Rothacker Reviews

Escape From Cubicle Nation

Escape From Cubicle Nation is your personal key to freedom!  Like a weary soul who scraped, clawed and crawled his way across the desert in search of water, I smoked Pamela Slim's most excellent book in search of liberation.  From the tiny molecule in my soul who is standing atop the mountain screaming "no more bosses!" to my entire and collective soul who is getting dry heaves even thinking about Monday mornings, I simply cannot make a more heart felt and direct recommendation: Buy Pam's book today!

Escape From Cubicle Nation is a treasure and as such, I will dip in and review parts of this book with care and reverence.  I will treat it like a fine wine or a seminal Clint Eastwood classic, to be sipped and reveled upon.

Visit Pam's new format at Escape From Cubicle Nation for more info.

Tampa: WFTS ABC Action News

Can you tell when someone is genuine?  Can you tell when they really care?  Do you think a handful of employees can create a positive impression about the company that they work for?  Do you think: When I think about this company, I think about a company that is trying to make a real difference for the people they serve.

A couple of weeks ago along with my wife Rosemary and her mom Mary, I had the privilege of witnessing a live ABC Action News broadcast.  I was so consumed with the reason that we were there and the incredible talent of Deanna Marinello along with the support of her brother Miles and dad Victor, that I almost let a very important story slip by.  But I didn't, thanks to Deiah Riley, Lissette Campos and Wendy Ryan.

A few days later we watched the ABC Action News special Taking Action Against Domestic Violence, hosted by Deiah, Lissette and Wendy.  The grace, dignity and respect in which these three women handled the subject of domestic violence took my breath away.  Rosemary had worked with Lissette in the past on behalf of the All Children's Hospital Tampa Guild and I got to meet Lissette that day in the studio.  So I sent Lissette a note to tell her how I felt about their program.  She mentioned that Joe was also involved.  It was at this precise moment when the collective experience of ABC Action News exploded into a rainbow of meaning, understanding and hospitality!

Back to the story that began to unfold in the studio.  The anchors that day were Dan Shaffer and Deiah Riley, the meteorologist was Stephanie Roberts, Lissette orchestrated Positively Tampa Bay, the cameraman was Tom Gagnier, the teleprompter was Jude Chaison, their boss Charlie Paul and floor director Joe Papadopoulos.  Also in the studio watching the broadcast was a group of kids and their chaperone's from the Canella News Network.

Every single one of the folks from ABC made us feel welcome to be there.  In between working the camera, Tom made sure the on air guests had water and was scrambling around for extra chairs.  During commercials, Joe would talk to everyone (particularly the kids) and let us know what was going on.  This was most impressive as Joe obviously had duties to perform during those commercials.  Following the segment, the crew had a quick debriefing meeting amongst themselves and then held a Q & A session led by Charlie for the kids ( it was open to us as well).  Dan, Deiah, Joe and Charlie graciously and with patience, fielded questions.  The crew was clearly out of time but Charlie fielded one more question from an energetic little guy.  Charlie's kind gesture broadcasted volumes about these folks and their culture.

During the course of events that afternoon in the studio, Miles Marinello leaned over to Rosemary and pointed toward floor director Joe.  He said, "that guy right there is the star of the show!"  I had actually come to the same conclusion on my own.  And when Lissette told me how involved Joe was with the Domestive Violence show, it just all made sense.

But that's not all.  Linda Hurtado and Jackie Calloway were guest judges for the Tampa Bay's Premier Iron Chef Challenge and I had the good fortune to not only meet them but watch them take care of a few business matters (a news report from the event).

Perhaps it is not fair to on air folks.  We can sense that they care and are involved in their stories, but creepy little doubts of, oh they are just acting can whisper into our ears.  I know that not only the on air folks but all of the folks I met from WFTS are genuine.  I know they care.  I know they are hospitable.  And now because of them I have a most favorable and respectful opinion of WFTS ABC Action News in Tampa! 

Do they make a difference to the people who they serve?  They did to Rosemary, Mary, the Marinello's, to me, and they most certainly made a difference to the kids in the studio that day!

NASA and the Space Pen

Today's story is from Tim Hurson's book Think Better.

NASA discovered that a pen will not work in outer space.  So they gathered teams of mechanical, chemical and hydrodynamic engineers and spent millions of dollars in research.  They finally produced a pen that will work in outer space.

About that time the Soviets encountered the same problem.  Instead of trying to figure out how a pen will work in zero gravity, they asked, "how can we write in zero gravity?"  And then they issued Cosmonauts pencils.

 

Tim refers to our minds following well-worn patterns as the elephant's tether*.  NASA was obviously in a thinking rut. Tim teaches methods to break from ruts and patterns to improve our ability to think and come up with different ideas.

*The elephant's tether - In India, elephant wranglers chained baby elephants to a stake in the ground so that the elephant could not escape.  As the elephant grew older they would simply tethered it with a rope.  It had been deeply ingrained in the elephant's mind that it could not break free from the tether, so it never tried.  That's pretty sick to think that our own thinking could get stuck in ruts like these!

Space Pen from Cairphoto on Flickr

Pencil from Peteryouvelostthenews on Flickr

Jasmine the Greyhound

Would you like to read a feel good story today?  Sure you would!  Put that hectic life on hold for three minutes and read about Jasmine the Greyhound.

         See Jasmine's story here.

Okay, go take on the world.  I am hoping you'll do it with a softer heart!

Feeding Your Muse

Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451 and one of the most popular American writers of all time, where do you get your ideas from?

Ray tells us where our muse is in the chapter How to Keep and Feed a Muse, in his book Zen in the Art of Writing.  This one chapter is worth the price of the book.  One place our muse isn't, is out there, floating in the wispy ether of never-never land waiting to be summoned by chance, stance or circumstance.

Ray tells us our muse lies within and can come from two different sources.  One is the life that we've lived.  The other is what we feed ourselves by way of reading.  Ray strongly recommends ingesting poetry, essays and books that cater to our senses.  He says to read material written by authors who write the way that we hope to write.  And also not to feel bad about a diet of comic books, TV shows, plays, magazines and film.  Passion is what pulls this all together.  Passion fueled by curiosity to explore and learn from all of these sources.

Wanted muse from Bayroadphoto/laura on Flickr; Three muse by third.eve on Flickr;

Zen in the Art of Writing is a must read!

Ask Small Questions

Small questions create a mental environment that welcomes unabashed creativity and playfulness.

The above words of wisdom are from Robert Maurer, author of One Small Step Can Change Your Life.  Robert weaves the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen - slow, incremental continuous improvement - into a navigable, sensible way to change your life.

If you need to make a chang in your life, pick up Robert's book today. 

Photo from jhhwild on flickr.

Great 21st Century Quote

It's all about the Benjamins,

...not the benjamins.

Jonathan Fields gave us this treasure in his book Career Renegades. Career Renegades is a most excellent book that teaches people how to make a living doing what they love.

People by Whuhnnnnnnn on Flickr

Bills by Spybart on Flickr

Mark Twain: Write in Your Books

Reading provides far better creative exercise when we make notes as we go

Creative legend Alex Osborn made that observation in his book Wake Up Your Mind.  Alex goes on to say:

In Albert Bigelow Paine's life of Mark Twain the biographer wrote: "On the table by him, and on his bed, and on the billiard-room shelves, he kept books he read most.  All, or nearly all, had annotations-spontaneously uttered marginal notes, title prefatories, or concluding comments.  They were the books he had read again and again, and it was seldom that he had not hand something to say with each fresh reading."

Photo from M. Godek on Flickr

Writing About Your Writing

Writing down your mission turns your vague hopes into language.  By writing about your writing, you learn what you need to learn.

In his book Writing Tools, author Roy Peter Clark, tells his readers how he learned more about reporting and telling stories from a piece titled "Three Little Words," which he wrote for the St. Petersburg Times.  Prior to writing this article, Roy created a mission statement that covered his intent and purpose.

How Photography Helps My Writing

Toss out the bullet point laden PowerPoint presentation.  Toss out the lecture.  Toss out the twenty-eight chapter, seven pound book.  Toss out the How To titled blogs (not mine).  Toss out Wikipedia.  Yes, by taking pictures your writing will improve.  Unfortunately this will not be a neat five chapter set, summary review followed up by chapter questions presentation.  As a matter of fact, you might be hard pressed to discover how taking pictures consciously improves your writing...but your subconscious will understand.

Roy Williams wrote a book in 2001 titled Accidental Magic, published by the coolest publisher on the planet, Bard Press.  Roy gave random black and white photographs to graduates of his Wizard Academy and asked them to interpret the pictures.  Roy's managing editor, Janet Thomae asks:

Have you ever been so captivated by a photo that you wondered what was happening the moment it was captured?  Ever imagine what he subject was thinking or what was going through the mind of the photographer?

Roy says:

A photograph is a window through which we can peer into another world.

In addition to his student's work, Roy devotes sixteen chapters crammed with techniques to help improve your writing.

Roy Williams' book has nothing to do with how I believe photography will improve your writing.

To help improve our creativity and stock our writer's well, Julia Cameron teaches us to go on Artist's Dates.  Ironically, I began to go on Artist's Dates about the same time I got a new digital camera.  The camera helped to capture memorable moments from my outings.  Although I had owned a couple of cameras in my life, I wasn't a camera person.  Looking for stuff to take pictures of was not natural for me.  So I had to force myself and this helped me to become more aware.  And the act of becoming more aware is what has helped to improve my writing.

Well that was neat and tidy David.  About as clear as a London morning I'd say.

To develop awareness we must look beyond that what is.  It is the process of looking beyond that feeds data to our subconscious.  Combine that what is to that what appears to be to that what seems like, and soon that what was has taken on an all together different meaning - as long as you come back to it in a few days.  Value and meaning are what rises to the top after a few days brew.

It is the process of looking for new, unusual and different things to take pictures of, that feeds substance to our subconscious to reappear in our writing.

The quiz my dear students for this lesson...will never be :-)

Cannon camera by my new friend Bokeh.Queen~Away's on Flickr.

London Bridge by Martin-James on Flickr.