Have a nice day! Even wikipedia has an article, albeit only one sentence, on it. Why do people say this? The wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_a_nice_day) claims that it's typically said by retail employees to customers, after a sale. I've heard it on a million answering machines. "Hello, I'm not here to take your call. Please leave me a message after the beep and I'll return your call as soon as I can. Have a nice day!"
It's a dry, toneless dismissal.
I guess we've all become retail employees. Even when we wish people a nice day, we really don't care whether they do or they don't. If they do, well and good. If they don't, well life sucks and it definitely sucks to be you. Bye bye is much better even though I've read somewhere that it was also used in the past to lull babies to sleep. Good-bye has been tainted by that TV show The Weakest Link. It sounds like an abrupt dismissal. A dry conclusion which would only serve after a terse unfulfilled encounter, like with the boss you don't like.
So is there a way to end a conversation without sounding plastic and distant. Without sounding dismissive, fatigued, bored and ready to split? I would guess that when a conversation has come to it's natural conclusion, all parties having run out of steam, nothing left to say then perhaps saying nothing is OK. But that wouldn't work. The importance of "have a nice day" is so that you can turn around and walk away, or put the phone down knowing that there'll be no additional sounds from the other end. Bye bye means, "I'm going to go now so you can safely stop talking."
I like "bye." It leaves no indication that I'm wishing you a pleasant after-conversation life. Nothing to say that I care about how the rest of your day proceeds. Nothing good, nothing bad. We're done here, let's move on.
So... have a nice day!
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Christmas Time
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.
The year was 1964 and independence had finally come. December 12th, 1964 we would finally get rid of the British colonialists and have self rule. Meanwhile, south on the continent, racial discrimination would persist for another thirty years!
Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada. Thursday November 29th, 2007. A snowstorm hit southern Ontario. People woke up to find a nice thick three, to four, inch blanket of snow. I remember when I had to shovel. Those days are now behind me. I can now boast that I don't mind the snow.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007. In a crowded mall in Omaha, the Westwood Mall a 19-year old boy went on a shooting spree. Ended up killing eight people, six of them Mall employees and two of them customers. He started shooting in the Von Maur department store. News that has been gathered about him since indicates that he had left his parents home, or been kicked out, had recently split with his girlfriend and also just lost his job.
Last night, December 6, 2007, going home from work on a fairly crowded bus, there was this teenager, ears plugged in, obviously listening to rap music. 50 cent to be exact. It was that song "In da club." Well, oblivious to the fact that there were people all around him he was singing the song, albeit out of tune, and making a point to emphasise the expletives. People kept looking at him and shaking their heads from side to side, but nobody said anything. And it was a white kid to boot. A white kid. Do you know how ridiculous these white kids look trying to act black? And ghetto black at that. I know he didn't feel ashamed, so I felt his shame on his behalf.
So Marion Jones has admitted to taking drugs prior to the 2000 Olympics where she obviously shone. I knew that there was something fishy about her natural abilities. And to tell us that her coach started supplementing her in 1999 with, what she thought was, flaxseed oil. You can almost convince me now that Flo-Jo also wasn't juicing on something. We can't say positively that she wasn't getting assistance of the pharmaceutical persuasion, but it's hard to be so good and make it look so easy like she did in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Triple gold medal winner. Died at the tender age of 38 of a heart seizure. So it's a good thing that Marion Jones was crying and whining about having lost our trust, but for me, she lost my trust when she was hanging out with C.J. Hunter and then Tim Montgomery (who was also caught juicing). It's funny that track and field sports are now forever tainted. The list of suspected and convicted juicers is long. Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis and Linford Christie have all been tainted. Then there's the current suite of sprinters. We won't name any names, but the times that these guys are running, and continually beating, are too amazing to be true.
The year was 1964 and independence had finally come. December 12th, 1964 we would finally get rid of the British colonialists and have self rule. Meanwhile, south on the continent, racial discrimination would persist for another thirty years!
Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada. Thursday November 29th, 2007. A snowstorm hit southern Ontario. People woke up to find a nice thick three, to four, inch blanket of snow. I remember when I had to shovel. Those days are now behind me. I can now boast that I don't mind the snow.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007. In a crowded mall in Omaha, the Westwood Mall a 19-year old boy went on a shooting spree. Ended up killing eight people, six of them Mall employees and two of them customers. He started shooting in the Von Maur department store. News that has been gathered about him since indicates that he had left his parents home, or been kicked out, had recently split with his girlfriend and also just lost his job.
Last night, December 6, 2007, going home from work on a fairly crowded bus, there was this teenager, ears plugged in, obviously listening to rap music. 50 cent to be exact. It was that song "In da club." Well, oblivious to the fact that there were people all around him he was singing the song, albeit out of tune, and making a point to emphasise the expletives. People kept looking at him and shaking their heads from side to side, but nobody said anything. And it was a white kid to boot. A white kid. Do you know how ridiculous these white kids look trying to act black? And ghetto black at that. I know he didn't feel ashamed, so I felt his shame on his behalf.
So Marion Jones has admitted to taking drugs prior to the 2000 Olympics where she obviously shone. I knew that there was something fishy about her natural abilities. And to tell us that her coach started supplementing her in 1999 with, what she thought was, flaxseed oil. You can almost convince me now that Flo-Jo also wasn't juicing on something. We can't say positively that she wasn't getting assistance of the pharmaceutical persuasion, but it's hard to be so good and make it look so easy like she did in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Triple gold medal winner. Died at the tender age of 38 of a heart seizure. So it's a good thing that Marion Jones was crying and whining about having lost our trust, but for me, she lost my trust when she was hanging out with C.J. Hunter and then Tim Montgomery (who was also caught juicing). It's funny that track and field sports are now forever tainted. The list of suspected and convicted juicers is long. Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis and Linford Christie have all been tainted. Then there's the current suite of sprinters. We won't name any names, but the times that these guys are running, and continually beating, are too amazing to be true.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Birthday Greetings
Yes, it's my birthday today. 43 years and still alive, who would have thought? Given the dangerous lifestyle, risk taking, walking and running in the middle of the night in questionable neighbourhoods. We're lucky to be here.
But does this mean that we'll slow down and slide quietly into second base? (I hear that first base is passing 30, and second base is making it to 50, well actually I made that up). Time to get into fourth gear. Rev the engine and push onwards.
What special things do we plan for year 44? (Because it is year 44. The whole birthday thing is a misnomer. When you're born you are zero years old. On your first birthday, you turn 1 year old which means you have completed one year and so on your first birthday, you actually enter year two. And so on and so forth). Year 44, we plan to write a novel. 1 page a day, 365 days, should be a 365-page novel. Or perhaps, in four months, 2 pages a day, that will be, let's see thirty times four times two is 240. 240-pages.
So today will be a day of quiet reflection. Of stock taking. A day to look back but not go back. To contemplate on lessons learnt. To remember that we are not alone but our lives are intertwined with the lives of so many others. And that we make a difference in the words we speak. In the way we act and the things we do. We make a difference and add value if we care to.
So, happy birthday to me. Health, wealth, success and blessings for year 44 and for many more to come.
But does this mean that we'll slow down and slide quietly into second base? (I hear that first base is passing 30, and second base is making it to 50, well actually I made that up). Time to get into fourth gear. Rev the engine and push onwards.
What special things do we plan for year 44? (Because it is year 44. The whole birthday thing is a misnomer. When you're born you are zero years old. On your first birthday, you turn 1 year old which means you have completed one year and so on your first birthday, you actually enter year two. And so on and so forth). Year 44, we plan to write a novel. 1 page a day, 365 days, should be a 365-page novel. Or perhaps, in four months, 2 pages a day, that will be, let's see thirty times four times two is 240. 240-pages.
So today will be a day of quiet reflection. Of stock taking. A day to look back but not go back. To contemplate on lessons learnt. To remember that we are not alone but our lives are intertwined with the lives of so many others. And that we make a difference in the words we speak. In the way we act and the things we do. We make a difference and add value if we care to.
So, happy birthday to me. Health, wealth, success and blessings for year 44 and for many more to come.
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