Be obliviously perceptive

I came across some interesting stuff lately. It's about having an impression or thought about someone. Really, what I've concluded and was also confirmed by my boss, is that people are actually very perceptive... and they don't even realize it.

Think about it, when you think someone is stupid or wrong or some other negative perception you could have toward someone, you may act as if none of those things are true and that person will, some way some how, see it. It's something so subtle in your demeanor that you don't even think the person will notice. But the fact is, the person notices.

Tiny facial expressions, mildly forced smiles, so on and so forth, cannot be hidden for long. People notice this stuff.

In the past, I've dealt with people who I had negative thoughts about, and low and behold, the relationship deteriorated more and more. Then recently, I decided to change that. I took those negative thoughts and made them positive. I started to empathize and soon I was UNDERSTANDING why they said/thought what they said/thought. With that understanding, I began listening. With that listening, the subtleties that hurt the relationship before virtually vanished.

My wife tried this with me. She still can't stand me.

A little political humor never killed anyone that didn't die from it.

As you've noticed, I've stayed away from talking politics too much here, but I just found this joke very funny. I cannot recall where it came from, but it's funny nonetheless.

And here it is:

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and said, "You're in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," he replied. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the woman," everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to make of your information and I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and said, "You must be a Democrat."

"I am," replied the woman. "But how did you know?"

"Well," said the man," you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You've made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and now you expect ME to solve your problem. You're in EXACTLY the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now, it's MY fault."

Mac vs. PC

Being in IT, this is something I come across very often. What are the real differences between Mac and PC. My conclusion is that Mac is a cult. Seriously. I never realized how vicious "Mac people" get about the alleged superiority of a Mac over a PC. Keep in mind, I like Macs. But "Mac people" kind of suck.

Macs are marketed as a computing appliance and they say Macs never crash. Yeah, sure, and cigarettes didn't cause cancer, in fact, they were healthy. If Macs never have problems then how come any time I visit an Apple store there are about 30 people at any given time waiting on a "Mac Genius" for help in fixing some problem. This fact goes on widely ignored.... liberal media.

Then there's "there are 100s of viruses for PCs while Macs don't have any" and let's look at that logically. Here's a blurb from an article I found:

Apple's Macintosh now commands 3.26 percent of the worldwide market for PCs and 6.26 percent of the US market for PCs.

and that was for the first quarter of 2008. Once Macs actually have a strong hold on the market, they will become much more of a target and the viruses (and victimized excuses such as "PC people are just so mean to us Mac people and THEY created the viruses") will be coming out.

I find that functionally, Macs just aren't as sophisticated as PCs, but man, they sure are pretty and cool lookin'.

My experience with Macs, while I do find them attractive and overall, kinda useful, is like dating a hot college girl, only to find out she well... doesn't really bring anything new... just a little admiration from other people that have similar interests while drawing attention from others who normally wouldn't care.

With the right marketing, even I, Shawn Finer, could be considered tall. Thank you Apple.