44 North Shore Towers Courier n August 2015 LIFE HAPPENS: What Are You Going To Do About It? Did you ever see a carpenter or handyman use power tools? Isn’t great how they can make some strenuous or tedious job simpler and better by the use of a power tool designed to produce an easier and better result. Wouldn’t it be great if we could make the tough choices we must make in life easier to navigate? Why do some people face change and adversity with determination and success while others plod along never sure if they are doing the right thing? Are there Life Power Tools we can employ that would make a difference in our lives. In recent years, many books have come on the market, which promise coping skills that smooth life’s bumps in the road. None are easier to read and easier to digest than this one written by Leslie Sann. She is the daughter of the popular and vivacious Roz Sann who lives in Building One. Leslie is a life coach and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) who lives outside Chicago and helps people “live by design and not by default.” For 25 years she has been a personal development facilitator and corporate trainer. In this just published book, Sann shares powerful tools you can most people you will wish you had this book thirty years ago. BOOK REVIEW BY FRED CHERNOW Leslie Sann use to become resilient and responsive when Life does what it does. These tools are practical and easy to apply... right now. If you’re like Roz and Leslie Sann Which hand to choose? One of the challenges of Mah Jongg is out of the 50 or so hands on the card, is being able to choose the one that will win. But how many times do you have to decide between possible hands that you think will win? Many!!! The first is when you put your tiles up on the rack and decide on a tentative hand(s). Then, when you get new tiles in the Charleston and possibly again, as the game is progressing, changing your hand is not unusual—sometimes changing it more than once. It’s often not an easy choice and many times there isn’t much time to make a reasonable and winning decision. As the Mah Jongg guru says, “She who hesitates, holds up the game!” In all of these “decision times” there is a commonality.. In other words, the same criteria can/ should be used in all of these situations to make a reasonable decision about choosing one hand over another. As a general rule, my advice is when you have to choose between two hands, choose the hand that’s easier to make. 1 Count the number tiles toward Mah Jongg for one hand vs. the number of tiles for the other. Choose the hand with the greater number. 2 Choose an Exposed hand over a Concealed hand. 3 Choose the hand that has no gaps—-tiles you have that are the start of each combination the hand requires. 4 Choose the hand that requires no Pairs over the hand that requires one or more Pairs. 5 Or choose that hand that requires the fewest number of Pairs. 6 Choose the hand for which you already have the Pair or Pairs required. Follow these guidelines—they will make it easier for you to come to a decision and hopefully improve the ratio of wins over losses. AMERICAN til next time... may the tiles be with you! Reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles and Elaine Sandberg. Elaine is a mah-jongg instructor, who has taught the game for Holland American Cruise Lines and at American Jewish University, and the author of “A Beginner’s Guide to American Mah Jongg: How to Play the Game and Win” (Tuttle, $14.95).
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