Jane Talbot

Adventure 269 ~ Murder A Merge Tag And Use Its Body For Parts

/ intrepidjane

Merge Tag YouTube illlusionAfter mastering the art of the merge tag yesterday (which allowed me to create the illusion of an embedded video in my newsletter), I was on a bit of a high! However, things soon changed when I actually started to write my newsletter and discovered the limitations of the merge tag (I couldn’t format the newsletter in a way that looked neat and tidy).

In the past, this would definitely been the point at which I would have bailed out, exclaiming things like “I knew it was too good to be true” and “Is it too early for wine?” 😛 It was very different today though. With my new “This feels like play” vibe going on, I just played my way right out of the “problem”.

I worked out that I could copy the image generated by the merge tag (which looks like a real live YouTube screen – it’s the image I’m using for this blog post), re-size it and then insert with a link instead. Now everything looks neat and tidy AND the illusion is maintained (it still looks like an embedded video).

The conclusion I’m coming to is this : my creative adventures are bearing fruits in the most unexpected fields. It seems like it’s a lot easier for me to generate options, alternatives and new ideas. If one idea doesn’t work, I just generate a new one. How cool is that? (Even cooler, I’m beginning to trust in an inexhaustible supply of alternative options!)

Oh – and if you want to see the product of my endeavours (I’m rather proud of my wee video illusion, as you can probably tell), you can check out my newsletter here (just scroll down to the bottom to check out the tech 😛 ).

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 268 ~ Learn How To Use Merge Tags In Mailchimp

/ intrepidjane

Terry Pratchett quoteSorry. I know. Hard to believe that I’m tangoing with The Tech again, but success can be seductive 😛 .

Tomorrow, I’d like to send out a newsletter to my mailing list : I’ve got a new 7-part webinar series coming up and I want to tell people about it. I thought it would be lovely to bring a bit of life to the newsletter by including a video. So, for today’s adventure I set about learning about the mysterious world of “merge tags” (these tags are used for populating things like newsletters with personalised or dynamic content. So, if I get a newsletter from someone saying Hi Jane , for example, a merge tag will have been used to make sure that my name appears after Hi!)

A little detective work, a dollop of experimentation and a generous portion of play got me a very long way with something I would have been afraid of trying in the past.

Tomorrow’s newsletter will include a video that looks like its embedded (but isn’t) – and that makes me smile 🙂 .

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 267 ~ Jane Versus The Tech [The Rematch]

/ intrepidjane

Wordpress Warrior Sad though it may seem, I can barely contain my excitement about today’s adventure!

As you may know, I’m hosting a storytelling webinar tomorrow evening. I’ve created a series of slides to support the presentation, and I thought it would be lovely if those who came along could download a copy of the slides. But I didn’t know how to create a downloadable PDF file …. UNTIL TODAY!

So for today’s adventure, I used the WordPress help files to learn how to create a download link. And I’ve done it!

I’m absolutely certain that my technological adventures have helped me to overcome my fear of “The Tech”. Now when I’m learning about techy stuff (and trying it out), it really feels like I’m just playing. With the absence of fear, I feel ready to try out new stuff. For me, this is definitely a very good thing indeed 🙂 .

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 266 ~ Set Up An Account With CreateSpace

/ intrepidjane

"Seventeen" by Jane TalbotI’m super busy with work at the moment, so today’s adventure was just a “quickie” :  taking the next step towards publishing my poetry collection. Today, I created an account with CreateSpace, the self-publishing arm of Amazon – my book even has its own Title ID!

Whilst this adventure might appear very small on the outside, it feels very big on the inside. In spite of some of the formatting challenges that are probably ahead of me, I’m feeling really excited!

I only have 5 more poems to write, and then I’m ready to pull everything together 🙂 .

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 264 ~ Launch A 7-Part Webinar Series On Creativity

/ intrepidjane

Get Creative Webinar SeriesIf you’ve been following my adventures for a while, you’ll know that I’ve had a few creative adventures this year. In fact, the creative impulse is growing stronger with every creative adventure I undertake!

Since starting the 365 Days Of Adventure project, I’ve written an original fairy story, composed a choral piece for 3 voices, taken up photography, written a collection of haiku poems and even penned the first 3 chapters of the most unromantic romantic novel ever written 😛 .

Through the creative process, I’ve learned more about who I am, I’ve learned how to express myself in new ways, and I’m even beginning to see myself as a really creative person. And you know what? The benefits of this whole creativity thing are just too good to keep to myself!

So, I decided to invite 7 of my creative friends to help me make a webinar series all about creativity. You can find out about the free “Get Creative!” webinar series here.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 263 ~ Write A Collection Of Haiku Poems [24]

/ intrepidjane

red admiral butterflyThis morning I went for a walk with my dog in Portglenone Forest, near Ballymena. Sparky adores it there : I think it must smell really great 😛 (and there’s plenty of territory to be marked too!)

A lot has changed since last week. I noticed that the mushrooms have started to die away ; only the honey fungus is looking anywhere near healthy. The path is rusting with leaves, and our walk was punctuated by the sound of falling beech nuts.

In one part of the forest there is a hollow which catches the sun. In this area, it still looks and feels like Summer. Some Red Admiral butterflies were sunning themselves in the hollow this morning, and they allowed me to get really close with my camera. Even Sparky was mesmerised by them!

For me, “butterfly” brings up words like transformation, change, metamorphosis and regeneration. Butterflies make me think about Nature’s continuous, and repeating, cycles. Since my poetic adventure is all about marking the transition from Summer into Autumn, a haiku about the butterfly makes for a perfect inclusion in my collection.

You can read my haiku here, and I read it out loud in today’s video-blog too.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 262 ~ Write A Collection Of Haiku Poems [23]

/ intrepidjane

ploughed fieldIn this part of the world, the harvest is in, and a new cycle of activity is happening in the farming community. Many farmers consider the Autumn to be the beginning of the farming year – particularly arable farmers. Right now, fields are being ploughed and re-seeded with crops like winter barley and winter wheat.

Speaking to a local farmer this morning, I was asking about how winter crops work. He told me that if they plant winter crops around this time, then they would expect to harvest them in June/July next year. If you do the maths on that, that means the crops are in the ground for around 9 months. It really didn’t take me long to smile about the significance of that number, and the words Earth Mother came straight to mind 🙂 .

So today’s haiku is entitled “Earth Mother” : it’s a poem all about what happens after the harvest. You can read it here, and I also read it out loud on today’s video-blog.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 261 ~ Write A Collection Of Haiku Poems [22]

/ intrepidjane

larch septemberToday’s poetic adventure was inspired by the larch tree that is growing at the top of our road! In the summer, this tree was like a beautiful, elegant, youthful woman, but now her beauty seems to be fading.

It surprised me to learn that larch is one of the few conifers which sheds its needles in Autumn. This morning as I was walking my dog, I noticed how brown and bare some of the branches were becoming – and this observation prompted today’s haiku.

You can read today’s haiku here, and I read it out loud in today’s video-blog. (Oh, and in case you’re wondering exactly how big a collection of haiku poems is, it’s 30! We’re nearly there 🙂 ).

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 260 ~ Solve A Tree Mystery

/ intrepidjane

whitebeamEarlier in the Summer, I undertook a series of tree identification adventures and really enjoyed them. After those adventures, my tree radar was on high alert and I began to notice different types of trees in all sorts of places. I had a lot of fun identifying them and it felt good to know more about my natural surroundings.

One tree stumped me though. I noticed it in the summer when its blossom was white. Now it has red berries and large lobed leaves. And then a piece of the jigsaw dropped into place that would narrow down my search for its identity : I have seen this tree in parks, along streets and very occasionally in people’s gardens. Only twice have I noticed it in hedges .. so it seems that it is rare in the wild.

With my trusty tree book in hand, I visited one of the local mystery trees and I think I have solved the mystery : it’s a whitebeam!

It feels really exciting to have solved the mystery – and this adventure has reminded me how much I love working things out for myself (even thought it’s taken me months to work this one out, it’s been fun 🙂 )

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 259 ~ Write A Collection Of Haiku Poems [21]

/ intrepidjane

beech nuts and casingsFor today’s adventure, I returned to the copper beech tree! At the week-end I attempted to gather seeds from the tree for planting, but every seed failed the “float-sink” test (they all floated, and many sources say that this means that the seeds are infertile).

When I collected the seeds, the earth was covered in beech nuts and their open casings. The open casings looked like little hairy hands that had released their grip on the seeds. Looking up into the giant copper beech, many of these open hands were still on the tree. It made me think of a mother with thousands of children who was ready for Nature to take them off her hands 🙂 .

Further research suggested that not only might the float-sink test be invalid, but also that the first fall of seeds from a beech tree are often infertile. No-one is quite sure why this is, but some people think it’s a kind of decoy. The local predators go for the first fall and realise that the seeds are of no value, leaving later seed-falls to their own means.

So, it might be worth gathering some seeds now – and gathering some seeds later!

Anyway, back to the business of the day 😛 . Today’s adventure is a poetic one : I’ve written a haiku about the beech tree. You can read my poem here, and you can hear me recite it in today’s video-blog too.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT