I have some excitement brewing because I’m affiliated to give you something from Jeff Goin that has really helped me with my writing.
I listened to this audio about how to publish on Kindle and within a week I had 4 digital books housed on the Kindle Store and over 600 downloads! These new readers juiced up my website hits. I thought it would be much harder to make my writing into a digital book. Jeff lays it all out clearly and simply.
I’m so thankful the technology for publishing is now finally easy enough for anyone with a computer to do.
Anyone with a Kindle App or a Kindle Reader can read your stuff with ONE Click. (that’s a ton of people) Plus, there’s the huge benefit of Amazon acting like a search engine and promoting your work. That, my friends, is a coup!
You can do it too, and you’ll be happy you did.
You should know that this Black Friday weekend, there’s an EXTRA 25% off deal running. Click here for the details link get promo code.
(It’s just for the weekend, so grab it now while you can.)
(Yes, the image shown here is like something out of the mid-1990s, with the CD image…but don’t be fooled, Jeff’s advice is easy to understand and it’s up-to-date. There’s no CD; you’ll listen to the audio and be able to digitally publish your stuff in a just few days, just like I did.)
I knew Steve Jobs was going to die, so I’m not surprised. But, I am saddened. The departure of such a pivot human being so effecting to the way many of us live everyday is a profound event. What a creative mind. How innovative. What a gift we had.
MacIntosh, Pixar, iPod…and so on probably touched your world too.
The man had 317 patents (see a list and visuals here), and forever altered not just personal computing, but telephone communication, media, the music industry, computer animation/movies, and how we encounter the internet. There’s an App for everything, but now there is no App for missing him. iMourn was the headline on one major online news source, and worldwide Twitter Trends yesterday and today included #ThankYouSteveJobs, #iSad, #ThinkDifferent, #Pixar and more in tribute to him.
I remember using the 1984 MacIntosh, the first product to make Personal Computers truly accessible to regular people. The first Mac I could buy myself was a 7100, with money from a school loan. Graphic Designers are schooled on Macs. We enjoy Apple products. We get loyal, and admire the continual creativity and innovation of a man and a company that doesn’t settle or rely on pilfering products and ideas from other companies to keep going. One word describes Jobs, and really a large part of the American spirit: Innovation!
My prayers go to his family and friends. He leaves behind his wife of 20 years, Laurene, and their 3 children: Reed, Erin, and Eve.
He will be very missed by a great many around the globe.
Do you have a favorite Apple product? What was one of your first experiences like with an Apple product?
I thank you to share your feelings or comments about the passing of Steve Jobs.
Some of us don’t fast. Some of us fast for the wrong reason. This is the first of a few posts on FASTING. Bring your thoughts to the table, and stick with us until the end. I promise, you’ll see Fasting in a new light.
Here are 5 Poor Reasons to Fast, and the “inner monologue” that may follow one’s rationale. Can you see yourself or someone you know in the following?
1. To lose weight.
(inner monologue) Oh, if I could only lose these last 8 pounds. I know, I’ll kill two birds with stone, and fast. It’ll be like a diet, only it’ll make God happy, and me feel better about myself at the same time.
2. Because other people are fasting.
(inner monologue) I’m going to look like such an pathetic loser if I don’t join in this fast with my group. There’s going to be an awkward silence if or when I don’t have something to say amazing to say about my fast.
3. To prove something to yourself.
(inner monologue) It’s just time for a change. I’m ready for God to do something BIG. Really Big. There’s nothing like fasting to give God the signal that I’m ready to follow his lead. This time I’ll try for 5 days.
4. To attract positive attention.
(inner monologue) I like to tell my friends when I fast…to keep me accountable. But it makes me feel encouraged to just tell them about it, I must admit. Hopefully, it encourages them.
5. To feel more spiritual.
(inner monologue) Sometimes when I’m going through a dry period spiritually, I like to crank it up a notch, and give food the boot for a while. I want it to sort of give me a boost, and start a fire for God in my heart.
Have you ever thought any of these things? What has been your inner monologue, or dubious reasons you’ve heard for fasting?
I’ll be address each one of these, and your comments, in the next post. Can you think of a bad reason to fast?
TO BE CONTINUED…
So-Don’t miss the important conclusions on this topic in the upcoming post. Sign up to get an update notice as soon as it’s posted.
I’ve known Jon Acuff for few years now. We have had the same agent. And he even gave me an invitation to write on his blog. (Here’s the post). See, I was a fan of Stuff Christians Like long before Jon wrote his first book, called, well, not surprisingly: Stuff Christian Like. (Now, he has a HQ website for all things Acuff.) And I was reading his funnies, even long before he was selling ads to….what?! NBC… my goodness. And let’s not forget all those fox and CNN appearances. Before those. Oh! and even way back (sort of ) when he was using his …um…decoy name, or something, “Jon Christopher”… seemingly to throw weaker fans, or readers, off his scent (to no avail, of course!). Anyone remember that?
So, I can’t rival Jon’s awesomeness, or his blog of epic fame and legend. (Jon gets more comments to his blog post in two minutes than I get in visitors all week.) However, I enjoy the ironical, and so might you.
7 Reasons Why my Blog will make you cry LESS than Jon Acuff’s (humor) blog
Jon Acuff: Funny man. Serious man. Modern Legend.
1. Unlike Jon, I only rarely talk about orphans. Heck, for ages, “an orphan” was a thing that happens in typography, where a word unsuspecting word is just left by its lonesome at the end of a paragraph. Poor thing. Bad, graphic designer. Bad!
Right now, I’m tearing up just thinking about a person (specifically Jon) writing about orphans (the human kind). So, there you go. You need more proof, then click to read his orphan article here. Orphans break out the water works like nothing else can. The only thing worse for your tissue stockpile is an orphan with cancer. That cute bald head. The sweet bloated little belly. Horrible stuff. I’m changing the subject. ugh.
2. Jon can make plenty of us cry, sometimes by just being a tad more serious, on Serious Wednesdays. That’s skill folks. I’ll never do that to you. It just not in me. (I mean I don’t haz the skillz) For future notice, I happen to be sillier on Wednesday than Jon is, thereby making my ability to incite tears pale by comparison. So, in case you’re keeping track, that would be proof # 2.
3. Jon writes touching things about his kids, that are profound and can make your eyes as moist and irritated as rubbing a hot chili pepper on your iris. Go ahead get a chili pepper and see for yourself.
4. Jon raises money for orphans. So, you know, it’s not talk. It’s action. And needless to say, it’s frickin’ orphans, dude. If that’s not so sweet to be tear jerking, than you must be the Tin Man–pre-Emerald City–my friend.
5. When Jon cries, we cry. More proof here. Don’t miss the comments section. About 400 people admit to crying. I’m not joking. It’s Unbelievable. See, I never cried in an airport except when I’ve been with a TSA worker. You just won’t find a story like that here.
6. Jon loves his wife, and it shows. Witness this. Honestly, where the heck are my tissues, the ones with aloe? (I don’t know if people even know if I’m married-which I am. There I said it. Gosh.)
7. Jon is generous. He’s always helping out struggling writers, ahem, and plenty of other people. Plenty. It’s almost too good to be true. (I have NEVER given huge bundles of hard cash at a bookstore, or iPads, or iPod shuffles, or really any Apple products at all. I’m so lame, but unfortunately not lame enough to stir your tears of pity.)
Have I made my case?
P.S. If you are a blogger that offers fewer crying opportunities than Jon does, and you’d like some more blog traffic, share your blog link in the comments section, and we’ll stop by.
The ones with “*” are just made up for the sake of humor. (Let’s just say, I like to insert humor, and yet be an insightful resource for you. Your welcome people of earth.)
THE TEST
Answer yes or no:
1. You spend more than two hours a day interacting with/using technology.
2. You have extraordinarily strong thumbs compared to an Amish person.*
3. You have a short attention span, which has gotten shorter. (Finishing this self-test even seems like a challenge at this point.)
4. You have trouble sleeping at few times per week.
5. Your short term memory seems to be suffering. (Like right now, for instance, you might even have to concentrate to remember why you wanted to take this self-test in the first place).
6. You like to change channels on the tv a lot, and you bounce from thing to thing online, at work, and at home.
7. If you set out to do something, and get online, or start texting, you tend to get distracted from your original task or objective. (Maybe-just now-you were checking on the news, email, or something, and whoops here you are taking this test, ’cause, “heck, it’ll only take a minute!”)
8. You get more than 1 headache a week.
9. You’d contemplate enhancing your brain with extra RAM or flash memory, (if it were possible.)*
10. 48 hours with no technology seems quite unlikely, or basically a bad idea.
HOW DID YOU DO?
1 or more YES answers mean your thought patterns (and your actual physical grey matter) is being altered by the “cooperation with technology.” So, basically you could be “less human” than you were just a short while ago. Okay, I just made all that up about the test answers. It’s not scientific. Nevertheless, beyond the silliness, the point stands: What we do and think thoroughly (mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically) changes us. For real.
Please post your results, out of 10. Let’s see how we all stack up.
(My number is 10 of 10…usually)
From studying the brain, scientists have found that repeated thoughts and mental or physcial actions (like texting, reading, speaking, running, etc.) actually create physicalgrooves in the brain, not just faster neuron pathways. When we practice a skill, learn a sport, or study facts, a little trench is carved into our brain tissue. This is also another reason it is hard to break a habit. A habit is physical. One must make a new brain groove to break a habit. By 21 days, a habit is well-formed.
This natural condition of the function of the brain helps us to learn–in the best-case scenario. In a worst-case scenario these thoughts become ditches of obsessive thoughts, vices, bad habits, sin, and worse. We learn to be bad, better. And, with all the technological interaction, we become more ill-at-ease, tired, nervous, restless, and unhappy, in fact. There is a physical change detectable on brain imaging equipment because of it. (So, you could say, it’s not just “in your head”. ha. groan. sorry.)
Food for thought? YES. Think about all the negative chatter that goes on in the mind, for instance, everyday, or even every hour. A person thinks about sixty thousand thoughts each day. Many are random thoughts and many are negative. Have you ever taken an hour and made a hatch mark for each non constructive or obsessive thought that comes to your mind? You could get a hand cramp!
There’s that song, “Be careful little eyes what you see…and little hands what you do…and little ears what you hear…” Well, yeah. Be careful. It matters.
We must watch our thoughts and actions, because they actually make up who we are.
Also if you feel a specific pattern occurring in your life, or notice habitual unhelpful thoughts afflicting you, you can know for certain they are creating an actual trench in your mind. So, take it as your own “red flag”.
See if you can “get a new groove” going. Consciously fasting from technology, even for a short bit, can give your groove-producing brain a well-needed break.
My friend Ed, recommends a needed 5 minute retreat, here. Good stuff!
The expression “a one track mind” is truer than we ever believed!
