Recently, at the request of one of my colleagues, I bought the Strengths Finder 2.0 book and got the access code for the test. For those who aren’t familiar, you spend about 30 minutes answering a bunch of questions about your approaches to life and work, seemingly innocuous things that will ultimately result in the…
Category Archives: books
Book Review: The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money
Creative professionals are in a strange, unique and interesting position. We’re not plumbers or electricians who show up with parts and tools to fix your emergency. Nobody has a design or content emergency (not that they know of, anyway). How do you price a service with intangible value? What is your personal philosophy about money,…
What I Did On My One Day Vacation
As I sit here listening to the clock tick in an otherwise quiet house, I’m marveling at the fact that I took the day off — most of it, anyway — and the world didn’t end. Aside from being on an island beach somewhere, this day was probably as close to ideal as it could…
The 3rd 40: Day 27
It was a 100% work-free day (with the exception of the time I spent jotting down ideas into an email on my iPhone at the A’s game… yes, I have problems). Every Sunday I wake up with the intention of going to kickboxing at 9:00. The problem with that plan is that it interferes with…
The 3rd 40: Days 9 and 10
Wednesday was a magnificent example of flexible scheduling and balance. I was awake before dawn to negotiate contracts and catch up on much-needed accounting work (one of the many, many hats in the freelance wardrobe). I managed to get the boy fed, dressed and off to preschool in time for a conference call before heading…
The 3rd 40: Day 4, 5 and 6
I am sore. I started Thursday’s kickboxing class still sore from Tuesday’s. Adding another major workout only managed to highlight some additional muscles that I didn’t previously know that I’d had. I tried to counteract that with some yoga and stretching, which was a good decision, considering that I was still able to move on…
A Science Geek In a Liberal Arts World (Or is it the other way around?)
In spite of my natural inclinations toward science, math and all things that public school kids deem to be geeky, I somehow ended up as a professional writer and editor. It was as much of a shock to me as it was to anyone. I went to college thinking that I’d be a math major….
Evolving Language
As I was reading this article about how half of the world’s languages are in danger of dying out, I started thinking about just how much the English language has changed and evolved, a language spoken by nearly half a billion people every day. I’m not talking about the changes since Shakespeare’s time, with phrases…
Another 40: Days 22-32
Yes, I’ve been terrible about following through on the documentation of this 40-day challenge. Since we last spoke, I went on vacation. For anyone who wonders if they should skip the hoopla of the holidays and head for the tropics, my answer is an unequivocal yes. In the course of a week, I read a…
Another 40: Day 21
For the most part, the clients have entered the quiet zone known as Holiday Shutdown. It’s a blissful and glorious time, the time where I get to spend multiple days getting organized, closing out the current year and looking ahead to new things. Even though things were quiet today, I found that I was still…