Monday, December 16, 2013

Rebirth of the Blog

So, I've been kicking around the idea of bringing back the blog. The hardest part of bringing back the blog, though, is writing the first post. You know, the one where I explain where I was and what I was doing and why I haven't been writing the blog? I'd start it in my head, but then I'd start to think about the fact that Google Reader got shut down, and probably all two of the people who followed me didn't transfer their subscriptions, and anyway, isn't there a new Sherlock trailer to find on the internet?

Then, along comes this article to kick me out of my no-bloggy funk. Go ahead, you can read it. It's short! Wait, who am I to come into your house after a year of silence and make you read NPR articles? Fair point, dear reader. I'll sum up:

You know how at the beginning of calls to customer service, they usually tell you that the call might be recorded for training purposes? And you either forget about it, or at least assume that they aren't referring to the parts where they're playing a Muzak version of "The Boys of Summer"? Well, they're totally recording the whole thing! And they used the recording to judge you!

The study in the article looked at two things: how much people on those calls sweared, and whether they said "please" and "thank you". As a Hoosier, albeit a misplaced one, I was filled with all of the conflicting emotions my homeland usually gives me when I saw Indiana smack dab in the middle of the "Least Courteous" list, while not ranking at the top or bottom of the Cursing list. Hoosiers!We will not curse at you when you make us wait, but neither will we say "thank you" if you end up helping us! We made passive aggressiveness into an art form, you sons of a biscuit!

I should note that Vermont didn't make it onto the list. I don't know what that says. Vermonters are neither repressed enough nor rude enough to make headlines? I didn't get all "social science librarian" with the article, so it could just say that they didn't adjust for population, leaving the second least populated state with little chance of ranking. Who knows?

All of which is to say, I decided to skip the "What I Did on My Blog Vacation" post. Suffice to say, I'm still here, in Vermont, but I'm still thinking about the Midwest. More to come soon, I promise.

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