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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On the heels of the “Finnish don’t do small talk” article comes another one summing up an entire country in a single statement: The French don’t show excitement.  I’m going to call bullshit on this one, BBC, because the twins have a fantastic French teacher who is dynamic and passionate.

When she is speaking about something that excites her, you can see — clearly — that she is excited.  She makes the kids excited about the language.  They come home speaking about French culture just as often as they come home speaking in French.  I would even go so far as to describe her as exuberant.  Ebullient.  She fizzes with happiness for France and teaching French.

So while you may not be able to express this in French doesn’t mean that excitement does not exist in France.  After all, we have dozens of types of snow, even though English only has one word for snow, unlike the Inuit’s 50+.

I’m thinking the BBC may be stretching with this series.

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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 post.

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

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I’ve already told you my resolutions.  It’s really simple and open, so I know I can stick to it: spend 15 minutes every week day doing something that will make me a better human or worker.  That comes out to 3,750 minutes per year, or about 62.5 hours.  It can be anything I want: reading a book, practicing a skill, decompressing.

Starting tomorrow, I’m going to do it (most of the time) first thing in the morning, before I begin work, so I can start the day feeling productive.  I’m adding a two-page monthly spread to my bullet journal so I can track what I do (for instance, read pages 34 – 53 in X book) and look back at it at the end of the year.  Simple.  Do-able.  And I’m finding the time to do this by trimming down on mindless scrolling that always leaves me feeling empty.  Win-win.

What is your resolution?  Or feel free to join mine.  There are a few of us on a listserv so we can share ideas.

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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 post.

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

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The Internet is a wonderful space because it allows me every year to vicariously experience Christmas.  So feed my heart: how do you do Christmas?  What did you do last night?  What will you do later today?  Have you opened your gifts?  What did you get?  Who are you with?  What is the best thing about this Christmas, or, if it hasn’t been a great day, what is the worst thing about this Christmas?  This doesn’t just need to be a place to gush; you can also use it as a space to vent.

Christmas 2018 — spill it.  Let me know how you’re spending the day if you celebrate it.

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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 post.

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

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I love silence.  I work at home, without any extraneous sounds beyond a phone call here and there.  I drive without music, flipping on the radio only when other people enter the car.  If Josh is out for the night and the kids have gone to bed, I’ll enjoy a little more silence rather than opting for turning on the television.  I talk to friends and family and love getting together with people, but I don’t seek out sound.

And, yet, I come from a very talk-heavy culture, and I have a constant impulse to strike up conversations with people around me because I believe they expect the people around them to strike up conversations.  Does that make sense?

The BBC recently did a piece on why people in Finland don’t do small-talk, and it said: “silence functions as an extension of comfortable conversation.”  Yes!  If I am comfortable, I am quiet.

Do you make small talk, chatting with people in lines or behind the counter?

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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 post.

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

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Here’s a little “what would you do” situation: Josh and I were having dinner with two friends last week in a quiet restaurant.  There were only two tables filled in the restaurant — our table and the one behind us.  I was sitting with my back to the other table, which contained two women.

One woman lost control (I have no clue what happened because my back was to them) of her wine glass, tossing the contents five feet in the air to land squarely on my coat, sweater, hair, and the floor.  Josh and I tried to clean up my coat (which got the worst of the red wine) while our friends went to get the waiter to help with the clean-up.  The women said nothing.

The one who threw the wine scrolled through her phone, but they literally didn’t interact with us.  They watched us trying to get the wine out of my coat, but didn’t apologize or offer to help or… do anything.  Again, we were the only two tables in the restaurant, and we were at the table next to them.  There is zero chance that they didn’t notice everything happening.

I didn’t confront them because it was really bizarre.  I guess I figured that it wasn’t worth it if their instinct wasn’t to apologize or help.  But afterwards, I wondered why I didn’t.  Would you have said something?

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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 post.