What To Do With Your Lightning Bolts

Lightning bolts.

You have them in the shower.

In the middle of the night.

When you are walking on the road.

When something catches your eye or ear and makes you go "hmm".

What do you do with these lightning bolts?

Do you make a mental note to act on them, but then forget about them? 

That's what’s so great about social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and blog hosting sites…

You can find a home for all those inspirations that visit you in the middle of the night.

If nothing else, they will be there for you to read later.

You should make use of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and blogging sites like Word Press and Blogger to store, treasure and honor every thought and idea that is special to you – including your lightning bolts.

Most of my posts on Minoo Jha Life Strategies are truthfully just lightning bolts I couldn’t let go off.

My Twitter-related posts, beginning with Dear Dick Costolo, are an example. In these posts, a bird called Spizella Arborea launches a protest against Twitter for using the word "tweet". 

Some of my lightning bolts are so silly and quirky, you will wonder why I even bother.

My “OMG,You’ve Been Acked" post, for instance.

The answer is : “just for the fun of it”.  

This post is going to be another just for the fun of it post.

It was inspired by me having a lightning bolt about dropping the first letter of a name to come up with a new name.

Here goes…making new names by dropping the first letter of a name– just for the fun of it!

Radhika.  Adhika

Neelam.  Eelam

Madhav.  Adhav.

Lavanya.  Avanya

Shalini .  Halini

Taanvi.   Aanvi

Padmini. Admini

Kanchana.   Anchana

Ramani.  Amani

Manjula.  Anjula

Amrita. Mrita.

Ajay.  Jay

Nainika.  Ainika.

Kavita.  Avita

Karishma.  Arishma

Darshana.  Arshana

Gauri.  Auri

Jagjit.  Agjit

Jayashri.  Ayashri

Kalpana. Alpana

Want more name fun? 

Read My Dear Santa or Porki and Bonkers Tradition or How to Go from Madonna to Lily to Myrtle in a Single Evening - and Even Have a Sex Change. 

And do get started on treasuring and housing your own lightning bolts.

Don't be afraid of them being thought of as silly or foolish or a drag.  So what if they are! They're yours - that's what makes them special.

P.S. As always, thanks for reading and have a great day.

Job Doctor

Advice for those short in the tooth on the job scene from those long in the tooth on the job scene

Photo Courtesy: Free Digital Photos.net

Dear Job Doctor….how do I know which health insurance to choose? 

Dear Seeking-An-Answer-On-Health-Insurance: After you read all the promotional literature provided by the different health insurance companies thoroughly and after you attend the health fair and the sessions organized by HR, here's my suggestion: Put all the choices on a dartboard and toss a dart.  Insurances are all the same. Every year your premiums will go up, every year you will fight for brands vs generics, your insurance will become completely unaffordable when you are unemployed (and need it most), and you will not be able to fathom a medical bill even if you have a double PhD in science and mathematics.

P.S.  If you are currently unemployed or self-employed and are looking at the different health insurance options available to you, my post Jobless or Self-Employed in California? might be of help.

Dear Job Doctor…. what are Casual Fridays all about?

Dear What-are-Casual-Fridays-All-About: Good question – Casual Fridays originated as a way for suits to let their hair down one day of the work week.  In Silicon Valley, Casual Fridays have spilled over from Friday to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Out here - in Silicon Valley - one might even make a case for instituting ‘Formal Mondays’. One day of the week when men look as spiffy as they did on their wedding day and women look as spiffy as they did on interview day. 

If you are enchanted by the Casual Friday perk, some of the professions you should not be considering are: Limo Driver, Maitre d' or Basketball Coach (in these professions, every day you will feel like you are going to your wedding). Don't think about becoming a doctor (like several members of my family) either. You will not be able to take off your white coat on any day of the week.

P.S. If you are still trying to figure out what job would be right for you, read my post “Can a Book about Job Hunting show You the Path Back to Yourself? ” And if you need resume help, you’ll find useful advice in my post “ Resume Tips from Fortune 500 companies”

Dear Job Doctor…..Is the CEO the most important person in the company?

Dear Clueless-About-The-Most-Important-Person-In-The-Company:  The most important person in the company is the one whom you report to, your boss woman or boss man.  Of all the advice in this column, this may be the most important to take note of and remember.

Dear Job Doctor….I would like to join a company or organization where I can work at for the rest of my life.  Is that possible? 

Dear Hoping-for Lifelong-Tenure: There was a time when I might have advised you to seek certain professions where this was the norm.  But based on what’s currently happening to the U.S. Postal Service, my confidence is shaken and I don't feel comfortable steering you in any particular direction.  If you want to join a company or organization where you can be at for the rest of your life, the best thing for you to do is to start one.  Become an entrepreneur.  When you don’t have kids and financial obligations is the best time to start.  But even if you do have kids and financial obligations, don’t let that stop you.  You can always bootstrap and seek angel investors.  If you have been between jobs more than once, and each time this has happened, you’ve thought about striking out on your own, give it a shot.

My post 6 Steps to Launching a Successful Business might help you with both information and inspiration.  And if you need to get your confidence up, playing the game suggested in my post How to Feel Good About Your Accomplishments When the Chips Are Down? might give you the needed shot in the arm.

Dear Job Doctor…..what should I expect at a performance review?

Dear What-Should-I-Expect-At-A-Performance-Review:  I asked someone who recently had both a kidney stone and a performance review which was less painful and he said “the kidney stone”  There you have it. Performance Reviews truthfully should be called Corporate Torture and if there’s one thing that should be done away with this minute in every single company on the face of the earth, it’s this practice.Do you reply e-mails too fast? Do you talk too loud?  Do you do not say bye at the end of the telephone call? Do you munch baby carrots loudly in your cube during the day?  Any of these things may come up at your performance review. Ouch! 

P.S. You cannot control what comes at you. You can only control how you respond to it.  Which is why I wrote the post Change Your Thinking Change Your Life.  And a year and a half ago, I also successfully learned to meditate.  Meditation slowly but steadily bullet-proofs your mind for all tough situations. Including situations that can do critical damage to your self-worth if you let them  - like the dreaded ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW. So you should toughen up with meditation before your first one or next one.

Want more advice from Job Doctor….ask away. The Job Doctor is here to answer.

P.S.  As always thanks for reading and wishing you a satisfying personal and professional 2012. May you grow not just in skills and experience, but learn new skills and tools to survive and thrive, those that will increase your store of wisdom and peace of mind.

You Aced The SAT, How About The LAT?

Photo Courtesy: Free Digital Photos.Net

LAT – what’s that?

Lobonagar Aptitude Test.

Something I concocted purely for fun.

To test you on what you know about us Lobos of the Bay Area and what you don’t.

So without further ado, friends and relatives, I present to you below, the LAT.

Ready?

1) Which of these has not been raised or grown by one of us?

• Olives
• Walnuts
• Sheep
• Almonds
• Chickens
• Cherries
• Tomatoes
• Grapes
• Zucchinis
• Artichokes

Answer: Artichokes.  We leave that to Castro Valley, which is the home of the artichoke and where an Artichoke festival has been held every year since 1959. You can read about it here.

2) Which of these foods does the Lobo Khandaan not know how to make?

• Appams
• Biryani
• Mole
• Bamia
• Banofi
• Sannas
• Chappathis
• Paella

Answer: Sannas. Sadly, none of us has ever made this popular and traditional Mangalorean (idli-like) bread. In the hope of inspiring someone to correct this situation, I have included the recipe here. 

For those wondering where you've heard the word sannas before, could be you did in my post: The Mangalorean and the Big Words.  Prior to that post, sorpotel (the dish with which sannas are eaten) also got some love in my post about April Gallaty titled The Sometimes Red Headed, Sometimes Orange Headed, Sometimes Purple Headed Link Between Baseball and King Cake. Remember that?

For a humorous post specific to cooking and our family, Our Cakeboss Family is a fun read.

3) Which of these performances cannot be part of a Lobonagar retrospective?

• Singing Hava Na Gila
• Impersonating Michael Jackson
• Making a Christmas tape of multiple instruments played in a garage
• Jiving at Knock Out
• Lecturing on history at WI colleges
• Giving wedding toasts
• Playing the lead in Bye Bye Birdie
• Reciting poetry
• Doing magic shows
• Playing Richard Corey on the guitar
• Belting out All My Secrets on the Piano
• Imitating Futon Shop owner
• Dancing in lungis

Answer: Surprise.  Surprise.  All of them can. Have fun trying to match these performances with the Lobonagar members who are associated with them. Speaking of music, I hope you will read my post Family Songs which is about the musical traditions in our family; and I also encourage you to read my post Why I Can Never Get a Job in Google - if only to make sure you don't let music and other teen detours keep you from getting your act together. Of course, if you do, you can always course correct by doing the Flower Exercise mentioned in my post "Can A Book About Job-Hunting Show You The Path Back to Yourself?"

4) At which of the following venues have our weddings been held?

• On rooftops
• In army clubs
• In New York
• In South Indian hotels
• In Country Clubs
• In the Santa Cruz hills
• In a winery
• On university campuses
• In churches

Answer: At all of the above.  And to this list, we can now add " scenic Oakland park located right next to Chabot Space and Science Center." This is where the 40^th wedding anniversary celebrations of one of these weddings took place recently. If you want to see the pics of this momentous event, as the agent of the photographer who took the pics, I can hook you up. (Tanita, if you didn't know I was your agent, well, you do now).

By the way, Bay Area visitors, if you’ve never been to the Chabot Space and Science Center, put it on your bucket list to visit the Chabot in Oakland, and while you are there, to take in the Oakland Zoo nearby.

Speaking of bucket lists, I read a hilarious article about bucket lists written by Simon Doonan who is a Slate magazine contributor. Check out his commentary on some of the Match.com bucket lists for an assured chuckle.

5) And finally, which of these is not a Lobonagar topic of conversation?

• Wine
• Meditation
• Healthcare
• The Stockmarket
• Colleges
• Movies
• All Things Food
• History
• Fashion
• Politics

Answer: If you said politics, you score a big Zero. Thanks to one particular Lobonagar denizen (you may know who), we are obliged to have political views on everything under the sun. If you come to one of our gatherings, you will identify who I am talking about in the first 5 minutes. Guaranteed!  I must warn you, though. When you turn right on the road to this person’s house, you turn right – in every sense of the word.

That said, the topic that’s least likely to come up in Lobonagar conversations is fashion.   

My friend Rads once commented “Minoo, sartorial splendor is not your thing”. Well now you know – I can blame it on the family.  However, one learns to make lemonade out of lemons. And that's what I did; finding blog material in being fashion- challenged and even making it a personality plus in my post How to Become More Unique.

This wraps up this first edition of the LAT.  How did you do? Not so good.  Well you can always take the LAT for free again!:)

P.S. Please feel free to circulate this to other interested LAT test takers and if you are interested in reading all things Lobonagar, be sure to check out my Pinterest board The Lobonagar Chronicles.

P.S. 3: As always, thanks for reading and do come back again.

The Search Terms Which Will Get You to My Blog...

Photo courtesy: freedigitalphotos.net

I found out through Stats (a gadget on Blogger) what are some of the search terms which will get you to my blog.

While some are bewildering and I can’t figure out why those would link to my blog (example: can someone explain to me why “a ukranianin producer of alcoholic b…” would?), here are some other search terms which will get you to Minoo Jha Life Strategies which make perfect sense...

"never let a pal down"

If you type "never let a pal down" in the Google search box, it will take you to this:

Never Let A Pal Down - Life Strategies - For those with one hand ...

minoojha-actionableideas.blogspot.com/.../never-let-pal-down.html

Mar 1, 2011 – Never Let A Pal Down ...that is the Code of the Woosters. For the uninformed, the Code of the Woosters is the title of a novel by P.G. ...

Some background:  I wrote this post to light a fire under guest poster Ajay Sachdev who owed me a guest post on Wodehouse and was dragging his heels.

Light a fire under Bertie Wooster (I affectionately call Ajay this) it did. 

Before you could say pip pip, Magical Wodehouse (which is a great read) was in my in-box and out on the blog.

Sheldon cooper trains on shelf

If you type Sheldon cooper trains on shelf in the Google search box (sheldon cooper painted escape routes will also work), it will take you to one in a series of posts I wrote on Sheldon Cooper of the Big Bang Theory.  

Life Strategies - For those with one hand tied behind their back ...

minoojha-actionableideas.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html

Jan 28, 2012 – Sheldon Cooper: Ooh, I love trains! ..... They look at my kitchen shelves and cupboards and they look at my closets and never fail to compliment ...

Each of the Sheldon Cooper posts consists of classic conversational exchanges between Sheldon and one of the other characters on Big Bang Theory.  This one. And this one. And this one.  And this one. If you are in low spirits, I think these posts will put the smile back on your face - if only for five minutes.

consult dolores pereira

If you type consult dolores pereira in the Google search box, it will take you to my “The Man in the Bathtub” post.  A post in which I also mention the Delphi oracles, Kamlu, Anita Saran and Rajat Nayar....

Life Strategies - For those with one hand tied behind their back: The ...

minoojha-actionableideas.blogspot.com/2011/.../man-in-bath-tub.ht...

Apr 13, 2011 – The son goes to Delphi to consult the Oracles. (If time travel ... Or he could have gone even further back in time for Dolores Pereira (who else?) ...

Have I got you real curious about this one….for one, the connections between all these people, and… two, the seemingly totally unconnected and wacky title? Yeah! That was the plan.

If you haven’t read The Man in the Bath-tub post, I want you to read it - because it's about one of my favorite historical characters.

Michael Burry Santa 

If you type Michael Burry Santa in the Google search box, it will take you to the post on my blog titled Move Over Michael Burry.

Move Over Michael Burry - Life Strategies - For those with one hand ...

minoojha-actionableideas.blogspot.com/.../move-over-michael-burry...

Mar 23, 2011 – Michael Burry graduated from Santa Teresa High School in San Jose, California. He went on to med school. And specialized in neurology.

Michael Burry is one of the lone wolf investors profiled in Michael Lewis’ “The Big Short”.  Why did I want Michael Burry to move over? And what’s Santa got to do with it? Aha, I’m not telling.  You will have to read Move Over Michael Burry to find out.   

P.S. These are some of the search terms that will get you to my blog. As always thanks for reading and do come back for more.