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Cool Jobs

For people like Ray Brown, work looks a lot like play. Here are a few honest-to-goodness jobs compiled by Wil Fulton from thrillist.com.

Ice Cream Taster — The ultimate “cool job,” these folks mix the magic concoctions of ice cream, candy and other goodies into frozen fantasies. Not great for the waistline, but good for morale.

Netflix Tagger — Have you binged on more episodes of “Fuller House” than you want to admit? Think about becoming a Netflix Tagger, and get paid to watch TV. These part-time employees watch shows and movies through Netflix streaming, then associate content with various tags, helping the service recommend shows to viewers based on what they have previously watched.

Private Island Caretaker — For those planning a retirement that includes sun and surf, consider being a private island caretaker. Those who do this love the tropical paradise life, but note that while there are obvious benefits, it helps to be handy — and in good shape — as property owners expect all to be in shipshape when they arrive for their holiday.

Fortune Cookie Writer — Like to give advice? Do you excel at choosing lucky numbers? Donald Lau, who has been crafting fortunes for Wonton Foods, manufacturer of fortune cookies (among other Chinese cuisine) is stepping down after 30 years because he says he has run out of ideas. So if you have some creative writing ability, this could be the way the cookie crumbles.

Google Trike/Street View Team — Like to cycle? Want to travel? Maybe joining the Google Street View Trike Team is up your alley. This job involves pulling a Google Maps camera behind a three-wheeler through cities all over the world. There are also positions for folks who feel hoofing it is more their speed.

Panda Nanny — If you have experience babysitting the grandchildren, you may have what it takes to become a Panda Nanny.

Fitness

Rejuvenate Yourself

Get an Energy and Productivity Jumpstart

By Jeff Tomaszewski

Four hundred and thirty-eight million: That is the number of vacation days Americans failed to take last year, more than any other industrialized nation, according to Harris Interactive Research Group.

Here’s the result: America ranks first in both depression and mental health issues.

Americans are burned out. Our productivity and creativity are dropping, relationships are failing and our rising stress is leading to record levels of heart disease, stomach ulcers and depression.

All Work, No Play

We’re judged by how much we work. We’re afraid of being replaced or left behind, and we’re addicted to busyness. It’s not only destroying our mental and physical health but also our creative productivity.

This is especially true in our global economy, where our future lies with our ability to think creatively, innovatively and productively.

Rest and recovery are vital to looking and feeling your best. Unfortunately, it’s viewed as a weakness rather than as an integral aspect of growth and sustained performance.

We become flatliners mentally, emotionally and physically by endlessly spending sufficient energy without recovery. We slowly wear down and become ineffective.

Taking a break might be difficult for some of us. Consider these tips:

Reframe it: Instead of calling it time off and thinking we are slackers, reframe it as “rejuvenation time.” This sounds more purposeful and meaningful, doesn’t it? This might be mental manipulation, but we’ll take whatever works.

Schedule it: What gets scheduled gets done. Like any critical appointment, you have to plant your time-off flag on your calendar and defend it. Take a break from email. Put your phone and other electronic devices aside.

Declare it: Don’t feel guilty or try to keep it a secret. Lead by example and show others how to make rejuvenation part of an overall health plan.

Happy Glampers

Style Under the Stars

By Traci McBride

If you haven’t stepped foot in a campground lately, you’re in for a surprise.

Elaborate tents with strings of solar lights. Fanciful campers with flowerpots and outdoor rugs at the doorways. Extravagant treehouses. Funky yurts.

You may drag along musty, stained sleeping bags and a package of hot dogs for a few nights under the stars, but your neighbors have upped the camping game: They’re glamping.

Outdoor Style

Camping lost its novelty for many of us with memories of miserable nights, too many bugs and ash-sprinkled food. The bugs are still there, but the rest has undergone a stylish transformation.

Glamping is getting away from it all while enjoying the luxuries of home. Are you a tent, RV or Airstream camper? Spice things up with practical, traditional yet supremely comfortable details that introduce color, patterns and simple amenities to your campsite. You’re a glamper.

Details Matter

You’ll sleep better and have more enthusiasm for hiking when you’ve rested on a queen-size blow-up mattress, having spent the evening listening to a waterproof battery-operated sound system after cooking a gourmet meal.

A portable kitchenette that includes a spice rack, paper towel holder and lantern pole makes food prep easy. You are more likely to get the grandkids to join you if they don’t have to lie on the hard ground and are still able to earn some tablet or cellphone time with a solar-powered charger. Download outdoor apps (such as SkyView and the Audubon Bird Guide) to enhance your hikes. Beautiful design plus practical functionality equals the ultimate glamping experience.

Products have certainly affected traditional camping. Battery-operated portable showers, solar chargers and battery-powered twinkle lights keep everyone clean and add a little romantic sparkle.

Getaway

Hocking Hills

Find Romance, an Adrenaline Buzz or a Family Connection

Andrea Coats and Chad Gordon made their first trip to Hocking Hills the year they met. Both divorced with teenaged children, they needed a romantic escape to focus on each other. A few days in the woods worked — the Medina couple has been together five years.

From time to time, the two return to Hocking Hills in the southeast part of the state, and plan to return again this summer to enjoy the romance of the picturesque region.

“We get a cabin by ourselves with a hot tub and grill. We grill steaks, sit in the hot tub and watch the hummingbirds around us,” Coats says. “It has beautiful woodland scenery, which makes it romantic. It’s a holding-hands, walking-around, being-alone kind of place. That’s my idea of romance. I like to be alone together.”

Gordon says, “We like it as a couple because the seclusion allows us to give full attention to each other. With immersion into nature and escape from urban, suburban and digital routines, it sounds cliché, but it’s like going back in time.”

Choose Your Own Adventure

Coats and Gordon found — and have nurtured — their romance in Hocking Hills. But there are plenty of other things to discover just a short car ride from Northeast Ohio.

With only two hotels in the area — a Holiday Inn Express and a Baymont — most of the accommodations are cabins and lodges. These are convenient for anything from couples’ getaways to family gatherings. While most options include hot tubs, some larger properties offer in-ground pools for swimming or ponds for fishing.

When visitors venture into public, it’s usually to one of the six separate areas that make up the 2,356 acres of Hocking Hills State Park.

Michael Stanley

There’s No Place Like Home

By Breanna Mona

First, a flashback:

Heavy smoke shoots from a fog machine and rolls over the hill at Blossom Music Center. A crowd filled with restless young fans, hair teased to wild heights, chants, “MSB! MSB! MSB!”

Michael Stanley and his band finally emerge from the smoke clouds, and they give the crowd what they want — music, and lots of it. Energetic rock that keeps fans on their feet. Quieter ballads. The fans know every word to every song. Hits such as “Lover,” “My Town” and “Falling in Love Again” gave the band a phenomenal fan base that built a cult-like obsession in Northeast Ohio.

MSB performed at Blossom 17 times over a six-year period, with an astounding four-night run in 1982 that drew a total attendance of 74,404 — still a record for that venue. The band not only reached regional fame, but also landed on Billboard’s Top 40 list twice. Their music video for “He Can’t Love You” played on MTV.

Musician, Grandfather

Stanley is still very much a performer and a celebrity in his hometown. Since the Blossom days of the ’80s, Stanley has worked with several bands and done solo work. He estimates he’s made more than 30 albums.

Today he performs in venues all over Northeast Ohio and — fittingly — is an afternoon drive host at the classic rock station 98.5 WNCX. He and his band The Resonators in April sold out the Akron Civic Theatre. He’s working on another album from his home studio.

At a recent photo shoot at the Agora Theater and Ballroom on Euclid Avenue, he caught up with a handful of people who stopped by to say hi.

Stanley is reflective and private. Anyone who hasn’t seen him since their college days in the ’70s or ’80s would immediately recognize him.