Lights, Camera, Action!
March 28, 2007 | 9:00 am
Paul and I have been working on a video to promote my upcoming book, Open Your Heart with Geocaching, and it’s been an interesting experience.
One of the services my company offers is writing video scripts, and I’ve written a lot of such scripts … promotional videos, marketing videos, instructional videos, documentary videos. So I rather thought that this video would be a breeze.
Of course, those videos ran from seven minutes to half an hour. This one is supposed to run for about three minutes (for the long version; some spots should be for 30 seconds!).
Oops.
It’s interesting, though, the process of paring writing down to its essentials. In my first version of the script, I talked about the logistics and specifics of the hobby, about GPS receivers and geocaching containers. Once I realized that I needed to cut it down, that was the first material to be cut. Because at the end of the day, this is about opening one’s heart. If viewers don’t get that, they’re not going to get the book.
Yet another challenge in the exciting life of a geocacher!
Posted by: — jcezanne
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A Technique for Producing Ideas
March 25, 2007 | 3:17 pm
Why am I writing about an advertising book here, on a site that focuses on making your life better? Because James Webb Young’s book applies not just to advertising, but to problem-solving in general.
Have you ever wondered how you get those great ideas that just pop into your head when you’re in the shower, taking a walk, driving, etc.? The fabulous concepts that you know are dead-on right and will solve a lingering problem?
A Technique for Producing Ideas clarifies the process that you’ve likely been using – albeit without knowing it – making it something that you can control so you can use it more frequently. Written by James Webb Young (1886 – 1973), who was very well-known in advertising, the book is tiny (the edition I read has 47 pages), but powerful.
In a nutshell, you start by gathering your raw material – information both from your particular field/line of work, as well as from other areas. Have you ever noticed how people who inspire awe with their creativity do not limit themselves to just one area of knowledge, but rather are really well-read and generally informed? The accumulation of ideas and concepts from a variety of places is what gives you the foundation for creating brilliant new solutions.
After you’ve gathered your raw material – a step that Young cautions should not be rushed – you then start consciously processing the information and your problem. Next, you give up thinking about it and just let it incubate. Then, voila! One day in the shower your solution comes to you. At that point, of course, you still have to fine-tune it, but you’ll at least have a basis to work from.
Although the book is aimed at advertising, it’s clear that this method can be used to create ideas in any profession, or in life in general. If you give your subconscious the right raw material, and then ask for guidance from your Higher-Self/the Universe/God, the answers WILL come.
Posted by: — Meg
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Springtime in the Rockies
March 23, 2007 | 5:33 pm
When springtime comes to the Rockies, it’s beautiful. Of course, for skiers, it comes earlier. The snow changes with the sun, producing a wonderful skiing surface known as “corn” because of the small, kernel-sized pellets that make up the surface. Corn provides a consistent, pleasant skiing surface that’s very forgiving and that can be trusted to hold an edge. Now is a great time to get out and ski!
Last week I had a family from Kansas City show up at Copper. Two boys, their mom, Mom’s sister, and Mom’s mom all came to Copper to learn to ski for the first time. We started by talking about skis, the bindings, how to fit into the skis, and how to shuffle over to the magic carpet for their first experiences. After a very short time, they were all making it down the small hill from the top of the magic carpet to the bottom. Smiles all around!
Proof that anyone can learn skiing and enjoy it from their first day. What about you?
Let’s go!
Posted by: — Stephen Hultquist
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What in the World…
March 21, 2007 | 12:39 pm
… is going on in the blogosphere? Want to find out?
Check out http://www.wefeelfine.org, a visual, real-time emotion meter that tells you what the Internet’s bloggers are up to right now. (Not only that, as a techie friend of mine remarked, but also a stunning and beautiful piece of user interface design.)
Be careful: nothing on this site has been censored. But take a peek at what’s going on right now.
It may even open your heart a little!
— Jeannette Cézanne
Posted by: — jcezanne
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The Journey is as Important as the Destination
| 12:36 pm
That’s something we all know, isn’t it? Yet so much of our time is focused on getting somewhere, getting something, getting someone, and we forget what we know in the pursuit of what we feel we should have.
Geocaching provides a great metaphor for this dichotomy. It’s essentially a treasure hunt, right? Well … not really. Because if you read the geocaching forums, you’ll see that people are constantly complaining of the low quality of trinkets found in caches.
So, okay, you won’t expect to get anything; but the triumph is in the actual act of locating the cache, right? Again, not really. I went out geocaching on Monday, and the cache container was sitting in the open, visible for hundreds of feet around. Not exactly a challenge.
But I was glad I’d gone, glad too for the serendipitous mistake I’d made in choosing a route where the terrain was, to say the least, challenging. I started out in a forest where recent terrible storms had felled a significant number of trees, their ripped trunks and dead carcasses strewn all around me. Then it was down a very steep trail to walk along the edge of a large pond, watching ducks paddling about their business. Up another (could it be?) even steeper incline, and the pond reappeared, miles (or so it seemed) below me.
After that, did I need the cache? Not really. The journey had been fulfilling and is what will stay with me. Now all I need to do is to apply that geocaching experience to my life, and I expect I’ll find myself becoming a happier, more peaceful, and more fulfilled person.
— Jeannette Cézanne
Posted by: — jcezanne
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Vicarious Travel
March 19, 2007 | 11:59 am
Because of my husband’s business travel, we have accumulated a large quantity of frequent flyer miles and hotel points. I have posted some travel reviews and photos on Trip Connect. Take a look:
http://www.tripconnect.com/tripconnect/profile/lisamarie
If you like them, feel free to give me a “cheer!”
Posted by: — lmercer
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Taking Over The World with Geocaching!
March 14, 2007 | 8:36 am
The major sponsor of my ongoing geo-event, Bread & Roses, is Backcountry.com. I’ve developed a nice relationship with Backcountry’s phenomenal representative, Kendall Card, and it was natural for me to ask him if he’d be willing to give me a quote for the cover of Open Your Heart with Geocaching.
He did, which was very kind. But even better was the fact that he’s becoming a convert. Here’s his email:
What an awesome book! I’m really glad you shared it with me. I’ve read about half the book, most all of it in one sitting. I know I’ll be finishing it. You know, I never really understood geocaching, even after sponsoring a couple of your events. But my philosophy of exploration and nature is so closely related to what you have written about the fruits of geocaching that I am genuinely interested in embracing it - and not just for my own enjoyment but for the way that geocaching could open up a whole new world for my children, whom I have tried thus far in life to expose to nature more and more. My wife and I have a favorite quote that we refer to often in raising our children.
“Sadly, each generation seems to be further removed from nature than the previous generation. Our children probably spend less time roaming freely outdoors than we did as kids. They’re busy with such things as computer games, soccer matches, and gymnastic meets. As parents, we need to make sure they have plenty of opportunities to explore and experience nature on their own” - Alice Cary
I think that geocaching may further help Cynthia and I to achieve this goal. Thank you for opening my eyes to this through your book.
So I have my first convert-via-the-book, and it’s not even out yet! World domination is next!
— Jeannette Cézanne
Posted by: — jcezanne
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A Moment of Perfect Beauty
March 7, 2007 | 11:46 am
Hawks, hawks, and more hawks.
I’m in Provincetown again for the month of March. Paul came down to help me get settled in, and on Saturday we headed out to check out a few local geocaches. One in particular caught my eye: it’s called “Where’s the Fort?” and it brings cachers to a place where a fort once stood; since I’m still preparing my own geocache that will take people on a tour of the lost places of Manchester, I had particular interest in this kind of geocache conceptualization.
It was cold – frigid, in fact. But suddenly there they were: marsh hawks, wheeling and swooping close enough to us that we could see their eyes. Paul grabbed his binoculars and we stood out on a windswept hill, entranced, temporarily unaware of the cold. With the enlargement afforded by the binoculars, we could see every inch of them, the flecks of brown, the beak, the marvelous beautiful fringed wings.
And then they were gone, and the cold returned. But oh! when they were there – what a moment of warmth!
— Jeannette Cézanne
Posted by: — jcezanne
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