WOW Word-Of-the-Week #475: Recalculating
August 31, 2013 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #475: Recalculating
Recalculating – re-thinking and or re-planning in order to eliminate errors or to incorporate additional factors or data.
Have you arrived at your “perfect job” destination? Are you living the life you dreamed of? Do you ever feel you are off track?
Henry DeVries, assistant dean for external affairs UC San Diego, featured a UT article titled, “Recalculating the next career step.” He writes, When Karen Jacobsen walks on a stage, there is no question she is in the driver’s seat. Known as The GPS Girl, Jacobsen’s speaking voice is in over 100 million GPS units giving drivers directions worldwide as “Australian Karen.”
“You could say I specialize in telling people where to go,” says Jacobsen, an Aussie who moved to New York over a decade ago and had an unexpected twist in her singing career when she got a 50-hour voiceover gig giving driving directions.
Today she is also an author who speaks to audiences on how to create a road map for their future. Jacobsen, who is also the Australian voice of Siri for the Apple iPhone, has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, the NBC Today Show, the CBS Early Show, in the New York Times, Glamour magazine and was named one of People magazine’s Most Intriguing People.
In her book, “The GPS Girl’s Road Map for Your Future,” she writes about how to listen to your Inner GPS and to ‘recalculate at any time in life’ just as we do when driving. She knows drivers hate it when they get off course and hear her say, “recalculating,” but she loves the word.
“I think the word recalculating is actually good news,” says Jacobsen. “It may mean you have been off track, but by the time you hear the word recalculating you are already back on the right road. Recalculating is how I got from the Great Barrier Reef to the Big Apple.”
This week’s focus is on listening to your inner GPS. Are you in the Driver’s seat or the passenger’s seat? Is there a part of your life that needs recalculating? How would it feel to create a new road map?
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #473: Paraprosdokian
August 28, 2013 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #473: Paraprosdokian
Paraprosdokian – pa-ra-prose-DOKEee-en. – figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous.
Have you ever seen or heard this word before? Did you know that Winston Churchill loved them? Do you know they are extremely popular among comedians and satirists? It was such an odd word that I added the pronunciation for the first time ever.
This week is the official end of summer and the new school year is beginning so I am keeping it light and FUN! Special thanks to my long time friend and client Les (we go back to the 80’s, how scary is that?) for sending this list of paraprosdokians to me.
1. Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.
2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on my list.
3. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
4. If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.
5. We never really grow up; we only learn how to act in public.
6. War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
8. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
9. I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
10. In filling out an application, where it says, ‘In case of emergency, Notify:’ I put ‘DOCTOR’.
11. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.
12. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
13. I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not so sure.
14. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.
15. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
16. You’re never too old to learn something stupid.
17. I’m supposed to respect my elders, but it’s getting harder and harder for me to find one now.
And this could just be my favorite: I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.
This week’s focus is about finding a paraprosdokian you can remember and sharing it! And have a FUN Labor Day weekend!
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #472: Magic
August 22, 2013 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #472: Magic
Magic – the practice of illusory tricks to entertain other people.
What thought came to your mind when you read this week’s WOW? Do you know anybody who does magic tricks? Have you ever been to the Magic Castle in LA?
This week’s WOW is brought to you by Alexander, my soon to be eight-year-old “grand boy.” He is my niece Mary’s son. We held our first Camp Clarke last summer that entailed all three of my nieces and their spouses along with their seven children (ranging in ages from 1 to 8 years) converging on my brother’s house for one week. They all live out of town.
Every day some sort of event/outing is planned and this year included face painting, tie dying our custom Camp Clarke silk screened shirts, painting and collaging a 6’ x 7’ canvas that created a beautiful piece of artwork for my brothers wall; and lots of activities including the back yard zip line, tether ball, and riding scooters at my brother’s.
When I asked Alexander what word I should use he said, “Magic.” What a great surprise for me, because little did he know, that I had bought him a magic kit for his birthday. He loves to wear capes and I figure he should either play the piano (Liberace maybe?) or be a magician. The latter being the easiest for me to come up with.
What I didn’t take into account was his short attention span. The “bag of tricks” was pretty hard and even I didn’t know how to do them after reading the instructions. Thank goodness I got the DVD to watch so I can teach him! And the good news is, he could actually do one of them fairly well.
And what came up for me was the word Magical, which means wonderful; marvelous; exciting. This week’s focus is on the magic kids and grand kids bring you!
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #471: Proverb
August 15, 2013 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #471: Proverb
Proverb – a short pithy saying in frequent and widespread use that expresses a basic truth or practical precept.
Do you have a favorite proverb? Would you agree that it is basically a true statement?
One of my favorites is, “What goes around comes around.” It means the results of things that one has done will someday have an effect on that person. And the other one that came to mind this week was, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Have you heard that one? It means children are like their parents.
Do you remember the story from a two years back about my friend Kim from Chicago whose children tried to sue her for “Bad Mothering?” Well she emailed me this week with a story about her ex-husband and children’s father. The Chicago Tribune article titled, “Bad mothering’ attorney faces state discipline: Court ruled Barrington lawyer bilked client of $500,000.”
Steve Schmadeke wrote, “An attorney who once helped his adult children sue their mother for emotional damages because of a poorly chosen birthday card and a subpar homecoming dress now faces disciplinary action for writing the same two children into an elderly client’s will and allegedly stealing nearly $500,000 from the client’s estate.
Steven Miner, a Barrington attorney who filed a “bad mothering” lawsuit against his ex-wife on behalf of his son and daughter in 2009, is accused by Illinois’ attorney disciplinary body of violating attorney rules by drafting a will for a client that benefited Miner’s own family as well as stealing money from the client.
The disciplinary matter arose from Miner’s relationship with client Glenn Burren that dated to the 1970s. Miner dated Burren’s daughter for a time, and later Burren dated Miner’s mother, according to an appeals court ruling. Miner remained close with Burren, calling him “Pops,” the court said.
In 2004, Burren signed a typewritten will handed to him by Miner after attending a birthday party for Miner’s son, according to the ruling. Under the will, 40 percent of Burren’s estate went to Miner’s two children and the rest to Burren’s three children, the court said.
Later, Burren signed papers giving Miner power of attorney and handed over to the lawyer checks totaling nearly $500,000. After Burren’s death in 2007, his children contested the will filed by Miner and later took the attorney to court to recover the $500,000 that had vanished from their father’s estate.
Miner told a Cook County judge that he cashed the checks at his bank and then returned the cash to Burren, but Judge Susan Coleman didn’t buy it, saying Miner had presented “no independent credible evidence” that he returned the money. The judge ordered Miner to repay the estate nearly $500,000 plus more than $200,000 in interest. An appeals court recently upheld that ruling.”
This week’s focus is about making sure you know that things you do will someday have an effect on you. Be it positive or negative! Actions speak louder than words.
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #470: Anniversary
August 7, 2013 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #470: Anniversary
Anniversary – the yearly celebration of an important date.
Do you celebrate your anniversaries? Do you remember your family and friends wedding anniversaries? Do you acknowledge your guests, customers, members, or client’s anniversaries?
This week I’m celebrating the 9th Anniversary of my Word-Of-the-Week! And I can’t believe how fast another year has gone by. Actually, I have been so busy having FUN with all of the grand kids in town that I totally forgot it was two weeks ago!
Also, the end of this month, I am celebrating the 10th anniversary of the first date with my forever man! And next month we celebrate our 4th
wedding anniversary.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
We leave the US mid September headed to Prague and return home from Palermo in October. I will be speaking in Rimini, Italy at the TTG Incontri hospitality convention for my long time client, Mauro at TeamWork. I LOVE Italy and it will be great to be back!
We will be in Munich for Oktoberfest and plan on stopping to see the Neuschwanstein Castle which was one of the runner-ups of the new 7 Wonders of the World. FUN-fact: It inspired the castle in Sleeping Beauty and later at Disneyland.
One of our travel goals is to see all 21 landmarks that were vying for that title. (We are currently at 16.) However, Timbuktu is currently off limits due to radical extremists who are attempting to destroy many of the ancient religious buildings in the city.
You can follow our adventures on my Facebook FUN-damentals Fan Page, on Twitter at FUN_damentals, or on my website at https://fun-damentals.com/category/travel/.
I want to thank everyone for the very positive feedback and input you have all given me over the years and I encourage everyone to keep sending me your thoughts.
This week’s focus is on remembering and celebrating important dates. And I hope you have a FUN & Fabulous summer too!