63. Eliminating Bad Influences

"Bad company corrupts 
good character."
         - 1 Cor. 15:33

Just over a week ago I received a very unexpected message from someone who in all honesty is the last person that I ever expected to hear from. Okay, that's an exaggeration. But it was unexpected nonetheless. It wasn't particularly bad, but was not good either. As with most things in life, it's kind of complicated.

62. Using Fewer Words (Hopefully)

I have to agree with my friend Calvin. I can't stand school. Why? Because of the way I have always been taught there. Don't mistake me - I thoroughly enjoy learning. But formal schooling has left myself and millions of others with a residual plague: verbosity. We simply use too many words. I blame standardized tests and assignments that value length over quality. My most recent term paper read like watered down coffee after having to add two pages of fluff. Sure, everything necessary for the buzz of academia was present, but so was filler to meet a certain word count. Less often really is more.

61. The Proximity Principle

Ever notice how close mama ducks keep their babies?

If you've been a regular reader of this journey at all you've undoubtedly discovered that I love books. Because of my mild dyslexia, this hasn't always been the case. In fact, reading for pleasure has been a relatively new endeavor for me. Part of the reason that I'm so gung-ho about it is because I aspire to be a polymath, a modern renaissance man. In the course of the last year of trying to decide a college major, I came to the realization that I'm not interested in specializing in anything in particular. I'd rather learn about as many things as possible. The best way to do that is to live life and to read. I'm seeking both.

60. Wishlist

Only 40 days until my birthday!

Today's gift is a little different. For the last 12 years or so, I have very actively asked for nothing for my birthday. I've reasoned this away by saying that I don't need much and that I'm more than happy just to spend time with friends! While this is true, there's more at play. There's a part of me that felt unworthy of gifts and didn't want to convenience anyone. I also had asked for other things in life before and not received them. I learned to dislike expecting things and didn't want to get my hopes up. Recently I've been learning a lot about having proper expectations of people, and today I'm putting it to use! What do I mean? For the first time in over a decade I'm telling people what I want for my birthday!

59. Acknowledging Mistakes & Being Honest

I received this email today. I was pleasantly surprised.

Many people are familiar with Netflix. I myself am battling an addiction to it! Last night their site went down for a while and no one could watch any videos instantly. In a great show of customer service they sent an unprompted email to their subscribers offering a small credit for the inconvenience - all you had to do was click the button and it was instantly applied. I did the math and the credit was only for $0.24. That's not really a huge dent to anyone's wallet but is still an awesome show of loyalty to their customers and to their service. I was encouraged because it's so rare that a company will do this. In fact, it happened to me about 5 months ago as well when I was trying to watch. I got the same offer then. I learned a lesson today about owning up to your mistakes and making things right. However, that's the most important thing I learned from this experience.