Thursday, August 28, 2008

Michael Broome



Tonight was the United Way kickoff and the theme was "Live United." I run an agency that gets support from United Way and all the agencies were there with information. Afterwards was a dinner with motivational speaker, Michael Broome.

I had not planned to attend the dinner. I wanted to watch the Obama speech and when we had to order tickets I didn't know the timing on that. I had hoped to get a ticket to go see Obama in person in Denver, but I wasn't able to lay my hands on one.

But, as luck would have it, Julie had bought an extra ticket and invited me to stay for dinner. I was glad I got to hear Mr. Broome.

His overall theme was that humor is key to life. I would certainly agree with that. In the process of getting his point across he noted a number of different facts. I jotted down some of the ones I found particularly interesting to share with you. I'm not going to try and blend them logically, as he did.

One thing he said, which I've heard before is that "irritation plus time equals humor." That's so true. When you're angry about something, as time passes you can tell the story and it becomes funny.

He talked about how the chemical makeup of happy tears is different than that of sad tears. That is true. He also mentioned that laughing increases red blood cells. I had not heard that, but I'm not surprised.

He spoke for a while about how you should become a master of the small, sincere things. He said to never underestimate the power of a handwritten note. I know this is a powerful thing. He used as an example Abraham Lincoln, who wrote thank you notes, notes of condolence and letters. He mentioned that other than Jesus Christ, more has been written about Lincoln than anyone else - more than 5000 biographies. Part of the reason is that he left behind so many writings.

In the arena of personal relationships, he said to learn to say two things to your loved ones: "I'm sorry" and "I love you."

He also talked about reading a book about love languages and how there are five ways to show love. Some may combine them, but that all fall into these categories:
physical
verbal
acts of service
quality time
gifts

He talked about "Amazing Grace" being the most recorded song of all time, and how it was written by a former slave trader.

All in all a nice evening.

I rushed home to not miss a moment of Obama's speech. Incredible.

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Democratic Convention

I've been watching the speeches at the Convention every night. Tonight, of course, was Bill Clinton. In my opinion they made a mistake not putting Bill in prime-time, but hey, they didn't ask me.

Bill Clinton is one of the great orators of our time, and one of the most popular figures of the party. Last night when he arrived, the crowd started cheering and one of the commentators on the channel I was watching said, "Bill Clinton just arrived and the crowd is reacting." She paused a moment and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis is in the building." I thought that was a thoughtful summation.

As you might expect, Bill gave an incredible speech. Just as Hillary did last night, and Michelle the night before. I'm so glad I got to see Bill Clinton last year.

I'm still shocked to see people saying they will not vote for Obama - die-hard democrats who would never consider voting for McCain. I just don't understand that. Obama is our candidate. Support him. If you don't support him, it's possible McCain will win - is that what you want? Do you want more of what we have? War? Deficit? Poverty? To not cast a vote for Obama is the same as casting a vote for McCain.

If you feel you can't vote for Obama for some reason - whatever it is - can you at least vote against McCain? Can you do that? Surely you can. You know what's at stake. Our future. I'm not a big proponent of voting against someone, but if that's the only way you can go into the voting booth and vote for Obama, then think of it that way because the stakes are just too high not to. No one will know who you voted for/against. Just do what needs to be done to get a democrat as President. Just do your part.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. Friend me on Facebook.com, Follow me at Twitter.com.

I am looking for book clubs willing to read and critique my novel when it's completed. If your book club is interested, please email me at patsyterrell@gmail.com. Thanks!


Mia and Pinky Horse



This is my great-great niece, Mia, with the appropriately named, Pinky Horse. Mia has been visiting grandma and grandpa in Kentucky recently and Kim sent this photo. I haven't seen Mia in awhile, and she's now 26 months old. She looks very different than last time I saw her.

See other Mia pix:
www.patsyterrell.com/2006/10/mias-entourage.html
www.patsyterrell.com/2006/12/i-have-been-intending-to-post-some.html
www.patsyterrell.com/2006/06/welcome-to-world-mia-isabella-mia.html

________________
Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. Friend me on Facebook.com, Follow me at Twitter.com.

I am looking for book clubs willing to read and critique my novel when it's completed. If your book club is interested, please email me at patsyterrell@gmail.com. Thanks!


Speeches and Twitter

Wired had an article called, "Democratic Convention: Twitterers Gush Over Michelle Obama. Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a mini-blog site where people answer the question, "What are you doing?" You can "follow" people and read their "tweets" (updates) and you can post your own.

I was on Twitter the other night during the speech. It's one way I can share an experience with people on my terms, without having to put up with the person in a group who's talking over the TV, or making comments, or getting up to go to the bathroom and walking in front of the screen when I'm watching.

It was interesting to see people's comments, although not everyone was "gushing" as Wired put it - at least not on the list of people I follow. Of course, you can search for tweets on a particular topic and I would assume that's what they did.

Something about the whole article bugs me. I'm not sure exactly what. I think that they're dropping into our little twitter world and making sweeping judgments and moving on. Is that irrational? Of course it is. Twitter is completely open - anyone can search it and see what people are talking about. But being treated like bugs under a microscope is creepy, as if those of us on twitter are engaged in some secret society worthy of observation.

Perhaps I'm only projecting, as I'm so want to do, because I've taken more than a little bit of ribbing among friends for my affection for twitter. I say this when I can go for days without logging on. Maybe it's just that I seem to often find myself in the position of being "examined" and I was hoping that something like Wired would be above acting as if the fact that people are sharing their thoughts on news via twitter - as we've been doing for a long time - is worthy of an article.

It's old news. Just as much "news" is very old these days by the time we hear/see/read it. For example, I learned about the earthquake a few weeks ago from people on twitter who felt it before I heard it on the news. Why must we continue to pretend that this is surprising enough that it is worthy of an article in what is supposedly a publication devoted to the cutting edge technology?


________________
Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. Friend me on Facebook.com, Follow me at Twitter.com.

I am looking for book clubs willing to read and critique my novel when it's completed. If your book club is interested, please email me at patsyterrell@gmail.com. Thanks!