Want to join in? Respond to our weekly writing prompts, open to everyone.
Want to join in? Respond to our weekly writing prompts, open to everyone.
from
Roscoe's Quick Notes

The ladies are calling for a “White Out!” tonight for this Thursday's women's college basketball game when the Michigan Wolverines arrive at Assembly Hall to play our Indiana University Hoosiers. I guess that means they want everyone to show up wearing something white. Don't think I'll comply with that request; I'll be hunkered down here in my South Texas room roughly a thousand miles away from the action. But I will have my radio tuned into B97 – The Home for IU Women's Basketball early enough to catch the Pregame Show followed by the call of the game.
And the adventure continues.
Too small to handle and resharpen with a knife. Not even my pencil extender can extend its life. Out of the fresh cardboard box it’s born. Once its usefulness is gone, into the retirement box it mourns.
Sometimes they come out to erase their son’s and daughter’s mistakes. Or get thrown into forests, deserts, mountains, and lakes. It’s the cycle of a pencil’s life that never ends. Acts like a bridge to your mind and hand, never bends.
Why am I writing about tiny pencils, I have some writing to do. Forget this stupid poem, this post is doo-doo!
#writing #poem #pencil
from witness.circuit
Practical Guidance from the Church of the Ever-Changing Moment
The Rehearsal Addict
Aka: The Future Debater
Aka: The Inner Emergency Technician
Aka: The Pattern Chaser
Here come 10 more, staying in the same tone—sharp, warm, a little weird:
Aka: The Museum of Me
Aka: The Inner Scorekeeper
Aka: Closure Craver
Aka: The Voice Memo Hoarder
Aka: The Social Weather Forecaster
Aka: The Email Whisperer
Aka: The Shadow Commentator
Aka: The Doom Forecaster
Aka: The Imagined Gaze
Aka: The Self-Quoter
from Sinnorientierung
A challenge to everyone
If we would see each other as unique persons, each capable of unique contributions, we could come to a common vision and a common meaning. We would be able to transcend our differences, even transcend ourselves and our surrounding for the good of a greater community by experiencing relationships of respect, caring, and at times love. Dr. Frankl would challenge you to join the human minority, not to be or remain lost in the crowd but to become one of those who lives, thinks, speaks and acts according to one’s conscience
McKilopp, T. (1993) A MESSAGE OF HOPE, The International Forum of Logotherapy, p. 8
from witness.circuit
Visitor: Maharaj … I must confess something terrible. I did not come only to ask questions. I came with the intention to kill you.
Maharaj: (smiling gently) Very good. Then you have come honestly, at least.
Visitor: You are not afraid?
Maharaj: Afraid of what? Of being killed? I am not alive in the way you think.
Visitor: But this body—this man before me—
Maharaj: Is already dead to himself. It is only appearing, like a reflection in water.
Visitor: Then who is it that I wished to kill?
Maharaj: An idea. A story in your mind. You came to destroy an image, not me.
Visitor: Why would I want to do that?
Maharaj: Because you hoped that by killing me, your suffering would end. You thought I was the cause.
Visitor: Is that true?
Maharaj: Your suffering is born of believing you are a person. I only point to that illusion. That feels dangerous to the mind.
Visitor: So my anger was fear?
Maharaj: Yes. Fear of disappearing.
Visitor: And now?
Maharaj: Now see: the one who wanted to kill is also only an idea.
Visitor: Then who am I?
Maharaj: The space in which both murder and forgiveness appear—and vanish.
Visitor: (quietly) I feel… empty. And peaceful.
Maharaj: Good. You have killed the right one.
from brendan halpin
So my friends and I were on the ol’ group text last night bemoaning the fact that nobody’s written a resistance anthem for the current moment. That is to say, there are plenty of anti-Trump, Anti-ICE songs, but I haven’t yet come across one that folks can sing acapella in the streets.
So I wrote one. Well, I wrote words for one. I do not have enough understanding of how music works to write an anthem, but I was thinking something stirring like the Marseillaise or something.
Anyway, here are the words I wrote. I hereby put them into the public domain, so if you wanna add music, remix, add, subtract, whatever, feel free. I don’t even need credit. I’d just like for us to be able to sing together.
VERSE:
From the snows of Minneapolis
To the palm trees of L.A.
From Chicago up to Portland
You can hear the people say
CHORUS:
We stand as one
We stand together
We stand to keep our country free*
And if you want to take my neighbor
Well then you have to go through me
VERSE:
In the schools and in the hospitals
The streets we call our own
We’ll greet those cowards with the courage
They have never known
CHORUS
VERSE:
When we send them crawling back
Into the holes where they belong
We will drown their mournful crying
With our joyful victory song
CHORUS
*Keep is for mass appeal, though of course kinda historically inaccurate. “Make” is an okay subsitute here.
There you go.
from
Florida Homeowners Association Terror

When you are experiencing hard times because of your Homeowners Association, you have to learn—or revert to—certain behaviors to stay afloat while you figure out how to get your life out of shambles. Living in a working-class neighborhood should not be so difficult. We go to work our asses off, come home, eat, then sleep. But when you already are in a disadvantaged situation, you are hyper aware that there is a thin line between working-class and below the poverty line.
Although I have been in several hurricanes, I never lost power continuously until Milton. I remember waiting to see if we were going to make it to three days sans electricity so that we could get emergency food assistance from FEMA. And it did take three days for the power to be restored. I immediately applied to FEMA. More and more days passed as I listened to other people I knew (and didn’t know) get their food assistance. But I did not. In fact, I have never gotten any type of assistance from FEMA for any of the five storms since I have lived in my house.
As I began to toss items from the main fridge, the mini fridge, and my camping fridge into the garbage, I wondered if I really had to throw these items away. I mean food guidelines are just guidelines, right? It was a painful process because I have a “thing” about wasting food—I don’t waste anything. I will eat the same meal for a week. I scrape my plates. I bring home scraps from restaurants. And I will eat your leftovers on your plate so that no food is wasted. It took me two weeks to throw everything out because I could not stay committed. My parents had to make me do it.
My refrigerator has never been the same. The storms delayed the start of my job. I missed the date to file for my last unemployment check by one day. All the damage to my home stressed me out and FEMA nor my insurance company were easy to deal with. When I get stressed, I get sick. Of course it didn’t help that my new boss was bitch of the year. Then, I found out my great, long-time friend that I met on base had died. Then my 102 year-old auntie from whom I was trying to learn my ancestry died. All of this affected my income. And as food prices continued to rise, I had trouble restocking while trying to overcome the mental anguish of knowing what the food prices used to be.
I’ve been poor before: foodstamps/EBT, WIC, TANF/AFDC, Medicaid, health departments, sliding scale clinics, Goodwill, and garage sales (never got section 8 in any state because the waiting list was 5 to 10 years!). Up North, I remember a Haitian church that used to feed those in need hot meals twice a week. I did not accept their offer until one day they yanked me inside. And we have some food banks in my area in which I have seen lines of people in the morning while I go to work while thinking,
Damn. I need to be in that line!
Bay Area Legal Services asked me why I was not on foodstamps.
Foodstamps? I can get foodstamps? I didn’t think a “‘homeowner’ with a car” could get foodstamps (well, at least not down here in Florida).
Plus with all the drama with the government shutting down benefits and non-poor people always trying to decide what others should be able to eat (in-group vs out-group, exclusionary…I am going to keep hammering this), I didn’t think it was worth the effort.
I got on public assistance as a teen. And I remember when I got off it and how proud I was that I had graduated from college and gotten my first big girl job. I went to Panera Bread for the first time…and I bought…organic milk! Oh well, that was yesteryear, this is today. At least I can now make meals for my parents that have been feeding me incessantly during this time.
from
The happy place
here is the so called elephant text, a pretty good one with a powerful elephant metaphor which came to me, just like that!
I followed an impulse to remove it, because it gave the impression that I was offended, but I was!
And rightly so! I reserve the right at any and all times to be: OFFENDED!
🤌🤌
My face looks like it’s got the texture of an elephant’s; with wrinkles. That’s a recurring thought which strikes me lately when I see my brightly lit face in the bathroom mirror. It’s been a gradual change which suddenly reaches a certain threshold, and then you see it clearly. But not before!
The kind aunt called me earlier today to tell me I’m wrong about my childhood. Apparently she’s a subject matter expert.
But I’ve become an elephant. Elephants never forget.
I was therefore able to take what she said with a grain of salt fortunately.
She hadn’t seen my metamorphosis.
That was the last time I referred to her as the kind aunt, though.
So everything changes
from
EpicMind

Kooperation gilt heute fast überall als Schlüsselkompetenz: in Teams, in Organisationen, in Bildungskontexten. Gleichzeitig bleibt oft unklar, was mit guter Zusammenarbeit eigentlich gemeint ist. Reicht es, wenn alle nett sind? Oder wenn Geben und Nehmen fair austariert sind? In meinen Leadership-Trainings und auch im Unterricht beobachte ich immer wieder dieselbe Spannung: Menschen wollen kooperativ sein, fürchten aber, ausgenutzt zu werden. Genau hier setzt die Arbeit von Adam Grant [1] an. Seine Typologie der Kooperation liefert ein überraschend nüchternes Raster, um diese Spannungen besser zu verstehen – ohne moralischen Zeigefinger, aber mit klaren Befunden.
Adam Grant unterscheidet vier grundlegende Kooperationsstrategien. Wichtig ist mir vorab ein Punkt: Es handelt sich nicht um feste Persönlichkeitstypen, sondern um Verhaltensweisen, die stark vom Kontext geprägt sind.
1. Der Nehmer Nehmer handeln konsequent eigennützig. Sie unterstützen andere nur dann, wenn sie sicher sind, mehr zurückzubekommen, als sie investieren. Kooperation ist für sie ein Mittel zur individuellen Vorteilsmaximierung. Kurzfristig können Nehmer erfolgreich wirken, langfristig beschädigen sie jedoch Vertrauen und Beziehungen. Ihre Reputation leidet, und Netzwerke schliessen sie zunehmend aus [2], [3].
2. Die Tauscherin Tauscher orientieren sich strikt an Ausgleich und Gegenseitigkeit. Hilfe erfolgt nach dem Prinzip „Wie du mir, so ich dir“. Fairness steht im Zentrum, nicht Grosszügigkeit. Wer mehr gibt, als zurückkommt, fühlt sich benachteiligt; wer weniger gibt, wird sanktioniert. Laut Grant ist dies die verbreitetste Strategie in Organisationen, weil sie sozial akzeptiert ist und Nehmerverhalten begrenzt. Gleichzeitig verhindert die ständige Bilanzierung, dass Vertrauen wirklich wachsen kann [2], [3].
3. Der fremdbezogene Geber Kluge Geber helfen anderen, wenn ihr eigener Aufwand geringer ist als der Nutzen für das Gegenüber. Sie starten mit Vertrauen, setzen aber klare Grenzen. Wird dieses Vertrauen missbraucht, stellen sie ihre Unterstützung ein. Diese Kombination aus Prosozialität und Selbstschutz erweist sich in Grants Studien als besonders erfolgreich. Kluge Geber bauen starke Netzwerke auf, ohne sich selbst zu überlasten. Sie geben strategisch dort, wo es wirklich wirkt [2]–[4].
4. Die selbstlose Geberin Selbstlose Geber stellen die Interessen anderer konsequent über ihre eigenen, selbst wenn sie ausgenutzt werden. Harmonie und Anerkennung sind zentral, eigene Bedürfnisse treten zurück. Grant zeigt deutlich: Diese Gruppe weist die höchsten Burnout-Raten auf und ist beruflich im Schnitt am wenigsten erfolgreich. Selbstlose Geber werden oft übersehen, ihre Beiträge für selbstverständlich gehalten. Nehmer nutzen ihre Bereitschaft systematisch aus [2]–[4].
Die vier Kooperationstypen nach Grant (eigene Darstellung mit NotebookLM)
Der zentrale Befund ist bekannt, aber dennoch irritierend: Am unteren Ende der Erfolgsskala, so Grant, finden sich selbstlose Geber, im Mittelfeld Tauscher und Nehmer, an der Spitze kluge Geber. Entscheidend ist nicht, ob* jemand gibt, sondern wie.
| Adam Grant |
|---|
| Adam M. Grant (*1981) ist Organisationspsychologe und Professor an der Wharton School der University of Pennsylvania. Internationale Bekanntheit erlangte er mit Give and Take (2013, deutsch: Geben und Nehmen), in dem er auf Basis umfangreicher Studien zeigt, dass Erfolg weniger mit Durchsetzungsstärke als mit klugem, begrenztem Geben zusammenhängt [1]. Grant verbindet experimentelle Forschung mit anwendungsnaher Organisationspsychologie. Seine Arbeiten richten sich explizit an Praktikerinnen und Praktiker – ein Grund, weshalb sie in Leadership- und Bildungskontexten so anschlussfähig sind. |
Für #Führung – bewusst breit verstanden – sind Grants Befunde relevant, weil sie zwei weit verbreiteten Annahmen widersprechen: erstens, dass Wettbewerb Leistung steigert, und zweitens, dass bedingungslose Hilfsbereitschaft per se wünschenswert ist:
Produktiv wird Führung dort, wo kluges Geben möglich ist: Vertrauen als Ausgangspunkt, klare Grenzen als Korrektiv. Das zeigt sich auch im Führungsverhalten selbst – etwa beim Delegieren von Verantwortung, beim Zulassen von Kompetenzgefällen oder beim bewussten Verzicht auf permanente Kontrolle. Führung wird damit weniger zu einer Frage der Macht, sondern der Rahmensetzung.
Auch im Unterricht, insbesondere in der Erwachsenenbildung, begegnen mir die vier Typen regelmässig. Gruppenarbeiten, Peer-Feedback oder kollaborative Lernformate sind ideale Beobachtungsfelder.
Selbstlose Geber übernehmen oft zu viel, erklären alles, tragen Gruppenarbeiten. Tauscher achten genau darauf, wer wie viel beiträgt. Nehmer profitieren davon – zumindest kurzfristig. Ohne didaktische Rahmung kippen kooperative Settings rasch in Schieflagen.
Didaktisch interessant ist daher nicht, alle zum Geben zu motivieren, sondern kluges Geben zu ermöglichen: transparente Erwartungen, begrenzte Aufgaben, klare Verantwortlichkeiten. Lernende sollen erfahren, dass Kooperation sinnvoll ist, ohne Selbstaufgabe zu verlangen. Gerade in der Erwachsenenbildung ist das auch ein implizites Leadership-Learning.
Was mich an Grants Typologie überzeugt, ist ihre Nüchternheit. Sie romantisiert Kooperation nicht, verteufelt Eigeninteresse aber ebenso wenig. Überrascht hat mich vor allem, wie klar die Daten gegen selbstloses Geben sprechen – ein Ideal, das in vielen Organisationen und Bildungskontexten immer noch hochgehalten wird. Ich habe gelernt, dass die Frage nicht lautet „Wie bringe ich Menschen dazu, mehr zu geben?“, sondern „Wie schaffe ich Bedingungen, unter denen kluges Geben rational und nachhaltig möglich ist?“
In Führung wie im Unterricht geht es nicht darum, Nehmer auszumerzen oder Selbstlosigkeit zu belohnen. Entscheidend ist, Kontexte zu schaffen, in denen kluges Geben sichtbar, begrenzt und wirksam ist. Kooperation ist dann keine moralische Pflicht, sondern eine kluge Strategie.
Quellen [1] A. Grant, Geben und Nehmen: Warum Egoisten nicht immer gewinnen und hilfsbereite Menschen weiterkommen, München: Piper, 2013.
[2] J. Beil, „Karriere: Mit diesem Verhalten steigt die Chance auf beruflichen Erfolg“, Handelsblatt, 28. Jan. 2026. [Online]. Verfügbar: https://www.handelsblatt.com/karriere/karriere-mit-diesem-verhalten-steigt-die-chance-auf-beruflichen-erfolg/100007985.html
[3] Redaktion Personalwirtschaft, „Tauschen ist das neue Nehmen“, Personalwirtschaft, o. J. [Online]. Verfügbar: https://www.personalwirtschaft.de/news/hr-organisation/kollaboration-tauschprinzip-verhindert-echtes-teamwork-103566/
[4] D. Schmid, „Kooperation: Diese 4 Team-Typen gibt es in jedem Unternehmen“, impulse, o. J. [Online]. Verfügbar: https://www.impulse.de/personal/kooperation/7310209.html
Bildquelle Paul Klee (1879–1940): Liegend, Detroit Institute of Arts, Public Domain.
Disclaimer Teile dieses Texts wurden mit Deepl Write (Korrektorat und Lektorat) überarbeitet. Für die Recherche in den erwähnten Werken/Quellen und in meinen Notizen wurde NotebookLM von Google verwendet. Die Infografik zu den vier Typen wurde von NotebookLM basierend auf meiner Inhaltsangabe generiert. Ergänzender Prompt: „Verwende einen typischen Whiteboard-/Flipchart-Stil und stelle die 4 Typen anschaulich dar.“
Topic #Erwachsenenbildung | #Coaching
from
ernmander

The image above is a post I made on all social networks that I use. The picture above is a screenshot from Threads.
I've been sent a cancer screening kit from the NHS. As I say in the post this is not a task I am looking forward to. The post on BlueSky got no response. The post on Mastodon got a couple of replies. The post on Threads though has almost a hundred replies at the time of writing this. It's become almost a support network of people who have also got to do theirs and people who have done it supplying advice.
Most people who know me on social media know I post bog standard boring day to day stuff. I thought this post was exactly the same, but it seems to have struck a chord with some who are heading off to do the same thing. It is also amazing that those that have been through this and got the results that nobody wants have also commented and encouraged.
As I say I thought I was posting a boring everyday thing. I was also kind of not wanting to go ahead and do the test. My uncle passed away a few days ago from cancer. My Dad has had a six year long battle with a couple of cancers. With that in the back of my mind of course I'm here thinking the writing is on the wall for me.
Anyway I am not making any points here, I just wanted to get the words out of my head. If a small post like mine can have people conversing about cancer in a healthy way then all's good.
The ironic thing is the results from this free NHS cancer test will come back quicker than the paid for Ancestry DNA test. Our NHS is amazing.
from Faucet Repair
14 January 2026
Flat light (working title): The light bulb in my flat, my flat through the light bulb. Hard to say if it's working or not yet. Have been looking at Artschwager's Intersect (1992) aquatint/drypoint work of a dog in a corner a lot this week. That monochrome approach to sitting at some essential point where vision both understands an essence and fails to differentiate between its constantly changing parts felt (and still feels) like something related to why I keep approaching light. And so I painted a corner of my room through an unilluminated light bulb. Mixed colors instinctually this time (as opposed to from a reference work), and while I did not intend this, it occurred to me after I finished working how the hues and tones seem to relate directly to the amalgam of visual sensations I've absorbed in my room in the three plus weeks since I moved in.
from
Build stuff; Break stuff; Have fun!
Hah, I made a mistake. In my post, New Apple Watch Sleep Tracker Results, I forgot to increase the counter. The last ... posts #3 and New Apple Watch Sleep Tracker results have the same #48. Which is wrong. This post here should be #98 but is instead 99!
I was checking my general post count on write.as and saw that the overall count is not the same as I expected. I've clicked through the posts and located the issue. Editing all the post would make to much work, so I decided to write this post instead as a clarification.
The next post will be the last in this round of #100DaysToOffload.
🎉
99 of #100DaysToOffload
#log
Thoughts?
from Prdeush
Rayleighův prd je fyzikálně-dědkovský jev, ke kterému dochází, když jeden dědek prdne na druhého bez vyvolání nasraného stavu. Nedochází k agresi, odvetě ani k brblání — pouze k indukovanému vyprdnutí. Zasažený dědek nevypustí vlastní originální prd, ale modifikovanou kopii původního prdu, lehce posunutou vůní, tónem a délkou doznívání. Jde o čistý přenos prdelní informace. Klíčové je, že prd se nezesiluje, ale přenastaví. Stejně jako Rayleighův rozptyl mění barvu světla bez jeho zničení, Rayleighův prd mění charakter prdu bez emoční excitace. V Dědolesu se tento jev považuje za známku vysoké prdelní vyzrálosti — dědek, který podlehne Rayleighovu prdu, je klidný, stabilní a prdelně kompatibilní s okolím.
Ramanův prd je naopak neelastický prdelní rozptyl. Původní prd sice zasáhne cílového dědka, ale část prdelní energie se přenese do jeho emoční struktury. Dědek se excituje, zpravidla se nasere, začne funět, zrudne a výsledný prd už není kopií, ale zcela nový stav. Má jinou frekvenci, jinou pachovou stopu a často i delší dozvuk s verbálním doprovodem typu: „No to si děláš prdel?!“ V Dědolesu se Ramanův prd používá opatrně. Je to mocný nástroj, ale nebezpečný — může rozjet řetězovou reakci nasranosti, kdy se z jednoho prdu stane prdelní konflikt. Zatímco Rayleighův prd je znakem harmonie a klidu, Ramanův prd je počátek dramatu, legend, hádek u lavice a někdy i týdenního ticha.
from An Open Letter
She got me a framed photo of us after one of our early surprise dates. I’m so happy.
from
The happy place
I am working now, don’t have time to write
I have slept poorly it is however THURSDAY soon the weekend will be upon us!! Take heed!
I feel my soft yoga body and I would like to think that all is good
I wrote a really strong elephant post yesterday but was stricken by an impulse to delete it
Not entirely sure why?
I will write it again some day
Maybe it felt too personal but that hasn’t stopped me before?
I just say ”fuck it” and post; that’s why everyone loves this blog !
Anyway I better get back to work now, I am sure Windows updates are through
from Robert Galpin
raindrops like berries on the winter morning hawthorn