Regina Pacelli - Outsmart the Unexpected: Grow Your Creativity the Edge-Of-Your-Seat Way

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Outsmart the Unexpected:

Grow Your Creativity the Edge-of-your-seatWay

by Regina Pacelli

Copyright 2008 by Regina Pacelli

All rights reserved. No part of this book maybe used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without writtenpermission from the author except in the case of brief quotationsembodied in critical articles or reviews.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Cliffhangers

Ideas for taking Outsmart the Unexpected beyondthe borders of the book.

WELCOME

Stuff happens. It's one of the immutable laws oflife. So, the better prepared you are to deal with the unexpected,potentially life altering events that will inevitably come yourway, the better off you'll be. The more 'shock proof' andnimble-minded you become, the more you will be able to achieve asuccessful outcome and to do it with the least amount of stress andnegative impact on your well-being.

Shocks and unexpected events, happy andhorrible, minor and extreme, happen to someone, somewhere everyday. The sinking of the Titanic, for instance, is an extremeexample. The passengers on the Titanic were from all walks of life.They were wealthy families relaxing and enjoying an ocean voyage.They were immigrants focused on the new life their destinationpromised. They were all preoccupied in one way or another. Thattheir lives would soon be in peril was the furthest thing fromtheir mind.

Likewise, the employees, all from a diversespectrum of trades and professions, skills and knowledge, arrivingat the World Trade Center the day of the 9/11 attack, did notexpect that their lives would be in jeopardy a short whilelater.

Of course, all unexpected events are not ofthe extreme, life-threatening variety just described above, but howyou react to the unforeseen, life-changing events or lesserpredicaments that you can suddenly come face to face with, thechoices that you make, your ability to think on your feet and comeup with ideas and think things through, can have a very real impacton your future.

Even unexpected events of a less extremevariety, such as noticing a suspicious stranger following you,being offered a job you didn't apply for, getting falsely accusedof something, or just being visited by someone important to yourfuture at a very inopportune time can have very different outcomesdepending on how you handle those events. You don't always have theluxury of time to figure out what to do. You don't always have muchinformation either. Helping the characters in each of thecliffhangers in Outsmart the Unexpected to resolve the situationsthey find themselves in will in turn help you to become an evenmore creative, quick thinking problem solver.

There are no absolute rules of the road orguidelines here, but I can offer some suggestions. Each of thestories gives clues about the characters' abilities, personality,and/or life situation. Sometimes those clues are sparse,irrelevant, or misleading. In coming up with a solution to theirpredicament, think - what would/could 'they' do based on what youknow about them? What would you do - the same thing or somethingdifferent?

How many solutions can you come up with thatwill likely achieve a successful outcome and a happy ending for thecharacter(s)? What solutions or courses of action would make a badsituation worse? Also, see Appendix A - Ideas for taking Outsmartthe Unexpected beyond the borders of the book.

Some of the stories are pretty far out there(my penchant for tales with a twist I guess). I hope you have asmuch enjoyment reading and solving them as I had writing them.

Wishing you warm, breezy days, and successfuloutcomes,

Regina Pacelli

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BIGGER THAN A BREAD BOX

It was with eageranticipation that Maxwell opened the large box that was on thetable before him. He was so excited to get at what lay inside thathe didn't even think to use a knife or scissors to assist him inopening the box, but rather, just clawed at the wrapping until thecontents were revealed. Within the box was a collection of a dozenor so obscure books that Maxwell had managed to discover in hisresearch on the Internet. One of them surely had to contain theanswer he was desperately searching for.

He could find no information on the Internetor any of the other possible information sources he could think ofsuch as the local universities, public libraries, or bookstores.What was worse, due to the nature of the problem, he didn't feel hecould let anyone know, which closed off that avenue of assistanceto him. He especially did not want his wife or two young sons toknow what had happened and took great pains to prevent them fromfinding out. His wife had told him many times about her fearsconcerning his experiments, one time becoming quite agitated whenhe felt it a necessary precaution to build a specially designedsub-basement in their house to conduct them in. Now, after hiswife's fearful fantasies had materialized into an alarming andterrible reality, he did not want to appear foolish to her, theneighbors, his colleagues at the university, or to anyone else forthat matter.

So, Maxwell forged ahead, trying to find asolution. He was bright. If there was a solution, and foreveryone's sake, he knew there better be one, he'd figure one out.He'd figure out a way to contain it before it got completely out ofcontrol. Besides, if his superiors at the university ever foundout, he suspected that he'd probably lose his position and not beable to work elsewhere as a biologist. That was a possibility topainful to contemplate since he loved it so much. He was alsoplagued by the thought that it might even ruin his wife's career.She worked for a prestigious research laboratory, also as abiologist, but was not as eager to push the boundary lines ofnature with as much reckless abandon as he did.

He stayed down in the lab for days huntingfor some clue in the books, some spark of an idea. Only when hiswife incessantly buzzed him on the intercom to remind him to eat,did he stop and come upstairs to quickly wolf down some food sothat he could get back to what he was working on.

The only thing he told his wife was that hewas on the verge of a discovery. He instructed her to call theuniversity and tell them he had the flu and, thus, would be out fora while. Little did she know that he had made the discovery weeksago and he was now feverishly trying to figure out how to put thegenie back in the bottle.

Down in his sub-basement, he tried out ideaafter idea, but the problem only became more unmanageable. It wasclear to him that the track he was on was a dead end. He had tomodify his thinking, but how?

***** Start solving! *****

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THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

Jon settled furtherdown in his seat, trying to get comfortable as he struggled to keepwatching the movie he was growing increasingly disinterested in.Having nothing much to do, same as every Friday night lately, hehad decided to take in a movie at a theater close to his apartment.As Jon watched the movie, he imagined an adoring girlfriend sittingnext to him, unable to concentrate on the movie, totally engrossedin Jon as she held his hand.

As he drifted along on the waves of thisdelicious and warming reverie, he thought he could hear a girlquietly sobbing somewhere behind him and it captured his attention.Jon tried to focus on the sound, hoping to zero in on where it wascoming from. He turned his head to scan the faces of those sittingall around him, but in the darkness, he couldn't see too far back.He tried several more times, but he still couldn't see the sobbinggirl.