Author Archives: Shannon

Re-post: Remembering How to Play

Posted on May 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

The IAM Learning Community has reposted my essay, Remembering How to Play. I hope you’ll head over there and check it out.

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Posted in Portfolio

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Here’s a nice essay on why social networks are not such terrible, isolating technologies as they’ve been portrayed in the media, but rather help us connect in a world where car culture, suburbia and sprawl have been the true isolators. … Continue reading →

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Posted on May 19, 2012

Don’t Lie, Don’t Pry Don’t Cheat, Can’t Delete Don’t Steal, Don’t Reveal These are very simple, easy-to-remember guidelines for using social networks without getting yourself into hot water. Although intended for health care workers, they apply to all of us. … Continue reading →

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Posted on May 18, 2012

“Swimming forces you to focus and sets the mood to meditate; it allows you to dream big dreams.” I recently took up swimming again. Like yoga, it really is effective for taking me out of the hubbub of everyday life … Continue reading →

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Posted on May 16, 2012

On My Blogs: Stephen King’s Themes

Posted on May 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

This essay started life as a collection of notes I made on every Stephen King book a few years back, when I was rereading them all. Then it morphed into an answer to a question on Quora. Which I then reposted on my books blog. Read: Common Themes in the Works of Stephen King on Books Worth Reading.

Here is the original Quora question with all the answers given.

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Posted in On My Blogs

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Quora: Is the Time Magazine Breastfeeding Cover Over the Line in Terms of Good Taste?

Posted on May 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

My hastily dashed off response to Time magazine’s breastfeeding cover on Quora this morning was reprinted on the Huffington Post: 

Quora: Is the Time Magazine Breastfeeding Cover Over the Line in Terms of Good Taste?

Here’s the original question and all the answers on Quora.

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Posted in Portfolio

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This is a terrific mission statement for life.

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Posted on May 9, 2012

Book Review: The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King – Blogcritics Books

Posted on May 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

From my review of The Wind Through the Keyhole:

Although it says right on the cover that The Wind Through the Keyhole is a Dark Tower novel, it is really only set in the Dark Tower universe, rather than an integral part of the series. Of course, Dark Tower fans will want to read it and spend a little more time with their favorite characters (very little, as it turns out). But even if you haven’t read any of the books in the series, you will have no trouble following the events in The Wind Through the Keyhole. Its flavor is more reminiscent of King’s young adult fantasy The Eyes of the Dragon than any of his horror novels.

Read the rest at Book Review: The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King – Blogcritics Books.

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Posted in On My Blogs

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A circling strategy for Google+…

Posted on May 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’ve been trying to come up with a way to deal with the firehose on Google+ while discovering new and interesting people to follow. I got myself down to 6 circles, and I think this will work fairly well.

My top 3 circles are Family, Friends and Following. Following is for people I have engaged with or find particularly interesting. (The others are self-explanatory.) I see everything from these circles in my stream and all 3 are fairly small.

Then I have a Circled Me and an Interesting circle. The first one is for people I don’t know who circled me. The second is for people I think might be interesting to follow who didn’t circle me. I’ve turned the volume down on those circles and occasionally, I check them directly. If someone from one of those circles engages with me or posts consistently interesting content, they get moved to Following.

Finally, there’s a circle of people who are relevant to my work, which I can direct certain on-topic posts to.

Simplicity seems to be the way to go in Google+. If you like what I post here, you’ll probably like what I post there as well.

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Posted in Geeking Out

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From the New York Times: “North Carolina already has a law barring same-sex marriage, but the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature is not satisfied. It devised a measure to enshrine this obvious discrimination in the State Constitution and placed it on the … Continue reading →

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Posted on May 2, 2012