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Showing posts with the label Mark Twain

My Life Brand... and a Fable

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My Life Brand _______________ “We all have personal brands and most of us have already left a digital footprint, whether we like it or not. Proper social media use highlights your strengths that may not shine through in an interview or application and gives the world a broader view of who you are. Use it wisely.” – Amy Jo Martin, American author, speaker, entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Digital Royalty. Now I get it!!! The Memo, that is... For almost a year, “But I Never Got the Memo” was the subtitle of this blog... It was time to change it to reflect the brand aware and branded me. Whether or not an ordinary life like mine is worthy of branding is debatable. After all, I haven’t cured cancer, created the most-awesome-must-have tech product, or starred in a blockbuster movie. I have written and published some books and have been awarded a Fulbright Award – not too shabby for an ordinary life – but mine is not a famous life or brand. I hope that, as a te

Eating Well--and BIG and Tweaking Weight Watchers

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Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. --Mark Twain Last year, on September 11, 2010, when I began my healthy eating regimen, I was certain that eating smaller portions was the way to go. And for a while, concentrating on smaller portions worked very well: I was rarely hungry, and I lost about 25 pounds in less than three months. Life was good, or so I thought... Around Christmas time, I started to feel hungry all the time. At first, I thought, perhaps, that all the holiday goodies were just stimulating my taste buds. But even after the holidays, I was still hungry all the time. Then I heard about the Weight Watchers' new PointsPlus program and 0-points fruits. I had tried the previous WW points program, and I really didn't like it too much; it still felt too much like a diet, and calculations were too cumbersome, but I thought I'd give the new program a try. My plan was to pick up program materials and then not return for meetings

Thought for the Day--May 8, 2011: Happy Mother's Day to "MO" and to ALL Moms

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My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it. --Mark Twain My grandmother, Katherine Olive Quirk Semple (known in the family as "Mo") acted as my mom; she raised me for most of my life, stepping in for her daughter, my mother. As I grow older, I really appreciate the sacrifice involved: Mo was 57 when she and Dee Dee, my grandfather , took me in for good, and 61 when they formally adopted me as their child. Jennifer, age 7, on her way to a temporary custody hearing, Los Angeles Courthouse. Photograph by Olive Semple, the Queen of the backside photo _______________________________ I can't imagine what it must have been like to take in a child when you're facing your Social Security years. Mo was forward-thinking in that she pushed the adoption into motion years before applying for Social Security. She also knew what adoption might mean to me--my mother would legally become my sister (How weird is that?) and would lose all parental rights-

Thought for the Day--April 18, 2011: 1040

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The only difference between a taxman and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. --Mark Twain If you are an American citizen or a foreigner who has paid U.S. taxes, there is no number more frightening than "1040" looming before you. It is hoped that, by now, you have finished your taxes, so you can tuck away that dreaded number for another year. I'm done, which means I can back to my regular life and posting about more interesting subjects. Meanwhile, enjoy the above superhero version of the 1040 tax instruction book for 2010. Ta, ta, my cyberfriends.

Memoir Madness: Driven to Involuntary Commitment