Is there anybody

who would say no to success?

If you were asked, do you want to be a success, would you—any of you—say “no?”

I realize that some of you may be holding in your head some idea that “success” means vulture capitalist-type wealth—which we’d probably all like—and vulture capitalist-type behavior—which, I assume, if you’ve stuck around this blog this long, you wouldn’t like. In that event, you may be shaking your head and thinking, “I don’t want to be a ‘sucess’.”

Of course, one of the more useful lessons I’ve learned is that we each get to define success for ourselves. It doesn’t have to be for you what it is for me. It doesn’t have to be, for any of us, the generally accepted idea of success. (I will grant you that going with the generally accepted definition makes it easier to know when you’ve achieved it, but that isn’t necessarily a good enough reason to go chasing after something that doesn’t make you happy.)

However you choose to define success, though, you might get a lot of use out of The Success Principles by Jack Canfield.

Now, let’s be clear. This book does tend to define success in the time-honored way as succeeding at acquiring things. And it is true, as some of the reviewers on Amazon claim, that much of this information is not new. It is also true that one of the keys to success for people like Mr. Canfield is to sell you a book that offers to give you the keys to success.

All I know is that the information is compiled here in a way that is clear and straightforward and compelling. It’s a big book—64 principles don’t come in a pamphlet—and you can choose to read it in snippets or all at once.

I keep it handy. Periodically, I dip into it again. I never do that without being reminded of some helpful idea.

Some of them are inconvenient truths. The idea that you are 100% responsible for your own life—that’s not an easy one. But it’s useful to consider it, just as it is useful to look at the concept of the Breakthrough Goal or the Thirty Things Lists.

So, I suggest you take a look at it. You can check it out of your local library before you buy it. Make sure it’s going to contribute to your success and not just its author’s. There’s a good chance you’ll want to have your own copy eventually.

Too much love.

Dietetically speaking.

So, it’s Valentine’s Day, and what I am thankful for is that it only comes once a year.

This is not out of some cynical dislike of Hallmark holidays or the grumpy bah-humbug-ness of the broken-hearted. It is because I would otherwise not survive the sugar shock of those Conversation Hearts.

You know the ones I mean, right?

The little pastel colored candies with the cryptic messages printed on them?

The thing is, I love those Conversation Hearts. Not the sour ones, or even the fruit-flavored ones. I like the originals, made by the New England Candy Company, in the traditional NECCO® Wafer flavors.

Yum!

It’s no use asking me to just not buy them. I have a certain amount of will-power, but, you know, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. A person should be allowed some small vices.

Obviously, there may come a time when I will not be able to eat Conversation Hearts. Diabetes does run in my family, so I try to be a little bit careful. But, in the meantime, I do indulge around Valentine’s Day. As I said, though, I’m glad it’s just once a year. (I know you can order the hearts year-round, but I let their availability in stores assist me in keeping my candy habits under control.)

I understand that NECCO® ran a contest recently to determine some new sayings. Things like “Tweet Me” were in the running. As something of a traditionalist where treats are concerned, I don’t know that I approve of that. On the other hand, it’s a little piece of sugar.

Do I really care what’s printed on it?

As long as the sayings are not racist or sexist or otherwise offensive and as long as the candies’ flavors remain the same mild sweetness with which I grew up, I’m good.

But, hey, you know—go ahead and Tweet Me.

Trade and Mark

The Bearded Brothers

It’s flu season and an unusually bad one, they say. Therefore, today’s Smith is really two Smiths who are never thought of separately, so perhaps they are one, after all.

Confused? You won’t be after today’s episode of Smith Sunday!*

The Smith Bros. have one of the most famous trademarks and logos in history: the two bearded brothers facing each other from either end of the cough drop box. Remember?

Coincidentally, the story goes, the word “Trade” appeared under the picture of William Wallace Smith and the word “Mark” appeared under the picture of Andrew. (Can you tell their family emigrated from Scotland?) This gave rise to one of the only bits of whimsey one could imagine from such dour-looking figures. The brothers became known as Trade and Mark and were referred to by those names by customers and newspaper articles alike.

The company, started by their father in 1847, became known as the Smith Brothers in 1866. It still exists although it has passed out of the family’s hands and left Poughkeepsie, NY. (Not only Smiths, but New Yorkers!)

If you want to know more about the Smith Bros., you can go to their website (and you should, because the thought of the Smith Bros. even having a website makes me giggle). And/or you can listen to a Talking History recording of a NYS Dept of Commerce radio program on—you guessed it!—trademarks and, of course, the Smith Bros.

Either way, you should get a flu shot, if you haven’t already, and avoid a closer relationship with the products of Trade and Mark.

* Tag line borrowed from the brilliant 1977-1981 TV comedy, Soap. Never seen Soap? What are you waiting for?

Yesterday–different.

Today–just weird.

As a writer, I think one of my weaknesses is plot. I’m good with words. I’m good with characters. I just don’t always have any ideas for what those characters should actually do.

So, I try to pay attention to real life news stories—in hopes that, like many other writers, some obscure tale will provide a spark of inspiration.

I have to admit, so far, it hasn’t happened. Sigh. But, one place I’ve looked that seems to have potential (although now, of course, you will all rush out and use any possible plots lurking here) is the News of the Weird column.

Now, beware. Some of these items are…well…less than appetizing. It all depends on what’s happening in the world that can be classified as weird that week.

The column was originally—and still is, probably—a newspaper feature edited by Chuck Shepard. At some point, however, it began to appear online. Mr. Shepard himself does not vouch for the authenticity of all the stories, so I imagine some of them are true and some of them aren’t. All of them are weird, however, and many of them qualify for me linking to the column here on Silly Saturday. (Criminals especially seem to have a high “silly” quotient.”)

An interesting feature of the website is an interactive map. You can click on your state and get localized News of the Weird.

Have fun!

Think differently

An ongoing demonstration of creativity.

Far be it from me to advocate spending any more time on FaceBook than you currently do, but have you seen this page.

Different Solutions is the page that stops me every time I try to go cold turkey on FB. Similar to Clutter Clearer which I previously mentioned, Different Solutions posts fabulous ideas for just about everything. Today’s haul includes pictures of hair braided into letters of the alphabet, some shabby chic bangle bracelets made out of the seam of an old pair of jeans, bird houses made of cowboy boots, all kinds of fascinating uses for wooden pallets and tires and—many, many things.

There are few captions and some of them are in languages other than English. I could wish, too, that the things that look like actual products rather than crafts would have a link to a vendor. But, over all, the page is a whack on the side of the head, prompting you to think more creatively about pretty much everything around you.

Not everything posted is something I would want or something I am capable of making, but enough of it is that I will not be able to leave Facebook entirely unless and until Different Solutions gets a web page of its own. (Meantime, I’m going to be forced to look into those FB-blocking apps, I think, because it is time to get back to work!)

Half

Is pretty darn good.

I’m talking about Half.com.

Half.com is an eBay company.

It didn’t use to be. I mean, it used to be all on its own, and then it was bought. So far, I don’t see much difference either for the better or the worse.

The idea is that used books and movies and games and music can be sold by those who are done with them to those who haven’t seen them yet. It’s evolved so that there are a number of vendors there, as well.

It’s saved me countless hours searching garage sales and flea markets and library book sales for hard-to-find volumes. Right now, I’m working on a project (Round Robin Shakespeare) for which I need a number of copies of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

75 cents on Half.com.

Plus postage, of course, which is where they get you, but so far, at least, it’s reasonable postage—within what one would expect an item to ship for—even when the postage does exceed the item’s cost.

That always seems wrong—until you realize you just got five copies of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare for under $5 bucks apiece. (Do you know how heavy those things are?!)

So far, I’ve only ever bought from Half. If and when I get my house in better order, I might branch out into selling. (If this project falls apart, I’m gonna have five copies of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare to unload.)

I’ve also never bought anything but books. The DVDs are tempting sometimes, but I’m leery of used DVDs. Even my new DVDs don’t always play smoothly. And I’m even more leery of the potential for bootlegged copies. I may try it at some point, though, if the price is sufficiently tempting, the seller reviews sufficiently strong, and the item sufficiently hard to find elsewhere.

Meanwhile, I’m just thankful I was able to get those five copies of Shakespeare without taking out a mortgage. Of course, if I had taken out a mortgage and fell into foreclosure, I could always use them to build a house. (Do you realize how much space those things take up?!)

Respond

Just do it.

Lately, I have encountered an epidemic of people who don’t seem to respond. Not to emails, not to phone calls. And I’m not talking about your Aunt May who won’t get an answering machine and doesn’t remember things too well anyway.

I’m talking about tradesmen. People I might want to hire.

I’m talking about government officials. People whose job it is to impart information and handle problems.

I’m talking about people who have asked for and received help from me and don’t acknowledge it.

There are a lot of people who do respond, who return calls and emails and thanks and good energy of all sorts. Sometimes they even respond with negative energy, like “I can’t do that job until a week from Tuesday,” or “Thank you for sending your play but it doesn’t meet our production needs right now,” or “We’re sorry, but your car needs a new transmission.” (Fortunately, I haven’t heard that last one lately.) All of those are less than desirable outcomes, but they are, at least, resolutions.

And there are, rarely, people who have good and sufficient reasons for not responding.

In general, though, there aren’t that many good reasons, and the world moves too fast these days for failure in this area not to actively hurt your chances at success—no matter what you do.

So, my tip is this: Make a rule. Answer every email and phone call within 24 hours. Maybe you can’t give a definitive answer to whatever question is on the table, but you can say so, can’t you? “Got your email. I have to check a few things. I’ll get back to you on that.” How hard is that? And how hard is it to say when you’ll get back and then to do it?

I’m not talking about the phone calls and emails from telemarketers and spammers, or even the just-checking-in messages from friends and relatives, who presumably will allow a little leeway and aren’t depending on an answer before some project or other can move forward.

But for everything else—respond!

Everybody has busy, busy lives.

Surely, we could make them a little less busy for each other if we just stop making people chase us.

Mr. and Mrs.

Smith, of course.

Another Smith by marriage, Jada Pinkett Smith joined the Smith tribe when she married actor, producer, rapper Will Smith.

She’s an actor, singer, songwriter, writer, businesswoman and mother of two.

I confess that I did not know much about Ms. Smith (and still don’t, really) until I stumbled across a quote of something she said in response to criticism and questions as to why she and her husband had let their twelve year old daughter cut her hair in a particular way. Something about that resonated with me.

Here’s the quote that apparently originated on Facebook:

The question why I would LET Willow cut her hair. First the LET must be challenged. This is a world where women,girls are constantly reminded that they don’t belong to themselves; that their bodies are not their own, nor their power or self determination. I made a promise to endow my little girl with the power to always know that her body, spirit and her mind are HER domain. Willow cut her hair because her beauty, her value, her worth is not measured by the length of her hair. It’s also a statement that claims that even little girls have the RIGHT to own themselves and should not be a slave to even their mother’s deepest insecurities, hopes and desires. Even little girls should not be a slave to the preconceived ideas of what a culture believes a little girl should be. More to come. Another day.

What’s also really cool is Mr. Smith’s response to the same question asked by Parade Magazine:

We let Willow cut her hair. When you have a little girl, it’s like how can you teach her that you’re in control of her body? If I teach her that I’m in charge of whether or not she can touch her hair, she’s going to replace me with some other man when she goes out in the world. She has got to have command of her body. So when she goes out into the world, she’s going out with a command that is hers.

So, I’m going to be following Mr. and Mrs. Smith from now on, I think. Because I approve this message.

You quack me up!

Jokes, jokes, jokes!

“You quack me up” is a tag line on the joke section of the Ducksters website. Ducksters is a site for kids.

(Common sense warning: Don’t let your kids explore the internet unsupervised. Remember, even a previously kid-friendly website can change hands—and content.)

That said, Ducksters is—currently—a site for kids with lots of fun content. Today being a Silly Saturday, however, I’m going to direct you to the Jokes section. Most especially, you want to go to the Silly Jokes section,. There are other fun jokes in other parts of the website, but this particular section—you’ll be wondering where the rimshots are.

Just a sample—in honor of my nephew:

Q: Why couldn’t the pirate play cards?
A: Because he was sitting on the deck!

Ba-dum-bum

Circular Breathing

What is it?

This is a thing about which I have been wondering ever since I first read the liner notes on a CD collection called Global Celebrations. The notes in question are about a group called Angelin Tytöt (The Girls of Angeli). They call themselves Angelit, now, but I’m still wondering.

Anyway, the girls of Angeli are from Inari, a Lapp village in Finland, and they sing a form of folk music called joikhing. The notes talk about a circular breathing technique similar to Eskimo songs.

I don’t believe I’ve ever heard Eskimos singing.

So, that’s another thing to wonder about.

But, I liked this particular song called Normu Jovna, and I wondered what circular breathing is. At the time, the internet had not amassed the vast stores of information (and captioned cat pictures) that it now has, so I didn’t find out much.

Today, I can read entries and view lessons on circular breathing—although they seem to be aimed at the players of woodwind instruments, so I don’t know if it’s the same idea for singers. I still wonder about that.

For the instrumentalists, it appears to be a technique whereby you store the last little bit of breath in your lungs in your cheeks and use your check muscles to push it out while you inhale more air through your nose. (If that sounds a bit like rubbing your stomach while patting your head, it’s because it probably is.)

The idea is you get air without interrupting the flow of the music.

I can see how this could be very useful, although I haven’t been able to master it.

(Master it? I haven’t been able to sneak up on it with training wheels.)

However it is done, the joikhing has a happy sound. Since I don’t speak Finnish or Sami or Lapp or whatever it is, I have no idea what any of it means. But I like the sound of it.

This clip has a big of Normu Jovna at the start of it. And if you do happen to speak Finnish or Sami or Lapp or whatever, maybe you will understand the interview that follows. If you don’t, it has a happy sound, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lmgAGSNS0

Elaine Smith Writes

Anything She Wants

Category Archives: Life in General