What does a romance hero do for a living? When I was much younger the hero in romance comic books, these books were my favorite right after Betty, Veronica and the gang, was usually the boss in an office. I don’t think it mattered what he did, he was simply “the boss.” The secretary, receptionist, etc. usually kept her infatuation a secret. She may have told her gal pals but never let the boss know. Then it happened, maybe a ride home in the rain, perhaps they had to work late at the office, she or he had a life emergency and…the rest is romance history.

Romance novels are as popular as ever, perhaps more so now that you can download your novel and read it online ;) Some women (and men) never admit to reading these books, but the numbers tell us that someone is reading them. And far more than those who stand up and freely admit, “My name is Vannie, and I am a reader of romance novels.”  When you admit to this, you are also admitting that you don’t want to read about someone who is a fast food worker or an accountant. Although sometimes…well.

Romance novels have such an impact on readers, the magazine Psychology Today performed an analysis of over 15,000 romance novels and the heroes that live within these pages. See the list of the most common occupations of romance heroes in fiction, not one works at Mickey D’s:

• Doctor
• Cowboy
• Boss
• Prince
• Rancher
• Knight
• Surgeon
• Monarch
• Bodyguard
• Sheriff

Where are you gonna find a knight to romance you? Hey we are talking fantasy, remember? That’s also why he always has rippling muscles, a killer smile and can charm honey from a stone! BTW, did you know that August is Romance Awareness Month?

Source: Psychology Today Magazine: http://www.psychologytoday.com/
Visit Romance Genre: for Tweets about romance and romance authors http://twitter.com/RomanceGenre You will have to join Twitter first.

• Provide a healthy variety. You want your kids to eat right, but don’t force foods on kids, they often rebel just because…hey they’re kids.  However if you make tasty nutritious food available in your home and allow them to  choose what they want you will have a win-win situation.

• Avoid power struggles:-( You can’t control what other children eat. And, sad but true, you can’t control  what your child eats at a friend’s house. But, you can set the rules for your own home. Do set rules and don’t worry about what other kids eat, just your own.

• When shopping involve your children. If your kids are young enough that you take them shopping with you, explain why you are buying this or that. Let them see how and why you choose  certain items.  Let them a few selections of their own. If they make the wrong choices, reading the label out loud may make them think twice about the product.  Allow kids to help prepare meals so they see what goes into a healthy dinner. While making green salad, pop a few morsels in your mouth to show how delicious you think they are. Talk about where fruits and vegetables come from, if there is a farm nearby, even better, some farms welcome visitors.

• When possible eat together. As much as possible, schedule dinners so everyone in the family can eat together. If only five members of a six-member family is available, go for it, the sixth member may make more of an effort to join the family at dinner time. When eating together, serve healthy and tasty food, this may influence what your children eat at meals when not at your dinner table.

• Eating a meal is not a race to the finish.  You should not rush through your meal, nor should you allow child to do it. Engage family members in conversation. Have you noticed when you eat out with friends you find that you have spent two hours at lunch or dinner? Why? How? Conversation! If you normally serve soda or other sugary drinks, add water to the mix, place water on the table.  A reminder that water helps to clear the palate for the next course. You don’t have to tell them that drinking water will help to fill them and perhaps eat less. That will be our secret.

I give you one more reason to be careful what you post online.

In the past year or two there has been much publicity about married people using social media to share their eagerness, sometimes graphic longings to be with someone other than their legal mate. As the headlines have shown nothing online is really private.

A survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers found that 80 percent of divorce lawyers say they’ve seen an increase in the number of cases relying on social media for evidence of hanky-panky and other wrong-doing.

When social networking get into the mix, 66 percent of the lawyers say Facebook has been used as the primary source of evidence, followed by Myspace (15 percent), and then Twitter (5 percent), with other sites making up 14 percent. You will note that Twitter is only 5 percent, I guess it’s not that easy to post hot and heavy longings in 140 character’s. 

American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers http://www.aaml.org/

I offer quotes for the heart, mind, and soul to end one year and start another. I am hopeful that some will make you go ‘mmmmm.’

• You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them. —Desmond Tutu
• There are people who have money and people who are rich. —Coco Chanel

• Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. —Stephen Hawking
• Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. —Dee Hock
• Statistics are no substitute for judgment. —Henry Clay
• Science is simply common sense at its best. —Thomas Huxley
• There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns. —Edward de Bono
• Succeeding is not really a life experience that does that much good. Failing is a much more sobering and enlightening experience. —Michael Eisner
• Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them. —Paul Hawken

• Sometimes you’ve got to let everything go—purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything, whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out. —Tina Turner
• And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. —Anais Nin
• The arithmetic of life does not always have a logical answer. —Inshirah Abdur-Rauf

Happy New Year to all.

Vannie Ryanes

Referrals and networking top tactics for job hunters

     What’s the best way to land a new job? High rates of unemployment make that an urgent question for many people. A study of more than 700 job seekers who found employment between July 2009 and January 2010, conducted by the IMPACT Group*, identified these winning tactics:

Referrals from inside the hiring organization were the most successful strategy, cited by 18 percent of job seekers. Social networks like LinkedIn+, Facebook, and Twitter+ helped candidates identify opportunities for referral. Referrals from outside the organization were successful for 9 percent of job hunters.

Posting résumés online was successful for 8 percent of job seekers, the same as in 2003.

Networking was most effective for older workers (50 and up), with 46 percent reporting that it led to employment. For candidates earning more than $100,000, networking was successful for 50 percent.

Never under estimate the power of being kind and friendly, I got my dream job because a former coworker gave my name to a director at her job. Although I was not looking, I have never turned down a job interview. I went, they liked me, I like them. They held the job for a month while I waited for my bosses  return from vacation,  and to give proper notice.

Read Harvey Mackay’s book (from Amazon) about networking basics, Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty: The Only Networking Book You’ll Ever Need Mackay says it is “the only networking book you’ll ever need. His advice? Do not disregard people because of their job title. A store clerk may have a mucky-muck relative.  

Read this interesting Wall Street Journal article How to search for a job online. And finally, connect with me :) my profile at: LinkedIn my Twitter page: @Vannie_Ryanes

December is a month of holiday celebrations crossing different cultures and nationalities. It seems to be the season for all holidays. How appropriate is that December is also Universal Human Rights Month. 

See this list holiday celebrations and observations:

Hannukah. An eight-day Jewish holiday beginning this year at sundown the day before Dec. 2, 2010, Hannukah celebrates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem after the Jewish victory over the Maccabees in 165 B.C. Each night, families light one candle on the menorah, observing the traditional story of how the one-day supply of oil for the temple’s eternal flame burned for eight days.

Al Hijra. The Islamic new year observed in 2010 on Dec. 7 through Jan. 4, 2011, this marks the emigration of the Prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 A.D.

Christmas. This Christian holiday, observed on Dec.25, celebrates the birth of Jesus between the years 7 and 2 B.C. The date may have been chosen to correspond with the winter solstice, or to coincide with a Roman holiday honoring the sun during the same period. Christmas became a federal holiday in the United States in 1870.

Kwanzaa. A seven-day celebration of African heritage and culture, Kwanzaa is observed from Dec. 26 to Jan.1. Activist Ron Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 to emphasize African-Americans’ shared history and experience. The name Kwanzaa is derived from “matunda ya kwanza,” a Swahili phrase meaning “first fruits.”

Thanksgiving. It’s all about attitude, gratitude, family and friendship.

Although Thanksgiving is purely an American tradition and celebration, there seems to be no better time than now to think about attitude and gratitude, family and friendship which is universal.
    I share my attitude and gratitude about and for a long-time friend. I have known her since we were 19 or 20. Not only do we share ties as former co-workers, we also share a birth sign, and other thoughts and ideas. We have just returned from a short vacation and will soon take another to celebrate our birthdays in a few months. We have never lost touch with one another, but as we grow older we have become as close as we were when we were young. In the old days it was about going out and having a good time–and make no mistake, we had good times. Now we each share DVD’s and talk about movies we love; after all of this time, we just now realize that we like the same quirky movies.  

While away, we talked about ourselves, our families and anything else that came to mind. Sometimes we talked about the old days, but not as much as one would think. At night we went to our respective rooms for personal alone time and to get ready for the the next day. One morning as we shared a leisurely breakfast we talked about green tea. I told her that I love Bromley Green Tea but had just run out. I expected her to say that she was not familiar with Bromley, as it is not the hot green tea of the moment. Instead she looked at the teabag tag hanging from her cup and pointed, it was Bromley tea. We laughed and shared a special moment. What does this story have to do with attitude and gratitude? It made my attitude about our friendship soar even higher and once more made me grateful that she is my friend. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

“The best mirror is an old friend.” Attributed to George Herbert, 1651. English clergyman & metaphysical poet (1593 - 1633).

You don’t have to be a child to enjoy corny Halloween jokes. If you are having a grown-up Halloween party, go ahead and have a bit of childish fun. Print one full-sized copy of this cute article for yourself, then shrink the article so it fits on a half-sized typing sheet–remembering to delete the answers on the bottom of this article for the hand-out copies. Now, copy and paste two copies of the reduced size article on one full-sized sheet of paper and print the desired number of copies. You will have two documents on one sheet. Cut in half. Use as is with this cute kitty in a pumpkin or place your own a Halloween sticker. A prize of your choice goes to one who gets the most correct answers. Boo!

• 1. How do you mend a broken jack-o-lantern?
• 2. Why didn’t the skeleton dance at the party?
• 3. Why don’t mummies take vacations?
• 4. Why do witches use brooms to fly?
• 5. What did one ghost say to another ghost?
• 6. What do you call someone who poisons a person’s cornflakes?
• 7. What kind of streets do zombies like best?
• 8. What does a vampire never order in a restaurant?
• 9. What do birds give out on Halloween night?
• 10. What is a vampire’s favorite mode of transportation?

Match the answer below with the questions above. Have fun.

A-Dead ends; B-Do you believe in people?; C-Tweets; D-A cereal (serial) killer; E-A blood vessel; F-With a pumpkin patch; G-A steak (stake) sandwich; H-Because vacuum cleaners are too heavy; I-He had no body to dance with J-They’re afraid they’ll relax and unwind

——————————————————–

Be sure to remove these answers from bottom: 1F; 2I; 3J; 4H; 5B; 6D; 7A; 8G; 9C; 10E

As one who never opens forwards, etc. I share with you one that a friend sent to me with a note in the subject line: I Know You Don’t Read Forwards-PLEASE READ!  How could I not read it? She knew she would have hell to pay if I felt she wasted my time. It is below.

On the bulletin board of a California company, someone once posted this sign to remind everyone of how time is relative—but the value of time is priceless:

• To realize the value of one year: Ask the student who has failed his final exam.

• To realize the value of one month: Ask the mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

• To realize the value of one week: Ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

• To realize the value of one day: Ask the daily wage laborer who has 10 kids to feed.

• To realize the value of an hour: Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

• To realize the value of a minute: Ask the person who has missed the train, the bus, or the plane.

• To realize the value of a second: Ask the person who has survived an accident.

• To realize the value of a millisecond: Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.

I sent my friend an email telling her she did good.

The holidays will be here before you know it, here are a few simple ways to earn cash for little pleasures and goodies for yourself and your family. 

You won’t get rich with these money-generating ideas, but you can take the results to the bank (even if it’s only your piggy bank):
    • Sell photos to stock photo websites. Stock photography sites offer generic photos of landscapes, animals, and other nonspecific subjects to designers and publishers. Go through your travel photos or your pictures of Fluffy, Fido and great scenery, then check out sites like istockphoto.com and shutterstock.com.

• Sell your books. Go through your bookshelves. Are you hanging on to your old college textbooks? Be realistic when setting prices, are you really going to read A Tale of Two Cities ever again? You can sell books online or try a local second-hand bookshop. If you have enough books you can have a garage sale–get your bookaholic friends involved and set up your own book space in the yard.  

• Sign up for consumer focus groups. Corporations and nonprofits doing market research need opinions from regular people. Make yourself available for focus groups, and you could earn $50 to $100 or so for an hour or two of sharing your thoughts and reactions to ideas. And don’t forget those online survey’s,  MyPoints.com is one of the best, your points add up quickly and you are never added to odd lists.