SWANNING AROUND

Pat S. forwarded a list of funny tips on how to look busy at work, and I learned a new word:

Have 2 Jackets: If you work in a big open plan office, always leave a spare jacket draped over the back of your seat. This gives the impression that you are still on the premises. The second jacket should be worn while swanning around elsewhere.

"Swanning" obviously means gliding around proudly, looking gorgeous, but it also reminds me of prairie-dogging, which is when people in cubicles stand up and look around if they hear something happening in the office, like prairie dogs popping out of their holes.

WHY BLOG?

More serious business advice: Tim Rosa, whose company specializes in business communications, sent this useful list of reasons to blog. Last year I had debated with myself about whether to take PO to blog format, and decided to stick with the e-mailed newsletter. However, recently I decided to also post it as a blog at Townhall, where it might possibly attract new readers from a focused audience, as compared with a general blog site. We'll see.

Here's what Tim wrote about business blogs:

\\\ Their standard format makes them very easy to navigate; categories, search, and content calendars make it easy to find articles of interest.

/// They require no knowledge of HTML or other web technologies, so they can and are easily updated (unlike many websites).

\\\ Unlike most websites, which are in essence one-to-many broadcast media with no interactivity, blogs enable readers to comment on posts. And, of course, blog writers can read and respond to the comments of their readers too.

/// For those who prefer to get their news via email, it is a simple matter to subscribe to a blog and receive new posts by email. This way, readers never have to visit the blog, unless they wish to comment.

\\\ For more sophisticated users who employ newsreaders to aggregate important content from the web via RSS, or Real Simple Syndication, it is equally easy to subscribe to an RSS feed of the blog. (See the April 2006 of Focus Forward if “RSS” is new to you.)

/// The “Trackback” feature of blogs is similar to the citations used in a journal article—it automatically keeps track of any blog that cites an article from your company’s blog. Using Trackback, relationships can be formed among people with common interests.

\\\ Unlike email newsletters and other means of communications, blog posts are automatically archived and always available. Readers don’t have to worry about losing or deleting emails with important news.

Now I need to study the RSS feed technology.

SHAME, GUILT, EMBARRASSMENT

Fouad Ajami, Professor of the Middle East Studies Program, John Hopkins University and author of The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq, distinguishes between shame-based vs. guilt-based societies. Guilt comes from morality. Shame is based on how one looks to others. A guilt-based society is interested in right and wrong. A shame-based society is interested in honor, which is not based on one's own behavior but on ... well, I can't quite understand the rationale for it, but we have lots of examples. In a guilt-based society like ours, a rapist can be convicted of a crime. In a shame-based society, the woman who is raped can be killed to restore the honor of her male relatives. Get it?

I have to go to the etymology to get a grip on these distinctions.

Shame has its root in a word meaning to cover (also shirt). Thus the common nightmare of being undressed in public. We feel ashamed, but may not be guilty.

Guilt comes from a word meaning the fine paid for an offense, and thus, eventually, the crime itself. It's a legal term too. If you are guilty, you did it, whether or not you feel shame.

Embarrassment actually has its root in bar ~ to hinder. Thus we can be embarrassed by a lack of funds. It's a social impediment.

WHERE JERKS COME FROM

Writing more about one of his peeves, "becoming increasingly common", Herb sent this useful list:

rate of change of position = velocity

rate of change of velocity = acceleration

rate of change of acceleration = jerk

Which reminds me of the competing jerks and creeps theories of evolution. So what's the definition of creep in physics?

Anyway, Herb disputes Mike Sykes, saying that neither acceleration nor velocity nor position can change instantaneously, although isn't that what quantum physics is about?

FLOY-FLOY REVISITED

Random mail from newcomer Jenna W. ~ remember "flat foot floogie with the floy-floy"?:

I know this seems random, but I came across your site, and I happen to know what a floy refers to. They used the term (which does indeed derive from foul) to refer to V.D. So basically (and I'm going to run it like they'd say it now in a hip hop song) they're singing: A broke-down skank with an STD. The repeat of floy is just a repeat, and floy doy really is nonsense riffing on the term.... I learned this, and have never been able to sing or listen to this song with a straight face again.

FLAIR

I'm going to do some volunteer work for a local foundation that is opening a new art center in the mansion of a fine old estate. It seems the wretched administrator wrote a couple of news releases that the ancient ladies on the board didn't like. One of them said a release was "horrible" because the writer used the word "local". At worst, the word was imprecise, not horrible. And the tottering, dithering old board-dames want more "flair". Flair is not needed in a news release, but they have to feel like they're making a contribution. So I will take a shot at flair. Anybody know what flair is? Let me know.

FLAG DAY

Today is Flag Day. I didn't write about Memorial Day, which commemorates our war dead. To all readers in the U.S., if you like living here, take some time to be thankful. Do people who wave the Mexican flag at demonstrations feel thankful? A suggestion about one aspect of the current crisis: If employers of illegal immigrants (who are NOT "undocumented Americans") were fined and prosecuted, the problem would go away. But to keep it gone, the U.S. should institute some kind of agricultural and industrial programs in northern Mexico. Maybe U.S. farmers could get land cheap there. Or maybe we should annex it as a possession, like Puerto Rico. As long as the Mexican government is as corrupt as it is, its economy will never be "sustainable" for the humans who live there. NAFTA obviously didn't do the job, but American agriculture and technology might. Of course I still like my idea of giving a big chunk of northern Mexico to any Jews or Israelis who'd like to apply their economic skills outside of the northern Africa desert.

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ELSEWHERE

Parvum Opus now appears as a Townhall blog: http://parvumopus.townhall.com/

and is also carried by the Hur Herald, a web newspaper from Calhoun County, West Virginia. See Editor Bob Weaver's interview with me (February 10, 2007 entry), and the PO every week in Columns.

NEW! SHORT ORDER

Short Order is a new series of my short stories in 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" booklet format. The first two are available now for $5 each (includes mailing).

/// In Carl Kriegbaum Sleeps with the Corn, a young computer guy who dreams of becoming a big-time gambler sets up web sites for his role model, a real big-time gambler, Stockyard Stan of Kansas City. But when Carl comes up short on his gambling debts, he finds himself wearing concrete boots in the middle of a Kansas cornfield. 26 pages.

/// Still Ridge is about what happens when the old-time moonshine business meets up with a predatory modern bottled water corporation. How far will Kate, a newcomer to the mountains, go to protect the water supply? 22 pages.

GET COMFORTABLE! For women who get massage or chiropractic treatment, who sleep on their stomachs, or have implants, try Rhonda's original Breast Cushion to take the pressure off. Go to www.keithops.us/cushion.

WHEN SONNY GETS BLUE! Check out the video clips of Sonny Robertson and the Howard Street Blues Band at http://www.sonnyrobertson.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/rondaria, with his new original song, "A Different Shade of Blue".

SEARCH IT OUT ON AMAZON : "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter." Proverbs 25:2; "Get wisdom! Even if it costs you everything, get understanding!" Proverbs 4:7:

The poet Muriel Rukeyser said the universe is not composed of atoms, but stories. The physicist Werner Heisenberg said the universe is not made of matter, but music.

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Parvum Opus is a publication of KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services. Back issues may be found at http://www.keithops.us/. Feel free to e-mail me with comments or queries. The PO mailing list is private, never given or sold to anyone else. If you don't want to receive Parvum Opus, please reply with "unsubscribe," "quit," "enough," or something like that in the subject line, and I'll take you off the mailing list. Copyright Rhonda Keith 2007. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.