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Amazon’s Alexa and The New WALKING LEADER Skill

By now, you have seen the Amazon Alexa commercials.

If you haven’t then let me share the following: Alexa “is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon, made popular by the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot devices developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, and other real time information, such as news. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system.”1

Sounds pretty cool. You talk to a small device and it talks back. Heck, it even tells you a joke, if you ask it to. Folks, it is official, we are living in the future.

I have been intrigued with the Alexa IPA (intelligent personal assistant) since it first came out, then appeared on my Kindle Fire and then it was on my Amazon Fire TV Stick. I was hooked. I was beyond hooked, I was mesmerized. Here is the perfect opportunity to be part of an emerging technology. VOICE.

So what did I do to be part of this emerging technology?

During the recent Amazon Prime Day the Echo Dot was available at a price that was too hard to resist.

While I was waiting for my very own Echo Dot to arrive, I brainstormed and came up with a couple of ideas. However, I wanted to proof of concept as well as making certain that I was not in over my head when it came to creating a new Alexa skill.

Doing my homework, I discovered there are approximately 15,000 Skills (and climbing) so why not add one more to the list of skills? That’s what I did.

What I did is put my daily audio,  the Walking Leader podcast, Going Beyond The Grind-Going Beyond The Hustle (Facebook video)  and the Amazon Skill development tool to get all that put together. A few days later, the approval email came in from Amazon and here is the link for  you to get my new Amazon Alexa Skill: Walking Leader Flash Briefing.

Now I am even more hooked. You can be too. Looking back, I was not in over my head. It was actually quite easy to create the “Flash Briefing“. What I am saying is you can create your own. All you need is an account on the Amazon Developer Platform. If you have an account on Amazon then you already have an account on the Amazon Developer platform. You are going to need a few things the most important is having a audio content that resides (is stored) on SSL enabled web-hosting service.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the “standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral.”2

How do you know if you have an SSL enable web-hosting service? Simple, when people go to you website do they see HTTPS:// or HTTP://? If the see HTTPS then you are good to go. If not, then contact your web hosting provider to get the SSL added. Be warned, the SSL might cost you to install. However, once you have the SSL in place you are well on your way to having your Alexa Skill ready for the world.

If you have a message you want to share with the world, then give it a shot. Now is the time to get in on this new emerging technology. I am excited to be part of all this and I know you will be, as well.

Thanks,
David Guerra, MBA

 


  1.  Amazon Alexa. (2017, August 14). Retrieved August 17, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa
  2. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17, 2017, from http://info.ssl.com/article.aspx?id=10241
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HER & HIM (Part II) by David Guerra

HER & HIM (the story continues) by David Guerra

The scene is the family kitchen and word has gotten back to them that a family member has betrayed their trust and has taken a mundane situation, twisted it and spun it so far out of control that people are starting to believe the situation is worse than what it truly is.

——

“You have got to realize,” he says as he takes a deep breath, “Being far away tends to skew the side of the conversation to the closest and certainly the loudest. By being present, the owner of the conversation can dictate its ebb and flow and most certainly its bias.

That may be why when the gap of distance is closed, and you remember this, the loud one cowered away, retracted to its dark corner, played the role of pity seeker and most certainly kept quiet because that was the best way to preserve the version of the truth that person has so skillfully played over and over in the minds of others. Did any of them ever stop to ask why?

No! No one ever bothers to ask. That is because the REAL cowardice comes from those that would rather hear the version already spoken and never ask whether there is truth to the words being spoken. So long, as there are cowards that want to hear the juicier side of the truth there will be a puppeteer dangling the strings and manipulating others.”

“Yes, I understand but why is it always the ones that are closest?” with a little sadness and frustration in her voice she asks.

“That is a good question. Jealousy, Anger, Fear, Strife, petty competition but mostly it is jealousy.”

“Jealousy?”

“We both know they wish they had half of what we have in our love and commitment to one another. They don’t want to covet it but they want it. They want it so bad they can taste it. What gets them is the realization that they are not willing to put in the hard work to get anywhere close to what we have. As Veruca Salt said in her song before she plunged down the bad egg indicator, ‘I don’t care how, I want it now.'” he reassured her.

“Why take it out on us, belittling us and twisting the truth?” she immediately adds, “you don’t have to answer that, I know.”

“Besides you and I know the truth,” he pulls her close, “and that is all that matters.”

“I know but it hurts.”

“I know,” he replies as he kisses her on the forehead and hugs just a little tighter.

——-
More on the continuing saga of him and her coming soon.

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About Me Change Her & Him short story Writing

Her & Him: The Backseat – a very short story by David Guerra

I have been tinkering with the idea of writing in a different genre. While I am not abandoning Historical Fiction, I am considering something else.

Here is a little something to give you an idea of what I am talking about. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.


The Backseat by David Guerra

“Where is it?” an adult woman’s voice asks.

“It’s right there,” the accompanying adult male responds.

“It’s too small,” with a little frustration in her voice she replies.

“It is not too small. It’s right there. You are not working it right,” he says with a little frustration in his voice, as well.

“I am working it right. It is just too small,” she sarcastically or matter-of-factly replies.

He can’t tell.

“Do I have to do it, again?” as the level of frustration in his voice slightly increases he asks.

“No! I can do it. If you let me do it.”

“What does that mean?” slight discomfort replaces the frustration.

“I mean, you do it all the time and I hardly do it, so I want to do it.”

“What do you mean I do it all the time?” now the discomfort comes out.

“I’ve seen you doing it,” she replies with a slight knowing smile on her face as she looks at him.

“Oh,” is his humble response.

“Oh? This is not the time to become shy. Now scoot over, let me get my fingers on it and let me try,” she says with a tone of deliberate intent.

“OK,” he says as he shifts his body over give her room to work.

Soon the SUV is rocking and swaying back and forth. Luckily, where the SUV is parked there is little to no chance of anyone walking by. If there were from the outside, passersby would not see what is happening on the other side of the vehicle’s dark tinted windows. Then again, why would anyone want to see the activity inside a parked swaying vehicle?

It’s a little bit later now. Maybe three minutes later.

After numerous near misses, a lot of shifting of bodies and fumbling fingers the female voice from inside the SUV calls out, “Yes, Yes!”

“Yes! I think you’re getting it,” he says with some excitement in his voice. His increased breathing gives his excitement away.

“Oh gawd yes, finally,” she joins in with her exhilaration knowing the end is near.

“What does that mean?” he asks as all the excitement has left his voice.

“Damn it! Don’t start, you’ll ruin it,” vainly holding on to what is left of her excite.

“Ok, Ok, come on hurry up so we can go back inside. The windows are all fogged up,” he says as he tries to regain his composure.

“I know right. We’ve been out here too long but I didn’t think it would take this long. Usually you are done in a minute or two.”

“Yeah, but I am usually alone or without an audience,” with the wind out of his sails he replies.

“Sorry, I didn’t think you were sensitive about this.”

“Hey, sometimes the male ego can only take so much of a beating,” stating his case.

“You can say that again,” she says with a slight knowing smile and a slight gleam in her eye.

“Huh? Oh never mind, look what happened,” they both look at it and he continues, “We started talking and now you don’t have it.”

“My you do distract easy,” now she is full on with a small wicked smile.

“OK, now what does that mean?” he asks.

“It means when you lose concentration, I lose concentration and now we have to start all over again,” she says as she plays all her cards.

“Me, lose concentration?” he asks, “You are the one hell bent on doing it. So let’s do it!”

“Fine. Let’s do it. Wait a second look at it,” they both look at it and she continues, “It looks smaller.”

“It’s not smaller. It the same size it has always been. You are just looking at it wrong.”

“I know,” she says with a smile and a wink, “Let’s get situated again, so we can finish.”

“Yes, let’s.”

The man and the woman adjust themselves in the backseat of the SUV. She moves just enough to get her hand back in the right position and he moves ever so slightly to not crowd her but to give her enough room to work with comfort and to get the job done.

A minute or two later and after more moving, fumbling around, near misses and some frustrating moments.

“Yes!” she calls out sensing the end is now really truly seconds away.

“Yes?” with a slight sense of doubt that it is finally happening.

“YESSSS!!!” a great sense of accomplishment overcomes her.

“I knew you could do it,” he says as he looks down to see her handy work, “See, it’s not too small you just had to get your fingers around it to work it and the rest was easy.”

“Yes but it wasn’t too easy getting to that point,” she adds, “Next time, let me do it from the start or do it by yourself.”

“Next time?”

“You know there will be a next time. There is always a next time,” she says.

“True. Come on let’s go inside. It is really humid in here. Beside we got to clean it before someone wants to use it, again,” he says as he becomes aware of his surroundings, “Look at windows they are not only fogged up but already running with condensation.”

“How long were we out here?” she asks.

“A couple of minutes at most.”

“Felt like hours to me,” she quickly adds.

“Now what is that supposed to mean?” he says as he wonders how does she do it to be so quick witted.

“Nothing, just that I was the one doing all the work.”

“You wanted to do it,” he retorts.

“Oh, don’t get your panties in a bunch,” she states, “I just wanted to make the best of the time we had alone. Besides how often do you and I get to spend some alone time in the back of the SUV doing anything even this?

“Not enough,” he says as he leans over to kiss her as he opens the back passenger door.

“Next time, we do this promise me we turn the AC on.”

“It’s a deal,” he says as he help her out of the SUV.

She hugs and kisses him.

He returns the kiss as he wraps his arms around her, she lets his hands roam down and grabs two handfuls of her ample bottom.

“Settle down you. There is no time for that, I have to go clean this pacifier before you know who wakes up.”

He agrees and turns around to go back to the SUV.

“Where are you going?”

“Going back to figure out how that pacifier keeps falling in between the floor board and the side panel.”

The End…