What Story Does to Your Brain

I subscribe to the weekly newsletter for Robert McKee, a Hollywood veteran who conducts a 4-day seminar on writing for movies, television, and theater.

In this week's "Byline" newsletter, he featured a blog post by Leo Widrich entitled "What Listening to a story does to our brains."

In 1748, the British politician and aristocrat John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich used a lot of his free time for playing cards. One of the problems he had was that he greatly enjoyed eating a snack, whilst still keeping one hand free for the cards.

So he came up with the idea to eat beef between slices of toast, which would allow him to finally eat and play cards at the same time. Eating his newly invented “sandwich”, the name for 2 slices of bread with meat in between, became one of the most popular meal inventions in the western world.

You can read the rest of the post at http://blog.bufferapp.com/science-of-storytelling-why-telling-a-story-is-the-most-powerful-way-to-activate-our-brains

Douglas G Pratt, 2013

Sketchnotes: Most Important Graph in the World (book summary)

Douglas G Pratt, 2013

My Voice Will Go With You - Sketchnotes Book Summary

In previous posts I have written about handwritten projects. A new technique I learned about last fall is called "sketchnoting." Though many examples are available online, two of my favorite sketchnoters are Mike Rohde and Sacha Chua.

Below is my first effort. The book, My Voice Will Go With You, is a collection of teaching tales from psychiatrist Milton Erickson.

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Tracking Amazon Purchases

In my last post I discussed the option at Amazon.com to download order reports. The results of my reports for 2011 and 2012 provided data for the chart below.

When comparing the end-of-year total for each year, I see that I spent about half as much in 2012 as 2011. This chart and the one below use data from business-related books.

Additional analysis comparing books purchased directly from Amazon (new books) and from other vendors via Amazon (used books) reveals the following.

I purchased approximately the same number of books, and the result was that I spent half as much in 2012 as I did in 2013. For me, purchasing used books is a successful money-saving approach.

Take data that is available in your life and think about ways to analyze it and identify trends.

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Amazon Orders

One of the best designed websites for online shopping is Amazon.com. Amazon's site contains a variety of settings and reminders designed to enhance your shopping experience and, of course, maximum the company's revenue.

Used vs New
I purchase most of my books via Amazon. It addition to its new book. sales, Amazon sells books and other items from third party vendors. Thus, it is extremely easy to purchase used books.

A search for any book will likely yield a variety of quality and pricing options to purchase a used copy, even for books that are out-of-print. I have purchased books for $0.01!

Amazon Order History
A feature of Amazon that is also helpful is the ability to generate and download order history reports, going back several years.

Once logged in to your Amazon account, select Your Account. From the list choose Download Order Reports.



This will open a series of fields where you can enter your search criteria.



A report will be generated that opens in Excel or Numbers, is saved for future reference, and sent as a link to your e-mail.
(C) 2012 by DouglasGPratt.com

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Use Dropbox to Store and Share Files

If you are over 20 years old, you may remember a time when apples were eaten, clouds floated in the sky, and tweeting is what birds did outside your window. Today, these still occur, but these words have taken on a life of their own with the company Apple, Twitter app, and cloud storage.

The "cloud" refers to shared storage areas that are web or network based so that your files can be accessed from multiple devices, whether computer, tablet, or smart phone.

Set up Dropbox
Dropbox is a service that lets you access stored files from a variety of devices.

• Step 1. Visit www.Dropbox.com to create an account.
• Step 2. Download the software and install on your computer.
• Step 3. Download the Dropbox app to your smart phone and tablet (link is to the Apple iTunes App Store).
• Step 4. Begin storing your files! Easily manage files by creating folders.

Sketchnotes
Recently, I joined a Flickr group titled The Sketchnote Handbook, created by Mike Rohde to serve as a sharing area for people who use creative note taking techniques. Mike's book, The Sketchnote Handbook (see the tie-in to the Flickr group?), is available for pre-order now.

One of the sketchers I noticed in the Flickr group is Sacha Chua. As her website and Twitter information is listed on every sketch, I ended up at her website.

Share files on Dropbox
Sacha frequently shares sketches via Dropbox. This was my first experience with shared files in Dropbox. The ability to share files with others (even non-Dropbox users) is very convenient, especially if the files are large, you have several files, or simply want to control access to the files.

One of the folders that is available in Dropbox is the "Public" folder. Any files you place in this folder can easily be shared with others simply by using the link provided for each file. Click on the link below to view the image file for the picture above.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3eahtjkmflb60jv/Photo%20Dec%2005%2C%209%2027%2003%20PM.jpg


Use the link below to join Dropbox
If you are interested in joining Dropbox, please click this referral link. You will be able to get started with your own account and I will get additional free space (you can refer people too).

Do you already use Dropbox? If so, or if you sign up, let me know.

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My iPhone Camera Apps - Set 1

With each successive version of Apple's iPhone, the camera has improved. Although I only have the 4S model, I understand that the camera on the 5 is the best yet.

Including cameras and supporting apps, I probably have 40-50 photography-related apps, with 30 of these on my iPhone right now! Our entire trip to Korea was captured using iPhones.

With a computer-based program like Adobe Photoshop, there are numerous features included in one piece of software. However, apps usually have one or two functions.

Below is a screen shot of the first set of apps. A brief description of each follows.

• PhotoSize. This simple, free app gives the dimensions of the selected photo.
• Flickr. This is the official app for the Flickr photo sharing and storing site. Upload multiple, full resolution photos.
• ColorSpash. Convert a photo to black-and-white while keeping selected areas in color.
• BeFunky FX. This app allows you to create effects such as cartoonizer, inkify, and grunge.
• Collage. Create a collage with multiple photos. The app allows you to arrange photos and even use a photo as a background.
• iQuikDof. Blur out selected areas to given a tilt shift or bokeh type of appearance where parts of the photo are out of focus.
• iWatermark. Add a text or graphic watermark to your photos. You can now compete with Olin Mills!
• PS Express. This app from Adobe is a basic photo editor.
• Strip Design. Create your own comic strips. I use the functionality of this app to quickly put multiple photos together when I don't need to artistically arrange them as with the Collage app.
• ComicBook. Similar to Strip Design, you can create comics. This app features several effects that resemble actual comics such as manga, sketch, and toon.
• SimpleResize. If you need to take photo and repixelate it, so that a 4x6 needs to be 8x12, this app will add in the extra pixels. Though not fancy or too precise, its basic functionality is good.
• Photogene. This is a basic photo editor that has several effects and the ability to auto correct photos.

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