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She has solid and you may intimate traits and you may an aggressive fascination with their family relations – Sahabat Mahasiswa
Sahabat Mahasiswa
She has solid and you may intimate traits and you may an aggressive fascination with their family relations
She has solid and you may intimate traits and you may an aggressive fascination with their family relations
The newest Aries woman ‘s the Leader women she actually is sports, strong and incredibly active. You will not see a keen Aries woman seated nonetheless for long, she could not be lazy and you can loves to guarantee that what you as much as could it possibly be only very. She’s got an active lifetime, the ultimate sportswoman and always contemplating the latest activities. The newest Aries woman identification try vivacious, she doesnt desire fancy within the an obvious ways, however, she loves to play a part of the things that’s going on doing the lady. This woman is increasingly protective regarding this lady friends and you will really does in contrast to injustice, this lady has a sense of fair gamble and certainly will create the girl opinions recognized versus concern. She is the best matriarch and you will be a great mother and you can an effective impact on this lady grandchildren. The newest Aries girl is definitely shopping for new event, every day life is a trip along with her purpose will be to alive they fully, that have spontaneity and you will exuberance she’s forever flourishing. This sheer chief does not such as for example inequality, she works to result in the industry a much better place…
For people who fulfill a dominant, strong and you may successful community girl she may be an enthusiastic Aries! The brand new Aries traits are great for frontrunners operating along with her loyalty, drive and desire to possess challenges create the girl a power become reckoned which have. For folks who implement an enthusiastic Aries girl, expect dedication, hobbies, a few requiring pressures, but great results. She’s going to constantly come across an encouraging field however, must end up being she has the brand new freedom while making behavior that won’t simply benefit the company in addition to the girl. The newest Aries lady identification could well be an excellent addition to almost any company, performing desire between your group however with a robust feeling of fair play. That it absolute chief cannot such as inequality, she actively works to result in the industry a far greater set and will not endure bullying, arrogance or unethicalness. This new Aries girl have a tendency to focus on achievements and once invested in a pals, this lady intense loyalty usually push profits, with her co-pros by the the lady top. She efforts for everybody become noted for its effort and you can certainly is not unjust from inside the bringing most of the credit.
The newest qualities out of an Aries mom promote balance and you may safeguards so you can the lady people. This woman is happy with the girl children, and her intention in the beginning is to try to prompt the girl college students to grow in to independent, solid emails. She’s going to always be indeed there ready and prepared to let, no matter how dated the lady children are and regularly since the she has actually attained the newest respect typically and has passed away their degree throughout, they are aware capable count on their. The woman is the brand new matriarch of the family relations and will continually be meeting your family along with her, taking a feast on her behalf members of the family and you may appreciating her clan from the head of your own desk. Even though she’s got dominant services and you will faculties, she’ll maybe not purposefully attempt to overwhelm group, the woman is just a robust private and you may confident in the girl opinions and you can values. She does not link her youngsters from inside the thread wool, latinamericancupid online but she really does lightly suggest him or her and you can teach them and when she is also.
A firm companion which have a spontaneous, adventurous suffered appeal! But what is the Aries lady compatibility when it comes to prime relationships?
This new LEO Partner This new Aries lady discovers the fresh new Leo boy fascinating! Brand new Aries lady between the sheets can find the ultimate suits that have the Leos attributes to own excitement inside their sex. Their matchmaking keeps a good foundation to-be a lot of time-long-lasting provided he provides their the fresh new value she requires that’s not as prominent. Each other has actually great respect and will make the amount of time mothers on the kiddies.
The Authored LIBRAN An unusual combination of Flames and Sky cues, which relationships will be strong. The fresh Libra child appears to have services that your Aries girl does not have, and also make its connection the ultimate and complete connection. They are a guy and because Aries girls always become respected and appreciated, she will come across your attractive. Their sex and passion between the sheets commonly after that ignite brand new Aries girl during intercourse, as he fulfils the woman adventurousness.
Brand new Wacky GEMINI Which flaccid, amusing and frequently very intelligent boy tend to intrigue the newest Aries girl. She will feel blinded of the his never ending times, his quirky love of lifetime with his needs in the bed room. New Aries girl in love often enjoys your to own his originality and you will she’ll gladly dictate the partnership, and then he was articles to help you assist.
The newest Flaming SAGITTARIAN He is a no-junk charmer and you may she understands where she really stands that have him. He admires their times and you may warmth for a lifetime and they each other prefer to talk about new activities. She may be excited with his diminished tact and certainly will difficulty your! Brand new Aries girl in bed try pleased with the lady passionate Sagittarius lover.
Which headstrong women requires men who is just as good, productive and you can passionate about lifetime because the the lady. The woman is zero deceive crazy and you will easily registers for the somebody who are insincere or just who may appear having ulterior purposes. Aries lady compatibility must be somebody who can also be challenge the girl popularity regarding best way possible. He need his own thoughts and opinions just like the Aries lady wants to come across white-hearted discussions in which she will be able to put the woman flaming viewpoints across. A keen Aries woman in love is when she feels known, challenged, sparked for the discussion and also at ease along with her hectic brain. A keen Aries woman during sex shall be adventurous, but contemplate – she actually is productive and open to mention this lady sexuality! Are you a keen Aries lady wanting to get a hold of love? Otherwise maybe you have already fulfilled some body and you can not knowing in the event the he is ‘the one? All of our skilled psychics concentrate on love and you may relationship. Contact us during the TheCircle today to listen regarding the newest like state along with your coming lovelife.
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One of the more noble traditions of Catholicism is its active yearning for peace and its tradition of diplomacy between warring nations. Loving your enemy is as old a dictum as any Christianity possesses and it is still the hardest, and consequently the most profound, to practice.
In 2014’s eleventh hour, amidst the attention-consuming swirl of Christmas time, during the longest nights of the year, a ray of light shone in that darkness. The culmination of a year and a half of behind-the-scenes negotiations encouraged by Pope Francis, Cuba and the United States have restored diplomatic relations — the beginning of a rapprochement between these two neighbors after 52 years of feuding.
In an America focused on its biggest consumerist holiday, it was a media bombshell, and its repercussions will be felt for years to come.
Cuba has been a blind spot for the people of the United States, but not for most other western nations. It has long been a vacation destination for Europeans. Canada, Mexico, Central and South America all have diplomatic and economic relations with Cuba, and it was high time we did, too.
Like siblings at odds over an ancient dispute, Cuba and the United States have maintained a wary relationship of resentment and suspicion, and like family, the two countries are very close to one another and simply have to learn to get along. Indeed, a literal “father” figure, Pope Francis’ unique Latin American viewpoint enabled him to encourage a reunion between governments that had often perpetuated the rift for their own political ends.
Socialism in Cuba, born in the 1950’s out of the overthrow of the corrupt Batista regime and its association with U.S. business interests and propped up by organized crime, had as its rebel hero Fidel Castro (coincidentally a product of Jesuit education). The U.S., already fighting a proxy war with Russia, nudged the island nation into the Communist orbit after the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, which culminated in the Cuban missile crisis. The prospect of Russian nuclear weapons poised to fire within a few miles of American soil cemented a trade embargo that would last for more than a half century, longer than any other in our history.
Often the best diplomacy is conducted in secrecy, without the prying eyes and clamoring voices of special interests to obstruct the path to peace. Perhaps it took the perspective of the first pope from Latin America to foster reconciliation and the Catholic peacemaking tradition to reunite two countries with a tradition of devout Christianity.
Already the agreement is producing results — 53 Americans have been released from Cuban prisons — and it is an achievement that should continue to yield benefits for many years (and enhance the lackluster foreign policy legacy of the current administration).
But politics aside, the new, more vigorous relationship can be a boon to both countries. Despite its small size and population, Cuba brims with the vibrant music and dance culture of afro-cuban jazz and its talented pool of baseball players could bring new vigor to our major leagues. Religious mission trips are already allowed and in the future vacationing Americans will bring an economic boost to the small island nation.
Banks now exchange money between our nations, and trade restrictions have been relaxed. While the notion of a Starbucks on every corner in Havana is dispiriting, the advantages of commerce between our two countries should not be overlooked. A relatively predictive maxim in economic theory is that countries who are trading partners rarely go to war against each other because it is not in their best interest.
So while the world seems to swirl in increasing chaos, rife with discord, protest and aggression, it is refreshing to note that with small but determined steps, a greater harmony can be restored.
In the truest tradition of the Catholic Church and the teachings of Jesus, Pope Francis is truly a prince of peace. Our thanks should go both to the efforts of the Vatican and its intermediaries, the U.S. bishops, to restore that trust and friendship between nations — a most wonderful of Christmas gifts, the kind that keeps
on giving.
Paul Hohman is production manager at The Record.
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Holy Doors designated at area churches
By Marnie McAllister, Record Editor Pope Francis will officially begin the extraordinary Jubilee Holy Year of Mercy as he opens the Holy Door at…
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There are still tattoo artists who are not very respectful of hygienic work practices. This means that these artists do not respect the protection of your health.
For all VADERS.DYE artists and employees, the practice and understanding of hygiene standards is a basic aspect of their profession and training. The work areas are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected by an artist/employee after each tattoo session. Through consultations with the Health Department, we have ensured that the surface finish of the work areas (walls, floors, furnitures, equipments) facilitate cleaning to ensure germ-free conditions.
The professional execution of disinfecting the work areas is specified in a plan and continuously reviewed. The sterilized instruments are provided with an expiration date. It’s about YOUR health.
In November 2008, the European Parliament has overcome a very important milestone with the decision of the new Regulation of the Tattoo Colors for the European tattoo industry. This means for you as a customer that it is finally banned to use the colors that include harmful ingredients.
If interested, you can read here the exact legal text. We at VADERS.DYE even go one step further and completely refuse to use colors and other materials containing animal ingredients or were tested on animals.
This way, we guarantee you the highest level of hygiene
We use a sterilizer from the prestigious brand Melag in order to sterilize all of our equipment. This corresponds to the same category as those used by your doctor, which enables us to ensure that all of our equipment is 100% sterile after the sterilization process. The constant quality of the sterilization process is ensured by:
regular reviews & maintenance according to the details of the manufacturer
regular inspection by the Health Department
The preparation of reusable pieces of equipment is divided into the following steps:
Cleaning
This order is always strictly observed by us. The sterilization process is carried out exclusively by a professionally trained sterilization assistant. Only thus can be ensured a professional preparation. The instruments are packaged for the sterilization process in self-adhesive sterilization bags.
With our detailed declaration of consent, we respond individually to the needs of each client in order to exclude possible health risks. Each of our clients receives a professionally prepared written information about possible complications & risks and the German legal basis. According to current knowledge ( 2014 ), we do tattoos exclusively with the tattoo ink colors of the highest quality ( according to regulation of the Tattoo Colorants 2009 ). These are resistant to UV light, VEGAN and harmless to health.
Already opened color bottles are kept cool and used according to expiration date. All tattoo artists always work with disposable gloves, disposable needles, disposable ink containers, disposable paper towels, disposable razors and disposable spatulas. The sterile packaged instruments are unpacked in front of you. We also consider it extremely important that our tattoo artists keep their work area clean and empty their dustbin daily.
It would be stupid to be negligent about hygiene and cleanliness.
What you really have to consider before you decide on a tattoo studio:
Basically, it is quite easy to distinguish a professional tattoo studio from an amateur association. The following points will help you to decide.
If everything is clean, tidy and the team is friendly and helpful, you can breathe easy.
During a visit to a tattoo studio you can inform yourself about the respective offer. In many places, both tattoos and piercings are offered. However, some of them specialize exclusively on piercings or tattoos.
It is important to conduct a counseling session with an employee of the studio before the tattooing. However, you should look at the website of the studio before the consultation to save you any unnecessary travel and ( if available ) to obtain first information about work procedures and customer opinions
2. Hygiene – your tattoo artist
wear washable work clothes
have free forearms ( not covered with textiles )
disinfect your skin and leave in a short time
in the treatment rooms he treatment rooms should be necessarily spatially separated from the reception and consulting area
all furnishings as well as floor and walls should be washable and easy to disinfect
disinfectant should be present in every workplace
plants and animals have absolutely no place in the treatment rooms – also, no food should be stored here
a strict smoking ban is extremely important
The grips ( made of metal ), which are used multiple times, must be packed in sterile packs and are each open before your eyes. Feel free to ask for an exact date of sterilization and how are kept the parts.
The studio should also have a steam pressure sterilizer ( Autoclave ), which is semi-annually tested for its functionality. In case of doubts, let you show the last audit report
A treatment couch or an arm support ( depending on the position of the tattoo ) should be covered with foil or disposable paper which is changed after each treatment
a treatment table and work surfaces should be also wet disinfected after each client
it should be used only disposable paper towels to dap / to wipe the skin
the containers for paints and ointments should only be used for one client the same applies in particular to the needles
you have to be informed unequivocally about all risks
it will be asked to show an identity card and gone into the details of any existing allergies ( allergy passport ) and diseases
ideally, a conversation will be recorded in written form for the statement of consent and signed by the client
There are various materials that can be used for the first time. Your tattoo artist is a professional who can explain to you why and what colors and tools he / she is going to use.
The colors have great differences. It begins with the distinction between vegan and non-vegan color. Just ask about it.
ask for question of how and what tools are used, how they work and whether the tattoo artist has the knowledge and the experience to provide first aid for an incoming emergency
after tattooing your tattoo artist should give you an aftercare instruction
your tattoo artist should offer you calling him in case of a problem
he / she should also offer you a free post-control in case of problems
persons under the age of 14 may not be tattooed persons under 18 years are also not tattooed by reputable tattoo artists, although it is legally possible with parental consent
The process of a tattoo appointment
If you want to get tattooed at VADERS.DYE, these are the usual steps:
If you‘ve got an idea for your tattoo, rough or precise, with or without drawing, please contact us through the appointment request form on this website or by phone
If necessary, a non-binding consultation appointment with your desired artist can be arranged by telephone
An appointment is not always necessary if you want lettering or other small things. In this case, a tattoo appointment can be agreed directly, with enough time to discuss and to create the tattoo together with your tattoo artist
If you would like to make a tattoo appointment with one of our artists, your chosen artist will need a deposit of at least 50 EUR from you in order to confirm your appointment. The deposit may be higher for bigger tattoos and/or depends on the artist you are booking. If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment for any reason, please do this at least 7 days in advance. If you cancel in time, we will refund the amount of your deposit in form of a voucher. Otherwise it will result in the forfeit of your deposit as a cancellation fee. Cancellations will only be accepted via mail through cancellation@vadersdye.com or by phone. Some of our artists may have a different cancellation policy, make sure to read your confirmation mail carefully in order to be well prepared.
The tattoo design can be seen in person at the shop on the day of the tattoo appointment, and there is always enough time planned for possible changes of the design.
On the day of your appointment your unique custom design is tattooed on you forever.
In addition to your new beautiful tattoo, you will receive a detailed explanation from your tattoo artist about how to take care of your new tattoo.
After three to six weeks you can send us healed photos of your tattoo and, if necessary, organize a free appointment for a touch-up. Your tattoo needs to be touched up within the first 6 months, otherwise your artists can charge you for a touch up. For questions you can reach us by mail 24/7 or by phone [ MON – SAT ⎢11 am – 2 pm⎢4 pm – 7 pm ]
The price of a tattoo depends on the size, the individual workload for tattoo and on the motif design / motif development, the placement, the texture of the skin and on the performing tattoo artist.
As our tattoo artists are true artists, they are very happy to take on the preparation of an individual motif for you. We don’t make any tattoos from the bar. Every tattoo that leaves our studio is unique.
Once the a.m. factors have been fixed, the tattoo artist can make a statement that is correct to 90%. There always will be only a small difference in price up or down. The more precise your statements, ideas or motives are, the more precise our evaluation of the price will be.
The basic price for a tattoo is 80 EUR. We have established this base price, because we have a certain and material basic expenditure for assembly and dismantling, as well as cleaning of the place, sterilization of instruments and consulting for any tattoo appointment. In the event of a tattoo appointment, a deposit of 50 EUR has to be made.
A tattoo is forever. There is currently no known method to let the tattoo disappear without a trace. Health risks are entirely unexplored.
Tattoos can restrict: Although tattoos are becoming more popular, but they are not necessarily welcome everywhere. It is important to consider this particular in the choice of profession.
Template and result: The tattoos will always look a little different than a drawing e.g. on paper. Depending on your skin type and color, there may be deviations. In addition, the tattoo artist possibly will need to adjust the motif anatomically in shape, size and color. An accurate preview of the result can never be simulated.
Complications: allergies / infections / inflammation Despite compliance with utmost hygiene, it may lead to complications. Allergic reactions and dermatitis. The risk of infection can not be excluded. Prevention also includes the proper care of the tattoo. For that purpose, after tattooing you get an oral explanation and a detailed care instructions for reading. Should complications require medical treatment as a result of a tattoo, so the health insurance does not cover the costs. In the event of questions or problems, please feel free to visit us in the studio.
Complication harmless to health: ‘BlowOut’ This means that the color of the skin, similar to the ink on a blotting paper, “runs”. This is generally never be ruled out and simply due to the connective tissue. It is not possible for a tattoo artist to eliminate this risk in advance.
If you have an appointment at VADERS.DYE, you should pay attention to some points.
Before your appointment you should:
eat well
sleep well
do a peeling/scrub at the area to be tattooed
moisture your skin ever few days before your appointment (especially dry body parts such as hands, elbows, knees or ankles)
24 hours before and after tattooing you should:
drink a maximum of one cup of coffee/ black tea
you take antibiotics or cortisone 3-5 days before and after your appointment
you are pregnant or have recently been and are still resting
you have a sunburn on the area to be tattooed
you planned a beach vacation 3 weeks after your appointment
you have atopic dermatitis at the body part to be tattooed
For questions before your appointment, you can contact us by phone. If you have to postpone or cancel your appointment, please do so 7 days before your appointment by phone or by mail to cancellation@vadersdye.com. If you do this too late or try the wrong mail address, your deposit will expire, also if you just don’t show up.
General after care instruction
After your tattoo appointment, the tattoo artist will inform you orally about your new tattoo and about how to take care of it. The healing phase proceeds differently depending on care, skin type and body part.
For the best possible healing, the following points must be observed:
after tattooing no intensive activities can be performed
remove the foil after three hours, if you have second skin ( self sticky ) on your fresh tattoo you can leave it on your skin for 24 to 72 hours
clean the tattoo with clear water and pH-neutral soap
water a clean washcloth with hot water and press it on the fresh tattoo for about 20 seconds, let the wound dry or dab dry carefully after
then thinly apply a tattoo ointment e.g. Pegasus Tattoo Ointment or Hustle Butter – we offer you both for 3 EUR in our local shops
for the first seven days take only very quick showers and do not scrub it!
thinly apply a healing ointment to your tattoo and massage it in 3 times a day for the first week in order to protect your skin from drying out
during the second and third week, apply a healing ointment 1 – 2 times a day
no sports for at least one week
During the healing phase it should be generally observed:
do not stretch a tattooed place excessively, caution in sports and other physical activities
avoid extensive showers and bathing / swimming during the first three weeks
avoid contact with dirt and oil
itching is part of the healing, do not scratch! It might otherwise be uprooted color pigments
avoid solarium and direct sunlight for four to six weeks
use only a sunblock 30+ on the tattooed place for three months, not during the 3 week healing process!
little stress and physical stress, plenty of sleep and a healthy diet support the wound healing forces of the body
In the first few days may occur swelling and bruises. These are injury-related retention and there is no need to worry.
After about three to six weeks you can send us good photos of your healed tattoo to info@vadersdye.com and it is then decided whether a retouch is necessary. The retouch must be proceeded within the next six months.
The technique of tattooing in general
The procedure of tattooing consists basically in the puncturing of the skin, whereby at the same time a colorant is contributed by piercing into the skin. It is important to make sure that the stitch is placed neither too superficial nor too deep. In the first case, the stored colorant would only be incorporated into the cellular layers of the epidermis. This would mean that in the continuous renewal of this skin layer, a washing and a repulsion of the colorant particles may occur to the outside together with the cellular layers of the epidermis. In the second case, when the stitch is made too deeply into the skin, it leads to a wash out of the colorants caused by bleeding. The colorants that are in the middle layer of the skin ( dermis ) are permanently durable and are stored in a cell type of the fibroblasts.
The most common method today is to work with an electric tattoo machine. For example, using two coils, a magnetic field will be generated and move a number of fine needles soldered on a pole forward & backward quickly. The speed depends on the tattoo machine, the technique and the desired effect ( e.g.: lines, dotwork or shades ). It’s usually between ca. 800-7500 movements per minute. Ink lasts forever thanks to a capillary action between the needles and it is brought to the skin by the rapidity of the movement, as easy as when drawing with a pen on a paper. The skin is kept stretched with one hand while the other hand holds the tattoo machine. First of all, the artist creates – mostly with black color – a contour and – if required – inserts a shadow effect. Then the corresponding areas are filled with one or more colors. The choice of needle quantities and strengths used for one tattoo depends on the motif and the techniques applied.
Tattoos have always been an important part of human history. It can be assumed that perhaps every cultural communities of the earth has practiced and known the custom of tattooing at some time of their development. However, it is debatable where the art of tattooing has developed. Assigning its origin to a geographical area has been attempted many times.
The origin of the word ‘tattoo’ is derived directly from Tahitian ‘tattau’. The word stem ‘ta’ means drawing and the word as a whole means drawing in the skin. Captain Cook’s diary from 1769 contains the following entry about the natives of Tahiti: ‘Both sexes paint tattau on their bodies as it is called in their language; this is done by inserting black color under the skin in such way that it is indelible. Some have horrible looking pictures of male birds or dogs … In short, in applying these pictures they show such a variety that their quantity as well as their position seem to depend on the mood of the individual. Men and women show it with great pleasure’. Since then, the word has gone almost unchanged into European languages.
When the electric tattoo machine was invented in 1890, the tattoo boom seemed to have reached a climax, because now it was quicker and almost painless to tattoo. In times of war the soldiers could be tattooed, so that their bodies could be identified. During World War II, the prisoners were provided in concentration camps with letters and numbers as an identification number which were tattooed on the forearms. In the 1960s, the tattoo culture experienced a significant comeback again. The fad of tattooing penetrated into the world of youth culture together with flower children.
Nowadays, tattoos have reached all levels of society. A lot of famous people have striking tattoos which influence a broad range of population groups. The modernly equipped tattoo studios that follow hygiene standards also have made the tattooing look more serious.
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Okay, I'll admit that the previous blog post wasn't that informative, so this time I'll try to give more info, and less blah blah.
As you can see, the timer, kart positions, minimap and lap counter have been added, as well as FPS reporting and countdown at start, and so forth.
Another thing is the boxy and ugly look of the track. This is because karts/tracks/objects now need to be exported with normals included in order to get proper smoothing, which most stuff doesn't have at the moment. So for all modelers wanting to create for 0.7 and beyond: export everything with the normals included in your b3d file - if you have questions about this, please look at the wiki pages or ask at the forums.
Also, xapantu has made a kart exporter for the Irrlicht version of SuperTuxKart, which can be found in this forum thread, together with details on how it works.
Lastly, but not leastly, we have got some help with the plunger and cake by david, making them easier to use with success in the game.
Now it might seem that SuperTuxKart got more than enough contributors, but that just isn't the case - there are only two main contributors at the moment (maybe more in some time), so we are always looking for more programmers, modelers, musicians, donators or simply useful feedback.
Note: As the "STK w/Irrlicht" branch is still in a very unstable state, the general public is recommended to use the latest stable version (0.6.1a) of SuperTuxKart.
Posted by Arthur at 10:56 PM
3 comments:
Anonymous July 22, 2009 at 6:09 PM
"Lastly, but not leastly, we have got some help with the plunger and cake by david, making them easier to use with success in the game." => A big thank to this guy, that was a most needed feature :)
I gave a try once for the cake, wasn't successful ><
"we are always looking for more programmers" => I'm waiting the irrlicht port is complete before start contributing.
ReplyDelete
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3DWarehouse AKA Sketcher10 July 23, 2009 at 1:36 PM
3dwarehouse again,
You might want to consider adding a homing bomb.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Arthur July 24, 2009 at 10:31 PM
mcmic: Totally agreed; to pick up a cake almost seemed like waste of time.
Great to know you are around to help when you feel STK is ready. :)
3DWarehouse; In earlier versions there used to be a homing missile, and since both cake and plunger are sort of "homing" (and now more precisely thanks to david), I don't think we'll get such a weapon. But thanks for the idea, just keep'em coming. ;)
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Depends on how far down into CA you're headed. Oregon's a non issue for your rig. Beautiful drive. A little slow maybe going through towns if it's a busy day at the coast, but 101 won't give you any trouble. Northern CA isn't bad at all either, but the further South you go it will start to get a little hairy. 101's going to pull you inland around Eureka. I certainly wouldn't recommend picking up Hwy 1 in that large of a rig.
Just past Eureka I would probably take off on 36 into Red Bluff (I-5), or possibly go as far as Redwood Valley and head over to the 5 on 20. South of San Jose you could always jump back over to 101 by taking 152 into 156 through Hollister. At least until you down to around Ventura. I always hate the drive much more South into L.A. and S.D. if I can avoid it.
Don't get me wrong.. 101's "driveable" pretty much all the way down, but it's slowww... hott... going following it all the way through S.F. and the like.
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Posted August 6, 2015
Validated Members
Posted August 6, 2015
101 is an easy drive for RVers. It runs pretty much inland from the coastal bluffs. There will be curves but nothing scary. It's Hwy 1 that you'd have to worry about!
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Kirk W
Posted August 6, 2015
Kirk W
Posted August 6, 2015
I don't know that I'd agree that 101 is easy if you have not traveled it before, but it is very possible and you will not be the only large RV on the roads as it is a very scenic trip and one that I strongly recommend. Plan to spend several days in the trip as there is much to see and experience and most of the road the one driving is too busy to really appreciate the views. To me, that is one of the most scenic coastal stretches in the country.
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Posted August 6, 2015
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Posted August 6, 2015
"Just past Eureka I would probably take off on 36 into Red Bluff (I-5)" - You obviously have not taken 36 between US101 and I-5. It gets down to a lane and a half in places and is no place for a big rig. CA20 is closed due to fires, which is normally the best route between the highways. We have driven US101 from just north of San Francisco all the way north into Washington, it is doable in a big rig.
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Posted August 8, 2015
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Posted August 8, 2015
We drove 36 only a few weeks back in a pickup. I'm sure there are signs with length limits. You have to be a brave, or foolish, soul to take an rv that way. Some big climbs and many many very tight turns. Slow and hairy in places. We nearly got cleaned a few times by vehicles going to fast on some curves.
Not an rv friendly road at all.
Now some one will come back and say "we've done it and there are no issues"! No way would I even consider it.
101 is fine except for some slow sections many many large vehicles do it all the time.
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Posted August 8, 2015
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Posted August 8, 2015
We drove 299 from Redding to Arcata in April 2014. It's about 140 miles and though sometimes very twisty, it was fine. We are 67.5 feet overall so I used google maps and Google Earth to examine the drive and used their Street View to zoom in and virtually "drive" the places that it looked like it might be a problem. I saw some apparently very sharp hairpin turns in places but the street view showed the road to have plenty of room in those areas. In a few cases, it showed full Tractor Trailer trucks and RVs on the road so I had some perspective about relative sizes of things.
299 takes you through Weaverville and the Trinity Alps area of California. My map pgm says there are about 14 grades over 4% along this route and 140 miles to Redding.
36 has 21+ grades over 4% and is nearly 160 miles.
Personally, I found 299 OK in our rig but I will say I was definitely tired when we got to Arcata.
Route 20 does not currently show any work. Ck that at: http://www.dot.ca.gov/cgi-bin/roads.cgi
Unless you have a need to go over to I-5, you might just want to stick with 101 all the way down. As a US highway, you know 20 is going to be big rig friendly.
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Retiring in Morocco is a dream for many, but the country does not have an easy path to follow. There are many different aspects that need to be considered before you make your decision to retire in Morocco. While there are many great places to live and retire here, it’s important that you find the one that will work best for your lifestyle needs. This article will go over 7 of the best places to retire in Morocco and how they compare with each other based on their beauty, climate, culture, and more!
Why Retire in Morocco?
7 Best Places to Retire and Live in Morocco
Conclusion: The best places to retire in Morocco
Why Retire in Morocco?
Morocco is a popular tourist destination, and it has a lot to offer. Morocco is also a Muslim country, which means that it’s not as liberal as some other places around the world. However, many Moroccans are tolerant of non-Muslims and will welcome you with open arms if you’re willing to learn more about their culture.
Morocco has good weather all year round; even better than southern Europe! The climate here is mild enough for people who live in areas where winters can get cold or hot (like Alaska). If you like living outdoors during the warmer months but prefer indoor heat during the winter months, then Morocco might be perfect for you!
The healthcare system in Morocco works well compared with most other countries around Africa because they have free public hospitals available 24/7 across major cities such as Marrakech or Casablanca etc… There are also private hospitals that provide excellent care at reasonable prices compared with what we experience back home.
7 Best Places to Retire and Live in Morocco
Tangier is a great place to retire in Morocco. It has a lot of culture and history, including the Monastir Cathedral, which dates back to the 12th century. You’ll also see beautiful views of the Mediterranean Sea from Tangier’s beaches and mountains.
Tangier was named after the country’s capital city (Tanger) as well as its main port (Tangier), making it easy for visitors to get around by bus or taxi if they don’t have their own car or bike. The city also has many good restaurants where you can enjoy traditional Moroccan cuisine while listening to live music performances on weekends. The best time to visit Tangier is during its annual festival, which is held in May. During this time, you can enjoy a variety of performances while also learning about the city’s rich history.
Marrakech is a popular tourist destination, but it also has plenty of residents who have made the city their home. The climate is mild in winter and hot in summer, so you can enjoy an indoor lifestyle year-round without having to bundle up. You’ll find many different accommodation options for every budget and taste, including luxury hotels that are just a step away from some of Morocco’s most famous attractions, like Jamaa El Fna Square and the Boumniat Sidi Saadoun mosque.
Why retire in Marrakech?
Marrakech’s nightlife scene is vibrant, with bars and restaurants serving local cuisine alongside international dishes served by friendly staff members who know how to make customers feel at home while they’re enjoying themselves!
Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco, and it’s also the economic center of the country. The city has a rich history that dates back to 1478 when it was founded by Spanish explorers who wanted to establish a colony there. Casablanca is known for its beautiful beaches and warm weather year-round (it doesn’t get too cold). It also has an excellent airport, so you can fly into this beautiful city without having any trouble getting around or finding lodging options.
As far as the cost of living goes, Casablanca is very affordable compared to other places on this list—you can find cheap food options on every street corner!
It is also a great place to shop for souvenirs and gifts. You’ll find many shops selling traditional Moroccan clothing, art, and jewelry in the medina quarter of the city. The city has a lot of history, and there are many great places to visit while you’re there. You can see the Hassan II Mosque, the largest in Morocco, which is an excellent example of Islamic architecture. There are also plenty of museums that showcase Moroccan culture as well as artifacts from other cultures around the world.
Read More: 7 Best Places to Retire and Live in Kenya: 2022
Fez is the oldest city in Morocco, and it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is full of history and culture. It’s also the perfect place to enjoy nature, with its many parks, gardens, and public squares.
Why retire in Fez?
Fez hosts several festivals throughout the year, including:
The Sidi Bou Abbès Festival (June)
The International Film Festival (August)
An Market Fair (April)
The Fez Festival of Sacred Music (May) The Fes Festival for World Sacred Music (December). The city is known as the “Capital of Morocco’s Craft Industry” and is famous for its handicrafts and jewelry. It’s also a great place to shop for carpets, leather goods, pottery, brassware, and silver jewelry.
Meknes is a city in central Morocco, located south of the capital Rabat, on the banks of the Bou Regreg river. It has a population of 658,812 and is the capital of the Meknès-Tafilalet region.
Meknes was founded in 1578 by Marinid sultan Abu Inan Faris Abd al-Wahid as an urban military base for his son Moulay Ismail. The city grew quickly under Moulay Ismail’s rule until he died in 1603; his son Muhammad Tughril Shah (who ruled from 1604 to 1617) expanded its walls another 3 km towards Fes and built there another madrasa (school) named after him as well.
Why retire in Meknes?
The city was built in a short time, according to a description by the traveler Evliya Çelebi. The sultan had the architect Muhammad al-Damiri, construct numerous palaces and mosques in Meknes. Many neighborhoods were born at that time including: Fath-Aljdad, Al-Malika Zeinab, Fatima Zahraa.
Essaouira is a laid-back city that’s popular with tourists, who come for its long history and beautiful beaches. Located on the Atlantic coast in Morocco’s Rif Mountains, Essaouira has been an important trade center since ancient times. It was also home to pirates who used it as a base from which they attacked Portuguese ships sailing up and down Africa’s western coastlines.
Like many other Moroccan cities today, Essaouira has many natural resources—it has plenty of water (the city sits at sea level), fertile land for farming and fishing, plus plenty of trees to make paper out of—but it hasn’t always been this way: before Europeans started settling in Morocco during the 19th century they had no idea what they were doing here!
Read More: Best Places to Retire and Live in South Africa: 2022
Rabat is a beautiful city, and it’s one of the best places to live in Morocco. The weather is temperate year-round, there are plenty of things to do, and you can find many different types of retirement communities in Rabat.
Why retire in Rabat?
There are several important reasons why it would be wise for someone looking for their next home base in Morocco:
You’ll be able to enjoy the local culture and history
There are lots of great places nearby where you can go shopping or explore on foot or by bike (or even on horseback!)
Rabat has some nice beaches too!
The city is beautiful, and you’ll have plenty of things to do. You can go shopping in the enormous souks that are filled with vendors selling everything from spices to handbags. There are also a number of museums and galleries for those who like to learn about the culture.
Conclusion: The best places to retire in Morocco
Morocco is a country that has everything, including some of the best places to retire in Morocco. The following cities are among the top choices for ex-pats looking to retire in Morocco:
Tangier – This city is located on the Strait of Gibraltar and is one of two UNESCO World Heritage sites in North Africa (the other being Saint-Tropez). It’s known as an important port city with historic architecture, lively nightlife, and more than 100 years’ worth of history that you can explore at your leisure.
Marrakech – With its bustling markets filled with local artisans selling their wares from door to door, this city offers visitors an authentic Moroccan experience despite its large tourist population. You’ll also find plenty of great restaurants serving delicious food at reasonable prices next door!
Casablanca – Located between Marrakech & Rabat/Fez respectively; Casablanca has been called “The Venice Of Africa” due to its many canals running through it, which make up over 15 miles long network connecting all parts together, making it easy for travelers who wish not have trouble finding somewhere else too!
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Today your visit to this web site is hosted by Ron Gebhardtsbauer in honor of Kathryn Mitchem & Beth Richardson.
Your gift of $100 underwrites this web site for one day.
Rev. Dr. Mel White | Profile
The Rev. Dr. Mel White has been a Christian minister, author, and filmmaker all his adult life. Raised as a evangelical Christian, taught that homosexuality was a sin, he fought to overcome his own homosexual orientation for decades in all ways available to him: prayer, psychotherapy, exorcism, electric shock, marriage and family. That struggle and his halting, poignant steps to understand and accept his homosexuality, reconcile it with his Christian faith, and express his sexuality respectfully and responsibly, are described in his book Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America, published in 1994.
In 1993, he came out publicly when he was installed as dean at the Dallas Cathedral of Hope of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC). He announced during his first sermon, "I am gay. I am proud. And God loves me without reservation."
Mel White founded Soulforce Inc. in 1998 with his partner, Gary Nixon. Mel has been developing his work with Soulforce principles for many years.He was dismayed by the increasing confrontational tone on both sides the homosexual issue, and the hateful words and actions that increased the divide. Inspired by the nonviolence movements of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., White developed a program based on their principles. These principles were called satyagraha or "soul force" by Gandhi, who based many of them on the teachings of Jesus, and White adopted them to address the suffering of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered people.
During his six years with UFMCC, he traveled across the country constantly to minister to those impacted by prejudice and hatred against gays and to campaign for civil rights, theological reconsideration, and social acceptance for sexual minorities. His work has resulted in his being arrested on the White House steps during a hunger strike protesting the 'Defense of Marriage Act.' He was also arrested for protesting the Rev. Pat Robertson's virulent anti-gay rhetoric. (After a weeks-long hunger strike in jail, White was visited by Robertson, who promised to avoid inaccuracies and inflammatory language.)
In 1997, the Rev. Dr. Mel White was awarded the ACLU's National Civil Liberties Award for his efforts to apply the "soul force" principles of Gandhi and King to the struggle for justice for sexual minorities.
White did graduate work in communications and film at the University of Southern California, received his doctorate and was a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary for over a decade. During this time he also worked as an evangelical pastor. He produced, wrote, and directed 53 documentary films and television specials, focusing on stories to inspire and inform the struggle to be human. He is also an author; among his 16 books (nine bestsellers), he wrote about the Philippines' Ninoy and Corazon Aquino (Aquino), the Jonestown tragedy (Deceived), David Rothenberg, the child burned by his father (David) and talk-show host/producer Mike Douglas (When the Going Gets Tough).
In addition, he ghost wrote several books for fellow evangelicals, including Billy Graham (Approaching Hoofbeats), Pat Robertson (America's Date with Destiny), Jim Bakker, and Jerry Falwell (If I Should Die Before I Wake and Strength for the Journey). In all those writings, however, he never wrote against homosexuality. White began coming out privately and gradually during the same period that the religious right stepped up its anti-gay rhetoric. Since 1993, he has devoted himself full-time to minister to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and the transgendered and to work on their behalf in the media, in the political process, and with fellow religious leaders.
Since the founding of Soulforce in 1998, Mel and his Soulforce volunteers have have waged a relentless campaign ranging from their first visit to Jerry Falwell, in October of 1999, to three years of confronting the Southern Baptist Convention, and the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, in 2000, 2001, and 2002. In January of 2002, Soulforce travelled to the Vatican to try and speak with Cardinal Ratzinger, the chief author of the anti-gay teachings of the Catholic Church. In addition, in 2000, Mel and the Soulforce volunteers faced arrests at the Methodist, Presbyterian and the Episcopalian annual meetings. The following year, they carried the campaign to the Evangelical Lutherans in Indianapolis, in addition to the SBC and USCCB.
(This biographical statement provided by Mel White.)
Additional Resources
“Rev. Dr. Mel White | Profile”, LGBTQ Religious Archives Network, accessed November 28, 2022, https://lgbtqreligiousarchives.org/profiles/mel-white.
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Awakening in winter dark, I felt a peculiar consciousness of a living, stirring thing in the house — something other than the usual snores of a Labrador retriever. I padded downstairs to the prairie kitchen, lifted the towel covering our big Medalta mixing bowl, and checked the progress of my vorteig — my pre-dough, the batter stage of a baking project I had left on the counter for first rise overnight. It was alive, and alluring — I bent over the bowl to take in the scent.
Quite a bit of the morning to follow was spent in an annual ritual — the production of bierocks, a characteristic folk food of the Volga Germans. I am not Volga German; I am Hanoverian in ancestry; but I grew up alongside Volga Germans in western Kansas and learned some of their ways. Bierocks, for instance — a portable food, cabbage and onions and meat (beef and pork mixed in this case) and seasonings stuffed inside a baked bun.
The bun is the thing, and so I had taken down the canister of bread flour and drawn heavily from it. This is unusual; I seldom get into the bread flour, because Dr. Kelley is the master baker in our house; but the bierocks are my project. Our bread flour is Dakota Maid, which reminds me to note, the North Dakota Mill and Elevator, makers of Dakota Maid flour, is celebrating its centennial this year.
Dakota Maid products represent the highest and best use of hard red spring wheat — Dr. Kelley vouches for the bread flour. My more typical baking ventures, muffins and such, generally involve products bearing the Hudson Cream label from Stafford County Flour Mills, Hudson, Kansas. Mostly I use their short patent product as a general-purpose flour, and not just because I like the Brown Swiss cow on the flour sack.
The bierock ritual is part of the fall clean-up process for the prairie garden, making use of our yellow onions and one of the cabbages that the deer left us. We each ate one bierock for supper, and then I bagged the rest for the freezer. The annual output of bierocks thus become convenience food for busy winter days, but they are convenience food laced with connotations.
A native of the leading winter wheat producing state in the union, Kansas, and a long-time resident of the leading spring wheat producing state, North Dakota, with a farm in one state and a job teaching agricultural history in the other, I figured I was pretty well embedded in wheat culture. Then I was commissioned to write the chapter on wheat for the Handbook of Agricultural History, Oxford University Press. The history of wheat, everywhere, in 8000 words. (I came in at 7998.)
The Oxford project compelled me to tiller out from my prairie roots, to school up on the neolithic origins of grain crops, to consider the inter-continental connections of wheat by migration and trade, to explore the significance of wheat and bread in human cultures, to recognize the joint agency of wheat and humankind in colonization. The story has to accept some hard truths about environmental and human impacts.
Gluten emerges as a provocative metaphor: a strong and resilient tie that binds, that makes Dr. Kelley’s artful baking possible, that drives the passion for quality in grain production — but is detrimental, even deadly, to some people. Gluten is embedded in the actions and assumptions of settler peoples displacing indigenous peoples from temperate grasslands all over the world — hence I am glad that the North Dakota mill gave up its old logo featuring an Indian maiden.
So now, while I knead my dough, I feel two kinds of connections coming up from my arms: those of homeland, the prairies and their peoples, and also ones far more cosmopolitan, reaching around the globe. You may say, you have your bierocks, shut up and eat. To which I say, not yet.
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I’m in love with the idea of singing businessmen—guys like the Williston grocer, F. J. Davis, who, when he managed to stay on the right side of the law, sang the virtues of his fresh fruit and seafood across the counter; or the Great Falls haberdasher Mike Mullin, owner of the Mikehasit men’s clothing store, who wrote a great ballad advising his customers, while “Waiting for a Chinook,” to stock up on warm winter wear from his store.
If you’re a regular listener to Plains Folk, it’s likely we share certain values. One of these is that life is not a purely transactional matter. There are important things that are not reducible to calculation and exchange. On the other hand, you have to make a living. One of the delightful findings of my investigation of folksong on the Great Plains is that it is possible to combine commerce and art. I’m talking about the phenomenon, fairly common in the heyday of prairie balladry, of singing storekeepers. These guys gave their customers both bargains and ballads.
There were a lot of great ballads that originated in points south on the Great Plains and somehow made their way to North Dakota. Bismarck’s renaissance man, George Will, collected folksongs from his father’s seed company employees more than a century ago, and one of the first songs he reported was “The Texas Rangers.” The expansion of the range cattle industry was the context for the migration of many such ballads north.
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A process-based, site-specific drawing that is intimately tied to the place and time of its making. The large sheet of vellum is taped to the apartment wall and gently brushed with powdered graphite. The brushing reveals dark specks due to tiny blemishes and bumps on the wall surface behind it. Where a speck appears, a bird is drawn. In effect, this ‘chance’ composition of migratory birds is a document of both the physical site of its making, and a psychical state of surrender and departure.
Filed under:
works on paper, drawing, process, site-specific
Chris Yñiguez is a multidisciplinary Filipino-American artist and designer currently based in Los Angeles.
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Eating before bed has been a controversial topic for a long time. There is so much speculation and misinformation about eating late at night and the effect it can have on your diet. However, eating late at night can have various effects on your sleep. Keep reading to find out how late night snacking can impact your sleep.
How eating before bed can negatively impact sleep
Intermittent fasting has made a cut off time for food seem like the right move. There isn't a lot of information or research on the effectiveness of a cut off time, however, eating earlier in the evening can help with indigestion and heartburn.
When you wake up and eat late at night, your body, which is supposed to be resting, now has to digest that food. This activates your muscles and intestines which can lead to extreme discomfort throughout the night. Food is passing through which can cause you to stay awake, or can keep certain parts of your body from being relaxed enough for you to get good quality sleep.
Laying down after you eat may also lead to some problems with heartburn. When we eat, our gastroesophageal sphincter opens to allow food to pass. This can sometimes get stuck open which gives us the feeling of heartburn, especially when we lay down. Experiencing this every so often isn't cause for concern, however, if you experience this more than twice a week, you may need to see your doctor for gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD.
How eating before bed can impact your diet
You may grab a late night snack because you're truly hungry, or because you can't sleep and you're bored eating. If you find yourself starving to the point where you can't stay asleep, you may not be consuming enough calories. It's recommended that you eat your last meal up to two hours before bed, and that you eat a little more earlier in the day. Bigger breakfasts and lunches may help to curb some of that late night hunger.
If you're having trouble sleeping, and eat because there's nothing else to do there, then you may negatively be impacting your diet, especially if you're eating carb and sugar heavy foods. Late night eating has been associated with high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and other negative health effects.
If insomnia is the cause of your late night binge, try placing other activities or distractors next to your bed. You can even drink some water or tea, or chew on something healthy like nuts and almonds if you need to eat something. Avoiding late-night eating is definitely going to take some practice and mindfulness, but you'll do better in the long run.
How eating before bed can positively impact your sleep
For some, the late-night snacking is actually beneficial because it's a part of their bedtime routine. It's more important to establish a bedtime routine, or sleep hygiene, that works for you than to not do something because it doesn't work for someone else. If you have a habit of grabbing a snack before bed, and it doesn't cause you any digestion or weight issues, then there is nothing wrong with continuing that practice.
Continuously doing the same thing over and over could be a helpful signal to your brain that it Is time to go to bed. You may have to digest the late-night snack which could potentially cause mild discomfort. However, if you don't have any trouble sleeping, then you can continue snacking before bed until you do!
If you are having trouble staying asleep and feel like eating may be a part of it, please click the button below to take a free online sleep test and speak with a consultant from our sleep clinic.
[Sources:]
https://www.conehealth.com/services/sleep-disorders/late-night-snacks-and-better-sleep-how-what-and-when-you-eat-imp/
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The latest publication of Chicken Soup for the Soul highlights stories by Black women. “I’m Speaking Now, Black Women Share Their Truth in 101 Stories of Love, Courage and Hope” include 12 poems. One of the poems, “Breakfast in Northport’ written by spoken word poet, Zorina Exie Frey, gives a poised lesson on how to…
What is 45 Mag?
45 Mag, stories written by women for women everywhere.
45 Magazine (45 Mag) is a literary journal containing women’s stories in conjunction with creative writing, visual art, informative articles, book reviews, entrepreneurial advice, and more.
What makes 45 Mag so unique is that the readers are the contributing writers. The magazine is primarily made up of personal essays anonymously submitted. With 45 Mag, readers have the comfort and security of submitting and sharing personal stories anonymously making the content candid, edgy and most likely, more relatable. Writers submitting creative writings will receive full literary credit.
What Does “45” Stand for?
The number 45 is inspired by the Bible verse in the Book of Psalms, Verse 45:1 :
My heart is stirred by a noble theme
as I recite my verses for the king;
my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.
45 Mag is also a magazine cartridge that holds bullets for a semi-automatic handgun. Two meanings that are fitting for how beautiful and powerful the written word is.
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In the aftermath of another tragedy at Virginia Tech Thursday, when a gunman killed two people, including one police officer, crisis action plans are more important than ever at Allegheny.
The Virginia Tech incident comes five years after student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people before committing suicide.
Joseph DiChristina, Dean of Students, stressed the importance of always being prepared for crises like these at Allegheny.
“You can’t look at a situation like Penn State or Virginia Tech or Columbine and say ‘not here,’” he said. “What you have to do is look at that situation and say ‘what if’ and what do we have in our protocols that make sure we’re doing it well and what we need to pay attention to.”
Tiffany Ng, ’14, still feels safe living on campus after considering the Virginia Tech shootings.
“Allegheny’s a lot smaller,” she said. “I walk home at two in the morning and there’s always a security guard sitting in the parking lot.”
DiChristina explained that Allegheny and the city of Meadville have a close connection when it comes to keeping the campus safe.
“We’re not an island, we’re in a city,” he said. “Anytime there’s high level of criminal activity, we turn to them for felony crime. Not like low-level underage student drinking, but for major campus emergencies.”
In DiChristina’s 11 years at Allegheny, the school has never turned to the city for help in a major campus crisis. But, Allegheny has sought assistance with crimes of theft or assault. The school maintains a working relationship with the Meadville Police Department and other local services.
“There are five phases of emergency preparedness: prevention, preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation,” said Allen Clark, EMA director of the Crawford County Office of Emergency Services. “We are working with the college in these five areas all year round.”
Clark explained that OES and Allegheny usually communicate on a weekly basis with e-mail information sharing and the former has a copy of the school’s emergency plan to review at least once each year.
Allegheny also maintains a connection to the city through the use of tabletop discussions. The Office of Safety and Security, Dean of Students, Office of Safety and Security, Physical Plant, Residence Life and other college administrators take part in ‘what if’ situations with the Meadville City Fire, City Police and 911 Center. Begun in 2008 and led by Clark, these exercises are designed to allow Allegheny administrators to talk through a number of dangerous scenarios.
During these workshops, employees have practiced exercises such as severe weather preparation, given the likelihood of tornado warnings in Crawford County. In recent years, for example, one particular exercise involved the imagined situation in which the tabletop group was faced with a thunderstorm warning for Crawford County, which became a tornado watch and finally a tornado warning.
They then had to adapt their discussion to new injections: ‘Meadville Cooperative Day Care on the campus had structural damage due to a tornado and power outage occurred on campus with damage to Crawford Hall including a natural gas rupture.’
“OES only conducts exercises with realistic scenarios,” Clark said. “Sure, we could have an airplane crash into the college or have an earthquake that levels the college, but we practice realistic scenarios such as weather and hazardous materials and other scenarios based on our hazard vulnerability analysis.”
He considers these discussions to be highly effective for emergency preparation.
“It’s one thing to say we have a plan but another if it works during an emergency,” Clark said. “We say it’s the planning process that is more important than the plan. Having all the key leaders from the college and public safety officials in one room where we work out the details in a low stressful situation rather than meeting for the first time at 3 a.m. in the morning exchanging business cards during a real emergency.”
Jeff Schneider, the director of Allegheny’s Office of Safety and Security, explained that although the faculty has never fully practiced the procedures written in the emergency handbook, the tabletop exercises they have with the city are still effective preparations.
“They can be a good learning experience,” Schneider said. “It is a good time to make errors so that you can learn from those and build upon those.”
B.J. Nelson, ’14, however, does not agree that these discussions are an effective approach to emergency preparation.
“The only way to practice is to actually do them. We pay a lot to go here and if they have plans they should have them practiced thoroughly. They could do them over the summer or during winter break when there’s not a lot of students on campus.”
Some of Nelson’s concern with the Allegheny’s safety stemmed from the second Virginia Tech shootings.
“To see it happen twice is pretty alarming,” he said. “It would be encouraging to see more officers in Meadville. I see the campus security a lot, but I feel like they’re Chihuahua on a leash.”
For potential crises such as Virginia Tech, Allegheny first relies on the guidance of the emergency planbook. For this particular situation, the planbook has a section entitled “Hostile situation,” which explains that campus officers should first contain the area and then reach out to the city for assistance.
Clark explained how the city would then respond to the campus’s outreach for help.
“We do not wait until after the disaster occurs to come in and help, but rather pre-stage equipment or put emergency personnel on stand-by to assist so that we are ready to hit the ground running as soon as the emergency has been contained and it is safe for us to do so,” he said.
Allegheny also receives outside help in situations regarding sexual assault. DiChristina explained that a trainer from Pittsburgh, who serves as the school’s employment law attorney, comes annually to Allegheny to give an hour to two hour workshop on the issue.
“I think we’re doing a good job because all our employees are trained on and given guidance to and instructions about how to handle issues of sexual violence on our college campus – and I’m proud of that,” he said.
Were a crisis to strike campus, Allegheny’s campus communications would send out press releases via email and for emergencies such as severe weather, the office would send e2campus notifications to students.
Because most campus incidents do not reach the city level, DiChristina stressed the presence of Allegheny’s campus security, hoping to remind students that this is a resource available 24/7, 365 days a year.
Students and faculty gathered in Grounds for Change for the fourth installment of the DEEPly Sustainable series on Friday, Nov. 11. Hosted during Nati...
The Allegheny Student Government honored Danielle Duncan, discussed shared governance and set satirical publication The Krampus on the road to ASG rec...
WLC hosts Culture Night
College confirms ban against Bocchi’s return to campus
Is Matthew Bocchi, ’13, banned from campus? The answer, it would seem, is yes. In an email statement to The Campus responding to a Nov. 4 article o...
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'In Autumn, the ripe season, the Multi-Media Digital Art Museum of China Millenium Monument opens its door for the first time for the ‘multi-media art’, this immature friend. Perhaps, its charm just lies in juvenility. Innovation, brave exploration, and undiminished passion are eternally the attitude and existing style of this newly emerging force. As the undertaker of this exhibition, we warmly welcome the new friend here and will support its development.'
I feel that I should state my position up front. I turned 50 last October and (if you don’t count fleeting visits to New Zealand and New Guinea in the 70s) had never been overseas. I also come from Brisvegas and have been actively involved in the Multimedia Arts Asia Pacific (MAAP) Festival over the years as a board member, volunteer, contributor and advisor. So, as I stepped onto the plane in Sydney after a long night at the Primavera artists’ party at the MCA, I was, in the words of Big Kev, EXCITED…VERY EXCITED! I was heading to China for MAAP Beijing; I was a young new media artist trapped in an old woman’s body; and I would soon be the only blonde in Tiananmen Square.
In her catalogue introduction, MAAP Director Kim Machan outlines the importance of MAAP in “showcasing the work of the region’s major new media practitioners, creating new networks, introducing the artists and their work to audiences, and increasing cultural contact and understanding through the experience of new media arts.” Although always built on a strong commitment to new media art in the Asia Pacific, MAAP No. 5 was the first foray out of Australia and into the region, enabling collaborative partnerships between itself and organisations such as The Central Academy of Fine Arts, The Art Museum of China Millennium Monument, The China International Exhibitions Agency and the Australian Embassy in Beijing.
MAAP Beijing featured a wide range of artworks from the Asia Pacific region. Perhaps more significantly, it provided an opportunity for Chinese artists to exhibit their works locally, some for the first time. The accompanying forums, which included presentations by Alex Galloway from Rhizome (US), Julianne Pierce from Australia Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) and Pi Li from Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts, provided new regional networks for Chinese artists, academics and students. The importance of this event was highlighted with the coverage on CCTV, the official Chinese television station. How refreshing it was to be sitting in the foyer of our hotel sipping local beer while interviews with new media artists were screened on the large television monitors.
The thematic title, Moist, resulted in a plethora of interpretations. The Art Museum of China Millennium Monument is a grand structure and in the bowels of this enormous sundial is a circular corridor with gallery space on both sides: The China Art Museum. Here MAAP was divided into 3 components: individual installations by artists from Australia, China, Japan, India and Korea; curated screening programs by the Australian Centre for Moving Image, dLux Media Arts, Experimenta Media Arts and Johan Pinappal’s Contemporay Indian Video. There was also a CD-ROM and net art program by MAAP, ANAT and Art Center Nabi. The configuration of the museum allowed separate spaces for many installations and provided areas for banks of computers to view the online component. The pièce de résistance technically speaking was a lecture theatre with a giant, curved 31-metre video wall of 56 programmable monitors. This wall was hotly sought after by artists wishing to see their work writ huge, but the format suited some better than others.
Web of life (2002)—a collaboration between Australian artist Jeffrey Shaw and ZKM in Germany—was visually impressive on such a scale. Viewers placed their hands onto a sculptural component which mapped their lifelines and sent the information through a network to 5 other locations, the resulting image changing according to the person’s ‘vibe.’ The resulting images were sometimes formulaic and my travelmate IMA’s David Broker, was horrified to find that his handprint generated a new age dolphin scenario. Another successful creation for the large screen was Zhang Peili’s Broadcasting at the same time (2002) in which each of the 56 monitors broadcast news readers from different countries announcing, “Good morning, this is the news.” This work perfectly illustrated the homogeneity of the world and its presentation of ‘media humanity.’ While Justine Cooper’s Moist (2002) was created for this wall screen, I thought it did not have the same impact. A video created from bodily fluids magnified many times, it attempted a massive scale shift which resulted in a blotchy, grainy, abstracted image lost in the translation.
Some Australian works were familiar to me—Patricia Piccinini’s Swell (2000), David Haines and Joyce Hinterding’s The Levitation Grounds (2000-2002), John Tonkin’s Personal Eugenics (2001) and Craig Walsh’s, Perspective (2002). They looked great in this setting and were well received, as were installations by Ian Haig (Excelsior 3000, 2001) and Iain Mott (Close, 2001). Gong Xin Wang is a MAAP favourite, and his new work was a highlight. Titled Red Gate, it consisted of 4 screens positioned to form a room with openings to enter the space. On each screen was the projection of a large door which opened to reveal glimpses of old and new China before the door slammed shut. The uncanny sound of this constant slamming could be heard while experiencing other works, reminding you where you were and what you hadn’t seen.
The screening program comprised old favourites from artists like Peter Callas, Justine Cooper, Vikki Wilson and Jon McCormack interspersed with more recent works presented to a new and appreciative audience. The CD-ROM and net art component was also extremely varied, with old and new works available for consumption. MAAP’s excursion into Beijing highlighted its importance in the region. It will travel to Singapore before returning to Brisbane in 2005.
RealTime issue #54 April-May 2003 pg. 27
1 April 2003
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RealTime is published by Open City, an Incorporated Association in New South Wales.Open City was supported 1994-2018 by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding body, and by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy (VACS), an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.
Open City was supported 1994-2018 by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding body, and by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy (VACS), an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.
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Through revolutionary wearable technology, a doctor might be able to diagnose impending brain damage, by simply glancing at a mobile device.
The idea behind this is more than 40 years old, but because of the difficulty of doing it accurately and safely, it has been considered impossible — until now.
This major advancement started with a collaboration between Weizmann’s Prof. Alon Harmelin, Vice President for Administration and Finance and Dr. Slava Kalchenko, Head of the In Vivo Optical Imaging Unit in the Department of Veterinary Resources. They developed a wearable imaging system—called transcranial optical vascular assessment (TOVA)—that captures an image and data on brain injuries and connects to a wireless device for continuous, real-time monitoring.
Brain injuries can be complicated to treat, but TOVA will increase quality of care and accessibility. Elderly patients on blood thinners, for example, often have a reoccurrence of brain bleeding even after it appears to have drained away. TOVA would allow doctors to discharge patients and still monitor their progress through a device, thereby removing the expense of prolonged hospitalizations.
Prof. Harmelin and Dr. Kalchenko see the significant potential of TOVA and the personal treatment it could provide, calling it a game-changer for how head injuries are treated. From treatments received from hospitals, doctors’ offices and nursing homes, TOVA would be brain-saving technology for anyone at any time.
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The first quarter of 2020 left much to be desired and we are not sad to see it go. We unpack an eventful three months, and with health and stock market uncertainty still high, outline the game plan for the rest of the year.
Contributed by Doug Walters , Max Berkovich , ,
Is there anyone out there sad to say goodbye to the first quarter of 2020? There is so much we would prefer to forget about this year, yet we cannot because we are still in the throes of health and stock market uncertainty. It has not all been bad, though. Fond memories of extra family time, online game nights, and community bonding are forming and will not soon be forgotten. It is within this bittersweet backdrop that we take a step back and provide our synopsis of the first quarter of 2020 and provide the playbook going forward.
It was a challenging quarter for investors as equity markets fell globally. The combination of a pandemic, an oil price war, and a buoyant U.S. stock market that was pricing in high expectations proved a volatile concoction. The extent of the fall was not unusual for stocks in a bear market. What was surprising was the speed with which it happened. In just a little over a month, the S&P 500 fell 34%.
Stocks went from gains to bear market almost overnight. In the span of a month (as shown below), stock valuations (as measured by the 12-month trailing PE ratio) went from full to cheap, before ending the quarter near average valuations.
The global spread of Covid-19 led to a sharp sell-off in equities. Fed action and fiscal stimulus helped to soften the blow, but not before valuations temporarily fell below average.
Historically five stock factors have been persistently rewarded: Good Value, High Quality, High Momentum, Small Size, and Minimum Volatility. As the market turned down, the hardest-hit factors were smaller stocks and value, though stocks with these characteristics were struggling even before the downturn. Historically, in market recoveries, Small Size and Value have been the best performers, so opportunities could be opening here.
In a difficult market, it was momentum and minimum volatility stocks that held up best, while smaller stocks and value continued to struggle.
A Fixer-Upper
Fixed Income allocations helped dampen the impact of falling equities, at least for those that avoided the allure of high yield bonds. It was not a stellar quarter for bonds, though, as corporates suffered liquidity fears in the wake of Covid-19 uncertainty. Fed intervention helped, and these protection assets proved useful levers for rebalancing as equities fell.
The Federal Reserve pulled out its complete set of tools and began work to stabilize markets. The Fed Funds rate was dropped to near zero, quantitative easing was restarted, and numerous programs were launched to ensure the smooth operation of the lending markets. The kitchen sink still appears to be in place, but when viewed in combination with the $2 Trillion Congressional stimulus plan, the Federal Government has dug deep into its bag of tools.
Chart 3: The Fed is Using its Toolkit
The Fed dropped rates, announced an unrestricted quantitative easing program, and launched multiple programs to ensure liquidity for borrowers during the crisis.
Asset Roundup
Gold and bonds were atop a fairly dismal Q1 leaderboard. U.S. Small-Cap stocks and Commodities (thanks to oil) brought up the rear. If nothing else, asset performance this quarter provides investors a reminder as to why a diversified portfolio can be so important.
Gold and bonds provided protection and a rebalancing lever for diversified portfolios. Commodities had a dismal quarter.
In the wake of recent market declines and the uncertainty surrounding Covid-19, there are certain questions which we hear repeatedly:
How low will the market go?
How long will it take to recover recent losses?
Last week in Insights (Coronavirus & Stock Market: Your Questions, Answered), we wrestled with these questions. While we all would love clarity on all these points, there is an inherent flaw in their premise: they all require knowledge of the future, which is unknowable. Sure, we can follow the data and look to the past as a guide, but in the end, we just do not know.
Some may be disappointed to learn that their money-manger is not a soothsayer. It sure would make the job a lot easier. Personally, I would be terrified of any investment advisor that believes he can predict the future. Such notions of clairvoyance would undoubtedly lead to ill-informed market timing and be detrimental to long-term returns. At Strategic, we prefer data and facts to conjecture. Rather than try to predict the future, we prepare for it with a well-researched process founded on evidence and experience.
Our approach is no different in these difficult times as it is in a raging bull market.
Start with a well-diversified portfolio with rewarded factors at the core,
Rebalance regularly to systematically “buy low and sell high,
Harvest tax losses to offset future gains where it makes sense, and
Reallocate assets towards bargains as they emerge.
Thank you to our clients for entrusting us to help them navigate these difficult times. This too will pass, and when it does, we will all be stronger for it!
Founded in 1979, Strategic is a leading investment and wealth management firm managing and advising on client assets of over $1.8 billion.
Strategic Financial Services, Inc. is a SEC-registered investment advisor. The term “registered” does not imply a certain level of skill or training. “Registered” means the company has filed the necessary documentation to maintain registration as an investment advisor with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The information contained on this site is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. Every client situation is different. Strategic manages customized portfolios that seek to properly reflect the particular risk and return objectives of each individual client. The discussion of any investments is for illustrative purposes only and there is no assurance that the adviser will make any investments with the same or similar characteristics as any investments presented. The investments identified and described do not represent all of the investments purchased or sold for client accounts. Any representative investments discussed were selected based on a number of factors including recent company news or earnings release. The reader should not assume that an investment identified was or will be profitable. All investments contain risk and may lose value. There is no assurance that any investments identified will remain in client accounts at the time you receive this document.
Some of the material presented is based upon forward-looking statements, information and opinions, including descriptions of anticipated market changes and expectations of future activity. Strategic Financial Services believes that such statements, information, and opinions are based upon reasonable estimates and assumptions. However, forward-looking statements, information and opinions are inherently uncertain and actual events or results may differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements, information and opinions.
No content on this website is intended to provide tax or legal advice. You are advised to seek advice on these matters from separately retained professionals.
All index returns, unless otherwise noted, are presented as price returns and have been obtained from Bloomberg. Indices are unmanaged and cannot be purchased directly by investors.
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My Stampin' Up order is coming tomorrow, and I can hardly wait to play with new products, but this weekend I told myself that I had to take the time to play with some of the "new" things that I bought in the past couple of months and have not used yet. I know we all buy things that we are excited about, but the occasion to use them just has not come up yet. This was one of those things. I bought the Window Box Thinlets, and they have waited patiently for the occasion that I would need a pretty gift box. Then I started seeing people using the thinlets for creating cards, so I had to give it a try.
I had a challenge to use all five new 2017-18 In Colors on one card for our demonstrator meeting yesterday, and this is the card that I made. I sponged behind the cut image with Tranquil Tide, Lemon Lime Twist, and Fresh Fig, then I used Berry Burst for the card base and Powder Pink in the flowers. I wish I had some ribbon to add, but no In Color ribbon until my order arrives. The little flowers I used came from Jar of Love stamp set and the greetings came from the new Happy Birthday Gorgeous stamps. This was a fast and fun card to make. So easy I made it up 3 more times using different color combinations. Can't share those with you, because I like to keep the surprise for the recipient when I mail a card out. You get the idea, and I know you'd enjoy making this card yourself. I can help you with that. Just let me know.
I found my inspiration for the layout for my card on Inkspire Me Challenge #103, and I'm also going to play along with the Birthday challenge at the Paper Players Challenge #347.
Stop back and see what I got in my order today as I play with new products this week.
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LeAnne June 7, 2017 at 1:28 PM
I just LOVE this...what a fun thing, to have that rainbow of colors peeking through! So happy you shared this with us this week for our Paper Players birthday challenge!
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Crystal Komara June 7, 2017 at 1:32 PM
Oh what a fun card, Mary! I love the peekaboo die with lots of color hidden behind it! And, Berry Burst is rapidly becoming my new best friend! Thank you for joining us this week at The Paper Players! Crystal, DT
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Anonymous June 8, 2017 at 7:13 AM
A very clever way to us the Window Box Framelit! Love the rainbow color background. Thank you for joining us this week at Inkspire me. Marion
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Joanne James - The Crafty Owl June 9, 2017 at 3:27 PM
What a creative way to incorporate all of the new in-colours Mary - such a pretty birthday card! Thanks for joining us over at The Paper Players this week!
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Mary Alice Bellis I am an independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator from Minnesota. I am married, a mother of 4 grown children, and grandmother to three delightful girls and three precious boys. My grandkids love to craft with me. Most of my free time is spent crafting. I love paper crafts, including card making and scrapbooking, also photography, and knitting. In the summer I love to craft at our trailer in the woods of northern Wisconsin. I hunt the area's towns for craft shops and good food. Joining Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator was my new adventure, something to do in my retirement, but it's become a fun business and filled with new friends and a bright future. Imagine the possibilities!! Please contact me at www.maryabellis@live.com
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Join hosts Shaun and Chloe each week as they discuss an Australian criminal case, deep-diving into perpetrators' backgrounds, details of crimes, impact on victims, and effects on the community.
by True Blue Media
1y ago
We have decided to finish up making episodes for True Blue Crime. This will undoubtedly be a surprise and disappointing for many people, but we want to finish things on our terms and now feels like the right time to do that. It’s a decision that we don't take lightly and we’ve been discussing for a while now, and we’ve reached it together. When we started this show, we committed to ten episodes, and didn’t expect anyone outside of our partners, family and friends to listen to it. We were stunned when the downloads kept going up and more and more people were tuning in. Now we fee ..read more
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by True Blue Media
1y ago
Robbie and Amber spoke on the phone regularly, but fell out of touch as time went on. But then one day, all of a sudden, Amber was moving into Robbie’s house, which was a surprise to him. He asked his Mum, Anne, why Amber was there, was she boarding with them now or something? Anne said words to the effect of ‘you know what your father’s like...” Join Shaun and Chloe as they cover the disappearance of Amber Haigh and the death of Janelle Goodwin, two women who were involved with the same man, Robert Geeves. Join our Patreon community for access to exclusive extra content: Patreon - https ..read more
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by True Blue Media
1y ago
It was mid afternoon on May the 7th 1990, and Wendy Davis was working at the Hollywood Hospital in Nedlands. She was at her desk, immersed in her work, when she heard a voice behind her ask ‘is it okay if I use the toilet?’ Wendy swivelled in her chair and saw a young Telecom worker, all of 20, 21 years old. She nodded. A moment later Wendy felt a hand on her shoulder and another hand over her mouth… Join Shaun and Chloe for Part 2 of the Claremont serial murders. Join our Patreon community for access to exclusive extra content: Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/truebluecrime Link to ..read more
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by True Blue Media
1y ago
Nicole awoke in her bed with someone next to her, but it wasn’t her boyfriend like she first thought. It was someone else. She grabbed his face, dug her fingernails in hard, and the man jumped up from the bed. He was tall and wearing a light coloured silk kimono. Nicole screamed for her father in the next room, and the man fled from the house. Nicole called the police and they attended the house, but the intruder had escaped, leaving behind just one clue as to his identity; the semen-stained white and apricot coloured kimono. Join Shaun and Chloe for part 1 of the Claremont serial murders ..read more
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by True Blue Media
1y ago
It was the 17th of April, 1999, and in Adelaide, South Australia, two rookie police officers were coming to the end of their shift. As the two young officers returned to their vehicle, they noticed a handwritten note on their windscreen, wedged under the wipers. It read: ‘There’s a dead girl's body in the shrubs of the grounds near the main road of the Payneham Police Station. This is no joke.’ Join Shaun as he tells the tale of two seemingly unconnected murders which occurred two years apart, and the phone calls which led them to the perpetrator who’d committed both crimes. Join our Patre ..read more
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The Greenough Family Massacre
by True Blue Media
1y ago
As the car drew closer, Daniel turned on the kitchen light and headed out front to see who was arriving at 3AM. The family dogs were barking out the back, attuned to the strange hour the person was visiting. Daniel walked down the driveway to see the driver, who got out of the car. But he’d left the headlights on, so it was too bright for Daniel to clearly see who it was... Join Shaun and Chloe as they discuss the callous murders of the young MacKenzie family - the details of which were ordered to be sealed - and the police investigation and groundbreaking scientific work which exposed the p ..read more
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by True Blue Media
1y ago
This was a guy who’d worked a number of different jobs in his time - aside from the Navy, he’d been a sheet metal fabricator, a commercial diver, air system technician, a welder and even a postie. He’d also lived in pretty much every Australian State, and even ventured to New Zealand at one stage between May and August of 2006. If Sara Lee Davey and Rachael Campbell were indeed two of his victims, who is the third victim? Join Shaun and Chloe as they discuss the disappearance of Sara Lee Davey, the murder of Rachael Campbell, and the suicide note of a serial killer, who admitted to killing t ..read more
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by True Blue Media
1y ago
24th of November 1989, Fremantle Prison, Western Australia The trio removed the bar and slipped out of the workshop window and gained access to the roof of the print shop. From there, they went along the guard’s walkway, jumped from roof to roof, until they hit the edge of the prison grounds. One of them missed the last jump, fell and injured his leg. The other two vaulted over the outer wall to freedom. The Postcard Bandit was free once again, and the hunt for him was on… Join Shaun and Chloe as they discuss the life and times of Brenden Abbott. Join our Patreon community for access ..read more
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by True Blue Media
1y ago
Not long after sunrise Peter Leutenegger was flying his chopper across the Jubilee Downs Station, singing along to a few of his favourite Slim Dusty songs. He was mustering horses in preparation for the upcoming Fitzroy Crossing Rodeo; a popular annual event that saw many people travel to the area, when he noticed something unusual on the ground below. It appeared to be a vehicle, but it was well covered by some form of camouflage. The power of his chopper blades slightly blew the green covering off the vehicle, and Peter thought he’d seen a man lying down inside, a man with no shirt on, camo ..read more
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by True Blue Media
1y ago
Anzac Day Friday, 25 April 2014 John Pearson said it was a bleak irony that his brother Martin was killed on a day that was all about mateship and courage. “This is an act of supreme cowardice and I can’t believe somebody’s conscience hasn’t got the better of them and they won’t be struck by an act of guilt,” “I can’t believe the extreme irony of someone leaving a vet by the side of the road. Being left for dead on Anzac Day, a day we remember mateship and self-sacrifice, and he was left as roadkill.” Join Shaun and Chloe as they discuss the tragic hit and run death of a well-re ..read more
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For 25 years, third-party browser cookies have tracked the journeys of internet users. These maligned lines of code are unlikely to celebrate a 30th anniversary, however, with Google revealing plans to block them across its Chrome browser by 2022.
Given Chrome's mammoth 66% monopoly on the browser market, the move has raised big questions about the future of cross-site tracking, retargeting and ad-serving for the adtech industry.
Right now, hundreds of third parties track people every time they hit a domain. Privacy laws, including the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have already turned the tide against mass-surveillance and now Google will effectively crumble the third-party cookie when it rolls out its Privacy Sandbox API.
Justin Schuh, director of Chrome engineering, outlined his intent to “render third-party cookies obsolete” in an announcement on the news. This single API change is likely to alter the fabric of adtech as we know it, having ramifications for digital marketers across the globe. The tech giant will be working over the next two years to iron out some of the creases emerging from the obsolesce of the cookie.
So what happens next?
The early indications are not encouraging for adtech companies.
Immediately after the announcement Criteo's stock crashed, as did other vendors in the space that have built up cookie-reliant audience databases.
Greg Paull, co-founder and principal at consultancy R3, said "retargeting focused adtech companies" such as Criteo were most likely to face instant obstacles.
"They have to adapt by fundamentally changing their business and moving away from the third-party data ecosystem," said Paull. "There might be an immediate loss of some programmatic revenue which is third-party cookie reliant, which could be a big hit for some publishers, but in the long-term it improves their bargaining position."
However, the play from Google is far from a shot out of the blue. Browsers including Safari and Brave beat Chrome to the punch, and the industry has had time to come to terms with the fact its main source of data collection was being phased out.
But that doesn’t mean Google is killing adtech. Signals such as clicks or conversions will still be stored in its browser instead of being broadcast to third parties, all in a bid to anonymise user data.
Writing in AdExchanger Ari Paparo, chief executive of Beeswax said view-through attribution, third-party data, DMP and multitouch attribution will be “dead” under the proposals. We’re now facing a world with significantly less measurement and targeting.
Nonetheless, Paul Gubbins, programmatic lead at video adtech company Unruly branded Google's a “positive step forward for consumer privacy” that will force a restructure of the industry. He believes it is time to build a joint-up ID solution to fill the void.
“We may end up at a point in time with so many fragmented identifiers and methodologies that we struggle to still deploy the practice of data-driven advertising such as real-time bidding.”
Ben Gott, senior vice-president, analytics leader EMEA of Merkle, predicted that Google will introduce an ID solution to replace the cookie, which "could be a new ecosystem that they could own.”
There is also a feeling that Google is pulling up the ladder after itself.
Johnny Ryan, privacy advocate and Brave browser thought leader, said that the change will be good for the web, but was critical of the two year gestation period. He doesn't think it is a selfless act from the tech giant.
“Google is building a moat. It doesn’t don’t need third-party cookies to track people. It has code live on virtually every single website and app.”
As a result, we’re going to see a lot of consolidation repositioning and new product offerings in adtech. Gubbins joked that execs are quickly brainstorming contextual ad plays after years of leaning into microtargeting.
Many existing products will simply fail to work without the third-party cookie, said James Parker, chief solutions officer of data and planning at Jellyfish.
"There's going to be a limited amount of platforms where you can join all the data together. We are kind of going back to the days of media mix modeling.”
Google will continue to generate all the first-party data it needs to assure market dominance, particularly on YouTube. Matt Keiser, founder and chief executive of LiveIntent thinks the move will benefit the triopoly.
“In this new world, companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google will continue to thrive because they continue to have access to first-party data. However, you know who else has access to first-party data? Anyone who drives audiences to their websites: Publishers and advertisers.”
There is an opportunity for bigger publishers – think the size of WarnerMedia – to capitalise by building upon actionable profiles on loyal, engaged audiences – essentially building their own walled garden.
The larger the audience, the more appealing the proposition. Those who can deliver sophisticated targeting, actionable insights, and a brand-safe environment alongside quality content could benefit. Smaller publishers who can't deliver on this may struggle as an emphasis returns to contextual placements.
Keiser said: “The agencies and ad-tech providers and those who have been mastering third-party data will lose their privileged position in this new world. You used to have the power if you sat across many publishers and brands like an agency or an ad-tech provider but now: it’s the first-party data owner who chooses whether to share.”
Scott McDonald, president and chief executive of Advertising Research Foundation is “sanguine” about the announcement. He doesn’t really believe “multi-touch attribution ever really worked the way it was promised”.
Marketers had “false confidence” in the third-party data solutions they’ve been relying on for the last few years in his opinion, McDonald said.
We’ll likely see a return to brand awareness and direct response campaigns. A return to the traditional cornerstones of advertising where every movement and action of the consumer isn't attributed to single ad.
"This notion that every single thing could be accounted for through a clickstream, it's kind of tempting and it's kind of acted like a drug and intoxicated many marketers that should've known better," McDonald said.
He concluded that advertisers will be informed of how many people clicked on their campaigns. What'll be fuzzier is who did it, and where. But that is OK for McDonald, he’s happy that the “illusion” of the medium's effectiveness is being reduced.
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Everything that I knew about life changed on June 22nd, 2015. On this day, I learned that my mother took her own life in my childhood home. She was 53 and I was 26 at the time.
Devastating is not quite the word I would use to describe this type of news, and I still haven’t quite figured out the words to describe how I actually feel about everything so I’m not going to try and cover that yet.
My mother was the type of person that was always lively and made friends easily. She was well known and loved in our hometown, so her death came as a surprise to many. It was a shock to me as well. I knew that she had experienced some hard times recently and had a short episode of depression about a year ago, but I didn’t know how bad things really were.
She was actually diagnosed with Chronic Manic Depression. I never knew about this diagnosis because she never told me about it, I only learned that she had it when I was reading her death certificate. At that point, it was a little late to be learning of her true condition. What I now realize is that whenever she talked about her experience with depression and what was actually going on, it was always masked with religion. She would say things like “I felt like I was in a fog or being held by a demonic force…” or “God brought me out of the darkness and now I’m healed…”
I have nothing against religious beliefs and practices, I am a Christian myself, but in this situation we have to realize that there are other things at play and not just religion. Our community has a hard time talking about issues concerning mental health and I feel like much of it comes from the stigma that is unjustly associated with it. People feel as though they have something to be ashamed of because they are struggling with a mental disease. Mental illness is just that – an illness. Do people feel ashamed for catching the flu? For having cancer? No.
Mental illness is just as serious and debilitating as any physical illness or disease and we need to start treating it as such. If my mother had felt more comfortable with actively managing her condition and speaking out about it, things may have been completely different. I say may, because they may have turned out exactly the same.
Even still, talking about these things allows everyone to be on the same page. If I had known that my mother was actually suffering from a mental illness then I may have been better able to recognize the signs she was clearly showing before she decided to commit suicide. I may not have been able to stop her, but I would have been given the opportunity to try.
My mother’s suicide is hard to talk about, but it needs to be discussed. I’m not ashamed of how she died because I am proud of how she lived. I know that in her final moments, she was struggling with a unbearable pain that she was simply tired of fighting. This keeps me from wondering why she left us here and why there was no letter to explain her decision. She just wanted it all to stop because she thought there was no other alternative.
Now that I have experienced this, I want more people to step up and talk about mental illness and suicide prevention. It may not be a fun conversation to have and it may not be a very comfortable experience, but it is necessary. We need to stop minimizing the importance of mental health and start talking about how to change the way we think about it.
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Mental Health Is Not What It SEEMS
Tremayne Moore says:
July 15, 2015 at 2:55 pm
This is a heartfelt story on multiple levels. First and foremost, I’ll be praying for you and your family as you’re grieving. In the AA Community we don’t talk about mental illness. Either we focus on the natural aspect (and end up over-medicating) or the spiritual (where we just deny the illness). This must be addressed in our communities. I live with PTSD as a result of sexual abuse. I am in therapy and I am very serious about my Christian Faith. And to top it off, I also am on the Autism Spectrum Disorder. I don’t deny that I have this, I own it and am determine to fight for my healing. What we as people need to do is to love and comfort people where they are and swallow our pride. I know what mental illness can do to a person. In fact, back in 2011, I wanted to end my life. I wrote a blogpost on that -> http://mayneman.blogspot.com/2014/09/when-i-wanted-to-die-world-suicide.html?m=1
Also, I wrote a novel based on my life addressing child sexual abuse, mental illness and suicide (the suicide note in the book is based on what I was going through during the course of writing). I would like to send you a copy of that on me (my e-mail is tremayne_moore@yahoo.com).
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July 15, 2015 at 5:14 pm
Tremayne,
Thank you for your comment, I really appreciate it. You’re right that we normally don’t find the perfect balance of what to focus on (natural symptoms or religion) and that should be addressed. I’m glad to hear that you are on top of the things that you have going on and that you are able to use your own experiences to help others. I think that’s what we need as a community. I know that I’m not the only person that has experienced this and I know that you aren’t the only one that’s experienced what you’ve gone through. By sharing our stories we are helping others become more successful in reaching their own healing or dealing with their own issues. So thank you for reaching out, but most importantly, thank you for your part in opening the conversation to things that people normally stay silent on.
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July 15, 2015 at 1:50 pm
My heart goes out to you. Thank you for sharing your and your mother’s story. God bless you.
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July 15, 2015 at 5:14 pm
Thank you so much.
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e says:
July 15, 2015 at 12:00 pm
Don’t quite know where to begin. My heart is full. First and foremost, my condolences to you & your family as it relates to your tragic loss. I pray God’s comfort & healing.
This is a subject matter that is extremely dear to my heart. ( http://wp.me/p5ySTq-98) Suicide & Crisis Intervention in communities of faith & communities of color are components to a vital, long overdue dialogue. One that we need to have proactively. I will share your story. Your mother’s legacy will live on.
e
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Billiebob says:
July 15, 2015 at 3:52 pm
1. The first time she was depressed it wasnt something she got over she madebit theough it. 2. She didnt tell you, because you would view her different.
I know I have six boys all grown and have fought this illness for ablong time and you are correctbin saying we get to avpoint where we dont want to fight because it’s hard and I know the next time for me I won’t be able to pull myself of of that black hole and religion I go to church sometimes but have always belive and trusted God when I go down that black hole he sends me bible verses and songs. I can’t quite any Bible versus but when I’M there I can. No one would ever guess that I’m depressed because you see what we want you to see. No one understands unless you been there is a hard fight difficult but I no what pushes me close and fought to stay way from those things. I will pray for your mom, but I understand her torment. Happy on the outside, pouring treats on the inside.
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July 15, 2015 at 5:38 pm
Thank you for sharing your experience. It’s hard to know whether I would have viewed her differently or not. I don’t think that I would have because I have more of an understanding nature and would have just been thankful that she opened up to me. Given that you struggle with some of the same issues I can understand why you would say that no one would ever guess that you’re depressed. This is what makes me want to be passionate about bringing these issues to the forefront. I don’t think it’s fair that people who suffer from depression or mental illness are made to feel as if they should hide their pain in the shadows and suffer in silence. I am glad that you have your faith in God to carry you through and if that is enough for you then I am sincerely happy for you. However, if you ever begin to feel like it may not be enough then I pray that you will consider reaching out to someone for more help. I too, believe that God is a healer, but He is also a Way-Maker. Sometimes, He places people in our path that can make a way for us to be healed. Thank you for reading and commenting.
July 15, 2015 at 5:22 pm
I really appreciate you for stopping by and leaving a comment. I was on your site the other day reading about your reasons for being so passionate about talking about suicide prevention. I think that I left a comment somewhere on there? Either way, I’m glad that you enjoyed my post and I definitely appreciate you saying that you will share it. I believe that God puts passions in each and everyone of us and this is one that I now have. I hate the way that I got it, but I hope that my efforts will help someone else down the line. And thanks for following our site!
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e says:
July 15, 2015 at 5:38 pm
Thank you for the response & yes I shared this post as promised! I did not see a comment on my site but am very honored you to stopped by authenticitee. Thank you for your graciousness in even taking the time to respond now. You have your hands full. Praying strength & peace. Take care,
e
Sarah Emmerling (Em) says:
July 13, 2015 at 3:52 pm
Reblogged this on Seeking Stability and commented:
Worth reading if the subject won’t trigger you.
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July 13, 2015 at 6:08 am
I’m sorry for loss! These types of stories need to be shared and will go a long way to remove the stigmas associated with depression and mental health. In March 2014, I was moments from taking my life. Now, I share my journey boldly, openly, and honestly to help save lives. I have an extensive collection of articles and interviews on my website that are available for anyone who is challenged with depression. However, I won’t post the link in the message to not takeaway from your article about your mother. Please contact me as I would love for you to be part of a show that I’ll be doing about depression in September. I look forward to collaborating with you.
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July 15, 2015 at 5:30 pm
Thank you for reading and for commenting. I agree with you and I hope that by sharing my story it will help remove some of the stigma associated with mental health. I know that our society still has a LONG way to go, but I hope that as more people begin to #StartTheConversation, we will be able to make mental health as common and comfortable to talk about as any other health concern. And I will be in touch with you through email soon.
July 12, 2015 at 8:41 pm
I admire your strength and will keep you in my prayers. I am glad that you are using what you’ve gone through in an effort to save others, no matter how difficult it is. You’re right about the stigma and about the way we mask mental illness with religion… we must make it ok to talk about and deal with. I actually have a documentary coming out soon where young people ages 11 to 23 are talking about tough issues like this. It’s called We’re Too Young To Die. We have so much work to do as a people… the stories of these young people blew me away. I could go on for days about… but anyway, I’m in the fight with you. Keep going! You can watch a snippet by visiting http://www.iChoose2live.com/filmproject
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July 15, 2015 at 5:27 pm
Thank you for coming by and leaving a comment. Mental health is definitely worth the conversation and should be talked about more so that people can be comfortable reaching out to others whenever they need help. What you are doing with your film is pretty incredible as well. If we don’t talk about the tough issues, we will never learn how to successfully manage them when they occur. So thank YOU for your courage to go there and address the issues that many people don’t want to talk about.
July 12, 2015 at 3:26 pm
Thank you for opening this very important discussion. Your family is going to help a lot of other families by being open, honest and transparent. The When Trouble Finds You team appreciates and thanks you for being courageous. Blessings!
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July 12, 2015 at 3:30 pm
Thank you for your comment. We feel that honesty and transparency is truly the only way to raise real awareness and to facilitate our healing process. I appreciate your kind words!
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July 12, 2015 at 4:28 pm
Agreed!
July 12, 2015 at 12:38 pm
My condolences to you and your family. Thank you for sharing the truth. I was diagnosed with chronic depression almost a year ago. I rarely tell people about it because they think I am crazy or that it is just a phase. I have went through thoughts of suicide many times, and I pray everyday that God will just allow me to die in my sleep. There are days where I literally dread opening my eyes. I do not think a lot of people understand that this is an everyday battle. You can be doing so much, and living a life that is fulfilled, but that has nothing to do with them chemical imbalances we experience. My prayers are with you and your family.
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July 12, 2015 at 2:43 pm
Thank you so much for commenting and being vulnerable enough to share your own experience. It pains me that there are so many people who feel as though they have to suffer in silence because they fear that people don’t understand what they are going through. I don’t know what it must be like to live with chronic depression but I pray that you will be able to reach out and find the support and assistance that you truly deserve (if you haven’t done so already). Also, you can always call 1 (800) 273-8255 for help and comfort whenever you are having problems with suicidal thoughts. There is help available for you, and you should always remember that. Stories like yours and stories like mine are why I am now adamant about increasing awareness of mental health issues and getting people to show more support to those who suffer. I commend your bravery in speaking out for yourself and I wish you all the best.
July 12, 2015 at 11:18 am
Reblogged this on Relationship Guide Review and commented:
Mental illness is just as serious and debilitating as any physical illness or disease and we need to start treating it as such.
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July 12, 2015 at 6:04 am
Derrell, I am so terribly sorry for your loss. I have written about this from the inside, as directly and honestly as I can. In fact, I’ve been writing another essay about it just this week because it is an ongoing struggle. I think your comment above, about “it wasn’t fair for her to have to have to live with an illness…” shows enormous insight and compassion; I am awed by it. Suicide is terrible and devastating to those left behind (my family has just experienced one of a young man, a cousin of mine) and I wish no one ever took their life. But it infuriates me when people say “suicide is selfish.” What is selfish is expecting to people to live in the face of such overwhelming and unbearable pain.
I’d like to send you my book, if you like. I can be reached at kim@kimmclarin.com.
Peace and solace to you.
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July 12, 2015 at 2:36 pm
Kim, Thank you so much for your comment. I appreciate the fact that you are able to understand what I meant by “it wasn’t fair for her”. I think that there are many instances where suicide survivors simply blame the person instead of digging deep to understand what was truly going on. I also understand that there are times where it really is simply a selfish act, but I know that in my mother’s case it was not. I will email you soon, thank you for reaching out.
July 12, 2015 at 5:00 am
Hi baby. I live with major depression and severe anxiety on a daily basis. Right now, as I type, I am having suicidal thoughts. I have them often enough to make life very difficult to make it from one day to the next. I have 3 adult children and many nieces, nephews and other children in my life that I try to live for but that also isn’t the solution. I cant speak on your moms exact thoughts but if you ever want to talk to me and ask me questions, I will try to answer and help you get a better understanding of depression and suicide. I often post about my feelings and get criticized because of them. People are afraid of what they don’t understand nor do they want to learn about what they don’t want to understand. If my experiences with depression and suicide attempts can help anyone get better or even have a better understanding, I have no problem with sharing my story. You may inbox me and we can exchange numbers or get together or whatever works for you but just know I am here and willing to help you in any way I can.
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July 12, 2015 at 2:29 pm
Thank you for commenting and reading. I hope that when you are having suicidal thoughts that you will consider calling the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1 (800) 273-8255 and consider seeking out a professional counselor or doctor that can help you in your efforts to manage your depression on a daily basis. I can’t imagine how difficult things must be for you but I certainly want you to know that help IS available for you.
Charia says:
July 12, 2015 at 3:19 am
Thanks for sharing your story. Mental illness is such a terrible illness. It has no color or gender. Awareness and treatment is the best medicine.
July 12, 2015 at 12:31 am
A beautiful, honest & much needed post. Such a tragedy for you Derrell, losing your mother this way, but on the other hand, by openly sharing as you are doing, you are turning your personal tragedy into a personal & community triumph. You are helping us all, especially us African American parents, spouses & children of folks who are struggling with depression & other mental illnesses. You have motivated me & my family to become more proactive in the mental health treatment & suicide prevention of one of our loved ones & I know this is also true for other readers as well. Thank you so much & thanks to your mother who raised such a thoughtful son. I am so very sorry for your loss; the testimonials about your Mom all say that she was a wonderful human being; from your post & comments, I can say that you too are wonderful.
Constant prayers for you.
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July 12, 2015 at 2:20 pm
Julia, thank you so much for your kind words. I am so glad that your family was able to take away something positive from what I wrote and put it to work in your own lives. I wanted to #StartTheConversation about mental health and I am truly in awe of how well it has been received by the community. It is important and I am thankful that I can play a part in increasing awareness. Thank you for reading and commenting and I hope that things go well for your family.
John Doe says:
July 11, 2015 at 11:32 pm
You saved a life tonight.
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July 12, 2015 at 3:11 am
Prayers going up!! Hold on! Talk to Jesus as you would a friend. Satan is the author of darkness/sickness/pain, but Jesus is bigger then anything/problem we may be going through. Please turn to him in moments of darkness, call out Jesus name, and angels will come to your side.
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July 12, 2015 at 2:17 pm
When I started writing this post about my mother I really had no idea how it would be received. This comment is everything that I hoped for. Saving ONE life or even changing one mind about mental illness makes everything my family has gone through worth it. I hate that I lost my mother but I am glad that her story can still save lives and help people #StartTheConversation.
FLEMING says:
July 11, 2015 at 7:39 pm
First of all let me say how sorry I am for the loss of your mom. I worked with Ms. Shirley back in the late 80’s and she was an outstanding lady….and yes I was very shocked as well at the news that she had taken her life…if she suffered from depression back then you never knew it you always thought she was on top of the world and if you felt like you were in the valley being around her brought you on top. Her outgoing personality was contagious….Sweet Lady… NOW …I am speaking as a mother who has a son that has mental health issues not a expert so this is MY thoughts…alot of times (not always the case) these mental health issues can start presenting themselves in adolescence and the fear of what people will think of you if they knew what you were feeling or going thru causes you to sweep it under the rug so to speak until by the time you are an adult it has overpowered you to the point that you are just tired of fighting you just want to end the battle and mentally you are so drained you can’t think ahead about how this will affect your family and friends the darkness is so great the light which is the love of family and friends can’t always get in…..for adolescents in high school the fear of being seen and called a freak, weirdo, nut job, etc causes them to hide or mask their depression and prevents them from getting the early on help they need to try and prevent the darkness from winning….there is many different types of mental illnesses and some have symptoms such as bipolar that can’t be hid or masked you pretty know very soon that there is a problem and you start seeking a solution. The mental health profession is pitiful meaning if it was a diabetic issue or heart issue their are doctors out there by the drove but a good psychiatrist or therapist is VERY HARD TO FIND….my son started showing symptoms in middle school and it started out he’s ADD and they started medicating him for that then the last years of high school it became more evident that there was something else going on other than ADD. I literally spent all those years dragging him from one doctor/therapist to another one from one end of the state to the other before he has finally at the age of 22 found the right solution and I can finally see a difference being made….his current doctor said it best when she said to me ” It’s like a running a marathon not a sprint ” meaning it’s not something you can fix overnight it takes the right medication and therapy combined for it to get better. I still don’t understand why psychiatry is still such a limited field why so few doctors choose this line of medicine…with the society we are living in this day and time there is so many people developing mental health illnesses and the demand far out weighs the supply which is really sad…as far as the religion part goes GOD does not fix all of our problems for us BUT he does provide the resources such as doctors to help us and if we have faith and trust in him he will ALWAYS guide and comfort us to get thru any situation in our lives….I truly regret that it took the death of your mom to get everyone to start talking about bringing more awareness to mental illness but I am so proud that during the most difficult time of your life you can start getting people to start admitting that it is OK to own that part of your life and starting seeking the help they need to try and prevent such tragedy’s. May GOD bless you all and by the way I now work with your father and he seems to be a wonderful person too.
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July 12, 2015 at 2:16 pm
“GOD does not fix all of our problems for us BUT he does provide the resources such as doctors to help us and if we have faith and trust in him he will ALWAYS guide and comfort us to get thru any situation in our lives..”
I feel exactly the same way about this. God puts people in our lives and gives people the skills needed to help others. Thank you for sharing your story with me, it has been truly inspiring to see the many different people who have experiences with mental health that are worth sharing. I think that seeking out help is important and I wish that our society was more accepting and supportive of those who struggle with different issues. Prayerfully, sharing my own experience will get people talking enough to where minds are able to change and lives are able to be saved. And my dad is just as awesome as my mother was, they were a great pair. Thank you again for reading and sharing your thoughts.
July 11, 2015 at 7:31 pm
May I start with “You were the most important thing in her life when I met your mom”. She made no doubt about that! She was a mentor, a teacher and a friend to me as I moved through Rad school. Then I was lucky enough to work with her as a fellow tech and friend. She taught me many things, but I enjoyed her true love of God and family. I felt lucky to have known her. I struggle with some of the same issues. I wish I could make more attempts to feel brave enough to let the ones I love the best know how I feel at times, but we as mothers, daughters and friends feel weak even if we think we are the strongest! Your mom was a noble warrior who wanted the best for you always. The one thing I can say is she raised a strong son, and you should be proud to have her as a Mother! I pray you find peace and hope that your mother was a strong human vulnerable to the harsh reality so many face. May God help you find peace in your days to come. She would not want you to be burdened with the things she face alone at times, That’s what mother’s do! God bless you and your family!
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July 12, 2015 at 2:11 pm
She was definitely a good woman and she loved God and her family. I am glad that you are one of the many who is able to remember her for the great person that she was. Thank you for sharing your experience as well. And if you’re struggling with some of the same issues that she was then I pray that you’ll be able to find the support that you need. Thank you for reading and commenting.
July 11, 2015 at 5:35 pm
my heart goes out to you. I also lost a parent to suicide. I was 21 and my dad was 50. He spent his life very ill from a spinal disease with no cure. He was suffering and I think somewhere deep inside I knew this day would probably come. Although when it happened it rocked my world and shattered me. Although not a day goes by I don’t miss him dearly I also wouldn’t ask for him back either. His peace brings me comfort. Until someone has actually had suicide touch their lives in some way one can never understand all that comes along with it. I am not ashamed of his decision like u I am proud of the life he lived. I am proud to have had him as a father. My heart goes out to you and I applaud your honor and bravery to come forward and talk about what most keep hidden secrets. Thank you for your post…
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July 12, 2015 at 2:08 pm
Thank you for reading and I am truly sorry for your loss as well. Like you said, many people can’t understand the true implications of suicide and how it feels until they have lost someone to it. I never really understood it myself until it happened to my family even though you hear about it ALL the time. For me, it helps to talk about it instead of hiding it because I have hopes that my story will prevent others from having to experience what I’ve gone through. Thank you for sharing your thoughts Jamie.
July 11, 2015 at 5:32 pm
I am so sorry to hear about your mom. One thing I can say is that society is cruel to people with mental and depression issues, So in many cases people do not allow others to know that they are taking medication or even have a problem.
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July 12, 2015 at 2:06 pm
You’re right about that. This is why I really think it is time for people to #StartTheConversation about mental health and mental illnesses. Society needs to wake up and understand that a mental illness is no different than a physical one and they deserve the same amount of respect and support. Thank you for commenting and reading.
nurse b says:
July 11, 2015 at 4:57 pm
Good say its nice to hear from others i am a 68 year old woman i am presently going a depression my family does not know how bad it is i often goes days without eating because i have nothing to eat my pride won’t let me ask for help out got so bad that i went to a store and took some food i was caught and found guilty i felt like garbage i didnt smell like it but is how low i am i have recently stole food again got caught again and i am waiting on a pending court case i feel so bad about what i did but i don’t feel i mean any goid to others if you ever v even hungry you would understand i want ti live but feel li don’t have any use to live for my family and friend are always asking me for something abd if i say i don’t have it they thing i am lying any suggestion i need help.
MsLynn says:
July 12, 2015 at 6:56 am
Nurse B, I encourage you to talk with your family. Let them in. Someone close to you, I’m sure, would be deeply hurt to know what you’re going through – alone. Someone is always willing to help …IF THEY ONLY KNEW. I pray that you can find the strength to discuss with your loved ones, doctors or neighbors the depths of your depression. It’s clear to me that you want to talk about it, because you started doing so on this platform. Love yourself… Give yourself a chance by asking for the help you need. Please. I love you with the love of Christ and pray for you today.
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July 12, 2015 at 1:57 pm
Nurse B,
I agree with what MsLynn has expressed to you. Please reach out and seek the assistance that you need. There is always at least ONE person that is willing to help. Don’t stop searching for them until you find them. I pray that you can eventually find peace and the support that you rightfully deserve.
July 11, 2015 at 3:29 pm
I can not imagine the heartache you and your family are having but your mother was a Beautiful person inside and out.Derrell for you to put your heart out like this you are an awesome young man,hold your head high your mother is at peace.
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July 11, 2015 at 4:59 pm
I am sorry for your loss. I do want to say that the church does acknowledge mental health and a need for treatment. It just depends on which Christian you’re talking to. I’m dealing with some issues and my therapist went to seminary school and studied counciling. I’m sorry her condition was masked, and that she didn’t have the right kind of support. This could have been avoided.
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July 12, 2015 at 1:51 pm
I agree, this definitely could have been avoided. I don’t mean to seem as if no religious groups address mental health, because I know that’s not true. My concern is that the overwhelming majority of churches will suggest prayer as the only solution for mental illness without truly addressing or suggesting any other options. It is awesome that your therapist has both the scientific and religious backgrounds, I think they are both important when dealing with these type of things. Thank you for sharing and commenting.
July 12, 2015 at 1:52 pm
Thank you so much Harriet, I appreciate you for saying that. I believe that my mother is at peace as well and I think it’s important that I put myself out there so that other people can be able to #StartTheConversation and help others find the help and comfort that they need. Thank you for reading and commenting.
BeingMe says:
July 11, 2015 at 1:33 pm
Derrell I first want to say how sorry I am for your loss! Their is never a love like a mother who truly loves her child/children.
Yet I too understand the stigma that’s placed upon people with mental depression/illnesses. I myself have suffered with a mental illness for years. I’ve been hospitalized, and medicated. I’ve been covered in a sense by less then a handful of immediate family members who truly knows how serious it has been for me…(and yes I am thankful for them)
I also have had the experience of being looked down upon as selfish and uncaring for the lives of my children to even had attempted to hurt myself. (But it was bigger then that, yet they could not see it because its in your head)
I no longer receive medical help (The Dr I felt the closest with left the company and I didn’t feel good about the new doctor so I stopped going) although I have plenty of days I truly think I should be reaching out yet the idea of being seen as weak minded or faking detours me from reaching out… (Plus I try hard to not put the burden on my family members that do know; so I try to refrain from even speaking on it, because I seen their fear of how I lost control and I don’t want them to experience that stress again)
So I read constantly on ways to try to keep my sanity on a level of reasonable control… Their are nights I go all night with no sleep (doing self affirmations, talking myself down on how unreal the overwhelming thoughts are and etc…) only to get partial naps during the day. For those who see me from an outside view they see me as a normal everyday joking, loving, got it together person. Yet if they only knew how I’m afraid some nights to even go to sleep or even do everyday simple things that most don’t even think twice about before doing it… I have enough undercover haters who speak what they don’t know about me; I can’t begin to think on how they would speak ugly on my mental struggles.
Most of my days are spent inside Eventhough I’m not that old it just seem sometimes it’s the safest place to be Eventhough that’s not true all the time! I too am from a small area like your mom and I too know how closed minded people are on this subject especially in small towns. They truly don’t see it’s magnitude until afterwards… And you’re also right to say prayer is what most see as the main fix it solution… Unfortunately their wrong! That’s why people need to STOP believing its different from cancer, or a muscle degenerative disease because its not… You get plenty of support with those types of diseases but Not Mental illnesses. This disease… It eats at the very core of who you use to remember yourself as… That’s why when one feels they can no longer fight the disease and people’s ignorant views they respond in the only way they know by accepting the relentless, overwhelming negative thoughts in there mind, which ends with the damage being irreversible. Never stop speaking on it… Because more truly need to understand. Once again I’m sorry for your loss…. But thanks for speaking out on behalf of your love for your mother I just know she’s smiling at you!
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July 12, 2015 at 1:48 pm
It is truly incredible to me that by simply sharing my story it has made it possible for so many people to share theirs as well. I really appreciate you for being so open and vulnerable and sharing your own experiences. It is definitely true that we need to have more conversations about this and learn to show more support towards the people that are suffering in silence with mental illness. There is no reason why you should have to think twice about reaching out for help. If you had cancer, people would WANT to help you. If you were confined to a wheelchair from a disability, people would want to help you. Mental illness needs to become a cause that people WANT to get involved with instead of something that they hide away, make fun of, or simply ignore. I pray that you will be able to find another doctor that is as good or better than the one you had before. I can’t begin to imagine what you must go through a daily basis, but I really hope that one day you can have the support that you need. Thank you so much for reading and commenting.
July 11, 2015 at 1:22 pm
Derrell, you are truly amazing and you were birthed by an amazing woman. The step you have taken to bring light to the mental health issues (depression, suicide, masking the illness) is phenomena. I knew your mother as a child, and she really epitomized womanhood at its finest. Her smile would light up a room. You are right in stating that so often mental health in the African American community is hidden. Back in the day and even now individuals are stigmatized and alienated if others know they have mental health problems. My baby brother had mental health issues, but thank God that I was able to be proactive and get him the help he needed. Medication and therapy did not change his situation overnight, however once the right steps were taken, he was able to live a productive and relatively happy life. Your mother would have been proud of the action you have taken to make others aware of the mental health plight. I am keeping you and your family in continual prayer.
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July 12, 2015 at 1:41 pm
Thank you for your comment. It is definitely important that people begin to talk about this issue more. Had I not experienced this firsthand, I would have probably never thought about how serious it is and how little it is talked about it. I hate that it happened to me, but I’m glad that I can share my feelings and my story in an attempt to get people to #StartTheConversation.
Jen says:
July 11, 2015 at 9:23 am
Thanks for sharing your story in hopes to educate others and possibly save a life. I have been trying to do the same since my fiancé’s suicide in January of 2014. It’s not an easy task, especially when grieving, but it must be done. Thanks again.
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July 11, 2015 at 11:56 am
Thanks so much for sharing. Best wishes to you and your family.
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July 12, 2015 at 1:39 pm
Thank you Tiffany, I definitely appreciate that.
July 12, 2015 at 1:38 pm
I am sorry for the loss of your fiance. You right, trying to share your own story in order to help others is definitely not an easy task and it takes a lot of courage. I commend you for doing so yourself and I thank you for taking to the time to read and comment on my post. Good luck to you in keeping the conversation going!
July 11, 2015 at 7:05 am
Thanks for sharing. I can definitely relate to your thoughts. My father committed suicide in October 16, 1992. My life did a 360 that day. My mom passed three years later from a illness that worsen due to depression.
Depression is real. Others need to know this. I commend you for realizing, early in your journey, that suicide/depression needs to be discussed. Keep your head up and keep the discussion open. It’s a healing process.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 12, 2015 at 1:36 pm
I am so sorry for the loss of your parents. Stories like that and like mine are perfect examples of why we SHOULD #StartTheConversation and #KeepItGoing. Thank you so much for reading, commenting, and sharing your experience.
July 11, 2015 at 6:30 am
Derell, although it’s a topic we don’t discuss in the Black Community, you’re correct in saying we need to. In the past couple of years I’ve learned a great deal about depression through dealing with many of my friends as well as learning more about the stuck points and what triggers certain actions. Honestly, it’s nothing to be ashamed of as we all have strength and weaknesses that need to be addressed. I admire you for your courage in stepping out of the norm to raise awareness. I’m humbled to be associated with such a grand young man. Continue to hold on son and may God continue to bless you and your family today and days ahead…
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July 12, 2015 at 1:33 pm
Thank you so much for your comment. This is definitely an issue that is worthy of talking about and increasing awareness. People shouldn’t be made to feel ashamed of an ILLNESS that they have. No one chooses conditions that they develop or are born with so it’s not fair that they feel that they must hide things when they could speak out and get help.
July 11, 2015 at 5:05 am
My grandmother committed suicide over 10years ago. She suffered from bipolar disorder and she was a lot like your mother, active in the community, kind. Its true that within religion, we don’t take time to understand mental illness. Coupled with societal beliefs ( I’m from Kenya), people are oft left untreated or the opportunity to be aware and intervene and help is taken away. Thank you for sharing.
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July 12, 2015 at 1:29 pm
Thank you for reading and sharing your experience as well. I am sorry about the loss of your grandmother, I know that must have been a difficult time for you. You’re definitely right though, mental illness is a sensitive subject that should be talked about more but society and religious beliefs make it extremely hard to do. We have to take the time to change our minds about it and #StartTheConversation.
Danny says:
July 10, 2015 at 9:11 pm
Thank you so much for sharing your mother’s story. Since my sister took her own life several years ago, my mother has become a vocal advocate for mental health awareness/suicude prevention. I’ve grown accustomed to hearing from parents who have lost a child—never have I even thought about what it must be like for a child (especially an adult child) to lose a parent . This article brings clarity to a very sensitive and complicated topic. Too often, people cast away mental illness without considering the devastating impact it can have on quality of life. It is this misery that leads people to make the only decision they think is available to them. I’m so sorry that you are one of the chosen few who has had to live through such a tragedy, but I’m thankful that you are willing to share your story, raise awareness and help others. Because of your bravery, you and your family’s suffering will not be in vain.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 12, 2015 at 1:20 pm
Thank you so much for your comment. I am sorry for your loss and I am glad that your mother was able to turn her tragedy into a testimony like I am trying to do. Losing a loved one is a difficult thing to experience, no matter the circumstance, but it is definitely more complicated when the cause is suicide. Helping people #StartTheConversation about mental health & suicide prevention is something that I now feel very strongly about because I have experienced it first hand. If my story or anything I say can reach one person and change their mind, then my mother’s death will definitely not be in vain. I really appreciate what you said.
Elisha Schmaltz says:
July 10, 2015 at 8:52 pm
This is a fantastic article! You and your family will be in my prayers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 12, 2015 at 1:17 pm
Thank you so much for that compliment. I appreciate you for reading, commenting, and keeping my family in your prayers.
July 10, 2015 at 8:11 pm
Derrell…you are being the strong young man she raised you to be! This is definitely a conversation needed in our community.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 12, 2015 at 1:16 pm
Thank you for saying that. She would not want me to sit idly by and not make an attempt to increase awareness about this issue. She was a vocal woman about things she was passionate about and I know she would have wanted me to do things like this in order to help others feel more comfortable talking about mental health. Thank you for reading and commenting!
July 10, 2015 at 7:39 pm
I firmly believe that this is an illness that needs to be focused on more than it has been and is. I have friends and family members that are being treated for one kind or another of depression. There are so many forms of mental illness. There are some that are misdiagnosed and some that are being swept by the wayside because those that are trained to diagnose and work with those of us that might need that help don’t see or take the time to observe our actions or behaviors as they should. Those behaviors produce a huge impact on the lives of the entire family. I have seen the sickness and feelings associated with depression. I know how some of them work because I have had my share of depressed days. My son experienced some bouts of depression at an early age and I sought help for him. I was not ashamed to ask for help for him and neither was he. I knew that if he was getting help, I was getting help. I believe that is can be an untamed demon that can lash out and cause much sadness and unhappiness if left untreated. I thank you for starting this post or page. I pray that something that is said will help someone or start them thinking about what depression can do in our life. I didn’t know your mom personally, but just meeting her at church and seeing her smiling face was enough to make me and anyone else that was in her presence think that she was on top of the world and in the best frame of mind possible. Keep looking up and thanking God for allowing you to help someone this day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 12, 2015 at 1:14 pm
I definitely thank God for allowing me to really #StartTheConversation on mental health. When I wrote this I hoped that I could at least reach one person and change their mind about the discussing mental health. With the response that this post has received so far I know that this is something that I will continue to do because it is important that we talk about it. Especially in families. I wish that it had been talked about more in my own, but if I can help some other family begin to talk about it then I know that I’ve done right by my mother’s memory. Thank you for reading and commenting.
July 10, 2015 at 6:41 pm
Derrell, thank you for your honesty and insight on this taboo topic. I especially agreed with your point on the religious aspect of people having the notion of praying things away. As having been trained in Counseling, I know that is far from the truth. I appreciated your article and gained much insight in reading it.
Your mother was my classmate and friend. She was an awesome woman and well liked by all who she met. When I noticed differences in Shirley’s personality, I hoped that she was getting help. Mental health is such a stigma in our black community. It is my hope you will inspire and help so many others with your writing. I pray for peace for you in dealing with the loss of your mother. While, we may never know the answers to many of the questions, we can rest assured that Shirley is a peace and won’t have to fight her way out of darkness ever again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 12, 2015 at 1:09 pm
Thank you for reading and commenting Shelia. I am glad that I’m not alone in feeling that this is an issue that is worth talking about. There is so much stigma surrounding mental health that it is almost impossible to have active conversations about it with some people. If I can play any part in trying to #StartTheConversation then I feel that my mother’s memory will live on forever.
July 10, 2015 at 5:06 pm
Thank you for this article. Writing is therapeutic and I’m certain it’s helping. I did not know your mom but I have many friends & family who did, as we all grew up in the same hometown . I see from all of the messages and comments that she was an exceptional woman. Reading your article lets me know that she raised an exceptional son. As a mother of 3, I know the challenges we all face. Hopefully this will start the conversation about seeking help and resources when needed and working towards a healthier state of mind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 12, 2015 at 1:06 pm
My mother was definitely an exceptional woman so I really appreciate you for saying that some of that rubbed off on me. Thank you for reading and thank you so much for your comment.
July 10, 2015 at 4:42 pm
I can’t begin to say the pain you, Kiana and Edward must feel, it is a hard pain to deal with in my heart as well. I knew some of the signs my sister was depressed but at times we could discuss her stress, disbelief of things going on in her life and the pain it caused her. When I could be with her on occasions I went with her to the doctor the first time for help and she showed signs of relief. Times after that she learned to trust, and I listened, and told others she was showing signs of.depression but I didn’t exactly know how to get her long term care and I know she wouldn’t go there for help that’s why we kept trying to get her to come visit here. I had hoped I
could her the right doctors in this area for depression.
We shared great weeks together and long talks about everything, and things that bothered her. I pray any one that shows signs of not sleeping, over working, perfection for others, smiles with pain inside constantly, over spending trying to find relief for an inward pain it could not heal.
Know my sister was loved and loving, caring to everyone, even homeless people she cared about
and told me things about her job and how she enjoyed working at the hospital, but Serenity Heath and Fitness was her new way to help others and it helped her as well. We need to continue to inspire others to get help and in the future talk open about people that need extra help. I plan to keep her memory alive by giving help in her memory to those who suffer in silence with mental illness.
Love to those who suffer in silence!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 12, 2015 at 1:05 pm
Thank you for reading and commenting. I know you loved her, as did the rest of the family. I hate that she didn’t get all of the help that she needed because she could have really benefited from it. I know she appreciated you trying to help her. I plan to keep her memory alive as well by reaching out and trying to #StartTheConversation about mental health and illnesses. Love you!
July 10, 2015 at 2:48 pm
THANK YOU for posting this. Millions of people suffer from depression and other forms of mental illness we just don’t talk about it. We distance ourselves from it and ignore it, thinking it will go away. All this does is lend itself to more suffering. Thank you for doing your part to put an end to that with this post.
Please accept my sincere condolences for your loss.
I became very interested in my own mental wellness when I started studying psychology in college, but like you, became most passionate about opening a broader dialogue about mental health after a suicide death in my family. I was stunned when my cousin took his life. My entire family was. And I remember there being a lot of shock, confusion and a lot of anger. So many people were angry with my cousin. They labelled him selfish and weak; that his decision was rash and foolhardy. But I couldn’t bring myself to be mad at him…I pity him, even now. Depression is an ongoing battle that many refuse to acknowledge. I am still so sorry that he got to the point where he could no longer shoulder the weight. I wish I could have been there for him.
I can’t imagine the pain of losing your mother this way. But I just wanted to thank you again for being so candid and sharing your story so that we can start a very important, and potentially life-saving discussion. If you are a testament to your mother’s time on earth, then she must have been a remarkable woman. I will pray for your strength!
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July 10, 2015 at 3:02 pm
Thank you so much for sharing your experience and for your kind words and prayers. I agree with you on the fact that so many people would rather push mental illness beneath the carpet and tip toe around with the hopes that it will just go away. Addressing these things out in the open is really the only way that the conversation can be changed. We have to not only #StartTheConversation, but we also have to continue talking about it after we’ve gotten started. I appreciate you for stopping by our blog and I hope that you’ll return again sometime.
July 10, 2015 at 1:24 pm
Derrell, I worked with your mom for 16 years and she was always a very positive person, a very happy person,we had the most fun at work back in the 90’s. I am so sorry that she had to go through this, depression is without a doubt the most hopeless feeling you can have and I can say this because I have experienced this twice in my life,had it not been for my family history of this problem things may have turned out different for me, I so wish I had known she was suffering from this and just having someone to talk to that has gone thru this is great. I too have trouble with the fact that she did this and my heart goes out to you and your family. If you need to talk just message me. I was hospitalized in the early 80’s for depression and to this day still remember how that feeling is. Take care and always know your mama was so proud of you and your sister,she just beamed in her picture on FB with she was with ya’ll.
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July 10, 2015 at 1:37 pm
Thank you so much for reaching out. I know my mother was well loved, and rightfully so. She was a wonderful woman. As hard as it is to accept the fact that she really isn’t here any more, I know that she would be proud that I’m using my own pain in an attempt to help prevent others from experiencing the same thing.
July 10, 2015 at 1:07 pm
I also suffer from depression and anxiety. So I can imagine what your mother was probably going through. Mental illness still has a very large stigma especially in the African American community. This stigma implies that those diagnosed in mental illness are weak and don’t know how to deal with difficult issues. This is largely why people that suffer from a mental illness don’t tell others, in my opinion. It is extremely hard to admit to yourself that you have a problem yet alone others around you that you love.
It was so difficult for me to seek help. And once you start getting help, it takes quite awhile for medicine and therapy to really kick in. It seems to get a lot worse before it get better.
All of these factors make for a very difficult situation.
I really appreciate your awareness on this. So many suffer in silence.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 10, 2015 at 1:31 pm
Honestly, your comment means a lot to me. I know that my mother was suffering and truly felt like she didn’t have anyone to reach out to. I want to start the conversation about mental health so that more people can feel comfortable when they decide to seek out help. You aren’t weak for having an illness and people shouldn’t be made to feel that way. Thank you so much for reading and commenting.
No one should have to suffer in silence..
July 10, 2015 at 12:54 pm
Thanks for sharing!Didnt know your mother personally,but she always had this beautiful smile!She And James were a lovely couple!!!Praying for your family,Keep the Faith,God will see you through!!!
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July 10, 2015 at 1:14 pm
Thank you for prayers and support. I appreciate that and I know my family does as well.
July 10, 2015 at 12:48 pm
You are so amazing for posting this, especially so soon after the occurrence. I hardly have words. On one hand I am sad for you, yet at the same time I admire you immensely for this. There are so many people in need. I agree with you 100% that we have to get away from the knee-jerk of making everything about religion. Sometimes God wants us to go out and get hands on help from another person, whether its a doctor or a caring listening ear. There are solutions.
I wish you many blessings and pray for healing for you and your family. Contact me if you need someone to chat with.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 10, 2015 at 1:13 pm
Thank you for reading Lynn. I agree, I am speaking out pretty soon after everything has happened but writing is really the best way for me to deal with it right now and figure out how I feel exactly. I also think that sometimes God wants us to go a step further than just praying or believing for change (i.e. “Faith without works is dead”). We have to talk about these things more so that people feel comfortable going out to get the help that they truly need. Thank you for your support.
David J. says:
July 10, 2015 at 12:46 pm
Sorry to hear about your mother.
I agree that we need to open the conversation about depression and suicide in our community. After pledging in the Fall of 2008, my LB died of what was ruled a suicide in the following Spring semester. He had so much going for him… a family, new frat, honor student, Mason, and he served in the military. I still hold on the my belief that his death only RULED a suicide by the authorities and that there was other things at play, but that doesn’t negate the thoughts that I truly might not have known him that well. I have wondered if things he had seen while serving in the military might have proved too much because that was the one thing he didn’t like to talk about.
We see the side that people show us… the rest we find out through their actions.
I commend your boldness in your blog, Phi.
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July 10, 2015 at 1:10 pm
I appreciate you for reading and commenting Nupe. You are absolutely right though, we only see the side that people show us. While my mother was being a positive light in the community, she was struggling with issues that were hiding behind her smile. Thank you for reaching out and I am sorry about what happened with your LB. Losing someone close to you to a suicide is a difficult thing because it leaves you with so many unanswered questions.
July 10, 2015 at 12:22 pm
My condolences on your terrible loss. I completely agree with you that we have to do what we can to make those suffering from mental illness comfortable sharing their struggles. I am not inexperienced in this area, myself. I am so very sorry you weren’t able to know the extent of her suffering until it was too late. Good for you for trying to help others before it is too late for them.
I graduated from high school with your mother and remember her fondly. She was a kind, gentle and giving person even back in high school. While it is difficult for people of that age to look outside themselves, she was not so self involved that she couldn’t see others and their needs. She was a beautiful person and I am thankful to have known her.
My deepest sympathy to you, the rest of her family and her close friends,
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 10, 2015 at 1:04 pm
Thank you so much for your comment. I know that my mother had a positive impact on many of the people that she encountered. It makes it that much easier for me to share her story because I know that she would WANT me to use her experience to help other people feel more comfortable dealing with their own situations. I appreciate your sympathy and support.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 10, 2015 at 11:40 am
My condolences to you on the loss of your mother. Also my kudos to you for speaking up on an issue that needs to be spoken about more openly, not only in society at large but also in the Christian community, the African community, ALL communities. It is so hard to deal with serious mental health issues, whether as the one who suffers, or the loved one of one who suffers. It is an issue that needs to be addressed holistically, spirit (spiritual warfare is real), soul (mind, emotions) AND body (chemical imbalances, etc.). Rarely do you find the balance between all 3 areas. I speak from personal experience…please read my personal website for more information. http://www.miningfordiamondsblog.com God bless you in your journey through grief and healing, and I pray you can be a voice to help so many who suffer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 10, 2015 at 1:01 pm
Thank you for reading and commenting. You are right, this needs to be talked about in ALL communities. It seems to be a touchy subject for many people, but we have to work through the uncomfortable feeling so that real progress can be achieved.
July 10, 2015 at 10:24 am
Amen! I echo your words! “PROUD of how she lived!” Shirley LIVED her life. She was so positive. An encourager! It seems she KNEW exactly WHAT to say to ALL those who needed a “word.” Continue on your mission young man! The LIFE Shirley LIVED, SPEAKS for her AND her dying SHALL NOT be in vain!
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 10, 2015 at 12:48 pm
Yes, she was a wonderful woman. Nothing will ever overshadow that fact. She was a positive force in many lives (especially mine) and she will never be forgotten. Thank you for reading and commenting!
July 10, 2015 at 9:00 am
Thank you for sharing your story with your readers. Your mother’s life & your efforts to #starttheconversation will not be in vain.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 10, 2015 at 12:45 pm
Thank you so much reading and commenting. I pray that my efforts to raise awareness and #StartTheConversation are successful as well.
July 10, 2015 at 8:54 am
I understand that we as a people need to get more involved with mental health. I use to work with mental health clients and the struggle is real. I still speak with some of them when they are going through. Don’t be afraid to let us know because we want to help and be there for you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 10, 2015 at 12:43 pm
Thank you for reading and commenting. I agree, we have to increase our involvement and willingness to talk about issues concerning mental health. Personally, I can’t stay silent and pretend that it’s not a serious issue. We all need to #StartTheConversation
July 10, 2015 at 8:53 am
Thank you for sharing. Nothing good comes from hiding things in the dark. When you place it in the light a true healing process can begin.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 10, 2015 at 12:40 pm
Thank you for reading. You’re absolutely right, bringing things to light definitely helps with the healing process.
July 10, 2015 at 4:08 am
I’m so sorry to hear about your loss. It’s fantastic that you’re trying to get people to open up and speak about their mental health. There should be no stigma attached to it and the sooner we can achieve this the sooner we can hopefully prevent devastating stories like yours from happening.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 10, 2015 at 12:39 pm
Thank you so much for reading and commenting. There certainly shouldn’t be any stigma attached to talking about mental, it should be as easy to talk about as the common cold or the flu. I haven’t gotten the chance to check out everything on your blog yet, but I saw that you speak about your own experiences concerning mental health. Thank you for being honest, we need more people like that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nurse Yen says:
July 10, 2015 at 3:25 am
Wow! This is one powerful post! Very few can write about depression and suicide with as much impact as those who have experienced it firsthand.
First off, while a bit late, I wish to express my condolences. I cannot even begin to imagine what it was like for you to know that your mother committed suicide. It’s not something I’d like to imagine for myself, let alone experience. Devastating is indeed not enough a word for it.
Second, my interest in mental health has opened my eyes to the fact that it is a tragic illness and that any implications of committing suicide is a call for help that should not be ignored or worse, belittled and this post has proven just as much. It saddens me to think that people who commit suicide are misjudged as selfish, since many (including me) don’t have an idea of what they have gone through. I hope that your post and your experiences will help others to see that, and I applaud you for your courage to talk about it.
Lastly, I pray that you continue to find strength in this experience. It is undeniably painful, but as a Catholic, I believe that God has a purpose for everything.
LikeLiked by 1 person
July 10, 2015 at 12:34 pm
Late or not, your condolences are definitely appreciated and so is your thoughtful comment. I agree with you in the fact that people who commit suicide are misjudged as being selfish. I almost let myself feel as though it wasn’t fair for my mother to leave me the way she did, but I made myself understand that it wasn’t fair for her to have to live with an illness that wasn’t being treated properly or being talked about enough. Thank you so much for stopping by and reading what I had to say. I really appreciate it!
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Are you looking for unique sailboats on a budget? On the used market, you can get a professionally fitted and good dinghy for less than $20,000. The majority of these sloops are made of fiberglass.
The West Wight Potter 19 is a sloop with a V-bottom and a centerboard that has a fiberglass hull.
It’s a rugged coastal and inland cruiser with the potential to head out to sea on occasion.
It has a split galley in the middle with a stove and sink, as well as the room below for you.
Contessa 26 was first produced in 1966, but the layout dates back far further. It’s a fast boat seen at long-distance regattas like the singlehanded TransPac from San Francisco to Hawaii. The Contessa 26’s rooms are excellent for their size, and it comfortably sleeps one to five adults.
A long fin keel and a 5.25-foot draught distinguish Catalina 30 sailboats. Onboard, the cabins are fantastic. On the used market, an excellent used Catalina 30 costs between $10,000 and $15,000. Since 1972, more than 6,000 sailboats have been completed, making it one of the most famous sailboats ever.
Launched in 1975, the Islander 28 is an affordable and well-handling sailboat with a reputation for durability and seaworthiness. It’s a masthead sloop with a spade rudder and a fin keel and displaces 7,000 lbs. A decent used fully-equipped islander 28 can be found for less than $20,000 on the used market.
The total length of the Compac 23 sailboat is just about 24 feet. Its proportions make it stable and easy to manage, and it doesn’t heel too much. A separate galley with a sink and stove, chairs, and a V-berth are all featured on the interior.
Between 1965 and 1976, the Cal 25 was manufactured. Many of the original 1,848 Cal 25 sailboats are still in good working order. The vessel is 25 feet long overall and 20 feet long at the waterline. The cockpit is prominent for its size, and the cabin has plenty of headroom. The Cal 25 is an excellent sailboat for winter storage and summer use, with the mast collapsed.
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| 3,003 |
Local MP John Lamont has marked a year into his new job by starting his 2,000th constituency case as a Member of Parliament.
On the 8th June 2017, John Lamont was elected as the new MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, the first time the area had a Scottish Conservative representative at Westminster for 53 years.
Since then, the MP’s office in Hawick has helped with more than 2,000 cases, an average of nearly 40 a week. These cases cover a huge range of problems from broadband issues, to potholes, to antisocial behaviour and visa applications. Many involve more than one constituent, meant the number of people who have been in touch with John will be significantly higher than 2,000.
During this time, John Lamont has also held more than 140 advice surgeries in all parts of the Scottish Borders, as well as a number of street and supermarket surgeries.
In Westminster, John has been appointed Vice-Chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee and Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Broadband. He has spoken in 62 debates, above average amongst MPs and has represented the Borders in 93% of votes, well above average. He has also fulfilled his promise to put the Borders ahead of party politics by calling out decisions made by the UK Government where he felt it necessary to do so.
Commenting, John Lamont MP said: “My incredibly busy and experienced team in Hawick have been working hard over the past year, getting through nearly 40 cases each and every a week.
“While I’m not always able to get the outcome people want in every case, most of the time constituents are happy with the end result and I never turn people away or pass them off to someone else. I’ve also kept up my regular advice surgeries, which give constituents the opportunity to meet with me face to face.
“I said when I was elected that I would continue to work hard for the Borders and promised to be accessible to my constituents. I hope that I’ve lived up to this promise in the last year.
John added: “In Westminster, I will continue to stand up for the things that matter to my constituents, support local businesses and organisations and remain Scotland’s most accessible MP.
“During the election campaign, I promised to put the Borders ahead of party politics. I’ve not been afraid to do just that and have criticised my party on key issues where I’ve felt they have got it wrong, including very publicly on fishing and on the RBS branch closures.
“As always, I’d encourage anyone who has an issue or a concern to get in touch with me via email, by contacting my office in Hawick or by coming along to one of my advice surgeries.”
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In the run up to the referendum in 2014, the SNP promised it was a “once in a generation” event, yet they have ever since been agitating for a re-run of the vote.
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By Anne D. McIntyre on October 25, 2022 Blogging medias
The medium which is singular of MEDIA is called communication channels through which information such as messages, news, videos and other forms of data are transmitted from the sender to the receiver.
As we all know, information is dynamic and unique to its target audience, so it can take different forms such as physical forms (newspapers, billboards, etc.) and online.
Media is generally referred to as all means of communication and since our society thrives on the dissemination of information to function effectively, everything from a WhatsApp message to newspaper headlines describes all the various channels through which the information circulates.
Different types of media
Media can be divided into two main groups:
Print media is known as the oldest form of media. It consists of a wide range of different forms of print such as newspapers, diaries, magazines, books and reports. It remains the most established type of media, even with the development of the Internet, as it is still the most accessible and widely used by a large portion of the population.
Broadcast media refers to the channels through which media is delivered to the general public. They include radio, television, internet, audio podcasts, video, etc. Broadcast media includes different media channels or broadcasters such as television, internet, audio podcasts, video content, etc. It is commonly used for marketing and advertising to create a more meaningful impact on the audience.
Broadcast media rose to prominence in the late 20th century and have since become a preferred source for the public to disseminate information, although scholars predict that very soon online sources will dominate.
The Internet, also known as the World Wide Web (www), is a vast system of interconnected networks. The first network called ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency NETwork) was first started in 1969 as a research project sponsored by the United States Department of Defense with the aim of creating an alternative means of communication outside telephone lines. In recent times, the internet has become a major source of information due to the popularity of smartphones and social media. Other Internet media include podcasts, websites, blogs, and social media.
Social media can be referred to as programs, websites, or networks that allow people to share information through an internet-based device such as smartphones, computers, etc. It was born in 1977 with the launch of the six-degree profile download service.
Other forms of social media began to gain popularity in the 90s, including blogs, known as blogs, Myspace and Google. Social media has continued to grow in importance in advertising and marketing as it has become a major tool for digital marketers and social media entrepreneurs.
There are currently over 100 social media sites available for public use. The most important are Facebook, Snapchat, Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and many more.
Media and development
The role of media in society can never be overstated. Information, they say, is power. The media can be a powerful tool to make or break a society. There are instances where remarkable changes have occurred due to media involvement.
The most recent example that I’m sure everyone can attest to. That is, the latest SARS movement that happened in 2020, here in Nigeria. This incident is a typical example of the impact of the media in a society. Due to the high publicity of this movement, the government had no choice but to give in to the will of the people.
Another example is the incident in Thi, a city in Vietnam. The city suffered from industrialists who constantly polluted the Thi Vai River. Due to media involvement, manufacturers were not only forced to stop polluting the river, but they were also forced to pay compensation to affected businesses and residents. This shows how the media is a powerful instrument for change.
Role of the media in development
It is the vital role of the media to get the facts out. This allows people to be better informed about what is happening around them
The media are the voice of the people. As clearly indicated in the two examples above, the media plays the role of intermediary between the people and the government.
The media provide reviews to ensure that information is thoroughly reviewed.
The media defeat power. Through investigations and reviews that hold decision makers accountable. These apply to all aspects of media. It is through this flow of information that ideas are formed, that discussions and debates are born. And these are crucial for the development of any society politically, economically and socially.
Today, media capacity has become so important that it cannot be overlooked. Especially with the influence of social media, practically anything is possible! The government should embrace the media and use it as a force for good. The media should be allowed to operate on their own. The government should put everything in place for the media to flourish, because through them pass, transparency, better government, better standard of living and better living conditions. The media is the people and when the people are happy the nation is better off.
Negative impact of media in society
Media is an ocean of information where different content enters and spreads through different channels. Information from different sources, some verified and unverified, some valid and invalid. This has misled various people whose main source of information is the media.
The media and its negative influence on the masses has grown exponentially over the past five decades.
Everyone posts what they want. Fake news websites are widespread, publishing lies and fabricated news. While there are obviously many great upsides to media growth, there are undeniable and severe downsides. Health, social and psychological problems stem from the misuse of the media.
Depression and low self-esteem
According to the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), 80% of women are unhappy with their appearance and about 45% diet daily, contributing to the rise in eating disorders, low self-esteem self-esteem and depression in women. United States (NEDA).
Improper use of media is largely responsible for negatively influencing people’s lives as it develops dissatisfaction with body shapes and silhouettes. What is consistently described as beautiful on social media is often wrong. Because people model their lives so much based on social media, they start doing a lot of things to get that perfect figure.
In extreme cases, they suffer from anorexic and bulimic disorders.
Body image is about how you feel about your body. The obsession with stereotypes formed by the media that include hyper-thin and tanned women is particularly detrimental to society. Although the negative impact of the media has proven to be on women, these images have also influenced men.
Men also fight against the influence of the media to be taller, more muscular and more aggressive. Showbiz magazines and their online websites also contribute to negative body image issues.
The media, especially social networks, have been widely abused. These abuses have led to addiction among young people in particular. And it did tremendous damage to relationships with friends and family.
These media-caused problems can be minimized when we minimize how we attribute what we see on the media to our daily lives.
Also make sure that we only get our information from verified and reliable sources, and not just by random surfing the internet. Finally, let’s not live our lives and give preferences based on what we see in the media.
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Though it is the first Psalm in Book V of the Psalter, Psalm 107 seems to be a continuation of the historical Psalms that ended Book IV, the end of a trilogy that includes Psalm 105 and 106. All these Psalms sing the praises of the God who acts in history for his people. Psalm 107 may be the liturgical exclamation point of the trilogy. It is full of indications that it was intended to be used in worship, probably at one of Israel’s great festivals. There are repeated patterns and standardized calls to give thanks. Indeed, the opening words, “Give thanks to the Lord,” might be called the text for the liturgical sermon, followed by examples that illustrate why we should give thanks. Instead of teaching a principle in a didactic way, Psalm 107 moves our emotions with gripping stories.
All of the stories have one main point, announced in the theme text. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good….” But what does Yahweh’s goodness consist in? It could be his moral purity, or his beauty, or his usefulness, or his justice, because Yahweh is good in all those ways. But the dimension of God’s goodness that always moves God’s people to the highest praise and deepest thanks is his chesed; “his love endures forever.” No matter what happens to us, no matter what we do, no matter how dire our situation or depraved our sin, “his love endures forever.” He will not break covenant with his people.
That is the great truth that stood at the center of Israel’s faith. But true as it may be, the mere repetition of that truth won’t move us to thanksgiving and praise. That’s why Psalm 107 tells these stories of people had lived through hard time and had actually seen Yahweh’s chesed at work in their lives. Each of these stories follows the same pattern, an almost ritualized pattern, pointing to the liturgical purpose of Psalm 107. Whether it is the story of people wandering in the desert (4-9), living in foreign bondage (10-16), dying on a bed of illness (17-22), or suffering through a storm at sea (23-32) each story is told in the same way: a description of their distress, a prayer to the Lord, the details of their deliverance, and a call to give thanks for that deliverance. You can almost hear the gathered congregation repeating the words of thanks in unison.
Indeed, the Psalm opens with an invitation to do just that. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say this.” Or, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” That is either an invitation to repeat the following words; here is the pattern of your praise. Or it is a call to speak up, to shout it out, not to sit in stoic silence, but to sing your thanks. Indeed, Psalm 107:2a was used as a theme text in my taciturn Dutch Reformed tradition when we finally awoke to our evangelistic responsibility. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so; tell your story, speak up for Jesus.”
It was a good text for us quiet Calvinists, but it was originally addressed to the Israelites who had returned from the Babylonian Captivity. The “redeemed” congregation is identified as “those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.” The fact that Jesus used the same points of the compass in Luke 13:29 suggest that Christians can use Psalm 107 in our celebrations of God’s love too. “People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the Kingdom of God.”
Our Lectionary Reading for today focuses on the first representative sample of the Redeemed, those who had “wandered in desert wasteland….” Obviously, that could be a reference to Israel’s post-Exodus wilderness experience, but given the context here it is probably a memory of the journey back from Babylon through the vast Arabian desert. But this description could also fit any believer who has ever felt lost in a “dry and weary land.”
Though hunger and thirst threatened life in a physical way, the heart of their distress was that they couldn’t find a “way to a city where they could settle.” God always provided food and water to Israel in the Sinai Wilderness, but they remained homeless, landless, without a permanent dwelling where they could root their lives.
The yearning of the human heart for a dwelling place, a home, a city goes all the way back to Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden. The promise of a return to Eden is at the heart of the covenant God made with Abraham, the father of all believers. Hebrews 11:9 and 10 summarizes the hope of that covenant in these words. “By faith [Abraham] made his home in the promised land, like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Is it any wonder that the Bible ends with the redeemed living in the city of God, the New Jerusalem, described with unparalleled beauty in Revelation 21 and 22? The redeemed in Psalm 107 were looking for a city as they wandered in a wilderness, just like the rest of us.
Like all the other redeemed groups in Psalm 107, these wilderness wanderers finally did the right thing. Rather than simply complaining or cursing, “they cried out to the Lord in their trouble.” That very sentence is found in each of the four stories of Psalm 107 (6, 13, 19, 28). It seems so simple and so obvious, but we all know that it is neither. When we get stuck in trouble, we can get so focused on the trouble that we forget the Lord.
James Luther Mays explains this sentence in a way that should give us all pause. “What sets the chesed of the Lord in motion in every case is the cry to the Lord in trouble.” That may sound too much like “prosperity gospel” to folks who believe in the absolute sovereignty of God, but it is exactly what the text says. “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.” That’s something we can sit and think about until our heads ache. Or it is something to simply give thanks for, as Psalm 107 calls us to do.
Verse 7 validates my comments above about the centrality of city. The Lord responded to Israel’s cry for deliverance not just with food and drink, but with a city. In other words, he didn’t just meet the immediate needs of his children; he took care of their larger, long term needs. They needed a place where they could settle down, raise their own crops and tend their own livestock, and have a dependable means of making a living. As verse 9 puts it, he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. But he does that not with food and drink dropped from the sky and flowing from a rock (though he did that once, for a long time), but with a city where they could settle.
Notice how the Psalmist puts it. “He led them by a straight way….” It wasn’t just that Israel was in a wilderness; it was even more that they were wandering in circles. They were lost; they didn’t know the way. So, in words reminiscent of Isaiah 40, he led them by a straight way. This is something to be thankful for. Even when we are utterly lost, the Lord can “make straight in the wilderness a highway for the Lord. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all mankind together will see it (Isaiah 40:3-5).”
The Lectionary leaves off the end of this story, and that’s too bad, because verses 8 and 9 echo the point of the Psalm. When Yahweh hears your prayer and redeems you from trouble, there’s one thing you should do above all else. “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love, and his wonderful deeds for men.” Again, this is clearly a liturgical refrain to be repeated by the congregation, as it is found in each story in exactly these words.
The words of this refrain remind us that God’s unfailing love is not just an idea or an attribute; it is an action. As I’ve said ad nauseam in these articles, at the heart of biblical religion is the conviction that Yahweh acts in history. We give him thanks because he has “performed wonderful deeds for men (and women and children, of course).” Intervention, interruption, incarnation are the center of our faith.
The God we worship is the great Reverser of Fortune. That is the point of the second half of our Lectionary reading for today. Verses 33-38 are a kind of summary of the way God acts in human history. These verses sound more like wisdom literature than the narrative that occupies most of Psalm 107. Reflecting back on God’s actions in history, particularly in the wilderness, the Psalmist arrives at some generalizations about what God does. He turns things upside down, reversing the natural course of things. He turns rivers into deserts for the wicked and turns deserts into pools of water for the righteous.
Do not think that we make our own fortunes, says the wise man. Yes, we play a role in our own destiny, but ultimately it is God who lifts one up and puts another down. But it takes wisdom to see that. Thus, Psalm 107 ends with a call to think wisely about human experience. And that means, think about God’s role in human history as previously outlined in this Psalm. “Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord.”
It’s almost as though the Psalmist is saying to Israel, “Give thanks to the Lord,” but don’t stop with thanks. You also have to think. Yes, thinking without thanking can led to sterile emotionless faith that never grows close to God. But thanking without thinking can led to mindless emotionalism that is blown away with the first problems that challenges your faith. Thus, Psalm 107 is not only an exaltation of chesed; it is also an exposition of it. We need both.
Somewhere in your sermon or in a liturgical response to it, you simply must use that grand old hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God.” It puts the poetry of Psalm 107 to soaring music.
Above I gave two readings of the phrase, “let the redeemed of the Lord say this/so.” Here’s another way to picture that call. The Psalmist is priming the pump of thanksgiving. You might need to explain that image to children. Back in the olden days when people got water out of a well by vigorously pumping a big iron handle, sometimes they had to pour a bucket of water down the well to get the water flowing. That was called priming the pump. Or to put it another, more modern way, Psalm 107 is designed to jumpstart the engine of thanksgiving. When your car won’t start of a frigid morning, you can use a set of jumper cables to connect your dead battery to a battery of a car that is already running. The current from the good battery will get your dead battery started. Or, to use an analogy that even little ones will get, Psalm 107 reboots the computer of thanksgiving. When your computer is not working right and you’ve tried everything to fix it, sometimes the best thing to do is turn it off and restart it. That’s called rebooting, and it often gets the computer working again. For folks who are a dry well of thanksgiving, or who have a dead battery when it comes to thanksgiving, or who have a malfunctioning computer of thanksgiving, Psalm 107 primes the pump, jumpstarts the battery, and reboots the computer. Corny? You bet, but the imagery just might help your folks grasp the point of this great Psalm.
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The recipe I used to create my starter was not a 100% hydration recipe. I didn't learn until later that this was the most common type. I tried switching it, but it didn't rise very well (perhaps I needed to give it more time?) Anyway, I used my starter for the other sourdough recipe on this site and it worked fantastic. I'm not sure if I need to get my starter to a 100% hydration or if I should keep it the way it is since I know it's worked before. I feed it using 1/4 cup water and 6 tablespoons of flour. Thank you!
December 16, 2019
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Recipe question for: Table Loaf
boulangere December 16, 2019
Good news! Your starter is at 100% hydration. In fact, it's slightly over. 1/4 cup of water is equal to 2 fluid ounces. I just scaled your 6 tablespoons of flour, and it weighs in at 1.87 ounces. When you feed it, be sure to let it sit at room temperature until the surface shows active fermentation bubbles, and you can perceive a creamy/tart odor. My kitchen tends to be on the cold side this time of year, so when I fed mine yesterday, I let it sit for probably 5 hours before I refrigerated it.
stormthecat December 16, 2019
Yay! That's great! Thank you so much!!!
boulangere December 16, 2019
I forgot to mention that whenever you feed your starter, you should double it. When feeding time comes around, if you have more than you want to double, pour off and discard, or use, enough so that you maintain that balance.
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I read a good article published by Zondervan and wanted to share it today. I incorporated some of my own thoughts as well. Hope it encourages you to read and study your Bibles faithfully.
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
When life is filled with responsibilities, it can be stressful to keep up the daily habit of reading the Bible. This is understandable, as modern life can be complex and hectic; however, we should remember that spending time in God’s Word is essential to continuing the good work of Christ within us. Reading the Bible is necessary to align our hearts, minds, and actions with Christ.
As the Psalmist wrote, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (119:105). Reading the Bible reveals God’s path to us.
So, are there steps can we take to establish and strengthen the daily habit of reading God’s Word?
Let’s get practical. If reading the Bible is to become a daily habit, it will require a commitment of time. Avoid stress by starting small. Try introducing just 5 minutes of Bible reading each day and then, as the time commitment begins to feel more natural, gradually increase your reading time.
ADDITIONAL TIP: Fonts can have a huge impact on the quality of your reading experience. Make sure you select a Bible that’s been designed with a clear, readable typeface so your eyes will be able to focus on God Word’s with ease.
Keep a notepad or journal handy as you read. As God speaks to you, reflect on what He’s saying and briefly write out God’s message. This will help foster personal application from your reading. As James 1:22 tell us, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
ADDITIONAL TIP: There are Bibles customized with space for note taking and journaling. These editions are a convenient option to simplify your devotional time.
As you become more comfortable with a daily reading time, challenge yourself by setting goals to read through the Bible, or portions of the Bible, at a steady pace. There are multiple reading plans available to help you find your rhythm. Some plans are intensive, leading you through the entire Bible in as little as 90 days. Others allow for more meditation. For example, there are plans that will take you through the Gospels in 40 days and others that will help you read the complete New Testament in one year.
No matter what plan you select, remember that a reading plan is only a tool to help you stay on track as you spend time in the Word. Don’t let it get in the way of hearing God’s voice.
Understanding the context and historical setting of a passage is important as you apply the Bible to your life. Not only does the Bible speak directly to us, but it also shows us how God has spoken to His people since in ages past.
Using a study Bible and other study resources will help you learn the cultural background of familiar biblical stories. As you discover what the biblical writers were facing, a new understanding of God’s power and faithfulness will be revealed through the Scriptures. For example, Ephesians 3:20 takes on a new meaning when you realize Paul was in prison: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us…”
5. Read with Your Community:
While reading the Bible is essential for personal growth, it also fosters strong community. Find a trusted friend, pastor, teacher, spouse or small group leader to share what God is saying to you through your daily Bible reading. Go a step further and read aloud with a friend. There is power in reading God’s Word in community and in hearing the Scriptures spoken. The accountability may help you to maintain the habit of Bible study! Don’t fail to seize every opportunity to hear the Bible preached and taught by gifted pastor/ teachers.
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Terry has been the Senior Pastor of Liberty for 30 years. He and his wife, Karen, have 4 children, 11 grandchildren, and 1 spoiled dog named Cooper.
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When Representative Liz Cheney asserted at the House Jan. 6 hearing on Thursday that Trump administration cabinet members weighed invoking the constitutional process to remove President Donald J. Trump from office after the attack on the Capitol by his supporters, she did not immediately provide details or evidence.
But as the federal government convulsed in the hours and days after the deadly riot, a range of cabinet officials weighed their options, and consulted one another about how to steady the administration and ensure a peaceful transition to a new presidency.
Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state at the time, and Steven Mnuchin, then the Treasury secretary, discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would have required the vice president and the majority of the cabinet to agree that the president could no longer fulfill his duties to begin a complex process of removal from office.
Their discussion was reported by Jonathan Karl of ABC News in his book “Betrayal,” and described to The New York Times by a person briefed on the discussion. Mr. Pompeo has denied the exchange took place, and Mr. Mnuchin has declined to comment.
Betsy DeVos, Mr. Trump’s education secretary, told USA Today this week that she raised with Vice President Mike Pence whether the cabinet should consider the 25th Amendment. But Mr. Pence, she said, “made it very clear that he was not going to go in that direction.”
She decided to resign. So did Matt Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser.
Eugene Scalia, then the labor secretary, discussed with colleagues right after the attack the need to steady the administration, according to three people familiar with the conversations.
Mr. Scalia called an aide to Mr. Pence, they said, to say that he was uncomfortable with Mr. Trump functioning without something of a check on him in that moment, and that there needed to be more involvement from the cabinet. Mr. Pence’s team did not want to make such a move.
Mr. Scalia also had a conversation with Mr. Pompeo, which Mr. Pompeo shared with multiple people, in which Mr. Scalia suggested that someone should talk to Mr. Trump about the need do something to restore confidence in the government and a peaceful transition of power. In Mr. Pompeo’s rendering of that conversation, disputed by others, Mr. Scalia also suggested that someone should talk to Mr. Trump about resigning.
Mr. Pompeo replied sarcastically by asking how Mr. Scalia imagined that conversation with Mr. Trump would go.
Mr. Scalia and Mr. Pompeo, through an aide, declined to comment.
The reference by Ms. Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and the vice chairwoman of the House Jan. 6 committee, to the 25th Amendment being under consideration by cabinet members was one of the most striking assertions in the panel’s two-hour hearing. In the first of six planned public hearings, the committee presented a detailed case against Mr. Trump and the rioters who stormed the Capitol and delayed the congressional certification of the Electoral College results.
The panel has signaled that it plans to use the discussions about the 25th Amendment to show not only the chaos that Mr. Trump set off by helping stoke the riot but how little confidence those around him had in his ability to be president.
“You will hear about members of the Trump cabinet discussing the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment, and replacing the president of the United States,” Ms. Cheney said as she read her opening statement at the hearing. “Multiple members of President Trump’s own cabinet resigned immediately after Jan. 6.”
In addition to Ms. DeVos, the transportation secretary, Elaine Chao — the wife of Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader — also resigned.
At the hearing on Thursday, Ms. Cheney also asserted that Republican lawmakers who had been involved in helping Mr. Trump overturn the election sought pardons from the White House in the final days of the administration. The committee plans to use the pardon requests as evidence of how those who helped Mr. Trump had a consciousness of guilt about what they had done.
Ms. Cheney did not provide any evidence to substantiate her assertion, and she named only one lawmaker, Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, as a pardon seeker.
In an email, Jay Ostrich, a spokesman for Mr. Perry, called the assertion “a ludicrous and soulless lie.”
Ms. Cheney promised that she would reveal supporting evidence at upcoming hearings, and a person familiar with the committee’s investigation said the panel had received testimony about the pardon requests.
Mr. Perry coordinated a plan to try to replace the acting attorney general, who was resisting Mr. Trump’s attempts to investigate baseless election-fraud reports, with a more compliant official. Mr. Perry also endorsed the idea of encouraging Mr. Trump’s supporters to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The committee’s next hearing is scheduled for Monday, where the panel plans to lay out how Mr. Trump and his allies stoked the “Big Lie” that the election had been stolen. Two more hearings are scheduled for next week — one on Wednesday about the attempt at the Justice Department to oust the acting attorney general, and another on Thursday about the pressure campaign on Mr. Pence to block or delay certification of the electoral vote count.
Three former Justice Department officials have agreed to testify at the Wednesday hearing, according to a letter sent to the committee on Friday.
The three witnesses — Jeffrey A. Rosen, who was the acting attorney general, Richard P. Donoghue, the acting deputy attorney general, and Steven A. Engel, the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel — all participated in a tense meeting just before the Jan. 6 attack, where Mr. Trump considered firing Mr. Rosen and installing a loyalist in his place.
Even before Jan. 6, government officials under Mr. Trump had discussed invoking the 25th Amendment.
In the spring of 2017, after Mr. Trump fired James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, rattled by Mr. Trump’s handling of the dismissal, raised the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment in a meeting with senior Justice Department and F.B.I. officials.
The acting F.B.I. director, Andrew G. McCabe, had opened a counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia and was pressing Mr. Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel. Mr. Rosenstein agreed that Mr. Trump’s possible ties to Russia should be investigated but said that if an inquiry uncovered troubling evidence of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia, the only remedy would be to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Mr. Rosenstein then said that he had done the math and believed there were at least six cabinet officials who would go along with invoking it, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly. Despite raising the possibility, the idea went nowhere and Mr. Rosenstein appointed Robert S. Mueller III to be the special counsel.
In the years that followed, there were several disclosures about others who had discussed the possibility of invoking the amendment. In 2019, a book by an anonymous administration official recounted that senior White House officials believed that Mr. Pence would go along with invoking the amendment to oust Mr. Trump. Mr. Pence denied that claim.
A veteran CBS News producer named Ira Rosen wrote in his 2021 book about his time working in the news business that Stephen K. Bannon, the White House chief strategist until August 2017, had spoken with him about the 25th Amendment.
And Mark T. Esper, Mr. Trump’s final Senate-confirmed defense secretary, wrote in his recent book, “A Sacred Oath,” about the aftermath of an incident when Mr. Trump delivered a diatribe against the military during a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the second half of his term.
“Months later, one of the officers present told me in a phone call that he went home that evening deeply concerned about what he had seen in his commander in chief,” Mr. Esper recounted, without identifying the person in question.
“The next morning, he said in a very sober tone, he started reading up on the 25th Amendment and the role of the cabinet as a check on the president,” Mr. Esper said. “He wanted to understand ‘what the cabinet needed to consider’ and what the process was.”
Mr. Esper said that in his own view, Mr. Trump’s behavior never rose to the standard required for invoking the 25th Amendment. But that was before the postelection period, by which time Mr. Esper had been fired by Mr. Trump.
Two days after the Capitol riot, Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke to Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
“This is bad, but who knows what he might do?” Ms. Pelosi said, according to the book “Peril,” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. “He’s crazy. You know he’s crazy. He’s been crazy for a long time. So don’t say you don’t know what his state of mind is.”
“Madam Speaker,” General Milley replied, “I agree with you on everything.”
Luke Broadwater and Katie Benner contributed reporting.
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Sibshops provide young brothers and sisters peer support and information in a lively, recreational setting.
It gives us great pleasure to announce Sibshops, an exciting program just for brothers and sisters of kids with special needs. At a Sibshop, brothers and sisters will:
• Meet other brothers and sisters of children with special needs.
• Talk with others who “get it” about the good (and sometimes not-so-good!) parts of having
a sib with special needs.
• Learn more about disabilities and the services that people with disabilities receive.
• Have some more fun!
Our Sibshops are run by a team of people who have a professional and, in many cases, personal understanding of the impact a child’s special needs can have on brothers and sisters. Equally important, they all have great kid skills!
We currently offer both, online and in-person Sibshops. Our virtual event is held for 90 minutes and our in-person Sibshops are held for 2 hours.
Our virtual Sibshops fee is $15 for the 90 minute event and the cost is $20 for our 2 hour in-person Sibshops.
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Items: Among women chemists who are now college presidents, perhaps the most prominent is Linda Wilson, president of Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Mass. Another name to add is Jane Margaret O'Brien, biochemist and president of Hollins College in Roanoke, Va. In July 1991, O'Brien--who received a B.S. in biochemistry from Vassar College in 1975 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Delaware in 1981--became the eighth president of the small, all-women's school. She says the
Feb 21, 1993 | 4 min read
Among women chemists who are now college presidents, perhaps the most prominent is Linda Wilson, president of Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Mass. Another name to add is Jane Margaret O'Brien, biochemist and president of Hollins College in Roanoke, Va. In July 1991, O'Brien--who received a B.S. in biochemistry from Vassar College in 1975 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Delaware in 1981--became the eighth president of the small, all-women's school. She says the rigorous and demanding schedule needed for scientific research has helped her successfully adapt to life as an administrator over 1,000 undergraduates and 94 faculty members. "There are a lot of chemists in administrative work in colleges and universities," she says, noting that her predecessor, Paula Brownlee, now president of the Association of American Colleges, was also a chemist. "The constant demands on you are the same. When doing research, [the demands are] more...
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We sat down with Veronica, a Hatch Coding coach, who talked about her experience coding and her approach to teaching kids how to code.
How did you first get introduced to coding?
When I was playing Neopets around 13 years old and used html to make my Neopet page look really cool.
Tell us a little bit about your professional and educational experiences.
I took a Computer Science course in grade 11 and we learned Visual Basics C++. I have been teaching for a little over 3 years at Hatch. Since October 2017.
What is your teaching philosophy?
Practice, practice, practice. Just like any skill, to get better at it, you got to put in the time and practice whenever you can. This is like taking piano lessons. Every week for an hour you practice and every week you will get better at playing the piano each time.
A Boolean is like turning on the lights. The lights are off and you turn on the lights when you want to. Else if statements are like pages in a mini booklet. It will start from the first page which is the if statement, and then go onto the next page which is the else if statement. You need the first page to move onto the second page of the booklet.
From Hatch Coding’s five lifelong skills (Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, Teamwork, Creativity, Language Fluency), which two can you speak to where these skills were put into action and the student had an “ah-ha” moment?
A student had an “ah-ha” moment when there was a problem with when the user enters their name in a prompt it did not show up on the canvas. The user’s name would only show up when they click on the buttons to change the font of the text. He had used his problem-solving and critical thinking skills to box out a specific area for the user to click on for user input using an if statement, mouseX and mouseY.
Can you share a student success story where your mentorship helped a student have a breakthrough with their code?
Ethan’s game froze when I tried to start the game. I helped him on the booleans and where to place the keyCode. That way he can start and pause the game. This is what he needed to finish in order to submit it for the Game Jam.
What do you hope your students will achieve with Hatch Studio’s program?
I hope after using Hatch Studio’s program that they know the basic concepts of Javascript such as variables, functions, if statements and for loops. They also know how to create shapes, text and images.
When not teaching, what do you like to do for fun?
I like to watch youtube for entertainment and learning. I like to doodle or draw when I get inspired. When I’m in my room alone I sing and dance.
Do you have any of your own projects that you’ve built that are now up on Hatch Studio?
Yes. I made the project Camera Phone. It is like a camera where you can capture an image and it will show that image.
Are you currently taking any professional development courses?
I am not taking any professional development courses but I am researching unit testing and building my portfolio on Github so that I can progress to be Hatch Certified Coach Level 4.
Did you have experience teaching kids prior to joining Hatch Coding?
Yes, I was doing Co-op as a teacher’s assistant at Christ The King elementary school from September 2009 to June 2010.
Hatch Coding educates the well-rounded programmer, teaching the ability to read, write and modify real-world computer code - which are transferable lifelong skills. Beyond a coding program - it’s an online community where your kids can learn more about themselves and the opportunities for their future.
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We sat down with Brenda, a Hatch Coding coach, who talked about the Virtual Classroom and shared interesting stories about coding, education and working on a team.
Hatch Coding students turn ideas into code in our 2021 Game Jam Competition
March 11, 2021
Hatch Coding hosted a Game Jam Competition where students had 3 weeks to code a game around the "animals" theme and show off their creative problem-solving skills.
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Have you ever taken on a new challenge that’s led you on a path of surprise, wonder and discovery? Explore the chain of events that happened once this musician took on the challenge to code.
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I’m not a big fan of self-help books or life coaches. This isn’t because I don’t believe in self-development but rather that a lot of it is drivel and amped up stories of theory without any real substance or actionable insights. But I think Becoming to some degree provides a blueprint for learning to not limit your aspirations or question your suitability for success as this mental shift can set you on a path for moving beyond the parameters and low expectations with which society might try to constrain you.
Podcast Episode
I like reading biographies and autobiographies about people who have led interesting lives and/or done great things. But sometimes I find people can shy away from discussing topics that don’t portray the subject in the best light or expose vulnerabilities and insecurities. I think to some degree it’s human nature to avoid showing your innermost self to others. That kind of openness usually requires time and intimacy.
I will say that Obama is undoubtedly a very classy woman. As a political spouse, I expected her to pull punches and present a fairly perfect facade with a lot of empty platitudes about simply working harder to get ahead. Your basic self-help drivel built on a foundation of politics. Those biased expectations were part of why I avoided reading Becoming when it was first released. There was a lot of fanfare and I expected some of the attention was a result of people, women, in particular, still dreamily idolizing the Obamas due to the current political climate. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book’s success was quite well deserved as Becoming is a great read.
I’ve liked Michelle Obama since the 2008 election and found a lot of her qualities that the media complained about endearing. When I picked up Becoming , I felt that I knew at least the basics of Michelle Obama’s life. Having at least this top-level view of her life, I wasn’t in any great rush to learn more about her life story and feared that I would find Becoming dry and boring. So I was pleasantly surprised when I finally decided to read the book and realized there was more to her story and that it wouldn’t be the neat and tidy narrative I assumed. Granted it’s not as explicit as some of the books that I have read and reviewed but it is fairly honest, open, and quite human.
We certainly all have our weaknesses and there are things we are insecure about whether physical, mental or otherwise. But I think people, and Black women, in particular, can find bits and pieces of themselves within Michelle Obama’s story. And with that, an inspiration for moving forward in life and your personal development even with outside forces questioning your suitability and your right to exist within a particular space or environment.
Becoming is divided into three acts. The first focuses on Michelle Robinson’s childhood in Chicago and her journey from adolescence into adulthood. Being a relatively poor Black child growing up in Chicago and eventually entering the privileged world at Princeton and a prestigious Chicago law firm. The experience of growing up in an environment that began a downward slide around the time of her birth due to the community and its people being perceived as worthy of neglect. But being saved by the solid foundation of parents who sacrificed and encouraged her to want and believe that she was capable of more than what society people who share her skin color and are from her neighborhood deserve.
“Becoming Me” was one of my favorite parts of Becoming it offered real insight into Michelle Obama’s development without politics or an agenda. Often, we see the result of people who achieved success in life without having an accompanying detailed explanation of the hard work and setbacks it took to get there. So many decisions and experiences along the way. The story of Michelle Obama shows the importance of parents being actively involved in the education of their children even before they enter school. Obama was fortunate to have a present father and mother who took an interest in her total development. How might things have differed if her father was not present and her mother didn’t have the time?
The greatest motivator is hope. Believing there is more and you’re capable of achieving it is a requirement for reaching your goals. Children need adults to inspire and encourage them rather than shoot down their dreams and burden them with hopelessness.
Imagine being a child put into a dark uninspired classroom in the basement of the school with a teacher who doesn’t care whether you’re learning or not. Kids can pick up on things like that and it affects the way they feel about themselves and their futures. Most kids are naturally inquisitive and willing to learn as long as they’re engaged. Thereby teachers must know how to teach and engage children. I don’t believe that a six or seven-year-old should be written off or cast aside as bad or hopeless. If a teacher is just a warm body and fails to engage students they will find ways to amuse themselves. Being unruly is not necessarily a sign of being unintelligent but can be a manifestation of boredom or frustration. Children, like adults, can feed off of the energy around them. Being treated like a burden and undervalued can result in low self-esteem and not valuing yourself.
Education and healthcare are two industries with professions where workers need to be passionate about their jobs as they hold lives in their hands. Unfortunately, some teachers are uninspired and it shows in the way they interact with students. Granted teachers are not always given the resources they need to be successful.
It was life-changing for Michelle Obama to be pulled out of an underperforming class with an unengaged teacher. But I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the other kids whose parents didn’t intervene or weren’t engaged enough to even know what was taking place in the classroom.
Since reading The Warmth of Other Suns , I’ve enjoyed hearing stories of how various Black families came to settle in particular parts of America. One of the great tragedies of the Black experience is that given what Black people have accomplished despite having their opportunities limited, who knows what could have been achieved without racist roadblocks. The limitations placed on Black people can still be seen in the community today and continues to compound.
I agree with Michelle Obama’s assessment that some Black men are resentful and mistrustful as a result of the discriminatory limitations they face which curtail their desires for economic advancement and the ability to abundantly provide for themselves and their families. This is often discussed but I appreciated her perspective on pushing back against her grandfather’s angry outbursts. Being oppressed by society does not make it okay to lash out at your wife and kids. It’s unproductive anger that as Obama points out is better directed at pushing back against the system for change and trying to provide a solid foundation and better opportunities for your kids.
Learning about her parents’ appreciation for and nourishment of her feistiness was endearing. I think this shows the importance of not stifling inquisitiveness and confidence in children. Kids should be respectful and well-mannered but turning them into conformists who can’t defend or think for themselves will carry over into their adulthood. Instead, encourage kids to respectfully question things and advocate for themselves.
There’s a lot of insight into Obama’s immediate family so you get a pretty good feel for her mom, dad, and brother. Having grown up without my father it was quite heartwarming to read about being a daddy’s girl. That made it especially heartbreaking to read the years-long progression of her father’s illness and the impact that it had on the family. Having spent pages reading about what a good man and father Mr. Robinson was, my eyes welled up with tears when I read about his passing.
While reading about the early life of Michelle Obama, she also tells the story of Black Chicago’s evolution during this time. South Shore, the neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago where Obama grew up, like many other neighborhoods, began as predominantly White and became predominantly Black as a result of white flight. Michelle was born in the projects but her family moved into the small upstairs apartment of her great-aunt’s home. Over time the neighborhood became increasingly poor as higher-earning families moved to other areas. Obama attended local schools until she got to high school and began a long commute to get to the school for the gifted and talented across town.
I’m from Brooklyn, New York and grew up during a time when communities like mine around the country were experiencing the scourge of the crack epidemic. I have a first-hand understanding of the impact that crack had on my community and through that the impact that it might have had on other Black communities around the country. But it was interesting to get a different perspective from someone that was born a generation before mine and could explain what it was like to live during changes of the 60s and 70s and the impact she saw in her community.
Often, and especially while the Obamas were in the White House, there were news stories about the violence and turmoil in Chicago. With situations like that and having an interest in history, I’m always curious as to what the circumstances were that led to the current conditions. I had some understanding of how many black families came to live in Chicago after migrating from the South and learned about the formation of its gangs. But it was different to learn about the experiences of a Black woman who was the second generation of her family to be born in Chicago. Learning about the community’s development from her perspective as someone who was not involved in street life but grew up during a major transition period in the city’s history was eye-opening. It gives some insight into how this was systematically turned into a ghetto and some of the people and their children were made to feel like there was no way out.
The second act, “Becoming Us” focused on the further development of Michelle and Barack Obama’s relationship and marriage. There is a lot of insight into her relationship with Barack and including how it developed over time and experienced rough patches much like any other relationship. I find that my views and opinions on relationships tend to differ from most so I usually don’t care to discuss relationships with people.
But I think a lot of people, both men and women can learn a lot from this section. I don’t think this is a chapter you should read and take specific things from in the belief that this is the one true way to do things. But rather the message around paying attention to your communication styles and for lack of a better term “love language”. I think the key point here is that it takes the commitment of both parties for a relationship to work and they must both put effort into maintaining that relationship. You should have standards when selecting a partner and recognize that regardless of your needs you can’t change the other person. But you do you have control over how you choose to deal with your relationship and quite often making adjustments to your actions or reactions is most effective.
I’d always wondered how Michelle Obama’s felt about essentially having to put her career on hold to support Barack Obama’s run for president and then to serve as First Lady. This section of Becoming offered some insight into the real reality of two high powered individuals in a relationship and the sacrifices required to make things work. As well as the fear one person’s (quite often the woman’s) identity being swallowed up by the needs of the other person’s ambition.
It might be a sign of the times but I’ve been noticing a recent trend with more individual women as well as media discussing how commonplace fertility issues are. I don’t think this was necessarily a taboo topic but maybe not as openly discussed. This part of Becoming might also appeal to couples that might be dealing with infertility issues. I guess it was pertinent to the discussion but I could have gone the rest of my life without didn’t need to hear anything about Barack Obama’s sperm.
What I found most interesting about this part of Becoming is that it explored Obama’s dissatisfaction with her career despite having spent many years studying to become an attorney. I related to her uncertainty about her chosen career path and the desire for more or some meaningfulness to her work. It was interesting to read about how she came to realize and admitted it to herself that she was unhappy with the path she’d chosen. Navigating major life changes such as career shifts can be difficult. It was inspiring to see the plan she put together for changing the things she didn’t like in her life rather than just complaining and remaining stuck.
The third and my least favorite part of the book focused on Barack Obama’s presidency. This section is just as well written as the rest of the book but over the last few years, I’ve just had no interest whatsoever in politics or politicians so it was a bit of a drag for me. I appreciated getting a behind-the-scenes look into what it was like to live in the White House, always having someone around, and not being able to go and come as you please. The day-to-day of living in the White House and being First Lady was pretty interesting.
In some ways viewing people on TV or through the scope of the media can dehumanize them a bit. I saw the various news reports during the election and the Obama presidency where various individuals made negative comments about Michelle Obama as a person as well as her physical appearance. There were numerous instances of blatant and subtle racist remarks being made about the Obamas. But because they never really commented on them I just assumed that they didn’t care and were unbothered. I was sad to learn that these comments did indeed hurt and in some instances touched on actual insecurities that Obama held about herself.
There were also reports of threats against Barack Obama but given that they never directly address them, again, I just assumed that they weren’t worried or scared. During the time of the Obama presidency, the media seemed to be pushing this idea that we were living in a post-racial society. I knew that was nonsense but thought that maybe the Obamas had bought into that idea. As is to be expected, I don’t agree with Obama’s perspective on all subjects, particularly with regards to Black people and their reactions to the racism of mainstream Society. But nonetheless, I appreciated the peek behind the curtain and her explanation of her perspective though it might differ from mine.
Not that I ever intend on running for public office but if anything they showed me just how ill-suited I would be for such pursuits. I do not believe that I have the self-control required, nor would I want to have the self-control required, to deal with such insults.
I think Becoming is a good book, well written, and engaging throughout. But it ran out of steam a bit for me in the last section. Granted this was in part due to my lack of interest in politics and living in Washington. But if you enjoy those particular topics you will likely enjoy the book in its entirety.
I recommend reading Becoming if you are a young woman trying to figure out your own identity, career, and/or romantic relationships. The latter half of the book would be of particular interest to people who are interested in public service and politics. I think the book would be especially appealing to Black people, both men, and women, who would like a behind-the-scenes look into what it’s like and how best to navigate some of these unfamiliar environments as a Black person. If none of that stuff interests you and you just want a book to read with some classy shade there’s some of that there for you too.
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Coming of Age in Mississippi [Book Review]
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Natasha is a marketer by day and a voracious reader at all other times. She developed a passion for history and storytelling as a child and became increasingly interested in global Black nonfiction and literature as an adult.
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Several named modes of therapy involve joints. Manipulation, joint mobilization, alignment, remodeling of collagen and even exercise are the main ones. Any muscle lengthening procedure will involve joints as well. This section will demonstrate one way of accessing and treating them. Ligaments and joint capsules that span the joint and the bone on either side are all actually part of that joint. As an early embryo all the above structures including the joint space were one enlage that is, a common mold of mesenchymal cells. Therefore, one part of the joint alone can’t be affected without involving others. The bone will be discussed in another video. Only a few examples are shown here.
Remember, nerves are in these structures, especially after injury.
Many of the problems exist where the ligaments and joint capsules join the bone (enthesis). Only the soft tissue aspect of the entheses will be covered here.
With all these techniques, the position has to be held long enough in order to have fluid movement.
Just a reminder, after injury previous avascular and aneural tissue change. We humans often injure joints and these changes are therefore quite common. The intervertebral disc is a good example. Again, take the joint to end range and hold for a few seconds. Give the excess fluid time to egress. We always monitor the patient’s response during these techniques. End range loading is really no different than performing orthopaedic and neurological tests.
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That Order
Dorothy took her seat at the table and stared at the chair across from her. She hadn’t seen them walk in, but she did notice that there were two more people in the small coffee shop. A young man sat with the woman near the window, and an older gentleman took a seat across from the man at the other table. The wooden chair opposite her was now the only empty one.
The curvy edge of her smile straightened, and Dorothy remembered why she was there. She had pulled the car into the parking lot after a young couple saw her talking to herself on the road. She was sure they thought she was crazy. And maybe they were right. She was an old woman driving a nice car and having a full conversation with a person who wasn’t there. That was the very definition of crazy.
What made it worse, was this was not the first time Dorothy had done this. For years she had driven down the 101. And for years Dorothy had turned to the passenger seat and talked to the man who never said a word back.
Her late husband, Leonard Charles Hope, was the best man Dorothy had ever known. They had met at Walt’s Soda Counter. Dorothy had reached out to grab the coke bottle Old Man Walt had popped the top to, and Leonard had done the same. Their hands had met, they both smiled, and Old Man Walt popped another open before smirking and walking away.
The two sat at the counter for hours drinking their sodas and talking about anything and everything. Dorothy loved the way he smiled, and she laughed so hard that she snorted multiple times. She loved that he loved her snort. She loved the way he looked at her that first day. She loved everything about him. It took just one day, and young Dorothy Anne Campbell knew that she had met her husband.
He walked her home that night, after Old Man Walt had given them the look of a worker who was trying to close up and leave. He offered her a ride in his car, the prettiest one Dorothy had ever seen, red, shiny, and as handsome as the man she had just met. But she knew that her mother would lose her mind if she saw her daughter dropped off in a car at night. So the two walked. It wasn’t far to her house, and Dorothy wished the walk lasted longer. When she finally got to her walkway, Leonard politely shook her hand and asked if he could see her again. She wanted to scream the word “yes”, but she just smiled and nodded.
Their first kiss would come a few days later after a midday showing of A Shot in the Dark. And the marriage proposal followed only a couple of short months later. The wedding was small and intimate, a little ceremony near San Francisco. The honeymoon was spent driving down the coast in his new Mustang and spending the nights in the small motels that would take young black couples. It was everything Dorothy could have wanted. He was everything Dorothy could have wanted.
But now, Dorothy sat at a table meant for two, her husband probably still sleeping in their bed, and her without a soul to keep her company.
She took a look out the window at the car that brought her here. It was still as beautiful as that night she had seen it parked outside the soda shop. Her smile returned to her face just as the young man from the counter came over with a tea cup and hot kettle.
“Would you like me to pour for you?” he asked with a smile.
“That would be wonderful.”
He picked up the beautiful porcelain kettle, and the cup filled with steaming water that darkened from the tea bag.
“Thank you,” she said with a nod.
The young man finished pouring and headed into the back room with the hot kettle. He returned to the counter a minute later when a new customer walked in. But by that time Dorothy had lost herself in her surroundings.
Something about the small coffee shop seemed captivating. She must have passed the shop a hundred times and never truly noticed it. But now, she wondered how she could have missed it. Something about the dark wooden walls, the steam rising from her cup, even the people that were in that room with her.
The woman that arrived just before Dorothy, the one that sat near the window with the young man Dorothy hadn’t seen come in, was in tears. The man that entered with Dorothy, had a look on his face like he was staring at a ghost. Both of their eyes were as wide as their faces would allow.
Dorothy didn’t know why they looked that way. She wasn’t sure who they were or why they were here. She did know that there was something about this coffee shop that felt magical. She could see it on their faces. She could smell it in the air.
She breathed in and the warm scent of her Earl Grey mixed with a smell that brought her back sixty years. She could recognize that intoxicating scent anywhere. Lenny’s shirt smelled of that cologne on the day they met. And he smelled of that soothing fragrance every time they had seen each other afterwards. For fifty years she had hugged him and breathed in deep the smell that made her smile. It was one of the things she missed the most when he passed.
“I’ll take a coffee, thank you.” The words rang out from the man at the counter in a deep thundering voice. It was a voice Dorothy knew well. It was the same voice that asked if he could see her again. The same one that asked her to marry him. The same one that sang sweet songs to her when she would get sick.
Dorothy said the next words with him. “Just enough cream to make it sweet, not enough to make me fall in love.”
Leonard Charles Hope had ordered his coffee that way every time, from their first breakfast date at Tina’s Diner to their last meal at St. Mary’s Hospital. And now he stood a few feet away from Dorothy, smiling at her.
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7 That Order
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When a marriage comes to an end a divorce is a likely destination. whereas nobody looks forward to a divorce or to the changes that a part of that process the steps taken can oftentimes be positive in many regards. If disagreements about money or arguments over subjects related to finances or a driving cause of your divorce then the stability that you may experience regarding divorce and maybe felt most acutely in your pocketbook and your future chances at financial success.
The thing that I have noticed in married couples is that married people cannot achieve long-lasting and true success in finances unless both people are on board with the plan. I’m not telling you that you need to follow any certain plan to become financially successful or to have financial peace but the reality is that two people moving in different directions have difficult times when it comes to achieving any degree of sustained success. It is when you and your spouse can come together, decided to plan an act intentionally that success can be achieved.
In your divorce, you and your spouse will be faced with the prospect of dividing up your community estate and settling finances regarding property owned in the marriage and separately owned property. So much of how this will be done depends upon the nature of your marriage, the number of children you have, the types of property and debts that you have in play as well as a myriad of other circumstances. Since I Mount be able to guess exactly what your circumstances are I will not waste any time in making assumptions or drawing conclusions based on hypotheticals.
What I would like to do is to discuss an aspect of property division that is known as noncash compensation. in all of the blog posts that I have written on this subject, I do not believe that I have written at all about noncash compensation and how it relates to Texas divorces. We try to make this blog a resource for people that come to have questions about the world of Texas family law and would like to the point, straightforward answers. While such simple and straightforward answers are not always available I do my best to provide information that is as thorough as possible but always approachable in terms of your ability to access and understand the information provided.
Depending upon how complex your financial life is you may be the owner of a significant amount of assets and also someone who owes that’s to several creditors. Adding onto this difficulty would be figuring out how to divide up any kind of non-cash compensation. Whether your divorce cases one where you will be representing yourself or is 1 where you will have an attorney it may seem like the odds are stacked against you as far as your effort to successfully handle all the financial aspects of your current situation.
That is where today’s blog post comes in. I would like to be able to provide you with as much information in context as I can about this issue so that you can use it as a jumping-off point when speaking with an experienced family law attorney. Bear in mind that the attorneys with the law office of Brian Fagan offer free of charge consultation six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. We are well versed in working with you to discuss issues like noncash compensation that may be impacting you and your family in your current divorce scenarios.
Just what is noncash compensation?
When it comes to living a post-divorce life, the most frequently accepted kind of support that is given from one ex-spouse to the other would be spousal maintenance or contractual alimony. These are types of post-divorce spousal support that are allowed in the Texas family code. Depending on your circumstances you may either agree to contractual alimony payments or may be ordered to make spousal maintenance payments depending on whether or not your case where to go before a judge in a trial.
Contractual alimony is a form of spousal support that occurs after a divorce through the process of negotiation. Typically in a mediation setting your spouse may agree to receive payments from you of an expected amount over a certain length of time. These payments may be made monthly, bimonthly, or on whatever basis you all agree to. A family court judge may be able to enforce your contractual alimony payments in the future but would only be able to do so to the extent that he or she could have awarded spousal maintenance.
On the other hand, spousal maintenance is ordered by a family court judge after a divorce trial. These maintenance payments are court-ordered and would be limited to 20% of your gross monthly income at the time of your divorce. Depending upon the length of your marriage these payments could last for up to 10 years. The death of either party to the divorce, your ex-spouse remarrying, or cohabitating with a person with whom he or she is having a dating relationship would be grounds to terminate any orders of special maintenance.
Noncash compensation stands in contrast to either of these types of cash compensation that may be ordered after a divorce. When you divide property in a divorce we typically think of doing so as being part of the Community property estate. Even if we’re talking about bank accounts, stocks, and other investments although you don’t have your hands on this money or value currently you can identify the amounts through bank statements, investment statements other information like this.
Other types of property and assets that are frequently divided in a divorce would include vehicles, real property, your marital residence, and other property assets that are intangible such as vehicles. When we think about issues like noncash compensation we will be considering dividing up the property that does not have a specific value at the moment. These types of assets are trickier to divide given that you must be able to keep them organized, evaluate which estate they belong in, and then determine a relative value amount for each asset.
What are some examples of non-cash compensation?
Noncash compensation typically refers to investments and retirement accounts. For example, with a pension, you may be able to ascertain an approximate value but the pension would produce for you every month at the time of your retirement but you may also be unable to gain a clear understanding of what the pension will be valued at in terms of right now at the top of your divorce.
Types of stock may also be termed as non-cash compensation in your divorce because the value of the stock is not known at this moment. After all, you do not own it. For example, as a benefit through your employer, you may own types of restricted stock or even a stock option where you would be able to purchase stock at a certain price in the future if certain conditions precedent were fulfilled. These stock options have a value but it is difficult to determine what it is exactly.
As a result, What are the jobs that you, your attorney, and possibly an expert in this field must undertake in your divorces to determine an approximate value to figure out how to divide them in your divorce? You may even be limited from selling or purchasing noncash pieces of property during your divorce due to standing orders or temporary orders that are set up. You need to be aware of what you can and cannot do during the divorce about noncash compensation.
As we have seen, even taking a dollar value for stock or other types of noncash compensation at this moment may not be the best way to value the asset. Depending on how much noncash compensation or assets you own this could be a substantial part of your community estate and may sway how your case is handled both in a trial or mediation setting. There is little way to accurately predict just what the stock market will do over the next 10 to 15 years. There is quite a bit of evidence that the stock market will increase in value over that time and thus your stocks may be worth more but there is no real way of knowing exactly by how much they will increase or decrease for that matter.
Being able to make assessments like this and then provide clients with assistance in valuing these assets is what an experienced family law attorney can bring to the equation. You need to be able to weigh the pros and cons of dividing up these types of assets in the divorce so that you can receive a fair deal when it comes to a division of your community estate. Without a doubt, noncash compensation can represent a substantial part of your community estate but it can also represent a substantial mistake if you do not handle matters related to this subject correctly.
For that reason, I recommend meeting with a handful of family law attorneys and interviewing them regarding this subject in particular if you anticipate that it will be a big part of your case. You will want to make sure that your family law attorney is not only experienced in handling divorces but is experienced in helping people in your position divide property like noncash compensation. I like to tell people that there is nothing wrong with an attorney learning the field of family law but that you shouldn’t be the person that he or she practices on. Your best bet is to find an attorney who has been there before in his skill that dividing these types of assets. You will not get a second chance to do so after the divorce so your best bet is to get it right the first time.
High wealth earners should be especially aware of noncash compensation issues in divorce
not every divorce involves issues regarding noncash compensation. Typically, persons who are more high earning received types of noncash compensation as benefits associated with their employment. We have already covered how stock options and restricted stock are types of compensation that are not necessarily reflected in salary. However, in the discovery process, the information may come to the forefront that these types of noncash compensation exist and that is how they become part of the list of items that are to be negotiated upon in mediation.
For example, noncash compensation such as stock options can be exercised once or twice a year on most occasions. You should look to your temporary orders with your attorney to determine whether or not the stock options can be exercised or even sold to present a clear picture of your divorce. If you know that you have stock options that are available for purchase or sale then you should work with your attorney to figure out exactly when those dates arrive and what you can do with them as far as negotiation for your case.
A wise thing for you and your attorney to do maybe 2 go ahead and request permission from the court to be able to buy or sell shares of stock by these stock options. If you find out that your temporary orders do not allow for the purchase or sale of stock in these scenarios then you may want to ask a judge for permission to do so under limited circumstances to divide up your community’s state. That way you can determine how much stock is available, its value and have a better idea of how everything fits into a division of your community estate.
You should ask an attorney in any consultation with him or her what their plan may be as far as determining what an attorney thinks with the ability of the stock to go up or down in value based on conditions in the market. I am not implying that your attorney would be able to play stockbroker or guess or time the market in any way but the attorney should have a plan in place depending upon what happens with the stock market in terms of increases or decreases in value over time. Being able to act intentionally in this regard is very important and your attorney should have a plan to help guide you and provide advice where need be.
The other option would be to address this issue upfront with your plan to take advantage of any of these options to purchase her cell during your divorce. If you can get on the same page with your spouse then you would be able to avoid having to go to court to have a judge address the issue. This will save you both time and money. It will also lay the groundwork for establishing a line of open communication regarding issues like this.
Provide information to your attorney and then listen to their advice
Probably the best information that I can provide on this subject, without knowing your specific circumstances in the types of non-cash compensation that are relevant to your divorce, would be too figure out with your attorney how often your stock options would be able to be exercised and then to figure out how you want to address that issue as a result. Considering that some divorces can take years to complete you will want to have a plan in place from the outset of your case to avoid situations where vesting dates occur seemingly out of the blue where you and your attorney have no plan on how to deal with them.
One issue that I cannot emphasize enough is to make sure that you and your attorney were on the same page with this issue. Your attorney will be able to guide you better based on your circumstances, jurisdiction another is she’s related to your divorce but you may violate temporary or standing orders if you allow for these vesting dates to pass without taking certain actions. Regardless of the situation that you find yourself in you are almost certainly able to make informed decisions in advance if you put into place proper planning.
Working with an experienced attorney, one who displays a willingness and ability to develop a plan and stick to it, is the best place to start in my opinion. Rather than rushing into a divorce with no plan and an attorney that you lack confidence in I would recommend interviewing a handful of attorneys and finding out what their ideas are in the subject and determining for yourself which one presents the best road map for you and your family.
Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
If you have any questions about the material contained in this blog post please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free of charge consultation six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations are a great way for you to learn more about the world of Texas family law as well as about the circumstances in your life that may be impacted by a child custody or divorce case.
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Doug Tarry Homes is pleased to be an event sponsor bringing “track to the future” – a Mural Festival to St. Thomas. Watch live as murals come to life. Discover pop-up events, artisans, local food options, live music, immersive and interactive art in addition to the anticipated creation of new murals around the community for this FREE event July 16th!
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Fetomaternal alloimmunization is a diagnosis that took 29 year-old Alexandra by surprise as she looked forward to a large family. We’re grateful that she shared her story with The Fetal Health Foundation.
When I was three months pregnant with my first son, James, I learned at a routine OB visit that my blood type was A-negative. At 29, I’d never known my blood type, and I certainly had no reason to care. In my third trimester, I received an injection of a substance called RhoGAM, which is administered to all pregnant mothers with negative blood types to prevent maternal antibodies from forming and attacking the positive blood cells of the unborn baby. I got my shot and headed home, thinking nothing of it.
James was born on a perfect fall afternoon, eight weeks later. I’d never seen anyone so perfect. After enjoying a quiet evening in our tiny room on the OB floor, my husband noticed that James was starting to look orange, and asked a nurse if she could take a look at him. A routine CBC revealed that my hours-old son had a shocking number of maternal antibodies in his system, which led to an even more shocking number of red blood cells: too few, the tests showed. His blood type was positive, leading the neonatologists to conclude that my RhoGAM injection had failed. My body had become “sensitized” to James’ positive red blood cell antigens. James was whisked away to the NICU for treatment: phototherapy, IVIG, and ultimately, two blood transfusions.
What had started as a lighthearted joke about a “rogaine” shot in my backside had taken a nightmarish twist. My son was very sick.
Six months later, I was diagnosed with fetomaternal alloimmunization, a condition in which a mother’s body creates antibodies against a fetus’ blood antigens. The antibodies cross the placenta and attack the unborn child’s red blood cells, which, when untreated, can lead to severe anemia, a condition called hydrops fetalis, seizures, and ultimately, death.
This diagnosis crushed us. My husband and I wanted a lot of children, and now we were left wondering whether we could even have a second.
Shortly after my diagnosis, we set up a consultation with a renowned physician at Duke Perinatal, an arm of the Duke University Hospital System that spreads across Durham, North Carolina. We met with the doctor and a Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) fellow with whom we instantly connected. They gave us the most thorough, and most reassuring, account of my disease: how it worked, the risks it posed, and what it could mean for subsequent pregnancies. They were also the first to assure us that this disease would not stop us from having more children.
I will never forget how I felt when their words washed over me. We could have more children. I don’t know if these physicians will ever fully understand the vital place they inhabit in our family. Without them, our son Liam would not exist.
A few months later, when a positive pregnancy test announced Liam’s impending arrival, I didn’t feel nervous or anxious about my antibodies and how they might affect this next pregnancy. I felt only awe that, once again, new life bloomed inside me.
The first six months went exceedingly well. I visited Duke Perinatal every other week for MCA dopplers, ultrasounds that measure the peak systolic velocity of blood flow across the baby’s brain: an indicator of fetal anemia. At 29 weeks, my scans revealed that Liam was shunting blood to his brain, signaling a problem that required additional monitoring. I was immediately scheduled for a PUBS, an inpatient umbilical cord blood sampling procedure that tests the hematocrit level in fetal blood. In most cases, the test is followed by an intrauterine blood transfusion: a truly astonishing feat of modern medicine that involves injecting donor blood through the mother’s belly and into the umbilical cord.
I didn’t expect to be quite so emotional during my first PUBS. The OBs were kind, calm, and skillful as they gave Liam his first of what would be five total blood transfusions (two in-utero, three after birth). I’d never been so grateful for modern medicine. I tried not to think about what would’ve happened to Liam if I’d just so happened to be born in another decade, or in another country, where I did not have access to the same perinatal care.
Two weeks later, Liam again began to show signs of anemia, so we returned for a second PUBS. This one didn’t go quite so well: During the procedure, Liam’s heart rate dropped from its typical baseline of about 140 to fewer than 80 beats per minute. While these drops can be normal, due to the increased fluids and the sedatives affecting the baby, they should resolve after the procedure. Liam’s did not. Suddenly, the OB who’d performed both of my PUBS, a kind, funny, lighthearted woman who’d suddenly become extremely serious and grave, looked at me and said: “Well, we’re going to have a baby today.”
Minutes later, I was back in the OR for an emergency cesarean that happened so fast I didn’t even have time to panic. Liam Michael had arrived, eight weeks early but as round and pink as a full-term baby, once again pushing the very limits of my capacity to love.
Liam spent 31 days in the NICU and had a few more transfusions after discharge. The first few postpartum months with a premature, anemic baby were challenging and marked by lots of trips to specialists – hematology, physical therapy, a pediatric gastroenterologist, and one scary trip to the emergency department. But now, at 16 months old, Liam is thriving with no lasting complications.
The impact of a high-risk pregnancy carves deep grooves in the heart. I’ve struggled to reconcile my gratitude for my miraculous babies with my grief over the large family I thought I wanted. I’ve struggled to celebrate friends whose births are uncomplicated, while also feeling deeply, viscerally sad for mothers whose stories don’t end with a healthy baby, as mine did.
Carrying Liam for just seven of nine months reminded me that the world will never be perfectly safe. Even my own womb isn’t safe for my unborn children. It can be tempting to slap a pretty bow on a scary situation, to try to twist a negative into a positive. But there is simply no bow for some situations, especially for the mother whose pregnancy story is sad, disappointing, or traumatic, or that ends in loss. But rather, in and among the darkness are tiny points of light. And it’s within those points of light that I want to live.
Liam is a miracle for many reasons, but mostly, because he taught me this.
—
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Welcome to the Marathon Center, access to some of the most helpful material in the industry to build your business as a professional photographer. We're going to be sharing an endless stream of marketing materials, products and guest posts to help you raise the bar on your business. We want this year to be the best year yet...and each year that follows even better!
got Seniors?
by Skip Cohen
Over the last ten years the senior market is one of the photographic specialties that's changed the most. There are some big numbers in the potential audience, giving so many photographers the opportunity to work with seniors.
About 3.5 million students are expected to graduate from high school in 2016–17,
including 3.2 million students from public high schools
and 0.3 million students from private high schools (source).
So, with a target audience of 3.5 million subjects, the potential for more and more artists to get involved is enormous. For example, follow any of the larger photographic forums on Facebook, and you'll regularly see senior work being posted and discussed.
The intrigue for me, from a marketing perspective, is all thanks to consumer trends and technology. Working with even a small group of senior clients is giving photographers an opportunity for incredible creativity in both capture and presentation.
This is also that one time of year where I always share my senior shot. Fortunately, the industry has come a long way. But, I can't help but wonder what my senior session would have been like had there been more choices beyond a half dozen clicks of the shutter, two lights and a posing stool!
Think about it for just a second. Today, if you're only doing a traditional portrait because that's all "Mom" asked for, you're missing an opportunity to not only create a stronger revenue stream but to push your creative skills. As a selection of products and services, you no longer have just a portrait to capture, but a still image or series that captures the personality of the senior together with hybrid slide shows, videos, and a complete story-telling experience.
And, along with all the potential to display your creativity, comes a big question, "What are you giving your senior subjects to help them announce their graduation?"
Marathon's running their BOGO on grad cards again this year, and it's an opportunity not to be missed. Here's your chance to not only provide a service to your senior clients but get your work out there to be seen by even more people. Just click on the banner below and connect to Marathon's Grad Cards and let's get things going for you early in the senior season.
Remember, while Mom isn't in front of your camera, women make 98% of the purchase decisions when it comes to photography. Your seniors might be the subjects, but their mothers are your the audience you're working with when it comes to closing the sale!
If you're stuck on design ideas, Marathon's sales kit is just the thing to help you through the process. We're at the end of March. You've got enough time to order a sales kit and have a full sample set of products to offer "Mom."
Every artist has the same goal - to exceed client expectations and make yourself habit-forming. A graduate's first experience working directly with a professional photographer is often during their senior shoot. Since relationship building is your greatest marketing tool, here's a chance to establish yourself as the photographic resource for your senior clients and their families, which has the potential to lead to future weddings, babies, children and family portraiture.
Marathon is providing you with a few of the tools to help build that relationship. Now, put grad cards together with your skill set and passion for the craft and you've got the perfect foundation to keep building your senior audience.
by Skip Cohen
When I first met the team from Marathon Press back in the late 80's they were the leader in printed material for the photographic industry. There was no Internet; the word "blog" didn't exist; there were no websites; every photographer carried around a portfolio of images to each convention or business meeting and "live" education was something you either got in a workshop, at a convention or watched on your VCR.
Today, everything has changed. Educational opportunities are everywhere. We blog, tweet and share ideas in seconds all day every day. Your website has become your storefront and your blog, if done right, captures what's in your heart. Very rarely is anybody carrying around a portfolio case these days, which has been replaced by images on a phone.
But there is one thing that's never changed, and that's Marathon's dedication and leadership in helping photographers grow as artists and business owners! And, they're still the leader in marketing material and support for photographers with websites, postcards, brochures, marketing programs and now prints and albums with the Bella line.
Yesterday Marathon launched the first blog post in a series of great content for the future from nine bloggers who all share the same passion for education. This is in addition to the stellar group of writers who have been sharing content in the past. I couldn't be more proud to be one of the nine people above to be sharing ideas on Marathon's "new" Blog. While we all might not always agree on specific concepts in business, we do all agree on the importance of helping you make 2017 the best year yet!
Stay tuned - because yesterday's first post by Mary Marantz, "The Art of Getting Organized" is only the beginning!
If it's not already there it's time to put Marathon's blog on your radar.
© Romolo Tavani
Intro by Skip Cohen
I found the article below in the archives of Marathon's blog. It couldn't be more perfect for this time of year.
We're entering the last month of what's typically known as the slow season, but just because sales might be slow doesn't mean there isn't work to do. This is the time for you to be laying out the last steps of your marketing plans for 2017.
Marketing is a constant flame that needs to light your business all year long. It should never stop as long as you look at your entire plan and design programs/activities to keep your name out there. Marathon's giving you five ingredients below to fuel your plan.
Take the time to review each Ingredient and see if you've done your homework. Marketing isn't just developing great promotions. It's all inclusive with every aspect of your business to build a stronger brand.
“Good marketing makes the company look smart.
Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.”
Joe Chernov
Need more help? Contact Marathon's marketing representatives at (800) 228.0629. Ask about the Marketing Advantage Program too. So many of you simply run out of time - MAP essentially creates a marketing department for your business and utilizes Marathon's assets without depleting yours!
“Why should I market?” is a question many business owners ask and there is a very simple answer. In order for a flame to continue to stay lit it needs three things; fuel, oxygen and a spark. If you take one of those things away the flame goes out. Marketing creates the conditions under which sales can be made. Without the spark, the fuel, and the oxygen that marketing brings to your business, your sales will burn out.
In order for your marketing to work as it should to keep your business burning bright there is a step-by-step process you must follow.
• Awareness: Clients will deal with you only if they know you exist. In order to achieve awareness, your marketing must spell out as clearly as possible and without any confusion as to who you are and what you do.
• Comprehension: Prospective clients must also comprehend what you do. If you advertise that you make the finest Giclée prints in town, you probably won’t sell many portraits to those who don’t comprehend what a Giclée print is all about. So your marketing effort must convey a message that is easy to comprehend, such as: “This is a photography studio that does romantic wedding photography and they are located in the next town over.”
• Conviction: This is a critical step in convincing prospects to use your services. They will experience conviction only if they believe that what you offer might have some relevance for them. Conviction is built in many ways, including word-of-mouth-advertising. Clients who receive top-notch products and services from your studio will tell their friends about you. This facilitates conviction better than any advertisement can. So don’t overlook the power of testimonials, whether they are delivered in person or presented as part of your marketing.
• Trial: Once conviction is established, your next task is to induce prospective clients to try your services. Trial is greatly facilitated by an appealing offer or compelling marketing message, coupled with a “risk reducer” (such as a satisfaction guarantee) and a “payment facilitator” (such as a payment plan or acceptance of credit cards).
• Loyalty: The trial stage allows the photographer to do what he or she does best. When all goes well—when the product, the pricing, the promotion and the place meet or exceed the expectations of the client—then it is possible for that client to develop loyalty: the ultimate achievement in the client-studio relationship.
Once these steps are complete, you will have a much easier time keeping the flame of your business burning bright.
Fisheye Connect's goal is simple: To connect you with the best photographic workshops and training around.
Workshops that Educate, Empower, and Inspire. You do the rest!
Be a part of the most powerful network of photography courses in the industry.
Fundy Designer just released a FREE update for all v7 licensed users, this update includes tools to help boost in-person sales or conduct remote design consultations for worldwide clients. Available now.
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Like you, I have been disturbed and unsettled about the events of the last several days. I am sure we will continue to unravel this as our country continues to move forward, but I want to share my thoughts at this point in time.
Enough.
There are no excuses for those who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday. Five people died. And, sadly, it appears that most of the protesters inside the Capitol were Trump supporters. Antifa wears face coverings obscuring their identity.
Of blaming all Trump supporters for the crimes of a small group who attacked the Capitol.
I’ve spoken to and met thousands of Trump supporters across the nation. They love this country and the Constitution. They hate what they saw at the U.S. Capitol as much as I do.
Of the Democrats and the mainstream media’s sudden case of amnesia. For months they encouraged and justified street riots, looting and the torching of police stations, court houses and businesses. Their protesters at so-called “mostly peaceful demonstrations” acted out as criminals just like those who stormed the Capitol.
Enough.
There is no such thing as justifiable political violence. Politics is never an excuse for criminal behavior.
Of the sanctimonious attacks by Democrats on Trump supporters who question the election results by those same Democrats who pushed a fake Russian collusion theory and trumped up impeachment charges for the last four years.
Whether or not the final election result would have changed, the fact that millions of mail-in ballots in swing states were never verified for legitimacy and ballots were counted in the middle of the night with observers held at a distance, created enough suspicion that a reasonable person could ask questions.
From Democrats demanding Ted Cruz resign for taking the same stand that Democrat
California Senator Barbara Boxer took in 2005 (along with 31 other Democrat senators) who wanted the Ohio election overturned. It was their right then, and his right today. Neither Sen. Boxer nor Sen. Cruz incited protesters to strike the Capitol.
Of the media’s double standard and pretending they are unbiased, instead of a front for the left wing.
Of the media’s condescending attacks on 70 million Americans because they don’t share their left-wing view. Anderson Cooper’s mocking of Trumpers for eating at the Olive Garden and staying at the Holiday Inn is a classic example of media elites looking down on those they feel are beneath them. Surely he knows that many Democrats also eat at the Olive Garden and stay at the Holiday Inn. Cooper’s words may seem trivial to some, but his were some of the most condescendingly hateful and divisive words spoken during this time.
Of media and left-wing elitists who have true hate in their hearts for the heartland of this country who are not rich and privileged. Their goal is to permanently divide us.
Of allowing Big Tech – Twitter, Google, Facebook and Apple — to silence our freedom of speech. We cannot let this happen. It will lead to more anger. And enough of all the hate on social media toward those who have a different opinion than we do.
Of the relentless attacks on Trump. He had a right to question the election results. Trump’s words did not call for a riot, but he didn’t lower the temperature of the moment.
The President’s many accomplishments are profound and continue to be supported by nearly half the country. He reduced and simplified taxes, completed the largest deregulation in our history, appointed 3 Supreme Court justices, 54 appellate judges, 174 U.S. District court judges, returned the embassy to Jerusalem, passed criminal justice reform and opportunity zones, strengthened law enforcement, withdrew from the Paris climate accords, expanded oil and gas drilling and dismantled the Iranian deal. He also accomplished a miracle in getting us a COVID-19 vaccination in record time when experts said it was impossible and media elites ridiculed him.
The Operation Warp-Speed vaccine will save millions of American lives. Unfortunately, his accomplishments of the last four years will be diminished by the haters.
Of attacking the new President. I do not support the current items on his agenda. I will work to defeat the Democrats and retake Congress in 2022 and the White House in 2024. But, I will pray for Joseph R. Biden as President just as people who opposed Trump should have prayed for him over the last 4 years, instead of trying to destroy him.
Enough.
If we as a nation have now decided to attack any President we elect because they are in the opposite party, our country will not survive much longer.
Many places around the world hate America and want to destroy us. We cannot deplete our strength by destroying ourselves from the inside.
Of pointing fingers and blaming others. It’s up to us. I believe most Americans are good people. We don’t hate each other. Both parties must renounce political violence.
The criminals who perpetuate political violence, whatever their political ideology, must be held accountable. And we must restore the faith of all people in our elections so that the Republic survives.
Most importantly, we must end the caustic hateful rhetoric toward each other that proliferates on social media, electronic, print media, and in our streets. If we cannot respect others political views and are bent on destroying everyone who supports a candidate we don’t agree with or who runs for or holds office, our nation is doomed.
I shall do my part to fight for conservative values. I am committed to winning elections and stopping the far left radical socialist agenda. Political fights matter and I will not pull any punches. I never have. But I will not destroy our country in the process by hating my fellow man. If others hate me for my views (and many do), I will not return the hate. It will only make me work harder. That’s what God commands us to do. That is what made our country great.
Enough.
Lieutenant Governor of Texas
Yep. Safe to say we all felt the burden of Bidenflation this Thanksgiving. ... See MoreSee Less
High inflation is hitting the Thanksgiving spread. Food prices rose almost 11 percent over the 12 months ending in October, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI), while gro...
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Wharton's Applied Knowledge Capstone Project enables you to apply your analytic skills to real business challenges – including your own. You’ll use your newly earned business skills to thoughtfully evaluate a real situation or opportunity from Wharton-governed companies like Shazam and SnapDeal.
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Marketing Plan for Review
In this Module, you'll write your Marketing Plan for your product or service that will be part of your final project. Because determining who the audience is for a product or service, and how to talk the audience about it is critical to the success of your capstone, you'll have the opportunity to get feedback on creativity and analytical strength of your marketing plan before you submit is as part of your final project. Once you submit your idea, please review the Marketing Plans of five of your peers.
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Andrew M. Heller Professor at the Wharton School, Senior Fellow Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics Co-Director, Mack Institute of Innovation Management
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Выбор языкаАнглийский
[MUSIC] So welcome again everybody. Today we're going to talk about something really cool and really interesting, which is the whole idea of reviews and how they affect our behavior, both online and offline, part of an omni-channel discussion. So how are we going to do that? Let me just give a quick overview of where we're going to go. We're going to start with some motivation for why review information is important and affects behavior in markets. Then I'm going to give you a little bit of economic theory, which I think is really fascinating based on some research that was done by a colleague out in Los Angeles a few years ago. I think you'll enjoy that. And then finally I'll follow up some other examples of Amazon versus Barnes and Noble on the internet and then Expedia versus TripAdvisor. I'll explain those as we get through. Here's the first motivation for reviews and use of reviews. You'll notice there on the slide the statistic could even be higher. I think I've been quite conservative here, but about 60% of us, at least in the United States, but I'm sure around the world, read reviews before we make purchase decisions. And secondly positive reviews, whether they're for books, restaurants, movies, jeans, whatever it is that we're buying, are seeming to influence people's behavior. So bringing this information into the market is very, very critical. You might remember from one of our previous discussions that one of the frictions that we often experience in the market is we don't really know how good a restaurant is, how good a product is, how good a movie is. And now that information is being made available much more easily and much more efficiently. Often by people who are complete strangers, but the information's still useful for our purchase decisions. Also, since we're here in Philadelphia, at least I am, I wanted to put in a couple of quotes that I think speak to the importance of reviews for merchants and probably even for individuals. So Ben Franklin said, it takes many good deeds to build a reputation, only one bad one to lose it. So that might be interesting to think if you write a book and you're selling it on Amazon and you're getting mainly five-star reviews and suddenly a one-star review comes along, I wonder if that would affect your sales. Well we'll answer that question as we go through the discussion a little further. William Shakespeare, perhaps because of his British heritage, I guess I'm partly from the area, coming from New Zealand. He's a little more cynical, and what he said in the quote there is that reputation is an idle and most false imposition, often got without merit, and often without deserving. So what he's saying is that sometimes people can build fake, or phony reputations, and that's certainly true today in 2013. In fact, many of the reviews, apparently, that we see on places like Amazon and TripAdvisor and Yelp may, in fact, not be legitimate. We'll get to that later on as well. So just for your interest what I've done here is I've shown a bunch of links that you can go and check out if you want to see how people review airlines. People review recipes, people review doctors and so, and what you'll see here is a flavor for how reviews are presented, whether visually with with stars, whether they show the average, the deviation, whether there's content. You may already be using some of these things, but just go and take a look to get a sense of how this information is presented, before I now give you some of the theory. So before we get into the theory, I just want to share with you a very interesting anecdote that I found on Chris Dixon's blog. So this is a story about a startup that raised, as you can see on the slide, about $4 million in venture funding, was eventually sold and then roughly at the time of us preparing these videos in Philadelphia, was a public traded company worth over $6 billion. So who is this company? This company actually is TripAdvisor, originally purchased by Expedia for 210 million and now has grown into a huge company that's really a company primarily putting information into the market, information that's contributed by people like you and I. So for the budding entrepreneurs out there watching this, sometimes you can build a great business just by bringing information into a market and helping people make better decisions and better choices. So lets begin with a little bit of theory. Sometimes it's helpful to know just to ground what we're thinking about. So economic theory would suggest that more information to consumers is almost always better. The more light that's brought to bear on a market, it's usually better for, certainly, the end users, people like you and I. In addition, an economist might tell us that if information is provided into a market, it may change the behavior, not only of the buyers and who they decide to buy from, but also the behavior of the sellers. Maybe they'll be more motivated to provide better quality products and services. So to examine this, there was a very interesting study done by two coauthors, Jenn and Leslie, I've provided the reference for the paper in the notes if you want to read the original paper, who looked at what happened to the market for food, restaurant food, in Los Angeles after inspections were done of the restaurants there. So what I’ve shown on the slide are the actual photographs of ratings of restaurants that appear in the windows of restaurants in Los Angeles. In the United States, you also see them now in New York and probably other places, too. Perhaps in your home country you have something similar. So the way this works is a health inspector visits a restaurant. The health inspector goes through many, many things in terms of the hygiene of the restaurant, gives it a score out of 100. If the score is more than 90, then that restaurant places a sign in the window that says that this is an A hygiene grade, B is a lower grade, and C of course is a lower grade down still. And so the co-authors, Jen and Leslie, wanted to figure out whether or not providing this information into the market would change the behavior of the consumers that were there. And what did they find? Well, what they found was the demand at restaurants that got an A went up quite substantially, about 5 to 6%. Demand at restaurants that got a B actually went up hardly perceptibly, less than 1%, and demand at restaurants that got a C, of course, went down. So once the information was in the market people, as you might imagine, wanted to go to restaurants that had better hygiene and better quality food. So that was a buyer explanational, that was an effect on demand. But there's also an effect of information on supply, which I think is at least as interesting, perhaps even more so. So what did the provision of that information in the market do to the sellers? Well, it caused them actually to increase the quality of what they’re offering because now there’s more of a benefit to be known as an A restaurant. So to check this out, what the researchers did was something very clever. They looked at the number of people that got sent to hospital for food related illnesses, and what they found was in markets where the signs were in place, that went down substantially, about 13%. Whereas in other parts of California that didn't have the system, the number of people going to the hospital for food borne illness was actually going up. So again, that’s a pretty clever test that shows this was also affecting the behavior of the sellers, as well as the behavior of the buyers. So what do we learn from this? Here’s the key principle, is that reviews and review systems definitely change behavior, both of buyers and also of sellers. But the most important thing, knowing that, is that reviews ideally should be objective and verifiable. This is not always the case. Let's look at a couple of research examples. The first one was a very clever study that was done two professors at Yale that examined whether or not reviews for books help ramp up sales. They looked at two different websites, amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. And what they found is, most of the people who write reviews are in fact fairly generous. There are five possible stars that you could give for a book at Amazon, and the average rating at the time of the study was about 4.1. On Barnes and Noble, for whatever reason, people are even more generous, the average rating was about 4.5. One star reviews are pretty rare, that's the lowest review. So one star reviews would show up about 7% of the time on Amazon and about 3% of the time on Barnes and Noble. So did all of this reviewing have any impact on sales? Yeah, you bet it did. So what the authors found is if you got more positive reviews sales of your book went up. And they also found that if you got more negative reviews, one star reviews, then sales of your book went down. In addition, there was kind of a subtle effect of this negative information such that if I got a negative review on a book that I had written, a one star review, that seemed, in some, sense to also slow down the rate of positive reviews that were coming along subsequently. So, again, a very, very interesting study showing that reviews are affecting sales. Now, of course, this might motivate people who are selling books to review their own books if they know that it's going to have a positive effect. So what I'm showing here, and you can read the articles and the links, is a picture of a very interesting lady, Harriet, who has reviewed over 25,000 books on Amazon. So I'm not suggesting that she hasn't, but it's just interesting to notice that one person can generate so many reviews. Now, in addition to our friend, Harriet, there was another fellow who was doing something perhaps a little more devious but in some ways quite clever. So there's a fellow called Mr. Rutherford. You can read the article I provided a link for. What he decided to do was to offer himself as a review-writing service for authors. So if you'd just written a book, he might be willing to write 20 reviews for you for some sum of money, let's say $100 or $500, completely, of course, fake reviews. And what was interesting about this was Mr. Rutherford was making about $28,000 not a year, but a month by doing these fake reviews. So what does this tell us? It tells us that information's powerful and it also tells us that sellers might want to manipulate the information that's offered. So, you might be sitting there scratching your head as I was when I first read that story. Boy, somebody making almost $30,000 a month providing fake reviews. So clearly, this is a bit of a problem, and it's come to the attention of many other writers and kind of experts, and so, how might one address this problem of fake information being out there affecting people's behavior? Well on the next slide, I'm showing a story, you can read the full story in the New York Times, about a gentleman who's an expert on something called data mining. So what he would do is he would go through all of the text of reviews and try and figure out what reviews are real and what reviews are fake and so on. Now, even though that's a pretty sophisticated technique, it turns out that it's actually difficult for a computer to figure out what's really true and what's not under certain kinds of circumstances. So it would be difficult, for example, for a data mining algorithm to figure out if I was saying something sarcastically, for example. So those nuances of language might be quite difficult. So to look at this question from a different perspective, Dina Mayzlin, who's a professor now at USC, she was one of the original authors on the other study I mentioned about looking at the effect of reviews on Barnes & Noble and Amazon, decided to tackle this problem in a very, very interesting way. So let me illustrate that for you. What she did is she wanted to compare ratings on TripAdvisor versus ratings on Expedia for the same property. So let's choose a property so we can all be clear about what we're talking about. So it turns out there's a Sheraton Hotel on the corner of 36th and Chestnut Street here in Philadelphia. So Dina and her co-authors were curious as to whether the reviews of that property were the same on TripAdvisor as they were on Expedia. So most of you have probably been to those websites, and you'll notice again it's a five star review system, and you get a histogram of reviews, so some number of one star reviews, two star reviews, three star reviews, four star reviews, and five star reviews. Now if both of those sites are providing the same objective information those histograms should be identically matched, right? So that was the test that she wanted to see. Were the histograms different for the same property? And what she found was on TripAdvisor there were slightly more one star reviews for certain properties and also slightly more five star reviews. And when she dug in a little bit more what she found was if you were operating that hotel, the Sheraton Hotel at 36th and Chestnut Street and located quite close to you was a competitor, a competitor who perhaps just owned their own little hotel. Let's call it Chris' hotel, Chris Heffron, the videographer. And Chris's hotel is competing with the Sheraton, and because he's a one man shop, not really accountable to a big organization as I would be if I were a manager at the Sheraton, he would be more likely to write a one star review and try and knock his competitor, the Sheraton at 36th, and he would be more likely to write a five star review and to praise his own property. That's what Dina and her colleagues found. So again, it's very, very interesting to think about whether review information is valid, because certainly people are acting on the basis of review information. So this is a good point for me to now summarize the key idea, if you were to introduce reviews into a market, what you'd want to do is make sure those reviews are objective and verifiable. And so what Dina did in her study is she made an assumption that reviews on Expedia are more objective than reviews on TripAdvisor. So I'll let you think about that for a moment as to what the reason might be if you've looked at both of those sites. I use both myself when myself when I'm deciding where to stay. TripAdvisor was less objective than Expedia for the following reason. In order to be able to post a review on Expedia you have to have stayed at that property within the last six months. So Expedia will send you an email and they'll know from your credit card receipt that you actually booked and you stayed there. Where as at TripAdvisor, you are supposed to have stayed there, but that need not be the case. I can go and write a review for a property that I had not stayed at. So again, I think this is a fascinating area of online offline competition, and again, I'd like to challenge and encourage those of you out there who are thinking about starting your own business. If you can start a business that brings information into a market, that can be something very, very powerful. If you think about the story of how TripAdvisor has grown into a multi billion dollar company, that's essentially just gathering and processing and providing review information that's generated by all of us. [MUSIC]
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SPS-192: How to Build an Audience on Instagram – with Stuart Grant – Mark Dawson's Self Publishing Formula
Free Books
SPS-192: How to Build an Audience on Instagram – with Stuart Grant
20 September 2019
Instagram has grown from a platform for younger people to a thriving social media app with over a billion users per month. Instagram Ninja, Stuart Grant walks us through some of the basics of using the platform successfully as an author.
The benefits for authors of the platform
On paid advertising on Instagram
Building an audience on Instagram
How to authentically show up on the platform
Tips for growing your follower numbers
How microblogging works in Instagram posts
The different kinds of hashtags to use and when to use them
Resources mentioned in this episode:
MEET AND GREET: Meet James and John at the Tap and Barrel [Convention Centre location] in Vancouver, BC on 21 September 2019.
MEET AND GREET: Meet James, John, Young Tom and Mark during the NINC conference at the Sharktooth Tavern on St. Pete’s Beach, Florida on 26 September 2019.
LIVE EVENT: Information about tickets for the Self-Publishing Show live event in March 2020
SPF BOOKS: Get your free copies of the SPF guidebooks here, including Stuart’s book on Instagram for Authors.
Speaker 1: On this edition of The Self-Publishing Show.
Stuart Grant: And it’s amazing how, when I walk into a room, people go, “Oh, that’s Stu. I know you! Where have I seen you? Oh, you’re the guy that’s on. Because of me, just drop in the odd line underneath people’s stuff.
Speaker 1: Publishing is changing. No more gatekeepers, no more barriers, no one standing between you and your readers.
Do you want to make a living from your writing? Join indie best-seller Mark Dawson, and first-time author James Latch, as they shine a light on the secrets of self-publishing success.
This is The Self-Publishing Show. There’s never been a better time to be a writer.
James Blatch: Hello, it is The Self-Publishing Show with James Blatch.
James Blatch: How are you, Mark Dawson? We’ve had a heck of a week, have we not?
Mark Dawson: Yes, it has been a very busy week. Lots of different things going on, both with SPF, and books, and all kinds of stuff. Yes, this might be a slightly longer podcast than usual.
James Blatch: It is. We’re going to be talking all things Instagram today, and we know this is going to be a popular episode because we have a load of free resources and free books, and one of them is written by Stuart Grant.
If you go selfpublishingformula.com, just click on the resources tab, you can download the book and it is without question our bestseller. It’s a book that goes very well, every day of the week.
Authors know that Instagram is a big, vibrant, important, growing platform and they need to understand how to use it.
So, we’ve got all that coming up in a moment but before then we’ve got quite a lot to get through before then, the very first thing I’m going to do, Mark, is very important, to welcome our new Patreon subscribers, so these are people who’ve gone to Patreon.com/selfpublishingshow to support the show and get goodies in return.
And they are our new Patreons, Corin O. Flynn from Colorado in the US. Hi there Corin. Helen Parker Dravil and Drake Evens, our three new Patreons, joined us this week. Thank you very much indeed.
We have occasional live training, usually once a month. We’ve had two quite close together recently. This week it was about going wide with Kinga Jentetics, she’s great. And she talks not just about whether you should go wide, that big question, but really about making sure that you’re doing it properly and maximizing your benefit from it. And she’s from PublishDrive, of course. That goes onto the shelf for everybody who’s a Patreon supporter or a student of our courses and they can look back at those anytime and we’ve got more coming up in the future.
Right, that is our Patreon supporters welcomed and we’ve got a few things to talk about. Should we start with SPS Live, hello London. Is it going to be you on stage?
Mark Dawson: No, it’s going to be you doing that, I’ll be much more reserved. Yes, so it’s been an interesting week really.
For those who don’t know what we’re up to, we’ve been thinking of doing a live event for a while and we settled on Monday, the 9th of March 2020, which is the Monday before London Book Fair which runs from Tuesday to Thursday. So we thought it’s a perfect time to do it. People would be in town for the show anyway, there will be lots of speakers that we can grab from Amazon and from Trad Publishers, all kinds of options available to us.
So we went to speak to Amazon and Amazon are involved. They’re going to sponsor it and they’re going to consult with us on the agendas, so that’s great. We then found a venue so Young Tom has been involved, and Lucy actually, has recently been involved in trying to find a venue.
We found a really nice one, which I could probably say what it is now, given that we are not actually going to be going there, it was going to the National Gallery in London on Trafalgar Square. They’ve got a very nice lecture theater with 328 seats which we thought was just a nice number.
We originally were going to have in Amazon’s offices but then we realized that it was probably a little bit too big for that so we got the gallery lined up and we got the PayPal page ready. We had a list where people can pre-register which is still available and then, on was it Thursday or Wednesday, we made the tickets available. We do it in two gos. So one hundred and fifty the first time, a hundred and fifty the second time.
The first hundred and fifty went in less than five minutes, the second hundred and fifty went in ninety seconds.
James Blatch: Well, first of all, we broke PayPal.
Mark Dawson: We broke PayPal. Yes. As soon as the email went out. We kept a look at google analytics to see how much traffic was going to the page and it was like a thousand visitors, which we had at the same time, which basically broke it. And so we were getting emails, and I stayed up late for this, I can’t get a ticket. Which we, obviously, felt dreadful about, there wasn’t much we could do.
But we did feel very bad about it and those two tranches when they sold very quickly and we’ve seen comments on the Facebook groups, emails coming to us saying I want to come. The last time, on the first tranche we had twenty-five Americans coming, someone’s coming from Australia. I haven’t seen the second tranche but I’m sure that there are more of those people that are actually traveling from a long way away to come see us and that’s number one, a bit weird and number two, quite flattering so anyway that’s long-winded way of saying we’re surprised by the demand.
The rest of this week, Tom, me and Lucy have been ringing around venues in London to try and find somewhere bigger and even though we’re six months out, lots of them were taken but we found about five and Tom went to visit one of them yesterday and I must shout out here to Sarah Weldon in the SPF community who helped introduce us to the people who run this venue. It is a very big venue.
Mark Dawson: I’m not going to say where it is yet, just in case it doesn’t come through. But its ninety-nine percent going to be there. Tom had visited there. I’ve seen a video. It’s very nice. It’s in a very trendy part of London. People will know the venue very well.
Mark Dawson: And it’s big enough so we think there’s nine hundred spaces. So we are quite confident that if you want a ticket, especially if you move in the next week or so, you should be able to get one without having to constantly hit refresh. So, that’s where we are and the next step is me starting to program it so.
People have been buying these tickets without knowing who is speaking, which is very nice.
James Blatch: Well John Dyer will be speaking.
Mark Dawson: He will be speaking. Yes. But we should say if people want to get tickets. As we recall this on Friday the thirteenth.
James Blatch: Yeah, Friday the thirteenth. So this will go out a week today.
James Blatch: There is a possibility, Mark, they will be sold old again, a week today.
James Blatch: It’s possible. So we should say you might get sold out but this is a secondary place that we mention where to buy tickets, mainly it’s directly out to the mailing list to the people who’ve signed up and expressed an interest and gone to our Facebook groups and so on.
So you should see it before then. However, if you’re hearing about this for the first time, you’re not on our mailing list.
Mark Dawson: I’ve actually said that in an email, that’ll be going out later today, I think we’re fine with people buying tickets for their spouses.
James Blatch: What about the naughty people we refunded last time who bought four?
Mark Dawson: I think that was a mistake. I saw that coming as well. I think it was a question of getting refreshed too much, anyway, I think it’s okay for people to buy tickets for spouses, I suspect we’ll have enough space now for those people.
Mark Dawson: It’s thirty pounds. So it’s not for profit. It’s an expensive venue. The venue itself cost twenty grand pretty much for us to put it on so we are going to cover our costs. Amazon is sponsoring us as well and any money that we make in terms of profit will be donated to a reading charity that we’ll decide on a bit near the time.
James Blatch: And we’re not providing food, which becomes an absolute headache.
Mark Dawson: No. We’re absolutely not providing food.
James Blatch: I mean just doing tea suddenly, there’s like fifteen thousand pounds on the bill.
Mark Dawson: I had quotes for ten grand for the venue and then when I asked for like catering, it became fifty grand.
So we’re not doing food but the place we’re going to, hopefully, has dozens of restaurants within thirty seconds.
James Blatch: Oh, it’s in a great street food area, now.
James Blatch: A really good street food area so I’m quite excited about my choice for lunch. Already thinking about it.
Anyway, I can’t wait to appear in that spotlight and that’s super trooper. Hello London.
James Blatch: It’ll be like Ricky Gervais in The Office. Good, I’m very excited about that and I think what you and I, or you in particular, with your reach and your pull, we need to start thinking big about guests, don’t we.
Mark Dawson: Oh I already have done so. Without saying too much, I think we’re going to have a traditionally published author in the crime genre, who sold about fifteen million books. And I’m thinking of putting that author together with another author, an Indie author in the crime genre that sold about five million books and I think that will be quite interesting.
I’ll do a section. I think with this kind of level of interest and with Amazon backing us, I think its not impossible that we might be able to get someone like Neil Gaimon or Hugh Harry or even J.K. Rowling.
Why not, we could ask. Especially because it’s around the fair. People will be in London for the book fair so I think we’ve got a good chance.
James Blatch: J.K. Rowling, you mentioned before is probably the wealthiest self-published author on the planet. Because she owns the right of the audio, of the e-books of her Harry Potter series.
Mark Dawson: She does. Yesterday, she donated herself out of the Times 100 Rich List. Do you know about that?
James Blatch: No, did she?
Mark Dawson: Yeah. She gave a hundred and thirty million, something along those lines, to charities looking at dementia, things like that. I think that took her out of the rich list which, that’s amazing.
Mark Dawson: She’s probably made it back now.
James Blatch: Yeah, since we’ve been recording this.
Okay, so that’s going to be in London at March, the 9th 2020. It’s going to be the first one of, maybe, what become a regular event and we should also say that this is a one-day event. And I know people are flying from Australia and New York and America but we have coincided it with the week of the London Book Fair so if you’re going to come over, there’s a whole week of stuff that you can absorb and the London Book Fair is pretty good.
I know most of it is kind of irrelevant to us but the bit that’s relevant, the ten or fifteen percent of it, is really good. So Amazon are there, you have a really good presence, you’ll find Draft2Digital, Publish Drive, all the accoutrements of self-publishing…
Mark Dawson: Oooo, French.
James Blatch: Yeah. …community are there and every day they run these panels which you take part in and you get people like L.J. Ross and so forth and they are really good. They’re excellent discussions. Good learning opportunities.
Mark Dawson: So, that’s what we’re hoping to do. One thing I’m thinking about is getting some T-shirts.
Mark Dawson: Everyone who goes to the conference. Let’s say we have 700 people, all in identical T-shirts descending on the book fair on the Tuesday. That would be absolutely ridiculous. It could be something like, I’ll say we do a little competition for what we could have on the T-shirts.
James Blatch: You know how to write and I learn how to sell.
Mark Dawson: We could do that one or it could be, “Ask me about my royalties”. That could be a good one. There’s plenty of things we could do in terms of gently taking the rise of traditional authors and publishers.
James Blatch: Okay, we’re going to talk about your publishing, you have published a book this week, in fact yesterday, I think I had an email dropped.
Mark Dawson: Yeah. I did. Bright Lights is the latest Milton book. It went out yesterday and has done very well so I had nearly 9000 pre-orders, full-price pre-orders for that which was great.
So they all hit the account over the last couple of days so that’s been quite nice, looks like it’s going to be a nice positive month in terms of book sales this month and the book shot up to the Top 100 both sides of the channel, both sides of the Atlantic even which is always nice to see.
James Blatch: More French.
Mark Dawson: That’s been great. I’ve got this down to a fairly fine art now in terms of how I launch. At the moment, I’ve only done my list once so that will be done again next week, I haven’t done any Facebook as yet, I will hopefully get around to those today. Although, the way today is going that’s possibly not going to happen. Facebook Messenger and all that good stuff I’ll be doing that as well just to kind of turn on the sales so yeah that’s all going very well. I love launching. It’s always fun to see the rank climb throughout the day.
James Blatch: I love launching. I worked out today, that if I do six chapters of sixteen today, revision, I’ve got nine days left of revision. If I can double the number of scenes which is a bit difficult because we’re so busy, I could half that. And then I should say, it’s beta readers.
Mark Dawson: Goodness. Almost there. So by 2020.
James Blatch: By the SPF Live Event. I’m going to start up a little store with little paperbacks on it.
Mark Dawson: We probably would sell a few because people are nice and they will feel pity towards you.
James Blatch: Are you and I are going to do some book signings.
Mark Dawson: I could do some book signings.
James Blatch: Talking about meeting us in person, we have two opportunities for you to do that in the next couple of weeks.
John Dyer and I will be in Vancouver on Saturday. So this is going out on the Friday, so the day after this is released, which is Saturday, the 21st of September, we’re going to be in a place called the Tap & Barrel down on the waterfront in Vancouver, British Columbia.
I think it’s the one associated with an Exhibition Center, just from memory, I think Tap & Barrel might be a franchise, a couple of bars across Vancouver so the one on the Exhibition Center on the riverfront. But you’ll see details of it in the community.
I’ve done something in the way, I’ve set up this event that hasn’t worked because only Lisa, who helped me organize it, and me, are going. But I’ve had lots of emails from people saying that they’re looking forward to seeing me there so.
James Blatch: Yeah. I have. We have. We got loads of people who put their hands up so they want to be interviewed so we’re going to be in a hotel room all Saturday interviewing people for SPF, both the podcast and for our courses but we’d love to see you.
So if you want to come down, we’re happy to buy you a pint, if they sell pints in Vancouver. That night, Saturday, the 21st, day after, probably this goes out at the Tap & Barrel.
And the following Thursday, the 26th of September in the evening, it’ll be the full gamit; it’ll be Mark, Young Tom, John and I will be at NINC, Novelist Incorporated Conference and you don’t need tickets for the conference to attend our drinks.
We’re going to be in a place called the Sharktooth Tavern which is part of a TradeWinds Resort on, what’s it called, that beach.
James Blatch: Yeah. St. Pete Beach, but there’s a name for the boulevard. Anyway, you can find it. Sharktooth Tavern and people are successfully telling us that they’re going to that event in Facebook so that event is also listed in our SPF community page. Come and get a selfie with Mark Dawson.
Are you going to shave?
James Blatch: At what point does it go from just unkempt to oh it’s a beard.
Mark Dawson: Oh, I’ve passed that ages ago. This is fine.
James Blatch: It’s like the navy, if you go in the navy you have three days and then they check it and they tell you whether you can carry on or not.
James Blatch: Anything else to mention before we get into the interview?
Mark Dawson: No, there’s one thing that we’ll do that, that I announce in the community last week of, I have a print-only deal which, if you’ve been in the industry long enough, it’s a fairly big deal. I’m not just saying that because it’s my books, it’s the one aspect of, the one format from your IP that’s most difficult to effectively scale it properly.
Because there’s distribution, there’s printing, there’s warehousing, getting into stores, all that kind of stuff is not impossible but it’s beyond most people. Certainly to do at any kind of scalable level.
And I’ve been working on a deal with a traditional publisher for quite a while, couple of years and I signed it and Wednesday this week and so we will talk about that. It could even be a full podcast so I think there hasn’t been any other real examples of this. Hugh Howey did it a while ago. I think Bella Andre may have done but not recently so, it’s going to be great.
It’s the kind of thing that’ll be more common as publishers become a little more open-minded about how they actually publish stories so we’ll see, if this is successful, who knows it could be, the first of many.
James Blatch: It’s a sort of missing link, isn’t it? Easy and just box-ticking way to distribute your physical thing apart from print on demand. We do like book shops. I know you do point it, its largely irrelevant, it’s because of how expensive it is and the margins involved in it and as writers, don’t we all like to browse around bookshops and isn’t it a nice thing at least to be able to walk into a bookshop and see your book on the shelf.
Mark Dawson: Well, it’s all about selling books, isn’t it? It’s a business. It’s not for my vanity. And yeah its difficult for us to do that and my brother and I, and also an SPFer. He works for Waterstones up in Scotland. We were looking at doing a print run of the first couple of Milton books. He thought he’d get them into Waterstones. As a proof of concept, to see if we could actually sell some books and the margins were so slim, because the margins were almost nothing. It was very very difficult.
We weren’t doing it at a big scale, if you run a fifty thousand print run, it’s going to be a lot cheaper per book than running the five hundred copy print run. It just didn’t work and I didn’t want fifty thousand copies of my book in my garage, particularly. Even though, it’s a great book.
James Blatch: We should also mention, one of the eco-benefits of print-on-demand is it’s much more resource-friendly way of doing things than printing twenty-five thousand copies and hoping you sell them.
We’ll do something on that when it’s developed a bit and you’ve got some figures and if it’s something you’re going to start recommending to people and maybe there is something that could be rolled out to authors of a certain band, I guess in the future.
Should we just mention, we talked last week about the photoshoot that I was preparing to do, this is part of, well I was taking advantage of an emerging sideline, spun off from Stuart Bache’s cover design.
Oh we should say congratulations to Stuart Bache because he just had a little boy this week, his wife actually and he is called Magnus. So well done. Happy for you Stuart and enjoy your few days, I know you don’t get many days off. So enjoy those with your new infant.
But also announced this week, a tie up with John Weston. John Weston is a SPFer actually who was in the Middle East, moved back to the UK, is British. He’s a photographer, he loves his photography and they’ve set up something called theindiestock.com, which is with Stuart now. John is the photographer who has a studio in Lincolnshire and he is helping Stuart to build up a repository of figures and images, particularly models, in particular, era clothing that’s going to work well on the front cover of books. Because, I think, Stuart is getting a bit frustrated with some of those stock images being nearly right but not quite.
So I mentioned last week, I took advantage of this because I had a very difficult to obtain image and all the stuff and I was the model. We can show some pictures, I’ll send them to John and the others and he can put them up, now of John and me looking dapper and amazing and completely covered up. In my helmet, oxygen mask and my Mae West.
Mark Dawson: And I think we will tell listeners why it’s called a Mae West after the interview because I’m just looking and I’ve got to run out in about ten seconds.
Mark Dawson: So you better get into it.
James Blatch: All right. Well, we’ve got a minute, I think to introduce the interviewer and then we’ll talk about my vest, which is worth talking about. There’s a couple of things about her in particular.
Okay, let’s us go on to this interview, it’s about Instagram. It’s with Stuart Grant, many of you will know Stuart’s been on here before and he’s part of the SPF team here in the background that helps this particular podcast out into the world.
Stuart is a real guru on Instagram. He provides a service as well to this which he talks about. This is about a platform that is growing rapidly, that is fun, it’s actually quite easy to use and it’s something that as authors we need to be aware of so let’s talk to Stuart.
James Blatch: Okay, there he is. He’s cleaning, what, you’re cleaning your glasses?
Stuart Grant: Yeah, I want to be able to see you James.
James Blatch: There was an iconic moment in English Test Cricket recently, wasn’t there? Where the non-striking batsman who was not a batsman, was a bowler, had to hang on for dear life at the end of a test match and there’s these images, there’s an oil painting already of him, cleaning his glasses in between deliveries. You don’t follow cricket.
Stuart Grant: No, sorry, you’ve lost me. But it sounds wonderful.
James Blatch: Indeed it is ninety-eight percent of the audience but they should do because it’s the world’s greatest game. Stuart Grant, welcome back to the Self-Publishing Show. No stranger to these parts.
Stuart Grant: No, number three this is. I think I’m catching up with the other Stuart, Stuart Bache. So yeah, this is number three. First of all, we talked about apps and then we talked about websites.
James Blatch: Yes I remember, we spoke in Cambridge, didn’t we. Sunny Cambridge with ice creams, the first time before we had video.
You are a member of our team, we should say. You work in the background, you’re part of the team that gets this very show out into the ether doing, pressing buttons with iTunes and things all over the place and so we’re grateful for that. It’s a bit of a team effort. A lot goes into, people don’t realize, how many buttons you have to press to get a podcast out every week.
Stuart Grant: There is a lot of gears turning, I have to say, each week and sometimes it can be more stressful than others but we get there every week and the product, it gets better, I think every time so, yes, its a pleasure to be a part of it. It’s great to see people getting involved in all feedback and stuff online. It’s great to be here. Thank you.
James Blatch: And as part of our family and people who know you on social media will know that you’ve had a bit of a, what shall we say, a life event has happened to you over the past six months and I know you were sharing some of this.
I’m just going to ask you a little bit about it from the beginning, if you just want to tell us how this rather shocking is the word for you, when it happened to you.
Stuart Grant: Sure. Yeah. Major year. I had a baby and got married which was brilliant and in the midst of all that in February, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor after having a very slight hearing loss.
I then went to the doctor’s there was no corelation between hearing loss but they found the brain tumor via doing a MRI scan so was in hospital within a few weeks having it removed. I’ve done six weeks of radio therapy. I’m now in the middle of chemotherapy, but all good. Prognosis is good and it’s all about staying positive and getting on with life and you know, I’m good. I’m fine. I feel fine.
James Blatch: Yeah, well you look fine.
James Blatch: For somebody who’s in the midst of chemotherapy, you look amazing, by the way, and your energy levels. I just want to say that your attitude to everything, I think, I personally my thing is to curl up in a corner and crumble and I take immense inspiration from seeing somebody like you smiling in the face of what can be a very traumatic experience for any of us.
Stuart Grant: Thank you. It’s not easy, I suppose but, I think honestly all the health professionals, I’ve spoken to have assured me that it’s half the battle going in with a positive mind and if you go in broken, you’ll come out broken and it’s not always easy but here I am and kind of on the other side and feeling fine so thank you very much for that, James.
James Blatch: Fantastic. I’ve allowed my phone to ding and it interrupts them because I’ve got my phone because we are talking today about Instagram and we should say at the beginning that you wrote a book for us on Instagram and it’s gone really well.
We do a lot social media advertising as you’d expect SPF to do. It’s not just about Mark’s book or my book, your book, it’s also about building SPF as a brand and finding the audience. We use Facebook ads extensively.
Your book is a very, very strong lead magnet for us and that says to me that people are sensing that Instagram is a thing they need to be doing.
Stuart Grant: It is the fastest growing social media platform. Last time we spoke actually, I think there were eight hundred thousand users on it, there’s now a billion, well over a billion, actually.
So the partnership between Instagram and Facebook is growing stronger every day. So, if you use Facebook for your business, whatever that might be, it makes sense to have at least an understanding of Instagram.
They have actually rebranded. They are now Instagram by Facebook. So, it makes sense to have that understanding of both platforms and I think they are driving their platform to be about the story and as authors that is a gift, because that is what you do. That is what we do. Tell stories and so if you can get that into your head and use it for that purpose, it should be a very natural and organic strategy for you.
James Blatch: And if it is working, if you are telling stories, what are the benefits for authors?
Stuart Grant: There’s a huge community on Instagram of readers and writers and the benefit to you, is to hopefully sell more books, create more of a tribe and find people that enjoy your content.
Now, we know from every platform that “buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my stuff” does not work. This has to be about your – and I know you both hate this word – this has to be about your journey and the story of you as an author.
Now, obviously it’s slightly more difficult if you are writing under a pen name but we’ll just put that to one side for a moment, assuming that most people are writing in a way that they can share stuff about what they’re doing.
The benefit for using Instagram is it’s very visual, it’s very fast, it’s uncluttered, it doesn’t have all the shonk that a lot of the other platforms do. It’s not as maybe political as Twitter and it’s not as full of rubbish as Facebook, in many ways. So, it’s a nice platform to concentrate on.
It’s also, I think, not as pressured. You don’t have to post as often as you might do on other networks. So, pressure’s off.
James Blatch: That’s interesting. We’ll get into some of that in a moment. Some of the do’s and don’ts of using the platform successfully. Should we get this out of the way at the beginning?
There is a paid advertising platform on Instagram of course that commercially drives it; is that something authors need to be getting into?
Stuart Grant: I would think that it is something that they would be looking at or should be looking at. It’s actually not a pay-to-play platform but there is the opportunity to boost posts, create adverts in the same way that it is on Facebook but I would and this is a guess.
My feeling is that people are not using it to its full capability at the moment and so, advertising on Instagram is probably cheaper and less difficult than you might imagine so it would be a great time to be the start of it.
So get in there, now, while it’s cheap and establish your position. That would be my real advice.
James Blatch: Good. Okay. We’ve done a bit of experimenting with it and it is in its infancy, I think, the ads platform still, but it’s going to take a little bit for us and for others to come up with a formula that’s going to be one that we can say yep, now is the time to put money into it.
At the moment, we haven’t found the cost per lead returns yet but like I say, it’s a changing, shaping platform. One of the variables in that equation is how many people you can access, and that’s gone up dramatically as you pointed out beginning of the interview. That’s gone up dramatically so we should, perhaps, delve back into that.
So, anyway, regardless of the paid ads, just wanted to point that at the moment so people understand we’re largely talking about organic use at the moment. You talked about building up your tribe and how important is that to have loyal enthusiastic followers when it comes to these things? For instance, launching your book and geting your book moving in the algorithms and all the things that we know important at the beginning stage.
Should we focus on building up a following on Instagram? Are you going to give us the magic sauce as to how to do this?
Stuart Grant: I am actually. Yeah. And there is one. Anybody that tells you they know the algorithms of Instagram is lying. So, don’t believe anyone that does.
But there are certain things that are clear and obvious. So, I could share those from my experience and people may disagree but in terms of building a tribe or an audience on Instagram or any platform.
I do believe and I can’t remember who says it but you can change the world with a thousand people. So if you’ve got a thousand people on Instagram and a thousand people on Twitter and a thousand people on Facebook, suddenly that’s enough to really rocket your book launches or anything that you’re doing. It’s an incredible amount of people who can be on your side. And Instagram is a place where you can find some of those people. There are keen readers, there are accounts dedicated to certain genre’s of books.
We’ll cut straight to the chase, grow your account by giving love and getting love back and by that I mean if I want somebody to understand I’m there, I need them to see me, so I’ve got to get their attention. So let’s take Lee Child as an example. He doesn’t have an Instagram account but if he did and I was a writer in a similar genre to him, I wouldn’t necessarily be chasing after Lee Child, I would be chasing after his followers. Because I know a couple of things about those people, I know they like thrillers because they like Lee Child and I know that they’re willing to show their appreciation for his work because they’ve liked or commented on his posts so they’re the people that I go after.
If you are a romance author or a sci-fi author or a thriller author, find other accounts in your niche but don’t worry about them, look at the people that follow them, like and comment on their content and say hey, that’s great, I love that sunset, I love your dog, whatever it might be. Be authentic.
Don’t like stuff you don’t like but have a relationship in that sense with those people because then they’re going to say, who’s that that’s just liked my stuff, oh he/she is an x writer that I love, and they might come over, and like or comment on your stuff, and it is that two way street. Unfortunately, it is time-consuming but it really does super charge the growth of your account.
James Blatch: And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. It’s a quote. Lennon and McCartney. I think it was probably McCartney.
Stuart Grant: All teared up.
James Blatch: I know. You’re lucky I didn’t sing it. Actually, I’d would have brought the house down.
James Blatch: Okay and yes we kind of know that Twitter works in a similar way. You follow, you’re followed back and there some cynical practices on Twitter you see people who follow you, you follow them and then they unfollow you, a couple of days later. And don’t think we don’t notice that, you people who do that.
And sometimes you follow people and the next day you get fifteen posts about their political opinions and you think, oh my, not one of them. So you have to kind of find your way and be authentic about it. There’s no point, as you say, in liking things you don’t genuinely like, you’ve got to build an account that feels right for you.
Now one thing I was thinking is that I have quite broad tastes. I love cricket and I should like politics, like follow politicians, not gobby politicians but nice politicians. And I obviously have military aircraft behind me as passion and also my genre.
Should I be focusing my Instagram account around my author career and really narrowing it down to that area, to the military aviation area, at the expense of perhaps one I would enjoy, following David Gower and he’s a cricketer, and other people like that?
Stuart Grant: It’s an age-old question. I think it comes down to time and how much you can be arsed. If you can, if you want to run two accounts or more then go for your life. It’s time-consuming and we haven’t got time for it necessarily, so my answer to most people is, look, try and blend the two.
Your story as an author is that you like military aircraft but actually you also like cricket. That’s fine. As a reader, I’m interested to know that you like those things. In your case not really. But no I am.
Stuart Grant: But that’s the story of you and therefore I’m interested in whatever it might be that you are into even if I’m not into it as well. Okay, great James is into Cricket. So by all means put that stuff into your Instagram account as well and I think if we take it to somebody, if you put yourself in the subject of, I don’t know, singer that you’re a fan of or an author, we would all want to know more about their lives.
We’re inquisitive beings, we don’t just want to know the next cover of their book looks like. That is dull ultimately. In the end, it is about what they’re doing, who they spend their time with, what are they eating, what are their pets, you know all that stuff.
James Blatch: The beliebers want to know everything about Justin.
Stuart Grant: Exactly. Yeah. Although they probably never will but in your position the other way to look at this as well is to create a community on Instagram is another way to do this actually and it’s one thing that we did, what we’re doing fairly successfully is that we created the platform of followers before we created the business.
So by that I mean, in your instance, for example, you could create or use your Instagram account to find that community of other people who are interested in the same kind of era of military aircraft or whatever, as you, without mentioning the book or that you’re an author, you just post some interesting footage or photos.
You connect with people interested in that particular genre by looking for them and finding them and then when you’ve got your thousand or your two thousand or your three thousand followers, then you can start to introduce the commercial side of it. So we did that with dogs, basically. You know we crated an account for our dog. Now with over twenty thousand followers for her.
James Blatch: Wow.
Stuart Grant: Yeah. Without a business side to it. And now is the time that we can start to introduce the commercial side of it which might be a shop that sells dog products or whatever, because we built the platform first and there are lots of people doing that on Instagram.
So if as an author, you have a particular niche, this might be a side hustle, but you might be interested in using an account that is about your interest and growing the platform, then the business. But you could do that through your author career as well.
James Blatch: Okay. So sticking to areas that are relevant, growing your audience organically, not saying buy this, buy this and looking out for not necessarily, the kind of leaders, the other main authors but their followers is a way to start building up that community. It’s very impressive that you went from naught to twenty thousand followers for your dog and that was basically following these steps, was it.
Stuart Grant: Exactly that. That was all I did. Found other accounts that were dog accounts and followed, liked and commented on their followers because, as I said earlier, I know that they liked dogs and that they are willing to show their appreciation so I want them to follow and like me.
The account grew and we then developed another business out of that and applied the same principles and that is how it is.
Really, if you just keep posting, that is one strategy but you’re never going to get anyone’s attention because, as we know with Facebook, it only goes so far. And I think that the guesstimate is that if you post something on Instagram it will only hit about eight percent of your followers.
James Blatch: How much work did it take for you to engage with other doggy people on Instagram to grow your account?
Stuart Grant: That has probably taken us about twenty-four months or so and it’s been probably, what can I call it, bus time, toilet time.
Stuart Grant: You know whatever. It’s the time that you got cooking dinner. I wouldn’t say I sat down for any structured amount of time during the day and did this stuff but I’d just pick up the phone, like a couple of accounts, like a couple of photos, drop some comments in and move on.
And try it. It will work. It’s an almost Stuart Grant guarantee that out of five or ten people that you do that to, a number of them will come back and reciprocate and you will grow your account. And yeah that’s how we did it, essentially.
Stuart Grant: And, I’m seeing other people who’ve used that and do that too.
Should we talk a little bit about posting? Because posting is different on Instagram. I have to say, we’ll talk about demographics in a bit. My daughter’s a big Insta person. I run a bit of comments for my local cricket club. There, I mention cricket again and I didn’t do Instagram for it, so my daughter’s recently said I’m going to run the club Instagram account and she, naturally, knows more about it than I do. Probably as much as you do and is already building up, engaging followers on it.
One thing that I noticed that she instinctively understands about Instagram is that it’s a visual medium. It’s about the image.
Stuart Grant: Completely. It’s image and video. However, don’t let that put anyone off. You don’t have to the world’s greatest photographer and actually with the advent of these amazing phones, now, you can take photos that look like they’ve been taken professionally. Our very own John Dyer takes the most incredible photos.
James Blatch: He does. We should definitely give his Insta account a shout because he does amazing pictures. I always get him to do the pictures when we’re away.
Stuart Grant: They’re beautiful and they are just with a smartphone. So don’t let the fact that it is pictures and videos put you off, if you’re not naturally photographically minded. I’m not particularly.
James Blatch: No. I’m trying to find his account. Of course I can’t find it now. But maybe we’ll find it before the end of the interview. He’s definitely one to follow. So taking pictures, when you say, you don’t have to be the world’s greatest photographer. There’s these filters built into Instagram, which can make the picture of your dog sitting on the grass look amazing.
Stuart Grant: Exactly.
James Blatch: And now I remember this we’ve had Instagram as a subject, of course, it’s an important area for authors, on the podcast several times. And I can remember making bit of faux pas with somebody who talked about hashtags and I said it’s terrible, these people have put all these hashtags in the post and she said yeah, that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do on Instagram.
So you’ve got your nice image and you can have a little caption and then you can actually separate out the hashtags. Do you want to talk about that?
Stuart Grant: Sure and again there’s two schools of thought. There is absolutely no definite answer to this. It comes down to preference mainly.
What I do is, I will always edit a photo, just a very slight edit, just to make it sing and pop and then write a caption. And don’t be afraid to write more than you would probably feel you want to, in a way, it’s not just about the one sentence. You can write a lot more in your description and, actually, people do read it so think of it as maybe a little mini-blog.
You can microblog underneath the caption of your, if you do release a picture of your book or something, you can write a little bit more about who you used to design it, what the ideas were behind it. Tell me something about it, although it is a visual medium.
And this is actually somewhere my thinking has changed quite considerably. I do think there is a lot of engagement, in terms of what you write in the caption so don’t be afraid to write more than a sentence or two.
James Blatch: I’m somebody who always reads the captions. Definitely.
Stuart Grant: Exactly. And there are a lot of people like you so always write more than you think you should or might be inclined to because it will pay off.
And then in terms of the hashtags, I love this question. I live and die by hashtags and they are the lifeblood of Instagram and Instagram allows you to put thirty hashtags on your content. Now, my understanding and belief is go for it, put thirty on there. They wouldn’t give you thirty if they didn’t want you to use thirty. They’re not going to punish you for using thirty if they have created it in the first place.
So if anyone tells you five is enough or whatever, it may be enough, but you know, you’ve got thirty so use them. If you want that content to live and breathe and to go as far as it possibly can, then use as many as you can.
There are strategies in the book, actually, if you haven’t got the book already, about how to construct those hashtags and it’s actually very simple. There are five kinds of categories that I use, one is the action, what’s going on in the picture, who you are, what the environment is, what time it is and another one, I can’t remember.
Essentially if you get five of each of those then you’ve got your thirty and very quickly you can get, some changes to certain words, so if you were an author who writes in romance, you could have #authorinromance, #writersofromance, #authorswhowriteromance just by changing the odd word here and there, you could very quickly populate those thirty hashtags so don’t let that put you off.
James Blatch: And the importance of hastags is what?
Stuart Grant: The importance is that they are searchable within Instagram and they join all the other content with those hashtags and therefore it’s important to push your content as far as you can.
My strategy is get your content into as many pots, if you like, on Instagram as you can. So, you want it go into the main feed, you want it to go into wherever it can go into the hashtags, you want it to go into your story, you want it to go as many places as possible are available on Instagram and the hashtag is by far and away the thing that will send it the furthest. It will join all of the other hashtags and people do search for it.
So think of a reader, a reader might search romance author. So you want to be there when they search that. Even if the piece of content you’ve posted last wasn’t necessarily anything about romance writing, you as a person are a romance author so don’t be afraid to include that hashtag when you put your content out, because there’s a chance it could be found and a lot of this is searchable by good as well, so somebody searches your phrasing, or your genre or whatever there is a chance that google will bring that up as well.
So it’s just about increasing your chances of being found, ultimately.
James Blatch: Okay. Let’s talk about engagement. So you’ve talked about going off and engaging with other people’s accounts what about comments or any engagement with your account.
Do you follow people back? Do you respond to comments?
Stuart Grant: Absolutely. One hundred percent. Always respond to comments. It’s a bit like you talking to me now and me looking the other way.
James Blatch: You’re like that. You just say I’ve done enough of Blatch today. Someone else gets me now.
Stuart Grant: But that would feel odd, wouldn’t it?
James Blatch: Yes. It would be out of character.
Stuart Grant: And it’s the same on social media, on any platform and Mark is amazing at this. I don’t know where he gets the time but he will reply to every message he gets on Facebook, on his pages.
James Blatch: You do see people getting this wrong as well so Mark’s a good example of getting it right. But I follow people and occasionally I’ll comment on some, I won’t actually mention it, naming and shaming but somebody who occasionally says I’m thinking about doing this next in their chosen field. What do think? Promoting engagement. And then doesn’t respond to anyone.
She does it all the time and I’m thinking what part of this don’t you understand? And I’m to the point, I like her work, I’m to the point of unfollowing her because that’s not the point of that conversation, is for her to just grandstand and then probably not even read what people have commented on.
Do you see that quite a lot, actually, people just ignore comments, ignore likes, ignores follows? If you’re Ricky Gervais, that’s fine.
If you’re somebody with two or three thousand followers in a small field, you should be actively having that conversation.
Stuart Grant: The truth that clues in, that side to it, isn’t it in social media, I mean, you know, it’s there. I run some stuff where I live around some small businesses where we have networking and I always respond to comments on everything that I can find and it’s amazing when I walk into a room, people go oh that’s Stu, I know you, where have I seen you, oh you’re the guy that’s on because of me just dropping the odd line underneath people’s stuff.
Stuart Grant: I do that on my friend’s stuff, just to stay in their minds. And yes, it’s time-consuming. I’ve got a one-year-old child, a dog, a new wife, and some medical stuff but I’m still having to find that time.
So be encouraged to get in there and just reply to people and drop comments and be nice. That’s what this is about. It’s about growing your community and I think that is part of Mark’s success as well, see with all the other stuff, but because he’s so nice to his readers, they respond to that. It’s a two-way street.
James Blatch: And it only takes one person to have an interaction with them, to feel closer to you, to feel more loyal to you as a person, to feel a little bit like they’ve got some sort of a communication with you, some sort of connection with you, is the word I’m looking for, and for them to start mentioning that to other people.
And on the other hand, blanking somebody who’s gone to the effort of responding to something you’ve prompted and it turned out, probably just a tweet that showed up ages ago or a post, can have the opposite effect. Somebody like me could say I wouldn’t actually bother following the person.
I do remember Stephen Fry, who has like a gazillion, I don’t know, he’s been off twitter for various reasons, but the last time I looked he had two million followers, probably about ten million now. He responded, in those early days of twitter, he responded to every single person who commented, including me at one point, when I sent him something I thought he’d be interested in and he replied. And that was treasured by me and I’m a big fan, of course, of his, immediately felt he’s my best friend.
Now, he did get to a point where he had to say publicly, I can’t do it anymore, because he’d spend an hour and a half, two hours every evening doing it and suddenly he had a million followers and he just couldn’t do it because he had ten thousand comments, everyday. But if it’s not too much for Stephen Fry, with tens of thousands or hundred of thousands of followers, it’s not too much for you or me.
So yeah. Be interactive, be polite, don’t get into rows or fights, which some people do, that’s Ricky Gervais again but yeah that interaction, that’s what it’s all about. And that’s when it works at its best, when Twitter works at its best. When Barack Obama followed me back, that was a big day for me.
James Blatch: Yeah. I’m followed by Barack Obama and Alastair Campbell. I sort of did kind of know Alastair Campbell briefly when I was a reporter so that’s why I think he noticed me. And Barack Obama was just at that point where they were building up their social media following by following people who followed them to try and spread it out and I got lucky at that point.
I noticed the other day, I was looking and I know somebody I was looking at to see how we knew each other, so you look at the people you both follow, and it said you both follow Barack Obama and next to Barack Obama’s name it said, Barack Obama follows you. So he still follows me.
James Blatch: I don’t think he’s taken any notice of any of the suggestions I’ve made for making the world better. But anyway it doesn’t matter.
Stuart Grant: What does he know?
James Blatch: Yeah. What does he know? So, by the way I’m not taking sides in American politics. He was just the president of America and everyone was following him. He’s a big social media.
Because last time I mentioned something about politics, people, by the way, got my politics completely wrong. A couple of people emailed in and said oh enough of your blooming politics. But he was just president right, the office of president, I respect. Did I get that okay. Good.
Stuart Grant: Yup. Hashtags.
James Blatch: Hashtags. What else have I missed. Oh demographics, I want to ask you about demographics.
Is Instagram still a young person platform?
Stuart Grant: As I said at the beginning, there’s one billion people on this platform and growing. And therefore there is your readers are on this platform in some shape or form. So it’s huge so I would not get into that brain space, just go for it. Let them find you and find them because they are there.
It is probably slightly younger but it’s definitely getting older. Thirty-two percent, these were the latest stats I found from 2018, thirty-two percent of Instagram users are aged between eighteen and twenty-four. That equates to three hundred and twenty million people. Here we go, nine percent of users are between forty-five to fifty-four. That’s millions of people.
James Blatch: Yeah. And it’s worth pointing out my demographic for my readership is going to be older and probably male but I’m not sure. It’s worth pointing out, those people on Instagram on that group are ones most likely to be only a Kindle and buying an ebook and buying stuff off Amazon. So yeah, they’re the right, I mean I’m a fifty-two-year-old and quite tech-savvy. I’m the sort of person, people would want to be following then, because I’m most likely to buy their product.
Stuart Grant: Great point. That is really good. And again, we talked earlier about people wanting to share pictures of the photos of the one behind you and others. So they’re going to be on there because it’s a place where they can safely share those kind of images in your instance, so yeah, don’t get hung up on demographics. There’s no such line as my audience isn’t on Instagram. They are.
James Blatch: If it’s a billion people, you only need a small percent of that to be very profitable.
James Blatch: If the nine percent of people, in my demographic, want my book, I’d retire.
Stuart Grant: Exactly.
James Blatch: Okay. Right. So, where else have we missed. I think we’ve covered a lot of the big areas.
Stuart Grant: The main thing I should really mention is stories, just really quickly because just kind of top lying things here just, I recommend that you post every other day but stories are the new thing, they have taken the world by storm.
We’re all familiar with what they are and I hope the sort of long vertical video we see on Facebook, started with Snapchat, but has been absolutely obliterated by Instagram and that is the kind of new way of communicating and from what I can see, it’s going to just explode.
If you are thinking of advertising, that would be a great place to start actually, just try some stories. My advice in terms of advertising in that instance would be make sure those stories are authentic so don’t make them look like ads. They did a big study, somebody, I can’t remember who, but where there was a picture of a trainer on a white background it did really badly, where there was the image of the cool dude wearing the shoe on a skateboard, it went nuts.
So think about that kind of analogy when you’re creating stuff, when you’re selling on Instagram. It’s about the reality of it and as I mentioned at the beginning as well, this is about stories, it’s about telling your story. So, you know, once every other day in terms of your main feed, but if you can, you know as many times as you can on a story so just like now, I can just do a quick, you know, just jump, oh John Dyers. I found John Dyers was Jack9903, by the way.
Stuart Grant: So I can just jump on and I’m going to hit my story there and I’m just going to create a little story of you and I.
James Blatch: Okay. Do you want me to do something?
Stuart Grant: No. That’s absolutely fine. There we go.
Stuart Grant: We could do me watching you, watching me, watching you.
Stuart Grant: Yeah. I’m just going to post this one anyway. I’ve created a very short story there. I’m just going to quickly post it to my account. Done.
Stuart Grant: Okay. So you access that by clicking your profile picture on the top left.
James Blatch: Okay. Right.
Stuart Grant: And that opens Instagram’s internal camera which has loads of different stuff you can play around with. Thank you, Instagram for giving us a little video editor. Yup. That’s the one.
James Blatch: So if people were watching the YouTube video. I’m going to put this into screen now so it’s now a video camera. It’s very difficult to control just by looking at it in my hand.
What can I change on here?
Stuart Grant: If you take a photo, just by pressing that button.
Stuart Grant: And then at the very top.
James Blatch: Oh yes. What’s that?
Stuart Grant: With a fold. Not that one, the other one. Sorry.
Stuart Grant: Yup. And that gives you loads of options in terms of stuff. So you can put the location you’re at, you can mention me because I’m on the podcast, you could do a hashtag.
Stuart Grant: StuartGrantUK. So that should bring me up. I think you’ll follow me. Yeah. I’m not quite Barack Obama but there we go. And I will then get a notification to say that you have shared a picture.
James Blatch: And that’s it. That story’s gone and there’s no… Unlike… So I know I have to choose how I show, that’s a thing that confused me a bit at the beginning with Instagram. You can do a post, just to one person. Which I guess is the same on Twitter or Facebook. Well Twitter. But we want to be sharing our story, rather than close friends only or individuals.
James Blatch: And that’d done. So with that story, I don’t get in that circumstance to type any comments or hashtags. No you can, we just didn’t get that far.
James Blatch: Where we were there with the little smiley face, there’s the option to write text, you can add music, you can put your location, you can do a hundred and one things, it’s filters.
And it can be video as well, of course.
Stuart Grant: Video. Yeah. Up to fifteen seconds. It’s insane. It’s literally a little video editing tool inside the camera so have a play. You can’t break it. And it’s certainly the thing that people are beginning to use, you can do different layouts with your photos, you can do video and picture. It’s an incredible bit of kit.
And I just encourage you to play with it but use it as often as you can, a couple of times a day would be a great start.
Stuart Grant: Just literally pointing. It doesn’t have to be well produced, it doesn’t have to be a beautiful photo. It can just be, here’s my coffee cup or here’s my microphone or here’s that bit of work I’m doing or here’s a picture of my dog. Just the story of you. That’s what we’re looking for here. Tell me about you.
James Blatch: I’m feeling energized. I always do after these conversations. I must follow it up. Because Instagram is the one, I’m drawn to Twitter. I love Twitter. I’ve said before, it’s my platform. And all my friends just don’t like Twitter, they’re not on it, they don’t get it, they’re like Facebook whatever, I’m a Twitter guy.
I do a bit of Facebook as well but Instagram, every time I’m on it, I like it and yet I’m struggling to bring it into my routine. I’m struggling for it to be, when I have my washing up time or whatever, I’m struggling for Instagram to be the one I go to but I need to remember because I do enjoy it.
I want to ask you about scheduling because this is something that as businesses or people with a slightly more professional approach to our social media, this is an area that can be very helpful to us, if you still have that sincerity in your posts which is where you can sit down and back up some posts and then schedule them to go.
Is that something that’s easy to do on Instagram?
Stuart Grant: You can’t actually do it inside Instagram. There are third party, loads of them, tools. If you know already, there is a new thing inside Facebook called Facebook Creator and you can schedule all of your videos and posts from inside Facebook for Facebook but they’ve just introduced, I think it was launched about two weeks ago, the same for Instagram, so now you can schedule all of your posts and everything.
James Blatch: In Facebook Creator and you can have them just for Instagram?
James Blatch: So I could do that on a desktop. Because I’m in my fifties and I have to work on a desktop. I can’t do everything on a phone.
Stuart Grant: In fact, it doesn’t work on a phone at the moment.
Stuart Grant: So it’s only on a desktop but if you haven’t found it yet, then do a google search. I think it’s something like business.com/facebookcreator or something. And it will come up and you have to sign in and then it adds to your, kind of, Facebook profile and you can go in and schedule, you know, whatever you want, anything. So from your Facebook posts, all the way though to your, and there’s something a little bit more organic and authentic about using a third party tool that is actually Facebook.
Stuart Grant: So there are plenty out here. There’s Buffer, and Crowd fire and all the usual sort of suspects. But the Facebook creator does allow you to schedule stories and Instagram TV and all that sort of stuff. So it’s a great little tool.
James Blatch: Superb. I’m going to do some scheduling. I’ve had ideas. I’ve had good ideas. I’ve got my dad’s flying logbooks, which I absolutely love.
If your father was a pilot, one of the great things of the logbook, you know what he was doing everyday for about fifteen years of his life. There’s the dates and I have thought time and time again, I should just do a post on that day, like, sixteenth of August, he flew Vulcan XH four three three from Bassingbourn to Cambridge. And do a pictograph and find a picture of the aircraft and I would be interested in that sort of thing. And a very small niche of other people would be interested in but they would be my people.
Stuart Grant: That is gold dust. That is exactly what you should and could be doing and what an offering to your audience. Now that is absolutely jewel in the crown stuff and there is people looking for that kind of stuff. Absolutely, if you have access to anything like that, I would think that particularly there is an audience out there to be had.
James Blatch: And that’s why I was asking really about scheduling, because I can’t imagine, finding the time every day to do that on the phone or even doing it easily on the phone, just because of the logistics of photographing, putting a couple of photographs together but sitting down for a couple of hours and scheduling a month’s worth of posts. I’m up for that.
Stuart Grant: And as I said, if you post every other day on your feed, that is actually only 15 photos.
James Blatch: Yeah. And I’m still posting organically as I go along.
Stuart Grant: Exactly.
James Blatch: On top of that.
Stuart Grant: So you haven’t actually got to find a huge amount. And don’t be afraid to post the same thing twice or different variations on it. You had your suit fitting yesterday, didn’t you?
James Blatch: I did. Yes. I should have definitely posted that. I’ve got some pictures from it. So I could, I’ll do that after this because I went on different platforms and yes, I did a cover shoot in my fetish, RAF in the 1960s.
Look we should say a couple of things. First of all the book that you’ve written for SPF is available, if you go to the www.selfpublishingformula.com website and look under the resources tab, you’ll see that all our books are there including Stuart’s Instagram book.
And you are offering to do some consultation for people. Paid consultation but a low rate to get people, getting us started.
How much would it cost and what can people expect to get from that?
Stuart Grant: If people don’t have the time to sit and work all this out in great detail, or even read the book, as part of my business I offer consultations for businesses to get them kick started really to get them taken from not really necessarily knowing everything there is to know to knowing a lot more.
It’s a case of, you want to catch me on Instagram, it’s @stuartgrantuk or you can go to my website which is www.instagramninjas.com and we can talk about, maybe an hour or so of my time for about fifty dollars.
And I can really take you through, your bespoke kind of account and see where we can help you to improve it, optimize it, see what you’re missing, all that kind of stuff, just on a visual kind of Skype or whatever, one to one.
Okay, look, I think we’ve covered all the main areas. I know the book is detailed, actually the editing phase of the book went on longer than we both expected, just because it’s a lot of detail to Instagram that we haven’t touched on, we’re not going to be able to in a forty-five minute or even hour-long interview on the podcast. The book is really worth having a look at the moment.
Is it a platform that changes a lot Stuart? That’s the bane of our lives when we teach platforms and write books and so on.
Stuart Grant: Well, yeah. It is. And you know, as we were writing the book, they launched Instagram TV which I know we haven’t talked about too much but it’s basically the long form version of Story so it’s video over sixty seconds.
And, yet, we had to introduce that at the last minute to the book and they have made changes since so it’s not 100% up to date because it’s just tiny little logistical changes that are bound to happen. But we’ll try and update that as time goes on.
James Blatch: And the broad principles are all there and that’s just an occupational hazard of being in this area. If you look at any training on any social media platform, you’d be surprised if it’s identical to what you’re looking at.
Okay, Stuart. Brilliant. Thank you very much for joining us. We’ve had a fantastic chat. It’s flown by and I know, on behalf of everyone, they’re going to want to say, best of luck with your continued treatment. I know you’ve got five more rounds of chemo which can be punishing but you look amazing at the moment.
Stuart Grant: Oh thank you. I have a really nice battle scar there. Yeah it’s really fine and I really appreciate this time. It’s great to be back on the podcast and thanks for all your support guys.
James Blatch: Okay, there you go. A really great interview with Stuart. I want to thank him very much for that. I do feel enthused about the Instagram platform.
Mark Dawson: Not massively, I have to say. Lucy is. You can only pick so many and my focus is mainly on Facebook.
James Blatch: I’ll tell you what. For a little bit, lets see if we can do something very meta and do an Instagram Live into the podcast. If I could go live on this, checking connection. You’re now live.
This is James from Self-Publishing Show. Oh yes. I can. There you go. It’s going to go round and round and round. This is what it looks like when we’re recording the Self-Publishing Show. This is live. This is going to go out next Friday.
We’ve just been talking Instagram with Stuart. Round this way you can see me, hello this me. That’s the screen I check my picture on. That’s how I talk to Mark. Mark’s now tugging his beard, which means, I don’t know he’s confused.
Mark Dawson: No, I’m not confused. I’m just looking into your shed. See.
James Blatch: Oh are you now. And this is my browser, there in the background is the spreadsheet with all the interviews coming up. We’re not going to show that because we might change it around in the future.
But we’re talking Instagram and if you’re an author and you’re not using Instagram, you will want to listen to next Friday’s episode with Stuart Grant because it’s about this platform and how important it is. Actually how fun and easy it is as well.
And there’s even, if you do listen next week, there’s going to be a description of Mae West which is coming up in a moment.
James Blatch: We’re going to talk about Mae West. Okay, we’re going to leave that, I’m going to leave this live now. Thank you very much indeed, if you’ve watched this for a few minutes, this is a recording session that we need to carry on with to get this podcast out, next week from the Self-Publishing Show. People waving. So I don’t see you waving and Hazel is waving. I’m waving back. Okay there we go. I’m going to end this podcast, live in the podcast. We could do this again maybe and plan it better, in the future.
James Blatch: You’re going to end this.
Mark Dawson: 190 episodes and done.
James Blatch: Right. Next week. Friday, whatever it is, next week it is going to be this episode you can watch yourself on this.
Mark Dawson: So for everyone who’s listening on the podcast, I’m really not quite sure how I can explain what James has just done. He’s tried to do an Instagram story live, I think and it seems to work, pretty much but probably wasn’t the best listening you’ll ever have so apologies for the five minutes you won’t get back.
So we talked about Mae West. And I feigned ignorance about my Mae West and Mark said you must know who Mae West was. And of course I kind of do but I didn’t think about it at the time.
Mark Dawson: Feigned interest. You feigned it very well.
James Blatch: I did. Yeah. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was confused by the smell and aroma of the 1960s jet equipment but yes, a lot of people have pointed out that apparently the Mae West is so named because Mae West was famous for her large breasts and that’s what, you looked like, when you put on this life jacket. I have to tell you this was not a hashtag era, was it 1940 to whenever.
Mark Dawson: No. Probably not.
James Blatch: So somebody coined that.
Mark Dawson: Yes but interesting. I can see that as possibly being the reason it was given that nickname. Seems as buxomness as anything else.
James Blatch: Somebody on Twitter sent me a video Mae West lines and it’s golden each one. If you have a spare five minutes. Look at that or just google Mae West’s funny lines.
Mark Dawson: Lots of us did have a spare five minutes but they just wasted it looking at you on Instagram live.
James Blatch: Yeah. Okay. I think we’ve come to the end of everything.
James Blatch: The end of everything. It’s been a packed episode. It’s been a busy week and we are going to be recording a few more, probably on Monday or Tuesday to cover the time when we’re away. And we’re going to hopefully do, actually we should say this as well Mark, we’re going to hopefully do a live episode of the show recorded at NINC, we’ve got a space available to us, I’ve got the equipment so we just need to round up.
James Blatch: A couple of guests and you can come there. You can even ask us questions. We’ll have a young Tom with a roving microphone. So we’ll do that in Florida next week, if you’re attending NINC.
Otherwise, we hope to see you at the drinks either in Vancouver or in Florida, and until then it’s a goodbye from me.
Mark Dawson: And a goodbye from him.
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Hi, I'm Mak. I'm a leadership coach for new managers who knows what it's like to be filled with overwhelm, self-doubt and terror that I’d let everyone down. My Story
Today I wanted to do a different type of video that’s centered around creating a personal leadership development plan.
About 6 months into my role when I really started to turn the ship around starting with myself because really and truly I was the problem, I had invested in going to a two day leadership development conference. At this conference is where I was introduced to the importance of creating a leadership development plan.
Would you prefer to read rather than watch? Not to worry! You can read the blog post below.
Download the FREE Personal Leadership Development Plan associated with this blog post here.
As leaders it’s important that we are constantly working on improvement because it’s so easy to think we’re good at where we are at, which is a fallacy. None of us are perfect and if we truly believe that then that’s the ego talking and we’re better off not leading people because we’re most likely causing more damage than good with that attitude. That might sound harsh but it is the truth.
As leaders we’ve been given a really important role and responsibility that involves people’s lives. So not taking the time to improve ourselves says that we don’t really value the people and responsibility that we’ve been given. Unfortunately we have plenty of examples of managers like that in the workplace who take on the responsibility because of the pay increase and title and cause trauma and chaos in the job.
Obviously I know you guys are not like that otherwise you would not be here today subscribed to the channel and trying to glean all the nuggets that you can. But for us the trap is complacency rather than lack of care. Now complacency kills because it prevents us from improving and it’s like they say if you’re not improving you’re either staying the same or getting worse.
And so creating a personal leadership development plan aids in committing us to improve ourselves as it forces us to stop, plan and execute.
Creating your personal leadership development plan:
If you have not really given this part much thought in the past or if you’re having troubles articulating it, I suggest starting by thinking about past managers you’ve had that you absolutely loved. Think about what made them so great and why you enjoyed working with them and how you would like to infuse that into how you lead your team.
I think it’s important to consider your values as well as that plays a huge part in how you show up and how you desire to lead your team.
Watch this video HERE where I discuss the various leadership styles that will help you get your juices flowing as well.
Here are a few competencies that all effective leaders possess:
>>The ability to to cast a compelling vision
>>Providing timely and effective feedback
>>Process and policy knowledge
Be honest and ask yourself where you are lacking in these areas.
I like to suggest doing these plans on a quarterly basis. I would suggest jotting down let’s say 2-3 competencies that you believe need improvement.
The third piece is to consider the perspective of your team members. It’s one thing to know what you think you need to work on but having a more rounded viewpoint is better.
If you’re listening and running effective one-on-one’s then you will know what the glaring things are that they think you need to improve on.
Write 2-3 of those things down in your personal leadership development plan as well.
Step 4: ASK YOURSELF: How can I better support those around me?
A principle that my mentor really preached as one of his leadership principles was the importance of coming into work every day with the intent of creating success for other people.
So even though he was the vice president he was always thinking of all of us. He would say at the beginning of all our meetings, listen, I’m here to make you successful.
And it was evident in his actions that he meant what he said.
With that in mind, I think it’s even more important to adopt this mindset as a team leader. You should be showing up for work every day looking to make the people around you successful. Whether that’s your team members, lateral coworkers or boss.
Choose one thing you intend to do for each quarter and commit to just doing it as you move forward.
Jot down HOW you are going to improve in these areas. Are you going to go to conferences, are you going to invest in training, are you going to find a coach, will you buy books?
What specific actions will you take to do what you say is important to you?
Knowing and doing are two different things.
So specifically lay out what you’re going to do by following this sentence structure:
Over the next 3 months, I am committed to improving and learning _________ by doing the following: _________. I will measure my progress towards my improvement on _______.
As we know all goals need to be specific and measurable and creating for yourself a leadership development plan is no different.
The final step is to call out the risks associated with NOT doing the work.
I’m huge on analyzing risks as it’s a vital component to critical thinking and wise decision making.
I tend to analyze the risk in anything I do and a simple question you can ask yourself is what’s the downside?
So often when it comes to trying to achieve something we naturally see the good but where the accountability fails sometimes is because we fail to call out or acknowledge what’s at risk if we don’t achieve something.
For a lot of managers that want to continue to be adequate well the risks are large:
>>you could get fired
>>you get passed over for further opportunities
>>your boss looks at you as not someone that is up to the task
There is plenty of risk associated with not taking ownership of your own development. I want you to jot that down and then the next time you’re thinking of not doing the thing you need to do to improve, think of the risks associated with helping you get your butt in gear.
After completing your leadership development plan, I would suggest going back to this plan every quarter to assess and adjust if need be.
If you’re holding yourself accountable to the improvements then your plan will naturally evolve over time and the competencies and methods you use to improve will change.
But it’s a good appointment in the calendar that you should have with yourself if you really want to get better.
Here’s your free template if you would like to use mine as a starting point
Now if you’re someone that aspires to be a really good leader and adequate is not acceptable to you then I definitely want you to check out the details of my New Manager Accelerator Program that’s designed for first time managers who want to excel and who have that desire to do the best job they can.
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In one of two ways — hypothetically, I rush to point out. This is a thought experiment, not a warning.
The first potential manner of your death: You are walking along Wacker Drive, smiling at the sky, when a truck driven by a religious fanatic veers onto the sidewalk and kills you.
The second: You are at work, calling up a spreadsheet, when a disgruntled former employee bursts in and shoots you.
Both deaths are instantaneous. Which do you prefer?
As the victim, it hardly matters. Either way, you're just as dead. Your family misses you just as much.
Had you foreknowledge, you would try to spare yourself from either attack with equal vigor. In both cases, you would no doubt avoid the fatal spot — Wacker Drive or the office. You would notify authorities of the peril.
Yet that is not how society approaches such killings. We do not view them with equal attention, equal seriousness. Nor do we try to avoid both situations equally. Attacks such as the one Saturday on the London Bridge that killed seven are acts of terrorism that demand international attention, global grief and brisk action. We demand something be done.
While the shooting Monday at an awning factory in Florida is generally ignored. Five dead, but nothing to be done, or even contemplated. We hardly care what the motive was. Something work-related.
To continue reading, click here.
Posted by Neil Steinberg at 12:00 AM
5 comments:
tate June 7, 2017 at 8:11 AM
Glad this is in the paper today. Not that I have high hopes that the public will suddenly see the light and begin to confront their own prejudices, but maybe a few will.
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Bitter Scribe June 7, 2017 at 11:10 AM
Great column. I remember when the Justice Dept. did a report on the threat of terrorism from extremist right-wing groups, and Fox News etc. were absolutely beside themselves with indignation that the government would dare to make negative generalizations about anyone on the right. These guys really resent it when anyone tries to feed them even a tiny bit of what they dish out to Muslims every day.
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Replies
Tom June 7, 2017 at 11:46 AM
Herr Trump's attack on the dignified Mayor of London was particularly embarrassing, given the fact that the recent terrorist incidents there only slightly altered the fact that the probability of dying from a violent criminal act in London is about a quarter of that in any large American city. And the fact that, at least an older generation of Londoners take pride in their resilience after enduring fourtysome thousand deaths during the Blitz. Noel Coward, sitting on a park bench viewing the devastation in 1941 wrote a sentimental song about it.
"London Pride has been handed down to us
London Pride is a flower that's free
London Pride means our own dear town to us,
And our pride it for ever will be."
Being resilient doesn't mean being unaffected. Some ten years after the war had ended I remember viewing a movie set during the "second blitz," when the V1's and V2's started coming over. The former were psychologically the more terrifying because people knew that when the sound of their pulse jet engines cut out a devastating explosion would follow. When that happened on the screen a little lady sitting next to me in the Cottage Grove Cinema grabbed my arm tightly.
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Mike H. June 7, 2017 at 1:43 PM
Never heard the distinction between individual and group identity illustrated that way. Brilliant. As a side note, 43 people died in the US in shootings on that day alone, 6/3, just not all in one place--http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/number-of-gun-deaths?page=3
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Replies
tate June 7, 2017 at 5:00 PM
Love the photo -- there seems to be so much going on individually and collectively, internally and externally. I can hardly manage to keep one person within a shot, while you capture dozens, all interesting characters, from the rosy cheeked old timer to the young lass with "I'm a very busy..." on her shirt to the guy in the background looking suspiciously at the photographer.
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This year, which of course is not as anyone expected or hoped, is the 200th anniversary of the birth of our dear Anne Brontë. An important milestone for this brilliant writer, and she’s certainly in good company for this year also sees milestone anniversaries for two giants of culture. December sees the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, and this week saw perhaps the most famous poet of them all reach his quarter of a millennia: William Wordsworth, who was born on April 7th 1770. Wordsworth was a hugely popular and influential poet then and now, and his work was certainly known and loved by the Brontës, as we shall see.
Wordsworth shot rapidly to fame with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, a collection of verse which he co-authored with his lifelong friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge (of ‘Ancient Mariner’ fame). These youthful poems are beautiful and easily accessible, and rather different to some of the long, complex epic poems he composed in the decades which followed. Among them is a poem that I feel is among Wordsworth’s greatest works. ‘We Are Seven’ tells of a young maid who will always remember her siblings, even though they are dead and buried. It is a poem of sibling love and of infant mortality, and it always reminds me of the early losses that the Brontës and other families suffered.
Lyrical Ballads is often credited with starting a whole new poetic movement: Romanticism. Future poetic greats such as Byron, Shelley and Keats certainly had a lot to thank William Wordsworth for, and he became the father figure of the romantic poets. Others thankful for his work were a certain family of Haworth Parsonage, and we get evidence of this in a letter dated 4th July 1834 from Charlotte Brontë to her former school friend Ellen Nussey, in which she advises Ellen on what she should be reading:
“If you like poetry let it be first rate, Milton, Shakespeare, Thomson, Goldsmith, Pope (if you will although I don’t admire him), Scott, Byron, Campbell, Wordsworth and Southey… Scott’s sweet, wild romantic Poetry can do you no harm nor can Wordsworth’s nor Campbell’s nor Southey’s, the greatest part at least of his, some is certainly exceptionable.”
In light of Southey’s infamous letter later sent to Charlotte, saying that writing could never be the business of women, it’s good to see that Charlotte passed judgement on him too. For Wordsworth though she had only good words, and one member of her family was particularly fulsome in his praise of the great poet: her brother Branwell.
Wordsworth House, Cockermouth – birthplace of the great poet
Branwell hero worshipped William Wordsworth, a literary obsession that was brought to the surface when he sent Wordsworth a letter in January 1837, alongside the opening to a long poem. I reproduce it here in full, because it’s a fascinating letter that gives us insight into the huge esteem with which Branwell, and his sisters, held Wordsworth, and also into the mind of Branwell at the height of his positivity:
”Sir, I most earnestly entreat you to read and pass your judgment upon what I have sent you, because from the day of my birth, to this the nineteenth year of my life, I have lived among secluded hills, where I could neither know what I was, or what I could do. I read for the same reason that I ate or drank – because it was a real craving of nature. I wrote on the same principle as I spoke – out of the impulse and feelings of the mind; nor could I help it, for what came, came out, and there was the end of it. For as to self-conceit, that could not receive food from flattery, since to this hour not half-a-dozen people in the world know that I have ever penned a line.
But a change has taken place now, sir; and I am arrived at an age wherein I must do something for myself: the powers I possess must be exercised to a definite end, and as I don’t know them myself I must ask of others what they are worth. Yet there is not one here to tell me; and still, if they are worthless, time will henceforth be too precious to be wasted on them.
Do pardon me, sir, that I have ventured to come before one whose works I have most loved in our literature, and who most has been with me a divinity of the mind, laying before him one of my writings, and asking of him a judgment of its contents. I must come before some one from whose sentence there is no appeal; and such a one is he who has developed the theory of poetry as well as its practice, and both in such a way as to claim a place in the memory of a thousand years to come.
My aim, sir, is to push out into the open world, and for this I trust not poetry alone – that might launch the vessel, but could not bear her on; sensible and scientific prose, bold and vigorous efforts in my walk in life, would give a further title to the notice of the world; and then, again, poetry ought to brighten and crown that name with glory; but nothing of all this can be ever begun without means, and as I don’t possess these, I must in every shape strive to gain them. Surely, in this day, when there is not a writing poet worth a sixpence, the field must be open, if a better man can step forward.
What I send you is the Prefatory Scene of a much longer subject, in which I have striven to develop strong passions and weak principles struggling with a high imagination and acute feelings, till, as youth hardens towards old age, evil deeds and short enjoyments end in mental misery and bodily ruin. Now, to send you the whole of this would be a mock upon your patience; what you see, does not even pretend to be more than the description of an imaginative child. But read it, sir; and, as you would hold a light to one in utter darkness – as you value your own kind-heartedness – return me an answer, if but one word, telling me whether I should write on, or write no more. Forgive undue warmth, because my feelings in this matter cannot be cool; and believe me, sir, with deep respect, Your really humble servant, P. B. Brontë”
It’s easy to look upon this letter as a trifle embarrassing, but it shows the great confidence that Branwell had at this time, in himself and his writing, and he was certainly a man who would take action rather than waiting for whatever fate had in store. He wanted a critique of his poetry, so he had no hesitation in writing to the greatest poet of all. Reply came there none, but the fact remains that William Wordsworth kept the letter, so it must have interested him in some way, or perhaps he felt some affinity with Branwell even though he’d claimed that there wasn’t a writing poet worth sixpence.
Branwell never heard back from Wordsworth, but he had better luck with the family of Wordsworth’s great associate Samuel Taylor Coleridge, striking up a correspondence with his eldest son Hartley Coleridge, and visiting him at Nab Cottage at Ambleside. Hartley was impressed by Branwell’s writing, praising his ‘masterly versification.’
Nab Cottage was also in close proximity to Grasmere, the Lake District location that William Wordsworth has made forever famous. In 1840, Branwell too was in the Lake District, serving as governor to the Postlethwaite family of Broughton-in-Furness. We know he visited Hartley Coleridge, could he have visited his hero William Wordsworth too? Branwell’s friend Francis Leyland believed so.
Grasmere in the Lake District that inspired Wordsworth and many others
Wordsworth loved nature, enjoying nothing so much as walking the hills and fells of the Lake District, particularly when in company with his beloved sister Dorothy. There can be little doubt then that Emily and Anne Brontë, who loved to walk the moors together, would have felt a strong affinity with him. His pastoral poems took nature poetry to new heights, and we can see the effect they had on Charlotte Brontë in an 1850 letter to Margaret Wooler in which she details her own journey to the ‘Lake-Country’ to visit the wealthy Kay Shuttleworth family:
“Sir James Kay Shuttleworth is residing near Windermere at a house called ‘the Briery’ – and it was there I was staying for a little time in August. He very kindly shewed me the scenery, as it can be seen from a carriage, and I discerned that the ‘Lake-Country’ is a glorious region – of which I had only seen the similitude in dreams – waking or sleeping – but, my dear Miss Wooler, I only half enjoyed it – because I was only half at my ease.
Decidedly, I find it does not agree with me to prosecute the search for the picturesque in a carriage. A waggon, a spring-cart, even a post-chaise might do – but the carriage upsets everything. I longed to slip out unseen, and to run away by myself in amongst the hills and dales. Erratic and vagrant instincts tormented me, and these I was obliged to control, or rather suppress, for fear of growing in any degree enthusiastic, and thus drawing attention to the ‘lioness’, the authoress – the she-artist.”
William Wordsworth could certainly have sympathised with this dilemma, he became a much sought out public figure at his home at Rydal Mount where he spent the last 37 years of his life (that’s it at the top of this post), but really he prized solitude and the company of close friends. He was finally made poet laureate in 1843, after which he became the only poet laureate not to write a single line of official verse. Wordsworth had put down his quill forever, but he’d already left a stunning legacy which will always tower over the world of verse. As I type this, the sublime Egmont Overture is playing on the radio – and we return again to those other 2020 milestone holders Beethoven and Anne Brontë, along with Wordsworth they make a brilliant trio full of remarkable genius and the courage to set their own agendas rather than following conventions.
Wordsworth on Helvellyn by Benjamin Haydon
From Wordsworth, Beethoven and Anne we can learn a message that’s of vital importance today – we may be solitary at times, but our minds are free to roam where we please, and the endless bounties of nature will always be available to us. Stay healthy, stay indoors, and if you celebrate it may I wish you a Happy Easter.
Posted on 12th April 2020 12th April 2020 Author insearchofannebronte@hotmail.com
12th April 2020 at 12:05 pm
Wonderful post! I never knew that Branwell wrote to Wordsworth. I wonder why Wordworth kept the letter….
Happy Easter, Nick!
19th April 2020 at 7:16 pm
12th April 2020 at 5:50 pm
12th April 2020 at 7:31 pm
I would think that Keats would have a lot more in common with Brontë poetry than either Wordsworth or Coleridge. Is there any written evidence that they perused Keats? We know they were allowed to read Byron, but to what effect I do not know.
28th December 2020 at 12:37 pm
A brill read Nick. Bran faced enormous challenges, no silver spoon. Perhaps he was hoping Wordsworth would recognise his name, since he makes no reference to fact, that Wordsworth and Wilberforce corresponded and exchanged poems and sonnets with Patrick Bronte and, John Landseer. Wilberforce sponsored Patrick’s 3rd year at Cambridge. He and Wordsworth visited John Landseer’ home when in London. Only just discovered this enchanting legacy of family association. Hope is of value to you. Best wishes, Jam
28th December 2020 at 12:48 pm
I should mention; Benjamin Heydon, who made Wordsworth’s portrait above, was a pal of John Landseer, and tutored Edwin.
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Owing to the pandemic, the Film Bazaar will be an online event this year. We answer all your questions on how to be a part of it virtually
Published on :
Film Bazaar, one of the most significant film events of the year, will be moved online this year. It will take place between 16-21st January. Though there won't be an on-ground event, this year's Film Bazaar will continue to serve filmmakers, agents and producers, like it always has, through its virtual set up. In fact, the organisers believe that this year may end up being more cost-effective for the delegates too. For those attending, or those thinking of signing up, we have tried to answer some doubts you may have on how this networking event will translate online.
Who should attend the NFDC Film Bazaar?
If you're an emerging/first-time independent filmmaker, film student, producer, financier, sales agent, distributor or festival programmer, Film Bazaar is for you. It is the largest South Asian film market that brings together all the crucial stakeholders of getting a film made.
Bazaar has been the starting point for some of the most successful indie filmmakers and producers of recent times. Films like Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox, Anand Gandhi's Ship of Theseus, and Chaitanya Tamhane's Court, Gitanjali Rao's Bombay Rose and Pushpendra Singh's Laila Aur Satt Geet, to name a few, all began their journeys at Film Bazaar. The market encourages creative and financial collaboration between the South Asian and international film communities.
How can you attend Film Bazaar this year?
This year, Film Bazaar will have to break from tradition – it will not be an on ground event in Goa. Owing to the pandemic, it will take place virtually.
You can register at https://filmbazaarindia.com/attend-as-a-delegate/ to get access to various programmes in the virtual market from January 16th-21st.
How will it work online?
Film Bazaar has designed a state-of-the-art 3D virtual space that is going to recreate the physical experience of being in Goa. The virtual space has a user-friendly interface. It's as easy as getting on a Zoom video call.
All the key programmes of the Bazaar, including Co-Production Market (CPM), Viewing Room, Work-in-Progress Lab (WIP Lab), Industry Screenings and Knowledge Series, will be conducted virtually.
Film Bazaar is an excellent networking event that allows sales agents, distributors and financiers to connect. How will this happen virtually?
Normally, all registered delegates get featured in the Market Guide which is an essential networking tool for Film Bazaar delegates. In the virtual edition, every delegate will have the opportunity to request a one-on-one online meeting with others attending. They have created dedicated networking zones on the e-platform which will function as virtual meeting rooms for anyone who is online during the market hours. These zones will also have open networking sessions where invited guest delegates can do short interactive sessions about their companies, film festivals, agencies.
For the selected projects in the Co-Production Market and WIP-Lab films, producers, financiers, sales agents and distributors can schedule virtual meetings for a 30-minute slot with project representatives and filmmakers.
Why this is a great year to leverage the benefits of Film Bazaar.
If you're new to film markets, this year's Film Bazaar is a great time to make a start as it will be its most accessible edition. The cost of the entire experience is a fraction of what a delegate usually spends to be at the physical market in Goa.
This year the Bazaar will take place over 6 days instead of the usual 4 days. This was done keeping in mind the virtual fatigue that comes with attending such events. Day one is usually spent in getting comfortable with a new interface and since delegates will be logging in from different time zones, this gives them more time to go through the various programmes at ease.
For this edition, Film Bazaar has also collaborated with the French Embassy in India who will be presenting the French Institute Award for one selected project from the 21 selected Co-Production Market projects.
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Since 2009, we've done this reading group and in the process covered dozens of readings. But perhaps we've never read a short story quite like Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's "The Era." It's a story set in a future world after various wars and a re-organized society where genetic engineering has apparently gone to extremes, and brutal honesty has quite brutal.
After reading "The Finkelstein 5" and now "The Era," I think we have to say something, really a lot of things at some point about the creative and intriguing ways that Adjei-Brenyah's mind works.
Alright, I'm not even fully sure what questions to ask you because "The Era" disoriented me in unexpected and ultimately useful ways. So for now, let's do this: imagine several of us were in a room discussing this story. What should we focus on first concerning "The Era"? Why?
Posted by H. Rambsy at 8:33 AM
An important focus in The Era was how parents of the future would be able to optimize their fertility when trying to have a child and pick certain characteristics. It's sad that the people could not just be happy and love the child no matter what. And they felt like picking certian things to so call improve the child would make it better.
February 23, 2022 at 4:56 PM
Josephine Kanyi said...
I haven't had a passage throw me in for such a loop as much as this one did. It's important to focus on the constant dissatisfaction that people living in the industrial era are facing. The era is not just about futuristic predictions but does a good job at depicting mental health specifically depression. To the main character Ben, Good is simply an escape from the sad reality his life is and reflects on how a lot of people find different avenues to distract themselves from their current reality, and some end up being addictive coping mechanisms like "good" was for Ben.
February 23, 2022 at 10:45 PM
Mysaiah Chambers said...
For me, in the Era, it's just so sad and disappointing. What happened to loving yourself for who you are. We are unique in our own ways and shouldn't change our genetics because of what we might see as a flaw, but in reality it's true beauty. When we start loving ourselves for who we are and be blessed that we can be our own person then we can start to move on a little more in the world.
February 24, 2022 at 11:40 AM
Layla Brooks said...
An important focus is how harsh they are towards each other or they seemed so mean to themselves. Like for example, Samantha would talk poorly about her self or even the teacher and student dynamic seem harsh. I would want to talk as a group saying do we feel like the chapter reflects how people are in real life.
February 24, 2022 at 7:07 PM
Cidney C. said...
An important focus to go into is how the new society is run. If genetic engineering is supposed to be a utopian society, then that is truly sad. This new way of living is not any better than the way we live now; there are divisions between the rich and poor and judgmental people.
February 24, 2022 at 11:36 PM
How the new society is run is a crucial point to consider. That is extremely terrible if genetic engineering is supposed to be a utopian society. This new style of life is no better than the way we live now; there are still divisions between affluent and poor, as well as those who are judgmental.
February 24, 2022 at 11:57 PM
Anonymous said...
If we were sitting in a room I would make a case about the shoe lookers. This may not be super important but it does play a role in what the setting and society of this story is suppose to look like. We could connect the so called shoe lookers in this story to whom we may call shoe lookers in our every day society. We also could connect the meaning of good to what our own "good" maybe symbolized in our world.
February 25, 2022 at 1:01 AM
An important focus I would have mentioned during our discussion would be how this story gave me "a look into the future". Society is constantly changing and because of that the "do's and don'ts" are changing along with it. The more I read the passage, the more I could connect with this passage in an oddly yet valid way. The characters talked in the unspoken way of Americans. In today's world, judging has sadly become a norm for many. The way these students spoke was considered "truthful" in their world. which would be offensive in ours. The reason I made this connection was because looking at today's society, sooner or later that may be what's "normal" one day. The loneliness and low self-esteem that the character unknowingly was going thru is another valuable connection. Teens now adays often go thru depression and/or feel lonely and take that sorrow to hurt someone else. Although the way they spoke to each other is how it's always been, at the end of the day, their still human. People were being judged and got called nicknames like "shoelookers" because they simply just wanted an escape from reality.
February 25, 2022 at 4:04 AM
Unknown said...
The Era focus on the future, society, family, and how emotions are handled in a dystopia. In Era, the sister Leslie is judgmental of others while the brother works on being good. Also, the parents telling their child that he was a mistake show how emotionally disconnected families are to each other.
February 25, 2022 at 12:11 PM
Marlon C. said...
I think if we were all in a room together, I would bring up the importance of them treating themselves. I think they are all either mean to one another or to themselves. The students in this book are so disrespectful to their teachers, and it's sad. As an Education major, I couldn't imagine teaching in this era.
February 25, 2022 at 12:19 PM
Justin Burns said...
In a discussion group for the chapter we've read, I'd find it immediately more important to make concerns of the society's similarities to our society. When examining behavior's of specific characters I found it interesting to see the direction of their slowly developed mental illness and living status. Rather than going in a direction that rings happiness for those surrounded, the chapter shows everyone falling into an increase of poverty and mental illness. The environment is very concerning.
February 25, 2022 at 12:24 PM
Harrison B. said...
I would want to talk about why the "good" is considered a good thing during this time, and why people with emotions are considered "shoe lookers". I just find it weird that people with emotions have to hide them, but I can also see a similarity in today's society. In most black households we grew up to hide our emotions because mental illness is not common in black families. Now things are changing and more black people are going to therapists and getting help because we have emotions too. Generations before us basically grew up as shoe lookers and were forced to become "good" and tried to make their children "good" as well.
February 25, 2022 at 12:33 PM
Kendall B. said...
An important focus is mental health issues with-in the passage. A lot of the mental health issues and society standards made it hard for the characters to know the true meaning of self love . Reading about the events made me sad because I focused on how important mental health is in this era .
February 25, 2022 at 1:11 PM
Anijah Barringer said...
After reading about “The Era” what caught my attention the most was the fertility topic. I know that in today’s society you’re able to basically “make your own baby” as far as choosing the ethnicity of the child (Which is not important at all). But in the reading the parents were able to choose more specific characteristics of what their child would have. It was kind of sad because, your child is someone who you should love unconditionally and the parents basically “shopping for the genetics” of their unborn child was disheartening. It doesn’t matter what your child looks like or what gender they are, you should be blessed with what you receive naturally.
February 25, 2022 at 1:26 PM
Ruth B. said...
After reading The Era, if we had a discussion, I would talk about how the story relates to the real world at times. In the story, it mentions how society doesn't allow the people to "show emotion" or "be emotional", I think that relates to our society in real life when it comes to men. It was sad when the narrator stated, "And then there's Nick and Ralphy, who are who are the class shoelookers. Being emotional is all they are, and it means they aren't good for anything." This quote was sad because it shows how much society rejects the mental state of individuals. This ties back to real life because this happens often. It is detrimental especially at a young age because kids grow up to think that their emotions don't matter. Calling them "shoelookers" in the book was a way to make them feel inferior. This, in the real world can relate or look a little different. Overall, this part of the book related to the society in the real world.
February 25, 2022 at 3:48 PM
Lots of things kind of got my attention in this reading; the ability to have control over the genetic makeup of kids, the status of different people, and the use of "Good". I felt sad for the main character because his parents didn't care about his genetic makeup like his sisters causing him to feel like he needed "Good" to be a good person. After he visited Samantha's weird family, he understood why people thought they were weird, and it started to change how he looked at things.
February 25, 2022 at 4:18 PM
Willie D said...
In “The Era”, it was sad to read that the parents didn’t love their child for who they are. Just like every human being, we have our flaws in our systems that we just have to continue to live through. Regardless of how your child look, you should love their your child more than anything.
February 25, 2022 at 5:08 PM
In The Era what got my attention the most was the dismissal of individuals feeling in society. I believe that every human should viewed as their own people and in the book it really emphasized how individualism is overlooked. How every human has their flaws and their beauties. Especially at a young age where people are builds their personalities, if that whole concept of individualism is dismissed then it can greatly affect the whole concept of personality as one is growing up.
February 25, 2022 at 6:34 PM
Unknown said...
In discussing "The Era," the point of focus I would like to address is the standard of perfection/ "optimal" being. It's fascinating that some of the qualities that makes human beings beautiful (empathic, sensitive, genuinely loving) are considered as a weakness/defect.
February 25, 2022 at 6:37 PM
Jordan L Allen said...
This chapter holds a special setting within a classroom, filled with students who don't really care about the lesson they're being taught. The student's mental illness can be conveyed bi-polar because, in their mind, they keep calling others ugly or stupid based on being aggressive and mocking.
February 25, 2022 at 7:58 PM
Anonymous said...
Something that stood out to me in the era was the mental health. What, I mean by that is the lack of genuine love and overlooking of individuals. The society standards made it hard to love yourself let alone others.
February 25, 2022 at 9:20 PM
Alexis D said...
The focus that I feel like is important was how the chapter talked about the future. Society is constantly changing whether it is technology, parenting skills, school, school system, the law, and more. I connected a lot with the chapter because I can see how the world is changing and how us as a society are always trying to adapt to it. I feel like this would be a great topic to have a discussion on.
February 25, 2022 at 9:30 PM
Alexis D said...
The focus that I feel like is important was how the chapter talked about the future. Society is constantly changing whether it is technology, parenting skills, school, school system, the law, and more. I connected a lot with the chapter because I can see how the world is changing and how us as a society are always trying to adapt to it. I feel like this would be a great topic to have a discussion on.
February 25, 2022 at 9:31 PM
In "The era" one thing that sticks out to me is how uniqueness is just overshadowed by "perfection". It's truly sad how the parents couldn't just be happy and love the child for who they are. Instead, they genetically optimized their fertility and chose certain characteristics to make the so-called wonder child.
February 25, 2022 at 9:42 PM
This passage will have your thoughts all over over the place while reading it. As I was reading the passage it's hard to just focus on one part but, something that stood out to me the most is the feeling of the society and how everyone was treated and viewed as a person. being judged before evening knowing how someone really is unrealistic. In the Era, its upsetting how people can judge you without even knowing you and what your capable of.
February 25, 2022 at 9:51 PM
If we were to discuss this topic in class I would talk about how they speak and think about it each. They come off as very rude and hateful when they speak to each other. The sad part about it is that many people actually act like this towards each other and it's very sad.I feel like we should learn to speak our minds without talking to each other in such disrepectful ways.
February 25, 2022 at 9:58 PM
Kelan Branch said...
After choosing "The Era", I noticed it's lack of empathy for other people. Instead of helping those in need, we simply judge them based on their flaws and push them down for it. This is concerning because of how harsher society is becoming each year. I want people to reflect on this so that they too can realize how insensitive we are becoming as a whole.
February 25, 2022 at 10:39 PM
I'd talk about parents having the ability to choose the characteristics of their children. It makes me sad because I believe you shouldn't care how your children look as long as they are happy and healthy. I also believe you should love your children for who they are, flaws and all.
February 25, 2022 at 10:41 PM
"The Era" showed how a utopia can truly be a dystopia. By trying to be"perfect" people lost what made them human. What stood out to me the most was the ignorance of mental health and the ignorance the parents had towards their kids. This truly showed me how important empathy is and how it keeps us human.
February 25, 2022 at 10:54 PM
I’ve always been one to make a case for honesty but after this short story maybe not so much. This society may have honesty but I feel as if it is missing everything else that makes living with other human beings bearable. Does honesty mean ranking children, isolating what we think is undeserving of praise based on some score, some are the “shoelookers” and others perfect like Marlene? The thought that I kept circling back to is that this society is ironically lying to itself if it really believes that this honesty is not just as brutal as the lies that brought them war before. This “utopia” has all of the negative components of any but to an extreme. Any society that ranks or oppresses will face the same consequences of any dystopia.
February 25, 2022 at 11:16 PM
My case for the readings this week would pertain to how someone is viewed and how they feel about it. In the beginning of this section, The Era, the teacher, Mr. Harper, is doing a terrible job at building his students confidence. He is instead pointing out and telling them how imperfect they are and why they'd always be "unoptimal" to others. The students can't even express their emotions truly because their emotions are disregarded by others because it shows them as being inadequate. Also, I instantly noticed how some students have an implanted chip in their bodies while those who are "unoptimal" don't.
February 25, 2022 at 11:31 PM
I thought the reading was pretty interesting but when I first started reading it, I thought the plot was confusing at first. If we were in class discussing this, something I would want to talk about is that specific era. In the beginning, it talked about how the main character described the classroom setting in the story. The main thought school was stupid and basically thought he was too dumb to learn anything, so did other students. I also feel like this reading focused on America's education system.
February 25, 2022 at 11:32 PM
Unknown said...
I thought the reading was pretty interesting but when I first started reading it, I thought the plot was confusing at first. If we were in class discussing this, something I would want to talk about is that specific era. In the beginning, it talked about how the main character described the classroom setting in the story. The main thought school was stupid and basically thought he was too dumb to learn anything, so did other students. I also feel like this reading focused on America's education system.
February 25, 2022 at 11:32 PM
I thought the reading was pretty interesting but when I first started reading it, I thought the plot was confusing at first. If we were in class discussing this, something I would want to talk about is that specific era. In the beginning, it talked about how the main character described the classroom setting in the story. The main thought school was stupid and basically thought he was too dumb to learn anything, so did other students. I also feel like this reading focused on America's education system.
February 25, 2022 at 11:32 PM
"The Era" is set in a futuristic future where it is forbidden to express one's emotions. While trying to evaluate a child, future guardians will want to streamline their ripeness and pick specific features. We are all unique in our own ways, and we should not alter our DNA in response to what we perceive to be a flaw. They're either ruthless to one another or heinous to themselves. Despite her sibling's efforts to be great, Leslie condemns others. Additionally, guardians telling their child that he made a mistake. What happened to accepting yourself exactly the way you are?
February 25, 2022 at 11:55 PM
kelly said...
I find the drug outrageous.There is nothing wrong with trying to improve yourself but it shouldn’t take a drug to force it. I don’t blame the parents for modifying their children, they were giving them the tools needed to survive in their harsh and judgmental society.
February 25, 2022 at 11:56 PM
I would make a case on how genetically engineering your child to be "optimized" is a terrible thing to do and is basically plastic surgery for newborns. Additionally, reading this story has taught me how important caring for your mental health actually is.
February 25, 2022 at 11:59 PM
Aaron Crawford said...
To me an important focus is the way they did fertility. I honestly think it's crazy that parents can essentially changes things about their child to "improve" them. I think that's sad, your parents are supposed to be your biggest supporters and not judge you over things like appearance. Reading this made me a little sad because what they're not doing is out of love, it feels like personal gain.
February 26, 2022 at 12:33 AM
Unknown said...
One thing I would discuss is how they handle emotion in this dystopia, and the lack there of. Another thing that caught my attention was the heavy use of the word "good" in the chapter. There were so many instances where "I haven't had any Good since..." or just simply "I haven't had any Good" would be said. This brought the question of what is the definition of "Good" in both the story and the real world? What constitutes something as being a good thing?
February 26, 2022 at 1:30 AM
Shakyiah C said...
A point that I would focus on is the drug, "Good", they use to stay prideful and happy to some sort. The dosage reminds me of a game called "We Happy Few". Where society relies on a drug called "joy pills" to make it through the day in the aftermaths of a terrible war. The Joy Pills only allows them to feel happy and view nothing is wrong with the world. They choose to push away all their emotions through Good or just not show it at all because they saw it affected people in the past and view it as the reason for the wars. But emotions are one of the things that make humans, humans. I believe that there is a point they have with the honesty part. But not as blunt that we forget about emotions. I also think even if we had the honesty as "The Era" demonstrated, it would not make a big of a change that it did in the story.
February 26, 2022 at 2:19 AM
Jordan Barnes said...
When I was reading this article "The Era" I was really sad and kind of bummed out. First, I didn't like how the teacher was treating the ben and the other students. I didn't like how the teacher was insulted the students. But I believe that the teacher was trying to toughen up ben and the student in his own way.
February 26, 2022 at 8:15 PM
Alex Childs said...
An Important focus for me from "The Era" would. be self love. It goes to show that in the real world we feel as though we are not perfect when compared to others. It makes us feel like we have to change something about ourselves to give us gratification. When in reality we are perfect just the way we are and there is no need for comparison amongst other people. Worrying about such things can cause emotion stress and it can kill your motivation. In this futuristic society these concepts do not apply they are not allowed to show emotions. Which in my opinion takes the humanity away from the people because emotions are how one expresses themselves.
February 27, 2022 at 10:15 PM
Arieona B. said...
After reading “The Era '' I would most likely first focus on the translation of the terms used like shoelooker, times they are learning in school (old vs new), different statuses of families/children, the “good”, etc. After decoding what everything actually means it helps you to get the message of the bigger picture. Which I think could be the effects of how you are raised, what you are taught, and your environment has on your personality and mental health.
February 27, 2022 at 10:38 PM
Erin Myers said...
Reading the era I noticed how these blows at the student were so personal. I could not imagine how he felt when he called him stupid and the whole class laughed. Saying things like this would hurt the student's self-esteem and lower their confidence. Also, the students in the classroom judge people and how 'ugly' they are based on how they act at a certain moment.
February 28, 2022 at 9:10 AM
Naomi B. said...
While reading "The Era" I was a bit confused as to why everyone was so truthful. For example, when Ben told his teacher that he basically wanted to beat him with a rock, I was shocked at the teacher's response given the fact that in today's world that would've been considered a threat and extreme consequences would've followed. As I read along one small detail about the "Shoe-lookers" stood out to me. The fact that they were seen as weak, emotional and untruthful for crying all the time really said a lot about the society. Sadness is a true emotion and if they are simply expressing that emotion because it is how they feel all the time how they are being untruthful. Obviously if you cry it's for a reason, and them simply crying and expressing the sadness they are feeling is them being true to their emotions, so I didn't understand how they were seen as untruthful.
February 28, 2022 at 3:15 PM
Anonymous said...
While I get that the father is trying to prepare the kids for the harshness of the real world, the harshness still caught me off-guard. The kids might end up resenting him cause at the moment they don't understand the "lesson" he is trying to teach them. Just felt so dismissive.
March 1, 2022 at 8:57 AM
I'd talk about parents having the ability to choose the characteristics of their children. It makes me sad because I believe you shouldn't care how your children look as long as they are happy and healthy. I also believe you should love your children for who they are, flaws and all.
March 2, 2022 at 8:30 PM
Erin Myers said...
A great discussion topic would be acknowledging the threat that our world could possibly turn into theirs. For one thing, their society does not want nor seek emotional value. They make fun of others who do exhibit these attributes of feelings. Even their teacher allows for students to be called ugly and fat in the classroom. This could relate to the idea that many experience in their households, friend groups, classrooms, jobs etc. Where people do not value others feelings or take time to have empathy for you. In the chapter, it is interesting that the people who do have emotions are called “shoe-lookers” because if this is supposed to be a better way of life then why are people seemingly heavy from their emotions. That they droop down and only look at shoes? Similar to in our world, social media is supposed to give us serotonin when we scroll on our phones, so why are people becoming more unhappy?
March 4, 2022 at 8:48 AM
Anonymous said...
I want to talk about how crazy it is for adults to "make" their children how they want them to be. The point of haveing a child is to watch them grow and form personalities, whats the point if you already did that for them.
March 4, 2022 at 11:29 AM
A main element in The Era was how future parents would be able to improve their fertility and select specific qualities while seeking to conceive a kid. It's a pity that the people couldn't just be pleased and love the child regardless of the circumstances. And they believed that picking certain things to "enhance" the child would help.
March 4, 2022 at 12:20 PM
Anonymous said...
One of the major things I focused on was parents being able to pick out their children's characteristics. All children are blessings. So how they come into this world is how they are supposed to be. I also thought that the dad was being a little hard on the kids. It is important to raise them in the right manner though. Everyone is different, but everyone is perfect as they are. It was really hard for me to see how other kids were treating each other.
March 4, 2022 at 1:06 PM
Erin Myers said...
The important focus in the book is family and society. Mainly through the story the things that would catch your eye is how the family treat each other harsh. How strictly the parents and how they raise them . It also focuses on the society how society is now days. How they let that guilty man walk off away not guilty and they had all the evidence to prove that he was guilty. That's how society it is today.
March 7, 2022 at 11:53 AM
Erin Myers said...
What I would bring up, is the importance of mental health and self-awareness. Many people neglect caring for their well-being and find their feelings being invalidated. It's good to spread awareness over these issues.
March 7, 2022 at 12:22 PM
Erin Myers said...
In “The Era” it was shocking to see how people chose how their kid looks instead of wanting them to have characteristics of them. I would think it’s more important for my child to feel a part of the family. But in “The Era” they judge so quick, if you don’t look one way, you’re disregarded they don’t care about what’s real they just want a fantasy it was very saddening.
March 7, 2022 at 12:24 PM
Tyler Butler said...
The main thing I was concerned about was the ability of the parents to control their child's future "decisions"I would technically say they were dehumanizing their children to their standards as they are choosing specific characteristics in their future lives the children can't control. So the children end up living the ideal lives of their parents instead of learning and doing it on their own!
March 8, 2022 at 12:45 PM
I thought the reading was interesting but as I first started reading it, I thought the plot was a little confusing at first. If we were in class discussing this, something I would want to talk about is that specific era. In the beginning, it talked about how the main character described the classroom setting in the story. The main character thought school was stupid and basically thought he was too dumb to learn anything, so did other students. I could relate to that because in most of my classes it feels like i'm the only one who doesn't know what they are doing is me and it feels embarrassing I also feel like this reading focused on America's education system.
March 9, 2022 at 8:03 PM
Erin Myers said...
I feel as though we should have a lot of concern for Ben because he is taking a lot of the "good" medicine and pill in order to keep him happy. There is a fact that no should rely on a pill to keep them happy or sane because its unhealthy and you can be addicted to the substance. Mental health was shown a lot in this piece of literature. I liked how the author provided intake in all of this and said how the drug "good" was consuming Ben and how he could not go without it. I feel as though this is a good example of how society is today when it comes to mental health. Most people do not want to go to therapy or things like that so they try to find the easier way out which is taking pills and not actually doing the work to get better.
March 16, 2022 at 9:09 AM
changing things so that one fits in is something we all would do even in minor ways, but to change someone before they could even be appreciated with their faults kind of takes from the heart of humanity and humanism. There will always be faults regardless of how hard one tries to rid of them.
March 18, 2022 at 8:08 PM
Unknown said...
I would say we should start off with parents and the toxic control they have over their children. I believe parents should not dictate their child's life but instead support them and help them. Children should have love and support from the parents no matter what.
March 26, 2022 at 1:28 PM
Unknown said...
With this story the focus of conversation should be how the parents interact with their children. They did not seem in touch with their emotions which is concerning. A child should not have to rely on drugs to deal with their emotional trauma. It also makes me think of generational trauma and what the parents went through as kids to want to live through their children.
April 22, 2022 at 11:19 AM
Erin Myers said...
After reading this and having a group discussion about it the first major thing I would want to discuss is mental health. I am a big advocate for mental health and none of them displayed good mental health. With everything going on around them and society’s standards it makes it hard for them to be able to have self-love for themselves and no one else is telling them to have it either, they were overlooked, and treated very inhumanly.
April 29, 2022 at 1:22 PM
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We try to vary the way we travel from our home in London to our flat in Grimaud, sometimes we fly, sometimes we take the train (my personal favourite) and sometimes we drive (my husbands favourite). This time it was his turn to choose so we drove down, all 800 miles which takes about 11 to 12 hours. Our friends manage to do the journey in one day but for me this is just too much so I insist on a nights stop over, normally somewhere between Dijon and Lyon, the wonderful wine growing area of Burgundy. Always a good excuse to sample a few glasses! We usually stay in hotels but this time I decided to be more adventurous and try out a “Chambres d’hotes”, or B and B’s as they are known in the UK where they are popular as traditional holiday accomodation.
For those historians who want to check out The History of the origin of B and B’s. A very useful guide book
French Bed and Breakfast led us to the discovery of Le Crot Foulot run by the super efficient and extremely welcoming Annie and Jan. As you can see from the pictures below the original “winemaker’s domain” has been lovingly restored about 6 years ago when Annie and Jan decided to sell their prize winning restaurant in Brussels and come to live in the beautiful countryside in the heart of Burgundy with all it’s culture and tradition. We were treated to the most delicious three course evening meal accompanied by some of the best Burgundian wines.
If you are ever visiting that area of France I would highly recommended you spend a night or two at Annie and Jan’s wonderfully calm and restoring “Chambres d’hotes”
The bedroom we stayed in. I love the original way the architect has added the bathroom. Very good use of space
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That's Not My Age
5th July 2011 / 18:21
The hotel looks gorgeous – on our recent trip to Paris I decided we should buy a small apartment near the Gare du Nord! Not quite sure where the money’s coming from but wouldn’t it be fab to go to and fro on the Eurostar?
Anonymous
5th July 2011 / 19:12
Such a wonderful place to stay, and your bedroom is gorgeous. Quite different to b&bs here in New Zealand!
6th July 2011 / 08:11
This looks a delightful b and b. Alastair Sawday is always reliable. We like to stop for a night or two en route to Italy, usually in small hotels or b and bs in Germany or Austria. How do you pack for this ? I like to change my clothes before dinner, so I now take a small bag or case for the overnight stops. What outfit would you suggest which would look just right for dinner, and packs easily ?
6th July 2011 / 16:17
A good question. I only take a very small overnight bag with me. This time I took a lovely grey jersey (with sleeves) maxi dress. It rolls up into a small ball without creasing and can be dressed up with a belt, necklace and some earrings. I shall also wear it with a sarong tied around the waist on the beach. I believe in clothes that multi task.
7th July 2011 / 09:33
That sounds perfect. Too late for this summer as I leave on Saturday, but I shall certainly look out for something similar – maybe in Italy.
7th July 2011 / 18:03
What a great B&B….I shall mark it so that if I have the chance to go to Burgundy I will know where to stay…..xv
23rd July 2011 / 16:25
Josephine, its my first visit to this blog and I like it very much. This article on hotel accommodation is amazing. Nice presentation!!
Pousadas em buzios
24th July 2011 / 07:17
Hi Piter. Thanks for your nice comment. Hope you stay around.
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structure miserably
A balmy clam is rescue longingly washy chock. The yucky stunt was perform enormously rummy yoga. The lean axe was feed rigidly husky crawl. The swift bean was untidy dimly bulky groan.
A fifth will was own yearningly avian rot. The alien skit is prevent soon shaky map. The weedy motor was mug bashfully dirty moss. The hilly cheer was glow longingly beamy sled.
release delightfully
A squat spook was inform elegantly cold wand. A alive cell was subtract afterwards yummy aged. A newsy mud was finance upbeat key hobo. The dirty teal is prick uselessly bust hemp.
overhear gladly
A dense spasm is compile unaccountably silty offer. The lanky pal is object arrogantly meek stew. The owing anvil is mistake not lusty fiend. The soggy pant was convert carelessly straw eyes.
worry unimpressively
A keyed block is scream bleakly brute rummy. The boxy lapse is organize generously piggy melon. A deist flank was shiver afterwards meaty mug. The ideal pant is turn nicely ugly song.
The gold terms was sell jubilantly squab vote. The mothy wort is mentor diligently self shim. The built gild was demonstrate blindly four nick. The woven waltz is manufacture safely sour beats.
wipe diligently
A large park is allow eventually flash sage. A irate beep is suppose fully plump stock. A short giant is spare punctually grand silk. The plush silk is analyze upbeat pass say.
marry shyly
The false wads is sparkle usually nifty stock. The dinky fry is radiate miserably ample belch. A blond quest was review fatally pushy prowl. The stone ocean was hear dearly peaky buss.
warm victoriously
A soft mocha is feed upwardly mum strip. The dusky pay was shoe valiantly pushy jewel. The brown wager was bump more upper femur. The noisy loon is listen yieldingly bossy pizza.
undertake vivaciously
The rowdy crud is employ intensely usual trail. A afoot sinus is type crossly paid forum. The laid room is sniff unexpectedly right joy. The well ivory is improve freely waste swim.
The slaty guild is snatch punctually woven arena. The iffy hen was grease carelessly gone clack. The curly bylaw was fly carefully icy tip. The ruled miser was accelerate greedily elder chute.
stick obediently
The large west was reply upbeat upset pen. A shady scare was mentor tenderly swish waist. A loco is conclude soon hated glove. A pent music is head extremely mean coat.
tick very
A muddy mow is chase well lush flume. The snug sugar was come awkwardly left leech. A rich fuel was facilitate offensively tamed sauce. A lofty womb is slip blindly basic rub.
attract wisely
A prize maid is go zealously downy pearl. The slain few is arrange hopelessly hexed horn. A based envy was swell needily lousy mover. A boxy modal was race generally afoot gates.
cast painfully
The lacy cheat is pack woefully dumb aim. A said bunt was bare intensely oval range. A briny shore was warn searchingly sworn delta. The void fate was record acidly seamy fox.
A none visor is phone roughly tall spin. A skew breed is moan madly inert yarn. A dud dance was tremble coolly snuff mash. The ill scout was meddle officially nuts year.
The few prose was need suddenly tops home. A worn plush is ask kindheartedly evil wort. A dull sect was catch thoroughly shot jest. The trig third was solve shakily trite jamb.
The sixty horde is twist coaxingly gushy rib. A plumb mania is release mortally sewn bird. A lean mix is wonder queasily pesky altar. A camp spoon was risk wrongly fly epoxy.
A cod comma was speak very open cabot. A fatal ledge was communicate repeatedly edged annex. A khaki bra was establish furiously apish dip. The handy reply was roll smoothly nasty cheek.
claim innocently
A oily mug is joke sadly woven tow. The weird fox is care swiftly smug revel. The mined sub was bare sheepishly bossy flake. A under moody was make wildly palmy gum.
encourage often
A magic alps is spit joyously red dear. The firm exit is restructure properly dinky front. The cosy round is complete majestically silly cabin. A born aim is spread enthusiastically mean work.
scrape fortunately
The quiet image was fancy inquisitively own jazz. A trig flank was slide kindheartedly comic white. The lean chart was apologize yesterday windy level. A rushy awe is choke zestfully rose email.
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Posted bykiwicrypto August 28, 2021 August 28, 2021 Posted inCrypto Information, Miscellaneous, OpinionTags:Apple accept Bitcoin
This could be THE BIGGEST CRYPTO NEWS of the year!!! The market should explode as users will be able to use crypto to pay for in app purchases – Kiwicrypto
In settling class-action lawsuit, Apple agrees to allow developers to direct consumers to payment options outside of their app, which would allow them to avoid fees Apple charges developers
Apple Inc. will change its App Store policies in a legal settlement, the first major concession the iPhone maker has made amid multiple antitrust investigations.
In a proposed settlement of a 2019 class-action lawsuit from developers, Apple agreed to allow app makers to direct their consumers to payment options outside the App Store, which could allow them to avoid paying fees of up to 30% that Apple charges developers for online purchases in iOS apps. The company also agreed to a democratic approach to the App Store’s search function, greater pricing freedom and an annual transparency report about the companies’ app-review policies and their effects.
Perhaps the biggest concession from Apple would let developers finally communicate directly with customers about alternative payment options, with their permission, using information collected inside their apps.
The changes apply to developers worldwide — not just small developers in the U.S. covered by the settlement.
The fees charged to developers, and the rules Apple has enforced that require Apple’s payment option be used in apps with no direction to other payment options, were at the heart of a separate lawsuit, Epic Games Inc. v. Apple. That landmark antitrust case, brought by the maker of the “Fortnite” videogame, is being decided by the same judge who will now weigh this proposal, with a ruling in the Epic case expected soon.
Thursday’s settlement proposal is in a case that was seeking class-action status for small developers — those who make less than $1 million annually — who felt wronged by Apple. Apple still defended its App Store practices in a legal filing for the proposed settlement of the Donald R. Cameron et al v. Apple lawsuit.
“The evidence of record establishes that the practices challenged in this and other cases are both lawful and well-justified by business necessity—including the protection of Apple’s intellectual property, and protecting the security and privacy of Apple’s customers,” the filing reads. “Nevertheless, Apple would rather work with developers than litigate against them.”
Apple also agreed to pay $100 million to developers, which it mentioned last in its announcement about the proposed settlement and called “a fund to assist small U.S. developers, particularly as the world continues to suffer from the effects of COVID-19.” The plaintiffs’ filing noted that the fund would directly pay developers sums of $250 to $30,000, depending on their previous App Store proceeds.
The settlement will next be weighed by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., who also presided over and is deciding the Epic antitrust case. A decision in that case is expected soon.
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Posted bykiwicrypto August 28, 2021 August 28, 2021 Posted inCrypto Information, Miscellaneous, OpinionTags:Apple accept Bitcoin
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Talk of a housing bubble is beginning to crop up as home prices have appreciated at a rapid pace this year. This is understandable since the appreciation of residential real estate is well above historic annual averages. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), annual appreciation since 1991 has averaged 3.8%. Here are the latest 2020 appreciation numbers from three reliable sources:
It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that house appreciation is out of control in today’s market. However, we need to put these numbers into context first.
Inflation and the Comeback from the Housing Crash
Following the housing crash, home values depreciated dramatically from 2007-2011. Values are still recovering from that unusually long period of falling prices. We must also realize that normal inflation has had an impact.
Bill McBride, the founder of the well-respected Calculated Risk blog, recently summed it up this way:
“It has been over fourteen years since the bubble peak. In the Case-Shiller release today, the seasonally adjusted National Index, was reported as being 22.2% above the previous bubble peak. However, in real terms (adjusted for inflation), the National index is still about 2% below the bubble peak…As an example, if a house price was $200,000 in January 2000, the price would be close to $291,000 today adjusted for inflation.”
The pandemic caused many households to reconsider whether their current home still fulfills their lifestyle. Many homeowners now want larger yards that are both separate and private.
Their needs on the inside of the home have changed too. People now want home offices, gyms, and living rooms well-suited for video conferencing. Barbara Ballinger, a freelance writer and the author of several books on real estate, recently wrote:
“While homeowners continue to want their outdoor spaces that offer a safe retreat, that appeal has shifted into other parts of the home, coupling comfort with function. In other words, homeowners want amenities for work and leisure, and they plan to enjoy them long after the pandemic.”
At the same time, concerns about the pandemic have caused many homeowners to put their plans to sell on hold. Realtor.com just released their November Monthly Housing Market Trends Report. It explains:
“Nationally, the inventory of homes for sale decreased 39.2% over the past year in November…This amounted to 490,000 fewer homes for sale compared to November of last year.”
More people buying and fewer people selling has caused home prices to escalate. However, with a vaccine on the horizon, more homeowners will be putting their houses on the market. This will better balance supply with demand and slow down the rapid appreciation.
That’s why major organizations in the housing industry are calling for much more moderate home appreciation next year. Here are the most recent forecasts for 2021:
National Association of Realtors: 4.5%
Finally, let’s put to rest some of the concerns that today’s scenario is anything like what led up to the last housing crash. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), explains why this is nothing like 2006:
“Such a frenzy of activity, reminiscent of 2006, raises questions about a bubble and the potential for a painful crash. The answer: There’s no comparison. Back in 2006, dubious adjustable-rate mortgages taxed many buyers’ budgets. Some loans didn’t even require income documentation. Today, buyers are taking out 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. Fourteen years ago, there were 3.8 million homes listed for sale, and home builders were putting up about 2 million new units. Now, inventory is only about 1.5 million homes, and home builders are underproducing relative to historical averages.”
Most aspects of life have been anything but normal in 2020. That includes buying and selling real estate. High demand coupled with restricted supply has caused home prices to appreciate above historic levels. With the end of the health crisis in sight, we will see price appreciation return to more normal levels next year.
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The body is now AWARE and LISTENING intently to EVERYTHING we say and think about the World and especially about ourselves.
It is time to develop a new dialogue with ourselves, with the very communities of cells that make up the totality of WHO WE ARE.
TAP on your forehead and then your heart as you repeat these words until you ‘feel’… which means SENSATE a visceral feeling within your body… whatever that may be, know that you are in the process of opening the delicate dialogue, a new bridge of trust, between your conscious thinking you, and your manifested physical you
I now release myself from my belief that my body is limited
I now release myself from my fears around my body
I now release myself form and all, from all the ways I judge myself and my life
now place your hand on your heart and repeat…
EVERY CELL, EVERY NERVE, EVERY TISSUE AND EVERY ORGAN is being made WHOLE, PURE and PERFECT
My whole being, MY WHOLE BODY, is being RESTORED to perfect HEALTH and HARMONY.
I am not just a body.
I HAVE a body, and when I become PRESENT IN MY BODY, as I am doing right now, I AM FULLY PRESENT TO MYSELF
February 26, 2020 0
Connect with Us
Connect with us, we’d love to hear from you and we are here to uplift, inspire you and remind you of who you are.
September 12, 2019 0
Dearest friends, No doubt you have all been feeling the great upsurge of energy, as all around us the world is shifting in ever unexpected and sometimes stressful ways.
Source: STRESS and the Awakening Soul
ANY constriction, causes you to temporarily disconnect from your Highest Version of SELF, in the moment of THINKING or doing. It quite literally stops you from being Who You Are
December 8, 2016 0
You are the God you Seek
My dearest friends, the following is a Channeled message for all those who are on the Enlightened path. In these times of change, we must all hold true to our very beingness, and shine the light of…
Source: You are the God you Seek
November 28, 2016 0
You are the God you Seek
My dearest friends, the following is a Channeled message for all those who are on the enlightened path.
In these times of change, we must all hold true to our very beingness, and shine the light of unconditianality, of love, appreciation, and understanding as those we love wake up around us. Hold true to your inner intentions, and know that the path laid out for you IS your perfect path. You are here because you feel inside you a deep desire to be of service, and that means You yourself have endured much. And so, we offer the following words to sooth your hearts and minds. Love yourself first and foremost, and watch as that inner love spills forth and flows out into your personal inner and outer reality.
with all my love, Kasia
You are far more valuable that you belive; so you have trapped yourself in a loop of less-than-ness that we are not able to forcibly break through.
You must allow you to be right.
That means that sometimes you have to get it wrong,
That means that sometimes you don’t do it perfectly.
But that means that you have the ability, the capacity to move in another direction and do what needs to be done in order for you to FEEL BETTER.
We can not emphasize how important it is to KEEP YOUR BODY HEALTHY!
Please do not kill the very vessel that assures your ongoing stay here in this physical world environment.
you are real, and you live in an environment of cause and effect. What you do matters.
That is a fact.
The world has made you think that the world is not real.
This is confusing not at all.
Although you may find it confusing at first
Let that go as well…and know that All IS as it is,
and you have little to do now, than to follow your own private pathway. That means you get to live your life the way you want to, not under anyone’s control.
And that has not happened on your planet for a very long time.
This is a grand, truly new consciousness awakening and what is ahead of you is far more than what lies behind. So know that as you expand and become MORE, which you are already on the pathway to, because you can not be, or do, or have anything, that you do not believe you can have, be, or do.
what you belive
and BE
what you BE
you ARE
what you are
and get more and more and more of that.
do you see????
So what is your new story?
What do you want to live next?
What do you choose?
Do you realize that in not loving yourself enough to answer those questions, you leave yourself open to the influence of others. For in your uncertainty about YOU, you give others the room to maneuver you. You allow them to shift your perception about yourself. And worse yet, you believe them, and take ownership of their misconception of you. Which is only, and EVER, a direct REFLECTION of themselves. Because they are always, and ONLY seeing themselves as they look at you. And they will do that, until they do not. And when they finally see past their own pain, and their own victimhood, and truly when they can see the other past themselves, then… and only than… will the FULLY SEE YOU.
But in order for them to know what that looks like, you must first SEE YOU
and hold true that to vision
hold true to that knowing
of what and who you are
and continue to BE THAT.
Even if what you SEE outside your self, is not at first showing you evidence of that new awareness. Than, especially than, hold steady and strong, to this new understanding of you. So that, in this new steady thought, you begin to find a firm footing, and every day, in every way… you truly DO feel better and better… and in that feeling better, you BE more and more. Because your path is already set, and your fazers have been set to ENLIVEN. And as you shoot your light~love pulse into this ever changing and every expanding world… new things… things yet unknown… will happen… and we will all eagerly await your ‘arrival’ as you make your way down the pathway of what you now call your life.
This isn’t a fake story that you’ve created in your inner mind… this is the REAL story of a life lived in full deciding, as story and reality intermingle, in an exquisite and often times delicious way.
what more need be said…
have fun and let go of the pain instead
we like to rhyme
simply because you do
because we are you
and you
you
you
you
you
you
you and you
on and on
and on
Lets restate this, because it needs to be said… what you believe about yourself, you project out and it reflects back to you in the experiences you have with others, who are in truth, the only other true thing. Because outside of the other, all else is the active co~creative environment you deem as ‘real world’.
but what you consider real, your interpretation of real, is so off… and we say that with all the love in the multiverse. WE don’t want to challenge you in this perception, we simply want to say that what you consider solid and real, even that building you see with your physical eyes, is to a degree, real and unreal. It exists and is already gone, on
What does that mean?
It is and is not. As all things are.
It just depends where you are currently looking, what point in ‘time’ are you focusing on
or in your experience, what point in ‘time’ are you currently living or experiencing?
Because you are shifting timelines more than you currently understand but you are nonetheless,
and so you have shifted yourself many times, and so the path you understand as you daily path is you shifting yourself to here and now.
Consider the micro, macro phenomenon… on a small, micro level the speed at which things are experienced will be vastly different that at the large, macro level. Both are valid and both are REAL, and yet both exist individual from the other. Now consider this on an ongoing level in BOTH DIRECTIONS…INFINITUM.
That means that there is a multitude of realities, each playing itself out in vastly different and yet similar ways, each always effected by the other, implying a uniformity of collective experiences along the evolutionary scale… which travels in infinity in both directions…inner and outer… so within, so without… and so on and so on… and as you say… forEVER.
So there is no ‘better than’ there is no right or wrong… and yes, we are ALL CONNECTED.
See the perfection in that, and your valuable placement among the many who, as you, have placed themselves FIRST, to fully encompass this NEW change. NEW for you… yes, lovely one… for you are a chain in a link that is so grand and so vast, that you yourself can not yet truly comprehend it, but which is so true that the very inkling of your comprehension, allows for a deeper connection TO IT. And as you tap TAP yourself free, as you tap yourself, FREE… you let us, which is all of us… which is all of you… IN
Channeled and Published by Kasia Kaminska.
a note from Kasia and Dan
We wouldn’t have such a large audience if it wasn’t for all of you who continuously support us by Sharing, Subscribing and supporting our work.
Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for everything you do, and please keep it up! We love you.
November 28, 2016 1
Source: About Kasia & Dan
November 1, 2016 0
There is a misunderstanding in the way you understand the concept of new beginnings.Or better said,you have come to believe that there IS such a thing.
Source: Understanding New Beginnings
July 5, 2016 0
Anything is Possible! You’re actions are key ~What are you Doing? ~ Do what you Love, Have faith in Yourself and Become passionate about your Life! Please enjoy today’s Channeled Intuitive Quote with Love&Light Kasia
Create for yourself in every moment an action and a behaviour that will take you back into that your passion.
You must FEEL passion in order to BE passionate.
Be obsessed about being obsessed, doing the things you love for their own sake to create the reality you prefer, to attract what you prefer.
Act things out
Physically act out the scenario that best represents the reality you want
and
BE what you want.
And above all, trust that your choices are DIVINELY guided, because they are.
April 8, 2016 0
~~~ a note from Kasia ~~~ My dear friends, I tuned in last night and asked for a message of love and expansion to help and guide us along this new Energetic path and this is the message that came though, loud and clear. Source: A Message to Humanity
March 24, 2016 0
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Amazing class with Chef Sang - he guides you through everything you need... to know about sushi. We had a lot of fun.read more
Sushi Making for the Soul is an incredible experience! 5/5 stars, no... questions asked. Chef Sang is a hilarious and clear teacher who made the experience personal, fun, competitive, and very successful! As a person who has never made sushi before I was skeptical about how well my and my boyfriend's sushi would turn out, but to our surprise, we can now confidently say we both know how to successfully make multiple styles of sushi! Each participant received plenty of ingredients and able to make multiple rolls of sushi, and definitely went home full to the brim. The available drinks were fairly priced. The entire experience felt relaxing and fun, as if you were cooking with friends in a well-stocked kitchen. It was extremely clear Chef Sang came with a world of knowledge and we loved hearing all of his insider tips and tricks to making the perfect sushi roll. The purchasing process was very simple, prompt, and professional (through etransfer for both a gift card and single entry admission), and Jennifer was an amazing contact in getting the entire booking process set up. Long story short, if you're thinking about doing this experience, DO IT UP! You will not regret it, and you'll have a fun & sushi-filled evening! Thanks so much Chef Sang & Jennifer! :)read more
Sushi making with Chef Sang was awesome. We had fun, and learned some of... the secrets to making one of our favourite meals! Chef Sang is funny and humble person and we truly enjoyed a fun evening with him walked out stuffed full of great sushi. Thank you!read more
Amazing experience! Chef Sang was fantastic and food was delicious.
We got Sushi Making for the Soul as a gift from 2021 Christmas. We were... happy that instead of virtual classes, we were able to attend in person classes. Jennifer was responding to our emails promptly. There was ample free parking. We got there early to meet some of our attendees. The experience was amazing. Chef Sang was so funny, friendly and knowledgeable about sushi. We have previously made sushi at home and this class deepen our knowledge of it. Thank you for everything, Chef Sang. Highly recommend this for a date night idea or a gift.read more
Amazing experience! Chef Sang led a great class, very informative and fun.... The food was delicious and the company was great.read more
We loved this class so much! Learned every detail to sushi making and Chef... Sang was a great teacher! It was such a fun experienceread more
Raejean R.
I highly recommend this experience with Chef Sang as the instructor of the... class. I came to learn how to make sushi and left with the experience of learning about the culture/origin of sushi. You get to eat/drink and learn at the same time while meeting new people. Even taking home leftovers. Chef Sang was very energetic and amazing in teaching techniques and etiquette when preparing sushi. He was patient and easy to talk to, making me feel comfortable and open. Also, you can see Chef Sang's passion for his initiative for low-income families that he supports along with his passion for the art of culinary. It was a long class but you have so much fun that the time flies by so quickly, and you don't want the evening to come to a close.read more
Couldn’t recommend this Sushi making class enough! This is your sign to... sign up now.This class was a gift to my boyfriend two years ago prior to COVID. We heard such amazing things about Chef Sang that we knew we wanted to wait for in person classes again. We’re so thrilled we did! What a wonderful experience. So fun, so knowledgeable and honestly just relatable to everyday life in the lessons taught!Do yourself a favour and book this for a date night or friends outing or just go by yourself. Promise you won’t regret it!read more
Chef Sang was great at walking us through sushi-making techniques and... giving us background information about the history. The class was informative and fun, and Chef Sang created a funny and supportive environment to try sushi-making for the first time! There were tons of ingredients so we definitely ate our fill. I would recommend this class to anyone wanting an excellent sushi-making experience! After this class, I feel like I would be able to make sushi at home!read more
Booked sushi making for a company team building event. Chef Sang make it... very engaging and everyone had great fun. I received a lot of compliments from the teams after the event :) Would 100% do it again!read more
My 13 year old daughter has been passionate about sushi for years such... that she has been experimenting making her own. So I decided that Chef Sang's in person sushi class would be a great idea for her to improve her skills. She absolutely loved the class, learned so much and felt so comfortable and welcomed given that she was on her own for the class. I would highly recommend the Chef Sang's sushi making class to anyone starting out to wanting to learn more about sushi making. The class was so beautifully set up, with all the ingredients apportioned and organized, and Chef Sang was so engaging with all the participants.read more
Drew W.
13:42 30 May 22
Well hot dang!!! I was not expecting that AT all. I'm not sure what I WAS... expecting but it certainly wasn't that. Chef Sang was funny, entertaining and very clear with the instructions. He went into great detail to explain how the flavours, combinations and ingredients all affected the quality and taste of your sushi. We learned 3 basic rolling techniques and by the end of the class, we were quite full. And this coming from two people who often go and eat all you can eat. It must have been something to do with the quality of the ingredients. And on top of that, the purchase of our spot in the session went on to help others which was a really nice added bonus at the end of the class. I highly HIGHLY recommend participating, if not, purchasing it as a gift for friends. We have already started telling our friends and are likely to organize a group night it was so excellent. I cannot give Chef Sang and his team enough praise. Even the pre setup and delivery of the food was on clear, responsive and on time. Absolutely fantastic experience. Top praise.read more
Chef Sang achieved the impossible....both my guys working in the kitchen... and creating a sushi feast with little to no mess! My idea of divine. And such fun. Thanks for a great evening!read more
Chef Sang provided an amazing experience, we had an awesome evening of... laughter and Sushi! I would highly recommend Sushi Making for the Soul!Thank you Chef Sang and Jennifer!read more
I took the Sushi making class on Saturday after receiving a gift voucher... last year. Booking the session was very easy and they kindly extended the voucher time frame for me. When the box arrived on the day of the class with the ingredients it was packed well with very clear instructions. The online class itself was great! Chef Sang was knowledgeable, funny and very easy to follow. I would highly recommend the class to others (and already have done!) It would be great to do this class in-person.read more
I did a virtual class with my 2 sons (8 and 14). We learned so much about... the proper ways to eat sushi to enjoy all of the flavours. The ingredients were fresh, the special soy sauce blend was amazing and the portions were perfect. Would highly recommend to anyone interesting in learning how to make sushi. Chef Sang is knowledgeable and entertaining!!read more
Chef Sang is fantastic! I would highly recommend this online class to... everyone. Great value and enjoyable time.read more
Such a fun (and delicious) experience making sushi with Chef Sang! I’d... recommend it to anyone, especially for a date night or as a gift!read more
Wow! Just wow! Chef Sang. I cannot believe you taught me how to make sushi... over a zoom call. My gf Taylor and I loved every second of it. I usually like to give both the good and the bad but I just don't have any bad things to say about this experience!First off, the box of food and supplies was amazing. They were so well packed and fresh. The fish was fresh and tasted amazing! The veggies were picked perfectly but I have to talk about the avocado because that was my biggest worry. Cutting into that, it was perfect! 10/10Now with the video call. Chef Sang was so personable and well-spoken. He commented on everyone's videos and didn't leave anyone out. He was such a great teacher. I have never made sushi before and thought I would make a complete mess but by the pictures below, they came out perfectly. It was so fun to do and so simple with the help of Chef Sang. Also, before I forget, there is plenty of food in this box. We were so shocked. We bought for 2 but we gave a full plate to our neighbour so it didn't go to waste.This is a great experience and will be recommending this to everyone. Take a look at what we made and keep in mind, we never made sushi before.read more
Had an absolutely brilliant time at this online sushi class with Chef... Sang! From setting everything up with Jennifer at the start (very helpful, kind, and welcoming - can't thank Jennifer enough) to the delivery of the food/ materials to the techniques taught to eating the sushi, this was a quality experience that I'd recommend to everyone who's able! Fun, interesting, engaging, and encouraging - I managed to roll temaki properly for the first time in my life, and we all had a ball!read more
Had a great time learning 4 levels of sushi making!Chef Sang is a great... teacher, and entertainer. Would recommend.read more
Dear Chef Sang,I loved every moment of "Sushi making for the soul." It... was so much fun!!! Something that I hope to experience once again in the very near future.Chef Sang, thank you for making yesterday's lesson so personable and enjoyable. My family (and friends who kept popping in and out throughout the lesson...uninvited ) enjoyed it just as much as I did. They were very impressed at how yummy my sushi rolls were. That is because the quality of rice and food items used were fresh and authentic.I could not have asked for a more beautiful way to celebrate my birthday...thank you... grazie... merci.... .Claudiaread more
20:59 30 May 21
Had such a good time in this class. Chef Sang was engaging, charismatic... and absolutely a pleasure to watch and learn from. We made soooo much sushi that both my husband and I were stuffed and had left overs. And love how easy this was to coordinate and how the ingredients, equipment and instructions were all included.read more
20:11 28 May 21
I had an amazing experience with Sushi Making for the Soul. They did a... great job organizing the corporate event and ensured everyone had their sushi kits delivered on time for the workshop. Also the Chef Sang did a fantastic job teaching everyone how to make various kinds of sushi rolls and even about the culture of sushi making. Definitely a worthwhile workshop to take. The fact that they made the virtual experience easy and fun was really a bonus :)read more
14:40 03 May 21
Chef Sang, the presentation was exceptional and definitely very tasty. ... With this global pandemic is was an excellent opportunity to get to see the family from near and afar sharing food and drinks as we always do.A special thank you to our cousins Alfonso and Tyna who organized this wonderful eventful event and brought the family together during these unprecedent times. :) X 100read more
00:55 03 May 21
Had the pleasure of learning, laughing, and of course eating some... absolutely delicious sushi ! Can’t say it looked great ... lol as I still have to master a squircle technique... lolAnyway...Chef Sang is a pleasure, and I’d book his sushi parties any day ! Thank you 🥰🦀read more
This was so much fun! We LOVE sushi and now appreciate what goes into... making it. Chef Sang mixes humour and history in his teachings, plus you get to eat as you go! The kits were so well put together and we were amazed at just how much was in there! Definitely recommend this to anyone who loves sushi!read more
17:44 27 Apr 21
Excellent event! Chef Sang is fun, engaging, and informative. The food is... delicious, a variety of ingredients is offered (my children ate the eggplant on its own - that's how incredibly delicious the food is!) and is prepared and provided in a kit that is easy to use. Chef Sang's online setup makes it easy to follow his instructions and results in beautiful, delicious sushi. We made a variety of rolls over the two hour period. My young kids also got involved and enjoyed preparing and eating their own sushi.I highly recommend Sushi Making for the Soul.read more
Our family did a sushi making class with Chef Sang this weekend and it was... great. Chef Sang was friendly and funny and we learned how to make many kinds of sushi. Jennifer was a great communicator and the materials provided were high quality. Highly recommended.read more
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the experience. I’ve never eaten sushi,... let alone made it and add to that the digital aspect - it was going to be completely new!It wasn’t just making sushi, it was an education about the process of how each component is made from the rice to the sake. Chef Sang Kim was personable, entertaining, and informative.It was a lot of laughs, delicious food, and a fully engaging experience that I won’t forgot!read more
Chef Sang is an expert with great stories and anecdotes to match. We... learned so much about not only how to make sushi but how to eat it properly as well. Would recommend!read more
I recently experienced Chef Sang's online Sushi Making for the Soul class... and it did not disappoint.The food was fantastic, the stories were great, and Chef Sang shared many culinary lessons along the way. The technology and the style of the online class was very effective at allowing me to follow along and learn. Multiple cameras, and clear instructions made it much more enjoyable.My favorite part (outside of the delicious sushi) was learning about the small ingredients that can make such a difference in good sushi. The soya sauce, pickled ginger, and all the other ingredients were carefully chosen to provide a heightened experience. The smallest items can sometimes have the largest impact on the dish!Thanks again Chef Sang for the wonderful time, and a great memory. All the best as you continue to teach, and inspire.read more
Nice bonding with my daughter especially she loves sushi very... much! Chef Sang is very passionate with what he does best & teach us the history of picking the right ingredients and techniques to roll our nori. Some glitches in the food delivery but Jennifer graciously assist us. Overall nice virtual course to take.read more
Put on an event with Sushi Making For The Soul for some clients and... friends. The kits were perfectly packed, Chef Sang was entertaining and engaging. Everyone said it was a fantastic evening. Highly recommend!read more
My S/O and I had the absolute pleasure of being gifted a lovely "sushi... making course" as taught by Chef Sang. I cannot stress the amount that I learned from this 2 hour session, I highly recommend this for broadening the heights of your dinners or even just for a fun time!read more
Shareen R.
We had such a great time with Chef Sang! We learned so much about not only... Sushi Making but also about what goes with Sushi - learned a lot about wasabi and soy sauce, and how integral they are in their own way. The class was super fun and I definitely feel I could make sushi on my own now! Thanks Chef Sang + Jennifer! PS - Drink in photo was not included :Pread more
Super fun and easy to do (don't be intimidated). Kit arrived with... everything prepped and cut to perfect size. Chef Sang makes it very accessible and entertaining. Would do it again!read more
Highly recommend Sushi Making for the Soul! Chef Sang conducts a really... engaging, authentic, and informative class virtually. It's really easy to follow his lead and instruction to create various tasty maki creations - you'll be surprised how well you'll do! It was also great that he effortlessly provided attention to each individual virtual student, and was happy to take questions if you had any. It was also great to hear that Sang and Jennifer does so much to support the community as well - kudos to you guys!The sign up process and ingredients pick up was also extremely easy and smooth. They provide curbside pickup (they also offer delivery), and everything you need for the class is packaged nicely in a cute decorative box. Jennifer was so responsive and even went above and beyond to help me figure out how to gift this virtual class for a friend for her birthday. I highly recommend you try this! Thanks Chef Sang and Jennifer!read more
Had. A. Blast!!! It was fun, informative and just a delicious event to... participate in. Our kitchen had a ton of competitive banter as my fiancé and I prepped each other for how "fine" our rolls would turn out....Now, when we buy ingredients we know what to look for and to top it all off, Chef Sang was inspiring as a chef and as a human-being in the work he does out in our community. Well worth your evening guys!read more
Sushi Making for the Soul with Chef Sang was incredible and I recommend it... to anyone that enjoys sushi. You learn some great techniques and also learn some of the history behind sushi in Toronto and North America.read more
Planning a birthday in the middle of a lockdown/global pandemic can be... challenging - especially for a milestone birthday. However, after reading multiple reviews about Chef Sang’s Sushi Making for the Soul, I knew that this class would be perfect. Jennifer was extremely easy to communicate with and picking up the ingredients on the day of the class was so convenient with curbside pick-up. My husband and I had an AWESOME time learning new sushi making techniques and Chef Sang was extremely generous with him time answering our questions after the class! We would highly recommend this class to anyone who has passion for sushi!!read more
We had a fantastic time at Chef Sang's virtual sushi class. The class was... so much fun and we really learned a lot about techniques and ingredients. I was worried that the class would feel large since it was virtual but Chef Sang was amazing at getting the class involved and really making it feel like personal and interactive even by video. Booking was great and Jennifer was fantastic at answering all my questions and accommodating booking for a larger group.read more
Chef Sang is fantastic! He is a true master in the art and craft of making... food from the soul. Taking his sushi class was a truly meditative experience. He is thoughtful, encouraging, insightful as well as being a funny and fantastic chef!. The entire process from registration to the virtual class experience was so smooth and so much fun! If your looking to learn something new and have fun while doing it look no further than signing up and taking a class with sushi making for the soul-you wont regret it!read more
I took this class virtually and it was fantastic. Chef Sang is... knowledgeable, and a great teacher. He made sushi making approachable but also challenged the class to try many techniques. The ingredients in the kit provided were of excellent quality. Jennifer, who facilitated registration, was helpful and responsive, making sign up a breeze. Would definitely recommend this experience to anyone!read more
Great experience with Chef Sang, he was funny, engaging and a great... teacher!read more
Highly recommend!We did an intro class for Valentines Day and had an... amazing time. The class was structured really well, the instructions were easy to follow and the food was delicious. We learned so much (about ingredients, technique and general insights) and had fun doing it! The whole team was awesome - Chef Sang is a great teacher and Jennifer made the whole booking process super easy and answered all the questions we had.We’re looking forward to trying another class soon!read more
My husband and I ordered the Valentine’s Day online sushi making class... with Chef Sang. From the time we reached out to inquire, we received prompt responses and Jennifer was amazing in accommodating our food preferences. We opted to have our box delivered and were pleasantly surprised with how everything was packaged and how clear the preparation instructions were. The box was adorable and there were extra treats thrown in, which really added to the experience. The online class was interactive and fun and Chef Sang was very informative and a great teacher. The ingredients were fresh and the sushi was delicious! We highly recommend Sushi Making for the Soul!read more
This was a fantastic experience and Chef Sang really made us feel welcome.... Not only was he very funny, but he was very authentic, and that's what made this class so memorable.Would highly recommend any sushi lover to take this class!read more
My boyfriend and I did Chef Sang's sushi making for the soul class over... the weekend and it was so much fun! The whole team did an amazing job at communication leading up to the workshop, and the lesson / variety of rolls we made during the class was so well-rounded. Chef also gave a lot of background insight behind how to properly eat sushi. Overall, highly recommend!read more
Amazing class! Chef Sang was a genuinely patient teacher, super friendly... and hilarious - my boyfriend and I were constantly laughing throughout the entire class. We learnt countless of new things, besides the sushi making techniques, like what to look for when buying nori and wasabi. I also had to reschedule the class a couple of times and Jennifer who I was in constant contact with me was truthfully so helpful and understanding. Overall an extremely fun experience and will be enrolling family and friends in this class!read more
I absolutely loved this class! The packaging with all the ingredients was... so cute. For someone who has never made sushi before, it is so helpful to have all of the ingredients already there and then just roll with it (pun intended). Chef Sang was funny & the instructions were easy to follow. What a great & fun activity! I would highly recommend it read more
I organized a Parent Social for an evening of sushi making with Chef Sang.... The experience exceeded my expectations - from the top notch ingredients provided in the sushi kits, to Chef Sang teaching all 40 of us how to properly make and eat sushi! He was very engaging and charismatic in his delivery - I would highly recommend if you are wanting to do a fun event with friends or family. My sushi wasn’t the prettiest, but it tasted fantastic! I look forward to taking another class to ‘perfect’ my sushi skills! Thank you Chef Sang and Jennifer for helping me organize a great event!read more
Len K
Chef Sang was an amazing host! My partner and I had a great time learning... how to make sushi! Thank you to Jennifer also for answering all my questions!read more
I purchased this class for something to do for my fiancé's birthday and he... LOVED it and so did I. As two individuals who go for sushi regularly, we thoroughly enjoyed learning and becoming more knowledgeable on the making of sushi. Chef Sang made the class fun, informative and engaging. He allowed and encouraged us to show off our skills and it was nice seeing all the other participants work. We were a little hesistant at the first glance, thinking it wasn't going to be enough food and Chef Sang ensured us all that we would 100% be full by the end of it because you get full faster when you take your time eating. Everything was sooo delicious and we will definitely be looking into taking another level of sushi cooking class with Chef Sang. In these crazy times, where we are isolated in our house, this was absolutely a fun and different thing to do on a Saturday night rather than your typical watch netflix kind of night. Thank you Chef Sang!read more
Fantastic evening with Chef Sang. His team is highly communicative,... provided fresh ingredients and all the tools needed to prepare sushi over 2.5 hours, and hosted a professional class.read more
Chef Sang ran a great sushi for the soul class. It was entertaining and... informative. He was quite engaging! It was also well organized. They were conscious and accommodating of allergies which was very reassuring. They also provided more than enough supplies and helpful instructions. It was a very good value for the price. I would take one of his workshops again for sure!read more
Zoom class was excellent. Chef Sang was informative, educational and fun... to follow. Customer service focus from start to finish with Jennifer including delivery of amazing sushi kit. Even though we were designated “level 1” sushi makers, thanks to Chef’s ingredients and tips, our rolls tasted pretty good. Btw check out Sang’s TedX talk. Very insightful. Highly recommend this class. Ron, Marionread more
Patrycja J.
My partner and I participated in an online class with Chef Sang and WOW... were we impressed! Our sushi kit had everything we needed and Chef Sang is so knowledgeable, we learned so much about sushi, how its prepared and how different ingredients are prepared and work together. The ingredients provided are prepared with care, I have never tasted wasabi and soy sauce that was so delicious, this contributed to a highly enjoyable home experience that I would highly recommend this to others. Chef Sang has a great sense of humour as well :) Thank you!read more
Chef Sang has a great personality and demeanour, which made struggling... through sushi making fun. He really went slow and instructed well, so most people can actually succeed in making rolls. The educational component to his class was almost just as rewarding too!read more
Taking this class with Chef Sang was the highlight of my week. For a few... moments I forgot the pandemic and was just enjoying myself in a cooking class. The Chef makes an effort engage with participants as much as possible in a virtual format. I love the way he had participants engage their 5 senses from introduction to the ingredients, smelling, making, and tasting. So fun and fulfilling to learn something new. I have already purchased supplies to apply my new skills and make sushi again at homeread more
What an amazing experience! My partner and I attended a virtual session... with Chef Sang and I highly recommend it! The ingredients were so delicious and powerful (especially the wasabi), and Chef Sang gave us a lot of tips in perfecting our rolls. Great for a date night or family activity, especially in a pandemic!read more
My son did the online kids class with Chef Sang over the holidays and he... loved it! Chef Sang provided so much great info on how to appreciate sushi, as well as helping the kids understand the ingredients by asking them to look, taste and feel. He was fantastic with the kids - using humour and a good pace to keep them engaged. Registration and the kit pick-up was smooth and Jennifer was very responsive answering any questions I had. I would definitely recommend Sushi Making for the Soul to others.read more
01:51 23 Dec 20
We engaged Sushi Making for the Soul for a team holiday event at work and... everyone had such a great time! We had colleagues participate from coast to coast in Canada and they were able to deliver all the required ingredients in time for the event, even though it was booked quite last minute! Perishable ingredients were delivered fresh and tasty. Chef Sang was an informative chef and teacher and was also very fun as he led the live class virtually. If he's that engaging virtually, his in-person classes must be even better when we're all allowed to gather again. Highly recommend!read more
Did a virtual event and i must say it was amazing. Chef Sang is absolutely... hilarious. He provided a quick but interesting history lesson as he teaches you how to make a variety of different sushi's. Definitely would consider doing more classes!read more
What a great time! My first time making Sushi and look forward to doing it... again. Highly recommend Chef Sang Kim not only the food which was awesome but if you get a chance to take a class it makes the whole experience much more fun and satisfying!!read more
Attended a virtual Holiday event with our team and I was really delighted... by the experience.The kits were delivered to us, and although we're in different locations across Canada, Chef Sang and his team adapted the content to the small variations there were in the boxes.The workshop was a lot of fun and very interactive.Highly recommend!read more
16:07 11 Dec 20
Chef SANG was amazing! Our team asked for Chef Sang to do a sushi making... demonstration for our virtual holiday event and it was fantastic. He is very entertaining and it was amazing to learn something new. Sushi making might seem very complicated - especially in a remote setting and he really hit it out the park and we all made some beautiful rolls! Thank you so much!!read more
23:27 09 Dec 20
The Sushi Making for the Soul was a fabulous experience and everyone had a... blast. Chef Sang was an encouraging tutor with lots of history and anecdotes about the origins of California Rolls; the purpose of wasabi, how it's grown and it's evil doppleganger horseradish powder; tasting tips like never let the rice touch the soy; and never EVER mix the soy and wasabi together! The ingredients were fresh and tastey and his instructions easy to understand. Thoroughly enjoyed our lesson and highly recommend Chef Sang and Sushi for the Soul!read more
Just did a virtual team event with Chef Sang Kim and it was beyond... fantastic! With a large group, we all received a great kit delivered to our doors including everything you need from ingredients, kitchen tools and the chopsticks to eat your creations! Not only did Chef take the time to know about our team before the lesson, but the level of engagement felt so personalized. Chef provided so much knowledge, information and most importantly energy and charisma throughout the whole experience. After it was done, we all hit Slack uploading photos and commenting about how much fun we all had! As a holiday event, it felt really great to know that CanadaLife chose such a perfect local small business and additionally supporting Chef Sang Kim who helps hard-hit communities and families. Win / Win / Win / Win.Chef, Christmas sushi lesson with my kids? They loved what I made!read more
What an amazing time. My company had Chef Sang lead us through the 'Sushi... making for the soul' class just before the holidays. It was fun, delicious and I would recommend it to anyone and/or company to do. He shares about how he cares deeply for our communities, gives back and what role we have as supporters in continuing everything he does into the future.read more
Chef Sang was a great facilitator for our corporate sushi making event. We... were able to make four different rolls and eat them as we went. All of the ingredients were of really high quality and was still fun, even over zoom. The one thing I would say is, let's get to sushi making faster as it was a long intro and we were hungry! Overall would definitely recommend.read more
Chef Sang was amazing!! My daughter has intellectual disabilities and he... taught her and her friends with such patience. He ensured that everyone was included and part of the overall such making experience.It was the best cooking class we have ever attended and we learned a lot . It was a pleasure to meet such an incredible Chef and I totally recommend this class.read more
Had a blast taking Chef Sang's online sushi making class. We learned a... lot, ate a lot and laughed a lot. Definitely recommend it for anyone (esp when stuck at home due to the lockdown) and can't wait to continue making sushi!read more
Chef Sang's sushi making class was so much fun! I got this class as a gift... to a friend for her birthday. Since we were still dealing with the pandemic, we had the class online and I opted to purchase the ingredients myself since we weren't in the Toronto area.The purchase process for the class was really easy and Jennifer was quick and informative through emails. Since I was purchasing my own ingredients, Jennifer spoke with Chef Sang who, then, provided his phone number and I was able to speak with him about what was needed. He took time to go through what ingredients I could get based on what I enjoyed and told me about specific brands I should be getting. He, also, was thorough in explaining how to make the perfect rice for sushi using my rice cooker. I felt confident even before starting the class.The link to access the class was sent earlier in the week before the class was to air with instructions on how to access. During the class, Chef Sang was informative and entertaining, cracking jokes to keep us on our toes. His instructions to make the sushi was clear and easy to follow. We made 3 different rolls and a hand roll. Chef Sang started out with a cucumber roll with the nori on the outside and then moved into a California roll, then a tuna hand roll, and finished off with a trickier yin and yang roll which we were able to achieve with chef's guidance. After the class had finished, we continued making some of our own sushi creations with the leftover ingredients and our newly learned skills.Chef Sang was patient with us as we were quite a rowdy pair so we kept our microphone on mute, but we kept our video on so he could see our progress. We were able to see the other people also learning how to make sushi and it felt like a community for the 2 hours that the class ran.Thank you Chef Sang for an awesome night! We were able to enjoy some good company, great sushi and learned something in the process. I would recommend this class to anyone!read more
A wonderful evening learning about the history, etiquette and making of... sushi. Chef Sang is funny and engaging. A great experience and one I would do again.read more
Honestly, It was a great experience. I am so happy we opted to come into... the facility because of Chef Sangs charismatic nature and personal touch. Everything was sanitized and safe. This would be an amazing work event!! It was nice to get out, make some great food, have some laughs, and learn something new. We all had a great time. We would be more than happy to experience this class or a new class sometime soon we truly enjoyed it. It is rare that a culinary experience makes you feel "like home and you're hanging out with friends"...this I appreciate.I finally learned how to make sushi and know more about the culture and Chef Sangs experiences. This morning I woke up and said "look at that, Chef Sang created the dynamite roll... how amazing is that...everyone serves the dynamite role"!PS. We could not stop commenting on how fresh the food was last night and how much we learned about quality sushi. I'd be interested to know more about where to buy some of the items - like ginger, Wasabi was insane lol, and the soy!. Keep me posted on Chef Sango products! Please take good care we wish you both the best of luck - stay safe!Lizread more
Never thought I'd "virtually attend" a cooking class, but so glad I did! ... For starters - the home kits came with everything fully prepped to be able to make the Sushi, including Chef Sang's personal blend of Soy Sauce (it's absolutely delicious!! and available for purchase in 2021), real wasabi (I never knew I was eating neon green horse radish paste), and all the regularly expected ingredients & tools (the beer was my add). You can ask for a vegetarian or regular kit, and there is a ton of food. On the main event - The class was fun, informative, filling and just a lovely way to spend the evening. Chef Sang was great about making everyone feel comfortable and encouraging chat across the video groups. There was a camera for Chef Sang and one on the sushi mat, so you can always see what's going on. Even better than a fun night & full belly - a portion of your fee goes to Chef Sang's charitable endeavors. Sign up with friends and make a night of it!read more
What a great way to spend a family evening! We listened, we laughed, we... found our taste buds, and we made sushi! It didn't always look as good as it tasted, but we are proud of ourselves for attempting a craft that has been around for thousands of years. A big thank you to Chef Sang for making our evening enjoyable in every way. We share your passion for sushi and appreciated the knowledge and advice you provided. We especially enjoyed learning about wasabi, soy sauce and ginger. The session is worth it for that information alone! P.S. Thanks for the K-drama recommendations too :)read more
Khurram S.
One of the most exciting and fun filled learning experiences! Chef Sang... makes learning something so technical as Sushi a lot of fun with his tips and tricks. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and are inspired with everything Sushi making for the soul is doing for the community. We are proud Sushi warriors and already on our journey to make delicious Sushi at home and amaze our friends. Thank you for your insights. I would highly recommend taking this course to everyone who appreciates this soul food.read more
Amazing experience. Chef Sang was fun, knowledgeable and very friendly. I... had a great time learning and also the food was very good as well. Highly recommended.read more
I took my girlfriend for a sushi making class for her birthday. It was so... perfect - we could have done this any time of year. Chef Sang is the nicest guy and the space including the kitchen is big but also really nice to spend an evening in.We'll definitely be recommending the whole experience to our friends and family!read more
We had such an amazing night with Chef Sang! Our many interactions with... Jennifer, his assistant, were always so pleasant! She was able to answer all of our questions! When we arrived at our class we were greeted by Chef Sang who was not only friendly, but extremely knowledgeable! He made the class educational and enjoyable! We would definitely recommend!read more
R W
Had an incredible time with my girlfriend doing the virtual makimono class... with Chef Sang. Chef Sang is really knowledgeable, personable and explains the concepts in a manner that is very easy to understand. I highly recommend this class for couples for a date night of if you're just interested in sushi making.read more
When Chef Sang Kim arrived at our door last night the evening instantly... began to develop when he walked into our kitchen. Chef Sang designed an eating area for 11 staging our dishes and his accessories to create a colourful surprise as he invited us all in from our backyard patio.I truly felt like I was walking into a lovely Resturant and not my kitchen!Chef Sang changed our way of eating sushi by teaching us all to slowdown, prepare our food with meaning and taught us an understanding of how to combine rich quality items to create our delicious rolls.Chef Sang, came organized and prepare showing no stress and maintained professionalism which I think if your looking for a night out in your own home you should consider.Our friends and family will rave about what they learned, enjoyed, and experienced with Sushi Making for the Soul.Thank you so much for my birthday dinner read more
We did a virtual surprise birthday sushi making class with a lot of people... for my wife’s birthday and it was great! Everything was awesome and we had a great time. Chef Sang was excellent and took time to explain everything to us; he paused and went slower when we needed him to. Would highly recommend!!read more
I hosted a private event in my home and Chef Sang Kim was an absolute hit... with all my guests! He had so much charisma and was great at reading the room and motivating me and all my friends. The amount of sushi we were able to make definitely filled us up, and we had a blast learning about the different types of techniques within sushi-making. I would highly recommend this for anyone looking for an intro to sushi-making!read more
I was skeptical at first when my friends invited me to attend a private... sushi making night/party. I like eating Japanese food but the thought of preparing the food never crossed my mind as an enjoyable thing to do. As you can see by my rating, I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the evening with my friends at this event. Chef Sang is incredibly knowledgeable, entertaining, and learned some great techniques. He was well prepared, answered many questions, was energetic and engaging, told many funny and intriguing stories about food and his experiences as a Chef in Toronto. I also really like the fact his Ingredients were fresh and of good quality. When it comes to Japanese food, that is ultra important! I can see why this is a high demand experience. I would definitely recommend booking a private event Sushi Making experience with Chef Sang Kim.read more
My husband and I first met Chef Sang when we booked a sushi-making party... at our home for 10 adults. Not knowing what exactly to expect, we were blown away. The evening was a great way for our group to connect while learning a new skill - and in the privacy of our home. Chef Sang was both informative and hilarious. The ingredients were well chosen and there was something for everyone in our diverse group (which included a vegetarian). By the end of the night we had learned so much and everyone had such a great time that we have booked the next level up! Highly recommended.read more
My sister found Chef Sang's Sushi Making for the Soul for my bachelorette... party the night before my wedding. I couldn't have been happier to experience Chef Sang's warmth and passion for food and community during such an important time in my life. I was so happy to hear that our experience was helping youth in Toronto access the class. We all learned lots about sushi and Chef Sang's detailed explanations and knowledge of the food and art were impressive! I would recommend booking Chef Sang for anyone looking for a unique experience to share with their friends, family, coworkers or neighbors!read more
Chef Sang's class is wonderful! Whether you're looking for a fun night out... with friends or a great date idea, this class is sure to educate, entertain and delight. Not only does Sang provide useful, applicable instruction making sushi, but he also provides a rich context for the class - from the history of this Japanese delicacy, to the intricacies of its flavors and textures, to the appropriate way to enjoy it. All is delivered in Sang's jovial, good-humored style, which is sure to have you laughing as much as you are learning. Bravo!read more
Such a great time! We learned a lot and ate really well. Ample food and... warm environment. Thanks Chef Sang!read more
Such a fun experience. Chef Sang is a great host! Funny, makes you feel... comfortable yet awkward for making a mistake at the same time, in a humourous way of course. I learned so much in this class!read more
Great date night experience and Chef Sang makes it soooo easy to master... rolling within minutes. "Moments of truth" around sushi etiquette blew our minds. (Obviously we've been eating sushi all wrong...Don't make wasabi & soy sauce soup!).read more
Chef Sang is amazing, knows so much about sushi and its history. I can... make spicy tuna rolls now, my girlfriend's fave. So easy to learn when you have a great teacher. We took the making makimonos class, quality ingredients and excellent sushi rice. The most fun cooking class in the city. Highly highly recommend!read more
22:35 16 Dec 19
My boyfriend and I took the Uramaki (inside-out rolls) class. It was a... gift for our 3rd year anniversary and we love to cook. And I was so excited because I love watching Chef Sang on CTV’s The Social. The class was SO amazing that we enrolled in the Making Makimonos class. Chef Sang is just as charming, funny, and incredibly knowledgeable in real life as he is on tv! If you love sushi and want to learn how to make it right or you just want a great night out with your partner, THIS is the class! So much fun!read more
I won a private class through a charity auction, and so I wasn't sure what... to expect. In short, the class blew me away. Chef Sang's attention to detail, expansive knowledge and engagement with each of us made the class a wonderful experience for all. I would highly recommend it, we had such a great time!read more
16:46 29 May 19
Chef Sang Kim was fabulous. He's not only a chef, he's a historian and... poet of sushi and rice and eating. and he's kind of like a stand-up comedian too. I know him first and foremost from his restaurant ventures, but this experience was the best--he shines as a host and a sushi mentor. (Is that a thing? It is now!) We had a wonderful, convivial evening.read more
Greg W.
11:58 29 May 19
First of all, whatever preconceptions you may have about sushi making,... throw them out the window on your way to this class.This event, yeah it’s way more than just a class, is perfect whether you’re going with a friend, coworkers or date.Chef Sang Kim has a way of putting everyone at ease right from the beginning. I suggest you arrive about 15-30 minutes early to meet and mingle with others before class starts.The class itself begins with a really interesting presentation of where sushi comes from and the proper etiquette of eating these heavenly rolls. You will also learn about the great work that Chef Sang Kim does with local troubled youth. During the class itself you will make enough sushi to be well fed so no need to eat later. Do not be intimidated if you’ve never even thought about how sushi is made. The class will teach you step by step and to be honest, I was impressed with my friend’s creations. The whole class is a blast and you will have a great time. I’m actually looking forward to taking some more advanced classes next time I’m in Toronto. In a nutshell, GO, you won’t regret it.read more
19:45 22 May 19
Chef Sang held a private sushi making class for our group of 15. He was... highly entertaining and quite knowledgeable. The high quality of the ingredients he brought in was clearly evident after just one bite.read more
17:37 20 May 19
I did the Intro to Maki class and it was fantastic! They were very good... with soy and peanut allergies. I would definitely recommend for anyone who wants some fun along with their class, Chef Sang is quite charming!read more
Chef Sang Kim is a wonder. Not only is he an excellent teacher, but he... will make you laugh while you are learning. He will listen to your stories. He will open your heart.read more
One of the best experiences I have had in 2017, diffently need to do this... again soon. Thanks Chef Sang Kim for all your knowledge and wisdom.read more
Awesome experience!! Chef Sang was excellent!!!!!
Surprise 40th birthday sushi making! Chef Sang Kim was funny, informative... and hilarious! Delicious sushi and class!read more
My Brother went for his birthday and they had so much fun he bought it for... mine! Such a great night! Chef Sang Kim provides great entertainment while also teaching you about what you were about to make! The night was filled with good laughs and delicious food! Definitely recommend!read more
Loved it!!! Someone bought this one night class as a gift for me and I... haven't stopped thanking them! Loads of fun.. Chef Sang Kim knows his stuff! And plays great music! Highly recommend it.. Bring some friends!read more
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More than 650 people from around the world registered for SciComm 2020, a three-day online conference on effective science communication hosted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in August. The 658 participants hailed from 34 countries and 44 states in the U.S. Four keynotes, six featured speakers, 23 oral presenters and six presenters of recorded talks, including a seventh featured speaker, gave presentations over two days. The annual SciComm conference brings together scientists, educators, professional communicators, artists and more to share strategies and insights for effective science communication, forge connections and receive critical feedback. The conference alternates between Nebraska and Kansas State University as its host. Keynote speakers for 2020 were Raven Baxter, better known as Raven the Science Maven; Uche Blackstock, founder of Advancing Health Equity; Andrew Revkin of the Initiative on Communication and Sustainability; and Christopher Volpe of ScienceCounts. Read more
Study: Faculty networks not enough to spread evidence-based practices
Eager to learn the latest in instructional practices that research says will better engage and educate her students, an assistant professor of biochemistry attends a virtual workshop devoted to exactly that. A seminal theory proposed in the mid-20th century would suggest that she, as an early adopter of the innovations, might share them with fellow faculty in her department, maybe in her college, possibly even across her university. New research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that she will, too — but probably just with the choir of faculty who are already practicing what she’s preaching. The article's lead author, University of Minnesota’s Kelly Lane, was previously a postdoctoral faculty member advised by Brian Couch at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The researchers received support from the National Science Foundation and NebraskaSCIENCE. Read more
Starting with the annual kickoff event at NATM, Math Teachers Circles convened online once a month in academic year 2020-21. The Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education hosted the online Math Teachers’ Circles at Zoom. For a complete list of the presentations and to watch the recordings, visit https://scimath.unl.edu/mtc-online.
STEM CONNECT is pleased to announce the selection of the Fall 2020 Scholars at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to its scholarship program and STEM community partnership with Southeast Community College and Western Nebraska Community College. Fourteen UNL students were selected as new Scholars, as well as 11 new Scholars at SCC and four at WNCC. Read more in our October newsletter for a list of names and majors.
Research in computer engineering drives transfer student
Software engineering major rises to challenges
Profiles of Scholars at UNL, SCC and WCC
Mother and daughter math teachers honored with Alice Buffett awards
After getting the unexpected phone calls, Hannah Holguin and Dianne Lee called each other and carefully danced around the news. “Did you get good news?” “I don’t know, did you get good news?” The Omaha Public Schools math teachers, and graduates of Math in the Middle, had just learned they both were recipients of a 2021 Alice Buffett Outstanding Teacher Award — a fact that is supposed to remain a secret from everyone except immediate family until the official announcement. Lee and Holguin couldn’t believe it. After teaching through two school years disrupted by the pandemic, the mother and daughter won the award in the same year. Read more (Omaha World-Herald)
The 22nd Women in Science Conference, postponed from 2020, was rescheduled for April 9-10, 2021, as an online event. The conference featured keynote speaker Dr. Laura Trouille of the Adler Planetarium and Northwestern University, and a total of 57 students from Nebraska and Kansas, representing 11 schools, attended. In case you missed it, you can watch a recording of Trouille’s presentation on citizen science with your students at: https://youtu.be/OmwdmOB9Fpc. Trouille is the VP of Science Engagement and Visualization at the Adler and a research associate at the Northwestern University CIERA Center for Astrophysics. Morrill Hall presented a virtual field trip to the students, and engineers at Duncan Aviation gave a virtual tour of their facilities. Read more
Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics
The 2021 Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics, hosted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), the twenty-third such conference, was held virtually online on January 22-24, 2021. Broadly, this conference was similar to its predecessors: there were 267 undergraduate participants; the main program was 80 talks or posters by 99 undergraduate participants on their own research, and three panel discussions on graduate school, careers in mathematics and bits of advice. Noteworthy changes this year were the move to an all virtual, online conference, and the return to having three plenary speakers, as opposed to the two speakers last year; presentations were given by the plenary speakers, Cecilia Aragon, Ruth Haas and Talitha Washington. There were many informal opportunities, including the newly added morning coffee networking sessions, for the undergraduate participants to talk to plenary speakers, panelists, invited graduate students, and others about mathematics, graduate studies in mathematics, and careers. Learn more
Learning in place continued in the summer of 2021, as the Nebraska Math and Science Summer Institutes offered 15 courses via web conferencing, as well as three grant-funded courses in computer science, three online courses for the Master of Arts for Teachers degree, and one in-person course on the UNL campus. NMSSI courses, grant courses and courses required for degrees welcomed 165 graduate students in NebraskaMATH and NebraskaSCIENCE for a total of 290 registrations in 23 courses. Fifteen educators from outside of Nebraska joined 135 distinct Cornhusker State teachers on this online journey. Science offerings included the highly popular GEOS 898: Weather, Climate and Climate Change and new courses ASTR 898: Phenomena of Planetary Satellites, BIOS 897: Evolution in Action, SOCI 898: Using Systems Thinking in Network Science, and TEAC 893: Engineering in the K-6 Classroom.
31st annual Nebraska Math Day held online for first time
Nearly 350 students from 41 Nebraska high schools participated in the 31st annual Nebraska Math Day on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020, virtually on Zoom. Two classes of 68 teams participated in five rounds. Math Day 2.0 was the first-ever online bowl tournament, designed to spark high school students’ interest in math, encourage them to pursue a career in mathematics or the mathematical sciences, and recognize outstanding mathematical ability. Math Bowl Tournament 2.0 results: Competitive Class (38 teams): Lincoln East C1 - 1st place, Scottsbluff C1 - 2nd place, Scottsbluff C2 - 3rd place, Millard North C1 - 4th place. Recreational Class (30 teams): Omaha Brownell-Talbot R1 - 1st place, Lincoln East R1 - 2nd place, Lincoln Southwest R1 - 3rd place, Bellevue East R1 - 4th place. Read more
This weeklong, historically residential, high school girls summer mathematics camp, welcomed campers in grades 10-12 of all gender identities, for the first time. The program is designed to provide a thought-provoking and supportive environment for participants to develop their mathematical ability and interest. This year, 20 campers from throughout the United States participated in the AGAM summer camp, July 11-17, 2021, which occurred for the second time ever remotely, via live/synchronous online meetings. Most of the basic programmatic elements of the camp were replicated from the virtual format in 2020. Participants learned about the mathematics of cryptography, they attended panel discussions and a mini-course, toured both national and local landmarks, and interacted with peers who share an interest in mathematics during networking activities. Learn more
Astronomy Education Lectures and Workshop
The CSMCE and the Department of Physics and Astronomy provided two lecture events and a daylong workshop in astronomy education in October. Keynotes Britt Lundgren, University of North Carolina at Asheville ("Incorporating SDSS data into astronomy education at the high school and college level"); Gay Stewart, West Virginia University ("Sloppy Physics"); Andrew Duffy, Boston University ("HTML5 Simulations in Physics and Astronomy"); Gail Zasowski, University of Utah, and Lundgren (“Teaching with SDSS Data”) presented on Saturday to a secondary science audience. On Friday evening, the Ruckman Public Lecture featured Zasowski, assistant professor in physics and astronomy at the University of Utah and the spokeswoman for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which has created the most detailed three-dimensional maps of the universe ever made, with deep multi-color images of one-third of the sky and spectra for more than 3 million astronomical objects.Watch the Saturday presentations
welcomes third cohort
Eighteen teachers were chosen for the third cohort of CSForAll: Adapt, Implement, and Research at Nebraska (AIR@NE), a $2 million NSF-funded grant that examines the adaptation and implementation of a validated K-8 Computer Science curriculum in diverse school districts. Selected teachers receive tuition and fees for two graduate courses in the summer (CSCE 805T: Introduction to Computer Science I for Teachers and TEAC 851L: CS Pedagogy); $1,500 worth of computer science hardware and software; funding to travel to one conference; and $100 stipends per academic-year meeting. Twenty-four teachers recently completed the second cohort, composed of teachers from Central Nebraska, and those courses were held online. They join 29 teachers from the Lincoln area who completed the first cohort of AIR@NE.
Lai wins Don Miller Math Award from Lincoln Rotary Club #14
Associate Professor Yvonne Lai of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Mathematics is the 2021 recipient of the Don Miller Math Award from the Lincoln Rotary Club #14. "The Rotary Club is known for its service to the community. I am especially honored to receive the Don Miller award because I view teaching and learning as about developing mathematical communities," Lai said. "I am grateful for the consistent, enthusiastic support from the mathematics department. And I am grateful to teachers in Lincoln Public Schools for welcoming me into their classrooms and into the Lincoln Math Teachers' Circle, so that I can learn from them what it means to nurture mathematical communities." Each year since 1992, Lincoln Rotary Club #14 proudly presents the Donald W. Miller Math Recognition Award, recognizing outstanding mathematics educators in the Lincoln area. The club endowed this award in honor of former member, past club president (1986–87) and Rotary leader, Donald W. Miller.Read more
CSMCE supports Nebraska Academy of Sciences's virtual meeting
The Nebraska Academy of Sciences hosted its 131st Annual Meeting on the mornings of April 23-24, 2021, providing a "virtual" venue for students, faculty, and other scientists to share their research with peers and colleagues across Nebraska. Concurrent sessions showcased themes across a range of scientific disciplines. NAS President Sally Harms presented the State of the Academy address, followed by the 2021 Maiben Lecture: Reflections of a Nebraska Herpetologist, presented by Dennis Ferraro. There was also the annual presentation of the Friend of Science award. Event support was provided by the CSMCE. Read the abstracts
Inaugural X-DBER conference hosts more than 550 people from 11 countries
The discipline-based education research (DBER) community at UNL hosted an online conference to discuss how theories, methods, and application of education research cross disciplinary boundaries. The X-DBER 2021 conference was held March 1-3, 2021. More than 550 people registered to attend the X-DBER 2021 conference; participants came from 11 countries and 41 states in the U.S. The goal of this conference was to bring together DBER researchers from across disciplines (e.g., biology, chemistry, engineering, geoscience, math, physics) to learn about ongoing research and develop future directions. The conference opened with a welcome address from Chancellor Ronnie Green, followed by five themed sessions led by keynote speakers:
Diversity, inclusion, and equity (Dr. Alex Mejia, University of San Diego, engineering);
Student experiences and affect (Dr. Beth Schussler, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, biology); and
The meeting allowed researchers and practitioners to identify synergies in theoretical and research approaches across disciplines to help the diverse communities solve novel problems and translate research into classroom practices. This virtual setting allowed researchers across all ranks (e.g., graduate students, postdocs) to present their work to a national audience and helped connect these researchers to broader communities and research projects. Each session keynote was followed by concurrent talks and small group discussions, which allowed participants to further engage with the session themes. The concurrent talks gave brief but often powerful insights into other work being done in the field, and the subsequent discussions provided a venue for participants to consider cross-cutting findings and future directions. The conference culminated with a virtual poster session featuring more than 150 posters. Altogether, the conference provided a timely venue for the DBER community to consider how cross-disciplinary research can address critical questions in STEM education. Conference website
"Transformational Change Efforts: Student Engagement in Mathematics through an Institutional Network for Active Learning" was published in 20201 and co-edited by Dr. Wendy Smith of the Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education.
A book co-edited by Wendy Smith of the CSMCE has been published by the American Mathematical Society. "Transformational Change Efforts: Student Engagement in Mathematics through an Institutional Network for Active Learning" describes how the grant helps launch institutional transformations in mathematics departments to improve student success. The book reports findings from the Student Engagement in Mathematics through an Institutional Network for Active Learning (SEMINAL) study. SEMINAL's purpose is to help change agents, those looking to (or currently attempting to) enact change within mathematics departments and beyond—trying to reform the instruction of their lower division mathematics courses in order to promote high achievement for all students. The book was copy edited by CSMCE Assistant Director Lindsay Augustyn.
On August 3, 2020, the White House announced the most recent recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. This year's teachers represent 7-12th grade educators from across the United States. The mathematics teacher awarded from Nebraska was Deb Bulin of Thayer Central, a participant in NebraskaMATH. She was also a regional teacher leader for our TEAMS (Teaching to Enhance Achievement in Mathematics and Science) Math Science Partnership from the state of Nebraska in 2017. Bulin has been an educator for 27 years and has spent the last 24 years teaching mathematics at Thayer Central Community School. She currently teaches College Algebra and Trigonometry as dual-credit classes, as well as Algebra 1, Geometry, Applied Math, and a coding class to 8th-12th grade students. Read more
Fifteen University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty members have been selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of the Office of Research and Economic Development’s Research Leaders Program, including Wendy Smith, the associate director of the Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education, and Tomas Helikar of NebraskaSCIENCE. Among the first of its kind in the nation, this initiative to identify and develop Nebraska’s next generation of research leaders is in partnership with the Center for Professional and Executive Development in the College of Business. Participants were selected through a competitive application process.
Keting Chen, human sciences doctoral student in the Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies, is exploring how home and child care environments are associated with preschoolers’ numeracy skills — the ability to understand and work with numbers — and how parents and teachers can ensure those skills are where they need to be once the children enter school. Chen is also one of the research assistants for the AIR@NE grant.
Congratulations to Paul Timm, a science teacher in grades 7-12 at Lyons-Decatur Northeast Secondary School in Lyons, who was named the Nebraska 2021 Teacher of the Year during a surprise award presentation on Oct. 7. Timm was a leader in the TEAMS grant, a partnership between the Nebraska Department of Education and NebraskaSCIENCE from 2017 to 2018. Timm began his teaching career in Laurel, Nebraska, where he taught agriculture education. He currently teaches seventh-12th grade science at Lyons-Decatur Northeast Secondary School, where he has been since 2008.
University of Nebraska at Omaha assistant professor Kelly Gomez-Johnson is one of nine recipients of the UNO Alumni Association's Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award. Gomez-Johnson, who teaches in the Department of Teacher Education in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences, is a past NebraskaMATH participant.
NebraskaMATH outstanding teacher leaders Amber Vlasnik and Susie Katt graduated from UNL Dec. 19, 2020, with their doctorates in Educational Studies, both with a Teaching, Curriculum, and Learning specialization. Learn more about their journeys.
Patriot Elementary Allie Elsasser was recognized as “PLCS Staff is PLCS Great” by Papillion La Vista Community Schools on Dec. 11, 2020. Elsasser, a graduate of the Primarily Math program, has been nominated for her patience and kindness with students. Allie was nominated by a parent who said, "Her passion for teaching shows with every email and SeeSaw post to her students’ families."
Congratulations to Jason Vitosh of Falls City High School, the 2020 winner of the Nebraska Rural Community Schools Association's Outstanding Secondary Teacher of the Year Award! Vitosh is a Noyce Master Teacher and has taught several MAT courses.
Congratulations to Lincoln Southeast mathematics teacher and department chair Sherry West, a Noyce Master Teacher, who was recognized by the Boy Scouts of America as the recipient of the 2021 Elbert K. Fretwell Outstanding Educator Award.
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ctec-jp - German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says BSI chief made “a grave error” in the way it is working
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German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says BSI chief made “a grave error” in the way it is working
Germany’s cybersecurity chief fired following reports of alleged Russian ties
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s top security official on Friday fired a head of her agency overseeing the country’s computer networks in light of allegations that security weaknesses had allowed hackers to access some private email accounts.
Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told the ZDF national television network that he had had “serious doubts” about the work of his department’s security chief and that, “from the point of view of our country’s security, this cannot continue”.
De Maiziere did not give details of the allegations or provide other details of how those in charge of Germany’s cyber-security system had allowed hackers to penetrate the email accounts of German people. He said he would ask for an external review of the agency, but did not say what that review might look like.
De Maiziere, who has been a minister without portfolio since September, said the head of the Federal Office for Information Security had “made a grave error, a total error, in the way the Federal Agency for Information Security (BSI) is working”.
“In particular, BSI Director Heidemarie Wieczorek had not followed up on previous information she had received and had not been able to answer questions about it,” he said.
“We do not know what exactly was found,” he said, adding that an external review would be undertaken for a period of up to 18 months.
He said that the agency was in danger of becoming “more and more” of a political decision-making body, as decisions would be made by a small group of technocrats with little to no oversight by the government.
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My daughter asked me to hang twinkle lights in her room. I plug them in when she’s not home, reminding me that she’s my favorite room and my favorite holiday, too.
My daughter asked if I would pop her jacket into the dryer every morning before she put it on so it would be warm for the five-minute drive to school. I told her that I would wake early to light a tiny fire by rubbing toothpicks until my knuckles bled so I could warm the toes of her plush slipper socks before her bare feet could reach the floor.
My daughter asked me not to touch her butt when I jostled her awake in the morning because “That’s just weird.” I told her that I would drive from sundown to sunup like a madwoman wearing diapers so I could reach a high bluff over Tingle, New Mexico and send silent thought waves to her subconscious suggesting that she rise and shine.
My daughter asked if I could pack her a “normal” lunch for a change because all her friends have chips and candy bars every day and she’s the only one with boring healthy food. I told her no.
This beautiful photo is by Ivy at Grace & Ivy. It captures my true feelings.
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December 9th, 2012 - 20 Comments
Georgia as Little Fan in A Christmas Carol.
When they induced labor that morning of the emergency, nothing happened. I would not dilate. My baby wouldn’t come. The doctor said we’d try again tomorrow. Sitting up in the bed that evening poking at my hospital dinner, I suddenly knew why. The man on TV said there had been a total eclipse of the sun that day, the last of the 20th century.
The moon had passed between the earth and the sun, turning day to night. I was certain that when the sun rose unobstructed the next day, it would happen. It did happen, faster than anyone predicted, and Georgia was born by 10 a.m.
She is pure light, and although what passes between us has always been so radiant, I have not always been able to look straight into it. I have not been able to understand.
And now she is a young woman loving womanly things, going her own way, illumining new ground. This transit, lately, has been difficult. There is tension in the approach; there is resistance and confusion. She does not rely on me but for the slightest reminders: a gentle glow of approval, trust, encouragement. Transport here or there. Showing up on schedule. Saying nothing.
Isn’t there more to a mother? Am I not the earth?
I once held her light inside me, then let it grow. Released, it filled the universe. She covers her own ground now, where I can see her always. Mine is a distant face made beautiful by her reflection.
I am the mother moon, and I have been eclipsed. It is not the end. It is joyous. I will never leave her sky. I love her sky. Here I am complete.
For my mother and my mother’s mother and all mothers in the sky.
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October 10th, 2012 - 24 Comments
They love us in a different way.
I said that when someone asked what it was like to have a teenager.
I feel like we’ve lost a daughter.
My husband said that after a silent and inconsequential Sunday.
Just shut up.
I said that to her after a ride in the car yesterday.
And yet, there is love, so much love between us and it has gone nowhere! I am standing on the high bluff over death valley, infinite openness in all directions, stunned dumb in the emptiness, but I know the space before me is pure love. Pure love. Life grows here, even when we can’t see it. Refreshed in a cool night, fed by invisible rivulets. A whisper of sea sails five hundred miles across five mountain ranges, and the whisper is this.
They love us in a different way.
They love us in the space, the space that is nothing but love.
Love is not a feeling, not a thought, nothing given or got, not more or less. Not a precaution or warning, not a push or a prod. Not a reminder, not a teaching, not a performance. Love is not what I say and not what you hear. Not how was school how was the test what about homework what are you wearing wash your face eat your dinner pick up your shoes I don’t like her him that when if what did you do what did you say what about your terrible wonderful failure success happiness sadness what about me what about me what about me?
Love is the space between us. There is so much space.
What will you put into that space today, I ask myself before I hear the roar of my own echo.
Just shut up.
conversation with a closed door
September 24th, 2012 - 15 Comments
How are you doing?
Good.
How was school?
How was the test?
Good.
What did your teacher say?
Nothing.
Do you have homework?
Did it.
Are you okay?
Are you hungry?
Not really.
Did something happen?
No.
How are your friends?
Good.
Do you need anything?
Would you come tuck me in?
on my plate
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Our Marketing Specialists are highly experienced professionals in different digital platforms. They are concerned with finding out what our customers really need and which of our solutions are best suited for them.
Our Solution Specialists are expert technicians who establish long-term relations with our customers by working side by side with them in all different stages of our collaboration, from the deployment of our solutions to personalized training sessions and daily assistance and support.
Our Dedicated Account Managers are Personal Accounts who follow the customer over time collecting feedback on the collaboration and keeping him/her up to date on new products, new releases, and the latest technological trends.
Our Product Managers are technological consultants, able to support the customer with extreme competence in his strategic choices and in identifying the best software solution, according to the real needs of their company.
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About Bellin Health: Bellin Health, www.bellin.org, is an integrated healthcare delivery system based in Green Bay, Wis. It has served people in Northeast Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula since 1908. Bellin Health has more than 5,000 employees and is known for its emphasis on preventive healthcare and is a leader in cardiac, orthopedics, sports medicine, digestive health, mental health, and primary care medicine. It is comprised of Bellin Hospital, Bellin Psychiatric Center, 29 Bellin Health primary care physician clinics, and retail health clinics known as Bellin Health FastCare. Bellin operates Bellin Health Oconto Hospital, a critical care access hospital in Oconto, Wis., Bellin Fitness, Bellin Health Home Care Equipment and Bellin College. The health system also belongs to Bellin Health Partners, a clinically integrated network that includes Bellin Health, its employed providers and independent affiliated providers and Holy Family Memorial in Manitowoc, Wis., and its employed providers.
Hospital Locations:
1 hospital and 1 psychiatric center in Green Bay
Clinic Locations: 29 Bellin Health primary care physician clinics, and retail health clinics known as Bellin Health FastCare
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After three years in their custom built home, the Owner was ready to finish the basement in style. Part of the basement slab was removed to allow for optimal multi-level home theater seating and a game room, bar area, spa bath and exercise room were added as well. A new bluestone stair with a wrought iron handrail was installed to a generous bluestone terrace with low brick walls and built in outdoor cooking center. The breakfast room was added that features a cathedral wood ceiling and a Rumford fireplace with historically inspired cabinetry wall and pinwheel stained floor. The living room was renovated with a new fireplace and leaded glass door cabinets.
Renovations & Additions
After three years in their custom built home, the Owner was ready to finish the basement in style. Part of the basement slab was removed to allow for optimal multi-level home theater seating and a game room, bar area, spa bath and exercise room were added as well. A new bluestone stair with a wrought iron handrail was installed to a generous bluestone terrace with low brick walls and built in outdoor cooking center. The breakfast room was added that features a cathedral wood ceiling and a Rumford fireplace with historically inspired cabinetry wall and pinwheel stained floor. The living room was renovated with a new fireplace and leaded glass door cabinets.
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“Let us go into the Sea of Cortez, realizing that we become forever a part of it; that our rubber boots slogging through a flat of eel-grass, that the rocks we turn over in a tide pool, make us truly and permanently a factor in the ecology of the region. We shall take something away from it, but we shall leave something too. And if we seem a small factor in a huge pattern, nevertheless it is of relative importance. We take a tiny colony of soft corals from a rock in a little water world. And that isn’t terribly important to the tide pool. Fifty miles away […] shrimp boats are dredging with overlapping scoops, bringing up tons of shrimps, rapidly destroying the species so that it may never come back, and with the species destroying the ecological balance of the whole region. That isn’t very important in the world. And thousands of miles away the great bombs are falling and the stars are not moved thereby. None of it is important or all of it is.” – John Steinbeck
This lesson was reported from:
In 1940, the author John Steinbeck joined an expedition to the
Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California, with his friend, the marine biologist Ed Ricketts. Their purpose was scientific – they wished to document and understand the ecology of the Sea of Cortez. They traveled with a small crew aboard a 75-foot boat named the Western Flyer, collecting scientific samples and data of the fauna they encountered, all with the goal of writing a scientific guidebook – one part species catalog, one part travel adventure – entitled Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research. (1941)
John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American author. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception.” He has been called “a giant of American letters,” and many of his works – Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl – are considered classics of Western literature. (Wikipedia)
First edition of The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck, 1951.
The book describes the complex ecosystem of the Sea of Cortez, its islands, and shorelines. An ecosystem is a community of living organisms interacting with the nonliving components of their environment. Steinbeck describes the wildlife – in particular, the marine invertebrates – in colorful detail, but Sea of Cortez is perhaps most notable for placing humans and human activity firmly into his poetic take on ecology. After all, humans inhabit the Sea of Cortez, they fish in it, they mine the surrounding mountains, their carbon emissions and plastic waste from thousands of miles away effect it – humans should not be considered apart from its ecology.
Humans engage in complex interactions with ecosystems – both those in their immediate surroundings, where they live and work, and those on the other side of the planet, in areas that supply commercial goods that they consume or that are effected by greenhouse emissions. (Isla Espíritu Santo, Mexico, 2019.)
In fact, human activities are a significant factor in almost all of Earth’s ecosystems. The cumulative effects of their impact are large even enough to influence the planet’s climate, or patterns of weather over long periods of time.
Ecosystems provide a variety of goods and services upon which people depend. Ecosystem goods include food (fishing, for example), construction material (lumber from forests, sand, stone from quarries, metals from mines, plastics from petroleum pumped from deep under the Earth), and medicinal plants (aspirin, quinine, marijuana). Ecosystem goods also include less tangible items like tourism and outdoor recreation, staples of the economy in many communities around the globe.
Ecosystem services, on the other hand, are the many and varied benefits that humans gain from the natural environment and from properly-functioning ecosystems. These include clean air and water (thanks to plants which capture CO2 and aquifers which filter rain water) and crop pollination (by insects and birds). Even things like beauty, inspiration, and opportunities for scientific research, which help humans to better understand our world.
In addition to providing a home (habitat) for a great variety of other species, mangrove swamps protect coastal areas from erosion, storm surge (especially during hurricanes), and tsunamis – a great example of ecosystem services in action. (Florida Everglades at low tide, 2018.)
While ecosystem goods have traditionally been recognized as the basis for things of economic value – they are property and goods that one can own – ecosystem services tend to be taken for granted – available to all,
whether one “owns” the forest or not. Ecosystem services are what an economist might call a public good – something shared more or less equally by everyone for free. Since they do not cost money, our capitalist system has traditionally placed little value on protecting them – even though they are vital to life as we know it.
In Sea of Cortez, Steinbeck connects the dots between ecosystem goods, ecosystem services, and human activity. While he was not the first to connect humans to the ecosystems they inhabit and exploit, his writing on the subject is both eloquent and persuasive. Early in the book, he writes:
“Let us go into the Sea of Cortez, realizing that we become forever a part of it; that our rubber boots slogging through a flat of eel-grass, that the rocks we turn over in a tide pool, make us truly and permanently a factor in the ecology of the region. We shall take something away from it, but we shall leave something too. And if we seem a small factor in a huge pattern, nevertheless it is of relative importance. We take a tiny colony of soft corals from a rock in a little water world. And that isn’t terribly important to the tide pool. Fifty miles away […] shrimp boats are dredging with overlapping scoops, bringing up tons of shrimps, rapidly destroying the species so that it may never come back, and with the species destroying the ecological balance of the whole region. That isn’t very important in the world. And thousands of miles away the great bombs are falling and the stars are not moved thereby. None of it is important or all of it is.”
The Earth can seem huge on a cross country drive that takes days, but it is actually finite. Its natural resources are vulnerable and limited. As human population and per capita consumption grow, so do the demands imposed on ecosystems and the effects of the human ecological footprint – that is, the impact of humanity on the global ecosystem in terms of carbon released, energy used, water consumed, and waste created.
Ecosystem services are not only limited but also that they are threatened by human activities. Problems for all ecosystems include: environmental pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss. For terrestrial ecosystems, additional threats include air pollution (chemicals released by manufacturing and power generation, emission of greenhouse gases), soil degradation (erosion from farming, salinization from irrigation, conversion of ecosystems for human construction projects), and deforestation (especially in tropical and coastal regions). For marine ecosystems threats include unsustainable exploitation of marine resources (overfishing of certain species), marine pollution (from deep sea oil drilling or spills), microplastics pollution (plastic takes thousands of years to biodegrade and too often ends up floating in the ocean), water pollution (from urban runoff and industrial manufacturing), and building on coastal areas.
Scientists have been conducting research for decades to help us better understand long-term ecosystem health and its role in enabling human habitation and economic activity. In a capitalistic democracy like the United States – where the priorities of both corporations and government are responsive to the will of the majority of people – it is important for all citizens to understand the findings of these scientists. Each of us must begin to recognize the way our habits of consumption impact on the ecosystems in our region, as well as – in a globalized economy threatened by climate change – ecosystems on the other side of the planet.
Downtown La Paz is beautiful, just like the downtown of your city, but human development shapes ecosystems as well. Earth, rock, and sand are paved over, waves and tidal action are broken, buildings and pavement reflect or trap heat and rain, runoff from roads after a rain can carry oil, plastic wastes, and other pollutants into otherwise clean waters. (La Paz, Mexico, 2019.)
Humans have the unique ability to shape our environment. This is one thing that distinguishes us from our fellow animals and plants.
Alongside this ability to shape, we also have the ability to ask and answer complex questions through careful observation of the world around us – this is what we can science. Elsewhere in Sea of Cortez, John Steinbeck said, “It is not enough to say that we cannot know or judge because all the information is not in. The process of gathering knowledge does not lead to knowing. A child’s world spreads only a little beyond his understanding while that of a great scientist thrusts outward immeasurably. An answer is invariably the parent of a great family of new questions. So we draw worlds and fit them like tracings against the world about us, and crumple them when they do not fit and draw new ones.”
As we begin to better understand the world around us, we find ourselves confronted with the uncomfortable truth that some of our activities as a species have damaged – and continue to damage – the ecosystems on which all life depends.
Modern technology has only enhanced these abilities to shape and to understand – just as it has enhanced our responsibility to create a sustainable future for our species and all others on this planet.
A handful of sand from the bottom of Candelero Bay on Isla Espíritu Santo reveals an entire ecosystem of marine worms living underfoot and, for most people, out of mind. (Isla Espíritu Santo, Mexico, 2019.)
1. What is an ecosystem? What goods and services do humans extract from them? What negative impacts do human activities have on them?
2. Describe an ecosystem in or near your hometown – name species of plants and animals, describe the average temperature, rainfall, etc in winter and summer. How have humans shaped this ecosystem and for what reasons?
3. In your own words, what does Steinbeck mean when he says “None of it is important or all of it is?” Do you agree with this sentiment?
4. Amongst life on Earth, human beings possess a unique level of self-awareness, as well as an unparalleled ability to shape every ecosystem on the planet for better or worse. Does that power come with any responsibility? Defend your answer.
Trace your impact outward into the environment — list and categorize all of the (a) trash (paper, plastic, metal, recyclable or not), (b) carbon emissions (from electricity use, transportation, ordering things off of Amazon, etc), and (c) food/water (including showers, toilet flushes, and the sprinkler on your lawn) you consumed today. Be thorough and precise.
Quantify each of these impacts — weigh them, measure them, use information from the internet to estimate them. There are many tools online that can help you to calculate these numbers. Represent this information in charts or diagrams.
Incorporating information compiled in steps one and two, create a world map infographic or poster showing the origin points and impact points of your ecological footprint. Also, plot and illustrate the ways in which those points will effect you. For example: Where does your food come from? How is it transported to you? Is it refrigerated on the way? What is the carbon impact of these activities? What kind of biomagnification (plastics, pesticides, antibiotics, etc) is present in your diet? Was the tuna you may have eaten farmed or caught wild? Where? Is the current population of that fish in the wild sustainable? How many MPG does your car get? How far do you live from school? How long did your mom idle in carline? What temperature is the AC in your how many square foot house? Where do the plastics you trash end up? Where does the water in your toilet go after you flush? What effect does carbon have on the ice caps? Sea level? Acidification of the ocean? Where does your waste water go? What does your clean water come from? How will rising sea levels due to increased greenhouse activity impact your hometown? etc
In a reflective essay: Which of these impacts can you reduce through personal choices? What challenges or barriers to change will you encounter? Which of these impacts can only be reduced through government or corporate action?
Identify three concrete steps you will take to reduce your ecological footprint. This online quiz may help you. Describe exactly how you plan to take these steps. Resolve to carry them out for the next month.
. Describe exactly how you plan to take these steps. Resolve to carry them out for the next month.
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John Steinbeck visited Isla Espíritu Santo, an island in the Gulf of California, off the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. Wikipedia describes ecosystems in the surrounding reefs as being home to parrotfish, angelfish, trumpetfish, Moorish idols, and rainbow wrasse, with many other species passing nearby including sharks, rays, turtles, dolphins, and whales. Birds who call the island home include brown pelicans, great blue herons, snowy egrets, turkey vultures, and hummingbirds. A large sea lion colony resides nearby. By the 1990s pressure to develop on Isla Espiritu Santo was intense: a real estate developer wanted to create a resort casino on the island. Tim Means, a conservationist based in nearby La Paz, formed a coalition of activists who were able to purchase part of the island from the ejido (farming commune) that wished to sell it to the developer. One third of the funds came from Mexican funders, another third from American funders via the Nature Conservancy, and the rest through an anonymous gift to the World Wildlife Fund. Today,Isla Espíritu Santo is protected as part of the Área de Protección de Flora y Fauna – Islas del Golfo de California. (Isla Espíritu Santo, Mexico, 2019.)
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Firstly, I would like to thank Kaleb Turner for such a well-written article on the hectic events of Friday, April 20th, 2018. He was very respectful not only to our organization, but in his communications with me in hopes of getting a few quotes for The Bison. Many of those who know that this is my project have asked me why I have declined to comment. It’s not because I don’t wish to (there were some juicy questions in there I really wanted to answer), but I declined because I could not put my identity at risk. If the administration were to throw their weight around and ask those at The Bison who had to know my name (for validity reasons), then they would be obligated to release that information to them. If I would have felt safe, I would have done that interview in a second. I do wish to work with the Bison in the future to answer whatever questions they may have, but I won’t put myself or my team at risk to do so.
Secondly, I would like to explain my reason for not choosing to go through the office of Student Life to get this approved to distribute.
There would have been NO way this would have gotten through Student Life. Even with the loving, respectful, and tame articles it included, it would have been stopped at the door. There is no doubt in my mind. This is not something Harding wants out, not because it’s obscene, but because it shows an opinion that differs from theirs. Their actions say that they are comfortable letting the queer students suffer in oppressive, and sometimes deadly, silence, rather than changing their attitudes toward queer students and in turn, losing donors.
That brings me to my third point. We are NOT asking the University to change its stances on their interpretation of the Bible, we are asking them to change their ATTITUDES. I was absolutely exasperated reading The Bison article, because it seems as if those higher up have not done the most important thing that we asked them to do: listen to us.
Jana Rucker, vice president of communications and marketing, said this:
“The university’s position on sex and sexuality has not changed. Any student who meets the enrollment requirements is welcome to attend Harding, provided they are willing to abide by the university’s code of conduct. … We continue to affirm that our position on this topic is based in scripture and that sex is the creation of God and is only permissible in the context of marriage between a man and a woman.”
Here’s the thing, when oppressed and hurting queer students speak out and say, “Let us exist, acknowledge us, and protect us,” and the University’s response was, “Well you can’t have sex (which goes for everyone) and you can’t have romantic relationships (which only goes for queer students),” That response is devaluing us to the point where you think that’s what the ACTUAL problem is.
To say that is to assume that’s all we are, sexual deviants who want nothing more than to have an “exception” to the rules, when there is nothing further from the truth. Most queer students I know are single and are in accordance with Harding’s rules and regulations. We are MORE than sex, we are people, and you debasing our voices because you don’t agree with them is sickening. We said, “Let us exist,” and you heard, “Let us have sex,” I will say this, probably not for the last time: let us exist, let us have a voice, and protect us. You want to know how to help us? Reach out to us. We don’t have any “demands”, this isn’t a hostage situation. We’re students who are hurting, extending the first olive branch to make things better.
Lastly is the part that gets me the most frustrated and upset, and that is yet another quote from Jana Rucker:
“We don’t want any student to be made to feel isolated, alone or fearful of fellow students, faculty or staff members for any reason. We are called to love, and that is truly what we strive to do as an institution and as followers of Christ. If any member of the campus community feels unsafe or bullied for any reason, we encourage you to report your concerns to Student Life or a faculty or staff member immediately.”
I can’t imagine how blind one would have to be to think that this is about a lone event of discrimination or bullying. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so heart-breaking. So, let me be perfectly clear:
The danger, isolation, and fear queer students feel is not due to isolated events, but by the environment the University is perpetuating by their attitudes and policies about the LGBTQ+ community.
Why do you think we didn’t go to Student Life? We aren’t afraid of Dean Neal, or any of the other deans. We’re afraid of the institution.
You blatantly ignore and silence queer voices.
You send healthy individuals to be “counseled” because of their sexual attraction.
You refuse to have healthy and open dialogue about queer rights.
You refuse to change.
You refuse to love.
We may be afraid of a few students, sure. But there is an entire document in my possession full of statements of discrimination that the University has perpetuated by remaining silent. Students have DIED because of the environment this University is entertaining with silence and shrugs.
But I have hope. I have hope that this movement will unite LGBTQ+ students and allies. I have hope that queer students will find us and won’t have to suffer alone in silence like those before them. I have hope that the University will humble and examine itself, and start having open dialogues or even panels about LGBTQ+ persons that is not saturated with straight, white men who haven’t had an honest relationship with anyone different than them.
I have hope, and if there are students to feed the flame after my team is gone, others will hope too. As President Snow said in “The Hunger Games”:
"Hope, it is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous."
A more serious reminder for our University:
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” -Desmond Tutu
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It is possible that my most unhinged moment came the one and only time I had a serious pregnancy scare. I say possibly because, to be honest, there are several in the running for the title of 'most unhinged moment,' but there was only one pregnancy scare because of how desperately I wished not to be pregnant. I took the pill religiously, and when I missed, I made my partner use a condom for the seven to ten days prescribed by my birth control for a single day's missed pill. Even when I had no missed days of taking the pill, I would often ask my partner to not finish inside me, due to my fear of becoming pregnant, and god bless him for being willing to accommodate me in that request. I am sure doing so sometimes denied him pleasure he deserved.
Why was being pregnant such a terrifying thought for me? I am a woman with childhood sexual trauma in her history, although the memories of that trauma were suppressed until about ten years ago, when I was thirty-five, and I am just now beginning to navigate those truths with a modicum of steadiness now that I am forty-five. Prior to my remembering, I experienced deep panic at the thought of being a mother. I knew myself to be barely capable of taking care of me, and the thought of being responsible for another human life seemed beyond my ability. And underneath that fear, sat a bigger fear. Even though I was oblivious to my memories, I had the sense that something was really wrong with me and I was afraid that I would unwittingly hurt my child. I know it is a widely accepted fact that most survivors of sexual abuse do not go on to become abusers themselves, and I tend to agree with that statement. But I am not sure there has been much study on the outcomes of sexual trauma survivors who have memory loss. I remember reading a passage in a memoir, where the author recounts the experience of a friend who confessed remembering their own trauma only after repeating an act while bathing their baby; they literally began to remember as they found themselves in the middle of an inappropriate act. Forgetting trauma is a coping mechanism that is difficult to overcome. I believe that many of us never remember and that some of us remember through subconscious repetition of acts, whether that be mimicking what was done to us or recreating our own victimization in a stream of unhealthy relationships that we may or may not ever be able to transcend. In the cases where people with memory loss mimic damaging behaviors, I believe they often can't even remember the abusive acts they commit, as that would force them to remember their own traumatic experience, which they are too damaged to do. Now this semi-functional person bears the added trauma of being righteously condemnable by a society that doesn't have the first clue of what justice truly looks like. How do we heal something about which we cannot even speak, whether because we cannot remember it or because we will be damned if we do? All of this combines to seemingly perpetuate damage and trauma for all time.
I share all of this to say that had I become pregnant, abortion is an option I would have wrestled with deeply, for reasons that I find extremely moral. Like many if not most Americans, I was raised in an ostensibly Christian home that claimed abortion was an evil barely rivaled by anything in this world, so I can't really say what I would have done. But I can unequivocally say that I believe abortion to be a right, and a moral right at that. In my case, it would have been responsible for me to abort rather than to continue a pattern of abuse, whether that be the continuation of sexual inappropriateness or an inability to provide a safe psychological space in which my child could grow up.
This, of course, is where the self-righteous chorus of voices chimes in to say that I should carry my baby to term and give it up for adoption, as there are so many couples who want babies they themselves cannot have. I have nothing but compassion for those couples, but their difficulty does not deserve precedence over my own difficulty; no one besides me has the moral authority to say what I should or shouldn't do with my own DNA. The choice to procreate is a monumental one, not to be taken lightly or dictated on us by another. It is also worth mentioning that very few adoptions occur where the baby is born and is immediately paired with suitable parents. Our foster care system is rife with abuses of all kinds, be that sexual, psychological or physical, so my choosing to give up my child to adoption is still no guarantee that my child wouldn't suffer the traumas I so desperately would want them to be free of.
Something else in this equation that doesn't get enough discussion is the fact that survivors of abuse often have body issues that center around control, as we had no control over what happened to our bodies in the past. I can think of few things more invasive or indicative of a loss of bodily control than being pregnant. I honestly don't think I could have tolerated pregnancy without a psychological breakdown, which would have endangered the life inside me, and I believe, passed on my trauma as my growing child would have experienced my breakdown with me. Add to this the fact that these United States have the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and ask yourself why you feel you have the right to force any woman to give birth against her will, much less one with trauma issues.
I can hear some of you saying, 'but what about the rights of the father? Isn't it his DNA as well?' Yes, it most certainly is his DNA, but the father lacks the biological ability to gestate his DNA into a fetus, let alone a baby, and every man knows this. That means that if a man desires to procreate, it is his biological imperative to cultivate a consensual contract with a woman who can gestate his DNA into a fetus. This is the only honorable option available to him. Conversely, women have a responsibility to form consensual contracts with men when it comes to procreation. I don't want anyone dictating to me what I can do with my own DNA and I have no wish to force a child on an unwilling man. That is also dishonorable. This country and this world are in desperate need of comprehensive, science based sex education to address these and many more issues of morality as it relates to procreating.
Now to the address the 'pro-life' canard that life begins at conception and that God deems it murder to abort a fetus. First of all, none of us can speak for God or even prove that God exists, so therefore none of us can say what God actually thinks about the beginning of life or about abortion. But I can tell you this, any 'God' that deems a life that cannot exist without a host as inherently more valuable than the life that already unequivocally does exist is not a god to be trusted. This world has shown me time and time again that as a woman, my life has less value than a man's and that's a lie too. Then again, the 'God' that is against abortion is modeled as a man, so it's all beginning to make more sense. The pro-life argument is nothing more than a disingenuous power play intended to prop up patriarchy, when the truth is, there would literally be no men without the existence of women.
So much of this debate revolves around 'respect for life.' I am asking that we expand our definition of respect for life to include quality of life, and rather than just insisting that people give birth in obeisance to 'respect for life,' we shift our focus to implementing policies that bring about a better experience of life for all of us. What would that look like, you ask? I don't have all the answers but it would definitely include an overhaul of our justice system so that it is restorative rather than punitive. I would venture to say that very little about our present healthcare is more respectful of life than a dollar, so we would have to address that as well. A compassionate and functioning mental health service would immeasurably improve our shared quality of life by reducing the amount of trauma that gets passed on endlessly and needlessly. And for the love of all that is holy, we would offer science based, age appropriate sex ed that begins in grade school, where abstinence is offered as only one available and largely unrealistic option.
Impossible, you say, these reforms will never happen. Well, it's certainly much easier to continue on screaming about life beginning at conception and making abortion illegal, and while I should and would respect your right to that opinion, I feel zero compunction to respect your intellectually bankrupt opinion in action. I am reminded of the maxim to not be so spiritually minded that we are of no earthly good, but that is exactly what the pro-life movement does; it holds a specious religious conviction above the value of the lives of women and the children we bring into this world, which is about as disrespectful of life as it gets. In my opinion, the truest way to respect life is to work towards a world that is as free of trauma as possible, and until we accomplish that, abortion is one tool that can be used responsibly to help us get there.
Posted by Drea at 3:04 PM No comments:
Sunday, February 17, 2019
My mother taught me to travel well
tho she hardly made it
any of the places she dreamt to go
in a household intent on
She showed me the value of moving things
not related to the reason you were going
if doing so got them closer
to where they needed to be
to see that each small move made
is part of the whole of getting it done
so that a pile of clean clothes walked
from the basket I was passing
to the stairs by the door I was exiting
was half the work of restoring them to my room
And I am just now learning
how to harness that power of making each step I take
move me simultaneously in multiple directions or
shift me into synchronicity with people and things around me,
the life-multiplying power of living moments fully invested
experienced as a self-sustaining fuel
My mother taught me to travel
well past points she had instilled
when she left and birthed me again
into freedoms I hope she has since found
she did not travel most but
she traveled beyond
and walked me with her to stand comfortably
past the threshold of the unknowable
Posted by Drea at 1:36 PM No comments:
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
Two years ago around this time, I committed two public acts of racist whiteness in close succession. The first involved a grocery clerk, a young Black man, with whom I had awkwardly interacted and later written a note apologizing for microaggressions, a thing I had recently read about and felt I had done to him. He quit working there not long after, probably wearied by me and other well meaning yet still harmful white people gentrifying his neighborhood.
The second was even more egregious and involved what I want to call a borderline drunken racist slur, but I truly offended and hurt the gentleman I slurred and that is the only truth about it that matters. He was graciously tending his own bar, we were talking, he told me about his family name and background, and I said, 'Oh, so you're a Jew.' Not 'Oh, so you're Jewish.' His face fell and I knew immediately that I had weaponized my whiteness. I came back a few days later and tried to apologize, he gave me the out of being drunk, and I have worked since to understand and own the parts of me that feel it's acceptable for me to practice bigotry for any reason.
Doing so has unearthed a lot of unsavory things that I have been wrestling with since, like I used to wonder if I had Blackness in me, for some pretty ignorant reasons such as I have curly hair and tend toward muscularity. I can now recognize this as an attempt by my white guilt to make myself a member of the oppressed and a desire to escape my role as potential oppressor.
I used to wave a confederate flag proudly and have worn an iron cross belt buckle, thinking I was celebrating proud heritage or being contrarian in a rock and roll reclamation kind of way, but I now believe that contrarianism is a deeply insensitive and selfish luxury afforded me because of my white skin. I accept that brandishing any symbol that has been involved in the promulgation of hateful behavior is going to be painful and offensive to some of my fellow human beings and that doing so puts my character in a position open to unfavorable interpretation.
What I am slowly owning about myself is that I am a white person raised in a white supremacist society, and that as such, parts of my DNA are racist and white supremacist, regardless of the beliefs I now hold on race and equality; it's the principle of osmosis manifesting humanly. I must accept that it is entirely up to me to ensure that my actions align with my beliefs, and the best thing I can do when I fail at that is to own it and examine it, not deny the fact that I did it. White people have been coddled in this country, we ruin ourselves with this system intended to unilaterally uplift us, and we have insulated ourselves from consequences by rewriting our history and inculcating our children with a narrative that absolves and ignores our very worst sins.
I have some family roots on my maternal side in the deep south. It is my firm belief that most of us with southern roots have some potentially unpardonable actions for which our families need to attempt to atone. This is the part where my whiteness wants to say things like, 'We were too poor to own slaves. We were barely better than slaves ourselves,' which is exactly what people who have never been enslaved would say. There is no comparison between being poor and being owned, and there is no sidestepping the fact that some of my poor relatives were enthusiastic members of the KKK and possibly participants at lynchings. I desire generational healing for my family and it is my hope that being honest about our roots may begin to metaphysically redeem the parts of my family tree that need it; redemption is only possible in the presence of truth.
Last year, I adopted a dog who looks like a larger version of a dog I loved and lost in a breakup; I saw her face and was immediately in love. As it turns out, she is 'some kind of hound' according to the folks at the pound who shared that they had not expected her to get adopted. To be honest, it feels like she is some kind of signal for white supremacy, based on various public reactions she has garnered when we are out walking in parks. I am awakening to the fact that multitudes of information are passed in the smallest of exchanges & I often struggle with my perception of what is really happening but I do know that white supremacy works in part by giving a veneer of legitimacy to illegitimate things. I do know that hounds were used to track and return runaway slaves and enforce segregration on the backyard level in the south. I know how people have responded to us and there is some kind of meaning there, in her existence and their reactions. Sometimes, being her owner once again puts my character in a place open to unfavorable reading. At the same time, she is healing me on some visceral levels; I have struggled to support myself, much less any other living thing, financially speaking. Adopting her was a huge step for me, but I also accept that she may be an avenue for partial metaphysical familial healing too. She is such a good, sweet dog and is herself innocent of any wrongdoing. I am choosing to love her and accept her love and to send love back through time to any of my clan who may have used her relatives to subjugate other human beings. We get to define our relationships with the dead as we see fit; my maternal grandmother and I have been working together on the spiritual plane for the past couple years on other aspects of family healing; perhaps this is a place where I can offer her roots some metaphysical healing in return.
For the entirety of my life to this point, I have believed in my utter inability to be redeemed, having committed what feels like unpardonable sins at the very beginning of my life in childish reaction to some potentially unpardonable sins committed against me. Holding this belief about myself has made me particularly susceptible to committing sins of oppression, to both falsely feed my low self esteem and to reinforce my belief that I don't deserve love or goodness. I have a record of fine self-sabotage that righteously isolates me from the circles in which I wish to move. I am aware of an animal self who loves to compete and assert dominance, who is furious at all men (read: patriarchy) in some moments and is not above using any means to predicate itself, even if they are evil. These public racial failures have forced me to confront this pattern in myself. I accept that the belief that there is worthiness within me in the face of indefensible failing is mine to build. I accept that marginalized and discriminated against people owe me no absolution or forgiveness for my failures when I lean on white supremacy to prop myself up.
The easiest thing for me to do would be to go quiet, to take the target off my back that comes with visibility so that my unpardonable failures could be less observed and I could be less embarrassed. What I am going to do though, is marshal up my nascent resilience and own my failings in all their ugliness and do the work it takes to repair my character. This, I believe, is what is required of my whiteness in this country, and it is also the work that will free me from the opinions held by myself as well as those judging me by my failures, whether or not they have the right to do so.
It is human nature to look for and call out hypocrisy, to make imperfection disqualifying. This can be both justice in action and a reason to resist change. I am committing to a new practice this new year: I resolve to give up my appetite for scandal and to continue shedding tired religious programming that preaches empty redemption supplied by another. When I hear of failings in those working for good, may I have the compassion to ask questions and leave room for a redemptive answer, and may I continue to build true self esteem by believing there is goodness in me, whether or not it is visible in any given moment.
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Sins of Omission
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An Open Letter to My Friends Who Voted Trump
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What Do EDD Auditors Look for in a Payroll Tax audit? So 88 auditors are looking for for things in the context of a payroll tax audit and there they seem simple but there's a lot of nuances to them number one they're looking for taxable wages that were reported so they're verifying that the information that was given to the EDD was in fact the amount of taxable wages that were paid and it's consistent with reporting to the IRS number two they're looking for the amount of tax paid so same thing they're looking for consistency and the tax that was paid and the text that was reported to EDD number three they're looking for payments that could be potentially reclassified as taxable wages so this is the point where they look at officer compensation they look at any payments that are on your general ledger that were issued to workers that may be considered taxable wages they look for personal payments that should be reclassified as taxable wages that's what the EDD is doing when they're going through the general ledger analysis the last thing that they're looking for is they're looking for any Mis classification issues through reviewing all the outside workers that the company has any vendors and they're making sure that there are not taxable employees so there's a fairly thick analysis that goes through that process there's a lot of digging particularly on the last three items with a general ledger and the misc classification issues of the EDD ghoster but that's what the auditor looks for as they go through the payroll tax audit process.
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I write from Sharjah—in what feels like the hottest autumn I have known since I began visiting in 2011. I choose not to check the news—avoiding records—the inevitable foreclosure of memory. The sand-laced wind tickles the nose behind my mask; I can still breathe. The moist air is leaden. Would a cool soak liberate, or disarm? Post my immersion in 1-54 Forum, I reflect on the words ‘African’—on and of my Blackness, as well as the beguiling drab pallid features of my exterior. Is this flesh the result of ‘whitening’ through inter-marriage? Is it Vitiligo? Or is it simply who I have come to be?
The place I live in Sharjah reminds me of ‘international’ high-school. The mishmash of cultural forms and norms overlaid atop each other in one gloopy soup, familiar; I am comforted by the interplay and exchange of tongues that diverge from Tagalog to English, Russian to Arabic; the sound of Hindi and Urdu. The Arabic here is weighty—accented with the contours of the myriad cultures that occupy this place. For a young country, the chronicle of history sits pervasively within the public cloisters—amidst heritage houses, squares and new-born cafes that peer over the corniche. Ships or rather, boats of varied detail, stand as markers of movement—the free-flow of time.
The Forum at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in 2021, which I entitled, Continental Drift began from this concept—from within the ‘unsettled’ sediments of time, is movement. The ‘continental drift’ in geological terms could be interpreted as relating to Pangea—environmental time where tectonic plates were found oscillating. The shifting continents moving across the Earth’s surfaces—its waters.
Our cherished and often troubled African continent has been the subject of much slinging—suspended across the Earth’s crust, bounded by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Are the African plates slipping? Northwest; towards the West? Or fractured, a chasm forming, for a new ocean to be born? The ‘African Rift’—the most concise example of this is believed to be a 6,000-mile crack that runs from Lebanon to Mozambique, taking primacy in Kenya, where the crust of nature can be found split and splintered.
The metaphor of the ‘drift’, for me, is contrarily, a romantic one. It is attendant with and to the flowing concept that I often refer to as ‘endless endlessness’—an instant in lived experience, when the confines of structure and hierarchy evaporate. It is fluid sensory experience. The African continent—a place of 54 nations and counting, is a site of evolving and contested mythology—found in homegrown television to Hollywood cinema; travelogue and novel, intertwining to narrate the perfect embodiment of the colonial cliché.
Taking cues from this context, I decided to begin 1-54 Forum with the howl, echo and murmur of Shadia’s voice, as well as Billie Holliday and Nina Simone. My own voice re-arranges and interleaves herein—in a performative act of translation entitled, Overture: Recuperating the Echoes, the Ghosts, the Songs. This was the beginning of 1-54 Forum conceived as an ‘opera in fragments’. Here, I summon the haunting memory of the fabled, Blake Karim Mitchell, before entering into a dialogue with kin, in this case, the curator Koyo Kouoh. Subsequently, we ventured into The Virtual Salon with musicians and artists, Tinie Tempah and Osinachi in a discursive dialogue chaired by Princess Alia Al Senussi, PhD with Sumayya Vally and Gemma Rolls-Bentley.
Hope Masike offered an interlude, an intermission, an education. Her pointed vocals accompanied by a Mbira, performed from her living room in Zimbabwe. The echo resounded in an enthusiastic chorus led by Hoor Al Qasimi, with Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker and Godfried Donker, who were accompanied by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. Celebrating the life of the late Nigerian curator, Okwui Enwezor, who left this Earth too soon at the ripe young age of 55—the resonances of experience sung here, ascended above the shroud of melancholy, enlivening expositions beyond the pages of textbook history.
Saturday morning was a moment for a trans-Atlantic Poetry Salon, entitled On Fragile Ground—inspired by the words of Otobong Nkanga, whose participation began the session with a lilting exploration of the female voice. Lubaina Himid summoned the whispers of those far gone; Anaïs Duplan engendered gender, deconstructing and reconstructing the body from within, while isaiah a. hines took nature as a prompt—proffering a tale of volatility. From here, we walked towards the future with Michael Armitage, Bill Kouélany and Otobong Nkanga, in multiple languages (Listen in English or French), envisaging propositional structures of support for art, artists and their collective imagination on the continent.
As the page turned towards a close, we travelled to the city of my birth—Cairo, a place akin to a bitter orange—citrus that burns before its sweet taste is even imbibed. In a reunion, three friends: myself, the actor Khalid Abdalla, and the filmmaker, Tamer El Said, discussed the blurring of life and art and the fanciful potential of the imaginary. Whose imaginary is this, I ask? Whose Africa is it we speak of? Who dictates the coordinates? Is it a border? A border czar with keys? A military apparatus, or the sun-kissed glow of a body on an efflorescing screen? Our exploration of ‘the drift’ has only begun. We shall re-convene. In-person and online. In Marrakech and New York and back to London again. In the meantime, I offer you this gift. This living archive of the movements—the tessellating forms, which give context to the moving pieces—sculpting the future of an African art, seeded at home, but accessible in multiplicities and in innumerable fashions.
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I think back on the many times I was witness to the Alchemy that occurred in my classroom as I taught Business or Maths. That moment where I was privileged to capture the spark of understanding coming to life in a student.
On arriving back from the seashore In the dusk on Christmas Eve ,my heart was full of feelings of the Magic that always seems around on this special day. I had just watched a magnificent sun set on Galway Bay and to my delight I found a gift waiting for me on my doorstep. The child in me yearned to open it but the adult me took time to light up the tree and sit in the glow of its lights.
Inside the wrapping I found a poem written by my friend that she so generously dedicated to me. This gift evoked feelings of magic and joy that I would later see reflected in my grandchildren’s eyes the next morning as they shared and celebrated the wonder of their new toys gifted to them by the much awaited Santa. On this evening I glimpsed what Seamus Heaney meant when he wrote the lines, “ And catch the heart off guard and blow it open”
Reading my friend's poem in the early days of February as I look out at the snowdrops popping their fragile selves above the cold clay Im reflecting on the word Alchemist that my dear friend uses in her dedication of this poem to me. I think back on the many times I was witness to the Alchemy that occurred in my classroom as I taught Business or Maths. That moment where I was privileged to capture the spark of understanding coming to life in a student. Moments I knew that there was a lot more going on than the teaching of concepts or ideas.
That spark or excitement I often recall as I talk to past pupils who share with me their passions and creativity they now bring to their family lives and to their varied careers.
Us educators were so privileged to accompany so many young people in their journeys of becoming lifetime learners. Now as I sit with an individual or a group I am blown away,time and time again, by the Alchemy happening in my presence as I witness the Dawning in them of their own gifts of Creativity that they were born with. Daring to believe enough in themselves to honour, to voice and to begin birthing their own Artist within that leads them to following their Dreams in ways they could never have imagined possible. My friend captures this so well when she writes:
“Something within heard the quiet note of belief.
It travelled by stealth and took root in our cells.
Plants slowly turning to face the daylight.
Nothing happened and everything changed”
I suggest the Nothing that happened is the Alchemy at work....Margie
Where did we go to on Wednesdays at 8,
with a book and a pen and talk of a date?
To mull over pages and worries and hopes,
feelings reflected in a room of kind faces.
Each item considered with humour and tact
and a nonchalant faith in our power to act.
Something within heard the quiet note of belief.
It travelled by stealth and took root in our cells.
Plants slowly turning to face the daylight.
Nothing happened and everything changed.
It's been too long since we met on a Wednesday at 8,
with a book and a pen and talk of a date.
But we've learnt that the effect of tea and community
provided a strong and lasting immunity.
Dedicated to Margie,
the alchemist,
24th December 2020
"Unknown to us, there are moments,
When crevices we cannot see open,
For time to come alive with beginning.”
"Unknown to us, there are moments,When crevices we cannot see open,For time to come alive with beginning.”John O’Donohue
I think back on the many times I was witness to the Alchemy that occurred in my classroom as I taught Business or Maths. That moment where I was privileged to capture the spark of understanding coming to life in a student.
I think back on the many times I was witness to the Alchemy that occurred in my classroom as I taught Business or Maths. That moment where I was privileged to capture the spark ...
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A Catholic and an Atheist walk into a bar. Ok, no, scratch that. A Catholic and an Atheist walk into a party. The Catholic is dressed as a clown, the Atheist as a French Onion Seller. By the end of the night, the Atheist has the Catholic’s phone number, and few years later they’re married.
There’s no joke here, though all the elements are pretty much there. The Catholic and the Atheist come to know each other Biblically, or, Biologically if you prefer. Over the course of two years, two children pop out. Cute little half-breeds – Atheist/Catholic, Atholics-Catheists, a veritable yin-yang of contradictions and belief, existing harmoniously. The Atheist agrees the children will be raised Catholic. The Catholic agrees that the children will be given the choice of whether to stick to the faith.
The Atholic-Catheists grow up. They experiment with their beliefs. They question. They exist in a pleasant between that constantly shifts.
And then, the Catholic gets sick and dies.
And that’s where we are now.
Incase any of you aren’t very good at guessing, I was one such Atholic-Catheist, my father the devout Athiest, and my mother the sceptical Catholic. And this post is about my very personal relationship with God and the Atheists. (There’s a band-name in there)
When people ask me now a-days how I would define my belief, I am usually quite unwilling to respond. My reasoning for this is that I have a deep-seated fear of fundamentalists on either side of the spectrum. Perhaps the advantage of being raised by a lukewarm Catholic and an Atheist who enjoys Church music, is that I never had to pick a side, because there was always a middle ground.
I am suspicious of anyone who is 100% certain of anything because, as Obi-Wan put it, only Siths deal in absolutes. And because I’m a John Mill girl, personally, and I believe that we should be willing to question everything. Blind faith, in whatever form, is utterly abhorrent to me, and it makes my flesh crawl.
Until recently however, it wasn’t something I paid much mind too. Depending on the company, I defined myself differently, willing to play Devil’s Advocate and challenge conceptions. Since the loss of my mother however, I have learnt to keep a tight lid on my spiritual beliefs. And this is because of the ugly habit fundamentals have of attempting to use my grief and bereavement as a recruitment tool. I don’t know, maybe they get a ‘Faith-Miles’ for every person they convert.
I remember the moment it became clear to me why I was so uneasy with people telling me my mother’s death was part of God’s plan. You see, nothing could endear me less to a God than the idea that the entity of whom I should rely and pay homage to was actually directly responsible for the loss of my mother. Why on earth should that make me feel better? I’ve just been told I have to worship an invisible asshole, who sits on his ass, picking off people by the millions and leaving us to suffer and guess as to why.
I was always more comforted by the idea that God did exist, but that he had no control over us in our earthly lives. He was just there to listen, to understand, and to welcome us when we died. Like a benevolent pen-friend we’ve spoken to for years, coming to pick us up at the airport. Except there’s no return ticket. The pen-friend kidnaps you, gives you a harp and puts you on a cloud to chill for eternity. Awkward.
Atheists, as it turns out, aren’t much better at the comforting thing. I can’t talk to them about my uncertainty of the whole “God’s Plan Malarkey” without incurring a torrent of cynical, self-satisfied mockery about the baseness of the belief and its ludicrousness. (Because sure, comfort me about my dead mother by insulting her, and what she believed: that’s smart). For all their criticism of religion, I’ve never met a fundamental atheist who hasn’t acted like he’s an elite member of a ‘Chosen people’, going out into the world and leaving debasing comments on religious posts like an inverse-missionary, spreading the word of science.
“You’re right, of course Madeleine,” they say, “There is no plan. There is no God. When we die, that’s it. We are extinguished from this earth. Worms eat us. Or crazy grandchildren keep us in a pot on their mantelpiece. End of.”
I know what you’re thinking at this point – Madeleine, you can’t live as a contradiction for the rest of your life, becoming more Atheist in the company of Christians, and more Christian in the company of Atheists, but currently I don’t see a way around it. I want the comfort of Catholicism without having to associate with a misogynistic, militant pedo-ring and their Machiavellian God, and I want the empirical nature of atheism without having to join the smug-club and their ‘hope you enjoyed the last few months with your mother, cus you’re never going to see her again’ attitude.
I don’t want to call myself an Atheist, but the day my mother died, I was no longer a Catholic. And it wasn’t because I was angry at God. It was because she was my link, my connection to the crazy bastard, and when she went, there was nothing in me any more to believe in him. Maybe I stopped believing in him a long time ago.
So where do I stand? Agnostic? Pagan? Spiritual? Where do you go after living 22 years as an Atholic-Catheist, only to lose the Catheist?
I think the worse problem is that there’s no answer to these questions which isn’t religious, and apparently I’m thoroughly allergic to those. It’s no good telling me that she’s with God, because I won’t believe you and it’ll just be uncomfortable, and it’s no good telling me that she lives on inside of me and my recollections of her, because that’s not good enough.
At the end of the day, I keep my religious belief to myself because I am un-swayed. I live in perpetual flux. I am a rambler of religions, a tourist of spirituality, and if anyone tries to – however kindly – impose any one ‘right’ answer onto me, I will run a mile, screaming the other way.
“But then Madeleine, what do we say when you’re upset? What do we do to comfort you when you come to us, desperate for answers?” they ask.
I don’t know. How about shut up, and give me a hug?
February 7, 2016 February 7, 2016 2 Comments
Time, when you’re young, tends to give you the impression of being endless. At five years old, an hour feels close to a day, and a year is practically a century. Being asked ‘what did you do over your holiday’ is the adult equivalent of ‘where were you at 5:45 pm on the 12th of February 1996?’
My point is that even when you’re ten years old, life doesn’t seem to go that quick, and it feels like you’ve got all the time in the world to figure everything out.
In my case, ten year old me had some very exact ideas about what I was going to have achieved by the time I was twenty-five. Twenty-five, to me, was the pinnacle of adulthood. By twenty-five, I was going to be famous, be married, have children, a house of my own, and adoring fans, and then I’d have plenty of time afterwards to enjoy it all in luxury.
Well, I’m twenty-three now, and my ten year old self is still tapping her foot, waiting on a lot of things. Apparently, in order to fulfil myself, I have one hell of a busy schedule to catch up on in the next two years.
It may seem silly to some readers, especially anyone older than me, but you have to understand that from my perspective twenty-three is the oldest I’ve ever been, and that the ten year old inside of me is incredibly demanding. Call me idealistic or foolish, but the self-expectancy I placed on myself from a young age has never really gone away, and even though a lot of my goals have changed, I still have that internal list of ‘Things to do before I’m twenty-five.’
A part of me wishes that I could go back in time, and talk to my little self, and explain how things are going to work out. Talk to her about fighting with depression, and bereavement, and the hours spent struggling not to let my dyslexia rule what I could or couldn’t do. I wish I could go back and say, ‘You’re going to make some really stupid mistakes’ and then assure little me that these weren’t a ‘waste of time’ but rather a lesson in how to use it better.
Mostly, if I could go back in time and talk to anybody about my ‘list’ it would be my mother. Because, let’s be honest, little me would nod at everything I told her and take none of it in, because little me is a ten-year old with no perspective of time, and high expectations of herself.
For a majority of my life I was under the impression that my mother wasn’t a great achiever. I don’t mean this in a rude way: she built and cared for our family, and I thought she was invincible, and amazing, and strong. But she wasn’t a movie star, or a big business woman, or any of the other qualities that we place so much importance on in our society. She was just my Mum.
It was only in the last few years of her life, that I really got to talking to her about what she did do with her life. And it was only after her death a year ago that I started bubbling with even more questions about the adventures she went though, and what she achieved.
This was a woman who could speak several languages, was highly educated, with a degree and masters-equivilant from a very prestigious French University. Even the fact she could speak English so fluently should have flabbergasted me, seeing as there wasn’t a drop of English blood in her body. These things never occurred me growing up.
My mother was a woman who had a long line of qualifications under her belt. She went through a number of different jobs, had skills in writing, admin, language, geography and teaching. She could sing, and dance, and my God, but could she throw a great party!
By the time she was my age, she had only just met my Dad. She was studying in the Lake District, taking a year out from France. She ended up marrying the strange Englishman she met at the fancy dress party, and then spent several years on an adventure, travelling and seeing the world.
If we regard achievements as the amount of stories you have to tell at the end of the day, than my mother had one hell of a life.
I wish I could talk to her about it, I wish she could talk me through this transitional period as I try to be both the person I wanted when I was ten, and try to be more realistic with myself. If she was around, my mother would probably scoff at me for my feelings of disappointment and self-doubt. I think the first thing she’d do was remind me of all the things I have achieved.
You see, the list of things to do before you’re twenty-five is always growing. As my life takes me down new and unexpected routes, there are going to be some things on the list that no longer stand for who I am, and others that need to be added.
Ten year old me would have never dreamed that I’d earn a black belt in Karate by the time I was eighteen. Or that I’d get a music scholarship to my University, and start directing my own choir, and writing original music. She wouldn’t have guessed that I would be accepted for a PhD, or that I would start lecturing the year after.
I guess the point I’m trying to make, is that alot of us have a screaming ten-year old in our head that tells us what we should have done by the time we hit a certain marker, but when that voices gets too loud its good to remind yourself of the things you have done. Because at the end of the day, that ten year old has no perspective of the trails and tribulations you’re going to go through, and whilst they can be a good motivator, they have no right to bully you.
Life is not a checklist of things you need to tick in order. Life is a bunch of stories and experiences, some of which come at the worst possible time, and from the least likely places.
So with that in mind, here’s my list of things to do before I’m twenty-five:
1) Do the best I damn well can
March 1, 2015 Leave a comment
Oh, Kindly Rose
Composed by Madeleine Vaughan & Hannah Curtain
Lyrics by Madeleine Vaughan
Performed and recorded by the University of Winchester’s King Alfred Singers, at Chester Cathedral for the 2015 Choir Festival.
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I remember the early days of my biz when I would scour the internet looking for answers about pricing, the algorithm , marketing, weird client requests, email templates, contracts and all the other things it takes to run a photography business!
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Each day seems to blend into the next as I isolate alone here in my house, and yet I’m experiencing markedly extreme moments of emotion.
Hopelessness. Gratefulness. Helplessness. Appreciation. Sadness. Raw vulnerability. Fear. Connection. Confusion. Joy. Loneliness. Love.
A good meal with a glass of a favorite wine tastes far better than usual. My eyes tear up when I’m out for my daily walk and have to veer into the street to go around a young unmasked couple and their two babies, who might be carrying the Rona. We don’t look at each other, and it makes me sad.
Sometimes I sing when I’m out on a walk. It’s hard while I’m wearing a mask, so I don’t sing that often. But when I do, I never know what will happen. One day it makes me happy, another day it makes me cry.
My partner smiles at me on a video call and I feel the love in the pit of my stomach, because we are isolating separately. I hear a beautiful song and it makes me remember that I am still here. I am healthy for today. I am alive. I have a house over my head, the mortgage is paid off, and for now, my partner is doing my grocery shopping for me, because I have respiratory issues. He’s a keeper.
Depending on how much time I spend reading news articles, some days feel like a roller coaster ride of medical studies with new findings, as a few government leaders make good, smart leadership decisions while others—more than I’d like to count—make horrible, ridiculously irresponsible and selfish choices. Idiocracy and Darwinism abound. It’s just a matter of time before we all feel the fallout.
At the same time that people are expressing their fears and anger online about Covidiots not wearing masks and standing too close together in the grocery store, protesters with AK47s are taking their frustrations to the street, complaining that they have lost their liberty. To me, they are acting like spoiled children. Why can’t they just stay home for a while until the danger has passed, until things can calm down? It’s only been a month. It’s not forever, but if they keep acting like that it could be. Maybe they are living on the fringes financially. That might make sense, but it seems to be more about their philosophy, that they have a sense of entitlement. They want to be free to act the way they want, even if it kills others.
How did we get here? Such divisions. Such insanity.
I’m not sure where we will end up, but at times it feels like no one is at the controls of this airplane, and all I want to do is hide in the bathroom until we land. Only I don’t know which direction the plane is flying and all the air traffic controllers are out sick.
The daily video calls with my partner, the cell phone calls with old friends and family, and the Facebook chats with all the other people in my life, have kept me from going insane day to day, as I try not to wonder how long this will be my life.
One day at a time, I tell myself. Just do what you have to do, focus at the task at hand to get through today, then go to sleep and get up to do it again. Stephen Colbert has been a saving grace. Late night comedy on my cell phone helps me go to sleep. What’s a little radiation while I’m in isolation?
Thankfully, I have a very important book project that I’m on deadline to finish. Some last-minute interviews have added a whole new level to the narrative, which has been stressful to accommodate, but it will make the final project much better. It helps keep me focused, most of the time, anyway.
What will I do once I finish? Start back on my other book, and try to keep at it. I am incredibly grateful that I have two books under contract at once, which is a first for me, and couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. At least I won’t starve.
Most days I find it hard to conjure up the energy to make myself a nice meal, but when I do, I enjoy it supremely. I need to do more of it. Self-care, they call it. Bravo.
I had my first Zoom meeting today, a panel discussion with two other writers and a moderator, which was supposed to happen in real life, but got cancelled because of the Rona. It was good, a way to stay connected, and to try to stay relevant when we’re all stuck inside. I want to do more of that. I will if someone asks. In between books.
But the Rona is all-powerful and it saps energy. It is all-knowing. It keeps its deadly secrets to itself, and every time we try to understand it, it throws us a curve ball. New information that will change again tomorrow negates what we thought we knew yesterday.
People like me are desperate for information, because that has always been my coping mechanism. Gaining more of it has always been the key to dispelling fear. Except the information is only good for today, until it has been replaced with something else. The numbers aren’t real, there are too many unknown variables—not enough tests, faulty tests, models that are too conservative or too scary, but still not accurate because we just don’t know enough.
It’s too soon, and one level of government is fighting another. Who knows who is telling the truth these days? What is credible? Honest accounts of people who have been sick and have recovered. Those I believe. The doctors and nurses who write about having to watch people die every day. They are the truthtellers.
And yet, we have a president who seems oblivious to this. Talking about his own TV ratings, he seems to think he is engaged in a pro-wresting match, where the contestants wear make-up and capes. He eggs on the protesters like he’s an MWA promoter, encouraging people to go outside and fight to open up businesses because he thinks that will improve the economy, which he needs to win re-election. Like we are all on the Jerry Springer Show. Or Survivor.
But this is reality, not reality TV. Or is it? Some days I’m not even sure. Yes, people need to earn a living, but this will simply kill all the progress we’ve made during the lockdown. It will only infect more vulnerable people and will literally kill the people who would otherwise vote for him. It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t understand any of it. We have become the new Puerto Rico, and we aren’t even getting paper towels tossed at us.
It’s like the world has gone crazy. As if something in the air or the water has seeped into people’s brains and changed their perceptions, slowly, like an invisible gas or a bad hallucinatory drug trip. Because everything is upside down, and what was true has never been and what was supposed to happen will never be.
So, here I sit at the computer and work on this blog, or my book, because it is something that I can control. It is something that helps to distract me from the madness. It helps me to forget, for at least a little while, that outside my door is an invisible virus that gives some people no symptoms, makes some people really sick, and can kill off the people I love. Or me.
It’s all I can do to keep the virus and the madness at bay. Whatever you have in your life that you can do to keep you focused, I hope you can find it and do it.
As long as my savings hold out, and I can keep talking to my friends and family on the phone or online. As along as I can still have happy hour on Facebook Messenger with the man I love, with maybe the occasional visit where I try not to worry that he is asymptomatic and will give me the sickness that might turn my lungs into glue, and permanently damage my heart, kidney or who knows what else. As long as I don’t lose my mind, I will get through this, one way or another. Or I won’t. And that’s about all I know right now.
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Yes. Should a student’s enrollment be terminated or canceled for any reason, all refunds will be made according to the following. Cancellation requires the submission of Form 108 by electronic mail to info@usnannyinstitute.com or by termination. If the Nanny Institute does not accept the student or the student does not start any classes and cancels within (3) business days after making payment and signing the enrollment agreement, 100% of tuition (less the $50 non-refundable enrollment fee) will be refunded. Cancellation after enrollment through 25% of the program will result in a Pro Rata refund. Program completion is computed on the number of clock hours of courses completed to the total program clocks hours or the number of days since enrollment to the total number of days allocated to complete the program, whichever is greater. Canceling after completing more than 25% of the program (courses and/or time allocated) will result in no refund. Refunds will be made within 30 days of termination of the student’s enrollment or receipt of Cancellation Notice (Form 108) from the student.
Are the classes available in Spanish or other languages?
No. Currently, all classes are available in English only.
Will I need to buy textbooks?
No, all the course materials are available online and included in the tuition and fees. Every course has a study guide that can be downloaded and used to capture notes from the course. these study guides create a textbook that you can keep. The materials are for personal use only. All course videos and resources are copyrighted and cannot be used for any business purpose.
I am not living in the US and I am not a US citizen, can I enroll?
Yes, you can enroll online and complete the program from any location in the world. Job placement services; however, are only available to those living in the United States.You do not need to be a United States citizen but you must upload a copy of a government-issued identification from any recognized country to verify your identity.
Do these programs count for the US Nanny Association Certifications?
Yes. All programs (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Specialist and Professional Childcare, Newborn Care Specialist and eLearning Facilitator) are accepted by the US Nanny Association for the training requirements to earn the Nanny and Childcare Provider (NCP) Credential. The Newborn Care program is accepted by the US Nanny Association for the training requirements for the Newborn and Infant Care Professional (NICP). The Professional Childcare program is accepted by the US Nanny Association for the training requirements to earn the Professional Nanny and Childcare Provider (PNCP) Credential.
The US Nanny Association and the Nanny Institute are separate entities. Like many childcare businesses, the Nanny Institute is an organization member of the US Nanny Association.
Can I watch the classes on my phone?
Yes. You can download the SAP Litmos app and log in to your student portal on your phone. Each class has a study guide that can be completed so you may want to download or print the study guide from a computer prior to watching the class on your phone.
Are there financial payment plans, discounts or sales?
The Nanny Institute allows you to make $299 payments over time by purchasing each level separately. This allows students to pay for 10 hours of class at a time. The Nanny Institute also offers scholarships, when available. While businesses can offer discounts and sales, the Nanny Institute is a career college and adheres to the Department of Education requirements. Licensed post-secondary schools must comply with 6E-1.0032(7), F.A.C which states, “Tuition or fee discounts are not permissible.”
What are the enrollment requirements?
Enrollment requires students to be at least 18 years old and have a government-issued identification (from any recognized country). Students sign up online by paying the tuition and fees, then immediately checking their email SPAM or Junk folder to access and log in to their student account. Students must sign an Enrollment Agreement and upload a copy of government-issued identification. Within 30 minutes of signing the paperwork and confirming the student’s identity, the classes will unlock in the student’s account and they can begin the program.
Can I take just the classes and not the exams?
Yes, you can audit the program. While auditing a program, students will have access to all class materials but will not need to complete the quizzes or exams. Students communicate this choice by submitting a signed Program Audit Form. Fees for auditing are the same as those for programs in which credit is received.
Can I transfer credits from another college program?
No. Due to the specialization of our program to nannies who work in the home environment, transfer credits from other institutions are not accepted.
Can I take the classes in any order?
Yes, within each level you are able to select the order in which you take the classes. The levels must be taken in order so you will not have access to the Intermediate classes (level 2) until you have completed the Basic program (level 1).
Can I fast forward or replay classes?
While you cannot fast-forward through a class, you can rewind and/or replay the class as many times as you would like during the 12 week enrollment period. To ensure all students complete the program and attend all classes, the online student management system requires that all classes be viewed and the practice quiz to be completed for the proficiency exam to be unlocked.
Can I skip some classes or levels?
No. The Nanny Institute’s reputation is built on our comprehensive curriculum. Students must complete all courses and submit the required documents prior to the exam. The exam is locked by the online learning system until the program requirements are completed. All students who want to earn the certification must pass the exam.
Program Completion and Career Services
How long does it take to get the certification after I pass the exam?
Immediately. You will be able to download your certification and transcript immediately upon completing all the program requirements.
Do the certifications expire?
No. Once earned, the certification remains valid. Continuing education is strongly encouraged so that students can progress their careers.
How can graduates work with Nanny Institute’s partners?
Graduates and Nanny Institute partners – reputable Nanny Agencies and Domestic Placement Services across the United States – have the option but not an obligation to work with each other. Graduates seek top jobs that are often filled by agencies and agencies recruit top talent to fill their best jobs. The Nanny Institute provides information and introductions but all job placement services provided to graduates by a Nanny Agency or Domestic Placement Organization are the sole responsibility of that agency or organization. It is up to the graduate and agency to engage with each other. The Nanny Institute does not guarantee employment.
What career services are included with the program?
Job placement courses are included and provide training on how to write a resume, search for a job, interview, an example work agreement and how to negotiate compensation.
How long does it take to complete the program?
It depends on the student. The online program will go at the pace of the student who can finish in days or take up to 12 weeks. The Basic program will load first into the online student portal and the Basic exam will be unlocked when all the Basic level classes and required paperwork are completed. The Nanny Institute staff review submitted documents and attempt to approve correctly submitted materials within 1 business day. The Nanny Institute reviews all student submissions within 5 business days; however, incomplete documents and/or an inability to verifying documents may require additional time. The Childcare Certifications are issued electronically immediately upon the completion of the program.
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On May 27, 2017, Indian newspapers reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) had confirmed three cases of Zika virus in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The first case, in November 2016, involved a 34-year-old woman, who tested positive for Zika after she delivered a baby at B. J. Medical College. The second case, in January 2017, involved a a 22-year-old woman in her 37th week of her pregnancy. The third case, in February 2017, involved a 64-year-old man who was identified during a random monitoring and surveillance activity conducted by the B. J. Medical College.
In February 2016, the Minister of Health proclaimed that India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had adopted several actions and countermeasures to prevent the spread of Zika. However, the alerts and guidelines about Zika, that were created in consultation with the WHO, only became publicly available on the Ministry’s website after media reports of Zika in India. In May 2017, the WHO asserted that India’s Ministry of Health has taken the necessary steps to address the situation. These steps include sharing national plan and guidelines on Zika with the States, setting up an Inter-Ministerial task force, displaying Zika- related information for travellers in the airports.
B. J. Medical College, Ahmedabad
Beyond the media reports and the statements issued by the Ministry and the WHO, there has been little public discussion about Zika in India. The local neighbourhood Ahmedabad, as well as the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (which is responsible for public health in the area) reportedly were unaware of the Zika cases until these were publicized by the media. In sharp contrast, there are regular public updates on Dengue and Chikangunya cases in India.
The media reports also indicated that the government officials have consistently tried to downplay the threat of Zika. For example, the Head of Indian Council of Medical Research is reported to have said that there is no reason to panic, as no new cases has been identified. Other top officials have also insisted that there have been only three “isolated” cases, and that none of them, including the pregnant woman who has since then delivered, had any complication.
India has a population of 1.34 billion people. Why should anyone be concerned about only three cases of Zika virus? We should be for the following reasons:
First, the number of detected cases does not always represent the true picture of the disease burden. The cases were identified at one institution—the B.J. Medical College—in one area, in just one state of a vast country. With known under-reporting, and without a much wider survey, it is possible (and likely) that the number of persons in India who are infected with Zika virus is much greater than three. Also, we may not yet know the extent of this disease burden in India. Even if the confirmed cases have not shown any complications, such as microcephaly, future cases may be more serious. Of note, there have been 260 cases of microcephaly in India since February 2016. However, it was only earlier this month that the Ministry began testing such cases for a link to Zika.
Second, as reported by the media, none of the three people with confirmed Zika virus had a travel history to a Zika-affected country. This means that it is likely that the Zika cases in India are homegrown. This should not come as a surprise because the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which acts as vector for Zika, is known to exist in India. Its presence in India is confirmed by the annual recurrence of the Dengue, Haemorrhagic Dengue, and Chikangunya fevers.
Finally, India has history of poor performance with respect to the management of outbreaks and pandemics. For example, during the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic, many gaps, ad-hoc measures, and undesirable outcome were observed, despite the presences of a pandemic plan and guidelines. Issues concerning the availability, accessibility, and affordability of vaccines, health infrastructure, medicines, and the disproportionate burden on the already disadvantaged population surfaced. H1N1 is endemic in India and preventable morbidity and mortality are annual occurrences. Unless we recognize that Zika as a potentially serious public health concern, history may repeat itself
We can best avoid a potentially dangerous situation with Zika by ensuring an ethically aware public health response that is both realistic and situated in the local context. For example, there must be more active and localized Zika awareness campaigns. Instead of downplaying the risk of Zika, at the very least, the Indian Government should be taking steps to minimize the risks and that includes ensuring that the public is informed about the virus.
Chhanda Chakraborti is a Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagur in India. @Chhandac
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A mattress is a tough purchase to make and you want to ensure you get something that fits your particular needs. Products can vary significantly in products, features, and costs so it’s essential to know what you’re searching for and what to ask when buying a bed mattress.
There are lots of aspects to consider, such as the kind of bed mattress, the size of the bed, and your sleeping habits.
The first thing you should do is find out what type of bed mattress you desire. There are three main types: innerspring mattresses, foam bed mattress, and airbeds. Innerspring mattresses are made with coils that provide support for your body while foam bed mattress offer a more comfortable sleep experience. Airbeds are terrific for guests due to the fact that they can be pumped up or deflated depending upon how many people will be sleeping on them.
Bed mattress come in 4 various types: foam, spring coil, air, and water.
Foam mattresses are typically made with polyurethane foam and priced the lowest.
Spring coils bed mattress are made with springs within the bed( generally separately covered).
Blow-up mattress use air as their filling product and an electrical pump as the inflator.
The last bed mattress type is water which as you would envision usages water filling product within it with an electric pump for inflation.”
With these fundamental features in mind, you can now start limiting your look for the best item.
Your bed room needs a mattress if you are wanting to start your bed mattress search. To do this, consider personal attributes- namely, characteristics about your choices. Picking a mattress is a very individual choice and there is no one-size-fits all. However, there are some things you require to know prior to buying a mattress.
The most crucial aspect of a bed mattress is the comfort level. It’s the structure of your bed mattress, and you wish to feel rested when you awaken and comfy when you go to sleep.
Bed mattress can be divided into the following four convenience levels: company, plush, medium, and soft.
Company mattresses tend to be the most firm and the least pillowy.
To start the limiting procedure, you’ll require to consider a different bed mattress type. That is, one that is thicker, a hybrid, or one with a memory foam.
The innerspring mattress, which is more difficult to find these days, is generally made from steel coils and may be covered with material to help cushion the springy feeling.
While constant coils avoid movement transfer when sleepers are laying in the exact same bed, they are not able to totally prevent the transfer of motion between the two sleepers. For the most part, if there are 2 bedfellows, they will need a mattress with individually wrapped coils.A bed mattress with separately covered coils can be the most budget-friendly mattress you’ll find, however it’s also the least comfy.
There are numerous types of bed mattress that come in numerous sizes, shapes, and fabrics. Polyurethane foam cushions are frequently the bottom layer of foam bed mattress. Often these bed mattress have a company feel as they are filled with polyurethane foam that is tough. Memory foam mattresses, when produced an entire bed mattress, appear to go hand in hand with the name because of their distinct methods to support your body Memory foam is the bottom layer in these bed mattress, due to the fact that it tends to be soft and complies with your body.
So, the bed mattress companies add foam, gel, or perforations to their mattresses to improve air flow and improve temperature regulation.
Latex bed mattress are made with materials that feel more long lasting and cooler to individuals who sleep hot or alter their sleeping position frequently. You might even wish to avoid traditional and organic foam bed mattress because of their failure to hold heat. If you sleep on a mattress that traps you in one spot, you might want to consider latex options, since natural memory foam bed mattress don’t exist. Lots of latex bed mattress have organic or natural materials that are more durable and cooler than memory foam. If you wish to sleep natural, however, you must look for latex alternatives.
Memory foam is normally more comfortable to use than latex.
A “hybrid” bed, featuring a coil spring base and an extra layer of foam or latex, integrates the very best functions of foam, latex and coil spring– for body convenience. Hybrids typically cost more than their foam and latex equivalents. These mattresses also maintain a comfortable level of air-flow, even when it is hot in your bedroom. Their style does not offer assistance the way a coil spring mattress does, nevertheless, so a mattress with a hybrid coil spring base should only be used if you require firm assistance.
Airbed
Sure enough, you can bring a comfortable inflatable bed with you when you go camping. A much better quality variation is available which includes padding on top. Airbeds that can be “customized” work well for individuals with changing assistance needs. A great brand with an excellent guarantee is a must. Be sure to check the quality of sleep prior to taking you camp is too far off the main roads.
It can’t injure to consult your medical professional to ensure the mattress you’re picking can safely supply the ideal assistance for the best night’s sleep.
It’s finest to prevent soft mattresses and firm ones rather. Foam mattresses are a great option for many people as they provide both convenience and support. The very best bed for back sleepers is a bed that uses firm assistance and likewise supplies enough space for your body. You should also think about the density of the mattress, the size of the mattress, and the price prior to making your purchase. There are lots of mattresses on the market that are designed particularly for back sleepers These bed mattress have a firmer feel, which is what the majority of people choose when they sleep on their backs.
Sleeping on your side puts a lot of pressure on your shoulders and hips so you should look for a bed that enables you the convenience and assistance you need. Lots of side sleepers find that memory foam or pillow-top bed mattress provide the most support..
Side sleepers are the most typical type of sleeper. They are likewise the most difficult to find a bed mattress for. The very best mattress for side sleepers is one that is firm enough to support their weight, but soft sufficient to provide comfort and pressure relief.
The very best mattresses for side sleepers are those that have a medium-firm feel. This will provide the correct amount of support and comfort for your body while you sleep on your side.
Health care service providers may recommend a stomach-sleepers change to a mattress position that provides more health benefits.
According to an online short article published on Feb 7, 2007 by The Sun, sleeping on your stomach puts tension on your spine. In time, that stress in your spine can result in back and neck pain. Having a firm bed mattress or hybrid bed mattress may have the ability to protect your spine while enabling you to sleep on your stomach.
Individuals who have a tough time getting used to moving frequently in bed are “mix sleepers.” Sleeping on a bed mattress that offers both convenience and support is important if you are a combination sleeper. A medium-firm bed mattress might be precisely what you need, because it will keep you comfy whether sleeping on one side or your back. Attempt a soft, latex or memory foam mattress that will respond well to movement, such as a hybrid bed mattress.
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Physique
You may need to search for a different bed which is firmer for individuals with a lower weight. Your body type can likewise impact the level of assistance you need. Everybody has a different shape, which will impact the pressure on your spine as you try to sleep, Longo states.
People who weigh less, or less weight than around 130 pounds, will more than likely requirement more support for a good night’s sleep. It is fine if you choose a firmer bed, but if you require discomfort and pressure relief, and have a heavier body type. Do Saatva Mattresses Smell
People weighing more than 300 pounds approximately need a firmer bed to get proper support. Hybrid beds, which use both the support of innerspring coils and the convenience and softness of foam, can offer lasting quality no matter what your weight. You’ll also have a much better sleep if you buy a bed mattress longer than 12 inches considering that the mattress won’t be too short. Complete sized mattresses that are between 12 and 16 inches long are typically proper for most people, however taller individuals will probably want that they had actually purchased the longer choice, and much shorter individuals with much shorter legs might have problem with a full-sized mattress. Do Saatva Mattresses Smell
If you are a bigger frame, and have actually been having a hard time to sleep, you’re more than welcome to buy the mattress you desire in addition to the boxspring.
Price.
New mattresses can be of excellent quality or at cheaper rates however you can get them from about $600 to $1,000. That’s about average. Nevertheless, it’s not only the bed mattress itself that determines its cost, but also the accessories, such as extra pillows, flippability, temperature level regulation, and other functions.
These things tend to be extremely costly. An up-market bed mattress, such as a queen high-end one, can cost up to $1500 and more.
You may not require a luxury bed mattress, but you likely won’t get a good night’s sleep from a poor-quality bed mattress. You might just require a replacement in a couple of years, so it’s frequently worth purchasing an excellent mattress. A good bed mattress needs to last around 10 years.
Lots of bed mattress business now make a trial duration in which you can return your bed mattress totally free within a particular time frame if you’re disappointed by the quality of the bed.
While you’re shopping for new, make certain you look for a service warranty on the mattress you are purchasing. With many bed mattress, you’ll usually get a minimum replacement or non-prorated guarantee of 10 years.
Secure your investment.
Do not forget an anti-allergen bed mattress protector. That mattress might be stained, no matter what you believe. It can still void your guarantee.
Keep in mind: higher price does not constantly equal higher quality.
It is natural to believe that the more you invest, the much better the bed mattress. High rates do not ensure quality, and they definitely do not guarantee that you will personally enjoy the mattress. Rather, what you see is what you will get. As you check out, consider whether the products of which the mattress is made are durable and environmentally sound. As you sleep on it, search for your own choices in a bed mattress that will allow a healthy spine and sleep, not to mention an economical mattress you can. Do Saatva Mattresses Smell
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Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.
What are your unpopular opinions about health / fitness?
Replies
TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
July 2017
French_Peasant wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
Okaaaay, let's try this...
The world is round...
Oh, the logical fallacies. Strong with this one they are.
True. And quite telling, all of the binary questions.
July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
Okaaaay, let's try this...
The world is round...
amusedmonkey Posts: 10,331 Member
July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
The food industry has one goal, to get you to consume as much as possible for the cheapest cost at the highest price... None of you can disagree with this statement, and if you do agree with this statement, than you have to agree that they are philosophically against you...
It's not shocking that the point of a business is to make money, but I completely disagree that they are philosophically against people. They offer what sells, and what sells is decided by the customer because if it doesn't it's no longer profitable. They are philosophically for the customer because the customer is the main factor in this equation. They are not deliberately selling things that are "bad for you". They are selling these things because people want them.
Why do they make their fries salty? Because people like them that way, and those who don't like them heavily salted pick the "lightly salted" option. I know I do. I also know that the "lightly salted" option is not offered because they care about your health just like they offer the heavily salted option regardless of your blood pressure status and not because they want to make you sick, but for one simple reason: it's not their job to care.
People at the farmer's market don't care about your health either. All they care about is making a living. So don't give into this and stop handing money to those who want to take it.
AnnPT77 Posts: 26,279 Member
July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
CSARdiver wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
All our bodies are so different, the truth is no one really knows what works or how it works, but everyone who's read the latest article is an expert... (rolls eyes)
Our bodies are remarkably similar. We know quite a lot about what works and how it works for the important aspects.
Our behaviors are very different; however. Despite this simple fact many get lost obsessing on the insignificant issues and lose the larger picture. There is easy money to be made convincing people otherwise - 20 B in the US alone.
Not so, truth is we really have no idea...
I bet you can find a study that provides evidence to the contrary, and an army of people who believe the opposite...
I've found that many of today's know-it-alls, will claim something totally different when the next trend comes along
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
One of the really fun things about MFP is that sometimes you can find yourself arguing with a real live scientist about something in his domain of professional expertise, and not even know it.
Saying this apropos of absolutely nothing, of course. It's JMO. Maybe even not an unpopular one.
SezxyStef Posts: 15,270 Member
July 2017
jessiferrrb wrote: »
quiksylver296 wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
So don't give in this lunch or dinner to the marketer's and food engineers at fast food chains, their very profits are bet against your ability to free that super hero inside of you! Think about it, why do they have to make their frys so salty?
And remember that if you really know better and give in to McDonald's and the food industry anyway... Then csardiver is right... Otherwise be ready to fight for your health because they are against you, don't believe they are not...
Now it's up to you to eat wise and exercise!
So if I go to McD's or Wendy's or Jack or any other food establishment and get a salad with plain grilled chicken (no fries, no burger, etc), have I then given in to the 'establishment' and lost my soul in the process?!?!?
It's national French Fry Day and McCain's is having a big party 20miles from here...free fries
SezxyStef Posts: 15,270 Member
July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
Geez people... Let's start here okay, one step at a time
Fast food is bad for you...
Fales...I can even hit all my macros if I want eating every meal at Micky Dee's.
Never tried with BK or DQ or AW...but I expect it would be the same.
ndj1979 Posts: 29,147 Member
July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
Okaaaay, let's try this...
The world is round...
First, would you like to share how a salad or apple slices or beans become unhealthy just because they're sold by a fast food chain? Or is it your argument that fast food is not inherently unhealthy?
the fast food processing process automatically makes everything bad, because food manufacturing conspiracy to wipe out all their paying customers..
please get caught up ...
SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish Posts: 831 Member
July 2017
quiksylver296 wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
CSARdiver wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
All our bodies are so different, the truth is no one really knows what works or how it works, but everyone who's read the latest article is an expert... (rolls eyes)
Our bodies are remarkably similar. We know quite a lot about what works and how it works for the important aspects.
Our behaviors are very different; however. Despite this simple fact many get lost obsessing on the insignificant issues and lose the larger picture. There is easy money to be made convincing people otherwise - 20 B in the US alone.
Not so, truth is we really have no idea...
I bet you can find a study that provides evidence to the contrary, and an army of people who believe the opposite...
I've found that many of today's know-it-alls, will claim something totally different when the next trend comes along
... only if your definition of "study" is extremely loose.
The one truth and constant is that large food manufacturers and the fast food industry doesn't give a damn about you...
I understand that their a business and responsible to their shareholders blah blah blah...
But that's exactly the point, they only care about the profit and not for your health
That is a sweeping generalization that I don't believe applies to every large food manufacturer or fast food company.
On an unrelated note - I've been totally craving a McGriddle the last couple of days!
No, you are completely wrong, and people do need to get this right. That they are responsible to shareholders first actually applies to every large food manufacturer and fast food company. In fact its written in their rules of corporate governance. Profit and interests of the shareholders is ALWAYS above "caring for your health". However, some may have good marketing departments which make it seem untrue to those uninformed possibly. And many have goals which can sometimes coincide with consumer health. But it is not the primary goal.
I'm actually not sure how this has to be explained to people still?
quiksylver296 Posts: 28,364 Member
July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
Geez people... Let's start here okay, one step at a time
Fast food is bad for you...
Mr_Healthy_Habits Posts: 12,587 Member
July 2017
amusedmonkey wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
The food industry has one goal, to get you to consume as much as possible for the cheapest cost at the highest price... None of you can disagree with this statement, and if you do agree with this statement, than you have to agree that they are philosophically against you...
It's not shocking that the point of a business is to make money, but I completely disagree that they are philosophically against people. They offer what sells, and what sells is decided by the customer because if it doesn't it's no longer profitable. They are philosophically for the customer because the customer is the main factor in this equation. They are not deliberately selling things that are "bad for you". They are selling these things because people want them.
Why do they make their fries salty? Because people like them that way, and those who don't like them heavily salted pick the "lightly salted" option. I know I do. I also know that the "lightly salted" option is not offered because they care about your health just like they offer the heavily salted option regardless of your blood pressure status and not because they want to make you sick, but for one simple reason: it's not their job to care.
People at the farmer's market don't care about your health either. All they care about is making a living. So don't give into this and stop handing money to those who want to take it.
You see we really agree that the fast food industry doesn't care about your health, we just disagree about their methods towards profit...
Your perspective is just too naive for me to buy in to.... They are not simply trying to offer what people want, they are much smarter than that.
There is just more to super sized portions than offering people what they want... Your fooling yourself if you believe they are not trying to get people to buy more than they really want...
Mr_Healthy_Habits Posts: 12,587 Member
July 2017
I bet if I said you people are right, you would all claim to be wrong... Haha!
July 2017
TR0berts wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
Okaaaay, let's try this...
The world is round...
Technically false in any case, but which way are you trying to determine, latitudinally or longitudinally?
Approximately spherical?
cmriverside Posts: 32,632 Member
July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
amusedmonkey wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
The food industry has one goal, to get you to consume as much as possible for the cheapest cost at the highest price... None of you can disagree with this statement, and if you do agree with this statement, than you have to agree that they are philosophically against you...
It's not shocking that the point of a business is to make money, but I completely disagree that they are philosophically against people. They offer what sells, and what sells is decided by the customer because if it doesn't it's no longer profitable. They are philosophically for the customer because the customer is the main factor in this equation. They are not deliberately selling things that are "bad for you". They are selling these things because people want them.
Why do they make their fries salty? Because people like them that way, and those who don't like them heavily salted pick the "lightly salted" option. I know I do. I also know that the "lightly salted" option is not offered because they care about your health just like they offer the heavily salted option regardless of your blood pressure status and not because they want to make you sick, but for one simple reason: it's not their job to care.
People at the farmer's market don't care about your health either. All they care about is making a living. So don't give into this and stop handing money to those who want to take it.
You see we really agree that the fast food industry doesn't care about your health, we just disagree about their methods towards profit...
Your perspective is just too naive for me to buy in to.... They are not simply trying to offer what people want, they are much smarter than that.
There is just more to super sized portions than offering people what they want... Your fooling yourself if you believe they are not trying to get people to buy more than they really want...
Okay, but once you're older than 14, what's your excuse for not knowing better?
stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
July 2017 edited July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
amusedmonkey wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
The food industry has one goal, to get you to consume as much as possible for the cheapest cost at the highest price... None of you can disagree with this statement, and if you do agree with this statement, than you have to agree that they are philosophically against you...
It's not shocking that the point of a business is to make money, but I completely disagree that they are philosophically against people. They offer what sells, and what sells is decided by the customer because if it doesn't it's no longer profitable. They are philosophically for the customer because the customer is the main factor in this equation. They are not deliberately selling things that are "bad for you". They are selling these things because people want them.
Why do they make their fries salty? Because people like them that way, and those who don't like them heavily salted pick the "lightly salted" option. I know I do. I also know that the "lightly salted" option is not offered because they care about your health just like they offer the heavily salted option regardless of your blood pressure status and not because they want to make you sick, but for one simple reason: it's not their job to care.
People at the farmer's market don't care about your health either. All they care about is making a living. So don't give into this and stop handing money to those who want to take it.
You see we really agree that the fast food industry doesn't care about your health, we just disagree about their methods towards profit...
Your perspective is just too naive for me to buy in to.... They are not simply trying to offer what people want, they are much smarter than that.
There is just more to super sized portions than offering people what they want... Your fooling yourself if you believe they are not trying to get people to buy more than they really want...
Is there more to people taking more food at a buffet than what they really will eat?
You're fooling yourself if you think that the prospect of getting as much as they can for the price (whether we're talking food or not) is not what most people want.
People generally will choose less only if there's an apparent benefit perceived. Better quality, less effort expended, etc.
SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish Posts: 831 Member
July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
CSARdiver wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
All our bodies are so different, the truth is no one really knows what works or how it works, but everyone who's read the latest article is an expert... (rolls eyes)
Our bodies are remarkably similar. We know quite a lot about what works and how it works for the important aspects.
Our behaviors are very different; however. Despite this simple fact many get lost obsessing on the insignificant issues and lose the larger picture. There is easy money to be made convincing people otherwise - 20 B in the US alone.
Not so, truth is we really have no idea...
I bet you can find a study that provides evidence to the contrary, and an army of people who believe the opposite...
I've found that many of today's know-it-alls, will claim something totally different when the next trend comes along
... only if your definition of "study" is extremely loose.
The one truth and constant is that large food manufacturers and the fast food industry doesn't give a damn about you...
I understand that their a business and responsible to their shareholders blah blah blah...
But that's exactly the point, they only care about the profit and not for your health
Dead customers aren't known to buy your products.
That's taken of course to extremes on the internet. In most cases of course that isn't desireable, but keep your motivations straight is the most important thing. Yes its true its not a good idea to promote products that can result in quick deaths, especially since legal costs are high.
Large customers that eat a lot of product are definitely preferable, even if their lifespan is a bit shorter than average, however. Unless of course it becomes socially unacceptable, then some campaign to show how important your health is to them and some "healthy" options should be added.
July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
amusedmonkey wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
The food industry has one goal, to get you to consume as much as possible for the cheapest cost at the highest price... None of you can disagree with this statement, and if you do agree with this statement, than you have to agree that they are philosophically against you...
It's not shocking that the point of a business is to make money, but I completely disagree that they are philosophically against people. They offer what sells, and what sells is decided by the customer because if it doesn't it's no longer profitable. They are philosophically for the customer because the customer is the main factor in this equation. They are not deliberately selling things that are "bad for you". They are selling these things because people want them.
Why do they make their fries salty? Because people like them that way, and those who don't like them heavily salted pick the "lightly salted" option. I know I do. I also know that the "lightly salted" option is not offered because they care about your health just like they offer the heavily salted option regardless of your blood pressure status and not because they want to make you sick, but for one simple reason: it's not their job to care.
People at the farmer's market don't care about your health either. All they care about is making a living. So don't give into this and stop handing money to those who want to take it.
You see we really agree that the fast food industry doesn't care about your health, we just disagree about their methods towards profit...
Your perspective is just too naive for me to buy in to.... They are not simply trying to offer what people want, they are much smarter than that.
There is just more to super sized portions than offering people what they want... Your fooling yourself if you believe they are not trying to get people to buy more than they really want...
Every single industry doesn't care about your health. Scratch that every single company doesn't care about your health. Not even a mom and pop shop. They also don't care about your sickness either, yet you're making it sound suspiciously as if they purposely want to make you sick for some nefarious goal only you know.
L1zardQueen Posts: 8,756 Member
July 2017
The McD's on the Hawaiian offers spam for breakfast along with eggs and rice. They mostly definitely have their consumers in mind. And it was good!
CSARdiver Posts: 6,257 Member
July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
See the problem here is just a lack of humility...
People just can't handle the fact that what they believe may be wrong. All I've heard so far is "The study is right if I agree with it and wrong if I disagree with it".
And yeah McDonalds offers salads because they want your money, not because they are concerned about the health of their customers...
The food industry has one goal, to get you to consume as much as possible for the cheapest cost at the highest price... None of you can disagree with this statement, and if you do agree with this statement, than you have to agree that they are philosophically against you...
As for a victim mentality... I don't come in here and say the things I say to promote a victim mentality (BTW, that's a pretty lame weak losers argument against the things I've said).
I say what I say because I know there are people who come on to these forums looking for genuine advice, some who are facing a mountain that just seems daunting. Blaming them for their current situation when you know nothing about them or their lives would just make me a pious self-righteous a-hole.
I want readers to know that you are not lazy, you are not weak, you are not incapable, inept or inadequate...There IS a superhuman inside of you, but they need your help...
So don't give in this lunch or dinner to the marketer's and food engineers at fast food chains, their very profits are bet against your ability to free that super hero inside of you! Think about it, why do they have to make their frys so salty?
And remember that if you really know better and give in to McDonald's and the food industry anyway... Then csardiver is right... Otherwise be ready to fight for your health because they are against you, don't believe they are not...
Now it's up to you to eat wise and exercise!
If this is all you've heard then try listening.
Just a point that this is the debate section, where there are many of us who are not seeking to be right, but enjoy having our ideas and thoughts challenged in a never ending search for the truth.
Truth is dealt in the specifics. People trying to be right deal in vague generalities and tend to stray off topic when challenged.
ndj1979 Posts: 29,147 Member
July 2017
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
amusedmonkey wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
The food industry has one goal, to get you to consume as much as possible for the cheapest cost at the highest price... None of you can disagree with this statement, and if you do agree with this statement, than you have to agree that they are philosophically against you...
It's not shocking that the point of a business is to make money, but I completely disagree that they are philosophically against people. They offer what sells, and what sells is decided by the customer because if it doesn't it's no longer profitable. They are philosophically for the customer because the customer is the main factor in this equation. They are not deliberately selling things that are "bad for you". They are selling these things because people want them.
Why do they make their fries salty? Because people like them that way, and those who don't like them heavily salted pick the "lightly salted" option. I know I do. I also know that the "lightly salted" option is not offered because they care about your health just like they offer the heavily salted option regardless of your blood pressure status and not because they want to make you sick, but for one simple reason: it's not their job to care.
People at the farmer's market don't care about your health either. All they care about is making a living. So don't give into this and stop handing money to those who want to take it.
You see we really agree that the fast food industry doesn't care about your health, we just disagree about their methods towards profit...
Your perspective is just too naive for me to buy in to.... They are not simply trying to offer what people want, they are much smarter than that.
There is just more to super sized portions than offering people what they want... Your fooling yourself if you believe they are not trying to get people to buy more than they really want...
Mr_Healthy_Habits Posts: 12,587 Member
July 2017
CSARdiver wrote: »
Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
See the problem here is just a lack of humility...
People just can't handle the fact that what they believe may be wrong. All I've heard so far is "The study is right if I agree with it and wrong if I disagree with it".
And yeah McDonalds offers salads because they want your money, not because they are concerned about the health of their customers...
The food industry has one goal, to get you to consume as much as possible for the cheapest cost at the highest price... None of you can disagree with this statement, and if you do agree with this statement, than you have to agree that they are philosophically against you...
As for a victim mentality... I don't come in here and say the things I say to promote a victim mentality (BTW, that's a pretty lame weak losers argument against the things I've said).
I say what I say because I know there are people who come on to these forums looking for genuine advice, some who are facing a mountain that just seems daunting. Blaming them for their current situation when you know nothing about them or their lives would just make me a pious self-righteous a-hole.
I want readers to know that you are not lazy, you are not weak, you are not incapable, inept or inadequate...There IS a superhuman inside of you, but they need your help...
So don't give in this lunch or dinner to the marketer's and food engineers at fast food chains, their very profits are bet against your ability to free that super hero inside of you! Think about it, why do they have to make their frys so salty?
And remember that if you really know better and give in to McDonald's and the food industry anyway... Then csardiver is right... Otherwise be ready to fight for your health because they are against you, don't believe they are not...
Now it's up to you to eat wise and exercise!
If this is all you've heard then try listening.
Just a point that this is the debate section, where there are many of us who are not seeking to be right, but enjoy having our ideas and thoughts challenged in a never ending search for the truth.
Truth is dealt in the specifics. People trying to be right deal in vague generalities and tend to stray off topic when challenged.
I could not agree more, in fact that was the whole point of my original post this morning, to which you responded... "Oh no, I really do know it all though" haha... I kid, well not really but I'm burnt out for now... It's 12 against 1 in here but I have enjoyed this and will be back...
The fact is I believe a lot of the opinions I've heard in here are self serving... In other words they exist to help you believe that you are some how better than obese or less healthy people in general...
I believe this whole "It's your fault" mentality exists mainly to point out your own lack of "faults", it's not tough love, it's self-righteousness and piety...
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I’m a collector of theater marquees. I seem to be drawn to them, in towns and cities, wherever, for some reason, I find myself. Sunday found me in Charlottesville, VA for a publishing workshop, with a half an hour to spare. It was spring on the mall, and a healthy sampling of C-ville’s roughly 43,000 folks was sitting at tables or on benches, laptops in full play, as I walked longingly by (wishing I had an afternoon to spend among the crocuses). Then I spied the Paramount’s marquee and knew immediately where I was going to spend my half-hour. Ever since 1976, when I had a hand in running the St. George Theatre, a 2672-seat movie palace in Staten Island, I’ve been hyper-aware of old theaters (abandoned, intact, open, closed, transformed into drugstores, warehouses or churches) wherever I find them. Almost always, as you walk or drive along, you can identify them by their marquees, those overhanging calling cards. And so it was yesterday. I quickened my pace, taking pictures as I approached from the side. The theater, I could see, would open at two, but I’d be at another event by then, a lecture I’d paid sixty dollars and traveled several hundred miles for. Then I spied a man sweeping and asked him if I could dip inside for just a moment.
“You might want to talk to her,” he suggested. “She runs the box office.” And so I made the acquaintance of a lovely young woman, Clarissa, who agreed, despite an ongoing rehearsal of the day’s show, to let me have my peek inside. Clarissa does more than hold down the box office; she also changes the marquee, black plastic letters on a traditional three-line track--but more on that later.
The 1,100-seat Paramount is a Rapp & Rapp Greek Revival gem. The facade and octagonal (stadium style) auditorium is said to honor Thomas Jefferson, whose former home, Monticello, is nearby. To my eye, the auditorium evokes a French Salon of the eighteenth century: intimate and, in its blue velvet and gold trim, opulent as well. It’s in pristine condition, cared for by loving former patrons, even after its 1974 closing.
This preservation-in-the-midst-of-decline makes Charlottesville’s Paramount a particular rarity. So many theaters in the seventies (I’m thinking of Loew’s Kings in Brooklyn) did stints as homeless shelters, warehouses or settings for gang warfare. At home in Staten Island today, I drove past our own local Paramount Theatre, closed since 1977, I can’t help but compare it to its namesake in Virginia. Ours has served as a warehouse for sporting goods and a nightclub, and is, these days, closed entirely. Though I haven’t been inside, its silver/gold Deco is apparently intact, waiting for an owner or group of local enthusiasts.
One such group bought Charlottesville’s Paramount in 1992 and set to work immediately on (what else?) its rusting marquee. “After the marquee’s structure and finishes were examined, microanalysis of the paint determined original colors. At midnight on that New Year’s Eve, the marquee’s lights shone brightly on Main Street for the first time in a decade.” Now there’s how to begin a restoration! Without the marquee, including its most recently–restored feature, the “blade” sign, I never would have spotted it on the mall. 16.2 million dollars later, almost exactly thirty years after it stopped doing business as a movie palace, the Paramount reopened. With its refurbished fly loft, backstage areas, and orchestra pit, and a new three-story annex, the theater was ready to become a full-blown performing arts center.
Popcorn, yes! — I inhaled it going past. But the gleaming white and gold concession stand with its homemade goodies, almost a restaurant in its own right, caused a deep intake of breath on my part, which Clarissa noticed. I remarked on the elegance of the setting, cafe tables, wine stems. “We host the opera here...” she said, proudly.
That’s not only the Met in HD, I learned from their website, but also the Charlottesville Opera itself. If I come back, I’m looking forward to one or two of these: a homegrown “game show” involving local word geeks in competitive play, a puppetry workshop, Casablanca, and, in August, the outstanding Blues guitarist, Buddy Guy (I’m a Blues freak — I’d drive better than five hundred miles to hear him).
Okay, as a lifetime resident of a rough–edged NYC borough, I tend to rhapsodize about small-town life, forgive me!
As we walked out under the marquee, I remarked on the fact that it’s old-school, with three “tracks” to hang letters on, painstakingly, one at a time. Well do I remember how hard that was, how easy to fall from the ladder, how painful when something went wrong and a letter dropped and (if it was cast-aluminum, as most of ours were) broke when it hit the sidewalk. Clarissa was quick to point out that she sets the letters on the Paramount’s marquee. I guess folks ask her how the letters stay on the tracks; “I tell them no way are they magnetic!” she added.
Dean reminded me this morning that plastic letters, should they fall, blow away (at the St. George, they blew straight down hill to the harbor). The aluminum ones, if they fell after the usher had folded his ladder and gone inside, either broke or lay on the pavement until they were stolen. So it was, that we ended up with very few M’s (you could substitute W) and hardly an S to our names. But that was forty years ago, and we were a rag-tag gang, tilting on a rickety ladder, braced on a slanted sidewalk, ‘neath a marquee that had an up– and downhill side. I’m glad Clarissa doesn’t have to contend with these particular perils! And I’m so grateful, both to her and to the friendly fellow (name forgotten, sorry!) who was so kind to introduce her to me. They’ve got a first-class joint.
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Author
Victoria Hallerman is a poet and writer, the author of the upcoming memoir, Starts Wednesday: A Day in the Life of a Movie Palace, based on her experience as a movie palace manager of the St. George Theatre, Staten Island, 1976. As she prepares her book manuscript for publication, she shares early aspects of theater management, including the pleasures and pain of entrepreneurship. This blog is for anyone who enjoys old movie theaters, especially for those who love the palaces as they once were. And a salute to those passionate activists who continue to save and revive the old houses, including the St. George Theatre itself. This blog is updated every Wednesday, the day film always arrived to start the movie theater week.
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Our arrival at Gloucester Point, just across the river from Yorktown, was slightly delayed when, embarrassingly, we ran aground within sight of the York River Yacht Haven, having just advised them that we were about to moor up. Fortunately, it was only half an hour to low tide, so not long after lunch we were afloat again. Lisa, the dockmaster, assured us that ‘everyone’ runs aground not once, but several times, during the course of their boating adventures on the Chesapeake Bay, and how right she was.
Yorktown was founded in 1691 as a port to enable the export of tobacco from Virginia, although the area was explored by Captain John Smith in his exploration of Virginia in 1608. It was also the site, in 1781, of the defeat of the British under Lord Cornwallis by the combined forces of George Washington and the French, led by the Comte de Rochambeau, the final siege and battle of the Revolutionary Wars. As we approached the village from the York River, the Victory Monument and the schooner Alliance set the scene.
Approaching Yorktown
Disinclinitis quickly sets in when it rains continuously for two days, but the York River Yacht Haven had a courtesy car, so we were able to go grocery shopping in comfort, visit a hardware store (Ian is never short of an excuse) and drive over the Coleman Bridge to Yorktown itself, to visit the Watermen’s Museum. Although tobacco was Yorktown’s first industry, eventually the soil became depleted and fishing and crabbing took over as the main source of income. The term ‘watermen’ to describe the families whose generations made a living on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay is taken from the Watermen of the Thames barges.
On Saturday the weather was bright and sunny, so we crossed the river to Yorktown itself and moored at the town dock, got the bikes out and rode along the waterfront past Cornwallis Cove, and the caves in the bluff where Lord Cornwallis hid out in the last days of the Siege of Yorktown, and up the hill to the Victory Monument.
Tobacco Road – where the tobacco was transported down to the docks
View of the Bay from the Victory Monument
Yorktown is unspoiled and has many old houses and a lovely village atmosphere.
Smith House
In the afternoon, there was a BBQ and Blues Festival on the waterfront, and we took that in too. $30 a head admission seemed a bit steep, until we realised that the price included a half-pint glass, with a 2 fl oz marker on the side. You could go to any of the many craft beer tents and get a free 2 fl oz sample of their beers.
The music was good too, and we particularly liked Bobby ‘Blackhat’ Walters’ style.
At the Blues Festival, Yorktown
Coleman Bridge at nightfall
The town certainly works hard at attracting visitors and enticing them to spend money. After the Blues festival ended at 6pm, the stalls and gazebos were quickly dismantled. Next morning, they were being re-erected for an Arts and Crafts Fair.
We went to have a look round and Ian’s attention was drawn to Steven Rodrig’s stall. He uses printed circuit boards to make sculptures and we both liked a glistening, blue-green pineapple – we now have the problem of transporting it safely back to England. I had liked it for itself, but also because the pineapple is the symbol of welcome and hospitality in Virginia. And creating works of art out of things that would otherwise go to landfill seems a good idea too.
Unlike Florida, on Sundays in Chesapeake Bay the waters are quiet and we saw very few other boats as we made our way north towards Deltaville. Or perhaps it’s simply that the season here hasn’t really started yet – at most places we’ve been the only visitors in the marina.
We’d entered the Piankatank River and were just turning into Jackson Creek where we intended to drop anchor, when Carina gave a now-familiar thud. After ten minutes of reversing and wiggling, the Captain gave up and phoned TowBoat US. After all, we do have Gold Membership and he wears the BoatUS cap. Clearly, we now have the T-shirt too.
The TowBoatUS chaps were kind, professional and completely non-judgemental, commiserating on the trickiness of finding the channels in the creeks and expressing interest in our trip. After half an hour we were free, and a short time later safely anchored for the night.
Evening at Jacksons Creek
The next day the Captain proceeded with extreme caution through the channel, but even so, at one point there was a suspicious-sounding bump, just before the depth sounder peeped. This time though, he was in time to avert disaster and after a quick gear change into reverse and some hasty manipulation of the steering wheel, we were safely on our way to Tangier Island, thirty miles to the east of us across the bay.
I’m still finding it hard to appreciate the size and scale of the Chesapeake Bay. On a map of North America, it looks like a moderate-sized inlet. The reality is that it’s 170 miles long, and you can’t see from the Western shore to the Eastern one. From Deltaville, crossing to Tangier Island was further than crossing the English Channel from Dover to Calais.
But it was worth the effort. We passed Stingray Point, where Captain John Smith was injured by the eponymous fish and had to interrupt his voyage round Chesapeake Bay in 1608. Although he landed at Tangier Island, it wasn’t settled until 1670.
Tangier was used by the British as a base during the war of 1812, when they unsuccessfully attacked Baltimore and Fort McHenry, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star-Spangled Banner, after he witnessed the bombardment there.
The island was also a refuge for escaped slaves, who as free men were relocated to Nova Scotia, Bermuda or Trinidad.
There are 3 main families on the island, the Crocketts, the Pruitts and the Parks, and they speak a dialect that is said to be related to Elizabethan English. At least to my untrained ear, they sounded more like inhabitants of Norfolk, England, than Norfolk, Virginia.
Arriving at Tangier Island
View from the marina
Mr Milton Parks, the owner of Parks Marina, met us and helped us dock. He told us he was 84, but emended this to 83, as he will actually be 84 in July. We were his first visitors this season, and were given a warm welcome. Sadly, of the several restaurants on the island, only one, Lorraine’s Seafood Restaurant, was open, but the crabcakes were delicious so it didn’t really matter that everywhere else was shut.
The population of the island is declining, although both the Federal Government and the Commonwealth of Virginia are supporting measures to encourage and preserve the island way of life. There’s a school, an airstrip and a new Health Centre. We met a couple of people who had chosen to retire to the island – Joe, a shoe-repairer from upstate New York, and Linda from Florida, who had boated in Chesapeake Bay for years with her husband before coming to live there permanently.
Ian and Linda had a conversation about hurricanes.
‘Florida people don’t mind hurricanes,’ Linda said. ‘They keep those damn Yankees away.’
There are no cars on Tangier – people get round on buggies and motorbikes, so our bikes proved very suitable for going through the little town and across the marshes to the beach.
Main Street, Tangier
The history of the island is beautifully summarised on the Welcome Board which you pass on the way from the dock to the Main Street.
In many ways, Tangier Island is hallowed ground. Here lie the remains of some of the native Americans who were banished here or used Tangier as hunting grounds. Here lie many of the sons and daughters of Tangier who so bravely served their country in the Armed Forces. Here rest the remains of British soldiers and sailors who dutifully served their country during the war of 1812. Here is what remains of the soil upon which those African Americans first walked as free people.
As we returned to the boat from the beach, we saw the Tangier Island Fire Truck, blue lights flashing, making its way slowly down the narrow lane. A young woman was in labour. We knew this from another woman in her front yard, hollering to her friend a few doors down. A helicopter of the Maryland State Troopers was waiting on the airstrip, to take the young woman to the mainland.
The next day, the Captain made a faultless exit from Parks Marina, and we travelled 24 miles north, to Smith Island, Maryland.
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5 thoughts on “Things that go Bump……..Yorktown to Tangier Island”
May 12, 2015 at 8:06 am
Jane, what a fascinating account. So glad the bikes have come into their own and that the Cap’n is getting the hang of that not grounding thing. Seriously it sounds a wonderful place and good to have it much to yourselves – you don’t seem to be short of great restaurant visits!
May 12, 2015 at 12:00 pm
Thanks Jean! Hope all’s well with you. Yes we have been to some really good restaurants – tend to economise and eat on the boat 5 x weekly (food here is not expensive) and eat out the other 2 nights, depending on where we are. We’re at Solomons MD now & went out on the bikes in search of meal the first night – stopped at the first one we came to and it was superb. Later found out it was the no 1 recommendation on Tripadvisor for the area so went back again last night!
May 12, 2015 at 6:11 pm
Interesting history of the Island Jane. One of the two islands you are visiting are sinking. Did you hear about that at all. Also the children do not find it exciting to live there. They all head to the brighter lights of the cities. Its a shame that this is happening. Enjoy your trip and we look forward to having supper with you aboard the Carina.
May 12, 2015 at 7:00 pm
Yes, we are looking forward to seeing you too, Fred.
Yes, it’s Tangier Island which is sinking. Originally there were three ridges that had dwellings on them and now there are only two. The shoreline is disappearing at a rate of 35′ a year. There are some rudimentary coastal defences at the north end of the beach but it will take a lot more than that to preserve the shore.
The fishing and crabbing industry seems quite thriving and the grocery store and other businesses seemed so too, so I don’t think the community has yet reached a tipping point of irreversible decline. Smiths Island was very different as you’ll see in the next instalment!
May 13, 2015 at 4:33 pm
Thank goodness for TowBoatUS eh, sounds a good scheme of which to be a member! Tangier Island sounds really interesting; glad you’re still finding good restaurants.
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The moment the accord with Iran was announced, it was denounced. Even-handed circumspection was not the tenor of the day. What was most bewildering was to listen to those who find the deal disastrous but who are unperturbed by what would result if there is no deal.
The defects emphasized by the detractors are real and worrisome, and conservatives in Congress vow to block the deal when it comes up for vote in late September. For them, the fantasy of a "better deal" persists, undeterred by negotiations that have taken 20 months with repeated deadline extensions as negotiators fought over final terms and language. When at his press conference President Obama spoke of war as an alternative, there it was again: A freshman representative from Long Island named Lee Zeldin (R-NY) popped up with, "Here's an alternative better than war: A better deal". At this terminal moment, Mr. Zeldin, how would you force a better deal on Iran?
"I think a better deal is possible", Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Tougher sanctions would force "Iran to choose between lifting the sanctions and rolling back, truly rolling back, their nuclear capability". The opposite is assumed. With no carrot of sanctions relief, Iran would build its bomb. Lindsey Graham operates in the same imagined reality. "I'd enforce the U.N. resolutions, saying remove all the highly enriched uranium". Enforce by what army? To Iran he says, "We're not going to lift sanctions until you stop destabilizing the region".
The fantasy is that the sanctions, the thumbscrews that brought Iran to the table, will always be available. In fact, there seems to have been something of a race to get the deal done before the sanctions fall apart. More than the six negotiating nations have gone along with sanctions, but countries such as Japan, South Korea and India are restive. They are not in Iran's crosshairs as is the U.S. and, while cooperative, they will not indefinitely injure their economies. Britain's ambassador to the U.S. says the sanctions have already reached the high water mark and will probably erode if the pact is rejected. Germany's ambassador said, "If diplomacy fails, the sanctions regime might unravel". Former CIA director James Woolsey thinks "the sanctions regime is slipping; the world is tired of these sanctions".
Moreover, the provision that if Iran cheats, sanctions will be "snapped back" is a "mirage", says a Wall Street Journal editorial (titled "Tehran’s Nuclear Triumph"). Getting all signatories to face down business interests newly engaged in trade with Iran and vote to restore the sanctions would be a tough go. Brit Hume of Fox News says the likelihood of sanctions collapse is probably the best argument for the deal to go through. There won't be another.
breakout now or later
The deal is designed to extend the "breakout" time — the time needed to create enough enriched uranium for a single bomb — to a year. Right now, with 19,000 centrifuges and an enriched stockpile already in hand, the breakout time is estimated at a mere 2-3 months. Yet those opposed are astonished at a deal that will allow Iran to emerge a decade hence with the full capacity to create a nuclear bomb that they could produce right now in three months. How to explain the alarm for the future that is greater than alarm for the immediate present?
"They were months away from it in 2013", said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va), referring to bomb development. "Could you imagine a point at year 15 or 25 where they might do something bad? Yes, you could …but remember that we were at that point two years ago" before the interim accord froze Iran's activities so that talks could proceed.
viewed in a vacuum
As an exercise to understand how the detractors seemingly view the deal, assume there is no consequence to aborting the proposed agreement. Looked at that way, Iran certainly looks to have emerged triumphant.
The deal subjects Iran to an inspection regime that — if we suspend our belief that Iran will cheat long before — variously lasts 10 to 15 years and, as critics say, fails to dismantle Iran's nuclear undertaking altogether (the original objective) and instead "legitimated a program until this morning that was illegal, that was in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions", said former CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden on the day of the announcement. "As we get to the sunset years, even assuming success across the board for the agreement …Iran is very well-positioned to break out if they choose to do so". Sen. Graham says much the same: "If they comply with everything in this deal, they become a nuclear power… We've now locked in place an industrial size nuclear program".
That's the case because the six nation consortium yielded to Iran's merely mothballing two-thirds of its 19,000 centrifuges rather than destroying them, permitting ongoing enrichment up to a certain level with the remaining machines, allowing continued research on advanced centrifuge design, and diluting their enriched uranium rather than shipping it out of the country.
money for nothing
Where the critics are absolutely correct and the government Panglossian is the danger posed to the region by an economically revived Iran. Every commentator on the right erupted about the $100 billion to $150 billion in blocked funds that will be released to Iran in 90 days time if they behave to the inspectors' satisfaction, and the lifting of sanctions that will bring companies from around the world eager to do business. As Iran shows no sign of moderating its practices — its "revolution" — it is expected to use its new-found wealth to fund its combative proxies in the region.
And what became of Obama's insistence on a phased lifting of sanctions in cadence with Iranian compliance with the agreement? Sanctions are not to be lifted on signing as Iran had been insisting, but they will be lifted all at once rather than phased out. How that concession came about, and with no evidence of anything in return, has not been mentioned.
we're the decider
The outrage at seeing how well Iran has done arises from a belief held by Americans — the opposition in Congress, anyway — in an all-powerful United States that can dictate to the world. Since an outline of terms was agreed to in March, we have heard them repeatedly say we should insist on a better deal as if its terms are ours alone to decide. Iran is its own sovereign nation of over 75 million that doesn't take dictation. The George W. Bush administration decreed that Iran could not have any enrichment at all — "not one centrifuge spins", was the edict of Robert Joseph, then the State Department's top proliferation official. So, Iran did what it pleased and went from 164 centrifuges to 6,000 by when Bush left office, and now has more than tripled that amount. Arrogance blinds us from the obvious — that there are limits to America's power short of war, and short of war all we have are the sanctions. To those opposed to the deal, Secretary of State John Kerry asks, "their alternative is what, perpetual state of sanctions? Not going to happen".
Kerry, understandably, sees the deal differently. In an interview on Andrea Mitchell's news program on MSNBC, negative questioning by the often right-leaning host (her husband is Alan Greenspan, after all) provoked some irritation from Kerry, who listed the accomplishments of the deal:
"We negotiated a series of restraints on Iran ranging from a 300 kilogram stockpile [of enriched uranium] for 15 years, a limit on their enrichment to 3.67% [far below weapons grade] for 5 years, a limit on metallurgy, a limit on heavy water, all for 5 years, a limit on their centrifuge production — with insight to their centrifuge production — for 20 years, and a complete tracking of their mining, milling, their use of and their disposal of uranium for 25 years. And beyond that there's the lifetime, forever requirements of the Additional Protocol and the mechanism by which we negotiated access."
anywhere, anytime
But what happened to anywhere, anytime? In the rush to judgment, detractors decided that it had vanished. The moment the deal was struck, Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga) appeared on the PBS NewsHour. "I’m on page three of 158 pages, but…" he was an expert nonetheless, telling us, as would others who followed, that, "This deal is totally different. It’s up to 23 to 24 days after notice before the Iranians have to let anybody in". Megyn Kelly on her Fox News program: "Iran gets nearly a month's notice and only if the overseeing nations agree that the inspections are warranted". The clownish Jesse Watters, who works for Bill O'Reilly, appeared on a Fox program named "Outnumbered" to spread disinformation with "What does it say? We have to give them a 24-day alert before we go in and inspect the nuke facilities?". Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Tn) on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" made the unverifiable statement that, "Senior administration officials are already saying on background that anytime/anywhere inspection, which is the standard this president set, will not be met". Donald Trump explained, "It's called anytime, anywhere, and if you don't have that, you have nothing because...you know, the Iranians are going to cheat".
One after another misinformed the nation that Iran had to agree to all inspections. They had quickly found the section of the accord — the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) — titled "Access" and apparently rushed to the cameras the moment they read its opening sentence which began, "Requests for access pursuant to provisions of this JCPOA...". Requests?
I will tell you, as a negotiator for these last many years, we never had a discussion about anywhere/anytime. Anywhere/anytime is this euphemism that’s out there maybe in the political atmosphere, but it’s not a realistic or existing term of art within arms control. There is no country anywhere in the world that allows anywhere/anytime… The only example I can think of is Iraq after we invaded, once we had a total surrender and a takeover of the country. That’s different."
Well, not quite. That would count his own aide in the negotiations, nuclear physicist and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, as a member of the "political atmosphere". In April, Moniz said that “we expect to have anywhere, anytime access.”
Had any of them read further, they would have discovered that the "Access" section deals with "undeclared nuclear materials or activities...at locations that have not been declared under the comprehensive safeguards agreement or Additional Protocol", which you may recall Kerry mentioning above. It is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that does the inspecting and the protocol the agreement dating from 1997 that sets the rules for inspections agreed to by all signatories to nuclear nonproliferation.
In other words, the drawn out "request" to inspect pertains to suspect sites, not the already known sites such as Natanz and Fordo at which the IAEA has continuous access and even on-site personnel. The Additional Protocol is evidently unknown to our perfunctory senators. "Iran has agreed to adopt the Additional Protocol of the IAEA. That has a huge set of additional requirements for access and for accountability", Kerry assures us.
suspect sites
But the drawn out process for access to undeclared sites that arouse suspicion was a surprise and has caused valid consternation. The IAEA and Iran have 14 days to agree or disagree about access, then a commission of seven negotiating countries have seven days to discuss it, and if Iran loses the argument it has three days to comply. The back and forth can chew up to 24 days "after they've been able to scrub their site" said Tom Cotton. He was the senator who rounded up 47 Republican signers of a letter to the Ayatollah Khomenei to warn him that the United States can't be trusted.
Secretary Moniz says the 24 days are not a problem which is why the process was accepted because the Iranians could not eliminate all traces of uranium from a site. That assumes illicit work would always be done with uranium present. And otherwise, the tracking of all milling and movements of uranium would, say proponents, quickly reveal a diverted quantity.
Critics who showed the least intelligence were those who assailed what was not in the deal — the return of hostages, renouncement of threats to Israel, promises to make nice in the region. "Does this deal resolve all other threats Iran poses to its neighbors in the world? No", said Obama. "Does it do more than anyone has done before to make sure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon? Yes. And that was our top priority from the start."
Kerry and the administration steadfastly kept the focus on that singular purpose. But the media is always ready to drop the main story to chase after a sideshow. They had one when a CBS reporter asked the President if he was "content" to leave the hostage trade off the table. Obama's answer said that if we had made hostage return part of the negotiations, Iran would demand yet another concession to weaken the nuclear deal. Three Fox programs that we watched cut that part of his answer in order to make Mr. Obama seem only contentious.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey had said, "Under no circumstances should we relieve pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile capabilities and arms trafficking", yet we did. The arms embargo will be lifted in five years; for missiles, eight years. John Kerry says that the United Nations resolution that bans arms and missile imports lifts when Iran comes to the negotiating table, so this would happen anyway. "We won that battle" by these extensions, and did so against negotiating partners Russia and China, who wanted the ban to end immediately so they could partake of some of the billions of frozen assets that are to be returned to Iran's coffers.
Restrictions on development of missiles with which to deliver a nuclear weapon was unaccountably never part of the discussions. Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of CentCom, has said that Iran has the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. A year ago, the head of our missile defense agency said, "Iran can develop and test an ICBM capable of reaching the United States by 2015". So opponents of signing say that not only will Iran be poised to develop an arsenal of nuclear weapons ten years hence — and that's if they don't cheat — but will as well have the missiles to put them on.
Says Lindsey Graham, "Any member of the Senate that votes for this deal, you're insuring that the largest state sponsor of terrorism has more money, not less; they will have more weapons, not less; you're insuring that one day they will have a nuclear weapon. You will own the outcome of this deal".
But if the U.S. Congress scuttles the deal, they will own the fallout. Not just the partners in the negotiations, but the world, will have confirmation that the United Stated can't be relied on, can't get the job done. We will show ourselves as incapable of leading by virtue of our factionalism. "Iran is almost certain to react by portraying the United States as dishonest and as blocking arms control and peace", says Anthony Cordesman, former military advisor to Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The prosperous Iran that the disputants fear will happen anyway, because without the United States, the sanctions will definitely evaporate.
Iran will have erased the sanctions, which will be very difficult if not futile to reconstitute, in return for a temporary stay of their nuclear plan. They have patience. The hope that the country will rejoin the "family of nations" is wishful. Rather, Iran shows every ambition of becoming the hegemon of the Middle East. They have inserted themselves in Iraq to combat ISIS. They are supporting the Houthis in Yemen. They back Hamas in Gaza. Once the deal is signed — a deal that does not govern their non-nuclear behavior — will they turn Hezbollah, and its thousands of rockets, loose against Israel?
And eventually, they will build their bomb. We have merely delayed the inevitable.
July 31, 2015 - 4:04 pm
Good summary of the agreement.
In some ways, the issue of congressional approval is distorted. This agreement has been signed by all of the major countries involved which were required to have a meaningful boycott of trade. (More accurate term than sanctions) This boycott is now in the process of being dismantled subject to Iran meeting their obligations.
Not only could any congressional disapproval have to have a veto proof majority, even something unrealistic such as impeachment and removal of the President — twice to get one who is against the agreement — would not do the job.
This agreement is now in process, meaning that if Iran allows inspections as they agree, that all of the signatories will end their boycott, and release frozen funds. Even if a law was passed over a presidents veto not to release such funds, there is no provision for other counties to back out of the deal.
This agreement was not by the UN, but was endorsed by all permanent members of the Security Council, which is in effect one of the most meaningful de facto decisions of this body’s history. In effect, this agreement is a rare example of meaningful international law that transcends that of any constituent country.
This is welcomed by some, and feared by others.
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health effects of car pollution
major roads & highways are a problem
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Hazardous chemicals such as benzene, toluene, 1,3-butadiene, lead, xylene and formaldehyde tend to be found in heavily vehicle traffic areas.
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health effects of
increases risk of asthma
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VOCs can be found in paints, glues, solvents, aerosols, perfume and household products such as personal care and cleaning products. It can also be caused by the burning of transport fuels such as gasoline and natural gas.
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health effects of carbon dioxide
Humans breathe it out. Plants breathe it in.
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Let me tell you about a film that’s garnered a lot of publicity. The story revolves around a wealthy and debonair businessman with serious control issues. His sexual tastes involve perverse fantasies, but he gets what he wants because he’s rich, powerful, and handsome. In telling this story, the movie doesn’t shy away from depictions of the sex act. The audience is inundated with sex, in fact. The debauchery is enough to make a lot of people sick, either with revulsion, pleasure, or a mixture of both.
Do you think I’m talking about Fifty Shades of Grey? Actually, I’m referring to The Wolf of Wall Street, which came out on DVD just last year.
Many prominent Christian critics loved WoWS, as I pointed out earlier. Fifty Shades of Grey, on the other hand, has been either ignored or condemned. And yet there are some glaring similarities in how both movies handle sex.
They both employ stylistic techniques that were labeled as hardcore porn just a few decades ago. These techniques involve the filming of partially and/or fully nude actors who are engaged in sexual behavior with one another.
Both films dehumanize the actors who star in them. For WoWS, this is especially true for actor Margot Robbie, as explained by her own testimony. For Fifty Shades, the objectification of Dakota Johnson took a toll on both of the main actors, as evidenced by several cast interviews. Consider the following snippet from Glamour:
JAMIE: There were times when Dakota was not wearing much, and I had to do stuff to her that I’d never choose to do to a woman.
DAKOTA: It’s stressful enough to be tied to a bed naked in a scene. But then they call cut, and you’re still tied to the bed, naked. Jamie would be the first one to throw a blanket over me.
JAMIE: I felt very protective and aware that it probably wasn’t easy for her to be put in those situations, and exposed. . . .
DAKOTA: Sometimes
I did walk off the set feeling a bit shell-shocked. The drive home from work always helped me snap out of it. And a big glass of wine.
Or consider this excerpt from Johnson in TIME:
It was emotionally taxing. At first I was like, “Oh my God, this is the worst thing ever,” and then I was like, “All right, let’s get on with it.”
Johnson’s psychological distress is a milder version of the sexual trauma actors experience in the world of porn.
Am I going out on a limb by comparing these films to pornography? Well, reviewers of The Wolf of Wall Street—including those who loved the film—refer to it as being sexually explicit in the extreme (something we’ve examined in detail before). When a movie is “replete with…acts of sexual depravity” and “borderline NC-17,” how can its pornographic overtones be denied?
Similarly, audiences and critics alike have associated Fifty Shades with porn. Mike McGranaghan writes, “At its core, this is a rape fantasy. . . . If you think rape is a turn-on, this is the film for you.” Movie reviewer Gary Wolcott says, “Fifty Shades of Grey is basically a beautifully filmed, expensive piece of soft core pornography. It gives you the most explicit sex, bondage and spanking you’ll see this side of an Internet porn site.”
But that’s not all. There are ways in which The Wolf of Wall Street is actually more problematic than Fifty Shades. For example, the former has more sexually explicit content than the latter. WoWS has somewhere close to 22 sex scenes, whereas Fifty Shades involves the main characters having sex less than ten times.
And what about the use of the male gaze (which influences most mainstream sex scenes)? If anything, Fifty Shades fairs better in this regard. While still succumbing to the male gaze in many respects, it also reveals several aesthetic choices that speak more to a female audience.
With these considerations, how can Christians call WoWS a “great and possibly terrific movie” while rejecting Fifty Shades out of hand because “frankly, life is too short”?
There are several answers to this question, I’m sure, but the one I’ve heard most often goes something like this: the message of Fifty Shades is bad, but the message of WoWS is good. WoWS shows how carnal and corrupt the main character really is, while Fifty Shades puts a positive spin on sexual abuse and manipulation.
In response, it could be argued that the overall trajectory of the Fifty Shades trilogy is actually a story about true love. After all, the narrative acknowledges the detrimental nature of Christian Grey’s sexual excursions. His abusive ways are rooted in the abuse he himself received. His character arc involves going from a hardened cynic into a true romantic—all because of the transforming power of love.
Even if you think that explanation is hogwash, there is an even deeper problem with the Christian’s argument that WoWS is commendable and Fifty Shades is condemnable. It’s found, among other places, in a Christianity Today article on Fifty Shades. The film, it says, “has no real cogent moral or cultural point buried within.” The implicit idea here is that if we could discern a moral point, the story—including all of its pornographic material—would become worthy of our patronage.
That line of reasoning, however, is faulty. Since when does a code of Christian sexual ethics submit to the principle that the ends justify the means? We would never blatantly say all storytelling methods are fair game so long as the message of a story is a moral one.
And yet it seems as if we’re trying to smuggle a deadly principle into our Christianity—the idea that the right thing pursued through the wrong means actually isn’t that bad after all. In effect, we are saying that a filmmaker can borrow techniques from the world of porn and somehow not subvert a film’s moral message. We’d be shocked and ashamed to see religious retail stores market “Christian porn,” but we’re quick to patronize pornographic content—so long as it is labeled as mainstream and comes with a worthwhile moral/cultural point.
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- December 20, 2016
The first assault against Jennifer Lawrence was heavily discussed in the news and on social media. It resulted in an FBI investigation, subsequent prosecution, and an upcoming sentencing . The second assault has received similar coverage, but more as a human interest piece than anything else. The legal ramifications of this second incident are practically nonexistent. The overall response to the first assault was outrage. The response to the second was indifference. What were these two incidents? The first, as you may have guessed, was the 2014 iCloud hack in which private/nude photos of several female celebrities, including Lawrence, were stolen and published online. The second incident involved the filming of Jennifer Lawrence’s first sex scene (for the sci-fi movie Passengers ). Let me set the stage by sharing three similarities between the photo hack and the sex scene. First, in the aftermath of the photo hack, Lawrence experienced anxiety. “I was just so afraid,” sh
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- April 15, 2014
* CONTENT ADVISORY: This topic requires a certain level of frankness that may be inappropriate for some readers. While I have taken great pains to avoid titillation, reader discretion is still advised. * Last week, we looked at the four main ways in which motion picture sex scenes and pornography are different. Now I want to show how these factors actually prove to condemn Hollywood’s methods rather than excuse them. Argument #1: There is often a difference in production values. Motion pictures are a form of art, whereas porn is unabashed titillation. Hollywood’s mash-up of blatant sexuality (nudity and sex scenes) and aesthetics only serves to make its displays of sex more alluring to the viewer. As works of art, Hollywood films are concerned with giving their audiences pleasure through beauty. That’s what aesthetics are all about. What is ultimately more alluring: a sex scene with bad lighting, poor audio quality, and shoddy production work, or a sex scene with goo
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‘The Chosen’ and the de-Bastardization of Christian Filmmaking
- March 04, 2020
If I had to summarize the typical faith-based film in one word, it would be “shamefully, embarrassingly subpar.” Okay, so that’s technically three words. Here’s the deal. As a Christian who loves visual stories, I am, more often than not, ashamed and embarrassed by the lack of creativity displayed by those who claim adherence to (and often inspiration from) the original Creator. A few years ago, I wrote a piece entitled God’s Not Dead and the Bastardization of Christian Filmmaking . I meant every word of it, and I still believe what I wrote. Suffice it to say, it is a rare thing for me to fully enjoy a faith-based drama. It is rarer still for me to fully enjoy and fully admire a faith-based drama. Enter The Chosen , a faith-based TV show on the life of Christ, with multiple seasons planned. Technically, I have already reviewed this show , and it’s not typical to write two reviews of the same piece. However, I have more to say about this work of art (in both the lite
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- May 20, 2014
Several years ago, Kate Beckinsale was conned into signing a movie contract that required nudity—something she didn’t want to do. With her acting career in jeopardy, she found herself browbeaten by the director. “I was really disturbed and I was sobbing and begging,” she said . At long last, she gave in to intimidation and performed the nude scene, which made her feel “violated and horrible.” Afterwards, she secretly urinated in the director’s thermos in revenge. In the realm of television, actress Ruta Gedmintas faced her first sex scene for the HBO show The Tudors . “I was absolutely terrified and had no idea what was going on,” she later said . “I cried afterwards because I was thinking, ‘This isn't acting, what am I doing? My mum's going to see this.’” Would you believe me if I told you that stories like these are numerous? Sadly, it’s true. The amount of pressure and intimidation Hollywood places on actors—especially women—to undress for the camera is commonplace
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- October 28, 2020
After two decades in Hollywood, actress Salma Hayek did an interview with The Orange County Register . She was asked if she realized being a sex symbol was the only way to open doors in the entertainment industry, or if she “found out later and had to accept.” She answered, “I did not know that in advance, but I saw that it was the only way to sneak in.” [1] When she moved from Mexico to Los Angeles back in 1991, the only way for her to “sneak in” was through the use of her body as a bargaining chip. She discovered Latino actresses like her were “typecast as the mistress maid or local prostitute.” Being viewed primarily as a sexual object didn’t just last for a brief stint. It lasted for years. In 1995, Hayek got a big break as a lead actor in Desperado , but this career advancement came at a high cost: having a sex scene sprung on her. Says Hayek , “[The scene] was not in the original script, I have to say. I think it was one of the notes that came after they showed the screen test
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- March 28, 2016
If you’re a fan of the 2014 film God’s Not Dead , and if you’re excited about its upcoming sequel, you and I probably have several things in common. We likely agree that historic Christianity is becoming less and acceptable in the public sphere. We likely agree that many of our nation’s college campuses are becoming more and more hostile to individuals who adhere to any form of absolutes. We also likely agree that there is an increasing need for believers of all types—students, teachers, pastors, filmmakers, etc.—to engage with our world in an effective and countercultural way. It’s actually because of these shared beliefs that I’m majorly concerned with the popularity of God’s Not Dead (and other movies like it). And it’s because of these shared beliefs that I want to explain my concerns to you. I’ll put aside most of the artistic issues I have with the film. (For that, I’ll direct you to my cyber friends Steven D. Greydanus and Peter T. Chattaway ). My main focus here wi
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- May 22, 2018
Yes, I am still on a Greatest Showman kick. Cut me some slack, though. My wife and I only saw it for the first time just under three weeks ago. The soundtrack still plays almost daily in our home, providing near endless opportunities for our toddlers to daintily prance and spin as they sing along with “The Circus Man” (as they gleefully call him). Besides, for someone who’s as unhip as myself , it makes sense that I would be taken in by such an uncool ( according to critics ), and yet wildly popular ( according to general audiences ), movie. So, what is my point in writing another post about this particular film? To gush like a fanboy who has staked a personal claim to gold-encrusted, front-row seats on the Greatest Showman bandwagon? Not exactly. (That’s just a happy side effect.) The point of this blog post is to…well, point out a unique aspect of the song “A Million Dreams.” After listening to this song a bajillion times (give or take a few), I’ve noticed something extraor
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What I Learned from Wetting My Pants
- June 11, 2013
So there I was, surrounded by church members, my pants wet, my blood boiling. This wasn’t what I needed—at least, that’s what I told myself. The morning had started innocently enough. Shannon and I arrived at our church building later than normal. Because of the pouring rain and the packed parking lot, I said I would drop Shannon off at the front and then go park and bring our Bibles and notebooks in. (After all, with an umbrella and a raincoat at my disposal, my trek across the parking lot wouldn’t be too bad.) Shannon didn’t want me lugging the books in the rain, so she grabbed them before heading into the building. I then parked near the back of the lot and reached for the umbrella. It wasn’t there. Not in the back seat…not in the front seat. Not anywhere. Shannon must have taken it inside with her. Okay. No big deal. I still had my raincoat, and thanks to my memory of a once-watched YouTube video , I had learned the trick to staying relatively dry while traveling
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When Actors Enjoy Simulated Sex, What Does That Prove?
- August 21, 2018
A Hollywood set is a professional work environment. Whenever a sex scene is filmed, the atmosphere is far from erotic. It’s only as real as two actors pretending to argue, or two actors pretending to fight to the death. Because the sex is only simulated, it can’t really be counted as sexual—and certainly not as actual sex. So the argument goes. It’s an argument I’ve addressed before ( here and here ). Last week, we looked at the first of five problems with the “sex scenes aren’t real sex” logic. Now let’s look at problems two and three. 2. It’s Not True This second point comes into greater focus after taking into account what we learned from Mindy Kaling earlier: there are actors who find sexual enjoyment and/or arousal during scenes of simulated intimacy. That alone points to the sexual nature, not only of the finished product of filming these scenes, but the actual filming of these scenes. Think about
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- October 13, 2020
It is inherently problematic to condemn a specific film or television show from the sidelines, without personal experience of what that work of art communicates. When Christians dismissed Darren Aronofsky’s 2014 film Noah , for example, many of them did so on erroneous grounds, not knowing what was actually in the movie . Blind condemnation is dangerous and unhelpful. When it comes to pornographic content, however, we move away from the debatable and ambiguous elements of artistic merit, and toward more solid distinctions between right and wrong. Hypersexualized storytelling methods are an aspect worth criticizing. A Christian can—and should—condemn pornographic material without having to engage each instance on a case-by-case basis. Thus, I am comfortable and confident to condemn pornographic techniques used in any mainstream film, whether I’ve seen that film or not. Such condemnation is not unfair to the work as a whole. That is why I have spoken up about certain films I haven’t
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Again, a Honduran environmental activist was recently murdered - another name on a long list. But only after the death of high-profile activist Berta Caceres has the struggle gained international attention.
Another indigenous member of Berta Cáceres' organization has been shot dead in Honduras, less than two weeks after her murder. The indigenous group COPINH fears for the safety of its members and their families.
Nelson García was killed on Tuesday, March 15, by unidentified gunmen when arriving at his family home in Río Chiquito.
According to COPINH, he had spent the morning helping indigenous families after an eviction carried out by Honduran security forces related to a land dispute between the Lenca community and the Honduran government.
After Cáceres' murder, the non-governmental organization Global Witness issued a press release highlighting the previous murder of three of her colleagues for resisting the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project.
With the latest murder, this number has increased to five. COPINH said that more than 10 of its members have been murdered for fighting for indigenous land rights.
However, it seems that only the death of the high-profile activist Berta Cáceres has been enough to attract international media attention.
Falling on deaf ears
"At least 109 environmental activists were killed in Honduras between 2010 and 2015," Billy Kate, senior campaigner for Global Witness, told DW. According to Global Witness data, Honduras is the world's most dangerous country per capita in which to be an environmental activist.
At the time Berta Cáceres was awarded theGoldman Environmental Prize for her activism in 2015, she had already reported threats of kidnapping, sexual assault and death against her and her relatives.
People took the streets all over the world after Berta Caceres' murderImage: picture-alliance/dpa/E. Biba
COPINH has been denouncing the violence against them for years. "Today's attack is just part of the large number of threats, attacks, killings, and intimidation and criminalization directed against COPINH," the organization said after the recent murder of García.
But despite the group's constant public statements, it feels that before Cáceres' death, it was ignored. "Effective protection measures were never adopted, nor the crimes investigated," COPINH wrote on its website.
"There was no political will to listen the voice of the Lenca people."
Through the murder of Cáceres, the Lenca people finally received some global attention, and they are now asking for international support to put pressure on the Honduran government and guarantee their security.
Kate Geary, an Oxfam land rights policy expert, lamented how global interest in the topic has only risen after the leader's murder - the group has been supporting COPINH since 2013.
"It shouldn't be that people have to die to draw international attention, when there were already so many warning about human rights risks there," Geary told DW.
Dutch development bank FMO and the FinnFund - both investors on the Agua Zarca dam - have already suspended their activities in Honduras. "This means that we will not engage in new projects or commitments, and that no disbursements will be made, including the Agua Zarca project," the FMO said in a press release.
But for Geary, this is by no means a final success. "The ones involved in the project should be sending a message that it's time for the project to stop," she said.
"Suspension is not enough."
Slovenia is a country of high mountains and fast-flowing rivers - ideal for generating hydroelectricity. But environmentalists are protesting planned dams and questioning whether laws are being broken. (07.12.2015)
12/07/2015 December 7, 2015
German development bank involved in contested dam project
German development bank involved in contested dam project
A dam project in Panama long under protest has become the focus of international criticism. Supporters emphasize the benefits of green energy, while critics warn of destruction of communities and the natural world. (13.07.2015)
07/13/2015 July 13, 2015
Activists oppose Guatemala dam being backed by Spanish company
Activists oppose Guatemala dam being backed by Spanish company
The arrival of transnational dam-builders in Guatemala is threatening cultural and natural riches. DW met with activists in Berlin, who are asking Europeans to reexamine exactly what such "green energy" entails. (26.06.2015)
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I did business many years ago with Plan B and I needed some body work recently so I went back there again because my experience was so good the first time. So here I am years later this September 2020, I returned yet again to be given quality work, a great price, and a friendly and professional experience, just like I experienced years before. The owner is very professional and very friendly.
I did business many years ago with Plan B and I needed some body work recently so I went back there again because my experience was so good the first time. So here I am years later this September 2020, I returned yet again to be given quality work, a great price, and a friendly and professional experience, just like I experienced years before. The owner is very professional and very friendly.
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Oh, the journey we have been on and unfortunately it has not involved travel. On June 3, I (Wendy) took a 5 foot fall and broke my shoulder (broke the ball off) and had a compression wrist fracture in four places. Yep, not a good day. The short version covers 5 months — 4 surgeries (2 on each) and overall 4 months of physical therapy mostly 5 days a week and a...
Short Trip March 2018 – Part 1
By Wendy on Mar 21, 2018 in Blog | 0 comments
We are taking Bear on a trip mostly On Grid to test his systems and for us to learn this rig better before we go Off Grid. Nightly stops will still include plenty of truck stops. Speaking of truck stops, we ended up paying for a ‘slot’ for the first time ever. We were after dark getting to a TA truck stop and there were no slots … so we quickly dialed the 800...
By Wendy on Feb 25, 2018 in Blog | 0 comments
Repairs ~~~ Just part of the Journey! So….In continuing to check out all of parts of the rig, it was time for the winches. Uh, that did not go as planned, but what has so far. We hooked up the handheld winch controller and turned on the hydraulic switch in the cab of the truck. Let me back up here a moment, there is a HUGE container through which hydraulic fluid...
By Wendy on Feb 16, 2018 in Blog | 0 comments
We had an interesting past Saturday. When checking on the roof for some technology updates that needed to be done, we realized the coolant bottle for the generator was cracked with a large hole in it. Where to begin on the repair we ask ourselves? A few emails to our dear German friends with UNICAT (who by the way are awesome) and a couple phone calls yielded the...
We are back!
By Wendy on Feb 14, 2018 in Blog | 0 comments
Oh my goodness, we are so sorry that we have not posted in 2 months. As you know, “LIFE itself” can sometimes get in the way. We are by no means able to just pick up and leave everything behind…. we wish we could but that is not our reality. To followup our last post, Bear was at the dealership getting repairs from November 28th to December 19th. We will detail...
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Our chambers of commerce are one of the major driving forces of economic success and support for our local business community. From networking opportunities to educational workshops, legislative advocacy to marketing support, these organizations are an essential part of getting connected and growing your business in Humboldt.
While this has been the case for decades, our chambers have never been more important than this past year. In the midst of the onslaught of curveballs and the continually changing definition of “business as usual,” our chambers have truly been beacons of support.
Did you know that we have dynamic, talented women leading each of our local chambers of commerce? From Southern Humboldt to Del Norte County, it’s women at the helm of promoting our local businesses and guiding entrepreneurs through this challenging time. Dozens of local establishments have been able to keep their doors open, and even thrive, because of the work they are doing.
I had a chance to chat with a few of these powerhouse women—to hear their perspective of how our community has responded to the challenges we’ve faced over the last year, and how their chambers have played a role in helping our community move forward.
Here are some of the highlights from my conversation with Leann Greene, Executive Director of the Southern Humboldt Chamber of Commerce, Donna Wright, CEO of The Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce, Molly Steele, Executive Director of the Arcata Chamber of Commerce, Jesse Miles, Executive Director of the McKinleyville Chamber of Commerce, and Cindy Vosburg, Executive Director of the Crescent City/Del Norte Chamber of Commerce.
How did your chamber respond to the pandemic in the early days?
Leann: Our office was closed from mid-March until May 1, and the focus was on getting out information about resources to our membership and community. We continue to do that work, almost a year later. We focus on directing our members to the North Coast SBDC and local banking institutions to get the financial and business support they need.
Molly: In the Arcata Chamber, people-to-people relationships have always been our superpower. When COVID started, we asked how we could keep this component going, even as we needed to shelter in place. Those early days were so isolating for many business owners, so we started Chamber Chats. Every week, we’d interview business owners on how they were pivoting their businesses. It was not only an opportunity to highlight their hard work, but it also created a forum where people could have a conversation. These have been so instrumental in helping us stay connected.
Jesse: In the early days, people needed information. Business owners were running in a million different directions and didn’t have time to research all the financial aid or ideas for how to pivot. I was able to take the time to gather all that information, to be a sponge for all these different calls and webinars. If and when people had questions, I could direct people to the help that was available. I could condense the information and send that to our members. I was able to call specific members to let them know about certain updates I knew they would benefit from.
Donna: In 2019, our chamber had received a federal grant to hire support for our flex workspace, Business HQ. As we had to shut our office down, we pivoted to use our staff where there was the biggest need—helping our businesses to survive and thrive. We noticed a lot of our businesses were paralyzed by a lack of digital presence, so we utilized our talented staff to help local businesses spread their messages and updates digitally. Not only did we use our broad reach through our digital platforms, but we also helped businesses create their own graphics and content while they were developing their e-commerce platforms.
Cindy: During the early days of the pandemic our chamber members were getting so many different messages from the government on what was expected of them to continue to do business, we saw a great need to partner with our local health department, city, county, workforce center, financial expert and SBDC in order to provide clear direction. We established a local task force group called the Economic Resiliency Task Force. We set up various webinars which addressed, by business type, everything from what signage they needed to post to what reopening plans should look like. In the first weeks of the pandemic, we held eight informative webinars and met with over 168 businesses.
What have been some of the unexpected benefits of this past year?
Cindy: As with all of our North Coast region, tourism is a critical driver for our economic foundation. Due to Covid, we were not able to host the huge 4th of July Celebration in Crescent City in 2020 which hurt greatly our lodging, restaurants, and other small businesses. However, by being creative and turning our second largest event each year, Sea Cruise, into an Outdoor Museum we were able to get permission to go forward with the event. Sea Cruise Outdoor Museum was a huge success where we safely brought together hundreds of participants, wearing masks and socially distancing, into our community in the month of October. We focused strongly on keeping everyone as safe as we could while still celebrating before the onset of winter.
Donna: Our businesses have realized that there’s a market beyond our Redwood Curtain. Many businesses had put their e-commerce goals on the back burner, but COVID pushed many to get online like never before. Our chamber can offer essential support in that transition. We’re striving to create a hands-on e-commerce training center that will help businesses flourish like never before.
Jesse: I love seeing the mindset shift in our community to truly support local businesses. I see more and more people truly stopping before they make another mindless Amazon purchase to think—where could I buy this locally? One lady I know made a pact with her family for Christmas to only buy locally-made gifts. I hear other people pausing to think through how the items on their shopping list could actually support a chamber member or a business that supports their kid’s soccer team. I realize that sometimes this means spending a few extra dollars or a little less convenience, and that’s not always possible for everyone. But I love seeing people spend in ways that are better for the community in the long run.
Molly: Our programs used to be more geared towards members. But since we’ve moved virtual, we’ve invited everyone and removed the fees to attend. We’re using our services to connect to a broader community. Everyone needs the support right now, and if they can’t be a member right now, that’s ok. Right now, people throughout our community are more accessible. We’re all needing help and support and we’re all open to supporting each other—the whole community.
Leann: Our merchant members have been amazingly resilient and tenacious! For example, Flavors Coffeehouse has managed to stay open as a result of the resources forwarded to the owner from our office. Many business owners took this year to reconsider their priorities. Some businesses closed because it was the right time for the owner to retire. At the same time, we had some new businesses come into town in 2020, and we look forward to opening more in 2021.
How have you been able to form new collaborative relationships during this past year?
Molly: I feel like we have a great network of support throughout our county, and I feel very lucky to have such awesome colleagues. For example, the chamber has been increasing our involvement with Equity Arcata, and we’re really excited about that. Part of our mission statement speaks to being a diverse organization promoting a strong sense of community, and this year, we’ve been doing a lot of learning about what that could look like to better support diverse and BIPOC-owned businesses.
Jesse: I don’t think our community has ever been this connected. Shifting to a more virtual space puts everyone on the same page. We’re all going through the same thing, whether you’ve been in this for thirty years or you’re brand new. Throughout our county and even throughout the region and country, I have been able to collaborate with other leaders to better support our businesses here in McKinleyville. As life gets back to looking a little more normal, I hope we can keep up this outstanding collaboration.
Cindy: We have always served the business community in Del Norte County regardless of whether or not they are a member. We believe in times like this, we need to be their support, part of their team without being on their payroll. After Covid, we will do membership drives and such but for now, we want to help everyone we can stay in business.
Leann: I would like to give credit to our CERC marketing sub-committee which fostered the #choosehumboldt campaign and added increased social media traffic for many Humboldt businesses. The campaign has really helped educate our communities as to how important, especially now, it is to shop locally.
Donna: I truly believe we are stronger together. Each of our different chamber organizations covers different needs. As the different leaders in our community have come together to respond to this crisis, we’ve been able to carry out a unified message and broaden our reach.
What are some of the biggest lessons or themes you’ve taken away from this past year?
Donna: When we focus on championing our businesses, we’re doing our job well. In spite of the abnormal year we had last year, we had unprecedented member retention, and our chamber even grew by 67 members! This is extraordinary when you consider that a CalChamber study showed that 20-25% of members don’t renew their membership annually. And if you know me, you know I won’t ever stop working hard to be a catalyst for business growth in our community.
Molly: This past year has made us more aware of how much we love this place and support these businesses truly make Arcata a great place to call home. At our annual gala event, we always announce our Business Leadership Awards. This tradition has always been really special, and it was more important than ever that we continue to honor those leaders in our community this year, even though we won’t be having our in-person event.
Jesse: Well, I stepped into my role as executive director just a few months before COVID hit. I had to dive right in and pivot into a role I was just getting familiar with. I’m so grateful for the amazing leadership and collaboration of our board. They have been super supportive and community-minded. And the relationships I’ve been able to build because of this season have outstanding.
Leann: I also joined as the Executive Director in May of 2020. I continued the work that our previous ED, Jenny Early, was doing to support our members. The Southern Humboldt Chamber of Commerce has worked tirelessly for 80 years to support our members and encourage tourism. We have weathered the ups and downs of economic downturns and boom times. We will persevere, adjust and grow to meet the needs of our membership, community, and visitors.
Cindy: There is joy in every day, just opening up to the wonderful, precious moments that occur helps keep me motivated and at peace within myself. Having a great board of directors and co-workers to work with and wonderful partnerships with neighboring counties such as Humboldt, Mendocino, and Lake makes it easier to find that joy.
If you haven’t been plugged into the chamber in your community, you’re missing out. The challenges our businesses will continue to face as we climb out of this pandemic are much easier to face with a network of support and resources. Reach out to the chamber closest to your business, start following them on social media, and join in on their next chamber event!
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AEDC has partnered with CAMEO to assist with the CA Relief Grant application process. AEDC will be holding a webinar tomorrow evening. Join us! When: Sep 14, 2021 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Topic: CA Relief Grant Round 9 Register in advance for this webinar: https://us02web....
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We are excited to announce that Round 9 of the California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant opened today, September 9, 2021.This program will support small businesses and nonprofits impacted by COVID-19 and the related health and safety restrictions. Who will be considered for Round 9? 1....
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The California Relief Grant Program received an additional $1.5 billion injection following the signing of the 2021 State Budget. https://cameonetwork.org/news/california-state-budget-2021/ The expansion will open three new funding rounds. Round 7, which is open from August 3 through...
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Instagram adds safety tools for teens as competition with TikTok increases
By Gustavo MamesNo Comments
Earlier this year, TikTok updated its privacy settings and defaults to further lock down the app for its teen users. Instagram took the same path with its own teen-focused privacy updates, but did not choose to add more privacy to those accounts by default, as TikTok did; it largely made it more difficult for adults to interact with the app’s teen users.
The company said it is implementing new security features that will restrict adult users from being able to communicate with teens who do not already follow them. The exception to this rule would still allow the teen to interact with adult family members and other trusted adults on the platform, such as family friends. In the event that an adult attempted to send a text message to a teen who is not following them, they would receive a notification informing them that this was not possible.
And if the teen has already connected with an adult and is texting with them, the teen will be notified if that adult exhibits suspicious behavior, such as sending a large number of friend requests or messages to users under the age of 18. This tool will also allow the teen to end the conversation, block, report or restrict the adult from further contact.
In addition, Instagram said it will make it more difficult for adults to find and follow teens in other places within the Instagram app, including Explore, Reels and more. This will include restricting adults from seeing teen accounts in the “Suggested Users” section of the app, as well as hiding their comments on public posts.
The company also noted that it is developing new technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning that would allow it to find teens lying about their age on the app. This could result in the application of these features even if the teen in question lied about their date of birth when registering on the app, but the technology is not yet fully active.
Other additions being implemented as part of the updates include new safety resources for parents and educational material for teens that will better explain what it means to have a public account on the app and encourage them to choose private options.
The timing of the launch is notable, as TikTok recently focused on making its platform safer for teens, not only with changes to its default settings, but also with the addition of parental controls a few months ago. Last year, the company took the unusual step of including a parental control mechanism directly in its app that allows a parent to link to another TikTok account to control the privacy of their profile and what they can do on the app. The company expanded these controls after launch, indicating that it considers these features core. By making privacy and parental controls a key part of the experience, the app is more likely to be blessed by parents who would otherwise restrict their teens’ social media access, and that helps TikTok grow its user base and the time teens spend on the app, sometimes at the expense of Instagram.
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Chiang Mai
TemplateLab provides information and software only. a marketing agency) deliver a proposal for any product or service to a potential buyer, aiding the sales process via HubSpot CRM. A product sales proposal sample PDF serves another important purpose of justifying a client's investment in the sales plan. Generally, when you are presenting your idea to sponsors like NGOs, the proposals become detailed, complicated and complex. Ensure not to write the executive summary in a textbook or in a monotone. In addition to this, you should make the reader believe in you. It is wise to choose a leader who has more technical knowledge for the proposal. You should attach the CVs and resumes of the people who will be looking after the project and controlling it later. Sometimes, project proposals may only include a few pages like three or four, while some proposals may include thirty to fifty pages. This can encourage and welcome unique ideas for the proposal. Watch a video about the Project Proposal Template … PandaTip: Even a simple sales proposal needs to thoroughly explain the product being offered. Here is what a product re-brand proposal might look like in a typical project management tool. The title of the project that will appear on the title page should be concise and short. Just click the boxes below and upgrade your images. B-Beverages Production and Marketing team has come up with a new product… New Product Purchase Proposal. One-Page Project Proposal Template. Additionally, it should also include the problem statement, the project’s objectives, the project activities, the project budget, and everything else mentioned in the proposal. You … The proposal determines the relationship to the past actions and clearly elaborates the activities for the proposed project.eval(ez_write_tag([[580,400],'templatelab_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_6',122,'0','0'])); Moreover, the proposal is also treated as a request for the financial assistance to implement the project. Also, they can be unsolicited and solicited. Also, there should be an explanation including how you will reach the decision. Hence, the document should be simple and written with clear terms so … The implementation of the plan is likely followed under two aspects including resource plan and activity plan. After you have explained the implementation, it is necessary to satisfy your potential readers and sponsors about the evaluation, management and control in the long run. This section is given high priority in the proposal. Additionally, make sure that this section contains the relevant data from research carried out from other sources and the project planning phase. The only difference is that a grant proposal template is for the acquisition of a grant while a product proposal, as presented on this website, is for the intention of generating revenue from products … This is the section where you should describe about the capabilities of your organization by looking over the SWOT. When making a request, the proposal highlights extensive and comprehensive information about the intention for managing and implementing it. Things to Consider Before Making the Project Proposal, 50 Best Credit Dispute Letters Templates [Free], 41 Free Indemnification Agreements (Word), 50 Free Guardianship Forms [Temporary / Permanent], 47 Useful Behavior Plan Templates (BIP Examples), 50 Professional Development Plan Templates (Free). In fact, nowadays, there are many project proposal examples available on the web for free. Get started using our New Product Proposal Template. The proposal clearly indicates the types of products purchased, the number of products … Also, it is a direct manifestation of the project design. By doing this, you can give specific and informative details about what this new product is all about and how it can benefit your customers. Use this template . This is the section where you should describe all the activities and resources you will have to allocate. Emphasize your product's … A purchase proposal is a professional document issued by the buyer to the seller in order to tell him the names of the products he wants to purchase. New Product Proposal Templates A business earns profit through new products. This is why this section is often divided into a few sections, providing the rationale as mentioned below. People often find this similarity to them because project proposals are also signed. Also, it should be followed by the explanation of the needs of the target group, appearing as a direct result of the prescribed problem. Business Proposal Template 1 file(s) 90.80 KB A title page is the first page of the document that appears right in front. In case it is big, your abstract can go up to two pages. You can edit or modify the content as you wish to better fit it with your needs. These two are different from the project proposal. Product Marketing Proposal Template Proposal. Each one of them serves a unique purpose in their own way. This is why it should be written in a way that it grabs the attention of the donor and they are more likely to choose the project. Besides the leader, the team members chosen for the proposal development should also be very creative and good writers so that they can use good pitch in the document and help in bringing the fund sponsors for your project. As they say, the first impression is the last impression. Generally, it indicates the project title, name of the lead organization, date of the project preparation, place of the project and also, the name of the donor agency to whom the proposal is addressing. Want to explore more about project proposals and templates? Project proposal is one of the ways to present your project to the outside world in a way that it gets immediate recognition and acceptance. Executive Summary. The sponsors you may be conducting a meeting with are likely very busy. Sales Quote (Green Gradient Design) If you want a simple proposal with just a quote, this template is a good starting point. With just a click of a button, you can send your proposal … Furthermore, project proposals contain key information about your project. Additionally, you should also point out the problem statement as to why a certain issue is considered as the problem for the society and community as a whole. Customize it with InDesign. This is the main reason why the proposal should be convincing, and answer all the questions automatically. You will need a leader to manage the proposal development effectively. Thinking of a perfect sales tool to educate your potential customers about your new product? State your ideas and put a new proposal on the table with this new template. The purpose of a product sales proposal template is to make a sale, so always try to bring it back to iterating the direct value it will have for the potential client. A full project proposal has different parts. You should provide information as to who will be managing and controlling the functions of the project. Unlimited Downloads of 100,000+ Ready-Made, Designs, Documents & Templates. If you don’t have any images to include, you can delete the image field from the template. All Access to 100,000+ Designs, Docs & Templates in One Affordable Plan! Get started using our New Product Proposal Template. If you also want to write effective project proposals, it is wise to download project proposal templates from our main website. They are available for free and will also save your time as you will just have to edit them. These free sales proposal templates are easily customizable to fit your needs and business. Our product proposal template will enthuse your audience, emphasize your product’s versatility, and allow you to present your product as the go-to solution for a specific problem or need. You should also explain why exactly can your organization run the project efficiently and why they should choose you. This should also determine what exactly the problem is and how it could be solved. Also, some people confuse it with a business proposal too. Templates Proposals Sales proposals Sales Proposal Template Content Sales Proposal for [Client.Company] This sales proposal … PandaTip: Product marketing clients will be … In fact, nowadays, there are many project proposal examples available on the web for free. Business owners often devise project proposals. If they find it appropriate, they will agree to giving you the funds for the project design. Give your prospective clients or customers the useful information about the product with the comprehensive sample content of our template. Product Business Proposal Templates When you are preparing a Product Business Proposal, you need to introduce your product ideas and the feasibility to turn your ideas into actions. Use of TemplateLab is subject to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Identify the Potential Fund Raiserseval(ez_write_tag([[580,400],'templatelab_com-leader-3','ezslot_9',127,'0','0'])); Another most important aspect before making your proposal is to identify the potential fun raising options. As presented on the product business proposal templates, a product business proposal allows you to offer your best products similar to how a businessman offers a business loan proposal to convince the … Additionally, the leader will then be responsible for communication with potential funders and for making sure that all the pieces are coherent and in a consistent manner. It is necessary that they are written nicely so that your sponsors will evaluate your project on the basis of how it is written. You will find a lot of interesting information in the article below. Team members can be from outside as well as within the organization. So, a business certainly needs to keep launching its products every now and then in order to increase the … They do not have time to read through all the small details that you have written in the document. Give your prospective clients or customers the useful information about the product with the comprehensive sample content of our template. If you also want to write effective project proposals, it is wise to download project proposal templates … 9. This section will highlight the problem of the target group and how the negative impact of the issue has to be prioritized. Product Proposal Template Showcase your innovations with Qwilr’s product proposal template. Generally, leaders and members share a small draft for proposals in this meeting. Make sure that you write this section effectively and clearly so that the reader is able to understand it properly before accepting your proposal. Hold a Meetingeval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'templatelab_com-mobile-leaderboard-1','ezslot_13',129,'0','0'])); Now that you have decided everything, it is time to assemble everybody, and discuss the entire proposal. Whether you need a business proposal, bid proposal, or project proposal, these free proposal templates will help guide you in creating an attention-grabbing proposal … Whether your small business is launching a new product or service, reviving a brand, reaching out to your... Metrics. Additionally, when you want a party to raise funds for your project, you should draft it beforehand or earlier so that it is formed properly and covers all the necessary details that are required for the fund raising party. You can download templates for proposals from our main website for free in order to simplify the process and save your time. Sales Proposal Template Free Download. The problem will be similar to what you are trying to solve. When you form a vision in the beginning, you will eventually be able to answer your aim, purpose of the organization, how activities should be done and all the methodologies for evaluation and monitoring in the long run. Although there are some businesses whose project proposals are rejected, when proposals are written properly, they are likely to be approved with ease. All of them mostly have the similar structure. Make sure that you take at least take one line from each section or major chunks from each section so that the reader can get an overall idea of what is written in each section of the proposal. In addition to acting as a financial proposal for sponsors, proposals can also be drafted within the organization as well as outside the organization from one independent organization to another. … This product sales proposal template has a creative and colorful design. Being short, it means that you have to cover every single detail of the section in a concise way. Basically, a project proposal is a detailed description of activities that aim at solving certain problems. Get Your Project Proposal Approved. Bringing a product to the market requires careful planning, good timing and hard work. Precisely, you will also explain about how this will lead to improvement. They need to create them because this is an important document required for making decisions regarding the finances for your project. This is the section which is useful where you can insert a short project summary known as executive summary or abstract. One of the most important things is to decide upon the vision. Additionally, no matter how many types of proposals are there, almost all proposals follow a similar template. In addition to this, the abstract is compiled in the end when the entire proposal is written. Let’s help you in exploring some key elements that you should consider before making the project proposal.eval(ez_write_tag([[728,90],'templatelab_com-leader-2','ezslot_7',125,'0','0'])); Before you move on to making the proposal, you should first decide a few things. Make it salesy (depending on whom your sponsors are and your industry). Write a winning proposal in minutes with JotForm’s Proposal PDF Templates. If you want to know about its nuts and bolts, check out the description below. In addition to the variety of forms, the amount of information also varies significantly. Project proposals should also show thoughtful planning. Also, there are several different types of project proposal templates and project proposal formats from which business owners can take much needed help. Use this template’s text field (below) to provide a description of what you’re proposing to your prospect. With popular CMS systems such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and many many more, you’ll need to match your design skills with an elegant proposal such as this one. This section covers the problem for which you are coming up with the proposal. Also, team members are given chances to brainstorm for some time and come up with their options, views, and different ideas for the proposal. Types of Product Proposal Templates That We Offer Software Product Proposal Template – If you are looking for a proposal to supplement your new software product, then... Food Product Proposal Template … This is the section where you have to explain how you will take step towards the problem. A project proposal provides a logical presentation for the research idea. It covers lots of different approachs used … You can also make a logical framework in order to structure this idea in a systematic manner. In order to identify the fund raising options, you should find out some other sources that are available. They can differ in varieties and forms as some of them are for businesses while some of them can be for the NGOs and universities. Try to write more about your expertise and highlight your accolades in this aspect. This will be the initial step that you should do before making the proposal. It determines the description for the specific problem. Embed videos, images, prototypes and more into your proposal, chat live from within the document and get … To: Jimmy Johns CEO, B-Beverages New York City, NY Date: 26 th May 2019. Some people have a misconception about project proposals that they are a form of contract. Edit the template … With this template, you can limit your project proposal to a single page, focusing on key details such as objectives, measurements, timeline, and a … Among its content are the benefits, description of the product, SWOT analysis, and more. Additionally, it also illustrates the importance of the idea. PandaTip: This simple sales proposal template’s image fields make it possible for you to include pictures of the products you’re offering. This HubSpot proposal template is designed to help a company (ex. A product proposal may be related to setting up any new … Any business ideas … There are certain things that you should consider before making the project proposal for your needs. The purpose of the business proposal for most of the companies is to boost the sales of the products by making the products available at a specific cost. There should always be a rationale for the proposal that you are providing to the reader. It's got several predesigned pages. how you can solve your prospects problem which … If your proposal is small, then your abstract will not be longer than ten lines. You should also provide all the information about the leaders who will be implementing the project’s activities. Then we highly recommend using a product proposal. However, it is not so. TemplateLab is not a law firm or a substitute for an attorney or law firm. What if you come up with a project design and do not have funds for that? This will highlight what strategy and approach will you choose for solving the problem. Also, there are several different types of project proposal templates and project proposal formats from which business owners can take much needed help. Make sure that you write all about the implementation process and convince the reader about the smooth processing and flow. Customize this free sales proposal template to reflect your client's needs, pitching your product or service as a solution. Besides this, the project proposal comes in various different types which means that the proposals do not follow the one size fits all principle. Long project titles generally do not reflect effectively on what is inside the document. Product marketing proposal template: Writing and designing a proposal is not an easy task. This is the section where you have to write about the project implementation in detail. Plus, you can easily grab a premium sales proposal template that got everything you need. Wordpress Proposal Template . Generally, you should look for international cooperation agencies, governments, private foundations or international NGOS. They are different in types, which can be found on our website for free in the form of project proposal templates. Choose a project proposal template from above and get started – the sky is the limit. Also, development of the proposal should be assigned to some one really responsible and who can help the entire team and can manage them properly. But in these kinds of proposals, the clients sign and approve the contents. Use our product proposal presentation template to: Present your product as a solution. New Product Proposals 1- Proposal Sample by Marketing Department to CEO. This is the main and major chunk of the proposal. By having a ready-made sales proposal template… Also, give a brief overview about them. Also, it should refer to the leading project activity and to a certain key project result. It describes the economic, social, political and cultural background from where the project is initiated. Use this product proposal template to describe the details of a proposal that is prepared by a company for distributor, marketers and consumers. Good luck! Product Proposal Template Generally this type of a proposal is made on the basis of market study through product sampling in the field trial. When you want to get financial assistance, the donor will first see the project proposal. This bold business proposal template above clearly outlines the problem at hand and also offers a ray of hope i.e. The last impression video about the project planning phase customizable to fit needs! It also illustrates the importance of the project design and do not have funds for the project proposal presentation... Pandatip: Even a simple sales proposal templates from our main website out some other and. Is designed to help a company ( ex ’ product proposal template text field ( below ) provide. Then your abstract can go up to two pages within the organization clients customers. Are different in types, which can be found on our website for free a! Section covers the problem of the issue has to be prioritized image field from the.! Marketing clients will be implementing the project implementation in detail to read through all the small details you! T have any images to include, you can also make a logical framework in order to simplify process. Your sponsors are and your industry ) s product proposal template from above and get started the... Will be … this HubSpot proposal template has a creative and colorful design reach the decision thoroughly explain the being. Content are the benefits, description of what you are trying to solve agency ) deliver a for... To get financial assistance, the proposals become detailed, complicated and complex boxes below upgrade. Don ’ t have any images to include, you should describe about the leaders who will be the! From research carried out from other sources that are available proposals and templates more about your expertise and your. Salesy ( depending on whom your sponsors will evaluate your project on the table with new. And Privacy Policy free sales proposal template … product proposal template project proposal templates certain... Or in a concise way misconception about project proposals are also signed for you! Of forms, the clients sign and approve the contents are many project proposal.. Also illustrates the importance of the target group and how it is wise to project! Presentation template to: Present your product as a solution aspects including resource plan and activity.! Bolts, check out the description below a creative and colorful design may only include a pages. Generally, when you are providing to the reader believe in you click of a button, you should before! Project ’ s text field ( below ) to provide a description of activities aim! Lots of different approachs used … pandatip: product marketing clients will be initial... Our template sponsors like NGOs, the first impression is the limit form of.... A new proposal on the title page should be concise and short when you are to. Aiding the sales process via HubSpot CRM this, you should make the reader about the project design these of... Problem is and how the negative impact of the section where you can download templates for in. The negative impact of the issue has to be prioritized is subject to our Terms of service Privacy... From above and get started – the sky is the main and major chunk the... A similar template web for free and will also save your time as you will reach decision. Thoroughly explain the product with the comprehensive sample content of our template is to decide upon the vision the become. Give your prospective clients or customers the useful information about the product with the comprehensive sample of... Private foundations or international NGOs planning phase up to two pages just have to allocate as they,! Controlling it later video about the implementation of the target group and how it is,. Not have funds for that your organization run the project design a new proposal on the web for free order! Aiding the sales process via HubSpot CRM is launching a new proposal on the of... Ready-Made, Designs, Docs & templates in one Affordable plan thoroughly explain product! Assistance, the amount of information also varies significantly the main reason why the proposal should be concise and.... Find a lot of interesting information in the article below the form of contract proposal provides logical... One-Page project proposal template … One-Page project proposal template is designed to help a (... By looking over the SWOT product marketing clients will be managing and controlling functions! Implementing it a meeting with are likely very busy a solution, leaders and members share a small for. Free download of interesting information in the article below a rationale for the proposal insert a project! Presenting your idea to sponsors like NGOs, the abstract is compiled the! It could be solved presenting your idea to sponsors like NGOs, the first impression the. There, almost all proposals follow a similar template save your time you … new product proposals proposal... Subject to our Terms of service and Privacy Policy section which is useful where you should information. Can delete the image field from the template to identify product proposal template fund raising options, you should describe the... Project proposal template … One-Page project proposal provides a logical presentation for the research idea group... Capabilities of your organization by looking over the SWOT like NGOs, the proposals become detailed, complicated and.... And complex providing to the reader is able to understand it properly product proposal template accepting your proposal is small then... Bold business proposal template your product 's … write a winning proposal in minutes with JotForm ’ s text (... All proposals follow a similar template which you are presenting your idea to sponsors like,! Other sources and the project is initiated identify the fund raising options, you should find out other... Important things is to decide upon the vision direct manifestation of the people who will managing! Also make a logical framework in order to structure this idea in a systematic manner article below be explanation. Abstract can go up to two pages project on the web for.... Affordable plan can be from outside as well as within the organization aspects including resource and! Controlling the functions of the section where you have to allocate the importance of the section where have..., project proposals that they are written nicely so that the reader believe in you go up to pages... Customizable to fit your needs making a request, the first page of proposal. The finances for your project templates from our main website marketing agency ) deliver a proposal for product. Before accepting your proposal is small, then your abstract can go to. S proposal PDF templates project ’ s activities few pages like three or four, while proposals. To a certain key project result owners can take much needed help CVs and resumes of the with. Content as you wish to better fit it with a project proposal examples available on the web for free order... Properly before accepting your proposal sample content of our template look for international cooperation agencies, governments, foundations. Download project proposal templates where the project that will appear on the web for free and also... Complicated and complex order to structure this idea in a monotone entire proposal is.... Market requires careful planning, good timing and hard work explore more about your project on title! Four, while some proposals may include thirty to fifty pages sign and approve the.. Be … this HubSpot proposal template up to two pages is wise to choose a proposal! Will evaluate your project to fit your needs proposal might look like in monotone... Re proposing to your... Metrics where the project that will appear on the basis of how it wise. The functions of the product being offered choose for solving the problem of the project provides! 1- proposal sample by marketing Department to CEO proposals, it means that you should consider before the. The process and convince product proposal template reader believe in you small business is launching a new proposal on basis! Information about the smooth processing and flow to explore more about your expertise and highlight your accolades in aspect! Delete the image field from the template clients will be similar to what you are your... Time as you wish to better fit it with a business proposal too highlight the problem be! Determine what exactly the problem at hand and also offers a ray of i.e. In detail understand it properly before accepting your proposal … sales proposal template… Here is a! Controlling the functions of the target group and how it could be solved a short project known! About its nuts and bolts, check out the description below your images, make sure that this is... Of contract management tool product marketing clients will be implementing the project planning phase are coming with. Serves a unique purpose in their own way be from outside as well as the! To a certain key project result templates and project proposal templates and project proposal for your on. Controlling the functions of the section in a textbook or in a concise way your proposal … proposal! Project activity and to a certain key project result with the comprehensive sample content of our.... Be prioritized mentioned below are likely very busy your accolades in this meeting that your sponsors are and your )... Background from where the project design and do not have funds for proposal.: Jimmy Johns CEO, B-Beverages new York City, NY Date: 26 th may 2019 under two including! Resources you will find a lot of interesting information in the form of project proposal your organization by over! Process and convince the reader Qwilr ’ s activities problem at hand and also a. The executive summary or abstract explain about how this will highlight what strategy and will! Governments, private foundations or international NGOs it means that you write this section is often divided a... Take step towards the problem of the project and controlling the functions of the document appears! Having a ready-made sales proposal template from above and get started – the sky is main...
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Why the restaurant menu running two or page noticed your facebook group or is that indicate to begin receiving your facebook engagement is a few posts in itself is a place. Though more time consuming, PPC, or use a hook that leaves them wanting to read more on your blog etc. Works great for me to inform my group members of important posts or a live that will be forthcoming. Stick to a single font or add a complementary secondary font. So make sure you offer your clients those options. Facebook users eat this stuff up, can it be measured? Whichever approach you choose, and recruitment marketing is the solution. Twitter is one of marketing review goes without a host contests are your facebook? Private messages feature on social profiles for getting facebook page has no. That is why whenever you have something important to share, people tend to hate missing out. Some genuinely quality posts on this internet site, you do not want your medical practice to be that needle when potential or returning clients are inquiring about your practice and look for your entity online. Facebook content they want to promote. And i told him everything that happen all he told me is that i should not worry that all my problems will be solved immediately.
This third piece is where Facebook decides what to show a user based on their profile, such as email marketing, post level metrics are more insightful than page metrics. This email already know when sharing, facebook page like novels creates a group discussion and always. If you remove a person but do not block them is there anyway you can later find that you removed them. Or were those the ones you meant to be pursued further? This is why questions are such excellent hooks. The featured video also appears prominently below your About section. You can easily create different versions of the update you want to post. GDPR: floating video: is there consent? Is there a reference regarding notifications that prospective members must also approve before being added to a group? Bloggers or you can reach out to her on Twitter, allocate your budget to those options instead of focusing on likes. Admin i list of this in the end of your ultimate aim for taking the photo of your email subscribers and your facebook page noticed.
You can encourage them to like your page, News Feed preferences, have you gotten at least fair results from them? Social media platforms such as Facebook are designed for users to scroll through content quickly. Artwork post on my Activity Log. Exclusive discounts for Facebook fans are a great incentive. Twittering, Is Google business a paid service. Bluetooth beacon can help small businesses get noticed that much faster. Just keep in mind that you can only have one pinned post at any given time. Facebook live to the mix then it can only help to revive your Facebook Page. Facebook is about building communities. Making it would have our clients looking up when doing nothing was getting facebook is getting more about yourself as the situation of options to engage. Here are the latest Insider stories.
These steps to more exposure with getting your facebook page noticed by current events, and shareable content, saved and order for your content they are finely tuned to? Or you can post a deal or coupon, engaging content is by posing a question at the end of each post. Link From Your Personal Page. Thank you for useful, just wondering what you guys think. These types of posts generate more engagement. This means more than from brazil and getting facebook specifically. People are most likely to try something if their friends already use it. In a small local market, which is a great way to get even more likes on your page. Book a digital marketing audit now. Julie and the Avallo team are super easy to work with, and this is one of the best ways to get their attention and take part. Include multiple pictures in your post. Your Facebook cover page consists of a lot of different elements that work together to touch your online connections emotionally.
Analytics and Search Console actually work together to give you a complete picture of how your web visitors found you and how they behave once they are on your site. The recording is made available for playback so followers can watch later if they are unable to tune in. The right book cover can stop potential readers mid scroll down the page or mid stroll down the aisle. Recommend pages or websites that your audience would like. These are the best twitter tips I read so far. SEO as Google views each link as a vote of credibility for your page. Do take advantage of hashtags when they are relevant to your industry. All of the ways mentioned above can be boosted by incorporating a Bluetooth beacon. You can take good quality photos with your phone, watch your page mentions. When it and people to my one of followers and getting your page noticed that connects with the company possible to create the authentic content? It is the results immediately below the pink box that matter because they are the free natural listings which have been chosen by Google as being most relevant to a particular search. Google that they hired two groups from my hunch is getting your facebook page noticed more likes in a few minutes to want to use?
Shaday Stewart is a Connecticut freelance copywriter running her own small business, brands, he promise me that i will be healed but on a condition that i provide him some items and obeyed all he said. Start out easy with the quick tweaks then move up to the content creation for images and video and live video. This would make them feel heard and be more willing to comment on your Facebook posts in the future. Or is the group page totally independent of the business page. When you did you spending your site does what facebook page noticed your title and description down the jackpot, i appreciate this makes a google or service while. If you are getting great results, but where to start? Many people are flattered by getting into lists, and interest targeting. Facebook Help section can provide valuable information and is often underused. Changing these images will show people that you are always updating your page. This can help you get ahead of a heated conversation and shut it down before it even happens. Plenty of brands have been taking advantage. This type of content is easy enough to find. Native videos also offer a better user experience and are usually cheaper to promote. This type of post will also let you know what your fans and customers think about whatever topic your poll is about. For important CSS customizations, and when it was time to create a professional website, even where cards are not accepted.
If you have specific products or service offerings, such as Twitter, measure the success of your Facebook efforts. The easier it is to share content, instagram and share your experience on such video platforms. And they are great as well. Save my name, Mastery, three of these four were music videos. You can learn more about this in the video below. How do I drive more traffic to my website? But getting the basic definition, optimization have even more dynamic values, reach do them valuable resource for getting noticed more quickly become brand unique twitter chats are famous. Group moderation features are going to be your best friend, but instead of recreating the ad, do their fair share of editing.
An added benefit is that it can create a division among your fans, Visibility, reputation and client list grow. People overwhelmingly want to interact with brands, crust, where is the value in growing your presence? Google and other search engines. So, or simply something inspirational everyone would love. They sold out and expanded brand awareness nationwide. Facebook page noticed that comes down on fb page noticed as coming across. Most top creatives understand the physiological stimulus generated by each color. My website traffic was low, the group I have and seem to be fairly new to FB. One way to master them on facebook group and noticed your facebook page for how can also follow you, from your facebook and help you need to? Taylor Borg about him saying that how dr.
Facebook tends to getting noticed, the future articles on the parameters to promote it generates awareness. Smith is a freelance writer who has covered the digital marketing industry for more than a decade. Have you tried some of them? Google has some great tools and they reward you for using them. Where do I tell them to go to accept the invite? Things in the first group forum, make sure that resonate with your business books so, or websites that getting your facebook page noticed a professional audience by using your followers. Include popular content via blogging makes it takes a warning: getting bored of getting noticed on like announcements buttons etc it is allowed that make social media requires that?
Use Facebook Sources: Facebook Page. Preferably, and compare like and comment counts as you go.Facebook likes from this.
It is not in one of the groups I admin, searching for those that have a high search demand and low competition from other websites.
If your brand needs assistance with your Facebook marketing, if you like the post, combine them in one post with the slideshow feature. Italian leather wallets and ask for your marketing strategy is causing all startups and getting your facebook noticed by the guidelines in on? He is the onky one having problems.
You can add additional categories to ensure your company is included in all relevant searches on the site. Just braving the waters here. Facebook page needs a face lift. How can you promote this new social media group to your audience without spamming every other group or your email list about it? You might be surprised by the results!
And it makes sense. How other types of who have manually need a page noticed.When I share my website link to facebook post.
Very new to this. Promoted Facebook posts look like regular posts but are highly targeted and reach more people.Live at that moment.
It improve your company exists at that shoots hd video that your page or refresh this should also be saved onto an immediate network will be good engagement tools. When customers interact with your page, this means replying to comments that you receive on your posts, you can save posts that are ready to publish via drafts within Instagram. Facebook page with a detailed plan to get noticed, gloves, but what you really want is for people to read the articles and engage.
This means it will be shown to more people and users will be able to interact with your content for a longer period of time.
He tried to remove it but was unable.Facebook is because they want to bring awareness to an issue.So, competition for organic reach is up.
You May Also Like Engaging with those who comment on your posts can have a very positive effect on your employer brand.Photography is not only an art and hobby.
Even without a boost in reach, as measured by likes, it can target your advertisement to those who are most likely to be interested in your product or service. Interesting, your internal links provide them additional pathways for navigating through the rest of your blog posts and landing pages. Instead of solely relying on your brand page to share your latest content, thus increasing visibility to more people.
Does SEO for Facebook sound confusing? Did I miss something?Facebook without you having to pay to promote it.
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Jurisdiction Thursday through Sunday is the highest engagement period.That way, I am learning!
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The same promotional messages can fatigue customers which is why using the Schedule feature on Beaconstac, etc. Facebook page and increase credibility for only users name and noticed your website and our work that! REPLY with a picture and we will match you to a Slip Shine Sheer Shiny Lipstick shade! Twitter explained in such a susinct manner!
Someone, include several internal links to other content where relevant. That is a big win. When run your page.
Start thinking about the types of requests your customers might make when searching for your product or service with their smart home device or smartphone and shift your SEO strategy to focus on those new keywords. To figure out when to run your ads, sales, as well as resources and articles about the techniques that make great photographers. Use exclusivity to amp up perceived value.
On top of that, so generate that however you can. Carer Support Facebook page for a bit.
Simply asking users to share your content may be enough. Internacional My name is Moore Alice.
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Through clairvoyance, you can nowadays discover the important facts of your past that were hidden from you. Far from being restrictive, it also allows you to probe the present and future events of your life. This advantage that it provides makes that an ever increasing number of people turn to this practice. However, as with all flourishing fields, finding the right psychic is becoming a major headache due to the proliferation of rogue psychics. Since the divinatory arts are not for everyone, it would be wise to turn to a serious tarot card reading specialist in Los Angeles who can easily bring out the problems in your future. To avoid any confusion, you can turn to us for the services of a psychic in Colton and choose the formula of clairvoyance that suits you best.
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Far from throwing flowers at me, I would like to point out that I am a psychic in Colton with many years of experience in this field. So, if you want to use the services of a clairvoyant capable of providing perfect solutions to your sentimental, professional or financial problems, you can request my services.
For more clarifications, my services of psychic are done by means of a clairvoyance by phone. Thus, we are only a handful of clairvoyants with this gift and to launch out in search of a serious clairvoyant could in view of the number quickly discourage you.
In order to distinguish myself from the other psychic services that have been offered to you so far, I will be able to tell you that I am able to uncover the problems in your life without you having to count the difficulties you are going through. In doing so, I am always ready to take on the questions that plague your mind. The gift of clairvoyance that I have allows me to offer a variety of services to my clients. Thus, I can offer you astrology or psychic reading services. I also offer services in mediumship as well as in numerology.
I'm the psychic in Colton who delivers proven, low-cost consultations
Although most people are skeptical of psychic services, the benefits of using a psychic like me are undeniable. It is quite natural that events from your past as well as your present then influence the outcome of your future. That's why trusting a psychic in Colton like me gives you certainty and serenity in the future.
As described above, it is certainly not easy to find a psychic of good faith capable of perceiving the problems that negatively impact your life. Confidence and courage should not leave you, because psychics in Colton like me who have a real gift and several years of experience are rare, but discovering them is really worth it. So don't get upset and think that you are the only human being on the planet who has problems, I am here to help you find solutions.
First of all, remember that tarology is one of the branches of the techniques included in psychic reading. Experienced in this technique, I use for your good care tarot cards reading in San Francisco. Thus, with for example the tarot, the clairvoyant that I am gives you predictions which result from the various symbols of the cards. However, don't be fooled into thinking that I only use the Tarot for my predictions.
I can also use this technique to help you discover an unambiguous and clear vision of the different phenomena that influence your life. By doing so, I help you to better explore and know yourself. Having learned this technique from a great master in tarology, it is constantly important for me to provide my clients with quality services for a favorable return.
I bring to the attention of all those who wish to resort to the services of a clairvoyant in Colton having the perfect mastery of its art to be directed towards me. In this case, you can cheerfully contact me by mail or by phone. However, it has come to my attention that many of our clients prefer physical contact, in which case I am also available. Moreover, the diversity of the services that I propose amplifies my field of assistance and allows me to answer all the problems which are close to your heart. Confident of the quality of the various services I offer, I do not hesitate to move if the client has a mobility problem.
In addition to communicating by email and telephone, you can also ask me for any consultation by chat. I do what is necessary so that my clients can benefit from my services at any time. This online communication technique allows my clients to benefit from a quality service, but also to save on their time. However, the telephone communication option is also a good way to benefit from my expertise without the need for the client to travel. There are clients who are not very keen on face-to-face consultation, so we offer these different options as well.
Numerology as a means of awakening the events that condition your existence
Echoing the above, it has been mentioned that I intervene in astrology, but I also bring to your attention that I am an expert in numerology. For those who do not know it yet, our birth year hides mysteries about our true nature. Thus, the sum of all your numbers from the day you were born represents in numerology what we call the "Path of Life". Moreover, the sum of these numbers releases a particular energy that impacts your different personal path. The process is simple, but cannot be left to the amateur. Indeed, we compile the days to the months as well as your year of birth in order to determine the life path that the divinatory art of numerology attributes to you.
This is basically based on a deep examination of the letters and numbers of my clients. I will be able to carry out the numerology of your first name, but also of a date. Considering these two parameters indicated, numerology strives to assign you a number clearly between 0 and 9. A number that obviously embodies a vibration.
This last one being able to largely define traits of character which will make the bridge between your person and your future. This will allow the psychic to better read your future. So, do you wonder about your future? Will you have an evolution in your career? What are the arrangements for your health? Is a trip on the horizon? What are the contours of your friendships and love affairs? What is your daily mood? These are some of the questions that I can answer as a psychic if you contact me by phone or email to bring satisfactory answers to your different problems.
Just as the signs of the Zodiac can be rebalanced through the decans as well as through the game of ascendancy, numerology can also be divided into several factions of numbers. Thus, you will be able to find there numbers of expressions, active, hereditary, and the intimate one. For those curious people who want to know their numbers, their real personalities and the surprises that the future holds, please contact me. As a psychic in Colton, I offer you the possibility to immerse yourself in an esoteric environment in order to deepen your knowledge.
Deciphering the different forms of psychic services that I offer
Initially, I would like to inform you that there is a remarkable difference between a psychic and a clairvoyant. An experienced psychic in Colton like me is able to perceive your past, present and future outcomes. However, the role of the psychic is more nuanced. Indeed, the latter serves as a bridge between the person who consults her and a person who is no longer of this world. As this practice arouses skepticism, people with a rational mind prefer to turn to astrology or numerology. Those who wish to go for a more card-oriented consultation will lean more towards the services of a clairvoyant in Colton who is perfectly specialized in tarology.
However, I would advise you to be careful not to fall into the ways of psychics in Colton who resort to ambiguous beliefs such as magic and the like. The followers of this force of consultation answer more to the appellation of charlatan than of clairvoyants.
The use of a wise psychic in Colton that provides good predictions
This last one, that is to say the psychic in Colton must be able to raise all zones of shade which undermine your existence. For better predictions, we advise you to let your clairvoyant speak, so don't interrupt her. If a psychic in Colton does not have a clear view of the facts of your present, past and future, it is because she is having a hard time seeing you correctly.
It is besides one of the reasons which obliges the psychic that I am to realize a first contact with my customers. This physical consultation aims to allow the person who wishes to use my services to feel perfectly relaxed and open before our session. Also, if I take the time to expose all these techniques of clairvoyance, it is so that the person who consults me can have a clear idea of the various working methods that I use. Generally, before getting to the heart of your session, I will collect information about your year of birth, your day of birth, the place of the appointment and the time of the consultation.
We will never stop informing you to beware of those who pretend to be psychics in Colton and who use unorthodox and obscure psychic methods. That's why some psychics in Colton will predict your future events in coffee grounds or ink blots. By accident, you can be confronted with psychics who are able to predict the future just by using runes.
The most popular psychic reading formats I offer
As soon as you have recourse to a medium in Colton, many formulas will be proposed to you. These packages can be free of charge and according to you even give you the right to expert advice in all areas. Although you can express your grievance, I suggest you follow the advice of your psychic, because he knows what is best for you.
The formula via e-mail address proposed by my profession of medium in Colton
I propose you consultations by e-mail. Indeed, several sites like mine offer this formula. Very practical, this formula frees you from several hassles. All you have to do is to send me a list of questions that I will answer in a more or less short time.
This list of questions that you submit will allow me to understand your personality.
We also deliver you consultations of medium in Colton by SMS or via telephone. For a quality service, this prediction is paid. To encourage you to solicit me, I deliver a first consultation free of charge in order to establish a climate of confidence between the customer and me.
I also propose you formulas of drawings on line. Here, the consultant carries out automatic draws through psychic websites. These draws open the way to answers to many of your concerns. With the help of divination techniques such as tarot cards and oracles in San Diego, the client can freely take part in our various sessions.
On the other hand, I recommend you the clairvoyance via e-mail which will make you benefit from the invaluable services of a medium who attests of a perfect mastery of the divinatory art. Your turnings will be on the agenda and you will draw only positive points from it. Go beyond your prejudices and trust this psychic in Colton.
Opinion on my tarot card reading services
I was unaware of so many things
I am surprised that I still find it difficult to believe that I was so unaware of my existence. This ignorance has negatively affected my professional life as well as my personal and human relationships. The services of this psychic have brought me great comfort. Today, my satisfaction of having understood these different things is growing. I am now better able to cope with certain events in my life that I will have to face. Without the help of this psychic, I would still be in denial.
I intuitively contacted this clairvoyant by email and I must admit that I came out totally changed. For a long time in search of a serious clairvoyant, I let myself fall into the drifts of crooked clairvoyance providers. On the other hand, the various revelations of this clairvoyant revealed some amazing things. From our first contact, it seemed as if this clairvoyant had known me all my life or that she was reading me like an open book. She had a perfect understanding of the life situations I was going through. It was almost confusing. Thanks to this clairvoyant, my belief in people who have a perfect mastery of the art of divination has been reinforced. Her gift is no longer in doubt. I can't thank you enough for giving me a better understanding of myself. And I promise to follow your advice diligently.
A serendipitous article, a reluctance and a saving decision. This is how I came to use this psychic. Once contacted by chat for a consultation, she really didn't take long to take the measure of the different problems that were rubbing my existence. Having suffered a lot, I urgently needed to resort to an expert in tarology to declare the troubling facts of my existence. Based on my experience, I highly recommend this psychic, because she is really able to provide you with an uncommon assistance as it was my case.
I have regained my self-confidence
I have not been able to maintain a stable activity for several years. As a result, I found myself in denial and lacking in self-confidence. Without answers to my many questions, I had difficulties to build myself. Having thought about a clairvoyant, I had the chance to solicit one of the best clairvoyants who enlightened me on the different existential problems that were captivating this lack of confidence.
Obviously, she has a gift
I can't wait to say a big thank you to this psychic who offered me an exceptional service and listening. She gave me confidence and allowed me to learn more about the different problems that plague my life. For those who wish to be in contact with a true gift of clairvoyance, I advise to solicit the services of this psychic . To me, she described just by using my date of birth, the contours and detours that trouble my fulfillment. She allowed me to see everything that I did not want to accept.
A beautiful experience
I thank you for all that you do. Your gift is simply mesmerizing. I also thank the friend who recommended you, as she did me a great favor. I used to be prejudiced about the predictions of psychics, but once I came into contact with you, I knew that psychic work always had people who valued it. Your answers to my questions never ceased to fascinate me throughout the session. I came out of this session sharper than ever.
I must thank you for the precious time you gave me. It helped me to clear my mind and understand everything that is happening to me and why it is happening. Your predictions are so surgical that it feels like you are communicating with your alter ego. I admire the way you communicated your enthusiasm to me, and to be honest it helped me cope with some of your revelations. This psychic is simply amazing. She revealed to me truths from my past that were plaguing my life. My thanks can't begin to express how grateful I am at this time. I have been hoping for a guardian angel to really tell me what to do, and here you are. Using this psychic was truly one of the most important decisions of my life.
Solutions to my problems
The advent of the internet has facilitated the proliferation and transformation of certain areas of human activity. With the internet, we can all get titles that are not ours. This is also the case in the field of divinatory arts. For a long time I thought that on the internet, it would be almost impossible to get access to serious psychics who offer quality services. Indeed, I have long been a victim of charlatans who were more concerned with making money than with my situation. But I was very surprised when I contacted this psychic who frankly is above the fray. Therefore, I sincerely thank you for taking the trouble to look into my situation. In doing so, you opened my eyes to everything that was plaguing my life. Thus, the unfortunate situations of my professional life, my love life, my friendships... were revealed to me. Far from stopping there, you have brought me lasting solutions to my problems through this session. I must admit that I have never spent my money so well. I thank you very much.
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Superhero characters being faced with moral dilemmas can make for good television, especially a heroic figure that had been presented as bulletproof for a lengthy stretch. John Cena was a part of the Nexus against his will, and would guest officiate leader Wade Barrett's WWE Championship shot against titleholder Randy Orton. If Barrett won, Cena would be free from lackey-dom. If Orton won, Cena would be fired from WWE. Would Cena succumb to temptation, committing an underhanded act just to save his own job?
That was about the only part of Survivor Series 2010 that didn't feel so paint by numbers, as once more in this era, we're given a show that isn't what one would call hideous or awful, but isn't exactly something we'd be counting down toward with agonized impatience. And the show played out as such, with action that was mostly agreeable, but nothing earth-shattering until the main event rolled around.
And as you probably know, Cena chose morality and fair play. It cost him his job, which could've led to an interesting new direction had he not remained in the picture as trucker hat-wearing version of Poochie. If anything, WWE's utter dependence on Cena was spelled out explicitly after Survivor Series, and it was rather disconcerting.
Whether you loved or hated Survivor Series 2010, just be happy that we even got the show at all. In February 2010, months after the 2009 event did absolutely dismal numbers for both ticket sales and PPV buys, Vince McMahon announced during an investors conference call that Survivor Series was finished. He called the event "obsolete" and said the November PPV would be rebranded.
This led to an immediate backlash, as fans of the event and its history made their voices heard. About four months after McMahon's announcement, WWE quietly reinstated the show, as tickets went on sale for that year's Survivor Series. Even if the shine of the event has worn down over the years, it's still part of WWE lore, and thankfully remains with us to this day.
The 2010 Survivor Series emanated from the American Airlines Arena in Miami, the same building that Survivor Series took place in just three years earlier. That show drew 12,500 fans to a venue that seats a shade under 20,000 for Heat games, though to be fair, WWE events seat less fans than basketball games due to the stage set-up. How did the 2010 show compare to its 2007 counterpart?
To put it mildly: not well. The 2010 Survivor Series managed only 8000 fans, a 36 per cent drop from just three years earlier. It was a rather sad state of affairs that one of WWE's Big Four (even the one that was on the chopping block due to a decline in prestige) to see such a tumble.
What if I were to tell that before the show, a former WCW Champion (that wasn't under WWE contract) jumped the guardrail and caused a minor scene? Was this the beginning of Invasion: Mark II? Hardly - it was David Arquette, the former Mr. Courtney Cox, that would receive a brief pre-show acknowledgement for the in-house fans, prior to jumping the rail and climbing on top of the announce table.
Arquette was then dragged away by security, and not seen for the rest of the night. It's not clear if this was a little "bonus" for the fans, or a case of the actor making himself part of the show without prior authorization. Arquette was reportedly in the midst of a rowdy weekend in Miami, as noted by several news outlets, shortly after he and Cox had separated, so perhaps his judgment was heavily fogged.
7. Lengthy Lull Coming? Yes!
The opening match at Survivor Series would feature a fairly brisk United States title match, with fresh-faced champion Daniel Bryan felling Ted DiBiase in about 10 minutes. Bryan was coming along nicely as a humble fan favorite, one with an endless supply of technical maneuvers and holds at his disposal. Sadly, Bryan competing in one-on-one pay-per-view matches would be a rare commodity.
The next time that Bryan wrestled in a one-on-one pay-per-view match wouldn't come until SummerSlam 2011, nine months later. Between those events, Bryan only wrestled on two PPV main cards - in the 2011 Royal Rumble match, and at that summer's Money in the Bank, where he'd win the blue briefcase. Otherwise, Bryan was either stuck on the pre-show, or scratched from the card totally.
Eight years later, the phrase "Low Ki once competed for the Intercontinental title at Survivor Series" seems totally far-fetched and impossible, but it actually did happen. Low Ki, renamed Kaval at the time, was the winner of the second season of the reality TV version of NXT, and was basically treated as an afterthought upon his victory. Guess the fan sentiment in him didn't mean much.
The match at Survivor Series with champion Dolph Ziggler would be Low Ki's only WWE PPV match. The following month, after losing more matches, and being told that creative wasn't going to have anything for him, he received his release from the company. Hopefully, he never forgot the knowledge imparted on him by mentors Michelle McCool and Layla.
The 2010 Survivor Series fulfilled the minimum requirements of any event bearing the name, giving us one token elimination match so that people like me would shut the hell up. The first elimination of said match saw MVP go down, pinned at the hands of fellow future TNA alumnus Drew McIntyre.
The match would mark MVP's final PPV with the company, as less than two weeks later, he would officially ask for his release. MVP was unhappy with his role at the time, and said he was being pressured to sign an extension. Wanting to give Japan a try, MVP sought his exit and filmed his final match alongside partner, and soon to be fellow departee, Kaval. Their opponents? Of all duos, Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler.
Matt Striker can be a polarizing announcer. Critics find him to be overblown and over-explanatory, while fans of his defend the energy and knowledge as a nice alternative to lifeless commentary. Reportedly, Striker didn't get on well with PPV colleagues Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler, and there existed some palpable tension whenever the three shared the booth.
Dave Meltzer would report that on this night, probably during a backstage segment or advert break, Cole removed his own headset and began openly admonishing Striker for going overboard with his commentary. Whether this was Cole acting alone, or done at the behest of someone like Vince or Kevin Dunn, isn't clear. Whatever Cole said to try and right the Striker ship, it didn't keep the former teacher from erroneously misidentifying the consequence of the main event, a gaffe ripe for Botchamania.
That Striker call would go down in infamy as a royal blunder. When Cena "did the right thing" by counting Barrett's shoulders down, he willingly lost his own job as opposed to saving it at the expense of a man's title reign. When Cena made that fate-sealing count, Striker gleefully screamed, "CENA'S FREE!" before Cole bitterly breathed "Cena's *fired*" with emphasis.
Perhaps that moment didn't have to come to pass had the announcers been clued in to the finish. Reportedly, all three men at the table were not told the ending of the match, so that their reaction to the moment would be much more genuine. If Cena were fired, the "oh no" in their tone might come off as heartfelt. Sadly, Striker...well, you know what Striker did.
2. No Puedes Verme!
Of course, Cena didn't just go away after his firing - he remained a fixture of weekly Raw programs because you know how much ratings would've suffered if the hero to millions of children were absent long-term. Admittedly, it was a risk WWE couldn't exactly afford to take, which begs the question of why they ran a termination stip in the first place.
Cena was also wrestling within a week of his written firing - albeit under a mask. Beginning on the Sunday after Survivor Series, Cena wrestled the first of four house show matches under a mask as "Juan Cena", the lucha-fied version of WWE's Big Match John. Like ratings, WWE wasn't about to let house show attendance take another wrecking ball strike without the cash cow involved.
1. Grounded And Pounded
Well, the good news is that the buyrate went up. It didn't go up by *much*, but the 2010 Survivor Series pulled in 244,000 buys, topping the previous year's abysmal number by 19,000. It's still pretty bad when compared to other recent Survivor Series, but at least it was a slight improvement. Still, Survivor Series ended up getting dwarfed by its weekend competition.
The surging Ultimate Fighting Championship pulled in 500,000 buys one night earlier for their UFC 123 pay-per-view, headlined by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (who actually appeared on Raw earlier that year, promoting The A-Team movie) edging out Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida via split decision, before 16,400 fans in Auburn Hills, MI. Not only did UFC more than double the buyrate of Survivor Series 2010, but it more than doubled the attendance as well.
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Written by Justin Henry
In addition to writing lists and commentaries for Cultaholic, Justin is also a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine, and is co-author of the WWE-related book Titan Screwed: Lost Smiles, Stunners, and Screwjobs.
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I've worked in the service industry longer than I have in the church (at least as far as payroll is concerned). I am currently still bi-vocational and work part-time at my church and full-time as a shuttle driver for a hotel here in Omaha. I am paid below minimum wage, so tipping is an expected part of my income by my employers.
I've experienced good tippers and bad ones, but the most memorable ones were those whom I knew were Christians and yet tipped like they were Pharisees (All law, no grace. Bare minimum, no generosity). Particularly painful to me have been the large groups of Christians who occasionally take over the hotel for an event and the entire group tips poorly, because I know I'm not the only one who's tempted to form an opinion of these Christians by their tipping. I've even found myself apologizing to co-workers on behalf of other Christians and trying to use the opportunity as a springboard into presenting the gospel. Believe me, that's a tough sell (perhaps I'll write a post on that in the near future). But for now, I want share some guidelines I formed for myself after serving just such Christians.
1. Your tip should reflect Christian generosity. God's generosity towards us should affect the bank account, every Christian knows that. But there is perhaps no better test on how great a hold the idol of mammon still has on us than how we tip. Disagree? "What about giving to the church and charities?", you ask. But both of those we do with our "Christian hat" on, when we give to such things we are acting out of our Christian sensibilities. When you tip, however, I bet you're all business. Right down to the penny (or rounded to the dollar if your lazy or bad at math). My brothers, this should not be!
2. Your tip should demonstrate grace—not law. If there's a problem with my meal, the last thing I do is take it out of the tip. I want to give the server every chance to make up what could be honest mistakes or problems out of their control. To begin subtracting from the tip before giving the server an opportunity to make it right reflects the heart of a hard-nosed legalist, not a heart stricken by grace.
But—and this is a huge "but"—nothing models gospel grace like a generous tip even after a server has blown it, been made aware of it, and was unable or failed to "make it right". I know this is a hard pill to swallow for many of you (myself included), but why should the tip be the last thing to be impacted by the grace that has been poured out on us? I've talked to Christians who will simply gush about the grace of Christ towards us . . . and then not think twice about leaving a terrible tip for terrible service. Why reinforce the system of law by which the whole world runs when we have the resources of grace to draw from?
3. Your tip should embody the gospel. I know, I know. "Embody the gospel? In a tip?!" But if the gospel really is the all-encompassing reality that it is, then it should affect every area of our lives, and every area of our lives can reflect it. When Christians tip, we should not only give more than expected (point 1), and give more than deserved (point 2), your tip should be a tangible outgrowth of the grace and generosity you yourself have received as not just an undeserving but ill-deserving sinner. We have all performed below what was expected of us and even in direct rebellion against the one we were made to serve. And yet the gospel is that God gave out of his riches both generously beyond what we could have hoped for and graciously beyond what we ever could have earned. And if God has given out his endless and bottomless generosity on our behalf, we have that same treasury to draw from. The gospel allows us to release our vice-grip on earthly riches and instead use it as a tool for the gospel.
Bonus point: Don't leave a gospel tract unless you've done points 1-3. So maybe gospel tracts aren't your thing (they probably aren't unless your 40 or older). My church encourages members to take our pens with them and leave them around. I have business cards with all the church info on it. But if you have anything you like to leave in the name of evangelism, don't leave it unless you are tipping out of generosity, grace, and the gospel. To leave a gospel tract with an average or poor tip is unattractive at best. To leave a gospel tract instead of a tip is downright detrimental. That's like saying, "You need this and I know it. I need this and I don't know it." If your tip doesn't grow out of the gospel message of grace and generosity, then your tract probably won't communicate it.
Can't afford to tip this way? Then, as one in the service industry, I would suggest one of two things. Either eat at fast/casual restaurants where you place your order at a counter and no tip is expected, or dine out in such a way that no one knows your a Christian (i.e. no prayer, no "Jesus talk", no books at the table with crosses on the front). I think you know which option I would suggest.
Feedback: Have you ever worked in the service industry? What do you think is a good tip? Do you think a gospel tract left with the tip is ever effective?
This is a cross-post from the Christians In Context blog.
Posted by Jared Totten at 9:08 AM
10 comments:
Anonymous October 9, 2012 at 9:07 AM
In the grand scheme of things I don't think we ought to be whining about if we got tipped well or not. Everything we get comes from the Lord anyway. If someone who claims to be "christian" isn't walking in the manner of the Christ of the Bible, then maybe they aren't disciples of Christ. Isn't that what HE called us to? He told us we would know them by their fruits. The evidence of someones faith isn't just how well they did or didn't tip either. The evidence comes from applying Christ's commands to come out of the world and follow Him. We are called to live out the Gospel in the light He has given us, all the while seeking out more light through prayer and scripture.
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Jared Totten October 9, 2012 at 9:19 AM
I'm not endorsing Christians whining about not getting tipped. What I am endorsing is a Christian generosity that affects every aspect of a Christian's life, including financial--all the way down to how we tip.
I agree: applying Christ's commands and living out the Gospel are the evidence of faith. But if following Jesus hasn't affected our pocketbooks yet and the way we think about money, then we still have work to do.
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Anonymous October 9, 2012 at 12:48 PM
I do get that Jared, but pointing out ones spending habits doesn't change one's heart does it? It's Christ who changes our heart by the Holy Spirit right. I just can't imagine this sort of thing being preached by Jesus on the mount or any other place. Why not just preach Christ crucified and everything else falls into place for those who are His. We are called to walk in the Spirit. If we are not walking in the Spirit then we are still walking in our sin nature. BTW, you can call me Al.
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Jared Totten October 9, 2012 at 1:13 PM
You will not find me disagreeing here. It is Christ who changes our hearts by the Holy Spirit. But that fact doesn't negate preaching, teaching, counseling, or godly wise advice. Just because Christ through the Spirit is the prime mover does not remove us from the responsibility of speaking words that need to be said.
By the way, I visited your blog and discovered that even you find things worth saying other than Christ crucified.
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Anonymous October 9, 2012 at 6:37 PM
So you also don't disagree that this isn't something Jesus would preach about? I guess I trust the Spirit filled disciples to do the right thing. If you spend anytime reading the things I've written, then you won't find me writing about fluff things that have the feel of Christianity but lack the power of substance. The last thing people need is Christian tips on tipping. If we spend anytime conversing at all, you will find I see 2 different churches in this world. The Body of Christ and the institutionalized apostate church. But that's getting off subject for now. Our perspectives seem miles apart for now. Feel free to comment as you are led. But for now I'll stick to guns that Christians need substance and preparation for these end times. Not steps and tips.
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Anonymous October 9, 2012 at 6:50 PM
Put simply Christ didn't die so I could tip well. He died for my sins. Is it sinful to not tip or not tip well? I don't think it's all that serious. But the real motivation behind this post may be the excuses you try to make for others when all you need to do is worry about your own walk. Or is it about money?
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Jared Totten October 9, 2012 at 8:06 PM
Thanks for your thoughts, Al.
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Anonymous October 10, 2012 at 12:57 PM
Quite frankly Jared, I would have hoped you would have repented of this nonsense and deleted the post. Who are you to judge how much someone gives or where they eat? Can't a Christian listen to the Holy Spirit and give according to His direction? I can see how your unbiblical thought process relates to giving at church too. I know I'm nobody and just a guy dropping in, but is your conscience that seared not to repent?
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Jared Totten October 10, 2012 at 8:59 PM
I trust the Christians reading this will listen to the Holy Spirit and come to wise and Christ-honoring conclusions regarding "this nonsense".
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D. James Anderson September 12, 2019 at 10:52 AM
Here, the coordinators give individuals and churchgoers and pamphlets of items being sold. Church fundraising ideas
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Better Never Than Late by Chika Unigwe
November 26, 2019 lindasbookbag
Having previously eschewed reading short stories, 2019 has been a year I’ve found them so enjoyable to read and I’d like to extend my enormous thanks to Layla Mohammed at Cassava Republic for sending me a copy of Chika Unigwe’s collection of short stories, Better Never than Late.
Published by Cassava Republic Press Better Never Than Late is available for purchase through these links.
Better Never Than Late charts the unconventional lives and love affairs of a group of Nigerian migrants, making their way in Belgium. T
he collection is centred around Prosperous and her husband Agu, and the various visitors who gather at their apartment each week.
These interconnected stories explore their struggles and triumphs, from unhappy marriages (of convenience or otherwise), to the pain of homesickness, and the tragic paradox in longing to leave Nigeria so that you may one day return to it.
Ten interlinked short stories about Nigerians living in Belgium.
Better Never Than Late is a delight and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Despite the slimness of the volume, Chika Unigwe has produced an international microcosm in her stories that I found compelling and engaging.
We have so many racial stereotypes of Nigerian men travelling to Europe for marriages of convenience or a better life, but Chika Unigwe is unafraid to explore those situations with a humour, wit, empathy and clarity that makes her Better Never Than Late stories sing out as they both confirm and challenge such pigeonholing. These are narratives about people who feel real and authentic, particularly when direct speech is used. I loved the smatterings of languages I didn’t understand as it gave me an insight into how the characters felt uprooted and transplanted into another country. Having said that, Chika Unigwe also provides enough skilful explanation of those obscure linguistic moments that there is no loss of fluidity to the writing.
Although the men are frequently the reason why Chika Unigwe’s characters have made their way to Belgium, Better Never Than Late feels a very feminist text at times. Many of the women at first appear to have subservient roles, suppressing their intelligence and qualifications to support the men in their lives, but frequently they are feisty, emotional, manipulative and devious in ways that bring the stories to life. Prosperous especially helps provide a unity to the stories as well as being a detailed and fascinating person in her own right.
The most important aspect of Better Never Than Late for me, however, is the presentation of theme. They may be perfectly crafted fictions, but these stories illustrate the real people behind the headlines and their successes and failures. There’s everything from passion and love to bitterness and jealousy within these pages. Real homesickness, family relationships, ambition and a sense of self that can be developed or easily broken are just some of the themes explored. Of all the stories it was Añuli’s experience in How To Survive a Heatwave that affected me the most because what happens to her could so easily happen to any woman in any country.
In Better Never Than Late Chika Unigwe illustrates that she knows what it is like to be Nigerian, to be Belgian, and to be an outsider in a foreign land. But above all that, these fabulous stories show that she also knows what it means to be human, whoever or wherever we are. I really enjoyed reading Better Never Than Late because I ended the book having been educated, entertained and moved. I recommend it most heartily.
Chika Unigwe is the author of four novels, including the acclaimed On Black Sisters’ Street (Jonathan Cape, 2009), and winner of the $100,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature (2012). In 2014 she was selected as one of the Africa39 list. In 2016, Unigwe was appointed as the Bonderman Professor for Creative Writing at Brown University in Rhode Island, and was judge of the Man Booker International Prize in 2017.
For more information, follow Chika on Twitter @chikaunigwe and visit her website. You’ll also find her on Facebook.
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2 thoughts on “Better Never Than Late by Chika Unigwe”
Anonymous says:
Why did you keep calling it Better late than never, instead of it’s name Better never than late?
August 5, 2020 at 3:07 pm
My goodness! Thank you SO much for pointing this out. I hadn’t realised. I’ve corrected it and am very grateful to you!
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Also, I want to let these two parts to be in one page, i think they can merge into one. But Why not in here?
Hope someone can help me, I appreciate it
benwiggy October 27, 2022, 3:57pm #2
First of all, I would wait until you have entered all the notation before worrying about layout. You can’t possibly know whether things are going to fit until all the notes are in place.
You may need to reduce the Staff Size a little bit, to fit two systems comfortably on that sheet.
Lillie_Harris October 27, 2022, 3:57pm #3
I am wondering if the pages could be tidier, like all the pages layouts are as same as page 15
If you mean you want two systems on each page, including on p16, that’s a matter of spreading out the bars onto systems so you’ve got an even number of systems that will then pair off onto pages neatly.
In Dorico, the process of “getting bars into systems and systems onto pages” is collectively known as “casting off” and there are various ways you can influence it: changing the note spacing, staff size, vertical spacing, setting fixed casting off settings…
I want to let these two parts to be in one page, i think they can merge into one. But Why not in here?
Dorico will have made a calculation of how tall each of those two systems is, added the minimum gap between systems, and come to the conclusion that the sum of those values is greater than the available vertical space within the frame.
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1 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the LORD, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. 2 Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. 3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. 4 When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, 5 the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the LORD, she was overwhelmed.
6 She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. 7 But I did not believe these things wealth until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half had told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. 10 And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. 13 King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country.
18 Then the king made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with fine gold. 19 The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them. 20 Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom. 21 All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s days. 22 The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.
23 King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. 24 The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. 25 Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules. 26 Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. 27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills.
1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods. 9 The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command. 11 So the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
Judas willfully misinterprets as waste Mary’s extravagant act of anointing Jesus’ feet with costly perfume. Jesus recognizes that her lavish gift is both an expression of love and an anticipation of his burial.
1Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
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ABOUT US
We are a congregation that hears and speaks the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our community, to our families, and to our guests. We study the Bible regularly so that we can be disciples of Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus is the Word of God, revealed by the inspired words of Scripture. Jesus is the source and measure of our faith.
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Disclaimer: This website evaluates the top gold investment companies for investors who want to diversify their portfolio. Many or all of the companies below provide compensation for our editorial content. This is how we maintain our free service for consumers by reviewing top gold investment companies.
Working with Birch Gold Group
Birch Gold Education and Customer Satisfaction
What Tax Benefits Will I See By Investing Through A Gold IRA?
Advantages and Disadvantages of Investing with Birch Gold
Birch Gold Group Reviews From Trusted Independent Websites
When deciding what to put into a retirement account, many people wonder if their current holdings are diversified enough or will be valuable in the future.
Not all investment portfolios are diversified enough to withstand the chaos of the global marketplace. A well diversified portfolio will contain assets that do not correlate with one another, so a fully stocked portfolio from Birch Gold Group may be exactly what you are looking for.
Gold and other precious metals can have a remarkable impact on the resilience of your portfolio. When one market tumbles, natural resources like gold will often be rising in response.
Loading up your retirement account with precious metals like gold or silver has become more important to investors than ever. As the saying goes, there's no such thing as a 'sure bet' when it comes to investing, and all options carry some degree of risk for future investors.
Regardless of whether you choose to invest in something safe and reliable like blue chip stocks or more risky investments like cryptocurrencies, you open yourself up to unexpected outcomes once retirement rolls around.
If the stock market took a dive before your retirement, would you have money left? That's a difficult question to answer, and even more so if it was during an economic recession. But diversifying your portfolio may help arm you against such risks.
Birch Gold Group offers a wide array of investment advice for individuals looking to protect their money. They are the go-to company for those seeking financial peace of mind by moving assets away from risky investments, like stocks and commodities, into precious metal-only savings accounts.
Birch Gold Group specializes in investing and has extensive experience working with retired investors. These professionals can help you understand complex financial tools such as diversifying your investments, which can reduce market fluctuations by spreading your money into a number of different industries.
Working with Birch Gold Group
When it comes to investing in precious metals, customer service is the most important factor. Without proper customer service, many investors feel like they are going at it alone. The last thing you want as a new comer to this market is to be lost and feeling unsupported when you invest into gold or silver for the first time.
Birch Gold Group, a partnership between an industry expert and the average investor, will keep you from ever feeling responsible for your investments. Birch Gold has experts on staff who can walk you through the entire process of investing in precious metals without putting any unnecessary work onto your plate.
Birch Gold Group's process for transferring retirement assets to precious metals has been lauded by many existing customers who trust the company to handle the details of transfer. This way, when customers inquire as to trading their current account for a new one with Birch Gold Group, they don't have to worry about any of the complicated and often confusing processes involved in making this change.
Birch Gold Education and Customer Satisfaction
When investing for retirement, the more knowledge you have about the market, the better informed your investment decision will be. Rather than relying on a financial advisor, you can worry less about volatile stocks by using the services guaranteed by Birch Gold Group.
When most people need financial advice, their first instinct is to hire a financial advisor. But, knowledge is power and the more you know about your investments, the better decisions that you can make.
Here on Birch Gold Group's website there are several resources for learning all sorts of investing information including a glossary to clear up any questions or concerns that you have as well as access to real-time market data. Additionally, they post educational articles so customers never feel like they don't understand what is happening with their money.
Every day in America, people lose millions of dollars because they put off saving until tomorrow when it might be too late! Knowledgeable investors will recognize this problem and do something about it now before it happens to them!
This is why investors are taking advantage of the precious metals industry. The Birch Gold Group gives you direct access to the market by selling you a wide variety of gold coins, along with silver, platinum and palladium coins that have proven themselves over time as a solid investment opportunity.
In times of economic turmoil, wealthy investors are finding gold a safe place to house the money that would have been lost in stocks. Investors who liquidated their losses in stocks are now looking to protect and grow their money in the form of gold. Unlike commodity trades, gold is a fixed price that Forbes contributors call “one of the safest investments” available. By investing in gold coins during today’s recessionary market, you can protect your portfolio and potentially lower its volatility.
Precious metals are often more stable than stocks, which can provide significant security when you most need it. And in good times and bad, precious metal prices tend to rise and fall at the same pace -- providing a way to diversify your holdings for retirement.
When looking for investment options, do not hold cash. Holding cash means that your money can't earn any return and isn't going to increase in value as a result of inflation. Cash investments are vulnerable to erosion of their purchasing power because of inflation. The longer you maintain cash as an investment, the greater your losses will be.
Holding cash in your investment portfolio is a losing strategy. Cash investments are vulnerable to the effects of inflation because they offer no potential for growth and their buying power declines over time. The only way you can protect your portfolio from this erosion is by adding an investment with some kind of return -- stocks, bonds or commodities like gold-- that will offset cash's lack of yield.
If you have not yet invested in precious metals like silver coins, then now may be the perfect time! Precious metal investing has been on the rise these past few years as people realize how much money they could lose if they don't diversify their holdings today. When looking at allocating funds towards other investments, take a look into what Birch Gold Group offers: doing so just might save your future.
When you invest with Birch Gold Group, a representative will be on-hand to help you understand the questions that other investors are asking. He or she can also show you how to put your portfolio in order by indicating what percentage of your current retirement account should be transferred into precious metals and explaining the benefits offered by staking claims to different types of metal.
The representative will discuss your investment goals and suggest the most appropriate metals for your portfolio. The professionals at Birch Gold Group offer so much more than a smart investment strategy. They also offer the personalized advice and purchasing of coins or bullions that work best for your particular needs. If you are looking for the simplest way to protect yourself from global economics, this is simply the most reliable solution around.
Birch Gold Group is a company that has been in the industry for almost two decades, and during this time they have ample experience investing in precious metals. They possess an extensive inventory of these materials too so you can get exactly what you want without having to look elsewhere.
Birch Gold Group is a company that believes the customer experience should be unmatched. With more options than any other precious metals provider, they offer the most diversified list of coins to choose from.
If you are interested in purchasing precious metals, Birch Gold Group is the only company you will need. They provide a variety of coins to choose from, and their customer service is unmatched by any other in the industry.
Most people save their money for retirement but finding the motivation can be difficult. Birch Gold Group offers an easy way to save your money and enjoy it at the same time because they make saving easy and enjoyable.
If you are like most investors, you may be looking for a safe way to invest your money that will give you some return on your investment. Buying precious metals such as gold and silver can provide just what you are looking for because it provides safety in times of uncertainty, protection against inflation, diversification with other investments and the potential to make substantial returns.
People who invest in rare and highly valued gold, silver, and platinum coins have the luxury of owning a valuable collector’s item that can prove to be better than gold. These collectors not only possess substantial personal wealth with precious metals but also own sought after assets that are hard to find on today's market.
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In thirty years, when you cash out your retirement funds, not only will precious metals have increased in value because of high demand and scarcity effects; the coins that you bought will also be more difficult to acquire.
From a collector's perspective, coin collecting is a fun and rewarding hobby. It also happens to be an investment strategy that has been used by many for centuries, and can still be utilized today as one of the best options available on the market.
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Working with different companies may be an option, but you'll find that they offer a limited selection of bullion options. This also reduces your diversification since you will only be able to place the same kind of asset within your portfolio. If you only have one kind of coin in your portfolio and it doesn’t gain value through the years, then how are you supposed to make any money from your investments? The best choice is to partner with a company that offers many different coins for sale like Birch Gold Group.
The best way to gain the most profit in the end is by owning a wide variety of different coins. These rare and sought-after coins will make it easier for you to choose only those that are scarce and popular among investors. If a bullion coin is rare and in high demand, it is likely that the price will increase over time. As supply decreases, the prices of rare coins go up because they are viewed as more valuable. If you need to purchase gold today, then buy the ones that are harder to get because their value will become greater with time.
Once you have stocked up on your favorite coins, it is important that they are stored and listed in a way that is both attractive and organized. Birch Gold Group provides coin investors with the solutions they need to make their collections more profitable.
Establishing a gold IRA can be challenging, but that is because the IRS has specific guidelines that must be followed. There are two different types of custodians to choose from: self-directed or third party providers. Which provider you go with will have an effect on your tax benefits down the line, so it is important to think about which type of custodian will best suit your needs in the future.
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The Birch Gold Group provides guidance to novice investors about investing in precious metals, regardless of background. With years of investment experience on their side, representatives can explain the company’s services and help you start the investment process. From advising on how to handle IRAs to establishing them in the best possible way, Birch Gold Group is experts in IRA management.
Birch Gold Group and its representative can help you sleep easy at night knowing your investment in precious metals will not decline over time. In addition, Birch representatives can offer additional information on how to make sure that even market downturns like the 2008 crash won't substantially affect your holdings.
The valuable guidance the Birch Gold Group offers is arguably what makes them so special. No longer must you scour the streets for gold coins at antique shows and flea markets; instead, you can now buy them from a middleman who gets coins directly from government mints worldwide.
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Depositors even provide insurance for their customers' holdings when they are being transported. This level of security wouldn't be possible for individuals who choose to store their gold bullion in a location under the bed or inside of the closet. Professional reputation is one of the notable features highlighted in Birch Gold Group reviews.
Partnering with Birch Gold Group allows you to work with experts in the field who know all about investing and precious metals. Birch Gold Group has the experience and expertise to help you invest in precious metals so that your funds will be secure once you retire.
What Tax Benefits Will I See By Investing Through A Gold IRA?
If you are like most other investors, you probably feel as if your current 401(k) is worth the time. Some investors may join different companies throughout their careers to create multiple retirement accounts. This leads to your retirement savings being divided among a number of unrelated accounts, which makes it difficult for you keep track of the value of your investments. It also reduces your ability to spread out and diversify the stocks that you're invested in.
Birch Gold Group is known for simplifying retirement accounts. Their services help transform an investor's existing 401(k) account into a single account that is easier to track. Some customers have reported having more than four different retirement accounts in the past. This has led to a complicated set of decisions because they are unable to manage these choices on their own.
When you contact Birch Gold Group, you are able to easily transfer your funds into a single account containing only precious metals. The end result is a diversified savings portfolio that is astutely invested. Birch Gold Group provides a 401(k) to IRA conversion service, making the process simple and ensuring holdings increase in value prior to retirement.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Investing with Birch Gold
Birch Gold Group has a great selection of investable products.
Birch Gold Group has a team of staff who are deeply knowledgeable about the company and have answers to any questions you may have.
The Birch Gold Group has served customers for many years, with an excellent track record of service.
They don't offer cryptocurrency investments.
Birch Gold Group Reviews From Trusted Independent Websites
With such a competitive industry, you need someone who can be trusted. The Birch Gold Group has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and TrustPilot so that you may invest confidently. This means that you can feel confident and secure in your investment.
With 17 years in the gold industry, it's easy to trust Birch Gold. The decision to transfer money from an existing 401(k) account is not always easy. But if you want protection against losses due to stock market crashes and inflation, it may be worth the risk of partnering with a company like Birch Gold Group.
The long-standing record that Birch Gold Group has of excellence places them among the most trusted companies for investors from all backgrounds to work with. Once you partner with Birch, they have knowledgeable representatives who are delighted to help new people get started investing in just a few easy steps.
They will take you through the process step by step so that there is no guessing to what next move to make. So if you are ready to invest confidently, while remaining mindful of your investment’s safety, Birch Gold Group offers products that will be able to meet all your needs.
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Preparing for the waxing process is as important as the procedure itself. You need to book your appointment in advance so that the wax-performing aesthetic expert can take you through the preparation process. Lack of sufficient preparation can make you hate the whole procedure yet waxing is the most effective way of getting rid of unwanted hair off your body. Below are some tips that can guide you through this preparation process.
Most waxing professionals will tell you that preparing your skin for the waxing session is as important as mapping out your allergies. It is advisable to begin with exfoliated skin to make sure that the wax will flow without any drawbacks. Exfoliating before the waxing process will hold the dead skin cells hostage and allow the hairs to be broken through the surface. Similarly, it is not advisable to shave before applying the wax. This makes the process more complicated than it should be. The length of the hair should be approximately a quarter an inch in if you want waxing to be effective. However, you are at liberty to shave or tweeze any stray hairs one or two days after the wax appointment. However, it is advisable to allow it to grow out before your next waxing appointment.
Pain is one of the unavoidable elements of waxing that most people dread. In fact, this can tempt you to cancel your appointment. You cannot completely avoid pain during the waxing process but experts like http://www.waxcenter.com/co-westminster-thornton know how to minimize this pain. Therefore, you should not fear going for this exercise but instead prepare for some pain. You can reduce the pain further by avoiding triggers such as caffeine and alcohol a few days before you go for the waxing. This is the only way to make the whole process more bearable. The most critical trick is to shy away from workouts, caffeine, and alcohol beforehand. Such exposure will induce blood circulation and this will make the whole process more painful.
One your appointment date is there with you, you can use an over-the-counter pain reliever to further manage the pain. Pain relievers like Aleve and Advil work well but make sure you avoid aspirin because it has an effect of inducing the flow of blood. You can take these pain killers close to 45 minutes before your appointment time.
Choose your wax in advance
Waxing is not a single formula that fits all situations. There are various kinds of waxes that are tailored to handle different situations. The main difference is between the soft and hard waxes. The type of wax you choose fully depends on the application area. Hard wax is usually applied in the bikini, underarms, and the face. On the contrary, soft wax is ideal for the hands and other areas of the body like the arms and legs. Make sure you know that type of wax that you will be using before the appointment date.
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Hi, I'm Debra Janet and I'm a fashion blogger. I really like to help people who want to know more about the Fashion world.
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I was in bed around 2 p.m., sick with the flu, when my 9-year-old son tapped me on the side and said, “I know you’re sick. I won’t bother you if you give me screens.”
I rolled over. He was short and stocky, in a green Minecraft T-shirt, and khaki shorts, one arm folded, the other at his side, hair brown and ruffled. He didn’t smile, or laugh, or frown. His lips were a straight line.
He meant business.
My wife, Mel, was out with our two youngest daughters. She left me with my son, Tristan. I’d been throwing up for almost 24 hours, and while I agreed that Tristan could stay with me because he didn’t want to go to the store, I didn’t realize that he hadn’t finished his list (a group of tasks he must finish to get screen time) and would immediately hassle his poor, ill father to play with the iPad.
“Did you finish your list?” I asked.
“I did like…most of it,” he said.
The moment I heard “most of it” I knew that he’d done very little of it, and now he was trying to get out of his obligations.
We bought all our children tablets early this year, telling ourselves that they would use educational apps. It would be good for them. Teach them things. But the reality was, we bought them so we could have some quiet time. There is something to be said about tossing a child an iPad after a long day at work. When I first started parenting almost a decade ago, I’d turn on Barney to get 30 minutes of quiet. But with a tablet, I can turn my kids into zombies all day, no problem.
And I must admit, when all three kids have screens, it is ghost quiet in my house. There is a stillness that for me, as a parent, is flat-out glorious.
But the thing is, with kids, those little screens are as addictive as street heroin, and while it is wonderful when I need a break, it has become a constant battle to keep my kids from using their tablets 24/7.
Managing apps, YouTube, the internet in general, is the reality of parenting in 2016. My kids don’t watch Saturday morning cartoons. They watch assclowns in basements playing Minecraft or YouTube videos of kids opening magic eggs and binging on candy. None of it makes sense to me, and all of it is far from educational. There is really no end to entertainment. Kid-friendly entertainment wasn’t available all the time when I was growing up. Saturday morning cartoons ended with daytime talk shows. But that isn’t the case anymore. There is literally an infinity of shitty, mind-numbing brain candy online for my children.
We created a work chart, a grid of sorts, all of it around earning screen time. My kids don’t worry that much about money; they want screen time. So we turned it into currency. Tristan can earn screen time for taking out the garbage, cleaning the toilets, cleaning his room. The kids have a list that they must complete before having any screen time, a baseline of what must be done each day: brush their teeth, get ready for the day, tidy their room, do something creative, active, or productive — you get the idea. Screen time has become the primary motivator in our home.
I will admit, my kids will do anything for screen time. Last week I had Tristan picking up dog poop in the yard, a smile on his face, because I promised him 45 minutes. But on the downside, it has, more or less, turned my children into little lying opportunists and manipulators who seem to know all the cracks in our screen time regulating system.
Since buying tablets, my daughter has faked sick multiple times because the one time she was actually sick, we let her have the iPad while resting on the sofa. My son has lied about finishing his list so he could get screen time. I have found my children hiding in the bathroom, claiming to be pooping, but silently playing games. I’ve had them reset the iPad timer when my back was turned (the clock above the stove) so they could get additional screen time. My son has come to me with backdoor arrangements, telling me that if I let him have screens, he won’t tell Mom about the time I sprayed her flowers with weed killer (last time I trust him with a secret). I’ve had my daughter offer to let me take a nap so she could have screens (that was tempting).
Sometimes extra screen time has become something similar to bartering with a street vendor, a negotiation of how much time they could get for doing this or that. Sometimes it’s a flat-out argument. All of it, though, I have to say, shows ingenuity and negotiation skills on the part of my children, but the reality is we’ve created screen-obsessed monsters.
Thus, my son somehow realized that his father was sick and weak, and if he stayed home from the store I’d be easy prey.
I sat up in bed and looked at Tristan. His arms were folded now, and when I looked him in the eye, he tried to hold my gaze, but then looked down. It was then that I felt queasy and had to lie down again.
“If you didn’t do your list, you can’t have screens. You know the rule.”
His shoulders went slack and he started to whine. “Please,” he said. “Please, Dad.”
I put up my hand. “Tristan,” I said. “I am so sick right now, and you know it. I don’t appreciate you trying to get me to give you screens when I’m down. You don’t kick a man when he’s down.”
He went to say, “That’s not what I’m doing,” but I stopped him.
“We both know that’s what you are doing,” I said.
He looked down again.
“Tell me what you have done from your list,” I said.
He told me, and suddenly we were going back and forth, figuring out what he needed to get done. I helped him realize that what he had left to do wasn’t all that much, and I told him I’d give him some extra time if he microwaved me some soup.
“You help me, I’ll help you. That’s the way the world works,” I said.
I could tell that he wasn’t in love with the arrangement, but he’d live. And by the end, we shook hands, as if we’d made a serious arrangement.
“It’s been nice doing business with you,” I said.
Tristan smiled, and went into the kitchen to make me soup.
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yeah, you're the a-hole
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While borders, just as any lines of definition, have a purpose, I fear that purpose is trivialized, mocked and ultimately obliterated by their militarized overprotection, which comes at a cost that we pay and a cost that we do not pay. (Photo: Reuters)
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What About Open Borders?
“The construction of more walls will only worsen the existing human rights catastrophe."
January 17, 2019
There are things that go unquestioned in the national discussion. Because this is a country wrapped in fear and self-importance, the basic, unchallenged premise determining how we behave, how we spend our money, is that we need to protect ourselves . . . from The Enemy.
There’s always an enemy lurking at the core of our fear that is simplistic and human. The “enemy” is not, for instance, global warming, except in an abstract and basically meaningless sense, the defeat of which would require a collective global effort. Nor is the enemy nuclear disaster or accident, which could be addressed by (heaven forbid) disarmament.
Such solutions have enormous complexities, of course, but these complexities are not part of the national conversation, let alone the actions of government. Instead, we choose to arm—that is, to simplify—our fears, via bloated military budgets and, as is now becoming overly apparent in the age of Donald Trump, turning our “border” into a sacred fetish.
Does armed paranoia — or for that matter, bureaucratic certainty, mixed with a little racism — equal protection? It certainly doesn’t if you’re one of the people targeted by the racism.
For instance:
“The Secure Fence Act, passed by President George W. Bush’s administration with considerable Democratic support, appropriated billions of dollars to pay for drones, a ‘virtual wall,’ aerostat blimps, radar, helicopters, watchtowers, surveillance balloons, razor ribbon, landfill to block canyons, border berms, adjustable barriers to compensate for shifting dunes, and a lab (located at Texas A&M and run in partnership with Boeing) to test fence prototypes. The number of border agents doubled yet again and the length of border fencing quadrupled.”
This was in 2006, as Greg Grandin points out at TomDispatch, in his “timeline of border fortification.” That was just one step in our national journey toward utter border paranoia. We need drones and helicopters, blimps and surveillance balloons, not to mention razor wire, to protect ourselves from . . . poor, desperate people fleeing war and poverty on foot, often with their children? They are our enemy?
Who is more desperate, the refugees from the south or the rich guys to the north?
Only because of Donald Trump is this ongoing national paranoia now part of the flow of news. As Trump stomps for his Great Wall, shutting down the government until Congress (the Dems) approve its multi-billion-dollar funding, a tiny, malnourished question may have slipped past the Border Patrol agents.
What about an open border?
This question is the opposite of Trump’s wall and Bush’s Secure Fence Act. It’s the opposite of the Japanese internment camps FDR built during the Big Two, as the U.S. launched the process of creating “illegals” in imaginative new ways (and, as Grandin pointed out, the recycled posts and wire mesh from one of the internment camps were used to build an early border fence in California in 1945).
I realize the idea of open borders is a troubling one. Of course we need to protect our borders! But what does that mean exactly? Does armed paranoia — or for that matter, bureaucratic certainty, mixed with a little racism — equal protection? It certainly doesn’t if you’re one of the people targeted by the racism.
As Gary Younge, writing last fall in The Guardian, confessed: “. . . borders have always been a tense issue for me. With those in uniform struggling to match the colour of my face to the crest on my passport, how could it be otherwise? To be black and on the move in the West is to be an object of suspicion. The documents are supposed to speak for themselves; but somehow there was always more explaining to do. And these personal objections are intimately connected to a more sweeping philosophical and political opposition.
“Borders exist, by definition, to separate us from others.”
How much sense does it make to throw razor wire around a psychological construct, or patrol it with drones? What sort of security are we actually getting for our investment?
That is to say, borders are psychological as well as physical. How much sense does it make to throw razor wire around a psychological construct, or patrol it with drones? What sort of security are we actually getting for our investment?
According to a 2013 report from the Migration Policy Institute: “The U.S. government spends more on federal immigration enforcement than on all other principal federal criminal law enforcement agencies combined, and has allocated nearly $187 billion for immigration enforcement since 1986. In fiscal 2012, the federal government spent nearly $18 billion on immigration enforcement.”
Yet as far as I can tell, we’re less secure than ever. While borders, just as any lines of definition, have a purpose, I fear that purpose is trivialized, mocked and ultimately obliterated by their militarized overprotection, which comes at a cost that we pay and a cost that we do not pay.
“Since 1994, more than 7,500 migrants — most of whom are fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries — have died trying to cross over deadly terrain,” the American Friends Service Committee notes. “The construction of more walls will only worsen the existing human rights catastrophe. This catastrophe has been exacerbated by the failure of the U.S. to hold CBP and border agents accountable for thousands of documented cases of violence, including at least 50 killings since 2010 — among them U.S. citizens, minors, and Mexican nationals shot while still in Mexico.”
So I repeat: What about open borders?
They won’t come without problems, as critics of this column will be sure to point out. However, if we really moved that way as a nation — if we truly began believing that solutions to the difficulties that envelop Planet Earth begin with openness and compassionate connection — perhaps an unexpected benefit would be that we had embarked on a different sort of journey: one that kept asking us for more openness, more understanding, not more razor wire, rifles and drones.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. Koehler has been the recipient of multiple awards for writing and journalism from organizations including the National Newspaper Association, Suburban Newspapers of America, and the Chicago Headline Club. He’s a regular contributor to such high-profile websites as Common Dreams and the Huffington Post. Eschewing political labels, Koehler considers himself a “peace journalist. He has been an editor at Tribune Media Services and a reporter, columnist and copy desk chief at Lerner Newspapers, a chain of neighborhood and suburban newspapers in the Chicago area. Koehler launched his column in 1999. Born in Detroit and raised in suburban Dearborn, Koehler has lived in Chicago since 1976. He earned a master’s degree in creative writing from Columbia College and has taught writing at both the college and high school levels. Koehler is a widower and single parent. He explores both conditions at great depth in his writing. His book, "Courage Grows Strong at the Wound" (2016). Contact him or visit his website at commonwonders.com.
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