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Savvy Sunday Salutations’ to Pamela V. Mason
After a HUGE break (apologies to all my lovely subscribers) I wanted to say what a glorious day it is to welcome Pamela V. Mason to the Savvy Salutations’ guest post slot. Pamela is a wonderful person, so full of life and joy; every time I get a chance to speak with her I am met with full enthusiasm; therefore, I had to convince her to pop by and be a superb guest here on yikici and being the angel she is, she gracefully accepted. I just know her zest for life will rub off on you all… -Okay, okaaaay I’ll shush and let you enjoy Pamela’s inspirational post. 
Jackpot
by Pamela V. Mason
Image linked to source
We all hit the jackpot. But do we recognize it when we do, and do we use it, enjoy it? Or fritter it away via fear and regrets?
No…not talking about money or those fifteen minutes of fame….
I’m talking about that happy place in life where you arrive and everything falls into place and works for you.
You’re no longer uncertain of yourself, afraid to take risks. It’s that comfort you feel living in your own skin, warts and all. You can quit sucking in your gut, covering up the acne scars, and smiling with your mouth closed so nobody sees your missing tooth.
It’s security in yourself and knowing who you are and where and how you fit in. What you can do well, and what you can’t. What you’re meant to do with the rest of the morning suns you have left in your life.
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Savvy Sunday Salutations’ to Rance Denton
What a glorious day to welcome Rance Denton to the Savvy Salutations’ guest post slot. I met Rance through Rachael Harrie’ Third Writer’ Platform-Building Campaign and I am sooo glad to have had the pleasure in knowing him -his unique and witty take on all things around us always makes me smile and the stories he conjures up are delights to read. I’ve also been fortunate to write a guest post on his blog; which is why it’s extra special to be able to feature him here on yikici. When you have a moment, please pop by to his blog and have a nosey around -you’ll see what I mean; in the meantime, I’ll leave the spotlight to Rance and his humorous rant on family relations:
Warning: This article contains some strong language.
The Cliché: Like Father Like Son
by Rance Denton
Image sourced from: http://www.cartoonstock.com
Savvy Sunday Salutations’ to Sonia G. Medeiros
Hellooooo there! This is super blogger number three. 
Please welcome Sonia G. Medeiros to the spotlight *cheers* I am particular honored to have Sonia along -as she, like Billie Jo Woods, is one of my ‘flash fiction buddies’ and she also likes tormenting herself by combining millions of challenges together! Anyhooo, this is not ‘me-time’ for me (of course I’m not taking away Sonia’ limelight!); so, without further ado, please give a warm welcome to Sonia!
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I’d like you to meet my inner critic, Agent 36. I wrote this the third month I’d been blogging after a particularly long, bloody struggle with Agent 36. I like to reread it often because it reminds me that, although the inner critic can look so very official, he’s really just a sneaky demon.
Agent 36, Inner Critic Extraordinaire
by Sonia G. Medeiros
Image sourced from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emiliano-iko/6194821506/
The inner critic.
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Male Virtue -What it Really Means to Many Men
Dearest readers, you would have noticed that yikici was closed yesterday in order to make a protest against SOPA & PIPA; eventhough we are not based in the States, we felt we needed make a stand and hence the silence was observed until 11:11 GMT today; we hope our endevours are listened and taken seriously. Now, let’s get back to todays post; Patrick Tulley is back with another engaging article; therefore, I will stop my chatter here and let you enjoy the article as it should be.
Thursday’s Topical Tête-à-Tête: Male Virtue and What it Really Means to Many Men
I blogged recently on a subject regarding male power. In that blog I briefly explained some of my feelings around the subject, but I promised to return when I felt I had made some better philosophical conclusions. I’ve done a lot of rethinking on this subject since then and felt it was a good opportunity to share them with you. This will be the first part of two blogs on this topic.
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Savvy Sunday Salutations’ to Billie Jo Woods
Hellooooo there! Welcome to 2012′s very first Savvy Sunday Salutations’! Before I disappeared and took that rather long break away, we had resident blogger (and good friend) Patrick Tulley take the spotlight ( click on the link for his interesting article ‘Male Power isn’t All it’s Cracked up to be‘). Now, we are in a new year, I thought it would be perfect to start Savvy Sunday Salutations with one of my very first author/blogging buddies: Billie Jo Woods. Please give a special and warm welcome to Billie Jo. *stands up and applauds*
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Fear – A Writer’s Best Friend
by Billie Jo Woods
Image sourced from: http://www.ideachampions.com
Fear is one of the most powerful tools in a writer’s shed. On my blog I post a weekly spot dedicated to phobias of things that humans fear the most. I do this because these fears make great material for writers to use within their plots and are brilliant for character development. That is one way of a writer using fear as a powerful tool. Today I am going to point out another way writers can use fear to their advantage but I would like to first thank Ozlem Yikici for having me as a guest blogger today.
When we fear something, it is usually because we need to develop more understanding of it or gain more experience dealing with it. If something is new to us or strange to us, our minds fill in the gap for the missing information. We do this by basing our assumptions on past experiences we deem as similar to the situation we fear. The problem is sometimes these assumptions are wrong.
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Why it’s cowardly to beat your child…
Thursday’s Topical Tête-à-Tête:
Welcome to another Thursday with Patrick Tulley; again he has written another engaging article, I hope you enjoy it as it is an interesting read.
Warning: Please note this video link contains disturbing images of a child being beaten.
Well many of you have perhaps been made aware of the video above that went viral last week of the judge beating his daughter with a belt. The video goes on for almost 8 minutes. At first I was unable to watch past the second belting, but I finally watched it today in preparation for this post. There is so much to discuss in this video for just one post, but I’m going to relate it to my own personal experience of being beaten myself as a child. The reason that she was given a beating it seems was because she installed a peer to peer program which allowed her to share music files with other users on the internet. Her parents saw this as stealing, which is the justification for her beating, under the guise of discipline As to the rights and wrongs about what she did is not really my question here, since I’m not aware of any punishment we mete out to adults that involves hitting them.
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Male Power isn’t All it’s Cracked up to be
Savvy Sunday Salutations:
Today we kick start off the new Savvy Sunday Salutations format with non-other-than our resident guest blogger Patrick Tulley; I thought it was appropriate to take the plunge with someone we already know. As previously mentioned Savvy Sunday Salutations (with guest bloggers) will now roll out on a fortnightly (two-weekly) basis. Guest bloggers will write/create an article of their own choosing -my only condition is that it must be something they enjoy writing/creating. In addition to this, I will be interrogating carrying out a semi-interview-type question and answers session with my victims guests. 
So, dare I say, you are all in for a treat. Happy reading!
Male Power isn’t All it’s Cracked up to be
I wanted to share an interview I listened to recently with Warren Farrell, the author of the book, ‘The Myth of Male Power’, that’s available on Youtube. I found it fascinating and seemingly connected many of the dots for me, when it came to contemporary gender issues. I have been toying with writing about this subject for some time now. I will admit to a fair amount of anxiety in doing so, since men are often attacked for taking a position on issues that affect women, even though I believe this issue affects both genders equally. This probably goes some way to explaining the almost resounding silence on this issue from men, which is why I step into this subject with gingerly steps of course. I apologise for the rather lengthy video interview (19 parts) -which is why I am going to break this subject up into parts over the coming weeks, so as to get a more overall picture including some of my own criticisms of Warrens views.
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