Truly Random

My phone has been ringing off the hook today.  Presidential primaries are quickly approaching here, and the campaign phone calls are on a full court press.  The sad thing is that they're pretty much all negative campaign ads.  Experts say negative campaign ads are effective, and I suppose on some people they are.  For me though, I just don't get them.  The first rule of all ads is that after you see/hear them, you need to check the quoted facts, and most of the time you need to assume that lots of things a candidate "said" were taken out of context.  Plus, if all they do is tell you how the other guy isn't a good candidate, that doesn't mean that the guy who paid for the ad is any better.  All that says to me is that the guy who paid for the ad doesn't have any kind of improvement plan that he thinks is good enough to share.

On an unrelated note, I was noticing something about myself this week.  I suppose in lots of ways I'm pretty selfish.  I go along with my blinders on doing my own thing at my own pace most of the time.  Then some days it's like I wake up, look around, and happen to see other people clearly for a brief period of time.  That person is lonely and looking for a friend, that person needs help with something, that person needs someone to care, etc.  And I want to help or do something, but I don't always know what it is that I should do to help.  Sometimes my shyness and insecurities take over and I end up not doing anything.  Sometimes I make an effort and it seems feeble or hokey, and I see clearly how inadequate my interpersonal skills are, and I feel kind of frustrated until the blinders fall back on and I forget and go back to doing my own thing.  I have no idea where I'm going with this or what exactly the lesson is.  OK, maybe I am getting a slight lesson, but it's not fully developed enough to articulate it.  I was just noticing and thinking.

The thankfulness post comes out tomorrow.  Once again, I didn't do so well.  I better get on that!