Yelling into the wind

I've had a lot of advice in my brain lately. That's going outward, I mean. And for the most part, it's been unasked-for and those pieces of advice I generally keep to myself, but some of it was asked for and still ignored, or received eye-rolls. Lately I've had a couple of people repeat advice I gave them years ago and which they finally took and surprise! it worked out well for them, so in that spirit, I'm just going to dump down a few pieces of advice I regularly give people. Just to save some time. Ignore it at your leisure, everybody else does. Even me, and some of this is stuff I've tried to work on myself.

The good news is I hardly ever say I told you so, so no worries on that front.

• It's Ark-iv-ist. Not Ark-ive-ist. Both i's sound like the i in ick, not in yikes.
• Just go watch Buffy the series. You'll like it. The first season is really smart.
• If the shoes you're wearing hurt you, give them away.
• Speed up into the curve. 
• Read Connie Willis's Bellweather, Jerome K. Jerome's 3 Men in a Boat, William Kotzwinkle's The Bear Went Over the Mountain, or William Goldman's Princess Bride in the next year. You'll enjoy one of them and may even laugh out loud.
• That bit at the top of your resume that says what kind of job you want? Delete it.
• Driving defensively does not always mean hitting the brakes.
• Nobody sane expects the top and bottom pages of the documents in your tenure binder to line up perfectly evenly.
• Work on reducing how much you swear.
• Paginate and date all documents.
• If you're putting off an apology? Get it over and done with.
• Laundering your dirty clothes is better than spritzing air freshener on them.
• Listen.
• Unless you live on a farm, cats are indoor pets.
• Tell somebody you love them, preferably somebody you a) love and b) hardly ever tell.
• Send your mom flowers once in a while.
• After cutting onions or garlic, rinse your hands with water and rub them on your stainless steel faucet. It will get rid of the smell. No, I don't know why, but it works.
• Take more photographs.
• Remember other people have bad days too.
• Apologies are not necessarily an admission of guilt.
• Life is too short to eat food you don't really like. (Stolen from my friend Jenny.)
• When a friend gives you good advice, steal it and pass it on.
• Make somebody laugh once a day.
• Don't dwell on what you've done wrong if there's a reasonable chance it won't ever happen again.
• Details make compliments better.
• Drink more water.

Okay, I feel better now. Back to writing my workshop where people will pay for advice they may choose to use or to ignore.

Oh, and one last piece which isn't so much advice, as a wish.

Have a nice day.