It’s amazing how we adapt. I was meeting with a colleague this morning at Port City Java, when the barista started doing her thing. Our conversation volume went from a very normal level to a near scream, which ironically, I could barely hear.

You can understand my amazement then, when the barista suddenly stopped her craft, and immediately all went silent. My friend instantly dropped from a concert-level decibel output to a near whisper-totally unaffected and without missing a beat. He acted as if nothing happened. Like there was no problem with conversing, yelling and then whispering all within the span of 14 seconds. It was normal. Call it the Starbucks (or Port City Java) conversational discourse if you would.

What other whacky things do we put up with to accommodate our modern life (oh, think of cell phones, blackberry’s, smoking, shopping, the internet…)?