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Friday, March 31, 2017

HOW TO HANDLE MISTAKES AT WORK






 “Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”
- Mark Twain

We all make mistakes.  It is a part of life.  

Handling them in a positive way will have you learn instead of losing even more.

Making a mistake at work in front of those over you and around you certainly is testing. 

 But you can make an A and not an F on this test if you keep certain things in mind 


1.)  REMEMBER: EVERYONE IS WATCHING HOW YOU RESPOND TO THIS

Here is an opportunity to show them what you are made of.  

 Your supervisors will be watching 

(not to see if you make another mistake) 

but how well you handle this one.

Real leaders, good employees earn their stripes during tough times.

Handle this situation maturely, and you may grow

 -- if not in the eyes of your supervisors -- 

at least in your own eyes.


2.) FORGIVE YOURSELF

Not let yourself off the hook, mind you, but be aware that you are human.

Humans makes mistakes.  

Just strive not to be human at work!

Stop fixing the blame and start fixing whatever scenario led to this mistake.


3.) TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT

Do not go on and on. 

 Be brief; be brave, 

and be specific on what things you will do to insure this particular mistake will not happen again.

Even if your supervisor does not respect you for this, you will start feeling better about yourself.


4.) NO THROWING ANYONE UNDER THE BUS EITHER

Even when you are solely to blame for the mistake, it is tempting to say: 

"Yeah, but so-and-so does this-or-that."

Whenever people throw mud, some of it sticks to their fingers as well.  

Keep your fingers and your conscience clean.


5.) FIX IT YOURSELF

Deal with the consequences of your mistake as much as you can yourself.  

Sometimes your mistake dumps more work on your co-workers and supervisor 

and you cannot fix as much as you would wish.

Be verbally and truly grieved at the added workload you tossed their way.

Tuck the memory of this added workload you saddled them with

 as a goad to prevent you from making similar mistakes.


6.) MODEL THE WAY YOU'D LIKE OTHERS TO RESPOND

Once you own the problem, done all you can to fix it, 

and learned a bitter lesson on how to work smarter --

Move on.

If you do that in a mature fashion, the odds are that others will do so, too.

Project a confident approach to each new day.  

That approach can be infectious.

Let it go and move on wiser.

Others will be more than happy to turn from you and deal with their own problems.



What Mistakes Have You Made At Work?

What Did You Learn From Them?

I was going to talk about mistakes in our personal lives, but this post has grown long enough!

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Stephen King's new IT and Reboots




What do you think of this new IT?


Will it scare up enough profits to be worth making? 

Will it be entertaining enough to be worth watching?



I prefer awe, wonder, and beauty in my theater movies,

so I am interested in seeing Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets.

How about you? 

What new movies are you interested in seeing these next few months?

Did you know that 120 reboots and sequels are scheduled to be made in the next 2 years?

Ouch!

The Matrix, Scarface, Ace Ventura, Charlie's Angels,

The Fly, The Little Shop of Horrors, Zorro Reborn,

The Legend of Conan, An American Werewolf in London,

Alien Nation, Big Trouble in Little China, The Birds,

Death Wish, Escape From New York, Flight of the Navigator, The Green Hornet

And The Highlander!

(There can be only one indeed!)

The list goes depressingly on.

But it is not the lack of originality that is to blame.

It is hunger for certain profits that is driving these studios.

A known franchise guarantees enough profit to break even in the States

and the possibility for huge profits overseas where the bulk of Hollywood's profits come from these days.

What Do You Think About All These Reboots?

STAYING THE COURSE


 “When someone tells me "no," 
it doesn't mean I can't do it, 
it simply means I can't do it with them.”
 - Victor Standish

"Stay the course" is a phrase used in the context of a war or battle 

meaning to pursue a goal regardless of any obstacles or criticism. 

The modern usage of this term was popularized by United States presidents 

George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan.

Staying the course in pursuit of whatever dream possesses us is not easy.

If it were easy, it would not be the right dream.

HOW TO STAY THE COURSE?

Renew your vision of what you are working to accomplish regularly. 

Do something every single day to move in the direction of your desired achievement or goal. 

If you find yourself drifting away from your course, analyze what is going on.

When you fail, as we all do, place yourself back on the path with no self-recriminations. 

(That first step after a fall is the most important.)

 "The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night."
 

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

How Do You Stay On Course Yourself?

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

New SPIDERMAN: HOMECOMING Trailer


What do you think of it?


It's great to see Michael Keaton in this movie.  

You know it is not just actresses who get picked for fewer roles as they age.

Anyone who's watched BIRDMAN knows what a great actor Michael is.

Surely, there must be roles for accomplished actors out there no matter their age.

Are we telling our older citizens that they no longer count, 

that they no longer have anything to contribute in life?

What do you think of Iron Man in this movie?  

Doesn't he have the best lines in this trailer?

Sony is planning to do a spin-off movie universe of Spidey 

devoid of Tom Holland and with no connection to the MCU.

Do you think Sony is shooting itself in the corporate foot again?

Tell me what you think.

STAR WARS BETRAYED us!


Last  December 2nd, STAR WARS  BETRAYED US!


What storytelling, right?  

Without a single word, this trailer caught you up and wouldn't let go.

Do you play video games?  I do not.

But I might be tempted to play this one!

What about you?

What a little more?


Sunday, March 26, 2017

"La La Land" Song Wrriters Save Flash!


Do You Cringe When Your Favorite TV Show Does A Musical Episode?

Grey's Anatomy anyone?

But The Flash (with guest star Supergirl)  had a winner of a musical episode for many reasons.


1) The Finale Song "Running Home To You" was penned by La La Land Song writers.

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.


2) "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" star and creator, Rachel Bloom wrote the upbeat "Super Friends" number.


3) Covers mixed with new material to blend in seamlessly with the musical.


4) It actually moved the plots of both shows forward and was NOT a filler episode.


AND MOST IMPORTANT


5) THE CAST COULD REALLY SING!

Flash (Grant Gustin) and Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and Music Meister (Darren Criss) are all Glee alumni!

Jessie Martin (Joe West) starred in the musical, Rent, and  Carlo Valdes (Cisco) was in the musical, Once.

John Barrowman and Victor Garber are both Broadway vets

And they knocked a Guys and Dolls cover out of the park.

Jeremy Jordan starred in Disney's Newsies the Broadway Musical!

When you have talent, songs, and writing like this, how could you go wrong!

 

Saturday, March 25, 2017

BLOGGING HAS SERVED US DIVORCE PAPERS


WHY?

The usual reasons:

1.) The Love has gone -- 

2.) The other party has grown into someone(thing) different.


Once we blogged for COMMUNITY

Now, we blog for 
SEARCH ENGINES


Remember how thrilled you were when you got your first comments on your blog?

How you joined bloghops to meet others, posted their blog buttons on your sidebar?

How you emailed special blogging friends?

You got to know those friends from their comments and their newsy posts on their blogs.


Then, they started to DRIFT AWAY from your blog, 
your received comments.

 
 In the blogverse, it's gotten like that cliche in Western Movies:

It's quiet out there ... too quiet.

The community has dissipated to other outlets of SOCIAL MEDIA or other concerns.


Specifically to Facebook ...

where it is hard to get blog notice without paying extra for it ...

and not even then sometimes!



 The demise of Google+ has relegated many of us to the shadows, forgotten in dim memories.


WHAT CAN WE DO? 

Know that good writing is true writing.

Endure:
   Do not be a weather-vane spinning crazily about, buffeted by the winds of the current fads.

Stay True to Ourselves.

Write posts that please us --

   Seasons change, but we grow from surviving their storms. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

IS BLOGGING IN THE I.C.U.?

HAS BLOGGING GROWN AWAY FROM US?

DO WE CHANGE OR STAY THE COURSE? 

A TO Z ...Has It Gotten Too Big?





In 1954, Warner Brothers made the Sci-Fi film, THEM!


about irradiated ants growing to enormous size and threatening the United States.


Of course, this couldn't happen ...


Since ants' legs are hollow,


the poor creatures wouldn't be able to support their increased weight.


Which leads me to this post's question:




Has the A TO Z CHALLENGE
gotten too big to support itself?




The Linky list has become too large and cumbersome with fewer staff to monitor it.


I understand!


The number of people participating last year


nearly equaled the population of some 3rd World countries!


So now we will go to each day's A to Z post on the home web page and post our blog address.


Then, we go to FB and then to Twitter with the hashtag #AtoZReveal on Twitter to share.


WHEW!


That's a few more hoops to jump through than last year ...


   ... and me with less time than last year, too!




I've noticed many of my Blogging Friends are not participating this year. 


Social Media is already a time-leech without feeding it further, right?


So What Do You Think About This?

Friday, March 24, 2017

WHY WE LOVE PUPPIES


Buy a pup and your money will buy love unflinching.
Rudyard Kipling


Yesterday was National Puppy Day

 The little guy above seems to sense I missed his day.

But like puppies everywhere, he forgives me.


After all, their large foreheads and big, round eyes are reminiscent of human babies.

A puppy may be of a breed that unsettles us, but that does not matter.

Our hearts melt at the sight of the little guy. 

 March 23rd was set aside in 2006 by author Collen Paige ...

and adopted by other groups since.  

The idea is to focus attention on puppies in need of adoption

and on the abuses found in puppy mills ...

But also to celebrate these little furry heart-warmers.

Do You Have Any Fond Memories of a Particular Puppy in Your Life?

Tell Us About It and Make Our Day Brighter.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Some A to Z Questions



Are You Participating In This Year's A TO Z?

    If so, why are you?

    If not, why not?


Do You Think It Is Cheating To Write Those Posts This Month?

    Are you doing that?


Do You Think It Is Mandatory to Have a Theme?

    If you have one, why did you pick it? 

Just Because This Tune Has Been Running Through My Mind:

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

NOCTURNE FOR POETRY


Yesterday was National Poetry Day.  

But since Poetry is an endangered species of literature, 

it came and went unnoticed by most.

Here is a tip of my Stetson to Poetry and its unremembered day:




I have a ghost cat.  Gypsy is her name.  It's all right if you think I am crazy.  Most days I do as well.

Being a ghost, she warns me when I am about to be visited in the midst of my sleep.  

She mutters under her breath as she was muttering now.



A reedy voice quavered in the darkness by my bed, "I have been one acquainted with the night. 

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness"

Robert Frost slowly materialized in a misty cane chair by my bed. 

"I thought people would always be held fixed by poetry -- not necessarily mine.  But now, poetry is as dead as I."

Gypsy muttered something in cat and shoved her head under my pillow, and Frost shook his head,

"Yes, even more so since I am keeping your loyal cat awake."

He smiled at my frown.  "I am fluent in Cat."

His smile died, "But no one is fluent in the magic of poetry any more it seems."

I murmured a bit of "I Knew a Woman" by Theodore Roethke:

"I knew a woman, lovely in her bones
When small birds sighed,
she would sigh back at them."

He shook a long forefinger at me.  "You do not count.  You are Lakota."

I snorted, "We Lakota hear that a lot."

He ignored me.  We Lakota are used to that, too, and he whispered,

"Society has been changing in a way that did not favor the reading of poetry. 

From the Me Generation of the '70s to the get-rich-quick '80s, our culture became intensely prosaic.

Ambiguity, complexity and paradox fell out of favor. You the living embraced easily defined goals and crystal-clear communication 

(Ronald Reagan was president, presiding over the literalization of America).

Fewer politicians seemed to quote contemporary poets in speeches, 

and the relatively small number of name-brand, living American poets died or faded from view.

By the '90s, it was all over. 

If you doubt this statement, consider that poetry is the only art form where the number of people creating it is far greater than the number of people appreciating it.

Anyone can write a bad poem.

To appreciate a good one, though, takes knowledge and commitment. 

As a society, you lack this knowledge and commitment. People don't possess the patience to read a poem 20 times before the sound and sense of it takes hold.

They aren't willing to let the words wash over them like a wave, demanding instead for the meaning to flow clearly and quickly. 

They want narrative-driven forms, stand-alone art that doesn't require an understanding of the larger context."



The ghost of Hemingway materialized beside him, sipping from a glass of whiskey. 

"Roland is part of a world that apotheosizes the trendy, and poetry is just about as untrendy as it gets. 

Bored housewives want to read books with buzz, the latest trend."

I shook my head.  "Not everyone."

They both said as one, "You don't count."

I was starting to get a complex.

Hemingway muttered, 

"Poetry is designed for an era when people valued the written word and had the time and inclination to possess it in its highest form."

Frost nodded, "Poetry is dead."

Hemingway scowled over to me. 

"If poetry is dead, you prose writers are in the next ward over, wheezing noisily, with your family gathered around looking concerned and asking about your silverware."

I shook my head and murmured from Theodore Roethke again:

"I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow."


And since Gypsy is now a ghost cat, she drew her tiny head out from under the pillow

and yowled in a voice which sent shivers through the marrow of my bones,

 "Little do you two-leggeds know of the things that ink may do, how it can mark a dead man's thoughts for the wonder of later years, and tell of happenings that are gone clean away,

and be a voice for us out of the dark of time, and save many a fragile thing from the pounding of heavy ages; or carry to us, over the rolling centuries,

even a song from lips long dead on forgotten hills.” 

With that, Gypsy thrust her tiny ghost head under my pillow.  

Frost turned to Hemingway and sighed, "When ghosts of cats speak wiser and lovelier than we, it is time to go."

Which they did.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  

IS POETRY DEAD? 

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU READ POETRY?

 WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU COMMITTED A VERSE TO MEMORY?

Sunday, March 19, 2017

A to Z Reveal: Questions_FOOLS KNOW; THE WISE QUESTION


“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” 
- Voltaire 

My theme for this April is Questions

What kind of questions?  

Ah, you will have to turn in each day to find out.

“Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided 

if people would simply take the time to ask, "What else could this mean?”
- Mark Twain

“There exists a passion for comprehension, 

just as there exists a passion for music. 

That passion is rather common in children, 

but gets lost in most people later on.” 

- Albert Einstein

 

“Reason is a tool, a machine, which is driven by the spiritual fire,” 

- Dostoyevsky (contemplating how we come to know truth)

 

TAKE THE QUESTION OF

DREAMS --

 

Why can we not remember most dreams?

 

When we sleep, we enter a "dim and ancient house of shadow."

We wander through its rooms, climb staircases, linger on a landing. 

Towards morning we leave the house again. 

In the doorway we look over our shoulders briefly 

and with the morning light flooding in, 

we can still catch a glimpse of the rooms where we spent the night. 

Then the door closes behind us 

and a few hours later,

 even those fragmentary memories we had when we woke have been wiped away.

It seems like a pact with the devil. 

As soon as you're in a position to record a dream, it starts to disappear.

 One possibility is that our brain's neuro-chemicals during sleep are very different 

from during wake time and so they don't allow us to consolidate memory. 

The other thing that's quite possible is 

 that we don't pay attention to our dreams or are unable to do so during sleep.

Those who are light sleepers, frequently awakening, tend to remember dreams better

 

Also strange, unsettling dreams

tend to stick in our minds, too!

 

WHY DO YOU THINK WE CANNOT REMEMBER OUR DREAMS? 

 “Sometimes it's not enough to know what things mean, 

sometimes you have to know what things don't mean.”

 - Bob Dylan