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by Richard Timothy | Apr 15, 2010 | Gratefully Grateful, I Think There's a Point, Lightbulbs and Soapboxes, My Cutie Baby Sweetie Pie, My List of Things that Don't Suck, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking, Public Service Announcement, Reviewed and Recommended
So yesterday, I had managed to put together a few lines for a new Smirk plus an intro and rough outline for a new book and then… I went to a Biz Divas event, with special guest star Lisa Nichols. Yes Lisa was back in town and was speaking at another of my sweetie-baby-cutie-pie-wifey-pooh’s events. The Biz Divas is Angela’s networking and education company for business women and entrepreneurs. So when faced with the option of writing about the finer points of how to best review a Hollywood movie or sharing some of the points Lisa talked about the previous evening, well, let’s just say… take it away Lisa!
See had I actually recorded any of her presentation that would have been a perfect place to put it. I did take some notes though, and I do concede that now would probably be a perfect time for those. Funny thing about perfection, it’s a little more subjective than one might think. One person’s perfection is another person’s pa… something. I was hoping for another p word, but I’m not exactly sure which one fits the way I want it do. Hmm… problem, poppycock, picture frame, ooh how about placency, well complacency. There’s even a p in it and I think it works. Actually, I think I’m looking for the opposite of that word, something like anxiety… only with a p in it. I think I’ve made my… a point.
So when arrived at the event I was a bit bothered. Not because of the event, but because of work. Ok not exactly work, but I received a phone call at work from a Crap-Magnon, which is a lot like a Cro-Magnon except that they look like humans and sound like humans when they speak, but have not evolved to the point that they know how to speak with and be human. They reek of foul, vile energy and after talking to them for about one to two minutes tops, your skin begins crawling and a trigger in your brain that goes off that repeats over and over again that this is not a good person and you need to get away from them as soon as possible.
Even an hour after the call had ended I was still bothered that I had experienced such an intense black hole of negative energy. You could say it was the energetic equivalent of accidentally stepping into a pile of Great Dane pooh. The smell follows you around for a while and it takes a little time to get all of it off. Plus, you’re going to need a water hose to do it.
The water hose arrived when I walked into the event. The room was an energetic white hole, which is the opposite of a black hole… I looked it up. When I walked into the event the room was full of friendly faces, old friends, new friends, friends that will someday be friends, but as of yet we’ve still not met. It was the radiating positive energy of people there. It was light, kind, warm, and accepting. Also, because the room was full of people like that the energy just kept growing, and expanding outward. Five minutes after walking into that room any residuals from the Crap-Magnon caller were all gone. It was a good day and it was only going to get better. So a thank you to everyone there for that, and thanks for the smiles, the hugs, and the love.
Lisa’s presentation was grand, and it was a little different than last time I saw her. This time the focus was on business and some tips, suggestions… make that steps for people to mull through and start with to assist them with their own business. I did like this concept a lot. One of the things that make us all the same is the fact that we are all so different. When you share information designed to help others it helps to have multiple choices that people can choose from, because we’re not all in the same place. One person’s “eureka” is another’s “that was so last year.” Out of the 6 steps she shared there were individuals knowing that Step 1 was just for them while others cradled Step 2 as their “Yes, YES” and so on for each step shared.
Here are the steps Lisa gave, although if you get the chance to see her present these 6 steps I highly recommend you do so. Mainly because she has a brilliant entertaining personal story to go along with each step, and the presentation is definitely going to make you feel all warm and fuzzy.
- Step 1: Begin with the end in mind. It’s good to think about the process, but it just as important to know what the end result looks like.
- Step 2: Give yourself a thousand second chances. It’s not that your idea or dream didn’t work. It just didn’t work that time. Give yourself a second change, and then another, and another, and another. You get the point.
- Step 3: Get someone who is better than you to play with you. Get a coach and/or mentor for your business (art, music, writing, whatever it is you do), to motivate and encourage you, and to remind you that they were once were you are now, and are now were you want to be.
- Step 4: Give yourself permission to have what it is you say you want. If you have no respect for millionaires and think they are all evil and bad people, how can you become one? The more successful you are the more you can share your message and help others. Begin wealthy does not make you a bad person, it only amplifies the person you are.
- Step 5: Bring your family on the journey, but don’t drag them. And don’t wait for them. It is your vision, and you have to keep it going. Either they will support you or they won’t. What you need to do is keep moving forward.
- Step 6: Move from operating like a flood light to operating like a laser. Don’t try to do everything at once. Start with one or two things and focus on those. Once you get those down and they begins running on its own (or the event you planned is over, or the song you wrote is recorded, or the book you wrote is finished), focus on your next vision, idea, product, etc.
And that’s it… six steps. Find the one that speaks to you and own it… or don’t, in the end it’s always going to be your choice and no one else.
Which one was my “ah ha!” step? I think it was a mixture of 1 and 6, but mostly 6, mainly when it comes to my writing. I have already started four novels and only one is roughly finished. 
I get to finish that first book. Proofread, edited, revised, and submitted to publishers. Then it will be time to start working on the next one. I get to be more laser focused on completely finishing my first novel instead focusing on my writing like a puppy with ADD in a bouncy ball factory. Don’t worry though, I’ll keep Smirking as long as people are willing to read and happy to laugh.
It was a good presentation and a good night. Of course when Lisa is in the room, it always is. I wish you all could have been there. But since you couldn’t I guess it’s a good thing I took notes. Yay me!
Any thoughts on today’s Smirk?
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: Lisa Nichols, 6 steps, rude people, hosing off shoes, and puppy with ball.
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by Richard Timothy | Apr 3, 2010 | Gratefully Grateful, Nearly News, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking, Pratchett Perspective, Reviewed and Recommended
Friday morning was a good morning. Not because it was Friday, although it did help, but because of a fabulous little message that a new, yet dear, friend from Australia posted on my Facebook page. One of my Terry Pratchett inspired Smirks was posted in the April issue of Discworld Monthly, a free monthly on-line newsletter about Terry and his novels. It’s a very groovy yet surreal moment to discover you’ve had something published, but more than that is not to know you’ve been published until one of your friends has read the piece that was published in the work that published your piece and then tells you about it. I hope that made sense.
The article was made up of excerpts from the Smirk I wrote back in January entitled The Disc… A World of Literary Cameos (click here to read the original Smirk). I sent a copy of it to the editor a few days after I posted it, you know, just in case, and that was that. A few months later… hey! That’s me!
The Discworld Monthly has been around since 1997. In fact next month will be its 13th anniversary. A big, yet early, congrats and well done to them. It was created with the goal of keeping fans informed about the latest happenings in the Discworld and Terry Pratchett Fan Communities. I happened across it about a year ago. Then about five to six months ago I took the plunge and just subscribed to have the newsletter e-mailed to me every month instead of having to remind myself to check out the site each month or so.
My recommendation… if you are a Pratchett fan, and I know a number of you are, definitely check out the Discworld Monthly, and sign up for the newsletter. It’s a great treat for me each month receive an e-mail newsletter devoted to all things Pratchett.
There is also a Discworld Monthly Facebook group. So by all means check it out and join the group. And for those thinking about checking it out, there’s even a link to the new Going Postal trailer, which looks grand.
Thanks again to Heather for letting me know I was in this month’s issue. It’s a lovely way to start one’s day.
To those that checked out the newsletter, what did you think?
Image Sources:
Google Images, key word: Discworld.
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by Richard Timothy | Mar 25, 2010 | Lightbulbs and Soapboxes, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking, Public Service Announcement, Reviewed and Recommended
Yes ninjafying, it is the ancient email etiquette art of making the email addresses disappear from an email you forward to a pack, group, clan, horde, legion, or nation of people. There is a plague that is sweeping the internet. It has been around as long as there has been a Forward option in your email. You know how it is, you are sitting at your computer minding your own business, checking movies times, reading blogs, or ordering something from Amazon, eBay, TigerDirect, NewEgg… shopping in general and you decide to check your email. As you open your in box you see the name of that one friend that 19 times out of 20 has sent you something with FW: in the subject line.
The FW: prefix is an amazing thing. It automatically identifies the email as something meant to be funny, or chain letteresque, or some type of political propaganda, or faith promoting story… in short something that someone liked enough to send on to you. More importantly though, FW: is an identifier for an email that can more often than not be deleted without you having to even look at.
I have two friends (yes, Ryan and Kelly I am talking about you) that I adore who are my FW: email culprits. I think everyone who has an email account has at least one of these friends. Fortunately for me, these friends send predominantly funnies. 
Things that have made them laugh that they want to share with me. So I always opt out of the insta-delete and will open up the email to take a look. Sometimes it’s brilliant and gets me laughing. Other times… well, its attempt at humor is remnant of Eddie Murphy. He might have been funny twenty years ago, but he’s sure not funny now, although for the record that song he did with Michael Jackson will never stop being funny, especially because it was never meant to be.
So for the FW: emails I don’t enjoy, off to the virtual trash can they go. It’s not that I want these friends to stop sending me things that make them smile and laugh. I always appreciate that they want to share these things with me. No, the problem I have and the plague I am talking about the lack of people using the BCC function when forwarding these mass forwarded emails. To be fair though, they probably don’t even know about this function and what it does. I know I didn’t until about a year ago.
The thing that always makes me cringe, whether the FW: email is funny or not, is the endless access to all the random email addresses that appear in the FW: email, and knowing that my email address is now part of this parade of a potential fountain of virtual spam. Think I’m kidding? Look at the last FW: (or Fwd:) email you received and count all the email addresses that are present. In the last one I received there were 78 total email addresses. That means there are 76 strangers (excluding myself and the friend that sent the email) email address I now have access to. Plus, if it keeps getting passed to others that means that there are now 100’s of strangers out there that now have access to my email address. And all it takes is one of them to be the type of person that would give all those address to some spam site for some cash and… well yeah, that’s all it takes.
All of a sudden I’m getting 30 to 100 spam emails every day for things like Meds from Canada, Credit Card Applications, All natural male enhancement free trials, going back to school, buying a new car, spam, spam, spam, spam… and I don’t mean that in a Monty Python kind of way. I know this might seem a little odd coming from someone what has his email address displayed on his blog so that everyone on the internet who wants it can find it, but I also know there are a number of reader, friends, and family who don’t want 100s or even 1000s of strangers having access to their email.
This is an easy fix, people just need to be made aware of it. So today’s blog is a public service announcement. Please send this all of your FW: email friends. Hell, just cut and paste this next little bit if you don’t want to send the whole thing, I don’t care. We need to let the people that are doing all of the forwarding to know about this. The key is that we learn and practice a little email etiquette, with the hope that is will help cut down some of the spam that attacks us on a regular basis.
If you get a FW: email and you enjoy it enough to forward it to others please follow these simple steps after you click on the Forward button, link, option, etc:
- Delete all of the emails displayed in main body of the email.
- Click on the Show Cc & Bcc link if the Bcc field is not already available to you.
- Enter all the email address you want to forward the email to in the Bcc field.
- Click on the Send button, link, option, etc.
Bcc stands for Blind Carbon Copy and what this means is that no one’s email address will appear in the email, except for the sender (you) and the person opening the email. It’s a brilliant little feature. If you forward the email to twenty different friends, each one of them will get the email and will only see your and their email address.
I know, today’s Smirk is not so much Smirkful as it is useful. It’s a good thing to know though, and it’s the polite way to forward an email to more than one person. It looks better and it adds a personal touch, because it looks like you sent the email just to them instead of them and 50 other people.
What are your thoughts?
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: Bcc, spam email, email etiquette, and Whatzupwitu.
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by Richard Timothy | Mar 15, 2010 | I Think There's a Point, Lightbulbs and Soapboxes, My List of Things that Don't Suck, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking, Public Service Announcement, Reviewed and Recommended
Together… its one of those cuddly words that keeps you encouraged as you go through life trying new things and most of the time it makes what you are doing better, case and point, watching MST. I enjoy watching MST, but I do have some friends that add to this experience. I don’t enjoy watching MST with them, I LOVE watching MST with them. It makes the lame jokes smileable, the smileable joke laughable, and the laughable joke… well let’s just say that I’ve been known to push pause and have a little potty break due to unrelenting laughter. Together the experience is vastly better.
Together Frodo and Sam left the Shire for an adventure that be summed up only by saying, “they had a hell of a time” and not in a good way. Still, we did get three painfully long movies to enjoy as a result of them leaving the shire. Likewise, together the Goonies found One Eyed Willie. Together Igor and Dr. Frankenstein created life. And together the Emperor and Vader took control of the universe.
Hmm, ok so maybe the last two were not the best of examples, but you get the point. There are many groovy things that can happen when people start working together. In fact, one of the greatest novels of all time was the result of two brilliant authors working together. Of course I am referring to none other than Good Omens. A book that I believe everyone should own and that should be placed in hotel rooms around the world to accompany that other hotel room book. Hey, all I’m saying is that people like options. Having only one book in a hotel room is the opposite of options.
You know, I had this friend use to steal Bibles out of hotel rooms. I always found it amusingly ironic that he was so hell bent on stealing multiple copies of a book that had an entire section devoted to instructing the reader that they should not steal. I mean sure, if he had stocks in a Gideon printing press it would make at least some sense, but no… no stocks, no rhyme, no reason. Well, maybe a reason. I think he was trying to impress some girl. Ah, the youthful attempts of trying to impress someone you fancy. Interestingly enough this is the exact same equation for making oneself look a little like a jack ass… who knew.
So Chris Brogan is a bit of a community and social media guru whose blog I check out a few times a week. If you have a business, I recommend reading his blog. One of the things I dig most about him is his reoccurring message of “together”… working together, creating together, brainstorming together, etc., and how, when we work together, we can reach more people and accomplish more than if we try doing it all alone. In fact it was on his blog that I originally saw this video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfBlUQguvyw]
Click here if you can’t see the video.
The song… eh, I’m not a huge fan, but it not openly or angrily opposed to it either. But the video, I think the video is a brilliant example of people working together to create something that for the span it takes me to watch it, makes the world a better place. One of my favorite parts of the video is when everyone who is helping with it throws up their name in from of the camera. It a simple moment, but you get to see all of these different names in different languages in different hand writing. It’s a moment that shows this collection of people from all over the world working together to create something beautiful that makes me smile. Personally, I’ve never considered me smiling to be a bad thing.
I’ve discovered one of the grooviest things about my blog is you. I’ve met a number of fabulous people so far simply by explaining what I am doing and why I want to be friends. It’s been a brilliant experience. I’ve been introduced to some new novels and authors. Some of which I’ve now read. I’ve also been reminded of a few books that definitely deserve to be reread. I’ve met a few musicians. Some of you have shared your work with me and some of it has been grand… and then some of it has been, well, something that I have been able to suggest to others that I thought might enjoy it, but that wasn’t really my style of music.
I’ve received some amazing encouragement and incredibly helpful critiques… and through this whole process I’ve met some new people who I’m getting to know via their comments and Facebook wall posting that keep making me laugh. I’ve even received some words from people that have not so much encouraged as they have offered short messages about my inadequacies as a writer. Sometimes it’s a preference thing, and in some cases it’s helped me edit and update something that needed a little work that I had overlooked. So, a thank you to them and a thank you to all of you who read, smile, smirk, and laugh… and for letting me know.
I’ve also gotten some fabulous wine suggestions and drink recipes. Bea, the caipirinha was lovely and when I get a few more mixed drink recipes together I’ll make sure I share them with everyone.
I’ve even received a few suggestions for places to post my writing to introduce it to more people. And I have met a lot of fellow bloggers and writers. One such writer, Nora B. Peevy, recently sent me link to a rather groovy online search engine tool that could assist any writer who has a goal to get published, but is not 100% sure where to start. The site is http://duotrope.com/. It’s a free site and it allows you to search via genre, theme, length, pay, etc. for places that publish the type of writing that you do. So if you are a writer, check out this site of endless possibilities for places you can submit your writing, and hopefully you can get published. It’s a dream worth having and achieving.
Thank you Nora for sharing this with me so I could pass it on to others. Nora writes dark fiction and has been published a few times already (/cheer). In fact she has a new short story coming out in the June issue of Twisted Tongue. If you dig the dark fiction genre of writing you should check out her site and read some of her work.
So feel free to share with me. I think email might work best in this case. So send me an email if you think there is something we could work on together, or if you have something you just want to share that you think deserves a Smirk commentary or side note. Even if it’s something as simple as adding a splash of strawberry basil jam on your brie cheese when eating them with crackers… which is mind meltingly nummy, which is a lot like yummy only there’s a n involved. And on the delicious scale it fits right between “yummy” and “oh my (insert deity of your choice here) that’s good.” Plus, I’m pretty sure the strawberry-basil jam brie cracker snack would have been illegal during the cold war for both inspiring creativity and making people happy. If you happen to be one of those people that hate brie cheese… let’s just begin by agreeing to disagree and leave it at that. The one thing I hate more than carrots in Jell-o is having a “Doesn’t like cheese?” Wallace and Gromit moment with someone I find to be of a rather grand.
Anyway, thanks for reading and thanks for sharing. To you writers out there, I hope that site helps you out some. I know I’ll be utilizing it.
So, what do you think?
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: together, Good Omens, thank you, and brie and jam.
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by Richard Timothy | Feb 16, 2010 | I Think There's a Point, Lightbulbs and Soapboxes, My List of Things that Don't Suck, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking, Public Service Announcement, Reviewed and Recommended
The thing about Seth Godin is that you either know who he is or you don’t… which can be said about anyone really. I guess the difference is that people that know who Seth is are more apt to respond by going, “Ohh.” This is the elongated “oh” that carries with is the suggestion that the listener is both impressed and interested in what you have to say about it. As opposed to the short sounding “oh” which I believed is usually equated to, ambivalence, disinterest, and a general unspoken desire that the talker change the subject to a topic that they are can either exchange dialogue in or that is more about them specifically so they can take over the conversation.
I get there are some of you that gave me that “oh” when I mentioned Seth’s name. Now had I said I had lunch with Brad Pitt, there would be an entirely different group of people sitting up and paying attention. I suppose at some point in the luncheon I’d have to succumb to the inevitable eye candy factor of the experience and respond to all my friends that lunch with Brad was “just dreamy”. Would I have listened to what he had to say… no bloody clue, but my initial guy feeling tells me no, probably not.
Lunch with set Seth on the other hand was different that how I would imagine an imaginary lunch with Brad. I will start off by saying that Seth is an adorable little man. He’s kind of like a much younger version of that cute old man in the Pixar short Geri’s Game. He also reminds me of that little friendly good natured scientist in movies that is always trying to help save the world. Sure he’s a little quirky and oddly amusing, but once he starts talking everyone else stops talking and listens to what he has to say, because it’s going to be something important that could help the situation and others.
The lunch was really just a luncheon, with a boxed lunch consisting of pasta salad, and green, green apple (rather sour I thought), a bottle of water, a chicken pesto sandwich, and two chocolate chip cookies. I ate the cookies first. Life makes a bit more sense that way.
If I owned a restaurant I’d call it Dessert First. The whole idea would be to have people start their meal with dessert. I know when I go out to eat there is always too much food. Then, by the time I get to desert, I’m too full and am taking leftovers home with me. If you do dessert first, your dessert sales greatly exceed the common dessert sales of an average restaurant. You also fill up the customer with sweet yummy goodness, putting them in an ultimately better mood while they wait for their food. They will also get full sooner, so you can cut back the portions. The customers will eat less at the restaurant, finishing their meal sooner, and still have leftovers to take home and finish for lunch the next day. It’s a brilliant idea, and I’d go there at least once a week just to help support myself.
The lunch with Seth turned out to be a fundraiser luncheon to help assist Haiti. This meant that I was sharing my luncheon with Seth with 700 other people. Lunch was at 11 AM and Seth was presenting from noon to one, and most of the people there were not all that interested in the box lunch being offering in the first place. They were very interested in listening to Seth present though. Having read Seth’s blog from time to time over the past four to five months, I knew a little what he was about, but I’d never read any of his books. Nor did I fully realize how big of a deal he actually was in the field that he is currently fielding. Meaning, firstly, I was one of the few there who was looking forward to my little lunch, and then secondly, I was a touch curious about what this man had to say.
Half way though the presentation, I discovered I was bothered that the people who had put the event together wasted an entire hour for lunch, thus limiting our time with Seth to only an hour. I would have opted to take my lunch with me and eat it on the drive back to work as opposed to before hand. Or just give me a cookie. I’d have been happy to call it lunch if it would have resulted in getting a bit more of his presentation, which was about his newest book in his arsenal of published work. It’s called Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to Drive Your Career and Create a Remarkable Future. I’ll be getting myself a copy soon.
One of the things that stuck with me the most was his dialogue on art and how we are all artists. He talked about how being an artist is more than being a painter, sculptor, actor, or poet. Art is about creation. It’s about something that’s personal to the creator and something they are passionate about. For my wife, her conference is her art. For me, my art is my writing. Some artists are computer programmers. Just look at all of the apps available on the iPhone. You have over a hundred thousand artists displayed in the app store alone. I have met a massage therapist who is an amazing artist. Artists are everywhere and they are everyone. The goal is to share your art with the people that want the art you have to share.
Seth also said that art has to be original and ultimately yours, adding, “Marcel Duchamp was an artist when he pioneered Dadaism and installed a urinal in the museum. The second person to install a urinal in a museum was a plumber.”
He said we are all geniuses, and I’m inclined to agree. We all have genius in us and it’s different for everyone. Math is my anti-genius. I mean I know a number when I see one, at least I thought I did, then I learned about imaginary numbers and realized my imagination appreciates everyone and everything more if I simply tell the numbers to bugger off and use my genius for writing a piece about the manner in which I’d like imaginary numbers to buggering off and having the readers smile amusingly at that.
All in all, I dug the event, even if it seemed a little rushed and a bit too short. Also, if any of you are entrepreneurs, or have your own business, I recommend checking out two different blogs. One is Seth Godin and the other is a chap named Chris Brogan (who I’ve yet to see live, but who I’ve gotten a lot of useful information from). Both are brilliant and we worth visiting daily if you can, but at least once a week. Some days their information really won’t apply, and other days, it’s pure gold.
There was another little bit of dialogue that I found smirkingly thought provoking, so let’s talk about that tomorrow in Lunch with Seth Part 2… The ADD Version.
Have any of you see Seth live or read his books? What did you think?
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: Seth Godin, Geri’s game,
by Richard Timothy | Feb 4, 2010 | I Think There's a Point, Lightbulbs and Soapboxes, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking, Reviewed and Recommended
I was initially going to write a bit of a fluff piece today… or at the very least a short, sweet, and to the point piece so I could direct most of my writing time working on editing Chapter 9 of my book. Then, as I imagine everyone does on a rather regular basis, I found myself a little side tracked looking up random things on that series of tubes that the young kids call the Interweb thing. I ended up stopping by to visit the blog of a fellow writer whom I’ve yet to really meet other than a friendly Facebookian hello. Anyway, Kyria Abrahams has a new weekly column on The Faster Times where she reviews gadgets and so forth. You can check out her column here.
As you can read a delightful piece of bemused and amusing observation. Other than wanting to share a fun read, the reason I bring all this up is that her column got me thinking about a few things of the tech variety. It’s not that I’m against technology, I do dig it. It’s mostly, I guess, that I am a bleacher type of fan. I’m not in the middle of it by any means, but I’m close enough to eventually hear about now things and can raise my big spongy #1 finger and yell out, “Yea technology!”
I mean I have a cell phone, but at the same time I’ve made sure to block any and all texting capability from it. I see the pictures of all the new toy and have wonderful friends who stood in line for four hours on opening day for the iPhone release just so they could get one… and then do that gushing Apple euphoria thing that Apple fans do whenever they get a new toy that sports an incandescent image of an apple with a bite taken out of it. I’ve even held an iPhone more than once over the last year, and you know what… they’re cute. Not as cute as a puppy mind you, but cute in the “Ahhh, the little Autobot decided to take a nap.” kind of way.
At the same time I still occasionally listen to my cassettes, and I still take pride in my collection of 27 Elvis cassettes I scored for .25 cents each at a garage sale back in 1994. Oddly though, I might be the only one that takes pleasure in this. I mean if you listen to your 8-tracks you’re considered “old school.” If you still listen to vinyl you’re admired as “retro” or “vintage.” But telling someone you still listen to cassettes, I swear, they look at you like you’re some sort of degenerate that just climbed out of a cave while picking your nose and wiping the leftovers on the front of your shirt. Someday the masses will consider cassette tapes to be more than just burning blocks used to assist in the demise of the ozone layer, but until then I think I’ll keep that little nugget of appreciation to myself… I mean… damn!
The key realization I had while reading Kyria’s article was, and I’m not saying Apple is the only one responsible for this, but it seems that the time of having four remote controls to run all the crap in your entertainment center has sort of evolved and decided you head out of the front door with you every time you leave the house. Instead of four remotes people now have four random devices with them at almost all times. Here’s what I mean:
- A person with their iPhone using a Bluetooth headset so they can take calls and e-mail at the same time. Not to mention the GPS running in the background to help them find the nearest Starbucks. Which we all know is right in front of them on the street corner. All they need to do it look up from their phones screen to see it.
- Then they have their Kindle (but are now secretly obsessing about and pining for the iPad) for reading the Wall Street Journal, or the complete works of Douglas Adams, to which I’d like to point out should really only be read in electronic format on Apple products out of homage the man.
- There is their iPod, attached to the one ear that is not sporting the Bluetooth headset, so they can listen to some newly purchased artist that has yet to be discovered and it absolutely brilliant… while still talking on the phone.
- And finally, there is their MacBook Air, for writing that screenplay they keep talking about while sitting in the coffee shop, talking on the iPhone about the new iPad while listening to their iPod.
Hey Steve… quit it already! Just do us all a favor and just make the equivalent of an Apple iconed universal remote. Some type of universal Apple electronic device thingy so people can avoid having to purchase the new iCrap satchel for all their i… well, crap. Or at the very least give us some iBuprofen to help us deal with the endless “i” onslaught. Or coupons… we’d all dig some discount coupons!
What do all you Appleachians… Appleites… Apple folk think? Oh, and sorry about all the iPuns. Sometimes it’s a little hard to quit once you get going.
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: Apple, foamy finger, and cassettes.
So yesterday, I had managed to put together a few lines for a new Smirk plus an intro and rough outline for a new book and then… I went to a Biz Divas event, with special guest star Lisa Nichols. Yes Lisa was back in town and was speaking at another of my sweetie-baby-cutie-pie-wifey-pooh’s events. The Biz Divas is Angela’s networking and education company for business women and entrepreneurs. So when faced with the option of writing about the finer points of how to best review a Hollywood movie or sharing some of the points Lisa talked about the previous evening, well, let’s just say… take it away Lisa!
So when arrived at the event I was a bit bothered. Not because of the event, but because of work. Ok not exactly work, but I received a phone call at work from a Crap-Magnon, which is a lot like a Cro-Magnon except that they look like humans and sound like humans when they speak, but have not evolved to the point that they know how to speak with and be human. They reek of foul, vile energy and after talking to them for about one to two minutes tops, your skin begins crawling and a trigger in your brain that goes off that repeats over and over again that this is not a good person and you need to get away from them as soon as possible.
I get to finish that first book. Proofread, edited, revised, and submitted to publishers. Then it will be time to start working on the next one. I get to be more laser focused on completely finishing my first novel instead focusing on my writing like a puppy with ADD in a bouncy ball factory. Don’t worry though, I’ll keep Smirking as long as people are willing to read and happy to laugh.
