Primula, Présumé and Tactile Learning: A Day in the Life Sunday

Nothing like a shot of Baileys and coffee made in my Primula Coffee Press to start off a lazy Sunday morning.

We have the requisite coffee maker for guests but the husband and I don't use it. Grinding, scooping, smelling, brewing, and pressing our way to the perfect cup of coffee is so . . . tactile.

Sharing my love for Moleskine, my friend Trish McFarlane wondered in a recent post, "Miss Being Tactile? Is There an App for That? 

I have Evernote at home, on the Blackberry and on the iPad (complete with wireless keyboard) but given the choice, I reach for the kid's 24-pack of ultrathin Sharpies and a blank sheet of paper and mind map my ideas. Circles here, arrows there and a splash of color to draw the eye into the main points - does it get any better than that?

I struggled with my Nook 1st Edition, barely used my Kindle and am now just getting ok reading with the Nook for iPad. If I could only dog-ear a virtual page or two, I'd be golden.

You see, I am in my element when I can see if, feel it, and touch it.

Although I am the first in line to want to make a good first impression when visitors come knocking, I am also the first to blow past the gloss to see what's really behind the curtain. This may be why I question the wisdom of job seekers who put the shine before the substance with creative resume displays like  Présumé.

Take a look at this Présumé. I hate it. Actually, I love it (what I hate is that I lack the creativity to do this.) This was the absolute perfect approach for the job she was seeking but it would not work for everyone in every situation, like applying for a position with me.

This very cool presentation would lose it's appeal when I printed it off so I could hold it in my hot little tactile hands and mark it up with my yellow highlighter as I read for evidence of proven #trenchhr experiences.

It's me, not you. Sometimes a traditional dry, black and white, no more than 2 page resume with no life but a ton of hand-on organizational human resource practitioner experiences it just what this HR Director ordered.

Now, who's going to bottle up a touch of that creativity for me?

Photo credit weevermedia.com/services/app-marketing

Giving Back: Read Indeed

The past weekend, I attended the 2nd Annual Minnesota Blogger Conference. You can read all about my day in Bloggers, Tacos and Minnesota Inspiration, but that's not what this post is about. This post is about Maria.

The founders of the conference alway back to the community. This year, they were happy to announce they would be featuring the Read Indeed charity for the conference. Read Indeed is a 501c3 nonprofit literacy organization and the vision of Maria Keller, a book-loving 5th grader who wants to make the world a better place—one book at a time. Maria’s goal is to collect and distribute 1,000,000 books to needy children by the time she’s 18. She has been collecting and distributing books since she was 8 years old—touching the lives of thousands of children around the world.

I was not aware of Read Indeed until last week. My daughter is a book-loving 5th grader who struggles to part with her books. Yet, we scoured the shelves and came up with a few that she wanted to share with other children who may not have the opportunities to read she has had.

Maria is up to 561,291 books collected and distributed. If you have any extra new or gently used children's books, consider helping Maria.

Photo credit iStockphoto