***The OFFICIAL Weekend Singles Thread*** April 18-20 - Those Difficult Conversations

April 18, 2008 | WFTR

[WFTR]

When I think about the element of depth in an online communication, I still think that the medium is what allows that depth. For someone who can arrange the words, confidence in the medium gives one the confidence to express those thoughts.

Another possibility is that when we express deep emotions in a live conversation, we watch the other person and respond to non-verbal communications from the other person. We see the effect that we are having, and we either become distracted in general or respond to some specific effect that the other person is showing. I'm not confident about this possibility, but I'll throw it out there for consideration.

[WFTR]

LOL

[WFTR]

That looks like a nice camera. I still want to get a digital SLR someday. I’m just too tight to spend the money.

[Hyzenthlay]

Happily, I haven’t really had to have any ‘difficult conversations’ if you mean ‘awkward conversations’ instead of ‘trying to talk on a cell phone while there are firetruck sirens on your end of the conversation and 20,000 screaming sports fans on you friend’s end’.

Now, the bonus questions:
1 - Nothing in particular... I’m not thinking clearly now either though.

2 - A cat, since I’m laid-back and like lying in the warm sun and doing nothing.

3 - I’m not cheering for anyone in the playoffs, but that’s because I’m a Sabres fan.

4 - It seems to be more of a liberal idea, but pretty much everyone in the world could use to pick up on it. Trying to boil things down to side A versus side B always causes lots of trouble, and usually winds up making things even more complicated cause then you’ve got to try to fit everything into A or B, and everything doesn’t fit nicely into one or the other, so then you get into arguments just defining A and B, and the original issue gets pretty much lost at that point. So if nothing else, it’s an inconvenient way to try to argue.

[GOP_Raider]

Hey, speaking of a fella that will deal with his own fair share of difficult conversations in the future, here's the latest pic of my nephew, who is fastly approaching his 1st birthday:

The nice thing is that with his Harley-Davidson jacket he gets to participate in his grandpa's (my Dad's) mid-life crisis right along with him. :)

[WFTR]

Is the problem of being undiplomatic a big problem in your personal communications or just while you're at the office? From the other side of the coin, I will say that I expect people to speak politely when they are poking me with sharp objects.

I don't think most Southerners like things to be "sugar-coated." I think the best of us can be direct without being in someone's face. The worst of us are just as rude as anyone from anywhere. When I was at Penn State, I obviously knew plenty of folks from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. I was aware of a difference in outlook, but I never thought that describing that difference in terms of being rude was really accurate.

[WFTR]

As a teenager, I played a great deal of chess. I think my rating once reached 1504 which is not particularly good but not that bad for a teenager. After I went to college, I found plenty of mental challenges in my engineering education and career. As a result, I've never gone back to playing chess.

I'm not great at thinking on my feet, and I don't like to make quick decisions. If someone for whom I have any respect has an opinion, I want to show respect by carefully considering that opinion. Whether I agree or not, I don't want to rush to judgment.

[GOP_Raider]

LOL, oddly enough that isn’t me, but my Dad.

Working in a similar industry has completely ruined watching TV and movies for me in that regard. In a way it’s akin to taking my work home with me. :-/

[WFTR]

LOL The fire truck and sports fan conversation may be more interesting and enjoyable than any other conversation that we've discussed so far.

I'm sorry about the Sabres. It's frustrating when your team doesn't make it to the playoffs.

I think most people on first thought would agree that not becoming embroiled in the "right versus wrong" is a liberal idea. I also think that the liberals have created that impression through marketing rather than through truth. In reality, they seem pretty intent on having their way only. They just try to define the argument so that conservatives appear to be building all of the walls.

[WFTR]

He’s a cute kid. My nephew just passed his first birthday.

[My hearts in London - Everett]

I'm going to have to work on my internet forum cajoling. Either that or you are way too serious! Or, I just kid around too much and people don't "get" it. Hmmm. (They do say that Northeasterners have a strange sense of humor that can be hard to understand though.)

[WFTR]

The most likely explanation is that I'm way too serious. Even when I'm walking in a cemetery, I'm rarely the most spontaneous person in the group.

[WFTR]

I don’t think I’ve heard “More than a Memory.”

[My hearts in London - Everett]

There’s hope for you yet! :~)

[My hearts in London - Everett]

Beautiful song.

How the heck do you post lyrics to a song without it posting in one big paragraph??? <p and <br don’t work.

[WFTR]

You might try a <blockquote, but that would center the text and indent on both left and right. I can't understand why the <br wouldn't work. If FR allows tables, you could make a table to push the whole song to one side, but you'd still need <br to work in order to break the lines.