Now I know how to get revenge....

Not that I'm vengeful, but now I know the best way to get revenge on anyone that might need it. Just let them eat something that gives them food poisoning.
Apparently something I ate on Sunday gave me food poisoning. Very early Monday morning, I awoke to some violent reactions. I won't go into details, but lets just say they weren't pretty.

I felt I wanted to die. I couldn't eat anything Monday. I couldn't drink anything, either, as everything was promptly revisited.

I was so dehydrated and exhausted. I don't remember the last time I felt so wretched!

But, I finally feel ok. I'm finally starting to feel like eating, which is good because I need the energy to get going on finishing up packing.

That's right. We're starting the move tomorrow. I need to get going!

From a very smart lady

A friend of mine wrote this. She's such a brilliant mind.

There is a text, originally written in Euskera, by Basque author Bernardo Atxaga called Obabakoak. B&N gives us a synopsis:

"Obabakoak means 'the people and things of Obaba (a Basque village),' and the narrator weaves a tale reminiscent of Scheherazade's. The village is peopled with rascals, innocents, intellectuals, shepherds, hunters, idiots, and creatures of superstition, and the interconnection of their private worlds is brilliantly evoked. Parody, riddles, texts within texts abound in a book that is playful yet always tinged with melancholy. Possessed of the timelessness of the fairy tale and informed by the lore of the oral tradition - and offering a good-humored spin through metaliterature and intertextuality - Obabakoak is a multi-faceted and rousing celebration of the art of storytelling."

Obaba is the name of town in which the collection of stories take place. The Basque word Obabakoak means loosely "things of Obaba," which we could also understand to means more specifically stories of Obaba. Hence the book is a collection of short stories all centered around this town. Nevertheless, a key element to understanding the book is the knowledge that while these stories are extremely localized, they could have taken place in any town, in any country, and indeed on any planet (as these stories themselves tell). Thus the book is simultaneously local and universal.

Due to its resemblance in name, my colleagues loosely came up with the idea of "Obamakoak," and idea which I actually think has a great deal of validity and meaning. Humor me while I elaborate.

I was thinking more about the Obamakoak based on something that comes up in the field of Folklore Studies: that specific public display events, like festivals, often have intentionally ambiguous meanings so that individual members of that society can project their own personal meaning onto the representations. So while you have one singular event, you have multiple understanding of that event (which we like to call postmodern hermeneutics).

This is so Obama. He is criticized for being vague and lacking substance in his speeches, but that's precisely the genius of him as a public figure (not a public festival, but still a public figure that operates by using discourse in the public sphere). By remaining somewhat ambiguous, he allows many different people to project their own meaning onto him. That's how he can reach across party, racial, and gender divides: he means something different for everyone. This is also why I consider him to be an important figure as a politician: through his presence in the public sphere as a politician, he has the ability to change our national imaginary.

And thus we arrive at Obaba and the Obabakoak. If the Obabakoak are the things of Obaba, or more specifically the stories of Obaba - a small, local Basque town - then the Obamakoak are the individual narratives that we create about Barack Obama. The Obamakoak are the narratives that we project onto him. And, just like the Obabakoak, these Obamakoak are simultaneously personal and universal. Not merely a personal narrative, the Obamakoak are also universal narratives that can be - and are - shared by millions of other people.

from her Obamablog
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/erb

All I ever needed to learn about life, I learned from working at Starbucks (Part 2)

“It is the characteristic of the magnanimous man to ask no favor but to be ready to do kindness to others.”
-Aristotle

Last night while working at the SBUX, a woman came in. This woman comes in often enough that I knew her drink off the top of my head (mostly because she yelled at me over Christmas because we ran out of the way cute holiday gift card holding mittens), but she wasn't getting a drink last night. She came in for teacher appreciation gift cards.

Well, we looked for the design that she wanted, and we didn't have it. Then there was an incident about the SBUX card benefits program (free upgrades on some beverages with a registered SBUX card! Yipee! Blah), and how she hadn't gotten any of her benefits. "Not a penny", she said with a huff.

She proceeded to badger my bud HT and me about how idiotic we all were because have to press a button for the machine to register the benefits. It's the same principle as a coupon. It's a privilege, not a right. You must actually POSSESS the coupon to get the discount. We don't know that you've registered your starbucks card. Just take a moment and let us know. It's a new promotion, sometimes we forget. We're human.

Anyway, my point is that she has a great reputation for being rude, and that's probably why no one has gone out of their way to give her any special treatments. She treats everyone at the store like we're her underlings and personal servants.

I have learned at Starbucks several things about life. But, one of the most important lessons (while I always knew this deep down, I understand it deeper now) has been ... it's best said in the words of Plato:
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."

And in the words of Seneca
"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness."

And in the words of my dear friend Pepper,
"Give a man your shirt, and then walk a milk with him."

And, from Mother Theresa,
“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”

All I ever needed to learn about life, I learned from working at Starbucks (Part 1)

The nature of a person can be read in many ways. The way a person walks can let you know a lot about how he or she feels about him or herself. Is she snobby? Is he arrogant? Does she have low self esteem? A person lets others know volumes about personality and character by eye contact, body language, tone of voice. Judging the character of someone else can be a tricky thing, but I have found that the way a person hands a customer service worker money or a credit card is as effective as yelling what you want others to feel about you.

Take for instance a person who keeps their dollar bills and change separated nicely in an organized wallet. Having an organized wallet does not necessarily dictate the niceness of a person by any means, but generally speaking they appreciate the fact that they have money at all, and appreciate what you're doing. The organized-wallet person can also take the opposite direction and be very uptight and stingy with their smiling and with their money, but not usually.

Many people who are stingy and uptight keep their money separated in their wallet, but the key to telling the difference is in how they hand (or throw) their money to the person behind the register (that's right, the PERSON behind the register. They're people, too!). If a person pulls out their money and hands it over nicely and respectfully, it's a clear key to their character! They are nice people, who care about other people and their feelings. They may not be confident or have high self esteem, but they have warm hearts. If a person pulls out their money and throws it on the counter and doesn't make eye contact, it is obvious that those of us in the service industry that we have no worth in said person's eyes. They are typically arrogant and self-centered people, and if they pull out wadded-up bills and just toss them out on to the counter, it's a whole other book!

So, when you think the person behind the counter taking your money isn't paying attention and reading your character, think twice. That person behind the counter knows so much about you just in the way you pay for your goods. While working at Starbucks, I have gained new ways to read people.