What the What?

I find myself pondering the lost art of asking a question. After attending countless Q&A sessions for work, workshops, conferences, town hall meetings and most recently bestselling author events, I have become fed up with the inarticulate way that people ask questions.

Am I the only who thinks that a question should not take twice as long to vocalize as it does for the person answering the questions to come up with and deliver a response? Why do people feel it is necessary to ramble on and on in the voicing of their question? Wouldn't it make more sense to spit it out? I can not speak for everyone else, but when I attend a lecture, I am interested in what the speaker has to say and want to make the most out of the allotted time they have to speak. As a result, there is nothing that bothers me more than listening to people fumble around in asking their questions and providing long explanations to why they are asking the question.

Yesterday, I attended an event that featured two authors including Charlaine Harris. I am a big fan of her books and for those who are not familiar with her work, she writes the Southern Vampire Series (the basis for the hit HBO program True Blood) among other things. She was a very interesting and articulate speaker. Unfortunately, the 45 minutes allotted for her Q&A session were spent listening to people ask questions instead of listening to her responses. Only one person in the audience had the foresight to write down a list of questions she wanted to ask. As a result, only one clear and concise question was asked during the entire 45 minute event. I felt it was a sad waste of a great experience as Charlaine was very entertaining in the few minutes the audience gave her to respond in between their rambling questions.

The worst part is that in their need to provide lengthy explanations to their questions or maybe in an attempt to make their questions sound more informed and intelligent, people actually came across as more than a little insulting with questions that sounded like they were asking her if she stole ideas from other books, was bothered by Stephenie Meyer’s success, if she consciously made Sookie such a strong female character in response to the weaker Bella, etc.

In one case, the girl had a valid question, the problem was it got so lost in her ramblings that instead of responding to a question that would have no doubt had an interesting answer, Charlaine was forced to defend the fact that her books were written before Stephenie Meyer’s books, so her characters were developed that way out of creativity not out of a wish to differentiate them from the Twilight characters. If the girl had just taking the time to think about her question, things would have gone much better.

Now while it might not be wholly unexpected for the two authors to be compared since they both are bestselling authors in the fantasy/paranormal genre, despite the fact that one writes for a young adult audience and one clearly for an adult audience, it is just rude to make it sound like Charlaine was jumping on a bandwagon when she was making a mark for herself in the genre long before Stephenie came along. Her responses were gracious, but firmly defended her own established position. I must add that she was very vocal about the fact that she is always extremely happy to see a new writer, especially a female writer succeed, and she wished Stephenie all the best.

Is that really what she said?

Who hasn't been caught in a valet only parking situation when you don't have any cash on you. I know I have.

Now I am usually, I think, pretty generous with tips, but on at least one occasion in a society, which lets be honest does not encourage the use of cash, I have been caught without cash and unable to tip a valet. I can only hope that no one has ever done to me what I witnessed someone do recently.

I was out with a group of people and at the end of the evening we were standing in line waiting for our cars to be pulled around when a friend confided to me that he didn't have any cash. Unfortunately, I had only enough cash to tip the valet myself and was unable to lend him any. Embarrassed that the people we were with would think badly of him for not tipping, he tried to be extremely discreet in getting in the car when the rest of the people in our group were in a conversation and not paying attention. Unfortunately, someone in the group not only noticed, but broadcasted to the entire group with an air of incredulity that he had not tipped the valet. And she didn't just say it once, but repeated it several times to ensure everyone heard it. To make matters worse, as the door to the vehicle had not yet been closed, there was no way he didn't hear her out him in front of the whole group.

Was that really necessary? Especially considering that she (as opposed to several others in the group) knew the guy well enough to know that this was not his usual M.O. What purpose did that serve and who would do that to someone they supposedly consider a friend.

What's in a name

I have been talking about starting a blog for months, but to have a blog, I needed a name for a blog. This became quite an ordeal. I wanted to come up with a name that would accurately convey the random thoughts that will make up the content of my posts. So... what did I come up with? Thanks to some assistance from my cousin, Kate's Cortex Vortex was born. I know right... say that three times fast. Okay, so its a little difficult to direct people to your blog when you say the name and they look at you like you are crazy, but alas, it is the name I decided to use. However, considering the whirlpool of random thoughts I am sure I will be sharing through this blog, it is quite fitting and in my opinion has a nice ring to it.

For those of you with a science background, I am refering to the cerebral cortex of the brain in my title. While I am aware of the fact that cortex can refer to the outer layer of any organ, it is also the part of the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. At least that is what wikipedia says and we all know if its on wikipedia it might as well be written in stone ;)