Happy Birthday and all that suchness

I let March completely pass me by. I blogged for the South Carolina Writers Workshop here and I blogged over at GenX stories here.

But, alas, Clemson Road, I did not post anything new in March.

It was my birthday month which I've written about before. My birthday is the day after Lady Gaga's which makes me think maybe she and I have some things in common.

I renewed my Hobbes tattoo this month. It's been a task I planned multiple times over the last 19 years but never actually completed. Then I wrote a short story about the experience with this awesome line in it:

He’s reflecting my lost-self back at me and I like what I see. I let her re-emerge and stand before him renewed.

I'll be submitting the story in May which means it can't appear elsewhere. You'll just have to make do with the images of the work and my description of the artist (on whom I developed a little crush):

Fading ink stretches up his neck from his chest like a collar and down his arms like sleeves. He wears a newsboy cap and hipster glasses and smiles a crooked smile.

It's now April and it's another birthday month.

Three years ago, Wordsmith Studio was born out of the April Platform Challenge created by Robert Lee (My Name is Not Bob) Brewer of Writers' Digest. We banded together, we challengers, and formed Wordsmith Studio.

It's been my honor to serve on the Wordsmith Advisory Group or WAG for the last two years. It’s our job to plan fun things, make sure people behave, and organize all of our writerly suchness into actual writing work.

I have also kept pretty consistently faithful to our Tuesday evening chats for the better part of two years. If you get a chance to stop by Twitter with the hashtag #wschat on Tuesday evenings at 6 & 9 p.m. EST you’ll find some good friends talking writing-like stuff.

I’ve gotten to meet one WSS buddy in person and will see another, my friend Sarah, when I go to Seattle in July to run another half marathon.

This groups is amazing. They encourage and assist, that promote and congratulate, they share and they write. Which, ultimately, is what I came to them wanting to do.

My anniversary post is going to be a then-and-now post. I’m working on it today and will have it up soon.

Until then, take a look at Wordsmith Studio’s writing prompts, community page, and Facebook presence. You can see how meeting a group of like-minded and like-habited writers will keep you pushing ever forward toward your goal.

Cheers and Happy Birthday!

A Birthday Resolution

It’s been a week since A Birthday Juxtaposition. In past years I would still be celebrating my birthday. But I’m older. I only celebrated for four days.

Anyway, the juxtaposition put Lady Gaga, ROI, and Generation Flux against one another in an epic (not really) mind map. Mind mapping is a good way to make sense of disconnected thoughts fighting for attention while you’re trying to focus.

I started with Gaga. March 28^th was her birthday so I used mine, the 29^th, to salute her. I explained her use of fame as a medium like painting or music. I confessed I love her.

Then I wrote on ROI. I am still working on the project to show exactly what impact our team is having on reducing financial leakage. I wrote a formula into which we could plug various measurements to deduce the definitive sum that would be ROI. It looks something like this:

L= T[I_s + L]

No, I won’t explain it. And yes, I do apologize to all the legitimate math people who will be offended by my abuse of their symbols.

Come, Gypsy, tell us how much we'll make

ROI models are a lot like fortune telling. Intuition, experience, and observation are the tools used to predict the future. And yet, like any forecast, an ROI (return on investment) model is subject to change.

Getting my husband to agree to anything is like getting legislation through Congress. So I presented an ROI model to Cuk when I wanted to convince him to support my PhD program.

I estimated how much the degree would cost in student loans ($4000/qtr), then I multiplied that over a conservative estimate of how long it would take (5 years). I then researched how much I could expect to earn after completing the PhD (80% more than 2006’s salary) and multiplied that over how long I would be working afterwards (30 years).

The purpose of an ROI model is to convince people that an idea’s payoff is worth the costs associated. Cuk agreed the investment was sound. I enrolled in Capella University’s curriculum for achievement of a PhD in Organizational Management in the fall of 2006.

Take a Chance

What I have learned about an ROI model since that initial attempt is that a complete model must include peripheral costs associated with potential interruptions. These are risks in the ROI model. These risks adjust figures and change the model, rendering it at best inaccurate and at worst a terrible misrepresentation of reality.

For example, the earnings piece of my PhD ROI model is affected by several factors that, in 2006, were unforeseen: 1) the economy tanked in 2008 and employers adjusted their pay grades downward because the market was flooded with talent and 2) unemployed workers flooded universities pursuing degrees, creating a highly-educated talent pool.

See the Unforeseen

Other interruptions include cultural and personal change. For example, from 2008 until 2011, in resounding chorus, workers sang, “just be glad you have a job!”

Happy Birthday, Mother Monster!

I love Lady Gaga. Most people who know me think this is inconsistent with my personality. So here, in my birthday post, since her birthday was yesterday, I’m going to explain one small aspect of her appeal.

Lady Gaga claims to be a Master of the Art of Fame. What is so compelling about this is that in most circumstances fame is

1)    a tool used to establish a platform

2)    a by-product of a high-visibility career such as acting or politics, or

3)    a fleeting occupation for freaks and criminals.

But fame, as celebrity or popularity, is neither mastered nor art. At least, not by any of the famous people we have known.

Fame as Exposure

Some celebs lament the burden of fame – paparazzi and the invasion of privacy – and others crave the spotlight of it via reality show or public appearances. They lead us to believe fame is not controllable.

As a tool for promotion, fame may lead to a higher income or more opportunity. This is true of sports stars in the Olympics or college vying for professional careers. But the recipients of such advantages are usually also victims of the invading and fleeting nature of fame.

A Birthday Juxtaposition

On the day before my 35^th birthday, my primary task was to develop an ROI model. How do we determine the total cost of doing what we’re doing?

While thinking about this I read this article which suggests embracing chaos. It describes the current business world as being in flux.

Then I thought of Lady Gaga. The day before my 35^th birthday, was Mother Monster’s 26^th birthday.

What do ROI, Generation Flux, and Lady Gaga have in common? Hard to say.

Visualize It

There is a very talented writing coach I have been following for years who suggests mind mapping. For everything. Mind mapping generates ideas by locating connections and overlaps. So I mind map.

The links I find are between

Lady Gaga “learn, ask, see,” and ROI “proof, data, confidence.”

Then Lady Gaga “brave” and Generation Flux “courage.”

Then ROI “value, participation, contribution,” and Generation Flux “willing, available, opportunity.”

For a tutorial on mind mapping, proprietary of course and meant for reference purposes only, leave a comment and I'll send it.

Find Commonality

This mind map, with its three very foreign subjects, might put “Kasie” right in the middle. At 35, I find I am at times fierce and proud, willing to take risks, but preoccupied with evidence and security.

For example, I think lotteries are voluntary taxes. But Tuesday when Adam Levine re-tweeted a Milton Berle quote, “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door,” I bought a Mega Millions ticket. I very rarely play, as evidenced when I needed help picking my numbers.

I did not offer to split my winnings with the clerk who helped me, just so everyone knows. Get in line, dude.

I am at once change junky and curmudgeon, social network surfer and paperback buyer.

What sort of profound life lesson has the juxtaposition of Lady Gaga, ROI models, and Generation Flux provided? Perhaps only this: I know Pandora has a station to match that.

And, we’ll need three more posts to tease out each subject and a fourth one to complete the analysis.

Later today I’ll post the Lady Gaga one. After all, it’s my birthday and I get to do whatever I want. Now off to work!