A solitary reflection

George Karasov 

This blog was original written and posted on the optioneerJM blog. 

Excuse moi to readers who come to optioneerJM for business, leadership, sales or social media advice.  You have been bombarded with clips from Polyvore, independently posted.

I apologize.  It was another experiment or test.  No apologies for the test certainly.  I disclose that I am constantly trying out new avenues online to see what is what, what works, and how I may want to do things differently.

This is a "do differently".  

Polyvore allows users to create fashion statements, creative ensemble within a specific user base:  fashion enthusiasts, fashionistas and creative personalities.  I hadn't been there for a while before yesterday.  Because I haven't, I looked at the experience with fresh eyes, as if new.

Polyvore is a great environment for the fashion conscience, creative minds, fashionistas and the like.  My meanderingsabout blog is my reflection on creative expression ... outside the "box" of what I write here.  

Creativity is an integral part of who I am.  I recognized the following I had and that they were not interested in the fashionista and beauty side of who I am:  a woman in her 50s fighting aging by using a tasteful fashion, accessories, beauty regime.  That's where I created Meanderings about a year ago.  

Maybe the original idea was to have a blog where I could "rant".  Then realizing that people just don't like to read about rants, in general.  The only time I've seen them work is when a group amasses to express a similar disapproval.  More often, I've noticed, they are directed at airlines.  I would say telecommunication cellular providers would battle for first other days.  

Then I began writing as if I was giving advice to my daughters on life, living, love and dating.  They may not read it.  My three daughters and stepdaughter aged 22, 23 and 25.  A great representation of the Millennials.  

Not all experiments are successful.  Usually you can extrapolate what you have learned from the exercise and extrapolate "do differently" for down the road.

So Polyvore has the right idea:  they allow enthusiasts to share their creations on Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook.  Sadly, missing is instaGRAM.  Also, when you select posting for a Blog, the default is Tumblr, while allowing you to select "BLOG" for Google's Blogspot posts.  It defaults to the blog you have associated with your email address, which in this case is optioneerJM.  It doesn't allow me to distinguish it if you happen to have more than one blogspot.  

I will continue to fiddle around and experiment.  Thank you for your understanding.  I apologize if it seemed misleading to draw my loyal readers here, thinking I may be writing about sales and instead be bombarded with these posts that seem commercial.  You share the image you created on Polyvore, and then what Brands represent the products you have selected.

Polyvore has Polyvore Clippers, which I am liking, and just getting around to trying (for instance the image of Sally Field in character of Doris surrounded by scarves and cat eye glasses.  

There are a lot of tools or sites that start out with one idea and its users evolve and experiment, bringing a wider ensemble of tools and ways to share.  I'm never content to just create, post, share.  I like to test to see how it can be used in building social media audiences or "content" as the big thing these days is.  

Corporate brands and companies have gotten the message.  They are adding "Blog" to their websites.  However, the conundrum is how to keep the Blogs fresh, relevant, with regular posting.  A way to drive viewers to the website, where the website is suppose to take over and keep the audience there longer, to click, go deeper into the site.  Even better if an inquiry or lead generated or a sale.

I will keep exploring and doing experiments and reporting findings for others to benefit.  Even if that means an annoying array of blog posts that seem to have little to nothing to do with the central theme.

IF, this happened to make you curious.  I went to Polyvore to gather ideas for a Halloween costume -- obviously, I'm looking to be "Doris" from this great, whimsical, movie about an isolated woman in her 60s who steps out, after the passing of her mother whom Doris was caregiver to.  The idea of how she takes on what is normally Tween or Teenage experiences about dating and socializing.

  Doris is wonderfully portrayed by Oscar winner Sally Field, whom I hope gets an Oscar for this great role.  You can't help but be entertained with her crush experience, being coached by a 13 year old friend's granddaughter.  

Now, I will tidy up optioneerJM and move the creations over to meanderingsABOUT and delete the errant posts from here once they are where they belong.  (CHECK ~ done)

I will continue to experiment and try new things.  To report on findings that may help others with their social media experience, expand their social selling efforts, or share advice on business or leadership.  It has been a fun ride, and after 200,000+ page views, I look forward to continue to learn and share those experiences with you.

You can join me on Polyvore and join in the fun!  I've experimented with GROUPS, creating one for fashionista creatives who want to create ensembles that Doris would love:

This post has also been featured on "The Publisher" and "optioneerJM".

LINK to The Publisher

optioneerJM

I was a little taken aback by this blog I had written.  I can't say why it was sitting in drafts?  I am going to guess it was Halloween 2016.  

That was my first climb out of depression.  I am honestly telling everyone.  Twice, in the past 6 months, I threatened suicide -- not to my family or friends -- to respond to the threat of bullying, commonly accepted culture where I found myself spiraling downward into.

If "Alice in Wonderland" fell into a hole with magical ramifications and whimsical delights, then I fell into the waiting room with next step:  HELL!

If you stand out, stand up.

It is possible to hang on to tradition while injecting innovation :: make THINGS great again.

I really don't read or perceive that there has been declared the official winner of the race for CLOUD computing:  one of three things that the technical sector has decided is the cool things we need:

IofT:  Internet of things or intelligence of things?

The best way I would be able to explain to a non-layperson what this acronym means is that you can control things designed to have enhanced technical capabilities.  I would use General Motors as a prime example.  In my view, opinion and limited observation.  I don't have to work there, all I have to do is pick up on the consistency of being on message flowing neighborly along that appeals to the largest percentage of people.  

Again, I've never worked for GM or read any prospectus or proposal on how they were going to prove that they were savable after a big government bail out.

I saw it before, just as a user of products, a major accounts rep, a vendor and a buyer perspective:  Xerox.   Anne Mulcahey (need to check spelling) put some building blocks in place on how they were going to rebuild a once great company from the basement of the downward steps to rock bottom to recovery and rethinking innovation and deciding to self-consciously or corporate self-examination:  what would they be known for?

So a lot of these almost washed up companies are having an injection of innovation or continued creation of a historical identity.  

Most would say that Xerox discovered xerography and became this really big company, until it delved out significant intelligence to Apple and Adobe.  Well yes, that is correct.

My guess would be how Xerox, through stringent quality control, strove to replace dust pollutant of toner dust, toxic for our water systems and ecosystems.  They made new toner that was sustainable, really smartly reusing natural resources that does not upset the universe's eco-structure from emitting toxins.

Safe to say, Xerox is a prime example of something highly identifiable can decoy from staying static and holding true to being innovative.

The best companies in the world, in my opinion are not bricks and motor, factory, industry, on the "try" at the end - see that?  Or maybe I'm psychic and see the pattern emerging.  How?

From watching the numbers.  Looking for patterns.  That information is out there and it is free.  When it goes to the cloud, someone is going to make heaps of money storing their customer's information. 

AI:  Artificial intelligence.  

I guess somewhere, somehow, someone decided that it was hip or cool to include "intelligence" to create an acronym that rings with distinction, like a battle cry to the trod on economic forces blow over.

Robots have been around for decades.  I haven't fact check, however, I'm going to say they started surfacing when more and more companies starting realizing, by looking at numbers with a strong focus on profit, they had to try to get rid of people, which is the highest expense .... yet few would survive without its people.

Has anyone written about a theme of companies who become so bloated with their own ego and self-importance, that complacency would never reside.  Quickly replaced with value, rate of return, key performance indicators.

Disruption.

Is when someone comes up with an idea that totally transforms the way we do or think of things.  Think of the smart phone as a disruption to mobility telecommunications.  

Taking something that we use every single day, is as familiar to us as our television or automobile:  the telephone.  As it evolved from a communications device into a hand held computer that uses wireless or the internet in order to transmit.  

A telegram is something we consider as old, war era communications of great importance has now been developed into something immediate.  Every day is special because we can communicate with others, convey our thoughts or feelings by the click of fingers or twiddle of thumbs.

What else is out there that hasn't been thought up yet or uncovered a need for?  The first things to look at are those every day indispensable items we use and then make them better, causing a ripple effect that requires traditional means to update their technology or capabilities or they will be stuck in the mud at the side of the super highway of happening things.

Happy healing and healthy being

When it seems like all other areas in your life are falling apart, there is only one thing you can possibly control:

HOW YOU REACT!

If you try to be the best person inside, true to your truest character, spectacular vibe and kindness to everyone ~ you HAVE the ability the change not only how you view the world, but also how the world views you.

After facing bullying myself for the first time in my life after turning 56 years old just this past April, I find strength building within me, not without the assistance of my therapist Marjory.

At this prime time age [ NIX the MIDDLE AGE already!] you have earned the right to be who you ARE!

Fashion 911 Board on Pinterest > SOURCE < Link

I'm not saying if you're a guy, you are aspiring to be a character cast permanently henceforth as the "grumpy old guy" or "old perv".  Nor am I suggesting that we women have to resort to comfy shoes only, bloaty tops with massive floral collage intended as a decoy to hide that post-menopausal early trimester pregnancy look [ that MOST women experience regardless of race, color, demographic  [= age + education + where you live], location, living conditions].

You MAY think if you wear those life-weary looks of drooling at really young girls or scowling at their belly buttons showing or deep enough cleavages that makes toe jam look like a speck of dirt.

What about testing my theory?
Be the truest you that you can possibly be!  There is no linkage or printed guides or rule books or user manuals or YouTube videos required.  Totally unique to you, wired closely between the head and the heart.  More close to your identity than your DNA.  You.

Who you were meant to be.
Forget about looking at the past.  Examining and spending so much agonizing energy on what ifs?  You CAN start to be you.  There is NEVER never enough time.  You do not need pocketfuls of money or unlimited VISA limits for shopping or pulling together your look.

Yes, it starts inside.
Nothing more difficult than asking yourself:  "What do you want?"  At my first therapy, recovering anxiety from the bullying experience, Marjory started with that simple question.

Journal til there's no ink left.
That was the instruction.  Start writing and writing and writing.  Regardless of what you are writing.  No judgement, complete privacy, just empty your heart and your head essentially is what I thought it meant.  Yeah, it took me outta my blogging, which has been mostly a release of the brain:  sharing what I know.

Helping people.
That's what I like doing most.  I tend to focus on avoiding the pitfalls that I've had to go through in order to clear the air and focus on moving forward.  By saying forward, I am meaning mostly that you are just .... 

LETTING GO ... 
..... letting go of the past.  With a big picture in mind, putting all the junk in a bubble:  lack of confidence, humble beginnings, shortfall in knowledge (aka lack of formal education), poor body image, horrible childhood, victimization, gender or race discrimination, divorce, violence, bullying, failure, disappointment, hurt ......... put it into the bubble [ aka journal if you need to about that stuff so that you can talk it over with a therapist ~ breaking the rules of letting it go ].  

THE BUBBLE FLOATS AWAY
Bouncing with the tide and blowing with the wind, the bubble has left you behind.  Now what are you going to do?

BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF
Now that you let all that toxic waste float away in the bubble, what do you have left?  Only YOU.  What does that look like, how do you look?  That's where the "What do you want?" steps in.

What do you want?
You can write and think all you like about lists upon lists of the little things to the gigantic dream.

"The bigger the dream,

   the more the hard work."

  ~ Jeannette Marshall 

    @optioneerJM 

No item too big or too small.
If it is what you want, it is what you want. Remember, in your private journal, it is YOU, it is private, it is between "Me, myself & I" if you need a debate or thrive on controversy go for it.

BIG DREAMS = HARD WORK
There are no short cuts for you skippies out there who like to dart around things and stomp on people to get to where they want to be.  What seems like an overnight miracle are years of perspiration:  that's what I extracted from watching THE NINETIES by CNN where its focus was really about the first kings of technology:  STEVE JOBS and BILL GATES.  Even if you want to lean towards sympathizing with the founders of NETSCAPE, stop it.  They earned millions of dollars on an idea they were able to execute.

EXECUTE ideas.
Don't just talk about it, give your ideas away, or work for a company who will gladly swipe that idea under the umbrella of corporate regulations and employment contracts:  what you create there becomes their property.

Life is unfair.
Get used to it.  Heck, if you're in your 40s or beyond you should know this by now and stop talking about it or how luck evaded you.

GET THINGS DONE
 Getting things done requires elbow grease or perspiration or agonizing or choices.  Checking things off mental lists that surface in the middle of the night when you are longing for slumber.  EXECUTE. Complete.  Finito.  Bon Voyage.  NEXT? Get'er'done already!

I got ahead of myself again, per usual.  Jump forward, bending sideways, and sometimes losing the very important point.  I guess that is the part of blogging that I really enjoy:  helping others and exhausting those thoughts that don't fit into a journal and may be better to share.

When I wrote what I wanted, it wasn't about material things, I am very fortunately married to Hunkster Hubster which I appreciate most days [ trials and tribulations of married life is normal ].  Sure, I'd love a much bigger house in a tropical locale with the web my biggest tool [ or hammer, depending upon my mood ].  

FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE
Was what I thought I really wanted.  Until you try it, you don't really realize or appreciate how difficult that is.  I think it was Oprah Winfrey probably in the 90s who got everyone thinking about having a GRATITUDE journal, whereby you wrote about what was positive that happened that day.  Even as you wake up, you can write down what you look forward to that day.

COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR 
I am at the very early, formative stage of doing cognitive behavior development.  With my baby toe on my right foot touching the tip hesitantly.  I hardly think it is possible without emptying the brain and the heart of anything toxic, and placing it in the bubble to float away.

Happy healing and healthy being,

Jeannette xo

Celebrate CREATIVITY

So many things to aspire to and be inspired by.  Here is a gallery of quotes blended with quotes, as I prove:  PRACTICE does make PERFECT [and I have a long way to go .... and will keep trying].

I hope you like one or two ... let me know which one is your favorite or if I missed one of your's.

I am celebrating creativity.  A form of coping in a unruly world of controversy, chaos and so many decisions in the life of opportunity.  Rely on nobody else.  There is no one more invested in YOU than YOU.

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.

creativity inspired inspiration

The Publisher

Friday, 3 March 2017

creativity inspired inspiration

Blow your horn.
If nobody hears it.  No harm no foul.
If somebody hears it and likes the beat of the drum.

I figure nobody reads 

Blow your horn.
If nobody hears it.  No harm no foul.
If somebody hears it and likes the beat of the drum.

I figure nobody reads much

unless renowned.  Then the thump of nations
echo through all sounds. 

So why not be engaged in laughter?
From a giggle to a snort. 
A way to evade the real world
full of evil and dismay.

If one can poke fun at oneself
regardless of one's name.
That is the gift of optimism.
For the greater good.

Join in music, hum along with heart.
Who cares if anyone listens.
You are becoming one with your heart
that echoes within your soul.

Do what YOU love.
Regardless of acclaim.
You do it because YOU love it.
It doesn't need any fame.

The glue that sticks us all together
is filled with optimism and hope.
Drowning out the empty noise 
of anything of fame or violence or corruption.

If we heed only the automatic reaction
to the reflection of others grief.
We are desperately trying to get relief
from sorrow, heartache, despondency.

Gravitate together.
Those whom want to celebrate 
the beauty and the art around us
is how we became glued
to each other in gratitude.

Strike out everyone
to inspire and motivate each other.
Banish anything to do with fear
.... or porn .... or scorn.

Singularly assembled
for the greater good of everyone.
Not where prejudice or spite or bullying
are permitted to reside.

A club of big believers
that the world can be a better place.
For all ages, all genders, all religions,
all beliefs, all colors of skin, for every race.

Champion the good ones
so that they can learn to be great!
Nobody ever starts out at the top
in every situation, every lifestyle,
every talent comes from inspiration.

Inspiration and motivation
surfaces with grace, praise and engagement.
Corruption arises from malice, ego, greed.
The aforementioned to be accommodated
to give voice.  For learning and understanding
to unravel and unfold.

Mystery and adventure
can be achieved by the imagination 
you can miraculously unlaced.
Without knots and NOTS
free to explore the wonders
to be reached.

Thank you for joining me for my reflection in a poetic form.  It speaks to me, about me and what I'm all about.  Trying to help others.  Maybe inspire one or two?  Stretching my own imagination to the endless possibilities in store.

I originally wrote this earlier on "The Publisher"

Mindfulness mindset

The following post was originally shared on  JMgallery where I curate art, photography, images that speak to me.  Today, these depictions focus on mindfulness which is an art within itself.  The above captures my positive mindset and peaceful focus to allow me to become present in the NOW.  To be appreciative of the WOW!  Yes the quote and the image harmoniously flowed together to create a positive vibe sent out to the universe.  I can't do anything constructive about my woes at the moment so you allow it to drift away.  Efficiently filed to be handled effectively, like you usually do.  



The art of mindfulness
Practicing the art of mindfulness is a lot harder than it sounds.  In principle, you are meant to focus on this minute, this second.  Building awareness of all things, people, events happening around you in the moment for the moment.  Discipline and meditation are definitely helpful to reach this art of being at peace with oneself in the universe.  Forgiving, forgetting and forgoing any despondency or regrets, do differently, and if only I had.

Visually, it is easier to center on yourself in the moment.  I've gathered some art to forget bitter memories, beating up one's self for mistakes and least of all removing worry about tomorrow.  All you have is this moment.  

You ARE lucky.
You are here, you are now.  What you do differently this very second can bring inner peace and thankfulness for what you have.  No allowances for reflections of moments gone past, or fervour on what you desperately want tomorrow.  All you have is today.

What can you do differently?
Discarding annoyance is a favor you gift to yourself.  Opening up your mind and heart to others that may seem different to you is a gift of mindfulness.  

Discover the secret
Let the past melt away.  Forget about goals, dreams, wants, needs.  What do you have in this present moment?  Eyesight to enjoy beautiful images, hands to create beauty, ears to hear melodies that sing to your soul.  

Beauty: from within
Is harmony between the heart and the soul, joined in symphony to bring inner peace.  The best thing you can do is listen to your favorite music and gaze upon and marvel at the little things that center you, dissuade you from dwelling on the past or striving for that which is beyond reach.