Pre-Ramble:  For the past several months I’ve been consumed by an online spelling game called Words With Friends (WWF).  Before you write me off as a complete geek (I’ve been written off as worse), the game – a smartphone version of the ever-popular vintage board game, SCRABBLE – is played by over 1.6 million people a day who log in an average of over an hour of play per day.

As in the original SCRABBLE game, Words With Friends players try to score as many points as possible by making words out of the letters they are randomly given in the context of the gameboard and the words that have already been played there (sample board shown at right).

I won’t bore you with the strategies and wacky rules (like there are some “words” that have no actual meaning, but are still valid words to play in this game … don’t ask me how that works, just know that you shun that phenomenon to your peril), … but I will say that the game is definitely fun, challenging and addictive!!

“You’ve got a word!” … One of the main fun things about WWF is that, since it is played on your phone, you are basically carrying it around with you, which means that you may receive a play made by your wily opponent at any time, in any place.  A little jingle tone happens when a new play has been made by your opponent and is waiting in your inbox.  This Pavlovian design is a key part of the game’s self-rewarding dynamic.

I am currently playing with a couple of folks who are very skilled at WWF, and I now brace myself when I hear the jingle, because I know that their “in-your-face,” high point play could easily be lying in wait for my response.  I will physically wince when I see a stellar word that has been played against me … often artfully wedged between two or three existing words and commanding a few premium spots … (a word covering the gold space, for example, is worth three times the face value of the tiles).

The Take-Away:  Like many games, WWF is actually a great metaphor for life.  In addition to being interrupted all the time, the human struggle to discover individual talents and gifts, find the prefect companion, or uncover the true meaning of life, is a lot like trying to find just the right combination of letters that fit into the perfect available spaces on life’s “big gameboard.” Every move is spontaneous and the board is filled with surprises.  And, even when your tile tray has nothing but suboptimal letters (like all “i”s and “u”s … ), you work through it, confident in the fact that there will always be a new batch of options on your next turn.

Carpe SCRABBLE!

Pre-Ramble:  Well, our good buddies at Red Bull (the high-energy folks who brought us the Flugtag event in back in July 2010) have pulled off another big innovation fest — the Red Bull Creation USA 2011 competition.

The annual event, a “build-a-thon” held in a scrapyard in Brooklyn, NY, challenges the resourcefulness of inventors and screwballs of all types to demonstrate their skills in a themed, time-limited contest.

This year the theme was “Energy in motion” and the timeframe was a quick 72 hours.  The challenge was to “create a device that could carry the weight of a human being without using fossil fuels.” Sponsors provided tools and equipment (saws, nuts, bolts, blow-torches, etc.) and teams could bring no more than 200 pounds of additional parts and supplies. Participants were encouraged to push the edges of their inventive capabilities as entries were judged on “technicality, functionality, demonstration and awesomeness.”

Twin Cities team, Dillon Hodapp, David Heisserer, Nathan Knutson, and Cory Huseby, calling themselves  ”1.21 Jigawatts,” were selected to compete against 15 other teams to create something that would “wow a crowd of spectators and a panel of judges at the Creation event.”

The team did just that, presenting the “Human-Powered Hamster Wheel with a Text Message Spray Paint Printer,” a curious 8-foot-tall contraption (shown above) made out of plywood, paint cans and a cell phone.  The device was propelled forward under human power and “spit out a text message as it roll[ed] by.”

“The giant wheel was connected to a wireless network using an open source-based microcomputer; a cellular module; and a phone SIM card, which assigned the system its own phone number. Audience members were asked to send text messages to the system, which pulled a small trailer holding a “printer” with a row of seven paint cans. The text messages sent a signal to the printer, which in turn fired the proper paint cans to spell out the words from the text message … [long strips of brown paper were] wrapped around the hamster wheel so that the printed messages could be torn off and taken home by audience members as souvenirs.”

And the winner is …  you guessed it, 1.21 Jigawatts took the $5,000 grand prize for their awesome and “technically impressive” solution (the only thing missing was cedar chips).  Crediting their strategy to play on individual group member strengths, the team knew it would have to “go big” …

“We knew we were going to have to show this in a big venue … We had the inspiration to make it big … make it beautiful, … make it a spectacle!”

The Take-Away:  For those of you who are keeping score at home, this victory comes on the heels of another spectacular coup — the world-record-breaking performance in the 2010 Flugtag event, also set by a Twin Cities-based team.  Venture capitalists take note – Minneapolis/Saint Paul is a hot bed for innovation (and lunacy) … !

Pre-Ramble:  Yep – you’re in the right place – I’ve just revised the layout of the K. website a little bit to feature the professional angle on my writing for clients and potential clients who want some more details on that.

Never fear though, the blog page will still deliver the same pithy and insightful fare that you’ve come to expect, … and we may even relent and allow Daisy to serve as guest-blogger now and then.

The Take-Away:  Look for a new post soon, and, as always, thanks for checking out the K. blog!

Pre-Ramble:  There’s no denying it – even over a full year out, election season is clearly underway.

And, Minnesota politics has quickly turned into national politics with Tim Pawlenty and Michelle Bachman shuckin’ corn and tradin’ barbs in Iowa over the weekend at the Straw Poll event, and President Obama kickin’ off a Midwest meet-n-greet in the Mississippi River Valley.

The Straw Poll is a “seriously-it’s-just-for-fun” pre-season photo-op where voters pay $30 to put a kernel of corn in a jar with a picture of their favorite candidate taped on the front of it. (New democracies take note.)  This time around, Michelle Bachman got the most kernels in her jar and Ron Paul got the next largest amount.  Somewhat surprisingly, former Minnesota Governor Pawlenty got the third largest number of corn kernels in his jar and dropped out of the race after that.

Minnesota continues to enjoy political attention as President Obama winds his way through the heartland not campaigning. His first whistle-stop was Cannon Falls, Minnesota. I’ve never actually been to Cannon Falls, but I suspect it’s like a lot of small Minnesota towns … simple, earnest and showing a little bit of wear.

The President, showing a little bit of wear himself, rolled up in a brand-spankin’ new Presidential Bus (not it at right).  Commissioned by the Secret Service, the vehicle – a cross between James Bond and the Partridge Family – cost just over $1 million and is equipped with 5-inch thick armored panels, black-out windows, advanced communications technology, flashing red and blue lights, and lots of other top-secret stuff.  It isn’t easy for a president to be both accessible and bulletproof.

Extra pickles?  President Obama spent a better part of the day hanging with “the people” and talking about issues in folksy terms. The Orator-in-Chief was droppin’ “g”s all over the place … talkin’ about “gettin’ stuff done,” … “doin’ this and that,” … and “makin’ the hard choices.”  I think I even heard him say “betcha” a couple of times (which is soooo Minnesooootan, doooon’t ya knooooww … ).  At one point, caught up in the moment, the President made the down-home suggestion that someone get the grills going … like a backyard barbecue.

The Take-Away:  Mr. President, if given a choice between brats or, for instance, jobs, I’m thinking that American people would pay $30 to put their kernel of corn in the “gainful employment” jar.

Pre-Ramble:  A very powerful project/book titled “Where Children Sleep” by documentary photographer, James Mollison recently came to my attention, and I would like to share it with you here.

The following description, in Mollison’s own words, is taken directly from his website.

“Where Children Sleep- stories of diverse children around the world, told through portraits and pictures of their bedrooms. (Chris Boot publisher, November 2010)

When Fabrica asked me to come up with an idea for engaging with children’s rights, I found myself thinking about my bedroom: how significant it was during my childhood, and how it reflected what I had and who I was. It occurred to me that a way to address some of the complex situations and social issues affecting children would be to look at the bedrooms of children in all kinds of different circumstances. From the start, I didn’t want it just to be about ‘needy children’ in the developing world, but rather something more inclusive, about children from all types of situations.

It seemed to make sense to photograph the children themselves, too, but separately from their bedrooms, using a neutral background. My thinking was that the bedroom pictures would be inscribed with the children’s material and cultural circumstances ‘ the details that inevitably mark people apart from each other ‘ while the children themselves would appear in the set of portraits as individuals, as equals ‘ just as children.

The book is written and presented for an audience of 9-13 year olds ‘ intended to interest and engage children in the details of the lives of other children around the world, and the social issues affecting them, while also being a serious photographic essay for an adult audience.”

A sampling of the 56 diptychs presented in the book are featured on the artists’ website;  the selection shown above is Juan David, age 10, from Medellin, Colombia.

The Take-Away:  Awareness, understanding and compassion are great gifts you can give to the children in your life.  This book would be a great gift too.

Pre-Ramble:  Maybe this case only applies to ice-cream-ophiles, but every now and then, something comes along that is so delightful that it resonates on a different frequency …

Hurry, before they melt!  The latest window decorations at Tiffany & Co.‘s Fifth Avenue flagship store are all done up in America’s favorite summer treat — ice cream cones!

What makes these noteworthy is the fact that, instead of sporting mere nuts and a cherry, these quasi-creamy confections are topped with rubies and emeralds and all sorts of other candy-colored, semi-precious jewels — Yum!!!

The fanciful Tiffany windows came to my attention by way of my precious, ice-cream-aficionado daughter, Kristen (the scoop doesn’t fall far from the cone … ) who is interning in New York City this summer. She has an uncanny radar for all things sweet, and is sure that the universe was involved in timing the Tiffany ice cream windows to her visit — I believe “magical” was the exact word she used.

When I dropped Kristen off in NYC at the beginning of June, (ok, … she probably didn’t need a mommy escort, but somebody had to make sure the fridge was stocked and there was an adequate supply of coasters), the first place she wanted to track down was Dylan’s Candy Bar.  Dylan’s is a sweet-tooth’s paradise where sucrose in all of its forms is served up in a Disney-fied atmosphere of giant lollipops and peppermint barstools … (for the older kids among us). ….. We had a little scoop of heaven while we were there … Mine was chocolate with ribbons of fudge and chunks of more chocolate and then rolled in chocolate cookie crumbs (shown below with Kristen).  It was called “Dirt Ball.”  It was indisputably good.

The Take-Away:  Well, so, I’d like a triple scoop of that Tiffany “Rocky Road,” … as long as the “rocks” are big and sparkly and the “road” is paved with diamonds — !

Post-Note:  Since the end of July, shares of Tiffany & Co. stock have gone down 18% (along with other luxury retailers), most likely due to the recent turmoil on Wall Street.

Maybe TiffCo should consider actually selling ice cream – I may not be able to splurge on a big, blingy bauble, but there’s always enough in the budget for a scoop of Dirt Ball.

Pre-Ramble: As a gal who has been accused of thinking on the sunny side of life, I was recently drawn into a discussion about the value of the positive spin and whether it is disingenuous and even a case of denial to try to see things – good things and less good things – in a positive light.  (Does my shameless overuse of the happy-face icon have any bearing on this?)

I’m not the only one - author Gretchen Rubin has made a thriving career out of the pursuit of happiness, penning best-seller “The Happiness Project,” (2009) a look into ”the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture” to learn about the dynamics of happiness.

“Filled with practical advice, sharp insight, charm, and humor, The Happiness Project manages to be illuminating yet entertaining, profound yet compulsively readable. Gretchen’s passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading a few chapters of this book will inspire you to start your own happiness project.”

“This book made me happy in the first five pages. And the more I read it, the happier I got. It’s filled with great insights that have changed every part of my life, from love to money, from work to play, from writing to Diet Coke.”

Soon to be translated into 31 languages, Gretchen’s work covers every ilk of happiness … as it applies to work, play, relationships, parenthood, spirituality, marriage, money and even clutter (… apparently, outer order is the key to inner serenity).

I don’t know about you, but any time I’m up against a new or confounding psychological issue, I like to look for answers in a quick multiple choice magazine quiz.  Colleen Oakley for the nationally syndicated Parade Magazine to the rescue with … “Sunny Side Up: Do you know how to be happy?“  Ten quippy questions test your knowledge around happiness … sort of.  Let’s happily skip to number ten:

Which piece of advice from a Disney movie is actually backed by scientific evidence?

• a) “Look for the bare necessities.” – The Jungle Book
• b) “Hakuna Matata (no worries)!” - The Lion King
• c) “What do you do when things go wrong? … Oh! You sing a song.” - Snow White
• d) “Think happy thoughts.” – Peter Pan

Answer: d) … Just imagining yourself laughing can reduce sadness, claims Bowling Green State University researcher Nakia Gordon. Nakia’s team scanned subjects’ brains and found that “the areas that indicate happiness lit up whether the subjects were actually laughing or just thinking about it.” (I’m pretty impressed that these subjects could register any semblance of laughter while having their brain scanned!)

The Take-Away: Great news - turns out that happiness is as happiness does. So, … turn that frown upside-down … fake it ’til you make it … just whistle a happy tune … happiness is a warm puppy … (better quit before someone punches me in the happy face).

Have a great day!!

Pre-Ramble: “So, what time are you going to get back from the poetry reading?” my daughter asks …

Up until last Thursday, I could confidently have told you that I had never been asked, nor had I ever answered, this particular question in my entire unpoetic lifetime. In fact, it would be safe to say that I have pretty much avoided poetry in a passive, oblivious kind of way.

Luckily/thankfully, I have some good friends who are way out ahead of interesting, edgy stuff like this who invited me to an evening of poetry that they had won in a silent auction. Twice cool here – my friends were actually in attendance at an event that would be auctioning off this kind of thing, AND, they actually bid on it!

This impromptu, cultured event was hosted on the cool, hip veranda at a cool, hip Minneapolis design firm, 45 Degrees Minneapolis.  The evening began with a wine and brie meet-and-greet, followed by a brief introduction of the guest speaker/poet/bard (love that word), Gregory Hewett.

Hewett is an Associate Professor of English at Carlton College and has been a Fulbright Fellow, Fulbright Professor, and a Fellow at the Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France. He currently teaches American Literature and creative writing, and his fourth book of poems, darkacre, was published in 2010.

“Greg Hewett’s poems create fresh dimensions where language and human experience become one … from estate properties to artistic legacies … Hewett is a master architect of the poetic suite, and his house contains many mansions … a penetrating, richly metaphoric survey of the human landscape.”

Beyond academic accolades, Professor Hewett proved to be an extremely accessible teacher and very likeable guy. He was quickly able to assess the highly variable levels of poetic awareness in the room (Dr. Seuss counts on some level, right? … ), and tailor his approach to the readings accordingly.  He gave us a smattering of things … writings by Whitman, Dickenson, Elizabeth Bishop, Carolyn Forche, Frank O’Hara, C.D. Wright … I rattle off these names as though I have any sense of the depth and context from which they assume their meaning.

As I ponder this neat new realm and “dwell in possibility” (to quote Dickinson – ha!) … it occurs to me that, until you’re aware of it, poetry, in all of its richness and complexity, is swirling all around you every day like a sound you can’t hear … a whole spectrum of colors you can’t see … like a firefly waiting in the woods until dusk. Beyond rhyme and meter - really, beyond the boundaries of reason - until you’re truly aware of it, poetry has properties at some quantum level that don’t even register, let alone resonate.

The Take-Away: I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Hewett, and my beloved friends, for the poetry primer, a quick flash into this fascinating corner of the word world. Thanks to you, I am inspired to take some more steps along this fork in a road that, until now, has been way less traveled.