Make It A Good Day

My blog entry for this date will be general observations of some interesting things that have come across my desk in the last few days that I’d like to pass on to you. I hope you’ll read to the end and read “The Principle Of The Garbage Truck.”

Partly because it is so closely related to transcription (or it could be), I’ve been interested in scrapbooking, but also partly because I like that sort of thing, although I’ve never had very much time to devote to it.

If you put together a scrapbook of family interest, one of the best things you can include is either an audio describing the pictures and events, or an audio and a transcription with a description. The latter really works well because it includes all of one’s modalities, hearing, seeing and reading.

See my blog entry about Christmas in August for an interesting idea for family Christmas gifts.

I ran across this web site in Woman’s World Magazine, the June, 2008, issue. It’s a website to create a virtual scrapbook where you can choose various backdrops, upload your own pictures and put together a very intriguing scrapbook on the Internet. You can then share it with others and it’s all free. The URL is www.scrapblog.com.

Another fun free website which I read about in the same magazine and which intrigued me for a while is the “virtual” makeover. You can go to www.taaz.com, upload a photo of yourself, then choose different hairstyles, cosmetics and eye colors. Once you’ve created your makeover photo you can e-mail to friends and family to get their opinion. It’s intriguing to try short hair, curly hair, dark eye shadow, different shades of lipstick, etc. Frankly, when I got through with what I created for myself, I liked the original me better.

What I really want to share is this bit of viral e-mail which came to me from a friend. It’s called “The Principle of the Garbage Truck.”

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!

The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, ‘Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!’ This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, ‘The Law of the Garbage Truck.’

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on you. Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so…. ‘Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don’t.’ Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

That is so true. Now go out and make someone’s day a beautiful day, and don’t let anyone dump their garbage on you.