NLPhilia Blog

I dost.

For some time, the idea of learning to read Old English has been on my “someday maybe” list. To be able to enjoy Beowulf or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the original language, the way it was spoken a thousand years ago, would be amazing.

I recently borrowed from the public library a course of lectures titled “History of the English Language” by Michael D.C. Drout, the Prentice Associate Professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. (Do you know why we use “apostrophe+s” to indicate possession? I do!) I was so impressed by his ability to make a potentially dry subject a lot of fun that I went to his home page. There I found gold:

• Anglo-Saxon Aloud: A daily reading of the entire Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, which includes all poems written in Old English (Free, a podcast)
• Beowulf Aloud: A Reading of Beowulf in Old English ($20, on CD)
• King Alfred’s Grammar: A tutorial on Old English (Free, HTML)
• Wormtalk and Slugspeak: Professor Drout’s blog

If you’re an English wonk like I am, I’m sure you’ll enjoy these.

[edit 2008-04-26: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was in a particular dialect of Middle English, not in Old English. Sorry about that.]

And now for a lesson in perspective: the World Clock.

Thanks to my friend Alan for sending me the link.

It’s been going on far too long: Doug O’Brien is one of the best-kept secrets in NLP and hypnosis training. So I’m shouting his name from the blogtops. His certification training in Ericksonian Hypnosis is coming to New York City!

Learn the fundamentals of Ericksonian Hypnosis, become certified as a Hypnotherapist and get started in a fascinating and lucrative new field … In just two intensive weekends

Now, just in case you’re saying you aren’t interested in pursuing hypnosis as a career, let me say this: the career part is entirely optional and a brief segment of the course, but the skills you will acquire are mandatory. Wouldn’t you love to be a master of hypnotic language, capturing and leading the attention of others easily and smoothly, creating and delivering powerful stories, no matter what you do?

It’s May 16, 17, & 18 and May 31 & June 1, 2008. Don’t put it off; go sign up straight away!

Doug is also training with Jonathan Altfeld in Tampa in June: Belief Craft and NLP Master Practitioner.

Get more of Doug at http://ericksonian.com and http://ericksonian.info.

I found out that stifle is practically the only word which is an anagram of itself.

I’m enjoying the Calligraphic Button Catalog. 🙂

I’ve been on a Customer Service reading binge lately. My employer wants to develop a regular program to make our service more consistently good, and I’ve involved myself.

One of my favorite writers on this subject is the anonymous author of the Waiter Rant blog. In a very recent article, he writes from a customer perspective, and the person providing him excellent service was his chef:

Oh sure, I’ve dined in some expensive places during the past few weeks, but when you experience hunger sated by human kindness, well, that beats all the three star Michelin Chefs in the world combined.

It’s long been my position that a manager must treat his or her employees the way they want employees to treat their customers. I’ve seen it work too much and too well to believe otherwise. This little tale illustrates why it works.

Go read the full story about his Miracle Pizza.

Happy Document Freedom Day, everyone!

Today is Document Freedom Day: Roughly 200 teams from more than 60 countries worldwide are organising local activities to raise awareness for Document Freedom and Open Standards. To support the initiatives surrounding the first day to celebrate document liberation, DFD starter packs containing a DFD flag, t-shirts and leaflets have been sent to the first 100 registered teams over the past weeks.

As it came to be my turn in line at the grocery store today, the cashier gave me The Standard Greeting (“Hello, how are you…” delivered in a lifeless monotone and with eyes down) and I responded as if she’d really meant it.

“I’m good! How are you doing?!” I said.

When she sneaked a slightly-off-balance look to make sure of me, I met her eyes with an expression that sincerely invited her to come on over and play in my sandbox. (Thanks, Jonathan Altfeld, for that frame!)

It was a tiny and fleeting grin she gave me, but I felt like I’d won a prize. 🙂

…what you thought about this blog. What do you want to see? What do you like? Is there an article you’d like to put here, or a NLPer you’d like to see writing here besides little ol’ me?

Let me know in the comments or via the contact form.

An interesting article from Psych Central News charges the media with disseminating the “chemical imbalance” nonsense theory of mental illness:

…there are few scientists who will rise to its defense, and some prominent psychiatrists publicly acknowledge that the serotonin hypothesis is more metaphor than fact. As the current study documents, when asked for evidence, reporters were unable to cite peer-reviewed primary articles in support of the theory.

As someone who’s spent significant time with mentally ill people (Patients! At work! Really!) I’ve consistently failed to find a reason to believe there’s a bio-chemical cause for mental illness. It simply fails the logic tests as well as violating everything I’ve been able to learn about neurology. The idea that there’s one simple thing behind such complex and varied behavior is just, well, simplistic. Financially lucrative if you manufacture drugs, but not justifiable.

Full article at: Biochemical Roots of Depression Challenged

Jennifer Lerner of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University heads up their Laboratory for Decision Science.

A recent interview with Ms. Lerner outlines her research on the effects that different emotional states (specifically, fear versus anger) have on the making of decisions:

We hypothesized that fear and anger would actually have opposing effects on people’s risk perceptions. In particular, we predicted that fear would lead to a pessimistic outlook, while anger would lead to an optimistic outlook when it came to risk perception.

In our early laboratory studies, we found that experimentally induced fear and anger did indeed have these opposite effects on risk perception.

Read the interview: Jennifer Lerner on Emotion, Judgment and Public Policy

(Hat tip to Security guru Bruce Schneier)