Gray Wolf Productions

Tag: lynn dorman

  • Train That Brain To Like Good-For-You Food

  • TV Ads, Stress, And Anxiety

    stressI was recently working on a course [and now doing an ebook] about stress – and so I was very tuned into my own levels of stress and anxiety.

    I was trying to figure out something about how to catch the start of that stress while it is motivating and before it goes over to being the “bad” level of stress.

    I’ve always known that I have an antenna for stress and anxiety and I tend to pick those from other people – which was good [in a way] when I was a therapist but I had to watch that it did not raise mine which was a hard task sometimes.

    Anyway, while working on this course, when I took a break I tended to watch television.

    I don’t watch television that much but my neighbors gifted me with a little flat screen TV – so I bought an antenna and again can watch some non-cable stuff.

    First thing I realized was why I hate TV.

    I really do hate the medical ads.

    I’ve written about them before in the context of we have a pill for everything because no matter what’s “wrong” with you there’s a pill – and of course we at big pharma tell you what’s “wrong” even if it’s a normal human behavior like peeing.

    ARGH!!!!!

    But I digress -which is easy when big pharma is on my mind.

    anxietyAnyway – while listening to [and not actually viewing] the ads, I realized that the tone of speech, the music, and the way the whole ad unfolds, actually raises one’s anxiety level and increases one’s stress!

    I guess it was designed that way by the admen to send you screaming to your physician saying

    I want that pill!

    Whatever it is!

    I want it!!

    SIGH – so miss the days of TV when pills were not allowed to be advertised.

    Now they are and they have created a whole slew of problems.

    More about those at another time.

    Thoughts? Comments?

    Thank you!

  • My 2nd Udemy Course Is The 1st One Done

    stop stressing about stressOver a year ago, I started to put together an online class about Nutrition.

    I told Udemy it could be ready in 6 weeks. I was a seasoned college professor and thought I could quickly put together the syllabus and start filling in the “lecture” content and do the videos. HA!

    My first setback was when I discovered that my old Sony camcorder was not “good enough” anymore as it didn’t do HD recording.

    So I had to figure how else was I going to do the video since the courses have to be video. I tried different things and kind of just gave up for a while because nothing was working.

    Then I got a new [and much needed] computer with a good camera and microphone. But first I had to learn the new operating system as I went from a very old Mac to the newest one.

    After fiddling with lights, etc. my decision was to do an “easy” PowerPoint presentation with voice over. Alas, it turns out there’s a glitch in the newest version of PowerPoint for Mac so that when you record a voice over on PowerPoint it won’t save the narration.

    Having already bought Keynote – I decided – “okay I guess it’s time to learn Keynote” [but I didn’t really want to do that.] Luckily, someone teaching on Udemy did a course on Keynote and I learned how to use it and started back to work on the Nutrition course.

    In the middle of all of this – and teaching an online course for a local college – I finally found the Lab puppy I had been looking for. Which, if you have ever done puppy things, meant house training, taking care of, and all those other puppy events.

     [I look back now and wonder how did I ever manage to do the puppy stuff again. It had been many years since I had a puppy as the last dog I had was adopted when he was three.]

    Working away at the course and other life stuff, my hard drive crashed. Yes it was a relatively new computer, only a few months old, and all was under warranty. It is a laptop – but getting it fixed meant having to keep going back to the Apple Store because there were constant glitches that prevented my being able to get online. And I really needed to be online because I had to download my storage from the cloud backup.

    Finally, the entire operating system had to be re-downloaded and re-installed.

    And in the midst of all of this, it turns out I had a puppy who did not like being left home alone – so each time I had to run down to the Apple Store I had to get a puppy sitter. Luckily my neighbors could keep her a few times, and a good friend of mine was in town visiting her son and she had the time to come over and puppy sit. I am so thankful for good friends…

    During this time, the course on Nutrition kept growing because I realized I had more to say than I originally planned. And honestly, by then I got sick of the whole process because that course reminded me of the problems with the puppy and the computer.

    And, because it was again  nearing that time of year, I had to get ready to teach my other online class for the local college.  I decided instead to do a very short Udemy course on stress.  [Gee – I wonder where that topic came from.]

    Even though it was to be a short course and it basically is, I do not have a linear brain and it’s very hard for me to follow a template or a pattern so formatting the course sections took longer then it would for most others.

    And middle of all of this, I upgraded to the Mavericks operating system. And that meant there were updates to most everything on my computer including Keynote. ARGHHHHHHHHH

    I’m not even getting into weather related issues, my ability to procrastinate, or the death of a friend….

    To make this rather long story much shorter, I basically decided I was just going to finish this thing, publish it, and see what happens!

    I was literally getting sick and tired of working with Keynote, fiddling with having to make things kind of similar from lecture to lecture, and all of that – so I recorded stopped fiddling, recorded the slides with voiceover, exported into QuickTime, uploaded the files to Udemy, finished all the other little thingies like descriptions and all that and hit publish – basically without really reviewing the whole thing because I was that sick of it.

    But it’s done…and I feel a sense of relief….

    I had taken my own advice to Stop Stressing About Stress

    And maybe, just maybe, I can get back to the 1st course, the one on Nutrition…..

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • 6 Down; 6 To Go

    6It is the 1st day of the last 6 months of the year.

     

    What have you gotten done?

    What will you do with the next 6 months?

     

    it is hot

     

    In North America we are into summer and for many of us it is stifling hot….

    But don’t let the weather determine your goals – summer is a good time to keep working on whatever you were working on…refine it, add to it, finish it. Sell it! Make money for your business!!

    If, like me, you are a daylight person, the added hours of sunshine mean added hours to get things done….

    Stay cool! Stay focused! 

    Are you more [or less] productive in the summer?

     Comments? 

  • Library Love

    I love libraries! 

     

    I’ve loved libraries all my life.

    I got my 1st library card at whatever age that was allowed back then and went to the library often. My mom drove me but as soon as I was allowed, I walked or biked there.

    As I got older, I spent endless hours in the library at 42nd Street [I loved the lions] and of course, my college library.

    In graduate school and afterwards, I loved the university library.

    When I moved to D.C. I was in heaven – I had the Library of Congress!

    In the past I also bought a lot of books – but when I made this last move, which was cross-country – many of those found new homes because I knew I’d have very limited space.

    But I picked a location that turned out to have a great library system: Multnomah County!

    I can continue to feed my book addiction with all kinds of reading matter…

     

    And even though I live online now, and publish ebooks, I still love to hold a book in may hands as I read!

     

    And I continue to vote for levies to support libraries because everyone should have access to a free public library and all those books!

    I love libraries!

     

     

    Comments? Thank you!

  • Muses, Cycles, Emotions, and Staycations

    writing_scroll

    I woke up with this post in my head and I’m learning to just “go with it.”

    Over the years I’ve seen that I work in cycles of various lengths.

    Jobs? Two years max!

    Daily exercise at a club? About 1.5 years!

    Regular worship attendance?  Very varied so I guess it is never what you could call “regular.”  

    But writing? That’s one with a cycle I cannot yet figure out and now I am no longer trying to figure it out.  

    I just finished up an e-book about the 10 Commandments [a political snarky take on same] and I thought “wow! I’m on a roll with writing – let me finish up another of the ones I’ve started.”  [There are more than a few.]

    Bad idea. I could not put words to computer at all or even work at videos, etc. – instead I sniped at anyone who talked to me. I was in a very foul mood and still I tried to write.  

    Then I basically said, “screw this” and decided to give up on writing about anything.  It felt like a big defeat.  

    I took a staycation. I played computer games, read a whole lot of books, spent time on web browsers – mostly feeling like my own words had left my head forever.  

    But aha!

    After 2 weeks, the muse came back. I am writing this, getting back to videos, and I working on material for a class I teach.

    But that muse won’t touch e-books right now!  

    Lesson learned? My muse did not desert me.

    • She needed a break. 
    • She too has a cycle – just like me.

    Why did I not know this?

    • Because when I was in my foul mood I was not thinking.  

     

    2nd lesson learned?   When in a foul mood – do not make major decisions about anything – and do not try to write!    

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