Hard Times

Yes, there will come times when illness, death of a spouse, or sudden loss of income will drastically affect the kinds of care we can give our cats. Changes in global economy can also have a massive effect on cat care as prices soar. Let’s explore areas where compromises can be made in cat care costs:

* Cat Food Expenses
Certainly, food choices can be compromised somewhat, by buying the least expensive premium cat foods, buying larger bags of dry food, or even supplementing premium cat food with grocery store brands, until finances improve.
* Cat Litter Savings
“Chicken crumble,” such as Purina’s Layena brand, which is around $10 for a 50-pound bag, makes a good temporary substitute for litter. Litter costs can also be mitigated by purchasing the largest bag available.
* Veterinary Expenses
Some cat owners have stretched the time period between annual well-care examinations for younger, healthy cats. Some core vaccinations can be given at home for substantial savings, particularly in a multiple-cat household. Note: Do not attempt home vaccinations unless you are completely familiar with the process and the risks.

Emergency veterinary treatment is a bit tougher to tackle. The About Cats Forum members came up with a few suggestions for one hard-strapped member, and I’ll add a couple more:
o Ask for payment terms
Some veterinarians will allow you to pay off an emergency bill in weekly or monthly installment. You can even offer to write post-dated checks (but be sure they will clear).
o Borrow
Borrow from family, friends, or your local bank, if possible. Ask your credit card holder for a temporary increase in your limit, but be sure to make at least the minimum payment the following month. Care Credit (U.S. and Canada) offers interest-free loans for up to one year for veterinary emergencies.
o Pawn or sell possessions
I know one person who has sold her entire collection of CDs and DVDs to pay for veterinary care, without a thought for herself. Look around your house and see what you can afford to give up, then hold a yard sale.
o Barter
Bartering is big nowadays with many businesses, and you probably have some skill to offer your veterinarian in return for his/her services:
+ Offer to clean the office, scrub holding cages, or paint exam rooms.
+ Offer to baby-sit or pet-sit over a six-month period.
+ Trade skills: massage therapy, dentistry, pet-sitting, carpentry, computer repair, or haircuts and manicures.

If you have established a previous relationship of working with your veterinarian as a team, she will be more likely to make concessions when it comes to emergency care. This underscores the importance of being a responsible caregiver in all ways. You owe your cat no less.

The Tragic Price of Irresponsibility:

Shelters in the United States are so full that 4 – 6 million cats and dogs are euthanized each year. Millions of other cats eke out a frail existence on the streets, and meet tragic early deaths.  The cause for these needless tragedies can be traced directly to irresponsible people. Yes, most of them good people at heart, but irresponsible nevertheless.

I’d suggest that someone who loves cats but can’t afford to give them responsible care, do the really unselfish thing and volunteer at a shelter, instead of taking on another cat. Most shelters could not operate without volunteers, and volunteers quickly learn the realities of the lives of companion animals and the consequences of irresponsible pet ownership. It would be a win-win situation: you would be able to get your regular cat-fix without guilt, and the shelter cats would benefit from your loving care.

Laura and her Angel Kitties

Jack and Joshua

Tomorrow is the big day of FREE fun learning from Scott Magers about how to monetize your business online.

It’s not too late to rsvp. Just use the offer code below and email to 4pillarevents@gmail.com. Mention my name and it’s FREE.

Laura and her Angel Kitties. See you there.

Jack and Joshua

This  event on Social Media and how to make money on the Internet will go from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm on Saturday, April 10th at Saddleback College, Science and Math Building Room 313.  Registration will open at 1:00 pm.
Please confirm the attendance of you and your guests at 4PillarEvents@gmail.com.

Use the code offer and my name and the event is FREE.

http://tinyurl.com/y2srnbr

Laura and her angel kitties.

Jack and Joshua

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtPb8g8Jl6I

Web Side Story is just one of many videos produced by College Humor.com. Web Side Story is a spoof cleverly using West Side Story as its foundation to include all the lingo and uses found on the Web.

Video from the original West Side Story

One funny scene has the girls on the rooftop singing about E-Harmony and Maria sings about how she met Tony on the Internet. Another great scene has Tony singing about Pandora instead of I just met a girl named Maria.

At the end the  duet sings about e-vite. Maria tells Tony he didn’t reply and he hates evite because he has to click through.

Enjoy the videos and tomorrow I will continue with my Cat Myths and Facts.

There are many top myths and facts about cats that needs to be discussed. In the next couple of weeks I’ll be sharing 10 myths and facts with my fellow cat lovers. These articles were written by Franny Syufy a write on About.com. The two white cats, Jack and Joshua posed under the umbrella are my precious babies.

The world of cat lovers, particularly those who frequent the Internet, abounds with myths and misconceptions about cats. This list addresses the most common of those myths and states the true facts about each misconception.

Jack and Joshua

Myth: Cats Are Low Maintenance Pets who Can Take Care of Themselves

Fact: Cats’ aura of independence fools some people into thinking they need only minimal care. The truth is that the average age of stray cats and ferals is three years; which should be adequate proof against this myth. When we domesticated cats thousands of years ago, we assumed the responsibility of adequately caring for their needs. My own cats have thrived because our family has a very strong sense of responsibility toward our cats. We really do treat them like members of our family.

Being a responsible owner of a cat carries with it certain financial obligations. If you are not in a position, or are not willing to meet these costs, it may be better not to take in a cat at all, in your current situation. I know it is difficult to resist that cute kitten in the “free to a good home” box, or that friendly stray on the street who begs to come home with you, but if you can’t afford to give it the bare necessities, you are probably doing the cat or kitten no favor. Fortunately, you have options, if your love for cats far outweighs your means to properly care for them. We’ll discuss those options a bit later.

On the other hand, if your budget is tight, but you are willing to make certain sacrifices for the sake of having the pleasures of a cat in your life, then you may be able to accomplish that dream.

Cats have certain basic needs which often divide the difference between a stray on the street and a cat in a home with a responsible caregiver (the irresponsible ones often dump their cats back into the streets or at the nearest “shelter”). These needs include:

1. Food, of the highest quality one can afford
2. A safe indoor-only environment with a few exceptions.
3. Spay or Neutering, provided by a veterinarian
4. Core Vaccinations, provided by a veterinarian
5. An annual veterinary examination
6. Emergency veterinary care, when a cat is sick

These needs are non-negotiable, and a person who is not prepared to pay for them, e.g., can’t “afford” them should not own a cat. Let’s put these costs into some kind of perspective, so you’ll know exactly what you might have to give up for the sake of your cat.

* Quality Food: $9 – $12 a Month
Just about the equivalent of a 12-pack of beer, three packs of cigarettes, or a trip for two to the movies.
* Litter Box and Litter (price varies)
You can obtain a litter box for $6 to $200 for a deluxe self-cleaning box. A 17-pound bag of World’s Best Cat Litter costs around $19, and regular scooping should make it last almost two months for one cat. (About the cost of breakfast for two at Denny’s.)
* Spay or Neutering: (One-Time Cost Varies)There are many low-cost spay and neuter clinics in the United States. Project CatSnip in Atlanta charges $45/Neuter and $70/Spay. A private veterinarian might charge in the neighborhood of $60/Neuter to $115/Spay, about the cost of a pair of designer jeans. Note: This cost is minuscule compared with the cost of treating an abscess caused by fighting in an unneutered male, or aborting or treating mom cat and kittens resulting from an unexpected pregnancy.
* Core Vaccinations + (cost varies)
The cost will vary depending on the risk factor in your own cat and rabies laws in your area. As with spay and neuter, there are many low-cost vaccination clinics available Let’s go with a maximum of $80 for the complete first year series, a high estimate, and around the cost of one night in a moderately nice motel.
* Annual Veterinary Examination: Cost Varies
A thorough exam, including dental and a blood profile, will run from $60-$125, or equivalent to 10 trips to Mickey D’s.
* Emergency Veterinary Care
There is no real way to estimate these costs, since they vary as to the age, overall condition, and accident-proneness of the cat. Veterinary insurance can mitigate these costs somewhat. Lacking that, I would recommend setting aside money every month for a “vet emergency fund” (I would suggest a bare minimum of $10/week), or getting a $1,000 – $2,000 credit card and putting in away in a drawer, to be earmarked for cat emergencies only.

I’ll add another important item for responsible care with regard to declawing: don’t! You will not only save the cost of the procedure, but you will save you and your cat possibly years of pain, frustration, and heartbreak.

Tomorrow the myth will focus on Hard Times.

Laura and her Angel Kitties, Jack and Joshua.

Are you puzzled by strange blogging terms and unusual blog abbreviations and blogging acronyms? Then this post will get the Blargon Demystified. This article attempts to simplify some common blogging terms organized into a simple blogging glossary. Only common and popular blog tools and services have been included.

Hello, my name is Laura and I’m a cat lover and learning how to blog and connect with other cat lovers. Even though I’m 62, it is a lot of fun and want to do this for a living. My goal is to free myself up to help cats get adopted and spend time at local shelters socializing with cats who are permament residents.

Anything you can teach me or share is greatly appeciated. I too will share what I learn along the way.  I found this article on blogging terms and thought it was a good place to start.

Photo by Pim

Note : The language used here is mostly non technical to make the newbie blogger understand the blogging basics. These have not been created by me, but collected over time. This is NOT a substitute for dictionary meaning or a strict definition of these terms, but a simple layman approach to understanding what they mean. Please feel free to propose a better meaning in the comments.

BLOGGING

• Weblog- An online dated diary listing your periodic thoughts on a specific topic, often in reverse chronological order.
• Blog – short form for weblog
• Blogging - the act of posting on blogs
• Blogger - a person who blogs
• Blogosphere - The Internet blogging community

BLOGGING FORMS

• Photoblogging - a blog predominantly using and focusing on photographs and images. Photoblogs are created by photobloggers
• Podcasting - a method of distributing multimedia files (audio / videos) online using feeds for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. Podcasts are created by podcasters.
• Autocasting - is an automated form of podcasting
• Blogcasting - the blog and the podcast merged into a single website.
• Vlogging - Also called video blogging. Shortened to vlog. Posted by vlogger. A variant on the blogging using video instead of text.
• Audioblogging - Also called audioblog, MP3 blog or musicblogs. a variant on the blogging using audio instead of text. Created by audioblogger.
• Moblogging - Also called moblogs. A blog posted and maintained via mobile phone. Moblogs are created by mobloggers.

BLOG COMPONENTS AND FUNCTIONS

• Index page – the front page of the blog
• Header - the top most part of the blog usually listing the blog title.
• Footer - the most bottom part of the blog usually listing navigation and copyright statements
• Sidebar - One or more columns along one or both sides of most blogs main page
• Categories - A collection of topic specific posts
• Post, Entry- individual articles that make up a blog
• Comments - enabling readers to leave their remarks
• Captcha - short for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. Those word and letter verification images you need to type in to show you are human and not a bot. Helpful to block automated spam comments.
• Ping – Short for Packet Internet Grouper. Blog and ping helps to notify other blog tracking tools for updates, changes and trackbacks.
• Trackback - A system by which a ping is sent to another blog to notify that their article has been mentioned by you
• Pingback - See trackback.
• Permalink - A link to a specific article
• Tags - labeling / attaching keywords to collect similar posts
• Tag cloud – Displaying tags lists or keywords in a blog.
• Blogroll - list of links to other blogs in your sidebar. Also see blogrolling.com
• Sideblog - A smaller blog usually placed in the sidebar of a blog.
• Template - the blog presentation design
• BlogThis - a function allows a blogger to blog the entry they a reading
• Plugins - Small files that add improved functionality and new features. Wordpress plugins can greatly improve your blog usage and interactivity
• Dashboard - When you login to your blogging account, it is the first screen with all controls, tools and functions.
• Archives – a collection of all your posts on one page. Can be categorized by month etc.
• Expandable post summaries – show a small teaser part of the post on the index page that link to the full post. more
• Jump – the continuation of a the story on another page to preserve space on index page.
• FTP - short for file transfer protocol. Transferring file to and fro from your web host using FTP tools like Filezilla

WEB FEEDS

• Web Feed – allows online users to subscribe to websites that change or add content regularly.
• RSS - a family of web feed formats used for Web syndication. Short form for Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0), Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0), RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0). Wordpress generates RSS 2.0
• XML - short for eXtensible Markup Language. a general-purpose markup language for syndication formats used on blogs.
• RDF - short for Resource Description Framework. A web content syndication format.
• Atom - another specific web feed format. Blogger feeds are usually of this type.
• OPML – short for Outline Processor Markup Language. It is an XML format for outlines. Easily import and export multiple blog subscriptions between different rss aggregators.
• Photofeed- a web feed with image enclosures.

BLOGGING SOFTWARE / CLIENTS

• Blogger - a free blogging platform by Google.
• Blogspot - free Blogger hosting blog at name.blogspot.com
• LiveJournal - free blogging tool by SixApart
• Movable Type – paid blogging tool by SixApart
• Typepad - paid blogging tool by SixApart
• Wordpress.org- Free. Easy to Upload, customize and upgrade.
• Wordpress.com – A Wordpress blog hosted free for you.
• Radio Userland – another blog publishing software package

TYPES OF BLOGS

• Group blog- with multiple contributing bloggers.
• Event blog – focussed on an event
• Kittyblogger – writing about cats.
• Celeblog – focused on a celebrity.
• Celebriblog – maintained by a celebrity.
• Clog Blog – written in Dutch and/or in Holland.
• CEOBlog – run by a chief executive officer.
• Plog - a project blog. Also for Amazon.com personalised weblogs
• Movlogs - mobile video blogs.
• Splog- a spam blog
• Tech blog – focused on a technical subject.
• Anonoblog – by an anonymous blogger
• Linguablog - about linguistics, translation etc.
• Metablog – a blog about blogging.
• Milblog - a military blog.
• Blawg – blogged by lawyer / related to legal stuff
• Edu-blog – education oriented blog.
• Progblog - A progressive blog.
• Shocklog - provokes discussion by posting shocking content
• Klog - used by company knowledge workers. by Kloggers
• Blogsite - A web site that combines blog feeds from a number of different sources
• Dark Blog- A non-public blog
• Photocast- a photoblog that automatically updates when new photos are added.

BLOGGING HABITS

• Metablogging - writing articles about blogging
• Blogstipation - writer’s block for bloggers. Cant think of what to blog about?
• Blogathy - I do not want to post today and I do not care about it
• Blogopotamus - A long long blog post
• Blogorrhea - unusually high output of articles
• Bleg - To use one’s blog to beg for assistance etc.
• Hitnosis - Refreshing your browser repeatedly to see if your hit counter or comments have increased
• GAD - Google Adsense Disorder. Repeatedly checking your adsense earnings. more
• Blego - Blog+Ego. Measuring blogger worth
• Blog hopping – jumping from one blog to another
• Blogroach - A commenter who rudely disagrees with posted content
• Blogoholic - addicted to blogging
• Blogorific = blogtastic – something which a blogger says is terrific
• Blogsit - maintaining a blog while the primary blogger is on leave
• Blogvertising - Also called blogvert. Advertising on a blog.
• Blurker - a blog reader not posting comments, just lurking around quietly.
• Blogathon - update your website every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. Maybe collect sponsorships. more
• Blogiversary - your blog birthday
• Blog Carnival – Links to other articles covering a specific topic.
• Multiblog - running multiple blogs
• Blog Tipping – Compliment 3 blogs on day 1 of every month. more
• Blogger bash - a blogger party
• Commenter - someone who leaves remarks / comments
• Reciprocal Links - called link love. You link to my blog, I link to yours. To improve search engine rankings.
• Linkbaiting - a habit of writing good content with the sole purpose of getting it linked from multiple sites.
• Blogstorm – a large amount of blogosphere activity due to particular controversy. Also called Blog Swarm.
• Blogsnob – refusing to respond to blog comments from “not-friends”.
• Doppelblogger – plagiarize the content of another blogger. To Doppelblog.
• Blogophobia – Fear of blogs and blogging.
• Bloggerel – the same opinion posted repeatedly on a blog

BLOGGER TYPES

• Problogger - professional blogger
• Blognoscenti - especially knowledgable bloggers
• Blogebrity - a famous blogger.
• Blogerati - the blogosphere intelligentsia.
• Commentariat - The community of those leaving comments.
• Dooced - lost a job because of blog entries. To Dooce.
• Blogther - a fellow blogger.
• A-List- the top bloggers who influence the blogosphere.
• Blogstar- blogger running a popular blog

OTHER BLOGGING TERMS

• Bloggies- Annual blogging awards. more
• MSM - Mainstream Media, or old media like newspapers etc.
• BSM - Blogstream media. from most heavily trafficked blogs.
• Blog Day – 31 August. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting and tell them. more
• Blaudience - your blog audience.
• Blargon - Also called Blogssary. Blogging slang and glossary. What I am telling you now.
• Blogiversary - your blog birthday
• Blogiverse – see blogosphere
• XFN – short for XHTML Friends Network. Is a simple way to represent human relationships using hyperlinks.
• Blogonomics - blogging conference on a Blog Cruise in 2006. more
• EFF - short for Electronic Frontier Foundation. A nonprofit group working to protect blogger rights.
• Blog of Note – a recommended blog. more
• Navbar - a navigation bar usually seen on top of Blogger blogspot hosted blogs. more
• Blook - a book created from a blog. more
• Hat Tip- acknowledgement of the source that tipped you the news.
• Spomments- Spam comments
• Blammer- Blog spammer
• SOB- acronym for Successful and Outstanding Blogger. From successful-blog.com
• Blogiday- you get fed up and take a holiday from blogging

BLOGGING TOOLS & SERVICES

• Bloglines, Rojo, Newsgator, Kinja, – are News Aggregators that display content from syndicated Web content from web feed. Can be configured online or downloaded on your desktop. Like . Also called RSS readers, feed readers, feed aggregators or news readers
• Pageflakes, Newsvine – Track multiple feeds on a single page by modules.
• Odeo, Podnova – are Podcatchers, a form of aggregator used to automatically download podcasts and can sometimes transfer a portable media player. Like
• Feedburner - a professional feed management system
• Pingomatic, Pingoat – ping multiple blog tracking services. More
• Feedblitz, Zokooda – Email subscriptions and newsletter tools.
• Technorati – a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in the blogosphere
• b5media, 9rules – examples of popular blogging networks. Collection of blogs and bloggers providing great content, with revenue sharing sometimes.
• K2, Blix – names of some popular Word Press themes.
• Blogexplosion, Blogclicker- popular blog traffic generation / exchange services.
• Adsense, Adbrite, CJ, Chitka, Blogads – popular affiliate programs to generate money from your blogs.
• Sphere, Icerocket – blog search engines
• Live Bookmarks – a Firefox web browser feature. Update themselves automatically with the latest content from the Web.
• Creative Commons – licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors to offer a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach.
• CoComment - Tracks your comments across different platforms and follow conversations
• WBloggar, Ecto, Qumanna – desktop blog publishing tools
• Mint, Mybloglog, Measuremap, Analytics – site traffic tracking tools.
• Haloscan- free trackback service
• YouTube, Rapidshare- puts video on your blog
• Flickr, Imageshack - photo sharing service. Host images on your blog
• Del.icio.us, furl, spurl – share social bookmarks.
• Blogburst - Syndicating your feed to top publishers.
• Bloggeropoly - professional blogger recruiting agency. more
• Blogger code – a way to describe different types of bloggers. more
• Bloggoggle - Directory of Blogging Professionals
• BlogHer - where the women bloggers are. At Blogher.org

BLOG TRAFFIC SURGES

• Digged - link posted on digg.com driving huge traffic to your blog
• Slashdotted - link posted on slashdot.org driving huge traffic to your blog. more
• Instalanche - link posted on instapundit.com driving huge traffic to your blog
• Farked – link posted on fark.com driving huge traffic to your blog
• Boing Boinged – link posted on boingboing.net driving huge traffic to your blog

MISCELLANEOUS BLOGGING TERMS

• Ajax - acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. creates interactive web applications.
• Greasemonkey - a firefox web browser extension that can alter the functionality of any website using specific scripts.
• Wiki - a collaborative on-line software that allows readers to add and edit content.
• SEO - search engine optimization. To improve your search engine rankings.
• Page Rank – Google measures of importance of a page which reflects in its rankings.
• CMS – short for Content management system. software used to publish and manage websites.

This post is constantly updated. Help me develop this blogging resource to include all popular blogging terms and create a useful blogging glossary. I repeat that this is NOT a substitute for dictionary meaning or a strict definition of these terms, but a simple layman approach to understanding what they mean. Please feel free to propose a better meaning in the comments.

Bloggingly Yours…

Related articles:

1. Ink Blogging : Handwriting Posts on Your Blog
2. W.Bloggar Blog Post & Template Editor : Blogging Made Easy
3. Winter Blogging : Snow Fall on Your Blog
4. Blog & Ping : Better Feed Aggregation by More Index Posts on Blog
5. Join the 9 Rules Blogging Network : Round 4 Blog Submissions
6. Blogging Scholarship for U.S. College Students Who Blog
7. Blog Action Day: Blogging Voices to Help Environment
8. God Blog Convention 2005 : Christian Blogging Forum

Hope this helps.

Laura and her Angel Kitties

Jack and Joshua

Zen and the Art of Twitter: 4 Tips for Productive Tweeting Part Two

Zen and the Art of Twitter is a great read. This is part two.

Soren Gordhamer is the organizer of the Wisdom 2.0 Conference, which brings together staff from tech companies with neuroscientists, Zen teachers, and others to explore living wisely in our modern age. Mashable readers can use code ‘Mashable‘ for a discount when registering.

3. Only Add Useful Content

“Do not speak unless you can improve on silence.” — Zen saying

The tools of social media give us countless ways to share content with people across the world. They do very little, however, to ensure that content is useful or purposeful. There is often the belief that to be active and effective on social media one has to post consistently, letting people know throughout the day what we are doing and thinking.

However, just as great music is in part the relationship between sound and silence, we could say that for Twitter and Facebook updates, what matters is not just the content of our posts, but also the amount of space between them. I am sure we all likely follow people on Twitter who may not tweet everyday, but when they do, we are excited to read what they post. It is the quality of their tweets that matters more than the quantity of them.

Lesson: Post not to fill empty space, but to add value.

4. See Differently

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“Look out from the frameless window of a long pause. Let the images come to you rather than chasing outward after them…. If you want to see differently, you’ll have to look differently.” — Ji Aoi Isshi

A key element to Zen is to focus not only what exists in the external world, but to also be attentive to the internal lens from which we view it. If a cup is filled half way with water, one person could see it as half empty, another as half full. The cup, however, is what it is.

In the same way, we can have a million followers on Twitter, then look at Ashton Kutcher who has over 4 million, and think, “I am way behind” and approach the service with the desire to “catch up.” Or we can have 20 followers, and think, “Cool, twenty people want to read my tweets,” and engage with Twitter from a positive state of mind. The number of followers we have often has little to do with the positive or negative attitude with which we approach the service. What matters is less about our number of followers, and much more about how we “see” or “look” — the mental approach we take.

Lesson: Focus more on the mental approach you take, and less on comparing yourself with others.

Conclusion

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Of course we are going to use social media, but the real challenge is doing so effectively. There is an old Zen story about a man riding a horse that is galloping very quickly. Seeing him, a woman asks, “Where are you going in such a hurry?” To which the man replies, “I have no idea. Ask the horse!” There are likely days that if someone asked us what we were doing, we might reply, “I have no idea. Ask Twitter and Facebook!”

When we let the horse, or social media, direct us, we get overwhelmed and unfocused, and our time is not spent well.

Twitter and Facebook are incredible tools, but making the most of our time on them requires paying attention to the mental approach we take. When we engage them with a beginner’s mind, a desire to give, a focus on adding useful content, and a positive state of mind, we will likely have more days guiding the horse than the opposite.

To your great success

Laura and her Angel Kitties

Hope you like this article the  Zen of the Art of Twitter.  I thought it was interesting, especially, since I’m in the learning mode and need all the help I can get.

Soren Gordhamer is the organizer of the Wisdom 2.0 Conference, which brings together staff from tech companies with neuroscientists, Zen teachers, and others to explore living wisely in our modern age. Mashable readers can use code ‘Mashable‘ for a discount when registering.

Tweeting is easy. Tweeting and using social media with balance and effectiveness — not so easy. Zen teachings have much to offer those of us who wish to make our time on social networks more rewarding and productive.

We all have days when we engage social media with a focus and sense of direction that enriches our work and life. We find useful content and have good communication with friends, while also attending to other tasks we need to accomplish. We have other days, however, when we lose focus, and get overwhelmed and lost on social media, and find ourselves at the end of the day usually with more stress, and wondering what we actually accomplished.

Below are the top four Zen lessons to help you get the most positivity and productivity out of your social media experience.

1. Approach With a Beginner’s Mind

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“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert’s, there are few.” – Zen Master Suzuki Roshi

It seems that more and more people are claiming to be experts of one kind or another, and many of them are using social media. In fact, recent reports suggest that there are now over 15,700 people claiming to be social media experts on Twitter.

There is nothing wrong with experts. I am sure many who claim to be are quite skilled and knowledgeable. However, the question is not only how much we know, but how much are we willing to learn from our time on social media?

The person who thinks he “knows” or is an “expert” is often less open to new learning. In the age of social media, things change so fast that what we knew about a subject yesterday may not apply to today. What matters is less about what we knew in the past, and much more about how open we are to learning today. This applies especially to social media.

Lesson: Rather than focus on what you know when engaging in social media, focus on what you can learn.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4JCv7c/mashable.com/2010/01/12/zen-social-media//r:f

2. Give What You Want to Receive

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Zen student asks, “I am very discouraged. What should I do?”” Zen teacher responds, “encourage others.”

There are countless ways that social media can help us with everything from our business to our social life. However, while there is much to gain from social media, we could also say there is much to give to social media too. From a Zen perspective, it is important to give what we wish to receive. Want to find more customers for your business on Twitter () or Facebook ()? Help others find customers for their business. Feel like you deserve more praise online? Praise others more. Want more people responding to your tweets? Respond to their tweets more. Tired of reading meaningless tweets? Make the effort to post meaningful ones yourself.

If we approach social media focused exclusively on what we can gain or what we think we should get, we set up a division in our relationships, one that often ends up preventing us from receiving the very thing we seek. When we give what we want to receive, it changes the dynamic such that, ironically, we are more likely to get what we seek.

Lesson: Focus not only what you can gain but also what you can give.

To your success

Laura and her Angel Kitties

Cat lover is what I am. “A NEW DAY”  has begun for me. The theme song “Memories” from “Cats” the  award-winning musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats and other poems by T. S. Eliot expresses there are memories and also a new day ahead. There is light tomorrow. The show has been performed around the world in numerous productions and has been translated into more than 20 languages.

What that has to do with me is I have always loved cats and started my blog about 5 months ago focusing  on areas of health, wealth and spirit.  I will continue to follow my passion to help others achieve success and live their lives with hope and joy.

Today I choose it to be  “A NEW DAY” to share my experiences of having cats in my life and how I can help you to learn more as I go along on this journey.  I am very excited. I keep having ideas pop into my head on areas I want to explore about these beautiful creatures to share with you.
I am not an expert, just a loving cat lover of all cats.  Stay tuned.

Laura and her angel kitties.

Jack and Joshua