Every person you meet, whether a client, customer or prospect, has (1) unique requirements, (2) special needs and (3) specific motivations when he/she/they decide to work with another person.

It doesn't matter what profession you are in. What matters to him/her/them is whether or not you can help them.

No one is perfect.

You can not help everyone, but you can be there for someone. When you decide to be there for a person, then be there for that person. It doesn't mean you wont have issues, it just means they are relying on you and you have to do the best with what you have at the time of each individual life event.

It doesn't mean jumping through ridiculous hoops, being afraid to disappoint them, or that you will not make a mistake or two down the road. It simply means do the best you can and be honest about your business. There will always be an issue to resolve.

What separates the professional from the amateur is how you decide to resolve it.

The Outside Blog Minion Report

YOTVETA

187-20 Union Turnpike Fresh Meadows, NY 11365 (718) 454-1636/37

I love food. Eating is one of my favorite pastimes. Ever have an Israeli salad? They dice it very fine. Tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, parsley dressed in olive oil and lemon juice. Sweet potatoe soup goes very nice with that. It's creamy in texture and they serve it with potato squares. Mmm...

Like Pasta? An excellent appetizer would be their Jumbo Ravioli. It's cheese ravioli with hot salsa and Parmesan cream. My fave dinner dish is the Rose Sauce Cheese Ravioli. You seriously have to try it. It's cream and tomato sauce, chili garlic and Parmarella cheese. I have my eye on six pasta dishes I need to work my way through them all. This was the first one I tried at Yotveta. It made quite an impression on my taste buds. Absolutely lovely. :-)

Fish is a favorite. You can do so much with it. Sana and I really enjoyed their Tilapia dish. They have a spicy one with Moroccan pepper, chickpeas and coriander. Tonight, I am going to try the Sea Bass. Their sea bass fillet is served on eggplant with tehina and sillan with cheese ravioli on top. Did I mention how much I like their ravioli? I think I did (LOL). We'll be popping by after we do our evening work out at the New York Sports Club. Can't eat the way we do and not work out (LOL).

Will tell you about desert later. Gotta get the kids to school. ;-)

The Outside Blog Minion Report

Yotveta

Jerusalem Post

Vaad Harabonim of Queens

The Newton D. and Rochelle Becker Family Foundation

I want to learn Hebrew. I started reading the Jerusalem Post on-line because while Googling for resources I discovered this wonderful page. Pretty soon I was also hooked on websites like Vaad Harabonim and the Newton D. & Rochelle Becker Family Foundation's http://www.learnhebrewprayers.com

Let's not forget iTunes. You can download a lot of free language courses from there. Very interesting stuff if you bother to take the time to look. Coffee Break Spanish from the Radio Lingua Network was my first attempt at learning another language in over twenty years (LOL). I discovered them on iTunes and absolutely love their approach. Funny what you are determined to do when you have small children who will one day be bringing home homework you as a parent may have absolutely no idea how to do. Surely you've heard of the "new math" that every generation of us older folks seems to suffer through. In some states, like Florida, learning Spanish is a mandatory part of the curriculum. Since hubby is Jewish, Hebrew automatically goes on the table. Thus my adventures in language and culture begins with something yummy for the tummy (LOL). Everyone has an intangible incentive-button to push. Mine happens to be eye and food candy. You can get a lot out of me if you bring the right Hagen Daz over, or introduce me to a Spanking-A restaurant, but I digress... :-)

It is not enough to want to learn the language. You should immerse yourself into the culture. You need to understand people to communicate effectively with them. It may seem like a small statement to say, but it is huge if you really get the power of interpersonal communications. You can learn a lot about people by breaking bread with them. The next time you go out to eat, observe your surroundings and ask yourself why you frequent a place. Sometimes we do things out of habit, other times we do what is convenient...

Why not do something different? Go to Union Turnpike and 188 Street in Fresh Meadows. Find Yotveta. Ask them to select the most popular dishes requested and enjoy a fine dining experience. I am still working my way through the menu, so we shall be having a few more conversations about this subject. It is time for me to go, but before I go, I must say thank you:

May God bless my most excellent girlfriend Susana Isakharova. She has been my cultural guide to all things Israeli in Queens County, New York. She has impeccable taste when it comes to great kosher restaurants so I decided it would be fun to share what we've been up to while I stumble through my Russian-Jewish etiquette and enjoy delicious food candy for the soul. If you read my blog you already know how I feel about my eye candy so toss food candy right up there with me being crazy about my little minions. If you don't, let's just say I am a foodie paradise kinda gal. Yotveta is a foodie paradise kinda place. Unassuming, intimate, tasty... well... very, very tasty (LOL). I will keep eating until I've tried almost everything on the menu at least once. This may take a while... (Yay!)

I guess we know what my next blog post will be about... (LOL) Go enjoy your day and pick a new place to eat of your choice. Stop doing what you always do. Do something new. Have fun with it. :-)

The Outside Blog Minion Report

ClubChaosAgents.com

CTannStarr on Yale University, New Haven

If you are traveling to Massachusetts, New Haven is conveniently situated between Boston and New York. When I think about going to Boston I always think about stopping in New Haven to see my friends. I was blessed to enjoy a tweet-up with Dan Cummings, Sandra Cummings and Donna Bigda. Although it rained the entire day, we had a blast hanging out and I learned a considerable amount of new and fascinating information about my beloved blogging buddies (LOL).

We had the most marvelous dining experience at Modern Pizza which has a very interesting menu. They have created a few dishes that I have never seen or heard of, so of course I have to come back and try them. In case you have not been paying too much attention I am a foodie paradise sort of gal. I have no problem driving 85 miles for an excellent meal, especially if it means spending quality time with my friends and family members. One has to enjoy the little things in life while one can. :-)

Yale University inspired me to capture 77 photographs in the rain with my friends. They were a great sport about my predilection for eye candy and did not complain once about strolling around and playing in the rain. Photography takes patience and I thank them publicly for their affection and restraint (LOL). It was cold, wet and gray but they did it anyway, which makes me smile everytime I think about my visit there. Looking forward to filming New Haven in the sunshine. Horses may be involved on our next ActiveRain Road Trip. The idea od capturing a CT farm fascinates me...

Here is a little visual teaser from our day together. Will be posting and sharing more photographs after the little minions help me sort through the rest of the pictures. These are Stephen's selections. The Minion Blur took his sweet time picking them out. It will be interesting to see what Noah picks out to share with you. I'm thinking the Yale collection deserves a slide show. A handful of pictures will not do my visit justice. I may have to write some new music to go along with the pending virtual presentation. I am a bit overdue for arranging some new cyber-noise. The kids are always gung-ho when it comes to making music. ;-)

I also went on a New Haven tour of homes with the Cummings but that joy ride deserves another blog post. We had a lot of fun and I'm still trying to make up my mind regarding what to chat about (LOL). So much to blog about, so little time... so much fun dropping a dime... Yup. It's true. I am having a Dr Seuss moment because we laughed an awful lot and some of the text messages were priceless. But I digress...

Yale.edu has an interesting overview of the area on their website that I'd like to quote from: "New Haven has been home to Yale University for nearly three centuries. As a center for business and a mecca for the arts, New Haven is recognized as a city of innovation, culture and prosperity. Approximately 20 square miles with nearly 130,000 residents, New Haven is conveniently located between Boston and New York. As Yale President Richard C. Levin, a thirty-year resident of New Haven, notes, New Haven is “large enough to be interesting, yet small enough to be friendly.” You can read more about the community here. Since it is 2009 they may want to update that page to reflect over three decades (LOL). I'm just sayin... but what do I know, eh? ;-)

Wikipedia also has some very interesting observations to make: "Yale traces its beginnings to "An Act for Liberty to Erect a Collegiate School," passed by the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut on October 9, 1701 in an effort to create an institution to train ministers. Soon thereafter, a group of ten Congregationalist ministers led by James Pierpont, all of whom were alumni of Harvard (the only North American college during their youth), met in the study of Reverend Samuel Russell in Branford, Connecticut, to pool their books to form the school's first library. The group is now known as "The Founders." You can read the entire article here.

Seems one ought not to discount the library as the beginning, don't you think? Isn't Branford in New Haven County? That's why I'm leaning towards the "over three decades" observation. Technically, it moved to New Haven in 1718, so the website is correct from a narrow geographical standpoint. However, just seems to me if Apple started in a garage and everyone knows that, why not state where Yale started so everyone will know as well. I feel as if they are discounting the ministers for putting it all together. They deserve the credit. Yale would not exist if not for them. :-)

BTW, that last thought made quite an impression on me while I was wandering around. I felt as if I were on hallowed grounds and some of the students were on devine appointments to change the world one person at a time. I wondered what it felt like to enter those gates with thanksgiving because everyone does not get accepted at Yale University. I wondered how many people entered believing God had a hand in its creation through a handful of inspired men.

I will spread the rumor that for over three hundred years the beautiful grounds of New Haven County have been home to Yale University in one form or another. If you have never been, it is a must see for your bucket list. The blessings of the founding fathers are still on the institution. When you walk it in the gray of a dim and gloomy rain you can almost feel the ghosts of educators past, angels and demons influencing the atmosphere. There is nothing quite like it.

Several of our Presidents hailed from there so in that respect alone Yale has certainly changed the world through one person seated in a position of power. I look forward to imagining my children going to University one day and I wonder where their quirky Autism / PDD-NOS traits will take them... I wonder who they will influence and what they will leave behind. I wonder if they would ever consider striving to attend Yale...

The World According To Twitter

Sesame Street

BookExpo America

Carolyn Tann-Starr on David Pogue

BookExpo America 2009 introduced me to several new concepts regarding "book blogging." There was a very interesting forum going on where the publishing houses were very interested in bloggers doing reviews and linking back to works so that their readers could discover what new titles were coming out. I think if I ever had to hire help to do this the best ActiveRain group for the job would be Realtors and Friends Who Read.

I knew RAFWR did this because they love sharing their reading lists but what I didn't know was that publishing houses were actively looking for teams of bloggers to review their titles. I think that would be a mad cool way to acquire new reading material, don't you? It almost makes me want to stop paying for book club titles and volunteer from one end of the country to the other (LOL). I didn't realize how much fun blogging about books could really be (or even there was a specific employment phrase for it) until I went on a photo-shoot with Margaret Rome and stumbled across a few presentations regarding this subject.

I guess when you hang around publishers and writers you start a slow slide down that subtle shift of attitude adjustments people experience when they become part of the process instead of being on the outside looking in. If I could pick my subject I would definitely want to do children titles and fun authors who collected or created useful content that I had a love or technical interest in.

Being a tweet-peep of some very interesting individuals who use Twitter, I decided I would review a fascinating and fun book on communal writing by David Pogue except it hasn't been released yet (LOL). I remember the first time he made a serious social media impression on me was when he did a real time Twitter demo that was fun which you can read about here. My fave quote from the post regarding Twitter is "harnessing the power of the Web, the collective wisdom of strangers, in real time!"

My sole reason for making a beeline to the B D & L tables was to see what was up with the little minions fave PBS show Sesame Street. Mommies are always buying their wee people educational things. The more fun you make it the faster we'll snatch those puppies up. Ya gotta admit, it's hard to top Sesame Street. I still watch it with the kids when they are not obsessing over Disney's Cars or Sponge-bob. :-)

I love Twitter so I can't wait to read his book. While you and I are waiting for David Pogue's book to come out you can catch him as a columnist for the New York Times and on CBS News. You also can buy his tech books directly from his site here: http://davidpogue.com/books/index.html or at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

If you want to know more about the twitter project, click here. I'm going to be talking about the BookExpo for a while. I've lots of interesting pictures and titles to blurb about (LOL). You know there's going to be another Trump University book in there somewhere. I love their stuff. Elizabeth Weintraub has a new book coming out as well regarding short sales. If you think I was a smiley faced kid with Margaret Rome's book, wait until E's book hits the shelves. :-)