Communication FUNdamentals

“There is no distinctly native American criminal class…save Congress.” -Mark Twain

“The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.” -Mark Twain

“No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” -Mark Twain

“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself”. -Mark Twain

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” -Mark Twain

But as Will Rogers said, “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.“

Customer NONservice?

My daughter called me at work to say I was to phone Ian at my bank. The customer service operator asked me what Ian’s last name was and I explained that he hadn’t left his surname. When she asked for his department, I said I didn’t know.

“There are 1500 employees in this building, ma’am,” she advised me rather curtly.

After a few more brusque comments, I asked her for her name.

“Danielle,” she said.

“And your last name?” I asked.

“Sorry,” she replied, “we don’t give out last names.”

From ArcaMax.com

I don’t know if it’s been apparent to you or not, but I like purple!  No scratch that, I LOVE purple!  I’ve loved purple since I was a wee little purple girl.  Yes, I actually turned purple when I was a baby on a family car trip.  I don’t know if that’s why I love it or not, but I do!

You may have noticed that my blog is purple, my site is purple, my home is purple and much of my belongings are purple.  In fact, I am fairly nutz about purple!  And I’ve been in pursuit of replacing many of my non purple things with purple alternatives for years!  So many purple things, so little MONEY! ROFL

So why all this talk about purple?  Well, after seeing the movie Julie and Julia, I finally got up the gumption to do it.  Yup! I created another website and it’s…PURPLE!  In fact, it’s all about purple! It’ll have purple pictures, purple product reviews and purple stories as well as …The Purple Project.  A 52 week challenge to myself to do a purple craft a week for a full year!  I’m going to chronicle my success so all you purple freaks out there can come along side me and do these purple craft projects with your purple family!

Come check out, For the Love of Purple.com!  Please leave me a comment either here on my purple blog and tell me what you think.  Do you think it’s fun or have I lost my purple mind?  LOL  You be the judge!

Got a Wordless Wednesday?  Post the link here!

For more fun with communication skills, visit Art of Eloquence.com

Monday Q of the Wk. Here’s how it works:

Each Monday I ask a thought provoking question about life and language.  Pose the same question to your blog readers on your own blog along with your answer to the question.  Then come back here and post a comment with a link to your blog post so we can all read everyone’s answers!  It’s been a lot of fun getting to know my readers and their readers and so on and so on.  This is a great time to connect with others but it’s also a fun way to build your writing and communication skills.   Grab your teens!

This week’s question: What does it mean to be a true friend?

This Thursday’s Talk Talk Show on the Communication Comedy Network is about communication on the road.

So I thought I’d ask everyone about their driving pet peeves.  Did you realize that you have a sort of sixth sense about what drivers might do next?  If’ you’ve been driving a while, you can tell what a driver might do just by the way he is driving.  You might be able to tell when a driver might cut you off or swerve into your lane.

Does it bug you when another driver leaves his turn signal on for six exits?  Are you frustrated when the guy next to you seems to be driving too far over toward your lane?  Do you have a conniption if the guy behind you follows too close?  Have you ever had another driver scare you in some way?  What did you do?  What should we do to avoid these driving conflicts?  These are the questions we will be addressing on the next Talk Talk Show on the Communication Comedy Network on Thursday.  Come join us and share your stories, pet peeves and ideas!

For now…

What are your driving pet peeves?

You can post your answers here or post this question on YOUR blog and come back here to link your blog post so all of us can read about you and YOUR readers’ answers!

If you would like to share your thoughts or experiences about communication while driving with my listeners, I would LOVE to have you on the show live on Thursday 8am PST/11am EST!  If you cannot make it live, you can post here and I will share your thoughts on the air with my listeners as I have time.  The show is archived as an audio directly following the live broadcast so you can listen in at your convenience.

For God Hath Not Given Us the Spirit of Fear
By JoJo Tabares

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” -2 Timothy 1:7 KJV

Fear in speaking with others is timidity or what we call shyness.  According to Webster’s dictionary, shyness means “sensitive and hesitant in dealing with others”.  This is not the spirit of power that should be present inside the Christian for we know that with the Lord all things are possible and, if the Lord is for us, who can be against us?

Research shows that 87% of what we do all day is communication related.  Maybe that is why the Bible speaks about communication skills hundreds of times.  The Father gives each of us a mission in life and something to say that someone needs to hear.  He also tells us to go out and share the Good News.  God doesn’t say this lightly knowing that some are born with confidence and some are born with shyness!  He tells us this because He has put within each one of us the tools needed to stand up and share with His children each in our own way.

Many people mistakenly think that shyness is a character trait or a personality flaw.  It is not.  For the most part, it is the result of not being comfortable or experienced with certain aspects of communication for some period of time.  The longer a person has experienced himself as shy, the stronger its hold over him.  Communication is actually a set of skills that can be learned and must be practiced to reach mastery.  Anyone and everyone can learn them.  Not everyone will have the same aptitude, but all can learn to be comfortable and confident enough in order to complete the work the Lord has given them in their life!

The challenge is to find the appropriate key to unlock and let go of the shyness within.  I liken learning communication skills to swimming because the analogy is fairly accurate.  When teaching a young child to swim, a common technique is to throw them into the ocean or pool.  The child is supposed to use instincts to get to the other side as they are carefully watched over by their parent.  The idea is that when they get to the other side, they realize that they didn’t drown and actually accomplished the goal.  Unfortunately, that method works only about half the time!  The other half of the time it goes like this:  The child is petrified!  They are thrown into the water and panic sets in.  Instinctively they thrash about and somehow make it to the other side.  Instead of feeling relieved and excited that they accomplished their goal of swimming, they are now terrified of water and they vow never to do that again!

So it is with speech classes.

Read the rest of the article here.

My friend, Penny Raine, is having Favorite Friday Freebies on her blog.  She is posting all the free and nearly free items she can find.  Too cool, huh?  She’s asked others to help her find freebies.

I have been offering freebies, gifts and special offers to my newsletter subscribers.  These are all things that are ONLY available for my subscribers.  Well, this month I have started to give away a series of articles on conflict.  I have been giving away tips you can use to avoid conflicts or to resolve conflicts with family, friends and business acquaintances.  These articles will eventually be compiled and turned into a book on conflict, but you can gain all the benefits of my experience right now by simply subscribing to my newsletter, “What’s New at Art of Eloquence?”   The newsletter is free and we will NEVER sell or give away your email address!

In addition to this exclusive series on conflict, you will receive other freebies, special gifts and exclusive offers ONLY for our subscribers.  Click here to subscribe!