Happy Birthday Anna!

Give the Other Fella A Chance

As painted on the wall of GREEN, my favorite vegan restaurant in Phoenix, the lyrics from Daniel Johnson's song "etiquette":

Fred is one of the richest people I have ever met
True, he does not have a hoard of money to give away
He cannot pay handsome salaries
He does not entertain lavishly
Or bestow costly gifts
But he overflows with the gold of sincere friendliness
And gets in return a self-satisfaction
An influence, and a power with people
That all the money in the mint could not buy
He does not wait to see if people will like him
Fred assumes they do like him
That is one of his secrets
He does not wait for them to say hello or smile first
He takes a friendly lead himself and everyone follows
That is another one of the secrets
He does not question whether or not
He will like a person
Or wait before deciding to be friendly
He takes it for granted
He will like everyone, every person
This is the third secret of friendliness
He magnifies other’s good points
No matter how inconsequential
He overlooks a few annoying qualities
Or major bad points
This is the fourth element in friendliness
Friendliness is very contagious
The trouble is that many of us wait
To catch it from someone else instead of
Giving the other fella a chance

Turkish Round

My latest chain maille bracelet, a Turkish Round made from a kit by Marilyn Gardiner. Marilyn's instructions are easy-to-follow and provide full-color photographs illustrating each step of the weave. The jump rings are formed from Argentium (tm) Silver, a new sterling alloy that is tarnish-resistant. A Byzantine variant, the pattern is fairly simple expecially if you have already worked with Inverted Round. For me, this weave may be a little too bulky to wear regularly, but it was a fun weave to finish, and, of course, I must learn them all!

Grumpy Grammar Facist

At the ninth hour, I finished my reviews for this year's Academy of Management meeting. I feel loyal to several divisions, so for the past few years, I've volunteered to read for the GDO (Gender and Diversity), OB (Organizational Behavior), and SIM (Social Issues in Management) divisions. We can receive up to three reviews per division. (Next year, I will be more conservative.)

This year, I got five submissions total to read. While they were all interesting, in all but two cases, I wanted to put a screwdriver through my ear when reading the manuscripts. It felt like they were written in another language and put through an automatic translator without any follow-up editing. Struggling to understand the meaning of the sentences, I sometimes forgot to evaluate the content. Although I know it's important for the Academy to be international in scope, the language of our convention is English, and if the papers can't be communicated in English, it's hard for me to see a place for them on the program. My very late attention to this task did not help my mood, either.

Flowers from George

George sent me these beautiful purple flowers for Valentine's Day. This is the first time he's ever given me flowers. How sweet! It's even more remarkable because George does not approve of flowers...to him, they are too fleeting and too wasteful. While I can't argue about flowers being fleeting, I don't agree they are wasteful. Fresh flowers are lovely and smell so wonderful, even more special because temporary. That George would send me the flowers despite his disapproval made me particularly appreciative and joyful.

Thanks, George!

Obama Wins Big!

Today, Barack Obama swept the so-called Potomac primaries. I really hope the nomination doesn't come down to the superdelegates. I'm sure that Clinton has many favors to call in, a la the godfather...some day, and that day may never come...

NPR report

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Yesterday, I bent over to plug in a power strip in our office. Unfortunately, a waist-high self with a very sharp corner was between my forehead and the outlet. The pain was so intense I sobbed. Ever since, I've been a little loopy and unbalanced. It's more pronounced when I'm trying to have a conversation with someone--I find I have a hard time concentrating and finding the right words (even more so than usual). I'm sure I have a concussion. I should probably go to student health, but I hate visiting the clinic. Besides, the Mayo clinic said the best treatment was rest.

Of course, it's for something this ridiculous instead of a funny, interesting story.