Liz, Author at Successful Blog Page

Imagini

April 29, 2007 by Liz

Pick a Picture, Any Picture

Start with the face wall. Then find out what the visuals you choose say about you? Find our your Vidual DNA. Mine sure seems to have gotten me right down to the letter z.

Great Find: Imagini
Permalink: http://www.imagini.net/
Target Audience: Anyone
Content: From the face wall to your profile to your visual DNA and the notebook that explains this social networking site. The test can be taken without becoming a member. And you can get a widget with your Visual DNA as well. Just click the screen shot below.

To explore the Social Site, click the shot below.

It’s just a little more fun for you.

The notebook is detailed and fun to read.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Color in Motion

April 29, 2007 by Liz

An Interactive Experience of Color Communication and Color Symbolism

Great Find: Color in Motion

Permalink: http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/

Target Audience: Anyone interested in color!

Content:

This site was created by Claudia Cortés as her thesis for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Computer Graphics Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

I’m not sure what’s more fun – the Stars, the Movies, or the Lab. I really like the Movies because it’s such a nice visual way to learn the symbolism of color. And the music is terrific. So many ways that color communicates.

Check it out yourself and let me know what part is your favorite.

See you next time!

–Sandy, Purple Wren

Why on Earth Do I Blog?

April 29, 2007 by Liz

It’s Heavenly

A nice young woman I barely know asked me, “Why on Earth do you blog?”

How on Earth do I explain?

Every morning before the sun gets up, I get up, and I find my way to my computer. I crawl inside to find the thoughts of people I know waiting for me. What a gift, what a joy it is to share the minds of so many friends and to meet them so regularly.

I type what I think, what I feel, what I’ve discovered, unocovered, and I learn about what I know. People take what I say and tell me what it means. They explain how it goes. Ideas fly. They float and bend, like so many clouds in a summer sky of many minds talking without a sound, yet building meaning and finding truth.

Every evening before the sun goes down, I sit down and I find there’s a reason to keep telling stories and reading stories that help me understand why and how. I figure out who I am, who you are, who that is, who that was why we’re here. I hear about everyone that I meet. And together we make sense. I see how people and stars are made from the same stuff.

And together we make something good — something that would not be, could not be, if I did not, if you did not, blog.

I blog because I can.

Blogging is a universe and a university.

Who on Earth could say no to being part of this positive humanity?

I blog because we have the power to change the world.

So Tim, Dawud, Mark, John, Samuel. why on Earth do you blog?

Click to the “Bloggy Tag Button” to see who tagged me.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
ONLY 12 DAYS UNTIL THE BLOGGING EXPERIENCE THAT WILL BE INCREDIBLE — Why SOBCon not that Other One. Click the button to register now.

12 Days Left to Blogging Experience

April 29, 2007 by Liz

Tick . . . Tick . . . Tick . . .

Don’t miss the conference where YOU get to talk. Click the banner to check it out.

NBC/WMAQ, The Chicago Sun=Times, and The Kellogg School of Business have decided they can’t miss being part of this content-rich conversation.

How can I help you? What do you need to know more about?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
ONLY 12 DAYS UNTIL THE BLOGGING EXPERIENCE THAT WILL BE INCREDIBLE — Why SOBCon not that Other One. Click the button to register now.

The Kids with Cameras in the Merle Hay Mall

April 28, 2007 by Liz

Get Creative

It happens at banks. It happens at hotels. In this story it happened at a shopping mall.

The assignment was that students were to phorograph examples of specific attributes of creativity. Students were sent in groups to several malls in the same city.

Someone thought she was in charge of the ~~world.~~ the Merle Hay Mall. She stopped the students and sent them away. They were told they had been belligerent in HER MALL. Here’s a quote about it.

My students were incensed by her accusations. For starters, groups at other malls did not have run-ins with mall security. If questioned, they explained the assignment and the guards did not hinder them. Second, belligerence (like beauty) appears to be in the eyes of the beholder, because they felt harassed by the guards from the second they came into the mall. Third, the individual store owners from whom they asked permission were thrilled to have their store featured in an assignment about creativity. And finally, I went back to the mall and photographed their posted code of conduct myself. There’s no mention of a photography ban listed anywhere.

The question was: How would I respond to that if I were the teacher who made the assignment? Please remember that I have the benefit of hindsight and knowing what’s already been tried.

This lady is obviously a high-structure person. She sees things running one way and gets thrown terribly when something new gets added to the mix — no matter what it is. She’s probably read about terrorists taking pictures of buildings too. She added two and two and action was her defensive response.

I would have put the problem to the students as a question of creativity. How might we use creativity to get to the solution we want? This could be fun.

Looking at the problem from another angle. What would make someone hold onto the keys to the mall so tightly? How might we creatively get her to give them up with a smile? The answer lies in making her feel generous and important. How hard is that?

Let’s say that we invite her to lunch or for an interview with the class. Maybe we ask to meet with her at her office. I would dress in my best business clothes and bring two or three students dressed similarly. We’d ask her to explain her responsibilities and the breadth and depth of her “kingdom.” We would show appropriate respect for how hard she works.

Then we’d ask if we could take a few pictures of her. Would she mind helping us with our project? How might we work together to get this done? It would certainly be a feather in her cap to be an ambassador to the local school. I would see to it that folks knew about it. Perhaps she would like to send someone to watch the students work?

Yes, this would take extra time to get past the barriers, but it would be such a life lesson. The kids would be learning how to use their creativity to solve a problem that meant something to them and get a chance to “outsmart a grownup” too.

Who doesn’t like to “outsmart a grownup” –especially a cranky one who’s been on a rampage like that?

I bet those kids would come up with a better solution than this in even less time than I wrote this post.

After all, their teacher is the guy who wrote the book, GUST. He could guide them, much better than I ever could.

Click to the “Bloggy Tag Button” to see who tagged me.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
ONLY 12 DAYS UNTIL THE BLOGGING EXPERIENCE THAT WILL BE INCREDIBLE — Why SOBCon not that Other One. Click the button to register now.

How to Write an Outstanding Blog Post

April 28, 2007 by Liz

It Takes ALL of You

What does it take to write an outstanding blog post, one that I look back on months later and still think it’s the best I could write? months after I’ve gone on to write about other things?

Choose to write about your passion whenever you can, but when you cannot, be passionate about what you write.

I write the most outstanding blog posts when I bring all of me to the keyboard to write. All of me is the one who’s been writing for years and the one who still remembers what it’s like to be a kid. All of me means head and heart together in every word. It means taking time to make sure that I’m there. Here’s a way you might do that.

Before you even begin, STOP.

Reflect on what you want to say. Know in your mind what your message is. Try it on for size. Imagine what you want readers to know, want them to see, want them to feel in their bones.
Give those feelings spectacular words such as breathtaking, exhilarating, compelling, stunning, amazed, intrigued, or entranced. Imagine being a kid discovering this information for the first time. Try to capture the way it would feel.

Those two steps will connect your heart to your head. When you stop to breathe before you write, all of you will be there when you click that first key.

Capture the whole message before you edit what you say. Trust your mind and your heart to give you the right ideas first. Worry about the sentences and the words later. The ideas are what you want to share. Make the ideas big. Make them real. Tell your story by showing your readers what you want them to see.

Use your own voice. Make the words sound like you think. When you read the words through, read aloud and listen to how the words sound. Do they sound like you do? Do they have rhythm and music?

When the ideas are right and the voice is yours, then look at the sentences. Are they long and short? Do they sparkle and shine? Do they say what you mean? Do they feel right? You probably won’t need to do much.

If your heart is with you, don’t be surprised if you find yourself feeling passionate, even emotional, about what you write. To this day, I still cry when I read some of the best blog posts I’ve ever written.

How do you write an outstanding blog post?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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