Category Create

Comedy, as writing inspiration, get rid of writer’s block…

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As a writer, we get “writer’s block.” Life becomes overwhelming, ideas are not flowing freely. We need to find a way to open the channels of our creativity.

Comedy – I decided I needed to laugh.

By chance, I found a TV show called, “Miracle Workers,” I gave the first episode a shot, it was SO FUNNY! It just came out 2019. I laughed, because they show God in a corporate office in Heaven, sitting on a sofa switching through TV Channels to see what is happening on Earth. He’s so disappointed with what he sees… like us, God is tired of his job and decides he will just blow up Earth and start a new project.

I laughed AGAIN, because in Heaven there is a department called, “Unanswered Prayers.” They show only two people in charge of that department with piles and piles of requests, they can’t possibly help everyone.

So, that explains it, my “unanswered prayer” has been sitting in God’s slush pile for 7 years collecting dust.

If you take a look at this Youtube trailer for the show, you’ll understand why this comedy is so hilarious. Silly sure, but just what a writer needs to laugh a little and be reminded that God gets tired too and that sometimes we just have to do it ourselves!

Basically, this is a humorous way of comparing Heaven to normal life in a corporation.

Show is based on the novel What’s in God’s Name by Simon Rich.

Coffee… Breakfast…Tradition… making blueberry scones at home

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CB353366-48C2-4D65-9550-E232D8E8D880Have you noticed that going out for a coffee and a danish, which used to be a “treat,” has become so expensive that it is not enjoyable anymore?

When I was young, because we had four children in the family, we rarely went out to eat; it was too expensive. In those days, if we did go out, it was for pizza, once a quarter. When the waitress came to take our order, she would ask what the “children” were drinking. My father in a loud bellowing voice would say, “WATER for them, a beer for me.”

My mother did not believe in soda. Growing up in Italy, they did not drink soft drinks or fruit juices. As a treat, on Sunday, they went to the park and had a gelato she would say.

This will make you smile… when I started dating, and the waitress came to take our order, I was too afraid to order ice tea or a soda, I was conditioned to order water. It wasn’t until one date asked, “WHY are you only having water? You can order a drink. Please, have a soda or ice tea, whatever you’d like.”

FUNNY, I thought to myself, “Yeah, I’m on my own now, why am I still drinking water?!”

This past weekend I was in the mood for scones. A friend of mine sent me a recipe and it was time to try it out. Scones are usually triangular, I made hearts, see photo.

My goal was to entice my daughters, so they would say, “Mama, those are adorable, we want some!”

seattle tea potGood news — my hearts were a BIG HIT.  Just need to add tea.

HEART SCONES on Sunday.  A new tradition!

Once children grow up, we need to entice the “little birdies” back to the nest.

Digital technology + clothing = Jet Suit

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7F567F57-2375-4FCA-84CF-7A9A13AA6EEBAnyone want to fly in the air? The time is coming. The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has a new exhibit called, “Wired to Wear™.”

If you go to the museum’s website there is a video that shows the gentleman in the photo “flying.” YES, he is “flying” in his Jet Suit. I’m grinning, when I was a child we always watched “The Jetsons,” an animated cartoon sitcom on TV. The Jetsons lived their life in an utopian future flying wherever they needed to go.

As a child, of course, I thought this was a great way to live, but I also knew this was “fantasty,” OR SO I THOUGHT. Fast forward to 2019, and if I go to this exhibit, I’ll be able to see that flying to work myself one day might not be too far off. Technology has really taken off.

It sounds like there is more to the exhibit than just the Jet Suit, they have other wearable clothing. For example, clothing that expresses your emotions. That sounds a bit robotic. I’m trying to imagine this.

First, I go into my closet and find my Jet Suit. Then I look and think, “TODAY, I am going to wear my jacket that expresses emotions.” I dress up and head to work.

Since flying was exhausting, I don’t have to talk to people, because I have my jacket on that expresses emotions. If someone comes by my office, do I just press a button and let my jacket do the talking. This sounds bizarre, I’m trying to visualize it. I guess this is why I have to go to the exhibit. I want to see first hand, what this is about.

I’m thinking, if this is our future life…

Do I want to be like Star Trek or Star Wars!

I’ll give you a hint, I like fast paced adventure!

Las Vegas Desert Art… Have you seen “Seven Magic Mountains”

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2D667E2E-7BD6-46DB-9AC1-7C107452F32ESwiss Artist, Ugo Rondinone, created this colorful boulder display called, “Seven Magic Mountains” in the desert of Las Vegas. The exhibition started May 2016 and has been extended due to its popularity.

What do you think? If you went to Las Vegas, would you rent a car, drive out to the desert and see this exhibit OR would you stay in the casino and gamble?

Cover letters, how creative can you get?

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student studyingWrite. Stop, Think. Write again. I’ve been writing cover letters. It’s exhausting. I wonder how creative I can get. I’m at a point where I need to start new tactics, change things up, see what happens. Maybe use a bit of humor.

For example, how about this:

Dear Joe, While this isn’t the exact job I am looking for, if it pays well, I’m interested.

OR

Dear Sally, When you say I need to be able to lift 50 lbs, what exactly would I be lifting. I thought this was a desk job.

When I was working for a manufacturing company, they put me in charge of reading cover letters and gathering resumes. I was shocked at how many people sent resumes without cover letters. If they wrote a cover letter, it was 3 sentences at the most saying, “Here is my resume,” and others that had typos.

I have to keep that in mind when I am sending my resume out. It’s all about “timing” too. If there is one job and 150 resumes, we know that HR does not read all of the resumes. We didn’t. We would read them down the line until we found 5-10 good resumes. Call to see if applicant could come in for an interview, if not, back to the resume list.

So, there is some LUCK involved in this job hunting stuff.

Where’s a lucky penny when I need it?

Chicago: Painted Lighthouses by artists, many with disabilities

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Lighthouse 2If you’ve been to Chicago, you know our Magnificent Mile is gorgeous in the summer. The flowers are in bloom in front of all the shop windows, the Chicago river looks fantastic and tourists are everywhere. We really enjoy summer, because we know that soon winter will be upon us.

Lighthouse 3A few days ago, I was walking down Michigan Avenue and I saw a lot of painted Lighthouses. Each one had it’s own theme. The Lighthouses on The Mag Mile™  are displayed for the public to enjoy celebrating people with disabilities. There are 51 six-foot lighthouses to see. I found a few and took pictures.

Lighthouse 4My daughter saw one that looked really spooky she said, with hands painted as if they were coming out of cracks in the wall. I was looking, but didn’t come across that one.

Lighthouse 1It’s a wonderful project, fun to see how creative the artists have been. The Lighthouse Art Display runs from June 19 – August 11, 2018.

A good friend gives a Prayer Box

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2A9C2534-817B-44BC-BBA8-3EF0B421C7ACIn life, we all go through challenges. Even when we strive for positivity, we are not immune to feeling angry, tired, frustrated, etc. A few years ago, I had been laid off my job. I was trying to stay positive and see the silver lining in the whole ordeal, but it was tough.

One day when the tears were flowing and I was questioning, “why do I have to go through this again!?!” A friend called and asked me out for lunch. I was not in the mood for lunch. I was on a tight budget with no job, so I didn’t want to spend money on lunch. I asked if we could compromise and meet for coffee instead.

A happy, “no problem,” was the answer. I made a joke and told my friend, “YOU DO KNOW, I am not in the best of spirits, right???”

She chuckled and said, “Even when you are down, you can still make a joke.”

True, I am lucky that growing up, my mother never allowed us to sulk or stay unhappy. She taught us to “immediately” turn a bad moment into a happy moment. It takes a bit of practice, but I realized early on that we are in charge of the direction our thoughts or mood go in. Focus on negativity, be angry all day, focus on the sweet smelling roses, smile and be happy all day. We decide! We choose to either be Pooh Bear or Eeyore all day! That is how I explained it to my daughters. This was a no brainer, we preferred to be “Pooh Bear,” who was always cute, happy and funny.

Anyhow, back to my coffee date. As we were drinking our coffee, my friend said she had a gift for me. I immediately felt guilty accepting it, because I felt like it must be a gift that said, “I feel sorry for you.” So, I forced myself not to be mean and say, “You shouldn’t have,” instead, I graciously accepted it wondering what it could be.

8A1F73DD-4D53-41E3-B358-FED322689BB1Well, I got quite a surprise, because in the cute packaging was a “Prayer Box.” I would never have expected something like this. Even better was when I opened the prayer box and read the nice rhyming sentence! I couldn’t help smiling.

As I read that sentence a sense of relief came over me. My stressed shoulders relaxed, I smiled and felt a sense of freedom. Give my worries to someone else, what a great concept.

So, imagine my surprise when I happened to open a box in the closet yesterday and there was my Prayer Box! As I am job searching again, I got the BIGGEST SMILE!

Prayer Box to the rescue!

Query letters to agents… so, you’ve been rejected!

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This week I have been working on the dreaded “query letter.” I’ve finished one of my children’s books and last year I sent it out to a few agents. Two wrote back that they weren’t “feeling it.” Well, not their exact words, but basically they didn’t have the “wow, factor” when they read my story. Two others never responded, which is par for the course.

Rejection is hard, because it makes us second guess ourselves. Our first reaction is to toss our story into the trash can, like Stephen King did. Done, finished, it wasn’t meant to be! After a good night’s sleep and soul searching, we start to think. Was it really my story or maybe I am not querying the right agents?! We pull our story out of the trash, dust it off and start again.

We take another pass at our story, maybe have a person or two read it and give comments. We tighten up the text and we start the query process again. If you are a writer, you know the drill — research sample query letters, research agents, research publishers, etc. Trying to find that one golden nugget that sparks inspiration where we type like mad and pat ourselves on the back for our brilliant query letter.

THAT is where I am today. Focusing on the end result, which is ALL of YOU lining up for a signed copy of my book only to find out I’ve run out of books! Laughing, didn’t that sound good!

In all seriousness, if you’ve written a winning query letter, please share some pointers. It’s time to turn this story around from rejection to signed contract!

Pizza in a cast iron skillet?

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cast iron pizzaFourth of July holiday is coming up, which means a lot of barbecuing. BUT, what if you prefer pizza.

I have exciting news for you. If you own a cast iron skillet you can make your own gourmet crunchy crusted pizza in 15 minutes. Make life easy on yourself, buy the pizza dough already prepared.

Here’s what you do:

Roll out the pizza dough. Warm up your cast iron skillet on medium/high on your stove top, dust the pan with a little bit of flour, no oil needed. Put your dough in the pan. While your dough is warming up, sprinkle some olive oil on it, pizza sauce and add your chosen pizza toppings (i.e. mushrooms, pepperoni, whatever you like) and then pop your pan into the oven at 425 degrees. Your pizza should be ready in 12-15 minutes.

I had no idea!

Now, I just need to find a good deal on a cast iron skillet and I’ll be a Chef in no time!

Bon Appétit!

Have you seen Pepper (Microsoft robot)?

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3E7428A0-58A8-4FE8-8DA8-29921390913FThis weekend I met “Pepper.” He… although, I think it looks like a “she,” was working for Microsoft. I was curious and wanted to see what the robot could do. The Microsoft Sales Rep said that Pepper was new to the company. So, I decided to give it a whirl. Basically, Pepper welcomed me and brought me to a Main screen where I could click on different links that would describe products, a Q&A section, services and so on. It was interesting.

While I could not engage Pepper in a normal human conversation, he did sense my movements. If I moved to the left, his face would follow me. When I moved closer or further away from him, his hands would open and close, face would move and the color of the lights in his eye would change colors too. Blue was when you could ask a question.

While the interaction with Pepper was fun for about 5 minutes, it certainly did not replace interaction with a real human being. Pepper was not meant to sell the product, mainly there as an interactive information screen. I was amused when I saw the robot. If I was in the market for a computer, maybe I would have stayed longer. So, Pepper did attract my attention, and I entered the store, kudos for that.

A few years ago I worked for an electronic manufacturing company and one of our projects was a telepresence robot, which was called, “Anybot.” While there were a lot of issues with getting the Anybot robot to function properly, it was fun, because it was so darn cute. Back then I was doing research on robots and many of them are created in Japan.

Using a telepresence/humanoid robot is not cheap. Visiting Pepper’s website (SoftBankRobotics.com), I saw that he sells for $25K, our Anybot robot was selling for $15K. Pepper was built by a Japanese company that merged with a French company and they are now called, “SoftBank Robotics” working out of San Francisco.

So, what do you think… would you like to have Pepper help you with chores around the house or serve you coffee, tea? Those days might come sooner than we think!