Columbia Kids E-Zine Launch!

Last night, I attended the Washington State History Museum’s Launch Party for Columbia Kids. Columbia Kids is a new e-zine for kids filled with fascinating articles, stories, and podcasts written by Northwest Authors…including me! My article, “Rachel: The Pike Street Market Pig” is included in this first issue.

Steph Lile, the director of the Education Department at the Museum, and children’s writer herself, did a fabulous job of puling together a great launch party! A good time was had by all!

Athlete’s Lucky Charms

In honor of the 2008 Summer Olympics, I’m reposting an article I wrote about an Athlete’s Lucky Charms. See if you can find any of the Summer Olympic Athletes with their lucky charms or rituals!

The Lucky Charm of an Athlete

Figure skater, Michelle Kwan, always wears a good luck, gold dragon pendant given to her by her grandmother. Other athletes have sworn by lucky socks, t-shirts, and wearing a particular number jersey. Do these rituals work for athletes? Why do athletes engage in good luck charms and superstitions?

Why Rituals?

A ritual mentally prepares athletes for events by allowing the athlete’s mind to quiet down and focus. A ritual can help an athlete deal with the pressure of the “big game” by giving them a sense of consistency. Rituals help athletes know that one event is not more important than another event. For example, you might see a basketball player at a free throw line engaging in a certain routine before throwing the ball. The athlete is replacing any negative thoughts with positive thoughts while relaxing, and minimizing the chance for a missed shot.

Rituals such as good luck charms or wearing the right jersey number usually evolve from an early game or event in an athlete’s career that was won or played well. For example, a college basketball player who wins a championship game might always wear some part of that uniform in future games. Such as basketball legend Michael Jordon always wore his college team shorts beneath his professional uniform.

Rituals and superstitions also give athletes a sense of confidence. For example, Olympic skier, Picabo Street, nicknamed her skis. She won a silver medal in the downhill at the 1994 games on a pair of skies named “Olys,” and once she named her skies, “Willys” because she needed to will herself to victory. She even had a pair of skis named Ah-nolds and believed they would give her the strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Athletes and Their Charms

• Long track speed skater, Derek Parra, eats a pack of Fig Newtons the night before he races
• Short track speed-skater, Apolo Ohno, always brings an old t-shirt with “No Pain. No Gain” on the front
• Snowboarder, Hannah Teter, listens to an Ipod while she rides
• Olympic moguls skier, Hannah Kearney, wears her hair in two braids adorned with flowers
• Hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, tucked in the right side of his jersey

So, the next time you watch an athlete perform, you can be pretty sure that somewhere before the big game that athlete has engaged in a ritual or is wearing a good luck charm!

Writing Inspired by Arts: Everett

Please read through the following links and download the course-workbook-exercises-everett before you come to class on August 16.  Please bring your coursework book with you to class!

Also remember to bring your writing-inspired-by-local-arts-everett-syllabus to class as it lists your final assignment.

Everett Station

Art Alternatives for Youth at Denney Juvenile Justice Center

Everett Public Art

Georgia Gerber, Artist

Fresh Paint Everett Artists at Work

Arts Council of Snohomish County-Everett

Arts Council Gallery–Monte Cristo

Snohomish County Arts

Everett Sculpture Garden

Artist Summer Collage

A week ago, I posted some of my summer collages.

Here are a few more collages!

Artist Cover Page

Inside Cover

Page One

Summer Collage

Fast Thinking: Using Creativity to Overcome Hard Times

Artie Isaac gave a fabulous speech entitled: Fast Thinking: Using Creativity to Overcome Hard Times at the Columbia Metropolitan Club . There were many great points, but two of them which I walked away with were:

1. Ask yourself what distracts you? Distractions teach us nothing of ourselves. I find this to be so appropriate after I spent an afternoon looking at the IPhone and asking myself, Did I really need a $200 phone that would give me MORE access to the internet? I own a laptop, never do IM, and leave my current cell phone in the car where I usually forget to check to see if I have messages. The answer on the Iphone was too much distraction for this writer!

2. In Arabic, Abracadabra means “With my words I do create.” As a writer, I loved this!