You’re probably asking yourself, “What the hell is this title about”?
I could have just written a new post and filed it away in the new “Tuesday Tools” category or I could provide some background.
I’ve been teaching english in Romania for past few months. I love it and the worst part about it is the excruciating noise of the self serve espresso machine that interrupts each lesson. Seriously it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard meets a pack of squealing guinea pigs. Other than that, I enjoy passing on the universal language to corporate heads and people of different nationalities.
However, I like to write most of all. I suppose the two go hand-in-hand but help me god if my students can read my dry erase marker gibberish smeared across the whiteboard… a symptom of being left-handed.
So I want to write more and I needed a reason to write something everyday. What better motivation than use the cliche alliterative sounding formula that’s created the mundane “Friday Fun Facts” or “Wednesday Wonders”. How about the good ol’ “Tuesday Tips” posts, pshh. Mine is far from original, too.
From here on out, I publish Tuesday Tools; a post every Tuesday on the topic of a tool of my choice that will help you in some way or another. I made this description broad in order to not confine my creative juices.
Let’s clarify the definition of tool, shall we?
Tool: Anything used as a means of accomplishing a task or purpose.
We’ve pretty much climaxed in the digital age and we use our screens for just about everything. Therefore, most of the tools I’ll reveal will be digital, but only time will tell when I am inspired to write about the next breakthrough household item or work shop appliance.
According to the definition above, I can write about Viagra, condoms and even those little sticky felt circles you put on table legs to prevent your furniture from scratching the floor. They all have one thing in common, eh! Mission accomplished. I will refrain from posting garbage like this. It will be hard but I will.
My top secret Tuesday Tools Guideline
- Don’t run off on tangents like I did in this post. Focus on the tool, dude.
- Answer the 5 W’s for every tool:
- Who’s it for?
- What does it do?
- When to use it?
- Where to find it?
- Why use it?
- Include screen shots of tools in every post.
- Tell the reader how I have benefited from the tool.
In conclusion, what is the inspiration behind Tuesday Tools?
It started with doing some research on the meaning of my name with the handy name research tool called Behindthename.com (woo-hoo, I’m ranked #48 in the US). I initially set out to make a Facebook post about the meaning behind my name with a link to this site then all of a sudden realized I want to document such great tools right here.
I used Behind The Name to learn that ‘Jordan’ is derived from the river flowing between the countries Israel and Jordan. It means “to descend” or “to flow down”. Whoa, I hope I’m not destined to descend all my life. On the other hand it’s no wonder the name skyrocketed in popularity during the 80’s. Michael jordan was in his prime!
This is a great tool for soon to be parents to use during the baby naming process. It shows you the popularity of baby names for both girls and boys and even segments them by country.
Do a quick search and find out what your name is all about.
P.S. Onomastics is the study of names and it dives into linguistics, history, psychology anthropology and more.
Darn, this took me longer than expected to write. I blame it on the internet distractions…or are they tools that help us accomplish a task or purpose? Stay tuned to find out.
