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Looking for Laughs

 

Over the years, when I’ve needed a lift or a charge or a jump, I’ve assigned myself homework. I’ve had all sorts of stupid assignments, from “engage with three people” to “find ten out-loud laughs.”  Those assignments are per day, by the way. Not anything completely insane like per hour.

I’m just reasonably and partially insane, not completely insane.

Engaging with three people, for me, is not too difficult if I really focus on it.  It usually means delivering Compliments or Well-Wishes (CoWWs).  #AcronymAlert

Delivering CoWWs is actually really fun once you get over the initial paralyzing social anxiety. Once you realize the person is unlikely to totally go off on you, you can relax. And when you do say something nice to the person, you will usually see pretty quickly that others enjoy hearing nice things like compliments and well-wishes. Usually you get back a lot more than it took to get it out.

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No you didn’t. “Inventing Anna”

Yes. I did.

I got completely obsessed with Inventing Anna on Netflix.

And it took me a while to figure out why I was so obsessed. The Anna in the series is not likable or all that interesting. She definitely isn’t fascinating the way other scammers and serial criminals are fascinating. She isn’t Betty Broderick. I could watch Betty Broderick drive her SUV into Dan’s house on a loop.

But I eventually realized – after a little bit of reading and listening (see the pathetic, no-life list below) that the Netflix series raised a lot of questions but didn’t provide the answers.

Like how did she get all that money she was throwing around to pay for other people’s dinners and airline tickets? And where did all those hundreds come from? And how did she get lines of credit? Was she getting credit extended to her and then paying off enough that she could maintain a good credit rating? Is a good credit rating really not necessary to be a scammer? At one or two points I wondered if I was just stupid about credit.

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