Archive for June 2010

I’d love to read more stories like these two. They provide valuable insight in human nature, perception and more.

The Executive and the Branch Manager

The first lesson is in perception. I caught this nugget in a New York Times article [Link: Jack Scharff]. It’s a valuable lesson involving a language barrier that applies to people with hard-of-hearing or deafness. I’ve run into this many times in my life.

The interviewee asked Robert W. Selander, retiring chief executive of Mastercard, “What are the most important leadership lessons you have learned?

Brazil is a big country. I was living in Rio and it’s like living in Miami. I was out visiting a branch in the equivalent of Denver. Not everybody spoke great English and I hadn’t gotten very far in Portuguese. As I was sitting there trying to discern and understand what this branch manager was saying to me, and he was struggling with his English, the coin sort of dropped that this guy really knows what he’s talking about. He’s having a hard time getting it out.

As I thought about the places I’d been on that trip, I realized this was probably the best branch manager I’d seen, but it would have been very easy for me to think he wasn’t, because he couldn’t communicate as well as some of the others who were fluent in English.

I think that was an important lesson. It is too easy to let the person with great presentation or language skills buffalo you into thinking that they are better or more knowledgeable than someone else who might not necessarily have that particular set of skills.

I can’t tell you how many times I open my mouth and see the expression on someone’s face change when hearing something different about my voice. If I should ask someone to repeat, I’ll get a similar reaction to the one Selander described. Is it any wonder I love interacting online and social media? It filters out my accent and voice leaving the “language” barrier behind. This allows me to express myself and thoughts without any interference.

The Friend and a Family

The second lesson is in energy. A friend went to a foreign country and had dinner with a family. The family, of course, spoke in their native language. My friend only knew a touch of their language and struggled to follow the conversation. She shared this story and told me how exhausted she was after the conversation. Little did she know she taught me a lesson that I hadn’t learned in over 30 years.

I thought I wasn’t a high energy person by nature. This has nothing to do with enthusiasm, but everything to do with being able to go, go, go — which I can’t, can’t, can’t. I’ll go, go, go when I need to. However, I try to avoid it.

Listening to my friend’s story helped me realize exactly why I don’t have a lot of energy and why I collapse after just one day at a conference. Even though English is my native language, I have to work harder than the average person with hearing to “translate” everything from lips to words. Not everyone’s lips are easy to read, thus my eyes and brain go in overdrive. (It’s true that lipreaders only catch one-third of what the speaker says. Imagine reading every third word in this post.)

While this second lesson won’t affect many of you — it offers unusual insight into my life as a person who is deaf. Maybe you’ll get a different lesson out of this story.

What lessons have you learned from foreign travels or talking with people whose native language isn’t yours?

PC Catch of the Week: The Mystery of Crystal Portal sends you on a brain-bending adventure that’s full of hidden object fun! Journalist Nicole Rankwist has always been close to her archaeologist father, so when he goes missing, Nicole knows she has to find him! After all, he had apparently just made a discovery that could change the course of humanity. Join Nicole as she searches the globe on her quest to find her father and discover The Mystery of the Crystal Portal.

Catch the deal for your PC! Use coupon code CATCH299

Mac Catch of the Week: Last week, PC’ers got a literary choice. This time, it’s Mac’ers turn. The Count of Monte Cristo is an epic hidden object game based on the famous novel by Alexander Dumas. Help the romantic hero, Edmond Dantes, escape from a perilous prison and exact his vengeance on those who betrayed him. Follow the thrilling plot as you scour scenes for thousands of hidden objects, investigate eight suspects, and solve over 15 puzzles. Find the person that wrongfully imprisoned you in this one-of-a-kind adventure!

Catch the deal for  your Mac! Use coupon code CATCH299.

This $2.99 Catch of the Week runs through Sunday, July 4 aka Independence Day aka America’s 234th birthday at 11:59pm.

Doreen Cronin with my youngest

What’s with the noisy title in this edition? Thank you for asking. I bet that those of you with young kids may have figured it out. We met Doreen Cronin, author of Click, Clack, Moo; Thump, Quack, Moo; Duck for President and Diary of a Worm (Amazon affiliate links) — to name a handful. I think a parents enjoyment of reading a book is a good way to measure the quality of a children’s book. You can bet I laugh lots when we read Cronin’s books especially the ones with the cows and duck.

I asked her what she was working on. She said it was the sequel of a chapter book that comes out in the spring. I looked up the chapter book to see if details were available — not yet. I think it’s a great move on her part because the kids — like my youngest – who know her duck and cows book best now read chapter books and beyond. My older son could have discovered her books when he was in the picture book stage — but we didn’t meet them until later.

Dallas Children’s Theater is performing a musical version of Giggle, Giggle, Quack. We hope to catch that one.

Brain food…

• Six Ways Authors Can Promote Books on Facebook: Authors need to take marketing into their own hands and here’s one way to do it.
• 15 Inspiring Home Offices: Kind of makes me appreciate mine more. These setups rock — I like not being against the wall.
• 101 Blogs That Accept Guest Posts: Love this list because it lists the more popular sites as well as the pagerank — but remember pageranking changes and plenty of lower pagerank sites are worth the guest blog post. I also accept guest posts as long as they meet my guidelines. [Link: @txwriter]
• The Cognitive Itch — From Earworms to Déjà Vu: Dealing with can’t get song out of my head, déjà vu moments and tip-of-tongue problems. [Link: Lydia Dishman]
• Become a Book Review Ninja: 10 Steps to Mastery: I’ve been sitting on an how to article for doing book reviews for months. It need spiffying and more storytelling. Well, this is exactly what I was looking for — don’t know that I would’ve used the ninja theme, but I knew a theme would work.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 16 Eye Popping Pixel Sculptures You Have to See: Ah, I remember the days of 8-bit graphics. Who knew it could be taken to another dimension?
• 25 Cool USB Drives: I use a boring basic one. What I need isn’t a cool one but a very short one because the one I have keeps getting hit because of the way it sticks out. Wax seal one brings back memories. Yes, I had one. [Link: Jessica Strawser]
• Beautiful and Funny Illustrations by Tokyo Go Go: Something different, colorful and fun to look at. [Link: @bkkmacdaddy]
• 10 Hilarious Yet Ingenious Solutions to Everyday Problems: I could probably use the t-shirt … but it’d help to make plans to travel to another country first.
• Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air: (Big Fish Games affiliate link) I love this PC game series because of its gorgeous screens, absorbing puzzles and captivating storytelling. Right now, it’s only available as a Collector’s Edition, but this gives you time to try the original, Eternal Maze and the Chosen Child.

Tell us about a time when you met an author in person or a celebrity.

It doesn’t cost you anything to lower some pain and better manage stress. In fact, you already own it. You may know it as noodle or the little gray cells. Meet your mind.

Since reading Healing Back Pain by John Sarno, M.D., I experience much less back pain than I have in the past. Sarno says that much of the pain we experience comes from our stresses turning into physical pain. Instead of the mind accepting and handling the stresses and problems, it shuts itself off and converts the stresses into physical pain.

Of course, we can’t solve all of our problems, or at least, not fast enough to avoid the pain. What we can do is learn to accept them and tell ourselves that we’re aware of the problem.

Studies Show Psychological Connection between Mind and Back Pain

Many studies from universities and published in journal have proven the following points that Sarno makes in his book:

• Many patients with cracks in their discs or thinning discs experience no pain.
• The source of many patients’ back pain has been psychological — in how they deal with stress.

To give you a specific reference from Health Psychology journal, a study led by Robert Kerns, Ph.D. shows that using psychological treatments (alone or part of a multidisciplinary approach) decreased back pain more than any other treatment. Search for back pain and psychological intervention, and you’ll see many results.

Stress affects your health. Our caveman brain deals with some problems in “fight or flight” mode. Instead of hitting or running away, we tend to experience hearts beating faster, blood pressure climbing, adrenalin hopping and body aching.

Put Your Mind to Work

I bring up this subject to share how it has helped my back problems and to share how I’ve been dealing with recent stresses.  A report from a standard checkup arrived in the mail requesting a follow up. At first, my stomach flipped and my mind wandered everywhere refusing to return to work. The report even says that the results turn out to be harmless for the majority of people who need this follow up.

I needed more comforting than that. The follow up doesn’t occur for another week — it was the soonest I could get in. Well, I don’t have time to dwell on this especially since it’ll be a few more days before I get results. So how do I refocus? I told myself that the medical staff wants to be on the safe side and double-check things. I also reminded myself that even though it means the pain of another appointment and more time away from work, I’ll rest easier knowing the results are very accurate.

After doing that, I felt less antsy and moved on with my week.

No Worrying Allowed… Not True

I’ve read Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Great advice. I put it to work. Still, I worry and dwell on things. It’s OK to get mad, sad, depressed, frustrated, whatever. The trick is not to let it interfere with your life for too long. Go ahead and do the woe is me routine for a little bit. While this routine may not bring progress, it helps us deal with the situation in a way that comes natural to us.

You may not be able to solve the problem right away (or ever, in some cases) or feel better, but you can move ahead with your business. This is where I do the “I accept the problem and I’m doing the best I can to work through it, so don’t you dare turn it into pain” routine. I get right back to work within a day. (unless it’s weekend, then I leave it until Monday.)

This thinking is how I dealt with tests back in my school days. I didn’t have confidence that I’d do well, but it never stopped me from studying hard and doing my best. I know that experts say that negative thinking leads to negative results and so on. But some of us can learn to let the thinking be while doing our best to achieve the opposite.

Funny — I just came across this tweet: “Don’t take negatively about yourself – you may just start to believe it.” @leadtoday. I agree that it can be true — it’s all how you manage it and what you do about it.

How do you deal with stress and difficult challenges?

PC Catch of the Week: Ah, we have a literary catch this week. Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, based on Daniel Defoe’s classic masterpiece, is a story of a man who survives a terrible shipwreck and finds himself cast away on an island in the Caribbean. This hidden object adventure spans over 28 years as you help Robinson explore the island, fight with cannibals, visit a lost village and construct a new boat to sail back home. Start your adventure by downloading Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.

Catch the deal for your PC! Use coupon code CATCH299

Mac Catch of the Week: Take charge of Be Rich Inc. where you are CEO to the hottest (like it’d be anything but) new real estate firm in the country. Build housing for undeveloped zones, provide your tenants with shopping and maintenance services, decorate greenways, builds stadiums. If you can raise capital, you can turn the neighborhood of your dreams into a reality. Act now before your profit margin slips away and play Be Rich.

Catch the deal for  your Mac! Use coupon code CATCH299.

This $2.99 Catch of the Week runs through Sunday, June 27 at 11:59pm.

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the first ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. June 21st: 45% off on Curse of the Pharaoh: Tears of Sekhmet

Tue. June 22nd: 60% off on Double Play: Jewel Quest 2 and 3

Wed. June 23rd: 65% off on Mandragora

Thu. June 24th: 65% off on Be A King

Fri. June 25th: 65% off on Season Match 2

Sat. June 26th: 65% off on Robbie: Unforgettable Adventures

Sun. June 27th: 65% off on Babylonia

Meryl's Dad with his parents

My dad wasn’t an outdoorsy beyond playing sports. Yet, he once took me fishing at a nearby lake. I don’t recall the lake or the actual time spent fishing. The picture that comes to mind is us leaving our home and getting in the car. We also had a great conversation because he taught me a new vocabulary word. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the word — just the experience of being with him and learning something.

I asked my mom about it. She said he took me to Lake Weatherford to swim and maybe Benbrook Lake to fish. (Both in Fort Worth, TX, area.) I learned something new about my dad. He liked fishing and used to go deep-sea fishing with his Uncle Abe and David in Atlantic City (Dad was from Brooklyn).

Brain food…

• What It Takes to Be an Agent: Love books, but don’t want to be an author? Learn about agentdom (or agenthood?).
• 4 Detective Tricks to Find Your Customers in Social Media: One of the key things businesses need to do before diving in social media is know where their target market hangs out online. Of course, you can jump into something and be an early adopter, but you still need to know this information before you plan.
• Pros and Cons of an MFA: Cute cartoon. I’d love to get an MFA or MLA in the future. I hope by the time I’m ready that there’s a local program or an online program (without video lectures) that fits. Why do I want to do it? Practice, feedback, challenge and education. [Link: Elizabeth Craig]
• How to Stand out on LinkedIn: Authored by LinkedIn VP, Steve Patrizi. Meryl’s LinkedIn here.
• A Writer’s Serenity Prayer: Rough day? Read this inspirational post.
• 5 Lies Unpublished Writers Tell Themselves (and the Truths That Can Get Them Published): #3 is my favorite.
• 12 Ways to Market Your Book by Giving Away Free Stuff. It can work… when done right and the article gives great examples. I don’t fall for those $300 worth of freebies, which includes a bunch of ebooks, articles and other stuff I never get around to reading.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Rubikcubism: Space invaders, Pac-man, Mona Lisa… who knew the befuddling Rubik’s Cube could do so many things. Beware that some of the pictures may not be safe for work. [Link: Bit Rebels]
• 65+ Incredible Soccer Action Shots and Portraits and World Cup Stop Motion Made with Lego – USA vs England: In honor of the World Cup action. [First link: bkmacdaddy]
• Super Mario Sticky Note Stop Motion: Wow, that’s patience.
• Hello Kitty Now in Star Wars and Star Trek: Amazing what adding a little ribbon does for Darthy’s personality. Too cute. My husband — father of our three children — loves Star Wars and Star Trek. So here’s 18 Astonishing Star Wars Sand Sculptures from BitRebels (obviously, I love this site) in his honor.
• A Geeky Stop Motion Animation Created With Fire: Cool. Just cool.

Share a memory of your father or a male role model.

I have an old, old (2001!) useless one-line post on creativity that search engines somehow love. I feel bad for the folks who keep landing on the post only to find nothing of value. Let’s see if we can stop torturing folks by listing  ideas for creative things to do. Some take a few minutes and some take hours. Some cost nothing. Some call for something you may have at home. Some may require a little shopping.

1. Write a song. You could do just the lyrics, just the music or both. Go crazy.
2. Create a paper airplane you’ve never done before. Most of us have done the basic style paper airplane. Alex’s Paper Airplanes provides how tos for all kinds of planes.
3. Make origami. Sick of airplanes? Get lots of paper folding ideas from the Origami Club.
4. Write a short story. Fiction. Nonfiction. Or fiction using a nonfiction memory. Don’t worry about perfection. Just throw it up on the screen or on paper.
5. Draw a picture. Use Crayons, paint, chalk (go draw on the sidewalk!), pencil, ballpoint pens, whatever writing instrument you have. Heck, use a graphic tablet.
6. Write a poem. Try out a new poetic form if you’re sick of haikus.  Robert Lee Brewer shares many, many poetic forms. Pick one you’ve never heard of and try it!
7. Take pictures. Walk around your neighborhood. Capture something. Go to a nearby park or intriguing place. Put those photo-taking techniques you read about to work.
8. Do ONE page in a scrapbook. Do you have scrapbooking materials that you have yet to use? I bought a package and never used it. The thought of trying to do a scrapbook overwhelms me, maybe it does for you, too. So go for ONE page. Pick three pictures and go!
9. Make up a dance. Love Dancing with the Stars or So You Think You Can Dance? You’ve seen lots of dancing, now try making up your own.
10. Build a website. You don’t have to be in a business to have a website. Create one for your favorite hobby or activity.
11. Create a Facebook page or group. Maybe your favorite nonprofit organization could use one. Love a band, hobby, activity? Before creating one, search Facebook to see if another group already exists. No sense in wasting time if an active group already covers the topic. Maybe you can narrow down the popular topic to create a niche group.
12. Rearrange your home. Change up the environment. Move or swap pictures, move furniture even to a different room, remove some clutter. A little change can give you more energy.
13. Paint a room. You can leave everything the same — just changing the color can make magic.
14. Paint pottery. Go to one of those paint pottery places and make something.
15. Make candles or soaps. I remember I had this arts and crafts book and I made a candle out of an egg shell. I was proud of myself especially since I have no eye for art. Lots and lots of resources for candlemaking help and ideas. And for soap ideas.
16. Produce a video. My daughter loves to do this for school projects. She impressed me with her creativity. If you already have a video camera, you’re golden. The web has plenty of free apps and software for editing and producing videos. What to make a video about? OK, I’ll be nice and give you one idea: “What is a hero?” OK, I stole it from one of my daughter’s video projects. Heck, you can search for “video project ideas.”
17. Learn how to knit, needlepoint, quilts or some other sewing craft. These projects can range from short to long. Take your pick. I used to do latch hook kits. Loved doing them and they’re so easy. I made a big Donald Duck picture and framed it for my dad that hangs in the office in my mom’s house (Dad passed away). @BJMuntain says, “Besides writing, I cross stitch. Great for people with patience and good attention to detail, like librarians or archaeologists.” I wish I had the ability to put together a quilt made of shirts. I had someone take all my old shirts and swetashirts and turned them into an awesome, memory-filled quilt.
18. Decorate a plain picture frame. Find a fun picture and create a fun frame to go with it.
19. Play chef. Create a new recipe. Do a twist on a favorite. Make candy, cookies, cupcakes or cakes and apply a new decorating technique. Turn on a food TV channel and you’ll be inspired that you want to make something. Or make a gingerbread house or something creative and use candy to decorate it. I just saw a roller coaster candy challenge where the winner added silver to peppermint patties and used them as rivets. Brilliant.
20. Make jewelry. I’ve done the macramé thing in scouts, lanyard thing at camp and made bracelets. Go to an art supply store and you’ll find plenty of trinkets, beads and charms to motivate you.
21. Learn a new craft technique. Try stenciling, stamping or etching.
22. Make something with florals. I loved the centerpieces at a recent event. It was a small glass vase filled with clear gelatin. Put two little lights in the gelatin and then fill the vase with three short flowers. Simple yet elegant.
23. Build a bear. Sure, it costs a pretty dollar, but it’s fun and you’ll feel like a kid again.
24. Work on a book. Novel, nonfiction, whatever you desire. Don’t pressure yourself. Just do it here and there. From @KevinFenton: “Work on a novel. Craig Ferguson, who’d been working in film, called it punk rock –– you can do what you want with cheap supplies.” Love to draw? Do a children’s book with pictures.
25. Create a photo show. Why wait until a special occasion when you’ll be too busy with the event? Create a photo show now while you have the time.
26. Create or grow your garden. Plant flowers, herbs or vegetables to add color and personality to your yard.
27. Put together a model plane, car or boat. I loved doing this as a kid. I chucked Barbie for model kits and race car tracks.
28. Do a wood project. You can buy precut wood shapes, so you don’t have to start from scratch. I’ve made little signs and painted them. I made a wood napkin holder with my parents’ initial.
29. Make pillows or blankets. Not all blankets call for knitting or quilting. A friend took two large pieces of material and tied them together into a perfect blanket for my first son. My mom had a pillow made out of my dad’s old ties.
30. Organize yourself. I love building bookshelves and other organizers from kits that you get at Ikea or the Container Store. Not only you do something with your hands, but you also clean up.
31. Play designer. Watch those shows (Yes, like Trading Spaces) where designers have a very small budget and do lots of crafts projects to change up the room’s look. It’s amazing what they come up with that even I can do.
32. Design a shirt, bag, sneakers or other clothes. One of my proudest projects ever — painting a sweatshirt. That sweatshirt is on my quilt. It’s a sweatshirt of many logos from musicals. I couldn’t believe how precise many of the logos turned out. Oh, there’s a mistake in there, but I covered it up nicely.
33. Explore other people’s works. Go to Etsy, Martha Stewart and similar sites with handmade products. You’re bound to get creative ideas you want to try yourself.
34. Solve a problem. People invent things to solve problems. What annoys you? A shoelace that keeps coming untied, but you don’t want to double-knot it? A shirt tag? Bet a couple of ideas come to your mind.
35. Create geek art. Turn an old mouse into a holiday decoration. Keyboard useless? Recycle the keys into art: earrings, cuff links, necklace, etc.
36. Recycle old items. Instead of trashing useless items, turn them into something else like geek art.

What other creative things can you do?

PC Catch of the Week: Police are baffled by a series of unexplained cases dubbed, The Vanishing Files. These unsolved cases have paralyzed the city. Help Cate West, celebrated novelist and insightful visionary, find clues, compile evidence, track down the hideout, and name the culprit. Are these mysterious crimes connected? Find out by downloading Cate West: The Vanishing Files.

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