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I've been experimenting with several of the latest AI platforms. Canva's most recent AI updates have introduced some fun possibilities.  I make a lot of checklists, worksheets, workbooks, and interactive PDFs that can be tedious and time-consuming to design and make. I've been learning how to use Canva's AI to generate the basic PDFs for me and then I take them to Adobe Acrobat Pro to make them fillable and saveable. I'm hoping Canva will be able to add fillable PDFs to it's output options soon. In the latest New Tricks video, I share how I made a quick social media survey form in less than 15 minutes. Watch it here:

Before you read the article, please take a minute and use this handy affiliate link to open the information and enrollment page for the Freelance After 50 Summit . If you are at any stage of freelancing, from just thinking about it to having years of freelance experience, there will be something of exceptional value for you to find in this event. At a minimum, you'll be introduced to the resources and community offered by the fantastic folks at Freelance University. You can attend for free, or you can spring for the bonus features included in the advanced tier. You'll be able to determine your schedule ahead of time and choose those presentations that are of particular interest to you.  There is so much change going on in the job market right now. Layoffs in many industries and in government are pushing people into the employment scramble, and many are wondering if they'll ever be able to find secure employment again. While hiring discrimination based on age is illegal, HR ...

▼▼▼ Watch the video below ▼▼▼ It Started With the Question, "Is This Really How I Want to Spend My Time?" I joined Facebook and Twitter in 2009, at the height of a personal health crisis. They were both much different experiences then. I was friends with people I wanted to connect with and hear from, and when we posted, our friends did see it. It was fun to get reacquainted with people all the way back to elementary school. And it was an important place to connect while I was facing a lot of uncertainty in my life. Overall, it felt like a pretty positive and uplifting place to be - until election time. The first couple of elections we went through on social media revealed some pretty horrible things about pretty much all of us. In order to stay in that environment, I had to start filtering what I was seeing. Longtime friends were unfollowed, unfriended, and blocked because I felt directly attacked by their vitriol. I started to realize that if they knew how I really felt, I w...

  It's been easy to talk about the worst parts of the tech explosion, artificial intelligence, and social media experience. It's noisy, confusing, often unpleasant, and complicated. It's not easy to navigate. Algorithms think they know what you want, but they keep showing you stuff that you wouldn't choose for yourself if you had time to decide anything.  I was on YouTube this morning, looking at the hundreds of videos that were being promoted on my feed. The thumbnails all look the same so as to seem generic. While the once popular promise that the internet and social media were going to offer endless possibilities to be uniquely yourself, the movement seems to be more toward homogeneity. I don't have a lot of time to watch, but I need a better way to choose than endless scrolling and filtering. I've grown more weary of the online world, and I often wonder how useful it really is. There was a gracefulness about the card catalog at the library that made the expe...

  My experience on YouTube has been a cool adventure for the most part. In the midst of spam comments, thumbnails and titles that are intended to coerce, and the noise you sift through to find what you want, miracles can happen. One of those miracles took the form of meeting Matthew Gray of the 50 Tastes of Gray Podcast.  A few years ago, I made a ten-minute video with no advance planning or intention that has become the most popular video on my page. It's about making a graphic overlay for Zoom interviews. That accidental success was the first point of contact.  In the past couple of years, Matthew has reached out to touch base and see how I've been doing. Most YouTube-inspired exchanges are not this thoughtful, but in one of his latest check-ins, he asked if I'd join him on his podcast. I'd made an assumption that the podcast was mostly about food, but that was before I'd properly listened to a few episodes. Matthew just loves good conversations, and he's a ma...

Since the public launch of ChatGPT 3 in late 2022, the rapid introduction of artificial intelligence into the mainstream of every aspect of human living has been a central topic of conversation and concern. AI tools have spread across the creative industries like wildfire and have been inserted into every level of task from ideation to packaging. Where we had hoped the robots would take over the mundane tasks of life, instead, we've seen the technology pointed at the big red target on the face of all our creative activities.  While the tech gods have tried to assure us that human labor won't be replaced overnight, we've still seen early signs that the trend will be toward computers and machines doing the work humans once did. This isn't an abnormal pattern. From the earliest development of tools, the whole point has been for human labor to become easier and ultimately redundant. But can we be prepared for how the race will be affected as tech takes over increasingly hig...

  When I retired from performing in 2022, I wasn't sure how music was going to show up in my life. For a couple of months, I didn't pick up the guitar - the longest stretch without playing since I got my first guitar. Even during the years I struggled with tendinitis, I would still pick it up and play until the pain stopped me. In the months since I stopped performing, I've regained my love and appreciation just for the time I get to pick up my guitar and play. That is the essence of this interview. My long-time friend Margo set up this interview with Jake Douglass. His mission is exciting. It's driven by the desire to turn people on to the joy of playing music for music's sake. We cover every aspect of the role of music in my life, from my first piano lessons to my last gig and beyond. It was fun and at moments, touching, to remember specific moments when a random encounter started a new trajectory of my journey. Please listen, and if you enjoy what you hear, give ...