This soul hasn’t stopped searching, just looking under different rocks…

Geeze-Louise, I have a lot to learn about this blogging process.  It’s a lot like having a child, and Soulseeking, my first blog, I think, has been wandering barefoot in the dessert of cyberspace like the proverbial red-headed stepchild.  (No offense, Gingers, I love you all and your passionate grip on the world. I’m a lefty, and us outer-fringe-rs gotta band together and give each other moral support against the sinister plot to defame us).

I say I think Soulseeking was my first progeny because I suspect I have another offspring suffering even more neglect and malnourishment on the net.  Well, someone who’s earned her bread and butter by scouring the internet for answers (yes, Virginia, there is a job like this, it’s called a market research analyst), I should be able to find that other lost lamb and invite him back into the fold.

So now like a  parent who’s finally able to pay back child support, I’m gathering Soulseeking into the embrace of my nimble typing fingers and proud parent’s heart, acknowledging the recognition he earned on his own merit despite neglect (I’d failed to acknowledge some nice comments, and did so today with great thanks to people who had somehow discovered SS’ing, and vow not to commit that cardinal sin of blogging, ignoring readers, any more, Amen.)

Anyway, I’ve decided my little family of blogs is going to keep peace and now introduce SoulSeeking to his little sister, Catapult.  Kids, get along, okay?  Maybe you can share some friends, Soulseeking, you might want to show Catapult something about public speaking and how to dress up nice, since I think Catapult doesn’t have much sense of style yet.

SS & Cat up on a ridge

acknowledgement:

Many thanks to Dave and Marge, the real actors who posed as SS and Cat in their meeting up on a ridge, and to bob&sue, their agent.

Now if you want something really of beauty, listen here. Utterly divine.

Chill award

I’m not one to brag (much), but someone called me “really chill” today.  A total stranger from the web.  That’s like getting a wolf-whistle for your wit.  Course, now I’m luke-warm for being lame-o and writing about it.

Anyway, my surfing tonight brought delightful discoveries that I have to share with my phantom audience.

LOVE that I discovered the Fictional Cereals page!  A true delight, describing Spumco Sugar Corn Waste, as well lauding Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, the preferred morning munch of my hero Calvin, of he and the Hobbes’ fame.

Breakfast is my all time favorite meal and I grew up on everything from Freakies to Count Chocula and seeing these other bowlful imaginings gladdened my heart, imagination and sweet-tooth. Have to steal a few image from that fabulous site, as well as post some nostalgic images of brands I remember.  I’m surprised I missed Fruity Yummy Mummy, which lurked on the shelves at some point.

Among nutrition’s rogue gallery, some of the concoctions I actually imbibed include…

Quisp

Freakies

I’m just glad I never sunk to eating something called Donkey Kong’s Crunchy Barrels of Fun.  Sounds like something you might find mucking out a stall in the deep South. What is alarming is that despite my current-day appreciation for things like Special K or innocuous, sensible fare like Rice Chex, I still think my good buddy Cap’n can’t be beat.  Call it soul food.

Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter

In search of balance…

A facebook friend of mine notice I was up early. At that point I didn’t know whether I was up late (very) or up early. My sleep has been brief and interrupted. I think a lot has to do with the light from my laptop (or bloc note, as they call it here in Montreal).  Apparently light eminating from a computer screen simulate sunlight, so the bright light right before bed throws diurnal rhythms out of whack.  Even if we sleep the same amount, we get the equivalent of jet lag, as WedMed notes:

… staring at a computer screen and enthusiastically typing or surfing not only can steal precious time you should be banking in deep sleep, but the actual light emanating from the screen can also disrupt your body’s ability to prepare for sleep and literally wind down… people who spend more pre-bedtime hours using the Internet or watching television are more likely to report that they don’t get enough sleep, even though they sleep almost as long as people who spend fewer pre-bedtime hours in front of a computer or television screen.

I guess it’s time to wean myself off computer addiction.

Okay, I need to learn how to schedule my time for maximum efficiency right now.  Maybe I’m combining blogging with journaling.  There seems to be a major overlap in my use of this space and the ruminations of my ole’ fashioned hard copy journal.  (see other post on possible and personal motivations for blogging)

I’m getting about 20 emails a day…not a huge number, but a lot of them require response.  I valuable my friends highly, and besides working for existing freelance clients for PR and marketing, I’m taking the time to apply for positions that might marry my skills and experience for worthwhile organizations.

Then I try to fit in blogging too, during the sometimes only 2 hours I’m online.  It seems like a good habit—did I say before it feels like something good to do like flossing?

Anyway, what I wanted to blog about is the economy and the need to support and broadcast by word of mouth businesses who’s products or services we enjoy, believe in, and care about their flourishing, heck surviving right now.  So I ask propietors of places I like for a couple of business cards and pass them on to appropriate friends that might find need of such services.  I also believe in endorsing colleagues on Linked In, if I really know their work and their ethics.

I hope to return to this topic, because it’s very heartfelt to me.

Blinders on, Please! Dealing with online and other distractions

I often get distracted.  Horses drawing carts and racing to the finish line are equipped with blinders to keep them from bolting, straying, etc….I need to develop my own.

It’s really not too surprising that I follow a meandering path at times, since I am a regular Facebook user, as well as loving to take photographs (and post them on Flickr, Shutterfly, the aforementioned Facebook, sometimes editing them in Photoshop). I also subscribe various regular emails like MarketingProfs, Raintoday, AdobeEdge, BNET newsletters, BtoB alerts*, Cutting Edge PR e-news**. And then again, I’m left-handed, right-brained, an attention-seeking middle child.

Alas, one of the regular emails I used to get that I’ve now given up in a feeble attempt to reduce the overload is a daily Calvin & Hobbes comic. 

Even now, as I sit at my sister’s house, I could be blogging, or out riding a nice little horse, or organizing my contacts (a slew of recently gathered business cards and scraps of paper with names and phone numbers is splayed around my laptop), getting ready to go dancing, meditating (that’s probably what I SHOULD be doing, to get centered), returning some phone calls, updating two different websites, emailing back some contacts or weeding out older emails that I’ve saved for digesting later.  I try to keep my email inbox under 500 emails.  I did just cut down my current count by about 40 emails in the past 30 minutes (and also learned WOM means word of mouth, as in WOM marketing via Twitter).  I do love my Gmail, as it allows me to post pictures of my friends in the contact list, put a star by emails I need to follow up with, and has wonderful search functionality to let me find an email thread.

* ONE DAY COULD SAVE $3.5 B

BtoB informed readers on 2/9/09 that the US Post Office operates at a deficit of about $2.8 billion per year.   It’s considering  reduce its services to five days of operation instead of six.

**2 tasty tidbits today from this source:

1) Quote of the Day:

“43% of all statistics are worthless.”
- anon

2) “Internet news is more popular than newspapers”:

In 2008, for the first time, more Americans relied on the Internet for national and international news than on newspapers. In December 2008, 40% of those surveyed said they get most of their news from the Internet, up from 24% in September 2007, while 35% still mainly read newspapers, and 70% say television is their primary source of news.

And for the Gen Y age group (18-29), the Internet was level pegging with TV as the most popular source of news, accounting for 59% of this age group’s news sources. There was a big drop to newspapers at 28% and radio at 18%. The message for PR people: start taking Internet news sources seriously in media campaigns, especially with certain demographic groups such as Gen Y.

Source: Pew Research Center, http://pewresearch.org

PollyAnna and the HOPE chest

I was craving a Filet of Fish (brain-food, albeit with the RDA of grease) and went to my local McDonald’s today.  I wanted to grab a quick bite before heading off to do computer work and working out.

I looked for a table out of the way of the noise and hubbub and as I was glancing around, I noticed most of the ambiant noise was a couple large, new flat-screen TVs, with Obama delivering a live speech.  I sat down in front of one of the screens in between some workmen in blue shirts, and tuned in to listen as Obama discussed his stimulus campaign during a town-hall meeting in Fort Myers, Fla.

I was glad to see these workers watching and before I left I asked the one closest to me what he thought of our new prez.  He expressed his support and faith in him, and talked about the teamwork he learned in the military.  It will take teamwork for our congress to move forward, and patience in our people.  I have so much confidence, and so believe that continued support, faith, and patience in Obama is required to allow him to lead us to positive change.

I’ve had a few discussions recently with people about the current economic situation.  So many express their frustration, with the growing joblessness, the credit crunch, foreclosure crisis, war debacle, etc. and anger at Bush and his damaging term, as well as the greed of some.  I wholeheartedly agree with the criticisms of the past decade or so that has brought the global mood and realities to this major turning point.  But as I quoted to one of my new friends, attitude is not a feeling, but a choice.  We should not focus on the past, which we cannot change, but on our approach with hope and optimism, in the future.

A different dance venue

I’ve been spending a lot of time in and out of ballrooms.

This morning I’m reflecting how fortunate I am to live (and dance) in a free society, and a warm environment. Here are other individuals–still enjoying–but in odd venues…Bob Melville, teaching Scottish Country Dance Group at the South Pole, bless him!…

And then there’s 48-year-old Byron Garcia, who has the inmates of Philippines prisons dancing massive synchronized fields of orange jumpsuits to the Radio Gaga and other tunes.  Byron believes these dance activities provide positive rehabilitation, and looking through the videos, I’m apt to think so too.

Random Thoughts, on blogging and my life

I’m still trying to keep up with the discipline of maintaining my blog.  It’s hard to do in this world with so many distractions (can you say “Facebook”?)!  Thank God I don’t watch TV and have given up Spider solitaire.  And my current obsession of ballroom dancing is at least social and somewhat good exercise.

I’ve struggle with my blog because I had originally intended it as a professional venue focused around marketing, but due to an unquenchable desire to share other things with the unknown universe of the blogosphere and kindred souls in the midst (mist?)–hence the intuitive title soulseeking–and my need to use this space as a therapy or quasi-catharsis for ideas milling around in my head…a virtual compost site, and occasionally a place to share my quirky sense of humor or odd ramble, well you see these combine to makes it pretty suspect for a professional site.

Not everyone understands my sometimes self-deprecating sense of humor, and I just plain enjoy the freedom to write at random.

Maybe I should’ve kept the title “Random Thoughts,” which was an earlier blog that I had ventured upon.

I was trying to find that original collection of ruminations online and instead wandered off on some links.

Up one alley…it’s difficult to keep focus on the web…things just aren’t linear, and neither is my synapse firing.. I discovered SlideShare, a presentations warehousing site that offers a way to find and publicly or privately share Powerpoint-type presentations (also called slidecasts).  You can also make a webinar there.  (When viewing them, click “FULL” to optimize your view of the content).  Laurence Fine has a couple of especially valuable presentations on the site, including Effective Time Management Strategies that I want to visit further when, ahem, I find the time.

@@@

Random spiritual thought for my soul:  I am so glad for the spirit of sharing knowledge and help other that is the golden thread spun throughout the Internet fabric.

Keep on trekking…our footprints

Ah, my love hate/relationship with blogging.  I love to write but I’m not as diligent or consistent as a good blogger should be.  In the interest of consistency, and trying to develop better habits, I decided to brush the dust off some older drafts and post them.   Here’s one that is a little musty snippet…from April 2008!  Yowza! Talk about procrastination!

on footprints…

Archaeologists recently uncovered a footprint made by a sandal-clad Roman soldier in a wall surrounding an ancient city in Israel that Jesus might have visited. The print was made by a strappy, leather sandal of a type worn by the Roman military. Called caligae, the sandals of this time had iron hobnails hammered into their soles, which provided durability and traction as well as a weapon when kicking.

As a lover of jargon, and also the planet, my ears perk up when I hear people talk about their own particular or a company’s carbon footprint in terms of the results of daily activities, habits and lifestyle, product or packaging choice, and the like.

I read a marketing article that mentioned using PR to make a more pronounced Digital Footprint, employing tactics like press release companies to proliferate a company’s stamp for search engines to ferret out. (On another note, see an interesting article Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die!)

I began to get a little curious about metaphors using “footprints” to describe a lasting impression caused by one’s behavior.  There are varying sizes of “carbon footprints,” including the collective world “ecological footprint”–the measure of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems–and smaller unitary footprints such as a country or city’s footprint, a corporation’s footprint, and one’s individual carbon footprint.

Looks the footprint has become an entrenched figure of speech.

I discovered that we can learn to consider our ‘Civic Footprint‘, which can either be a mere ghostlike tracing or tangible impression on society through activities like voting (or not) and grassroots activism.

….Now back to present day, Feb. 1 2009–Groundhog’s Day, incidentally. Manitoba Merv and Scotia’s Shubenacadie Sam (good to hear Punxsutawney Phil has some friends sharing this civic duty) have apparently both seen their shadows and are predicting more winter (thank goodness for living in the semi-tropics!–no groundhogs needed here).

My e-box brought me a funny story today about a press release sent on letterhead with a menacing legal notice forbidding distribution, stating: “This electronic mail transmission contains confidential information intended only for the person(s) named. Any use, distribution, copying or disclosure by any other person is strictly prohibited. If you received this transmission in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and then destroy the message.”   Oh well, I guess that release isn’t going to travel too far!

Amnesties and other special events

They say the newspapers are dying, but I still love the combination of daily news, print copy and photos, with the local slant, that you really don’t get other places.  I’m not a big fan of reading my news on line, and I like to read the local news during the week from the Sunday stack.  Sometimes I miss some timely news, like a gallery opening event, but overall it works for having interesting reading fodder at hand.

When I travel, I love having a few papers with me on the airplane, from my hometown, and from where I’m headed, or especially, have just been, especially if it’s a foreign site.  I wasn’t traveling, but picked up someone’s abandoned USA Today earlier this month at my local Panera Bread.

The article that caught my eye was one with the headline, “One day, 3,000 adoption from pet shelters, no fees.”  What a great idea!  So many shelters have a glut of animals waiting for adoption.  So January 24, 2009, was Change a Pet’s Life Day.  Pet food companies like Hill’s Science Diet and Pedigree donated to the cause.

This event not only accelerated getting the animals into new homes, but I’m sure also introduced some people to local shelters, and gave large-scale public awareness to the event as media picked up the call.

A once-a-year break from fees and penalties can really boost compliance.  Miami-Dade’s library system, like other municipalities’, has had amnesty days for patrons to return overdue or missing books without late fees.

During a February 2008 “Non-native (exotic) Pet Amnesty Day” at Miami’s Metro over 150 animals were turned over for proper care, without their owner’s facing a penalty.  South Florida has had problems with python owners releasing them into the Everglades.

Gun amnesty programs remove firearms from the streets.  And of course, our Florida tax holidays boost retail sales and give parents a welcome relief on the burden of back-to-school supplies and clothing.

I wonder what other amnesty programs could be dreamed up to boost economic activity and give the average consumer some welcome relief from the current day-to-day squeeze?

How ’bout an “amnesty day” for battery recycling…like they do in Downers Grove, Illinois?

Here’s another civic-improvement amnesty day… Free Tire Collection Events are held several times a year at the Seminole County Landfill, during which residents  can dispose of up to 10 tires, free.  This reduces unsightly and illegal dumping of tires and helps prevent mosquitoes.

Here’s an interesting idea for the corporate world.  Pegasus Communications has a …“semiannual ritual known as “Amnesty Day.” It’s a time for staff to clear several months’ accumulated detritus in order to move ahead with renewed vitality, energy, and lightness. Scheduled well in advance so everyone can clear their calendars, on Amnesty Day, anything that impedes work productivity is fair game.

Sounds good to me!