The Exclamation Generation

I feel like I am over-using exclamation points in my email communications.  Every message has to have one or at least two, or a single building up to a double dabbled with a happy face and maybe a wink.  Every email and note is a declaration of immense excitement!  It’s wearing me out.

At the same time, I don’t want an email to sound too casual, or worse, too stiff….hence living in a constant state of exclamation.

So I looked it up to see if I was the only person suffering from exclamation fatigue, and found some interesting articles:

So Many Exclamation Points! by Jacob Rubin on SLATE

excerpt:

As Shipley and Schwalbe would have it, the advent of electronic communication creates a greater need for pre-modern wonderment. In their view, the exclamation is no mere crutch for the lazy writer but an essential tonic against the grayness of electronic communication: “Because email is without affect, it has a dulling quality that almost necessitates kicking everything up a notch just to bring it to where it would normally be.” But what does it mean that e-mail is without affect? Is a blank piece of loose leaf somehow rich with the stuff?

The Joys of Exclamation Marks!  by Stuart Jeffries for the Guardian, UK

excerpt:

Or maybe I’m wrong. After all, exclamation marks – those forms of punctuation derided by the funless and fastidious – are making a comeback, thanks to an internet renaissance that is bleeding over into every form of written communication. Once it was bad form to end a paragraph with an exclamation mark. Now it’s borderline obligatory. Once it was enough to put a sign on your door: “Back in five minutes.” Now, without the flourish of an exclamation mark, that sign lacks verve or at least zeitgeisty voguishness. Go figure!

Sounds like it’s contagious!!

I’m going to try to calm my self down…deep breaths…and figure some other way of keeping my e-communication calm….these dotty dots have been a favorite lately (smile).

Moment of Zen

aerial photos of tulip farms in Holland

Sell the Sizzle, not the Steak

This phrase has been stuck in my head lately.  Usually, with sales, you

should focus on the benefits of the product and not the product’s features.

Some food for thought…

The phrase “Sell the sizzle not the steak” is an old sales aphorism that tells us something about human nature. The best sales people in the world understand human nature almost intuitively.

When we go to the store to buy a lightbulb we don’t really want a lightbulb, we want the light it provides. When that bulb burns out – I curse the dark and buy another – for the light. I don’t really care about the bulb itself.

When we go out to eat (for steak or whatever) it’s not for the food itself. Sure, I may be hungry, but really I have a lot of choices to satisfy my hunger. I choose a restaurant because it gives me the kind of experience I want and solves my hunger problem. Taste, smell, ambiance, location, service are just a few of the reasons I might choose a particular restaurant. And these things speak to my emotions through my senses.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Something wicked this way comes…

Rose Scarves in Rachel Schwarz’s immersive image…

11:11 is the best time of the day

I saw this and nearly fell out of my seat.

11:11 is the best time of the day.

Don’t ask me why…it just is.

Make a wish!

Education: Back to Class

Joseph Albers, Homage to the Square: Yellow Resonance, 1957
Oil on masonite, 40 x 40 inches

I love taking classes and I’m excited about some courses I’ve signed up for in the Spring: Color Theory and Contemporary Art History

at the UC Berkeley Extension.  The art center is located right across from SFMOMA, right in the heart of the arts district!

It’s been a while since I was in a formal class and I hope I’m not too much of a wild child to sit in class and study, but

I am eager to learn in these subjects.  Rice University, where I went to school, was a great place, but leaned

more towards science than the arts.  I could take the “Psychology of Perception” but “Color Theory?” sorry, charlie.

I majored in Art and Art History (mostly the later because I had a lot of previous experience with the former)

and the art history classes sort of dried up after Modern Art (post world war II).

This will definitely add to the mix and maybe even inspire some new work perhaps returning to more traditional styles of original art like painting & sculpture.

I’m psyched

I love compost!

We’ve been keeping a separate compost bin for a few months now ( I know, I know…we

should have been doing this MUCH sooner, but one little step at a time) and I am amazed

at how the bin does not smell…who knew?!?

Once the recycling and compost goes out, plus all the junk to goodwill or a creative reuse center,

there is very little left to actually throw in the garbage.

Yipee!!

I can’t wait until we have an actual backyard so I can try composting for real,

turning all the biodegradable nutrients into food for the garden.

And so the cycle of life goes….

For Julie’s: Tendril Scarves

(photo by ninelle efremova)

(photo by Antonio Marcus)

Roses are a Wonderful Way to Say “I LOve You”

Roses are red, pink, white and blue

They are warm and cozy, durable too

Get one for your sweetheart and you will hear her coo

“thank you, my dear, I know your love is true”

♥

Available on ETSY

the original beautiful photograph by Mark, altered by Me

Fairy Felt

I couldn’t resist putting fairy wings on when I saw this beautiful image by Mark.  Dorky..maybe..but so CUTE