Successful Blog

Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: We’re Talking Family Stories

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That’s Not How I Remember It . . .

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YES, the mic will be open again tonight. So start collecting your thoughts. Remember, you get to bring what you want to talk about.

The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

Tonight we’re reminiscing — talking about our favorite family stories.

We might also talk about

  • what happened this holiday season that will become a repeated story
  • our most embarrassing story
  • stories that make us roll on the floor laughing
  • how our memories differ from those of our family members

AND THE EVER POPULAR,
Basil the code-writing donkey, and Milton the Skinny Moose.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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The Mic Is On: What’s Your Favorite Food?

NBC Don’t Change My New Year’s Eve Plans!!!

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Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

Now, I’m no great football fan, but I know a thing or two about people and plans.

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The game between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers has been changed from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night.

This from the NBC Sports Website
The Chicago Bears will host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football on NBC, Dec. 31, in the final flex game for the 2006 season.

[ . . . ]

NBC’s coverage starts with Football Night in America at 7 p.m. ET. Kickoff is at 8:15.

During Week 17, the decision to move a game-time start can be cut to six days — the league has said the idea is to aim for a night game with playoff implications. Only games originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon are eligible for a swing to Sunday night.

Did no one care that Sunday night is NewYear’s Eve?

What about . . .

  • the folks with season tickets who have other plans?
  • the folks who’ve spent money on romantic evenings?
  • the woman I just heard crying on sports radio about her wedding that was planned for after the game with her family of football fans?
  • the guys who planned to propose in grand fashion that evening?
  • the people who wanted to watch the game that afternoon with their families?
  • the folks who had plans to attend and now can’t?

Who was NBC choosing for? In 1968, NBC chose to cut the Super Bowl to start a movie. That disaster is now called the Heidi Game.

I find this decision beyond “business amazing.” It’s stunning in it’s thoughtlessness. It asks the audience to change their life at NBC’s whim. The rules say that they can do this. Just because they can, doesn’t make it a good idea.

Please help me understand this. I’m truly baffled here.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Tag, Tag, Tag, Tag, Tag, Tag, Tag . . .

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Oh, I Get It , , , Now!

I was tagged at the very beginning of the five things meme. Then it happened that I got tagged again and again and again. Each time I said “thank you” for giving me an assignment I’d aleady completed. Soon I was tagged a fourth time. Then tagged a fifth, a sixth, and a seventh . . .

It took me a while to catch on to the fact that I needed to get five more things in a post. My life-long friend, Nancy, has been telling me for these many years, “Ya know, Liz, sometimes you’re so fast, and sometimes you are sooo sloooow.”

So here they are for those guys who tagged me on this second round: Carl, Thord, Thilak, Jason, PC, Mike, and Phil. Gosh, I hope I named you all.

Five Things Most Folks Don’t Know about Me

  1. I’m claustrophobic. I didn’t know that either until my son was about three. It’s the most interesting, amazing feeling to physically compell myself out of a small space at what feels like 90 mph.

  2. I didn’t like the original smiley face or the good-bye phrase “Have a nice day.” In college, I had a t-shirt with a frowny face and a patch on the back of my blue jeans that said, “Have a nice night.”

  3. I didn’t go to my prom in high school, but I turned down two nice, intelligent, good-looking guys who asked me. I was afraid we’d have nothing to talk about.

  4. My first nickname ever was “Bashful.” I got a dominant self-conscious gene. My second nickname was “Mushy.” My dad called me “Babydoll.” My mom called me “Petunia.”

  5. I was Alice in Wonderland in college. I went to get a hot ham and cheese sandwich and noticed the auditions on the way there. I probably would have kept going — I didn’t know anyone in the theater department — but the girl reading for Alice was just so . . . . someone had to do something! You know what I mean?

So there you have them — five more things about me — things I don’t think about much these days. Maybe that’s why most folks don’t know them.

–Me “Liz” Strauss

Related article
Once Upon a Time: Five Things in a Story

Net Neutrality 12-26-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Eight Internet Losers In 2006

Though the Internet had a breakout year 2006, it wasn’t all birthday cakes and butterflies for everyone. Companies, institutions and philosophies came head to head every other day trying to exert some sort of control over it. And most of them failed miserably.

So while there were big time winners in 2006, every year has its colossal losers. This Biggest Internet Losers list rubs their faces in it because it has to be done. There are lessons to be learned.

Biggest Internet Losers 2006

[ . . . ]

7. Net Neutrality

Though awareness and support for the concept of Network Neutrality increased exponentially, the construct intended to be the Internet’s First Amendment still suffered defeat after defeat in Congress.

8. The Telecommunications Industry

It’s interesting that all players involved in the Net Neutrality debate come up losers. But there was no compromise on either side of it. Just when it looked like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast would put the debate to bed, enough grass roots support popped up to delay it just long enough to get to the mid-term elections. Net Neutrality got a reprieve, and it’s driving the telcos crazy.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

What You’ve Given and What You Are

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People, Stars, and You

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May your day be with people
who put their differences away
who listen beyond the words that you choose
to understand what you mean to say

May the time be ripe with details
minor events and moments of laughter
that re-ignite your spirit with the joy of living
and stay in your memory ever, ever after

May you find ways to discover
questions that uncover mysteries
that capture incredible oral histories
that bring a opportunity to see
people you thought you knew entirely
as individuals brand new and interesting

May you have a day of wonder
filled with the music of voices singing.
the joy of what you’ve given me and what you are:
proof that people and stars are made of the same thing.

Thank you to every Successful-Blog reader. I so value you.

Liz's Signature

Tony D. Clark Is One in a Million!

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Chris Says So

One-in-a-Million by Trée George and Sandy Renshaw

For the One-in-a-Million-Category of:

Best integration of cartoons and theme with inspiration and encouragement. In addition to having a top notch theme that sets a perfect tone and a customized cartoon to help tell the story of every post, to qualify for this category a blog must focus in by choosing a particular niche group of people who especially need encouragement and tips on how to better balance life with work. Oh, and it helps to have the word “Success” in the title. Then top it all off by being as helpful as possible to every blogger out there.

The winner is Tony D. Clark, Success From The Nest.

This award was submitted by: One-in-a-Million Cohort: Chris Cree

Thanks, Chris, for seeing the one in a million in another blogger! Thanks Trée George and Sandy Renshaw for the logo that shouts it out!

–ME “Liz” Strauss