Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Five things I learned in January

In the Joyful Jubilant Learning forum at the end of January, folks started sharing five things they learned in January. Sounded like a fun idea (and I like that it isn't a "go tag 5 more people" kind of thing) so here is my list:

  1. I learned that Google Documents are a much better remote collaboration tool than things I've tried in the past (like Writeboard, for example).
  2. I learned that version 2 of RocketPost is a big improvement over version 1, and I'm glad I bought RocketPost as a blogging tool.
  3. I learned that ice and snow really throw my city for a loop.
  4. I learned that the American Red Cross has implemented a new "Double Red Cell" donation option through which you can donate 2 units of red cells at the same time.
  5. I learned that giving 2 units of red blood cells on Thursday, then going cross-country skiing on Saturday is a recipe for a tiring day in the snow.

Learn anything you want to share? Blog it and link back to the Joyful Jubilant Learning post on "Rapid Fire Learning".

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Enjoy - that has “joy” in it, right?

"How can I bring laughter into the lives of others facing adversity?"I'm a fan of Raj Setty's blog , and I really like the "Quought" series he's started. A Quought is essentially a thought-provoking question, and he's asked a bunch of people to provide them.

This weekend, I read a Quought that I really liked a lot - provided by Christine Clifford Beckwith:

"How can I bring laughter into the lives of others facing adversity?"

This hit home with me because I think we make a huge difference in others lives when we do things to make them happy. Even little things can make a difference.

On a related note, this reminded me of something I overheard at my kids' school a couple of years ago. One kid in the class was making fun of one of the other kids in the class, and the teacher told him: "<name>, please stop that. At this school, we don't steal other people's joy."

Thanks for sharing your Quoughts, Raj.

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[Updated] Gimme five (and pass it on)

Bren slapped me five this week. He is perpetuating some kind of blog chain letter thing (or a social pyramid scheme) in which you tell five things about yourself, then tag five more bloggers to keep the chain going. Interesting game - and kinda fun.

So - here are five, little-known things I'm willing to share:

  1. My first car was actually an old truck purchased from the late Cajun television chef Justin Wilson for $150 (he was a friend of the family - "I GARONTEE!").
  2. I can look at a printed page and misspelled words tend to "pop out" at me like magic. (For some reason, it doesn't work as reliably on a computer screen - I don't know why...)
  3. Between 1983 and 1991, I was a professional radio DJ and traffic reporter (under the names Adam West, Dwayne Adams, Bruce Wayne, and Yule Devni).
  4. When I was 5, I nearly drowned in Louisiana Senator Russell Long's swimming pool (another family friend).
  5. I am very picky about how sheets are put on my bed, to the point that I often re-make beds in hotel rooms, and I insist that I put the sheets on my bed at home (my wife refuses to play along and make the bed my way).

Now, here are five bloggers I'd like to give the gift of "five."

Don't break the chain - the last person that broke the chain accidentally responded to that Nigerian email scam and lost everything he had. Double true.

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Learning through Blog Forums

Every year at this time, Rosa Say, author of the book Managing With Aloha, takes a long vacation and pauses her blogging activities. Does her blog just go dark during that time? Heck no.

Rosa calls on other folks to contribute "best of" links from their blogs in a sort of carnival. I'm proud to be in the mix.

In this ecclectic collection of voice, you'll find lots of great stories -- and you might discover some new blogs you like. Click here to redeem your Talking Story Gift Card and check out Ho'ike'ike 2006.

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Another remodel

I've pretty much disconnected from electronic communication for the last week to decompress and spend some good family time. Hence, no posts here. However, I did log in and make yet another cosmetic change.

After some informal "usability studies" and the comments (both on and off the blog), I've decided to revert to my old template but with some tweaks. I tested some mockups using different font sizes, and decided to increase the font size on the "sidebars" on my site.

I also did some "benchmarking" of other leading blog sites to get a feel for font sizes, colors & contrasts, and overall layouts.

Thanks to everyone who gave me their input. I decided to go back to my old format but kick up the font size in my sidebars by a notch.

If you have still have trouble with the font sizes, remember you can increase the font size in your browser. For example, see the following:

Firefox Fonts

Internet Explorer 6 Fonts

Oh yeah - I used "SnagIt" to grab these menus. It was recommended to me by Marc Orchant, and I think it is awesome. Check it out.

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