I didn’t realize I’d been ignoring this blog. Sorry about that, guys. If you could see my calendar, you’d understand what’s happened. To catch you up quickly, both of my workplaces were bought this month, and so there’s a lot going on. In one case, it’s coming right as things are starting to get better. In the other…well…for the second time in twice as many months, I may not have a second job for long. My jewelry store is slowly filling with lovely pieces, and it looks like someone might be interested in bugging me to write out my patterns.
The universe also thinks i need several neon signs screaming at me to give writing a real try (as in something other than just narrowly missing freelance jobs). It doesn’t seem to care what I write professionally, just as long as I do. Thankfully, I’ve been working on Dead Bunny’s first book for the past three weeks or so, and the first draft is coming along quite nicely, even if it’s pointing out huge gaping holes in the blog! (Yikes!)
This update isn’t what actually what brings me by today, though. I thought I’d try out a new feature, and you guys can tell me what you think of it. I used to try to review every book I read in its appropriate Niche, but my time just isn’t conducive to that anymore, so I thought I’d share the list of what I’ve read in the past month.
- Seeing What’s Next- It impressed me so much that I put it down nearly halfway through. I read it because it was on the Personal MBA list, but I really felt it was one of the weaker books in its section.
- The Dip- Who doesn’t love a good Seth Godin book? Also a Personal MBA recommendation (that’s been recommended by everybody and their Uncle Phil)
- The Simplicity Survival Handbook-Another Personal MBA recommendation that I believe simply everybody must read! If you can’t find something in it that will make your life just a hair simpler, I’ll eat my Mariners cap!
- Ready for Anything- Personal MBA recommendation that probably would have done more for me if I’d read it several years ago. Still a good book, though.
- The Path of Least Resistance for Managers- I was supposed to read a different version of this book for the Personal MBA, but I found this one rather redundant for me so I didn’t feel compelled to track down the correct version. It’s another one that would have benefitted me if I’d read it much earlier.
- Competitive Strategy- Much like the first book in this list, it’s a Personal MBA book that I put down fairly quickly. I found it very dense and had a hard time getting into it.
Toward the end of each month, I’ll try to post what I read that month wit a brief bit on what I thought. I think a book or two might get skipped, but I’ll try my best to not let any fall through the cracks.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Personal development at 7:32 AM EST
No Comments »
I’ve read a number of blog posts recently written by people who are feeling the strain of information overload. They’re talking about the freedom that’s come with dropping feeds out of their aggregator.
I feel a bit guilty, but I kind of laugh at that. We each decide what blog feeds we’re going to subscribe to, what newsletters we’re going to invite into our inboxes. We also have the ability to disinvite both at any time.
Personally, every couple of months, I like to throw a bunch of feeds I think I’m not reading or that I’m not getting anything new or useful from into a folder that I mark as “read” at the beginning of every time I sit down with my aggregator. If I find myself missing a blog, I look in the folder. (It hasn’t happened that often.) At the end of the month, I delete every feed in the folder.
So far, I’ve rid myself of nearly 100 feeds I wasn’t reading, keeping only one that I wasn’t quite done with yet. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything because in many cases, the blogs either covered a topic I was no longer following or the good posts are referenced by far smarter bloggers than me (and I happen to follow those far smarter bloggers).
The nice thing about the way the internet currently works is that we can control what information comes to us when. It’s a series of personal choices, and we have to do what we can to keep it relevant and useful to us.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 10:23 AM EST
No Comments »
I don’t actually recall what led to my finally deciding it might be fun to try Twitter, and I’ve had a devil of a time trying to remind myself to update it periodically. Thankfully, I have the IM bot set up, and I’m doing much better at thinking, “Hey, this would probably be a good Twitter post.” (Somehow, I just can’t make myself call these posts “tweets”.)
A couple of weeks ago, I read some newbie guides to Twitter and realized I could actually have some fun with it. While I definitely drop random thoughts and complaints into my Twitter stream (Is that actually a word?), I’m also realizing I can use it for so much more.
I can leave a note to myself. I can take note of what I’ve done and what I’ve learned. I can share my current status on a project. I can let people know what class projects are coming up and if class has been canceled. I’ve even shared when I’ve posted a new article to eHow.
I’m thinking I can use it to show off what books I’ve just read, when I add jewelry to my Etsy shop or new designs to my CafePress shops. The possibilities are almost endless.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:45 AM EST
No Comments »
Curt Rosengren recently shared some suggestions from a book he is reading to help experts spend some time remembering what it means to be a beginner in a field. I found it interesting because I do consider myself an expert on a couple of topics, but I feel like I spend a lot of my time practicing the behaviors described.
Most of them center around the fact that beginners are learners first and foremost, and they exhibit strong learning traits like curiosity and a willingness to make mistakes and learn from them. really, these are traits experts should be cultivating within themselves anyway. It’s part of keeping up with your industry or niche. It’s also how trends and new discoveries are identified. Who wouldn’t want to do those things?
For my part, I just like playing “What if” games with my work, and then experimenting to see if my ideas will work. It sounds like a mad scientist in her lab, but it’s those same traits at play that beginners use to help themselves grow. It’s how I, established in the fields I feel comfortable with, find new ideas to chase.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 10:48 AM EST
No Comments »
After using eHow for a while, I finally decided to jump in and try to post some of my how-to articles there.
I’m starting small, just posting one article a week. My first series will be the constellation finders I wrote back in grad school. I don’t know where I’m going to go from there, but I figure I have a couple of weeks to sort that out.
You can keep up with my articles here, and feel free to suggest article ideas to me.
Next on the agenda, trying to be more brave about submitting my short stories. If people think I ought to give my writing a chance, I guess it can’t hurt.
It gives me something to do in between being rejected from jobs, if nothing else.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:25 AM EST
No Comments »
(Sorry if this is late. Real life can be a real bear sometimes.)
Over the weekend, I put together a list of as many of my currently-used skills as I could think of, including one that’s getting a lot of good practice at the moment that I completely forget to mention.
I like research. I love to look for information. I love to gather information from various sources and find patterns and commonalities. I like to verify what I think I know. There are people out there who don’t have the time to find information they need, and I’m thinking about how to present this skill to them.
So, my question to you is: If you hired someone to research or check facts, what would you most want to know? What would you expect this person to be able to do? What bundle of skills would you expect this person to be able to provide?
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 2:44 PM EST
No Comments »
I really feel this post on cartooning says it all, but honestly when you combine images and words, you are tapping into two learning modalities. You’re engaging the reader’s mind on two levels. That’s twice the opportunity to have your message sink in.
Something to keep in mind when developing products designed to make a point…
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 9:54 AM EST
2 Comments »
Last week, I revealed my revelation that I love taking in information and being in the right place at the right time to share what I know.
It turns out that being that person could actually lead to more authentic networking.
The point of networking (amazingly enough) is to build useful connections, reciprocal relationships. This means that you aren’t just looking for people who can help you; you’re also looking for people you can help.
A great way to do this is to keep yourself up to date on your own industry and nearby ones. Read about things that interest you outside your industry. Find ways to connect people you know with what you know.
You’ll feel less smarmy in your networking efforts, and you’ll help people at the same time. Win-win!
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:36 AM EDT
1 Comment »
Somehow, between wrestling with issues at work, taking on this jewelry teaching job (first class on the 19th!), and starting to think about NaNoWriMo, I’ve let everything fall into chaos.
I’d been working on sorting through and organizing my writing and graphic design projects. The writing part is just down tro all my teaching material. The graphic design project is on hold while I try to find something that will let me arrange things my way. (I tried Scrapblog, but it crashes on Linux.)
I’m working on a pair of fan fictions with the intent of posting one of them to fanfiction.net before NaNoWriMo begins. Both are just sitting there.
My reading list is becoming a slow nightmare as I keep forgetting to add books and shift them around. My project to create one page to follow several of my web spaces is stalling out. My writing projects…scattered hither, thither, and yon (not counting the two fan fictions).
I think I need to just sit down, have a strategy session with Todoist, and get everything back in order. Then I can re-organize myself from there!
How about you? Do you have some projects getting away from you? What are you doing to pull yourself back together?
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 9:06 AM EDT
1 Comment »
The short version of this story is if you need a freelance teacher, trainer, writer, or editor, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
The long version of this story is that with so much pressure on our kids to succeed, working in a extracurricular teaching center (and paying the bills off that paycheck) is becoming more challenging.
My blogs have actually all been suffering for the past couple of weeks while I’ve tried to figure out how to resolve this situation.
If we can get the pages working on this blog, then I’ll put up a page to help everyone understand what I can do for them (Basically, if you need something taught, either by a teacher or a written document, there’s a very good chance I can help you.) Otherwise, like I said, contact me with potential projects.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:09 AM EDT
No Comments »
