Postcards from the Funny Farm

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“We are all time travelers moving at the speed of exactly 60 minutes per hour.”
-Spider Robinson

Some of us are traveling in limousines, others are at the freeway on-ramp with cardboard signs. Regardless of the means, we are going from a point a to a point b every day of our lives. It is easy to look at other peoples work and art in life as nonsensical and bad. Have you ever seen a car with a million poorly placed stickers on it and gone: “Why? It is such a nice car.” That is their art and you should respect it. Once we were down at the beach years ago and I was making sand castles with my niece. I saw the remnants of a sand castle with sticks like towers and assumed the creator was long gone. It was in a good spot so I swept it away as if it never existed. I think the creator must have been mentally ill because she came screaming at me and my young niece as if we were the devil for destroying her sand castle. We got through the scene some how and relocated. Luckily it didn’t seem to affect my niece much but I thought about it for weeks after. I really felt bad about it.

The sand castle wasn’t the real lesson here. For me, it was a lesson about other people and respecting the art they create along the journey. My recommendation is to be very slow to criticize the art that people make whether it is their bumper stickers, their sand castles, or … the way they do simple things in life. It never hurts to give compliments, you can find one for anything. Another way to grow in this area: do a listening experiment.  I hope the sand castle incident will have the same effect on you as it had on me and make you less reckless with other people’s art and hence other people’s emotions.

In this post, I want to promote CRISS ANGEL Believe at Luxor Las Vegas. Furthermore, I want to let you know about the current Text Message contest where you could win 2 tickets to ‘CRISS ANGEL Believe’. (awesome opportunity!)

Most people have prior knowledge of Houdini. he was arguably the greatest illusionist of all time. His tricks consisted of chaining himself in odd places and then escaping them in front of large audience the world over. In many ways, Harry Houdini and Criss Angel do the same thing. If you have seen Criss Angel on TV however, you know his act is upgraded with effects and of course: television. This doesn’t mean Criss Angel doesn’t take great risks as Harry Houdini did. In fact, the stuff he does is pretty scary. It keeps you on the edge of your seat.

I’ve seen his show “Mindfreak” on tv and I can tell you he doesn’t hold back. I recall seeing one where he put hooks into his back and was lifted by a helicopter. YIKES. I’ve heard his live shows are stellar and you walk away staggering once you’ve seen his illusions. He is playing next at the Luxor in Las Vegas and as you know Vegas is so close to us, we can almost hear them setting up from my backyard. Okay I’m exaggerating. But it’s only 3 hours away from me.

The Cirque de Soleil performance called “Believe” is quite exciting. The concept of belief is all but disappeared from our society today so I find the concept and title alone to be exciting and worth going to see. To go into the amazing acrobatics of a Cirque de Soleil show and be touched with Criss Angel’s magic to boot will be a treat indeed and one everyone in the area (or who can get to the area) should try and experience. What a combo!

Finally, I want to touch on the current Text Message contest and the information and give you the text codes for the contest (Text ‘Believe’ to 22122 to win 2 tickets to ‘CRISS ANGEL Believe‘). If this sounds cool to you, wouldn’t free tickets rock? I just texted mine in with fingers crossed!

Yesterday I wrote about how Google PR and other ranking systems for blogs fall short of really selecting value. Let’s face the fact at the start though not everyone agrees on what is valuable in blogs. It is often the same sort of preference as between clip on earrings and studded. There are some things that are universal though. I wrote about an acronym v.a.l.u.e. and specifically the “V” in value for a blog. I chose the word “visceral” and targeted to a nice short 200 words because so many blogs are not.

While that was a very large point that needed over 400 words ;) the aspect today is not so needy of length: “aphoristic” for example, with a catchy title. An aphorism is a short quote or phrase.

Writing a blog is unlike writing a book. Readers rarely will “curl up with a good blog.” On the other hand, when they read a book they are more patient and allow more time for ideas to develop. SO, be careful to not fall into the trap of thinking you are a JK Rowling or Eckhart Tolle online. Even if you write that well, you have a different sort of audience that doesn’t want to hang out long.

Here are three tips on how to add value to your blog by being aphoristic:

1. Wait to create your title until you have written your 200 or so words in your post. 9 times out of 10 you will have a better title after you have the post.
2. As you write thing more in sound-bytes, or lines people could quote. I did that when I wrote: “Readers rarely will “curl up with a good blog.” On the other hand, when they read a book they are more patient and allow more time for ideas to develop.”
3. Use the blockquote function as much as possible without being over-the-top.

So now we’ve covered 2 aspects of a valuable blog: 1) visceral, and 2) aphorostic. Tomorrow I will talk about “L.” If the suspense is too much, again, I will tell you in an email for 25 bucks and I hope you appreciate sarcasm. Have a great Sunday out there making blogs of value.

You know it’s fitting that today when I went looking for a Twain photo I found one that was under a “reusable media” license. That is kind of a metaphor for what my 9 Authors, 9 Aspects of Powerful Writing guest post is about over at Confident Writing. One commenter there, Jim Murdoch, says eloquently:

“The whole idea behind the word ‘novel’ is that it should be new and so, if we can’t think of anything brand new, we need to spruce up something old to make it feel new, to reinvigorate it with power.”

This is an exciting response to what I tried to get across in the article. Thanks to Jim for being the first to comment and also to Joanna for letting me do a guest blog for Confident Writing. I truly admire the niche and the community there. It’s an excellent place to get help and positive words about your writing.

In my article you’ll read the “secrets” of 9 classic great authors of America! These aspects of writing can revolutionize your blog article, or any other writing task for that matter.

If you are interested in reading my guest post, the url is below:

confidentwriting.com/2008/04/10-authors-and.html

I got that title from an old Alarm song. It’s a great tune with an even greater message for the visionaries among us in 2008.

Instead of waiting for others to be our inspiration, we have to be the inspiration to others AND to ourselves.

As you may have gathered from this series’ title, I grew up in Orange County. 45 minutes from Disneyland and 2 hours from the Mexico border. Nice living! When I moved up here to the high desert of California in August of 2002 I had nothing more than 300 bucks in my pocket and what seemed like a mystical job contract to teach public school. I left behind a rental apartment and everything else that had been “home.” I had decided some months earlier that a return to teaching was what my life and soul needed at age 33. You can read more about my transition back into teaching in my article entitled: Success and Relativity. Anyway, I didn’t mind the details of the move, I just knew this was my return to teaching and return to joy. It was as if I was in the story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the teaching job was my “golden ticket.”

The people I met up here, from the interview onward were magical. They saw the light in me and in turn I saw theirs. People offered to let me sleep on their couches, rent their condos, go out to dinner with them, set me up with women … note: I was single then … it was like out of a dream. The dream wasn’t so much about what they offered me though, it was about the light they shined into my heart. I remember thinking of the high desert as a magical place that no one in Orange County, where I grew up, could ever touch. Well, of course, I see now after nearly six years that wasn’t the case, it was merely my perception brought on by simple things people did.

The people were and still are magical but many have left the desert. One woman in particular who was instrumental in hiring me sufferred unspeakable loss when her son and his wife lost a baby in delivery. This world can be so harsh. She left the district and I don’t see her anymore. Others have retired and some have just moved on. I find myself sometimes asking: “Was the magic real? Where has it gone?” There you have the place to put my title: We are the Light.

In life we are lucky at times to be touched by the magic of others. We must never forget however that we have that same power to touch others. We see the light in people they often don’t see themselves. Let your words and actions pour light like water into the “vases” of people. Let them be better for knowing you. I’ll never forget the time my Grandpa had such an impact on me when he bought me a set of Callaway irons as a kid. I used to polish them nightly. Golf was a better game for me because of his generosity. That’s the kind of impact we should all have.

Remember also that the world is not always a mystical place. It is most the time, at its most complex level, just people walking on sand getting to their next destination. It takes people of vision, like you and I my friend, to to create the perception of magic.

The things that are eternal are actions and words you dream. Only you can start them. Only you can bring them back. Only you can keep them going. There really isn’t much to say on this except: GO AND DO!

An aside here at closing: Below are 4 of my family pictures. Each person in them “happened” post-desert … post-magic. Looking at them reminds me that home is where I probably need to shine the brightest, before I take on the world. Wouldn’t you agree?

I see the biggest challenge to blog authors today as keeping visitors on their site long enough to have an impact through their writing. I’ve seen and heard the effective traffic brought on by games and gimmicks for shiny items like designer jewelry. I wonder if that traffic really reads their stuff though. Readers that stay is what I am always thinking about when I create and innovate my blog.

Going down my reading list of blogs today, I found that a few blog titles really stood out and urged a comment out of me without me even reading the post. As I went on to read the post my idea changed a little, but the gist of my comment came from that initial reaction to … the title.

As a teacher of writing, I have told my students for years that what sets a good article apart from a great one is its creative, thought-provoking title. Now, as a blog writer, I see that is all the more true in electronic medium. There are two types of readers among many that visit your blog:

1. Quick hoppers: These folks are looking forsomething they don’t find at your blog, or they are just trying to get EC points for Entrecard. Whatever the reason, their intention is not to stay long. These people might be the ones to consider in a creative, innovative title. Even more so if you have a SUMMATIVE title. I’ll give an example shortly.
2. The second kind are people who are looking for something and found it through a search on your blog. There are more than these two types, but when talking about summative titles, you should consider these two. So, howabout that example … okay … patience my good friend:

Imagine you have two blogs to read that you have starred for later. You look at the title of the first one and it says:

“As if …”

Then you restar that because your are not quite ready to let it go and you come across one that says:

“Songs that Stay in Your Head.”

The first title requires guessing (brain strain) and curiousity (again, brain drain). Nowadays very few readers will bother with a post like this unless they are good friends of yours or extreme fans of your personality etc. The second title is suggestive. It doesn’t even require the reader to finish the post in order to leave a comment. As Entrecard and “blog hopping” becomes more of the social norm in blogging, you should do all you can to get a comment, if not just get hoppers to stop and read the words you worked so hard on.

I think titles are something I’m going to do a series on. They are scantly addressed in the blogosphere
To Entrecard hoppers and other speed-readers: “Would that be something you’d enjoy, and stay awhile for? Wait, don’t answer that, I know you’re in a big hurry ;)

One of my favorite bloggers is Amy Palko. I forgot to put in the title that she’s an incredible writer as well (and lives in Scotland!). Glad to have her on my blogroll! She was a finalist in the recent contest I judged and so as promised, here is my interview with Amy! Enjoy her words, I sure do!

Hello there! You were one of the 3 finalists in Shelly’s recent writing contest: Scared Silly. How did you get the inspiration to write Scared Silly by the Faeries ?

It’s actually a post from a wee while ago, and relates back to a trip my husband and I took 11 years ago. We visited a truly magical place during the day, and decided to return under the cover of darkness, only to be scared silly by something I’ve never been able to explain. I think it’s one of those few times in life when the mystery is so complete, that there are no answers, only questions. A wonderful antidote to the absolute reality our 21st century lives are grounded in.

Tell us about your blog: How long has it been around and what is it about?

Lives Less Ordinary has been around for 7 months now. To celebrate its 6 month blogiversary, I ran a prize draw for Scottish/Lives Less Ordinary goodies, which was a lot of fun! As for what the blog is about - I wrote in a post recently that ‘If there’s one thing that you can take away… from Lives Less Ordinary in general, it’s that everyone - and that includes you! - is a special, unique individual with the potential to create, to engage and to inspire.’ It’s a personal blog which aspires to encourage others to appreciate that their life is one less ordinary.

So what do you do for a living, will we find any of your life in your blog?

Life outside the blog for me consists of a juggling act of home educating my three kids, writing up my phd research and teaching English literature for my university. I don’t necessarily engage directly with any of these, but they’re all a part of my life and consequently they colour my perspective. Many of my trips with the kids to historical sites, museums, and nature trails become photo stories. The writing ... on my own blog, but also in the 2 guest posts that I’ve written for Confident Writing and Write To Done). My teaching of literature is present through my sharing of my favourite poetry, and the occasional mention of some of my favourite authors.

What is your philosophy on blogging?

For me, blogging is all about conversation. It’s about sharing, engagement and communication. I am not writing a blog to shout my views at you. I am writing to share my experience of life, and to give a space for you to share yours in response. I like to view my blog as a meeting place; a talking circle where everyone’s views are valid, equal and welcomed.

Well thank you for talking to us today, is there anything else you’d like to add?

I suppose I’d just like to say thank you to Shelly for running the contest, and to yourself for acting as judge, and for choosing my post as a finalist. I’d like to end with one of my favourite quotes from literature, which prefaced a recent post of mine on the power of blogs to provide connections, as I strongly believe that it is contests like Shelley’s, and your much appreciated efforts to promote other blogs, that brings bloggers together - that help us to connect.

“Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.”
- E.M. Forster

My esteemed writing colleague, fellow blogger and friend Shelly Tucker (photo at left) is hosting a writing contest on her vastly read and very popular blog, This Eclectic Life. She has very kindly asked me to be the judge and I accepted. There are some clear details listed on her site, but the general theme is called “Scared Silly.”

I am eager to hunker down and read some scary stories this month! I want to encourage my readers to go over there and get the details and then write a post for this. If you enter you get a backlink or two from both her and I, which as you recall I have been writing lately about the...! And if you win you’ll get some cash, which is always nice. Whatever happens, you’ll have a cool scary story post on your blog. And we all know your readers will love that! Also, as an added bonus, I will be posting an interview with the first prize winner here on my blog. So, until then I’ll be cuddling up with my biggest comforter sets and reading all this scary stuff!! eek.

Tiny Url: rurl.org/kpm

You may use the button to promote the contest in your neck of the woods. Thanks for your interest, once you go and read the details I hope to start reading your scary stories soon!

-Damien

The 90’s had some great commercials but for my time between shows, the best was the “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” chihuahua. This ad campaign put Taco Bell on the pop culture map. When you saw one of those bobble-head dogs on somebody’s dashboard you couldn’t help but utter the phrase. It was a way of making taco bell Mexican again as well. It had started as a quite vanilla company selling Mexican food. When it was acquired by Pepsico in the late 80’s, the authenticity of the brand waxed and waned. This slogan used actual Spanish and it was catchy, anybody could say it! Instead of having to understand the conjugation of the very querer in the first person “yo,” anytime could just repeat this phrase and say “I want some Taco Bell” in perfect Spanish.

Ironically, the years this slogan was on the airwaves, Taco Bell’s sales slumped. They fired the ad creator and hired new ones. Sales did increase after the new campaigns were in place. I don’t think Taco Bell will ever get a better spokesperson however than that little chihuahua, he was definitely cooler than Spuds Mackenzie or any other dog I’ve seen on TV commercials. In case you missed it, or just forgot, here’s one of the commercials below:

Quieres Taco Bell?Write about your other favorite ad slogans for the Ad Lib Group Writing Project.

I’ve written about many of my heroes here at the Funny Farm but none of them are quite as special to me as Dr. Seuss. Maybe it’s because he is a proponent of reading or maybe it’s because he is wacked out of his mind (like he’s from the funny farm here with us). Whatever the reason, I get inspired by Dr. Seuss and inspiration is the most valuable thing when you’re setting a goal for greatness. You are doing that aren’t you? Check out his life:

When Theodor Geisel was a young child, long before he would become Dr. Seuss, he used to mark in books. He had a set of books he had made his own by putting drawings and writings in. This should have been a clear indicator to his parents that one day his books would change the world. I am sure in their wildest dreams they never would have imagined what this young boy would one day do. Letting his imagination run wild was the first thing he did to set his dream in motion. These pictures made him happy. Following what made him happy would eventually make millions happy.

When Theodore got older and graduated college, he decided he wanted to write children’s books. He spent a lot of time and energy making his first book, an ABC book. No one published it. He felt rejected. He did not write another book for four years. This is identical to the experience of another great artist I have writ.... Neither gave up altogether though. Both rose to great acceptance after a major rejection. I think this is very important for us to note. Have you been rejected at something? How many years will you let pass you by before trying again. While we’re at it, can you imagine how cool it would be to have a copy of that ABC book that got rejected? Something to remember when people reject your work.

In 1936, Dr. Seuss was on a boat to Tudor. He heard the engines “talking to him” in the sounds they made. Standing there at the engine he “heard” the idea for another book attempt. This is probably one of the most quirky stories I have ever heard. That’s why I love it so much. I am like that. I hear my car creak and talk to me, I hear lots of strange sources of inspiration every day. I am also quirky. Are you? Don’t look at it as a bad thing. Being from the “funny farm” so-to-speak is a good thing. Just ask Dr. Seuss.

The quirky book that was borne out of the engine sounds was And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street. Now 50 years later it is one of Dr. Seuss’ most favorited book by children all over the world. After that is time in a blender history. Dr. Seuss has published hundreds of books since then, as you likely already know.

Theodor Geisel had a goal: he wanted to write books that were easy to read. As he worked for that goal he brought millions of people happiness and taught millions to read: including me as a young child!

Currently set for release is Horton Hears a Who. A major motion picture created from another Dr. Seuss masterpiece. When millions watch it they will be seeing a product of a quirky writer who had a vision and kept at it. The message of this book is that even the smallest person can make a difference. What a message!!! We all wish he could have given us more. He is a lesson to me to never stop giving. No matter who tells you you aren’t good enough or smart enough or _____ enough, just remember Dr, Seuss and how the Funny Farm, or our quirky thoughts, can become the bank and do a lot of good on earth as well. March 6th is Dr. Seuss’ birthday. Read one of his books and start making your crazy dream happen!

Has the life of Dr. Seuss affected you?