Awesome

 I found an article I had cut out a few years ago, from The Sunday Times I think. Anyway, the writer states that according to researchers at Stanford University, all you need is awe. The study revealed that regular "awe-inspiring moments" can improve mental health because your life satisfaction is getting a boost every time you have such a moment, as examples looking at the Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon were mentioned. Hmmm.

So what would be awe-inspiring for you and me? Something on a less grander scale, I feel. In fact, we would need to define exactly what we mean by "awe". Let's just tone it down a bit, let's substitute "awe" for "happy". For me, "happy" covers that feeling of excitement when you are looking forward to some event, it comprises that warm feeling when you are with your loved ones, sharing a meal or watching a move or just sitting and talking. I feel happy when I am meeting a friend for lunch or going for walks by the sea. I 'm happy that I live the proverbial stone's throw from the sea and can stroll along the beach with the wind in my hair any time I feel like it. Awesome!

Apparently, if we experience something awesome it changes our perception, makes us see things in a new light. This in turn makes us happier people and we are more likely to be nice to others.

A word of warning: if you are walking along on the beach or in the park and have your head down because you are on  your mobile phone, then you are not only missing the "awesome-ness" around you, you are very likely to crash into another equally oblivious mobile-phone-user or even into one of the awesome trees that fill the park.

Have an awesome week, dear readers!

Conversations

 The other day someone asked if the art of conversation had disappeared from our culture. Dinner parties, they said, with lots of illustrious guests all talking about interesting things. It made me stop and think. We were enjoying lunch in a busy restaurant and talking our heads off as usual. 

"That couple over there hasn't said a word to each other," said my companion. "He has his nose buried in his phone and she's just sitting there. Wonder if they've had a row or does he really think scrolling through his phone is more interesting than talking to his wife, assuming she's his wife.?"

Of course, it was none of our business but when we looked around the restaurant, we saw that several couples were deep into scrolling their phones. It is too common a sight to cause much interest but when you think about it: what happened to the art of conversation?

Supposing you are attending an interview and the interviewer wants to size up you and your potential for the job. I believe they always check your social media posts. Too bad if you went off the deep end over some celebrity mash up and took the wrong side from the interviewer's point of view, even if it was two years ago and you changed your mind since. The thing about the spoken word is that it can be forgotten and not raked up ten years later.

Just imagine sitting down to a dinner with some of your favourite people - and all of them too busy scrolling through their phones to do more than acknowledge the arrival of the soup!

 

Light and Dark

Remember the good karma and the bad karma? It seems there are also light and dark triads. I guess some scientists and philosophers and those who reckon they are scientists and philosophers have nothing better to do than analyze us and keep on coming up with new ideas on The Human Condition.
What next? I ask myself. We all know lovable rogues, friends who get on our nerves because they always arrive late at the meet-up point, people who will help you at the drop of a hat, people who are genuinely caring, people who don't listen once they've asked you how you are. You don't have to be a scientist to understand human nature.
I think we should all be self-aware and I think most of us are. How many times have we thought "oh no, there I go again, putting my foot in it".
On the other hand, if you can't be separated from your mobile/social media, I reckon you don't get time to think about anything. On my walks to the beach I meet walkers, joggers, runners, who all have their ear plugs in and a blank look on their faces as they listen to a pod cast or whatever. Why bother getting out to the beach if you can't hear the sound of the waves slapping against the rocks or the sea gulls mewling or children shouting and laughing? Recently, I sat behind a young girl on the bus and during the 45 minute journey she kept taking selfies and viewing the result on her phone. How sad is that?
Yes, I know, there are tons of people out there, young and old who not only wake up and smell the coffee but also look around them and appreciate what they see. But there is a worrying trend and - let's face it - I am not the only one to have noticed it.

For a more professional report on the light and dark side of human nature, try this link:Discovery Magazine article on light and dark triads

Wonderful World of Mobile Phones

I'll admit it to anyone - I am not into mobile communication.  Computers yes, mobiles, no.
Many moons ago my daughter gave me one of her old mobiles.  It was simplicity itself and I had no great problem in using it.  When I retired to Ireland my son and daughter-in-law helped me choose a similar simple phone - with this one you could take pictures and make videos but that was about all.  Again it served my purpose.  But it did get a bit of a battering - I let it fall on the pavement a few times and there was a scratch on the display.  So last Saturday I bought a new phone, an android!   I wanted to keep my existing number and I also had some credit left (I'm a pay-as-you-go person) so I checked with the girl on the service desk of the store (it is a big store in UK and Ireland and the name starts with T...) and she said yes, of course, you just take the SIM card from your old phone and put it in this new one.
Hah!!  When I got home and sat down with my shiny new purchase, I discovered that the SIM in my old phone was too big for the android.  Eeek.  I checked on Google and this is apparently a normal sort of problem.  Cutting to size was advised.  I didn't fancy doing that myself but there is a shop in town which specialises in unlocking phones, repairing pcs, etc.  I popped down to him, thinking this would be a matter of 10 minutes.  But no, he said, he couldn't do that.  Go back to the provider.  He wouldn't advise cutting the SIM to size. 
So I went back to the provider who has a website.  I chatted online to someone who told me to get a SIM card to fit my android at the T... store and then my data could be transferred.  Eh??   I already had a SIM which fit the android, it came with it, after all!  Somewhat mystified I did as I was told and the girl at the store (very helpful) sold me a small SIM, opened my android and said "oh, you already have a SIM that fits".  Doesn't anyone ever listen any more??  Never mind, she said, call the service desk and they'll change the number and transfer your account. 


So now I have a new SIM card which cost me 5 Euros, which I'm not sure I needed, and when my patience and nerves have recovered, I will ring the customer help line.  On the website it just says that I could move my phone number to the new phone but does not say if I could take my contacts and credit with me.  And there's me thinking I'm out of touch with the wonderful world of mobiles.  No one gave me a straight answer to my questions.  I might as well have been talking to a robot each time and when I "pressed" the key word "SIM" and "keep number" I got a standard response but no one actually heard what I was asking.

In addition, when I had a look at my a shiny new android I felt I was being put in charge of a space station.  There are so many buttons and apps on the screen, you have to register here, there and everywhere.  Talk about lost!!  All I want to do is send and receive text messages, be able to make and receive calls, take some photos now and again - oh and maybe, just maybe use Twitter.  Is that too much to ask?  Hello - is there anyone out there?