I know some introverts. They have a lot to say and are very deep people. The problem is that the others talk over them a lot of the time. I watch the introverts just shut down at that point and a great story or deep conversation stops.
If you know someone like this, give them a chance. You might be surprised to find a loyal and interesting friend.
I just finished a conversation with a successfully retired executive. He told me the secret to retirement is to keep your life uncomplicated. These two are related.
If you do something really well are paid for it, you hit the lottery. If it is one of your 1000 things, you still are ok. If you are hating your job and don’t something you do well you might be a dumbass.
Life is too short to not enjoy what you are doing. Sure, we have to do things we don’t want to, but not all the time.
If you do this, your life will be a lot easier than swimming upstream doing something you don’t like and aren’t good at. There is nothing wrong with tenacity, as long as it is combined with intelligence.
The moral of the story is don’t be a dumbass.
What I do know is that dogs don’t live long enough for how much they love you.
I found this story and here are the highlights as well as the link to the study, but it’s not how we were told they age and it explains why.
Dogs live an average of 12 years. Human life expectancy, by contrast, is at least five times that, which is why many people go by the common rule of thumb that one “dog year” is equivalent to seven “human years.”
But that one-to-seven ratio is wrong, researchers found — it’s a misunderstanding of how dogs’ aging processes compare to those of humans. Instead, according to a July study, genetic evidence suggests that Labrador puppies and other young dogs age faster than their older counterparts.
“What’s surprising is exactly how old a 1-year-old dog is — it’s like a 30-year-old human,” Trey Ideker, a co-author of that study, said in a press release.
Ultimately, in order to calculate your dog’s human-age equivalent, you’ll need a calculator. The researchers’ formula is: A dog’s human age = 16 ln * your dog’s age + 31. (The ln refers to the natural log of a number.)
For the full story, here is the link.
“No man remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself.” – Thomas Mann
Once you take your guard down and truly admit who you are, you get to see the person that is you. It’s doubtful that you’ll ever show this person to others except on a deathbed, but once you see yourself as you view and judge others.
We think we are invincible and nearly immortal when we are young, but the scars of life take it’s toll as do the decisions we make or avoid and we aren’t who we think we are.
As we age, inside we still see ourselves as the younger version until things start breaking down, but Zoom meetings will show you that age is taking it’s toll. Maybe that is why some hide their looks with makeup.
You will never win if you never begin.
Helen Rowland
Wayne Gretzky said you miss 100% of the shots you never take.
Sometimes things hold us back from trying. It could be fear of failure, embarrassment, procrastination or just timidness.
Learn from the lessons in life. It’s OK to try and fail, because that is the start to the road to success.
Start now and don’t regret never having done whatever it is.
“The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.” – Joe Ancis
Some say there are skeleton’s in everyone’s closet. The way I say it is that everyone has a story.
When you meet someone, it’s like a job interview. They put on the best version of themselves. It’s kind of like a first date. They show you the best version of themselves and how good they are.
Once you know them, the warts begin to show. We let our guard down and you begin to see the real person.
Unless you go through this process and learn, you play a video in your head of who you think the other person is. It’s rarely right because you don’t know them or what they’ve been through, or what they are capable of doing (to you). That is why they seem normal. My rule is that most are not. Everyone has a story.
It’s why I usually don’t talk much about myself and just try to be the real me. The sooner you show who you really are, the quicker you can weed out the fakes you run into.
If you count all your assets you always show a profit.
Wilson Mizner
Some people use the version of this that the glass is half full. Some are optimists, some are pessimists.
How you look at life (and your life) can certainly change your perspective and your attitude.
It’s your choice to be happy or miserable. Some are happiest when miserable, but I can’t change that.
When you are happy and count your blessings, others will feed off of that and you could change a life. Just remember who gave you your blessings.
Nobody loves a woman because she is handsome or ugly, stupid or intelligent. We love because we love.
-Honore de Balzac
There is someone for everyone. I once read (so it might be somewhat true) that there are 15,000 Mr. or Mrs. Right’s for each person. The problem is that they are spread around the world so they might not be next door.
The other saying is that goes with this is that Love is blind. You love because we were created to love and to be together.
With all the nonsense going on in the world right now, it would be a whole lot better if we concentrated on loving someone instead of causing mayhem because they think they hate someone.
Love is a decision. The romance usually wears off in 12-18 months. After that, it is a cause, not an emotion. Looks wear off with age. The real beauty is inside a person.
Let that sink in.
I found this and agree with most of it. It was written by an introvert if you couldn’t tell by the first bullet.
I used the last bullet when raising kids. It kept them (mostly) out of trouble that a lot of my friends had to go through.
A lot of it really refers to personal responsibility for your actions and outcomes. I wish more people were doing that right now instead of blaming others for their problems or as an excuse to act improperly
Revenge is taking the poison and hoping others die. Forgive everyday. – unknown
I really don’t mean the saying today for what has been going on the last week even though it applies. It is a saying for all of life. What happens this week will be over soon and there will be another issue to try and cause strife.
On a personal level, we all run into someone every once in a while who says something or does something that either causes harm or offends you. It’s best to forgive and move on. Whether you can forget is up to you, but the other person is probably not thinking about you.
I read the best revenge is not giving a shit. Once you do that, you can forgive a lot easier.
People breakup in relationships. They get laid off from work. Those close to us die. It happens to everyone sooner or later.
You will always keep that memory whether or not you want to, but moving on is part of life. Yes, it takes time, more for some than others. Some never move on as a loss is hurtful.
The best thing I can offer is that every experience can help you grow. Try to look for the positives. Try to remember those things or people that you lost for their positive influence on you. Sometimes if you can’t move on, at least move along until the pain is less.
The other situation I often see is that you don’t get the dream job you thought would change your life. There is always a next job if you keep seeking and no one thing is the panacea of life that will cause it to stop if it doesn’t go your way.
If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me.
Good songwriters are clever with words. This song is really about how you can’t re-live the past, but it’s also about introverts.
First, if the past was so good, why did you break up? You can never go back because it won’t be the same. Just try to remember the good times. You’ll have others in the future, just different.
Next, there are many times I don’t call, text or start a conversation. It’s not because I don’t want to or don’t have something to say, I just don’t want to get stuck in a small talk situation that is meaningless. It doesn’t devalue my feelings on our relationship/friendship/acquaintanceship that we have, I just would rather talk if we really have something to say. It is the life of introverts.
People don’t realize it, but introverts tell better stories. There is way less going off the path and including unnecessary details and the timing of the punch line or the moral of the story is far more effective.
I doubt anyone thinks about me or other introverts not calling, but if the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me.
I always changed the saying at the bottom of my work email. Some of them are ones that I have posted recently. This was the last one I had when I retired from IBM.
We have been in quarantine for a while now. Most are dying to get back to their life of being busy. I’ve observed that those who want to get out the most are the ones who are trying to escape from themselves. It is a time of introspection. If it weren’t an election year, it probably would have been lifted in a lot of places by now.
The extroverts have to talk to others. The introverts don’t mind being alone, but are bothered when they are quarantined with an extrovert that makes their life miserable thinking that they have to talk all the time. They can’t wait for it to be lifted so that they can be home alone again.
Those of us who are truly comfortable with ourselves can enjoy the solitude without distress. The needy are those who have to have others as a salve for their issues. It is a good time to learn to deal with your issues. That is when you are finally free.
1. Your shoes are the first things people subconsciously notice about you. Wear nice shoes.
2. If you sit for more than 11 hours a day, there’s a 50% chance you’ll die within the next 3 years.
3. There are at least 6 people in the world who look exactly like you. There’s a 9% chance that you’ll meet one of them in your lifetime.
4. Sleeping without a pillow reduces back pain and keeps your spine stronger.
5. A person’s height is determined by their father, and their mother determines their weight.
6. If a part of your body “falls asleep”, you can almost always “wake it up” by shaking your head.
7. There are three things the human brain cannot resist noticing – food, attractive people and danger.
8. Right-handed people tend to chew food on their right side.
9. Putting dry tea bags in gym bags or smelly shoes will absorb the unpleasant odor.
10. According to Albert Einstein, if honeybees were to disappear from earth, humans would be dead within 4 years.
11. There are so many kinds of apples, that if you ate a new one every day, it would take over 20 years to try them all.
12. You can survive without eating for weeks, but you will only live 11 days without sleeping.
13. People who laugh a lot are healthier than those who don’t.
14. Laziness and inactivity kill just as many people as smoking.
15. A human brain has a capacity to store 5 times as much information as Wikipedia.
16. Our brain uses the same amount of power as a 10-watt light bulb!!
17. Our body gives enough heat in 30 minutes to boil 1.5 liters of water!!
18. The Ovum egg is the largest cell and the sperm is the smallest cell!!
19. Stomach acid (conc. HCl) is strong enough to dissolve razor blades!!
20. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day & while you walk, SMILE. It is the ultimate antidepressant.
21. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
22. When you wake up in the morning, pray to ask God’s guidance for your purpose, today.
23. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
24. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, broccoli, and almonds.
25. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
26. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts and things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
27. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
28. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
29. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Forgive them for everything.
30. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
31. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
32. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
33. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
34. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
35. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: ‘In five years, will this matter?’
36. Help the needy, be generous! Be a ‘Giver’ not a ‘Taker’
37. What other people think of you is none of your business.
38. Time heals everything.
39. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
40. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. Each night before you go to bed, pray to God and be thankful for what you accomplished, today. What if you woke up this morning and only had what you thanked God for yesterday? DON’T FORGET TO THANK GOD FOR EVERYTHING.
43. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
This is a story about my young son trying to catch the biggest fish in the pond.
Fathers do things for their children. They take them places and (try to) teach them things.
I like to fish and wanted my son to also like it so we could fish together. I made sure that we went catching instead of fishing. For those who have gone a entire day fishing without catching anything, you know what I mean.
I took him to the fishing show one year to show him around. It is a place where they sell things mostly to catch fishermen’s wallets.
We started the show by dropping quarters into a large fish tank. If the quarter glided through the water and into the shot glass at the bottom, you were a winner with the prize being your choice of worms. He won on the first try and was very excited about it.
I knew his attention span was limited so we went to the trout pond to fish. When I say pond, I mean a temporary pool filled with fish. They were mostly small trout with maybe 3 big boys in the pond (actually the big ones are female). It came complete with plastic palm trees in the middle for décor. You paid your $2 and could keep anything you caught in 5 minutes. The poles were a 4-foot stick with a short line and small hook baited with a mostly inedible piece of plastic half the size of a fingernail.
The odds are with the fish on this one. Especially when they have seen the same bait for 3 days and got fed every night.
My goal was for him to catch anything while I wanted to get enough of the small guys for dinner. I told him that any fish was a good fish.
HUNTING MOBY DICK
Never the small dreamer, he spotted the biggest fish in the pool and said he was going after it. I feared he would be disappointed as everyone threw a line at it, but I knew I could just take him through the line again and tell him to go for something catchable.
I had landed about 3 of the small fish and was well on the way to having dinner by half the time allotted. He kept trying for the big fish (nicknamed Moby Dick).
As time was counting down and I had caught enough for dinner, I heard a huge splash beside me. I looked over and sure enough, my son had hooked Moby.
My new fear was that he would be crushed if the fish spit the hook. The hooks they provided were tiny and easy for the fish get off the line. I saw it happen to every kid before us. If you didn’t get one to the side in less than 15 seconds, it was pretty much over.
This fish was almost too strong for the small stick and line we were given. Over a minute into the fight, it was still on and I knew the odds were against us.
THE FIRST CHANCE TO LOSE THE FISH
Things took a turn for the worse as his fish got wrapped around one of the plastic palm trees. In my mind, I was already preparing to console him for his loss.
I knew I had to try something. After all, I was his Dad so I reached into the tank and grabbed the palm tree. The pond monitors weren’t happy with me but it was my son.
Anyone who ever had a fish on knows that if you get slack in the line, the fish is as good as gone once the line goes taut and the sudden tension pulls the hook out of the fish’s mouth.
To my surprise, Moby stayed on despite the tree incident and he was well past 2 minutes into the fight. Time was now over for that fishing session, but since he had one on we were allowed to finish. We had an audience as everyone waiting to fish and those who just finished could see that he had a good one on.
I decided that if by chance I could get my hands on this fish that I was willing to do anything to get it for my son. I didn’t want him to be disappointed after overcoming virtually everything that could go wrong, just to lose it at the last second. This wasn’t going to be easy, as anyone who has handled a trout knows they have a coating of slime. They are as slippery as greased ice. Landing them is usually done with a net, which we weren’t allowed to use.
PANIC AT THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
I thought nothing more could go wrong, but to my horror I could see that it was foul hooked (hooked on the body rather than the mouth). My sense of the odds of landing Moby were next to nothing now.
After what seemed like a million circles in the pond, Moby came within my reach and I stuck my hand under the fish and threw it out of the pond in one swoop.
On that day, he had landed the biggest fish in the pond, a Dad was proud and a small boy became a fisherman.
Here is a picture later in life of fishing together. He learned well
Even though I like to write about intellectual subjects, this one will have nothing to do with that.
Disclaimer: This game has been around for decades. It is not the somehow now bad OK sign that the evil PC police have condemned. When it was invented, no one cared about the OK sign. FWIW, the circle is upside down in this game. The PC SJW’s are dumbasses because a Reddit joke that trolled people by saying it was some supremacist sign. The woke fell for it immediately because they want to cancel any fun.
If you know or have played the game, you will get this whole post without reading it, but I’m posting for those who do not get it.
I searched this on the Interweb and it stated that this started in the 1980’s. Since I was in middle school way before this I’m calling BS and guessing that those before me have played it for 50 years.
So when I saw these examples, I knew what it was and it took me back to childhood, but I understood it without explanation.
The rules of the game are here:
Basically, you get someone to look at the circle below your waist against their will and you get to punch them.
It’s a game designed to be able to hit your friends and have them be ok with it.
The link provides other instructions like breaking the circle and not brushing it off, but they are just variations on being able to punch your friend.
We took it to all kinds of limits like drawing circles on the floor and other variations, but it’s simple.
I like all of these meme’s, but Darth Vader is my favorite. Readers like the volleyball girl the best if you look at how many times it’s been downloaded off this post.
I think the girl is giving a sign as to the play to make, but if not, it’s a really good Internet punch.
The Walmart guy is funny on many lev
els.
The black hole circle is a Universal punch.
The duck is just funny.
I found a new one that isn’t really meant to be in the circle game, but is.
Delusions of Adequacy 