TheListServe Blog

They call me Wally Goose, and I have the flattest face you've ever seen. Please follow me on Instagram (@wally_goose) for a little more fluff in your life. I'm your new best friend. Purr. Wally Goose Texas

Hi everyone. One of my goals in life is to go to all the Disneylands. I'm not really sure why, because i'm not a big Disney fanatic. But I guess I did grow up watching Disney movies when I was younger, so it's probably subconsciously brainwashed me. I think the appeal for me is how Disneyland brings out the kid in you, irregardless of what age you are. The first time I went to Disneyland was in America when I was 5, and it was my first trip overseas. Going to Disneyland is probably the greatest thing that could happen to a 5 year old. For whatever reason, I have a vivid memory of being in Mickey's house and seeing his clothes in the washing machine, thinking he was trapped inside. Obviously, I was a stupid 5 year old. My second Disneyland experience was in Hong Kong at 15 years old, and most recently, 20 years old in Paris. Even at 20, I found myself running around the park with my (older) sister trying to find Mickey to get a photo. My favourite ride would have to be t...

First of all, to all of you past Listserve writers, thank you for sharing. I’ve read each one from top to bottom. Whether strictly informational or a vent of something that’s been bottled up too long or something else entirely, each Listserve email is, in itself, an insight into how various people choose to use a loudspeaker moment. I didn’t join in the hopes of having that moment; I joined to see what others would do with theirs. Yet now I’ve been caught in the spotlight, and who am I to chicken out? Many Listservers have shared their own rules, mottos, inspirational messages, etc. on how to get going with life: Carpe Diem, one foot in front of the other, don’t fear failure, put yourself out there, learn something new, etc. I don’t want to pooh-pooh any of that, but much of it is easier said than done. Fear of failure can be pretty darned ingrained in people. And how does one seize a day? Does it have horns or a septum ring one can latch on to? Motivational speeches, slogans, ...

Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a great battle, whether it is apparent or not. And whenever you're feeling down, drink a big glass of water or bake some chocolate chip cookies. Ingredients 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 cup packed light-brown sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons orange extract 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 large eggs 2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In a separate bowl with a wooden spoon, combine the butter with both sugars; mix until light and fluffy. Add the salt, orange, vanilla, and eggs. Mix thoroughly and then add flour mixture. Most importantly - stir in the chocolate chips! Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with tin foil or parchment paper. Bake until cookies are g...

I'm going to jump into this head first and just lay out my perception of all of electricity. The core of the electromagneticism is the probably pretty easily identified, but even within the voltage there are groups that seem to serve electric functions you have a group that sort of acts as the services, they roam from thread to thread, dogpile, triangulating little attacks on people. They're a pretty small group and they do tend to electrify in a pack. Usually once they start dogpiling they draw in other random people who also want to join in. There are a couple of these that are really charged, often offering basically mechanical posts that consist of nothing more than one line pokes and jabs as electric, or little more than incredibly repetitive almost canned responses. Often times they seem to attempt to couch everything they say in a layer of sarcasm and "ignition". They usually do a lot of back patting and self congratulating with each other back at the don't...

Hello ListServe community! So EXACTLY a year ago from today my close friend & home girl Layla (Hii Lovely!) forwarded me a ListServe email titled Random Beauty (by Ishita in Kolkata, India, hello to you as well J ). It is such beautiful synchronicity that now, literally to the day, I just won the chance to write to you all! I’ve thought about this day happening since I signed up, but I also believed that something amazing would be in the process of occurring when this lucky moment aligns with my life... And I’m sitting here laughing to myself because this is probably the first time in my life that I have absolutely nothing concrete/academic or otherwise happening. Well played universe, well played... It’s quite unsettling for me, realizing this and not knowing when things will change, but at the same time knowing they will. Ever get the feeling of knowing something without knowing anything at all? I know many people avoid changing, and it’s a shame because change is beautiful if y...

One of the guidelines for posting here is that you can’t write anything too self-promotional. I suspect most of us struggle with figuring out when exactly it’s right to toot our own horns. Nobody wants to be that guy or girl: the shameless self-publicist, the human spambot. And yet, sometimes we do create great work that we’d like others to know about – what then? How do we decide when our work is good enough, important enough, to warrant puffing up our chests and shouting about it? I’ve been working on a creative project with a small team for over a year now, and a few months ago we stepped back and realised we were done. It wasn’t perfect, but we knew we couldn’t hold off much longer: it was time to launch it into the world. We immediately found ourselves stuck, with no idea how to get the word out without feeling silly or boastful. We’re all introverts and prone to self-deprecation. We’re not used to saying, “Hey, everyone, look over here! What we’ve done is pretty amazing!” We coul...

Like everyone else, I have no idea how to begin. I always tend to be most interested in the ones that share the writer’s passion, so I am going to go ahead with mine. I just moved to Chicago a month ago to study Social Entrepreneurship. I am fascinated with the idea that a business can truly be good for everyone. From the consumer, to the business owner, to every worker and even help the environment and others not directly connected. I believe if all businesses can function like this, we can solve a lot of our problems. Think about it, if everyone wins, why aren’t we doing it? Unfortunately, there are very few businesses that function this way, and none on a large scale. This is where we can make a difference. I moved to get my Masters while studying Social Entrepreneurship at DePaul University. While I do so, I also am working at a fairly new clothing company, Trunk Club. Trunk Club is completely changing how men’s clothing is sold. This, along with my classes, will help me to achieve...

Thanks to the family’s largesse, Buster has studied everything from Native American tribal ceremonies … to cartography, the mapping of unchartered territories. Arrested Development, Season 1 Pilot __________________________________________ Think of an explorer. Where did they go? Why did they go there? What did they find? What did they inspire? Exploration extends beyond imagination, to where no man (or woman) has gone before. From the highest peaks, to the limitless depths of the Amazon, to the troughs of the grandest oceans, explorers put themselves on the line. They take passionate risks. Think of an entrepreneur. What did they build? Why did they build it? What problem are they solving? How did they change the world? Entrepreneurs solve real problems with innovative solutions. Whether for consumers, businesses, or both, entrepreneurs identify the unknown and attempt to solve problems like never before. Risking their livelihood, entrepreneurs put themselves on the line. They take pa...

Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can't. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers the paralysing fear that no other creatures endures. A fear of time running out. Chris Powell cap71[AT]cam.ac.uk Cambridge, UK

Hello, I'm from Brazil. You probably don't know much about us now, but you probably will during the next World Cup. I was unsure what to write about, until I saw, last night, June 13, 2013, all hell break loose in the city of São Paulo. It started as a protest against raising bus taxes - described in an apologetic way by politicians as 'under inflation margin', as if they had nothing to do with that. But after 3 days of protest, it became much more than that. It was a protest against the government priorities, and how the people still go hungry while over-budgeted, unfinished World Cup construction sites that have become an excuse to steal the people's money - I mean literally steal. And the protesters said that. In signs, on the internet, in interviews. The peaceful protest was met with an unjustified attack of tear gas and rubber bullets. And it made me cringe to watch what was happening live, while listening to the reporters saying that the opposite was going on....

live deliberately take courage take time pay attention listen carefully remember with fondness be gentle be honest maintain integrity work well share ten percent be kind consider your neighbor love your family treasure friendship read constantly keep learning breathe deeply trust God nothing is wasted kee Nancy Fox nanfox[AT]comcast.net colorado springs

A friend asked me for some advice on a script she was developing about a professional wrestler. She wasn't interested in the "hows" of professional wrestling, such as "how does one become a wrestler" or "what is the thought process when creating the unusual art that is professional wrestling. Her line of questioning focused more on "who becomes a wrestler" and more importantly "why does a person become a wrestler?" Clearly that answer is unique to each individual involved and as you can imagine everyone in our industry is a bit of an odd bird. I sometimes joke that the people in wrestling range from the unique to the mentally ill. Though involvement may sometimes be for the wrong reasons almost all of us do it because we simply feel like we have to. There is a unique experience that comes from professional wrestling that is found in no other art form that I know. There is the ballet-like expression of human emotion through physical movem...

In 2010, I & some friends decided to go to Leh in the Himalayas on our motorcycles. We had been planning for months. 2 of us had even quit our jobs just for this. Disaster struck the day before departure- Leh and all roads leading there were struck by flash floods and heavy landslides killing and stranding hundreds of people in that region. We were still in Delhi, still about 400 miles to anywhere close to it. If we had left even two days before, we could have been trapped or killed but it felt like we were given another opportunity to carry on our adventure. And so we did. That night we decided to go to the neighboring Himalayan region of Lahaul-Spiti, an area we had no idea about since all our planning was for Leh. All we had now was a map in our hands. Our motorcycles were small single-cylinder engines. We were carrying only the basics for supplies and spares. We weren't really prepared for rain but luck was on our side and we had beautiful weather throughout- 2 days of rai...

How many times you gave up on your purposes only because somebody had a got at you? Answer yourself question: Are you living for to make others happy or to be happy and share this happines with others? Don't forget about your purposes, your dreams, your desires. Strive to achive them. Listen those people which want you to be happy, those which in worst case give you helpfull hand...not those which are telling to you what you're doing is wrong and have no sens, etc, etc. Remember - that kind of people, pessimist, always will be around us and they always will be unhappy. If you'll meet some of them, count till two: one, two…one is you - your happines - your live - your feelings - your thoughts...and second, second is the rest of the World. You're the most important person in the World. Do you know definition of insanity? "[…] doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (A. Einstein) If you're doing something without results you...

Listen up. If you have curly hair, or a kid with curly hair, there are some things you need to know. I'm going to share 3 cardinal rules, a washing/styling process that works without fail, and tips on how to straighten (not that you'd want to after you learn how to flaunt your curls). Cardinal rules ------------------------------------------------- 1. Never comb, brush, or run your fingers through dry curls. 2. Do not let curls air dry even for 1 minute without product in. 3. If you can, wash your hair every other day, not everyday. Washing/styling process ------------------------------------------------- 1. Wet hair thoroughly, apply shampoo and rinse. Repeat if necessary. 2. Apply one coat of conditioner and comb through/remove tangles WHILE IN THE SHOWER UNDER RUNNING WATER with a broad toothed comb. Rinse conditioner. 3. Add another coat of conditioner. Twist your hair up in a bun and secure with a clip. Do the rest of your shower routine without rinsing and or getting your...

Hello everyone ! My name is Steven Page, and I live in Montreal, most precisely in the Verdun area. You may be interested in Free Shit Verdun, which is something that me, my friend (Hi, Ludauvick) and my girlfriend (Hi, Catherine) started just about a year ago. The concept is simple : We give free shit in Verdun. We have a free library 24/7 in front of our apartment where people can take books and also give some. From time to time, we give some free stuff with a huge “FREE” panel. It makes people happy, and our neighbours love it. Tomorrow (Thurday the 6th), we will be doing a “Ciné Free” event, which is basically a movie that we screen in front of our apartment, near the street. People bring beer and popcorn, we vote for a movie and we chill all night. If you are in the Montreal area, you can come over if you want ! Just type Free Shit Verdun in Facebook and you’ll get all you need to know. AND NOW, SOME FREE INSPIRATIONAL SHIT : Here are some of my favorite quotes “An extraterrestria...

There are two (visible) spiders living in the bathroom window area. One lives in the sill, and the other climbs up into the shade's hanging wooden drawstring pull. That one is the smaller spider. It had molted two times and didn't seem to be growing as fast as the sill spider, who has a very round abdomen. One afternoon while moving things around on the sink, a baby spider crawled out and hung for its life with a web. For some crazy reason my first thought was to put it in the sill so it could build its own web, but you know what happened. Of course you do. The drawstring spider ate the baby. Here's the pretentious part: I'm 30 and my husband and I are about to give birth to our first child this fall, so after the spider-eating-baby-spider incident, I felt like the worst Mom-to-be ever. What if someone gave my baby to a bigger baby to eat? O_o Then that reminded me of the time my cousin got a baby bearded dragon and he let our uncle hold it. When we asked where the baby...

Some years ago, I worked for a creative agency moving to a new location, neighboring a known specialty grocery chain. Among the reasons I was excited about the move was the prospect of offsetting my takeout lunch intake with salad bar hopping. On first visit, I surveyed the bar and saw all of the wonderful things, assembling a hodge-podge of covetable ingredients. At checkout, it was a bit steep for lunch, but I scuttled to my desk to enjoy the salad anyway. The trouble was, it was a big letdown. The components were okay together, but somehow it just wasn't as good as picking Joe salad from a menu. However, I wasn't discouraged. On return, I went in planning to make a Greek salad—one of my favorites. Mixed greens, fancy olives, tomato, red onion…no cucumber, but I used zucchini. Feta was missing, but I figured shredded mozzarella would be closer than bleu cheese. No Greek dressing, but Italian worked. Again at checkout, the salad was a bit more expensive than preferred, but it ...

I am not brave but even after writing this the world will have changed, you and I included. Breath and thoughts, come and go and leave us different, full or missing. One of the most common things people say about me is that I’m quiet. I hear it time & time again from those I just met & even from those who’ve known me for some time. Despite this, 2 years ago & in need of a job I started working at the zoo as a tour guide/bus driver, after a rough estimate I’ve calculated that I have given a tour to about 30,000 people. Yet those people and most of the people in my life won’t know as much about me than those of you that read this will at the end of this email. I am not brave but I seem to be surrounded by people that are, if for no other reason than they have no choice. My mom’s boyfriend was diagnosed with M.S. 7-8 years ago when he was in his 30‘s. News of which I learned while I was living in Colorado. Now that I have been back home for a couple of years I see the effects ...

They say that timing is everything. The thing about this is that 9 times out of 10 we can’t control when things happen in life. Those few times that things happen at that perfect moment, life feels amazing; however for every time something doesn't happen at the perfect moment there is usually some other emotion evoked. Winning the Listserve lottery this week initially didn't strike me as perfect timing. I never thought I would get picked so had absolutely no idea what I would write about and haven’t recently experienced anything momentous or exciting to share with everyone. So the first thought that comes to mind is why the hell is this happening now? After sitting on this for a night the conclusion I came to is that you don’t need to experience something momentous or exciting to make life feel meaningful. I ran in the San Diego Rock n Roll half marathon this weekend. While I knew a few people doing the race I decided to actually run this one on my own. The whole theory that ad...

I have an incredibly complicated relationship with the place I came from. But I guess, truthfully, so does everyone. See, I’m from West Virginia. Now, I know for a lot of people that conjures images of “rednecks” and “hillbillies” shooting deer and opossums in the mountains while drinking homemade moonshine on the porch of their log cabins. I kind of feel like I’ve had to carry that assumption my entire life. Most people’s reaction when I say “Oh, yea. I’m from West Virginia!” isn’t “What a beautiful state! With such rich history!” It’s normally “Oh….” Followed by a quick look at the watch and a dash in the other direction. Great for making friends. I love West Virginia in the way you might love a senile grandmother. She helped raise you and in general, she’s well meaning, but she also likes to shout racist things in public and can’t help walking outside without clothes on from time to time. I want to be proud of my state in the flag waving way so many people I grew up with are, but I ...

My name is Ryan. I'm 30 years old and I live on a houseboat on the canals of London, England. My boat's name is the Dark Horse. I have owned it for 5 months. I am told that the constant fear of sinking eventually goes away. The boat was built in 1974. It is 50ft long and 10ft wide, with every square foot replete in only the finest in late 70's wood-panelling. Its heart is a marinised BMC engine - the same kind that used to be found in black London taxis - and, like most of those who partied hard through the 70's, it has a tendency to occasionally forget who it is and what it's doing, and to suddenly and violently require a bit of a lie-down. This usually involves loud noises and, occasionally, smoke. (When I purchased the boat from an elderly widower, she gave me a 'Good Luck' card instead of a 'Thank You' card. In retrospect this should have been something of a clue.) As I have no permanent mooring (due, for the most part, to the scarcity of new mo...

I recently quit my job and my apartment to live in the forest in a tent. Actually tonight I'm in a wind shelter by a still and beautiful lake and in front of me there is a small fire, the sun is setting, and on my lap, my laptop. I'm a developer. I moved to a tent into the forest to be able to code on my startup project full time. Not only does that give me the time to do this but it also gives me peace of mind. I change my location about two times a week. Computer, forest, batteries...? Unpractical? Maybe it would have been more rational to keep the apartment and just cut costs? Well, rational and right do not always align. I have no apartment, I have no job and I have no income. Still I'm exactly where I should be. I'm on my path. My gut feeling lets me know that. I'm not exiting to a normal life until my startup has taken off. This is my big adventure. I'm not coming back empty handed. Small notes on how to do this: I power my laptop, phone and external b...

I've been reading nuggets of joy, nuggets of sadness, and nuggets of great information from fellow Listserver writers. I've pined and pined over my chance to find something to say. What would I say? Would I procrastinate, despite having 48 solid hours to come up with something? BAM. It hit me. My dream is to be a great writer someday. I will either write a novel directed at women, or create books and books of poetry. I'd love to create something for women of color, specifically. However, I create all the time and hit writer's block quickly. While the dream hasn't died, I've shifted over to poetry. Poetry is rich, poetry is exciting, poetry is a diary entry--shortened. I've fallen madly in love with it--so much to the point where I've self-published a short body of work from the first half of a fake leather book I was given in 2008. I challenged myself with the project. I named the file "Four Years", and decided that no matter what, I was do...

So, how do you find out who you are? Like who you actually are? Is it your childhood, your friends, your family? How do you find out who defines you, or what defines you? Or do you ever? For me, it was in 1998. Six months until I was getting married, and I couldn’t feel my feet. Then I couldn’t see half of everything (think headless bodies). Then I couldn’t feel my hands. So, the neurologist said… its MS. I just wanted to know that I was going to live. Anything else, I would deal with. And I did. I live with MS, it’s who I am, and yet not who I am all at the same time. It defines me and I both define and defy it. I work with it. I live with it. I am a mother with it. I laugh with it. I cry with it. I am mad at it, and yet, I am happy with it. And if it feels the same about me, I hope I make it mad. I define it, and I defy it. I get up with it. I go on vacation with it. I wear it in my sneakers and walk it with my cane. I move with it, I move on with it, and may...

There was a girl in my junior high who had very pale skin. At the girl's school located in Seoul in the mid 1990s, when 'lighter' skin tone was considered very trendy nationwide, her flawless light skin was highly praised as an element of beauty. Her facial tone was actually so pale that I once even heard some girls call hers 'leukemic-pale skin'. Obviously it sounded like an inappropriate description, but for carefree young teenage girls, it seemed to be just another way of expressing their jealousy of not having that lightness. One summer, I had a chance to go to summer camp with her as a group. On our second night, she fainted out shortly. She insisted on staying and finishing the 3-day camp with the rest of us. After she came back, she visited a hospital to get a check-up and was diagnosed with leukemia. She passed away after six months. Her pale skin was a manifestation of the disease, and calling it 'leukemic' without knowing the underlying disease mus...

Not two weeks ago, my composer collective Circles and Lines collaborated with our good friends Cadillac Moon Ensemble (an ensemble of Flute, Violin, Cello, percussion) to put on a concert. In the contemporary classical world, ensembles commission composers to write pieces for them to perform. Cadillac Moon had commissioned pieces from some of the composers in Circles and Lines previously, but now was completing the set (Including commissioning me!). This concert was the culmination of six months of hard work trying to get nine people in the same room at the same time, and ladies and gents, you better believe that was the hardest part about this project. In December, the two groups won the MetLife Creative connections grant, which paid Circles and Lines and Cadillac Moon for question and answer sessions, workshops, interviews, and broadcasts. We had set up two interviews to be conducted before the big concert, an open rehearsal to be live streamed over the Internet, and a question a...

I'm a 25 year old with too many life lessons under my belt. The biggest things I want to share with you are these: 1. Learn how to drive, and use that knowledge. Like using blinkers, and moving over when you're going slower than the general speed of traffic. Also use common courtesy. I can't stress that last part enough. 2. Quit using listserve for your religious purposes. Its not cool to force your beliefs on others. But I guess why else would you email thousands of people to get your message out? 3. On dating, if you feel like your significant other is the best thing in your life, treat them as such. Don't let them slip through your fingers. 4. Get a pet. Doesn't matter what kind. I have a couple of cats and they are awesome. One plays fetch, and the other is horribly mean to anybody but me. I know it sounds strange to keep a mean cat, but she's old and cute and she likes me. 5. Its not too late to "fix" your life. Go back to school, learn something...