When you are in the salon, you may feel like you are in a different country where a different language is spoken. Hairdressers speak a language of color that may be unfamiliar to you if you have had no art training.

I found this amazing, in-depth article at Colour Lovers that explains the color wheel (the basis of all the work we do with hair color.)

Not only will this help you understand what we mean when we talk about your hair, it will help the next time you need to pick paint of fabric for your decorating needs.

The first color wheel has been attributed to Sir Isaac Newton, who in 1706 arranged red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet into a natural progression on a rotating disk. As the disk spins, the colors blur together so rapidly that the human eye sees white. From there the organization of color has taken many forms, from tables and charts, to triangles and and wheels the history.

Read the rest of the article here.

I am lucky to know lots of creative, interesting people.  Some of them actually make a living being creative (only a few make a living being interesting!)  One of them is Stan Shaw.  I met Stan a million years ago when I was a young hairdresser.  He was buddies with my co-worker, Denny (who was in a local band called Running With Scissors…anyone know what happened to them?)  Stan later married a friend of mine who is also creative and interesting.

When I had my mid-life crisis, they designed my tattoo.

A few weeks ago, Stan left a comment on the post about bacon vodka which led me to his website where I saw a cartoon that looked (I thought) a lot like me.  (It is a female with glasses, funky colored hair, pointy chin and holding a PDA.  You tell me.)  It wasn’t supposed to be me.  I didn’t commission it.  But I have no problem with second hand art (it is more within my budget, anyway!)

So, without further ado, here is the new cartoon version of Aura Mae.  I will be using it online and perhaps in print on occasion as the mood strikes.  Mostly I was just tired of the head shot from the book that I had been using for the past couple of years.  The upside of using a cartoon as your likeness?  I can be eternally youthful and no one will give me crap about how old the photo is!

The salon industry has an advantage over many others. While places like Home Depot can enter a market and push mom and pop hardware stores out of business, salons are different. Many customers prefer the intimacy of a small salon to the hub-bub of a large salon. There will always be a market for both. So my advice to small salons is always the same. Don’t try to be like the big guy. Be yourself! Stand your ground. Create a space where your clients and your staff are happy. Remember what Cinderella said in the Rogers & Hammerstein musical. “In my own little corner, in my own little chair, I can be who ever I want to be.”

from www.collegehumor.com posted with vodpod

Look over to the right to the little counter that shows how many visits Get Some Hairapy has gotten since I started in August 2007. Over 5000 visits in less than 5 months. It’s a bit overwhelming, but the attention whore in me isn’t complaining!

The little map to the right gets bigger if you click on it and it tells me that there are seven regions (all in the US) that have more than 100 visits each.

Head…getting…bigger…not…enough…oxygen…(Ooops! What is that other little box? Only 4 people are interested enough in what I say to subscribe?  It must be my family!)

Aura’s ego returns to normal size…disaster averted.

Happy Tuesday!

We aren’t ashamed to tell you that sometimes the conversation in the salon turns to celebrity gossip.

We subscribe to a broad selection of magazines. Cooking, decorating, travel, fashion and trash. The trash is often the most read.  I guess the salon is a safe place to read a gossip rag without the shame of you having to buy it.

So, the saga of Britney Spears. This train has wrecked more times than I thought a train could wreck. Most recently she has found herself in the hospital for a mental health observation and without rights to visit her kids.  (Are we surprised by anything she does now?)

So, in walks the tough shrink. At the request of her family, he says, and wants to help.  Now the family (and mental health professionals) have complained that the doctor with the TV show talked to reporters about her health.  This surprises you?

Let me go out on a limb here and suggest that at this point, her health is more important than her privacy.

Of course she needs an intervention!  The child has gone bat-shit crazy!

Someone has to help her and the people around her have not been able to do so.  If it takes a little public embarrassment to get her some help, then so be it. She has done plenty to embarrass herself in the past few years.

How loudly does someone have to cry for help? Let’s hope she gets help while she can still afford it.  Health care, mental or physical, isn’t cheap! 

Shel Silverstein came up in conversation the other day when I discovered he wrote many of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show’s songs (not to mention the Johnny Cash classic: A Boy Named Sue.)  A surprisingly heated discussion of The Giving Tree ensued.

Upon further research, I find we are not the only ones to debate this book! The Wikipedia article tells of a Giving Tree Symposium and quotes a professor of Religious Studies at Stanford. Check it out and let me know your opinion!

The ZAGG Advantage Full Body Shield Review

Published by Aura Mae October 30th, 2007 in Aura Mae, Screen Protectors and Reviews. 0 Comments

Let me start by saying I am a big fan of protection. I have purchased more than my share of cases for the devices I have had over the years. I end up liking them less and less because they make the device bigger and often (to my eye) less attractive. I had a silicone skin for my Trinity and it seemed to cheapen the feel and look of the phone, which means I didn’t use it, which means I ended up with a phone that got tattered and abused.

To prevent this from happening to my new toy, I ordered the skin before I ordered my Advantage. Much to my dismay, one of the products that ZAGG (invisibleSHIELD) makes is for the iPhone, and filling those orders put the company behind in their order processing. (Damn iPhone.) I had my Advantage a full two weeks before the skin arrived and despite using the OEM leather case religiously, I still ended up with a little chip in the case above the indicator lights. (I dotted the mark with Sharpie before installing the protector to minimize the cosmetic flaw.)

I have used the invisibleSHIELD screen protectors on many devices and have been very happy. The Advantage is the first item I have had for which they offered a Full Body Shield.

Let’s start with the name, because as much as I like the whole idea, I was very cranky to finish the installation and find that there are no pieces to cover the sides. I was really looking forward to having some protection around the charger slot because that’s where I feel like I am scraping the device. I was expecting full coverage. No dice.

OK. Now that I have my biggest gripe out of the way, let me walk you through the process.

The instructions are not device specific, so I didn’t know where to start. I decided to start with the screen, since I had done that before and figured I was competent enough to give it a go.

I sprayed my fingers, and both sides of the film as directed. It took a little finessing to get it lined up just so, but I was successful. Time to move on to the front, I figured, and here is where I had my first problem. Having only used screen protectors in the past, I was unprepared for the narrow bits that would go on as a picture frame on the metal around the screen. It would have been helpful to know that the film can stretch. I had a really tough time lining up the holes in the film with the holes in the Advantage. In fact, I was unable to make it line up. I had to cut out a tiny bit of film to make it work. (This is where “cranky” began to creep in.) The skin is for the X7500 and not the X7501, so already it has a hole for the front facing camera that doesn’t exist (that’s another gripe for another time!) I knew this going into it, so I had prepared myself for that, but wasn’t expecting to have to do surgery. This is also where I learned how tough the shield is. I couldn’t slice it with an Exacto knife and had to use scissors to cut it. I removed a smidge of the product so that it wouldn’t overlap. (I am a “picker” and an overlapping bit of film would be an invitation to pick.)

The big pieces all went on easily. The most difficult section was the edge with the battery cover. It was tough to get the opening lined up so that the hatch cover wouldn’t bump into the housing.

The kit comes with a squeegee which was helpful on the large bits, but I found a cloth to be more helpful in many places. It’s a bit of a balancing act to get enough moisture for the film to be movable and not so much that you feel like you are soaking the machine. (The instructions do suggest spraying the film, not the device.) There were a few occasions where I just couldn’t maneuver the film into the right spot, so I used a piece of packing tape to lift a corner, spray more fluid, and try again.

The instructions also suggest that you leave the device alone for 24 hours for all the residual bubbles to work their way out. Of course none of us are going to be able to do that with our primary communications device. To that end, I performed the installation on a day off, before dinner, so I could minimize any use of the phone for as long as possible.

I do like the look of the screen without a cover, but I am not willing to risk the wear on the screen without one. (I had a device once on which I played A LOT of solitaire and after a while, there was a visible wear pattern on the glass over the stack of cards and down to the seven rows!) I hated using the Advantage these two weeks with no screen protector, but I also didn’t want to install one of the OEM and have to remove it when the invisibleSHIELD came. (These are the thoughts that keep me up nights. Aren’t you glad you don’t live in my head?)

All in all, I am happy with the coverage. I can still pan easily in Internet Explorer (using SPB Pocket Plus) and the screen seems plenty responsive, so I don’t feel I have sacrificed much in the tactile department, and the VGA screen is still attractive through the film (in fact maybe better with the glare being cut.) I wish the directions were specific to each device, and I wish it covered the sides, but I am glad I have it. Now I’m hunting for a pouch-style holder with a belt clip to carry the phone (without the keyboard.) If you have any brilliant, solutions, fill me in!

The ZAGG (invisibleSHIELD) for the HTC Advantage (7500) is available directly from the manufacturer.
MSRP: $24.95
What I Like: The idea of not beating up my device with regular daily use.
What Needs Improvement: The directions should tell you where to start and to be careful not to stretch. Full Body Shield should mean full coverage.

Get Some Hairapy, The Blog, is 12 weeks old and we just hit 1000 views!  (That’s more than books I’ve sold!)  Thanks to those who read intentionally and to those who stumble here.

William Tell Overture

A client sent me this to share with you all. I have long proposed that mothers are interchangeable - if your’s isn’t there, someone else’s will say the same thing.

The one thing I didn’t hear was “Do you think we own stock in the power company?” (Translation: Turn the light off when you leave the room.)

What “mom-ism” did you hear (if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times) that you think was missing from this clip?

I always bring in photos of my travels to the salon to share with clients. Often the clients are impressed with the work.

Heres’ my basic technique: use a digital camera with a large storage card. This allows me to take tons of pictures, thereby increasing the odds that some of them will be good pictures. Then I throw out the bad ones, people only see the cream of the crop, and I look brilliantly gifted!

I read an article today with helpful tips that can help us all be better photographers.

Improve Your Photos 60 Seconds at a Time

If you are tired of reading long explanations and confused by tricky photo techniques, here you can have it short and sweet. Arranged by topics, each subject takes less than 60 seconds to read.

Once you’ve read the ideas and tips, picture in your mind some photographs you have already taken. Think of how they could have been improved by applying what you have learned here. Visualize how you might have taken your photos differently. Already your photography is improving!

Light | Landscaping | People | Color | Composition | Being Ready

Light

Dancing with light

• Facing the sun, with your subject in front of you, gives you some of the best visual effects … but exposure could be tricky to get right. Try it anyway!
• Light from the side brings out shapes, textures and structures. That’s why early morning and evening are rich times to photograph.
• If you are standing between your light-source (for example the sun) and your subject (the thing you are photographing) then details could be lost in the shadows.
• For light and shadow effects you need the sun, of course, but colours are often more intense on half-sunny or overcast days.

The color of color

• Natural light is white, while artificial light is often shades of yellow, orange or green.
• Our eyes naturally adjust to colored or tinted light sources to make them appear white and so will your digital camera but only within certain limits
• If you want warm-colored pictures work earlier or later in the day when natural light tends to be more orange.
• This image shows warm light from an evening sun but bluish shadows from the cloudless sky

Mastering flash

• Balance the flash with day light for stunning results. Your camera may offer a ‘slow flash’ or ‘synchro flash’ or ‘daylight synchro’ setting.
• Direct flash on groups of people produces better-looking images than direct flash on a single person.
• The latest cameras allow you to set high ISO speeds e.g. ISO 800 which can help avoid using flash altogether.
• Avoid red-eye by turning up or providing more light in the room.
• If you use your camera’s red-eye reduction setting when taking flash photographs of people you avoid red-eye, but there’s a delay in taking the shot which may cause you to miss the moment.

Choosing your time

• Low or cross lighting at dawn or dusk produces wonderful lighting and colors.
• At dawn and dusk there are natural shadows to help give depth and form to your subject.
• For early evening shots, you will need longer shutter times i.e. longer exposure to make up for the low light. This makes it likely your photographs could be blurry due to camera shake, so lean your camera on something – anything steady - to keep still during exposure.
• Don’t be afraid to point the lens at a setting sun , but whatever you do avoid looking at the sun directly, especially through the viewfinder of your camera.

Landscaping your photos

Composition essentials

• It’s best to keep your horizons level in your photographs, otherwise your shots will appear crooked (unless that’s what you want!).
• Keep the main points of interest away from the centre, and from the extreme edges – better, still, try placing them in different parts of the image and see which works best.
• Don’t shoot everything from a standing position. Look for unusual angles by changing yours (and the camera’s position).
• Better to avoid completely empty space in your photos.

Framing the lines

• Don’t be afraid to use take portrait photographs – that is, with the camera on its side.
• Use natural features in the environment to create a frame for your subject or to lead the eye through the image.
• Zoom in to create a sense of intimacy. Remove from your shots elements like the sun or the sky, which give a feeling of open space.
• Experiment with framing. Try framing your shots with lots of foreground and very little sky, or lots of sky and very little land.

Zooming around

• Zooming-out allows you to capture more of the view.
• A wide-angle lens will keep everything in focus while helping to maximise the ‘depth of field’, or feeling of depth in your shots.
• Zooming-in will flatten the sense of perspective and make distant objects appear closer together.
• Zooming-in will also affect the amount of your picture that is in focus allowing you to isolate details against an out-of-focus foreground and/or background.
• Be careful to avoid camera shake when zoomed right in, as tiny movements in your hands become magnified.

Prospecting the perspective

• Create perspective by using the lines and shapes within the shot to draw the eye.
• Tall buildings can appear to ‘lean back’ when photographed. Getting something in the foreground of your shot helps balance this.
• Increase the sense of perspective by using a wide-angle lens and adding foreground interest.
• A low viewpoint and wide-angle setting helps to contrast the size and shape of objects in interesting ways.

Foregrounding

• Foreground is the area that is closest to the camera: the stronger it is, the stronger the rest of the image.
• An object in the foreground first invites the eye, then lead the viewer deeper into the photo.
• Include foreground objects to add a sense of scale and perspective
• Experiment with allowing the foreground to totally dominate the photo

Cool proportions

• The central part of your scene usually draws the camera like a magnet so it ends up in the centre – try resisting that tendency
• Place the main point of interest towards the sides of your photographs for more dynamic compositions
• Place your horizon near the top or bottom of your shots to add emphasis to the ground or to the sky
• In this picture you can see there is a smallish amount of sky while the rocks have been placed high in the image to allow the silhouette of the trees to be significant.

People with you

Lighting faces

• The soft light you get on overcast days is especially good for photographing people, as it delivers the best skin tones
• Side or ‘cross’ lighting is more interesting because it gives depth and form to your portrait sitter
• Keep backgrounds and other distractions to the minimum so that the viewer can concentrate on the face
• In this picture, soft light from a window lights the faces of the girls from the side, while a zoomed-in setting throws the foreground face out of focus.

Depth of feeling

• Use your zoom lens to shorten the ‘depth of field’ (depth sharpness) in your photograph, and throw the background out of focus. This adds emphasis to your subject.
• Use your zoom lens to fill your photograph, rather than leaving your main point of interest floating in space.
• Zooming in will flatten perspective, which generally produces a more flattering shot of your subject.
• In this picture, a zoomed-in setting focuses on the girl, throwing the foreground objects out of focus.

Natural frames

• Use a person’s surroundings to be a natural picture frame the photo
• People will often smile and pose stiffly for their portrait: if you don’t want a smile take two or more pictures – a second or two after a smile, the pose relaxes and you have a more natural shot.
• Look for the natural junctions of the human body (where it seems natural to ‘cut-off’) if you are not including the whole person in the shot.
• Soft light is easiest to work with: try sitting your subject near a window.

Childish tricks

• Get the children used to you and the camera by firing off lots of shots first.
• For small children , pre-focus the camera. This is done on most digital cameras by pressing down halfway on the shutter button. Then move yourself backwards and forwards with the child to keep the shot in focus.
• Get down on your hands and knees to stay level with your subject and appear less intimidating.
• Use something to draw the child’s attention away from the fact that they are having their photograph taken.

Coloring the essentials

Bolder colors

• Redder colors will create a warmer feel for your shots than blues or greens.
• color affects the way we look at pictures, so try to use color creatively in your shots.
• Look for images that contain contrasting colors, such as red and green or yellow and purple, to add tension or drama.
• Using shades of the same colors will create a sense of harmony.

The best light is free

• Bright sunlight gives colors a more intense or ‘saturated’ feel.
• Midday light has a bluer quality, which can give photos a harsher feel.
• Try to place strong colors against large areas of even tone or color – this helps bring out their intensity
• Look for color contrasts – red with blues and greens, for example.
• Photographs taken at the beginning or end of the day will have a warmer tone due to the natural orangeness of the light.

Emotional colors

• Different dominant colors lead your viewer towards different emotions which impacts on the way your shot is experienced
• Yellow is associated with happiness, but orange may moves us toward concern – hence the use of amber as a warning light.
• Red is the universal color of warning. Use it with caution – a little bit of red in your shot goes a long way!
• Greens and blues usually have a calming effect, hence their association with landscape
• The many colors in this shot are held together by the large areas of yellows, giving it an unmistakeable sunny Mediterranean mood.

Composition

Lines of force

• You can create a sense of direction using naturally occurring lines.
• Slanting or ‘oblique’ lines imply movement, action and change.
• Curved lines or S-shaped lines imply quiet, calm and sensual feelings.
• Lines that converge imply depth, scale and distance, for example, the outer edges of a road converge as it disappears into the distance, giving a two-dimension image three-dimensional depth.
• Repetitive elements create a sense of rhythm, which is often more interesting if the rhythm is broken by a missed element.

Thirds

• Imagine three horizontal and three vertical lines equally dividing your shot, then place subjects on the lines or where they intersect with each other: this can be a help in deciding on compositions
• Place your horizon on the top or bottom line to add emphasis to the ground or to the sky respectively.
• In this picture, the composition combines color contrasts with proportions closer to another principle, the Golden Section, which gives pleasing proportions.
• Just pushing your composition slightly to one side so it feels a little uncomfortable can give your photos a dynamic it wouldn’t otherwise have.

Focusing away

• The human eye is drawn to elements that are in focus, and this will influence how your photo is seen.
• Auto-focus (standard on most digital cameras) will focus on what is in the centre of the frame. Use pre-focus to move your subject away from the centre of the frame. (This is done on most digital cameras by pressing down halfway on the shutter button.)
• Use your zoom lens to reduce the ‘depth of field’ (sense of depth) and throw the background out of focus. This will emphasise any in-focus element in the foreground.

Being ready

Drive your motor

• Take lots of pictures. With digital cameras shots cost you hardly anything at all.
• Move around as you photograph to experiment and give yourself plenty of choice later.
• Stay alert for that chance-of-a-lifetime shot: keep your camera turned ON, keep your mind switched to ON.
• In this picture, the golden eagle put its wing on the falconer for only a few very short seconds, and the falconer grinned for even less time!

Vantage points

• It is almost always worth clambering up a wall or steps to get a little higher – but don’t get yourself into trouble with authorities.
• You may also have to wait for the best light.
• And you might have to wait for a composition of passing people to arrange itself
• The best position may depend on the zoom setting that you choose.
• In this picture, I had to wait nearly thirty minutes for everyone to get themselves into position.

Shutter lag

• Shutter lag is the time a digital camera needs to capture a picture after you have pressed the shutter button.
• Reduce shutter lag by focusing beforehand, hold the shutter button down half-way or half-pressure and wait for the moment.
• Reduce shutter lag by turning off any unnecessary automatic features such as red-eye reduction.
• In this picture, the only way to catch the air force jets at the right instant was to release the shutter just before they reached their ideal positions.

Always ready

• If you see a good picture you may be early: an even better one may come in a few seconds
• Get your exposure and focusing and framing set up while you wait for the perfect shot
• Hold the camera to your eye all the time; in the half-second it takes lift the camera you could miss the shot
• In this picture, I spotted the shepherd from a car, screeched/skidded to a halt, got the car to disappear and waited for the flock to approach me – using the time to work out the best viewpoint to meet them.

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This is old news for some of you, but I keep running into people who don’t know, so I’m sharing now!

Get answers from Google on your cell phone!

Do you have a text messaging plan on your phone? Do you ever need information while out and about? Text your question to 466453 (GOOGLE) and they will text you back the answer! You pay your regular text fees, but nothing additional.

Running late for your appointment and don’t have our number programmed into your phone? Try this:

azarra tacoma

you’ll get back a reply (dang near instantly) with our address and phone number.

Don’t like to text? You can call 800-GOOG-411 and use the automated system for directory assistance. No crazy charges from your cell company, just regular minutes used.

1-800-GOOG-411: Google’s 411 service

Success - Hard Work - Laziness

October 5th, 2007 in Money & Personal Dev

As a guy who speaks to over a hundred thousand people per year about success, I get asked this question a lot. Rarely are the people pleased with my answer: Work. Yep, that’s it. Work. It’s not attitude or passion or loving what you do. Those things help, but they aren’t the key. It’s good old-fashioned word. How do you know you are working? When you are breaking a sweat, either mentally or physically.

Now don’t automatically think that working hard will make you successful. It won’t. I know lots of people who work very hard, much harder than I do, and don’t really find any financial success. On the other hand, I don’t know of anyone who has experienced real financial success who hasn’t worked hard to achieve it. And don’t offer me lottery winners or people who have inherited their money – they don’t count. I’m talking about regular people like you and me. For us, it takes work.

“But Larry, I go to work every day and work hard!” I doubt it. Most studies say that workers waste at least two hours a day goofing off. They admit to doing less than their best on the job and less than their best for the customer. Work is just that place where you dress slightly better than you do at home. And those people you work with – they aren’t co-workers, they are only co-goers.

We have become a nation of spectators. It’s easier to watch Friends on TV than it is to be a friend in real life. It’s easier to watch people lose weight on TV than it is to get off our huge butts and lose it ourselves. It’s certainly easier to watch people paint a room or clean out their closets than to do it ourselves. And it’s even easier to watch someone else correct their out-of -control children that to discipline our own. I find this sad.

Most people settle for much less than they have to because they are just too lazy to work for what they really want. They do a half-assed job when they are on the job and then put little effort into living their dream when they go home. Life, happiness, prosperity and success all take effort. If it feels easy, you are going the wrong direction. Remember: It’s called work for a reason.

Brain Wellness: Train Your Brain to Be Happier

I am delighted to participate in LifeTwo’s “How to be Happier” week with this post. Happiness is still largely unchartered territory for neuroscience. It sounds like a hidden, elusive El Dorado. However, once one follows positive psychology research and Harvard’s Dr. Ben-Shahar’s advice, “The question should not be whether you are happy but what you can do to become happier”, the happiness quest starts to become more tangible and workable according to latest neuroscience research.

We are now going to explore the four key concepts of Dr. Ben-Shahar’s statement — 1) “you”, 2) “can”, 3) “do”, and 4) “happier” — from a neuropsychological perspective.

1) Who is “you”? According to latest scientific understanding, what we experience as “mind”, our awareness, emerges from the physical brain. So, if we want to refine our minds, we better start by understanding and training our brains. A very important reality to appreciate: each brain is unique, since it reflects our unique lifetime experiences. Scientists have already shown how even adult brains retain a significant ability to continually generate new neurons and literally rewire themselves. So, each of us is unique, with our own aspirations, emotional preferences, capacities, and each of us in continually in flux. A powerful concept to remind ourselves: “you” can become happier means that “you” are the only person who can take action and evaluate what works for “you”. And “you” means the mind that emerges from your own, very personal, unique, and constantly evolving, brain. Which only “you” can train.

2) Why the use of “can”? Well, this reminds me a great quote by Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal, who said that “Every man can, if he so desires, become the sculptor of his own brain“. Each of us has immense potential. However, in the same way that Michaelangelo’s David didn’t spontaneously appear out-of-the-blue one day, becoming happier requires attention, intention, and actual practice.

Attention: Every second, you choose what to pay attention to. You can focus on the negative and thereby train your brain to focus on the negative. You can choose to watch TV five hours in a row, thereby training your brain to become a passive spectator of events. Or you can do the opposite. Attention works outwards and inwards: you can pay attention to your own meaningful emotions or try to ignore them. Many times we are not aware of the choices we are really making and their implications, which is why practices like mindfulness meditation can help. Try this experiment on selective attention.

Intention and Mindset: Our frontal lobes (the area in blue in the image above) equip us to: 1) Understand our environments, 2) Set goals and define strategies to accomplish our goals, 3) Execute those strategies well. Becoming happier is as worthy an endeavor as our education and professional careers, or our efforts to be fit and slim by exercising our bodies. Please use those frontal lobes to define the goals that can work for you.

Practice. [LifeTwo's] Wesley mentioned the importance of “rituals” to make it easy to practice new skills. Great idea. Let’s talk more about that in the next point.

3) The critical word “do”: You may have heard the expression “Cells that fire together wire together.” Our brains are composed of billions of neurons, each of which can have thousand of connections to other neurons. Any thing you do in life is going to activate a specific constellation of neurons. Visualize one million neurons firing at the same time when you order your next cappuccino. Now, the more cappuccinos you order, the more those neurons will fire together, and therefore the more they will wire together (meaning that the connections between them become, literally, stronger), which then creates automatic-like behaviors. For example, try this experiment: Quick! say aloud the color you see in every word in the picture on the right. DON’T simply read the word. Tough, isn’t it? Well, that is because, during many years, you have trained your brain to read words. You can also choose to train your brain to say the color-with attention, intention and practice. This point has an enormous implication: whatever we do in life is, in practice, training our brains. How do you want to train your brain next?

4) The objective measure of “happier”. Being “happy” is subjective. No scientist could look at you, read some instrument, and measure your happiness. But there are ways to measure, and train being “happier.” For example, stress and anxiety are key obstacles to happiness. Appreciating the beauties of life often, and developing positive emotions, are key allies. Fascinating research is showing how emotional self-regulation happens, helping all of us identify those states as they happen (stress, anxiety, appreciation & positive emotions) and allow us to intervene and “regulate” our response as we wish. Some of the most promising applications are biofeedback programs (that measure body variables giving you great visual feedback in real-time on your level of stress, as in the image), meditation, and cognitive therapy. Take an extreme example: we probably all would agree that, if you happened to have visceral fear of spiders, suddenly facing a spider wouldn’t be one of the happiest moments in your life. In a 2003 paper on the impact of cognitive therapy on people with extreme spider fear, scientists observed how the fear induced by viewing film clips depicting spiders was correlated with significant activation of specific brain areas, like the amygdala (the “fear center of the brain”) that, once activated, trigger specific body reactions (like the “fight or flight” physiological response). After the intervention was complete, however, viewing the same spider films did not provoke activation of those areas. Those individuals were able to “train their brains” and managed to reduce the brain response that typically triggers automatic stress responses. And we are talking about adults with extreme phobias. You can click on the image for an example of emotional self-regulation through biofeedback.

Take-away

It’s time to combine the respective quotations from positive psychologist Dr. Ben-Shahar and neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal. “The question should not be whether you are happy but what you can do to become happier” and “Every man can, if he so desires, become the sculptor his own brain.”

In short, you can sculpt (train) your brain to become happier. Which brings us back to “you”, what are you doing today to exercise your “happier” muscle?

Ever been confused by the clothing recommendation on an invitation? Now there’s a website to help you keep from over or (egads!) under dressing.

http://www.dresscodeguide.com/

I wrote this article for Gear Diary after meeting Judie Lipsett (The Chick In Charge) on Facebook.  Turns out she and I have lots in common.  She went to college with my brother, she played in a band that played in Alpine, TX (where I graduated from high school), and after college she went to beauty school.  Crazy, huh?  There are fewer women than men in the geek world, and I have always enjoyed reading Gear Diary because of the slightly different viewpoint a woman has on personal technology.  For example: Many devices and many device reviewers are hung up on the idea of “pocketable.”  To a woman who regularly carries a purse, that is almost a non-issue.  If you have any interest in me writing any other tech-related material, leave a comment.

How I Use My HTC Trinity

Published by Aura Mae October 1st, 2007 in Aura Mae, About MY Gear and PPC / Windows Mobile Professional Devices. Tags: About MY Gear, Aura Mae, HTC Trinity, PPC / Windows Mobile Professional Devices.

I used to keep a laptop at my work station, but when my husband lost his laptop to a job change and needed mine, I found I could do without it by relying on my HTC Trinity Pocket PC. Let me tell you a little about me, about my business, and about how my machine holds it all together.

I own a small hair salon. Not only do I spend 35 hours a week seeing clients, I am also responsible for every other aspect of running the business. I do the marketing, keep the website and blog up to date, pay the bills, and anything else you can think of. I also travel teaching classes to hairdressers, and as the author of Get Some Hairapy – a hairdresser’s prescription for happiness, do some book promotion in my spare time. Oh yeah, and I have a family, as well. People need to be able to get a hold of me, and I need access to my data.

Without my calendar, I am dead in the water. I keep my Trinity with me at all times and I count on it to tell me where I need to be and what I need to do. My salon uses an on-line appointment book service that allows our clients to schedule their own appointments at any time. We love it because it cuts down on how much the phone rings and clients love it because they don’t have to wait for us to be open in order to get on the books. When an appointment is made, the system sends me an email. Direct Push gets it to me in a flash, and when I click on the attachment, all the data is entered into my Pocket Informant calendar. This keeps my calendar on track at all times. So if I run into a client in the grocery store and they ask if they can get in for some highlights on Friday, I can look at my schedule and give them an answer.

Using the contacts section of Pocket Informant, I keep the client’s personal data and I store their chemical formulations in the notes field. If I make changes during their visit, I can input the new formulation immediately. Good records make good customer service easier!

Recently I was at a photo shoot and wanted to take some candid, back-stage shots when I realized I had forgotten to charge the battery in my digital camera. Trinity to the rescue! I took still pictures and videos that were good enough to put on the blog and share with others. (A Treo owner in the room tried to do the same, but her results were less pleasing. I took out my mini SD card and she uploaded all my photos to her laptop, emailing them out while we were still on the shoot.)

While getting in the car for my drive to work, a text comes in from a client. She’s running late and wonders if she is 15 minutes late should she still come or should she reschedule. I check my calendar and determine that she can still come. I send the text and am off to work.

When a client is “in the chair”, we try to give them as much attention as possible. The people in my life know that when I am at work, the best way to get to me is through my Trinity. Text and email are easy to read while a color is processing and also cuts down on the phone ringing in the salon. And if I don’t have time to answer a call at home, at work, or on my cell, Callwave sends me an email with an audio attachment that I can listen to much more easily than I can call to check messages.

Trinity:
Windows Mobile 6
GPS
Camera

Third party programs:
Pocket Informant – More ways to manipulate contacts and calendars than I could ever use.
Wisbar Advance – I prefer the pull-down windows to the graphic pages that are WM standard.
Pocket Breeze – Keeps my tasks and appointments on the Today screen.
Spb Full Screen Keyboard – The Trinity is a tablet style PPC, with no physical keyboard. Most of the time I use the regular soft keyboard, but on occasion I use the bigger keys of FSK.
Sprite Backup – The new version rocks! It even backs up after I flash a new ROM.
Pocket Quicken – Ends the “can I afford this item” challenge while away from my desktop.
SOTI Pocket Controller – Allows me to use my desktop keyboard to enter data into the Trinity and enlarges the image on my desktop monitor.
Sirius – There’s no need to store music when I can stream it.
Google Maps – (Almost) Never get lost again!
MemMaid – Keeps things clean and tidy.

Things I do with my Trinity:
Listen to music.
Entertain a grumpy toddler with a cartoon.
Read RSS feeds.
Write posts for my blog.
Find answers to trivial questions like “Who wrote The Cover of the Rolling Stone?”
Read and send email and texts.
Practice my PowerPoint presentations.
Get directions.

Things I would do without my Trinity:
Show up late (Calendar)
Forget to buy dog food or light bulbs (Tasks)
Forget my mother’s (and everyone else’s for that matter) birthday, phone number and address
Lose my mind!

I have had every generation of converged phone/PDA since they were for sale. There are other PPC devices that can do most or all of what the Trinity can. Is the HTC Trinity the best device (or even the best device for me?) Like many of you, I am always looking for the next best thing. I have recently, in fact, decided that the Trinity is almost perfect for me. I just want more screen real estate. I am looking to upgrade to the HTC Advantage very soon. I anticipate the transition to be smooth, as I am an old pro at loading programs through Windows Mobile Device Center.

I can’t wait to see what the next generation of Window Mobile will allow me to do!

If you aren’t using web check in on Alaska Airlines, you are missing out on the chance for a cheap upgrade to first class. Here’s the deal: You can check in up to 24 hours before your flight. Do it RIGHT AT 24 hours! You will have the best chance to get an available seat. He who hesitates is lost.

Aura’s Roasted Harvest Soup

1 butternut squash

1 apple

1 onion

1 red or yellow bell pepper

Olive oil

2 cloves garlic

2 shallots

2 tsp Herbs de Provence

1 tsp cinnamon

Kosher or sea salt & fresh ground black pepper

1 quart chicken or vegetable stock

Seed and cut squash into six to eight chunks, seed and cut red pepper and apple in half, cut onion in half. Place in roasting pan (uncovered) in 400 degree oven and roast until fork inserts easily in squash and produce looks blackened.

When cool enough to touch, blackened peels will easily come off.

Heat stock pot to medium high and cover bottom with olive oil. Add chopped garlic, scallions, herbs. Sauté until garlic is translucent. Add a heavy pinch of salt, cinnamon and 4-5 grinds of pepper.

Cut peeled produce into 2 inch chunks and place in stock pan with oil and seasonings. Pour in stock and simmer (covered) until produce falls apart. Puree with an immersion blender and add salt & pepper if needed.

Pour into a hollowed sugar pumpkin or sourdough round, garnish with rosemary or lavender & serve with a hearty bread for dipping.

For a different, spicier flavor, replace Herbs de Provence and cinnamon with Chinese Five Spice and cayenne pepper.

Pairs well with Hard Apple Cider or Champagne.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

10 Places I Am Definitely Not Getting My Hair Cut

digg_url = ‘http://www.wallstreetfighter.com/2007/09/10-places-i-am-definitely-not-getting.html’;

I think this exemplifies “It is better to be good at a lot of things that to be the best at one”
I bet they cook a mean pizza but I’m going to pass on the haircut

I guess it all depends on the definition of Wak. I am thinking it could
be a good time if it’s a “happy ending” type wak but I am afraid
it could be the Sweeney Todd/Sopranos type. In that case
I may Yak as well.

As a suburban white guy, I just don’t think the ghetto fabulous is my look

I can get pass the no english part but I can’t past the thought that an image organic haircut
is going to also be known as “The Woody Harrelson”

Love the ad, it certainly got my attention. I don’t think they would even cut my hair but
even if they did I’m afraid I would leave with a brazilian

At first glance I thought this was a dog groomer. I am still not going to take any chances as
I still may come out of the place looking like this.

Nothing better than a pretty girl with nice assets trimming your bangs
but I only have $10. Maybe that will get me a blowdry

Two different places yet a strikingly similar sign design. Now I know where Burt Reynolds
got his hair did.

I’ve believe in Jesus and if I remember correctly he really doesn’t have the look
I’m going for.

Historically, the only people wearing haircolors outside the realm of “naturally occurring on someone” were musicians and street punks. But the times they are a changing, my friends. This is the first in a series of photos of regular people (with regular jobs) who wear color that used to be considered “punk”.

This client works in local government.

This client owns a restaurant.