If you want to follow this blog, I warn you. We are emotional, here. We are sometimes frustrated, tired, and some of us are beaten and broken; looking for words that will bring calm to storms that have not passed yet. For the messiah himself was sent to those who were sick. Some of us are sick. Walking mistakes looking to be healed in places technology has not tapped into yet. Waiting for the ink in this pen to heal the shattered pieces of our souls. You see this pen, all courage shaped in my hand, is here to lift the fallen, to restore the broken, and to heal the hurting. The people here, those who follow this blog and the person who owns it, do not all have it together. So, if you want to join us I caution you: We are not robots mechanically maneuvering our way through social media. We do hold ourselves accountable, I must add for excuses do not live here, but we are not fake. We do not inhale html codes and hyperlinks, and our blood is not made of oil. Though I cannot promise you that we won’t leave stains, for we ourselves are stained. And yet, we know that we will not always be this way because our mistakes make room for healing. So we look for evidence of growth in the strangest places, like cracked surfaces, rocks, and hard places. Welcome.
Tag: technology
Writing Addiction: Part 1
I once heard that “if you wake up in the morning and all you can think about is writing, then you’re a writer” (ok so that was actually Sister Act 2, but I did say this is what I HEARD).
Are YOU addicted to writing?
Are you SURE about that?
• Symptom #1: You Take Your Computer to The Movies
Now that is what I call OCD for writing, except this isn’t literal (I take that back, for some it just might be). With the technology these days, trees must be rejoicing from bark not shed for pencils….uh oh, I feel a poem coming on, but I’d stick to the topic here. Don’t wanna get stoned or nothing…you guys are tough.
So instead of walking around pen stuck to pad like we used to, there’s no way I’m gonna miss the opportunity to write a good story because of bad memory. So bye-bye eraser and hello backspace! From mini computers, Mac Books, Tablets, Notebooks, Lenovo’s, and even cell phones, all are getting in on the action. While many are not literally “taking their pcs to the movies”, today’s techno-nerds are practically glued to the cell phone. No matter where you turn you will not escape the hype; everyone has their fingers stuck to text messages and their eyes in one location: down. Every ten minutes we are scanning our fingers across tiny screens, updating social media post, scratching our heads for the next idea, and rolling our eyeballs at the slightest interruption. We spend hours researching, reading, revising, proofreading, and oh? That thing called eating? Not until this sentence is finished. Actually, this chapter. “Is that coffee?” We’ll take it!
Does this sound like you? If your husband/wife finds him/herself competing with you and the notepad on your smartphone, or you can’t stay away from the power switch and alphabet keys long enough to look up, I must say, you’re definitely showing signs of an addiction. Hey, c’mon now, don’t look at me like that. You do know the first step is admitting it….don’t you?
Confessions of an Old School Reader
I try, really I do, but I can’t seem to get into a good novel by staring at a computer screen. I’ve done it, but it just doesn’t compare to the real thing. There is something much more intimate and provoking about holding a book in my hands; feeling its cover, running my fingers across the pages, crisp and sharp; the smell of a fresh book that has never been opened, and the potency of the ink when it jumps off the pages; that new smell from brand new books, like cradling a new born in the crook of your arms. So precious and delicate that you almost don’t want to open it. Don’t want to destroy the perfect foundations by bending it’s shiny flaps or causing a crease. In your lap is the weight of your favorite coffee cup, the modest light of the lamp, and a world waiting for you to enter it. To touch and feel the tangibility of book bindings is to go on a creative high of possibilities. All the way down to when you close a book after coming home from the journey and daydream about the revelations and alternate endings. You can end an eBook but you can’t close it. That big red x in the corner won’t do it justice either. I can’t breathe in deep and close my eyes while holding an eBook in my hands. I can’t stare at the front cover as if there’s more to come or fold the pages over. Highlighting isn’t as fun either. Perhaps the best thing about hard-copies is that these books are much more prone to immortality; they will go back for years and years to come. I smile sometimes at the books of my youth that are still found hanging around, too naïve to be read again with the same zeal but too precious to do away with. The satisfied glory of having been read, watch your favorite collection stand and shine beautifully against the backdrop of the book shelf, a time machine right there in your bedroom.
Resume Writing
This post was prompted by a friend who contacted me because she needed help writing a resume. Before I started fiction writing full time, which I am really only able to do financially because of my husband’s financial support and our collective investment, I was an administrative specialist at a community center. One of my primary duties included helping people to write resumes, complete job applications, mock interviews, and basically the overall job search campaign which included sometimes adult tutoring, especially in the area of computers.
The increase in technology has changed the way that we view everything. From book publishing, printing, and even resume writing. Thing is, you don’t have to do so much writing anymore. What happens now is that your resume will go through a screening process by a computer, which looks up Keywords as it relates to that particular market. If your resume “passes”, that is to say those keywords were found, it will move on to the recruiters’ desk. If your resume “fails” however, it will not even be seen by the employer. Sounds unfair I know but that’s the world we live in.
To make matters easy, you really only need a few sections and minimal writing skills to build a presentable resume:
• Objective OR Professional Profile
• Career History
• Educational Background
• Skills
You can add references as well but that’s even becoming extinct in the area of most importance on a resume (most places want your references during the interview or post resume process). What’s the most important bullet point here? It’s not your educational background, not even your employment history. These days, employers want to hire people they can train and mold into their ideal company representative so there’s a lot of people being rejected because of being “overqualified”. That’s because employers are not really looking for the most intelligent anymore. They are looking for someone who knows how to follow basic instructions and who will not challenge the company’s authority more so than how many degrees someone has. Even when it comes to experience, someone with these basic skills can be hired in a larger capacity than someone with years of job experience in that area. The most important section of your resume today is the “Skills” section.
Depending on what kind of job you’re looking for, make a list of your skills as it relates to that particular position. Write it on a spare piece of paper or whatever but just write down as many as you can. Go to your resume and under “Skills” list them all. Here’s an example of someone applying to a job in the area of Social Media Specialist:
• Strategic Planning
• Business Development
• Brand Identity
• Twitter Management
• Digital Asset Management
• Media Planning /Buying
• Facebook Advertising
• Market Research
• Technology Implementation
• Project Management
• Blogging /Blog Commenting
You may notice I included terms like “Blogging”, “Facebook Advertising”, and “Twitter Management”. This may not seem important but it is, leave nothing out. Any skill you have can be listed here. Sometimes people are looking for employment without really having had a job before and they think they have no skills. You’re alive and breathing aren’t you? Then you have skills! Everyone has something they can do or that they are good at. I don’t care if it’s babysitting, that’s something you can write down. It’s all about understanding the language. Turn “I watch my sister’s children” into keywords like:
• Child Care Development < you are responsible for their well-being
• Cooking / Meal Preparation < you cook for the children
• Creative Initiative < you have to find something for them to do
• Cleaning / Antiseptic Management < you clean up after the children
This will ensure your resume gets through the computer screening process. Now all you really have to do is polish up the other parts of the resume. It is also important, in my opinion, to have more than one resume for the different jobs to which you are applying. This is because a resume for Lead Cook at a restaurant will not look the same, or have the same keywords, as a resume for a school teacher. It is also important to update your resume at least yearly. If you change jobs often, every six months.
Remember, the resume is not designed to get you the job which is a truth I think many of us lose sight of. If you aren’t hired it’s not because your resume was bad, it’s because of other key factors that play a role. Your resume’s job is not to get you the job, its job is to get your foot in the door and by foot in the door I mean: past the screening, into the recruiters’ hands and your butt in the Interview chair.
Note: Oh, and if you can, try to limit your resume to one page. It looks more professional. Here’s a sample:
My New Author Website!
Important Update: My Website has moved and is now available at:
http://literarykornerpublishing.net/
ATTN: This is the permanent website of Yecheilyah Ysrayl. Please go here to purchase books from now on. The old site will remain open for a while during this transition. Thank you for your patience as we strive to improve your buying experience.
Can YOU Spell?
Ah, that lovely red ziggly line, it comes in handy doesn’t it? In the age of increased knowledge and technology we have discovered ways to expedite the learning process. No longer must we search Thesauruses and dictionaries. Why when we have Google? No longer must we sound out words or put effort into phonetics, why when we can always depend on the ziggly line? I for one absolutely adore Microsoft Word’s auto-correction, but is it helpful?
Lately, I’ve been using a different computer and this one in particular does not have Microsoft Word installed as of yet. Instead there’s Word Pad (I know, don’t judge me). As such, Word Pad does not automatically correct errors, leaving me to edit either on my own, or in the WordPress post instead of on the Word document I usually use. (I tend to write in Word and Copy and Paste into WordPress. Personally, this gives me the opportunity to write more clearly and carefully. I almost never draft a new post directly into WordPress unless I am using my phone, and I never publish a post without previewing it first.). While doing this, I noticed that I tend to misspell more words than I do when I use Microsoft Word. It’s as if the real me is the writer using Word Pad because I am correcting on my own, whereas Microsoft Word is my tutor. This got me thinking: Does technology limit certain capabilities we learned in school by acting as a crutch for us? Is it a good idea, every now and again, to do things the old school way? For instance: Does it benefit to use the dishwasher everyday or wash on hand? What kind of skills are present in both? Is there something different that happens when you hand write vs. type? I wonder.
While I am wondering, here’s an idea: For your next blog post, don’t correct the errors that show up in the post! Ignore the red ziggly line and see just how well you do. Use only your own mind and previous knowledge to correct.
Your post can be anything. Use this topic or make one up but write something without using your computer to edit it. So as not to cheat, realistically you will have to draft your post using a document processor, such as Word Pad, that does not automatically correct your mistakes. Or, just turn the auto correct off for Microsoft Word. Then, when you copy and paste it into WordPress, you’ll get to see what you spelled wrong, but don’t correct it! Publish as is and see how you do. You can even have your followers guess what’s grammatically incorrect, if any, for added fun.
It Never Happened
“If I don’t post it, does it mean it never happened?” Whew…say that. Nicely written.
The PBS Blog 