I’ve got running on the brain right now, and for good reason. I’ll be running the San Francisco marathon this weekend. The nerves are definitely kicking in!
I’ve been looking for a little last minute inspiration, and I recently rediscovered a list of funny sayings spotted on signs at marathons (courtesy of the SF Marathon training program weekly emails). They reminded me of two valuable lessons that are always useful for communicators:
1) When you’re trying to get someone’s attention, a little humor can go a long way.
2) Creative writing can be found in the most unexpected places, even on spectator signs.
Check out some of my favorite motivational signs:
• “Your feet hurt ... Read more »
It’s not every day we get to celebrate a great cause AND rub shoulders with celebrities, but on May 24, the Brilliant Ink team got to do a little bit of both. We were proud to be a corporate sponsor of 826 Valencia’s annual fundraiser, which was held in San Francisco and attended by hundreds of their supporters and friends. You may remember that we’ve written about 826 Valencia before – they’re a nonprofit that teaches kids literacy and writing skills. The organization was founded by one of my favorite authors, Dave Eggers, so you can imagine how excited I was when we actually got to meet Dave at the ... Read more »
Me and my awesome mom
There are so many women who inspire me that I found myself agonizing about writing this blog entry. Of course because writing is such a big part of what we do at Brilliant Ink, I thought of two of my favorite authors, Jane Austen and Zora Neale Hurston. Both of these women broke new ground and challenged stereotypes of the day, with beautifully crafted novels that draw you in with engaging and inspiring characters.
I also thought about one of my favorite political activists and social figures, Eleanor Roosevelt. I highly recommend her old newspaper column, My Day, published from 1936-1962.
Instead I’d like to dedicate this blog to someone who is ... Read more »
| Date: March 31, 2010 | Author: Janice Smith Collins | Category: Our Favorites |
Anne Frank
Here on the Brilliant Blog, we are commemorating Women’s History Month by sharing our thoughts on some of the women who inspire us.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved writing. And that passion was certainly inspired in no small part by Anne Frank. I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was 13 years old – around the same age of its eponymous author. Of course, I was moved by the story of a young girl and her family as they hid from the Nazis and were eventually captured. But more than that, I was inspired by the words of a young girl who used writing as ... Read more »
It’s St. Patty’s Day – are you wearing your green? With a name like Liz Kelly, you may not be surprised that we’d consider an Irish-themed blog post in honor of the occasion. In fact, I have even more reasons to celebrate than you might think – my husband has dual U.S. and Irish citizenship, and my mother’s birthday happens to be today, so needless to say, St. Patrick’s Day holds a little extra significance for me.
To help you celebrate, here’s a special edition of Favorite Words originating from the Irish language. You get bonus points if you can work one of these words into your conversation over a pint ... Read more »
Carol Bartz
It’s Women’s History Month, y’all, and since Brilliant Ink is both woman-owned and led, we thought it would be fun to mark the occasion by sharing our thoughts on some of the women who inspire us.
One of my favorite words is “moxie,” and there’s nothing I like more than a leader with a little bit of moxie and a no-nonsense style. When I think of those kinds of leaders, one person immediately pops to mind: Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz.
In preparation for some consulting work I did with Yahoo! last year, I did a little online reading about Bartz and was immediately impressed. For starters, she’s tough. She was diagnosed with ... Read more »
What do pirates have to do with writing skills? Everything, if you’re an organization known as 826 Valencia. Founded by author Dave Eggers (one of my favorites) and educator Nínive Calegari in 2002, 826 Valencia is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that helps advance kids’ literacy skills by providing after school tutoring, workshops and writing-based field trips.
826 Valencia’s writing lab is located, appropriately enough, at 826 Valencia Street in San Francisco, and here’s where the pirates get involved: to access the lab, you enter through a pirate supply store. What does one find in such a store? Everything you’d need to be a working pirate, of course, like peg legs, ropes, ... Read more »
After a restful holiday break, everyone is back to work (hooray, I think). With that in mind, doesn’t it sometimes seem like Friday is taking forever to arrive? Here’s a little something that we usually do on Fridays to inspire you to finish the week strong – a bunch of our favorite words. As always, don’t hesitate to send us some of your favorite words in the comments section below. And don’t worry; Friday will be here before you know it!
@janni10
braggadocious – overly proud, bragging in excess
taciturn – inclined to silence
voluble – characterized by a ready and continuous flow of words, talkative
mephitic – offensive to the smell
vim ... Read more »
| Date: January 13, 2010 | Author: Janice Smith Collins | Category: Our Favorites |
Happy 2010! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season as much as I did. I got a few cool “word nerd” gifts for the holidays this year, and I thought it would be fun to share them with you. This probably would have been more helpful before the holidays, but maybe they can inspire some future gift ideas for your favorite word nerds (or just entertain you for a few minutes).
Poetry for Your Table
This desk toy lets you create “poems” by using blocks printed with various words. Check out one of my very first tabletop poems above – and yes, I know it’s not very good. There’s a reason I’m not ... Read more »
We recently came across a blog post about some of the best albums for beating writer’s block. I have to admit that I only know a few of the albums the blog author lists, but it got me thinking about listening to music when writing. Sometimes it can be helpful and sometimes it’s distracting, but if I’m working against a tough deadline or feeling a little scattered there’s nothing better than a little classical music to help me relax and focus. I thought I’d do an informal poll of my team to see if they like to listen to anything while working – here’s what they had ... Read more »
