to advise or not advise ...that is the question

...I'm torn between offering advice to a colleague and minding my own business ~  the advice is not of a 'personal nature' - Lord knows I'm not good at that kind of advice ... but is based on many years of doing the same job ... admittedly I have offered suggestions in the past, received well but not acted upon ... but it's not the deaf ear I fear, rather the opinion that it's not my business ...the person for whom the advice is intended has used (in my opinion) poor judgement by using social media to 'vent' his frustration with regard to a professional relationship ~ a faux pas that I feel will undermine his professional success and integrity ~ this no-no has occurred at least twice to my knowledge and I feel an obligation to bring the possible consequences to my colleague's attention ... and to explain that a rant in a social media forum is not professional and reflects more poorly on the 'ranter' than the 'rantee' ...several comments followed the initial offering and not all of them reflected the opinion of my colleague ... since the original rant cast disparaging remarks on a 'business partner', should the wrong person see it, it could have effects that I don't believe my colleague has guessed at ...what do I do? I feel compelled to say something, at the same time I feel that I should not be 'censoring' another's words ... 

over the years it's become obvious to me that computers have stolen my patience ... where once I was content to wait on the phone 5 - 10 - 20 minutes for information or an answer (or much longer if I had to go to the library or another resource), I've been 'programmed' to expect to that same answer to come instantaneously - or nearly that fast, once I hit "send"  ... a delay of 5 or 10 seconds is too long, I get antsy and I'm ready to bail...I'm not alone, a study was done on how long the average person will wait for information to appear on a website before 'losing it' in frustration, or moving to another source ... the result?  9 seconds...same as a goldfish...the nature of the web, with it's lightening fast search engines is training users to expect faster and faster responses ...I question the 'need' for that rate of 'speed' - even though I am one of the addicted ...my first concern is whether, in our quest for speed we are compromising our search for 'truth' - do we do an adequate search, examine and qualify various responses, then decide which is the most accurate, the best result?  or do we scan through, find one that is 'good enough' and use that?  Do we fact-check?  Do we know if the source is reliable? The argument can be made that in today's world - time is money and saving time is valuable - but at what cost?  (and what are we 'saving time' for - once we save it?)  once upon a time, there was a certain sense of adventure in the gathering of information ... poring over newspapers on microfiche, searching through dusty volumes on a library shelf - even talking to someone who actually knew something about what we were investigating, to be sure, even then we couldn't accept the sources at face value, we had to verify the facts, but somehow, we were USED TO taking the time to validate the results of our research ... I confess I kind of miss that ...although I'm not ready to give up the searching the web anytime soon, and I'll admit to being an 'internet junkie', hooked on the vast  amounts of 'stuff' in there - I do miss my lost patience (and my ATTENTION SPAN!) ... and wish I could have some of it back ...I felt much more at peace back then!

Spring is for GROWING - if I have a 'mission' this is it!

for nearly two years I've considered a 'blog' ~ mostly for narcissistic reasons ... anyone who knows me will agree that I am not shy about sharing my thoughts and opinions ... since having a 'blog' is something very "new" to me and I will be learning (growing) as I go along, Spring just seemed a natural time to begin... from the outset, let me just say that this may be the most boring blog you will ever read (in which case I fully understand you will leave and never return) but it also might, on occasion, give you something to think about ~ there is no promise of continuity, or 'theme' - what appears will most certainly be 'random' - decided upon by whatever has influenced me that day, or even that moment ... part 'log' and part 'diary' - some days may be political, some introspective, some humorous, some sentimental ~ whatever ... this is part of my journey to rediscover myself ~ I am hoping I will become 'reacquainted' with my 'self' by putting into words what I am thinking and feeling ~  here goes!