have you ever been...

Sitting in class or at work and you could just hop up and knock the taste out of someone's mouth? I know this sounds extreme and more than a little violent, but Good Lord! I'm not sure if it is library school or just our culture in general, but sometimes people act like such idiots and torture the rest of us normal people.

What exactly am I talking about? Well, it's a number of things, but I think it boils down to people not listening. Have you ever noticed how people just don't seem to listen anymore? For example, someone asks you for directions and you start to explain it to them and they start walking away nodding in that absent kind of way. Hey, I've done it before, but when I do it I don't expect the person to repeat themselves. This happens to me at work ALL THE TIME. Don't ask if you aren't willing to devote the entire minute and a half that it will take for me to fully explain what you want to know.

In relation to class, there are several people I have class with who are furiously taking notes and highlighting every g.d. word in the g.d. book and damned if they aren't tuning out exactly what they need to hear! Then the rest of the class have to suffer through their asinine questions that the professor has already explained or is just about to discuss. All of this happens when we are already running over class time and into MY time.

Listening is an art that a lot of people have lost. I know I could be a better listener and I implore the rest of you to be good listeners. If you know anyone who acts like the people I have described above, feel free to thump them on the head and mock them...I know I do.