There’s nothing like learning a new language or working with a different culture to point out the cultural assumptions you’ve been taught. I remember a conversation in my first year of college where two of my friends who were science and math majors were laughing about the straight line being the shortest distance between two…
I’ve been seeing this a lot lately, people being confused because they can’t get what they need. They are clear what they need, most of the time, and sometimes they are even clear on how they could/should/would achieve this, but something happens to keep them from getting their needs met. They have injuries that prevent…
In the realm of interesting information bandied around at an academic conference, this article came to my attention. When people talk about “50 Shades…” they mostly point to the facts that it’s A) badly written, B) a knock off of Twilight, C) pretending to be about BDSM when it isn’t. What they don’t talk about…
You would think we had all run a marathon each day by the level of fatigue we’re exhibiting. Sessions about the progression of Black Widow’s character from the 50’s comics through to Captain America’s Winter Soldier, the trope of the anti-hero in American TV and how dangerous it is outside of the Fantasy/Super Hero genre…
This week I’m at the Slayage Conference and like any conference you have great conversations, experience chance encounters, and learn surprising tidbits. Yesterday I was reminded how much Whedonites dislike…yeah…that’s a polite word for it…the Twilight series and pretty much everything about it. In fact, one of the attendees was wearing a T-shirt saying “And…
Life requires us to prioritize. These things over here are more important, those are time critical, this is necessary to make sure we have the necessities for survival, that will keep the peace, and all of this other stuff will just need to wait until we can get to it. Because there’s only so much…
As a kid I was known as an adventurer. Not the kind that got lost in the woods studying bugs and had to be found because she’d lost track of time and self, but the kind that could find an adventure anywhere she was and in any situation. I enjoyed going down a road just…
It is a function of self preservation to want to hide the fact that we are vulnerable. People get confused when their pets don’t show that they are sick or injured until things are pretty darn critical, but that’s animal instinct. Being vulnerable gets you picked off by your peers or others higher or possibly…
Yes, we should all be islands knowing what we know and being able to self-actuate. Blah-de-blah-de-blah…. Oh wait. Maybe not. Because that would me we were islands or robots or something less blissfully messy and magically interconnected than humans. Why share when we are self-contained units that have no needs and can do it all…
We tend to think of things in the big picture, the large chunks, and ignore or negate the small things that make up the big picture. Like the fact that it can take 10,000 hours to become a master of something. That you didn’t start as a virtuoso, an expert, a part of a community,…