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ladytemeraire · 5 years

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Snapshot Sunday 3/1/2020

(For an explanation of what goes on in this post, click here.)

Hello my lovelies! It’s been quite a while since I made one of these posts, but then it’s also been quite a winter. I have had a very rough case of the brainsads this time around and I am not sure why, but it has led to me turtling down for a bit. I swear, if I could get the SAD lamp bulbs on their own, I would turn my bedroom into essentially a giant lizard terrarium. I miss the regularity and accountability of these posts though, so I definitely want to bring this habit back for the new year.

Reading: Recently finished No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin and In the Shadow of Spindrift House by Mira Grant, both of which were excellent and are still rattling around my brain. I set a personal goal of one book per week for the year; I am greatly behind (by which I mean I have read four books rather than eight), but I read fast and am doing better about actually reading in the evenings rather than dicking around online. Considering my dining room table is gradually being overrun by books, this is probably for the best. Next I think I will tackle The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher - I’m trying to alternate fiction and nonfiction for variety.

Recommended Listening: I’ve been working my way through the archives of Productivity Alchemy, 10/10 would recommend. Also still listening my way through Really Slow Motion’s archives when I need something without words.

Knitting: I have honestly knit almost nothing other than hexipuffs for like two months. No, wait, I also knit one Smaug sock, but I haven’t started the second one yet. I honestly haven’t even been on Ravelry much. Hopefully I will be able to change that soon, but for now I have enough in my life keeping me occupied that I’m not feeling too much of a creative lack.

Spinning: Still picking away at the Malabrigo Nube to supplement the sheep-to-shoe kit.

Writing: I have been writing on my lunch breaks again! Not much, but still better than nothing! Goal for this month is to make 500 words a day a habit.

Exercise: I am also getting back in the habit of this - doing bodyweight exercises first thing in the morning has definitely made it easier, because if I’m not fully awake I don’t have to think about how much I hate working out. Also, as I’ve mentioned in passing in a few posts, I started West Coast Swing dancing back in November, which has filled both the cardio part of exercising 2-3 days a week and several social slots in my calendar! It is HELLA fun and I’m so glad I finally got over myself and took the plunge. I can tell it’s helping me get in shape too; the first week I went dancing three nights in a row and my legs were like “hey what the HELL” but now I can go and barely even be winded by the end of the night. As evidenced by dancing for close to five hours straight last night! And people have told me they can tell I’m getting better even just in a few months, which is extremely gratifying. (Also this is a minor thing but between this and better eating habits I am down ten pounds since the beginning of December! Woo!)

Adulting/Misc: Mostly I’m just hanging in there. Work has been going well - I got good results on my yearly performance review and I’m making progress on my responsibilities. The weather can’t seem to decide what the hell it wants to do so I’m just riding it out under a pile of blankets and enjoying what time I have left before my allergies try to murder me again. I’m also starting to make the switch from Evernote to OneNote; I started using the latter on my tablet to take notes during Force & Destiny and adore it, plus there’s no limit on the number of devices I can install it on (that I can tell). Said tablet is definitely going to come in handy for on-the-go writing/editing; I still do most of my zero draft stuff longhand due to my love of fountain pens and stationery, but I can already tell this is going to be useful for basic writing and/or editing that doesn’t require the full power of Scrivener.

Goals for the week:

Unfuck my pantry

Deal with the last bit of my floordrobe

Start transferring files from Evernote to OneNote

Hang up more pictures/maybe some shelves

How has your week been? What did you get done this week? What are your goals for the next week? Tell me in a reply or reblog!

#life with ladytemeraire #Snapshot Sunday #West Coast best coast

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shade-without-color · 6 years

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Calling all Beta Readers for Icarcus.

I wanna say hi if you stumble across this post, and interested in the following things

* A developed female character handling politics (in a non-threatening manner), and holds relevance to our society as we seen more female role models in power. * A twist to the rather tired fantasy genre which focused on character development! * If you just love an epic tale with a lush perspective of a world filled with pirates, fallen empires, ghosts of the past and rulers of all sorts..

Then Icarcus is just for you, so it follows a young girl Caelestra, a survivor of the fallen city Icarcus, who have to overcome many obstacles to reestablish her fallen kingdom. However, she has to face her morality, with the drowned souls- remnants of its past and her ailing father.

Just a quick introduction my name is Catherine and I am from Singapore. Currently, I am working in retail which I am in the midst of editing "job-filling novella", as it is actually birthed when I am in the midst of my job hunting before I found that job, which I called it Icarcus (get the Greek Mythology reference ?). Yes, it draws parallels to a certain winged figure but it is twisted by its own head. Think Game of Thrones Daenerys Targaryen (I know she is polarized in the fandom based on my osmosis but she is interesting) meets with Shekar Kapur’s Elizabeth (Guys you should watch it, and oh listen to the TED Talk of Kapur creating image.), with some smothering of art history references.

You may ask why I make this call, because I have been trying to edit for a year or so (and yes I changed my writing style along the way), and me being more an idea generator rather than a cleaner is the biggest struggle for me XD. It will be awesome if I have someone to see my works in a different light.

So under this cut are the things we have.

Expectations

* Well you have been honest with reasons for my novella as I would love to see a different perspective on what you think. And please do not mind if I have to ask you questions just in case I may misinterpret your advice. * It will be awesome if you can annotate it in colour as I find it much easier for me to read as I am more of a visual thinker, and it helped me to break down information well. * Feedback-wise, for shorter inquiries you can chat at my Tumblr at shade-without-color otherwise, for now, email will be best for me as I can keep track hence I will send you guys 2 chapters per edit as it is easier for me so I can collate it into my Evernote account for improvement. I want to look mostly, is grammar (I know my weakness but I will get by), the flow of the plot and character development. * Optional: A historical understanding of 14th to 18th European history will be awesome if you like to make the world a little more interesting! (It is not purely followed through as I jumbled some stuff but it will help to clean some areas) * FYI I will try to place a list of context for the reference of what my story will be like, which will be in Google doc for your understanding (because I think it helps me better to contact things) and a Spotify playlist to listen as you read it.

Requirements and scheduling

So it will be around for 1/2 a year, so I am aiming around 7 Sept which we will take a break between November and December as I am busy during that period with work and personal commitments. (You can still give me feedback during that break though I will take longer to send it out).

So far I have cleared up with the first few chapters with another beta who unfortunately have to drop Icarcus due to personal issues. so the other half of the novella is therefore unedited. Therefore I will give you the first 6 edited chapters, and the other half unedited for your feedback.

I see it as a YA novel, so it could be 16 and up will be great, as it tackled death, violence and implied sexual content.

So if interested, please email me at [email protected] or DM on my Tumblr at shade-without-color before 2 Sept 2018 (GMT +8 Singapore time) as I need to do some clearance before we jump into that project. Anyway if you have to drop out of the beta reading due to life changes (I know), we can discuss it privately.

To end this shout-out post, I will like to end it with these words famously said by Julius Ceaser- "Veni Vidi Vici" So it goes like I saw, I came, I conquered. It pretty much summarised my novella and I hope you can join that crusade with me!

Feel free to DM me if you have any enquiries about it.

#beta reader #beta #writing #writers on tumblr #spilled ink #icarcus universe #Caelestra #S: I will reclaim the kingdom of glory #Icarcus!shadewithoutcolor #Icarcus #Mayor Drago #Auberon #valentia #Lunetta

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mikemortgage · 6 years

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How the trade war is changing minds in a Senate battleground

NASHVILLE — Jimmy Tosh’s sprawling hog farm in rural Tennessee is an unlikely battleground in the fight for control of the U.S. Senate.

Yet his 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) two hours west of Nashville showcase the practical risks of President Donald Trump’s trade policies and the political threat to red-state Republican Senate candidates such as Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn.

Tosh, a third-generation farmer who almost always votes Republican, said he’s voting this fall for Blackburn’s Democratic opponent, former Gov. Phil Bredesen, in part because Trump’s trade wars are hurting his family business — a sizable one with some 400 employees and 30,000 pigs. The cost of steel needed for new barns is up, Tosh said, and the expanding pork market stands to suffer under new tariffs.

“This tariff situation has got me very, very, very concerned,” Tosh told The Associated Press. “I just think Bredesen would be better on that situation.” He said Blackburn has shifted “toward the centre” on tariffs, “but in my opinion, it’s a little late and not far enough.”

Similar concerns are roiling high-profile Senate contests in Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania and North Dakota and forcing GOP candidates to answer for the trade policies of a Republican president they have backed on almost every other major issue.

In 2016, populist attacks against free trade defined Trump’s political rise. Now, as he sparks an international trade war four months before the midterm elections, few policies could be more problematic for Trump’s allies in pivotal Senate contests.

The Trump administration imposed a 25 per cent tax on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports on Friday, and China is retaliating with taxes on an equal amount of U.S. products, including soybeans, electric cars and pork. The administration has penalized steel and aluminum imports from allies such as Canada and Mexico, leading to retaliation against American-made products such as blue jeans, motorcycles and whiskey.

The tension has reshaped the race to replace retiring Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. Blackburn, an eight-term congresswoman, has been one of the president’s biggest boosters for the past two years, yet with the business community up in arms, she’s dramatically softened her support for Trump’s trade policies, at least.

“We fully appreciate that some of these countries have had a trade war against us for years, certainly China would be in that list, and it’s time that somebody really stands up,” Blackburn told AP. “But with that said, it does cause us tremendous concern, just grave concern.”

Still, Blackburn opposed a proposal by Corker that would have given Congress new authority to check the president’s trade moves. She called Corker’s approach “a little bit too broad.”

Instead, Blackburn helped write a letter urging Trump’s commerce secretary to reconsider broad tariffs so as to avoid harm to Tennessee’s economy.

An estimated $1.4 billion in Tennessee exports are threatened by Trump’s trade moves, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a longtime Republican ally. Those exports are linked to more than 850,000 jobs in the state related to farming, steel, baked goods, car manufacturing, whiskey and more.

Nationwide, the U.S. Chamber reported that $75 billion in U.S. exports will soon be subject to retaliatory tariffs. Many of the hardest hit states are those that backed Trump and feature top-tier Senate races in November.

Indiana, where Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun is trying to defeat Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, has more than 812,000 jobs tied to global trade, the Chamber found. In April, Braun said concerns about the tariffs were being “overdramatized.”

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, has pounded her Republican opponent, Josh Hawley, for backing Trump’s trade decisions. Hawley, whose state has more than 826,000 jobs tied to global trade, says the president is right to shake up trade deals and should have time to negotiate.

And in North Dakota, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp has seized on Republican challenger Kevin Cramer’s description of the tariff fallout as “hysteria.” Cramer blames China for the trade dispute that could affect as many as 111,000 jobs.

But back in Tennessee, Blackburn has been backed into a corner by the state’s business leaders.

Tennessee whiskey maker Jack Daniel’s, for example, sends roughly 60 per cent of its business out of the country.

Jack Daniel’s parent company was forced to increase prices across Europe as a result of tariffs imposed by the European Union in response to Trump’s tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum. Shares of the company dropped sharply last month after Mexico announced plans to impose a 25 per cent tariff on whiskey in response to Trump’s moves.

“Tariffs such as these, they can only do harm,” said Jack Daniel’s general manager Larry Combs.

Another major Tennessee employer, home appliance maker Electrolux, continues to delay a $250 million expansion in Tennessee “given the uncertainty of U.S. trade policy,” said company spokeswoman Eloise Hale.

“These tariffs are directly increasing our costs,” she said.

The Democrat in the Senate race, former Gov. Bredesen, has seized on the issue. Even in a state Trump won by 26 points, he’s betting he can use Blackburn’s loyalty to the president against her because of the tariff-related fallout.

“She clearly is very loath to do anything contrary to what the Trump playbook is,” Bredesen said.

“The way I’ve read her expression is, ‘We elected Trump president. I’m here to make sure he gets his agenda passed,”‘ Bredesen continued. “What I would like to do is say, ‘Look, I’m there to be with the president on stuff that makes sense for Tennessee, to be against him on stuff that is not.’ And that’s true whether it’s a D or an R president.”

Blackburn is eager to change the subject.

She’s quick to highlight her support for the GOP’s tax cuts. And with a sudden Supreme Court vacancy that gives the GOP an opportunity to cement a conservative majority for a generation, she’s emphasizing the importance of having a Republican Senate majority to approve Trump’s judicial appointments.

But back at the hog farm, Tosh is worried about the family business.

“The pork producers in the country are probably being impacted more so than any element of the economy right now,” he said. “We’re probably going to scale back some plans that we had, at least put them on hold.”

——

Peoples reported from New York.

from Financial Post https://ift.tt/2zj96D0 via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

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smartworkingpackage · 7 years

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5 Surprising Ways Creative Minds Use Evernote

What’s your biggest goal for 2018? Finally writing that book you’ve had inside you for years? Launching a podcast? Performing stand-up comedy in front of an adoring crowd? Whatever your aspiration, this can be the year you take positive steps toward making it a reality.

As scary as it might be to think about what lies ahead, big goals don’t always demand big actions. Often, all you need to achieve your dreams is a series of small, incremental steps, a firm belief that you can do it—and the right tool to capture moments of inspiration.

Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.” One way to ‘fail-proof’ your dreams is by identifying and removing some of the familiar excuses that have held you back for so long. Self-defeating words like “I’m too busy,” or “I can never remember my good ideas” do nothing but rob you of your power and place obstacles in your path. Making Evernote your place to stay on track and keep yourself accountable can help.

Special offer: 40% off Evernote Premium* »

To inspire you to make your 2018 happen, here are some unexpected ways that creative minds use Evernote Premium to help them capture brilliant ideas, no matter where they are in the world.

Superfeel finds inspiration in the everyday

Musicians Androu Boudreau and Jordan Bradley, the two halves of up-and-coming New York-based pop/R&B duo Superfeel, use Evernote as an integral part of their creative process. As Androu says, “Evernote is critical to our creative brainstorming process. It helps us capture ideas at all times, no matter where we are. We capture ideas through voice recordings, notes, pictures, and more, and can come back and bring them all together to make music.”

The magic of Superfeel is the way they can find inspiration in the most unlikely of places. An image, a sound, a thought—any snippet of an idea can later form the basis of a work of art, so being able to capture it all in Evernote is vital to the duo. “Every song we have ever recorded, Evernote has had a hand in the process,” Androu explains. “This app has literally changed the way we make music.”

Pro Tip: Record audio interviews ‘on the street’ for your podcast.

Nisha Harish conquered the desert and captured her journey in Evernote

Author Nisha Harish

In 2015, Nisha Harish completed the grueling six-day, 156-mile (251 km) annual race across the Moroccan desert known as the Marathon des Sables. Competitors must carry everything they need with them, so there’s no room for luxuries. Despite this, Nisha made sure to pack her iPhone so that she could take notes in Evernote at the end of each day. Upon completing the race, she turned those notes into a successful book, Big Steps, Long Strides, about her experience.

Nisha explains, “I wanted to write a book, but it needed to fit into my lifestyle. Evernote gave me that flexibility.” And considering that she had to carry her note-taking device across the burning desert with her, it’s fair to say that, without Evernote in her pack, Nisha might not have realized her goal. “It would be too simplistic to say that Evernote allows people to make notes because it has allowed me to achieve a major life ambition.”

Pro Tip: Jot down story ideas for your novel while you’re commuting to and from work.

Chris Hardwick connects ideas while on the road

Photo Credit: Joe Pugliese/AMC

Chris Hardwick is everywhere at the moment. He has a media empire (The Nerdist), a TV show on AMC (Talking Dead), and a festival-headlining stand-up act. He clearly doesn’t stay in one place for very long.

As a busy, successful performer, one of Chris’s biggest challenges is not coming up with new material, but keeping the inevitable flood of ideas organized. Joan Rivers, the legendary comedian, and mentor to Chris, had a multitude of note cards which she organized in little drawers. “Some people use notebooks; other people use cocktail napkins,” Chris says. “I will mostly write big ideas and work my stuff out in Evernote.”

Chris organizes his ideas into notebooks, adding tags as he goes. This allows him to spot connections between different thoughts that were not apparent before. “I realize there’s a through-line that I didn’t consciously intend, but my subconscious brain was trying to express. All these ideas are actually weirdly connected, as disparate as they might seem.” Sometimes Chris even uses Evernote when he’s performing: “I have gone on stage when I’m trying new stuff, and I just have Evernote open in presentation mode and I have the phone down on the stool.”

As Chris readily admits, though, the key to making it all work is capturing your ideas in the first place. “In the same way that you would organize a closet,” he says, “it allows you to do that emotionally with your life in all the intangible things that you can’t see, but you experience. But you can’t do that unless you really start tracking all that stuff.”

Pro Tip: Scan the business card of a contact you meet at an open-mic night or writing seminar.

Aaron Mahnke turns research into creative inspiration

Lore author and star Aaron Mahnke

Aaron Mahnke is a best-selling author and the host and producer of Lore, the critically-acclaimed series which began as a podcast and has now expanded into television, a book series, and a national live tour. Aaron’s many creative projects take up an enormous amount of his time; that’s why the ability to capture ideas in Evernote is vital to his success.

“Writing is creative, yes, but it��s also work. It’s just a task,” Aaron says. And to complete any task, you need the right tools. For a long time, Evernote was the place where Aaron stored links, images, notes, scraps, and ideas in clearly-labeled notebooks. It was what he called a “someday box.” Now, however, it fuels his ongoing creative process.

To produce Lore, Aaron uses a gamut of Evernote features, from Web Clipper, marking up PDFs, and tagging, to multi-layered, interconnected notebook stacks that tie together all the elements of his research and writing.

“It’s a process that sounds simple on paper,” Aaron says. “I pick a topic I find interesting, and then research every aspect of it that I can. I read for hours, taking notes and highlighting pieces of story or information. And when I’ve filled my head with everything, I find a quiet place and think through the outline. A lot of that happens in Evernote.”

Pro Tip: Save a PDF or doc in Evernote, annotate it, and search the text inside it later.

Forrest Dylan Bryant is always ready to write with Evernote

Forrest Dylan Bryant

Full disclosure: Forrest is more than just an Evernote Premium customer, he’s also our Director of Marketing Content. So, if anyone understands the true creative potential of Evernote, it’s Forrest.

In his spare time (what little of it he has), Forrest is an accomplished author and an avid participant in the National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, held every November. NaNoWriMo challenges participants to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days—a difficult goal, certainly, but not an impossible one, although it demands a disciplined and highly organized creative approach from writers.

Forrest muses that over the years he has experimented with many different writing tools. “Word, Scrivener, Google Docs, Ulysses…I’ve used them all. Each has its strengths, but I couldn’t find a system that suited me.” So, when he was preparing for NaNoWriMo in 2015 (and again in 2016), Forrest made the decision to create his novel entirely in Evernote.

While you may not want to make it your sole writing tool, you can still take advantage of Evernote’s many templates and shortcuts to make the planning process considerably easier.

The work of preparing to write, including creating character histories and story timelines, can stymie even the most seasoned writer. Templates simplify this process by giving you a convenient home for all the material you collect while researching your story. Then, when the time comes to create your ‘magnum opus’—using whatever tool you choose—you’ll find it easier to stay on track when you refer back to the research you’ve stored handily in Evernote.

If writing a novel is one of your 2018 goals, NaNoWriMo could be the perfect place to start—to ‘dip your toe in the water’ and see if the writer’s life is really for you.

Pro Tip: See Forrest’s advice for using templates to write your novel here.

So, what will you achieve this year? As you can see, there’s no stopping a great idea—at least not when you have the right tools to help you.

Special offer: 40% off Evernote Premium* »

*Evernote Premium offer good only with Evernote Premium purchase. New or Evernote Basic users only; offer expires January 31st, 2018 at 11:59 PM PST. This offer has no cash value and cannot be combined with any other offer. This offer can only be redeemed with Evernote direct payments. Offer not able to be applied to third-party payment services such as iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon or to extend current subscriptions.

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#Evernote Blog

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growthvue · 7 years

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7 Tips for Better Thanks Living All Year Long

Vicki Davis shares on Episode 196 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

You can have a more thankful, joyful year all of the time. In today’s show, I share seven secrets to live a more joyful, thankful life all year long.

Today’s Sponsor: Bloomz is the tool I chose for parent/teacher communication. To find out why read http://ift.tt/2f0btkq or go to bloomz.com to get started setting up your school or classroom now! December and January are great months to roll out Bloomz with your parents, so you can start 2018 strong.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

7 Secrets for Better Thanks Living All Year Long

Link to show: http://ift.tt/2AphxMk Date: Monday, November 20, 2017

Happy Motivational Monday!

So today I’m recording a special motivational episode for all of you out there with some tips for better ThanksLiving. Now Thankfulness — I cannot tell you how important it is for me, having my own attitude because of it, because teaching is SO HARD.

There are just a few things that I do that really help me a lot. I thought I would share these tips with you. Some are productivity tips, some are just thoughts, and some are kind of how you organize your life.

The Mud Puddle Principle

Now, the first one is what I call the “Mud Puddle Principle,” and I’ve blogged about this before. If you can think of a young little child on the edge of a mud puddle. You know how, when they get close to the edge of a mud puddle, they’re just going in!

Well, around my house I have yellow notepads, just the letter-sized ones. Then I have my favorite pens. I have them on my desk. I have them by my Prayer and Thinking Chair. I have them by my chair in the den. I have them right by my bed.

So, when I’m inspired, I just fall right in. When I sit down, and I have a thought, my pen’s there. My paper is there. I can jot it down. There are so many ideas for shows and other things that happen. Just writing and getting my thoughts out actually makes me a happier person.

Keeping a Journal

The second thing is keeping a journal. I read some time ago, that a treatment that some people have for depression — in addition to medication and other things that you do need — is that they will have people write down five things that they’re thankful for every morning.

Read “9 Fine Reasons to Keep a Journal (and Help Kids Do It Too)”

I have done this practice for so many years, and although I don’t have every day, when I find my “thinking turning stinking,” I’ll actually start listing those positive things in my journal. The other amazing thing about journals, is that I’ve been keeping them since I was eight, and I can look back and have such incredible memories.

Not too long ago, I found my journal for the year that I started dating my husband, Kip. I pulled it out, and there was actually something I had written there that said, “Dear Kip, If I am reading this to you then what I think is going to happen is happening. We’ve gotten married.”

And it was like, “It’s been 24 years!” I got to read this beautiful thing to him that I had written. It really just reminded me all over again how this journey started, and how much I love my husband. So, journals just can speak to us in the future in so many different ways.

The Day One Journal

But I also — my third thing — is I use the Day One journal app on my phone and on my computer, and it synchronizes. SO you can have little mini-journals. I have one for poetry because I like to write poetry. I have a journal for answered prayers. I have a journal just for things — photos, memories.

Read “One Habit that Can Make You Healthier and Happier: Retrospective Journaling”

Now that I’ve been going for a while, it’s kind of like Facebook because it will actually re-show me those journal entries later. And I like it because it’s surprising, because you know what? Not everything belongs on Facebook. I use Day One journal also, and I really love it.

Memory Markers

Now, the fourth thing is that I like to make Memory Markers. It kind of comes from I guess you could say the Bible, but other people have done this as well. When something historical or memorable happens, they would sort of make a marker. They would put up a monument.

Well, I have my office full of quotes. I’ll find a quote, or something that reminds me of an event. Then on the back, I will write in marker the date and the time and the circumstances of why that is my marker.

Sometimes these come from my students. I have a lovely sign right up above my desk that I’m looking at now. It says, “Be a voice, not an echo.” One of my students, Zach, gave it to me several years ago at Christmas, and it just reminded me that, you know, I have my own things that are on my heart to share with people.

I need to be brave and share those things, and not just feel like I have to be like anybody else. I can just be me, and you can be you also.

I have a lot more memory markers that are really treasures to me. One day when I’m gone, my children will take these things down. They’ll see on the back, even if they give it away, a very special memory marker for lots of major events in my life.

Sometimes I get those down off the wall to remind me about a decision and why I made that decision, so I can remember, “Oh yeah. That’s why I’m not going back to being friends with that person or working there.” Whatever.

Habit Places

So the next thing is having Habit Places. I have a Prayer and Thinking Chair. I think that Winnie the Pooh had a “Thoughtful Spot,” so I guess you could say it’s my thoughtful spot, but it’s a chair. I actually a Memory Marker over it, one of my very first, which is a cross stitch, my very first one. It says, “Thoughts.” I have always carried that with me through my life and put it wherever I think.

It may sound silly, but there are times when I just have to clear my mind and think about things. I can’t tell you about how many innovative thoughts or breakthroughs happen when I just sit there and think.

But I also have another sign that says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” It’s right over that chair. So what I do, every morning when I get up, usually around 4:30 am or so, light the candles on the coffee table right in front of my Prayer and Thinking Chair. I have a little stool because I like to prop up my feet. I have all of my books and Bibles and things. I light a candle. I’ll get me a coffee and put it right by my Prayer and Thinking Chair.

Then I will read my Bible. I will pray. I will write in my journal. I’ll pull up my next tip, so I can have my prayers. I just really have a moment. I know that when I sit in that chair, it is a place where I’m not to going to take my cell phone. It’s just for reflection and thinking.

Tools to Organize Your Prayers

Now the next thing is really using tools to organize my prayer life. You could use this for people you want to think about, you could use it for a lot of purposes, but for me, I learned this from a fellow named Ronnie Floyd, who my pastor had mentioned from the pulpit. He had pulled out his iPad during the sermon once and showed my pastor, Michael Catt, that he was praying for him. He had a big long list of people that he prayed for every day.

One thing about life is that if you say it, do it. Don’t just say stuff and not do it. That’s really one of my pet peeves. I always told my students to say either yes or no. Don’t say, “I’ll try.” Say “I’ll do it.” Like Yoda says, “Do or do not. There is no try.” People who say they’re going to try are usually saying, “I’m not going to do it. I’m just trying to be nice.” And I just can’t stand that, so now when I agree to pray for people, I have several different lists in my notes on my iPad.

I do use Evernote for other things, but for this I use Notes, and I actually share one of those with my husband, Kip, because he and I are adding people all the time. I’ll put the date that I add people on, and everyday I pray through that list. I write dates at the bottom. I’ll put “Answered Prayers,” and I’ll move it to the bottom.

So I sort of have a little system there of different things that I’m praying for. It really helps me to be focused and remember. Every so often — I try every morning to reach out to two or three different people on my list so that they know that I’m still here, I’m remembering them, I’m remembering their concerns, and I’m praying over those.

Walk Slowly Through the Crowd

That brings me to my next item. Something that my pastor says a lot is, “Walk slowly through the crowd.” Everybody has a problem. Everybody has a worry. Everybody has things.

As I am getting older, I am finding how many things that are burdening the heart — that I cannot and do not share on social media, because it’s just not all appropriate. Some things are private. You just don’t want to share those. Yet, they cause me tears. Some of these things I have tears over almost every single day in my quiet time.

So my walking slowly through the crowd is on Facebook. When I see somebody who posts something, and I see that they are having a hard time, I’ll usually try to Direct Message that person on Facebook. They know that I truly care, and I’ll say, “How are you doing? I care about you. I’m so sorry…” or whatever’s appropriate for that person. If it’s somebody who wants prayer, I’ll say, “How can I pray for you?”

I’ll make a real connection because I just think sometimes that we pile on… We have this mob mentality. Everybody says, “Praying, praying, praying…” Or “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

But there is a real person on the other end of that status update. We have to walk slowly through the crowd. I do this even at school, but I’m really talking about my habits at the house. We’ll just focus on those for now.

Notecards in a Filebox

Another thing I do is have notecards in a file box. I got this idea from John Maxwell, because he keeps note boxes.

I really like to have quotes and inspiration. I type these up in Word and print them out.

But I have a special place that I put sermons and things that I’ve heard at conferences. I’ll take them out and put the most important things on file cards to file in my note box. Or I scan it into Evernote, and then usually I’ll throw those away but I’ll have a digital copy.

Here’s the thing. You can sit in a great session. You can sit in something wonderful. But if you never return to those things and pondered them, how are you going to act upon them and help your life be better?

So that’s actually something I do in my Prayer and Thinking Chair. I’ll read over sermons. I’ll read over things and pondered them. I’ll post about them. That’s really when I find that I grow.

I also like to keep a list of things that I’ve learned. I try to write this down every day. The end of the day is a great time to write down things that I’ve learned… and I also got that trick from John Maxwell.

Take a Sabbath

Now here is another very important thing — taking a digital and physical Sabbath. So Sundays are my day, pretty much, to be offline. But also, to take that phone and put it in airplane mode.

Because you know, some people work on Sundays, but I don’t.

Their workday will become my workday if I have my phone not in airplane mode.

So when I’m going to church, when I’m just taking a nap or whatever, I’m on Sabbath. I’m taking a break. I just don’t work, and I don’t apologize for it.

You know, there are hotels that are really expensive. They call them Black Hole Hotels, and people check their cell phones at the door so they have no connection to the outside world. People will pay a lot of money for that.

I’m not going to pay a lot of money for that! It’s called, “Take away my phone, or turn off my phone, or get away and just have a break. Don’t do so much. Be a human being and not just a human doing.”

Exercise Your Joy Muscle

Let’s finish up with a thought about our Joy Muscle. Sometimes I get upset at myself for this thought, because I like to see problems and difficulties and challenges as an opportunity to exercise my Joy Muscle.

If you’ve ever worked out, you know that you have to get heavier and heavier weights in order to get stronger and stronger. Well, I don’t know what it is about teaching, but somehow we think that life should get easier and easier as we teach. And it doesn’t.

We getter better and better at it, so we get bigger and bigger problems. The reward for good work is more work. That’s actually in the Bible. So the more you do, the more work you get. And I’m OK with that.

But sometimes it’s just real easy to fall into a rut, complaining or whining.

So today, I’m recording this and getting ready to go to Dubai tomorrow. And last period, I knew I needed that period to do so much. We had poinsettia sales, I had all this poinsettia stuff to deal with for National Honors Society, I had to get my lessons into PowerSchool Learning… I mean, I just had a lot of things to do. Progress reports are going out Monday. I mean, (laughs), I couldn’t imagine how much I had to do. It was just so much!

Well, in pile a bunch of kids. The librarian had locked the library, and so I got all the kids, and I didn’t know they were coming. My room ended up full. I think at one point, I had 21 chairs and 30 kids in there — plus everything else I was doing.

And I thought to myself, “Vicki! Dadgumit! Why did you come up with this Joy Muscle thing, because this is a great opportunity to exercise your Joy Muscle when you get better at having joy and being happy?””

And I kind of failed for a little while before I was able to buck up and get stronger and decide that I was going to have joy, even because it was completely insane and ridiculous and there was no reason for it.

But I was still going to have joy, so I really think it’s important that when we have difficulties in life, that we learn how to have joy.

Now, as a Christian, I’ve got certain things at my disposal that are secrets to joy that I do, certain ways of thinking. I can write more about that. I have a Christian blog. If some of you are interested, email me, and I’ll plan on trying to do that.

But all of us can realize that when we have greater difficulties, that’s our opportunity to become more joyful — to not complain, to not whine, to not fuss. Our lives are not going to get easier, because we’re teachers, and that’s who we are.

I hope some of these thoughts have been encouraging to you. I hope that this week as you have Thanksgiving here in the United States — I know around the world, many of you have Thanksgiving at a different time — but I hope you’ll think about ThanksLiving and what you can do in your life, the small things, to have a more thankful way of living every single day.

Trust me, there are ways to do this. I hope that over time we all get better at it and not worse.

Have such a happy week.

We’ll be feeding — I think this year it’s 80-something people — at our little oak shed out at the farm. That’ll be crazy, but I just love my family so many amazing people in my family that I love. They’re all good cooks, too. We’ll try not to pack on a few pounds, but it might happen.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and just because it’s Turkey Day doesn’t mean you have to act like a turkey. Some of you might have to exercise your Joy Muscles for Thanksgiving because some of you might have people who are turkeys that you have to deal with.

I hope you’ll find a way to laugh and enjoy your Thanksgiving week, and I hope these ideas will help.

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford

[email protected]

Vicki Davis, the host of the 10-Minute Teacher shares this episode.

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post 7 Tips for Better Thanks Living All Year Long appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

7 Tips for Better Thanks Living All Year Long published first on http://ift.tt/2xx6Oyq

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aira26soonas · 7 years

Text

7 Tips for Better Thanks Living All Year Long

Vicki Davis shares on Episode 196 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

You can have a more thankful, joyful year all of the time. In today’s show, I share seven secrets to live a more joyful, thankful life all year long.

Today’s Sponsor: Bloomz is the tool I chose for parent/teacher communication. To find out why read www.coolcatteacher.com/bloomz or go to bloomz.com to get started setting up your school or classroom now! December and January are great months to roll out Bloomz with your parents, so you can start 2018 strong.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

7 Secrets for Better Thanks Living All Year Long

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e199 Date: Monday, November 20, 2017

Happy Motivational Monday!

The Mud Puddle Principle

Keeping a Journal

Read “9 Fine Reasons to Keep a Journal (and Help Kids Do It Too)”

The Day One Journal

Read “One Habit that Can Make You Healthier and Happier: Retrospective Journaling”

Memory Markers

I need to be brave and share those things, and not just feel like I have to be like anybody else. I can just be me, and you can be you also.

Habit Places

Tools to Organize Your Prayers

Walk Slowly Through the Crowd

That brings me to my next item. Something that my pastor says a lot is, “Walk slowly through the crowd.” Everybody has a problem. Everybody has a worry. Everybody has things.

I’ll make a real connection because I just think sometimes that we pile on… We have this mob mentality. Everybody says, “Praying, praying, praying…” Or “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Notecards in a Filebox

Another thing I do is have notecards in a file box. I got this idea from John Maxwell, because he keeps note boxes.

I really like to have quotes and inspiration. I type these up in Word and print them out.

Take a Sabbath

Now here is another very important thing — taking a digital and physical Sabbath. So Sundays are my day, pretty much, to be offline. But also, to take that phone and put it in airplane mode.

Because you know, some people work on Sundays, but I don’t.

Their workday will become my workday if I have my phone not in airplane mode.

So when I’m going to church, when I’m just taking a nap or whatever, I’m on Sabbath. I’m taking a break. I just don’t work, and I don’t apologize for it.

Exercise Your Joy Muscle

But sometimes it’s just real easy to fall into a rut, complaining or whining.

But I was still going to have joy, so I really think it’s important that when we have difficulties in life, that we learn how to have joy.

Trust me, there are ways to do this. I hope that over time we all get better at it and not worse.

Have such a happy week.

I hope you’ll find a way to laugh and enjoy your Thanksgiving week, and I hope these ideas will help.

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford

[email protected]

Vicki Davis, the host of the 10-Minute Teacher shares this episode.

The post 7 Tips for Better Thanks Living All Year Long appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e199/

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ralph31ortiz · 7 years

Text

7 Tips for Better Thanks Living All Year Long

Vicki Davis shares on Episode 196 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

You can have a more thankful, joyful year all of the time. In today’s show, I share seven secrets to live a more joyful, thankful life all year long.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

7 Secrets for Better Thanks Living All Year Long

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e199 Date: Monday, November 20, 2017

Happy Motivational Monday!

The Mud Puddle Principle

Keeping a Journal

Read “9 Fine Reasons to Keep a Journal (and Help Kids Do It Too)”

The Day One Journal

Read “One Habit that Can Make You Healthier and Happier: Retrospective Journaling”

Memory Markers

I need to be brave and share those things, and not just feel like I have to be like anybody else. I can just be me, and you can be you also.

Habit Places

Tools to Organize Your Prayers

Walk Slowly Through the Crowd

That brings me to my next item. Something that my pastor says a lot is, “Walk slowly through the crowd.” Everybody has a problem. Everybody has a worry. Everybody has things.

I’ll make a real connection because I just think sometimes that we pile on… We have this mob mentality. Everybody says, “Praying, praying, praying…” Or “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Notecards in a Filebox

Another thing I do is have notecards in a file box. I got this idea from John Maxwell, because he keeps note boxes.

I really like to have quotes and inspiration. I type these up in Word and print them out.

Take a Sabbath

Now here is another very important thing — taking a digital and physical Sabbath. So Sundays are my day, pretty much, to be offline. But also, to take that phone and put it in airplane mode.

Because you know, some people work on Sundays, but I don’t.

Their workday will become my workday if I have my phone not in airplane mode.

So when I’m going to church, when I’m just taking a nap or whatever, I’m on Sabbath. I’m taking a break. I just don’t work, and I don’t apologize for it.

Exercise Your Joy Muscle

But sometimes it’s just real easy to fall into a rut, complaining or whining.

But I was still going to have joy, so I really think it’s important that when we have difficulties in life, that we learn how to have joy.

Trust me, there are ways to do this. I hope that over time we all get better at it and not worse.

Have such a happy week.

I hope you’ll find a way to laugh and enjoy your Thanksgiving week, and I hope these ideas will help.

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford

[email protected]

Vicki Davis, the host of the 10-Minute Teacher shares this episode.

The post 7 Tips for Better Thanks Living All Year Long appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e199/

0 notes

athena29stone · 7 years

Text

7 Tips for Better Thanks Living All Year Long

Vicki Davis shares on Episode 196 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

You can have a more thankful, joyful year all of the time. In today’s show, I share seven secrets to live a more joyful, thankful life all year long.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

7 Secrets for Better Thanks Living All Year Long

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e199 Date: Monday, November 20, 2017

Happy Motivational Monday!

The Mud Puddle Principle

Keeping a Journal

Read “9 Fine Reasons to Keep a Journal (and Help Kids Do It Too)”

The Day One Journal

Read “One Habit that Can Make You Healthier and Happier: Retrospective Journaling”

Memory Markers

I need to be brave and share those things, and not just feel like I have to be like anybody else. I can just be me, and you can be you also.

Habit Places

Tools to Organize Your Prayers

Walk Slowly Through the Crowd

That brings me to my next item. Something that my pastor says a lot is, “Walk slowly through the crowd.” Everybody has a problem. Everybody has a worry. Everybody has things.

I’ll make a real connection because I just think sometimes that we pile on… We have this mob mentality. Everybody says, “Praying, praying, praying…” Or “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Notecards in a Filebox

Another thing I do is have notecards in a file box. I got this idea from John Maxwell, because he keeps note boxes.

I really like to have quotes and inspiration. I type these up in Word and print them out.

Take a Sabbath

Now here is another very important thing — taking a digital and physical Sabbath. So Sundays are my day, pretty much, to be offline. But also, to take that phone and put it in airplane mode.

Because you know, some people work on Sundays, but I don’t.

Their workday will become my workday if I have my phone not in airplane mode.

So when I’m going to church, when I’m just taking a nap or whatever, I’m on Sabbath. I’m taking a break. I just don’t work, and I don’t apologize for it.

Exercise Your Joy Muscle

But sometimes it’s just real easy to fall into a rut, complaining or whining.

But I was still going to have joy, so I really think it’s important that when we have difficulties in life, that we learn how to have joy.

Trust me, there are ways to do this. I hope that over time we all get better at it and not worse.

Have such a happy week.

I hope you’ll find a way to laugh and enjoy your Thanksgiving week, and I hope these ideas will help.

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford

[email protected]

Vicki Davis, the host of the 10-Minute Teacher shares this episode.

The post 7 Tips for Better Thanks Living All Year Long appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e199/

0 notes

patriciaanderson357-blog · 7 years

Text

7 Tips for Better Thanks Living All Year Long

Vicki Davis shares on Episode 196 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

You can have a more thankful, joyful year all of the time. In today’s show, I share seven secrets to live a more joyful, thankful life all year long.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

7 Secrets for Better Thanks Living All Year Long

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e199 Date: Monday, November 20, 2017

Happy Motivational Monday!

The Mud Puddle Principle

Keeping a Journal

Read “9 Fine Reasons to Keep a Journal (and Help Kids Do It Too)”

The Day One Journal

Read “One Habit that Can Make You Healthier and Happier: Retrospective Journaling”

Memory Markers

I need to be brave and share those things, and not just feel like I have to be like anybody else. I can just be me, and you can be you also.

Habit Places

Tools to Organize Your Prayers

Walk Slowly Through the Crowd

That brings me to my next item. Something that my pastor says a lot is, “Walk slowly through the crowd.” Everybody has a problem. Everybody has a worry. Everybody has things.

I’ll make a real connection because I just think sometimes that we pile on… We have this mob mentality. Everybody says, “Praying, praying, praying…” Or “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Notecards in a Filebox

Another thing I do is have notecards in a file box. I got this idea from John Maxwell, because he keeps note boxes.

I really like to have quotes and inspiration. I type these up in Word and print them out.

Take a Sabbath

Now here is another very important thing — taking a digital and physical Sabbath. So Sundays are my day, pretty much, to be offline. But also, to take that phone and put it in airplane mode.

Because you know, some people work on Sundays, but I don’t.

Their workday will become my workday if I have my phone not in airplane mode.

So when I’m going to church, when I’m just taking a nap or whatever, I’m on Sabbath. I’m taking a break. I just don’t work, and I don’t apologize for it.

Exercise Your Joy Muscle

But sometimes it’s just real easy to fall into a rut, complaining or whining.

But I was still going to have joy, so I really think it’s important that when we have difficulties in life, that we learn how to have joy.

Trust me, there are ways to do this. I hope that over time we all get better at it and not worse.

Have such a happy week.

I hope you’ll find a way to laugh and enjoy your Thanksgiving week, and I hope these ideas will help.

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford

[email protected]

Vicki Davis, the host of the 10-Minute Teacher shares this episode.

The post 7 Tips for Better Thanks Living All Year Long appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

0 notes

thedeadshotnetwork · 7 years

Link

Jane the Virgin Recap: Pulling Out

Jane the Virgin

Chapter Sixty-Nine Season 4 Episode 5

Editor's Rating 4 stars

Prev Next Complete Series Coverage

It’s amazing for a show in the midst of its fourth season to still surprise you. Especially a show that operates with a traditional season length rather than an abbreviated ten-episode run. We’ve now lived with Jane the Virgin for sixty-nine episodes (nice) and still, it manages to catch me off-guard.

This week, I was unsurprised by the Luisa-related twist at the end. Carl was real, and then he wasn’t, and then he actually was?! C’mon, that’s just some solid telenovela nonsense. I was also unsurprised that Lina came back for an episode, although I was certainly pleased. Jane the Virgin has always focused on Jane’s many roles, and I absolutely expected that “Jane the best friend” was still in the mix. I wasn’t even surprised by Rogelio and Xiomara’s vasectomy plot, although Xiomara’s frankness about how much Rogelio likes to use the pull-out method is a touch escandaloso, if you will.

I was, however, legitimately surprised by the news that Adam is bisexual. I should be clear, I was surprised and pleased: It’s an unexpected layer for that character, and one that’s fascinating to watch Jane the Virgin weave into Adam and Jane’s relationship. It’s also long overdue for Jane the Virgin to introduce a queer character who isn’t also an enormous mess. Although Luisa’s become pretty sympathetic in the recent episodes, the show has a dearth of gay characters with stable, happy lives. It’s long since time for more queer representation on the show, and I’m thrilled that it’s happening with such proximity to the protagonist. It’s easy enough to have gay best friends and gay villains — that’s a marginalized narrative position for a marginalized character. It’s a different thing for our heroine’s current love interest to announce that he’s also dated men.

“Chapter Sixty-Nine” treats it seriously. Adam is hurt and bothered that Jane might be weird about this, and Jane is weird about it. The decision to cloak Jane’s discomfort in her ostensible concern that he’s hidden something from her is a good one: It’s exactly the sort of thing you could imagine yourself feeling in response to something you didn’t know about your new boyfriend. Even though, as Lina insists Jane admit to herself, it’s not really about Jane worrying that Adam hid this from her. It’s about Jane’s discomfort dating a man who’s also dated men. The show lets Jane talk her way through her response, her surprise, and her completely plausible dual reaction of wanting to feel accepting of bisexuality, while still finding it confusing in personal practice.

There are moments when Jane the Virgin is so pointed in its cultural and topical story lines that it feels almost didactic. There’s a version of this show that’s like a book of manners: Here’s how to behave nicely when someone lies to you, and here’s what happens when you don’t. This is what good parenting looks like. This is why immigration issues matter. Here’s a little story about work/life balance. This week? Here’s a short dialogue about some questions you might have on bisexuality. Is Adam just a gay man who hasn’t come out yet? No. Does this mean he’s not going to be monogamous to Jane? No. Does this automatically mean Jane won’t be satisfying for him? No. Would it have been better if Jane had asked these questions at the start, or if Adam had been able to tell her about himself in a less defensive way? Probably, but these things happen. Jane and Adam have figured it out in the end.

It’s easy to forget because Jane the Virgin pulls off these moments in such an effortless way, but storytelling like this — stories that are obviously aimed at expanding their audience’s understanding — are really, really hard to do without sounding patronizing. Consider how many Very Special Episodes of sitcoms you’ve seen where some character Learns an Important Lesson About Cancer/Gay People/Drugs/Etc. We have sensitive antenna for being lectured about stuff, and generally our response is not “Hooray, someone’s teaching me a lesson!” If you’re bi, or if you’ve dated someone who’s bi, or if you’ve had some of these discussions before, maybe this scene did come close to tipping over the line into didacticism. For me, it worked.

The Jane/Lina plot is another place where this episode almost verges on being too pointed. It’s not hard to see the “Jane is the same as Danny!” discovery coming, and Jane’s relationship with Lina is much more “Yay, best friends!” than the intense complexity we saw between them last season after Michael’s death. Again, though, it works. It feels right to find Jane and Lina on the bathroom floor one more time. It feels right that Lina would want Jane to help justify her decision, just as it makes sense that Lina would be marrying someone like Danny.

And look, if Jane the Virgin wants to take a page out of children’s educational programming and start teaching me important lessons about life, it could do worse than to devote an entire subplot to birth control options, the physical and emotional ramifications of a vasectomy, and the burdensome frustration of making birth control an entirely female responsibility. Even better when it involves Rogelio trying to find the emotional truth in a scene where he has to bid a devastated farewell to a giant kidney stone.

“Chapter Sixty-Nine” also continues the fallout of Bad Rafael. He weeps on the bedroom floor with Jane, who holds his hand and promises that they’re family and she’ll keep showing up. Rafael is even allowed a little redemption plot when he helps Luisa accept that she’s having a psychotic break. (She isn’t, but look, Raf’s intentions are good.) Even still, as Rafael’s breaking bad turn gets more emotional groundwork, this arc still feels more like a service to the rest of the show than a genuine interest in Rafael as a character. It’s hard not to watch his fall and his redemption and see it as being about reviving him as a love interest for Jane.

Honestly, the best thing Rafael has going for him right now? Alba is on his side. Rafael has so few friends, and that list is even shorter if you exclude friends who aren’t lovers or former lovers. Knowing that Alba is rooting for him goes a long way toward keeping Rafael in the mix, although at some point, he’s going to have to figure out that the only way to be attractive again is to ditch the power-hungry, toxic masculinity thing.

Let’s see, is there anything else of note in this episode? Ah yes: Luisa concludes Carl is actually fake, she departs for a “wellness center,” and she signs the Marbella shares back over to Rafael. There was about to be yet another trip down to the county clerk’s office to file new ownership paperwork, except, whoops! Luisa can’t legally make those decisions if she’s not of sound mental status. So now the primary owner of the Marbella is… Anezka? And Carl actually was real? To be continued!

From Our Narrator, With Love

• Very glad to see Rafael wasn’t seriously hurt in the car accident, even though the consequences for his behavior with Katherine were, as our Narrator points out, “fast and furious.”

• The entire story about Lina and Danny’s joint bachelor/ette party is fun, and it works well for the compatibility vs. similarity story the episode is trying to tell. But my favorite thing happens at the beginning, when Jane says she’d originally had her favorite stripper booked for Lina’s party. Narrator: “He’s my favorite too!”

• “It’s so nice to be investigating a fake murder at the Marbella for once.”

#Rogelio

• “I am not being neutered and that’s that!”

• Xiomara and Alba discuss Rogelio’s sense of masculinity, and Xo denies that Ro is overly obsessed with machismo. “He owns more makeup than I do! He’s campaigning to be the next Cover Girl!” #EasyBreezyRogelio

• It’s lovely that Jane the Virgin found a deeper note in Rogelio’s penis panic, to push past the immediate distaste for having a vasectomy. He’s worried about aging, which feels utterly, perfectly right for that character.

• “Stoney, only one of us can fit through the lady scientist’s urethra!”

Tags: November 11, 2017 at 03:55AM Open in Evernote

#Blogger

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smartworkingpackage · 7 years

Text

You Better Watch Out: Santa’s Got Evernote

The first thing you notice when you arrive at The Workshop is the cold. You expect it to be dark; it’s pretty far north, and it gets dark earlier the further north you go. My host points out a sudden glow of green light in the sky. The Northern Lights pulsate and glisten and turn the snow a reflective green so that the whole place looks, for a moment, like a glow-in-the-dark toy. It’s a resemblance that all of the employees there cherish.

It’s mid-November, and the entire company is in high gear. Their busy season begins in June when the days are long, and the customers are few.

The Workshop depends on the holiday season, with little to no time for late shipments. With such short, precise production time and a tight delivery schedule, working in harsh conditions, you’d expect tensions to be high and tempers short. But this workshop depends on Evernote to keep business communication and production running smoothly, so all is calm, all is bright.

How the boss manages email himself

My companion, a bearded gentleman who looks significantly younger than the age he claims, invites me into his office, pulling off his red outdoor gear and hanging it on the back of the door. (“Gore-Tex,” he whispers. “LL Bean has us on that one.”) Once behind the desk, he whips open his laptop and shows me the vast amount of email he receives daily. He seems to scroll endlessly as his eyes whisk past each request.

“That’s a crazy amount of email,” I comment. “You get this every day?”

He shrugs, then laughs the nonchalant “Ho Ho Ho” of a CEO who knows he’s steering his company in the right direction. “Sometimes more,” he says. “It’s okay. Watch this.”

He opens up the first email, briefly scans it, and then hits ‘Forward.’ He plugs in an Evernote email address that he’s saved in his contacts. With his fingers flying over the keyboard, he adds “@nice,” then “#Spiderman,” followed by “#actionfigure.” The email disappears. “They all want Spider-Man,” he mutters. “I’m more of a DC man myself, but whatever.”

“They say I make a list and check it twice,” he laughs. “Oh, they have NO idea.”—Santa

“Wait, what did you just do?” I ask, eager to learn some of the great man’s magic. He explains that he’s forwarding email to Evernote, where he’s using the “@” symbol to sort it into two notebooks he keeps—“@naughty,” and “@nice.” In the same ‘To’ line in the forwarded email, he’s sorting the request by tag, so that his employees can quickly pull up a list of how many of each toy to create.

Learn to forward emails to Evernote magically >>

“Spider-Man car, Spider-Man plush toy, Spider-Man vinyl pop,” he says, scanning his emails. “You have to keep track of all this stuff, and you can’t get it wrong. Evernote keeps it all organized for me. As soon as I add a request to the queue, the E.L.V.E.S. can pull it up on their devices at the same time, so we’re all on the same page.” He winks. “They say I make a list and check it twice,” he laughs. “Oh, they have NO idea.”

Field Trip of Dreams

I ask to see the factory and to learn more about how the workers use Evernote to organize toy creation. I’m introduced to a small but driven woman named Krystal who heads up E.L.V.E.S. (Employee List Verifiers Entrusted (by) Santa) operations. Krystal, who was, until recently, COO of Lollipop Guild, LLC, embraced Evernote as soon as she arrived at The Workshop. “It used to be that the only path I could reliably follow was made of yellow brick, and that was pretty inflexible. But Evernote updates automatically across everyone’s devices, so we’re always up to date.

“We don’t need to keep track of Naughty and Nice like my boss does,” Krystal explains. “We just need to make sure that we’re turning out the right stuff.” She solves that issue by duplicating notes from Santa’s lists and re-inventing them as tables so that all the E.L.V.E.S. can see the production schedule on a single note.

Discover Krystal’s secrets for working with tables >>

“It’s a big job,” Santa admits, sipping a hot cocoa in the break room. “I have to keep my eye on my customers 24/7.” He shakes his head. “Between you and me, it’s kind of boring watching them when they’re sleeping. That’s why I don’t have time to be involved in the day-to-day operations. But wherever I am in the world, I can always check into whatever’s going on because it’s all in Evernote.”

How the right toy goes down the right chimney at the right time

The Workshop has a unique, proprietary shipping system called SLEIGH, and in charge of that department is Elrod, who comes to The Workshop from MiddleEarth, Inc., with an extensive background in long journeys. One of his challenges was to find software that could integrate with SLEIGH, and he landed on creating shipping manifest templates and keeping records in Evernote.

“Nothing gets by me,” Elrod boasts, as packages arrive from the manufacturing floor. “All I have to do is check Santa’s original list and add each line item to the template.” He keeps a note for each package, and since individual notes automatically get a URL in Evernote, Elrod turns each link into a QR code. “I slap the code on each package, and all Santa has to do is use the code reader on his device, and Evernote shows him the right child and address,” he says proudly. “I like to say that we’re sleighing it,” he adds.

Make Elrod’s magic with templates in Evernote >>

Not every employee is directly involved in production at The Workshop. I’m introduced to Belladonna, who works tirelessly as head of the E.L.V.E.S. Resources department. “Keeping employees happy is Belladonna’s main concern,” she tells me, always referring to herself in the third person. Belladonna keeps an up-to-date shared notebook in Evernote that serves as The Workshop’s intranet. There, employees can check out policies on vacations, benefits, and career growth information, as well as have visibility into other areas of the company.

From links in Evernote, all the E.L.V.E.S. can track Santa’s journey through NORAD, and keep tabs on the reindeer while a live feed continually updates Santa’s “@Nice” list.

See how humans and E.L.V.E.S. alike can manage HR in Evernote >>

Evernote helps Santa stay on top of trends

Santa is particularly excited to have me meet with his head of Research and Development, who goes by only his initial, B. “He’s head and shoulders above the others when it comes to this stuff,” Santa says proudly.

B works a year in advance, so when the other E.L.V.E.S. are making toys for this holiday season, B is hard at work discovering what next year’s hottest requests will be. “If we’re going to start making these in June, we have to know now what raw materials to order,” B explains. He keeps tabs on the trends by using Web Clipper. “I just love it that my job is grabbing pictures of upcoming movies, TV shows, and games,” he grins.

As Santa shuttles me out of R&D, he explains that our visit is over. “We’re very busy,” he apologizes. He looks across the darkened horizon. “Winter is coming.”

I turn before I leave to take one last look at the Workshop. Santa is pleased. As I go, I can see him sipping his cocoa, and I hear him exclaim, “I love this place.”

Whatever, however, and wherever you celebrate, happy holidays from all of us at Evernote.

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