What I Like About A-Rod

The sports world is all abuzz today about A-Rod's admission that he took steroids during his 2001-2003 stint with the Texas Rangers. By his own admission, he stopped taking the steroids in 2003 because he didn't like what they were doing to his body.

He also admitted that he was young, stupid, under enormous pressure to perform, and to perform at a high level every single day. As Rodriguez said. "It's my fault. I'm responsible for this. And I'm deeply sorry. I've done things the right way since 2004and I'm proud of that."

The Yankee's concur by saying, "We urged Alex to be completely open, honest and forthcoming in addressing his use of performance-enhancing drugs. We take him at his word that he was. Although we are disappointed in the mistake he spoke to today, we realize Alex — like all of us — is a human being not immune to fault. We speak often about the members of this organization being part of a family, and that is never more true than in times of adversity."

What I like about Alex Rodriguez:

1. He may have lied in the past, but he has now come forth with the truth. Unlike Barry Bonds and Roger Clements, A-Rod is laying it out and admitting his took steroids.

2. He admits he was young and stupid. He admits he was wrong. He apologizes to the public, the Yankees, and his fans.

3. Although he is still under tremendous pressure, since 2004 he has done things the right way. He turned his behavior around. That takes strength and courage.

For all those who are slamming him, how many can say they are perfect, they have never lied, they have never done a wrong thing to save their career or save face.

Remember, let him who casts the first stone be without sin. Those who are criticizing his behavior for something he did seven years ago when under intense pressure, need to take a look at what they have done with a whole lot less to lose than he had.

I am proud that A-Rod stepped forward, admitted his sin, apologized profusely for it, and acknowledged it hasn't happened again.

What the rest of us need to do is forgive him, and we need to move on. My respect for him has grown exponentially with his ability to man-up and admit his mistakes.

What do you think? How will this affect his future, especially his eligibility in the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Christian Bale Outburst - a Good Thing?

This morning an interesting article caught my attention. Probably most everyone has heard of, or even listened to, Christian Bale's recent profanity ladened outburst on his current movie set.

The article, Christian Bale is a Corporate Hero, on the ASUWebDevil site is an interesting and much more positive take than most other accounts. Writer Christopher Ogino notes corporations should strive for quality and excellence as Bale was attempting to do in the scene that went awry.

If banks had only loaned money to those who could pay it back, instead of making bad loans and then selling securities backed by those bad loans, how much better off the economy would be. If corporations were more concerned with quality than with making higher profits, their sales would reflect consumer confidence in their products.

Christian Bale was concerned with quality; with making a good movie instead of putting out the trash that too often fills movie theaters, or worse, goes straight to DVD. For that he should be praised.

Now if he could just learn a better way of expressing his opinion, his voice might reach those who really need to hear what he has to say. One can only hope that lessons can be learned in all areas as a result of this unfortunate incident.

Potpourri Update

Well, it is nearing the midnight hour for this year. The new year promises to bring it's share of challenges, but also excitement at the same time. I am working hard on BellaOnline as I am in training as the new Mystery Books Editor. Come on over and visit to read interesting articles and chat with other mystery lovers on the Mystery Books forum.

Looking forward to a great 2009 in the writing biz.

What are your plans for the new year? What excites you most about your life?

Healthy Living Coming Soon to Elder Care Cafe

Tomorrow morning at the Elder Care Cafe, a post will announce the upcoming 2009 healthy living initiative. The initiative will include regular posts highlighting living a healthy lifestyle - body, soul, and spirit. A newsletter sent directly to your email box is in the development stage and will kick-off in 2009. Yet to be determined is the frequency of the newsletter - never daily, but may arrive weekly or monthly.

I'm excited about the upgrade Elder Care Cafe has received lately. It was a much needed refreshing and repairing of the site, and now it is ready to enter the new year in style.

If you have any questions or topic suggestions, feel free to leave a comment on the site.

Elder Care Cafe is geared towards the elderly and those who care for them, but any baby boomer or senior citizen will find interesting articles.

We at the Elder Care Cafe, both on the 'net and here on blogger, are looking forward to a fun, healthy, and prosperous new year.

How about you? What are your plans for the new year? Do your plans include living healthy?

Musicians Have Higher IQ's According to Study

According to a recent study at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, "professionally trained musicians have higher IQs and use their brain power more effectively than do their non-musical brethren."

Apparently, learning to use both hands independently while playing musical instruments developed the left and right side of the brain. Musical students scored higher on creative-thinking tests than did the same number of students taking a psychology course.

Wow! So that was what all those years of music lessons did for me. Hmmmmm! Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Did you study music as a child? What instrument did you play? Do you feel more creative because of those lessons?

I'm a Squid - Really!

Another learning curve - I'm getting so tangled up in the curves...

I joined the website Squidoo last week and just finished my third lens, Squidoo's version of a website.

Right now I have three, with more to come.

1. Energy Savvy Senior - a lens related to how Dad and I are making energy-related changes around our home.

2. Savvy Senior Writer - a lens highlighting my freelance writing and blogging ability in hopes of attracting more freelance work.

3. Savvy Journaling - The Artist's Way - As a huge fan of Julia Cameron and her The Artist's Way series of books about journaling and finding our spiritual path to high creativity, I am excited about this lens. I think I'm done with it, but I never know. I may do some other related lens regarding journalling.

I have been a long time fan of The Artist's Way and writing morning pages and going on artist dates. These books were instrumental in bringing me to where I am today as a journalist and blogger.

I still have a number of lens' to create and a lot to learn, but everything is good.

Come over and visit. Maybe you will be a Squid soon. The lens are easy to build and there are a ton of directions you can go in - all for donating to your favorite charity or creating your own income. Lots of great people, friendly and willing to help a newbie squider (or is it squidooer?) learn.

What creative endeavor have you gotten yourself into lately? Are you learning anything new? If not, why not?

Let's Sleep On It

Home and Garden channel (HGTV) had a show last season called, "Let's Sleep On It". I thought it was an interesting show. A house hunting couple narrowed their choice down to two houses. Of course, most of the time she liked one and he liked the other.

What was unique about this show? The couple could spend the night in one of the houses, the one they thought they might buy. They even got to invite family and friends over for a party.

Then, they got to sleep on it while they pondered the pros and cons of living in the house. The next day they were required to make a decision on whether or not to buy.

I often wondered if they decided not to buy that house, could they go back and take another look at the other house? The show never goes beyond their final sleep-on-it decision.

I think a follow-up show of several couples and where they end up six months later would be interesting.

This morning on the WebMD website was an article about making decisions. Many times people are told to "sleep on it" before making a decision so they aren't making a choice by knee-jerk reaction.

This article indicates just the opposite is now proving true. It is much better to sort through all the information, deliberate, and then make a decision.

Some people make decisions in the blink of an eye, others require time to think about it, while still others choose to sleep on it. New studies show the thinkers who spent time consciously thinking things through were the winners.

All this thinking is tiring me out. Maybe I better sleep on it after all.

What do you think?

Ticked Off Postmistress, Part 2

As Paul Harvey always said, "And here is the rest of the story."

While I was standing in line at the post office mentioned in the previous post, I observed an approximately seventy-year-old woman trying to send two packages. The soon-to-glare-at-me clerk was going through an interrogation process with this pleasant looking, but increasingly confused woman.

She told him that the seven to ten day shipping was fine, but he kept pressing her to use the quicker two-three day service. She specifically said, "No, the seven to ten day is fine." He gave a shake to his head as if to insinuate that she was senile and said, "But it will get there faster this way, and it's only a few cents more."

She again said that the longer time was no problem. He again insisted that it was only a few cents more to ship it the faster way. The few cents more was approximately sixty cents or so for each package. She had asked several times how much this was going to cost so price was a concern for her.

Finally, in frustration, she said, "I don't care. Do what you want."

He smiled what could only be called a Cheshire grin, put the postage on the box, and charged her the higher amount.

This is what lead me to question the possibility that the postal service is trying to up sell.

Am I going to take on the U.S. Postal Service over this issue?

You're kidding, right?

One Ticked Off Postmistress

Well, I did it this time. Stopped at the local post office to mail a package, walked up to the counter, and after the fourth or fifth question, naively asked, "What are you doing, trying to up sell?"

That question hit a hot button with my previously friendly postmistress. I was told in no uncertain terms that they were required to ask these questions and many people realized they needed more than they thought they did when they came in to mail packages.

I asked how long they had been asking all these questions and she responded, "Three years. We used to have fifteen questions we were required to ask, but the postal service has whittled it down to..."

I missed her answer because I was shaking my head and saying, "You're asking too many questions."

She asked me a couple more questions, I paid the required amount, and turned to walk away. The other postal clerk was glaring at me, but so be it. I glared back.

I've been around marketing long enough to know what up selling sounds like and this sure sounded like up selling to me.

Is it up selling or is it customer service? What do you think?

Life at Warp Speed

It's difficult to believe I haven't posted since Sunday night! What have I been doing? Just living life.

Monday morning the Direct TV technician performed his magic and now I have all the channels I'm supposed to have. The local channels, and, of course, many of my favorites, disappeared Friday morning. Now I'm excited that I have access once again.

Just in time to not watch much TV because my writing and blogging assignments and learning curve have taken a sharp upward turn. That is good news, but keeps me from doing fun writing like this blog.

In fact, I spent this morning shuffling paper and trying to decide what to do next. Placed items in piles, rearranged the piles, reread how to articles, shut down the computer due to an electrical storm, rebooted an hour later and still haven't done anything I would call productive.

Sometimes there is just too much incoming into my brain, especially as I'm learning about setting up websites, widgets, SEO and internet marketing, twitter, digg it, social membership sites, and a whole lot more. Yikes!

I'm having a blast and learning tons, but after all, I am a senior citizen. Sometimes I think it would be easier just to turn on the TV and surf through the myriad channels for a while. Maybe I could find something mind-numbing and zone out for the day.

Naw, I'm enjoying my new career too much to settle in front of the boob-tube. Well, time to get back to work.

What has you going at warp-speed? Are you keeping up, catching up, or resting up?

The To-Do List That Didn't!

Why does it seem lately that the busier I am, the longer it takes to get anything accomplished?

1. I sent my family members an attachment of a link to my new writing website which is set up to sell my writing services. I asked for honest critque about how it looked and sounded.

Excited was I when I heard back from my brother a couple of hours later. Alas, it was to let me know the attachment wasn't there. So I replied to his email by sending him, and everyone else, the link posted within the body.

2. I wrote a blurb this afternoon because I submitted my new writing site to a list to advertise my writing services, where I hopefully will pick up some work. Several hours later, I got a well deserved email asking me to re-write the blurb in the 3rd person to bring it in line with the others on the site.

Oops! I forgot to check the wording protocol.

3. Last night I set out to write an article for publication on an article content site, but since I quickly thought of several other specific topics very close to that subject, I ended up drafting four articles, did the research for all four at once, including keywords.

Now tonight, instead of a completed article submitted as intended, I have four rough draft articles and who knows when they will get completed.

Oh, woe is me!

What is that saying? The hurrier I go the behinder I get. Or something to that effect.

What did I accomplish this weekend, you might ask? I made a wonderfully delicious white bean chili that will not last long in this household.

And this afternoon, in the midst of my busy writing and rewriting, I made a loaf of moist warm mouth-watering banana bread. Yum!

I take it all back - I accomplished more than I expected. But why were my accomplishments mostly in the area of food?

Hmmm! That's food for thought!

So, on this quiet Sunday night, how was your weekend? Did it meet or exceed your expectations, or would you like to add a short rant in the comments?

Maybe in the long run it turned out better than you think.

Do it Anyway

Martina McBride sings a beautiful anthem to those who dare to dream yet wonder if their dreams will ever come true. The name of the song is "Anyway".

The tune and words come to mind many times when I feel I'm stretching beyond what I am capable of doing. A phrase in the chorus says, "Do it anyway."

I'm in the midst of a writing course that includes putting myself further out onto the Web than I've ever been before. I'm setting up a website, or two, or three, and will offer my writing services and products.

This is a huge step for me and fear wants to hold me back. But all along the way, I keep telling myself, "Do it anyway."

I've listened to a couple of speakers via web videos yesterday and today, who have flourished in their field. They are at the top of their game and still have not hit the proverbial ceiling.

Both of them said the same thing - no matter what stumbling block came along, or what their head tried to tell them, they kept going and did what they needed to do to reach their goals.

Both have, in fact, gone way beyond what they ever thought they were capable of or expected to do in their life and with their blogs.

No matter what our head tells us, ultimately we must follow our heart, or our gut instincts. We must do whatever we need to do to accomplish our goals.

It's not always easy and it's not always fun, but I, for one, am determined to succeed in spite of the fear.

I'm going to become a success in this field (by my definition of success) and enjoy the fruit of my labor. I'm going to "do it anyway" whether I "feel" like it or not.

What prevents you from accomplishing your goals? Or, what caused you to succeed against all odds? What carried you through? We would love to hear your stories.

My New Day Job

Such a volunteer I am!

I've studied grant proposal writing for several months now, but finally got up the courage to call around for an opportunity to actually, well, write. At the same time, the director of the Senior Center my father attends was looking for someone to write grants.

Now I am writing my first grant proposal, pro bono, and excited to finally have a live assignment.

Therefore, I spent several hours this morning looking for funders. I got really excited when I found a local foundation, but unfortunately the deadline was April 1st. Well, I'm all set for next year. Anyway, back to the drawing board.

For me, the learning curve for grant writing is steep. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. At least with this type of writing, I'll feel like I am making a difference in the lives of others.

How have you stepped out of your comfort zone lately? What new adventure are you undertaking? Or would like to? Share if you dare...