Monthly Archives: January 2011

Monday’s Link Roundup.

In this Monday’s Link Roundup I couldn’t resist including David Carter’s Pop-Up Books for Children of All Ages. If you want to treat yourself to a moment of sheer whimsy and delight, don’t miss this item. If you’re in a more serious frame of mind, I suggest How to Write a (Good) Sentence or Ira  Glass on the Art of Storytelling.

  • five workflow stumbling blocks and how to avoid them. “Book design and production is a complicated process with a lot of moving parts: text and graphics, multiple people, as well as a fair share of technology gremlins. Some glitches are bound to arise, but many are predictable and thus can be avoided—or at least the effect of them ameliorated—by some advanced planning. Here are five common stumbling blocks:”
  • The Extraordinary Craft of Story Building. “People connect with stories that move them and most every business can and should tell a story that helps prospects and customers connect at a deeper level. I truly believe the Internet, while making it easy to find information, has left us craving real connections, with real people, and the companies they serve”
  • A List of U.S. Book Printers from Aeonix Publishin Group. “Out of some 50,000 printers in the U.S., there are about 100 printers that either specialize in printing books or where printing books make up a significant portion of their work. Since these printers are specifically equipped to print books (and very little else) they can print your book very efficiently and deliver them to you at a price far lower than anything that a local print shop can ever do–even with the transportation charges across the country.”
  • Holocaust Historical Data Goes Digital. “Israel’s Yad Vashem memorial, the world’s largest collection of Holocaust documents, is teaming up with Google to make its photographs and documents interactive and searchable on the Internet.”
  • Ira Glass on the Art of Storytelling. “Since 1995, Ira Glass has hosted and produced This American Life (iTunes – Feed – Web Site), the award-winning radio show that presents masterfully-crafted stories to almost 2 million listeners each week. What’s the secret sauce that goes into making a great story, particularly one primed for radio or TV? Glass spells it out in four parts.”
  • How To Write a (Good) Sentence by Stanley Fish. “The problem with Strunk & White,[The Elements of Style] in Fish’s view, is that “they assume a level of knowledge and understanding only some of their readers will have attained,” that is, the Cornell kids whose secondary education did at least a halfway decent job of teaching them the basics. Fish’s aim is to offer a guide to sentence craft and appreciation that is both deeper and more democratic. What, at base, is a sentence? he asks, and then goes on to argue that the standard answer based in parts of speech and rules of grammar teaches students “nothing about how to write.” [Thanks to Pat McNees of Writers and Editors for alerting me to this item.]

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From the Archives: Get Help Now With These Photo Restoration Services.

Get Help Now With These Photo Restoration Services. I find restoring a damaged photograph to its original splendor satisfying work.  I’ve  been using ArcSoft PhotoStudio 5 which came bundled with my Canon Pixma color printer. There is a newer version PhotoStudio 6 for US$80. Click here for details. It’s not as professional or advanced as Adobe Photoshop but it’s easy to use and does the trick. You can have someone else restore your photos if you’re not a “Do-It-Yourselfer”. I’ve assembled … Read More

The 50 Best Life Story Questions.

I know it’s presumptuous for me to claim these are the “best”.  But what the heck, they’re not shabby. ;-)

In a previous article I suggested you might want to write “50 best life story questions”.  I explained these could be a token of appreciation for a potential client that you lost. If you haven’t yet written your “50 best”,  take a look at my list and feel free to use any of them. Be my guest!

  1. If you could do one thing over in your life, what would it be?
  2. What makes  you happy?
  3. Looking back on your life, what do you regret?
  4. What do you believe to be true?
  5. What is the secret to a happy life?
  6. What do you believe happens to us after we die?
  7. Who’s had the greatest influence on your life and why?
  8. What are the qualities that you admire in your friends?
  9. What is the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?
  10. How would you describe yourself?
  11. If you could meet anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
  12. What’s important in your life?
  13. If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?
  14. What’s a secret ambition of yours?
  15. Who in your life would you like to thank and for what?
  16. What principles have guided your life?
  17. Where do you find serenity?
  18. What makes you sad?
  19. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in your life?
  20. How would you like to be remembered?
  21. If you had only one day to live, how would you live it?
  22. How would you describe your spiritual beliefs?
  23. Who is the most important person in your life today and why?
  24. What was the worst job you ever had and why was it so bad?
  25. What’s your idea of a good time?
  26. What’s wrong with the world?
  27. What’s one big question you’d like answered?
  28. What is it that you absolutely couldn’t live without?
  29. How would you describe yourself as a child?
  30. What’s the greatest gift you could give to someone you love?
  31. What does love mean to you?
  32. What was the best job you ever had and why was it the best?
  33. If you had to evacuate your home immediately and could take only one thing, what would it be and why?
  34. What do you still want to accomplish?
  35. What’s right with the world?
  36. What’s one thing you’d like to change about yourself?
  37. How would you describe your perfect day?
  38. What event in your life would you like to live over and why?
  39. What are you avoiding?
  40. What are your best qualities?
  41. What’s the most romantic thing you’ve done for someone?
  42. Who are your heroes and why?
  43. What are your failings?
  44. What’s the kindest thing you’ve done for someone?
  45. What is more important to you,  challenge or comfort and why?
  46. How is your home like you?
  47. If your life were a motion picture, what would the title be?
  48. Who in your life would you like to forgive and  for what?
  49. What are the advantages of getting older?
  50. What would you place in a time capsule that would tell a relative 1oo years from now who you were?

Do you have some questions that you think should be on the list? Please add them in the comment box below. I always appreciate hearing from you.

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

This Monday’s Link Roundup has some great articles to support the business side of your personal history work. Don’t miss To get paid, take a tip from a waiter. And if you’re still wondering if you need to take part in social media, you’ll want to look at How do Boomers and Seniors Use the Internet?

  • How Do Boomers and Seniors Use the Internet? “According to a report Older Adults and Social Media (Pew Internet and American Life Project), over50s are the fastest growing social media demographic. Social networking use among Internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010.”
  • Should I Become an Entrepreneur? “I have concluded that being an entrepreneur is an irrational state of being. If human beings were purely rational, evaluative, value maximizing individuals (see HBS Prof Michael Jensen’s paper on self-interest and human behavior (link PDF)), they would not start companies. If they sat down and did the expected value calculation by laying out the probability-weighted outcomes of being an entrepreneur as compared to taking a safe job, it would not pencil out.”
  • To get paid, take a tip from a waiter. “Here’s a column for the hundreds of thousands of lawyers, accountants, consultants and other professional service providers in Canada who are in private practice –private practice meaning you are in the business of providing services and advice to people who are also in business; you bill for it; and, you expect to get paid for it.” [Thanks to Philip Sherwood of Lifewriters for alerting me to this item.]
  • Ten Steps to Writing Your Memoir in 2011. “…writing memoir is all about change; it is an act of transformation. When you look at your past and write a story about those events, you change your future. There’s no way around it. Every writer I’ve worked with comes to understand at some point that the process of narrative, the actual making of a story line from little pieces of memory, assigns meaning to memory.”
  • 5 E-Book Trends That Will Change the Future of Publishing.“Without a doubt, the e-book is practically the biggest thing that’s hit the publishing industry since the invention of movable type…Publishers and e-book resellers are reporting astronomical growth…From the front lines of the e-book revolution, here are five trends I’m watching.”
  • Store Your Digital Data Forever. “Like every other dad with a digital camera, Kai Pommerenke started taking lots of photos after his daughter was born. But the more he researched, the less convinced he became that those pictures would still be around when she grew up. Hard drives crash. CDs and DVDs warp. Companies that store your photos online can go out of business. Pommerenke wanted a solution that would last forever.”

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From the Archives: News Flash! Not Everyone Wants a Life Story Told.

News Flash! Not Everyone Wants A Life Story Told. I know. I know. This isn’t news to you, right?  But I think deep down we personal historians secretly believe that if we find the right combination of price, promotion, and product, people won’t be able to resist us. Clients will be beating down our door. Wrong! Even if you give your services away for free, you still won’t get many takers. Let me explain. I initiated and have coordinated a life stories program over the past two years at Victoria … Read More

How to Still be a Winner After Losing a Potential Client.

What do you do when you lose a potential client? A few weeks ago this happened to me. I was disappointed but it’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time that I hear the words, “I’m sorry but…”.  However,  over the years I’ve learned to see this as an opportunity and not as a loss. Let me explain.

I thanked my client for her interest in my services and proposed several inexpensive ideas that could still allow her to capture something of her father’s life.  I pointed her to a previous blog article of mine, How to Write Your Life Story in Twenty Statements. I suggested this could be a jumping off point for her father to reflect on his journey and document his thoughts with a digital voice recorder.

I also proposed that  perhaps a grandchild armed with some questions and a recorder could interview the grandfather and capture something of his story.

I felt better being able to offer some alternatives and she felt good about her experience with me. And that’s crucial. While I won’t be working with her on this project, who knows what the future holds? Perhaps one day she might want me to document her life story. Or she may pass my name on to a friend or colleague who’s looking for a personal historian. It’s planting seeds that can grow into future work.

So what might you be able to offer potential clients who turn you down? Here are some suggestions for saying, “Thank you for contacting me.”

If you put your mind to it, it’s not hard to come up with some simple, inexpensive ways to say, “I appreciate your contacting me. I’m sorry we can’t work together, but your desire to record your loved one’s personal history is important. And I want to honor your commitment.”

Photo by Jean-François Bauche

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

Happy Monday! And welcome to Monday’s Link Roundup. As always there’s  a tasty mix of sites to sample. My favorite this week is The Future of the Book. There are some innovative and exciting ideas here and a glimpse of what some  personal histories could look like in the near future.

  • If you have lofty ambitions for your legacy, head for the attic. “As we cheerfully embarked on communicating our thoughts via evanescent media such as SMS and Twitter, storing our photographs on Flickr and Facebook, keeping our email messages on Gmail and Hotmail, did we ever give a thought to how much of this will endure beyond our lifetimes?” [Thanks to APH member Valerie A. Metzler for alerting me to this item.]
  • On covers. “I’ve been thinking about covers for a while now. One of the many great debates around the ephemeralisation of music has been the lamentations for the loss of cover art: now, we are reaching the same point with books.”
  • The Future of the Book. “Meet Nelson, Coupland, and Alice — the faces of tomorrow’s book. Watch global design and innovation consultancy IDEO’s vision for the future of the book. What new experiences might be created by linking diverse discussions, what additional value could be created by connected readers to one another, and what innovative ways we might use to tell our favorite stories and build community around books?”
  • TypArchive. “Over the last 10 years I’ve been visually inspired by hand painted lettering. I began shooting while living in Brooklyn, New York 2001-2008. This obsession lead me to travel and shoot in other locations including, France, Mexico, Los Angeles, Oklahoma, Austin, New Orleans, Miami and Memphis.”
  • Retrofuturism Revisited: The Past Imagines the Future. “Last year, we looked at the 2020 Project, which invited some of today’s sharpest thinkers to imagine tomorrow. But how will their visions look to future generations? To get a taste for it, we looked to the past: Here are 6 charming visions for the future, from the past — a delightful exercise in retrofuturism that embodies humanity’s chronic blend of boundless imagination, solipsistic foolishness and hopeless optimism.”
  • Library and Archives goes digital. “Within the next seven years, Library and Archives Canada will put most of its services online, transforming the country’s leading memory institution into a fully engaged digital organization, just in time to celebrate Confederation’s 150th anniversary in 2017.”
  • What the census can teach us about ourselves. “… as family historians know, it’s the personal fragments garnered from census documents that tell the most dramatic stories of American life. These historical gems often provide clues that, knitted together, can weave a story as cherished as any family tapestry or ancestral tartan.”

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From the Archives: The Power of “No”.

The Power of "No". Saying “no” politely is a necessity if one wants to lead any kind of stable life. ~ Richard Chamberlain

The “N” word has a bad reputation. It’s seen as negative and mean. Many of us find it hard to say. But saying No will help you not only with your work as a personal historian but also with your life in general. I’m getting better at saying No but there’s room for improvement. The reality is that saying No is a healthy way of providing us with  … Read More

How to Use “Acknowledgement” to Build a Better Interview.

I find the use of “acknowledgment” in a personal history interview one way to build rapport with my interviewee.  It’s a particularly effective technique after you’ve been told a touching  story.

Imagine you’ve just listened to a charming recounting of a woman’s first dance date. She ends by saying, “Oh, it was so much fun!”  You could remark, “Yes, it sounds delightful.” But even better would be to  say something like:

I can sense that. When you described  picking out the blue dress you wore, your initial nervousness about how you looked, your handsome date, and the great music, I could see from the glow on your face that this was a very special event.  It’s wonderful that you still have such a vivid recollection of it.

By briefly summarizing what you heard and letting your subject know that you appreciate and understand her, you’re using “acknowledgment” and fostering trust.

But “acknowledgment” can do so much more.  This pause to acknowledge  your interviewee’s anecdote is also the perfect point to inject a more probing question.  For example , continuing with the illustration above, you could say:

It’s wonderful that you still have such a vivid recollection of itSo what do recall about your date that didn’t work out so well?

Your interviewee might have nothing to add. On the other hand your question might unlock a really interesting story.

If you feel there’s a need to move your interviewee along to another topic,  acknowledgment can provide a natural break. For example:

It’s wonderful that you still have such a vivid recollection of it. I’d like to turn our attention now to your family life when you were a teenager. I know you were an only child. What did you miss about not having siblings?

Acknowledging what you have just heard before changing course in the interview makes your interviewee feel listened to and recognized. And as a result the person is more willing to allow you to steer the interview in another direction.

Like any technique, you don’t want to overuse “acknowledgment”.  But I find it’s a valuable tool to have in my interview kit bag.

Photo by Jesse Garrison

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

This Monday’s Link Roundup has some items that are a  feast for the eyes. My favorite is Creative Cartography, a site showcasing a dazzling collection of unique maps, the likes of which you’ve never seen. We have lost Kodachrome but the images live on. Be sure to drop by A Tribute to KODACHROME: A Photography Icon. The images are luscious!

  • PBS Director’s Cut Interview with “Typeface” producer. “In a time when people can carry computers in their pockets and watch TV while walking down the street, “Typeface” dares to explore the twilight of the analog craft of wood type printing that is freshly inspiring artists in a digital age.”
  • Oral History Methods – U.C, Davis Extension Course. “Learn to conduct and record an oral history project at your own pace, in your own community, following the complete process of historical documentation. Create historical context, plan and organize interviews to meet your objectives, and decide on materials to use during interview sessions. Enroll now through Feb. 9 and complete by March 30. Fee: $325.00 ($345.00 if postmarked after 01/19/2011).”
  • Last Words by George Carlin. “For more than a decade before his 2008 death, groundbreaking stand-up comedian Carlin had been working on his autobiography with writer Hendra (Father Joe), who finished it by distilling hours of conversations with the irascible social commentator. Armed with an eye for detail and a seemingly photographic memory, Carlin retraces his life in full, chronicling petty crimes and stolen kisses, escalating drug problems and the death of his wife with unflinching honesty.”
  • The Gift. “Famed editor and author, Diana Athill, 93, reads her poem about her mother’s death, that was included in her best-selling memoir ‘Somewhere Towards the End’, published by Granta in the UK and Norton in the USA.”
  • Creative Cartography: 7 Must-Read Books on Maps. “We’re obsessed with maps — a fundamental sensemaking mechanism for the world, arguably the earliest form of standardized information design, and a relentless source of visual creativity. Today, we turn to seven fantastic books that explore the art and science of cartography from seven fascinating angles.”
  • Travel Film Archive. “Want to see what the world was like for your ancestors? Perhaps you wish to catch a glimpse of where they lived? Need videos for an archival documentary? You might even see a place you remember when you were younger if you look at a film on the Travel Film Archive.”
  • A Tribute to KODACHROME: A Photography Icon. “They say all good things in life come to an end …It was a difficult decision, given its rich history …We at Kodak want to celebrate with you the rich history of this storied film. Feel free to share with us your fondest memories of Kodachrome.”

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