Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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What do chaos and rocketship underpants have in common?

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“From now on, I’ll connect the dots my own way.” – Calvin and Hobbes

In a rare allusion to the number, quantity, interactivity or any other reference to my followers on twitter, faithful followers will notice periodic tweets from me titled simply, “Why I miss Calvin & Hobbes,” including a link with a random panel from Bill Watterson’s masterwork.

I have loved the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip ever since I can remember. Not only is the humor therein wry, cynical-yet-laced-with-hopefulness and warped, but Watterson manages to convey elemental, essential lessons through the alchemy of ink and paper.

Calvin: – “I’ve been thinking Hobbes –”
Hobbes: – “On a weekend?”
Calvin: – “Well, it wasn’t on purpose…”

Calvin is bombastic, self-centered, short-sighted, delightful – an imaginative imp with a tenuous, but intact moral core. His stuffed tiger, Hobbes, serves as his foil, counsel and ballast. Calvin is NOT a literal six-year old, but rather, a composite of the human race, our collective Inner Child. He is a loner by nature, being an only child, but more than the familial construct into which he has been drawn, Calvin operates outside the norm in other ways.

He’s not a big “joiner,” preferring instead to create his own worlds within his own mind. Spaceman Spiff, Tracer Bullet and Stupendous Man (the arch enemy of Babysitter Girl/Rosalyn) are a few of the alter egos that help him escape the confines of his two-dimensional plane.

Calvin also thrives on mayhem and chaos, oftentimes oblivious to the fact that he himself has created most of it. He is also a big fan of “winging it” and improvises his solutions on the fly, with mixed results. His wagon and sled often provide the means for us to follow his “logic” as he ponders matters both large and small.

Calvinball is a great example of making things up as he goes along. The Rules always change; there is no predestined means of playing the game itself; no special equipment, and quite frankly, I don’t know that Watterson ever drew a panel explaining the terms of “winning.” I’m not sure when (or if) the game actually ends.

“Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine, and valleys of frustration and failure.”- Calvin

And so, on this weekend of new beginnings, I ask you to join with me in taking stock of our choices. What can we do this year that brings us more independence? How can we chart our own course? When can we do to incorporate fun and “managed chaos” into our lives? How do we connect the dots in our own lives and what is the picture we hope to create?

We always have control over our choices. I hope you all have a wonderful, productive, satisfying and joyous New Year. I recommend buying a pair of rocketship underpants.

——-
Molly Cantrell-Kraig is a woman with drive. Possessing an innate sense of purpose and a pragmatic, solution-based approach to empowering people, she fused these two traits in order to establish the Women With Drive Foundation. Based upon its founder’s personal history, Women With Drive Foundation is a means through which Cantrell-Kraig may effect change on both a micro and macro level. By providing women with something as essential as personal transportation in order to transition them from poverty to prosperity, she, through the Women With Drive Foundation, seeks to empower women to help them help themselves. Through this action, the individual applicant benefits, as does society as a whole. Follow Molly on twitter as @mckra1g or @WWDr1ve (Women With Drive)

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Shining Dots

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Connecting dots with The Idea Dude’s Friend

Connecting Dots logo

My friend Vernon Lun, the Idea Dude, made this weekly column fill with light. Not only was he

“Touched by the stories I read, inspired by the words of giants, I wanted the world to know these stories, these words. And most of all, these people. Ordinary people, like you and me but so special because they gave us gifts through their blogs every day. The gifts? their voices, their thoughts, their hearts.”

but he touched our thoughts and hearts as well with what he wrote.

That’s some act to follow.

Do any of us know our value?

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I met Vern talking about SOBCon07. and as I come to know the man, The Idea Dude, I stand in awe of his humility. Vern says, We never think of what it is about ourselves that make us remarkable, Does he know he is talking about himself?

I hear his heart shine in his words.

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I turn around and in my mind’s eye I see Rodney Rumford late at Open Comment Night with a new idea he bringing to life. The pictures tell Rodney’s story. I wonder does he know that’s it’s his joy that makes him so attractive?

Life twinkles in his eyes.

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And driving in a red Ferrari are Glenda and Mike, while Chris, and Tim, and Joe throw Klondike bars and wait patiently for a chance to hit the dance floor.

How do they make sun shine when they want to?

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And Char, and Marti, and Becky, and Susan, and Connie, and AnnOhio doing cartwheels. They add the rainbow colors in the way they tease.

No need for a Second Life when the first one glitters so.

So, it’s as you said, Vern, “It is really just the end of the beginning.”

You started something brightly shining, and shining dots are a wonder!
The dots will be here with your initials on every one . . .

May the dots be with all of us!

Liz Strauss, Friend of the Idea Dude

The Cool Kids’ Guide to Blogging 2008

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Connections and Relationships on the Living Web

The Living Web

Everyone can see what the A-List bloggers are doing. People report daily on their every move. Knowing that is almost self-preservation in the way knowing what the teachers in high school are up to. But what’s going on under the surface? What’s new and cool where they live?

A signal comes through the noise.

It’s no longer a question of relationships versus information. Connections and relations are the living web. Today’s question is one of managing quality versus quantity of relationships and contacts. Just under the surface of what we see, we’re talking to each other in ways that didn’t exist when 2007 saw the first sunrise.

New apps let us meet to

We’re even ranking those ways for how they’re being used.

Jeff Jarvis is proposing a Social Airline. I like the idea.

Skype is being used by the mainstream. Utterz has gotten folks to “audiofy” short thoughts for friends to enjoy. We can’t go from one New Year’s Eve Party to another without a Twitter. Messages under the twitter time line are becoming business deals.

Brogan has Upgraded our Attention and PulverTV is showing us how live BlogTV works.

Have you seen an episode of seesmic or of SeeSmix yet? The cool kids are using twitter to talk about getting naked marimbas to appear in an episode.

Even all-text blog networks are changing in scope and presentation. The a team blog is featuring many of our friends. Even so some folks are still inventing ways to hide behind the words.

The more things change . . . My mom used to say, “One day we’ll all laugh about this.”

Social. social. social. Media. Media. Media. Connections. . . .

We’re moving from Web 2.0 “me,” to Web 3.0 “we.” Are you about relationships yet?

Where do you see it all going?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Related
The Cool Kids Guide to Blogging 2007.

Dot . Dot . Dot .

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Connecting dots with The Idea Dude

Connecting Dots logo

2007 has been the Year of the Blog for me. My passion to promote blogs and bloggers was the catalyst for the TheGoodBlogs. My mission was really very simple. Touched by the stories I read, inspired by the words of giants, I wanted the world to know these stories, these words. And most of all, these people. Ordinary people, like you and me but so special because they gave us gifts through their blogs every day. The gifts? their voices, their thoughts, their hearts.

Then I met Liz. Who can refuse the most simplest of invitations. Can we talk? From that conversation, I was drawn into a much larger community, SOBCON, the conference that taught us that blogging is about bloggers, relationships and conversations. Hope to see you there this year!.

Undoubtedly the highlight for me would be receiving the keys to this blog. It wasn’t about sharing a soapbox, it was about sharing a warm cozy living room where the best conversations could be found. Right here, every Sunday, we connected dots. Each dot, a blogger, connected with others through words of wisdom, joy, sadness and every other emotion possible. I felt like a treasure hunter, delighting in every gem I found, eager to share each one with you.

Alas this will be the last connecting dots post for a while. Is this the end? Hopefully not, but it is a pause as I need to step back to figure out where the next part of this journey should take.

Successful-blog remains one of my favorite blogs just as Liz will always be one favorite bloggers. This blog like its host has become a constant in my blogging life. So you’ll see me in the comments and open-mic night. Why? because this is where my friends hang out, where the conversation is always great, where the laughter is infectious, where the hearts are bigger and the brains are smarter… and where I know I belong.

May the dots be with you!

Vern, The Idea Dude


Dots resolving to change

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Connecting dots with The Idea Dude

Connecting Dots logo

December for me is a great time to take stock of what I managed to achieve during this year and then look at all the things that perhaps fell through the cracks or activities I could have managed better. New Year Resolutions for me aren’t radical changes but adjustments that I remind myself to make over time.

Resolving to succeed

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Ben’s right about most of the resolutions we make each year. They never seem to last, fading as fast as the winter sun. Most resolutions are about ourselves and how we think we should be or could be better. I think we often look at ourselves and find the things we dislike the most. Then by uttering a few magic words wrapped in a bow called a New Year resolution, we hope they will go away. Of course they don’t.

Resolving to choose wisely

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Choosing resolutions that have some hope of making a making difference to us must have all of the following ingredients.

  • It must matter to us. It can’t be something copied from someone because it sounded good and altruistic.
  • It must be measurable. Anything that isn’t measurable in a tangible or meaningful has no hope of succeeding like starting a journey without knowing where it will end.
  • We must enjoy doing it. Motivation is generally fueled by the emotion that something we do makes us feel so good, we want to keep doing it.
  • The changes we make should impact those around us. Because our momentum is increased by their feedback and their well-being.

Resolving to change positively

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What is a resolution really but a commitment to change oneself and all around us in a positive way. Liz has the best advice about how to make positive changes stick. She’s right of course when she says, When you make a positive change that sticks, other positive things will happen too.

Resolving to be kinder to ourselves

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Angela reminds us to be kinder to ourselves. What a wonderful idea. We do tend to beat ourselves up for not doing something or not doing enough of other things. At the end of the day, we are all human with frailties and failings. But we are also endowed with character that helps we look forward to just being a little better than the day before.

Being kinder to ourselves makes us kinder to others too!
This is my wish for all of us.

May the dots be with you!

Vern, The Idea Dude


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