One reason we live out in the sticks of East Texas is the lack of noise. Not that it’s silent, mind you. Why, just this morning on the way over to the office I was given a nasty hissing by the juvenile raccoon who has been sparring with the cats over their early feeding. I may set up a live-trap for him one of these days and take him for a ride. But mainly, it’s quiet, except for the hoot owls, crickets and the odd goat reminding us what time they think dinner should be served.
With this in mind, I’m trying to imagine what it would be like to yell 116.8 decibels worth of anything. Yet, that was the case this weekend at the world screaming championships in Thailand.
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People don’t seem to have much common sense, or courtesy, when it comes to noise. I won’t ruin your Monday recounting my usual gripe with people revealing every most personal intimate detail with fellow Wal-Mart shoppers waiting in a check-out line.
But consider your ambient noise levels. Ever been in a room with someone who is watching TV and doesn’t turn it down when you address them? That makes me nuts.
Not so nuts as when I check into a hotel someplace on a client trip and the person at the counter puts me on ignore only to answer a telephone call. I usually just pick up and go elsewhere if I can. Once I had a fellow yell “Where are you going? Sir? Sir?”
“Away! I was standing right in front of you and you chose to ignore me. So I’m going somewhere that a person doesn’t just hold up one finger indicating ‘Wait a minute…” and then go deal with someone who called…I was there first, right?”
Few get it. But out here on the ranch when Elaine comes over to my office, she enters knowing that I will stop when I get to the completion of a thought (should I ever get one 
and when she calls on the intercom it invariably beings with either “Are you busy?” or “Are you on the phone?”
On the other side, when I go into the house, if she’s watching a movie, or the TV’s on, it’s turned way down since neither one of us like to speak loudly and in direct competition with the teevee. We try to let ‘actions speak louder than words’ because this ain’t Thailand.
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If you ever get serious about managing people and need everyone to be ‘equally weighted’ in the business decision-making process, one of the biggest dangers is that a ‘loud person’ will often drown out or over-power a softer-spoken team member. For this reason, I’m really partial to something called the “Delphi Technique” so if you ever run across THE DELPHI METHOD-TECHNIQUES AND APPLICATIONS
Of course, that assumes you aren’t running a company in Thailand.
College Sued
A “College grad can’t find job, wants $$$ back” from the school where she graduated. Part of me is sympathetic, having run a couple of colleges and been an admissions director. Yet my experience was on the private vocational college side, not in the four year degree world.
When asked, I always summarize things this way:
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Accreditation means a program has been reviewed by a group of educators and that the accrediting commission somewhere has handed the institution the keys to the vault – the ability to apply for and dispense federal student aid.
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Private vocational colleges are a bit different in that not only is their training quality reviewed, but placement is documented. In many colleges, job postings are coming off Monster.com and CraigsList.
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If you want to get ahead in the world, never never take anyone out of your Outlook contacts file and keep it backed-up.
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Get into one services for professional networking (I use www.LinkedIn.com but there are other good services like www.plaxo.com, too.
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Most really good jobs never hit the paper or the online services. They come from beating the pavement and doing self-marketing.
That someone can graduate from college not knowing this is a little, well, surprising.
Curious Quote
A reader is asking…
“Dear Mr. Ure, There has been talk that buried deep inside Patriot Acts I-III,and the Bankruptcy Acts of 2001 and 2004, regulations/provisions designating DEBTORS as “enemies of the state” who will be interned at “FEMA LABOR CAMPS” in the event of a ‘catastrophic economic collapse.’ Your thoughts on this issue would be greatly appreciated.”
Send me the part where this is spelled out, please, if you have the specific reference. It would sure fit with the National Guard’s recent recruiting to get internment camp security folks signed up. Still I never comment without a read in context first. Hate looking dumber than I already am….
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Send comments to george@ure.net
The UrbanSurvival Mall:
Peoplenomics This Week:
5-Years Out and 10 Days in October
Now that last week’s report on how banks are, in effect, swapping write-downs and garnering tax credits as their reward for crashing the housing market has been confirmed, we can put enough pieces of the Great Puzzle of Life on the table, using diverse source materials, that a kind of ‘rough out’ (as some tradesmen would describe it) of the future can be tabled. When I tell you that this ‘rough out’ draws on diverse backgrounds, everything from Federal Reserve notes on the economy, news clips from major media including the BBC and even old UFO-studies books, don’t be alarmed. Nor should my looking to the recent “The Shape of Things to Come”, the follow-on to the ALTA series from www.halfpasthuman.com, which only a few people have figured is connected to the much earlier book “The Shape of Things to Come by H.G. Wells.” Grab your tinfoil hat. We’re off this week on a major dot-connecting mission, which should things collapse as expected this fall, might be a dim star to steer by on what for most will be very dark times indeed.
More For Subscribers Subscription Information
MyGroPonics
My commodity broker JB Slear has nailed a great solution for people who living in apartments and condos who want to become at least partially self-reliant when it comes to raising food: An ultra-high efficiency micro-hydroponics system using readily available local parts. 25-pages and plenty of pictures to turn you into a farmer no matter where you live (Great if you have back problems, too…)…or if you just want to fill up the back yard with MyGroPonics trees and feed the neighborhood… $10 bucks here…
Maxa-Cookie Manager
The newest version of Maxa-Tools Cookie Manager (MCM) is available. Existing users of MAXA Cookie Manager Pro use the update button in the about window, all others can download the Standard version here:
Once you try it out, click the upgrade button (!) on the upper right hand side for the $35 unlock to get it to remove even those pesky ‘non-browser specific’ cookies. Bonus: You computer may run faster. I took over 1,000 cookies off my son’s machine that he swore was clean. It ran much faster.
Attn: Mac Drivers: MCM does support the Safari Browser, but that does not mean it is compatible with Mac OS. Maxa-Tools only support the Windows world.
Help US Go Viral
UrbanSurvival has a dandy growth rate, but sadly, it’s nothing like swine (hybrid) flu’s growth rate. However, if you’d like to sicken the PowersThatBe, just click here for a tool that may help. (It’ll pop up an email window if you use Outlook (or a few other email programs) then simply send a link to everyone on your distro list…
“Live on $10,000″ Updated
What? You haven’t ordered the ebook “How to Live on $10,000 a year — or less”? Suit yourself. We’re all going to live it shortly, anyway. I just thought you might like a heads up by reading about how to do it before you get pink-slipped. But, suit yourself OR visit www.liveontenthousand.com or, click one of the following button:
Yep – still possible. I also took a bit of additional material that was pertinent from recent issues of Peoplenomics and included them. The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the aforementioned dollar amount, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you make a little more than that and do some active savings… Click here for the page with more details on it.
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Last week’s report is here. For back issues of this site, click here. (Goes back to 1997!)