Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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Today is Independence Day in the US.  Election years push the whole concept of government and political issues and red, white and blue to the foreground, so this Independence Day feels a little less popsicle-y and more a reminder of all the work ahead.

I know it feels overwhelming.  I know things feel broken.  I know it sounds really loud right now.

But to quote Hamilton, “Winning was easy, young man. Governing’s harder.”  And sure, Washington says that in retrospect; the after always feels easier than the moments ahead of you.  Governing is hard work.  We can do it, of course, we’ve been doing it for 241 years since the Declaration of Independence.  But, damn, it is hard.

What are you doing to mark the day if you live in (or are from) the US?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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CNN recently asked me if I was addicted to work.  (I like to think that all headlines that reference the pronoun “you” are speaking solely to me.)  Um… I’m not addicted to work, though I am addicted to staying employed and being paid.

When asked of the general population instead of a specific case, it’s a question rooted in privilege.  Everyone I know who gives extra hours to work are doing so because they feel insecure in their position.  They’ve either been through unemployment and think doing extra work or giving their job extra attention will protect them from a layoff (or, at the very least, it’s the only thing they can control in a situation outside of their hands) or they want to convey how dedicated they are to their work place.  If they could be guaranteed by their employer that they would be retained as long as they did their job well, they would relax and work normal hours.

But no employer makes that guarantee.  And employers benefit from their employees feeling as if they need to go above and beyond for no extra pay.

Sure, there are some who throw themselves into their work to avoid other stressors and many who don’t mind extra hours because they love their position, but I think the vast majority of “addicted to work” employees are more addicted to knowing they have a paycheck coming and they’ve chosen a job they enjoy.

What are your thoughts?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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Josh asked me as we were going to bed well after midnight, “Are you a lark or a night owl?”  If you had nowhere you had to be during the day or night, no family or friends dependent upon you, would your body rather be awake during the day or night?

I know I am a natural night owl because I once stayed back at college for the first few days of winter break in order to see a friend who was coming into town.  It was Christmas, and I had nowhere I had to be until Boxing Day when we were getting together.  I was very depressed during that week due to incidents that happened before break, and I decided to just do whatever I needed to do to get through those days until I could see my friend and vent.

So I rented a bunch of movies and bought a bunch of books and purchased clear root beer (remember that stuff?).  Then I let myself do whatever I felt like doing, and my schedule shifted away from my normal school life schedule.  I would read or watch movies during the day, and then I would start writing around 11 pm.  By 4 or 5 am, I would tell myself to go to bed because it seemed like the right thing to do.  And then I would sleep until 1 or 2 pm the next day.

I am married to a committed night owl, and our kids are both deep night owls who seem to come alive around 10 or 11 pm and sleep until lunch whenever we let them.

So what is your chronotype?  Are you a lark or night owl?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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This was supposed to be a happy post.  I was going to tell you about how we marched in the Capital Pride parade this weekend.  It was my first time marching in a parade vs. watching from the sidelines, and it was fun and overwhelming and emotional.  We waved and danced and blew kisses to hundreds of thousands of people.  The ChickieNob and I tucked rainbow flags into our hair, and the Wolvog zig zagged across the route, passing out candy to the crowd.  It was an enormous party.  I have never been cheered on by a crowd, and we left that night with our bodies buzzing from all the excitement.

And then we woke up, and Orlando had happened.

The amazing high to the lowest low; both defy words.  Our hearts are with the families of the victims at Pulse, and with the entire community.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I read about the Urban Confessional project on Mental Floss; a sort of face-to-face PostSecret, where people can run up to other people and spill their inner monologue.  Mental Floss explains, “The organization recruits volunteers to stand in public spaces and offer to lend an ear to anyone who wants to unload something, whether it’s happy news or a heartbreaking tale.”

Which sounds great except… isn’t this sort of dangerous, too?  I mean, therapists have training.  They know how to guide someone.  These are just volunteers who are offering to listen.  I think most people will use it in the way they use PostSecret, to unburden their heart to someone.  But what about the people who use the Urban Confessional project to unload something important, and once the words are out of their mouth, realize the person holding their words doesn’t know what to do with them?

Would we applaud untrained surgeons performing simple operations as art or expression?  Sometimes I think stunts like this are wonderful and other times I think they’re dangerous.  I’m on the fence about this one.

What do you think?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.