstrong attitude in whatever you do. And it definitely doesn’t pay off to always be a sissy. It depends on the situation.