Summer's ending. Did You Finish Your Bucket List?

Walk barefoot in the grass

Smell every flower you passed

Walk in the rain

Catch raindrops on your tongue

Jump in every puddle you saw

Run through sprinklers

Go to the children’s playground

Swing on the swings

Go down the slide

Sing in the shower

Sing in the car

Sing in the rain

Sing loud

SING!

Dance to the radio

Dance with your husband/friend

Dance by yourself

Dance in the rain

DANCE!

Smile for no reason

Give your full attention to a sunrise

Give your full attention to a sunset

Go on a picnic at the beach, the park or in the back yard

Read aloud to another, let them read to you

Go to an amusement park and ride all the thrill rides

Go fishing.

Make homemade ice cream in a Ziploc bag.

Sit outside and sip iced tea.

Make fresh lemonade.

Catch fireflies the let them go

Take pictures of everything

Listen to Blues at Phelan Park

Walk through the Botanical Gardens

Join FaceBook and share your thoughts and pictures

Eat watermelon outside, and let the juice run all over the place!

Bite into a ripe tomato fresh from the vine

Paint your toenails.

Paint a picture of what summer means to you.

Lay under a tree and watch the wind in the branches

Climb the tree

Watch clouds

Watch stars

Write a letter to an old friend

Keep a gratitude journal

Keep a sanity journal

Keep a journal

Daydream

Dream?

© Perle Champion

 

Does a writer really need a niche?

I’ve been hearing the same refrain from many writing quarters out there. Find a niche; find a niche. Arrrrg! If I hear that one more time, I’ll scream.  I’m a generalist therefore I’m nicheless. I have a way with words and always have.  The proponents of finding your niche, say write down what you know best, what you love, what you do then pick one and make that your niche.

I did, but the list is way too long, and I don’t want to write exclusively about any one thing.  I’m a jack-of-all and with serious research and a little help from Google, master of many.

Being a generalist stands me in good stead, as I work for various organizations in diverse industries with different needs.  With each company, I assume a company hat and You and Me becomes We.  At the table, I pose the following questions:

1. Who are we, and what is our mission?
   Most large companies understand the necessity of a mission statement. Some do not.  If you don’t know who you are and what your mission is, how can you tell others?
2. How do we want to be perceived and by whom?
   Are you a team player or a specialist, active in the community, a buyer or a seller, warm and fuzzy or strictly business?
3. What tools do we need to convey all of the above?
1. Newsletter for your clients/prospects: Print or Electronic, a Blog, Social Media page (Facebook, Twitter)
2. Newsletter for your employees: Electronic is fine, but print travels home to the family.
3. Public Relations: The art of getting stories placed in print through press releases.  Stories in a paper are more apt to be read and remembered than the usual business section quick press clips and paid ads. (Link)
4. Marketing: Materials for the sales team to carry and leave behind with customers, direct mail, print ads and more.

Nothing against writers that believe they need a niche to succeed, but I think that a narrow view is limiting.  There is so much variety out there to know, learn and convey to others, I can’t imagine limiting myself to any one thing. 

If I can help you convey a message for your company, let me know.  I’d love to learn all about you.

Insidious Discrimination Against the Unemployed

My Rant of the Day:  Are you out of a job and looking for a job?  According to a report on CNNMoney, if you’re Looking for Work? and Unemployed you need not apply.

I’ve been working for a living since 1971, and I’ve always been able to get a job in a matter of days.  Not so today.  Since being laid off in late 2008, I’ve applied and applied, to no avail.

I told a friend, “It’s a good thing I have hobbies that pay: writing and painting.  I’ve always written for companies and for publication while holding down a full-time job.  I’ve always painted and hung art showings every one to two years.

It’s a good thing for me, but everyone is not so fortunate.  I see on the news and witness around me, the horrible toll unemployment exacts from those who have nothing to fall back on.

The most recent passage of  HR 4213 – Unemployment Compensation Extension Act will help some of them, but not those who have exceeded 99 weeks.  This is the much ignored 5th Tier that was not added to the current bill and is not a front-of-mind  for our legislators.
“…even the most active members of Congress on the unemployment issue say there will be no bill to help 99-ers by adding a fifth tier of benefits…”

What are these  Americans to do? They have exceeded or will soon exceed 99 weeks of unemployment compensation, and are not considered as viable candidates for hire because of their unemployed status.

What can we do.

1. If you work for and/or make the policy that excludes people ready, willing and able to work because they are ‘unemployed’, STOP IT!
2. If you are an agency and are asked to discriminate against unemployed citizens, report that discrimination.
   
3. The rest of us need to rabble rouse: Blog it;  Tweet it; deluge the White House, Senate and Congress with e-mails, letters, petitions in support of extending HR 4213 to Tier 5 and looking into the discriminatory hiring practices of U.S. companies.
4. Here is a current circulating Petition. 

Please sign it and Thanks.
Perle

Are all smokers so hyper-sensitive, or is it guilt?

One of my downstairs neighbor’s visiting sister? is a smoker. Like many smokers, she thinks nothing of flicking her butts anywhere and everywhere.

That everywhere happens to be the yard all of us in this 4-plex share. I stopped one day and asked, “I don’t want to offend you, but could you not toss the cigarette butts in the yard. It’s such an eyesore in our pretty yard.

She complied for awhile, but slowly but surely there they were again. I picked them up for awhile; however, yesterday I tossed one up on her porch. Her sister, Jackie, came banging on my door this morning to inform me, “You are rude; you are not our landlord, and you cannot tell us what to do. My sister can throw her butts wherever she wants…”

She was dressed for church, and I’m sure was off to worship, thinking that’s all it takes to be a ‘good Christian’. Do they take their scripture to heart?

You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:43)

Jesus was summing up all the law in these two statements. If a person loves the God with all their heart, soul and mind, loving their neighbor is the natural result.

I wonder about folks like that. Do they go to church and pray just to be seen praying? Do they ever walk their talk, or is it just talk.

And, why can’t we all be good neighbors instead of having to ‘call the landlord’, as I am now forced to do come Monday morning.