How to Deal With an Irate Person
This is a great tip, via Lifehacker, about how to deal with an irate person. This technique is called the "pace and lead." Basically, it is used when someone is complaining about something. Example:Patron: The waiter took 15 minutes to bring me my breadsticks! What kind of place is this? I have a mind to never come here again.
Manager: He did what?! That is totally unacceptable!!!
This is the pace part. By matching his emotions, he relates to you. Next comes the lead part. Slowly bring your emotion level down, and his will follow. If this does not work, bring your emotion level back up, and about 30 seconds later, try to bring it down again, very gradually. By doing this, you will establish trust and relation, and be able to actually hold a productive conversation with an irate person. More here. Digg This!
Posted by PU on Saturday, September 23, 2006 at 11:49 PM
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Racism in America
These are like the Borat videos. They seem really offensive when you first watch them. However, they are designed to portray the ignorance of the racist. I have to admit, though, that I thought the klna one (the first one) was hilarious. The other three were just plain mean. But I will post them all for completeness:The Hood
Muslim Mosque
Illegal Immigrants
Orange Street
After you watch the last two, you may not believe me that they are making fun of racists, rather than Mexicans. But watch the last one a couple of times, and see if you get the subtle digs. If not, post a comment and I'll help you out. Digg This!
I Have An A in Biology
Here's how to get an A in biology. This site matched our lesson, textbook, and objectives almost word for word, and really helped me study.http://www.sirinet.net/~jgjohnso/biologyI.html Digg This!
Posted by PU on Thursday, September 21, 2006 at 10:35 PM
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Irony
The Pope makes a comment about Muslims being violent. Muslims say, "we are not violent." "We will shoot people and riot until you apologize for this outrageous comment." Irony, folks, irony. Digg This!Posted by PU on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at 6:38 PM
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Music
My Top 5 Songs According to iTunes Most Played1) I Write Sins Not Tragedies - Panic! at the Disco
2) Shake That (ft. Nate Dogg) - Eminem
3) Grillz - Nelly
4) Rollout (My Business) - Ludacris
5) Harder (ft. The Golden State Project) - Xzibit
Comments
1) I love the song, but the video is AMAZING. It adds depth to the song, and it's a song you need to listen to about 3 times to like it, 5 times to wonder what the hell is going on, and 20 times to understand it. Click here to download the video free.
2) Great beat, and Nate Dogg and Eminem are two of the best rappers out there.
3) A classic, one of maybe 2 good Nelly songs.
4) I don't know how this song got on my top played, but it does have a nice beat.
5) Another song that shouldn't be on my top 5, but this is a decent song. It takes a couple of plays to get the beat, but it gets into your head. You can only play this once or twice before it gets boring though. I encourage all you people to go buy these songs from iTunes today. Digg This!
Posted by PU on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 9:29 PM
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TecHappy Blog
The TecHappy blog used to be one of my favorite blogs ever. It hasn't been updated in awhile, but it really does have good content. I was disappointed to see it stagnant for a while, but I've heard the blogger is back from a 6-month journey to India, and will start updating regularly. So go check it out! Digg This!Posted by PU on Sunday, September 10, 2006 at 12:42 AM
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Cursing on ESPN
During the Pitt-Cincinatti game live on ESPN2, I just heard the Pitt caoch say, "that was f_ing embarassing," while yelling at a group of his players during a timeout. I wonder if there will be any repercussions tomorrow... Digg This!Posted by PU on Friday, September 08, 2006 at 11:10 PM
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Student Council Election Tips
I know I lost, but considering how well I did off of a write-in campaign, I will share some tips with you:- Find a large group of people, like a clique, and make friends with just one person from that group. Then give that person a large stack of cards to hand out, and naturally, they will hand these cards out to their friends.
- What cards am I talking about? I suggest buying a pack of Avery business cards and printing something on them. You can make the cards clever, but make sure they include your name in plain view. This gives voters something to hang on to until election day.
- Make stickers. Your stickers should say something funny or outrageous. For example, the winner of an election between 7 people had stickers that said "Vote for Katie or your life is worthless."
- Make posters. Your posters should be all over the place, and should say funny things as well. Katie's posters had things on them such as: "Vote for Katie; She's endorsed by this guy." The posters included funny pictures of people, such as Mustard Man.
- Be nice to people! Stop and help someone pick up their papers, or say hello to the girl that sits by herself at lunch. Make people think that you care about them as an individual.
- Try to stay away from mentioning anything about what you will do if elected. This comes out corny-sounding and I've never seen it win an election. Instead, if you must give a speech, swallow your dignity and do a rap, if one hasn't been done before.
- Be courteous to your opponents, even if they are rude to you. Three people told me they voted for me only because they saw how I treated my opponent, compared to how she treated me.
- Target minority groups. This is where I failed, and this is where the election will be decided. Make sure you don't appear condescending. In fact, don't even bring up race or religion. Just talk to them like you would talk to your friends. Make them feel special.
- If your budget allows it, make pencils with your name and hand them out. These are relatively cheap, and many people don't bring pencils to class. That's a perfect combination to gain a vote from a grateful classmate. I didn't do this, due to the fact that I was running a write-in campaign, but I wish I had.
- If you do a write-in campaign, the spur-of-the-moment, bandwagon effect can get you votes. However, there is one thing you need to do differently than me. I asked people to write my name in; you should not. Instead, buy address labels, print them with "I vote for 'Your Name Here' for 'Your Position Here' " and give them to people. Instruct them to put these stickers on their ballots to vote for you. This would require you to talk to your election coordinator beforehand, of course. You should do that anyway when running a write-in campaign.
- And my last piece of advice: Don't run a write-in campaign. ;--)
Results
I was expecting to lose, and I did. Apparently it was very close though, despite the fact that I was a WRITE-IN candidate. I will have a percentage tomorrow. But if I could go back and change one thing, I would go after the minority vote. I got about 90% of the white vote, but probably only 10% of the black vote. Oh well, there's always next year, when I will actually run with my name on the ballot! Digg This!Worst Analogies Ever
Apparently these were really written in high school papers:"He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it."
"Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center."
"He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree."
"The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can."
"John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met."
" His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free."
See the complete list at the Center for Volatile Creative Types. Digg This!Posted by PU on Thursday, September 07, 2006 at 11:26 PM
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Sleeping in Class
This weeks excellent tip comes from Chase, who says:"If you want to sleep in class, paint eyes on your eyelids, and snooze in peace. Be sure to bring an airplane pillow so you can sleep sitting up."
Hmm....I would recommend doing this only with the right teacher. Not a teacher who already lets you sleep in class, but not a teacher who is super strict either. Choose a reasonably strict teacher with a great sense of humor, so if (when) you get caught, you can laugh it off. Digg This!
Results Delayed
Election results were supposed to be out today, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what happened. I just received news that 2 of my biggest enemies voted for me, while one of my friends voted against me. He was absent the past week, and he didn't even know I was running. (Thanks to the A/B schedule, I didn't see him until it was too late.) Also, a girl who never liked me told me she would vote for me, and then today told me she voted against me. Another girl who disliked me changed her mind at the last minute and voted for me. So we'll see what happens. Just so I don't disappoint myself, I'm predicting a loss, 60% - 40%.Reasoning Dilema:
A) If I look at it by saying: "for every vote I got, I challenge you to name a person who voted for my opponent," it looks like a sure win for me.
B) If I say we have 400 people in our class, and I needed at least 180 votes (20 absent or abstaining) then I don't see myself winning.
Perosnally I like Option A, but I'm being pessimistic so I have nothing to lose. But this started out as a joke, so anything above....50% will satisfy me ... yet 40% will impress me. :)
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Election Today
Out of maybe 50 people I talked to after the election, about 40 said they wrote my name in, and 5 left it blank. Of course my selection was biased, because the people I asked were people who I see on my general route, meaning I had probably campaigned around them already. The real determining factor will be whether or not people who didn't know me voted for my opponent. I'm hoping that most people who didn't vote for me just left it blank. I know about 5 people who did that. Two girls insisted they were voting for my opponent, but both changed their minds by the time the election came around. So I'm jst waiting for El Jimbo to tally up the votes, and we'll see how good or bad it was. If I lost, I think I got at least 35% of the vote, which is excellent for a write-in candidate. Also, I know at least one person wrote in "Santa Claus." Enough stupid write-in votes play to my favor, because they will stop my opponent from acheiving 50%. If neither one of us achieves 50%, it means a RUNOFF, which I will definitely win. At this point, I would take a runoff instead of a 50-50 coin flip on the winner. (My name would be listed on the runoff ballot). Anyway, I rambled a bit, but we'll see what happens tomorrow. Even if I lose, my campaign was highly successful, and I made a buch of new friends. Also, an important new rule to life: School is more enjoyable when you treat everyone as if there was an election tommorrow. I think this whole election thing has really changed my personality...more tomorrow. Digg This!Posted by PU on Wednesday, September 06, 2006 at 8:32 PM
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Student Council
I decided to run for student council: Freshman Vice President. Oh yeah, and I'm running as a write-in candidate!! I will need over 150 votes just to potentially force a runoff, and my name isn't on the ballot. However, I have an extraordinarily large number of friends for a math geek, and I got Thomas to help me out too. So I can see potentially 200 votes for myself. I would easily beat the only other candidate, IF I WAS ON THE BALLOT. But since I'm not, I'm just hoping at leastt 90% of the people who said they will vote for me follow instructions, and write my name in. Many will probably forget, lose my "business card," etc. But I'm a bit optimistic, and I think I can do this. I plan to get to school EARLY on Tuesday (election day, and we have Monday off) and start campaigning. If I'm successful, I'll post some tips on running for student council. If I win as a write-in, I will make school history, and it's something I think I could do, with a bit more time. Wish me luck! Digg This!Posted by PU on Friday, September 01, 2006 at 8:30 PM
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My Buttons
