Category: FUN THINGS

My father wrote an amazing book – “Publicani”

Posted on by Senia

This is the first official announcement on my site about my father’s book.
You can get it on Amazon for $7.95. It’s by far one of the best books I’ve ever read.

My dad – Zak Maymin – wrote a book called “Publicani.” Publicani is a term for a government official and tax-collector in biblical times. It is set in the near future, when one family fights against the government after the government tries to take something from one of the family members. It’s a major action-adventure book. And it’s really – more than anything – a page-turner. You want to keep reading to see how it turns out.

Get the book HERE on Amazon.

Publicani

The book has received great reviews:

  • A Riveting, Entertaining Read
  • Thriller, science fiction, satire, plea for human dignity and liberty, mysticism, novel about families: you can answer All Of The Above, but you can’t stop turning the pages.
  • A fascinating twist on eminent domain, a futuristic political thriller from start to finish
  • Politically, we are already in the world of the publicani
  • Gripping, Thought-Provoking

I look forward to hearing what you think about the book! Please enjoy it!

Senia

Study Finds Working at Work Improves Productivity

Posted on by Senia

This is a must-read.
:)

And in a sense, this is what we positive psychology folks take tongue-in-cheek while at the same time looking over our shoulder and really asking, “Man, is what we are studying a tautology?” “Are we separating out real issues?” “Are we asking deep, effective questions?”

Very fun. Enjoy the link.

skillfully combining the simplicities

Posted on by Senia

“What is a Teacher? A Teacher is the special person who has the responsibility to provide the “Eyes” for a student, and helps the student to “See”. A good Teacher directs the student’s eyes to the simple parts first, and slowly, bit by bit, gently guides the seeking hands along a proven path. He carefully points out the next bits of knowledge, skillfully combining the simplicities, until the top of the mountain unfolds, not as a “complexity of facts”, but as a workable system, perfectly understood and usable by the student.”

~ Violin method book by Eden Vaning-Rosen

One of my favorite people in the world emailed me this today. I absolutely love it. So often, I say, “life is easy. it really is. I can choose the easy way to do something or the hard way. what if it were easy?” And the easy way needs to also be the right way.

I love too that this is in a violin book:
* Directs the student’s eyes to the simple parts first
* Points out the next bits of knowledge
until …
* a workable system
* the top of the mountain

I also like that the end result is not a “complexity of facts.” By the time you get there, you’re not memorizing facts; you’re using parts you understand. This is how I want to be as a teacher.

possible to create, even without ever writing a word

Posted on by Senia

Why is it that when business people are taught about creativity, they start to create voraciously?! Writing poems, painting, singing, writing songs? You wouldn’t think that the pinnacle of business excellence is when the person could take some time off and pursue creative endeavors? But maybe that is the pinnacle, and maybe it should be.

Did you read the WSJ cover article last week about Peter Muller, the Morgan Stanley quant trader who took years off to do creative things, including writing songs and playing music in the NYC subway… the WSJ had a quote something along the lines of “if anyone had known that this particular subway musician was worth millions…”

Why is it that Mike Csikszentmihalyi, the creator of the concept and author of the book Flow, says that creativity is important? Is creativity important to flow? Why does creativity become so important along so many lines?

Maybe it’s because of this…

“I do believe it is possible to create, even without ever writing a word or painting a picture, by simply molding one’s inner life. And that too is a deed.”
~ Etty Hillesum

Here is Etty’s quote bio from the Daily quote list:

About Etty Hillesum
Etty Hillesum, less famous than her contemporary, Anne Frank, lived a short life of great courage. She was born in 1914 in the Netherlands to a Dutch father and a Russian mother. She studied law, Slavic languages, and psychology. Hungry for knowledge, she cut down on food in order to buy books. She went voluntarily to the Westerbork camp to help fellow Jews interned by the Nazis. Her letters detail her experiences; her more meditative diary focuses on issues of faith. She died at Auschwitz in 1943.

Radio program on “happiness and work” postponed

Posted on by Senia

Hi – our radio program originally scheduled for Monday 8-9am is postponed. This week all the programming on this channel (114) for the “Be Happy, Dammit” show will be pre-recorded replays. This has to do with the channel itself, and we will be put into a new slot later on.

This is a new change as of Sunday, 8/26…. so our program will have a new date, and we don’t know the new date yet. We’ll let you know as soon as we know.

Here is the original post about the show.

Best,
Senia

Make a HUGE Wish on 7-7-07, and Enjoy TANABATA!

Posted on by Senia

This is one of my three favorite holidays.
It is a love story in Japan.

If you make a wish on this day, and if it does not rain, then your wish will come true! This year it is especially lucky because it is the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year.

Here’s the story as I wrote about it last year. It is a colorful, wildly fun holiday, and I wish I were in Japan this year for this holiday!
tanabata_tree.jpgtanabata_children.jpg
(Images from here).

THE TWO STARS:
Tanabata means “Festival of the stars.” This is a story about the two stars Altair (the boy) and Vega (the girl) which are the main stars in two constellations, Aquila the eagle and Lyra the musical lyre:

aquila.giflyra.gif


Altair and Vega are also two of the three stars of the Summer Triangle, and appear closest to each other in the summertime. (Images from here and here).

THE LOVE STORY:
There was a girl named Orihime – she was the daughter of the Sky God and she wove beautiful weavings. One day, she looked out of her window and saw the oxen-boy, Hikoboshi, and they fell in love. They spent so much time together that she didn’t have any time to weave, and so the Sky God separated the two, and allowed them to only meet each other on the seventh of the seventh.

Why is the Milky Way involved? “In the Chinese Calender, there is almost always a half moon on July 7th and they believe ORIHIME and [HIKOBOSHI] use that half moon as a boat to meet each other over the great river in the sky, AMANOGAWA [the Milky Way],” reports this site.

YOUR ROLE:

As long as the Milky Way does not overflow, everyone’s wish will come true on this day. So you can put on your bright summer cotton kimono, called the “yukata,” and you can go dancing in the parks, and you can write your wishes on brightly colored paper (as Dave describes here!) and tie them to a plant (in Japan, it would be a bamboo tree). And finally, you make that wish wholly and deliberately, and then you let go….

Jicama Happiness

Posted on by Senia

I tried an absolutely new food yesterday.

I guess it’s always been at the grocery store, but I just never paid attention and never looked for it. It’s crisp and bright and has a very pale sweetness. The clerk at the farmstand was eating a slide, and I asked her what it was, and she said, “JICAMA! It’s delicious, and very low calorie.” And she brought me a slice.

Jicama!

I had never even thought something like this exists. So lightly sweet. I guess you never cook jicama – it tastes somewhat like an apple-pear but much less sweet – just a hint of sweetness, and on the outside, it’s (strangely enough!) the same color as a potato!

Here are some summer jicama recipes:
* Jicama orange salad!!! by Lu Recipes
* Jicama salad by Whole Foods
* Jicama beet salad by the Reluctant Housewife

What makes a good blog post?

Posted on by Senia

This brief list from SEO for WordPress. Love this list (I’m not always a list-person, but this one I think is just so sharp, and so representative of what it says! Bold added).

1. Good blog posts are laser-focused.
2. Good blog posts are relevant to the target audience.
3. Good blog posts are personable.
4. Good blog posts have original content.
5. Good blog posts are readable.
6. Good blog posts link to other relevant information.
7. Good blog posts have accurate, intriguing titles.