Thank you Mr. Paul Brandt ... a REAL human STAR

Please have a listen to this song [ you don't hafta Mr. Brandt since you may recognize it ~ HaHahaha ] "Calm before the storm" break out song for Paul.  [ I hope you don't mind me being informal since when you hear this story, you will understand why.  Unfortunately,  the link on YouTube is "out of order".  You can find it on iTunes and likely Spotify etc.  Instead I share two versions of the same song:

This makes me think of my sister, Diana .... i still haven't figured out why she's blocked?  Perhaps I'll skoot over to my other personal Facebook and share it there.  Never waste a moment when you are thinking about someone pass you bye.  Pick up that phone or send that text or write that email or share a song or beautiful something that reminds you of them.  Maximize your opportunity to reach out to someone who reaches back towards you.  Help others not because you have to, but because you want to.  Don't feel guilty if it took you a while.  A while can be minutes that can jump into hours, skip over days and hop over months and become blurred by years.  Have a listen to this song and think about who you should reach out to just to say "Hello" to.  It doesn't matter that it is in English because the melody and rich vocals of Elvis at his prime are astonishingly crystal and pure talent.  Or, think about what your talent may be or if you have an interest.  Ask yourself:  "what is holding you back".  < WITHOUT any excuses like time, energy, desire, dedication, forgetfulness, busy, swamped.  I called my daughter today simply because I started to think what I would have for lunch, since I didn't sleep in half the day away, such is a bad habit that I try to avoid.  Thinking, why wake up early to go to work and then sleep most of the day away on MY TIME.  Doesn't make sense.  Thank you for sharing my mumbling.  xo Jeannette Marshall​

Listening to my "LOVELY" playlist from iTunes via bluetoothe is causing me to be very reflective and inquisitive.

What a great song "I hope you find it" by Cher.  Makes me wonder where she is these days.  Horror, if she passed on, and I missed it.  Nah, I doubt it.  Who can forget when Michael Jackson or Princess Diana passed on?  I'm thinking you'd have to be a young adult of the 80s to even remember.  Over-shadowed by 9-11 which is horrific as well.   


Cher
is alive and well.  According to BILLBOARD as recent as February 2017, she just added 18 more shows in Las Vegas.  I saved the link with the following comment on Facebook:

Can you have a look at my new website www.graFX.online  and tell me what you think? I have worked alongside others for many years, yet find it difficult when it's my own.

Products of our childhood and

upbringing where the day was not complete unless you took the time to watch the news.  I think the Canadian broadcaster of news are really digging deap into their roots to establish firmly a reputation of integrity and journalism.  No monetarily donations unless transparently shared in, say an ad.

What about policing online currency?

Now there's a can of worms eh?  Some organization somewhere [ which i tweeted about within the last few days under @optioneerJM on Twitter or a facebook page of the same name.

Now there's some policing prioritization that needs to be sorted out quickly.  Which is more important:

• Having any celebrity or brand ambassador being required 2 show paid 4 promo emblem or #hashtag [is this for the IRS and CRA to track unclaimed taxable revenue they can snag and force you to pay interest on? ]

~ OR ~

• The horrific exhibits that have surfaced on Facebook these past weeks.   I tend to go for the underdogs in this world.  Every once in a while for the unfairly treated more.  It is never fair if you work your way up, or raise your company up, or increase your personal brand to the top only to fall vulnerable and object of catastrophic events make its violent horrendous acts catch you off guard?  It ain't totally fair.  Somebody has some algorithm somewhere that can pick up "chatter" of the millions online at any given time, quickly escalating into the billions as Smartphones allow us to spend our time more and more online.  Need a reference?  

I tend to use my PC's GOOGLE set as my default home page.  That is because most times I am hopping on to look something up that I learned from watching a historically-basic epic television series [ which I may add seem to have a medieval fascination with the English Royal Family.  That seems to be what is hip these days.

Microsoft really is starting to annoy me.  They keep interrupting my logged on experience, whether connected to the web or not, parading things in front of me and freezing something I'm doing.

Real technologists, and I'm not saying Computer Scientists like WIKIleaks founder, Assange [ name? spelling? ] ... real users are more techie than they may realize just by how savvy they are on figuring things out, or smart enough to navigate unchartered imagineering.

You can become an imagineer too.  Just come on visit my website that I'm creating based on input and guidance by my supporters and advocates.

www.graFX.online

The vision is to create a central gathering hub for anyone in the graphics, graphic arts, artists, photographers, printers, equipment hardware, cool design, awesome tips, exceptional contributors.

The vision was the first thing I had to nail down.  I cannot write a Business Plan without creating a compelling vision statement that resonates with me personally.  Not caring on whether anyone else sees a connection or simply ignores it altogether.  That is not my issue.

My issue is not coming up with a concept either.  I've done that before.  As a finger on the pulse on what the world is grasping for without realizing it.

Martin may or may not remember the clear vision on what the magazine was going to communicate:  taking care of the body, the mind and the soul, as you travel.  Interesting of a near 50/50 split between genres by female or male evenly.  Mostly, in upper to middle income bracket:  greater than $75,000 single person, no dependents [ with no self-destructive bad habits like drug abuse or alcohol preoccupation ].  Likely intelligent, regardless of education level, yet still skillful.

The competition was geared towards their 3rd Party numbers of 60% male audience to 40% female, so you got it:  disgustingly far too many male toiletries like Old Spice, cologne, manliness something, fast cars, smart investment.  No self-help mavericks in this group, they're self-made in their own minds.

Sound like someone you know?  Don't be frightened if you saw a little glimmer of a reflection spark your eye.  You've come to the right place.  You're smart, you're articulate, gregarious, kind, thoughtful, not prone to female-competitiveness cattiness.  { Sorry girls we wrote the book on this and only have ourselves to blame *meow* }.

I have had two days off and spent a great deal of effort of focus on my surroundings.  I discovered that when you are cleaning, dusting, moving things around to add some vibe to your abode with a freshness, spring flowers like tulips or irises on multiple surfaces in your house.  This cheers you on to put some great music to get into the zone and relaxed into the present.  Be brave, go to YouTube and find one of your favorite songs.  See what unfolds for you by YouTube based on their read on your taste or likelihood to click.

We should establish LTC currency online before we hand out compensation to anyone who hangs a shingle or hides behind 20 year old, dated, made up and smoothed over before professional photographed. 

Wouldn't that even the masses?  Whoever can create that concept, will catch a rising star, or just become it.  A level playing field data analysis where the only compensation received is from membership.

That's what I was starting to say in an earlier blog over at optioneerJM where I gave my 20 year-old-self.  Apparently, I am still dwelling on it because it does force oneself to really examine one's self and know what you want.  

It would have been easier to jump in front of myself 12 years ago and warded me off from going to work where I did.  There was nothing corrupt or awful about it, so relax.  I'm not important enough or relevant enough to reveal that thank goodness.

I would say a few more things:

Enjoy your exercise .... 

dance if you feel like dancing, not checking whether the windows are closed or the blinds up, just do it because you feel like it.  If it is diving into a pool to swim to the finish line, mostly competing with your own score, picture the victorious look on your face, slightly with amazement and otherwise with abandonment of savoring the moment.  If it is on a field, on water or on ice ... do what you remember about why you started to love it like you do.  If you're fiercely competitive then do it with team spirit not individual accomplishment.  Don't be hasty with expectations on rewards or awards because to do that you are no longer savoring the moment, but hungrily or greedily climbing over top of others.

Be grateful

and mind your Ps and Qs .... to the Millennials who were taught it, if not to mind it, it amounts to manners.  If you smile and say thank you as many times a day as reasonably possible [i.e. don't thank the person butting and elbowing ahead of you for credit as to why the light changed color to green ].  I recall, although may have set up a journal, forgot the log on, and gave it a pass as I went on to other things.  Thinking about it now, very likely getting remarried and blending four children, three of girls who had hit their teens >> i.e. being a little crazy ... eh? You think?

To the reason I started this blog

writing on and off throughout the day and into the early evening.  As is with our custom, the hunkster hubster goes and puts his headphones on to his music [ I'm a little country, he's a lot into rock and roll ... classics ].   He then plays that game that I've never got hooked on, or avoided so that I would be assured to miss with a little discipline::.... CANDY CRUSH.  

LOL, giggle a little with me.  

Get away if you're going to smirk.  We don't need your bad karma in here [ now I sound schizophrenic and perhaps ADD not so bad a curse as I thought once possible, lately a lot more ].  

I zipped over to this blog and rattled off, finishing with some of the catches and captures of fishing on the web.  Often tweeted or pinned or posted or shared somewhere.  I tried that a couple of times ::.... doing screen captures on cool things that I discover.  More likely now I just click on the share and go through the choicest channels to choose:  Twitter [ greater ever-improving graphics as part of their visual display ++ the great tagging and carrying captures lumped together, to follow the traction that a tweet may send, otherwise unknown if not shared ++ KUDOS ]; Facebook is usually 2nd, third if email nudged ahead of Twitter.  Twitter is catching on to the dynamics of hosting conversations, which Google Plus [ G+ } via "Google HangOuts" was ahead of the curve just as VINE and other such APPS, vlog platforms expand, instantaneous imaging gives guts to the otherwise more inhibited like snapCHAT.

Paul Brandt was my son's nurse when he was at the Children's Hospital in Calgary oh back, let's see now, 24 years ago.  I am, I am thanking you, honestly Paul.  Just remember, I am said boy's mother, you had just recorded "Calm before the Storm" ... excited by the possibility in front of you with its release, after going to a talent contest and singing, winning the recording.

Paul, you were absolutely amazing.  I've never said that I am the most typical mother.  In fact, my kids and their friends would say that I'm one-of-a-kind {what a great compliment that is!}.  There we are, just finished unpacking and looking around this very small hospital room with sliding glass doors into the central open area where the nurses station was situated.  

Like a gust of fresh breeze swooping into a wind, you burst through the door, introducing yourself and informing us that he was going to be his nurse before and after his surgery.  

First up for business?  A bath ... trust me, he WAS clean when I brought him in.  Maybe it was to keep a normal childhood routine in tact while at a healthcare facility?  Maybe it was taught?  Maybe it was pure instinct?

I guess when a child has been admitted into the hospital, they are given the royal treatment.  Less anxiety that way, I'd bet.  So into a wheelchair he goes, with Paul whispering commands in his ear "don't try to scream too loud so we won't get caught by security" .... smart thinking.  

I practically skipped along the corridor, giggling and sniffing to keep myself from shouting out with laughter.  This was going much better than all my fears set aside and barely my best wishes come true.

It was because of Paul.  

He had a real human heart made into a star.  Casting light, optimism, removing fear and angst from others and putting more firmly on his own shoulders to help you bare the weight.  

Now he gets to sing and write more because of those dreams that became a reality.  It was really very cool to have briefly spent time with you on the cusp of stardom.  

You did forgive me for admitting that I didn't listen to country and western music when you asked me whether I would like to hear your song.  Thank you.  I was probably like the American IDOL judges became so many years later, something like 20 years .... trying to appear nonplussed while poised to be with ladylike frame, no matter how you may shriek or embarrass-ment empathy I would surely hear.

Not losing a sliver of optimism, the next day Paul came in with a copy of the cassette tape for my son, a photocopy of a photograph with which he signed.  {Perfecting that signature for autographs requests only a little while later}.

It is exceptional karma to have been blessed to have you in our lives that short period of our lives.  Know that you brightened our stay and gave a brighter glow for the future.

Thank you Paul.

Rambling on about nothing

I've been rather serious for a while.  On point, on focus, distracted or disoriented, I'm not sure which.  Not so serious one would reference a witch.  I'm not the wicked witch.  That doesn't mean I'm not the Evil Stepmother either.  

As the author, I gain access to disclaimer to all who read this blog or my affiliate blogs:  theoptioneerJM on blogspot, finely fueled by Google.  Yes, you knew?  Google is only the most richest, influential bazillionaire top of the heap.  Not just one person, but a group of persons who beat as one.  Synergized to the pulse of the human vibe.  What's got us abuzz?  Who caught our eye?  What were we looking for?  What we were clicking at?  Yeah them.  Times a lot allotta more.  

They're the top of our heap of which we are below, and how far down and near hidden, others may fall to or land from.  They basically know what we want long before we even know we wanna know.  They're just really smart at figuring out algorithms that can flicker into your sphere, something that they're pretty sure, will not only catch your eye, but immediately deserve your click.  That is who is at the top of the heap.  Google.

Unbridled, Google could unleash its power.  

Take over all of our data.  To those of us that are pretty honest, wholesome and sincerely are trying to help others, freely and uninhibited.  Google really likes latching on to some of them to see how it can unleash that knowledge even higher?  

Ladies and gentlemen.  The super computer is here.  The ones that take over society to tell us the best way to think in order to achieve bliss, harmony and peacefulness.  Disciples of anxiety ridden, depressed, lost, victimized souls.    They turn their souls over to that super computer because they space out, relax and reach out to unwind from the day-to-day headaches, heartaches, spasmistic, encounters.  (SPAZ was a word defined by the clean kids who grew up in the 70s.)

Don't be a SPAZ.  What a SPAZ.  Quit it, you SPAZ.  Never really defined as being a good or even a bad thing.  It was a universal language that aligned itself with just the right people, of the right general yet across all ethnic, cultural, religious beliefs.  Forgiving of the most awful, but unrelenting against evil.

So, thank you Sir Google and all your Alphabet offspring, relatives, loved ones, reverers.  I'm not afraid of taking a glimpse inside my head every once and a while and actually pay attention to what you are laying in my path.  As a side project or experiment I'm know to flog on my optioneerJMBlogspot.  I have been taking note between how well the big guns are in managing my brand.  

So here it goes, the best resources a gal blogger from Calgary would hope to penetrate out of her country into the atmosphere ridden on social media flames of unity and connection with a lot of tremendous people from everywhere, across oceans, languages.  Sometimes the connection is simply the clicking and sharing of a beautiful image by an artist, photographer, illustrator which I openly sneak the best ones to make my own quotes now branded to me, my name.  

Eventually, I'd love for this whole writing thing to pay off.  I know there are the traditional means by our friends Google's AdSense and AdWords Analytics Supremo Moola Generating Beings who glide your name to the top on the front page, and sometimes greased more to be shown as a mini ad, considered unaffronting (my own new word eh? meaning noninvasive, too distracting while luring you to look rather than glide past too quickly, because based on your moods you may be clicking on a string of quotes, reaching out to seek beauty of the senses, primarily the visuals ::.... art, creativity, innovative, wonderful captures by photographer camera or an artists brush.

If anyone were to jump out at me for infringement by choosing one of the selections Google shimmied out in front of me to click on, use, share, edit, crop, embed in blog, I would be honest, open, and apologetic.  I would right my wrong and add their website name and link.   I would also start to consider to use someone's image linked to a really cool website, like a movie, a nice song.  Jeesh ya pervs, gettouttaherrreeeeeeeeeeeee!

Eek, shudder.  Can you imagine.  One of those types here?  Well, I guess it really is how the other half lives.  Trying to be inspired, continue to help others, be someone others can look up to.  In others a super being that very few mortals have climbed above all, even floating far above the top of the heap.  Everlasting.  I can think of a few that come to my mind the most and are nicely jumping out at me by my friends at Google:

*Nelson Mandela
*Mother Teresa
*Helen Keller

Artists I like listening and then reading the lyrics to their songs so that it envelopes me and it feels like I'm getting what was meant when it was created and rolled out for the rest of us to not just listen but experience the talent and artistry employed when created.

I'd write more if I made more.  I just don't want to go the basic normal way of adsense or any other third party skelper (had to try three different ways to spell that right, lol, Google tripped over it and Chrome thought it was a typo on sculpture).  

I would like to be a Brand Ambassador.  With the only exception is I use it, wear it, promote it.  No deal otherwise.  I am told I have pretty good taste, have a sense of self and polished chic fashion approach.  I'm not dramatic on make up and stay true to the skin products that have held my skin uppermost in their minds, I'm loyal.

I can start by writing about cars I've driven, owned.  My favorite ones.  Maybe hint at which one I'd return to in a heartbeat which will win me an exact same car to drive around in as a backdrop to selfies at events around town and if travel bug fairy godmother is paying attention, I'm due for a vacation abroad, but I would love to go to a place that I could genuinely explore, from the perspective of a pretty active, enthusiastic 50 year old lady .... only by doing it would one realize whether that is an unexplored demographic.  Other than the INbetweeners whom I've been ignoring for a few weeks, or maybe more.  

Lately, I've mainly been rambling.  Not really accomplishing much of substance, other than being astounded that my 30-60-90 Day Plan blog finally took over and surpassed "Do you want a hunter or farmer?" which has been reigning for a good couple of years, so much that I stopped paying attention, barely glazed over.  What was even more astounding was that it got my wheels turning.  Yeah, I almost forgot about that.  The whole planning perspective.  You have to remember, I wrote that blog long long long before I had been professionally hired as a senior project manager with HP and actually discovered the PMP principles and guiding principles.    Yet if you read the blog and now know that I had no direct Project Management distinction for a good 15 to 20 years of my career.  We just didn't call it that.  

Hells, bells .... oops, sounding hickish .... back in the day, long before my career time, your role as a "Secretary" meant that you did that Project Management thing, and a whole helluvalot more.   You were a hostess with the pay of a waitress, you were an event planner with out all the balloons or budget, how about all the other things PEOPLE do themselves, every single minute of every single day, at all reaches of the world, by all people and for all people.  Well, those old people used to be called Secretaries.  The one solid contender was that the boss was made up by about 95% of  men and the secretaries "filled in" as a supporting role equally as much.  The pay difference, probably close to being bang on, back to when the only rights women had were to whether they made coffee or tea or lemonade or freshly-squeezed orange juice as superwoman efficiently getting kids off to school with lunch packs in toe and homework all done, tucks her husband's crisply hand starched and ironed shirt into the suit she had picked up at the dry cleaners on her way from work, just before she went to the grocery store to get that final fresh vegetable and wholesome milk ingredients to finish off the casserole she had prepped for after everyone fell asleep last night.  


I hope you like my selection of quotes.  I have also cultivated and collaborated sharing with others, some of my favorites.  Not like the others that I have at the top and the end of my optioneerJM blogs (which I'd probably not been as particular to of late).

I hope you enjoy my selections.  If you do happen to share them, please include me so that I may #RT LIKE or SHARE across the social media gambit.  

Most of all, thank YOU for stopping in.  I see the visits, never a comment.  However, I'm counting on YOU to help me get better.  Please give your advice, feedback, recommendations or facts .... I'm all eyes.

Make new friends, love the old

one is silver and the other GOLD
as I grow each older, the more appreciative I've become of so many wonderful experiences to be blessed with, never for a moment taking any of it for granted.

working one's self to the core 
doesn't do anyone favors (p.s. in Canadianese the American favors is favored by spell check, but we Canadians taught articulation in the late 60s and the early 70s were blessed with the very big gift of expression. ..... :: anywayyyyyyyyyyyyyys [an 80s term for those yuppies still out there, and the Millennial wannabes ::.... how things have evolved eh?

In the folds of being born of the 60s
like wallflowers to the Baby Boomers, we observed, we absorbed the best parts, we have held our composure, and now we are parents of the gift to our generation:  the gift of the Millennial Bloom.  

We're pretty lucky
even though if you paid attention to statistics and stereotypical behavior, those born in the 60s were pre-packaged to lean towards failure.  If you think stereo-typing is dangerous, especially to mental health, think of the resilience and tenacity of anyone you know, been lucky enough to have met, or heaven help you if you're an offspring.

A beacon of light
to the Millennials is their embrace of the 80s culture.  Is it because there is a soul connection of what those of us in our 20s in the 80s aligned with what our own Millennials are facing.

Where optimism can be restored
when you think of what great things, events, game-changers occurred in the 80s, introduced back then, every day now.  

Boxers who come out of the corner
jumping into the obstacle ahead, head of, crouched in readiness to take the offensive with hardly a sniffle and long before a drop of sweat.  That would define those who lived their 20s in the 80s.  

I graduated from college in the 80s
and it was a great platform to launch a career.  Not limited by the restrictive curriculum, more persevering to land beyond the world of conformity, censorship, polite manners, poise and abloom with everything is impossible, we may as well make the impossible possible.

I notice some really talented folks out there.  Some that mere names crossed paths with me.  What a crazy, crazy CRAZY time, when I think back to it.  With gurgling reflection caught and captured from my conversation with my mother this afternoon.

Being the parent of a Millennial
is a worrisome, full board, attentive preoccupation.  You revel is the brilliance shining from your child born, first in 1989, with the others to follow in the 90s.  

We're lucky so they are lucky
as well.  Like skipping stones across a glass-like lake or quietly lapping ocean shore.  We may have been born in inopportune times, faced some pretty insur-mountable odds.  What we share is that grasp of not expecting anything for free, without commitment, not always sacrifice [ often by choice ] understanding the basic rightful work ethic:  

* work hard
* work honestly
* work with integrity
* be known for your word without all the numerous
* be committed to quality

* whatever you do, do it with pride

* love who you do it with, who you're surrounded by

* do your best always, it always pays off in spades

A dog eat dog world 
began with the Baby Boomers with entitlement mastered by GenX.  Where those born of the 60s, grew in the 80s, parents of the Millennials >> skipped >> over the hay days and landed in the middle of the first recession since the 1929 stock market crash [ if you do not know anything about this historical event, pause this article and go find out about it .... as my commitment to you as a blogger, you read ] we had to survive.  Really not much opportunity to learn as funds dried up and kids had to go leave post-secondary because their was some sort of crisis in their lives, with their family, that took more important measure instead.

Learn from your elders
as much as you can.  No time will be wasted.  I can guarantee that!  Talking to my mother, with so many wise words shared.  I even said to her:  "I hope I remember all of this for when I write later".  The gift of her wisdom was shone brightly upon me, like a face of a flower blooming forward towards the sun.  

I was a sponge in the 80s
that was my greatest gift.  I only had a college diploma, not even a university degree.  It was enough to teach me discipline and that anything worthwhile doesn't come free, without commitment and stick-to-it-ness that is just emerging within the Millennial generation.  

Millennials have faced fear
reflected in their parents eyes.  A strong, tough upper lip, and a straight spine.  We weren't even considering weakness, with goals clearly defined in our line of vision.  

Dedication, optimism ~
contagiously positive attitudes were bestowed upon our offspring.  Whether they grasped those sprinkles of enlightenment and hung on to the best qualities we shared.

Nobody is perfect
and neither is anyone who defines themselves as a Yuppie.  [ Or admits in select company and trusted members ] Who wear it as an emblem of pride, saying "who cares?" if they still have enough hair left to grow a mullet, why not?

As the Millennials groan
and tsk tsk with embarrassment to their very influential peers.  What their peers think of them is more important than their parents, their boyfriend, or their employer slash / boss could ever dream.  A peer sets the benchmark and the height of the peddle stool they are awarded, acclaimed, worshiped or refrained.

Be still thine parental heart
it is just a mutation of your chromosomes, evolved and collided with nature and environment to form an independent being, an individual.  I know it is very hard.  Like a moth does to a butterfly without the loss of the moth, is the butterfly allowed to form.

Be glad, be proud and be boastful
toward anyone who'll listen.  Those are the ones you want to be around.  They can relate, or your words resonate with them.

Unlike my mom's words
this afternoon.  They were so wise, so enlightening ... almost as though I was leaving a cocoon.    While I'd been living these 55 years, I was enclosed in a small outlook, not looking far beyond to where flowers bloom and the sun's flower is warm with a gentle wind, with an iced tea at my elbow.  I'm careful I don't give it a nudge to topple it over as I tap, tap, tap with the rhythm of my 1979 typing class on an electric typewriter.  Graduating exceeding 120 clicks minutes  ::.... now WHAT was it called back in those days when we took our speed tests on a manual typewriter?  Hmmmm I think it was ... nope not characters per second, or any variation of the Times New Roman font that was the only letters to be had, to write a letter, draw up an agreement or a contract.  

Some of us grew up with carbon copy
yet how many know what that material is?  What it is like to try to avoid staining your fingers on the sticky substance on its back with a wrapping-paper thin or thinner-than-onion paper thin [ I'm sure Google can show you what either of those things are .... if not, Wikipedia for sure ].

This is a story for those 
who remember the glory of being a yuppie.  Bringing in the 80s as we all turned 20.  That is a pretty unique identifiable experience, a uniqueness we can own.  A significant contribution to our society came from our decade.  [ you may have to dig back to my other INBETWEENERs blog (before we evolved to be called "YUPPYDOM" ) mere weeks ago I wrote about those who graduated from the 1960s and became icons of our time.  Across borders, beliefs, colors, race or country, the class of the 1960s born are unique with much to boast about.

Keep steady on the present.
Slam the door or gently close the past.  Forget about the future because it isn't anything you can touch right now.  So you may as well be aware of the present and make every moment count!

where everything is impossible, 

we may as well make the 

impossible possible

~Jeannette Marshall

Leave transgenders alone, give it a rest ::...

Too few role models:  SOURCE

A question was posted on QUORA and I felt compelled to respond:

Why don't transgender people use the restrooms corresponding to their genitals to try and end the needless transgender bathroom controversy?

It is none of our business.

This reminds me of things we have to struggle with growing up::…. what IS our identity? What IS our moral standard? Should others have THE right to determine what is best for US?

Almost ALL of us in the age of inBETWEENers (born 1960 to 1965, neither Baby Boomers, Generation X, nor Millennials) must REMEMBER what the biggest questions of our day were? If others forgot, I can share with you: Do you or don’t you circumcise your newborn son?

SOURCE:  "Boys" by William E. Rochfort 

Remember that? I do. Is it necessary or more to do with mental well being our our son: likeness to daddy. It was something I read avidly read about because sometimes reading becomes “PEACE of MIND”. In this instance, we were RESPONSIBLE for making decisions for our children.

However, this topic should be a NONtopic because it is simply none of our business. If it is not us, nor our child, we don’t belong. I, for uniquely one, could not imagine the struggle this mere question asks ~ it is SO very judgMENTAL on so many fronts. Nor is it a practical questions. Why? Girls bathrooms in elementary school have stalls. Even at swimming pools and gym lockers: there are closed stalls.

If we don’t make a BIG deal out of this question, then the persons it affects are free to chose the best way that puts them at PEACE. To imagine what it is like to be DIFFERENT when the word itself claims: “Freak”! That is so far from the truth and requires each of us to delve deep inside our humanity humanitarianism by avoiding an opinion on what is personal and none of our business.

SOURCE:  Follow Will Rochfort on Twitter 

The worst thing you can do is underscore the misconception that there is something wrong with a transgender. Especially when each one of us have our own skeletons we hide.

SOURCE

On the practical, logical side. If a boy that identifies as a girl, looks and acts like a girl, feels more comfortable with girls, rather than boys, goes into a girls washroom, they can simply go into the bathroom stall. To say that everyone bares down to the birthday suits multiple times a day, more likely a month, or more….. there are girls that are shy and will go into the bathroom stall to change into swimsuit or gym clothes. Which one is different than the next, is for each individual to decide, not anyone else’s claim to identification.

SOURCE: Matheus Pinto

There is a solution. Certainly a priority would be to STOP talking, covering, writing, posting, chatting, murmuring about this topic as though there is something wrong with a transgender person. I repeat:  a person.  It wasn’t for them to decide who they are nor is it mine, or ours, to judge.

This viewpoint was in answer to a question posted on QUORA.com ::.. an escape to learn about what matters or what people are talking about.  Originally, I used as a sales blogging tool, now it stimulates interest on topics that one may not have the opportunity to discuss, rationally, online.  It is monitored, it avoids abuse of any kind.  It is healthy.  Good mental health.  A setting that allows you to take a stand on your viewpoint or nudge others to your point of view.  

Best of all:  a safe place to investigate your own perspective, on your own time.

Images inspire creativity and soul purpose

It occurred to me tonight, as we spring forward, that there are so many images and quotes that can inspire me.  Likely anyone for that matter.

Whether you be an insomniac like I can be so many times, or an early riser in other parts, one can enjoy peaceful solitude or united solidarity with talented people of the world, from around the world.

It should be impossible to feel lonely in this brave new world, where just about anything we do, is centered on a computer or television screens.  Our jobs, our entertainment, our creativity, our memories.

Like so many others, life is in control.  It sometimes leaves gaps on the online world when you become enveloped with warmth from real life events, family, friends.  

More often, you are in survival mode in the outside world:  juggling jobs, finances, commitments, obligations, taxes, crises, pushing dreams and goals to the bottom of the pressure broil of keeping things together, whether mentally exhausted or morale challenged.

So what do you do?  To find a release to avoid the pressure explode with stress, health ailments, energy depletion .... what can help?

Creativity can be an escape. 
Like exercise is optimum for ongoing health invigoration,  so can creativity be a great way to exorcise those demons pressing down on you from real commitments.  

Take a stroll through the universe .... online.  For images that appeal to your senses, make you smile, make you in awe.  Look for quotes that speak to you personally, that can inspire you to move on from just barely getting by to where you belong.

Your sole purpose in life makes your soul sing.  Finding images to escape to and enjoy can go a step further when merged with stimulating verses or quotes.  Be moved to create your own.  That can be creative.  That can be a release.

Be at peace every day.  Be satisfied with what you have.  Don't try to reach too far into the future so that you have lost the gift of enjoyment of today. 





It is in you to be enveloped in a positive enjoyable world.  To discover what it is will guide you to what others find similarly mirrored philosophy and talent unfolds, makes connection.

UPPER and lower case BATTLES

Upper and lower case battles

Dear Sir or Madam:

I'm going to give you a verbal resume for your consideration as the opportunity post it online presence itself.  (Whew no red over presents but i caught it because I read things over three or four times before i hit PUBLISH anywhere, yet it snuck past Google's blogspot spell checker.   I don't think Chrome can enter through the website internal workings of Blogspot, both wonder childs of Google, the machine that keeps on chugging, and now steaming ahead in the war on Data.  Now, I'm certainly no engineer or computer designer or architect (hey, maybe I've been around one or two or more of the types ... eh?  

I keep watching the competition going on.  And, my friends, it isn't a war on drugs, political arena, money or power.  Well, perhaps it is an arm wrestle over POWER.  It all comes down to this word called "data".  No caps, a noun and strongly overtaking as a verb for what is really driving the world:  it's data.  The problem of ISIS compounded by a hundred.  Because the one thing I learned in the digital equipment business, with HP, XEROX and IKON (now swallowed up by RICOH).  

Think about the biggest most powerful companies who have survived at least 50 years in business, never afraid of evolving their identity to appear as a leader in its field.  They have all CAPS logos and identity!  They share that common denominator.  When did Apple become APPLE?  They snuck it in on us, could be a conspiracy theory?  

The sublimity of becoming an all caps logo from all lower case to one capital letter?  I wonder if anyone has figured this out?  Interesting possibilities and endless learning opportunities unfold.   Thinking of Mashable comes first into my head.  They're at the capital or uppercase M with the rest lowercase. (Thank you to Google for waking up after being asleep at the wheel on the spell checker side, I didn't know that uppercase and lowercase were singular words, I had typed at two separate words.

Imaginary soul
My imagination and creativity is my gift to the world.  I may not be the most eloquent writer or unpublished as an author.  How else could I adopt and self-title myself from optioneerJM to ThePublisher ? Yes there are MEANDERINGSabout and The INbetweeners blogs indeed in between.  Gosh, I'd typed INbetweeners so much I thought they were indeed one word.  Wrong, and wisely pointed out by Google.

Google has the ability to control the data that so many are grasping at getting so desperately.  The fight over data began when I was at HP.  We were building and decommissioning servers (wiping them completely clean) all from scratch all because DATA my friends was playing havoc with INFORMATION.  

Umbrella
Data is the is virtually in the cloud.  It is starting to be the battle on who not only can grab and house the data (have you used the Apple Cloud?  Geese, they have the in front of their name too, maybe I AM an imposter!  Thinking I'm as good or clouds away from information.

Battle Ground
You could consider the faceoff or the ball toss, is between Google and Apple.  They've been cleverly gathering data about us for a very long time.  Where Google may have had the head start, Yahoo and AOL were light years ahead.  {What happened to those two pioneers?  As such happens too far frequently, where the real pioneers of a technology or a solution to a problem (because they're not always at the hands on a keyboard)}

I have had the opportunity and through training which drove my ability to launch assistance on a new business, leave behind cool ideas (mostly templates) wherever I've been.  That is one of the things I can almost guarantee.  My name remembered as a different last name, long before I shed it and the husband that went along with it.  I've been fortunate to hone my abilities with the right type of leadership support that brought out the best in me.  Sprinkle in some of the worst, easily defined as horror stories of bosses and companies I've worked for.  Yes, a few gave me a shot of developing leadership skills, when I was truly blossoming in the right role, building my team from the ground up.  Developing and sharpening an ever evolving plan.  That's kinda like me.  

Toastmaster
As they say, distinguished Area Governor, award winning President,taking a club at the bottom with struggling attendance and engagement.  The Area Governor while I was president went on to be the District Governor, or was that a VP before the District Governor.  The District Governor is like the Mayor, Premier, Prime Minister, The President (there's that capital "The" I copied here.  OOPsie, LOL.

That is why I write
The difference between the gifted and truly great orators cannot amount to anything without the write words.  That is what I found by discovery.  I guess in a nutshell I don't settle for the status quo.  There are an infinite number of people, companies, processes, operations, people, characteristics, profiles, principles, philosophy, culture, impediments to trying to accomplish just about anything.

The resources
Of a given company, the resources are the thing.  They make or break a company, organization or country.  Really regardless of global location, culture, religions, they share the same obstacles.  There is this really important balance between three separate things:

* people power
* equipment and technology
* intelligence and innovation above all.

If you don't have the resources in place or minimum keeping pace with your growth, you will fail miserably.  Think about all the GREATEST of pioneers who fade into the background, a forgotten innovator.  It has to be the guy who invented SKYPE.  Without skype, people really were unable to communicate in any other way than on the phone OR a webcam but not both.  

Without SKYPE, there would be no FACETIME (Apple eh?) no SNAP CHAT, Periscope or YouTube for heaven's sake.  I may have gone off the deepend a bit here.  I guess you just found out the second most unique thing about me didn't you?  I don't like others stealing credit when it is due someone else.  

The Folklores
When is the last time we had folklores?  I know that a lot of indigenous peoples who pass down stories for generations and then the ones more unbelievable thus called folklores.  With the little brothers and sisters called rumours who don't even have hardly a blip on our radars or importance meter until they implode with cast offs from Yahoo, not realizing it was capitalizing on the lead from AOL that allowed people to type a conversation in real time.  Now we call them texts and they are as well taken for granted on all the smartphones out there along with the telecommunications world, which is another big power struggle of our time ::: which ironically gather the most revenue from being that word again:  DATA.  Well, we do have folklores. In our generation they're called MicroSoft, Apple, GE, HP, Xerox, IBM, Disney.

It all begins with a story
Every folklore has a story.  
For me, as a career I've had the knack to help launch businesses, come up with some creative ideas that solved big problems (which was rewarded because it was in a sales capacity where money talked, results won.)  If I was truthful, I would not expound upon the glories of sales glory at the highest level.  What nobody tells you in sales school, university, or college, that to be truly great in sales, you have to toughen your skin to a shell of steel because the higher you climb the more people think they want to step on you.  Or, kick you from the sidelines.

Once, I was doing some really great things, people become nervous.  I don't think they are nervous because they may be cool ideas, but they could see that I could execute on those ideas.

An Army
Some companies think they should run it like the army.  No, I've never been in the Army, but my father was highly regarded in the Canadian Armed Forces Air Force Command Center in Winnipeg.  It may have moved for all I know, but through osmosis I could see how it ran its operation.  They'd blip at me when I heard "insubordination" or "leadership command"  or "full disclosure, tattle taler society".  

The Hierarchy
Some companies have tried to soften the army approach because when business is booming, which usually means economies are booming.  That, usually equates to oodles of opportunity for more sales which trickle down to net profits, executive reasonal salaries with outrageous bonuses.  Some of us do pretty well and even can thrive in a Hierarchal society, it's best to blend in and fade into the background in this climate.  Because the leaders of the top of the chain do not like to be threatened.   Not in a hierarchical society.  There still are a lot of yes sir and no ma'am in this society without the salute (unless it's the third finger salute behind the back of the hierarchical ~ geez, is this a hard word to spell or what??!!) There are clear distinctions between the haves and the have nots in this world.  There are the people that make all the money (around 10%) and then there are those that do all the work to allow the top to keep making more money (90%).  I've worked in this world the most.  It's a comfortable place to be.  It isn't necessarily THE best place to be if you like to be a creative thinker.  Can you imagine the business cases, best practices, powerpoint presentations there are in a Hierarchy company?  Well, the area you can really be creative is within the confines of those arenas:

* Business Cases
* Best Practices
* Powerpoint Presentations

If you're good at any three of those things and become outstanding, you will knock the socks off anyone who merely glimpses at your showmanship, intelligence, innovation and wanting to solve a problem.  

The Narrow Path
Imagine being in the confines of processes, procedures, protocol, pretty power points, and I didn't even expound the virtues of being an excel spreadsheet whiz.  You, young man or young lady, will be going places.  Vroom vroom.  I've never been a rule breaker.  Not that I can think of too readily.  Maybe someone else can remember and enlighten me?  In any case, I will admit to being a rule:

* Pusher
* Enveloper
* Evasive
* Determined
* Focused
* Driven
* Chaser
* Dreamer

of ways to do new things in new ways.  Hardly, a spot for someone like that in a Hierarchical surroundings.  It could be almost like a tadpole or goldfish swimming in the ocean surrounded by sharks.  Very teritorial these barracudas and bastards are.  (First official swear word in print, ha! Power of NOW!)

Idea Makers
Become stakeholders to their ideas.  They are driven farther and higher than the former two worlds.  Out of this pool of unique creative, techno visionaries come a lot of really great things.  Innovations we try to associate with The Jetsons.  Flying machines, just frequency in space doesn't match yet.  The only unfortunate part of this society is that egos reign supreme.  I know, you thought that attribute would live more comfortably in the Hierarchical domain.  But no, this world revolves usually one very powerful person.  I know, we usually identify with that more as a leader or dictator of a country.  Well, they live in the Idea Makers world.  They me and I one hundred times than we or third place you.  Then again, that only deviates when there is assigning blame.  

Dysfunctional
Now many of us have lived in one form of dysfunction or another.  You are delusional or a liar if you deny this.   Some demonstrate it more privately and at home, or when they're out, or at work.    Most, if not all, have had to deal hands on or hands off with dysfunction.  There are a lot of companies that are dysfunctional while sharing the common ground of The Army or by Hierarchy.   For that reason, can emerge a Dysfunctional work culture.  Or, the lack of balance between life and the way you have a roof over your head.

A few things to ponder.  If they make you think, absolutely great.  Thank you.

Me

IMAGE SOURCES: 
Images for this were taken from my "FACEUS" Board on Pinterest.  My favorite board.  There is so much intrigue captured from an expression. 

 Black and white images can exude a mood that is unique from color.  Sometimes I use a themed collection of images, instead of images or quotes related to the writings, in my blog.