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Yesterday, while here visiting the site, Harris Warren asked for my “Top Ten Ways for Making Life Better.” This post is a partial answer to that question. I learned about this fanTAStic painter tonight while having the singular pleasure of being a guest on Harry Shade’s BlogTalkRadio program. I can NOT keep this GREAT story to myself. It is a story that MUST be told and re-told and re-told again! It is a living testament to the undauntability of the human spirit.
As a DIRECT (partial) answer to your question, Harris, one member of my Pantheon of Ten is something my mother always said to me, that — in fact — her mother always said to her: Count your blessings and use whatever you have, from wherever you are, to be the BEST you can possibly be. That is, be ALL you can be(come) by putting all your assets in gear going forward, confident in your YOU-ness. If it flows for you, it’s right; else, there’s an inner struggle characterized by a state of constant UNhappiness. Unhappiness is your personal warning bell, telling you you’re going AGAINST your own grain. A lesson, BTW, it took me a WHILE to come to grips with. I didn’t believe unhappiness was my inner yard stick. I just thought I was in a stuck state. I was, just not way I thought. Right church. Wrong pew.) As Sinatra sang: You really DO Gotta Do You. It is who you were born to be. Too much? Not really. Not if you think about it for a sec. We all came here for a purpose. That purpose is in your you. It MUST be expressed sincerely, authentically, lovingly with the good of everyone else around you in mind. Else you will ALWAYS be sad inside. Being truly yourself is in my mind the context of deliverance on earth – in THIS life.
More to come, if you’re still interested, Harris.
In the meantime, please, allow me to introduce Mr. John Bramlitt:
If you found this post interesting, you might also like this HubPages post. I invite you to me Mrs. Glenda Watson Hyatt, Blogger Par Excellence. If you’re inclined to: Leave a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
This video is on the perilous condition of our waterways. Produced by PBS, it is an in-depth look at this critical situation. It runs almost two hours. Please, take notes and resolve to join efforts with a friend to DO something substantial about this. Earth is the ONLY home we know.
Tell me, if the planet becomes uninhabitable, do you think — in your heart of hearts — there’ll be a seat on the “Good-bye Planet Earth” spaceship for you and your family?
Help clean up our home planet today! Demand straightforward agricultural waste control and management. Point to the facts you learn about in this video. Point to the Chesapeake and its near 40% pollution levels, the responsibility of chicken farms, and the ineffectiveness of self-regulatory measures. Ronald Reagan threw the forward movement that created EarthDay away. He simply DID NOT CARE about the waterways. As the direct result, vast pockets of our waterways have become as barren as the MOON — completely oxygen-deprived! We and our children today suffer because of Reagan’s short-sightedness. Must this continue until the waterways are TOTALLY barren?
I hope you find this video as enlightening as I did. Please comment, I’d very much love to hear what you think and what you think we as citizens can do to turn this situation around.
Buzz is the sound made when lots of people are talking about a particular person, event or thing. It is the term used for something that’s become a center of attention. The more buzz your idea, product or service creates, the more likely you are to achieve success regarding any call to action you want people to follow. That is, do you want them to buy your product, subscribe to your newsletter, or join you in a cause dear to your heart? If so, the FIRST thing you have to do is get folks’ attention. Creating buzz is a means of getting that attention.
PTBarnum (1810-1891) — consummate showman and founder of Barnum & Bailey Circus — epitomized one form of buzz-manship: display of the jaw-dropping unbelievable or very unusual. Barnum was SO good at getting publicity (virtually any time he wanted it) that best-selling author and Internet Marketing Legend, Joe Vitale, wrote a book about Barnum’s buzz-making expertise: There’s a Customer Born Every Minute: P.T. Barnum’s Secrets to Business Success (Did Barnum really ever say: “There’s a sucker born every second”? R.J.Brown, Editor-in-Chief over at HistoryBuff.com says: “Nope!” and goes on to offer the full story of how Barnum’s name became associated with this unfortunate quote.)
A recent out-of-the-box Buzz Creation Marketing Experiment was reported by Fox News:
Fox News: PimpThisBum.Com
While buzz creation is often about doing something unusual as Barnum did on a regular basis, it can also be successfully generated by more mainstream ways, too. Valeria Malton demonstrates this point exceedingly well in “50 Content Ideas that Create Buzz.”
Creating buzz through Social Media devices is a new marketing method. Here is what Nielsen executive, Jon Gibs has to say about the measurability of this type of buzz and what it means to small audience bloggers, for example:
For Advertisers, Nielsen’s BuzzMetrics Turns Social …
So, you’re found a reliable way to create buzz. To quote Dr. Phil: “How’s that workin’ for you?” How does your level of created buzz influence people to do what you want them to do — vote for your candidate, buy your product or service, contribute to a cause you hold dear? In contrast to Neilsen’s BuzzMetrics 2.0, the scientific measurement of influence is an old tried and true concept stemming from academia. Is it relevant to today? Just two years ago (2007), Flemming Madsen, founder of Onalytica, showed one path of significant influence that went from Leontief to Google in 4 easy steps. As the same article points out, don’t let the age of something override its importance to today. by stating the continued relevance of Newton’s Law of Gravity to NASA Engineers.
Measuring influence in social media (December 10, 2007) Social media is a moving target — what today is an influential source or community might lose that status by next week or next month. Waiting for a quarterly report from market research may not be the best approach when pulling together campaigns…
Given that blogging, in and of itself, is no longer the NEW thing and has become, rather, the EXPECTED thing from anyone with a message to deliver. Add to this, the diminishing of the power of backlinks, as a standalone traffic tactic (the rage when blogging was rising King). However, enter Social Networking and the billions of people using this type of site multiple times per day, and it’s easy to realize that in today’s market, the only Living King is the INDIVIDUAL Consumer as an every changing collective of tastes! Today, no single traffic tactic is enough. So, What’s a marketer to do?
Here are a couple of resources that may help:
Technorati has a special page dedicated to Influence — Here you will find, among other things, links to the top 599 blogs about influence. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page’s left column. Why it’s tucked way down there is a good question.)
The one certainty among ALL things uncertain is the plain fact that if the planet goes so, too, do we! As time goes by and we continue to doing business as usual, we are — collectively — sentencing our children and their progeny to lives based on fewer and fewer fundamental Life-Sustaining resources. That statement may put some off, alarm others, and even mean nothing-at-all to still others. However, regardless of any individual’s response, the truth of what is happening with our planet has been scientifically proven and publicized over and over again.
(You’re ALREADY in? You know the story and you’re ready to rock? Come on. Join the part-ay!)
Pollution !!!
And, of course, it’s not like this is NEW news or is only the topic of short films. Comic Wits (to get past our left brains) have put this message in song:
Tom Lehrer – Pollution
Cartoon shows — in an effort to get the word out to the youngest of us, BEFORE it becomes POSSIBLE to too busy(?) to care:
So, even as the Clean Planet fight goes on, the situation, rather than getting better, is further burdened by NEW Challenges coming from our old habits. Lest, we (somehow) forget, the earth is a SINGLE planetary organism. Pollution anywhere becomes pollution everywhere:
Ganges River – Pollution
Chinese Pollution Reaches U.S. (CBS News)
Storm Water Pollution
Then, too, it’s not just Water Pollution, which is bad enough:
A Visual Essay by Scenic America on Urban Sign Pollution
And:
Light Pollution: The problem…
… and, of course:
Air Pollution
Given the role cars play in our pollution problems, perhaps the current straits our automotive manufacturers find themselves is more a blessing to the planet, our home, than a mere consequence to ill-advised corporate wheeler-dealer financial! In ANY case, altogether, we’ve got a shockingly, amazingly HUGE problem on our hands:
Tokyo – Bruce Cockburn – pollution images
Do you CARE ENOUGH? Enough to take a SMALL Step today? Check out the EarthDay Birthday Gifting Movement now, before the rigors of your everyday life distract you. Make your CARING count by the ACTION you take TODAY. Think of it as a different board reach kiss, hug, and salute to your descendant. Realize this, too, is part of the legacy you leave for them.
Anti-Pollution Ad from the 70s that says it ALL…
Peace and Love to you, (That link is where you find that it’s not only possible to gift the Planet, but how doing so has become a true party you have but to join in on to get into the fun, friendships, and fine times being had by all who energize participation.)
DeeJay
Today, an indisputable is the assumption of a college education for those in line for any really interesting job. Given today economic conditions, consideration for even the boring job titles have taken this same perspective. This makes the cost of becoming college education a still great source of anxiety and frustration. Why DOES it cost SO much?
As a direct consumer response to our world’s economic climate, bartering is making an extremely strong comeback. In fact, MSNBC’s Today Show recently aired a special segment on the topic. I found their report pretty eye-opening. Perhaps you will, too. After all: it’s not always about money.
