Books & Writing Archives - Page 2 of 8

Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies & the Opera Carmen

15 Nov

Book

I loved Gretchen Rubin’s latest book The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too). I listened to the audiobook version – it is fascinating!

Expectations

The Four Tendencies provides a framework to identify in ourselves – and others – how we are inclined to respond to expectations. The tendencies are Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, and Rebel.

La La La

Recently, I attended a production of Carmen with three friends – a Questioner, an Obliger, and an Upholder. Like most comedic saps, I am a Rebel. […]

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Categories Barb Best, Books & Writing, Humor, Pop Culture
Author Barb Best

Dear Boss: 7 Reasons I’m Taking Friday and Monday Off

21 Jul

SUBJECT: Playing Hooky Goofing Off Planned Absences

TO: Kyle Flicker

General Manager

Misery Productions

Los Angeles, CA

Dear Mr. Flicker,

I’d like to share with you a few bulls*!t excuses I’ve concocted for my impending absences from work.

My life coach insists I have a minimally invasive craniotomy done this Saturday. This is scheduled after my boozy, trans fat-laden brunch and before a round or two of miniature golf with the neighborhood children. Chances are I’ll be gaga on opioids for a few days. Trust me. You won’t want me anywhere near the company spreadsheets.

I’m celebrating “Cinnabon Day” and the Krispy Kreme “Buy a Dozen, Get a Dozen Free” promotion. This religious observance should take me several days to participate in and to recover from. If you’d like further documentation from my gastroenterologist or spiritual advisor, please let me know.

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Categories Barb Best, Books & Writing, Holidays, Humor, Pop Culture
Author Barb Best

La La Land June Gloom The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

10 Jun

An Excerpt from the humor book The Misery Manifesto

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorow?

In the United States, as in most of the sad world, you have weather. You have a variety of weather patterns and temperature changes, as well as four seasons. This isn’t the case in coastal Southern California. As you know, we’re special.

In Los Angeles, we have consistently perfect weather — sunny with temperatures in the seventies. It’s a truly reasonable climate that only the most miserable among us (usually transplanted New Yorkers) find unacceptable. These are the cranks who complain about unending sunshine and clear skies as if it’s a bad thing. “I miss the seasons,” they whine.

However, even for the easy to please, there is an ugly shoofly in The Endless Summer of SoCal . . . and that is the infamous “June Gloom.”

JUNE GLOOM

According to Wikipedia (who else?), June Gloom is “a weather pattern that results in cloudy, overcast skies with cool temperatures during the late spring and early summer, most commonly in the month of June.” (This is why it’s not called February Gloom.)

“Low-altitude stratus clouds are formed over the ocean, then transported over the coastal regions by the wind.”

Translation: June Gloom is a month-long period of fog and drizzle up the yahoo where you feel like an abuse victim in a never-ending Bergman movie. I call it “50 Shades of L.A. Gray.”

June Gloom should be a bona fide mental disorder ordained by the American Psychiatric Association. It’s Los Angeles’s version of a seasonal affective disorder.

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Categories Barb Best, Books & Writing, Health, Humor
Author Barb Best

Happiness at School: Educator & Author Sue Stephenson

30 Mar

Happiness and Comedy

“Every bad or good thing can be turned into something funny.”

– Daniel (student)

Sue Stephenson

Educator, author, and Certified Laughter Leader Sue Stephenson believes in the power of laughter.

Seriously! She is helping students find their inner comedian. She is bringing fun to the classroom. She is using comedy in schools to promote literacy, well being, and mental health.

The Happiness at School™ project

is the innovative school program using stand-up comedy that former principal Sue created and co-developed with comedians Kyle Woolven and Marc Hallworth […]

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Categories Books & Writing, Comedy, Health, Humor, Parenting
Author Barb Best

Video: How to Be Less Miserable in 39 Seconds

24 Mar

Parody = a humorously exaggerated imitation of (a writer, artist, or genre)

It’s time to have some fun with the self-help industry!

Available exclusively on Amazon http://amzn.to/2n8yaCF

Watch this video on YouTube

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Categories Barb Best, Books & Writing, Funny Videos, Humor
Author Barb Best

Misery Manifesto: A Self-Help Parody Book

17 Mar

Misery? It’s not merely a Stephen King novel.

Happiness? It’s not just a smiley face or an emoticon.

You don’t need another self-help book. They suck.

Instead, you need to laugh at your troubles. Kvetch and complain. Embrace the pain. Feel the joy.

Humor me…

My NEW humor book!!! BUY HERE 🙂

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Categories Barb Best, Books & Writing, Health, Humor, Pop Culture
Author Barb Best

I Got Baggage: Why My Purse Weighs 50 Pounds

4 Mar

WHY MY PURSE WEIGHS 50 FRIGGIN’ POUNDS

After all, isn’t a purse just an enabler for mobile hoarders?

I suppose my purse/bag would be lighter if these items were not in it?

Multiple lipsticks, concealers, mascara, a tiny make-up guy.

A Six-Pack of emergency water bottles – an absolute necessity for survival if stuck in traffic during a heatwave during a SIG alert during an earthquake during a heart attack during a hurricane during a nuclear attack during a tsunami during a…

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