Unapologetically (But Politely) Opinionated

A while ago one of my readers commented about the fact that I rated some of my featured links as being "boring, but useful."  The rating was only half serious, and quite honestly I never expected anyone to notice, but I had to concede that "boring" was a harsh judgement to render. In fact, I once wrote that the most terrifying verdict a speaker can hear is that she or he is boring (see my January 2009 column).


The cold dry fact, however, is that it's nearly impossible to make all useful information entertaining. There are certain textbooks you read, certain speakers to which you listen, and certain websites you visit because they offer what you need, not because they make you feel good.



While we're on the topic of rating websites, you might have noticed that I rated my Spontaneous Combustion articles as "Entertaining but not necessarily useful." I'm not sure which is worse - being boring or useless.


Speaking of Spontaneous Combustion (which is hopefully neither boring nor useless), I finally updated the link on the sidebar, and it will now take you to the most recent installment. Or if you are too lazy to find the link on the sidebar, you can click here.


I didn't just rate you as lazy if you didn't go to the sidebar. Or did I. Hmmmm.


Some of my friends have recommended that I curb my opinionated ramblings, seeing that I now hold the precarious position of temporary manager of the Pre-Service Fire Program. They may have a point, but I don't flatter myself that anyone pays that much attention. The fact that someone who is somebody actually read and gave feedback on my "boring but useful rating" was flattering, but definitely unusual. 


Now I feel like I just rated those who commented on my posts in the past as not being "somebodies." If I did, I definitely retract that rating.


On a vaguely connected theme (and as a means of suggesting you to read more of my hopefully entertaining stuff), you can read my musings about the ups and downs of not being taken seriously here (no link on the side bar this time, so no accusations of laziness). 


You gotta wonder how a blog post can spiral out of control to this extent. 


On a completely unrelated topic, I missed an opportunity to hear Margaret Trudeau yesterday. I was busy doing important stuff and didn't realize she was a two minute walk from my office giving an entertaining and useful talk on maintaining a balanced and healthy mental state of mind. It isn't a topic that has instant appeal to me, but, in my opinion, the fire service hasn't paid enough attention to the topic. I know I didn't take it seriously enough until recently.


Wrangling myself back to the original topic of harsh ratings, I wasn't repentant enough to change the ratings on the links on my sidebar. Or maybe I was just too lazy.