Haven’t had much “me” time lately — at least not enough to update my blog site with regular posts. However, when I can steal away some quiet time or while working on simple dev stuff, my guilty pleasure is listening to a Kim Harrison book.
Yup, I have an Audible membership. Love it! Each month I know I have a new credit available, and each month I grab another book from Harrison. Just finished “Dead Witch Walking” and about to start on her New York Times bestseller “Black Magic Sanction.”
For more on Harrison, here’s her site: http://www.kimharrison.net.
My coworker added this funny, yet true anecdote, to my show-and-tell this morning. As I noted that I dropped some money back into the economy over the weekend… Read the rest of this entry »
Spent sat evening with my nieces. One of them needed help with her class project — “Trap A Leprechaun” using at least 6 geometric shapes, create at least 2 patterns and it much be at least 8 inches tall.
Here’s the result! Read the rest of this entry »
Ok, forget about my last post! This is what I’m buying myself for my birthday… “Monster’s of the Household Variety
” by Ruth Ashton.
The entire book is hand stitched and the monsters are phenomenally illustrated and stitched, as well. I’m obsessed. It’s been exactly 5 days since discovery!
Here’s a little background… Read the rest of this entry »
I like to read but by habit I “read” technical books for whatever project I’m on and listen to all others. I love to play books off of my iPhone while I’m working but it has its limitations in terms of bookmarking something for later. But this book by Chris Brogan called Social Media 101
(Amazon affiliate link) wasn’t available on audio and it was quite all right that it wasn’t at the time I wanted to buy it because he stated on his site, ChrisBrogan.com, it’s a reference book. I snapped it up because I really liked listening to his last book off my iPhone, Trust Agents
(Amazon affiliate link).
As you can see in the picture Social Media 101 (Amazon affiliate link) has become a very well used reference book, for me. Only it’s plastered with sticky notes (by color to show my O.C.D. side) as reminders to show my brother Will and sister MJ the section pertaining to real estate as they are both reactors. There’s a part that I want my uncle to read as he just started blogging. And my youngest sister Katie should read the bit about branding yourself, as I keep chatting with her about “building the Katie brand.”
My point is, Read the rest of this entry »
STOKED!!!
The Ladies’ Guilty Pleasures Book Club is hosting Jackie Collins in April. I’m so excited to participate as she’s going to not only read an excerpt from her new book but also take questions!
If you are interested, check-out the book club on Meetup at http://www.meetup.com/GuiltyPleasuresBookClub/.
Listening to a book from Audible right now called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
.
Usually I run a book on audio while I’m working from home alone — keeps me company, sort-of. While running this book in the background I tuned in when I heard the reader say, “Reward narrows our focus.” I stopped working and sat at the kitchen bar to drink some coffee and listen closer to what came next.
Read the rest of this entry »
This morning’s Facebook stream included a little “game” of adding a line from a page in a book that was sitting closest to you, to your FB status. I know what your thinking… “oh she is one of those that plays ‘those games’ on Facebook.” Usually, I’m not. But as I read this post from a friend, I looked to my left at the pile of books I just cleaned out of my car — which had been in the back of my car since I was laid-off back in June.
The book is “What Would Satan Do?” by Pat Byrnes. It is a coffee-table type of book that I used to keep at the edge of my desk when I was a director of digital media at an entertainment company. I’m smiling as I write this because I had a phenomenal crew on my team — quirky but phenomenal. Ahhh the memories. I say “quirky” because it was a creative environment and my team was a hybrid of design and development with immense pressure to produce within “need it yesterday” time-lines. Anyhow, I digress…
I kept this book on my desk as a tribute to the times when one of my team members (or often someone from another department with a dilemma) needed help problem solving, or advice or just wanted me to be a good listener for a few minutes. When times were too “heavy” or the conversation wasn’t “going anywhere,” I would refer to the book and say “how about we take a moment and read from this book… just pick a page and I guarantee it will put a smile on your face.” You get the picture.
Pat Byrnes’ “What Would Satan Do?” provided many a laugh during stressful points while I was a director.
Ps. The picture added to t his post says “Rationalizations 50 cents” from the street bum to the suited man walking near him.
Right now I’m on a plane flight from LAX to JFK… with FREE internet access. The 80′s in me wants to write, “this is totally bitch’n.” The 90′s version of me wants to say, “fabulous, just fabulous.” Now, I’m sitting here thinking, “If I have a Coke over ice, there’s more of a chance I will spill it on my laptop or iPhone, or my guy’s laptop or Crackberry which would have devastating ramifications. Decisions, decisions…I’ll just have a shot of Patron.”
Now, what should I do with my FREE internet? Hmmm, well, I’ve been meaning to jump on the bandwagon and wave. Ok Google, here I come. I think it’s time to get my wave on.
(And yea, I’m sitting next to the closet genius… thousands of miles up in the sky “geeking-out” together.)
I was just on the phone with a friend who had me laughing OUT LOUD as she recanted some “good old times” that I seem to be reliving in my “good current times.” The just of the conversation was about how an old dog never learns new tricks.
Now off the phone and still laughing to myself as I make my lunch, I’m thinking about how the notion of “managing up” (usually used in the business sense) could be applied to other relationships. And then I remembered watching my seven year old niece on Christmas day… she was paying close attention to those of us cooking; she jumped in when help was needed, kept us updated on the oven timer as it counted down closer and closer to zero; and she even offered to help take out the trash. Then, as the dinner rolls came out of the oven, I realized why she had been “managing up” all of her aunts who were cooking in the kitchen. She played the odds that one of us would let her have a hot flaky roll right out of the oven because she had been so valuable in helping us. She devoured that first roll (of four that I counted) with holiday joy that you only see in a child’s eye.
I think it’s time to ask the great Google for current day results on “managing up”.
