I can’t even write a simple headline and subhead without triggering the little alert suggestions popping up in my Grammarly app.

In my example above, I could get the extra point to get me to 100%. But that would mean I’d have to insert a period at the end of a title. I’m not going to do that. I will suffer the 99%, as not to break the fundamental rules of format structure.

Don’t get me wrong — I really love how the Grammarly tool has changed my life. I recently gave myself a gift of upgrading to Grammarly’s Premium…

The people who are doing the best to get through the last year of quarantine are challenging themselves to learn something new.

Whether it be learning another language, taking up an instrument, or jumping into a new hobby, stimulating our brains is a great way to redirect our focus from much of the external gloom and doom surrounding us and threatening our well-being. It doesn’t hurt to binge-watch an extraordinary new television series either, but those who can find a balance likely feel happier and better adjusted to these unsettled times.

I wrote a recent article offering some great learning…

Again with the lunchtime political discussions. Now I need to start that waltz again. It’s a dance I’ve perfected over time. I’m getting good at it too. Very good.

Every time I meet with these owners, the company we partner with to fulfill our logistics needs, the discussion invariably turns to politics. It’s awkward because I share nothing with them when it comes to this topic. Somehow, these guys have it in their heads that I’m completely on board with them. That I’m aligned with their way of thinking.

If only they knew how opposed I am to many of…

You know those episodes in your life where they seem to come back out of nowhere to haunt you? Or maybe taunt you. I mean those occasions where you either said something that you immediately regretted saying, or you spoke too soon for the sake of filling a void in the conversation. You blurted something out that was inappropriate or embarrassing. When they playback again in the theater of your mind, it makes you cringe.

It’s those moments when you wish time travel were possible, and you can go back and say the thing you’ve rehearsed in your head after…

When I was in elementary school, I had serious trouble focusing in the classroom. My grades suffered as a result — I had to struggle to be a “C” student.

It’s not that I wasn’t intelligent; it’s just that I had to follow unbeaten paths to knowledge. I have some learning disabilities. When I was in school, these learning obstacles weren’t yet identified or addressed. We were generally classified as “problem” students or even dumb.

For me, it wasn’t a matter of working harder — I needed to figure out how to learn better. It was a similar story for…

Think about one of the coziest moments you can think of. We’ve all had those priceless occasions when you wish it would never end. It’s those times when you bask in the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of your surroundings — wondering if you can capture the experience for release at some future time. Those moments when you are feeling so warm, at peace, and cozy it’s almost surreal.

Maybe you were with special loved ones, wrapped in an oversized comforter, thick-knit socks, in front of a crackling fire with a steaming-warm drink or a good glass of wine in…

HUMOR

Yup — this is me.

It’s the headshot image I use for most social media profiles. In fact, if you get through this whole story or scroll down to the bottom of it, you will see a mini-version of this photo below, as I’ve also chosen it for my profile image on Medium.

I don’t think it’s so painful an image to endure through a 20-minute Skype or team meeting. This photo above is actually my official workplace profile. It was captured by our in-house multi-media team at the market research company that employs me and appears on all of…

I’m not a big one for reality television, but there’s a series I happened upon on Netflix that has captured my attention. It’s called Blown Away. It’s a Canadian reality glassblowing competition series, and the critic rating score currently sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

It’s modeled like a cooking show competition where ten contestants are given an assignment and creative brief to follow. They must develop an artistic creation to blow away a small panel of judges at the final presentation.

Each episode ends with an elimination. The last artist standing receives a full scholarship to a residency at…