I’ve been feeling a bit lazy lately so I haven’t been blogging. But I’m finally in a much better mood than I was for the past month.

The post below was written a long time ago. I was clearly cranky when I wrote it.  

—————- 

I am a very direct person…that is, I get to the point immediately in my dealings with people. This blog is about the only place I ramble about random ideas that are floating around in my head.

Brevity is my favorite word in the dictionary. When I want something I get to the point immediately. "Shooting the breeze" is not an activity I participate in. Below are some examples:

1. At the farmers’ market I go to a stall and pick out what I want rightaway. If I want to investigate something I stand far away and read whatever advocacy the farmers have written up ("we grow without chemicals", "we are the oldest farm in XYZ area", "we grow heirloom veggies", "we have tomatoes!"). This seems to alarm some farmers when I appear in front of them with all my stuff already picked out and no questions to ask. When I volunteer I get very annoyed at what I call the "tourists": they ask a million questions and then don’t buy anything. I am also really shy and I guess I’m afraid that the farmers will bite my head off if I ask questions, but its just not something I do much or very often.

2. Almost all my emails to anybody except my husband are very short. I prefer talking to people in person about philosophical ideas/concepts rather than typing it out on email. My sense of humor does not translate well in written form and I am a big reader of body language which is hard to do via electronic mediums. After working in a corporate job for a few years, I am also quite paranoid about leaving a paper trail unless its absolutely necessary.

3. In the workplace I use whatever method of communication is most useful. I make calls instead of typing up emails/memos/letters if its the best option. I do not discuss personal affairs at work.  So far this method has not hurt me. If someone at work has made it a point to communicate something personal to me, I’ll be nice and ask about it: for example grandma who has cancer or child who is misbehaving. I suppose this is what makes one a good manager. But career wise, I want to remain on the lower levels of the bureaucratic ladder with no one below me to manage. Many of my friends follow this rule at work (birds of a feather), and I just think its tacky to talk about issues of a very personal nature at the workplace.

4. I don’t like having emotional/personal conversations via the telephone. If you’re going through a divorce I’d rather talk about it person. Obviously I compromise on this one sometimes since I have friends who live thousands of miles away from me…but in general I like face to face conversations when it comes to emotional issues. Again, this is because I read body language which is hard to pick up on the phone. And I do not use any of those video-phone thingies (or similar technology - I’m cheap).

My style of communication is at odds with whatever culture I’m usually living in.  I don’t see any reason for the how are yous when I don’t particularly care about how someone is feeling. I am polite, and I’ve learned to respond to the how are yous.

This post is mainly a result of me thinking about what makes me like a book (besides good writing). The biggest concern lately has been on how much an author sticks to the main theme of the book. So if the book is about not buying stuff for a year, I expect to read about non-consumerism….not about how dissapointed the author is that people didn’t vote for a particular political party (unless that has something to do with nonconsumerism). If a book is about eating locally, it shouldn’t be about relationship problems. Unless cannibalism comes into play. If a book states that its about a variety of topics, I’m going to expect to read about a variety of topics. I am more forgiving about these standards when it comes to blog reading because its more of a dynamic work written by people who are themselves constantly evolving.