Category Archives: development in digital technology

Sign of the Times

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spread the loveI wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month. ~Harlan Miller

I love getting Christmas cards in the mail, even those once a year letters telling me about the lives of friends I seldom see. You know, the letters that say Johnny is on the honor roll, the smartest kid in the school. Mary plays the violin, at age three, with an adult symphony. Jane was the star in the school play and was contacted by Hollywood to do a bit part in the movie that will probably win an Oscar this year. We are often inspired by those around us. Learning about other’s goals and accomplishments helps us to think about our own ambitions and dreams for the coming year.

Over the past decade fewer Christmas cards have arrived in my mailbox. I miss that. People are watching their pocketbooks and practicing time management skills by eliminating some Christmas rituals. I’m no different.

The other day I sent my first batch of Christmas cards – digitally. It was so easy! And my address book is kept in one place, so I can send anniversary, birthday, graduation cards with ease. Sad that I’m included on the list of people who are less frequently sending cards in the mail, I am buoyed by the thought that I can stay in contact with my friends by sending e-cards for every occasion, economically and easily. I like sending cards as much as I enjoy receiving them.

Even Hallmark and American Greeting cards are offering e-cards, their sales have been diversified, and business revenue is now made in  e-commerce. Both companies have been long known for wonderful sentiments on their cards, and I am sure the digital artists they work with have great ideas. E-cards even come with audio sound!  http://www.hallmark.com/.

this emotional lifeIt is important to stay in touch with people who have meant much to us in life, even if we don’t often see them. Friends enrich our lives enormously. There is a DVD called, This Emotional Life, available through Amazon, brought to you by PBS. It addresses just how important friendship is to our happiness. Check it out, and share this link with your pals.Click for info & ordering

Return tomorrow, and we will see what else we can stir up on the subject of personal fulfillment.

This blog brought to you by www.cornerstonefulfillmentservice.com.

Not a Person Stirring, Just a Mouse

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“Do give books – religious or otherwise – for Christmas. They’re never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.” – Lenore Hershey

 In the mood for reading a Christmas book, but you don’t have time to go buy one or borrow one from the library? There are many low-priced and free holiday e-books and short stories available for downloading on your computer. Here are some titles available through one e-book retailer, Smashwords: 

  • Scrooge, American Style
  • Footprints in the Snow
  • The Lights of Christmas Street
  • Kristmas Collins
  • The Road to Tucson
  • Hullabalou and Holly, too
  • Suburban Christmas 2012
  • Snowman’s Chance in Hell
  • Fools Rush Inn
  • The Christmas Cottage _mouse

If you have never read an e-book before, try them out! I have found some very satisfying reads in electronic book format, and generally, they are not pricey, since there are no printer’s costs,  binding/physical manufacturing or shipping costs.  Let’s face it  – a good read is a good read whether printed on paper or not. Even bookstores now carry e-book formatted publications. Check out your local bookstore’s website to see if they are available, if you can’t get out.

I am in need of a good read. So this weekend, when no one is stirring, I will click the mouse and select one of these holiday books from the Smashwords list and enjoy myself. See the full list of books from Smashwords in the holiday category, by visiting this link http://bit.ly/TDMNLq.

Where shall I start?

Stay tuned, www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com  will be featuring a beautiful Christmas story, first published in 1999, that has been fulfilling people’s need to know about the first Christmas, that will be available for the first time in electronic format this year.

Meaningful Family Gifts

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“Christmas is not an eternal event at all, but a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart.” ~ Freya Stark

I remember it well. As a child, during the Christmas season, I felt like the ornaments that consumed my thoughts. The bubbling lights that sat clipped to our white feather Xmas tree brought me enormous happiness.  And to think that our mother let us set up the tree, with branches that looked like extended angel wings, in the bedroom  I shared with my twin sister, was more than I could have ever hoped for in life. 

bubble_lights on white tree2Night time couldn’t come too soon. I couldn’t wait for dark so I could lay in my bed and watch mesmerized, before I fell asleep, trying to figure out what made the liquid in the vials bubble and boil. Had my maternal grandparents, who had given us the tree and lights, filled the vials themselves? I’d heard of gold, frankincense and myrrh from Christmas stories. “Did the lights contain magic oil, liquid gold, frankincense or myrrh?  Whatever that stuff was.” I thought. “Perhaps it was fairies flitting in the night, waving their wands over the tree that made the vials have movement.” 

My sister was so lucky; she got extra peeks of the lights in the middle of the night. She often woke up hungry, so my mother packed her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every night, wrapped it in waxed paper, and set it beside the bed. When her stomach began rumbling, she’d eat the snack, and watch the lights on the tree. I was never hungry, so I missed out and slept through the night.  

Just to look at an image of a Victorian white feather tree with bubbling lights, brings fulfilling memories flooding back. Do you have cherished childhood memories around holiday traditions that you could write about to preserve for your family.

There are easy to use programs to help you make keepsakes of family photos  for grandchildren or children. www.blurbl.com and www.Shutterfly.com are perfect for these kinds of projects. If you are computer savvy, you still have time to produce a uniquely designed gift book in time for Christmas giving.

Check them out. This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Generational Differences

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“If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.”  ~ Tennessee Williams 

My creative writing class is almost over. This week I’ll turn in my portfolio. I accomplished what I set out to do. “I started with what I had and gave it all I’ve got.” Taking the course forced me to write about things I would not have taken the time to otherwise compose. The class opened up my eyes to additional ways of critiquing my own writing, the value and joy of writing poetry, and the importance of every single word and description in pulling together a satisfying piece of writing.  

Personal fulfillment came in unexpected ways, beyond the writing. Enrolling in a class filled with a range of ages of students was interesting. Each student brought their own perspectives, dialect, and experiences into their writing compositions. The generational differences in vocabulary used to communicate a point was astounding.  

last-child-in-natureOur final project was to write a composition of creative non-fiction using an incident from our life as the basis of the narrative. We were asked to remember and return in our minds to the neighborhood  where we grew up. For me, that was easy . I was astonished to find out from the remarks of some students, who grew up during the same era as my son, they had little, to no memory, of playing outside in a neighborhood. They voiced their recall of playing video games, watching TV and playing with toys that were “hot” on the market during their childhoods.  

The notion that kids don’t play the way they used to, outside in nature is, I believe, truthful. Could it be why our world has changed so dramatically? No wonder our relationships with people are suffering. Children interact with others through digital devices rather than face to face in today’s world. Time spent learning about working together, solving solutions as a group, negotiating between friends with different personalities and opinions has become more limited. 

My observances in the creative writing class inspired a resolution for me this coming year. I will spend less hours on digital devices that make working remotely so easy.  I will find a little more time  away from the company of my computer.

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

 

Shopping with the Click of a Mouse

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“Communications is at the heart of e-commerce and community.” ~ Meg Whitman 

Tis the Season! According to the Green Bay Press Gazette, http://gbpg.net/U9ALXu Cyber Monday had a 20% increase in on-line buying this year. Other sources report as much as 30%. Fulfillment centers everywhere have increased their staffing to accommodate for the buying and shipping activity that will take place over the next month, until Christmas. People filling orders are like Santa’s little helpers – selecting items, wrapping and packaging. What would bring you personal fulfillment this holiday season? Almost every imaginable item is now sold through internet commerce. 

Remember the days when the neighborhood store ran a tab and you went to the retail establishment to make your installment payments? You had to face the man who lent you the money! It felt more risky. And you wanted to stay on good terms with the shop keeper.  “Buying things on time” in the 1950’s was so vastly different than buying on credit today, sixty years later. 

On-line buying has become so easy! All it takes is a few clicks of a “mouse,” and you’ve got it – that thing you desire. No need to get in the car to mail your installment payment. Bill paying on-line reinforces the convenience. 

What you would spend in gas going to a retail store and mailing your payment at the Post Office, can be put toward buying another present. A carrier will even deliver the goods to your door! What with the price of gasoline these days, that’s not a bad thing. What do you need? Express, priority or standard shipping? How much of a hurry are you in to have it? 

Products are shipped worldwide, in short-order thanks to digital communication, logistics, computers, merchant services allowing for electronic funds transfer of currency – even money exchange from other countries is no big deal. 

Welcome to the world of e-commerce! Happy Holiday Shopping, everyone!

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Sounds of a Pioneer Valley

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The weekend before Thanksgiving I attended a concert called “What a Wonderful World” presented by the Yampa Valley Singers.

A fulfilling selection of thirteen songs was so appropriate to the season of thanksgiving; reminding me of things I am grateful for. The compositions ranged from spiritual to patriotic to contemporary show tunes. Most of the songs familiar; some  creative renditions of the originals. Here is the list of musical numbers from the event.

  • How Can I Keep from Singing?
  • America the Beautiful
  • For the Beauty of the Earth
  • Home (from the Broadway show The Wiz)
  • Try to Remember
  • Blowin’ in the Wind
  • Stopping by the Woods (based on Robert Frost’s poem)
  • A Long Way from Home
  • Blow Bugle Blow
  • All Good Gifts
  • I Vow to Thee, My Country
  • Hava Nagila
  • What a Wonderful World 

I am so grateful the Yampa Valley Singers come together several times of the year to share their artisic talents and voices with our community. I’ve gotten such enjoyment out of each of their concerts since I moved to Steamboat.

As I  sat enjoying the tune “How Can I Keep from Singing?” I thought if it wasn’t for my lack of a decent musical voice I would answer their call and join in. But, they wouldn’t want to hear my vocal utterances. Why ruin a good thing?

The Yampa Valley Singers sell independently published DVDs of their concerts- affordable gifts!  The choral group is comprised of approximately 30 -35 of people -friends and neighbors to many in this valley. To order a CD of the music from the concert “What a Wonderful World,” please click on this link. http://bit.ly/UnLPCO. There are also some wonderful cds from the Yampa Valley Boys that make for great gifts.For ordering Christmas Trail by the Yampa Valley Boys. click here.

Thank you for a very enjoyable evening, Yampa Valley Singers, and to the United Methodist Church in Steamboat for providing a space to hold the concert.

This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.

 

Film Friday: 48 Hour Music Video Contest

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“Curiosity about life in all it’s aspects, I think is still the secret of great creative people.”  ~ Leo Burnett

The judges have had their say. The 48 Hour Music Video Contest in Albuquerque is over for 2012. Congratulations go out today to Lindele Media for their awards in the competition.

“Todd and The Fox” was the title of Lindele Media’s music video that was conceived, shot and produced within two days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r04xy9830Bw&feature=relmfu.

It takes intense brainstorming, artistic creativity and labor to pull off a quality video within the given 48 hours. Lindele Media came away with the following awards:

  • Best Director:  Marc Leonard  http://bit.ly/QiidY4
  • Best Acting
  • Best Cinematography
  • Runner-up Place for Best Music Video

To learn more about the independently published films and music of Lindele Media and projects in progress, please visit this link. http://lindelemedia.com/.

Congratulations to all teams who participated in this fun and frantic competition!

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Generation of Smart, Healthy Children

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“As a kindergarten teacher, I have come to understand the powerful interplay between our senses, memory and food.” ~ Grady Turner

There is an e-book project in the works that I am more excited about than many others I have heard about. I desperately want to see it come to fruition. Why? This independent publishing project is about the new generation and teaching through interactive e-books.

Eat, Play, Learn Books, LLC is a company that is developing “kids activities that use healthy food as a learning tool.” These lessons have been successfully used and tested in the classroom by award winning  kindergarten teacher, Grady Turner, B.A., MEd. They meet and reinforce academic standards.

The impetus behind this Eat, Play, Learn Books is a need our country has – raising children who know about the benefits of staying healthy and fit. 

This series published by Eat, Play, Learn Books, LLC covers four diciplines of learning – reading and writing, math, science and social studies. The e-books, complimented with video, will lead parents and children through a series of fun activities that reinforce healthy food choices. It is geared for children aged 4 to 9. The activities can be done at home, providing parents and children outstanding quality time together. Through the activities in the books, children are introduced food that is both nutritious and commonly found in homes and the grocery store.  

Electronic books published by Eat, Play Learn Books, LLC are downloadable on e-readers, computers and palm-size digital devices, too – such as cell phones.Click here for Eat Play Learn – Lessons 1-3 Reading and Writing

Please join me in supporting this wonderful publishing project and raise a generation of healthier children.

This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected

Fonts Intensify the Experience, Spooky!

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Over the past months, discussions keep cropping up with people who are publishing their first e-books or are converting books-in-print to e-books.  This has led to the subject of fonts, and how some fonts just do not work well in  digital publishing. I am sure with time, a larger variety of typeface will become available for e-books. There is a lot more to come in the growth of the industry. That is both exciting and scary to many people. 

Have you ever noticed how a font can really make a difference in the ease of reading?

Times New Romans is said to be the best for “easy on the eye” because it is a “serif typeface.” It is the default font for programs such as Word. 

Here is a very insightful article about the purpose of fonts in writing. You will learn how to  fulfill and enhance your objectives for a piece of writing by inserting mood and atmosphere using  certain fonts. http://bit.ly/VO3BC6. 

Today I’d like to share some examples of what impact using different fonts has on words. You’ll think differently about the utility of typeface after you see what an effect it has on text. 

See what I mean? The spookiness of these words is intensified all because of the font that’s been used.

 

Happy belated Halloween, everybody, from my house to yours! Return tomorrow for more independent thoughts, words and views from www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

A Charming Idea, Mara Purl

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Today’s blog is part 2 of my interview with Mara Purl, author of the Milford-Haven series. The second book, Where the Heart Lives was the subject of yesterday’s blog. Please scroll down to read it.

Sue: Mara, I’d like to talk with you for a few minutes about books, in general, and what, if any, shift you have noticed among readers in recent years?

Mara: Readers know what they like to read, and with people being so busy these days, I think people are looking for more specific categories of books. Rather than just say, general fiction, they are looking types of fiction such as women’s fiction or family sagas or romance. My books are categorized in all three.

Authors are offering free sample chapters of e-books, prequels that are free, and 99 cent e-books which allows readers to venture into trying new genres and new authors they otherwise may have never discovered.  Short stories had been diminishing in the marketplace, and with the arrival of e-books, they are making a return. Serial story telling has also had a resurgence. 

Because of space constraints, in the past, booksellers have been hesitant to carry whole series of books; not wanting to take up too much space with just one author’s books. With e-books, there is not that concern of taking up too much shelf space. Thus, readers have the ability to read a whole series from beginning to end. Collecting and reading an entire series presents no constraints in storage in electronic (e-book) format.  

For fans of books that bring the reader through a chronology of generations, such as Louis L’Amour books, e-books can be very useful way to fulfill the readers desires to collect an entire series without having to find space to store them in their homes. 

Sue: I have noticed your wonderful newly redesigned website. There are all kinds of fun things for your readers on the site, including jewelry for fans of the Milford- Haven Books. Tell me what it has meant to you to follow the spirit of your character, Miranda Jones, and use your artistic expression to take your creativity in a new direction.

Mara:  Women love jewelry, and I have noticed that stories go along with jewelry that women wear. Women say, “oh, that necklace or bracelet was given to me by so and so, or it used to be my grandmothers, or I got that piece of jewelry when……” I thought that women may like to collect jewelry that will remind them of the Milford-Haven books they have read. As a talisman or reminder to listen to the heart. So, each book has a different shell “dingbat” (an ornament, character or spacer used in typesetting) and each will be available as a charm and can be collected for bracelets. The first book What the Heart Knows has a heart cockle shell “dingbat” in it, and then the 2nd book in the series Where the Heart Lives is a placuna shell, (called a windowpane oyster) which is a marine bivalve that is flat and translucent, in shape).  

Sue: Where can these charms and bracelets be purchased?  I will put a link to your newly designed website for our readers, and people can keep their eyes open for them as an upcoming product. Mara’s Blog site www.marapurlcom.  Link to Milford-Haven book charms on Pinterest  http://pinterest.com/marapurl/.

Mara: Yes, they are still in the development phase by a jeweler in Colorado Springs, but once available, they can be shipped anywhere in the world and if you go to my newly redesigned website, there is information.

Sue: Mara, I appreciate so much the opportunity to interview you again. I am so pleased at the success you are having with the Milford-Haven series. When will Bellekeep Books publish the third in the series When Hearts Keep Secrets be available? I look forward to reading the next book.

Mara: Look for When Hearts Keep Secrets in 2013. Probably in autumn of the year. Also, the e-book “When Whales Watch” the prequel to the second book  is available through Amazon.

For more information on all of Mara Purls’ publications,Click here

This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpectedand www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.