Thank you all who took the time to join the conversation this month, whether it was on the blog or in your personal life. I don’t track comments that you make about the blog in your personal life, though, so as always, I’ll be using comments from the blog to determine my favorites of April. … Read more
If you like this entry, feel free to check out my Kickstarter campaign for a board game I invented called Viticulture. Board games happen to be perfect social lubricants for introverts. I’m an introvert. Myers-Briggs tells me that I’m a very low introvert, but I think that’s because I’ve learned to cope with some social … Read more
The other day I saw the following photo on Pinterest: You’ve seen or heard this type of adoption humor before. It’s a fairly common joke in movies, sitcoms, and online memes. I’m writing today as someone who is not at all sensitive or ashamed of the fact that I’m adopted to say that this type … Read more
Today’s guest post is brought to us by frequent commenter Brad. My first year of collecting baseball cards was 1991. Nothing in my life at that time beat the thrill I got when opening a pack. Ken Griffey, Jr? Jose Canseco (don’t laugh), dare I say it…OZZIE!?!? There was no telling what joy awaited me … Read more
Consider the following scenario: Your 78-year-old father gets in a terrible car accident. He lives, but machines and a cocktail of medications are the only things keeping him alive. He can’t communicate at all. The doctor says that they can perform an experimental and very expensive surgery to possibly save your father’s life, but he’ll … Read more
Consider this scenario: You’ve had a dog for the last 12 years. He gets sick. Really sick. The doctor says that your dog can be cured, but it will cost $6,000 out of pocket for the medicine and surgery, and he’ll be physically limited from then on. What do you do? If the scenario were … Read more
Praise publicly, criticize privately. It’s a simple rule. And yet many people–among them a number of managers–get it backwards. We criticize our peers in front of others so that we can feel powerful. We may not realize it, but we do. Maybe it’s a know-it-all comment about a friend’s misuse of grammar in a small … Read more
Originally this pet please was going to be “when your expectations are exceeded.” But then I realized that this isn’t about me–it’s about a man named Steve Wiegenstein. Steve is a professor at Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri. Last year, he sent a completed manuscript of a novel he had written to my publishing company … Read more
For the past 4 years, I’ve been following a blog called 1000 Awesome Things. The author of the blog publishes once every weekday, just like me, and he even posts around the same time, so often I see my blog right next to his in Google Reader. 1000 Awesome Things is essentially my Pet Please … Read more
Today’s guest post is brought to you by Emma, a reader and frequent commentor on the blog. She accepted my Two-Month Gauntlet over five weeks ago, and she’s already bringing her dream to reality! In 2008, I went to Florence to visit my sister, who was studying abroad. On our mini trip to Athens, Greece, … Read more