Melva Gifford

Things to help coworkers to stop hating you

1. Stop sucking up to the boss
2. People don’t like negative nellies
3. Messiness
4. Poor cubicle etiquette (microwaving fish, burnt popcorn or body scratching)
5. Just don’t fit in

Cultural Awareness of the Philippines
– Phill is a cluster of islands located off the coast of southwest Asia. 7107 islands about the size of Arizona.
– Culture influenced by Eastern and Western influences Spaniards, Japanese, Chinese and American.
– Manila on island of Luzon is capital of Phill. Home of many scientific and educational institutions and sports facilities.12th largest population.
– Location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, tropical and prone to earthquakes and typhoons.
– Has a lot of natural resources.
– 3 seasons summer (march to may) Rainy Season June –Nov, Cool, dry season Dec-Feb
– Official name of company is Republic of the Philippines
– 80% catholic and most speak English
– Building relationships: basic sense of justice and fairness and heightened sensitivity to nature.
– Family Orientation: strong family relationships/loyalty. Family in same co. is very common and divorce is illegal.
– Hard work and Industry: excellent workers to support families
– Communication Style: friendly, well mannered, ma’am/sir
– Joy and Humor: will to laugh at themselves
– Social Networks: Phil find authority for action in group agreement. Common to see same gender Phills holding hands or hand on shoulder contact in public.
– Education Value: education seen as passport to good jobs. Often oldest in family work to send the next in line to school and so down the line)
– Debt of Gratitude: A debt as in ones obligation to a parent can never be fully repaid and the obligation can last for generations.
– Communication in the Workplace: Phils value their pride and have high regards on achievements and attainments. Maybe be reluctant to show they don’t understand an assigned task. May need to confirm understanding.
Do: Set interim goals and ”inspect what you expect’. Phil responds best in a patient and nurturing environment. Use positive reinforcement.
Don’t: Don’t use American idioms, jargon and slang that might tend to confuse.
– Orientation of Time: Phils are a bit laid back. If you need prompt response, be clear in your communication.
– Loyalty: Phil value loyalty and are loyal employees.
– Government: Republic
– Colloquial Language:
Batch – new hire class
Batchmate – new hire classmate
C.R.-comfort room
Malling = Hanging out at the mall
Rubber shoes = beach sandals or flip flops
Come Again? I don’t understand
Fall in line = queuing courtesy
Blownout = loss of power
Aircon = air conditioning
– Shopping: it is perfectly acceptable to bargain, Phil known for its pearl markets
– Food and Restaurants: meals $10-20. Tipping 10% included on the bill. Avoid street vendors

This week I went to the Utah County Writers League where I learned about photography. I thought I’d share my knowledge and notes. Let’s hope I got most of the important information with my wonderful… note taking.

Ten Photo workouts to make you a better photographer:
Lecture by Justin Huckworth (http://justinhackworth.com/blog/about/)

People usually ask two questions:
a. What should I photograph? Photograph what you love. Photograph what you want to remember.
b. How do you know if the picture is “good” If it is music, if it sounds good nad moves you it is good music. It is successful if the photo resonates.
We will all have different perspectives of what photos resonate with us.
It’s not what you see but how you see
Check out book “No more second hand art”

10 Steps:
1. The unmade bed: Let natural light come into the photo. Natural light create descriptive photo.
2. Faces: Photograph an everyday object that has a face in it. This teach you to look beyond the first impression such as a face found in a car meter machine, a mop or .This will let you see the graphic possibilities.
3. Alphabet: everyday object that look like a letter of the alphabet. The letter c might be found in the design of a gate while an H might be part of a fence.
4. Pre-assigned ideas about what something looks like to keep us from photographing in a new way. One way to combat this is to photograph in sequence as they happen.
5. A memory: think of a memory as a kid and think of the emotion behind that moment. Then take a photograph that would create the same kind of emotion as the childhood memory.
6. Look at the work of other photographers. This will expand you’re your mind. It is better to seek out high quality art in art shows or professionally printed photograph books. Looking at art of the internet does not give you a real perception of the quality of the work.
Recommended artists: Irving Pentina Barney, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann; Lee Fried Landen; Nicholas Nixon; Alocsath; William Eggkston; Elliott Erwitt; Helmul Newton; Harry Callahan; Stephen Shore; Richard Avedoh; Reneke Dijks.
Answer one of the following questions
7. What is your main characteristic take a photo of that characteristic? And What inspires you the most?
8. Self Portrait: examples: your shadow or to put something in front of you like a light, in a car.
9. Take just one picture: this will help you fight the temptation to be lax on the quality of photography by taking a lot of pictures.
10. A project: Have an on-going project. Examples: a picture a day for a year, 39 strangers, portraits of mothers and daughters. All my friends are monsters (making funny faces) A daily picture for one birthday year.
Photographs are made in the heart and in the head. Not in the camera.

Answers to Questions:
Backup photographs in two locations hard drive and on line (cloud or company site)
Name your photo Yr\Date\Mo.Number/name.
Put in folders that match the theme.
Photo size for Print book = 300 dpi print eBooks =72dpi.

In the modern day of technology we encounter an enormous amount of information. If it is in an electronic format, we have the advantage of saving our data on a hard drive, thumb drive or in a cloud environment. But what about the little stragglers of information that is not part of a bigger file or document?

I find it very useful to have a ‘master file’ where I collect little odds and end of information that isn’t large enough to be a stand-alone document. If I don’t know where to put it, then I put the document into the master file until either a. I collect additional information on the same subject and can create a stand-alone document b. I keep the data on file to access it if I need it or c. I find the information has become outdated or no longer necessary and I can delete it. d. It is easier to search in one file then to try to find little bits of information in multiple folders even if they are organized by subject matter.

Another advantage about a master file is that I can more easily create a backup into a different location then a bunch of little files with their own topics. I also enjoy the ability that a word process gives me to search for a particular topic.

As I work on my blogs, blathering away, I like having a master file that contains all the past content so that I can keep track of the separate subject matter and titles. When I book mark and hyperlink title I also find that useful in finding a certain place in the master file. At the start of the New Year I can start on a new master file and with the content of the past year’s blogs I can decide if I want to do with that information.

See if a master file would work for you.

In society we have many heroes. Some of the best known heroes are our inventors and discoverers. Many of our modern conveniences are because of another’s ability to think outside of the box and create inventions. Today’s lesson, for use for youth ministries, home devotionals or family home evenings is to illustrate some examples of thinking outside of the box.

Some of my most popular outside-the-boxers are Benjamin Franklin, the Write Brothers, Edison, and the engineers working for Steve Jobs.

We can thank Benjamin Franklin’s science experiments for giving us more information about electricity and his creation of the Franklin stove. The Write brothers helped us better understand the principals of flight. Edison provided multiple avenues of technology such as the phone, telegraph and the phonograph. Jobs and his engineers provided a whole new line of tech devices that makes accessing data and communication convenient.

Parents, ministers and teachers, feel free to provided examples of ingenuity of people you know personally who have come up with solutions. Also give specific examples ingenuity from various family members or students that you have observed.

Lesson: Chop sticks
Objects for this lesson: chopsticks, a cup, a picture of water, an empty and cleaned mustard bottle, Dorito or cheese covered chips and a screw.

For some, a solution may seem obvious which to others is a mark of genius. There are several things I hadn’t considered to use chopsticks for until different people pointed them out to me. Here are some examples.

Have you ever tried to pour a liquid into a bottle that has a small opening and it ends up going everywhere but into the bottle? Well, hold a chopstick up in the middle of the mustard bottle. Slowly pour the picture of water against the chopstick. The stick will help direct the liquid into the bottle.

Second, let’s say you’re enjoying a nice bag of Doritos or cheese chips. The challenge of these types of chips is that they can often leave your fingers messy. How about using the chopsticks to pick them up and eat them without messing up your fingers?

A third use for chopsticks is to reach something that your hands can’t reach. Drop the screw into a tall cup of water. Use the chopstick to pull it out.

These ideas may be obvious to some but they were new to me. These are small examples of thinking outside the box. When we encourage ingenuity who knows what new discovers will make our lives easier.

I’m up here at Wolf Creek enjoying sunshine, mountain tops and writing. It’s a great sunny day today and there’s a gentle breeze. A fellow writer and I walked about a mile.

One of the virtues of a retreat such as this is visiting a beautiful place and having the chance to devote my full time to writing minus eating and walking amongst nature that is.

Another thing I like about retreats like this is I can talk shop all day. We discuss writing techniques, the market and what other authors do in various circumstances.

I’m working on my Pursued book. I am hoping to get it ready for a contest. It’s amazing what you can learn with just a thought. All of a sudden a villain that existed early in the book will be coming back to give the main character more headache. I also found a way for my teen wizard to dispel magic without others noticing.

Its interesting how a plot in a book can slightly change from day to day when doing a rewrite.

So we’ll see how much progress is made this weekend.

Difference between minor and miner

I still get messed up on properly using minor/miner. In one of my writing groups whe read a manuscript where I was using it improperly and it reminded her of a scene in the wonderful movie Galaxy Quest. One actor says to the other its miner not minor talking about small aliens. What a great movie. The fact that some of it was filmed in Goblin Valley in Utah was great too. I met the guy, David Howard, when he attended Life the Universe and Everything symposium at BYU a few years ago. He came up with the plot. He is a delightful and talented man. Ahh but on to business.

Miner: An individual who digs tunnels and brings minerals out of the ground. If I use the stereotype, I often think of guys covered in coal dust that are minors. E as in hE is a minEr.

Minor: A child or teen that is still under age, something less than what it is being compared to. Since big OR small and tall OR short is a means of comparison I think of the last of the word minOR as the way to remember which minor to use.