#5 tasks at once or 3 jobs where you slave your entire day away in a factory with hypersurveillance and no social interaction

[iknowicanbutwhy]

12 hour shifts should be illegal. Holy hell.

[neriad13]

Tagged by @darknessfactor! =D

Rules: List the first lines of your last 10 published stories. Look to see if there are any patterns that you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any! Tag up to 10 friends!

1. In the attic of Dunwall Tower, there is a graveyard of sorts.

The eyes of dead emperors peer out from faded portraits. Last year’s fashions overflow from overloaded chests. There is a case of tarnished cutlery, a whole host of old light fixtures abandoned to the mess when the palace staff replaced them, a box of china that had once belonged to the Olaskir dynasty and has not been used in a banquet in some fifty years.

There is one corner with a darker purpose. Here is stored the remainder of the old Lord Regent’s things. His clothes were distributed to the poor and his valuables, invested in the rebuilding of the city. His books were thrown out and his furniture, used for kindling. What then, remains to be hidden away in the sole place in the tower that emperors never set foot?

His secrets.

- The Road to Arouraíos Póli (Dishonored) 

I actually wrote this one earlier than some of the others on the list, but eh, I’m going by AO3 posting dates.

2. In the beginning was the Void and in the Void was the Serpent.

All that existed rested in the coil of its body, in the glimmer of its scales. Unborn worlds strived to be free from its flesh, but time and again they were crushed beneath the weight of the Serpent’s body - squeezed to nothingness before they even had a chance to exist.

The worlds cried out for something to save them, to let them out, to let them be...

But the Void was silent and still.

All aid had to come from within. And come, it did.

- Ugo-no-Nyumbani (The Elder Scrolls)

3. He doesn’t sleep - not quite in the way that humans are able.

For one, the tanks on his back prevent him from lying down comfortably. They’re always in the way, lifting his upper body off the floor, forcing him to sit upright even when his legs are falling out from under him. On top of that he has a pervasive fear about damaging something that was not designed to bear the weight of his bulk - the delicate valves and gauges that keep him alive, the glass tanks that contain his supply of ADAM and EVE.

They're an obvious target that splicers go after all the time. He hates how they glow, how easily broken they are compared to the rest of his gear and how, because of them, he's forced to take almost fanatical care in guarding his back.

And so, he does not ever lie down, though a nagging muscle memory, one of the many relics left behind by slapdash splicing, begs him to do so constantly.

- A Man With No Face (Bioshock)

4. “Goooooooood mornin’ Mr. Topside!” an overly chipper voice with a slight Irish accent yelled, much too loudly.

He heard the door slam against the wall and no sooner had he opened his eyes than the light flicked on and blinded him. He groaned, the noise coming out in a deep, gravelly rumble that still sounded as though it were coming from the mouth of someone else.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Toppy!” the voice crooned, half-mocking. “I’ve got brekkie, saline, steroids, plasmids. All the good stuff. Albert, jus’ what in the name o’ God are you waitin’ for? The Rapture? A-ha. Get in here.”

- Good Morning, Herr Delta (Bioshock)

5. Morgan knew she was dreaming because she was standing at her full height in the middle of a darkened corridor, her hands empty of weapons. Not creeping, not cowering, not huddling in a crawlspace waiting for the slithering footsteps to pass. Standing. Breathing. Her head clear of fear, the nigh-constant buzz of anxiety gone from her ears.

Broken consoles sparked on the blood-splattered walls. Shadows of bodies lay here and there on the floor, all their identifying features hidden, blurred in the way that dreams lessen terrible things witnessed in the waking world.

As she walked down the empty corridor, her footsteps made not a single sound. Gone was the familiar creak of her suit, the squeak of her soles and the rumble of abandoned machines in the facility below.

- Weaver (Prey 2017)

NSFW below the cut!

6. Billie couldn’t remember why she’d initially stopped masturbating with her right hand.

She was right-handed by nature - had been all her life. She’d learned to hold a sword in that hand, shoot from that hand, write from that hand. It was the one that held silverware when she ate, the one that scrubbed down the mess in the galley kitchen, the one that passed the whiskey to the next drinking buddy over.

Likewise, it was the hand she’d once trusted most to get the job done.

- Billie’s Hand (Dishonored)

7. The tap on the door broke him out of his haze. With a start, he looked away from the screen to see pale sunlight peeking through the edges of the radstag hide tacked over the empty window frame. Another night gone, just like that. He rubbed his eyes and stretched, the old chair creaking under him as he scooched it out from under the desk. When he turned away from the searing green text of the terminal screen, the rest of the room seemed dark and formless, the unlit edges of his perception cloaked in shadows deeper than they ought to have been. Synths have no need of sleep. Their organic processes can run almost indefinitely without pause. They do not tire and they rarely relent once they latch onto a task. But there was something appealing about breaking up the march of days with long bouts of unconsciousness to N4. It added a rhythm, a greater sense of purpose to the quiet hours he spent locked away in the dark. On nights where he became so absorbed in what he was doing that he slaved away through the rising of the sun, he always felt as though he had missed something. He had no true experience of sleep deprivation, but going without always left him more restless and irritable than he had been before.

But for now, he was afraid.

- Nate (Fallout)

8. Lucy was the one who first saw the smoke rising from Sanctuary. It was early in the morning as she stumbled blearily out the door, meaning to milk Clarabell and use it to make a good portion of razorgrain porridge for breakfast. Her bucket was not where she had left it. Quietly grumbling to herself, she circled around to the other side of the house, in the hopes that her mother had forgotten it by the pump again.

And there it was, clear as day. A thin, gray line against the blue sky. A campfire in Sanctuary.

Someone was over there.

- A Shield Against Sorrow (Fallout)

9. “I could help you.” the doctor says sweetly, her bubblegum-pink smile a slash of color within the stark white walls of her office. Her lab coat is blindingly white. She wears heels that have never tramped across cracked soil, never sunk in the muck of a radioactive marsh. She peers out at you over a set of horn-rimmed glasses with lenses so thick that they nearly hide the glint in her watery eyes.

You feel small and dirty before her. Your boots dragged the filth of the Wastes in with you, smudged the gleaming floors upon which you walked. Your jacket is riddled with bullet holes that you have patched - more often than not - with duct tape. Your armor is cracked and burnt, taken from the bodies of those who would hurt you (were they human?) slaughtered by your own hand. Your gun (you say you keep it because it is reliable and well-made but you know that is not the whole of it), rests comfortably on your hip, close at hand, should you need it here, in the sole bastion of safety in the Wastes of the Commonwealth.

You are almost positive that she isn’t joking. No, the tone of her voice is too sincere, the curve of her smile, too beseeching. She means what she says. She desires what she proposes.

Why?

- N4-73 Revamped (Fallout)

10.  Skadi slammed Loki against the hallway wall, cracking the cheap plaster up to the ceiling. It’d been crumbling for years, dropping white dust on the filthy carpet whenever she trod down the hall with too much force, her heavy footsteps shaking the building to its foundations when she launched into a run. The extent of the damage was also entirely irrelevant to her because the landlord was known to be a spineless weakling who flinched and whinged at the sight of an angry giantess towering over him.

She leaned down, pinning Loki to the wall by the chest with one thick hand, kissing him roughly, her knee grinding against the bulge in his pants. Her other hand she used to tear out the side of his neatly tucked shirt from his immaculately-pressed pants and grope the pale flesh beneath, pushing the stiff fabric up to his ribcage with her beefy fingers.

“Mmmmnphf…” Loki groaned into her face, “Mmmnphf!”

Oh! she realized with a jolt. He wanted to talk.

- An Evening With Skadi (Norse Mythology)

I seem to enjoy starting off with a short hook and then elaborating upon it. 

But the dialogue starts are extra fun to re-read. =0

Tagging: @logicalfangirl, @sorrowsfall, @flyingpurplepizzaeater, @tragic-unpaired-electron

[hippyjonny]

The Face of the Devil

Hello,

I have been brought to the brink of a nervous breakdown. I contemplated very lightly and romantically the concept of suicide. My situation is unique in that I live in Japan and the woman who bullied me is the only other English speaking employee at the school. To make matters worse, we were put into the same office, much like a pen. From the first day I worked she treated me like shit and condescended me. She told me to my face that Mr. Motoda, the man in charge of hiring me, did not do his job properly when he chose me because I was not qualified to do this job. From then on she constantly passive-aggressively badgered me. She would make it a point to say “Enjoy your mid-week weekend” about my day off on Wednesday (as I am part time) instead of just saying “See you later.” I confronted her about this and she made excuses that I can’t remember. She would talk to me non-stop when I was trying to study Japanese and narrate her Facebook feed out loud. I began to move to the library at the school for peace. After a while of this habit she told me, “You really like the library, huh?” Then when our contracts were being renewed and she kept prying Into whether or not I was being hired for the next year, I tried to keep my status anonymous as it was my business. I snuck to the vice principal to finalize the deal, but when I arrived back at the office she was waiting and told me she had heard I was renewing. I was sneaking around my own school to avoid her, but she still found a way to invade my space. The early years at our school presented us with terrible students due to the school being private and lacking high academic standards. It was more a pay-to-play situation. So, our senior students were some of the most inconsiderate kids I had encountered and anyone would feel frustrated trying to deal with them. Without thinking I plopped myself in the chair, sighed and offhandedly said, “I don’t think I can do this anymore.” She told me that she would have to report what I said to the principal. I was preoccupied with my issues and barely heard her. I brushed her off and said something like, “Do what you gotta do,” not really understanding what the hell she was talking about. However, she actually went to the management and told them that I had said verbatim that I “don’t like teaching.” She would overpower me with her opinions without taking into consideration my own and eventually I stopped talking to her altogether. However, she would still engage me in conversation regardless if I was studying. Eventually I began listening to YouTube meditation videos before school to try and deal with the onslaught of the coming day with her. Once I didn’t have time at home to listen to my meditation video so I tried to do it at school. I had headphones on and I remember she approached me and I could see her mouth moving. I took my headphones out and she said something unimportant that I couldn’t remember if I tried. Then I put my headphones back in. We repeated this process—I kid you not— four times. Then I went to the roof and silently screamed. She once came into the office one morning and just started screaming at the top of her lungs. She was mad about what she perceived as sexual harassment from one of the students. It’s a complicated issue to explain, but I had discussed the issue at length with many Japanese women and they told me that my Western psychopathic coworker was overreacting and they all just laughed. My coworker would often cry, lose her temper or just be volatile in general at work. What Is most interesting about her is that her father was a counselor. She told me even about her experiences with psychopaths and how they were very scary in real life. She once told me that she “would make a great boss” and that all her coworkers at her old job “loved” her. She once asked me if I was confident in my lesson plans. I said I would always have doubts. When I asked her, “You?” She said without blinking an eye, “100%” She once told me to “say thank you” to a child. By the way, I am a 36 year old adult male. I had talked to her about her passive aggressive mentioning of my days off. We ended up exposing her self-righteous attitude that my offhanded comment about not liking English teaching was enough to make me unworthy of the duty in her eyes. I told her, “If you ask a taxi driver if this was their destiny, do you think they would all say yes? People have to make a living and can still do a good job doing it.” Despite trying to bring this difference of opinions out in the open, it didn’t change anything. Finally, I had had enough and while shaking I talked to one of the heads of the school, Mr. Ato. I did my best to explain 3 years of abuse and he finally said in English, “She’s—uh…mental.” For once in my 3 years, I felt validated. I asked the management to move me to a different office and they did. For a brief moment I experienced pure bliss. She didn’t visit me and we had nothing to do with each other. Then suddenly she came to me with a scheme. She told me she had heard some rumors that the English department was changing directions and that our jobs might disappear. According to her the principal had alluded to some changes and we needed to get with the program or face the consequences. I, a native simpleton, freaked out for a good 10 minutes and bought into it. Her plan of action was a unilaterally decided change of curriculum. She decided we were all taking a new direction as an English department even though she is not a boss, just an employee who teaches classes completely separate from me. Little did I know, this was her way of entangling me back into her sinister web once more. I agreed thinking that the best tactic was just to pretend to care and nod my head so that she would quickly leave the vicinity of my office. However, that was my grave mistake. From then on I became her slave. She gave me deadlines and new tasks as if she were a boss until the point where I had to confront her and make myself clear to her once more. “I am not your employee…Please keep all conversations work-related from here on out.” And she abided, but she simply changed the definition of “workplace conversations.” After more annoying updates about the direction of English education in Japan and her thought process into every detail of her papers, she finally came to me with a new emergency. This time, she had seen a memo in the morning online Teams bulletin board and saw that the OE of Oral English had been replaced with question marks. I literally never read a single memo, so of course I would not have seen this. She came to me saying that we were once again in danger of losing our jobs and we must act quickly. So she had called a meeting with the boss in order to confront Mr. Suginomori who she had dictated was the enemy of her plan. She saw the was ignoring her e-mails and had plans to squeeze us out of our positions. As a part-time worker, I don’t want to be involved in any of these discussions. If I am fired, I simply will find a new job, as people do. This was all extraneous information. Feeling frustrated, scared and mostly exhausted with her bullshit, I fell back on my age-old tactic of just agreeing with everything she said and then not following through. However, now I had inadvertently agreed to attend a meeting which was brought about to confront a Japanese English teacher. He is a good man, though a little old fashioned, and she had not once confirmed what was actually happening. She simply made up a situation in her head and then tried to manipulate me into getting what she wanted. I have played dumb for the entire 5 years of my employment to maintain the upper hand. She had no idea that I had requested that we be put in separate offices. She came to me and complained about it and I pretended to listen. Actually, once I came back from Summer vacation to find that my lunch box had gone missing. Something you must understand about Japanese society is that they do not steal. That is a 96% true statement. The nearly never steal and it would be an astronomical anomaly for someone in a private school of well-off students and teachers to want to steal a bento box that was made for a 6’ 3” Western man, probably too big to fit into their valise. However, when I asked my co-worker about it she told me, “Well, I don’t know, but someone probably got annoyed that it was taking up that space for so long. The Japanese people would find it rude.” Clearly she threw away my bento box out of spite or some bizarre personal code of ethics. Anyway, I began to feel the anxiety I used to feel when we shared an office together again. I would wake up sometimes and she was already on my mind, and if you know me at all, to have work on my mind after work is the last thing I would ever do. So, I knew that I would have to deal with her once more despite having already having a conversation with her about professional boundaries. In the previous discussion I told her that we should keep our communications “work-related” and that any other conversation should be avoided In order for us to make the best use of our time. She obeyed this for a bit and then eventually came to invade my space and boundaries once again. Her excuse for doing so was in a similar vein to her first attempt, the possible loss of our livelihood. So, for weeks I agonized over how I would word my NEXT conversation with her. I wrote 5 or 6 drafts of many different letters. Some of the first ones were similar to this except more spiteful, delineating every single thing that happened and my psychology behind pretending that I cared about the things she cared about. I thought that the pivot on which our problem teetered was the fact that she could not respect the fact that I don’t invest myself into the work as much as she believed I should, but that that was just an opinion and nothing more. Other drafts were evil hate letters. Finally, I came up with a professional solution which stated that I felt stressed being told I was going to lose my job every month and it was making it difficult to do my work. I told her that I wanted to reiterate my previous statement by redefining what I meant by “work-related conversation.” This definition did not included unfounded gossip and our discussions did not need to take an entire hour because they could easily be completed in ten minutes. Her reply was that I was sending her “mixed messages” because I had stated I was interested in being included in decisions about the English department. However, she had created an entire curriculum and began to implement it without gaining anyone’s consent. This is a clear difference from what tense she decided to use for the verb in question 4 on worksheet number 11. I snapped. I knew the whole time that if I lose my cool, I would lose everything, but I am only a man and I have my limits. This exceeded my limit. So, I told her everything I’m telling you now and more. So, now it was all in the open. When I talked to the management, they listened to me go on for 20 minutes and all they said was, “We sympathize. Can you put it in writing? Try and relax for your summer vacation and come back refreshed.” They didn’t give a rats ass what happened to me. Now I had not only made myself exposed to my psychopathic coworker, but I had also made myself appear to fit the stereotype of the emotionally unhinged and sloppy Westerner. My ass was flapping in the breeze and I had no energy left. I dejectedly sulked around the school asking literally 4 different people who needed to stamp my fucking vacation paper to get it approved with all conflicting answers on what was already the most humiliating day of my life. My soul left my body. I went to the roof and looked past a locked fence. I imagined climbing over it, looking down at the concrete from the fourth floor, and what it might feel like to plummet to a beautiful, emancipatory smack. I had psychologically and physically come to realize why so many people in Japan come to commit suicide. All channels had been tapped and there was absolutely no support system in place. As soon as you are not harmonious for even a second you are the instant pariah. You are collectively repulsed and flaked like a dead skin cell, because to the Japanese, a show of emotion is nearly sickening. It disgusts them and only proves your weakness. After all this time trying to keep my cool, I had lost. Now I am still in the thick of this situation. I don’t know whether I will quit, how my coworker has reacted to my second confrontation, and whether the school will simply fire both of us now for being troublesome, emotional foreigners. However, I have finally learned what it was that was plaguing me and tormenting me. It was a psychopath in the flesh. I had a tendency to feel sorry for her on several occasions because she had nothing else in her life and was trying to create meaning through imaginary battles and enemies, much like Don Quixote. But I had already told myself multiple times that if I felt the urge to humanize her that I needed to clip it off deliberately because those were the times I was made vulnerable and she struck like a cobra. So when she came to my desk a final time before summer break to hand off some papers she made it was like staring the into the face of the devil herself. Her head creaked and as she twisted it slowly towards mine in my seat. I muttered, “Thank you.” Gnashing her teeth, she interrupted me as she always does and said with a grin that would make Nosferatu shit his pants, “I finally got around to making that phrasal verb worksheet. I hope you have a wonnnnnnnnnnderful summer.” Then she slithered out of the room as fast as she could. Not only do I see why Japanese crime basically is outbursts of uncontrolled rage and suicide, but I also have seen into the mind of a killer. I have pondered so many times if she is a sinister mastermind or the world’s most unaware imbecile, and therein lies the danger of a psychopath. Heed my tale and keep your senses sharp because you might be the next unsuspecting victim of their guiles. I have had a mental breakdown and am reconsidering continuing my work there. I am considering any remaining avenues of reform, but I am beginning to believe that my sanity is not worth the cost. I hope that my story can help another person who is struggling like me because I have never encountered anything like this in my life. We like to believe that God is real and that we can make the world fair and society is civilized, but at the end of the day it truly is a Darwinian free for all. I am no conservative, but I can’t fully deny the death penalty and despite the ridiculous amount of gun-related deaths in America and it’s lackadaisical regulations, one can’t help but wonder after staring a demon in the face whether or not it might not be a bad idea to pack some heat. Beware. There are soul suckers among our midst.

[luovita]

Time management tips and strategies

  Test- Your Time Management (plan and control the time spent on your activities especially if you want to have a great jump with your lifestyle ideas)

      How good is your time management?

Learn how effective people use their time efficiently and how their time management skills generate money. This is another approach to have a better lifestyle habit. Today, we are all quite familiar with the term ‘Time Management’. The subject is of so much importance that, thousands of books and courses have appeared illustrating the same through online education learning. There were also blogs about lifestyle ideas covering time management as one of the important topics. The main objectives of time management are • To set priorities. • To allocate time properly • To utilize your time effectively • To get the best out of the given time  

  The saddest part is, even after learning all the tactics of time management, most people implement only a part of it. For them, the term is only confined to noting a day’s work and ranking them on the basis of priority. Once you have setup a home business to make money online, a very time management skill is required in order to leverage yourself in a demanding nature of make money over the internet. If you want to utilize your time in the best possible way, try to recognize your own time management skills and then measure their effectiveness accordingly. If you are a person who assigns time for every work, try to find whether you allocate them on the higher side or the lower side. When you allocate a comparatively higher time for a task, the risk of wastage of time increases and if you allocate it too low, you may suffer from stress. I have a small suggestion for this complication. Before assigning time to a particular task, estimate a fair time and give a tolerance of about twenty five percent to that. This simple trick will allow you to work in a stress-free environment without wasting any time. I would always suggest my followers to allocate time in proportion to the type of work you are handling. Always assign time to unexpected developments. With unexpected developments, crisis may come to you any time of the day. Assume, you are working on an assignment and suddenly another client calls you in need of immediate attention! So, before everything goes out of control, arrange your schedule smartly. Having a good time management you are also rewarding yourself of a healthy lifestyle habit. Separate the tasks according to their importance. Make two lists- first for those, which need immediate observation, followed by another list of tasks that can be postponed safely. This will certainly help you to work comfortably without stress. Time management is considered to be both an art and a science. Don’t be a slave of time, rather make it your tool to work efficiently and reach your goal. When you utilize your time effectively, you will never get pressurized by your own goals. If your goal is to make money fast and easy, then an effective approach to become less stressed out and to really complete your work is your time management.   Want to get an ultimate life experience, then check this out.

      We listed Time Management Tips & Strategies to help boost

productivity and achieving goals.

  Most of the successful people in home business to make money online has strict time-management strategy to get all things done efficiently.

    These tips will help you master and accomplish tasks more in less time.   1. Set goals and Rewards   If your ultimate goal is to have a well-managed lifestyle ideas, setting your goals and your rewards is good start to kickoff the plan. Defining your objectives is critical for arranging your day and you can make legitimate targets and you won't tumble off calendar. You must look deeply and ask yourself if you really want to accomplish those things.   Knowing your desire can enable you to maximize your productivity and see the bigger picture.   2. Set your priorities  –Setting priorities will help in decision making especially if it's a life-changing decision that bring you a healthy lifestyle habit Categorize your tasks accordingly: Important and urgent – needs to be done right away Important but not urgent – appears to be important but you can decide when to do them Urgent but not important – needs to be done as soon as possible but when finished, it won’t give any lasting value Not urgent and not important - these tasks are usually leisure activities or things you don't really need to do   3. Delegate tasks - Effectively delegating tasks to the right people who will deliver right outcome   Do more in less time. Delegating task to someone else and trusting the outcome. Yes, it takes a lot of trust and communication to ensure that everything will work perfectly at the end as it should. For example if you are making money online, you can hire someone to schedule your time during the day, assign someone to pick up your laundry, or delegated work-related tasks to the right person who can deliver the task at hand.  

  4. Set Clear Deadlines - The word deadline may develop a feeling of anxiety within you.   Set clear deadline so you won’t lose track. Limit time spent in each task accordingly. It is also a good practice to complete tasks or projects ahead of your deadline to give you time reviewing  If there will be revisions, then you wouldn't have to spend additional time in the project because you can actually make use of the time you saved.   5. Say NO to Multitasking - Multi-tasking can make you less productive and less effective   How does multitasking affect your time management. Multitasking is usually done when a person starts rushing due to time constraint. Multitasking are likely to make your completed task in low quality which may cause redoing everything or missing important details. Multitasking divides your attention between two or more tasks in which you lack focus on each. If you make money through work from home job,   6. Avoid Distractions - Time is precious and distraction has no room in time management   Distractions and procrastination can keep you from doing your chores and waste your precious time. That’s why it is important to block out any and every distraction. Here are common tips to avoid simple distraction that can hinder productivity or completion of your task: Put your phone away Turn off social media notifications Download app that doesn’t let you use your phone   7. Schedule your day ahead of time   This may not work for everyone but there’s no harm in trying. Make a list of tasks or plan ahead. Allow few minutes to organize your schedule for the following day or for the entire week, then take five minutes at night to look at the next day schedule. Making money online will definitely give you a long list of task, but making sure you are scheduling ahead makes you spend your time wisely.   8. Take breaks and unwind before sleep   To be more productive and complete all tasks, you have to take few breaks. Relax a few minutes, could be 10 to 15 minutes for your brain to decompress.       You can do the following: Close your eyes and massage it Listen to your preferred music Watch interesting short video Drink water   9. Saying NO to Sudden Tasks   Saying no to tasks that may appear suddenly and are not necessarily. Don't take on any new tasks if you're not sure that you can handle them or that if you don't have enough time to finish the ones that you already. Be firm in saying NO. If you feel you don't have enough time buffer on your time the whole day, just stick on the plan. In modern lifestyle, people are wiser and wish to make the best of of their precious time.   10. Be Inspired and Motivated - We work hard when we are inspired and motivated   It’s normal for humans to feel down, tired and blue however it slows you down and make you sad for cramming and not completing the task. You can talk to someone you find inspirational, admire and you trust who can boost your motivation up. You can also watch motivational videos or reading motivational books. But above all these tips, having fun and being happy is the most powerful technique to stay motivated. Have a healthy lifestyle habit balance because it is crucial that you continue to feel good while you work. When you are happy, you’ll be more productive, and you’ll be more positive person.          

Work, Work, Work: Making Each Moment Count

  We manage our own time as we manage our life. Consider as if you are managing your home business to make money online and you want every progress even have big or small it would be.  

      Yes, we have all the time in the world but we must start counting the moments of our lives. Live the moment and make every moment count. We usually hear this line when we are having fun. but would also apply at work and help you be more motivated and progress as planned. Time is an ever-fleeting concept and the reality is that we are always clamoring for more! This is very similar to life support and citing this fact, I have already quoted the following aphorism in a previously written story: TIME IS MY FRIEND TIME IS MY ALLY I HAVE ALL THE TIME I NEED FOR EVERYTHING I WANT TO DO. I have found that it is very hard to perfectly balance time with our daily life. In that regard, I have been showered with a lot of grateful responses and some questions, one of which, I wanted to respond to. This is a subscriber who said she is struggling to manage her work and personal needs simultaneously. She is essentially looking for a way to take care of herself while meeting the requirements of her workplace. As such, I have made extensive research into this particular dilemma, and have come up with the following suggestions.    

  Firstly, you need to stop judging yourself about where your time is spent.   It may be a whole lot of work or some really quality time that you have spent with you family. DO NOT regret it and wherever you are, be there 100 percent. If you're working, you need to identify the parts you love about it. Try to determine why you said yes to the work and enjoy that part of it. Enjoy the moment and live your ideal lifestyle.   Secondly, make sure that you have an accurate calendar tool to make certain that your schedules and deadlines are fulfilled.   You need to meticulously mark it with both your work and personal times, and then, attend to them. For example, if I'm writing a book or making money through blogging, it's very easy for me to let that time slip into something else, like answering an email or returning calls. But I have, with time and perseverance, got better at blocking out all distractions and sticking to how I had originally planned to spend my time.   Finally, there needs to be a priority to values surrounding your time, in that you need to decide on what is more important to you.   If personal time is crucial to you, then mark your personal time into your calendar first. Proper prioritizing of your time can lead to exceptional results and all round smooth work processes. I hope some of these helps those who need it. Please write and let me know if any of these suggestions work for you. Also, don’t hesitate to share your own ideas because, I need them too!    

To Do or Not to Do

      What to do first? It is always a question before we start working on the long list of tasks. So, how do we decide what to do first really? In building a home business to make money online, there are so many steps and processes involved. Do you think you can manage your time well? How is that some people seem to have enough time to do everything that they want to, whereas others are always rushing from one task to another? Since we all have 24 hours to work with, why do some people achieve so much more with their time than others? The answer lies in good Time Management. Since, time is a commodity that we always need, but rarely have enough of, we need to work smarter and not harder to get more done in less time. Working smarter will not only increase our productivity but also, will give us plenty of time to relax and enjoy your ideal lifestyle. This is the beauty of Time Management! Now, how can you become more productive and optimize time successfully? By simply making a To-Do-List! And if you don’t have one yet, you better start today! In this era of technological renaissance, we have an electronic asylum called the Internet, where we get bombarded by all kinds of information. To make matters worse, our fast-paced world contributes little in this whirlwind, leaving us with an attention span like that of ants. Therefore, it is paramount to create a to-do-list today and keep a visual record of the fact that each moment is valuable! A task list will make you more focused, keep you on track all the time, will help you concentrate more on the task at hand and thereby, will make you more productive.       It does not matter how you prefer to do it, as long as you do it! Desktop or laptop; pen and paper—whichever way you are comfortable in, provided that, it ultimately works out for you. Personally, I use Microsoft Outlook; I print a hard copy of my day’s appointments and tasks, and referring to this list, I can edit, add, update or cancel at any time with extreme ease. It not only gives me the flexibility, but also keeps me focused. The great thing about Outlook is that it only takes me few minutes to set up my electronic vision for the day! To-do-list or task lists are both for your business as well as for your personal development. If our brain determines what needs to be done in order of priority, at the very beginning of the day, it sub-consciously relaxes. In this case, everything is chalked out and the brain does not have to worry about rushing from one task to another, which can only make you more stressful. Give your brain a reward for sticking to your to-do-list! Pick your favorite color and when you complete a task, put a tick with your favorite color against it. Your brain will then start to associate the color with success and within 30 days, you will look forward to completing your tasks for the color reward that you get to see afterwards. You will become more organized and you will actually look forward to adding more tasks to your to-do-list to perform them in the extra time you have freed up. Your productivity will increase as well as your success. When Brutus was asked, “Et tu, Brute?”, he should have replied, “You Bet! I wouldn’t be caught dead without my task list!” Successful Time Management is synonymous with making Each Moment Count! To learn about how you can make each moment of your life count, read me : How to learn to enjoy your life    

Distractions That Could Hamper Your Entrepreneurial Career

      For example, Start a internet business, like online learning games or online education learning is very demanding for savvy blogging entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs in general and we must avoid distractions in our career that could hamper our success in business, so let's go over some business blogging tips.   It requires complete dedication and a lot of your time to succeed in business, more so if you are building a home internet business to make money online, first hand experience. We entrepreneurs often have to juggle between various fronts and this requires patience and perseverance. I learned that it is important to stay clear of distractions that can hurt our career as an entrepreneur especially if you are planning to do an online career and discover how to make online money.     Checking emails constantly   We often tend to check our inbox constantly, reading and replying to them whenever possible. In making money online through online business, email is really important. However, this is a major distraction in work. It is a good idea to have about 30 to 45 minutes a day reserved to reading and answering emails. Communicating with clients via phone rather than mail is also an alternative and sometimes it saves time and gives a personal touch. The bottom line is that if you spend too much time on emails every day your productivity suffers, so let's start with business blogging tips   Skipping from one idea to another   Due to the fast growing online or home business to make money online, the smallest idea could be the biggest catch. It is important that we explore new ideas. It is only the only way that you and I will manage to take our business to new levels. However, we need to keep the focus on one idea at the time to see some results. Skipping from one idea to another without paying attention to any can hinder our work and became just a distraction. So we need to concentrate on one idea at a time and try to make it a reality rather than go with several ideas without any direction.   Randomly browsing social media networks   With new technology, making business online is now a new phenomenon for entrepreneurs. Social media is the most powerful tool in making presenting your brand to the public. However, being distracted to various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is common. This is a serious distraction if you are an entrepreneur. Viewing your 'friends’ social lives can be entertaining but the time spent there can be invested more productively in our business. It is important to only spend as much time on social media as is necessary for learning our 'customers’ interests and increasing our client base. believe me, random browsing of social media sites can keep you from engaging in constructive work on your business.   Engaging too much on your hobbies   I personally think that someone, despite being too busy at work or with business  who can still make time for hobbies has great time-management. But we should be careful in engaging ourselves with hobbies. We cannot overdo this one. While having a hobby, such as sewing, reading or gardening is a good idea, to much engaging in it as an entrepreneur is a distraction. Spending too much time on hobbies can act as an excuse to take long breaks from work. It can delay your potential of making money over the internet if your business is related to home business or an online business. This, in turn, can reduce your attention span to your business, which could drag. So, avoid obsessing over hobbies as those can distract your attention from the focus of running your business successfully.   Deferring critical tasks   Procrastinating critical tasks for later is an alarming distraction, especially for us entrepreneurs, we need to be focus on various tasks and update them regularly.   My advise:  don't put off important tasks for later, even when the tasks do not seem to be particularly interesting or appealing, we need to accomplish them on time to keep our business running well.   Paying too much attention to 'others’ opinions   Hearing out other people’s views and opinions is good as it goes, it can help our horizon as an entrepreneur and provide us valuable insight. However, paying too much attention to 'others’ opinions may come in the way of our goal to run our business the way we want and need... Listening to too many people can get us overwhelmed and trigger self-doubt and anxiety. Our inner thoughts are unable to manifest properly as they get side-tracked by 'others’ opinions. So seek feedback from only a few select people who have your best interests in mind. Remember that you will never be able to get the approval of all and laying too much emphasis on 'others’ opinions is a distraction. Distraction can only hamper your success in making big money online or making money over the internet.   Overloading each day with tasks   Instead of overloading each day with more tasks to accomplish, you may want to set realistic goals. It is important to not overwhelm us with too many tasks or else we risk that the most important ones will not be accomplished. Limit yourself to two or three tasks for each day so that their execution is feasible and there is room for flexibility in case of any urgency.   Taking long breaks for meals   Taking long breaks for our meals can be a big distraction if you are an entrepreneur who wants to make money fast and easy, you lose touch with your work, and as a result, it becomes difficult to resume the workflow that was present before the meal. Sometimes, you may want to work while you eat to give your business the attention it demands.   Agreeing to everything   The habit of excessive people-pleasing can be a distraction as it can prevent much of the success of our business. Not every offer is going to benefit our business and not every suggestion goes well for the company. So it is important to say “no” and refuse to agree at times. If you feel that the approach of someone is not correct, defend yourself. If a certain deal appears to be shady decline to sign it. Make sure you don’t end up agreeing to something against your judgement which you might regret in the future.   Allowing politics to come in the way of work   Permitting politics to interfere in the running of the business can be a potential distraction for us entrepreneurs. For example, there can be a struggle with one person’s ego trying to overtake. This could lead to differences between for example, partners. The point is to use logical decision-making and synchronize the efforts of all for the good of the company. Therefore, try to keep politics away and this will help in keeping your career going.   Doubting yourself   If your self-doubt and insecurity gets over it can spell doom. It is alright to doubt yourself but doing it frequently can distract you from work so I would suggest to create a list of your achievements and go through when you are in self-doubt. In conclusion, with a little insight and persistence most distractions can be avoided in running your business, like building a home internet business and to discover how to make online money...  

  Also  I found this article from Lidiya very interesting.     This blogging course is worth checking out.

      One last Question for you - do you think that Life is a Rat Race?

      Do you believe that life is a rat race? The metaphorical ‘Rat Race’ in our contemporary life refers to the competitiveness between people for wealth and power. Though I don’t know anything about the origins of this metaphor, I can picturize how a real rat race can look like. Think of a maze in a scientific laboratory with a dozen rats scrambling in all directions, trying to find their way to freedom with great frustration. But the truth is, these rats are ignorant of the fact that they are actually racing and competing with each other. In actual sense, the metaphors that we use in our daily life, get inspiration from the way we live our lives. Though it may sound disturbing, all of us living in this modern world are forced to join the rat race. Well, that is what we have always been taught and something that we teach everybody else. Even the schools and the colleges train us with the idea that life is a rat race. We just can’t ignore this truth as the society does not give us any choice and motivates us to blindly follow what we hear since our birth. The metaphors we use, not only reflects the way we live but also creates the way we live. So, if we call life a rate race, it will gradually tend to become one. To live a stress-free, happy life, we need to omit this particular metaphor and apply some positive ones in our life. Here are a few suggestions from my end, which will not only inspire you but also will make you live your life to the fullest. Live your life like a cat. A cat prowls slowly with careful steps. Cats are known for their calm and their patience. To achieve your goals, try to be like a cat and keep a pace that suits your needs. Get inspiration from a dog. They walk lively and make friends wherever they go. Known for their instant response, dogs are considered to be one of the most active animals. To live a beautiful life, I believe we all should imbibe an active, trustworthy and friendly nature in ourselves. We should move with short steps and dance through life and find a partner we can always sit next to and lead a happy life with. There so many positive things around us. Take motivation from those. Don’t run like an aimless rat. Live a life with a purpose.   Read my blog Meditation for Memory to know how meditation can help you to lead a stress-free life.     Check out our shop with all these resources:

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Mountain Cat - An Origin Story

My name is Reina Kazuki, and I’m a Macro.

There. I said it.

That’s maybe the first time too.

I know what you’re thinking. How could I be a Macro? Well, it’s true. At 5’3” tall, it’s probably a significant leap of faith to expect anyone to believe that. But I’m lucky in a way. My size fluctuates.

I guess maybe lucky isn’t the right word. Fortunate? Gifted? Those words all have too positive a connotation. See, when I’m calm, or in a relaxed state, I maintain my normal size. 5’3”, 119 pounds. Pretty unassuming when you get right down to it.

But when I get excited or startled? Well, all bets are off at that point.

It wasn’t always this way. I wasn’t born a Macro like most others, and I certainly didn’t develop that power during puberty or anything like that.

No, I got this ability completely by accident.

And I don’t mean a lab accident. I mean, I’m pretty smart, but certainly not smart enough to be in a lab. Actually, when this all started, I was just starting my first job out of college. A secretary, because of course.

In college, I was a Journalism major. I wanted to get out, see the world, and share my experiences with everyone. Unfortunately, I’ve always lacked the… personality for the line of work I wanted. I’ve been pretty small my whole life. Petite, quiet, and physically not very attractive, I’m pretty much the poster child for poor self-esteem. Us Yamapikaryas aren’t naturally very attractive, what with the round faces and standard assortment of brown colors, and I was pretty bland even by those standards. So obviously, Journalism really had no place for me.

And of course, because it was college, people took every opportunity to point it out to me.

Especially Bridget.

Bridget Langford. 5’11”, 155 pound bunny girl, and every college boy’s wet dream. She was a bombshell, and everyone in school knew it. And she knew it. She took every opportunity to take advantage of her looks and her body. The lengths to which she would go just to get ahead were astounding. She offered herself to anyone who would take her as long as she got something out of it. At one point, she was sleeping with 5 members of the football team, including the team captain, and still had time to give the chess club lap dances in exchange for getting her homework done for her.

They say there’s one in every group of people, and Bridget was the epitome of the Alpha Female.

Which obviously meant she had it out for me.

Since day one of our Freshman year, Bridget took every opportunity to make fun of me. Back then, I was maybe 100 pounds soaking wet. I was a late bloomer, and I was still growing into my body. I had no chest to speak of, and I was just pushing past 5’2”.

Bridget on the other hand was already flaunting her knockout body. She wore the absolute tightest clothing she could find, made sure as much fur was showing as possible, and never missed the chance to flash some cleavage. One of her favorite pastimes was talking down at me from over her boobs. Everything from “Wow, Reina, didn’t see you down there!” to “Gosh, if you were just a little taller, we might be able to hear what you were saying!” and even “Sorry, Reina. I know my boobs are blocking out the sun down there. We’ll buy you a tiny tanning booth to make up for it.”

None of these insults were all that clever or creative, but when you hear them enough, they start to hurt. It didn’t help that literally everyone in the department enjoyed her jokes. Even the professors couldn’t hide their smirks and chuckles at her word-vomit insults.

When we graduated, I managed to achieve Magna Cum Laude, but of course, as she was the more popular one, our Salutatorian Bridget was the one to speak at the Commencement ceremony. Truthfully, I was thankful for that; public speaking was still difficult for me, and I really couldn’t have wanted to speak in front of 600 people any less.

And after that day, I thought I was free. Done with all the bigotry, and all the mocking, and all the Bridget. I was ready to move on with my life and pursue my dream of becoming a travel writer.

Which meant getting a job at the local columnist and moving my way up from the bottom. Because Magna cum Laude really just means “the most qualified of the least experienced.” But, after an awkward initial interview and a successful one, I was hired.

And because life is hell, so was Bridget.

The worst thing about this situation wasn’t just that we were working in the same place. It’s that Bridget was hired as a field intern, and I was hired as a secretary.

Yup. Secretary. The best use of my degree that the Harrington Tribune could offer. Meanwhile, Bridget went out on shoots, breaking news reports, and even sat in on a few private city council meetings in place of her mentor when he came down with a terrible flu.

Working in that place was infuriating. But because I’m me, it was an anger I kept to myself. Even when Bridget’s oh-so-clever insults returned, and the entire office joined her in a new posse of never-ending ridicule, I kept telling myself that it was all on the way to achieving my dream. I had taken every step I needed to; I’d moved away from home, I’d earned my degree, and I was working in the field. Sure, I wasn’t an intern, which meant I wasn’t actually working the stories, but I had my own little space, and I was making connections. Even if they weren’t bearing fruit right away, I was going to make it.

But Bridget had other plans.

Somehow, despite my timidity and, shall we say, extreme inexperience, I attracted the eye of one Roger Beaument. Roger was another intern at the Tribune, a rough-around-the-edges German Shepard with all the appeal you would expect from a young dog making waves in the reporting world. He, like Bridget, was on the fast track to success, working hand-in-hand with the Tribune’s most famous and experienced reporter. And because Mr. Florentine was so famous, his intern was constantly sent on errands to grab information and set up appointments. Which meant Roger spent a lot of time at my desk. At first, it didn’t seem like Roger really noticed me. Like everyone else in the office, he came to my desk with a task, and left once it was completed. But slowly, he started lingering a bit more. He would start conversations, asking my opinion on articles, getting me to weigh in on a current affairs topic, and he once even submitted a story idea I had to Mr. Florentine, who covered it and dropped my name in the story as an “acknowledged informant” (*SQUEE*)! Eventually, Roger asked me out. It was an exceptionally embarrassing event. It took me almost 30 seconds to get over my surprise, shock, self-doubt, and second thoughts before I finally agreed amidst cheers and whooping from all around. Apparently everyone in the office knew he was going to do it. Everyone except Bridget. The blonde bunny bimbo had had her eyes on Roger for quite some time. He was about the only person in the office who wasn’t eating off her paw, and she yearned for his attention. Trouble was, Roger wanted nothing to do with her, and everything to do with me. We went out on a few dates, nothing too spectacular, until one night, Roger took me back to his place. I thought it was a nice opportunity to see who he was outside the office and who I saw when we were out and about. I was extremely honored that he would invite me into his own private, personal space. I had absolutely no notion that he had anything more… active in mind. In fact, apparently Roger thought I knew what going back to his place meant. He started making his move, and I… well, I panicked. Sure we’d kissed before, but anything more than that? I was definitely not ready. Now, in his defense, Roger was a gentleman about it. He didn’t try to push me into something I wasn’t ready for, never used sex as any kind of veiled threat or anything of that sort. But I could tell immediately he was disappointed. The night ended awkwardly when he took me home, and the next day, he certainly wasn’t himself. He was normally pretty active in finding reasons to come see me at my desk, but that day it was like he was avoiding me. And, as you can probably guess, that affected me too. And, as I’m sure it goes without saying, Bridget took notice. She had never been more belligerent towards me than she was that day. Gone were the days of her silly insults that still managed to hurt. Now I was “The Bitch,” and “That Slut,” and “The Cat Whore.” She intentionally spilled a cup of coffee on an interview I had been transcribing for hours, forcing me to start all over again. As a result, I was at the office 3 hours later than normal. Which meant I missed Roger after work. Which meant I went home alone, and feeling rather dejected. You can imagine my surprise when I arrived at my apartment and saw a note taped to my door. Roger was the only person I could think of that knew where I lived, so I thought it was from him. The handwritten note was, however, from someone whose words immediately filled me with dread. “You missed your chance, Staina,” the note read. “Your loss is my gain. -B” There was only one person who ever called me that name. In a panic, I ran out of the complex and headed back downtown. I didn’t even bother waiting for a cab. I ran all of 26 blocks to Roger’s place. As I pounded down the streets, a sickly cold came to my skin. It was as if all the people Bridget had helped herself to back in college were floating through my head, whispering about how they were welcoming another slave into their ranks. As if my own growing dread were not enough to set the scene, the sky chose that moment to open up, pouring water down over the streets below. But I didn’t care about getting a little wet. Rain was an acceptable hazard in this venture. When I approached Roger’s house, the first thing I noticed was Bridget’s car in his driveway. The second thing I noticed was that the only light on in the house was in his bedroom. I felt my heart in my throat as I crept closer, the only sound in the neighborhood my own breathing and gasping for air as I tried to quiet myself. As I reached the base of the window, my own breathing was joined by heavy breathing emanating from the room within. Innocent as I was, I didn’t need to guess what that was. But morbid curiosity and terror forced me to inch upwards and peek over the sill. The blinds were not drawn all the way down on one corner, as if they were closed in a hurry. I pulled my face up over the sill and cursed in the back of my mind. The rainwater that had collected on my glasses was obscuring my view. So I took my glasses off and peered into the room with my naked eyes. And as I scanned the room through that small crack, I caught the clear images of Roger and Bridget. Doing presumably what Roger had intended to do with me. I didn’t need to wait any longer. I stood up and ran, not even bothering to stifle my cries. The rain was probably drowning me out anyway, as hard as it was coming down, and even if it wasn’t, I didn’t care. Looking back on that night, I can say honestly that I was not in love with Roger. But at that point in my life, I thought I was, and that was almost worse. Angry thoughts flooded through my mind, a torrent of blame flowing in every direction. How could I have been so stupid to have turned him down?! If I’d just let him do what he wanted, we’d be happy now! That crap-for-brains slut had absolutely no right to even approach Roger, let alone slide herself on top of him and reduce him to a panting, sex-crazed animal! How dare Roger ditch me so quickly, just because I wasn’t ready to give him my body?! Didn’t he have more respect for me than that!? Before I knew it, I had reached the outskirts of the city, where the buildings of business morphed into buildings of industry. Factory smokestacks and shipping yards surrounded me, mostly lying dormant at this time of night. In my haste to leave the scene of my heartbreak, I had run in the wrong direction. I had just about enough time to realize this before a sound from behind me completely grabbed my attention. The squealing of tires on wet pavement made me turn around. A large tanker truck came barreling down the road, its trailer swerving wildly behind it. It was heading towards me so quickly I could only duck and cover, hoping for the best. And just my luck, the trailer swerved and caught a street lamp, whipping the back end around so quickly the entire truck jackknifed. As it screeched down the pavement, the entire vehicle twisted and flipped on its side. The entire mess twisted around itself as it slid, sending sparks shooting out behind it. It came to a loud, smoking stop mere feet away from me.

It was a number of moments before I could even react. If you've ever experienced a serious accident, then you know the feeling. Your mind tries to make sense of what you've just witnessed. And seeing as how I'd never witnessed such an event, my brain was having exceptional difficulty interpreting what it had just seen. In fact, if the cab were not directly in front of me, things might have played out in a completely different way. But it was. The heavily mutilated tractor portion of the truck sat on its side a few feet away from me. Through the front window, which was strangely enough still mostly in tact, movement finally snapped my brain out of its shock. A lupine figure inside was waving at me frantically, calling out and trying desperately to get my attention. I realized the sound was being muffled both by the rain and an odd crackling sound coming from the trailer end of the truck. As I said before, I'm a relatively intelligent person. That sound meant fire, the oil tanker’s arch-nemesis. My body began moving before my mind was ready to act. I moved to the passenger side of the trailer and started climbing up the axle. It took some serious effort, as I wasn't exactly in peak physical condition. Once I got to the actual passenger door, about 10 feet up in the air, I realized the door couldn't be opened. I motioned to the wolf inside to shield his eyes. Then I used my heel to kick in the window. After quickly clearing the frame of glass as best I could, I jumped inside, catching myself on the dashboard so I didn't fall directly on the person I was trying to help. Both my tail and my right arm just below the shoulder caught stray shards of glass on the way in, but the adrenaline running through my body kept me from noticing it. “Please!” the wolf pleaded. “You gotta get me outta here!” He was wedged into the space between the door and the steering column and held in place by his seatbelt. It looked like he was having difficulty moving. Carefully, I eased myself down to the seatbelt buckle. “Hang on,” I said gently, “I’m going to release your seatbelt.” As I moved closer, he groaned loudly. “Are you okay?” “Erg, yeah. I think so. I can’t move my legs, though.” Those were words I was dreading to hear. I knew I wasn’t strong enough to pull him up through the cab and out the window. Which meant my only options were to push him, or leave him. And I wasn’t going to leave him. “Alright, this isn’t going to be easy. I’m going to have to push you out. It’s probably going to hurt a lot, and I’m going to need your help. I’m not strong enough to do it myself.” The wolf was clearly unhappy with the idea, but he whimpered his understanding. I took a deep breath, and readied myself to catch him when I released the buckle. “One,” I counted. He nodded at me. “Two.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Three!” I pressed the button and brought my hands to grab his shoulder. As I expected, he hit his head on the window next to him as his body slid down the bench towards the ground. I was able to pull the force of the blow back a little bit, but his weight actually pulled me further down as well. I ended up splayed across his steering column hovering just above him. He let out a hiss of pain. “Okay!” I called out, trying to keep him conscious and responsive, “Okay! Stay with me. I need you to push yourself up a little so I can get under you and push you up.” “Yeah.. yeah I can do that.” He let out a low growl as he shifted around, trying to get his legs unwedged from under the steering wheel. He moved just enough to create some space between himself and the column. “Hold on! Right there. I can squeeze into that space there!” For once, I was grateful I was my height. I was able to slide over the top of the steering wheel housing and drop down on the other side, in between the door and the bench. The wolf had managed to pull himself out of the collapsed portion of the cab, but his legs were… not good. They were limp and mangled, in absolutely no condition to even be attempting what we were doing. But we had to get him out. “Okay,” I said, “I’m going to slide your legs around the last bit here, and then I need you to start pulling yourself towards the door. I’ll push as best I can. This is definitely going to hurt, so brace yourself.” I waited a brief moment for a response, and when I didn’t get one, I prodded him with a forceful “UNDERSTAND?!” That seemed to snap him out of his daze long enough to nod a response. “Okay,” I said, “here we go!” I turned my attention towards maneuvering his feet. There was next to no tension in either limb, indicating a severe amount of damage to the muscles and ligaments. I also heard soft cracking as I moved them. I was probably breaking them more just trying to get him out. Once his feet were clear of the wheel, I turned my shoulders to his hip and put my feet on the driver side door frame. “Start pulling!” I called over my shoulder. I started to push with my legs, doing my best to keep my back straight against his weight. A couple seconds later, I felt the weight on my shoulders decrease a little. I think he had found a handhold on the seatbelt above and was using it to pull himself up. As we began to move slowly towards the window above us, the crackling of fire and the patter of rain were joined by another sound, a soft hissing, like water being run through a small hole. An odd, green glow seemed to fill the cab, starting from just below my feet. I looked down to see an iridescent green liquid pooling at the bottom. It was cold as it touched my feet, and I shivered involuntarily. “Something wrong?” came the gruff voice from above. “Not especially,” I called back, grunting a bit from the effort of lifting him. “Just getting a little wet down here. Something’s leaking from somewhere.” “Shit!” the wolf swore. Suddenly, all of the weight I was pushing against disappeared. I suppose in hindsight he probably gave himself a good solid tug. All I know is I suddenly had no counterforce keeping me in place. I popped up a little, lost my footing, slipped, and fell down onto the window beneath me. I landed in about an inch of whatever this green fluid was. The fall wasn’t exceptionally long, but it coupled with my already-waning energy made pulling myself out of quagmire forming at the side of the truck a more arduous task. I wasn’t sure what the liquid was, but at the time, I assumed it was whatever the tanker was carrying, and that it was some sort of fuel. It was all I could hope that it wasn’t the flammable kind. “You okay?!” I heard from above. I looked up and saw the wolf leaning through the window above. ‘Well, he certainly got up there fast,’ I thought. “Yeah,” I replied. “I’m fine.” Just as I said that, I felt a stinging sensation in my tail and right arm. The areas that were cut on glass during my initial descent were sitting in the green liquid, directly exposing my wounds to the fluid. I remember thinking ‘Well that can’t be good.’ Just as I thought that, a bright flash, extreme heat, and a very loud noise all accompanied by immense pain engulfed my senses. All of my perceptions were simultaneously overloaded, and I passed out. When I next was aware of my surroundings, I was in a white room, strapped loosely to a bed, with 4 people clothed in white encircling me.

Waking up in a strange place, surrounded by people you don’t recognize isn’t the most comfortable of situations. What made it all the worse was I was immediately aware of the fact that I was strapped to this table and could not move. My immediate reaction was to start squirming, trying to break the restraints holding me down as panic gripped my mind. If anything, the straps felt tighter against my wrists and ankles. As I struggled, the figures around me began moving agitatedly, a few of them setting down clipboards I hadn’t noticed before and approaching my bedside. “Please, Miss Kazuki, calm yourself!” a surly voice called from my right. “You’re okay! You’re in the hospital after a serious accident. Do you remember the oil tanker?” I stopped struggling as my mind cleared and replayed everything leading up to what was now obviously an explosion. That did let me calm down a little, but I was still very disoriented. I surveyed the room around me more closely. The walls were lined with numerous instruments all beeping and displaying their findings. Findings which I could not make out as I didn’t have my glasses. “Who are you?” I asked the room. My voice was almost non-existent. It wasn’t just the hoarseness that altered my voice; when I spoke, I felt a soft, scratchy fabric move across my face as well. Looking down at the rest of my body, I realized that thick gauze was loosely packed over my entire body. As loose as the wrappings were, I still felt some gauze tight against my flesh. It struck me as odd that I was wrapped so heavily, but I thought little of it as the same doctor responded to my question. “I’m Dr. Freemont. I’m in charge of your recovery. There was an explosion, Miss Kazuki. It was frankly a miracle you survived at all. We’re… honestly a little surprised to see you conscious right now. Your burns were extremely severe, and there have been… complications.” That certainly didn’t sound good. I groaned as a wave of nausea overtook my senses for a moment, then asked what I didn’t want to. “What do you mean, complications?” Dr. Freemont cleared his throat. “Well… we’ve had significant difficulty confirming your vitals. Namely, the data we have on file from your last physical doesn’t match what we’re getting now.” “What… does that mean?” I was already disoriented, but listening to him talk was making things worse. He was talking like a doctor, and I was getting even more lost trying to understand what he was talking about. “That’s just it. We’re not entirely certain. We thought at first there might be an issue with our instrumentation. We tested your blood, looking to see what sort of donors we should be finding, and our tests came back inconclusive.” “B positive,” I croaked out. The straps on my arms still felt way too tight. The fabric of the material felt hot against skin I was starting to realize hurt from the contact. “Again,” he replied, a certain level of hesitation in his voice, “that is what your file says. But we tested your blood to be sure and… well, our instruments can’t identify your blood type at all. We’re receiving data that implies it’s something completely different from anything we’ve ever recorded.” I was quiet for a minute. I was starting to get a headache, both from sheer confusion and the inability to see anything clearly. “I’m not sure I understand… but can I please have my glasses? I can’t see.” The fuzzy figure to my right that I had since associated with belonging to Dr. Freemont shifted oddly. It was a few moments before he said anything else. “Another complication there, I’m afraid. We believe your personal items were destroyed in the explosion. Over the last four days, we’ve -” “Wait… four days?!” “I’m afraid so. You have been unconscious for that long.” I was incredulous. I’m not one for sleeping very long, so the idea of spending that long unconscious was simply unfathomable. The good doctor continued talking, though I was only partially paying attention. “As I was saying, over the last four days, we have tried to obtain numerous glasses in your size, but each new pair doesn’t quite fit. It seems the… measurements keep changing.” Thinking back to the truck and all of the events leading up to the explosion, I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t been there alone. Not really processing what had just been said, I tried to sit up forcefully and immediately regretted it. My wrists caught in the restraints, and I squeaked as the tight straps squeezed against extremely tender flesh. I was able to sit up, though, so I fought through the pain. “The wolf! What happened to the wolf who was driving the truck?!” The fuzzy shape took a step back and raised what must have been his hands. “Miss Kazuki! Please, you must remain calm!” It was nearly impossible for me to be calm in that instant. I was so fraught with worry about the wolf. I never even got his name! “Is he alright?!” I urged. I was hardly paying attention to what was happening at that point. Looking back at it now, I know I heard a couple of pops, and the tension in the straps went slack instantly. The voices of the various shapes behind me began talking excitedly, calling out at each other with commands I’ll never remember. The shape that was Dr. Freemont took another step back. He seemed to almost shrink in on himself when he did that. His out-of-focus form seemed to gesture wildly. “Miss Kazuki, I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to sedate you.” I felt a pair of oddly tiny hands grab my arm, and shortly after, a sharp jab in my forearm. I turned to look… And every train of thought in my mind immediately derailed. That close, it looked like a child’s hands were on my arm, and the needle (which looked quite large in comparison to the hands that were holding it) looked like a small toy. I glanced back down at my body and saw that the bed I was sitting atop was abnormally small. My bandaged feet hung out over the edge, and sitting up I felt the pillow just under my lower back. As silly as it seemed, I was far too large for this bed. Me. Little, tiny, puny me. I also noted that the bandages that once were so loose on my body were tight, and parts of my skin were showing through the spaces in between. Squinting as I looked around the room, every shape seemed absurdly small, like the people were babies and the machinery were all props made for playing house. I felt the sedative began to kick in. It was harder and harder to stay conscious. I turned back to the shape that was Dr. Freemont, now smaller than he was mere seconds ago. “Wha’ happened?” I mumbled out. From somewhere far away, he responded. “We’re trying to figure that out, Miss Kazuki. You were the only one we recovered from the accident, and we don’t know yet what happened to you. But I assure you, I won’t rest until I can find a way to help you.” My head became too heavy to hold up. I fell back onto the bed and felt the whole thing give way under my body. I hardly felt the short drop to the floor, and I remember the cold of the linoleum touching my feet just before I drifted off into the blackness of drug-induced sleep. Since that day, my life has never been the same. That was my first experience with the changes my body had gone through, and it really only got more bizarre after that. Dr. Freemont became my closest friend, and he has helped me in more ways than I can count. I had no idea what was in store for me then, and had I known, I would’ve asked the good doctor to end it before it got out of hand. But the details of all that are for another time. Though this day started me down the path that would become my life, it wasn’t the most important point along that path. The real story started the next time I woke up, when Roger came to visit...

[katebushwick]

The decision to truck debris from the World Trade Center site to Fresh Kills Landfill for sifting and long-term storage would have profound ramifications for search for human remains. For the City of New York and those tasked with the unbuilding of the World Trade Center, Fresh Kills was an ideal place to bring debris from the site. For many families of the missing, moving material that potentially contained the remains of their loved ones to a landfill was an affront to the dignity of the dead. They believed that the search for remains of the missing should continue undisturbed at Ground Zero. Instead, the material would be hauled more than twenty miles away to a facility that most New Yorkers, and indeed the world, associated with decaying garbage, methane fumes, rats, and scavenging birds. Over the next decade, controversies would develop about the way that the debris was initially searched for human remains, where and how to store the finest material once it was separated from larger pieces, and whether any human remains would come into contact with the ordinary household garbage that lay underneath the ground. Families would ultimately sue the City of New York for failing to respect their loved ones and provide them with a proper burial—taking their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Opening in 1948, Fresh Kills had served as the city’s main garbage dump for most of the second half of the twentieth century. The 2,200-acre landfill had just been closed in March 2001 and was awaiting conversion to a park when the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11. In the chaos of the rescue mission, it quickly became clear that workers would 2 Fresh Kills Fresh Kills 49 need a place to put the tons and tons of steel and debris that they were removing from the site in their frantic search for survivors and victims. There simply was no space anywhere on the island of Manhattan that could accommodate this volume of material. Despite its former life as one of the world’s largest garbage dumps, Fresh Kills was seen as an ideal spot to store and sort through the debris from Ground Zero. It was isolated enough that it could be cordoned off from the public and it was big enough that all of the material could be brought to one place. Later in the effort, the proximity of the World Trade Center site to the river, and the accessibility of Fresh Kills by barge, meant that debris could be brought to the landfill by water. Thus, in the early morning hours of September 12, 2001, material from the site—including pulverized concrete, steel rebar, asbestos, and other insulation materials—was loaded into uncovered trucks and brought to a cordoned-off 135-acre section of the landfill known as Hill 1/9. 1 There, it was unloaded and searched for evidence related to the attacks (particularly the flight recorders from the two planes that crashed into the towers), and valuables and contraband that were known to have been buried in the collapse of the towers (including guns, drugs, and money from various local and federal law enforcement agencies that had had offices at the towers), as well as remains and personal effects of the victims. The area was immediately reclassified as a crime scene. For the first month of the operation, NYPD detectives, assisted by sanitation workers, FBI agents, private contractors, and other volunteers, performed this sifting job by hand, using only rakes, shovels, and other basic equipment.2 As the scale and difficulty of the search became clear in late September, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asked the private disaster management firm Phillips and Jordan to manage the materials processing work at Fresh Kills. In mid-October, two waste recycling companies, Taylor Recycling Facility and Yannuzzi Disposal Services, were brought in to mechanize the sifting operations using giant machines normally used to separate waste for recycling. 3 In essence, the setup involved placing the debris into a series of large shaking drums that separated the material into successively smaller pieces. These pieces were then separated into debris streams of differing sizes in a way that made it easier for investigators to visually inspect all debris greater than a quarter inch. All personal effects and artifacts were examined by the FBI and sent to a “property trailer” for cleaning, indexing, and photographing. All suspected human remains were 50 Who Owns the Dead? brought to the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT) forensic anthropologist who was on duty at the Fresh Kills facility. 4 Because there were many restaurants and food service units in the towers, forensic anthropologists often found themselves examining nonhuman remains and food products. Anything larger than a quarter inch that was deemed to be human was individually bagged, labeled, and sent to OCME for further processing. Bits and pieces smaller than a quarter inch, which came to be known as the “fines,” were collected and separated for long-term storage at Fresh Kills. What was done, or not done, with the fines, which undoubtedly contained some human remains in the form of bits of unidentifiable and desiccated bone reduced to ash by prolonged exposure to intense heat, also became the subject of controversy. At its peak, the Fresh Kills operation employed more than 1,500 people per day and was called the “City on the Hill” because it functioned as a standalone community with dedicated phones, water service, telecommunications, heated and air-conditioned evidence examination facilities and offices, bathroom facilities, and a large cafeteria known as the “Hilltop Café,” run by the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. 5 The Fresh Kills recovery work was financed by $125 million from the federal government. The effort, which lasted until July 15, 2002, sifted through 1.8 million tons of debris (approximately 7,000 tons per day) and found 4,257 human remains (mostly bone fragments and small, difficult-to-identify body parts, but also arms, hands, and feet—many of them manicured, suggesting that they belonged to women; 54,000 personal effects (including jewelry, credit cards, and ID badges); $76,318.47 in cash and coin; 6 kilos of narcotics; 4,000 photos; and many airplane fragments. The team also recovered 1,358 destroyed vehicles, including 102 FDNY vehicles and 61 NYPD vehicles, and 1,195 personal vehicles. 6 All of this took place on top of fifty years of municipal garbage covered up by eighteen inches of fill dirt and giant plastic tarps. James Luongo, NYPD’s incident commander at Fresh Kills, later described the inherent unpleasantness of the site. He said that the best way to cope with the stress of the mission was to learn to be able to look at human remains, without actually seeing their humanness. He described the methane that bubbled up to the surface of the site, which was produced by rotting garbage below, and the general smell of the place: “There are days that you come up here and it stinks of methane, there are days that you come up here and it just Fresh Kills 51 stinks of death—death has a very distinct odor. You would come up here and the entire hill would just stink, it would reek, of death.”7 He also noted that city officials had to ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture to devise a plan to safely keep away the hundreds of seagulls and turkey vultures that circled the remains—eager to grab a bit of flesh, whether human or food. “It’s not your nice peaceful view of sitting along the beach, you know, watching seagulls fly by, these are nasty birds, and they were very aggressive—we knew what piles were rich in body parts by the way the seagulls descended on it, and you would have to fight the seagulls for the human remains.”8 In the end, the Department of Agriculture settled on regular blasts of fireworks to scare away the birds. These explosions were just another layer of noise on top of the rumble of heavy construction equipment and the constant beeping of trucks backing up. An Affront to Human Dignity Many families were shocked by the decision to relocate the debris to Fresh Kills. Human remains being placed on a truck or barge and then dumped at a location that once handled city garbage was horrifying for these relatives. Those in the firefighting community who disapproved of the city’s handling of the cleanup of Ground Zero argued that Fresh Kills was where the real “bagging and tagging” of victims was taking place. They argued that the rituals and prayers that provided respect and dignity for remains recovered at Ground Zero, whether uniformed service or civilian, did not exist at Fresh Kills. A group calling itself the World Trade Center Living History Project argued that it was only at the WTC site that clergy would be called to join the recovery workers for any discovery of human remains, for important moments of respect, dignity, and prayer. Faced with inhumanity, recovery workers, most importantly, transformed barbarism into civilized behavior for the nation and the world. In these few moments there was acknowledgment of our connection to these approximately 20,000 . . . nameless, faceless parts and wholes of humans who deserved respect. No such rituals existed at the Fresh Kills Dump. No clergy, no honor guard, no flag-draped ceremony existed as a dignity at the garbage dump unearthing of friends, family or complete strangers. 9 52 Who Owns the Dead? In the Living History Project’s view, the recovery of human remains at Fresh Kills was not a symbol of an effective response to the World Trade Center tragedy or proof that the systems put in place by the city were efficiently locating these remains. Rather, it was a failure to uphold the dignity of the victims and their families. Living History Project members argued that archaeologists would never consider recovering the remains of slaves or native peoples in the way that 9/11 victims were being recovered. As such, the victims of 9/11 deserved the same respect that society accorded to other dead people—even those who died decades or even hundreds of years ago. 10 The Living History Project was only onesuch voice. Families were also beginning to voice serious concerns about the conditions at the landfill. Patrick Cartier, father of an apprentice electrician who was killed in the attacks, reported upon visiting Fresh Kills that it was akin to “entering hell itself.”11 Officials associated with the Fresh Kills operation refuted such claims. Whilethey could not guaranteethat they would recoverevery singleremain, they felt that their main objective was to recover as many as possible. They took the job seriously and did not make light of their operation in any way. NYPD Chief of Detectives William Allee told a group of reporters during a tour in mid-January 2002, “This is not a garbage dump; it’s a special place. It is sacred ground to all of us. We’re doing God’s work and I feel honored to be here.”12 World Trade Center Families for Proper Burial World Trade Center Families for Proper Burial (WTCFPB) held its first meeting on December 3, 2002 and was formally chartered as a New Jersey not-for-profit corporation on November  10, 2003. 13 Kurt and Diane Horning, whose twenty-six-year-old son Matthew was killed in the attacks, founded the organization along with several other families. Matthew worked on the 95th floor of the North Tower as a database administrator for the insurance company Marsh & McLennan. He worked on a team that ensured that the company’s data could be quickly recovered in the event of a disaster or catastrophe. Matthew’s wallet and a piece of his skull bone had been recovered through the Fresh Kills operation and the Hornings believed that more of his remains were “buried amidst the debris at Section 1/9 at Fresh Kills.”14 Horning was on a tour of the Fresh Kills facility led by FBI Special Agent Richard Marx in July 2002 when it hit her that the fines, the bits of material less than a quarter inch, “contained Mat- Fresh Kills 53 thew’s and others’ human remains.” Indeed, according to her affidavit, it was Special Agent Marx who informed her that the fines contained at least some cremated remains.15 The primary goal of WTCFPB was to ensure that the fines were separated from the rest of the World Trade Center debris and were not permanently intermixed with garbage at the Fresh Kills landfill site. The group wanted this material to be placed in special containers and ideally returned to the World Trade Center site, where they would be permanently interred at the place of death. If this outcome was not possible, then they hoped that the fines would be placed in a suitable “cemetery and memorial garden which serves no other purpose than to bury our dead with respect and to provide the families and friends with a place for quiet reflection.”16 Fresh Kills Landfill, in their view, simply did not fit the bill. It was, inverting Lincoln’s description of the cemetery in Gettysburg, “unconsecrated ground.”17 WTCFPB emerged from a support group for families who had lost loved ones in the September 11 attacks. None of the core members had been politically active before September 11. They came from ordinary, middle-class families from New York and New Jersey and were not prepared for the shock and tragedy that befell them that day. Early on in their advocacy work, the Hornings and their partners spoke primarily in terms of dignity and respect for the dead, but as they became more savvy activists, and enlisted the helped of noted civil libertarian lawyer Norman Siegel, their language shifted to the more legalistic concepts of property and ownership.The core of the group consisted ofeleven families, but on December 20, 2003, WTCFPB created an online petition that asked members of the public to support the organization’s cause and to note whether one of their loved ones had perished in the 9/11 attacks. Based on the results of this survey, which approximately 62,500 people signed, WTCFPB claimed that it represented around a thousand affected families. 18 In addition to the fate of the fines, WTCFPB members were also concerned that, in the first month of the operation, debris that potentially contained human remains was “bulldozed” over the edge of the hill and mixed in with household garbage in a location in Section 1/9 known initially as “the North Field” and then “Area A.” The Department of Sanitation admitted that they did this in order to make room for newer loads of debris. 19 WTCFPB contended that this debris was “suddenly subjected to foraging by droves of seagulls attracted by the human parts contained in it.”20 Officials in charge of the Fresh Kills investigation insisted the material 54 Who Owns the Dead? was had been searched in the first few weeks of the operation, and that it was excavated and resifted at the end of the operation. WTCFPB contended that this was untrue. 21 Analysis of bone material recovered from the rooftops of buildings around Fresh Kills (i.e., bones removed by seagulls from the site or from barges and trucks arriving at the landfill) demonstrated consistently that none of them were human in origin. 22 In their complaint, WTCFPB acknowledge that Taylor and Yannuzzi did mechanically sift some of this material and “recovered numerous body parts and human remains,” but that they were neither authorized nor instructed by agents of the city to do so. 23 They claimed that approximately 414,000 tons of debris went unsifted, leaving “at a minimum hundreds of human body parts of victims of the World Trade Center” buried at Fresh Kills. In a later affidavit, James Taylor, the retired chairman of Taylor Recycling Facility, provided his own calculation, claiming that approximately 223,000 tons of debris was never sifted at Fresh Kills. 24 According to his testimony and the affidavit, Taylor believed that the material bulldozed off the side of the North Field/Area A part of Section 1/9 was never fully resifted and therefore contained human remains that had not been recovered. “This is why these family members are so unsettled and why Diane Horning doesn’t sleep at night,” he said. “It breaks my heart to know that Diane is right about the issue of September 11th human remains.”25 WTCFPB negotiated with the city over the material at Fresh Kills for many years. Horning and other family members regularly asked FBI and City of New York officials about thestatus and fate of the fines. In all of their conversations, officials at Fresh Kills reassured families that the fines were being kept separate from household waste and the rest of the debris from Ground Zero. WTCFPB claimed that Fresh Kills director Dennis Diggins assured them in August 2002 that ground asphalt millings—recycled road material—had been put down where the fines were being stored in order to provide an additional barrier between the material and the waste below the topsoil. While onsite during a July 2002 visit, FBI Special Agent Richard Marx told them that they “could request the fines [for proper burial] when the recovery effort was concluded.”26 WTCFPB families wrote to the Office of the Mayor and the Department of Sanitation after their conversation with Marx to find out what the city planned to do with the fines, and to ask that they be treated with respect and properly buried. Mayor Bloomberg’s liaison to the families of 9/11, Christy Ferer—whose husband Neil Lavin, the executive director of Fresh Kills 55 the Port Authority, was killed on 9/11—responded quickly to the families, assuring them that the material was being maintained with reverence and that one plan would be to use the debris as fill material in the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, but that it would be costly. She noted that she was “reaching out to private money to see if we can finance its move if and when that becomes an option.” It is interesting that although the families were primarily interested in the fines, estimated to be approximately 360,000 to 480,000 tons, Ferer refers to all the debris sent to Fresh Kills, including material that most likely contained no human remains. In a clear effort to empathize with the families, she wrote, “The closing of Fresh Kills [i.e, the conclusion of the sifting operation there] has rekindled raw emotions in all of us. It is so painful to imagine the unidentified remains of our loved ones intermingled with the debris that remains at the landfill. I am sensitizing City Hall to the fact that this debris cannot be forgotten and they have to plan for its future.”27 The families, however, had reason to distrust Mayor Bloomberg. On numerous occasions, both private and public, Bloomberg expressed a lack of personal interest in funereal rights and prevailing notions of proper burial. Beginning in 2002, WTCFPB requested a meeting with Mayor Bloomberg to ask him to support their efforts to remove the fines from Fresh Kills and provide what families considered to be a more fitting resting place. According to Diane Horning and news reports, however, when Bloomberg finally met with the Hornings in April 2003, he was dismissive of their request and seemed puzzled by their continued passion about the human remains at Fresh Kills. He told the families that he had little interest in the corporal remains of humans after death. He told them he intended to leave his own body to science and that he had visited his father’s grave only once. When Kurt Horning asked him if he would be bothered if his own father’s remains were kept at Fresh Kills, he said he would not. In the end, Bloomberg refused to endorse their mission, and when the Hornings pointed out that many other politicians, including senators Schumer and Clinton, had done so, he responded to the effect that it’s very easy to get important people to write letters on your behalf, but much harder to get them to do something for you. In other words, Bloomberg felt that he was just being honest when he said he would not actually do anything to help them. 28 Bloomberg cut their meeting short in order to deliver a civic award at the halftime of a New York Knicks basketball game at Madison Square Garden. 29 56 Who Owns the Dead? Bloomberg, it turns out, was only partially right in his assessment of the intentions of politicians. WTCFPB families succeeded in working with members of the New Jersey legislature to pass a bill in December 2003 ordering the Port Authority to move the fines out of Fresh Kills, which was signed into law by New Jersey Governor James McGreevey. But because New York State never passed a similar law, none of the New Jersey law’s provisions were ever enforced. Despite WTCFPB’s efforts to sway Governor Pataki and other New York State officials, a New York version of the bill never made it through the state senate.30 Ferer, while being sensitive to the needs of families, felt strongly that they had to be balanced against the needs of businesses and residents of lower Manhattan, who were eager to get on with their work and lives. Hence many of the World Trade Center families came to believe that her role was to present the mayor’s needs to the families rather than vice versa. In an editorial in the New York Times in 2002, Ferer made a point of contrasting the “silent majority of families” who send her messages that are “moderate” in tone, mostly about wanting to get on with their lives and never return to Ground Zero, with those presumably more extreme families who were obstructionist and belonged to organized groups that made demands to the city about what should and should not happen at Ground Zero. 31 The silence of families of 9/11 victims, however, did not mean that they approved what was taking place at Fresh Kills. For many relatives I spoke with, the idea that a loved one’s remains were in the landfill was simply too horrendous to think about. Monika Iken, who has been perhaps the most important family advocate in the creation of the memorial at Ground Zero, told me in 2011 that it was an issue that she did not have the stomach to deal with. While she was deeply appreciate of the work of WTCFPB, and supported it in any way she could, she avoided thinking about the possibility that her husband Michael’s remains were there: Thank God somebody elseis dealing with that. . . . The wholeidea that he is in Staten Island and not over here [in lower Manhattan] and he is in a dump—the whole thing throws me over the edge. I cannot even conceptually put myself there. . . . I have never been there, I have never seen it, nor do I want to. I cannot handle it. So what I do is avoid it so that I can’t—my Michael is not there. That is how I look at it. 32 Fresh Kills 57 For many families whose loved ones were killed on 9/11, the pronouncements from Bloomberg and his staff suggested an insensitivity that was both inappropriate and emotionally damaging. Many family members who were not passionate about the human remains issue—because they did not believe that their loved were in the fines at Fresh Kills, because it did not matter to them, or because they simply could not handle thinking about the problem—felt that the city was treating WTCFPB families unfairly. Nikki Stern, whose husband was killed on 9/11 and who was the executive director of Families of September 11, argued that “more compassion and morerespect could have been shown to thesefamiliesearly on. The issue is not whether I personally believe that part of my husband is at Fresh Kills. . . . The issue is, there are family members who do believe that. How are they being treated, and how were they treated? People who have this belief are not crazy and should not be treated as such.”33 In 2004, Horning and other family members at the core of WTCFPB began to attend New York City Planning Commission hearings in order to monitor the city’s plans for creating a park at Fresh Kills, to voice their opposition to keeping the fines at the landfill, and to demand a new search of the material they argued had never been properly sifted. WTCFPB also sought to make it easier for families to visit Fresh Kills to pay respects to their deceased loved ones. It is unlikely that many families would have wanted to visit the Fresh Kills site, but WTCFPB felt that they had a right to do so. WTCFPB believed that it was far too difficult to get to the site. There was no public transportation to Fresh Kills, visitors had to request official permission, and an escort from the Department of Sanitation was required. Visitors were also required to sign a waiver excusing the city from liability should any injuries occur during the visit. For Horning, though, it was the starkness of the place that made the visits so difficult: “The current mourning site is not a place to bring children, the infirm or the elderly. The walk itself is difficult as the soil erosion can be as deep as four feet. There is no feeling of solace or closeness to your loved one. It is a formidable place. Some days the smell of methane is too much to bear. During visits, some of us have found old tires, carpeting, construction fill, pieces of blistered steel, glass, bolts, and fire hose, shoes, and tiling at the site. It is simply devastating.”34 WTCFPB families felt that Bloomberg and his administration saw them as a nuisance and an impediment to progress in the city’s recovery rather than an interest group with a legitimate concern. 35 For the men and women 58 Who Owns the Dead? of the law enforcement community who had devoted ten months of their lives searching for human remains at Fresh Kills, such claims and allegations were frustrating and offensive. In interviews and in his affidavit, NYPD Fresh Kills Incident Commander Luongo noted that he personally witnessed the collapse of the towers when responding to the attacks and understood the significance of the operation for the families. He stated that if any of them had any reason whatsoever to question the quality of thesearch for human remains, he would have “halted the operation immediately.”36 Luongo further said that no workers at Fresh Kills had ever complained to superiors about improper searching and that he believed that they would have done so given the number of their colleagues who had perished on 9/11. 37 He also noted that search personnel were briefed on proper procedure before the start of every shift, and that forensic experts regularly reminded workers about what to do in the event that suspected human remains were found. Luongo explained that he personally witnessed the excavation and sifting with the Taylor and Yannuzzi machines of any material searched by hand before the equipment was available. He explained that Department of Sanitation workers used GPS to make sure that they were excavating the correct material and searched below the officially recorded bottom of the debris field in order to ensure that they did not miss anything relevant. Finally, he pointed out that any material that was not subjected to the Taylor and Yannuzzi machines was simply too large to fit in it. This debris was searched carefully by hand. Therefore, there was no WTC debris that could have been screened but was not. These claims were confirmed in great detail by Dennis Diggins, director of Fresh Kills for most of the search effort and who supervised the excavation and sifting of the early debris in May and June 2002, and by Scott Orr, who led Phillips and Jordan’s operations at Fresh Kills and was stationed there full time from October to August 2002. 38 WTCFPB sought permission to take drill bore samples at their own expense, but the city did not allow them to do so. In WTCFPB’s view, these samples would have allowed them to definitively prove their case, but the city believed such testing was unnecessary given the quality control measures already in place. 39 Thus, it is impossible to know for certain which side is correct. Fresh Kills 59 Beginning in early 2002, the Hornings and other families concerned about the fines at Fresh Kills heard rumors that the fine material less than a quarter inch was only separated temporarily and that the Department of Sanitation “apparently recombined the fines with debris from the World Trade Center and dumped them into the landfill.”40 They also claimed they had discovered that no millings had ever been laid to separate WTC debris from fifty years of municipal waste. Additionally, they took issue with the argument that it would be expensive to move the fines back to the World Trade Center site, noting that the city estimated that it would cost more to move the fines than the entire sifting effort at Fresh Kills ultimately cost. According to the concerned families, the city had “exaggerated the difficulties and cost of relocating the fines in an effort to thwart [their] efforts to ensure a proper and decent burial for their relatives.”41 Later, the families were concerned that the emphasis on speed above all else may have infected the operation at Fresh Kills the way it had created incentives to clean up Ground Zero as quickly as possible. Perhaps most fundamentally, there was a disagreement between the city and WTCFPB about the extent to which the fines ought to be considered human remains. For the city, every reasonable effort had been taken to retrieve any bit of human tissue or bone larger than a quarter inch. While it was undeniable that some fraction of the fines was human in origin because of the crushing nature of the collapse of the towers, this did not mean that all of the fines, which was mostly pulverized concrete and other building material, needed to betreated thesame way one would treat a body or a body part. At some point, city officials believed, one had to decide that enough was enough and accept that some small quantity of human remains would end up in Fresh Kills. For WTCFPB, the existence of human remains in the fines represented not just some abstract presence, but rather the potential presence of their loved ones. The fines themselves became corporeal. 42 As James Taylor, the chairman of Taylor Recycling Facility who became a vocal advocate for WTCFPB, stated in an interview with the New York Times, “You bring tears to my heart when you make me talk about this [the fines], but [are] there human beings in that powder material? Absolutely. There’s 2,749 spirits theoretically in that fines material.”43 As such, it was imperative that this material be treated reverentially and accorded the same respect that one would give to human bodies or body parts. Given the comingled 60 Who Owns the Dead? nature of the human remains that were present in the fines, WTCFPB wanted the entire volume of fine material to be removed from the landfill to prevent the permanent internment of the possible remains of their, or another family’s, loved ones in such a disrespectful environment.44 The fact that the landfill would one day be turned into a park did not comfort these families. Fresh Kills’ past life as a garbage dump could not beerased by landscaping and environmental remediation. In an e-mail message to Diane Horning, Diana Stewart, whose husband Michael was killed in the collapse of the North Tower, linked the reverential treatment of remains at Fresh Kills to an act of defiance against terrorism itself: For those like us who received partial remains, and the many who have received none, the remains at Fresh Kills require a proper, American burial, with all the dignity, ceremony and prayer which would accompany a burial if we could identity ash from ash and put a name on each. These unidentifiable remains are literally our kin, loved ones, fellow Americans. And for those who were none of these, we still embracethem equally, as our country always has, giving equal opportunity to those who come here to join our way of life, in peace. Please give all these unclaimed remains the dignity of burial, and I will be among the mourners who will stand to bear witness, express eternal gratitude to those who worked to free the remains from the rubble and, most importantly, stand in defiance of those cowardly murderers who thought these lives unworthy . . . thereby proving that in our country, every life matters.45 Thus, for Stewart, any unidentified human remains were the collective property of each and every family that lost a loved one in the WTC attacks, and that it was the duty of these families and the nation to treat each and every bit of human remains as if it belonged to a known victim of the tragedy. On September 29, 2003, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled long-term plans to turn the landfill into an expansive park and nature preserve with both recreational and natural spaces, as well as a memorial of some sort to the victims of the World Trade Center attacks.46 Implicitly acknowledging that there were human remains at the site, he suggested that a few handfuls of the fines would be brought to Ground Zero and incorporated into the Fresh Kills 61 reconstruction of the site. As plans for the site developed, it became clear that the Bloomberg administration envisioned two memorials at Fresh Kills—one involving the towers, which would be represented by two long side-by-side earthworks the length of the towers themselves, and another for the victims of the attacks, represented by a mound containing the fines. While administration officials viewed this as a dignified way to respect the dead, the families of WTCFPB disagreed. They simply did not want any human remains entombed atop five decades of New York City garbage. On March 24, 2004, the City Planning Commission held a meeting about the plan to turn Fresh Kills into a park. Several WTCFPB families attended that meeting and stated that they were against any attempt to turn the human remains into a permanent feature of this park. 47 On July 19, 2004, Jonathan Greenspun, the head of the mayor’s Community Assistance Unit, informed WTCFBP that the fines would not be moved from Fresh Kills, even though he knew this decision would disappoint the families. Greenspun did, however, welcome them to participate in the planning of a memorial at the park. Although the city claimed that no alternative sites were available to store the fines, the families contended that they knew of at least two appropriate sites: Liberty State Park in New Jersey and a nonlandfill site in the Fresh Kills area at Muldoon Avenue.48 Later they would suggest Governor’s Island as a third alternative.49 In addition to the general concerns over leaving the fines at Fresh Kills, WTCFPB families were concerned that their regular visits to Sections 1 and 9 of Fresh Kills landfill demonstrated that these areas was not being treated with reverence—rather they were littered with “chunks of steel, shoes, tires, carpets, portions of storm drains and other garbage. In addition, the area bears signs of erosion and tracks from large construction vehicles.”50 For members of the Bloomberg administration and others not involved with WTCFPB activism, such claims were “misconceptions” about what the landfill looked like more than two years after the recovery mission ended. They noted that only “clean” construction fill was used to cover the rubble from the WTC. 51 From August to October 2004, WTCFPB attended several City Planning Commission meetings, requesting that all potential human remains be recovered before the landfill was turned into a park. They also notified the commission that those in charge of the recovery effort were not cleaning up the site, but merely covering it with an additional layer of dirt to conceal the comingling of the fines with garbage and other debris. 52 62 Who Owns the Dead? Beginning with their October 2004 Notice of Claim against the city, WTCFPB changed their tactics from negotiation about dignity and respect for the dead to assertion of familial and property rights over the unidentified remains of their relatives at Fresh Kills. In a March 11, 2005 letter to Mayor Bloomberg summarizing the families’ position, attorney Normal Siegel wrote: Federal courts have recognized that next of kin have property rights in the remains of deceased relatives that are entitled to due process protection. . . . The law makes no distinction between cremated remains and an intact body. . . . What is of immediate importance is a determination of whether the City, and its representatives, has afforded [victims’ families] an appropriate level of due process protection in deciding that Fresh Kills is the only appropriate place where the remains can be permanently kept. Based on our research, we conclude that the City has systematically ignored the civil and constitutional rights of our client. 53 Siegel then went on to accuse the city of not dealing with concerned families “in good-faith” because they were not always invited to meetings about Fresh Kills or given accurate information about what was going on there, and, further, that they lied to families about the practicality of moving remains. If the city did not address the families’ concerns, grounded in the legal right to control the disposition of the remains of direct kin, the families would be forced to pursue legal action against it. 54 While some media outlets covered the possible legal action sympathetically, the New York Post used it as evidence that the families of WTCFPB were no longerengaged in a rational debate over theremains. 55 An editorial in the newspaper noted that “the city’s proposal issensitive and appropriate—not perfect, but hardly reprehensible. But the families are in no mood to compromise—they consider their demands non-negotiable. Following through with a lawsuit may prove emotionally satisfying for the families, but it’s unfair. The city has behaved both honourably and respectfully. It’s long past time to move on.”56 In another editorial, Andrea Peyser noted that “these relatives just can’t let go. And perhaps they never will. The latest fight to be waged by 9/11 families . . . threatens, I fear, to weaken their credibility in the eyes of a public that is, frankly, growing weary of them and their many complaints.”57 Fresh Kills 63 When intense discussions failed to produce an outcome that satisfied Horning and other WTCFPB families, they filed suit against the City of New York in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in August 2005. This court was responsible for hearing all litigation related to the World Trade Center attacks as a result of a provision in the federal Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act.58 Their legal strategy rested on the claim that families of the victims had a property right in the remains of their loved ones under both federal and state law. Specifically, they argued that next of kin have the right to “take possession of the remains, to make arrangements for a proper and decent burial, and to give instructions regarding the disposal of remains.” These rights, in their view, extended from intact bodies all the way to “body parts, bone fragments, small tissue particles, and cremated remains.”59 They further claimed that their due process rights had been violated because city authorities (1) misled them about the treatment and storage of human remains at Fresh Kills, particularly in the first month of the operation; and (2) by “bulldozing topsoil over the area containing remains” the city “set in motion a process that will make the remains a permanent fixture of Fresh Kills.”60 Finally, they noted that New York State law prohibited the interment of human remains at Fresh Kills landfill. 61 The case would ultimately be heard by Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who presided over nearly all litigation emerging from the September 11th attacks, and who went to great lengths to empathize with those who had been killed or injured in some way in the attacks or recovery effort. 62 In the months after WTCFPB filed suit, however, Hellerstein ordered the families and the city to try to come to some agreement in order to avoid a lengthy and emotionally damaging trial. He even arranged for a series of less formal conversations to take place in his chambers in an effort to avoid turning the issue into a purely legal dispute. He recommended that the families think more symbolically about the fines, since it was unlikely that the entire amount would be transported from Fresh Kills. Perhaps, he suggested, a portion of the fines could be brought to another site as a symbolic memorial to those who had died on 9/11. For the families, however, the notion that the fines be treated symbolically was akin to accepting the idea that their loved ones were also only symbolically dead. Their loss was total, and they were not going to compromise on what they perceived as the right way to handle their loved ones. Indeed, after Hellerstein described the positive attributes of a park at Fresh 64 Who Owns the Dead? Kills in open court, Laura Walker, the wife of a victim of the attacks, stood up in the gallery and chided the judge for even suggesting that the remains be kept at the landfill. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” she told him. In keeping with hisefforts to find some way of resolving the dispute without formal litigation, Hellerstein responded to her outburst not by asking her to be removed from the courtroom, but by apologizing to her and other families for their pain. 63 Despite Hellerstein’s demeanor and desire to reach a compromise, one could not be found at this meeting or in subsequent discussions. Disappointed but undeterred, WTCFPB moved forward with collecting a wide-ranging mix of evidence for a full-scale legal case that would prove negligence at, and mismanagement of, the Fresh Kills facility. In an affidavit submitted as part of the WTCFPB suit, for example, a unionized Taylor employee at the site named Eric Beck claimed that P&J, the private contractor, constantly told workers to “keep the tonnage up” (i.e., the amount of material sifted per day) and to make the belts run as quickly as possible.64 At the same time, he said that NYPD officers examining the debris as it went down the conveyor belts were constantly asking workers to slow the process down so that they could adequately search the material that passed them. 65 In another affidavit, retired NYPD officer John Barrett, who spent a few shifts at Fresh Kills during the first six weeks of the operation (before mechanical sifting began), claimed that Sanitation Department workers took material away from him before he had had the chance to fully examine it and that NYPD officials at the site failed to properly investigate his allegations. 66 Barrett also claimed that the steel beams removed from debris for recycling were not always checked for human remains and other artifacts. In cases where they were actually searched, the location of any relevant material recovered from them was not clearly recorded. 67 This made it difficult to determine whether or not all, some, or very little of this material was actually searched. Theodore Feasor, the director of mechanical operations at Fresh Kills, was responsible for ensuring that the recovery effort had the necessary equipment. He was concerned that material recovered from the debris was not being rinsed before inspection in order to ensure that human remains and other artifacts weren’t being missed because they were difficult to see. He stated that his suggestion to do so was rejected by his supervisors at an October 2001 meeting because it would cost more and slow down the pro- Fresh Kills 65 cess. 68 He also doubted that the material deposited in North Field/Area A was ever resifted at the end of the search effort. As such, he was “absolutely convinced” that “hundreds of human body parts and human remains” had gone undiscovered.69 Most shockingly, Eric Beck claimed that he observed New York Department of Sanitation workers “taking . . . fines from the conveyor belts of our machines, loading it onto tractors, and using it to pave roads and fill potholes, dips, and ruts” at the site.70 Such a claim must have been upsetting to families concerned that these fines contained fragments of their loved ones—a possibility that was given official backing in a 2003 letter from Charles Hirsch to Diane Horning stating that he was “virtually certain that at least some human tissue is mixed in with the dirt at the Staten Island landfill.”71 Beck’s credibility, however, was at least partially undermined by his claim that the operation recovered approximately 2,000 bones per day during the first few months of the job. Given that only 4,000 bones total were recovered from Fresh Kills (compared to approximately 16,000 at Ground Zero), his claim either represents a faulty memory or a misunderstanding of what was happening at Fresh Kills during the year he was there. One reasonable explanation is that he mistook animal products for human remains. In a supplemental affidavit for the defense, Dennis Diggins vehemently denied this claim and others made by Beck, Feasor, and Barrett. He claimed that all three overstated their responsibilities at Fresh Kills and made allegations based on incomplete knowledge of the search process—in other words, that none of these witnesses had any real credibility. In particular he said the men failed to realize that not all of the material that was not sifted in the Taylor and Yannuzzi machines was steel. There were other things that simply could not be broken down into small enough pieces, and these chunks were carefully searched by hand. 72 With respect to Beck’s claim that the fines were used to pave roads and fill potholes at Fresh Kills, Diggins argued that the “accusation is such a perversion of the truth, and is so far-fetched, that it should be discounted completely without further comment. However, becauseit is so offensiveto me personally, and to others at DSNY, I feel I must respond to it.” Diggins went on to note that there were two sources of millings and crushed stone for road projects at Fresh Kills—both of which provided more than enough material to construct and maintain any and all roads necessary for the search activities at Fresh 66 Who Owns the Dead? Kills. 73 With respect to Feasor’s complaint about the failure to wash down debris with water, Diggins noted that the idea was rejected specifically because OCME stated that such wetting down would further compromise already damaged DNA and make it even more difficult to identify the source of the remains. Cost and speed were simply not issues in the decision. In an effort to dispel notions that the North Field/Field A was not resifted toward the end of the recovery effort, Diggins supplied minutes from several meetings that made explicit mention of the excavation and sifting of this area. There were also mentions of resifting material underneath the sifting equipment to ensure that nothing was left behind in these areas once the operation was complete.74 No matter how much evidence was brought to bear on the recovery operations at Fresh Kills, however, the WTCFPB families were unconvinced. In their “Statement of Undisputed Material Facts in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment,” for instance, they met each and every claim made by the city and their contractors with the statement “Plaintiffs lack information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of these statements.” They continued to reassert the veracity of the statements made by workers who had submitted affidavits on their behalf. They neither directly responded to the counterarguments made by the defendants nor mentioned any of the evidence provided by the defendants to rebuff the claims made by Beck, Feasor, and Barrett (most obviously the meeting minutes making it clear that at least some excavations of the North Field/ Area A were taking place throughout June 2002). 75 They did request additional operational meeting minutes besides those provided by Diggins, but said they never received them.76 The WTCFPPB families were seeking something greater than facts about the recovery process—they were looking for justice for their loved ones and truth from a city government that seemed to want them to go away. Their experience of being mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and spouses to the dead was the issue that needed to be addressed—the concerns they had with the Fresh Kills sifting operation were secondary to, and in service of, this concern. Indeed, in explaining the “heart of the issue” that defined WTCFPB’s existence, the organization quoted from an “unnamed child” whose father had died in the World Trade Center attacks: “My Daddy is not garbage.”77 They wanted to be treated with respect and they wanted their wishes to be honored. For Bloomberg and the city, though, Fresh Kills 67 they were but one constituency—albeit a constituency that had become skilled at using the media to turn the Fresh Kills issue into a “political football.”78 Oral arguments in the case took place on February 22, 2008. Judge Hellerstein began by noting that he had tried hard to broker a negotiated agreement between the two parties—but that as a judge he simply could not meet both sides’ demands. Throughout the proceedings, and in his final ruling, he made it clear that the purpose of the law is to help society function the best that it can, not to enact perfect justice. He opened the hearing by stating, “To those who lost their loved ones in 9/11, in a very deep way there can never be justice. There can never be the return of a son or a daughter or a husband or a wife or a lover or a child.”79 On the other hand, Hellerstein noted, the people responsible for the cleanup had two jobs: to remember and respect the dead, but also to repair the hole in the city and thus enable it to continue to function. Hellerstein stated that when a compromise could not be reached, “we come back to what the court of law can do—to read a complaint, to evaluate an answer, to consider motions and briefs and legal discussions and come back to issue a ruling on which the Court is sure will satisfy neither the plaintiff nor the defendant.”80 The hearing first addressed the question of WTCFPB’s standing to bring the case and whether they actually represented the thousand-plus families that signed the petition. Hellerstein wanted to grant the organization standing to raise the question of whether they had a property right in the remains at Fresh Kills as next of kin, but in order to do so, they would have to show that the city had violated their constitutional rights. The city’s lawyer, James E. Tyrrell, Jr. vehemently challenged the standing of the group. In addition to the issue of whether WTCFPB could be definitively linked to particular remains at Fresh Kills, Tyrrell also questioned the extent to which the group actually represented the true voice of families of victims—in that the vast majority were not actually members of the organization. The thousand-plus families represented had simply signed an online petition. Tyrrell wondered whether there was an equally large number of families who “do not want the hallowed ground on which the [fines] are located [i.e., the Fresh Kills landfill] to be disturbed,” but who had not yet been surveyed. 81 He also questioned whether the court had the authority to order the City of New York to redo its sifting operation and move the fines to a new location as dictated by a small group of 68 Who Owns the Dead? families. Tyrrell further noted that, although the claims being made in this case were individual, the relief requested was collective. 82 For Tyrrell, the fact that WTCFPB did not have a large body of active members was damning, but for Siegel, the lawyer for the claimants, the organization’s size was merely a byproduct of its inability to poll all 2,749 WTC families because their contact information was tightly controlled by the city. Besides, Siegel noted, New York is a “town of big mouths” and families who did not belong to WTCFPB would speak up if they disagreed with the lawsuit. 83 Hellerstein set out three tests that needed to be passed in order for him to rule in favor of WTCFPB: “The first is the existence of a constitutionally protected property or liberty interest; second, the deprivation of the interest by the defendants; and third, that the deprivation was without due process of law.”84 He then pointed out that WTCFPB was claiming a property interest in the remains, but that there were no particularized remains in this case. “I mean, that’s a tragedy,” Hellerstein lamented, “but it is also the constitutional hurdle.”85 Siegel countered that his clients lacked a definitive property claim because of decisions made by the defendants over which the plaintiffs had no control. Hellerstein stated that there had to be actual remains, not a theoretical or speculative claim that such remains exist. Siegel repeated that the lack of identifiable property was a direct result of decisions made by the state that “shock the conscience” and therefore require redress.86 Hellerstein did not find this line of argument plausible. He noted that the city felt it had no choice but to move the debris from the World Trade Center site to Fresh Kills. As such, it could not be found guilty of violating the constitutional rights of families of victims of the attacks. For Siegel, the imperfect sorting in the first thirty-two days, combined with the claim that fines were being segregated while they actually were not, amounted to a constitutional violation. For Hellerstein, though, the city was performing a governmental function in clearing the streets of debris and sorting it out at a waste disposal facility. However inadequate the city’s conduct may have been, it did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation. 87 Whether WTCFPB had standing or not, Hellerstein seemed eager to hear their case in full, partly as an act of respect for the families and their loved ones and perhaps in an effort to end the controversy, which was becoming increasingly public. The question that needed to be answered was whether the fines were human remains, as the plaintiffs alleged, or merely Fresh Kills 69 the “undifferentiated material that slipped through a quarter-inch sieve,” as Hellerstein rather crudely put it. 88 In Hellerstein’s view, the existence of human remains in the fines, however likely it may be, was still speculation. He said, “the City regarded it as debris and the City regarded it as something that had to be dealt with and the City may well have been wrong and may well have been callous and may well have been indifferent but did they commit a constitutional violation of due process law?“89 In his argument, Tyrrell reminded Hellerstein that in order for anyone to have a property right in remains, they must identifiably belong to the person seeking control. In this case, the plaintiffs were not even asking for forensic identification of the remains. This suggested, according to Hellerstein, that they “feel there are remains in the [fines] but the remains are not identifiable.”90 Tyrrell and Hellerstein both agreed that this made the case unique—that people were asking for control over human remains that might, but did not definitively, belong to their loved ones. Further, they were doing so on behalf of collective interests rather than their own. Tyrrell also added that WTCFPB had to prove deliberate bad intent on the part of the state in order to demonstrate a constitutional violation in this case. As the oral arguments came to a close, Hellerstein signaled that it would be very difficult for him to rule in favor of the plaintiffs (he noted that the “chances to dress up this argument in constitutional clothing does not look too bright”), and that he knew his ruling would not bring solace to the plaintiffs. In essence, he asked them to go back to the negotiating table, because he was not able to give them what they wanted. “I would like to see more effort renewed in coming together on some kind of settlement,” he told both sides. “I would like to think,” he concluded, “that if we can resolve this issue amicably we would better achieve everybody’s purposes than to have another opinion come down in a fat law book and be appealed and appealed again and forever grieved on.”91 Hellerstein began his written opinion in the case with the following description: The terrorists of September 11, 2001 murdered 2,749 people in Towers One and Two of the World Trade Center. Approximately 1,100 of the victims perished without leaving a trace, utterly consumed into incorporeality by the intense, raging fires, or pulverized into dust by the massive tons of collapsing concrete and steel. Full bodies were recovered for only 292 victims, and partial remains were found for 70 Who Owns the Dead? another 1,357 victims—sometimes a fragment of bone or a possession, sometimes more. City workers and contractors have inspected every bit of debris and, using sophisticated equipment, sifted the particles of debris to the extent of one-quarter inch of diameter, the space between the concentric circles of a small paper clip, with no further success. All human remains that could be identified, were identified. Only dust remains. 92 In the end, Hellerstein agreed with the city that there was no clear property right in this case because any remains at Fresh Kills were unidentifiable. He did not accept the plaintiff’s claims that the recovery effort at Fresh Kills left hundreds or thousands of identifiable human remains in the landfill. While the city may not have been as careful as it could have been, its actions fell far short of violations of human conscience.93 Further, any violation of the plaintiffs’ religious sensibilities by the city government was unintentional and a byproduct of its desire to get lower Manhattan back on its feet. In what can only be described as a lack of sensitivity to how WTCFPB families would read and hear the language in his opinion, Hellerstein imported his statement from oral arguments that the fines were “an undifferentiated mass of dirt” to which no property rights could be attached. 94 This description of what WTCFPB believed to be the remains of loved ones continued to anger those families who were most concerned about the status of the fines at Fresh Kills. This continued pain did not surprise Hellerstein. In the conclusion of his opinion, he urged the families of WTCFPB to accept the fate of the fines and to stop fighting for their removal. He asked them to channel their anger and frustration not against the city, but toward working with government officials to build a memorial at the landfill site to honor their loved ones. “The City has a plan for a beautiful nature preserve and park at the Fresh Kills site. There is room for a memorial on a height with a view of where the twin towers stood. The energy applied to this lawsuit might well be transferred to participating in the planning of the park and memorial. What better reverence could there be than a memorial that both recalls those who died, even without leaving a trace, and points to the tenacity and beauty of life that must go on? The terrorists sought to destroy our lives and our freedom. They failed, and a memorial in such a beautiful setting can symbolize the vital continuation of our vibrant democracy.”95 Fresh Kills 71 Obviously unhappy with the decision, and unwilling to accept that their loved ones’ remains could be classified as an “undifferentiated mass of dirt,” WTCFPB appealed Hellerstein’s ruling, but to no avail. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that Hellerstein committed no errors in rendering his decision and that the city had not violated any constitutional rights of the plaintiffs. It noted that the city was forced to deal with a situation that it had never faced before, that it did the best that it could under the circumstances, that its agents acted with the best of intentions, and that any mistakes made were the result of uncertainty and the desire to quickly return the city to normal rather than a malevolent or reckless intent of the government. Further, any shock to the conscience was caused by the magnitude of the event rather than the response of local officials. 96 The appellate court concluded with an echo of Hellerstein: On a human level, plaintiffs’ claims are among the most compelling we have ever been called on to consider. They have endured unimaginable anguish, and they seek nothing more than the knowledge that their loved ones lie in rest at a place of their choosing. We regret that we cannot bring them solace but we echo the sentiments of the District Court: “The events of September 11, 2001 will never be forgotten. No one knows the truth of these words more than those individuals who lost their loved ones to the attacks. In a very real sense, those individuals have suffered a wrong for which there can be no remedy. No matter the authority or power of this Court, it cannot bring back the loved ones lost, and it cannot bring peace to the plaintiffs or surcease to society’s collective grief around the events of September 11, 2001.”97 On June 1, 2010, WTCFPB petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of this latest ruling, but the request was rejected on October 4, 2010, ending the group’s efforts to have the fines removed from Fresh Kills and the North Field/Area A debris resifted. 98 Although the plaintiffs were ultimately unsuccessful in gaining a say in the fate of the fines from Fresh Kills, they continued to fight for what they perceived to be the dignified handling of remains from the World Trade Center tragedy, both at the former landfill and at the site. During the Fresh Kills fight, they attracted the attention of the media, appearing regularly 72 Who Owns the Dead? in local, national, and international newspapers, magazines and television news reports. They would ultimately join forces with other World Trade Center activists and use their collective media connections to stir up the two controversies that will be discussed in the second part of this book: first, over the meaning of the discovery of additional human remains around lower Manhattan several years after the recovery operation at the WTC had been declared over; and second, how unidentified and unclaimed remains ought to

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Fascination About face mask

The N95 mask is design and style for prime protection and lengthy use time. It's easy to breath as a result of, delicate into the skin, and easily limited. It is sized for Asians, and the result is actually a mask that is definitely tight for safety, nevertheless comfortable to don.The N95 Respirator Surgical Masks aid lessen exposure to bacteria by filtering particles smaller sized than 0.one Microns. Made for an infection control, the N95 Respirator Surgical Mask is relaxed and simple to use, with twin preset straps so it stays set up, when a nose band permits a far more tailor made in shape. The identify of this home made face mask states all of it—banana acts as an astringent, assisting to tighten facial pores and skin and cut down the appearance of wrinkles. In addition to the yellow fruit (the recipe recommends a medium-sized banana), you’ll also need to have 1/four cup of whipping product. Mash them collectively, then include the contents of 1 500-IU Vitamin E capsule. n95 face mask priceface masks priceface mask in the vicinity of me priceface mask sheet priceface mask with eye protect pricenon woven face mask priceface mask in delhi priceface mask 3 ply pricele gear pro additionally face mask cost It can be conjectured that the very first masks might have typically been employed by primitive people today to affiliate the wearer with some type of unimpeachable authority, such as "the gods" or to or else lend credence to the person's declare over a presented social job. Masks and puppets were being typically integrated in the theatre work of European avant-garde artists through the change on the nineteenth century. Get an index of vital oils that function for all pores and skin sorts. Not all necessary oils work for all skin styles. Some might burn off or hurt delicate pores and skin, one example is. Huge measurement Beard Web manufactured from breathable health care grade non woven material. Soft relaxed thread elastic for safe positioning and ergonomic healthy above the consumer's face. Want to show daily right into a very good pores and skin day? Want to know tips on how to continue to keep your skin youthful, refreshing, and glowing 24/seven? Every single person desires to look and feel their greatest constantly. Our assurance is directly proportionate to the way we sense about ourselves. Deriving the top outside of on your own is having said that a process that could be greatly assisted with the usage of intelligent merchandise. Korean masks have a protracted tradition connected to shamanism and afterwards in ritual dance. Korean masks have been Utilized in war, on equally soldiers as well as their horses; ceremonially, for burial rites in jade and bronze and for shamanistic ceremonies to drive away evil spirits; to keep in mind the faces of wonderful historic figures in Demise masks; and while in the arts, significantly in ritual dances, courtly, and theatrical plays. In certain regions, once-a-year shamanic ceremonies concerned masked dances and these strongly abstracted masks are arguably probably the most placing artifacts created On this region. For this refreshing (and delicious!) treatment method, mash up a handful of ripe strawberries with 3 tablespoons of floor almonds. Insert 2 tablespoons of yogurt and mix right up until the mixture includes a pasty texture. Often a slave or simply a felony was quickly granted the insignia and status of royalty, only to generally be killed once the festival ended.[16] The Carnival of Venice, in which all are equal powering their masks, dates again to 1268 AD.[seventeen] The usage of carnivalesque masks while in the Jewish Purim festivities almost certainly originated while in the late fifteenth century, although some Jewish authors assert it has constantly been Element of Judaic custom.[18] Masks are sometimes utilised to avoid recognition. As being a disguise the mask functions being a type of security to the wearer who needs to believe a task or job without being determined by Other folks. (You can pierce the capsule using a needle to squeeze out the contents.) Stir the combination and after that unfold it on to your face, eliminating immediately after 10 to 15 minutes. For more straightforward Do it yourself face masks like these, and home made solutions of every type, look into the reserve Homemade: 707 Items to help make Oneself to economize and the Earth. And don’t pass up these other each day patterns which will make you search youthful.

5 Tips about face mask You Can Use Today

I like a superb lip balm yr-round, but especially in the cold months when my lips can chap. So consider my surprise Once i realized you might make your own using beeswax, almond oil, honey and a bit of outdated lipstick. Pacific Northwest Coastal indigenous teams ended up usually highly proficient woodworkers. Their masks were being generally master-parts of carving, from time to time with movable jaws, or perhaps a mask in a mask, and areas moved by pulling cords. A Review Of face mask in the past, kings and commoners alike have been entertained by dance and mime accompanied by audio where the dancers normally wore masks, a vestige of the before period when these dances were being enacted as spiritual rites. In line with George Goyan, this apply evoked that of Roman funeral rites exactly where masked actor-dancers represented the deceased with motions and gestures mimicking Those people from the deceased although singing the praise of his existence (see Masks in Effectiveness above).[39] Europe Japanese masks are part of a very outdated and highly subtle and stylized theatrical custom. Although Detailed Notes on face mask are in prehistoric myths and cults, they've produced into refined art types. In an effort to fulfill the ever altering needs of our consumers, we are engaged in producing and exporting a wide gamut of Face Mask. These face masks are generally used in medical surgical procedures for stopping transmission of human body fluids in the client towards the surgeon. Also, these masks can be found in bulk with tamper absolutely free packaging. The use of masks in rituals or ceremonies is a very historic human follow across the world,[5] although masks can be worn for cover, in looking, in sporting activities, in feasts, or in wars – or just employed as ornamentation. The identify of this homemade face mask says everything—banana acts as an astringent, helping to tighten facial skin and cut down the appearance of wrinkles. Besides the yellow fruit (the recipe endorses a medium-sized banana), you’ll also have to have 1/four cup of whipping cream. Mash them together, then insert the contents of one five hundred-IU Vitamin E capsule. Additionally, there are an abundance of solutions readily available which have been built to provide certain applications in aiding and controlling your skin. Olay Whole Outcomes 7-In-1 Anti-Ageing Product + Serum Duo SPF 15 is a fantastic illustration of an item that focuses on anti-growing older while offering a concentrated moisturizing components. It fights all main signs and growing old and will help you feel and appear younger than prior to. Items including the Nivea Oil Manage Gentlemen’s Face Clean are high-quality offerings in the sphere of elevating oily skin and furnishing you that has a refreshed appear. The ample skin forms, tones and ailments are all achieved and cared for with the numerous list of solutions out there on Amazon India. A rib knit a few-gap balaclava makes it possible for the wearer to guard the face versus cold air or hinder recognition. Shigong dance masks were Utilized in shamanic rituals to thank the gods, although nuo dance masks shielded from negative spirits. Marriage ceremony masks have been utilized to pray once and for all luck and an enduring relationship, and "Swallowing Animal" masks have been connected to defending the home and symbolised the "swallowing" of disaster. Want to show daily right into a excellent skin day? Want to know tips on how to continue to keep the skin younger, contemporary, and glowing 24/7? Just about every man or woman really wants to feel and look their greatest at all times. Our confidence is straight proportionate to the way in which we truly feel about ourselves. Deriving the top outside of your self is on the other hand a undertaking that may be drastically assisted with the usage of intelligent items. The nō or noh mask progressed from your gigaku and bugaku and so are acted completely by men. The masks are worn all through quite very long performances and they are Therefore extremely gentle. The nō mask may be the supreme accomplishment of Japanese mask-producing. Even though they usually demonstrate competent craftsmanship, they practically generally lack the spiritual character of the normal tribal masks. Oceania

Rumored Buzz on face mask

We have been featuring Elastic Face Mask. The face masks are used by the health and fitness treatment staff for facial safety from airborne infections. These face masks are intended from your really soft product which enables air stream in such a fashion that the person does not experience suffocation. To check When you have oily pores and skin, push a paper napkin for your forehead. Whenever you pull it absent, it ought to be soaked in oils. These are often fabricated from leather-based with appendages of fur, feathers or leaves. Some protect the face, some The entire head and are sometimes hugely abstracted types. Navajo masks appear to be motivated with the Pueblo prototypes.[33][34] Masks and puppets were being frequently integrated to the theatre function of European avant-garde artists from your switch of your nineteenth century. Masks are a familiar and vivid element in many people and classic pageants, ceremonies, rituals, and festivals, and in many cases are of the historic origin. The mask is Ordinarily a Element of a costume that adorns The entire overall body and embodies a tradition important to the religious and/or social lifetime of the Local community as entire or a selected group within the Neighborhood. Masks are utilised almost universally and manage their power and thriller equally for his or her wearers as well as their audience. Depart the combination on the face for a minimum of 5 minutes right before rinsing it off. You may also test these basic Do it yourself face masks that will help unclog your pores. Masks in several sorts (sacred, useful, or playful) have performed a crucial historical function in the event of understandings about "what this means to get human", given that they permit the imaginative working experience of "what it can be like" for being reworked into another identification (or to affirm an existing social or spiritual identity).[22] Not all cultures have regarded the usage of masks, but A lot of them have.[23] Masks in performance In lots of cultural traditions, the masked performer is often a central principle and is highly valued. In the western custom, actors in Historic Greek theatre wore masks, as they do in standard Japanese Noh drama. In some Greek masks, the wide and open up mouth with the mask contained a brass megaphone enabling the voice of your wearer to become projected into the big auditoria. In medieval Europe, masks had been used in secret and wonder plays to portray allegorical creatures, plus the performer symbolizing God frequently wore a gold or gilt mask. Backed because of the prosperous knowledge, we are able to offer Face Mask to respectable purchasers. The provided variety of face masks is designed employing higher grade Uncooked material and revolutionary know-how in demanding compliance with Our supplied blue swine flu mask is created from high quality raw material, procured from very reliable sellers in the market. The provided swine flu mask is accessible at pretty economical prices. In the following paragraphs, I share my most widely used recipes for 6 various pores and skin kinds. You'll locate the ingredients for these recipes in the kitchen area. The key is to make use of face masks formulated for your skin form. Pat your face with gentle yellow mustard for just a bracing facial that can soothe and encourage your skin. Try out it on a little test location very first to ensure it gained’t irritate. Lemon facial masks While some do-it-yourself face masks and scrubs work most effective on oily, dry or delicate skin, I have pulled together an index of nine astounding masks and eight scrubs that Focus on all skin forms. These recipes are great for get-togethers and for groups given that they work on every type of pores and skin. Searching for face masks? We are in this article to aid. Our facial masks handle a variety of skin care problems. Acne considerations? There's a mask for that. Store our big selection of face masks for acne.

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Financial help for students in need

More Unusual Scholarships for Students

I found stats about education and economics in researching this article. This does not address the Financial Help For Students In Need.

Education must hold great value for students, whether this be getting an instruction to get a high paying job, ranking first in our class, feeling the satisfaction of learning, enlightening ourselves, pleasing our families. Worth is private, in what's worth on our own terms, and we all invest.

When we're young, especially, we want the guidance of our mentors, including friends, family, educators, society and media, any of which could guide us nicely or not. If we're taught that the most significant matter is to spend 15 hours a day studying, we may consider it. If we are given a creative array of lessons that will impact how we value education, we have a much better shot at building a base and understanding the positive nature of schooling for ourselves than if we're instructed rote, unrelated facts.

I recall a running disagreement I had with a buddy about teaching and obligation. Was it the teacher's job to do whatever it took to impart the lesson to the pupil who did not understand it the first time along with the others, or was it the pupil's obligation to examine to the ends of the earth to comprehend the lesson?

I had been raised in a progressive, nurturing family where learning was pleasurable, and that I never felt fear in asking questions, in not comprehending a lesson. I simply said I wanted help and got it. My opposing buddy in this debate was raised by foreign parents. In this case, it looks like environment had a lot related to our various sides.

I believe teachers needs to be prepared to morph their systems in such a manner the lesson is understood by each pupil, also creating an atmosphere where the knowledge is loved by the student, does not fear blossoms and failure because of it. My opposing buddy was confident that any pupil who couldn't understand the lesson was not trying hard enough on her/his shoulders the duty of figuring out the lesson, and had. He saw this as the only mark of a true pupil. He additionally anticipated to be reprimanded.

What I see is that the very best learning comes out of cooperative education and out of creative learning environments where the lesson and life lessons integrate, builds societal prominence and touches upon current styles.

Here are nine sample lessons which could fit to the creative and technological rate of our current world.

1. Have students make one group video or individual videos revealing a section of history. This excites the imagination and leaves the subject matter open. A good example of this is to film the falling of a leaf in fall from tree to ground, an ant walking up the building or some group endeavor that is much more involved. If no equipment is available, students can act out the material and record it. Or call a local law firm and inquire to give or allow you to borrow a video camera.

2. Take students on a field trip that is photographic. The field trip might be as far as across the building or on the school grounds, when there is no means for bus transport. The theme might be about measurement, for example, if it's a mathematics lesson. The photographs would reveal the angles of bridges, the slope of a roof, the uprightness of a telephone pole, the angle of twigs in a bird's nest. Inviting "others" insures there is a support system in order for the event isn't traumatic for pupils whose families don't usually participate or do not exist. The clear presence of other significant adults, including other teachers, instructors, clergy, social workers, tutors, would allow for no one to feel alone and for each pupil to be supported. A local camera store could be willing to give financing, whether there aren't any cameras available. Or Canon might participate using a loan or present to boost the lives of your students who could pass on the cameras to each class in the institution, if necessary.

3. Create a social problem in the classroom that needs for example trying a burglar who stole to feed her/his family, a jury along with a judge. Afterward, take a field trip to local magistrate or the courthouse. Arrange to sit in on a session or, arrangement forbidding that, have the magistrate talk about justice as well as our American way.

4a. Create a mock central market in the classroom where pupils purchase and sell merchandise and practice their math skills. Possess the money that they use in this marketplace be based upon tokens they've earned via a Good Samaritan plan in the classroom. Those that help another get a token. The program develops citizenship, planning and mathematics. After that, choose outside the students on a field trip and give them each a dollar that you get from your pocket or petty cash. No student cash ought to be utilized. Just the dollar that the student is given by you. The assignment: see who are able to bring the most things for one dollar back. Thus, we include budgeting as part of the lesson.

Use big beans sell and to buy shares. Have a professional dealer come to explain concepts that are fundamental.

5. Have each student write. Then call a local rock star or rap star to enter and turn the poem right into a song that the entire course learns. Yes, this activity could be led by the music teacher, but celebrity sells in company and education and asks the juices of creativity to stream in the classroom, instills self-confidence and certainly will involve community celebrities in the betterment of instruction.

Call a nearby drummer to enter and lead. Through drumming, discuss about communicating and have each student drum one message that you have educated during this lesson. Have the message is interpreted by the others.

6 As a follow-up lesson, have a mobile phone technology come in and talk about the method of cell tower transmission. Then speak about the differences in societal communicating between drumming and cell phones.

7. Have each student think up an example of exactly how we use mathematics on earth. Exclude to be able to go purchase something in a store, online or on the phone. Call a local app maker to give a program which has the class photograph and an individual photo included in a program that pulls up with each pupil's thought. Then possess the program maker talk about the abilities s/he needed to acquire to master app making.

8a. Pick a motif including success, education, happiness, for example. In-school project just, some parents do the job for the student and since some parents are not at home to help. Film the demos along with the creative process. Post the art on the classroom site. If there's no classroom site, call a local web individual and ask if s/he will donate putting up (online) a page with the students' presentations.

9. Once weekly, have a regular tea time. Phone an area tea specialist with to have some of the annals of tea and tea, to start you off. This silent time will give a spirit of camaraderie to the class while developing value for quiet reflection and experiencing its advantages. To summarize, these notions are samples, different social climates, for different levels. The notion will be to give school worth to the student, to make the lessons relevant to the life of the pupil, to ensure individuals raise the amount of students in US and school educational rankings. How many times do we slack off on a job because it's not pleasing to us? Because we enjoy it, and we slave away at another task. Everyone sang; sing and I got to play the piano. This added value for everybody to schooling.

We even discussed the lyrics, which, I learned 12 years after, getting an M.A. in Music Therapy, had extreme importance in forming us. Which brings us to the next stage: how do creative modules such as for example these fit to the system that is present? That's a dialogue for the article titled Schooling 2.0: 5 Ways To Make Extraordinary Lessons Of Yesterday The Educational Regular Of Today, soon to be released.

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Time management tips and strategies

  Test- Your Time Management (plan and control the time spent on your activities especially if you want to have a great jump with your lifestyle ideas)

      How good is your time management?

Learn how effective people use their time efficiently and how their time management skills generate money. This is another approach to have a better lifestyle habit. Today, we are all quite familiar with the term ‘Time Management’. The subject is of so much importance that, thousands of books and courses have appeared illustrating the same through online education learning. There were also blogs about lifestyle ideas covering time management as one of the important topics. The main objectives of time management are • To set priorities. • To allocate time properly • To utilize your time effectively • To get the best out of the given time The saddest part is, even after learning all the tactics of time management, most people implement only a part of it. For them, the term is only confined to noting a day’s work and ranking them on the basis of priority. Once you have setup a home business to make money online, a very time management skill is required in order to leverage yourself in a demanding nature of make money over the internet. If you want to utilize your time in the best possible way, try to recognize your own time management skills and then measure their effectiveness accordingly. If you are a person who assigns time for every work, try to find whether you allocate them on the higher side or the lower side. When you allocate a comparatively higher time for a task, the risk of wastage of time increases and if you allocate it too low, you may suffer from stress. I have a small suggestion for this complication. Before assigning time to a particular task, estimate a fair time and give a tolerance of about twenty five percent to that. This simple trick will allow you to work in a stress-free environment without wasting any time. I would always suggest my followers to allocate time in proportion to the type of work you are handling. Always assign time to unexpected developments. With unexpected developments, crisis may come to you any time of the day. Assume, you are working on an assignment and suddenly another client calls you in need of immediate attention! So, before everything goes out of control, arrange your schedule smartly. Having a good time management you are also rewarding yourself of a healthy lifestyle habit. Separate the tasks according to their importance. Make two lists- first for those, which need immediate observation, followed by another list of tasks that can be postponed safely. This will certainly help you to work comfortably without stress. Time management is considered to be both an art and a science. Don’t be a slave of time, rather make it your tool to work efficiently and reach your goal. When you utilize your time effectively, you will never get pressurized by your own goals. If your goal is to make money fast and easy, then an effective approach to become less stressed out and to really complete your work is your time management.   Want to get an ultimate life experience, then check this out.

      We listed Time Management Tips & Strategies to help boost

productivity and achieving goals.

  Most of the successful people in home business to make money online has strict time-management strategy to get all things done efficiently.

    These tips will help you master and accomplish tasks more in less time.   1. Set goals and Rewards   If your ultimate goal is to have a well-managed lifestyle ideas, setting your goals and your rewards is good start to kickoff the plan. Defining your objectives is critical for arranging your day and you can make legitimate targets and you won't tumble off calendar. You must look deeply and ask yourself if you really want to accomplish those things.   Knowing your desire can enable you to maximize your productivity and see the bigger picture.   2. Set your priorities  –Setting priorities will help in decision making especially if it's a life-changing decision that bring you a healthy lifestyle habit Categorize your tasks accordingly: Important and urgent – needs to be done right away Important but not urgent – appears to be important but you can decide when to do them Urgent but not important – needs to be done as soon as possible but when finished, it won’t give any lasting value Not urgent and not important - these tasks are usually leisure activities or things you don't really need to do   3. Delegate tasks - Effectively delegating tasks to the right people who will deliver right outcome   Do more in less time. Delegating task to someone else and trusting the outcome. Yes, it takes a lot of trust and communication to ensure that everything will work perfectly at the end as it should. For example if you are making money online, you can hire someone to schedule your time during the day, assign someone to pick up your laundry, or delegated work-related tasks to the right person who can deliver the task at hand.   4. Set Clear Deadlines - The word deadline may develop a feeling of anxiety within you.   Set clear deadline so you won’t lose track. Limit time spent in each task accordingly. It is also a good practice to complete tasks or projects ahead of your deadline to give you time reviewing  If there will be revisions, then you wouldn't have to spend additional time in the project because you can actually make use of the time you saved.   5. Say NO to Multitasking - Multi-tasking can make you less productive and less effective   How does multitasking affect your time management. Multitasking is usually done when a person starts rushing due to time constraint. Multitasking are likely to make your completed task in low quality which may cause redoing everything or missing important details. Multitasking divides your attention between two or more tasks in which you lack focus on each. If you make money through work from home job,   6. Avoid Distractions - Time is precious and distraction has no room in time management   Distractions and procrastination can keep you from doing your chores and waste your precious time. That’s why it is important to block out any and every distraction. Here are common tips to avoid simple distraction that can hinder productivity or completion of your task: Put your phone away Turn off social media notifications Download app that doesn’t let you use your phone   7. Schedule your day ahead of time   This may not work for everyone but there’s no harm in trying. Make a list of tasks or plan ahead. Allow few minutes to organize your schedule for the following day or for the entire week, then take five minutes at night to look at the next day schedule. Making money online will definitely give you a long list of task, but making sure you are scheduling ahead makes you spend your time wisely.   8. Take breaks and unwind before sleep   To be more productive and complete all tasks, you have to take few breaks. Relax a few minutes, could be 10 to 15 minutes for your brain to decompress.       You can do the following: Close your eyes and massage it Listen to your preferred music Watch interesting short video Drink water   9. Saying NO to Sudden Tasks   Saying no to tasks that may appear suddenly and are not necessarily. Don't take on any new tasks if you're not sure that you can handle them or that if you don't have enough time to finish the ones that you already. Be firm in saying NO. If you feel you don't have enough time buffer on your time the whole day, just stick on the plan. In modern lifestyle, people are wiser and wish to make the best of of their precious time.   10. Be Inspired and Motivated - We work hard when we are inspired and motivated   It’s normal for humans to feel down, tired and blue however it slows you down and make you sad for cramming and not completing the task. You can talk to someone you find inspirational, admire and you trust who can boost your motivation up. You can also watch motivational videos or reading motivational books. But above all these tips, having fun and being happy is the most powerful technique to stay motivated. Have a healthy lifestyle habit balance because it is crucial that you continue to feel good while you work. When you are happy, you’ll be more productive, and you’ll be more positive person.          

Work, Work, Work: Making Each Moment Count

  We manage our own time as we manage our life. Consider as if you are managing your home business to make money online and you want every progress even have big or small it would be.  

      Yes, we have all the time in the world but we must start counting the moments of our lives. Live the moment and make every moment count. We usually hear this line when we are having fun. but would also apply at work and help you be more motivated and progress as planned. Time is an ever-fleeting concept and the reality is that we are always clamoring for more! This is very similar to life support and citing this fact, I have already quoted the following aphorism in a previously written story: TIME IS MY FRIEND TIME IS MY ALLY I HAVE ALL THE TIME I NEED FOR EVERYTHING I WANT TO DO. I have found that it is very hard to perfectly balance time with our daily life. In that regard, I have been showered with a lot of grateful responses and some questions, one of which, I wanted to respond to. This is a subscriber who said she is struggling to manage her work and personal needs simultaneously. She is essentially looking for a way to take care of herself while meeting the requirements of her workplace. As such, I have made extensive research into this particular dilemma, and have come up with the following suggestions.     Firstly, you need to stop judging yourself about where your time is spent.   It may be a whole lot of work or some really quality time that you have spent with you family. DO NOT regret it and wherever you are, be there 100 percent. If you're working, you need to identify the parts you love about it. Try to determine why you said yes to the work and enjoy that part of it. Enjoy the moment and live your ideal lifestyle.   Secondly, make sure that you have an accurate calendar tool to make certain that your schedules and deadlines are fulfilled.   You need to meticulously mark it with both your work and personal times, and then, attend to them. For example, if I'm writing a book or making money through blogging, it's very easy for me to let that time slip into something else, like answering an email or returning calls. But I have, with time and perseverance, got better at blocking out all distractions and sticking to how I had originally planned to spend my time.   Finally, there needs to be a priority to values surrounding your time, in that you need to decide on what is more important to you.   If personal time is crucial to you, then mark your personal time into your calendar first. Proper prioritizing of your time can lead to exceptional results and all round smooth work processes. I hope some of these helps those who need it. Please write and let me know if any of these suggestions work for you. Also, don’t hesitate to share your own ideas because, I need them too!    

To Do or Not to Do

      What to do first? It is always a question before we start working on the long list of tasks. So, how do we decide what to do first really? In building a home business to make money online, there are so many steps and processes involved. Do you think you can manage your time well? How is that some people seem to have enough time to do everything that they want to, whereas others are always rushing from one task to another? Since we all have 24 hours to work with, why do some people achieve so much more with their time than others? The answer lies in good Time Management. Since, time is a commodity that we always need, but rarely have enough of, we need to work smarter and not harder to get more done in less time. Working smarter will not only increase our productivity but also, will give us plenty of time to relax and enjoy your ideal lifestyle. This is the beauty of Time Management! Now, how can you become more productive and optimize time successfully? By simply making a To-Do-List! And if you don’t have one yet, you better start today! In this era of technological renaissance, we have an electronic asylum called the Internet, where we get bombarded by all kinds of information. To make matters worse, our fast-paced world contributes little in this whirlwind, leaving us with an attention span like that of ants. Therefore, it is paramount to create a to-do-list today and keep a visual record of the fact that each moment is valuable! A task list will make you more focused, keep you on track all the time, will help you concentrate more on the task at hand and thereby, will make you more productive.       It does not matter how you prefer to do it, as long as you do it! Desktop or laptop; pen and paper—whichever way you are comfortable in, provided that, it ultimately works out for you. Personally, I use Microsoft Outlook; I print a hard copy of my day’s appointments and tasks, and referring to this list, I can edit, add, update or cancel at any time with extreme ease. It not only gives me the flexibility, but also keeps me focused. The great thing about Outlook is that it only takes me few minutes to set up my electronic vision for the day! To-do-list or task lists are both for your business as well as for your personal development. If our brain determines what needs to be done in order of priority, at the very beginning of the day, it sub-consciously relaxes. In this case, everything is chalked out and the brain does not have to worry about rushing from one task to another, which can only make you more stressful. Give your brain a reward for sticking to your to-do-list! Pick your favorite color and when you complete a task, put a tick with your favorite color against it. Your brain will then start to associate the color with success and within 30 days, you will look forward to completing your tasks for the color reward that you get to see afterwards. You will become more organized and you will actually look forward to adding more tasks to your to-do-list to perform them in the extra time you have freed up. Your productivity will increase as well as your success. When Brutus was asked, “Et tu, Brute?”, he should have replied, “You Bet! I wouldn’t be caught dead without my task list!” Successful Time Management is synonymous with making Each Moment Count! To learn about how you can make each moment of your life count, read me : How to learn to enjoy your life    

Distractions That Could Hamper Your Entrepreneurial Career

      For example, Start a internet business, like online learning games or online education learning is very demanding for savvy blogging entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs in general and we must avoid distractions in our career that could hamper our success in business, so let's go over some business blogging tips.   It requires complete dedication and a lot of your time to succeed in business, more so if you are building a home internet business to make money online, first hand experience. We entrepreneurs often have to juggle between various fronts and this requires patience and perseverance. I learned that it is important to stay clear of distractions that can hurt our career as an entrepreneur especially if you are planning to do an online career and discover how to make online money.     Checking emails constantly   We often tend to check our inbox constantly, reading and replying to them whenever possible. In making money online through online business, email is really important. However, this is a major distraction in work. It is a good idea to have about 30 to 45 minutes a day reserved to reading and answering emails. Communicating with clients via phone rather than mail is also an alternative and sometimes it saves time and gives a personal touch. The bottom line is that if you spend too much time on emails every day your productivity suffers, so let's start with business blogging tips   Skipping from one idea to another �� Due to the fast growing online or home business to make money online, the smallest idea could be the biggest catch. It is important that we explore new ideas. It is only the only way that you and I will manage to take our business to new levels. However, we need to keep the focus on one idea at the time to see some results. Skipping from one idea to another without paying attention to any can hinder our work and became just a distraction. So we need to concentrate on one idea at a time and try to make it a reality rather than go with several ideas without any direction.   Randomly browsing social media networks   With new technology, making business online is now a new phenomenon for entrepreneurs. Social media is the most powerful tool in making presenting your brand to the public. However, being distracted to various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is common. This is a serious distraction if you are an entrepreneur. Viewing your 'friends’ social lives can be entertaining but the time spent there can be invested more productively in our business. It is important to only spend as much time on social media as is necessary for learning our 'customers’ interests and increasing our client base. believe me, random browsing of social media sites can keep you from engaging in constructive work on your business.   Engaging too much on your hobbies   I personally think that someone, despite being too busy at work or with business  who can still make time for hobbies has great time-management. But we should be careful in engaging ourselves with hobbies. We cannot overdo this one. While having a hobby, such as sewing, reading or gardening is a good idea, to much engaging in it as an entrepreneur is a distraction. Spending too much time on hobbies can act as an excuse to take long breaks from work. It can delay your potential of making money over the internet if your business is related to home business or an online business. This, in turn, can reduce your attention span to your business, which could drag. So, avoid obsessing over hobbies as those can distract your attention from the focus of running your business successfully.   Deferring critical tasks   Procrastinating critical tasks for later is an alarming distraction, especially for us entrepreneurs, we need to be focus on various tasks and update them regularly.   My advise:  don't put off important tasks for later, even when the tasks do not seem to be particularly interesting or appealing, we need to accomplish them on time to keep our business running well.   Paying too much attention to 'others’ opinions   Hearing out other people’s views and opinions is good as it goes, it can help our horizon as an entrepreneur and provide us valuable insight. However, paying too much attention to 'others’ opinions may come in the way of our goal to run our business the way we want and need... Listening to too many people can get us overwhelmed and trigger self-doubt and anxiety. Our inner thoughts are unable to manifest properly as they get side-tracked by 'others’ opinions. So seek feedback from only a few select people who have your best interests in mind. Remember that you will never be able to get the approval of all and laying too much emphasis on 'others’ opinions is a distraction. Distraction can only hamper your success in making big money online or making money over the internet.   Overloading each day with tasks   Instead of overloading each day with more tasks to accomplish, you may want to set realistic goals. It is important to not overwhelm us with too many tasks or else we risk that the most important ones will not be accomplished. Limit yourself to two or three tasks for each day so that their execution is feasible and there is room for flexibility in case of any urgency.   Taking long breaks for meals   Taking long breaks for our meals can be a big distraction if you are an entrepreneur who wants to make money fast and easy, you lose touch with your work, and as a result, it becomes difficult to resume the workflow that was present before the meal. Sometimes, you may want to work while you eat to give your business the attention it demands.   Agreeing to everything   The habit of excessive people-pleasing can be a distraction as it can prevent much of the success of our business. Not every offer is going to benefit our business and not every suggestion goes well for the company. So it is important to say “no” and refuse to agree at times. If you feel that the approach of someone is not correct, defend yourself. If a certain deal appears to be shady decline to sign it. Make sure you don’t end up agreeing to something against your judgement which you might regret in the future.   Allowing politics to come in the way of work   Permitting politics to interfere in the running of the business can be a potential distraction for us entrepreneurs. For example, there can be a struggle with one person’s ego trying to overtake. This could lead to differences between for example, partners. The point is to use logical decision-making and synchronize the efforts of all for the good of the company. Therefore, try to keep politics away and this will help in keeping your career going.   Doubting yourself   If your self-doubt and insecurity gets over it can spell doom. It is alright to doubt yourself but doing it frequently can distract you from work so I would suggest to create a list of your achievements and go through when you are in self-doubt. In conclusion, with a little insight and persistence most distractions can be avoided in running your business, like building a home internet business and to discover how to make online money...   Also  I found this article from Lidiya very interesting.     This blogging course is worth checking out.

      One last Question for you - do you think that Life is a Rat Race?

      Do you believe that life is a rat race? The metaphorical ‘Rat Race’ in our contemporary life refers to the competitiveness between people for wealth and power. Though I don’t know anything about the origins of this metaphor, I can picturize how a real rat race can look like. Think of a maze in a scientific laboratory with a dozen rats scrambling in all directions, trying to find their way to freedom with great frustration. But the truth is, these rats are ignorant of the fact that they are actually racing and competing with each other. In actual sense, the metaphors that we use in our daily life, get inspiration from the way we live our lives. Though it may sound disturbing, all of us living in this modern world are forced to join the rat race. Well, that is what we have always been taught and something that we teach everybody else. Even the schools and the colleges train us with the idea that life is a rat race. We just can’t ignore this truth as the society does not give us any choice and motivates us to blindly follow what we hear since our birth. The metaphors we use, not only reflects the way we live but also creates the way we live. So, if we call life a rate race, it will gradually tend to become one. To live a stress-free, happy life, we need to omit this particular metaphor and apply some positive ones in our life. Here are a few suggestions from my end, which will not only inspire you but also will make you live your life to the fullest. Live your life like a cat. A cat prowls slowly with careful steps. Cats are known for their calm and their patience. To achieve your goals, try to be like a cat and keep a pace that suits your needs. Get inspiration from a dog. They walk lively and make friends wherever they go. Known for their instant response, dogs are considered to be one of the most active animals. To live a beautiful life, I believe we all should imbibe an active, trustworthy and friendly nature in ourselves. We should move with short steps and dance through life and find a partner we can always sit next to and lead a happy life with. There so many positive things around us. Take motivation from those. Don’t run like an aimless rat. Live a life with a purpose.   Read my blog Meditation for Memory to know how meditation can help you to lead a stress-free life.     Check out our shop with all these resources:

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