TheListServe Blog

Wow, best I can tell from a few quick searches of my past saved Listserve emails, I appear to be the first one selected from the great state of Alabama. It is a shame that that the most dominating College Football state of the past 4 years hasn’t been represented yet. (3 Championships from Alabama, 1 from Auburn). I’ve got to admit, moving back to the state I grew up in on the verge the Crimson Tide’s collegiate dominance couldn’t have been any better timed. After staying a true fan through a decade+ of up and down seasons (mostly down) it is nice to be on top again. Late last year I purchased a 1934 Ford Coupe fiberglass project car. I’m really excited to be working on something like this, even though I don’t really know what I’m doing.Luckily for me my father-in-law does. If any of you have tips on previous hot rod projects you’ve worked on I’d love to hear them.If you’re interested in selling some hot rod parts, I may be interested in those too! I work in IT at one of the top 5 lar...

**Not going to tell you how to live your life! I'm sick of the listserve- really. And with such strict guidelines there's little room for creativity. Nothing to say to 20,000+ people. Plenty I would love to share in person (including critiques of this project!). If you're in Montreal, are visiting, or will visit, email me and we'll blind (friend!) date. If you live in any other area of the world I likely want to visit so also email and we can maybe connect on couchsurfing or something like that. I probably sound like a grouch-I'm really not, but does it matter oh-person-from-who-knows-where-but-likely-from-the-US-of-A? Peace, love, and lots of hugs, Veronica veronica.listserve[AT]gmail.com Montreal, QC

Hi there, My name is Mirza. I am from Bosnia Herzegovina. Just like many others on ListServe, I was both excited and mortified when I received the "You've been selected" email from ListServe. What can I say to 20,000+ people? What should I write? How will my email compare to others that came before me? I pondered this question for a while before finally deciding to share 10 things about my country (in no particular order) that you might not know. 1. "World War I" broke out as a consequence of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, being shot dead in Sarajevo (capital of Bosnia), by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six Bosnian Serb assassins. 2. The 1984 Winter Olympics, the XIV Olympic Winter Games, were held in Sarajevo, present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina. 3. One of the last remaining rain-forests (primeval forests) in Europe is located in Bosnia-Herzegovina, near the borde...

My life changed after reading about the categorical imperative. Do a google search and you will find lots of stuff. Start with the wikipedia article. One concept that I really love is about freedom. "Freedom is not just the ability to do what you will (what you wish or want) but to be able to will, with nothing but pure reason" We always think about freedom in terms of what we *can* do. A bigger question is, if no body stops us, what will we do? And why? Think about it. BTW, New Delhi is getting hotter and hotter - it is almost 40 degrees centigrade today! Bye, Lomash Kumar Lomash kumar.lomash[AT]gmail.com Noida, India

I, like seemingly so many of my peers, am currently employed at a level below what my education and experiences have qualified me for. I am thankful to have a job, at all. I do have friends who can't get one. I just feel unfulfilled. I realize that it is a rarity to get the job you want, just a couple of years out of college, but that doesn't stop me from wanting more. I've been looking, and making things happen. Interviews, second interviews, tests, references, getting so close, but not reaching the next level, yet. With the support of my friends and family, I've been able to keep my head up, and keep pushing. But, I know that there are thousands of others, just like me, and I'm wondering what the situation is doing to them, to us, and a group. This "Millenial" generation is participating in the lowest level of new home formation (moving out of mom and dad's, into your own place), since the 1950s, which says a lot of different things, at once...

I will always remember being about the age of six on the train in England with my family and looking down the aisle behind me to see a little boy about my age in a row of seats all by himself with a backpack. The train started to move and I looked back again to see that still, no one was with him. He was riding the train alone. Later he pulled out a string cheese snack and with great intent pealed a little strand down to the bottom but not all the way off, so that it was hanging there, dangling. He preceded repeat this until the snack was now transformed into a dangling squid which he bounced around in the air as if acting out some skit. Every time I eat string cheese since seeing this boy alone on the train I go through the same motions of transforming my snack into a squid and while doing so I think about that little boy. I like to think he was running away, starting a life free of the structure of family, school, society… I will always see myself as that little boy, a kid running aw...

Years ago, when my daughter was five, I took her to a local Festival, an event that we never miss. She loves all the rides and games. I am a soft touch when it comes to my daughter, and she knows it. One attraction offered at this event was a bungee/trampoline combo that looked as if it would be great fun. Picture a bungee harness attached to cables, and an electric hoist supported by a framework of steel that rose about twenty feet in the air. Below this was a small air-filled trampoline about six feet in diameter and two feet high. My Princess had to experience this! I purchased a ticket and off went my little angel. The nice lady strapped her in and my daughter began bouncing on the trampoline, the bungee cables keeping her centered and allowing her to go high up in the air. So far, so good. The nice lady who had strapped my daughter in gave me a big smile — correction, a big toothless smile! Then it hit me. I had entrusted the life of all I hold precious to someone who could not ev...

20 years isn't a lot of time to live on this Earth. Given my age and relative experience I'd venture to say that any potential advice I have would be already known by the majority of readers. In my spare time I do a lot of programming. I'm perpetually curious and voracious in my problem solving. I obsess. My addictive personality takes over more often than I'd like. The day before Valentine's day I broke up with my boyfriend of almost 2 years. He was 40. I'm fascinated by languages, both spoken and unspoken. So far, this message has read like a pithy OkCupid profile. I'm interested in stories. I'm interested in hearing about experiences and opinions. I'm interested in pen-pals. Share your story with me and I'd be more than happy to share more of mine with you. Intimacy is something I have difficulty with. The Listserve seems an ideal place to begin getting over that. You are loved. You are not alone and you are not worthless. And, neither am I. -...

For those uninitiated, sonder is defined as follows: n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness. A brief story set in New York. Somehow, I got into my head that I must to move to a city. I wanted to lose myself beneath gigantic concrete, glass, and steel behemoths and in between millions of denizens. So, I packed a suitcase and went to New York, NY. Youthful anticipation is beautiful and naive. I had saved up enough capital for my rent and daily expenditures, and I had planned a sizeable list of things to do. I was bursting with excitement, I could not wait to live in the Big Apple! On the third morning after my arrival, I left my apartment with a self-guided tour of the New School in mind. Fast forward to me heading down the yellow line near Prince street. There I was, sitting on some train car, underground, moving 30 mph, when four men approached ...

I won The ListServe Lottery, not on April Fool’s Day, but on National Sibling Day, as an only child. I was born and raised in China, a country known for a lot of things, including the “one child policy.” More than half of the people started to ask about the “one child policy” right after they knew I was born in China. Do you guys still have that policy? Why did your country have that policy? Does China really have a large population? How large is it? But I heard that people still had more than one child, right? Blah blah blah. Yes, we did have that policy, because we did have and still have a large population. It’s very large. It’s 1/5 of the world’s population. Right now if two only child get married, they could have two kids. Just two. No more than two. However, what I want to talk about today, isn’t that policy, but a question that has been lingering in my head — how different would I be, if I had a sibling or two? Recently at work, we interviewed a lot of people for a project. A yo...

Blake, Even with this weird opportunity to send a message to 21,422 people, I’d rather just send you a birthday note. So, listen up: You are f$%&ing awesome. I know it’s been a pretty weird (weird = kind of crappy and also legitimately weird) year for you, but you’re less than a week away from a fresh start. Last year you: Took a paid sabbatical. Tried stand up comedy. Realized stand up comedy was not your jam and tried writing funny stuff instead. Wrote funny stuff. Helped a lot of vets. Stopped being a vegan. Became one of my best friends. This year you will: Realize that you are f$%&ing awesome. Try improv comedy. Tell someone exactly why he or she should hire you and believe it. Tell your dumb boss exactly what you think (at least once). Teach someone else how to be a great friend who does things like sending text messages at 8:25 AM on Monday mornings that say “Here’s to a good week!” even though you know it won’t be. Re-read Fierce Invalids and learn something new about S...

Existence precedes essence. Patrick North Carolina

Last year I watched a TED talk about lollipops (go ahead and watch it) and the impact you can have one someone’s life without even knowing it. I’ve found that a lot of people, myself included, are pretty terrible at expressing gratitude, at letting people know how important they are or how they have helped you to grow. Maybe it’s because we don’t realize the effect they’ve had until long after the interaction. As a part of my job, I organize a staff training program including a safety and security training. Among engaging powerpoints, indoor drills, and one pretty memorable outdoor activity, we also make sure that every person has had the hands on experience of using a fire extinguisher* - the idea is that you have to actually do something to feel comfortable doing it. I feel the same way about expressing gratitude, praise, feedback and more. You have to get in the practice of doing it – and the more you do – the more natural it is. So I’ll it started – “Thank you” To the family I was ...

--------------------------------------------------------------- CHASING BLISS ----------------------- Someday some hypermanic kid will produce a moronically maxed-out adventure odyssey that will spark the overdue rebellion among all the over-pressured SAT grinds, and us grumpy midlife critics will get to witness a new Kerouac, and the greatest pent-up young-life crisis in the history of the world. - David Brooks, “Sal Paradise at 50,” NY Times, 2007 This is about a quest. An ordinary quest -- no dragons, sorcerers, mythical beasts. I wish. This is about my journey into the soul. Now I know what you're thinking. Not another egotistical self-absorbed desperate whiny journey into the soul.* Why would you want to read that? No. Like I said, this is about a quest. Step one: Abandon >all< earthly possessions. Well, almost. I have a backpack. A light one, with no more than a few toiletries, sleeping bag, a few extra shirts. And I have a boyfriend, whom I love almost as m...

Its funny to recieve the "you've been selected" email in april 1st, it took me the entire day to realise it wasn't a joke and to put my thoughts together. My name is Barboza, from a city in the southest part of Brazil. And unfortunately I dont have a touching history to share with you. But I have some advices: - Dont own, share: In a few years, status will not be how much you own, but how much you can share. - Travel, but always return home: Travel is one of the best things to do, but dont make the return home the worst part of the trip. If you do, its not to your hearth's home that you are returning to. - Protect your ideals, but respect other's opinions Its not because he thinks different from you that he's wrong, or that you're wrong. Every point of view deppends on the angle that you see the point. - Make others be in debt with you Do favors and help others without charging, they probably will return the favor in a moment of need...

I love movies. The last movie that I really liked was Anna Karenina. Ok, I admit I am a huge Joe Wright fan but the cinematography on that movie is just amazing. The dance, the shot at dusk in the farm and the last shot on the movie. I could go on. The one movie I couldn't bring myself to watch again is Atonement (from Joe Wright also). It was just too depressing to endure again. Heart-achingly beautiful. Score is as important as a good plot. Pulls the heartstrings, sort of speak. Ennio Morricone is my favorite composer. It was him with Guiseppe Tornatore on Cinema Paradiso whom brought out my first tears from watching a movie. That scene near the end with grown-up Toto on the theaters. I hope you know what I am talking about. Sometimes I surprise myself identifying movies on cable by their score and a few dialogues without looking at it. #Humblebrag? I try to make every movie experience as immersive as possible. I prefer seeing it on the big screen, anywhere between the first to f...

Everyone has advice to give, mine is this: Do what makes your life happy, even if its just 5 minutes a day. And to support that cause, I want to pass along a story that my wife has written. 600 words isn’t much, so here is half a story - email me back and I will send along the rest of it! She is working on a book and has other stories already published. The Clean Fiend “Go on, Ted, just try a bite. It’s not going to kill you. I mean, come on, you’re already dead!” “No, no, I just can’t. It’s so…unhygienic. We don’t even know where that has been. Just think of all the slimy, unsanitary cesspools in this city. Besides, you’re touching it and I know for a fact that you haven’t washed your hands in over a month.” “My hands are mostly bone and tendon at this point. What’s to wash?” “See, thinking like that just aids in the spread of unsavory diseases. Here, I have an antibacterial spray…” “No.” “But-” “No, Ted. Just…no.” “Honestly, I don’t know why you’re so resistant to the idea of basic h...

Hi Listservers, At my day job, I rarely need to turn copy around in less than 48 hours. I’m also a compulsive procrastinator—a high school habit I’ve never been able to shake. So this is going to be an exercise in speed writing. But it’s worth it, because I get to share my five glorious summers at nerd camp with you. First, some background: I grew up in Taipei, where I attended the same school from kindergarten until senior year. In 7th grade, I took the SATs to qualify for a Johns Hopkins-run summer program called CTY, short for Center for Talented Youth. Some of the camp’s more high-profile alumni include Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, and Lady Gaga. Accepted students take classes in math, science, or the humanities, and essentially complete a semester’s worth of schooling within three weeks. By the time I started CTY, I had already spent 8 years with roughly the same 200 classmates. Like many preteens, I was shy, insecure, and lacked self-confidence. Traveling across the world—from a...

Hello, Listservians! Right now I'm an aspiring voice actor, but back in 2000 I had a successful experience on the US version of the game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", so I figured I'd start there. Security was super-tight—look up "Charles Van Doren" to see why. We were escorted everywhere (even to the bathroom) by steely-eyed production assistants, our pre-show buffet came with a free set of lawyers, and all phones, wallets, etc. were locked up prior to entering the set. One contestant was almost kicked out because he brought a book into the green room in case he got bored. My taxes weren't covered; in 2001 I handed over 39% federal and 8% (California) state. ABC was VERY clear about my fiscal responsibilities and provided many helpful IRS forms; I can't speak for how the other networks handle things. This conversation (more or less) took place in my supervisor's office at work in the week between the show's taping and airing: Supervi...

My invitation arrived on the morning of April Fools Day, so I thought it was a prank. Being a good librarian, I did my research and found out that yes, the invitation was legitimate, and holy crap, I was about to have a very large, very far-reaching megaphone to broadcast my thoughts. I've had a lot of grand ideas of what to say, so this is going to be a mishmash of those grand ideas. One of my greatest faults: I'm an idea person, but I have more ideas than I can legitimately deliver upon. Over the years, I've learned to put those ideas out there and just let other people run with them. It hurts the first few times that someone makes something successful out of your idea, but you get over it after a while. --- Things I Hope that My 15-Month Old Daughter Inherits From My Family: -My father's charm and charisma -My mother's determination -My brother's sensitivity to others' feelings She has my grandmother's (and my great-great-grandmother's) name. She ...

So of course I get selected for The Listserve on 1st April... leaving me wondering if it is some April Fools' joke - maybe everyone was "selected"....? Here is some thoughts from my brain... make of it what you will. Too often people rush headlong into things, be it purchasing a house, a new car or choosing a career, without stopping to think. People also tend to get stuck in the day-to-day, same-old grind, again without stopping to think. I'm not saying buying a new house is bad, but if you don't work out that you can actually afford it before making the purchase, that is bad. i.e. not thinking things through. I say, stop, think and inspect your situation. Often you'll see a better solution, or gain some insight into the situation. Too many people go through life in a semi-disconnected state. For example, "Maybe buying a new car right now isn't the time - maybe I'm better paying off that student loan". Actually doing this would make a huge d...

I was born in Brazil. Grew up in Bolivia. Went to school in Canada, and then to college in the US. Now I live and work in the UK and am about to marry an Italian. But 8 years ago I would have never imagined I would ever be saying all of that… When I was in high school I dreamt about studying abroad. I started a "scholarship hunt" - my parents wouldn't' have been able to pay to send me on an exchange program or to university in another country. I was one of those overachiever students, with 9892392 extracurricular activities that filled my days (and nights). The only empty spot in my schedule was Wednesday from 6:30pm onwards. And there it was. On a Wednesday morning I saw a poster with "Want to study in Italy, Canada or Wales?" written on it. "Presentation - Wednesday [that same day] at 7pm". Coincidence? Destiny? Call it what you want - I was in. The presentation started on time. A couple of people talked about the opportunity. Photos were shown. ...

“In Avril, me give you won chick hen.” Evenson’s English is getting better. The weekly classes are paying off, but he struggles with proper grammar. Evenson is 14 and he’s in the fourth grade. It’s not because he’s unintelligent. He’s actually quite brilliant—he works well his hands and learns quickly. But Evenson is behind in school because most years his family couldn’t afford to send him. He’s the oldest of five, and his father is dead. For several years, his mom raised him and his sister, Ludmia, as a widow. Then she remarried and quickly had three more little ones. Feeding the kids was more important than paying tuition. My wife, Sonja, and I hear his crackly voice come through Skype. He offers us a chicken, and it takes a second for the words—then the profound gesture—to register. Evenson has one rooster (kòk) and two hens (poul). Three chickens. And he wants to give us one. His simple gesture grips us and we just melt. Melting. That happens often in Haiti. And it happens particu...

For me getting the Listserve email is like mentally pressing control alt delete; STOP. BREATHE. THINK. It gives me chance to think about things from a different perspective. And that's a good thing. It seems to me we live in a much faster ever connected world that's interconnected with great ways of communicating - email, Skype, Facebook, twitter etc. Yet We don't communicate so much on a basic level.... Talk! So I got selected on the listserve lottery. "I have no idea what to say" is what people said to me at my dad's funeral just before Christmas. His death for me came kinda out the blue, a sidewinder if you will, yes he was old (74) but he had so much life in him. He would get on his bike everyday, go down the library and check his emails (he had a computer at home but the library has a printer and he got from under my mother's feet!) then he'd bike to the bookmakers put his bets on and collect his winnings before biking home to make lunch for him a...