Viral Vicissitudes

"High Jinks", and other "off the cuff" stuff...worth a look, listen. "Hail Fellow Well Met" As in "Hi, have a seat, join me for lunch..." The greeting I received from this hearty soul whose countenance and voice I did not readily recognize. Not his name, at least not at first. Which he obviously sensed, a routine he seemed well "versed" in... As he introduced himself to my family, which had traveled south, to South Bend, as witness to the Notre Dame Law School graduation that year. "I'm Dave Link, Father Link that is...the only married priest on campus" What an opening salvo. One which he had probably used a thousand times and many places, one which distinguished him as one among many...other priests, "Fathers" (which, it turns out, he was many years prior to entering priesthood). The expected quizzical, expectant (as in "tell me more Dave") looks on our faces, which he seemed to welcome..."Allow m...

High Jinks, Missing (cuff) Links?: Tune in here 3/25 for a Virtu-Oh, So Presentation

BT(P)B! Welcome to Spring, and the rest of "March Madness" - Gonna' be a lumpy ride Pre, post text: "Under the pretext" means doing something you say you are doing for one reason but it turns out to be otherwise, as in "pretense" or sometimes "ostensibly"...or, in earlier developmental times, "supposedly"...all of which raise a bit of doubt...as in "I'm a bit dubious"...some words and descriptors we're likely to hear as those who are ultimately responsible for all those funds, as in "billions and billions" previously, before these banking institutions went "bust" was strongly aligned with Carl Sagan, along with his signature voice and cadence, but now...in the near future will be infamously linked with some who also sent billions into another type of Black Hole than the one Mr. Sagan introduced us to in simplified terms... Princess and the Pea: A story of a youngster with royal ancestry whose li...

    "Et Tu...Brute?!"  (in these A.D. days, oft re-phrased  "Such a brute, UR!") BTW: (in part due to liking round numbers-ish, after the celebration of yesterday's accomplishers, who might still, early the morning of the day after, still be digitizing...Pi Day) I'm here with just a quick reminder... "Check your 6": That even when you, as I had reassured you in my "last" post would always enjoy good company, given certain common denominators, such as being approachable, a good listener, among a few instrumental to the "trade"...even in such a genial setting, it's still a good idea to at least occasionally glance over one's shoulder, to see what might be lurking... "Got your back": While reassuring words as a whole, in most instances, they can be your undoing, and replaced with "with friends like this..."  "Should have seen this coming": Well, how could you, given that you were preoccupied wi...

The (trade) Secrets are out: There really aren't any.   "So, what was the point of all this, then...?" An understandable question, especially if you read all 513 posts and digested all the information and meaning I earnestly tried to convey. One that my favorite professor and mentor I've repeatedly told you about here, would have responded to, "That's a great question!" --his response conveying you were worth listening to as well as reflecting a degree of humility, not having an immediate "definitive" response, after which he offered and modeled a process by which we could get there...together, as a team of re-searchers. An early glimpse of how we, as aspiring psychologists might approach those we are seeking to help out. And eventually the type of summary question, we found ourselves posing to those in our presence, especially in the office ("what were the major points you took away from today's session...?) in preparation for a possi...

Getting to the point(s), of Interest (first, lasting impressions): "Quick" nit-wit😔;"no, come back" "Make it Quick": 😓😟 As in, a response to the person of your interest, who might have barely given you "the time of day" (hardly anyone uses "do you have the time?" as an opener, anymore...) Re-gardless, in the presence of someone who might be, upon your approach, only give you one chance...the last thing you want to think about, are the words from M.M. (better known to us, around here, as Eminem) "...palms are sweaty...knees weak..." as you are trying, under the pressure of time and circumstance, to come up with... A strong, quick opener: One which might in turn prompt them, the person(s) of interest, to open up, to stick around for a lasting conversation...which, in my office, has evolved, over the years, to include now, a few favorites, fall-backs, spring-forwards, defaults, from a vast array of options which, through a sci...

"It's the economy, stupid; the stupid economy..." Challenging, interesting times, of interest... (Un)Conditionally***: I'm here to show you, share with you, free-of-charge, how you can successfully pull off showing interest and other-wise show you are worth being listened to, as in "You're pretty interesting...😑", no matter what the general economic conditions you find yourself in, whether you're in a time and place of... Falling, fading, feigning: at least some of the "f" words associated with feeling that someone who was initially paying rapt attention to you, is growing a bit weary, with all your "all-about-me" talk...time to turn on a dime and deftly, with just a bit of social stealth, steer away from wealth, health..."so who do you think the home team is going to trade in the off-season...?" Yeah, it's good to avoid the BIG three of money, politics, religion, (usually listed in that order, which should be a mat...

Person of Interest: Terms, traits, and states... "How do you do...?" It, I mean just how do you keep this up, day after day, keep finding new material, ways to other-wise first capture, then sustain our attention...? Good question, opener...worded a slightly different way, as in a derivation on a theme, what if you tried, upon meeting someone new, especially a person you, at first glance (or "...at first sight") see some potential..."in your dreams, dude..." one that you think might be "out of sight", or, in our days, "out of our league" 😟😢 Just how do you do...it, approach such a situation, whether you are seated by your host, next to someone you are expected to engage, at least at some point during the "long night ahead" or you, upon getting just a glimpse of someone across the room who has, through some yet to be understood manner or the most subtle of gestures (aka nuanced behavior, which has pretty much fallen out of st...

Access: Denied N' Full - RU really   "Interested"?  Denied Access, in Full: Or, at least denied what we consider full access, to whatever, whoever. We've all experienced this in one way or another, probably in the not-so-distant past. What we get used to complaining about, especially if we have experienced it (accessibility, see last day of last month here for full-er account). Sometimes it's almost as if it's ("access denied") arranged to develop a full-er appreciation, for whatever. Ranging from, for example, "temporary power outage" due to what was never fully explained, which might give us more confidence, or a recording that references the generic "Glitch!" Or some that may actually be fore-casted, as in "The system will be down for..." The latter of which at least allows us some psychological preparation...And, of course we hear about and hope we are never part of those who are not able to ever gain access to whate...