Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Thursday Thoughts (29)--Language and Communication

  1. "Walking the dog, and Zara spook"...I overheard from a recent telephone conversation at my house.  Some of you have a clue to what this all means....;-)
  2. One of my friends on FB posted that he was "splitting quasihemidemisemiquavers."  I think I must be friends with some really cool young people.
  3. People spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on the FB site and, according to Facebook, 400 million of them have logged in during the past month  (sharing and sharing). Keep in mind there are only 309 million people in the United States -- total.
  4. According to a recent Newsweek article in 2000 there were 12,000 active blogs and today there are 141 million.
  5. In the same article in 2000 there were 282,242 books published and in 2010, 1,052,803 were published.  We are becoming great communicators.
  6. I asked for feedback on my blogging, and I got it!  It took so long I almost forgot that I asked.  It was not as harsh as it could (should) have been, but he did mention my age several times, so perhaps was afraid he might give me a heart attack if he was too honest.  I was vindicated for not doing memes.  Writers always need feedback, and this was fairly painless.  He did suggest I needed more Eat, Pray, Love in my style...right!?  Although it made me realize how boring I and my life are and made me change to "compelling comments".
  7. Someone keeps posting comments on my blog in Chinese han and I keep deleting them because I cannot figure out what their blog is all about.
  8. On the importance of using food to communicate love the less stuff cooked, the better.
  9. John Bassinger, retired theater professor, at 76, can recite John Milton's 10,565-line poem by memory.  It takes him 3 eight-hours days to communicate this.  At 76 I think I might be doing something else.
  10. If you send an email from an army.mil domain, you are sending an email from the Army. From foxnews.com or from nytimes.com – those emails can be interpreted as though you are acting on behalf of those companies.
  11. My husband and I have been married almost 4 decades and we still have problems communicating...but now he says it is because he doesn't hear clearly what I am saying!  He says it has to do with not focusing on me...not loss of hearing.  (That is flattering.)
  12. Maybe I should do the pheromone dance that the bees do to communicate my point!
  13. And finally, "Home is not where you live, but where they understand you."...Christian Morgenstern.



(For those who asked about the Thursday Thirteen challenge in a prior post---which I am not creative enough to play with any regularity---go here.)

18 comments:

  1. #11 is funny. Will no one admit to hearing problems? Actually, my husband is hard of hearing and doesn't pay much attention to a lot of my chatter. It comes in handy sometimes. I can always say, "Yes I did so tell you that!" and he can't accuse me of fibbing even if I am.

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  2. Have you done google translate for the Chinese? Might be some positively ga-lowing comments, never know. But now you must as we are all curious!

    My Dad used to discreetly turn the sound off on his hearing aid when my mother was talking. He used to say "Your Mother needs someone to listen to her..." :)

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  3. with all this communicating going on you'd think the world would improve itself! I'm not big on FB but blogging is fun!

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  4. So interesting, Tabor.... I cannot believe that the 'professionals' want you to do MEMES... Puh-lease.. That's the least creative thing in the world to do I think... I go to lots of blogs who do nothing but memes... BORING!!!!!

    Men and women just cannot communicate... Men don't think like we do... It's just the way it is!!!!!

    I don't do Facebook--so I'm probably the only one... ha ha ha... I just cannot keep up with anything else besides Blogging... Gads--I'm on the computer constantly anyhow it seems. ha

    I get those Chinese posts too--and promptly delete them... I have turned them into Blogger several times... Seems like we could get them blocked.

    Thanks for such an interesting post....I do love your blog!!!!
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  5. My husband just doesn't hear me...and he says so! Ha! And sometimes what he thinks I said is hilarious!!!!! Though it does get irritating...I try to be kind.
    Hugs
    SueAnn

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  6. I have ventured as far into the world as I want to. Now that is boring. I think you lead a very exciting life. My online journal, emails, images and information is all I want to do with the computer.
    Now that is dull. But maybe not at my age...

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  7. Ahh I have admired you for avoiding memes. But here you have a really interesting one! Thirteen thoughts on one subject.

    For the record I always kinda liked "elements of repartee" and Scorpio-what's-his-face was a little harsh, AND you were very brave to go under their scrutiny.

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  8. I have Dicter ( a free download) on my computer to translate foreign languages. If you want to translate your Chinese follower you might want to download it.

    If someone wanted to use food to communicate love all they would have to do is give me a big hunk of chocolate. ;-)

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  9. Thanks, you remind me to go to FB and make notes.

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  10. sorry, no can do the eat pray and love bit either.

    good post with a collection of interesting information.As far as I'm concerned you have no need to change your style or content.

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  11. What does "eat, pray, love" mean, anyhow?

    I think those Chinese comments and also the Russian ones that I get a lot of are spam. They want you to go to their sites and buy something.

    I did a meme once. It's an easy way to get a post when you have nothing to say.

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  12. "My husband and I have been married almost 4 decades and we still have problems communicating...but now he says it is because he doesn't hear clearly what I am saying! He says it has to do with not focusing on me...not loss of hearing. (That is flattering.)"

    MINE says the same thing - and being nearly deaf myself - I know he is losing his hearing and doesn't want to admit it.

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  13. I read your feedback and then I entered a sample of your reviewer's writing in the "I write like" meter. He compared himself to Hunter S. Thompson, who recently committed suicide and the meter said he writes like David Foster Wallace, another writer who also committed suicide. How did you pick this fellow to judge your blog? He does seem a bit imbalanced.

    About the Asian commenters, I learned that these are all links to pornography so don't be clicking on them.

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  14. RYN: Yup, many of those could have been cropped tighter, been cropped at all...but in the backgrounds were some fascinating costumes. I made a management decision to let the photos stand and see if folks noticed some of the stuff in the background. No one commented on the guy in the chair with the costume at all.

    Have a glorious day. We may have some sun here.

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  15. I wonder what "Eat, Pray, Love" blogging is all about...but I think we all write about life and express our thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears, etc. I prefer an honest, interesting blog above all else.

    PS - Your husband sounds a lot like mine...he has a way with words. ;)

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  16. I'm glad to know people are still blogging.

    Hey, who translated that Chinese?

    You are very brave to have submitted your blog for review. I checked it out but think I'm too scared to know. I browsed through some of the best rated blogs and hope I find time to do that again. Did the review give you new readers.

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  17. http://jingleyanqiu.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/the-celebrate-blogger-awards-plus-prayers-4-viola/

    awards are fun, a celebrate blogger honorable mentions award, plus 4 friendship awards...
    viola lost her husband,
    I lost a general friend,
    all together,
    please visit and give love to them…
    thanks

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  18. What a lot to think about, Tabor.

    FB and Twitter have combined to destroy what was left of my housekeeping skills but FB has been terrific for keeping track of a widely scattered family. Have you seen the previews for the movie abt the founding of FB? Think it could be good?

    Maybe the selective hearing talents of our spouses of 4 decades is not increasing - perhaps it's the emptying of nests. When more people were around were we less likely to notice when they tuned us out?

    I tend to fall off the cliff into genealogy when the temperatures rise, emerge & try to play catch-up with reading blogs. What a hoot to read that you submitted your blog for feedback. Your writing is wonderful - change it to Eat, Pray Love? The book sounded pretty awful but since Julia Roberts is in the movie, might give it a try.

    About those spam comments, (appear on my blog, too), I deleted them on principle and wondered if they were real, then realized that with Firefox I can hover over links without opening them...nothing but porn links.

    Annie

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