I began working on this site on February 14, 2006, a year and a day ago (and almost a decade to the day from my first web site). In that time I have spewed a fair number of words into the aether. I have also learned a lot of lessons along the way.
In honor of that anniversary, here are thirteen things I have learned in the last year, in roughly chronological order.
- Nobody talks about staying at home without children: Though the internet is clogged with SAHMs and a smaller number of SAHDs, there are no known SAHWs or SAHHs. Either you must havekids as an excuse or wait until you are old enough to be “retired”.
- Most People Can’t Talk About Anything But Work: Of course, given the amount of time and energy most people put into the jobs they hate, I suppose that isn’t very suprising.
- I Am Not Cut Out For Time Management: Time management requires a level of compartmentalization and disintegration that I seem not to be capable of.
- I Have Not Had A Healthy Relationship With Money: I, like most Westerners, spent too much time concentrated on money, and basically made a huge mess of it.
- Coining A Phrase Is Fun: I am pretty happy with this connection, and my perception of it.Your mileagemay vary.
- I Am In Complete Control Of Nothing: All I can do is to try a lot of different things and see what works out. The key to success, for all values of success that equate to interesting adventures, is to fail faster!
- Yeah, It Is That Easy…: I spent a lot of my life listening to other people and hearing a lot of excuses and rationalizations for self-limiting behavior. Funny thing is, they were all wrong.
- Scandanavia Sounds Better & Better: …the reason the Nordic countries score higher in the WEF study is that their governments run surpluses instead of deficits, cave in to special interests less often, operate efficiently and spend their money wisely.
- :There Is A Holiday For Me: and I don’t mean Festivus…
- The Work Ethic Doesn’t Make Any Sense: What is the point of speaking or even thinking, about the future in a society where Immediatism has sprung up as the new national religion (just in time to replace anti-communism)? Is it any longer possible to be the “authors of our lives”, given the constant disloyalty and paranoia fed to us as “flexibility” and “dynamism”?
- You Cannot Have/Do/Be Everything: No matter what they told you, the world is not your oyster, and the wreckage of their lives should be a warning to you that they do not know what they are talking about.
- Americans Don’t Read Much:And the majority of what they do read is paperback trash.
- Libertarians Just Aren’t Very Bright: But the really, really want to seem so.
These are the ramblings of 
Fail faster–I never thought of it that way! Happy TT!
Hey Jon: Thanks for the info on the movie. I’ll add it to my list. I think your comment about Americans not reading much is sadly, true. Looking forward to your postings next week. XINE
Yeah, I was completely floored when I came across those statistics. I am so steeped in the culture of “serious books” that I really had no idea just how dismal it was.
The interesting thing I have discovered since moving to London is that, if anything, the situation is worse in the UK. There is nothing in the bookstores here but trash paperbacks…maybe Germany will be better.
I think you forgot laught by yourself when reading some people blog!!
Everything you said is so true!!
Hi Jon, welcome to TT and happy Blogiversity. I was laughing at number 12. By the way I read the “Books in the United States” post. Interesting findings.
I am trying to make it a priority to read more with my children. Things got so hectic for a while that it took us a year to finish The Magician’s Nephew. Last night and tonight we read for a while. It’s a start…and if I could I would be a full time SAHM…and when the kids are up and out (in 12 years) I’d love to be a SAHW.
Come by and visit!!!!
I agree wholeheartedly…..Americans don’t read much. Some of read far more than we really need to so I guess we make up for the others.
Interesting list and interesting site.
I wonder if people in any country read much. I’m nearly as much to blame, I suppose: I read some nonfiction, but most of what I read is medium to hard science fiction. Sure, there’s some facts and thought involved in that; but that can be said about nearly any well-researched, involved book (mystery, romance, historical fiction, et cetera).
What was freakier was that Million Little Pieces fiasco. Good grief: Oprah gushes about it, people piece together the fact that the author took a few (dozen) artistic liberties, everyone gets hugely indignant… Okay. People. You bought the book. Did you love it more when you thought it was real? Or can you not take cathartic relief from fictional pathos, and see the lessons there as well? …grumble…
Supposedly the following are the countries with the most reading per week, per capita:
Rank Country Weekly Hours Spent Reading
1 India 10.7
2 Thailand 9.4
3 China 8
4 Philippines 7.6
5 Egypt 7.5
6 Czech Republic 7.4
7 Russia 7.1
8 Sweden 6.9
9 France 6.9
10 Hungary 6.8
My cousin, dackelprincess.com, is a SAHW; I’m with you on #3, but I’m not one of those on #12, altho I am american
Terrific Thursday Thirteen!
My TT is posted.
Have a wonderful day!
Happy TT’ing!
*^_^
(=’:'=)
(”)_ (”)Š
Raggedy
I need to make me one of these when my blog turns a year as well.
Thanks for the idea.
Do drop by my post!
Wow, am I in agreement with you on all that!! Thanks for sharing a fantastic list!
What did you just say about librarians? Huh? Oh, libertarians, that’s different! Never mind!
happy TT, mine’s up!
I love the design of your blog. It’s mature, fresh, and elegant.
As for this TT, #1 made me chuckle immediately. I have talked to women who call themselves SAHW’s, but never a man who would claim to be a SAHH. I suppose we expect careers and shun “laziness”.
Well, now you have met one. I am a proud SAHH
What a nice view! thanks for posting this week..Those are good outlooks
Thanks!
Guilty of reading trashy novels, I admit it. But for me, it is a way to escape and enjoy stories. What I fear is that we are raising a generation of want it nows who won’t read.
You really do have a nice, clean looking web site, someday I will learn how to do more with my blog.
Of course that is what we are raising - what do you expect to raise when all you ever tell them is that they can be/do/have whatever they want?
Thanks for the compliment on the site layout. It is a work in progress, constantly evolving to be closer to what I actually see in my head
I like #’s 11 and 12.But, as for #12, I do read more than the paperback ‘trash’ you talk about. In fact, I am a reviewer for Active Christian Media. All the books are great books from good authors.
Check out my Thursday Thirteen
Did you even bother to read the linked article? 80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year, and 70% of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years. Of the 120,000 books published in the US last year, 70% did not earn back their advance nor turn a profit.
If only 3600 books made a profit last year in a country of 300,000,000 people, I am pretty damned certain that counts as not reading much.
53% of all books sold are fiction, making fiction the majority of what Americans do read. I personally have the following criteria for whether or not a book is worth keeping; if it is trash or worthwhile. If I (or you, if we are talking about you) have actually read the book more than once, then it isn’t trash. If you can’t be bothered to reread it, it is of no more interest than a fast-food meal; trash pure and simple.
I clicked on your link to the JonTillman expose on book reading in America. Then I tried to find the statistics. As one of your comments say reading has transformed my life. I am never without a book and it has been that way since I was a geeky pre-teen reading Nancy Drew and Judy Blume. Then we moved onto World Literature in High School and read books that I remember to this day. If the statistics you quote are true, it is really sad. Every child deserves to have a library in their school where they can take out books and read them or have their parents read to them. Every parent should encourage their children to read and develop a love for reading.
My kids’ teachers try to get them to read what might interest them. They try to match the book to the kid if they see an interest. Our school also has the DEAR program…Drop Everything And Read. I hope this and my reading to my kids encourages them to read.
Thanks for the stats, but I pray they are wrong.
On the one hand, I agree that there is a shockingly low instance of reading amongst Americans, but on the other hand, I do not want to fall prey to the ‘idolatry of the book’ to coin a phrase.
Reading is all well and good, but to say that it is a panacea for all of our ills or that all reading, as long as it is happening, is good, is also very silly.
Experience is a far better teacher than reading. Perhaps we should encourage our children to have experiences, reading being just one type of those experiences. Of course, that would require that we stop trying to protect them from everything that could possibly go wrong in the world…
I believe that every child in the US needs several things: a bicycle, a library card, some pocket money, and a prohibition against being inside all day. Some slightly daredevil friends wouldn’t hurt either…
Of course reading is not a panacea for all our ills, that is a silly notion that places a greater demand on reading than is necessary or even wanted. As you said, a child, like a student starting out in college, needs a “well rounded” life. My kids read, they play video games, they play outside and create worlds and wars and demons to slay, they play basketball and water polo, they are cheerleaders and swimmers. They all have bikes, skateboards and scooters and have a small swingset in the back yard to swing on and just be by themselves (when the other three let them).
Experience is a far better teacher. As a shy kid in high school, the experience of college and “making it on my own” out in the real world in the big city of Philadelphia (for a shore girl, Philly was the big city), those experiences have made me who I am much more than what I have read and what statistics I can spout off because I have read this or that article, blog, book, etc. However, having read the article, blog or book gives me the leg up on others who may not have the knowledge that I do and, thereby, making new experiences.
I suppose it is all tied in together. Reading may not be the cure-all for the worlds’ ills, but put a book in a child’s hands instead of a video game and that child will transport himself someplace instead of letting the game do the transporting for him.
I will get off my blog-box. I sound like I am writing a not-well-thought-out term paper. I do like your thinking and your list of that every child in the US should have. I do not know if you are a parent, but one thing you failed to mention is that every child should have an adult they can trust and who sets limits and gives them guidance.
Have a great Tuesday Jon.
Maureen
Exactly, ‘well-rounded’ is precisely the goal - but all of our definitions of it differ, I suppose. I think we can all agree that experience is the best (only?) way to being well-rounded, but then again, that all depends on what we consider ‘experience’, doesn’t it?
All I was saying before is that reading is not an end in itself, it is a means to an end. What we read should impact us in some way, make us think about things related (or not) to what we are reading. Of course, almost any experience can trigger this if we are attuned to making those types of leaps already. The question is what is it that makes us attuned to that type of thinking? Bloom’s Taxonomy of learning behaviours is one attempt at investigating that question, but the answer is complex, far more complex than just giving kids books. Books without the ability to integrate the thoughts within are not any different than video games - mere entertainment is not the goal, is it?
I have no idea what the answer is, but I know that it isn’t simple.
You have a great day too Maureen, and please do come back. I enjoy the comments and discussion more than the article writing, you know!