#(I know I did put this on the hub blog but since I encourage people not to follow that I'm playing it safe)

[rosetintedgunman]

OOC

I figure out of all the blogs, this one gets the most traction so...

Hey! I made a carrd! It has general rules for all blogs and links and stuff! It's very simple, but I made it all by myself with only an online tutorial for guidance! Hopefully it works?? I tested it earlier and there's nothing fancy that could break it?

I also updated the rules for this blog, Damien's, and the multi to make them more specific for each one. Unfortunately, it's only the web browser (ie [url.com]/rules) as I don't have time tonight to update the mobile-friendly rules.

[stevetown]

On The New Tumblr Desktop Dash

I've been using the new Tumblr desktop dashboard for a few days now and I have some Thoughts that I thought would be useful to put out in to the wild. Most of the reaction I've seen has been...abnormally harsh about this UI update, so I think it would be interesting to actually go through the changes and point out what I like, what I don't, what I think could use some improvement, and maybe break down a little about why those Twitter comparisons are way off the mark.

More below the fold, but the tldr for me is - I think it's great! At the end of the day, I feel like I use the desktop version of Tumblr more and more since the change. Whereas before I used to just pick up my phone and refresh the app, now I get a hit of dopamine flipping over to the Tumblr tab when I need a work break.

The change is clean and logical, and as someone who came to Tumblr a year ago and still never quite grokked what all the icons at the top meant, having them spelled out is much nicer than guessing what they mean, even for someone who has become more familiar with the site. And to be clear, from what I can tell that's the goal of this change - to make it easier for newer people to use Tumblr and find their way around. Despite all the hate this change is getting, that is an unabashedly good thing.

The Left Nav

It's really, really clean. The old dash had a lot of unused space on the left, it makes sense to carve some of that out to have a menu that actually lays out what each icon means. The font size and style is comfortable without overcrowding. It just feels more...confident? Like these are the features Tumblr has. Use them! It's also just a more familiar web browser experience for anyone who has been using web apps since the dawn of email.

The badges also fit much nicer with the left nav. They don't float above an unclear icon, they're right next to what it says on the tin. You got 20 new posts to read, buddy. 5 new notifications. 1 anon ask. It's just better on my eyes.

I do understand the gut reaction that things are "too" cluttered. One of the first things I did was snooze Tumblr live and that helped me out a lot. Just removing all of the noise of live tags and loading-in thumbnails of people I'm not interested in watching went very far. It brought the post content further up on the screen.

A little before and after snoozing Live:

Explore

I didn't even know what Explore was used for before. It was a compass icon. I think I thought it was some kind of search? I can't remember if I ever clicked on it before. Explore is much more interesting to me. It makes me curious. For a site that struggles with getting new users to find new content, it's a beacon that says "Find some cool new stuff!"

My problem with Explore is that clicking on it...doesn't get me much. The landing page just takes me to a feed from @todayontumblr that almost never has any content that I'm interested in. The "For You" tab on my regular dash is where I go mining for new blogs, along with "Your Tags." If Staff finds this change leads to more Explore click-throughs, I'd love if the tab itself get some love and made it a hub for finding new content easier. Maybe mixing up a feed of any tags you're following, trending posts, and other algorithmically sorted goodies that I'll want to take off the shelf and put in my chronological dash. I want it to be a place with the goal of encouraging me to follow new blogs.

Live

The transition to the Live page doesn't feel good to me. You're taken to a totally different kind of page, and the UI jumps all the way to the left. It feels like you're going to a separate site. At least when you snooze Live it also removes the menu item. That's really nice! But I'll save Live thoughts for another day.

Activity/Messages/Inbox

I never knew how much I suspected these things were a bit redundant, but I'm glad now that they're separated and labeled correctly. I don't have to remember what the face icon/mail/lightning bolt all mean or why they're different. Things are much cleaner in that regard.

I don't really care for the popups when you click on them. Those do feel cluttered to me, like I'm going to lose sight of my dash, or the notifications. I don't have much UX advice here, other than to say I think I prefer how the Inbox is handled, where you're just taken to a full page view of the page. However maybe another solution would be how the Account and Settings icons are conducted...

Account/Settings

This is the section that sold me on the new dash. On the old dash, I found navigating the Account and Settings options...ephemeral. I was afraid I was going to lose my place if I didn't find the menu I needed. Here, having them slide out as a drawer, keeps me in place and lets me orient myself easier. It's made exploring settings overall frictionless. I've changed dash palettes like ten different times just because I could and it was easy to find. Maybe something similar for inbox/messages/activity would make the UI feel more consistent and less overcluttered-feeling?

I do notice that the Account dropdown adds a new scrollbar which makes things like the t logo and badges jump to the left. That can be a bit disorienting.

TumblrMart/Get a Domain

The Get a Domain menu item is fine, but TumblrMart feels like it needs some love. On a new refresh, clicking the icon loads for a total six seconds before the mart pops up. By this point, if I wasn't intentionally testing, I would have just moved on. Again, I also just don't like pop-ups like this. Feels loosey. Much prefer the full-spread domain page you get.

Create

This is maybe my least favorite change. Every time I switch to my Tumblr tab, I see it in the bottom left and think it's the "Where were we?" button. When I do want to create a post, it feels like I have to travel far to get to the button, and then I have to travel again when the dots come up to select what type of post I'm making.

I wonder if just tucking it at the bottom of the menu under "Get a domain" would be better? Or at the top of the menu? Not sure. I feel in my jellies there's a better spot for this one.

On Twitter

If I can address the most frequent criticism I see on this site, which is that @staff are trying hard to "ruin" Tumblr by "turning it into Twitter," I understand that gut reaction.

But I'd encourage folks to think about that for a minute. UIs change, and a left-aligned nav is extremely common for a reason. Since the dawn of email, menu navigation has been relegated to a left sidebar. Twitter is not "burning to the ground" because their nav bar was on the left. Having a left sidebar means literally nothing in the grand scheme of what makes a website what it is.

What, truly, has this nav update changed? It does not change the functionality of the site at its core at all. It doesn't change what you can post, how you can post, what content you find, reblogs, or tags. For a site that struggles with new users "getting" the site and finding their way around, this nav change makes it much easier to settle in with something a bit more ubiquitous to the modern browser-viewing experience.

Thus leading me to believe the only reason people hate on this change so vehemently is they don't want to see new users or any effort at all to attract them at all, and I think that's exclusionary crap. Knock it off.

Change is Scary!

That said, the change is scary! Having your muscle memory interrupted isn't fun and can take a while to get used to. Every change has a growing period. I get that. For me, I got over that period fairly fast, but I recognize this process is different for everyone, especially those who have been around here for a lot longer than I have.

The change is also open for valid criticism. There are usability and likely accessibility concerns for sure. Staff needs time to iterate, and they need to know what problems are actually worth fixing and addressing. "I hate it turn it back" doesn't help anyone - it doesn't help Staff, and it doesn't help new users who are trying find a new place on the internet to call home after *shakes fist at the rest of the internet.*

I really like this change as a starting point, and I can't wait to see it iterated on further.

And on a small end note, if you also have thoughts and opinions that you want to tell Staff, please, please, please remember there are other human beings on the other end of line.

[fashournalist]

Thank you, Isentia Content Hub: An open letter to my colleagues.

Eleven days ago, it has exactly been two years since I first started working at Isentia. I remember feeling scared whether I’d belong, and what kind of people I’ll be working with. I remember I kept telling myself “Bawal maattach, Grace, as some alumni have said, when you enter the real world, you’re there to work. Just do your job well and be a team player, but don’t invest your emotions.” But here I am, after two years, with so many beautiful memories with amazing people. I did get attached after all, and it’s worth it. Because I did not only have colleagues, I met a new family.

This was my open letter to Content Hub, which I hesitated to send at first after writing, because it’s too long. But thankfully, two of my teammates encouraged me to send it because they said what matters is I wrote it from my heart and it’s my farewell message to my friends. (I was one of the employees who got laid off.) It was here that I learned tears are really contagious, because after sending this letter, I received texts saying they shed a tear, too. Perhaps that’s because when I wrote it, I was shedding tears myself. Why do I feel like graduating from high school? Haha! I guess this is how close we have been. So here goes my letter, and pictures of some of the memories we have made. :)

Dear Content Hub,

This August 20, it has been exactly two years since I started working at Isentia. And now, 731 days and 41,283 summaries later, I just finished my last working day as a Broadcast Monitor. Permit me to be cheesy, I just want to thank the amazing people who made the past two years a memorable journey. I apologize in advance for the length of this email, but please know this letter came from my heart.

I'm really blessed that I got to work with you. I did not only have colleagues, I had a family. That is why whenever I reached the office, my update to my parents has always been "Happy place". It meant I arrived safely, I'm at OSMA already. And I know there have been hardships, times heartbreaking news crushed me, or times I went home way past my shift. Yet whenever I was on my home, no matter how tired I got, I just looked forward to facing the next day and working again. If world news were a play, we all get front row seats, binge-watching current events for at least 40 hours a week. It genuinely excited me that our job allows us to literally learn something new every day. But, I don't feel that way all the time; sometimes I just have burnouts and frustrations. So I think the real major reason that kept me going through it all is I had colleagues as supportive as you guys are. Allow me to thank you.

To Sydney Swans, my first team. 

Working with helpful teammates like you added to my motivation as I traveled from LB to Ortigas every day for five months (when I was not yet able to find an apartment in Manila). Thank you for your devotion to Qld Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. It showed me what client-obsessed looks like, and I committed to following that example. Your compere inside jokes and reactions to news added a lot of fun to our job. Until now, I enjoy backreading the group chat just to see your new musings or memes. Thanks a lot especially to John, Julianne, Zennon, Marco, and Kuya Ronnie.

To Fremantle Dockers, my afternoon shift team for more than a year, 

Thank you for everything; for being supportive colleagues, helping me whenever I struggled, and celebrating with me whenever I improved. 

Kuya Coily’s last day at our team.

How we help one another, especially during the Christmas dinner just so everyone can go to Sambokojin on time, inspires me. This was our post-Sambo bonding at Greenfield. I am also relieved that you never judged me as “walang pakisama” even though I only drank iced tea or milkshake haha. Others tend to force me to drink, but my friends at Isentia just let me finish all the food. HAHA. I appreciate people who can respect our preferences and differences. And you are witnesses that I don’t need to drink to be drunk. Based on my energy, I am drunk by default. Haha I will miss all these sessions with you and my batchmates!

I will miss our movie nights and billiard sessions (tho I'm just watching you haha) at the lounge. I wish we played more board games, too.

Isentia Outing 2019

Thank you so much also for being there for me when I lost my mother, you had my back and that will always mean a lot to me. When my Momi was still alive, she always knew I was working with great people. Thank you to every single one of you especially AJ, Morris, Evann, Aly and Kuya Mel. 

I look forward to a Dockers reunion when this pandemic is over! 

And my favorite teammate, Czesar. The best meetings are the ones you participated in. Thank you for all the laughter you gave us. 

I also want to thank my friends outside my team, including Tomie, Zendee, LA and Nico from Collingwood Magpies. 

Thank you for the dinner sessions and conversations on life and dreams!

This was LA’s birthday salubong at Kanto Breakfast :) While the next photo is a “panel discussion” at Goto Believe haha! We talked about the news we monitored, and boi, we went home at almost 5am.

Tomie, thank you for our never-ending laughter on our way home. Normally, I just want to be quiet and regain energy while traveling, but with you, it's okay to chat all the way to Quiapo.

To my favourite comperes, who will not read this but I feel like thanking anyway because some of you might share love for them: Marc Fennell, Jan Fran, Kanoa Lloyd, Jules Schiller, Sonya Feldhoff, Anna Vidot, Dave Sutherland, Tamara Oudyn, Sammy J, Paul Barry, Jeremy Corbett, David Speers, Leigh Sales and my inspiration Jesse Mulligan. Thank you because I learned so much about the world and about life from you. I will miss blogging about your stories and reacting to your insights.

To the leaders who managed me and/or accommodated my concerns, 

This is my former TL, Kuya Coily :)

TL Coily, TL Angel, TL Rem, TL Nico, TL Nic, TL Jonna, TL Geoff, TL Alni, and Sup Mitch. Thank you for all your help! Thank you for the times you inspired me and my colleagues to grow as well as the times you coached me, gave constructive feedback, and helped me overcome my weaknesses so I can continuously improve. 

To our Trainer Rachel, who we can consider as Content Hub's matriarch, 

thank you so much because you patiently equipped every single one of us before we transitioned to live operations. To OM Dean, thank you for your feedback and praise during my regularisation.

And most of all, to Western Borlogs fam, my home for two years, I don't even know how to thank you enough. 

I'm grateful you've been my batchmates at our training--and for everything after that. 

Isentia Outing 2019

Sibyullee, farewell samgyup party for Jai (her last day in the company)

Seoulgyupsal, farewell samgyup party for Aiona (before she flew to Spain to teach)

office memories :)

Pantry catch-ups. I usually eat at my desk because of all the work but I’m grateful for the times I was able to join their dinner breaks hehe.

Sambokojin, Christmas dinner 2019

Dear Borlogs, thank you for all the memories, endless laughter, samgyup sessions (a regular segment haha), Friday nights, and times we comforted each other when some of us are facing a hard time. Thank you also for comforting me and my family when you and B visited the wake of my Momi. She has always heard about you (and I'm happy she met some of you) when she was still alive. Thank you for being such a great sounding board, a safe space where we can be vulnerable and strong at the same time. Also, I've never been a milk tea person until I met you guys, so thanks for that, too. My BM experience would not be the same without you. Naz, Janelle, Joey, Patty, Billie, Lou, Aiona, Jai, Nee, Mau, C, Ady, Sarah. Thank you, sists!!

If you've read until here, thank you for bearing with my lengthy cheesy, farewell note to Content Hub. I attached some photos that captured a few of the memories I spent with you, as well as some jokes I've randomly thought about while monitoring. I was reserving them for Christmas Party or something, but anyway, here they are. I am confident they will make you cringe.

So there, I will miss you and I appreciate you always. I will not forget the memories we've made along the way. Thank you for everything, Isentia Content Hub! God bless you all and stay safe.

Arrivederci :)

Always,

Grace / Mariel

(this was me when I graduated from training and was so excited to be part of Content Hub haha)

PS. Thank you to Janelle, Jai, Joey, Jai, Kuya Coily, LA, Zendee, Dots and Troy for the photos!

PPS. Thank you so much for your heartwarming replies!!! And the food/gifts some of you sent!! I love you guys. (There, I said it. Haha! I was too shy to put that sentence in the email I sent. But this is my blog, I can write what my heart says without holding back)

^letter from AJ with a Bebi plant. She sent me oatmeal cookies and three novels too huehue she knows my weaknesses well haha thankuu ajj

^Matchaaaa from Patty thank you sist! <33

^Carbonaraaaa from Tomiee thank you siz!!!

Thank you to every single one of you. I was emotional when I wrote the open letter, but I got more nostalgic when I read your responses. I will always be thankful for the privilege of working with you and being your friend. Keep in touch, okay? We’ll still meet again. :)

Love,

Grace

[shadowofthelamp]

Fandom Trades: Tips and Tricks

I’ve been running a secret santa for five years now, and a few people expressed interest in a sort of ‘guide’. It does take some elbow grease to get things up and running, but it’s very rewarding and gets easier as you go. Click the ‘read more’ for some stuff I’ve picked up over the years! It’s a bit general to try and cover anything, but if you have any questions, you can ask! (And if you’ve run one yourself, feel free to add on!)

FAQ: Something that’s a really good idea to have. Here’s the most important stuff on it that would probably be applicable to most trades:

-Basic summary of what the trade will be- some could be fic-only or art-only, or even specific-ship-only. Mine’s general to ‘all sonic sfw content’, but setting guidelines so people know what they’re getting into is a good idea so you won’t have to answer the same question over and over.

-Deadlines. Make them clear. Mine’s easy (Christmas Eve) but depending on what size the gift is expected to be, the time frame can be adjusted. 

-Related, set up rules for if people need to drop out. It happens, so be prepared. (This is why I ask now if people are alright giving a second gift.)

-Any particular rules for your trade- is it sfw or is nsfw acceptable? (In that case, set age limits.) Are there ships that will or won’t be allowed? Is there a punishment for violating the rules or turning things in late, like not being allowed to participate in the trade again?

PROMOTION:

A promo image is a good idea! I’ve been using the same one for a few years that was put together by a friend no longer on tumblr, but images catch people’s eyes faster than a text dump. Make something that’s easy to understand but gets the point across, and the text below should have enough information without overwhelming the casual scroller. 

Space paragraphs often to make it less intimidating. Include links to the FAQ, the sample entry, and the submit box right in the post, as well as a way to contact you- you want things to be as easy as possible for anyone interested. Here’s my promo post.

You also want to start promotion early- I start posting and reblogging my promo a full month before the entry deadline, to give as many people the chance to see it as possible. Any earlier, and they might not care- (who wants to see a Christmas trade post in October when you’re hyped for Halloween?) and any later and you might not get as many participants as you could have. A month-ish is a good time frame. (I also have a tag for the promo post, so people can blacklist it if they aren’t interested and don’t want to see it 15 times.)

SAMPLE ENTRIES:

Also something that’s good to have. Having a template for what you want entries to look like will make sorting easier for you. Here’s mine. It’s a good idea to scout around for other trades to find out what would work for you.

MAKING ASSIGNMENTS:

Next, setting up how to arrange who gets assigned to who. I personally use google spreadsheets. These are the categories I use, feel free to steal them: Username, medium (art, writing, amvs, ect), whether they’ll work with fan characters, what they’d like to receive, what they won’t do (one year I even added ‘if there’s anyone you won’t work with’ so if it’s a fandom with drama, that one might be good), who they’re gifting to, who they’re receiving from, if they’ve submitted their piece yet, if their piece is in the queue, and if they’re alright with doing backup.

I also had a category for if they’ve confirmed they’re still in once assignments were sent out. (Boy, was that one nerve-wracking during the whole tumblr purge debacle of last year- I didn’t know if anybody had just quit tumblr mid-month.)

You will run into people who only want two or three things nobody else wrote on their sheet. If you can’t find even one match, then just put them with someone who had a wide variety on theirs, or who doesn’t have anything on their ‘won’t do’ list. Trying to match with multiple likes is a better bet, though, so encouraging longer lists of what people want makes things easier for you in the long run!

I personally just went in a line- I picked one person, found who they would give a gift to, and then found who THAT person would give a gift to. Rinse and repeat down the list, and it’ll end with everyone paired. I ended up making a closed loop and then sorting the last 8 or so, which was fine. An easy way to check that you didn’t double-classify anyone is control-f and searching names. If their name pops up 3 times, you did it right.

SENDING OUT ASSIGNMENTS:

Just copy-pasting the part of the entry that includes the person’s name and their likes makes this way easier for you over trying to type them out individually. Ask for confirmation that people got their assignments so you don’t have to worry if they missed it.

HOW TO KEEP THINGS ORGANIZED:

My system is this: I’ve mentioned it before, but I utilize a combination of my spreadsheet and the queue function. Let’s say Sally’s making a gift for Jake, Jake’s making a gift for Taylor, and Taylor’s making a gift for Sally. Sally submits her piece of art for Jake. I mark that off on the sheet, so when Taylor submits the gift for Sally, that gift will go in the queue to be posted whenever the deadline is up because she turned hers in already.

This keeps people motivated to complete their parts of the trade, since they won’t get their gifts until they do. If someone drops out, tell the person making the gift for them- if you’re lucky, they can rework what they have for the person that the drop-out was supposed to make something for, but if not, bring in someone who didn’t mind making a second gift. Person making the gift for the dropout can choose if they want to continue making it or not- if it’s mostly done and not a fan-character, they can just post it on their own blog unrelated to the trade. 

It’s also a good idea to have a ‘hub’ where things are posted. If it’s a fic trade, ao3 has a function specifically for this, but I’ve found having things submitted directly to you makes it a million times easier to keep track of who’s finished their pieces, as well as keeping things ‘secret’ until the big day. (People have gotten confused or excited and posted early before.)

If people want to post elsewhere after it’s posted on the main hub, set your own rules- I say it’s fine as long as it links back to the blog and links the giftee, particularly if it involves fancharacters. You make your own judgement.  

BE PATIENT:

This is one that’s very important. Some people don’t check the FAQ, and some people are going to be new, asking questions that you swear you’ve answered before or thought would be obvious. They generally just want to know, so take a deep breath. They don’t know they’re the fifth person to ask that question. Answer politely, or steer them towards the FAQ. (Running the same event year after year, you run into this a lot- they’re just new, be nice!)

Don’t start an event that you expect to have plenty of people participating if you aren’t prepared to hear the same questions a couple of times. Things might get a little annoying- take a step back for a few minutes, cool off, but try to remain professional. You signed up for this. For me, it’s always worth it to see how happy people are about their gifts, but know yourself and your limits- running a themed week where people post art at their own pace is less hassle, so you could try that if you don’t feel up to organizing a full trade! 

If you can have a friend to bounce things off of, that can help too, but don’t use them as just a dumping ground. Tumblr allows multiple ‘mods’ on a blogs, so splitting work can make things easier, particularly if it’s your first run doing something like this. I had a friend who helped me the first few years before leaving tumblr. Be sure you trust the person, though! They’ll be able to edit posts and delete submissions, so if any drama happens, beware. (This never happened to me, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful.)

TAGGING:

Add tags to the submission box. I don’t know why this took me four years to think of, but it saved me a lot of time last year. If it’s a trade that covers an entire fandom and dozens of ships, you can add the shipping tags as they come in, but adding the ten or so most popular character tags helps a lot. If it’s going to involve potentially triggering content, common trigger tags are a good idea too. (A Halloween trade might need this, for example, or one that involves nsfw content.)

PEOPLE TURNING THINGS IN LAST MINUTE:

It’s going to happen. I think one year I was panicking on the 23rd because I only had half the gifts, and all but one had been turned in by the time I went to bed on the 24th. People procrastinate- if you get in most of the gifts ahead of time, you can thank your lucky stars. Try not to stress over it, but feel free to post reminders in the week before/days leading up to the deadline. My family travels around the holidays a lot, and I managed to get everything queued up properly through airport and hotel wifi more than one year, so you’ll be just fine if you try and stay calm.

OTHER/GENERAL:

It’s absolutely worth it, in my opinion- I’ve been doing this for years for a reason. My favorite thing is knowing I’ve done something that made others happy. Going through all the excited responses Christmas morning is equal or above getting presents from my family, because I know it’s on some level because of me facilitating the trade in the first place. I hear over and over this is something people look forward to, and it genuinely warms my heart. 

It might take a few years to get established, but if you find a niche (there was a blog called sonic secret santa, but it hadn’t been updated in years) you might be surprised how fast you can gather people! I like seeing people show up year after year, it’s how I know I’m doing something right.

It is definitely work, and there is stress involved, (especially if people drop out or don’t send in their gifts on time) but the benefits outweigh the negatives, I say. People are generally understanding if there’s a problem, as long as you make it known you’re working on it.

You have to commit to the responsibility if you do this- people who are making gifts are putting their trust in you that you’ll keep things organized and they’ll get something for the gift they’re giving. You can’t guarantee everything will run exactly as planned, but you can be as transparent as possible when you hit a bump- ‘I’m sorry, but your person said they’ll be late because they were having internet problems/personal life issues and is doing their best’ is going to get a lot better of a response than radio silence. Be sympathetic, but be firm on the rules if need be.

I hope this helped a bit, and thanks for reading!

[ekakinomi-forgrownups]

"Better luck next time, fellas!" ~Mr. Peanut to 2nd and 3rd contenders Geniusman (Tottemo! Luckyman) and Mettaton EX (Undertale) as he proudly shows off his "Loving" Cup that he won for being the official Winner Of My Heart this year

Hi, everyone! How are you today? I bet you're pretty tired of being mostly cooped up inside. But don't worry--I have something right here that might catch your interest.

As some of you may know, March is National Peanut Month. Now, that's not exactly something worth celebrating for peanut allergists...but, on the other paw, March is also National Nutrition Month, National Kidney Month, Optimism Month, Spiritual Wellness Month, National Women's History Month, Irish-American Heritage Month, and International Listening Awareness Month, among even more things. March is also, of course, the first month of Spring. So there's much more to celebrate in March than just peanuts.

However, in this blog post, I'm going to celebrate peanuts. I could go on and on about peanut butter, my favorite food ever, the average jar of which is made with hundreds of peanuts. But, I'm just going to focus one one peanut this time--one of the most famous peanuts of all time--the one and only Mr. Peanut, mascot for the Planters brand of nuts and snacks. Why? Because he's my biggest cartoon crush.

.......say waaaaaaa~~~t?

But isn't he dead?

youre just posting your april fools joke too early

Nope. It's all true!

All the recent hub-bub about Mr. Peanut, including the infamous commercial where he literally dies, reminded me of this earlier commercial I saw on T.V. back in 2018 (the first video featured in this post), which utilized the same sleek design he was animated in during his passing. After finding it on YouTube, I found other videos of him, and this social media browsing eventually brought me to his Twitter account, where I browsed all of his posts from 2018/19. I immediately fell for his optimistic attitude, his sweet personality and especially his support for his friends and followers...and the rest is history. He has the looks, he has the heart--and now he's helping me to grow up.

But why him?? How could an overdressed anthro peanut top, let alone compete with, these practical princes of men? How would crushing over a cartoon help me grow up in any way? And last (and strangest) of all, why am I suddenly going "nuts" over the now-defunct version of a character who just 2 months ago died and came back as a baby?

I will answer all those questions in approximately...right now!

Being autistic, I have a more child-like mind-set than others my age--one facet of this is the ability to immerse myself in imaginary worlds and connect with characters. Thinking of characters, "talking" to them and even trying to act like them has gotten me through many a tough time. As I take inspiration from their personalities and actions, I find more fun and creative ways to spice up my every-day life, stay calm when things get stormy, cheer me up when I feel down, or pep me up when I get sluggish and demotivated. I use different characters to help me with different aspects of life. The two types that always helped me the most were characters with pure hearts, and characters I had crushes on.

Recently, though, I had been looking for a character that would help me take on one of my toughest challenges--accepting the fact that the world is equally as cruel as it is kind, while staying a calm and collected person, and then handling it all just by myself--to put it in two words: growing up. I won't go into detail (in this post, at least), but life had been extremely cruel to me last year. I had a lot of trouble accepting it, and I was losing my self-control. But considering that I'm going on 23 now, I knew that I had to get it together, or else I would stay a crying ball of nerves, trapped on a bed, forever. Being one of the less restrictive aspects of having the heart of a child, I knew that modeling myself after a good-natured fictional character would be a perfect start--but I needed one exceptionally powerful character to pull this off. I needed a crush with a pure heart.

Then it suddenly and silently occured to me, as I continued to take in his various pictures, videos, GIF's and Tweets, that Mr. Peanut was it.

His sleek and curvy body, his elegant limbs, refined features and gentlemanly disposition--not to mention the fact that he's wearing white gloves and has one eye always covered--immediately calls to mind my best cartoon crushes: Geniusman from the anime "Tottemo! Luckyman" and Mettaton EX from the game "Undertale" (who are both looking salty alongside Mr. Peanut on the winner's podium in the top picture). But what really got me was what he didn't have that the other crushes did, he made up for with his unique personality, that my other crushes, in turn, didn't have:

You see, Mr. Peanut rests comfortably on two fine lines that few characters have even been able to stand on. The fine line between "handsome and stylish" and "conceited and mean", and the fine line between "peppy mascot" and "mature and modest gentle-man". All except for a "brief" 10-year stint where they tried to "re-invent" him (Yes, I'm talking about the one who spent the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade dabbing), he's always been a gentle, friendly, quiet character whose main goal in life (besides selling nuts) is to help people and make them happy, "shelling out" plenty of pep while also remaining proper and well-composed.

He never got angry for more than a second or two, and handled (almost) any problem he faced in the smartest, most dignified and most fun way possible. And of course, he's very sweet and always thinks of those he cares about first. He also, despite being a mascot for snacks, loves to play sports and stay fit and healthy--and he encourages others to do the same. And finally, despite being a mascot in general, he always had this quiet, unassuming air to him. He made all his necessary appearances and entertained his customers, yet he always acted very natural about it and never hammed it up or acted super wild and goofy--a thing that most other cartoon mascots fail to do.

So he's not just eye-candy--he's also a perfect role model. That covers the "first of all". Not only does he give me the incentive to be a dignified lady who always does the right thing first, but he gives me that euphoric, limerance-enduced energy I need to really want to act upon it. All my aspirations to be more courteous, be more proper and elegant, be more brave, lead a healthy and active life-style and be a good mascot for Ekaki No Mi are finally coming to fruition. That covers the "second of all".

Yes, this all sounds very silly. But In a "nut-shell", he's the reason I'm finally growing up, so in a way, this is all anything but silly. I would be a hot mess without him...which is exactly why I'm speaking of him in present-tense (using "is" instead of "was"), and pretending he never became Baby Nut or even died in the first place. Here's where I cover the "third of all".

For those who don't already know about his apparent death and resurrection: for their big pre-Super Bowl LIV commercial (the second video featured), Planters took a very unusual, very controversial approach: Their preview commercial depicted Mr. Peanut sacrificing himself to save his friends by letting go of a branch on a cliff that was too heavy to hold him and actors Matt Walsh and Wesley Snipes. The actual Super Bowl commercial (the third video featured) depicted his funeral, which the Kool-Aid Man, among others, attended. A magic tear from the Kool-Aid Man caused a peanut plant to grow out of the ground and sprout a "Baby Nut"--the official reincarnation of Mr. Peanut. Here are the two commercials, in order:

But what people often don't realize is that Mr. Peanut is a cartoon--a form of art--and art, except in very specific cases, is meant to be interpreted by the viewer. If the story isn't satisfactory, people can ignore some parts and pretend that others play out differently, until it fits what they believe in. And the characters and their actions can hold secret meanings that only the viewer sees. In fact, the same character can don different personalities and clothes, and exist in different universes, doing different things--all at the same time. (Think of all the different versions of Mickey Mouse that exist at the same time, even today.)

So is the case with Mr. Peanut. As long as his original likeness still exists--anywhere in this world--he's still alive and well. And even if the actual Planters corporation says he's Baby Nut now, he's still the same old Mr. Peanut in another part of the Internet, in another part of the world, or in any alternate universe. Many, actually. In one of them, he could be "Miss Peanut". In another, he could be a radical "Teen Nut". And in another still, he could actually be the evil capitalist peanut everybody says he is--you know, the one who struts around in his aristocrat clothing while roasting his fellow "pea-ple" and selling them to humans as food in order to get richer...

...which I like to think is not true, because the real peanuts he sells for your eating pleasure could never have flexy bright-yellow shells or humanoid features, could never breathe, cry, blush, say "Whoa!" when startled, wear clothes, be cuddled by a person with a peanut allergy without triggering it, and couldn't even survive on their own for more than 4 months, let alone 104 years. When they grow, it doesn't happen in the blink of an eye--peanut plants take about 3 or 4 weeks to mature (on days that strictly aren't frosty, no less), and the peanuts themselves grow under the ground--totally different from how Baby Nut came into being.

In short, the peanuts we eat aren't cartoons, like Mr. Peanut is. And since he is, I can interpret him any way I want, just as any other person can. So he doesn't have to be a cannibalistic capitalist. He can be the dapper yellow fellow who sells and eats yummy, natural and nutritious morsels that happen to look a bit like him--think of how humans eat little crackers and gummies that look like other people--and, most importantly, is not dead and never will be, because people still love him and believe in him, and belief and imagination transcend death, at least when it comes to fictional characters.

(I especially have the right to believe he's dead because it's one thing to kill off a character in a series for story reasons--it's another thing to kill a revered and internationally-known brand mascot just to create a social media buzz and generate profits. Now that's capitalism!)

But at the same time, I can't help but admit that it was at least a unique social media experiment, and despite the nasty secret intent behind it all, it was very interesting to finally get to see how Mr. Peanut would die, how he got born (and reborn), and what he looks like as a baby. And honestly, with his big round eyes, squidgy body and dainty features, I actually think Baby Nut is pretty cute--certainly too cute for me to want to break out a mortar and pestle and make peanut butter out of him--but he's just not Mr. Peanut. Mr. Peanut was such a unique character that it takes some very special minds to make a character that even comes close to a replacement--sadly, Baby Nut just doesn't make the cut.

Thanks to the power of love and imagination, though, he's still his good old self in my heart. Besides, he may just grow up and come back some day. So in conclusion, he still is, not was, and always will be, the best role model and "husbando" I could ever ask for. He's got the looks. He's got the love. He's cute. He's graceful. He's dapper. He's daring. He's silly. He's sexy. He's serene. He's cheerful, and he always brightens my day. He's everything I could ever want, and more.

Some day I plan to release an art collection featuring the lovable legume sometime in the near future. I would have each picture creatively high-light a different aspect of his personality, taking inspiration from charming vintage art-work that would fit the theme of the picture as well as actual Planters merchandise, and I would utilize various retro art styles and techniques from different time periods to give each picture a distinctive "old-fashioned" vibe.

The collection will be available on all my art web-pages, including my possible future Patreon (if I can get enough subscribers!), and I'm hoping I can also get it shown off in a gallery somewhere (if there are enough Mr. Peanut fans here in Athens to want to see it.)

One of my favorite commercials featuring him ever, back when he was (canonically) alive and well.

The commercial where he literally dies.

The commercial where he comes back to life as a little baby peanut.

And that concludes my post. The credits for the videos go to Planters and KraftHeinz, and the cover photo for this post goes to my imaginary friend, Mini Minoux. Do you love Mr. Peanut, too? And if you do, what do you love about him? And what about Baby Nut? Is he “yea” or “nay”? I'd be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments--though please, keep it reasonable and don't be too harsh. We're in the company of a gentleman. ;.3

[dylannicknight]

Page 47. Happy Three Positive Years!

October 7, 2015. I was diagnosed. It was my mom's birthday. Amazing how time swiftly flies. It's been three difficult but amazing and awesome years.

It didn't really started that easy. Just like everyopne else, I had my struggles too. When I was diagnosed I had endured the side effects of my meds, disclosed my status to some close friends. Some, accepted me, some did not. I was called names like malandi, makati, mahilig, mapusok, maharot. I have been judged from here and there and I think I just got used to it anyway. I didn't really know how they come up with those words just by knowing that I am a PLHIV. I was even lectured of having a long term relationship. I mean, What the heck? The relationships I had has always been years. So why lecture me about long term relationships?

Ever since I was diagnosed my work changed too. I left my previous job. I was already a webinar trainer there but decided to leave to start a new life. I was jobless for 6 months. I moved to a different company where I believe I excelled and just got my fifth promotion. I think my virus brings me luck. lol! Although, someone in my workplace spread the word about my status which made me sad, but I had to move forward. You cant really please everyone and tell everyone not to do what they do. I was able to get over it and it doesn't even bother me anymore that some of my officemates might know my status.

In those years, I also looked for my own support. I looked for people like me and tried to ask them how they coped up with the situation. I tried to blend myself in their group and community and I was actually amazed that most of them are actually just like normal people. I have been a regular reader of Iam H. Positive and has been a fan of Billy Santo. I learned the language, where we called ourselves pusit or short for positive. we called the meds a lot of names and made fun of our conditions. We used to put it in our expressions such as "juice colored! lakas makaubos ng CD4!" hahaha! I really find that funny. We sometimes made fun of the OI's some has gotten in the past but not really in an insulting way. I made a lot of friends. We laughed and cried and hangout and dined together as blood brothers.

I also had some friends who lost the battle. A family friend of ours who was diagnosed late. He died with a lot of complications and my uncle was there with him and paid most of the expenses. even after he died, his family kept in touch with us and always invited us fo weekend and holiday stays on their resort. One is my good friend Jose. We dated once. He shared his life story with me. He was form the province and was sent by his parents here in manila to live on his own. he didn't live life that good at first but he was able to get on his own feet. He never got the chance to get back in their province and its really sad that he had to go back there with just his remains. When he got diagnosed, I was really sad. I wanted to see him. He kept asking me to see him and catch up and I really wanted to but my partner that time and mom wouldn't let me. I wanted to encourage him, support him and make him feel that he is not alone in his battle. I wanted to tell him that I am also a PLHIV and look at me now. I'm all okay. I asked for all the help that I can to help him out but eventually... he died. It has always been my regret. Then another friend died, and another, and a partner of a friend and a partner of a coworker. This actually led me to do my advocacy. To at least do something to stop people from dying.

Since i was diagnosed, I had two relationships. The first one I had was a Serodiscordant Relationship. Meaning, he is not a PLHIV. The relationship went on for 2 years and 3 months. At first, everything was okay. We decided to focus on our jobs and set the relationship aside. It wasn't an easy relationship. I've always been cautious and probabyly had the self stigma as I always fear that I might share the virus to him. We did set the relationship aside until it felt like there is no relationship anymore. But we're good. I don't wanna go into details anymore.

Then my present one. My happy pill. We just had our first month. I am 3 years older than him but whenever I'm with him, I feel like a kid with my daddeh! haha! I love you hub. I like how he encourage me to do better and be the best. Whenever I'm with him, I feel like there's a whole big world out there that I haven't seen. I feel so naive. Being with him just makes me feel safe. It's like I can do everything and no one will ever ever hurt me. I like the way he would look at me and give that smirk. I like the way he hugs me like there's no tomorrow and that he will never ever let me go. I like the way he hold my hands and brings me all these surprises. This is my first seroconcordant relationship.

In the family, My cousins have always been supportive of all the things I do. I disclosed my status with 3 of my closest cousins and they all accepted me. Although my mom knew my condition, she's always paranoid that something might happen to me, that I might get sick or not eating well or not sleeping well or just stressing myself out. She would always remind me that I am her only son and I will forever be her baby. Whenever I am at home, she would cook for me, buy all my favorite fruits like kiwi, honeydew and persimon. prepare all my favorite dishes then we would bake together and shop together and I would tell her all my PLHIV adventures. She just couldn't stop herself from worrying and I guess that's just what moms do. I love you ma. But I am a grown up now and I have to live my life. Dad however doesn't have any clue about my status. Or maybe he does. lol. As always, dad is a good adviser. a good listener. The thing is... His HIV 101 is so outdated. Maybe one of these days I can finally tell him.

I learned to make my circle very small and close and yet get to enjoy life justy like any normal person. I dedicated portion of my time in the advocacy and a part of that is this blog to tell everyone that there is definitely life even after HIV. :)

[digitalizedsociety06]

9 Social Media Marketing Tips

Marketing via online social media network

Social Media Marketing is a process of a product/service/information/content to be viewed, evaluated and shared. Social Media Marketing Methods are being used by Social Media websites to make a marketplace. Social Media Sites also work as marketing agencies for many small/big businesses. These advertisements are placed in such a manner that viewers are encouraged to view and share them across the Social Media Networks. This results in an electronic buzz across the social communities about the information of a product/service as it is coming from a reliable source which users may prefer to view, evaluate and share. When this buzz is spread out from user to user it makes it a marketplace.

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What are Social Media WebSites?

We can’t forget English Scientist who invented the World Wide Web, So-called www because of which we are able to talk about websites. Yes, Tim Berners-Lee. He was the one who invented www in 1989.

Social media websites let individuals and businesses interact with one another and build relationships. When business hubs join social media, it makes the way out for consumers to directly contact them and provide valuable information, which may help companies to build good products/services and know about consumers. These techniques of marketing are far more beneficial than the traditional way of marketing. It’s two ways of communication where consumers and makers can interact directly.

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Social media websites work more like nuclear reactions, where consumers hit the company and spread the news to other consumers and they pass it on to the fellow consumers. So all in all heat is there, so-called web-traffic is there. Web-traffic is the data / activity produced / done by consumers which is very useful for companies to analyze the market trend, demand, area of demand, need values etc. This is the actual information they need to make their strategies to fight with competitors of similar products/services.

Social networking sites include more information about product and service such as effective videos, flowchart, GIF images or anything else which might attract clients to know more about the product or refer it to someone who is ideal for it. Through effective data analysis they can make very useful strategies to target the potential clients. They can change their strategy and start adopting new after seeing the response from clients. These are very effective even if the client stops on one product for a long time and did not buy it, then the salesperson can go ahead and contact the client through other medium Call/Chat to know the true interest of client, problem he/she is facing while making the final determination or any other specification. This is how a client feels more comfortable, which emotionally forces him/her to build a good relationship with the company. This only comes out when the client has a one-on-one relationship or he knows someone will treat them well. We all know this human behavior.

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Let’s have a look at some of the most practiced social media tricks and tips-

Grow your Audience

Social Media is a place of following and being followed, shared and gets shared, like and gets liked etc. To get success on the internet today, you have to create stuff that encourages and engages your audience. Now the question is audience, how will one create an audience and will keep them busy/keep coming back. Well I can suggest many ways but you are the best person to figure that out.

To get the target audience first you have to find a relevant person based upon the product/service (Entertainment/Society & Culture/News & Media/Sports & Recreation etc.) and then use his/her contacts to build your network. You can use the same tactics with his/her contacts. It will be like a Jackpot for you. It will be like a directory from the BSNL ages or Yellow Pages from the Internet age. This is one of the best ways to build a target audience network.

Keep the followers awake

Another big responsibility is to create stuff which will keep your followers entertained. You have to put the right things in place to make your posts relevant, interesting and valuable for your audience. You have to make sure that you are not repeating the same stuff time and again. To avoid this mistake, you have to make a schedule to keep your post fresh, updated and new. This is how you can also make new followers and retain them with healthy relationships. There are few social media managers who sometimes post irrelevant stuff just to keep their presence. I would say don’t ruin your image. The more your posts are relevant the more audiences you would make.

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Effective Time Management

Human mind is full of expectations and addicted towards a trend. Understand aforesaid quotation very well as this is going to save you from lots of extra work. When you start marketing about your product or services and decide to spread the word out so always remember to make it a trend. Let me explain this thoroughly. Let’s say you post an announcement about your business and plans for next week online. Sometimes you post on Monday or sometimes on Tuesday or may be two days later. By doing this you may attract an audience who are already involved in your business but not the new ones. We all work on predictions at some point which explains even if you would attract more eyeballs towards your post if you are so scheduled about your post. Try to make it a habit of your clients.

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Now the challenge is to be so scheduled and we all know how we all get busy at times. So I have a solution for this problem as well. There is a life-savor tool called ‘Buffer’ like buffering. No just kidding. You can schedule your post, platform and timing and it will post at the scheduled time for you.

Social updates to write posts

Yes! This could be very useful to use social updates to write posts, you can use most popular social updates to develop your post. To do so, we do not need to accumulate every detail of the update, but we can make it short, simple and to the point. This is not always that article length should be kept in mind or we write little passages, instead of this we can pick up the most powerful, expressive lines which will bring thoughts in readers mind. This kind of post should be easy to read and understand. Clients are not so much concerned to go deep and study full articles, instead of that they look into few lines and if they find it valuable, interesting then they stop or else they move to another update/post.

Become an audience of your competitor

Another way is to become a client of your own type of product/service. Hit like, comment on a similar type of product or on your own competitor’s. Since you are into the same kind of business and gathering deep knowledge of the product, you will have valuable opinions to comment on and in result, you will get fresh ideas from targeted audiences. This is also very useful because people will see your name getting popped up and they will start recognizing you.

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Images with context

People are getting attracted towards images/videos in comparison to written content. Just like the transformation in the education field, from Black & White Boards to Marker Boards then Smart Education. The latest version in education we have is Smart Video’s. These are the videos, where students can actually see the stuff that they are being taught. Just like seeing complete tree structure, 3D structures, complex bonds/compounds from chemistry etc.

Knowing the demand of people and delivering it in the right way, right time. Make easily digestible videos, make use of color but don’t overdo it. If you make a video, make sure that it is short, sweet, crisp, right content and very important, must look professional with high quality. This stuff can bring more traffic than the written content to your social media marketing and will definitely create more awareness towards your brand.

Social Ads to attract visitors

Social ads are basically, the one which delivers the message towards society, the one which is very impressive with very unique and useful information. These ads play a very important role, as they are fresh, unique and eye catching, which compel visitors to revisit the web site/blog. In addition, you have e-commerce social media getting attracted towards your site/blog which is direct percentage income for your blog and that’s how you get web traffic. Revisiting users keeps your blog/site up in the optimization process, and that’s how you become most searchable content on search engines. In-direct way, you will get the attention of new customers and get your visitors list up.

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For example : If you are using Facebook to display social ads to your website/blog, please make use of page likes, page comments and encourage them to become subscribers of your newsletters or become a fan. In-return you will have visitors come back again by just clicking your newsletter subscription and you will have regular visitors.

Assign Roles/Duties

Assigning roles and duties to the correct person helps to reduce extra work from your shoulders as definitely you don’t need to be an Iron man. As we all know, the HR (Human Resource) department is a very important department for any organization. This the entry/exit place for every employee. The Human Resource department is responsible for any other department to function properly. The more good people they hire the more growth companies will see. Just like this, we have to assign roles/duties to every individual correctly, slowly and gradually they will come to know their daily task and work responsibility.

Roles/Duties

Member

Social Medical ManagementOscar

Referral ProgramJohn

Social AdvertisementSarah

Video content creationMark

Content writing David

Customer serviceAllen

When everyone is well aware about the job responsibility, this is the time for the implementation process. It can either be planned daily or weekly. Since it’s a very unknowing (lots of new things) market place, we should make small-small strategies and work on them. If some strategies don’t work well, we can leave those and move forward to adopt new ones. Don’t freak out if your strategies are not meeting your expectations. Remember, accepting failure is the key to success.

Know when to say bye

If your social media is not going well on a particular site, no matter who is responsible or to put the blame on, know when to exit. It’s more like a bad relationship; nobody is going to get benefited from stretching it out. More and more it’s a waste of time or time to invest on another good website.

It’s good to know your exit time and accept it professionally. Don’t get disappointed but learn from the mistakes you made.

Top famous social media tools to promote your business

Now you have strategies, you have audience, you have tricks now you need to know the platform. You have an airplane let’s discuss about the runway and you are all set to take off.

There are many social media tools that are being used by many organisations but every platform has a set of audience and ideal for a specific business. Let’s have a look –

Platform

Ideal for

GoogleEverything

InstagramPhotographers and Influencers

TwitterA Giant, if you can manipulate it, you are the boss

LinkedInprofessionals, writers, job seekers, Media houses

You tubeVideographers, advertising agencies, bloggers

TumblrPhotographers

PinterestAgain Photographers

GoodreadAuthors, Bloggers, Readers, reviewers

BufferYour assistant

Google+Another social media platform like Facebook

RSS FeedFor News industry, RSS feed keeps you on the top of content in your niche

[creepingsharia]

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Twitter Deception

Posted on November 19, 2011

via The Muslim Brotherhood Takes Twitter – By Lauren E. Bohn | Foreign Policy.

…

“Miriam” (she prefers to use a pseudonym, for “security reasons”) is one of the admins of @Ikhwanweb, the official English-language Twitter page for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most prominent Islamist organizations in the world. Ikhwanweb, the Muslim Brotherhood’s official English website, started the twitter account @Ikhwanweb back in 2009. For years, the account was a robotic-curated Twitter feed which did little more than link to the website’s posts. But Miriam has recently helped transform the account into a virtual coliseum for some of Egypt’s most heated debates.

For the last few weeks, @Ikhwanweb has been fastidiously engaging journalists (“You got the schedule for our daily rallies, right?”), critics (“We have a lot more important things to focus on and an election to win,” in response to a flurry of questions regarding their funding) and curious lay-tweeps alike (“Check chapter 4 of our party platform for our position, the economy section at this link“). Their goal? “To spread the truth,” they say, and engage with an English-speaking audience and liberals who wouldn’t otherwise interact with them. But their critics accuse them instead of presenting a falsely forthcoming English-language front that masks their true political intentions.

“We’re tweeting to humanize the Brotherhood and correct misconceptions,” Miriam says. “We’re not this big, scary terrorist organization.” The social media enthusiast grew up with the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood. Her parents are something of Brotherhood stalwarts — her mother, a journalism professor, is running for parliament in an affluent Cairo suburb. But she’s also very much a digital native, who came of age alongside the activist generation made famous by January’s uprising. “There are so many people in the Brotherhood like me, who are young, educated, speak many languages, travel,” she explains. “I’m not an anomaly, but everyone has the wrong idea about us.”

Miriam’s partner-in-tweeting Hazem Malky, 36 — a self-described “certified Twitter addict” who previously tweeted prolifically at @hazemmalky publicly, but recently locked his account to avoid “hate-tweets” — is an editor at Ikhwanweb and medical doctor by training. Currently based in New York, he also prefers to use a pseudonym, citing worries over “Zionist elements” and the United States government. He talks a mile a minute with a vaguely Brooklyn drawl, adroitly weaving arguments together with an easy mix of American vernacular and Classic Arabic. He says he tweets from his iPhone on the road, at the dinner table, even in his sleep. “Actually,” he concedes, “it’s sort of pathetic.”

In part, their turn to Twitter reflects a broader need for the Muslim Brotherhood to engage with and reassure Egyptians and the West. The Brotherhood has been banned since 1954 and long held down by autocratic regimes. However, their recently established political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, seems likely to have the upper hand in upcoming parliamentary elections. After twenty-four protesters, mostly Coptic Christians, were killed outside Egypt’s State TV building, Maspiro, in early October, sectarian tensions ran high. Malky said it was important for the Brotherhood to use Twitter more aggressively to respond to those concerns. “Many were implicating us, saying we had a special deal with the military,” he says over Skype, blaming both Egyptian state and independent media for habitually bashing Islamists. “But we’re used to fighting back and this is just a new frontier. We know we won’t change everyone’s mind in a few months, but we’re using every channel we can to correct and inform.”

Malky and Miriam repeatedly emphasize that the buffed up Twitter feed isn’t a top-down decision from the Brotherhood’s notoriously stringent and webbed hierarchy, but rather an internal administrative decision made by Ikwhanweb’s editorial team who say they have full control in managing the website without Muslim Brotherhood “interference.” Their tweets are not vetted, but do represent the official position of the Brotherhood — a potentially dangerous combination for any political organization. Still, they say Brotherhood big-wigs, like Khairat El-Shater, known not only as the organizational brains behind Ikhwanweb, but the most important power broker of today’s Brotherhood, “actively encourages” their online efforts.

The revamping of their Twitter feed into an instant resource hub isn’t the Brotherhood’s first attempt at establishing a vast digital footprint. In addition to Ikwhanweb and Ikwhanonline, the Brotherhood’s media extends to an extensive network of portals like Ikhwanbook, Ikhwanwtube, Ikhwanwiki, Islamophobia, and Ikhwanscope. With plans to expand the unit to cover parliamentary, and later presidential, elections throughout the country, Ikhwanweb’s team of self-proclaimed “media geeks” ranges from 15-20 executives, editors, reporters, translators, and technicians. And they plan to soon share a large new office space with their Arabic counterpart Ikhwanonline.

…

Ed Husain, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has been tweet-spatting daily with @Ikhwanweb after he ran a piece on his CFR blog “Is the Muslim Brotherhood Bribing Voters in Egypt?” Ikwhanweb promptly issued a response, to which Husain then responded. Husain calls Malky an archetypal spin-doctor, playing a game on Twitter from New York, far from the Egyptian streets.

“They put forward these people who are fluent in English, can argue well, and produce really nice quotes, but they’re not representative,” Husain argues. “The Brotherhood’s backbone is deeply conservative. They’re playing a deceitful and dangerous game.”

Yep. And Twitter conversations suggest many links between the Muslim Brotherhood, pro-Hamas Electronic Intifada and the Center for American Progress, etc. Coincidence they all know each other and parrot the same Sharia Lobby rhetoric?

Ali Abunimah ✔ @AliAbunimah  · Oct 21, 2011

If this were in a Muslim country…: Women removed from advertising billboards by occupation authorities in Jerusalem http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/women-noticeably-absent-from-jerusalem-ads-1.391157 …

Ikhwanweb ✔ @Ikhwanweb

@avinunu yup! Same thing happened when they removed #HilaryClinton pic from #whiteHouse photo with Obama. Mainstream media was silent

4:41 PM - 21 Oct 2011 Twitter Ads info and privacy

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Matt Duss ✔ @mattduss

RT @avinunu: Gaddafi speaking live from his unfinished basement. As soon as he's done crushing the revolt, he's turning it into a rec room.

3:55 PM - 22 Feb 2011 Twitter Ads info and privacy

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Related:

Muslim terrorist group Hamas on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube

From 2010: Muslim Brotherhood launches new wiki, social media sites

[hcsmca]

The United States Pharmacopeia: 200 Years of Building Trust in Medicine

The TEDMED 2020 theme is Make Way For Wonder, and we are looking forward to convening our Community and embracing the wonders of our times, the astonishing accomplishments, incredible possibilities, and extraordinary potential for the future. So, we were thrilled when the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) decided to celebrate its 200th Anniversary with TEDMED. After all, today’s wonders are built upon a strong foundation of scientific discovery. And, humanity is especially eager for those innovations that will help people everywhere live longer and healthier lives. In anticipation of USP’s presence at TEDMED in March, we talked with Ronald T. Piervincenzi, Ph.D., chief executive officer, about the organization’s history, its current work, and its approach to building trust in the future of medicine, supplements, and foods.

TEDMED: We’re excited to have you and USP join the TEDMED Community, especially on the occasion of such a monumental milestone – USP’s 200th anniversary.

Ronald T. Piervincenzi: Thank you. I’m thrilled to introduce USP to TEDMED’s audience and look forward to meeting attendees in Boston in March.

TM: What made you choose TEDMED to celebrate this milestone anniversary?

RP: Today, we are observing an unprecedented transformation in healthcare. USP’s 200-year legacy is built on trust and confidence in healthcare systems and anticipating and responding to emerging health challenges. Our founders joined together in 1820 to protect patients from a prevalence of poor-quality medical products. The backdrop today is different in scale, geography, modalities and many other factors. But the value of our work is the same. We are exploring how to build trust in future medical breakthroughs. There are many in the TEDMED community we can learn from and engage with as we imagine what the future holds.

TM: That’s exactly what TEDMED is all about! Let’s dive in. What is a pharmacopeia and what does USP do?

RP: Simply put a pharmacopeia is an official publication that includes a list of medicinal drugs and contains how those medicines are to be prepared, directions for their use, and assays to assess medicinal quality. The United States Pharmacopeia–National Formulary, which USP publishes, is the official quality standard for medicines marketed in the U.S. It is also used in over 140 other countries. USP is the leading independent scientific nonprofit organization that collaborates with the world’s top experts in health and science to develop quality standards for medicines, dietary supplements, and food ingredients. Through our standards, advocacy and capability building, USP helps increase the availability of quality medicines, supplements and food for billions of people worldwide. As the world gets smaller and more connected, quality issues affect everyone. Diseases travel. Drug resistance grows. Fake medicines kill. The foundation of quality we’re building helps address these and other global health challenges. Whether decreasing the prevalence of substandard and poor-quality medicines or helping to curb antimicrobial resistance, we’re there across 10 global sites working to protect the health of people all over the world.

TM: This seems like a very modern approach to medicine. Why did the U.S. need a pharmacopeia in 1820?

RP: Today, people trust U.S. medicines to be among the safest in the world but that wasn’t always true. In 1820, the U.S. was a new country. Medicines were made individually and differently by physicians or apothecaries. There were no regulations or more importantly, standards, to ensure that what you received in one city was the same as another. A medicine’s strength, quality, and even its identity varied widely depending on where it was made. Simply put, before our founding in 1820, there was no way to ensure that what was on the medicine label was what was actually in the bottle. Our founders—11 independent, forward-looking physicians— were concerned about this lack of uniformity and acted to protect patients from poor-quality medicines. Three of our founders were not only physicians, but also U.S. Senators—they were the voice that the U.S. needed to ensure the quality of medicines Americans used. They established the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention, which published the first U.S. Pharmacopeia. A great deal has changed since our founding but the importance of having quality standards for medicines and other new therapies remains—now, our work is much more global.

Image courtesy of USP

TM: This year’s TEDMED theme, “Make Way for Wonder,” explores how medicine and healthcare is changing. Is that a theme that resonates with you?

RP: Absolutely. Wonder and scientific discovery makes medical breakthroughs possible. But trust makes them popular. More than 800 independent volunteer scientists contribute their expertise to develop and approve USP’s standards. They help to build trust by setting clear quality expectations for medicines, dietary supplements, and foods. In turn, USP standards help manufacturers worldwide bring more quality and affordable products to market, which benefits people everywhere. A recent Johns Hopkins University study found that on average, drugs with a USP public quality standard had approximately 50% more generic manufacturers compared with medicines without such a standard. The study also found that quality standards helped facilitate pharmaceutical competition and reduce prescription drug costs in the U.S.

Image courtesy of USP

TM: How does a 200-year-old organization prepare for the future?

RP: New technologies and treatments—precision medicine, digital therapeutics, 3D printing, immunotherapy, gene and stem cell therapies, and artificial intelligence—have arrived or are on their way. As we prepare for dramatic breakthroughs, we must work to ensure trust and quality are established as a part of these advances. Unfortunately, trust broadly is in a precarious position across sectors. Our history has taught us that for an innovation to become a widespread reality, both quality and trust are critical to its broad acceptance. USP together with hundreds of our stakeholder organizations and partners are already working to build confidence in future breakthroughs and to anticipate and address where the gaps will be. We know that when a USP public standard is available, we help manufacturers be better able to adopt the new technology, which is often a significant cost savings. In addition to conducting workshops and roundtables on topics such as cell and gene therapies and digital therapeutics, USP is working with the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence and more than 100 leaders from health and science worldwide to explore the developments and role that trust will play in shaping people’s health between now and 2040. We will explore the project’s findings from this “Trust CoLab” with the TEDMED 2020 Community.

Image courtesy of USP

TM: We’ll look forward to learning more about the Trust CoLab. Until then, what else should the TEDMED Community know about USP?

RP: I mentioned our volunteer scientists earlier. I invite TEDMED community members who are committed to making the world healthier, being scientifically rigorous, and working independently from politics or the private sector, to consider becoming a Champion of Trust. They can learn more by visiting our website or by stopping by the USP Lounge in the Social Hub at TEDMED. I also encourage everyone to also learn more about USP’s past, present and future and opportunities for other collaborations with us at www.usp.org/200?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss.

TM: Thank you, Ron and very best wishes on the beginning of USP’s third century.

The post The United States Pharmacopeia: 200 Years of Building Trust in Medicine appeared first on TEDMED Blog.

Read more from TEDMED https://blog.tedmed.com/the-united-states-pharmacopeia-200-years-of-building-trust-in-medicine/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

[jacewilliams1]

Heroic rescue at Fremont

It was raining that day. A light drizzle collected in shallow-looking pools alongside the runway and taxiway. I sat in the flight school, hoping that some student would ignore the gray skies and come in for a lesson. Fremont Airport, closed now, much regretted, fondly remembered, was built on clay, caliche clay. It’s hard stuff when dry, harder than concrete. But it was raining and had been raining off and on for weeks. We knew that a step into one of the shallow-looking pools would be a step into sticky, soft mud. You could sink up to your knees in a pool that looked to be about an inch deep.

The owner-builder of an experimental airplane was fiddling with his engine. The engine started, ran for a bit, and then died. He went back to fiddling with it. The phone rang. Renee, behind the counter, answered it. I hoped that it was a new student inquiring about flying lessons, or maybe a private pilot who wanted instrument training. But Renee picked up an eraser and moved to the schedule sheet. A cancellation: “Because of the rain.”

Dan, another instructor, luckier than I (he had convinced someone that the glue that holds the wings on an airplane doesn’t melt in the rain), landed with his student and taxied to the fuel pumps. The engine on the experimental airplane came to life again. It sputtered a few seconds, and then smoothed out. The phone rang again. I watched Renee answer it. A student? Another cancellation? Renee’s boyfriend? No, a salesman.

I watched the experimental airplane move to the taxiway and putter toward the end of the runway. I looked at the sky again and wished that I had an instrument student. Or any student who didn’t mind if the sky was gray. Renee hung up the phone. The experimental airplane took off. I watched it climb out until it passed out of my view behind a hangar, then I turned away.

Then I heard the engine quit.

Okay, I thought, he’s got enough altitude. He’ll make it across the dikes and land straight ahead. He’s in for some embarrassment, but he’ll be all right.

The Fremont Airport was surrounded by a canal. (Image from Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields)

Let me explain: Across the end of the runway was a flood-control canal bordered by twelve-foot-high dikes. On the other side of the canal was a relatively flat area, covered with scrubby bushes, and bound to be marshy in spots with the rain. People had made emergency landings there before, so I didn’t think there would be any difficulty. But the important thing to remember is that there was no access to that area by road. Well, there was a road of sorts along the top of the dike, but it meandered in from I don’t know where, and there were several locked gates barring the way.

Dan’s student came running in. “Call the fire department,” he said to Renee. “It looks like he hit the dike on the other side.” I saw Dan take off from mid-field in the Cessna 150 that they had been using for training. I figured he was going to do a reconnaissance from the air.

I walked over to the helicopter operation behind the flight school. Wilbur-the-helicopter was already preflighting the big Sikorsky. (That’s what we called the helicopter pilots: Wilbur-the-helicopter and Steve-the-helicopter. One of the mechanics was known as Steve-the-wrench. You get the idea.)

Wilbur called out to me: “I’ve already heard.”

You know how it is; there’s an emergency in progress and everybody else is doing Something Important. And you look around and try to find your own Something Important to do. And so I was trying to find my own personal Something Important.

I could see a fire truck going down the freeway and then turning from the freeway onto the exit that led to the airport. “Somebody,” I thought, “had better unlock the gate.” There was a flimsy iron-pipe gate between the parking lot and the taxiway. It was secured by a combination lock, and I happened to know the combination. I had found my Something Important.

So as I fumbled the lock open and swung the gate open, the fire truck, lights flashing, rolled up, rolled through the gate, and rolled onto the taxiway. “No,” I thought, “he’s got to realize that he has to stay on the taxiway. He’s got to realize that he can’t drive in that mud. He’s got to stop…”

Whump! Right up to the hubs. Momentum carried the truck about eight feet past the end of the taxiway, lights flashing and wheels kicking up a brown mixture of clay and water. And there he stuck, lights still flashing, rear wheels churning.

I was still holding the gate open when an ambulance came through. I tried to tell the driver to stay on the taxiway, but he wasn’t listening. I thought maybe he would see that the fire truck was stuck and take warning, but no, he saw the fire truck and decided to pass him on the left.

Whump! Right up to the hubs. With his lights flashing and the rear wheels churning.

I tied the gate open and walked back to the helicopter. Wilbur had already started it and was warming it up. He signaled me to get in, so I found my second Something Important to do. The inside of the big Sikorsky is like the inside of a two-story building. The pilots sit up on the second story and the cabin is down on the ground floor. I found a headset on a hook inside the door and put it on; it was connected to an intercom system so that the crew could talk to the pilot. I looked up at Wilbur. Since nobody else was around, I was the rest of the crew.

“It should be another two minutes before it’s warmed up,” he said.

Meanwhile, I saw another fire truck and another ambulance go through the gate. “Good luck,” I thought, and then the helicopter took off.

The brawny S-58 has played a lot of roles in its history, including air ambulance.

From the air, I could see that the second fire truck and the second ambulance had stopped on the taxiway. I suppose somebody from the first set had signaled them to stop there. Wilbur landed next to the second ambulance and four people with a stretcher climbed in. I told Wilbur when they were ready and we took off.

Once again in the air, I could see the mired vehicles and some firemen slogging their way to the dike. Also, I could see that Dan had somehow managed to land the Cessna 150 on the far dike near the accident. Dan was a hell of a pilot. I don’t think I could have landed there, and I know I wouldn’t have tried. But Dan did. So he was second at the scene of the accident and was able to give first aid to the injured pilot. (Second at the scene? Ah, yes. Always remember that the pilot in command is the first at the scene of the accident.)

We landed on relatively firm ground and the stretcher crew left. Almost immediately, two of them came back. They pointed back toward the ambulance. “Need a backboard,” one of them shouted at me, which message I relayed to Wilbur through the intercom. Evidently they suspected that the pilot had back injuries and didn’t want to take chances.

In the air again, I could see that two of the firemen had climbed over the first dike and had slid to the bottom of the flood-control canal. That was a bad mistake. They waded across the sluggish, greasy stream at the bottom and were trying to climb the second dike. It looked pretty slippery to me.

We picked up the backboard and crossed the canal again. I could see the two firemen in the canal covered with mud and making remarkably little progress climbing up the side. They had given up trying to climb the second dike and were trying to get out the way they had come in. Two other firemen were standing on the first dike and seemed to be giving them advice and encouragement, but of course, I couldn’t hear.

On the ground again, the paramedics strapped the injured pilot to the backboard and loaded him into the helicopter. As we crossed the canal again, I could see the two firemen still trying to climb back up the first dike. They didn’t seem to be making much progress.

The injured pilot was loaded into the second ambulance, which cautiously backed out on the taxiway. Did I tell you that the taxiway was too narrow to turn around on? Well, it was. The ambulance backed up to the gate, turned around, and shortly, I saw it on the freeway, heading for the hospital.

The injured pilot spent two weeks in traction and was back flying again.

The two firemen were rescued from the canal with ladders from the mired fire truck.

The second fire truck managed to winch the first ambulance back onto the taxiway, but all efforts to pull the first fire truck out of the mud resulted in broken chains and cables until they got a heavy-duty tow truck to do the job. All of this heavy equipment damaged the taxiway so that we had to be careful taxiing on it for a while.

Dan flew the Cessna 150 off of the dike; a more difficult job than landing it. Somehow I missed seeing it. Later he told me about it. “You have to remember,” he said, “if you ever have to take off or land on a dike, you don’t have any ground effect to help you.” Dan was a hell of a pilot.

I wasn’t there when they brought out the experimental airplane, but someone, (maybe Wilbur-the-helicopter) brought it out and they put it in a hangar.

The next day it rained again. Then during the next week everything dried out. The ruts left in the caliche clay by the fire truck hardened and we could see them for months afterward.

The post Heroic rescue at Fremont appeared first on Air Facts Journal.

from Engineering Blog https://airfactsjournal.com/2019/12/heroic-rescue-at-fremont/

[thoughtfullyjollycollector-blog]

An Immovable Feast

An Immovable Feast

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If any of the chains was going to supply me three free pizzas, I am glad it was this one. She offers a free consultation, and when we discussed what I wanted she even took the time to explain that I could do all of it by myself if I selected. Would even be a fantastic treat to share with the hubby. One cannot even prepare a meal without this data - oh I forgot we're all eating at quick food eating places so nobody cooks. This information comes through prophecies, visions, and dreams that God particularly gives to a certain privileged group of individuals - on this case IHOP. Individuals with no faith at all most frequently resort to things which can be unheard of resembling killing themselves. I get just a few emails per week from individuals asking me to review products or submit numerous commercials on this blog, usually in change for something. Joes Crab Shack wiki When the little issues get performed, friends will notice it. Wild Issues embrace conventional appetizers reminiscent of spinach dip, onion rings and mozzarella sticks.

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— Social N Houston (@SocialInHouston) June 8, 2015

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[dorothydelgadillo]

This Is What It Looks Like to Go From Zero Tech Skills to a Successful Tech Career

After a year of writing for Skillcrush, one of the biggest misconceptions I’ve seen in our comments sections, emails to the editor, or even questions during my shifts as part of our all-team customer support is unless you’ve been hacking since you were twelve and studied computer science in college, there’s no way into tech. This myth makes me want to pull my hair out—aside from being patently untrue, it seems designed to keep people out of tech.

And that excludes tons of people from careers with a whole lot of appeal: They’re challenging, on the cutting-edge of innovation, high-paying, and with the flexibility to create schedules and work environments that suit your unique needs.

Luckily, the idea that a longterm tech pedigree is the ticket into the tech world is a total myth. The tech industry employs all kinds of people—even people who started off with zero tech skills and never envisioned themselves working in tech in the first place. There are plenty of ways in that use your existing skill set, and you can learn and level up as you go.

Since the idea of going from zero tech skills to employed in tech might sound far-fetched, I talked with four tech professionals who did just that, proving that there are as many paths for getting into the industry as there are people willing to put in the effort. Even more encouraging: While it took a few years for these pros to grow into their roles, it took each of them only a year or less to get those roles once they got serious about tech. Read on to find out how they did it.

Write Your Way Into Tech

For Blair McKee, Digital Marketing Manager at DNS Made Easy, her entry point into tech had nothing to do with tech skills—she got her foot in the door as a copywriter. “I’m in Northern Virginia. . . a huge Internet hub,” McKee says, “and tech companies are dying for writers that can articulate abstract and complex tech concepts.”

Having those skills, McKee found herself working as a copywriter for a high tech startup—though without any actual tech know-how. McKee started at the company writing press releases and marketing copy, then eventually moved into technical articles and tutorials. As her job duties shifted, she was introduced to more and more tech concepts and began to get a better overall understanding of how the internet works. The more she learned, the more her interest grew in web design and front-end development. She ultimately decided to refocus her career on the tech-specific aspects of her work.

McKee taught herself to code by building basic websites from scratch, then delved deeper into CSS3 and Sass (two coding languages used for styling web pages) through online code camps like Free Code Camp and Code Academy. “I also read a LOT of industry news,” McKee says, “from technical SEO (search engine optimization) blogs to how to grow SaaS (Software as a Service) startups.”

After roughly a year of studying in her free time, experimenting, failing, researching, and trying again, McKee started to feel confident enough to assert herself as a web designer, and she didn’t look back. She’s since taken those skills and used them to build a career as a digital marketer, SEO expert, web designer, and UI/UX (user interface/user experience) designer.

A Little Social Media Know-How Goes a Long Way

Sarah Zurell, Chief Brand Officer at Pavemint, started her career in Los Angeles, working in the entertainment industry where she was a stand-in for Zooey Deschanel on the set of New Girl. But Zurell felt like something was missing—her career as an actress wasn’t fulfilling her in the way she thought it would, so Zurell reached out to her contacts in the acting world and landed a job working for a marketing company.

“Initially, they hired me to help them on a social media campaign for the CW TV show Breaking Pointe,” Zurell says. “I was ghostwriting tweets targeted toward ballet dancers and ballet fans, but I wasn’t a writer and had no writing background. I didn’t even have a Twitter account when they hired me in 2012!” Still, Zurell decided to fake it till she made it, even hiring a tutor to help her brush up on her grammar skills, and “in the end the campaign was a smashing success,” Zurell says. “As a result of the online following I helped build, the show was picked up for a second season.” Zurell continued with her digital branding career, until she eventually started doing work for tech companies—despite her lack of a tech background. It was at this point that she realized she’d found her platform for making a meaningful mark on the world.

Today, Zurell is the Chief Brand Officer at Pavemint, a startup tech company developing an app that connects people in Los Angeles looking for parking with people who have private spaces to share. While Zurell’s job at Pavemint is related to brand management, she says that working at a tech startup has given her the opportunity to touch nearly every aspect of the app development process. “Lacking a traditional tech background, this has been one of the most rewarding and—at times frustrating—experiences of my life,” Zurell says. “It takes continuous learning in order to grow and succeed. [But] for anyone who isn’t sure if they should jump into the tech world because of their background, my advice is to go for it. Reach out, find a mentor, pick their brain. We’re all still learning.”

That Fine Arts Background Might Finally Pay Off

Brooke Harris, Senior Product Manager at The Penny Hoarder, graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography—which she says led her “precisely nowhere career-wise.” Harris ended up trying a brief, two-year career as a junior account executive for an advertising firm, but she says it never felt like a good fit. “I spent the next four years bouncing around from one admin job to the next,” Harris says, and—although these jobs didn’t lead her directly to the career of her dreams—they did start exposing her to a variety of software applications (including database programs) that she’d previously been unfamiliar with.

In 1996, Harris noticed a sudden spike in listings for network administrator jobs, so she enrolled in a local technical vocational school that offered full courses for Novell network certifications. After a few months Harris earned her first network administrator credential, and she used it to get her foot in the door at one of the many companies in her area looking for entry-level help desk and network admin support. Harris committed the next few years to working help desk and network support jobs, where she helped users with software programs, network connections, and email issues. During one of those years she also invested some time in learning SQL (a database programming language), and it paid off big time—in the middle of an economic downturn when jobs were starting to dry up, she was recruited to be a web team project manager and jumped at the chance.

This opportunity turned into a 17-year-career as an IT project manager, working closely with all types of technical teams including UX designers, SQL engineers, web developers and quality assurance analysts. Despite not starting off with a tech career as her goal, and learning most of her skills in the moment and on the job, Harris says she feels like she’s trained for this role her whole life. “It’s the perfect blend for me,” Harris says. “I [get to] use…leadership skills to help drive us forward, [combined with] my ‘design eye’ from my college degree and all the technical skills I’ve honed along the way.”

Don’t Be Afraid to Build From the Ground Up

Matt Hubbard, Director of Operations at FullContact, was a law school graduate working in foreign policy and international relations for the early part of his career. He found himself getting frustrated working with an outdated tech infrastructure and co-workers who weren’t inclined toward technological solutions to problems. “I couldn’t code or perform data analysis,” Hubbard says, “[but] I was more tech-savvy than [a lot] of my colleagues. Over time, I knew I’d get more career fulfillment by surrounding myself with like-minded people, [so]—rather than spending my career fighting with outdated, hard-to-use software—I decided to switch careers and help build good software.”

Hubbard started taking classes in Information Systems, during which he got an opportunity to work for the tech startup FullContact. Hubbard started off doing unpaid work for experience and then eventually joined the company full-time as a Customer Experience Manager. Going from zero tech experience to full-time tech employment wasn’t all smooth sailing: “To be honest, it took several years before I felt comfortable following a technical discussion between engineers,” Hubbard says. In order to catch up along the way, he used online tools like Coursera and Code Academy to pick up different skills, but he says he got the most value from spending time with technical colleagues and reading bloggers like Tomasz Tunguz and Mark Suster to pick up startup business concepts.

Today, as Director of Operations, Hubbard is responsible for process improvements and engineering across his company—a career trajectory he built steadily from the ground up. “I…like the progressive mindset, flexibility, and entrepreneurial nature of the tech sector.” Hubbard says. “Fast-growing tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon [have driven so much] change in the world compared to traditional institutions, [and I have] an opportunity at FullContact to become part of that change.

from Web Developers World https://skillcrush.com/2017/11/20/zero-tech-skills-to-tech-career/

[zealousbouquetcomputer-worl-blog]

An Immovable Feast

An Immovable Feast

Panda Express will now present company with a reminder of their true good fortune - not the type that usually comes in a cookie, however the sort that comes from the people who love, assist and encourage them every single day. That story featured a quote from Stephen P. Warne, vice president of service and support for Datapoint POS, a point-of-sale provider that providers a lot of Cici’s locations. Coffee For Much less was based in Philadelphia as Espresso Serv Inc. The unique firm was began in 1976 as an workplace espresso provider and since then they've grown to turn out to be the most important workplace supplier in Philadelphia. One can simply perform a fundamental evaluation by having an eye on information from sources counting monetary data, financial experiences, company belongings and market share. Not solely that, but I gave them a D-, which now, after having them again, I notice was being good.

If any of the chains was going to supply me three free pizzas, I'm glad it was this one. She offers a free session, and when we mentioned what I needed she even took the time to explain that I may do all of it on my own if I chose. Would even be a great deal with to share with the hubby. One can't even put together a meal without this information - oh I forgot we are all eating at fast food eating places so nobody cooks. This data comes by way of prophecies, visions, and desires that God specifically provides to a sure privileged group of people - on this case IHOP. Individuals with no faith in any respect most frequently resort to issues which might be unheard of akin to killing themselves. I get just a few emails per week from people asking me to evaluate merchandise or submit various ads on this blog, often in alternate for one thing. view When the little issues get executed, visitors will notice it. Wild Things include conventional appetizers such as spinach dip, onion rings and mozzarella sticks.

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Jody H.'s Review of Joes Crab Shack - Houston (1/5) on Yelp http://dld.bz/dFSUd

— Social N Houston (@SocialInHouston) June 8, 2015

Helpful hub. I feel emotional maturity is a very important quality. The rub made me think of the taste particles you'd see on Doritos. Is this a 2018 initiative, or is it something that you simply think you'll be able to hit this year? Chromium supplements can be known for preventing breakouts and treating blemishes. For extra info in regards to the CiCi's Pizza franchise opportunity, please visit www.cicispizza.com/franchising. rochelle georgia Is it extra worthwhile that means? Randi Zuckerberg envisions a future of built-in expertise--and that begins with parents embracing interactive tech for his or her kids in a wholesome method. The airport just had a serious innovation and Delta Airlines is adding more jobs. The 5,869 square-foot restaurant will seat more than 200 friends and will create greater than 90 new jobs for the neighborhood. Components situated at a distance less than 1km (0,621miles) only will be displayed.

[mysteryshelf]

BLOG TOUR - High Child

Welcome to

THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF!

DISCLAIMER: This content has been provided to THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF by Breakthrough Promotions. No compensation was received. This information required by the Federal Trade Commission.

Guest Post by the Author

“Why Do I Write?”

Why do we choose to do anything? What is it that drives us to take action? Obviously, we do the things we need to do in order to survive. We get jobs, make money, buy shelter, food and clothing to provide for ourselves and our loved ones, but what about outside of our basic needs? What happens once those needs are met? The next logical choice would be to have some fun. Life is not all about surviving, it’s also about what we do to fulfill ourselves. What brings us joy and happiness? Next to survival, this is key.

Learning new skills, traveling to new places, following a creative endeavor, meeting new people, facing new challenges and socializing with friends and family are all part of this path. For me, writing helps satisfy many of these things. I think anytime you follow your bliss, you will find a whole new world opening up to you. That’s part of the excitement. The journey you take and what you learn along the way are key as you open up to new opportunities.

I started writing in 2012 after many years of dabbling with it. I’d started and stopped many times, but never considered my work “worthy” enough and would put it in a drawer away from view. But for some reason, when I got an idea to create a storyline around an extraterrestrial community that lived on earth, it stuck. I wrote my first book in eight months, the second in five months, and the third in two. The words were pouring out of me and it was so much fun. I loved my new found community of characters and I loved writing about them. I didn’t think about editing, publishing and marketing. I just wrote. And what’s funny? I didn’t tell anyone. I wrote the entire first book and nobody knew.

Part of me liked that no one knew because it allowed me to write without having to deal with outside questions, curiosities and opinions. I could write without worrying about what anyone thought. But once the book was done, I had to face that final challenge of showing it to someone else. And that meant subjecting myself to potential criticism. The self-doubt can be crippling. I’d just written ninety thousand words I’d poured my heart and soul into. What if it was crap?

But that’s the thing about following your bliss. You have to follow wherever it leads. And that usually means sharing your gifts with the world. If I was really going to do this, then I needed to take the leap. I needed to know if I’d accomplished what I really wanted – write a good story that kept a reader engaged from cover to cover and left them wanting more.

Fast forward to now and I’m five books in with a sixth on the way, so you can guess how my initial feedback went on that first book. It was positive. Don’t get me wrong. I had to do a lot of editing and I learned a lot from that initial endeavor, and I’ve learned a lot since. I’ve also delved into the world of self-publishing, marketing and self-promotion. It’s not easy. In fact, it’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but also the most rewarding because I love it. And that’s why I do it. It has nothing to do with providing for myself, because it doesn’t pay the bills (well, maybe one or two), but it satisfies the most basic need in all of us – fulfillment. It fills that creative hole and it allows me to bring delight to those readers who enjoy my work. There’s nothing better than getting the “I couldn’t put it down” review.

So that’s why I write. It fills my soul. Have you found something that fills yours? Comment below and let me know.

PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF ADMINISTRATOR NOTE: Please note all comments are currently moderated so will not immediately appear, but commenting is completely encouraged.

About the Author

  Born and raised in Dallas, TX, J. T. Bishop began writing in 2012. Inspired by a video that theorized the meaning of the end of the Mayan calendar, J. T. began the Red-Line trilogy. The video surmised that the earth was the central hub of activity for extraterrestrials thousands of years ago. J.T. didn’t know whether that was true or not, but it did spawn an idea. What if those extraterrestrials were still here? Two years and a lot of work later, the first three Red-Line books were complete, but she’s not done. The Red-Line saga develops as she continues to write new books.

  Website URL: https://jtbishopauthor.com/

Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/jtbishopauthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jtbishopauthor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judybishop99?trk=hp-identity-name

  Buy link for High Child

https://www.amazon.com/High-Child-J-T-Bishop-ebook/dp/B073NYDS2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504896979&sr=8-1&keywords=high+child+t+bishop

  Buy link for Curse Breaker

https://www.amazon.com/Curse-Breaker-Red-Line-Book-4-ebook/dp/B01LX290GS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498784518&sr=8-1&keywords=curse+breaker+bishop

  BLOG TOUR – High Child was originally published on the Wordpress version of The Pulp and Mystery Shelf with Shannon Muir

[heckyeahlucilleballilovelucy]

Safe Nomad (7). Anthony Galli, USA. “Failure is not an option.”

It is very unlikely for someone aged 26 to have such thing as a “biography”. And by that I don’t mean the timeline of being born, going to school, getting a job, and partying in Ibiza or Cancun once. No. I mean it in the sense of “a life story worth telling”. Anthony Galli does have such a story and at the time of my writing this piece – some two months after I met him in Siem Reap, Cambodia – his story is still probably evolving at the same breakneck speed as always.

He was a bad student in primary school. Then he developed an attraction for history and language, two subjects in which he excelled during high school. Then he went to study Political Science. Worked for a state senator, and also a state assemblyman and at the age of 21 he even ran for local office.

Right after University, he bought an RV (Recreation Vehicle or camper van) and spent the next couple of years like a hobo, roaming across the US while making money out of temporary jobs and poker tournaments. He used this time to learn coding so he could develop an online app he had in mind. (We will get back to that later.)

When he reached the bottom of his pocket, he devised a bold plan: he would sell his vehicle and move to Asia, where the lower cost of living would give him a “longer runway” to take his project off the ground. He did as planned and for the last few months has lived, learned and worked in Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (he moved to Ho Chi Minh just a few days ago).

Around the grapevines of Angkor Hub, the adorable and welcoming co-working space in Siem Reap, the rumor had it that Anthony would one day become a great personality of American politics. And while some may see this as over the top, one should not judge Anthony’s future by his young age or elephant-print pants; he’s got what it takes to follow the footsteps of his favorite American heroes Jefferson and Lincoln. He’s got the will, the knowledge, and – last but not least – the looks.

If this prophecy is ever proven right and this young man is a Governor, Secretary of State or even The President of the United States, remember where you saw him first: this blog.

“Bad boy Anthony”

Anthony was a bad student and a troublemaker during his early years and not because he did not want to study, but because nothing was motivating him enough to do so.

“If I’m passionate about something, I will put all my energy into it. But in primary school I found nothing attractive enough to be worth the effort. Just later, in high school, I discovered history and was amazed by the biographies of great historical figures. Even then, I was a top student in History and English and bottom of the class in Math and Science. That’s how I am: either fully committed or not giving a damn.”

His high grades eased his entry to the Political Science Department at the Binghamton University in upstate New York.  Then one day he had this idea about a productivity app that could empower people to get the most out of their lives. He took it to some programmer friends, proposing that they split the ownership and profits evenly. They turned him down.

“They said they had better offers from the likes of Google or Facebook and they wouldn’t split 50-50 with me on an idea which they would work alone on, since I did not know anything about programming. I heard that a lot – that my idea was worthless and that the execution was everything.”

Passionate about his idea, he joined a tech club to learn how to code and develop the app by himself. George Washington would have done the same.

Live to Challenge

Anthony’s online app, called Live to Challenge, is a habit and goal tracker. Users create habits and goals and track them to completion. It’s also a social platform where one can set goals together with friends and helps people achieve more in life than they would do otherwise.

“Besides history and politics, I was passionate about self-improvement books and blogs. I’ve found all the information really helpful, but I felt that there was no good app out there to help implement the advice. You read, you say wow, this is great, I’m gonna do it, then you completely forget about it.

I think the more people use my app the better they will become so I want as many people as possible to sign up for it. Once the app gets bigger I can turn it into a business with real employees, I would like to build it into a big tech business to help as many people as possible to build a life around it.

I am willing to give everything it takes to make this successful because there comes a time when you have invested so much in something that failure is not an option.”

Anthony’s life philosophy: how to be hugely successful in the future.

“In today’s economy everything is about skills. People in their 20s should focus on developing their skills. Many millennials were like once I finish college I am going for the best paying job.

This best paying job could be a bartender, for example, because you make good money in tips. That’s a good job if you’re twenty-something, but how are you going to position yourself through your 40s and 50s?

I followed a different strategy; I worked less so I could learn more and therefore better position myself to be hugely successful in the future.

What I do now is a stepping stone, part of my guiding philosophy which is all about empowering the individual, specifically empowering people to live better lives.”

How technology unleashes creativity

“We had an industrial revolution that turned people from using their muscles to using their bodies as a whole and now we turn to an economy focused on using the mind.  Everything is going to be more creative in nature; whatever idea you have, the technology offers the possibility to make it a reality. Creativity will be highly encouraged and empowered.

Technology allows me to turn my vision into reality, I can focus more on my vision than selling it as I would have had to 10 years ago. Nowadays I can do a lot more by myself.

Technology has always given a lot of people freedom and will continue to do so because now freeing the mind is possible in ways never seen before.”

Doing his thing, feeling protected

“I don’t recommend the digital nomad lifestyle to everyone because it’s risky living abroad on savings to build a business.

In my case, my desire for success is greater than my fear of failure.

Some want security from work and derive their meaning from other pursuits, like family, recreation, hobbies, church or philanthropy. That’s more of a working to live philosophy.

I live to work. I spend most of my time working, but it’s out of passion and dedication and it makes me feel good. I know my work has a lot of meaning. When I wake up in the morning I’m more like I can’t wait to work!  There is excitement, there is something I have in mind and I want it accomplished. I feel my best when I know I’ve accomplished something. Every day I’m looking to accomplish something and if I don’t, I feel like I’ve failed.

Life is not about living quietly by the beach. For me, as crazy as it sounds, life is about making the world better because you were here.”

He did not blink when he said that.

from HOTforSecurity http://ift.tt/2w2GDMd

[metspacesolutions]

How to Become the Best in the World at What You Do

It can feel impossible to move toward your dreams. You know exactly what you want to do, but there are endless obstacles in your way. There is so much competition — thousands or millions of people competing to do exactly what you want to do.

How do you get out of the rat race?

How do you advance quick enough to not have your dreams smashed into submission by society and imploded by “reality”? How do you make the needed leaps to move beyond the masses vying for a similar position?

After all, you have bills to pay and tons of other responsibilities. You only have a limited amount of time each day. After work and everything else you’ve got going on, it’s easy to justify waiting until tomorrow. Even if you have the raw energy to do your work, you may feel guilty breaking from your relational obligations.

It truly can feel hopeless and overwhelming. There’s so much to learn. It can be easy to doubt our own abilities. Maybe we should just give up and accept reality for what it is? The Truth Is…

Most of the competition are not hard to surpass. They’re dealing with the same existential and practical challenges you are. Their life isn’t structured for optimal creative expression. They are the primary obstacle in the path. Most will quit long before they ever really begin — always remaining mediocre at what they do.

With a few tweaks, you’ll quickly drop through a wormhole placing you in the top 5–10 percent in your field. The challenge then becomes to move from there to the top — which movement is the real contest. Getting to the top 5–10 percent merely requires a change in lifestyle. Getting to the top 1 percent requires a fundamental change in your being.

How To Boost Your Productivity In a Coworking Space

Coworking is much more than a physical configuration of an office or a workplace definition. While traditional office spaces make it difficult for you to get yourself out of things like office maintenance and huge costs, the most you would need at a coworking space would be your laptop, giving you the time and space to be more efficient and productive.

Be Disciplined

While discipline can be perceived as covering shifts, it certainly means quite the opposite. Discipline is coming to office regularly and spending a good number of productive hours – after all, your office should give you a sense of productivity the minute you step inside.

Know Your Space

Coworking spaces, due to their scale, offer their members access to a lot of facilities that they would not have otherwise – like a Huddle Area, Meeting Rooms, Video Conferencing and secretarial services. These things go a long way in saving you the trouble of spending innumerable resources, and most importantly, your time. At coworking, you can avail yourself of these services, anytime.

Know Your Co-Workers

The core idea of a coworking space is to build a community where people connect, collaborate and create. Build strong relationships with people you’re working with (your coworkers, not just your team). The person sitting right next to you might be your future investor, employee or co-founder!

Know Your Community – Beyond Your Co-Workers

This cannot be stressed enough. Coworking spaces invest a lot of time and resources in organizing high-value events for their community and enabling a community for their members to thrive in.

Attending those events is a great way to gain better access to the community your Coworking Space has to offer.

Personalize Your Space

Many people consider coworking as an interim solution for their office needs, although this perception is slowly losing its credence. Interim or not, it should definitely not stop you from personalizing your space. Being in an extremely social environment, it is at times very crucial to disconnect from what surrounds you, and focus.

At Metspace, Coworking Boutique in Montreal, our mission is to build the premier Collaborative Coworking Community in Montreal for Entrepreneurs, Solopreneurs and Professionals in Development. We believe in providing our Members with the tools necessary to grow, give, and achieve. Coworking Montreal

Curious to see what Met Space Solutions is all about simply book at tour at 514-667-6891 or 1-855-814-2402 to see our see our beautiful co-working offices in Montreal.

Met Space Coworking Space Mongreal offers its members quality amenities and services to create a positive environment to conduct their business. This includes:

Receptionist

Audio / Video

Mail service, with mailing address

Maintenance and cleaning

Café MetSpace “Hub”

A copy of “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by John C. Maxwell

Private offices

Dedicated desk

Conference rooms

Cold calling rooms

Event space rental

Parking

Private phone booth

SO YOU CAN… • Grow your business • Develop your leadership skills • Attend various events designed to propel you and your business • Thrive in a supportive community • Connect with peers • Give back to the community through Breakfast Club of Canada

This post is a framework to quickly get you into the top 5–10 percent of your field so you can begin the real quest of becoming the best at what you do.

Phase One will get you to the top 5–10 percent of your field. Once you’re at this level, you are getting paid enough for your art to live on. This is key, as Paul Graham has said, “Once you cross the threshold of profitability, however low, your runway becomes infinite.” He calls the lowest tier of profitability, “Ramen Profitable,” which means a startup (or business of any sort) makes just enough to pay the founders’ living expenses.

Infinite runway means you can now dedicate all your “work” time to your work. You are no longer moonlighting or squeezing time in the margins of your life. You can pay your bills and eat Ramen. This is where Phase Two begins, and is really the beginning of your artistic journey — becoming the best in the world at what you do.

Let’s begin:

Phase One: Getting To Ramen Profitable (Or Sustainable)

1. Start As An Amateur

Kenzie and Harris were recently married. They had both dropped out of Brigham Young University and were working at the Apple store in downtown Salt Lake City. On the side, they were recording music covers and posting them on YouTube and Vine.

They had enough money in savings to live on a year, so they quit at Apple to make a run at becoming professional musicians. Every day, they would post Vines. For several months, their work went mostly unnoticed. They had a few thousand followers tops.

Then, everything changed. They posted a Vine that immediately went viral. The next day, they were contacted by some of the top Viners as well as agents who gave them contracts. They were now Ramen Profitable, had amazing connections, and on their way to making an amazing career as musicians.

Kenzie and Harris wouldn’t have had their breakthrough if they didn’t start as amateurs. They had some raw talent. But more than anything, they were willing to put themselves out there over and over and over. Quantity became quality. And then they put something out that people loved.

Very few people have the humility to start as amateurs. They procrastinate doing the work they want in the name of perfectionism. You know these people. The one’s who have been saying for years that they’re going to do something but never do. Yet inwardly, they’re terrified of what other people will think of them. They’re caught in a state of paralysis by analysis — too busy calculating and never reaching a state of flow. Rather than doing work their own way, they do what they think will be well-received — being merely imitators of what is already popular.

2. Get Coaching/Education

Take your dreams seriously. Most people don’t. Take them serious enough to become amazing and move beyond mediocre. Get education and coaching.

“When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” — Buddha

Ever since returning from a two-year mission trip, I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer. However, my dream remained a figment of my imagination until I became serious enough to get a mentor.

I’ve had two mentors that have changed how I write. One of my mentors was a young professor who taught me more in three months than I had learned in the previous four years.

Actually, he taught me more about academic writing and research in three months than most people learn through an entire PhD. With his help, I was easily able to get into the graduate school of my choice.

I started blogging about 21 months ago. Knowing this is something I’m serious about, I decided to get coaching. However, this time, I did it in the form of a virtual online course. Within a month of taking the course, I wrote a blog post that was read over five million times across multiple outlets and in several languages. This online course was not the reason for my success; but it was an important part of the progression I would inevitably get one way or another.

You’ll know when you’re ready for the next level when you attract the right teacher to help you get there.

3. Stop Living The Broken Rules Everyone Else Is Living

If it’s popular it’s wrong. Most people are mediocre at what they do for a reason. They’re playing by rules that halt optimal performance. They are climbing traditional ladders intended to slow them down and keep them average.

When everyone else is zigging, that’s when you zag. Darren Hardy says you should run “toward the thing everyone else is running from” in order to stand out from the crowd. As Peter Diamandis says, “The day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.” If what you’re doing doesn’t seem slightly crazy to you, and very crazy to other people, you’re probably following the safe path.

Instead of following the rules set by society, create your own rules. Restructure the game to automate your success. Dismiss the haters, convention, and conformity. Follow your heart and the voice inside you encouraging faith and forward movement. In order to be happy, you must build a lifestyle around being true to yourself. If you’re true to yourself, good things will follow.

4. Be Consistent Until You Have A Break Through Patience.

If you haven’t had your big break yet, keep going. Consistency is the most fundamental virtue to becoming the person you want to be. Almost everyone can sprint for a while. But most burn-out and quit. Everything meaningful in life is a marathon — meant to test your commitment and will.

If this is what you love doing, you’ll do it regardless of the outcome. In fact, obsession with a particular outcome will keep you from attaining your desired results. Your work will be forced rather than organically lived.

There is a natural law known as the compound effect. If you invest a small amount of money consistently, eventually compound interest takes over and growth becomes exponential. The same holds true for any habit, whether good or bad. If you do something long enough, compounding will take effect, momentum will surge, and you’ll begin to experience exponential results.

If you want it bad enough, you will do whatever it takes to make it happen. If you don’t, you won’t. You’ll be willing to reduce time with friends and hobbies, forego sleep, make big asks, take risks, find a mentor, get educated, and look foolish. You’ll be surprised how quickly you become Ramen Profitable when you take your work seriously.

Phase Two: Becoming The Best In The World At What You Do

The person who succumbs to temptation knows far less about its power than the person who resists it. Experience is key. Knowledge only becomes wisdom when it’s properly and consistently applied. Thus, the importance of learning from people who have actually been there, as opposed to sideline spectators. Never take advice from someone you wouldn’t want to switch places with.

Getting to the top 5–10 percent in your field can be done by following principles taught by other people. However, in order to become the best at what you do, at some point you leave it all behind. You become an innovator. A pioneer. An artist.

In order to get to the top 1 percent of performers, you must come up to the razor’s edge — the brink of disaster — where probability of failure is high. At this point, everything you’ve been taught is opposed by what you feel you should do. But your intuition is operating at a higher level.

5. Structure Your Entire Life To Optimize Your Performance

Entering the realm of the best in the world requires becoming holistic about your art. Everything you do matters. Every moment of your life either contributes to or takes away from what you’re trying to accomplish — the food you eat — activities you do — people you spend time with — and how you spend your mornings and evenings.

Most people’s lives are structured in a reactive way. The first thing they do in the morning is check their email or social media. They may even read a good book. But all of these things are highly addictive inputs.

In order to become a creative master, you must focus your efforts on outputsby leveraging your subconscious mind. While you’re away from your work, like sleeping, spending time with friends, or other activities, your subconscious is working through and mulling over the problems you’re trying to solve.

The first thing to do when you wake up is output. This may be in the form of writing in a journal to capture all the work your subconscious has been doing while you were sleeping. Or immediately getting to the project you’re working on. When you get out of a meeting or finish any form of activity, rather than going directly to your email or other input, maximize your subconscious by going directly to output — your work. Creative and insightful eruptions of intellectual inspiration will flow.

Being healthy and free from physical pain is also crucial for enhanced performance. In his book, The Great Pain Deception, Stephen Ozanich wrote:

“Pain and other chronic symptoms are physical manifestations of unresolved internal conflict. Symptoms surface as the instinctual mechanism for self-survival. They are messages from the inner self wanting to be heard, but ego takes center-stage, and hides the truth within the shadows of the unconscious mind: which is the body.”

In the 1990’s neuroscientist Candice Pert, Ph.D., shared her discovery that the body, not the brain, is the subconscious mind which communicates via neuropeptides. Indeed, human beings are holistic. Our body and mind work in unison.

When we have unresolved tension in our lives, this tension is generally manifest in physical illness. When we clear ourselves of this tension, we allow our body to naturally and organically heal. When our bodies are healthy, we’re far more prone to inspiration.

6. Allow Time For Recovery

Less is more. When you focus on results, rather than being busy, you’re 100 percent ON when you’re working and 100 percent OFF when you’re not. This not only allows you to be present in the moment, but allows you the needed time to rest and recover.

The science if very compelling. Psychological-detachment from work is essential for being engaged while you’re working! Here are other benefits of psychological detachment from work: If you don’t detach from work, you’re more likely to procrastinate and get fatigued on the job.

Although this is obvious, if you don’t detach from work, you’re less likely to have marital satisfaction. Your ability to work at a high level is like fitness. If you never took a break between sets, you wouldn’t be able to build strength, stamina, and endurance. However, not all “rest” produces recovery. Certain things are more soothing than others.

Recovering from my work generally consists of writing in my journal, listening to music, spending time with my wife and kids, preparing and eating delicious food, or serving other people.

These things rejuvenate me. They make my work possible, but also meaningful.

7. Have A Pre-Performance Routine That Gets You In Flow

Josh Waitzkin is a genius when it comes to learning and optimal human performance. He was a Chess prodigy as a child — he won five National Championship titles in Tai Chi Chuan — and is now focusing on becoming world-class at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He takes the fundamental principles of learning from the ground up and applies them laterally to different disciplines. In order to “get in the zone,” Josh recommends a Pre-Performance routine. The goal is to reduce stress and anxiety so you can be present. These routines often take 20–60 minutes to put you in the zone. However, Josh recommends incrementally reducing the routine time to the point where simply thinking about it clicks you into the zone.

The purpose of the pre-performance routine is to alter your emotional state. Most people experience emotional resistance before engaging in a task, like say, writing. That resistance could be a number of negative and suppressed emotions such as fear, uncertainty, and feelings of inadequacy. You don’t want these emotions to influence you while you work. They will negatively influence how you perform.

The pre-performance routine is intended to alter your emotional state to one of courage, peace, acceptance, and love. From these emotional states, your work will be far superior. Without question, how you feel in the moment you do you work determines how well you do.

8. Embrace Fear And Suffering

“The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It’s the same thing, fear, but it’s what you do with it that matters.” — Cus D’Amato

The idea of fearlessness is a false concept that is imposed by spectators. True performers feel fear and experience suffering. However, they learned to settle-into it like a yoga stretch. Cycling is a sport notorious for the amount of suffering required. As Tyler Hamilton has said, “I discovered when I went all out, when I put 100 percent of my energy into some intense, impossible task — when my heart was jack-hammering, when lactic acid was sizzling through my muscles — that’s when I felt good, normal, balanced.”

Cyclists often refer to “the pain cave,” which is a mental place they go deeper and deeper into as they’re competing. “I went deeper than I thought I would.” “I was at the limit.” “I was totally pinned.” You often hear phrases like these in interviews after a cycling race.

“Mental resilience is arguably the most critical trait of a world-class performer, and it should be nurtured continuously. Left to my own devices, I am always looking for ways to become more and more psychologically impregnable. When uncomfortable, my instinct is not to avoid the discomfort but to become at peace with it. My instinct is always to seek out challenges asopposed to avoiding them.” — Josh Waitzkin

When you begin feeling uncomfortable, that’s when you start feeling good. That’s when you’re growing. No pain no gain. That’s your happy place. That’s where most people stop. But not you.

9. Do It Because Of Love

In the end, there’s nothing more important than deep connection with humanity. The love you feel for other people is an experience that eclipses all others in life. So much of training and personal progress is introspective — focused on the self. However, moving outward and focusing on the needs of others provides new meaning for your work. Become the best at what you do, not because of the legacy you’ll leave, but because of the lives you’ll bless.

There is a four stage hierarchy of motivations in psychology.

At stage one, you are motivated by fear. Everything you do is to avoid punishment or negative outcomes. According to decision theory, this form of motivation is prevention focused. At stage two, you are motivated by reward. Everything you do is to get what you want. If you are religious, you follow the commandments solely for the blessings it provides. If you are in business, you do only that which you believe will get you ahead. Thus, you are promotion focused.

Both stage one and stage two demonstrate extrinsic motivation, which is far less powerful than intrinsic motivation.

At stage three, you are motivated by duty. You’re going to do what you believe you should whether you receive a reward or not. You have no fear of punishment. You are intrinsically motivated. But there’s a lack of passion. There’s a lack of life that will take you beyond human ability and reasoning.

At stage four, you are motivated by love. You have moved beyond worry for your own needs. Your aim is to bring as much joy to each individual as you possibly can. Your love transcends human reasoning. It drives you to do things most would consider crazy. You no longer live by conventional rules or wisdom. You are directed by the highest and purest power in existence.

By Benjamin P. Hardy, Shared from: Medium.com

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