the empty bookshelf and how to make anyone fall in love with you

Confession time: In high school, in search of the greatest manipulative power possible, I read a friend’s copy of a book called “How to Make Anyone Fall in Love With You.”

Good news: The principles of the book generally worked. Any high school boy with a full set of teeth and a touch of discipline could SOFTEN his way into any girl’s heart.

Bad news: I now have a daughter.

Lest you think I stopped at romance in my quest to be able to analyze and manipulate humans at a whim, in college I picked up a book appropriately entitled “Reading People”. It was equally enthralling and equally enlightening. The basic point of the book was “PAY ATTENTION!!”

So instead of daydreaming when in a person’s apartment for the first time, I learned to pay attention to little details – decorative flair, ethnic accents, quality of materials, and…wait for it…the books on the shelf.

Ah, the bookshelf. A gold-mine of snap-judgementalism. Back then, a guy rocking sci-fi novels was not likely going to be included in the night’s party plans. A guy with books on sports and history – now there was the guy to go have a beer with...

Well, today, there is no bigger evangelist for the Amazon Kindle than me. And yet there is no bigger killer of snap-judgementalism than the Kindle.

I love the e-reader. I love the paperless society. I love the barren bookshelves…

Or do I?

The New York Times featured a great piece not too long ago about the way that the Kindle masks our public persona and our private image.

Think about it… One guy is reading Chaucer on a plane and another is reading Anne Rice. What can you tell me about them just from that tidbit? With a Kindle, no one would know the difference. One woman is reading the Financial Times and another is reading USA Today. What does that speak to…? The papers are both available on the Kindle every day. And the Kindle gives away no clues.

Check back later today for the article and links…

FYI: SOFTEN = Smile, Open Body Position, Forward Lean, Touch, Eye Contact, Nod

save darfur: we are responsible

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We Are Responsible.

voices from darfur

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we have suffered enough

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our government is killing us all

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nine

The night contains but two elements
And the heart is consumed therein

Sometimes it feels as if the whole thing really is vapor
Striving after wind

And it isn’t a test
But it feels like a test so much of the time

The process is the purpose
But the purpose is the processor

So what to do with the days
When the days are evil

And what to do with the night
When the night brings no relief

We burn as so many distant embers
Luminous in potentiality or the past

The parched masses groan
For what they cannot identify

To be washed in the water of the word
When the ears that would hear have been closed by design

The path ambles ever onward
Narrowing on the horizon’s edge

homeless soccer team roots for new life

Homeless Soccer Team Roots for New Life

By JULIE BOSMAN

Shelter residents embrace a sense of purpose through the team, the newest in a nationwide league for the homeless...

Click the above link.