The Inconsiderate Bad Communicators

Most people in the world suck at communicating. Seriously. How many people do you know who always send thank you notes out soon after receiving a present? How many people always return phone calls and text messages promptly? The answer is...next to no one. And I know everyone has fabulous excuses, but shut up already. Just learn to be better at it. It's not hard. I swear. It'll take you only a couple extra minutes, and you might even gain a title like "Someone I can count on." That's not a bad deal.

On this same vein I must say that women are the worst when it comes to returning text messages or phone calls. And, I honestly don't care if they think they are trying to send a message by delaying their response or not responding at all. It's just rude. It's inconsiderate. It is much crueler in my mind for someone to shun or ignore you than to come straight to your face and bluntly say, "I'm not interested. Leave me alone." It would save everyone a lot of heart ache and wasted time if we just said what we meant, and stopped trying to be "overly polite" and therefore tactless. It is more tactful to be upfront and truthful. Beating around the bush and not calling people back is like being a middle schooler. Grow up ladies!

Keep Friends Close, Enemies Closer

You know that saying that goes: "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer"? Well, recently I thought about a certain Presidential candidate and his idea of international diplomacy. Some of you may already be aware. Barack Obama has agreed to meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba without preconditions. And, on top of that, he refuses to re-visit Iraq to reassess the situation, and refuses to meet with General Petreaus. You might see the strange logic in this. Or, perhaps you think this is a stroke of genius.


Of course it's genius people. We legitimize regimes that do not pay attention to international sanctions and agreements with the highest form of diplomacy available: a Presidential visit. And, then we slap our own people in the face. Our ally Iraq, Maliki's government and our troops clearly are less worthy of being spoken to than a man who denies the Holocaust, or another man who has already tested nuclear weapons right near our ally Japan. Obama has got this one right. He's keeping his enemies close like bosom buddies, and keeping his friends at arm's length.

But, perhaps there is another option. Maybe, keep your friends close, and talk to your enemies when they start obeying international law....just a thought.

Hot Rod

I just finished watching one of the funniest films of all time. The movie is 'Hot Rod.' And, no surprise, it was produced by Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live fame. It's an instant classic. Right up there with Tommy Boy and Dumb and Dumber. There was slapstick, awkward humor, Gob from Arrested development, Heder from SNL....they took out all the stops for this one. If you don't know the premise it's about a guy named Rod who basically wants to become Evil Knievel after being told by his mother that his dad was Evil's stuntman and died while doing dry-runs for Evil. He of course is anything but a good stuntman. And that's why I like the movie. He may not have the skills, but he has the heart.


It almost makes you want to be a stuntman...or at least watch more stuntmen do ridiculous things. I know I will definitely be watching this movie over and over again so I can memorize classic lines and quote them to people who haven't seen it so they look at me funny. Then, after a long enough time, the lines will start catching and everyone will be quoting it. But, only 5 percent of the people quoting will know why they are doing it. Such is life. God speed Hot Rod!

Podcasting

Jump with me for a moment. Not up and down for no reason, but off a cliff into the abyss that is podcasting. Some of you may be very familiar with podcasting, while others may be thinking I'm talking about a new way to catch shrimp. While I'm sure there are ways to catch shrimp, or at least develop strategies to catch shrimp on podcasts, that is generally not their purpose. A podcast is a syndicated online radio show. It is published through itunes and other online audible mediums. Like a blog, it has episodes in place of posts, and updates either daily or weekly, depending on who is doing the show. Some are more frequent than others, and the topics range from finance and sports to technology and travel.




The funny thing is, I had a podcast before I made this blog. My podcast can be found at americansatire.org And, unlike a lot of other podcasts it ends up being around 15 minutes long on average with crazy subjects and interviews with musicians, artists and my random friends. I used to be really good about doing it weekly, but now I do it less frequently. This is in part because I'm doing another podcast called 'The Envision Podcast" for a different company. But, my own show is called The Ian McConnaughey SHOW, and you can subscribe to it on itunes. I recommend visiting the site I wrote above and clicking the subscribe button, because itunes is sketchy. That's right, SKETCHY. Anyway, I recommend you all get into podcasting. It's fun.

Back in Provo

I think you need some pictures. I was on the road, blogging from my cell phone, and my camera sucks so you got what you got. Now that I'm back in P-town (not Provincetown mind you, but Provo), I have all the amenities once again. Here's the list of amazing amenities that I may or may not have taken for granted:


This example is still not as big as mine.

1. My massive front window
2. Consistent wi-fi
3. A couch where I can sit
4. My own bed
5. A shower and bathroom only steps away
6. My aesthetically pleasing house plants
7. The possibility of meeting an attractive girl (that I could actually get in a relationship with)
8. My DVD collection
9. My front porch
10. My neighbors
11. That's it.

So I'm glad to be back. In a home where I can take a breather and not have my style cramped by 5 x 8 (the size of the car's cabin). I now can see the value of an RV or larger vehicle. And now if I flirt with girls, I can actually see them after that initial interaction as opposed to leaving them in whatever podunk town they live in out in California. Yeah, Provo is good.


That's me with the big hair.

Road Trips

Road trips are fun, but extremely tiring. Driving, driving, driving and then driving some more is taxing on a guy. I would tend to think it's taxing on anyone. I'm amazed at how truckers can do it. But truly it is not all about the long hours. If you are driving with friends or a buddy, sleep, even when you can and want to is near impossible and hardly ever restful. And, you feel guilty sleeping while your friend is spending hours behind the wheel. Then of course there are precarious portions of the drive where you wonder if your friend is drunk, tired, or just a bad driver.

I like road trips. Again. I like them. They are fun. But, when your friend is driving with one hand on the wheel and another hand and head turned to take pictures at 75 mph you can get a little antsy. That and there's not much you can do when it's not your car. But, the biggest negative to a road trip is a scheduled, go-go-go road trip. That's the one where you don't spend any more than a night in each place and are traveling thousands of miles. Shoot me. It's okay to take a breather. I believe in breathers. It rejuvenates you. On a road trip that's a must. At any rate, it can be cheaper and much more fun than airfare, but just make sure you do it at a leisurely pace. And if you don't, get some good sleep when you get back home. Ah, home sweet home.

Who are you?

True story: I have no idea who actually reads my blog. The only way I have of knowing that people ARE actually reading it is from Google Adsense. But, all it tells me is how many page impressions there have been on any given day and how many people have clicked on the ads (great idea I might add). So all you people really are to me is an aggregate of numbers. I do not know your names. I am sure I know some of you, at least from the comments you leave, but others are mysterious.

I will never understand why my own friends will choose to post comments as anonymous. I would've thought that by now they would understand that I don't care if they agree with me or not. I don't get offended easily. Any publicity is good publicity. Any comment therefore, is a good comment. Have at it my loyal readers! On another note, this morning I was surfing in Carmel and my friend and I went to the old Spanish mission and basilica. He took pictures and I just soaked it all in. Now we're on our way to San Fran.