TheListServe Blog

I’m going to split this up into two sections: the first, a “TL,DR” for those who don’t have much time; and the second, a longer, more expanded version of the first. If you’ve only got a couple minutes to spare, here are some questions I want to ask you: 1. What sort of advice would you give a young adult? 2. What is your favourite book? (Movie, TV show, etc.) 3. Where is the best place you’ve lived or visited? Most interesting adventure? 4. What is a something I should learn how to do? 5. If you haven’t got anything to say to the above, then tell me a story about yourself! Anything at all, don’t be shy! Hopefully, that was short and sweet enough! I hope you’ll consider giving me a reply J Now if you’ve got a bit more time on your hands, allow me to expand on the above questions. 1. Nice to meet you! I am from Vancouver but am currently in Toronto as a second-year university student studying engineering, which means that yes, I am a young adult and yes, I a...

What I’m working on right now is fluency. My mother’s language, Hebrew, was my first language, I can speak it without an accent, and thanks to a year of high school in Israel I can discuss most things relevant to a teenager’s life, like schoolwork, crushes, and the political climate, with ease. But I’m not satisfied. What I want is to be able to articulate a thought, any thought, with as little effort as it takes in English, and at the same speed. When I want to write or say something in English, different ways to phrase it gently bob in the air in my head like balloons, waiting for me to pick the one I like best. But in Hebrew, choosing between different expressions of a thought is like trying on pairs of boots that don’t fit until one seems like it’s good enough for gardening (but not for going anywhere nice). And I want to be able to read, for pleasure. In English I can look at a page and, letting my eyes rove over it briefly, grasp its gist and decide if I want to read it with care...

What a perfect day for me to win the lottery! I'm currently sick, don't remember the last time I was ever sick, and cannot do much so... Just off the top of my head (read: headache), let's talk about love. I'm sure everybody has experienced it all before. The cycle of butterflies to heartbreaks. How it lifts you up and gives you hope, make each a day a little brighter. It's an amazing feeling. Sometimes, just the thought of that someone makes everyday more bearable. But love changes. It changes you. Who you are and who you become depends in part on who you've loved. Heartbreak forces you to visit all those deep insecurities you didn't know existed or didn't want to acknowledge. It forces you to learn about yourself and who you really are deep down. Many a times, you will not like what you see. But you cannot be blamed. You have to love yourself no matter what. Now you see why they say you have to love yourself before you learn to love somebody else? You ...

Hello esteemed Listserve audience,Yet another bright-eyed American has won the Listserve lottery, but please don't make haste for the delete button! I promise not to dispense advice, ask for advice, etc. I. Librarians II. JFK, Bill Hicks, and history III. A note about the author I. Librarians As far as I know, I am the second librarian-type person in Champaign, Illinois (the other was Nanette D., a librarian at the Champaign Public Library) to win the Listserve lottery. My friend who turned me on to the Listserve, Ellen K., is also a librarian-type person who has won the Listserve lottery, but she is no longer in Champaign. I have worked in libraries, have a master's degree in library & information science, and am currently/desperately trying to finish my PhD in that field. I like to think of myself as a rogue librarian - I seek out or tend to attract confused-looking people on the street, in grocery stores, and, of course, the library stacks. And I love to help because tha...

I love Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower. A beautiful book and film adaptation featuring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson. If you haven't read/seen it I really recommend it."So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them." The 30 November each year, though not all too widely known, is known as self-harm/suicide-survivor Black Ribbon Day. If you see someone wearing a black ribbon, go up to them and give them a hug and tell them you're proud of them. Wear one if you feel you want to. There's a lot of support out there even if you can't see it right now. I could tell you my story and it might make you feel sad. But the truth is, we've all had bad times, we've all struggled. So you don't need to know my story. But ...

INSERT VARIOUS EXCUSES AND QUALIFIERS FOR MEDIOCRE QUALITY OF WRITING AND GENERALLY UNINSPIRED PROSE HERE Now then, let’s get down to it. I donated bone marrow last spring to a stranger who has since passed away. I do not know the name, location, or the details of when this individual died and I’m not quite sure how to deal with my grief over this. Maybe y’all can be of some help. It was a few summers ago that I found myself sticking a Q-tip in my mouth and rubbing it along the inside of my cheeks. A little cottonmouth and an odd taste was the result, and it was altogether not an entirely unpleasant experience. Though, it did feel odd to send it off in an envelope to be scrutinized instead of examining it under a microscope myself, as if it was some Freshman Bio lab exercise. Twice, I was identified as a potential match for someone needing to undergo a marrow transplant, and twice I was subjected to an intense phone interview followed by the resulting disappointment when my bones were...

I have always had fear in life and I could never figure out why. Maybe its a personality issue. I have always admired fearless people who take the risk and bet everything on what they believe. There were times that I just wanted to have the guts to quit and follow my heart, but my Capricorn Moon never let me. My decision making process is more rational than emotional and that's something I need to learn how to balance. I have always loved art. Art is my passion, is my home, is where I go to when I am down or up. Art never let me fall. I have released a book; produced one Theatre play USA and another in Brazil; I have had three painting exhibitions; I wrote a bossa nova song; I had an Art Channel at Youtube called Arte por Ai and a blog called The Art Reference (I know - I dont have focus!). But all of those projects were done in my spare time, as a second option, as a hobby. I actually work as contract auditor for an oil and gas company. I know, right? Crazy me. However this year g...

I am an 18 year old NYC college student so perhaps I’m too young to be annoyed with society or maybe I’m the quintessential cynical age. For those of you reading who feel a young adult’s opinions are invalid (you’re an age-ist basically) feel free to stop reading and go deal with your more pressing adult matters (go balance your check book or something!). But I think I have lived long enough to be able to comment on some of the imbalance I notice around me. I have noticed in the past couple years multiple cases of black Americans getting killed in circumstances that would have been extraordinarily different if these people were white. Besides the obvious Trayvon Martin case, there was a 19-year old girl, Renisha McBride who was shot in the face when she approached a white man’s house after being in a car accident. She was asking for help and was intoxicated at the time. So yes this woman was drunk, and yes it was 1AM, but what century do we live in where a person would shoot and kill ...

Music is life, life is music. The deeply fascinating thing about music is that so many people make it, that so many people feel compelled to create something and to share it with others, rarely expecting much in return. I am in many ways an introvert but with music I feel part of something, part of humanity. I engage with music every day. I go to record stores and learn from people who have been spending their lives exploring the deepest, most unlikely corners of musical creation. I dig through the bins by myself and wonder what I'll find this time and what hidden gems will pass me by, to be found next time or never. I go out at night and dance for hours, hearing songs created days or decades ago, manipulated by selectors shrouded in darkness, who don't need to be seen by a crowd to accomplish what they are there for, in a crowd of bodies in constant movement, energy levels rising and falling, but an atmosphere, a feeling in place that is eternal. There is no hope of leaving wh...

I'm originally from someplace half a world away. Talk to me about writing, food/ traveling recs, advice on 'breaking into the industry', or just about anything under the sun really. Except math. It took me a really long time to figure out what to write to you. In the end I decided to include a piece from my blog, written after I watched 'A Place At The Table' with my class. I would love to hear your thoughts on this, too. Much love x === noon, saturday, spring 2013: just watched 'a place at the table' with my class. we got to talk to barbie, one of the film’s subjects after the movie, and she made me realize: hunger, homelessness, desperation, need- these are all subjective. she's right, each time we mention poverty we think of emaciated children curled up under the relentless african sun, haunting eyes against dark skin, a mother’s fingers fitting perfectly into the contours of her son’s ribs. but hunger is real and hunger is also here, right here, in r...

I once rode a Greyhound bus from Kansas to Iowa in a raving snow storm. Semis were flipped in the ditches; visibility was less than a few feet. But our driver must’ve been on something that made all this crazy feel like paradise, because he didn’t waver. I thought I was going to die that night. I sat next to a bearded Canadian, maybe 30 years my senior. An out of work electrical engineer, “just passing through.” We exchanged few words most of the way, passing the first six hours in near silence, white-knuckling the arm rests. But at some point, maybe we’d both realized that our fate was out of our hands, so why not lighten up, get to know our neighbor? We started up a conversation. I eventually asked him if he had ever seen anything he couldn’t explain. Just like that, the question slipped out. It’s so personal, I thought, so eerie, and yet he didn’t miss a beat. He told me a story I repeat to this day, 15 years later, like I am right here. He told me that he was camping in Arizona, an...

A few recommendations based on time constraints: If you have 4 minutes, listen to Edward Elgar's Nimrod from the Enigma Variations, or Pink Mountaintops' While We Were Dreaming. If you have 8 minutes, listen to Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri. If you have 50 minutes, watch Top Gear (UK); I recommend the 2007 Botswana special first (series 10, episode 4, available on Netflix). If you have around 80 minutes, watch the Duplass brothers' "Jeff, Who Lives at Home" or Mike Birbiglia's "Sleepwalk with Me," both on Netflix (you can also listen to the latter on Spotify, which is just as great in audio format). If you have an hour or so, read Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Le Petit Prince. If you have a day or so, read Chaim Potok's The Chosen. An easy recipe that's a big hit at work parties for being a somewhat healthy appetizer is veggie rolls: Chop up 1 med. broccoli crown, 1 med. green or red bell pepper, and 1 cup carrots. Add to 3 oz softe...

This'll take about 5 minutes to read. So take a moment to stop, if you fancy a wander... I was with my friend at JFK in New York, waiting to board the plane back to London, having had a holiday for a week. Getting to the gate, there was a slow shuffle to the desk to board, and we came between a man and the back of the queue. Pausing to see who would go first, the man said to us, "after you..." Without missing a beat, as my friend is want to do, he bounced back, "don't worry... It doesn't matter." All he meant was, it didn't matter whether the man went first, or we did. We were all just about to get on the same plane and sit down for a good number of hours, so really, it didn't matter who went first. What a thought! I think it's the Zen nihilist in me that takes satisfaction in a universal state of mind, growing from the simple idea that 'it doesn't matter.' 'It', being everything. Not just the plane or the queue... everyth...

I thought long and hard about what the best use of my Listserve opportunity would be and for me the most rewarding thing would be to know that I've helped somebody. Even if it's just one person it will make it completely worth it. This time last year I overcame probably the biggest hurdle and something that would have seriously impacted my future. From the age of 15 I suffered with panic attacks & anxiety that made even the smallest of things an obstacle. For those of you that don't know what panic attacks are, they essentially occur due to your brain's inability to process information correctly at that particular point in time. They make you feel sick, dizzy and intensely panicky; like your whole body is working against you. What makes them worse is that they are invisible to anybody but the person having them and often come at the worst of times. It is important to remember that they don't necessarily come in high pressure situations, some people get them whil...

I think that when you take part in something like the Listserve Lottery, you don't really fear never winning. So what if you don't win, that's just the way of things. What really is frightening, perhaps, is the idea of winning and then never noticing. Having an opportunity presented to you that you missed and let pass on by. I almost missed the email that said I won, and now I'm a bit short for time. I'm no genius and I don't do anything spectacular, so I'm just going to spout out interesting thoughts on various things that I have thought about. I invite you to add your insight or disagree harshly. Groups, especially who share common ideas, are probably one of the worst things in the world. If you want horrible things to happen, just get a bunch of like-minded people in one place. People say that they are opposed to organized religion, and I'm not going to say that that's wrong, but if you are you should probably also be opposed to activist groups, a...

I'm against gay marriage. I'm also a lesbian. Basically, I think getting married is a pretty silly thing to do, whether you're gay or straight. Historically speaking, marriage was a contract designed to pass ownership of a woman on from her father to her new husband (hence, her name changes from her father's to her husband's). But, if that isn't enough to put you off, there are plenty of other reasons not to get married. For example, in most Western countries, social security rights are determined according to a 'breadwinner' system, where one member of the family is considered to be the 'head' and the others are awarded their rights according to their relationship to him. I say 'him' because, historically, only men have been considered capable of being breadwinners, this despite the fact that plenty of women are currently and always have been the sole or primary providers for their families. The extent to which this model applies varies ...

He was taller than me, a big guy – almost twice my size. He used to play semi-pro football before his kidney failed. He was charming, outspoken, the kind of guy that everyone in the neighborhood knows. He had the same initials as me. I didn’t meet him until about three months after he’d been given my kidney. When I gave, I knew only that he was a “youngish male.” He’d been on dialysis for years; he told me that when the transplant coordinator called to tell him they’d found a match, he dropped the phone in disbelief. He never thought he’d get a second chance. Why did I donate my kidney to someone I didn’t know? I’m a pretty nerdy guy, so in some ways, the answer is just that I read some articles and decided the benefits outweighed the costs: on one side of the ledger, laparoscopic surgery, a couple nights in the hospital, some weeks of recovery, minimal or nonexistent long-term health consequences; on the other, the near-certainty that I’d add decades to someone’s life, that I’d save t...

Dear Listervians! I am a 26-year-old teacher who lives in Haarlem and works in Amsterdam. I teach children from the age of 4 to 6. Children in this age group learn best by playing so that is what I’m helping them with. I can use your help as well, please read on! In my class we work with projects for about 6 to 7 weeks, we’ve had projects like the circus, the castle or the airplane. To start a project I always ask the kids what they would need to play, so I help them build, (life-size when you’re 4-6 year) airplanes, hospitals or the witch’s shack. You should see what we can do with glue and some cardboard! The children will then start to play, being the customs officer, doctor or any character that is suitable for the project. By playing inside the restaurant or the castle children develop their social skills but that is only the beginning. For the children the playing is very real and they take it quite serious, together we come up with ideas of what we need. We make passports, spel...

I’m still not sure what the title of my (auto)biography is going to be, but the subtitle will most certainly be An Awkward Life. Perhaps I’m starring on a reality TV show and don’t know it yet, but I find myself in a fair number of truly awkward and comical situations. I’m not sure if it’s my penchant for saying the first thing that comes to mind or just some karmatic effect from a previous life, but regardless, I’ve got a lot of good fodder for my future stand-up comedy routine. My most recent I’m-pretty-sure-the-Universe-is-laughing-at-me moment happened last month when I was en route to what was most certainly going to be a break-up conversation. I was getting out of my car to meet my then boyfriend when I heard the distinct sound of fabric tearing. I looked down to see a hole in the crotch of my pants. The timing couldn’t have been worse, but it did give me a few minutes to laugh at myself before a truly unpleasant conversations. These things happen to me more often than I can coun...

When I got the email regarding the listserve lottery, my wife and I were out to dinner. I asked her opinion what to share. I had no idea what to write and I’m not entirely sure that I’m closer a day later. Lately my camera has been a more effective means of communication. She mentioned a few topics: Several involved Stephen King and his works/influence on everything. She’s a very big fan, but I am not. Then she mentioned I should write about the genius of John Carpenter, though I think Jason Zinoman’s Shock Value does it better than I can. Additionally, Jonathan Lethem wrote the definitive book on They Live. She did bring up a great question to consider: Why is it that while gay rights are making so many strides in such a short amount of time, the rights of women are being attacked and rolled back at a frightening pace? I had the thought that some of the best writing is both personal and succinct. One personal topic I considered was my family’s immigration story but it’s just a variati...

In the summer of 2011, my third child had just turned a year old. I was just beginning to feel reconnected with the world. My business was having one of its best years, in no small part to my part-time assistant. Yet, despite the optimistic signs all around me – I was working as if the world would end tomorrow. Projects I wanted to forget for clients I wanted to ignore. My regular exercise routine was pacing between my monitor and the coffee pot. I wouldn’t leave my house for days at a time. My temper was getting short. I would explode at the slightest inconvenience. I was making my life and my young family’s life worse. Not better. I didn’t know how to stop. In early August, two of my favorite people visited from half the world away and set up this block game in my suburban backyard. A simple game of 11 square wooden blocks and 6 wooden sticks. They were a little unsure of the rules – though they knew that 5 of the wooden blocks were placed on opposing sides, the larger king – placed ...

A Giraffe can't lose Have to go buy staplers You're Standing on it Quinlan Pfiffer shithouse[AT]goatse.cx Portland, Oregon, USA

My blog is mainly religious poetry but here is my favorite love poem that I composed: THE WHITEST MAN IN THE WORLD LOVE RAP SONG Like Hemingway drank his scotch, Like dogs who want to sniff your crotch. Like a mother who loves her babies, Like when the doctor told you didn’t have rabies. Like I only can love you. Like kids wasting the day on their Playstation Three, Like when you say “There’s nothing good on TV.” Like America loves its guns, Like when we watch Law & Order reruns. Like I only can love you. Like Hillary still needs her Bill, Like when you cried from that waxing from Brazil. Like evangelicals love Tim Tebow, Like when we dreamed we’d go to the carnival in Rio. Like I only can love you. Like I only can love you. Peace from the beach, Lawrence coldbeer4thesoul[AT]aol.com St Pete FL USA The Canadian version of Breaking Bad is kind of lame. It ends after he gets cancer and his treatment is totally paid for by the government.

Hi all, In what I think is a Humankind Tradition, I raced to get this over to listserv, this despite the rush I got from getting the lottery email that made my heart race and put a smile on my face. The problem you see is recurrent, the natural flow of a busy life gets in the way of sudden opportunities, or small things and small gestures in a very quick mental calculation that guesstimates the amount of work needed for the amount of accomplishment and because inertia operates outside the physical world, sometimes going with what you have is the most likely outcome. Now, I have mixed feelings about this, and I’ve had mixed reactions as well, mid through university - Computer Engineering - I realised I wasn’t really having the time or my life, and most importantly, I wasn’t accomplishing much, so in the course of a few months I made the decision to quit, during that process I started my own company and I went from there. A few years later, things were ok, we had a central office in Lisb...

I'm a student at the University of Texas. I won the Listserve lottery with two midterms in the next 48 hours. I've never really thought about what i'd say to thousands of people at once, so I'll just give you some advice I live by. Just do it for the story. If an opportunity arises where that voice in your head says "I don't know, that sounds _____", just do it. You may get in trouble, or some other negative things may happen, or the universe will go along with it and allow you to have some fun. Either way, the story will be worth it. Nobody remembers the nights they got a lot of sleep. I've had some of the best times of my life by doing it for the story. Keeping it short and simple. For now, i'm going against my advice to stay in and study. Moderation y'all. Good Luck, Paul emcm11[AT]yahoo.com Austin, TX

A few months ago my boyfriend, Alexander, pulled a fairly elaborate prank and convinced me I had won The Listserve lottery. I wrote a satirical piece on the superfluous things in this world that I love and hate. After submitting my masterpiece I eagerly waited for its distribution to the masses. A few hours after my submission I received an email from what I presumed to be The Listserve indicating that my piece needed some editing. The email referred me to an attachment with suggested revisions. A bit confused by the situation, I opened the attachment to find a presentation documenting each step of the hoax with colorful commentary provided by my boyfriend. On Monday, I received yet another email claiming I had won The Listserve lottery. I immediately assumed this was another, albeit uncreative, attempt by Alexander to prank me yet again. However, after an email exchange with one of The Listserve's co-founders I was able to confirm its authenticity. This time it was the real...

It was fun to get the winning email with my 30th birthday next week. My gift to myself was to lose 30 lbs, which wasn't easy. It was however possible, and I don't know why I didn't discover that until now. I read somewhere that your twenties are about figuring out what you want, and your thirties about working hard to get it. If I had truly believed in the importance of sustained, focused effort earlier in life I would have disagreed with this. I would have spent less time thinking about the person I would like to be, and more time doing the things that he would do. It doesn't count if it stays inside; see also faith vs. works. Things I can't resist saying to 25k people: * I asked the most creative person I know what I should write, and she said to tell people not only are there repercussions for being a douche, but for not being a douche, and to tread carefully. * If you can get over the quirkiness, mewithoutYou's 2009 album may resonate with you as much as it ...

1. This is my oldest sister’s favorite joke. Elena, you wonderfully silly adult-person, this is for you: “A man is driving his car down a long gravel road. Suddenly, a wide-eyed hare jumps out from behind a bush and our driver is unable to stop before flattening the poor little guy. Distressed, the man begins to cry. A car pulls up behind him and a beautiful woman steps out, pulls a spray can form her purse without a word and sprays the hare from head to toe.The man watches in awe as the hare jumps to it’s feet, hops a short distance from the car and turns back to wave goodbye. It continues hopping, stopping, turning and waving until it disappears into the distance. The man asks, “What on Earth did you spray him with?” and the blonde, reading from the can’s label replies, “Salon Hair Spray; brings life back to dead hairs. Adds bounce and permanent wave instantly!” 2. Talking point: Despite being a lazy, barely-semi-bilingual Canadian who sometimes even struggles with her native English...