THE LEFT LANE
Coping with rejection

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Author Rob Stearns has some cautionary advice for parents: Helping your child learn to stop replaying failures and focus instead on successes is crucial in determining their immediate response as well as their college experience as a whole. His business-based advice is available in his book "Winning Smart After Losing Big," (Encounter Books, $16.95), based on his experience as someone who's won some and lost some.

Take Back the Night

Students and staff at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa have organized the campus' Take Back the Night events today through Wednesday to raise awareness about sexual violence against women. Free activities include self-defense classes, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. tonight in the UH Campus Center's room 220. There's also a free play, "Unspeakable Acts," 6:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Art Auditorium. For a complete schedule, call 956-7927.

Christmas stage craft

Consider this an open call to be in "Christmas Talk Story 2004," a performance songs and original monologues by local authors. Since 1999, it's been an annual event that tells a holiday story from a child's point of view. Stories must be 350-700 words, have a Hawai'i holiday theme, be told in first person from a child's point of view and be dramatically active (as opposed to stories about something that happened in the past).

Send submissions to: Honolulu Theatre for Youth, 2846 Ualena St., Honolulu HI 96819-1910, attn: Mark Lutwak. Or write to mark@htyweb.org. Call 839-9885, ext. 17.

The deadline is June. 1.