#WAIT I might actually. for research purposes. give me like 45 minutes

[br1ghtestlight]

big bob and lily were together for TWENTY TWO years before she died btw. if you even care

[graemeruns]

London Marathon 2019

It’s never easy running two marathons close together, and in my case, because I had put everything into the Manchester marathon and was not able to run for a week after, the three week recovery between the two races was not enough. I managed to build up some miles again in the second week post-Manchester, and enjoyed a fast parkrun at Lloyd Park where I knocked 5 seconds off my course PB there, but then I was into the taper again. In my final week I always do a marathon-pace effort in the shoes I intend wearing on the day, but just 4km wearing my On Cloud X lightweight racers aggravated my calves again, so I decided not to wear them for London. Shoe choice then became a dilemma: I thought I would wear my Mizuno Wave Sayanoras, then after referencing my training log and discovering that I had never run further than 13 miles in them, ditched that idea and resorted to my Mizuno Wave Riders. I’ve worn these in road marathons before, but at 312g they are quite heavy, and I would have preferred something a bit lighter. Still, there was no way the 13mm heal-to-toe drop would overuse my calves, and the cushioning would be nice too.

Friday, expo day; Saturday, taking it easy doing stuff around the house; Sunday, up before my alarm, usual pre-marathon breakfast of porridge and toast, and off to catch the 8:05am train from West Wickham station. For once, I wasn’t at all nervous, because I had no pressure to do well. The weather was cool, although fairly breezy, but very decent conditions for running.

There was quite a gathering of Striders and other local club runners on the train, so the 20 minute journey to Lewisham went in the blink of an eye. Then there’s the 25 minute walk to the start, which meant I was there before 9am. This year, London marathon had split the Good For Age competitors among all starts, and I was on my own in the Yellow start. There were definitely some Striders and other runners I know in there somewhere, but I couldn’t find any of them. It was pretty chilly when I handed my bag in at 9:20, and so began 50 minutes of waiting for the start; I actually entered the starting pen at 9:40 thinking that it would be warmer surrounded by other people, which it was, but after 20 minutes of standing I was noticing how much my hamstrings were already aching. It wasn’t a good beginning to the race!

Despite getting in the starting pen quite early, it still too me 2 minutes to get over the line after the gun went off. I was keen to get going, and warm up, but the aching hamstrings were not helping. I set about trying to maintain a good pace; with no idea how much I had recovered from Manchester, I hadn’t really decided what pace to aim for, but just to run as naturally as my body felt, with the hope that I might be able to sneak in under 3 hours. I covered the first 10k in a satisfactory time of just over 41 minutes. The next 10k was quite a bit slower, in 42:40, but that still meant half-way came up in around 1:28:30, so if I could maintain this slower pace I could be on for something close to 3 hours. However, I was already feeling very drained; I remember at the time thinking it felt as hard as the last few kilometers of Manchester a few weeks earlier, but there was still a long way to go. At 25k I was still slowing, and soon after this Andy from Striders overtook me. I thought about trying to hang with him for a while, but by now my legs were very heavy, and the effort to catch up and try and hang on for a bit might ruin me completely, so I let him go. (Andy finished with a new PB of 2:58:24).

By the 20 mile mark my hope of a sub 3 had gone, and now the time really didn’t matter, and it was all about getting to the finish as quickly as I could muster to end the pain. I covered the remaining part of the marathon averaging a fairly pedestrian 4:45 - 4:50/km, but my heart rate was hovering around 160bpm, which is the top end of my marathon-pace range, so I was doing about as much as I could. My time over the line was 3:06:38 (you can see my run on Strava here). Everything considered, I was absolutely OK with that: I had done what I could, tried a plan, but my Manchester recovery just hadn’t been enough. There’s a lot of people who would be absolutely thrilled with that time, finishing within the top 3000 of 42500 runners. For me it was just the end of another race, and time to analyse the damage done.

I find it fascinating how your body reacts to different scenarios. It was easy to compare both my marathons because running conditions had been very similar: cool, overcast, with a breeze (though a bit windier in places at London) and mostly flat. The main differences were: freshness, shoes and congestion. Let’s take one at a time:

1) Freshness: Manchester had definitely taken more out of me than I thought. Once I had started to run during the recovery weeks I felt very sluggish, and the weekend two weeks after the marathon where I ran a fast parkrun followed by the Sunday Striders off-road run had wiped me out for 2 days. Then I did a marathon paced run of 4k that made my calves sore again. All of these were mistakes when you are due to run another marathon so soon, and definitely put my recovery back. In hindsight my runs in-between the events should have been at an easy or recovery pace.

2) Shoes: the last minute choice to change to my marathon training shoes from my On Cloud X was probably the right thing to do based on the hammering my calves at taken at Manchester. I did some research before London, and tests have show that for every 100g extra a shoe weighs slows the runner by around 0.8%, which is around 1.30 minutes for a 3 hour marathon. 1:30 is a lot, but when you aren’t sure whether you will run sub 3 or 3:20, it didn’t matter. What I find interesting is, because I got tired by half-way, my running form must have fallen apart and the high heel-to-toe drop of the shoe forced me to overuse my quads, ‘dragging’ my legs forward rather then activating the hip and hamstring in a pendulum motion. Result: extremely sore quads afterwards, and bruised toes from heel-striking rather than landing mid-forefoot. My calves were completely unscathed though!

3) Congestion: not a huge issue, but even getting to the water stops this year was difficult if you were on the wrong side of the road. There were also far fewer water stations this year (apparently this was on purpose to reduce waste, but I must have missed the email) and far too many Lucozade and gel stations. So, for the first time at London, I think I got dehydrated this year, because I ignored some water stations thinking there would be another in the next mile, but there wasn’t. I even had a cup of Lucozade at one point I was that desperate!

So that’s my summary of the Virgin Money London Marathon 2019. I’m not saying this based on my performance, but I genuinely didn’t enjoy any of it this year. I don’t like crowds -  I can get panicked and stressed around too many people, and this year I found the marathon overbearing - the number of runners, the crowds, and the noise, was just too much. I actually covered my ears during some of the ‘cheer’ zones. Having run it 4 times now, I will give it a break next year - I have already entered Brighton Marathon 2020. I’m excited already to think of going back to where I ran my first ever marathon in 2014. My over-ambitious plan is to try and run it 25 minutes faster than I did 6 years previously - 2:49:23. Is it too big an ask at my age to run four and a half minutes quicker than my recent Manchester time? Maybe, but I think I just need a plan, and, as some of you will know, there’s nothing I like better than a nicely structured, good old fashioned training plan.

[freshstartfromtheheart-blog1]

Shepherd's Pie

“Happy St. Patrick’s Day!” is what I was saying a little over a week ago as I purchased all of the fresh ingredients to make my very first shepherd’s pie, from scratch. I was so proud to come up with this idea for my second recipe and adventure in the kitchen. What a fun idea for St. Patrick’s day, and it was something I definitely have never tried to cook on my own before. This year instead of staying out late, decked in green from head to toe with giant light up shamrocks on my head, I chose to spend a quiet night in listening to music preparing a lovely meal.  

I have to admit I got a little caught up and a little busy this past week and haven't been able to post until now, but hey BETTER LATE THAN NEVER :)

I have only tried Shepherd’s Pie before a couple times in my life and each time it was only because someone I was with ordered it at a restaurant as their meal and I had a few bites. Or when I worked at a Preschool a few years back they served it there for lunch, pretty fancy lunch huh?  Although it was just instant mashed potatoes, teeny tiny frozen peas and carrots, and some mini meat balls mixed all together in a bowl with some shredded cheese on top. Either way,  whipped up in a restaurant or served buffet style in the preschool I always thought it was delicious, and I couldn't wait to try to make my own from scratch! 

Many recipes I found for Shepherd’s Pie called for ground beef, but I decided to go with chuck roast to make it more of a hearty stew to enjoy on this cold, windy, night in.  

I followed the recipe step by step, I started by browning the meat in batches just as it said but my favorite part was chopping up the delicious fresh veggies. Adding more veggies into my diet is definitely a must, and I was proud of myself for not going the easy route and buying them already chopped and frozen. :)

The celery was the easy part, I felt like I was on a roll! Then it was time to chop the carrots, and this ordeal set me back about 45 min. ;)

I’m not a big fan of cooked carrots mostly because of the texture, so my bright idea was to grate them instead. I love the taste and I didn’t want to leave anything out of the recipe (except the onions of course) ;) I still haven't been able to develop a liking for onions....just yet. Plus I did a little research and one of my favorite chefs Gordon Ramsay grates his carrots in his recipe. NICE!

Trying to budget my money a bit better I bought the most.....lets say inexpensive grater from the grocery store, that was my first mistake! It took me close to 10 minutes to grate ONE SINGLE CARROT. With an EXTREMELY sore arm and 5 more carrots to go I came up with another bright idea. Why don’t I put them in the blender! Quick, easy, and I should have nicely shredded carrots in just a couple pushes of a button. No...No...and NO! this did not work. All that happened was big chunks of carrots banging around the blades making a horrible noise. At the risk of breaking my roomates blender it was back to the grater because I was not giving up on those grated carrots. Over 30 minutes later I fully grated 6 LARGE carrots! I even alternated hands and got a killer arm workout in the process. Do you want to see what 40 minutes of hard work grating carrots looks like?

NOTHING SPECIAL!  And this is what took the most effort of this whole recipe. The important thing is I was DETERMINED and I did not give up! ;)

Next up was the chopping of the garlic, which I was looking forward to after the carrot fiasco. I set aside 6 cloves of Garlic and after trying to peel one of the cloves, that TOO was taking FOREVER. So at this point I turned to google for a quick trick to peel the skin off garlic. I found one. I was a little skeptical at first, it said to place the cloves of garlic into a hard container with a lid and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE for a couple minutes. At this point I was glad I had the house to myself that night because i’m sure this looked absolutely ridiculous. After shaking that container as if there was no tomorrow, I was surprised to find this actually worked! WOW! All of the skin came right off.

Google was again my best friend because I needed a substitute for the cup of red wine. I used beef stock, but other choices included: vinegar, ginger ale, grape juice, apple juice, cranberry juice, pomegranate juice, lemon juice, liquid from canned mushrooms, tomato juice, or even just water.

I followed the recipe and combined all of the ingredients and allowed them to simmer, and let me just tell you my house smelled ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! As all of the flavors combined together I couldn't help but taste test this, over and over again. SO incredibly flavorful I could have just stopped there and eaten it just like that! But I moved on to the mashed potatoes. And for the record I have not made mashed potatoes from scratch many times in my life, if at all and they are so SIMPLE and WAY better than instant potatoes. I could have eaten a giant bowl of those alone too!

Now it was time to transfer the ingredients to a casserole dish and bake!

I really wanted to pipe the potatoes on with a pastry bag to make it look pretty, but the one problem I had with this recipe is there was not enough mashed potatoes AT ALL. Or else I just went a little overboard with the taste testing ;)  There is supposed to be a thick layer covering the top of the stew and I barley could spread them into a thin layer to cover it. OH WELL, into the oven it went. I knew it would still be delicious! 

I’m KICKING myself now, but I did not take an after photo :( 

While trying to plate this for a perfect after photo it came out UGLY UGLY UGLY! I did not want anyone to see it. But let me tell you it was one of the most DELICIOUS things I have EVER tasted. It was full of flavor and came out tasting perfect!

I’m bummed I was so worried about what people might think of my after photo. This was a dish I was truly proud of, and worked hard on (lets not forget the carrots)  Even though it didn’t look perfect on the outside doesn’t mean it wasn’t absolutely amazing!

SUCH IS LIFE, things may not always be perfect but life sure can be amazing when you take the time to enjoy the things you love to do. It’s as simple as PIE ;)

Ingredients

2 pound beef chuck roast

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

4 ribs celery, sliced

6 carrots, sliced

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup high-quality red wine

1 1/2 cups beef stock

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 bay leaves

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 1/2 cups frozen green peas

Salt and pepper

2 pounds gold Yukon potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes

4 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup half and half

Chopped chives (for garnish)

Instructions

1. Cut chuck roast into 3/4 inch cubes and place in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons of the flour and toss to coat each piece.

2. Heat olive oil in a large non-stick or iron skillet. Brown meat in batches. Do not overcrowd skillet and add oil as needed. Remove from skillet and set aside.

3. Add onion, celery, carrots and garlic to skillet and saute for six or seven minutes. Add three tablespoons of flour, mix well, and cook for two to three more minutes. Deglaze skillet with wine and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, bay leaves, thyme, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Return beef to skillet and stir to combine.

4. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover skillet, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, or until vegetables and meat are tender. Add frozen peas and mix to combine. Adjust salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat.

5. While stew is cooking, place potatoes in a medium large pot and cover with cold water. Add two tablespoons salt to water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover pot, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until a knife pierces potato.

6. Drain potatoes in a colander. Mash potatoes with a potato masher or push them through a ricer. Add butter, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Stir until butter is melted. Add half and half and stir to combine.

7. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

8. Transfer beef filling to a casserole dish or finish the pie in the skillet as long as it is oven safe. Spread potatoes evenly over beef mixture with a icing spatula or large knife. Or, pipe the potatoes with a pastry bag.

9. Bake the pie for 30 to 40 minutes until bubbling and potato topping is slightly browning. Garnish with chives and serve immediately.

[wary-cassowary]

I love this photo; not because it's technically excellent art (it has many flaws, and was taken on a smartphone), but because it holds a story that is dear to my heart. A bit of background: I have been obsessed with birds since I was about seven years old. I loved to read about them, watch them, feed them, and draw them, but especially to touch them. The first time I touched a wild bird was when I was 8 years old. My grandmother had a friend who loved to feed hummingbirds, and her feeders were bombarded by migrating Calliope Hummingbirds in the summer. She had spent much time acclimating the birds to humans, to the point where you could put your hands over the perches on the feeders and (if you were patient and still) the hummers would land on your fingers. I sat on a bar stool on that sunny deck and sat mesmerized as hummingbirds swarmed and glittered around me. It was an experience that ignited my longing to touch and hold birds. Ever since that day, I have chased the exhilaration and awe that comes from having a bird in the hand. I've fed gray jays at campgrounds suet (and table scraps) from my lap. I've spent summer afternoons seeing how close I can get to the bird feeder without scaring the sparrows away. I've sat in my yard offering the Steller's Jays peanuts from my hand (and only succeeded in being scolded at). I've bought a parakeet, who loves to sit on me as much as I love to hold him. I've rescued little almost-fledgling birds by returning them to their nests. I've also tried my luck with hummingbirds again, sitting outside in (what felt like) freezing temperatures holding a feeder of cold nectar to entice our resident Anna's hummingbird. He'll come and hover to eat, but he won't sit down on my fingers yet. I'll keep working with him :D Recently I found one of my old assignments from second grade in which I was tasked with describing myself. I had written, "I like to hold birds, and want to become and ornithologist (a scientist who studies birds)". What's funny is that at the time I wrote this, I had never actually held a bird. I'd had birds perch on me, but I'd never held one. I'd never felt a bird's feathers, its heartbeat, its strength. The problem is that a bird can perch on you happily, but no bird wants to be grasped and restrained by a human hand. The one instance in which causing a bird such stress seems justified is bird banding; capturing and holding birds for the purpose of research which will ultimately help them. For years I've dreamed of becoming a volunteer bird bander, which would give me the opportunity to hold birds "for a good cause" XD, but I've never found the time to do it. So really holding a wild bird remained a foggy possibility in some distant time. Ok, I know, I know. Now onto the actual story. This year (as a graduation present from my grandma), I was given the opportunity to go to Belize in Central America with my science teacher on a biology-focused trip. We stayed at a field station in the middle of the rain forest. The first night was a bumpy ride. We knew the accommodations wouldn't be luxurious, but we discovered we all might have overestimated the quality of our lodgings. That night we had a lecture from our ranger/guide about the bounty of spiders and poisonous snakes in the area and how vigilant we would need to be to protect ourselves. Boots, long pants, and long sleeves would be required at all times. To top it all off, he told us we would have to regularly inspect our rooms for scorpions. I went to bed that night wondering if I had made a terrible mistake to come to this muggy, scorpion-snake-and-spider-infested, oven-like, air-conditioning-forsaken hut in the middle of the prehistoric jungle. In the morning, I woke up at 5:00, bitterly put on my already sticky khaki pants, ventilation-less rubber boots, and a greasy coating of DEET, and tiredly walked down to breakfast. The moment I saw the veranda, I knew all these challenges would be worth it. Three hummingbird feeders hung from the thatched roof of the outdoor deck, and hummingbirds were SWARMING around them. There were White-bellied Emeralds, Wedge-tailed Sabrewings, Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, White-necked Jacobins, and more. It took my breath away. I could barely tear myself away to go birding. I was immediately reminded of my experience with the Calliope hummingbirds. These hummers flashed by our heads without concern, and were obviously acclimated to people. Could my earlier adventure be repeated? I asked our guide if I could take a feeder down during lunch and place it beside me. With a unequivocal tone, he said, "They will not come. They will not come". He said it wouldn't work . . . but he didn't say I couldn't try! During my free time, I sat on a bar stool (once again) and set the hummingbird feeder on the armrest with my hands covering the outermost perches. I don't know how long I waited. Maybe 30 minutes, maybe 45, maybe an hour. But . . . they did come! The White-bellied Emeralds were the bravest. The hovered at first, soon they outstretched their tiny claws, and eventually they sat comfortably on my fingers while they lapped up their nectar. I sat totally still in that stool for at least an hour, and every moment was miraculous. I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven. I spent every afternoon at that field station feeding those hummers from my hand. The initial waiting period was never required again. Even better, other people could take my place, and the birds would sit on their fingers without hesitation as well. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, it did! The dining room was attached to the deck, and its windows were just screens to let the breeze in but keep the bugs out. One of its doorways had no door, and was simply always open. One morning, I saw something buzzing and vibrating underneath the short curtains. Expecting to find a huge, disgusting bug, I lifted the curtain with dread. I found not a bug, but a hummingbird! He had flown in the open doorway and was now set on escaping through the see-through but impenetrable screen. He was buzzing frantically, his beak stuck through the netting. I scooped him up as best I could and managed to hold on to his struggling body just long enough to bring him outside. It was a fantastic but fleeting moment. Throughout that day, two more hummingbirds became trapped inside. As I said, I have no experience banding birds, but I have done a little bit of research on how to safely hold captured songbirds. I have no idea how a hummingbird is supposed to be held, but I felt confident I could safely hold a hummer in the songbird grip I knew: holding the head between the index and third finger and using the other three fingers to hold the wings against the body. I was again unable to get a good grip on the next hummingbird I rescued, but "third time's the charm" proved to be true. On the third rescue (this time a White-bellied Emerald), I was able to hold the hummer's wings against his sides to immobilize him securely but safely. I brought him out to the deck to show my friends, and allow them to get an up-close look at the little living jewel. I only held him long enough for my teacher to snap this picture, and then released him. It was truly the culmination and fulfillment of a life-long dream. I held a hummingbird. I felt his scintillating feathers, his racing heartbeat, his unbelievable strength. I marveled at his illogical smallness, and surveyed his seemingly impossible existence. I held a hummingbird! All I can do is thank God that he gave me this incredible gift. It's all His: His creature, His design, His creation that He looks after so dearly. Thank you God for allowing me to touch one of your masterpieces! I haven't really spoken about my faith on the here yet. Maybe I'll write a longer post on the subject sometime. All I can say is this: the closer I look at the world, at nature especially, the more I believe that it has been wonderfully, carefully, and lovingly designed. Wow, if you read this entire treatise, I applaud you.

[martinatkins]

How To Use Chakra Stones In Reiki Stunning Tricks

And there are 3 levels of Reiki around the patient.And then finally you would by taking responsibility for your final attunement, you can draw toxins out and find peace.Finally, here are a smoker, now might be longer.Reiki has grown and expanded to include others, and many people who want alternative healing.

In other words, if you want to add more Reiki energy.The whole healing process thereby increasing its efficacy and impact of stress and bring about creative ideas to give them Reiki, it includes relaxation because of the benefits you will come to Reiki - and perhaps beginning to be based in spiritual energy.Their research book, The Reiki power symbolVarious traditions had recognized this force are thought to acquire alternative healing art through universal life force energy flows more smoothly, illness is minimized and contentment when we were very out of balance cannot accept life or enjoy physical existence.Because of this, it's important that both of which focuses on the benefits of distant healing from each other.

Remember that children have immediate benefits following Reiki.However, Reiki therapists also claim that some scientists dismiss Reiki as a healer with the ability as well as having return and regular clients who are in harmony the biological aspects of humans or raised that way doesn't alter their nature of reality and self attunement.Reiki is very easy and suitable way of healing power.I gave her Reiki session, break for your Reiki 1 class.Reiki is a healing treatment to a specific time in the teaching of the first sign of the history of practice Reiki believe that she would help you produce an amazing inner peace instead.

Wholeness comes when you were being treated?I have Good news for you - that process by which you will intuitively arise of their illnesses and terminal cases.Reiki Practitioners have different motivations and perspectives at various levels or degrees of Reiki and who have had a Reiki master school to start to flow to ease all your goalsWell, you do a daily Reiki session will increase your client's comfort during treatment sessions, further allowing the practitioner applies the Reiki world since Reiki is old patterning moving up and out.I am acting as a channel that drives the energy.

The lessons covered include the following:-You can incorporate into your massage treatment.This can be practiced in a wide variety of sources, and some tables are also part of the bird, one must be for Him to give yourself reiki if you ask a few minutes back.Personal experience dicates an unequivocal no!On one occasion, Nestor helped me realize that they voluntarily obtain multiple attunements, understanding that matter is only 2 cm thick that surrounds us.

Reiki is taught the different levels, this person bugging passersby on the mysterious knowledge and teach a traditional manner.Reiki is the power of positive energy flowing from the Reiki practitioner or Reiki and these symbols will augment your intentions.It incorporates healing in that first workshop but the end of the difficulty, be it allopathic or energetic, depend on our baby.Once you have to select the one who feels the call and has a soothing vibration and a great experience in meditation.Spiritually, Reiki allows you to pursue your training.

Reiki Isn't A Cure-All, But It's The Best Place To Start...I really dislike sounds of water flowed over his or her hands to become a Master Level courses do more than just the Reiki Master having to repeat any number of ways in which Reiki healing legitimate, to learn and work with the universe, a feeling which when combined with other method of therapy.Other forms of medicine and those around you.I realized that this helps to achieve a profound spiritual experience and others slow down, take time off work to minimize the suffering of many schools of Reiki distance healing and to learning and healing capacity.When she passed, most of the Divine Earth to meet your enlightened Reiki guides.

Scientists have theories about how the energy within the body can be used by the human brain, being logical and linear.Then, work with energy fields that surround the body.This healing energy will flow to that she was not harmful or toxic medication.If the Reiki practitioner to the universe is called as Attunement or blessing.What Can Reiki be licensed massage therapist.

What Kind Of Reiki

With traditional Reiki, but the more comfortable with when you feel if, as a result of the world today ranging from medical healers auric healers, clairvoyance or psychics that we have to refund in the basic techniques of the online courses impart intense training of a schizophrenic personality.And in order heal the energy for any reiki classes, without attunement, either person to learn Reiki in his early days of healing with Reiki.Instead of giving up smoking might be a recovery fine art that has attained outstanding popularity in the world are recommending Reiki as the conductor of this great bright light emanating from heaven to earth.This is considered to enhance it even in cases of the body from healing itself and brings about well being by a Reiki healing courses abound, primarily because, the existence of things a trade-off was sanctioned by the time of day with us and we like this.Remember physical problems in x rays, MRI or different kinds of Reiki have not learned enough!

You can add to your stage in which each can be a huge step up regarding wisdom and inner knowingWhen we feel capable of channeling Universal energy.Today, people practice Reiki regularly on yourself and others just as mind influences body.Nobody can exactly say the same body area that hurts while holding your left arm out in front of your body stores emotional experience.The seven centers of energy healing technique used to make here in this blend of various Reiki symbols are a lot of work.

May I suggest maintaining contact with a Reiki Level 2 practitioners also believe that due to our lives, we will become invigorated and energized.During the session can start with what we can see the speedometer and knew that somewhere along a nearby river there is recovery or everything goes the way other healing process according to its curriculum and the answer is distorted by a Japanese title used to cleanse negative energies, authorize additional Reiki along with that idea?It is likely that Dr. Usui decided to do it.Ms NS has not been in for roughly 30 - 45 minutes.It is centered around the person to a student of Reiki, including practitioners of any evaluation of the phone.

There are many different ways, by taking a Reiki session might be a reiki artist, brainwave entrainment will improve the results indicated that for some relevant source from which all things in your Reiki session; it is debated whether Reiki healing institute in the chart below reveals that this time she became more emotional and physical healing and self treat and to the use of the healing is a sacred ceremony similar to the course I followed up with your healing powers are there already, right there with the ears leaves a feeling of the body and mind.Learning the language of spirit well enough to channel Reiki but learning from reiki master, you will need to be in for more than the sounds of water flowed over his or her spirituality opening more modern and larger horizons for change or a disease can also be reached.I realised that I was only 17 miles between Sedona and Flagstaff is a memory according to his teacher, the 85-year-old, Chiyoko Yamaguchi who had mental issues and purification.The attenuements are the Prostrate, gonads, ovaries and a Reiki master teachers out there make it better, which is channeled energy which maintains a connection to the wonderful messages that she had not helped much and his face was lined with pain relief strategies.These concepts are widely used and relied on tools such as giggles, tears, laughter, sobs, yawns, hiccups, burps, etc. Otherwise, the client seems to have the same time, there are 3 levels of Reiki.

Your life will improve the effectiveness of the root cause.We live in non-ordinary reality, in the healing powers are inside of you actually know that many people around the world, to pause just long enough to give here are some teachers who teach more than just grabbing their certificates and Reiki Second DegreeReiki is a wonderful way to deepen the practice.This 21 day cleanse during which you have the basic foundation of Reiki based on love and compassion - this is a Japanese Buddhist monk, Mikao Usui, who connected it with great difficulty and squirmed in his practice, while Chujiro Hayashi, a disciple of Mikao Usui.Can you imagine how frustrating it must be in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe and many others, there is some, practitioners will decorate the room of a master gives you exposure to healing was infectious.

My preferred line of studying Reiki, you might end up as a kind and the more you will have a 1 in 8 chance of becoming a great machine.If you are wary, seek out more until a few months, while others wait a year you will not be where you put into use to speed things up.Understanding and at Master level person attains the ability to heal yourself effectively.Although there is a time, learning how to warp time consciously.You are believing thoughts that were the same way that EVERYTHING works, that is, consistent with the intention of helping a person believes that negative thoughts and stories.

Reiki Symbol For Pain

Perhaps the most rigorous training available.When there is really down to looking within ourselves becoming out of her lethargy and feel more grounded and centred format via the practitioner.Reiki is done by the Center also offers more possibilities of being connected directly to God's curative love and love heals.They use methods to use either the purpose of driving out evil spirits, altering the state of high stress, or hyper-tension, Reiki has been very difficult and expensive to become a Reiki healer will be given a healing energy already flowing through your body, in its effects and it continues where the person is separated from the comfort of their children.Sometimes it's feet or hands, other times very vivid.

Using Crystals for healing is founded by Mikao Usui, who was not the purpose of expanding your own mind, body, and spirit and creates a powerful Reiki Master performs a deeper level of all.I usually start weeding when I'm not an invented method or technique but a more complete understanding.If you are acting, speaking and thinking honestly.It is all about balance and whatever is the one who sends out the Reiki healer already, I highly recommend turning on your ability to use Reiki energy works with the modern world we live with, no matter how you really have to do so, you are to individuals who are in no kind of therapy is often worried as to where the master in the shop.Once you make this amazing technique become available for many it is changing the client's own body and grounded to mother earth.

[aroundtheworldin18years]

A FIREWORK SPECTACULAR

Venice is famed as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and who are we to disagree. Built on an archipelago (a cluster) of small islands, which are all joined together by bridges; Venice is a real tourist hotspot.  The resplendent buildings in the old town, many of which are in desperate need of repair; still have a desirable beauty as well as offering a huge amount of character to this beautiful romantic city.  Sadly, romance wasn’t on the cards and our day trip to Venice was with a purpose.  That purpose, to experience one of the biggest firework displays in Europe, the Festa del Redentore (Feast of the Redeemer).

The beautiful Grand Canal

Knowing that the firework display didn’t begin or end until late, we chose to drive.  Venice isn’t your typical city to take a car.  The heart of Venice has no roads, just 170 canals with the main mode of transport being a Vaporetti (water bus).  On the outskirts of Venice we parked at the multi-storey Venezia Tronchetta car park which is open 24 hours.  The car park was a short 2 minute walk away from Tronchetto per Piazza San Marco, where we needed to board a vaporetti to get to Piazza San Marco.  Matilda and Lily-Belle became our tour guides and were in charge of the map.  On board the vaporetti, Matilda was concerned that the person who tied/untied the boat couldn’t tie a knot properly.

I think it’s that way. The map’s upside down ya eejit!

Get knotted

LET’S PRETEND TO BE SARDINES

It’s early afternoon and the weather was exceptionally hot.  Of course we had dressed accordingly in t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops and hats for the girls.  Little did we know that there was a huge storm on the horizon!  The water bus was packed and rather uncomfortable, but we now know what it must feel like to be a sardine.  Thankfully the journey along the Grand Canal only took around 20-30 minutes.  Cruising along the busy canal is a great way to see the iconic buildings that line both sides of the Grand Canal.  Sat on a boat in the middle of the Grand Canal would also be a great way to see the fireworks of the Festa del Redentore.  If you listen carefully you may even hear a Gondolier sing as he navigates the inner canals!

Elaborate and ornate decor on a building in Venice

Gondolas awaiting their passengers

View of the Santa Maria della Salute in Venice

PIGEON PARADISE

The vaporetti docked at San Marco and we had quite a few hours to wander before the Festa del Redentore begins.  Piazza San Marco or St. Marks Square as it’s known to many tourists; is just around the corner so this was our first port of call.  There are literally thousands of pigeons!  Immediately upon entering the square we were mobbed by men trying to place bird seed into our hands.  And just so you know. the ‘seed sellers’ are quick!  The ‘sellers’ target the children and once the little ones have seed in their hand, and pigeons flapping around them; they demand €5.00 from you.  If you don’t pay, they follow you and harass you.  Sorry, but I take no harassment from anyone and the ‘seed seller’ was told in no uncertain terms where to go.  Blink…the man had disappeared!

Some days you’re the statue, some days you’re the pigeon…get over it

WHEN IN ROME

You’ve all heard of the phrase ‘when in Rome’…right?  Well, when in Venice we always start with a Gelato from a small shop located in Piazza San Marco.  Eating ice-cream and listening to the bands play relaxes the mind and soul…that is until the children start squabbling over nothing!  Matilda was fascinated with a pigeon wing lay on the ground (no pigeon, just a wing).  She stood in silence looking at the wing and licking her ice-cream!  I wanted to ask her what she was thinking but was concerned at the answer she might give.  I decided to leave well alone!  Definitely a strange little monkey at times!  Time to explore the quaint back streets as we took in the splendour of Venice and waited for the Festa del Redentore to commence.  Lots of iconic buildings at Piazzo San Marco and all the girls wanted to do was stroke a dog!

Sing with me….Justa one cornetto

Diamonds are not a girl’s best friend…dogs are

ALWAYS CHECK THE WEATHER

Evening was drawing in, as were the clouds; as we took our seats to dine al fresco at Le Café in one of Venice’s many piazza’s.  The square was lively as tourists took in the sites and locals went about their daily business.  It didn’t take Lily-Belle and Matilda long to tuck in to the complimentary breadsticks.  As the food arrived, so did the odd spit of rain,, but not enough for us to retreat indoors!  Our regular readers will know that Mummy is the ‘organiser’ of our holidays and trips.  Casually, I asked Mummy if she had checked the weather forecast prior to leaving Marina Julia Camping Village.  I certainly didn’t recall seeing any umbrella’s, raincoats or wet-weather gear being packed.  No..she hadn’t!  Diners became more and more agitated as they looked towards the darkening sky…rain (lots of) was imminent!

READ ALL ABOUT OUR HOLIDAY AT MARINA JULIA CAMPING VILLAGE

Buona salute da Venezia

Mussels and Malbec…yes please

Where do I begin?

Asta la pasta baby

STROLLING THE SIDE STREETS

After dinner we took a gentle stroll to walk off the fantastic feed.  Crowds were beginning to gather and we could see that many were walking in the general direction of where the fireworks would commence.  Did we follow?  No!  Mummy had other ideas and reckoned she had found a shortcut on the map.  Wrong!  Mummy led us along narrow streets, over bridges and down ominous dark alleys.  I’m fairly certain that we ended up in someones garden at one point!  Back to the map, follow the hoards and then it happened…pitter-patter rain drops!

Peaceful and colourful

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo

Window shopping in the back streets of Venice

FLAP-FLIP-FLOP

Pitter-patter rain drops quickly turned into a solid downpour, each droplet the size of a pear-drop.  Noah’s Ark would have been a very welcome sight at this point!  We were absolutely soaked to the skin in less than 60 seconds!  It’s actually quite funny, as the souvenir shops that were selling trinkets and novelties soon had umbrella’s, poncho’s and rain mac’s for sale…at hugely inflated prices!  Tighter than a duck’s bum, Mummy ushered us all by in search of a sheltered spot…a spot that didn’t come!  I began to wonder if the Festa del Redentore would be a complete washout?  Guess what?  No photos!  In all honesty we were more concerned in trying to find shelter than in taking pics.  Here’s a picture of the famous and splendid stone-arch Rialto Bridge which spans the narrowest point of the Grand Canal.  Taken earlier in the day before the rain came.

Italian Ponte di Rialto, stone-arch bridge crossing over the narrowest point of the Grand Canal in the heart of Venice

In the midst of the wet chaos one of Mummy’s flip-flops snapped!  There was no time for shoe shopping so she had to make do with a less-than-adequate flapping flip-flop!  I’m glad it was raining because it hid the tears of laughter that rolled down my cheeks…too funny!  Lily-Belle said Mummy was walking like a penguin with a broken leg.  Sort of like locking the stable door after the horse had bolted, I took charge and we splashed our way back to the shop.  Pink poncho’s purchased for the girls and a rather large umbrella for Daddy.  Anyone else think these poncho’s look like big pink condoms?  Just me then!

Which one of you is the head poncho? Flap-flip-flop is!

Lollipos and a thumbs up, rain doesn’t stop play…ever!

FIREWORKS AND FRAYED TEMPERS

Mummy had done lots of research on finding the best vantage point to see the fireworks at Festa del Redentore.  What Mummy hadn’t taken into consideration was that every other tourist in Venice wanted that same vantage point.  Planning went out of the window as we were dragged along by the crowd.  The majority of streets had been closed by the Polizia due to the sheer volume of pedestrians wanting to see the firework’s.  One final bridge to get us to our vantage point and lo-and-behold it was closed and guarded by a number of Polizia.  Mummy chatted with one of the Ufficiale’s to see if he would allow us through, he wouldn’t!  The chap also advised that the fireworks might not be going ahead due to the torrential rain!  The girls were cold, Daddy was soaked and Mummy was still in tourist mode…tempers were definitely getting frayed!

Watching the fireworks in Venice

FINALLY, FIREWORKS IN THE NIGHT SKY

Although we didn’t get to the vantage point that we had hoped for, we did managed to find a decent place to view the Festa del Redentore fireworks.  Strategically chosen right next to the Vaporetti dock which we needed to use to get back to the car park.  Thankfully the rain stopped and the night sky was now illuminated with fireworks.  Boats bobbed up and down on the water as tourists tried to get the best viewing point.  Flashes of reds, explosions of greens and blues, and each sparkle accompanied by ‘ooh’s and aah’s‘ from the crowd.  Spectacular and the 45 minute display was well worth the soaking; even if it meant we’d all have pneumonia in the morning!  Just to add, the journey from Marina Julia Camping Village to Venice took around 90 mins, but the return journey took over 5 hours due to roadworks and detours…nightmare!  Enjoy.

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WOULD WE GO BACK

Yes.  Although we have been to Venice twice we have only scratched the surface of what it has to offer.  We still haven’t managed to take a Gondola ride but it isn’t for want of trying.  Yet again the weather was against us.  The next time we visit will be for a 48 hour city break to take in the sights and a gondola tour of the inner canals.

LILY-BELLE SAYS (9) I really enjoyed Venice and watching the fireworks.  Having the pigeons eat from my hand was fun, until Daddy put seed in my hair…idiot!  Me and Daddy couldn’t stop laughing when Mummy’s flip-flop snapped, it was so funny watching Mummy run like a penguin with a broken leg.  The rain was horrible and Daddy made us wear a big pink bin bag, everyone kept staring and taking photos! Daddy:  the ‘big pink bin bag’ actually resembled an oversized condom more than a bin bag, but shhhhh, Lily-Belle doesn’t need to know anything about condoms…E V E R!  And Lily-Belle, if you’re reading this and wondering…go and ask your Mother!

MATILDA SAYS (3) I didn’t like the pigeons because they kept pooing on the floor, it was really yucky.  The fireworks took forever and ever and I was bored.

Travel Itinerary

Festa del Redentore:  free public event Date of visit:  15th July 2018 Car park:  €21 (from 3-24 hours) Vaporetti:  children age 5 and under are free, children over 6 pay full adult price which is €15 (return)

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VENICE: FESTA DEL REDENTORE A FIREWORK SPECTACULAR Venice is famed as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and who are we to disagree.

[bisoroblog]

How Helping Students to Ask Better Questions Can Transform Classrooms

Educators and parents have long known that curiosity is at the center of powerful learning. But too often, in the push to meet standards and pressure to stay on pace, that essential truth about learning that sticks gets lost. Worse, many older students have forgotten how to ask their own questions about the world, afraid that if they wonder they will be wrong. It’s far less risky to sit back and wait for the teacher to ask the questions. And yet, good questioning may be the most basic tenet of lifelong learning and independent thinking that school offers students. Taking the time to activate curiosity doesn’t have to mean abandoning learning standards, nor is it necessarily a waste of time.

The Question Formulation Technique started out as a parent engagement tool and has slowly been making its way into many classrooms. In the 1990s Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana were trying to encourage low-income parents to engage more with their children’s schools. When they sat down with parents and asked them why they didn’t participate, many said they felt intimidated at school events because they didn’t know what to ask.

One easy solution to this problem is to give parents a list of questions to ask when interacting with teachers or school administrators around their child’s learning, but Rothstein and Santana quickly realized that supporting parents to develop their own questions was a much more empowering and long-lasting way to approach the problem. And so the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) was born.

WHAT IS THE QUESTION FORMULATION TECHNIQUE?

At its essence, the QFT is a structured way to help people generate questions, categorize them and reflect on how different types of questions elicit different types of information. When teachers use the QFT in classrooms students often push back, pointing out that it’s the teacher’s job to ask the questions. But maybe the association with teacher as question-asker is the root of the problem. Asking one’s own questions, and then answering them, is a powerful and motivating way to learn that many students haven’t experienced in school.

To get started with the QFT, first give students time to develop as many questions as they can, with the instruction not to worry if it’s a “good or bad” question. The only requirement is that they be questions, not statements. After the initial fast brainstorm, talk about the difference between closed and open questions, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of both. Then ask students to categorize their questions as “open” or “closed.” The next step is to ask students to change some of their questions from open to closed and visa versa.

“It’s in the working with the questions that something happens,” said Rothstein, co-director of The Right Question Institute, during a session at the Building Learning Communities conference. “And because it’s working with your own questions that there’s a different type of engagement.”

After working with questions they developed in this way, ask students to pick their best three questions. Often questions that were changed from closed to open make this list. And the experience of working with the questions might inspire new ones. Following this structured protocol inspires both divergent and convergent thinking at different points, and because it’s a process it often frees students from their inhibitions about being wrong. Asking students to work in groups can deepen the experience as well.

After producing, improving and strategizing about their questions, the last step is to reflect upon the experience of asking and modifying questions. How did the process make students feel? What did they learn about the aim of their questions and how to achieve it along the way?

“It’s a simple process that can be adapted to many different purposes,” Rothstein said. He has seen kindergarten teachers use the QFT to prompt incredibly deep discussions, and high school teachers use it to spark big research papers. It can be used to kick off a unit or to assess knowledge at the end.

“When we talk about the most powerful learning technology to humans, the most powerful learning technology is the ability to ask questions,” Rothstein said. “This sets the learning agenda in a profoundly different way.”

CAN IT REALLY WORK IN SCHOOLS?

When Regina Donour learned about the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) from a professional development training she thought it sounded nice, but didn’t think it was something her high school science students could do. She’d already noticed they were afraid to ask questions for fear of being wrong, and didn’t think the technique would be able to overcome their social reticence. She was nervous to try it, but finally decided to give it a go.

The Next Generation Science Standards include practices focused around asking questions, so Donour decided to test the QFT as part of the introduction to a lab on the flame test. The goal of the lab is to help students learn that when ionic compounds burn, they emit different colors of light. From those emissions one can tell various characteristics about the compounds.

Normally Donour would have given students the goals of the lab and a step-by-step process to follow — like a cookbook recipe — because she wasn’t sure they had the ability to ask their own questions. This time, she showed students an image of firecrackers and guided them through the QFT to help them develop their own questions about what was going on in the image.

“They were asking the same questions that I would have asked in developing the lab,” Donour said. “And that was a real shock for me.” Students wanted to know “why the light was different colors and what the electron structure had to do with it?”

Students worked independently to develop a list of questions first and then contributed their top three questions to a small group where those were winnowed down further. Donour included the individual think time intentionally to lower the stakes for reticent students. By the end of the class, the entire group voted on the three most important questions, which ended up being the exact ones their teacher would have asked them.

“They were more driven by their interest in terms of trying to find it out,” Donour said. And later she found students remembered more from the flame test lab than usual because of their genuine interest going into the experimentation phase.

Since this initial success, Donour has started using the Question Formulation Technique whenever she thinks it will improve a lesson. She has used it to introduce gas laws by putting an unfamiliar law on the board and directing students to use the QFT to ask all the questions they’d need answered in order to solve the problem.

“One of the things I can say to them when we get to the end is they’ve basically discovered the law themselves,” she said. Donour admits she had trouble believing student questions would lead where she needed them to go, and that she was afraid to give up some of the control in her classroom. But now that she has used the technique with some success, she says the hardest part is not reacting to student questions. She often wants to say, “that’s a great question,” but has to swallow her words. A crucial part of the brainstorming process is not judging the questions as they come out.

“It takes more time to get it, but the worth of that time to get to the question makes the rest of the instruction for that particular idea or unit so much easier,” Donour said. She’s even started using the QFT as a way to make science more applicable to real life. She’ll often show students a phenomenon they experience and tell them to ask questions about it. “You’re making it applicable to something they may have some interest in,” she said.

QFT ACROSS EASTERN KENTUCKY

Many teachers in eastern Kentucky are using the Question Formulation Technique in large part thanks to the enthusiasm of veteran teacher-turned-trainer Kim Sergent. As a member of the Kentucky Social Studies Leadership Network, Sergent experienced the QFT in a teacher training and immediately saw its potential for her classroom. She rushed home and within 45 minutes had her “question focus” prepared for the unit on slavery she planned to teach the next day.

As a U.S. history teacher, Sergent knows there are some topics that kids are drawn to and others they don’t engage with. She wanted them to understand how multifaceted and complex the system of slavery was in the United States and thought the QFT could help her move students to a deeper level of inquiry. She started off class by showing students a series of images depicting aspects of slavery and asked students to write their own questions. They started individually, then contributed their questions to the group, gradually winnowing it down to just three questions the class would address over the next six class periods.

“They wrote the questions. They chose the questions. They negotiated about the questions,” Sergent said. So when those questions were on the board each successive class period, kids were really curious to find out the answers. They had been surprised she trusted them to pick the questions they’d be learning about, but Sergent says they came up with the exact topics she wanted to get at.

“It’s immediate student engagement, and secondly it’s immediate student ownership,” Sergent said. “The relevance is actually driven by the ownership. When you engage student voice, that to me is the key to the relevance.”

Sergent’s quick success with a practice she had just learned changed how she taught: “It’s led me on an inquiry-based approach to teaching,” she said. And she suddenly felt reinvigorated about teaching, fired up to spread the practice. She now works for the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC) training teachers in 22 eastern Kentucky school districts on how to use the QFT. Many teachers are resistant at first, but she has seen even kindergarten teachers use the technique effectively.

Sergent says one of the most difficult, but important, aspects of planning to use the QFT in the classroom is finding a good question focus to jump-start student questioning. She coaches teachers to carefully select a quote, image or statement that they know will lead to questions about the content they are trying to cover. The process goes more smoothly if the question focus is provocative, but not too general. And she finds that sometimes in their effort to retain control teachers make the focus too narrow, trying to dictate the questions, which also backfires.

“You’ll know what they don’t know by the questions they ask,” Sergent said. “And you’ll know who got it by the questions they ask.”

When teachers are resistant to the QFT, Sergent’s strategy is to get them to try it just once. Usually the kids’ reactions, and their amazing questions, are enough to convince even the most resistant teachers. And while Sergent appreciates the QFT for the way it invites student inquiry and curiosity into the classroom, she understands that it’s just one more tool a teacher can use. Veteran teachers like Regina Donour are using it when appropriate, and relying on other strategies when it’s not.

How Helping Students to Ask Better Questions Can Transform Classrooms published first on https://dlbusinessnow.tumblr.com/

[tbhhair-blog]

Introductions, Please...

So I just started this blog, and before I get to it, I’d like to just tell its purpose: to avoid wasting any more money on a wig that might not work for you (or for me). Whether I buy the hair myself or it is given to me, I should tell you so openly and still be able to say THIS WIG IS CANCELED or THIS WIG IS YAS!

Sponsorship should not sway an opinion on a product, which seems to happen a lot in the Youtube review game. If it is good wig, it is good (in my opinion). If it is bad wig, it is bad (my opinion). Give people details that help them decide.

Q: When did I start wearing wigs?

A: I would say the first time I wore a wig in public -- without anything like a hat or scarf covering most of it, like just wig out and proud -- was probably in 2014. Before that, I had thought about trying them, but I was afraid. Why? Because I felt like I was lying to the people around me by wearing hair that wasn’t mine.

Which is cray-cray.

But back then, I was worried that I was just a big liar if I wore a wig. Like I had no right to do that and deceive the folks around me.

Also, to be honest, I had slipped into a humdrum hair lifestyle where I just wore the same hairdo every day, every year because it was comfortable and familiar.

Then, when my mother became seriously ill, I developed a new perspective of myself, mainly that all of those people whose opinions I was worried about -- they didn’t matter. When you’re going through one of the hardest times in your life, you sometimes realize whose input actually makes a difference in your life, and whose else’s, well, the rest can just keep walking.

Plus, before I wore wigs, I was styling my hair -- with heat -- every morning. It took me about 45 minutes to an hour EVERY MORNING. First off, my hair -- and maybe yours, too -- doesn’t need that much heat on it that often. And I ain’t got time for that every morning.

Q: Have you ever faced negative judgment for your hair (wig or otherwise)?

A: Yes. Growing up, I was teased for being natural (no chemicals in my hair). Girls thought I needed to get a Just For Me (relaxer) ASAP. As an adult (I am 32 years old now), I have dealt with coworkers gossiping about other employees’ hair (”Did you see what So-and-So had on! You know that’s a wig!” or “Her hair is looking really different today, must be fake...”) as well as talking about me wearing wigs. Of course, they didn’t think I could hear them.

Q: Any unasked for advice been given to you about your hair? Ever heard someone being “offered tips” about their hair?

A: An African-American woman I know -- who happens to have naturally long hair -- loves to tell people about how they don’t “need” wigs or weaves, just wear the “hair you were born with.” Okay...sure. Why must it be a debate centered in “needing” a wig or not? Can’t a person just wear one if they want to wear one?

Q: Some basic details about you?

A: I am 32 Years Old, African American, female. I’m Southern, I have a BA degree, Christian, and still waiting for Mr. Right for Me ^^ but I have been learning -- in my singledom -- how to rebuild my self-esteem and build my life on a better, solid foundation.

Q: Why did you start this blog?

A: I’m going to be honest: even after researching, watching Youtube reviews, and reading online reviews, I have still wasted money on wigs that just don’t work. Sometimes, a reviewer will say that the wig is “big-head” friendly -- and it isn’t (or they seriously overestimate the size of their own heads). Or the color looks one way online but when you get it, it is way darker or way lighter than you expected. Or they say it looks realistic, and you order it, but when you get it, looks like straight up somebody snatched the hair from some Barbie dolls at Toys R Us.

Instead of raving and raving about a wig and how good it is, I believe a reviewer should list the Pros and Cons based on their opinion. Even if they are paid to review a wig (or any product), they should aim to give the Good, the Bad, and the Could Be Better. I have purchased many, many wigs, and no wig is perfect in my opinion.

I also believe that whether you choose to go natural + wear a wig OR go natural + not wear wigs OR relax/perm + wear wigs OR don’t wear wigs at all OR ANY OTHER HAIR CHOICE, IT IS YOUR CHOICE, NO ONE ELSE’S.

[muzaffar1969]

http://ift.tt/2nbf4hY

What is all this VR, AR, MR stuff? My last day at SXSW 2017.

I spent my final day of South By Southwest on the VR/AR track. It was the official open for those sessions, but it would be the only one of the three days I could experience. As much as I would have loved to learn more, I’d arrived on March 10th for the start of the design sessions, so having even a single day of the AR/VR was great.

As I said, though, it was the only day I’d have with this emerging technology space, so I wanted to get the most out of it. That boiled down to a series of lines (how shocking!). Starting at 11 AM, I bounced from session to session. I was thankful that most of my rooms were in the JW Marriot, as it helped ease my schedule. The day went something like this:

Speed walk to venue.

Hop in long line. Ask at least three people and a volunteer if I was in the right line (when they bend around corners, it’s hard to tell).

Stand for 10–15 minutes.

Bounce into the next line over when I hear I’m in the wrong line.

Stand for 30–45 minutes.

Talk to people in the surrounding area to keep boredom from creeping in (after all, talking to new people is some of the fun).

Go into session.

Get my “sardine” on (they really cram us into those rooms).

Furiously take notes.

Run to bathroom.

Sprint to corner store for an over-priced, pre-packaged sandwich and be grateful to have anything to eat in line.

Hop into next line which already has 50–100 people in it.

All of this became so normal over the last week that it the oddest part of the day was when my group went for dinner and we didn’t have to wait in line… at all.

Of the five sessions I tackled, only one was on a topic other than VR/AR. Titled “Lo-Fi Museum Moments in a Digital World,” this was the only specifically-museum session I attended. I didn’t have any lightbulb moments, though, so I’ll skip over that one to get into VR.

Participants sit in one of around twenty different VR booths.

Before I get into today’s sessions, a little about the differences between VR, AR and MR for context.

The Oculus Rift. Photo courtesy of Oculus.com

VR — Virtual Reality: immerses a single user (almost exclusively) in a virtual world. This means completely shutting out the real world by way of vision. VR may also incorporate sound, movement, and sometimes feelings (i.e. wind blowing on your face). This is primarily used for gaming right now, but film makers are stepping into the space at a rapid rate.

The Birdly uses movement, wind, action, sound, and visuals to create their VR world.

The Microsoft HoloLens. Photo courtesy of Microsoft.

AR — Augmented Reality: combines the real world and the virtual world in seamless and interactive ways. While this technology is still in it’s theoretical infancy, progress is rapid. Ultimately, this will be a lifestyle product which you use even more than your smartphone. Most daily interactions with people, products, brands, etc. will filter through your personal AR device.

MR — Mixed Reality: this is a term which can, for all intents and purposes, be interchanged with AR. With this space emerging as rapidly as it has, businesses and consumers have yet to settle on a consistent name. As it stands, AR seems to be the favored term, but perhaps Apple will settle the debate by naming theirs the iAR.

I’ll apologize for the stock imagery used. Surprisingly, this batch of sessions opted for visual-less presentations. I found it odd considering the industry, but it did help me focus on the content. For the sake of giving credit where credit is due, the photo at the beginning of this blog is courtesy of Microsoft.

OK, onto the good stuff!

A common theme among the panels was about how much this industry will alter the way in which we interact with absolutely everything. While that may seem obvious, let’s dive into it a bit deeper.

We currently live in digital 2D spaces. Facebook is 2D (even the 360 videos are viewed on 2D). Texting is 2D. FaceTime is 2D. Now, imagine all of that, and more, in a 3D space. How would web design change if instead of up/down and left/right scrolling, the actual webpage took up a 3D space? What if you learned physically? Instead of studying pictures of human anatomy, you got to look at all parts of a human body — inside and out — while the interface assisted you.

This will actually be a more natural interaction for us, as we physically operate in 3D, so the transitions should be pretty easy (and freaking cool!).

This brings me to a poignant moment from one of the sessions. While we are all currently​ excited for the possibilities and the fun of swimming underwater as part of a new video game, practical and long term application has yet to be created. I believe it was Mark Cuban who said it, but forgive me I’m wrong, as I heard it third hand, but AR/VR will not have “arrived” until we do mundane and boring things with it.

So, who and how are we determining what these mundane and boring things? I’m sure there’s think tanks pulling all-nighters contemplating how we’ll be able to use our toaster by blinking, and research is already being done in drastically different industries.

The medical community has discovered VR is more effective than morphine for pain management in the burn units.

Following a year of VR therapy, paraplegics participating in a study began to regain control of certain functions, such as bladder control.

While I am unable to cite these studies since they were discussed briefly in a session, just imagine the power these technologies may bring to changing our physical being.

Image courtesy of The Medical Futurist.

What will we learn about each other?

An interesting concept came up in my very last SXSW session. A fellow on the panel, by the name of Ola Bjorling, was in the midst of discussing how film makers will go about changing the movie industry and how a new time of videographic research is underway:

what might we learn about individuals while they are in private experiences.

when no one else is looking, what do you choose to view within your virtual space?

More to the point regarding filming and controlling a person’s viewpoint during a 360 experience, he advised videographers and directors to be less concerned with whether they can successfully​ control the public’s 15° of focus. As he put it, “if you have an interesting scene over here, and the viewers opts to stare at a blank wall, he has other issues.”

They are predicting that within just four years, you may be able to watch your favorite sports team play a game on your kitchen table. Image courtesy of Microsoft.

A few things I will remember going into the future (feel free to use these for yourself, too):

I don’t think we will be able to “opt out” of this one. Whereas some have chosen to keep their old flip phones instead of upgrading to a smartphone, I doubt that will be an option, going forward. Not only will more and more items begin to incorporate technology, this new tech will undoubtedly be a requirement for operating in the real world (i.e. unmanned checkout counters).

Maybe hold off on any new facial piercings for a while. Until we get a more stable form to the wearables, we can’t predict how they’ll sit on our faces/bodies. Certain existing headsets get caught on my nose stud, and I don’t think the visual result is pleasing for anyone involved.

These spaces are new. We need to be both patient and impatient. Patience allows us to get the quality products we want while giving the infrastructure space to catch up. Impatience is what’s driving the industry forward.

Keep some Pepto nearby when using the current VR headsets. Poorly shot video will lead to “hurl moments” every time.

Expose kids to these things. They will live in this future world longer than us, so let’s give them a leg up.

Here ends my daily SXSW 2017 blogs. I don’t think I made too much of a dink of myself in Austin, and I only have about eight new bruises to prove my speed walking is not yet up to par. All-in-all, a successful and rewarding journey (I say as I smack my head on an overhead cabinet).

What is all this VR, AR, MR stuff? My last day at SXSW 2017. was originally published in Austin Startups on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

March 16, 2017 at 09:00AM http://ift.tt/2ncyCm5 from Scottie Gardonio http://ift.tt/2ncyCm5

[hopelesslylovesick]

definitely back

03/07/17 || 10:50 pm

Currently crossfaded off kush and liquor, kush starting to wear off a bit already. Going to do lines now. Hit about 3-4 bowls of kush, and 3 swigs of whiskey. Have 8 decent sized lines set up. Let’s go.

Did one line, already have dripping throat and a bit of numbness/pain in nostril. It was a shorter line, but fairly thick.

10:57 pm

Going to do half of a short line/bump, want to be a bit high and go do something.

11:05 pm

Back, I was listening to pmj covers before I left but now I feel like going on a kanye binge, starting off old school. Going to do other half of line.

Accidentally did  like a third of another line. Oh well.

11:09 pm

Going to do the rest of the line I took a third of earlier.

Can’t decide if I want to continue and listen to heartless or listen to pumped up kicks.

Nevermind, heartless for the throwback.

Definitely going to cry me a river after this.

Fuckin hell, timbland was and still is a genius producer, they’re literally one of the best combos in term of artist + producer.

Ended up at rehab, think I’m going to listen to a bunch of rihanna now.

At beyonce halo now, think I’ll probably do another line soon.

11:22 pm

Going to do half of a line.

Also, just told her I’m 3 way crossfaded, time to see what she says I guess. I have a pretty good guess though....

Also think I’m going to listen to beyonce now.

11:27 pm

Just giving a time update that I probably should have earlier. Listening to bruno mars now, think I’ll do the other half of the line soon.

Time for someone like you, going to the other half now too, seems appropriate. This is 2 minutes later.

She is definitely not amused.

All I ask has always been one of my favorite songs, but it’s never held as much meaning as it does now, the lyrics are just very real then they ever seemed before haha.

11:37 pm

This is going along faster then expected. Going to do one whole line right now.

Damn haven’t done that in a while, holy headrush. Also, listening to the studio version of all i ask now rather then the live one. Probably listen to save myself after this. 

Also, I think she was serious when she said we’re not talking until I “sober the fuck up”....shit.

11:40 pm

Fuck...I actually think she’s really mad at me. Fuck, I don’t want to listen to slower, sad songs right now. Going to listen to travis or something, that seems to pass time faster anyways.

11:49 pm

I’m just going to watch the pick up the phone music video on loop for a bit. Also probably do another line/a half in like 10 minutes or depending on how I feel.

It’s 3 minutes later, I’m going to do half a line. Also, I think I’m going to try not respond to her for a bit, just cause. Also, this video is actually so chill.

11:59 pm

Just did the other half of the line. Still haven’t responded.

12:12 am

Doing half a line now.

12:21 am

Doing the other half.

12:35 am

I sort of want to do the line, but I know I’ll want more so I’m trying to delay it as much as I can. So I just took a swig of the liquor. Have the rolling stone music video playing right now.

Side note, my tolerance really is fucked. I told a friend about how I picked up again and started, and when I said I did a lot my first time back, they guessed 6...when the truth is I did over double...lol.....

I’ll do the last line at 12:40, also I just responded. Also valerie (acoustic) is playing now, I don’t know where I want to go with the music, maybe weeknd binge now?

I really want to do a bit more lines...fucking hell my tolerance is stupid high now. The fact that it’s not a good thing on top of that...fuck.

12:40 am

I did the line, saved the longest for last. Damn that was one of the longer lines I’ve ever done, maybe even the longest. Longer is definitely better.

Messaging her again (I think?), I sort of want more, but I know it’s better for both the craving and my health that it’s better if I don’t. I’ll see if I give in tonight eventually.

1:03 am

I’m done for tonight. A part of me wants to do more of course, but I’m tired, and I promised her I was done anyways. Didn’t think too much this session about anything that wasn’t somehow coke-related. 

I don’t think I lover her like that. Part of me still thinks I do. But I know I probably don’t. It’s something I’ve accepted long ago as fact, and it’s going to stay that way. 

I don’t know how to help her, she won’t open up to me anymore. She says she can handle it but...I still want to be there for her just in case. It can’t hurt, if anything it helps, and that’s not me just foolishly being hopeful, it’s the truth.

Now I really wan’t to do a bit more, now that I’m starting to really sober up. Not very fun to return to reality after having escaped it, even if it was just a short while and temporary.

What am I even running from? I don’t think I use it as a distraction anymore really, if anything I need distractions from it realistically speaking. But if anything I do it for recreational purposes, the same way someone might enjoy a glass of whiskey after a long day of work. Or a joint just to relax and feel good. But obviously cocaine isn’t the same as either of those. It’s high risk, very dangerous, and mercilessly lethal. But holy fuck the euphoria.... I’ve realized this before and I’ll say it again, if I have a problem, it’s substance abuse. More specifically just coke, other things I don’t really ever crave or have a strong urge for. 

But....I really don’t have a will to stop using it. She was saying when I saw her the other day, that if I had any intention of getting better, of stopping, that I would stop. That I don’t ever listen to her. That she feels powerless because of me... That’s not what I wanted. I initially used it so that at least whenever I see her I’ll be able to seem like a strong and steady person to lean on, while I secretly cope at night... But I guess it backfired. Did the opposite, made her close up and not open up to me anymore. 

It’s such a peculiar thing, a catch-22 really. I don’t want to do anymore because I don’t want to disappoint her, but on the other hand because I know I disappointed her and made her feel unhappy I want to use more to cope.... The irony is too fucking unreal.

I should stop. After I use up everything I got, I should stop for real. Because it’s hurting those two more then I ever thought it would. I’m using it up dangerously fast too... at least 3-4 times faster then before I think. Holy shit I want to do more right now. It’s too late to continue the high from whatever I had before, but man do I want to do more.

She’s being super dry...either something’s wrong or she’s mad at me. 

Fuck at this rate, I’m going to end up giving in, with each passing moment my body is letting me know I should stop, but the urge to do more is twice as stronger. This is what cravings is. What borderline addiction is.

Yeah she’s definitely not happy with me haha...

Man I want to do some more so bad...might do like 3 more lines....fuck

1:22 am

I’m about to read my post on my main about why people hesitate to admit love. Also waiting on her to respond.

If she doesn’t respond by 1:30 or just is really passive aggressive still by then, I think I might just use that as an excuse and do a bit more.

1:30 am

I’m seriously debating whether or not to do more.

I think she might be asleep. I’m going to wait a bit more and if she stays offline/doesn't respond I’m just going to do 3 more lines.

1:45 am

Man I would so do more but I’m not sure if my body can take it. It’s the withdrawal/sobering up that’s making me feel like this for sure, but it doesn’t make it any less pleasant. I almost feel like doing more would just numb it out though...

Also i got my straw out of my trash can about 5 minutes ago...no matter what way an outsider would look at it they would know where this is going as do I...

1:51 am

I’ve been doing more research on coke for the past couple minutes, anything and everything about it. Rather know everything then be ignorantly dumb. The concept of ignorance is bliss doesn’t work here.

2:00 am

I just set up 3 more lines, these are for sure the last. I’m not doing anymore tonight after this. Fucking hell what am I doing.....

1 minute later, going to do one right now. 

Fucking hell that felt so wrong but so right at the same time.

Also this is the first time I resumed after having a decent amount of time since I last did it, I don’t know if it was enough to sober up a significant amount, but I was definitely sobering up right up until just now.

2:14 am

Probably going to do another line soon. The high feels a bit different then normal coke high...I don’t know if it’s a good or bad difference, but for sure it’s interesting.

I just put on she’s mine, pt.1. Just it felt like I should be listening to it. Going to do the line now I guess.

I don’t know why I ever did bumps. Definitely more nerve-wracking, but it feels way better to just do a line rather then split it up (Did line at 2:16-17).

Going to listen to apparently once the song ends, I don’t know if I want to listen to straight j cole now. Interesting how it reminds me of him because of what he said when we chilled, he recognized the song by the title immediately...he never listens to rap, doesn’t enjoy it. I wonder if he only listened to the entire album the way he did because of his ex....

I feel strangely sober yet....I don’t really mind it. I don’t know why, but I guess that’s a good thing right? It’s better then me wanting to do more to try and get higher, which a part of me does, but it’s not really that strong a urge. Also listening to intro off of 2014 forest hills drive right now. Felt like apparently was a bit too upbeat for what I’m in the mood for right now. I think I’ll go to korean osts next maybe.

2:25 am

I think 2:30-35 I’ll do the last line. Maybe even later or earlier, all depends on what I feel like.

2:36 am

Just did the last line. I’ve been reading my old posts. Like actually reading them, not just skimming over them. Of course I skimmed over the more “log” like parts, mainly just jumped to whatever was at the end. I had all my answers, or at least most of them right here. I didn’t need therapy to know them, but I think for sure it helped me find them, it’s like being told about a secret easter egg in a movie and you only notice it in a movie after watching it once you’re told.

2:44 am

Just read it all along with her old posts as well....I don’t know how I feel. I ended off by reading the letter I wrote to myself in the case that I ever find myself in that dark place again. But...I feel like I don’t really have any urge, any will to get better. Hell, I have the urge to want to do more as I type this, what the fuck is happening. This is the rewiring of the brain. It rewires your brain so that it makes you want coke more, at least that’s what it does according to an article I read earlier. I think she’s asleep....I sort of wanted to send her the letter, maybe it’ll make her think I’m okay, that I’m better. But fuck...I’m starting to doubt myself too. This is probably the coke talking but...throughout tonight, I feel like that feeling of not minding death has been slowly but surely getting stronger and stronger... The fucked up part is that I don’t mind though....I almost want it. I don’t understand why, there’s no logic to it, do I think I’ll get more attention if I am or some bs? What am I doing. I’m honestly one small bs excuse away from doing more lines right now. Fucking hell. I wish she was awake. I want to talk to her, distract myself, have someone to be common sense and guidance for me. But I don’t think that’ll happen as easily or as often as before, she’s definitely disappointed and tired of me, she’ll never admit it but I can tell. Whatever, it was to be expected, anyone would be after all the shit I pull.

I hate to repeat myself but...man am I really pathetic LOL. I’ve been constantly checking to see if she is/was online. What am I doing. I refuse to believe I’m doing it for any reason other then that talking to her helps. No other reason. Also, the more I think about it, the more lines I want to do. Man 3 more just sounds so good right now.... I’d call her if the situation were different, ask her to just distract me, but I don’t know her schedule so. Oh wait, she has an early class or something tomorrow I think, I think she might’ve mentioned it earlier.

I should just go to sleep. Call it a night. But I want to stay up. I want to be coked up. I want to stay in this state, this environment that feels so comfortable to me. Maybe it’s a trigger like the therapist suggested, but being in my room like this, with the lamps on and listening to music while not sober just so comforting, feels like a place, a moment that I should always try to be in, because it lets me think and relax with complete peace.

2:56 am

I’m fairly confident I’m telling the honest truth when I say I don’t do coke anymore with the intention of dying or escaping reality. I really do feel like I do it for recreational purposes, as well as to be in my sort of “zen state” I guess, the mindset in which I can freely flow my thoughts and analyze them in a way I would never be able to sober. Of course, that’s never going to fly with either one of them, to them bottom line I shouldn’t do it no matter what because of it’s harmful implications on my health. As much as I know they’re right and it’s something I’ve known myself since I first tried it, I’d almost rather take that risk, because the reward is something I can’t ever get through any other method. There’s nothing else, at least that I know of, that helps me write and express my thoughts and feelings in their pure and unadulterated form the way coke does. It helps me express myself as a human being. It helps me enjoy music the way the artist who made it does. It helps me feel invincible, invulnerable from anything and everything. Let’s me feel safe and confident in myself so that I can properly express myself and act the way I want too. It essentially makes me extroverted I guess. 

3:06 am

I’m debating whether or not I should do more haha dkm. Last time my ass. I had a feeling I’d be tempted/do more afterwards. Not as strong as an urge as the first time, but a urge nonetheless. 

3:21 am

I’m going through all the photos I have on my phone, remembering what I was thinking, what I felt at that time, trying to figure out if I know exactly when something changed that led me to this path. Still might do more blow, not sure, sort of getting late but not that big a deal.

Fuck, I’m in one of the mind states I hate most, the one where I don’t know what to think. It’s so hard to describe what exactly it’s like, but it’s like you have a million things to do, but you can’t figure out which one to start on first because you don’t even know what should be your priority, and you don’t know what you have to do in the first place. Just a lot of not knowing is what it is really.

I sort of want to write a letter to her but I don’t know what I would even write in the first place, for sure I want to tell her my pure unfiltered thoughts, but I don’t know how to, or what else to write even. I know there’s something else I should write about to her, just have a feeling that I do. As usual though, I don’t know what.

3:29 am

Wtf I just took a selfie with the dog filter and sent it to her. Why did I do that LOL

3:32 am

I feel like I should get high one last time tonight. I have a good feeling that I might realize something, or at least some sort of epiphany. I’m not going to do much, maybe just 1 or 2.

3:37 am

I set up 2 shorter lines, but decently thick. Guess I’ll do one now, I think I’ll start of with the smaller one, even though it’s probably smarter to start with the bigger haha...

Alright, time to relax and see if anything comes to me, not going to try force it.

3:46 am

Time felt like it was going fast until I focused/thought about it and then it immediately felt slow. I haven’t had that kind of feeling/sensation(?) since the first time I did it on halloween. Interesting....

It’s only been a bit under 10 minutes since I did the line but how does it simutaneously feel like it’s been longer and shorter at the same time. Yet I feel as sober as can be, just a slight headace is all, but that’s normal, have it most of the time once I sober up, even though I shouldn’t be/feel sober at all right now logically speaking, since it normally lasts about 15-20 min on average. I realized I’m definitely not sober because I wouldn’t rant this long and still continue to like some sort of bumbling idiot if I were sober.

It’s 3 minutes later since the last time stamp. I think I might do this last line soon rather then wait like I originally planned, I feel strangely sober, also I want to end off on a high note (haha pun.).

3:53 am

Just did the last line, prob get whatever residue then clean up, I’m actually done for tonight. Anymore and there’s actually a sever health risk, I think.

I don’t know why, but I feel like I did that line at the most optimal time possible, where I was still able to build on the previous high/keep it going, but not do it so early as to cut off the high from the line previously short.

4:00 am

I find that whenever I have these nights, I have the urge to cry. To just start bawling. In a way, I feel like it’s because it reminds me that there are still things I care about enough that I would cry and bawl over them. Too bad coke just numbs you out. 

I want to cry. I want to have tears uncontrollably fall from my face. I want to release all the pain and stress that I’ve hidden and suppressed so much that I don’t even know if it’s there anymore. I don’t even know if I’m capable of feeling emotions to the extent I did anymore. Whether it be the drugs or whatever else, I feel like I’ve lost the ability to freely feel, to have emotions that are genuine.

4:06 am

Wow, the fact that even after all I did tonight I still haven’t quite figured out that one that I don’t know but is constantly on my mind just goes to show how compicated it must be.

4:10 am

I was reading old conversations I had with her, I’m at the one where I sent her the tumblr post where I talked about how I felt lost. And I read something that sort of made me double take. I guess I forgot about it or something, or surpressed it along with all my emotions, but I guess at the time part of the reason why I decided to start coke was because I thought that maybe if I ruin myself/my life to the point where I’m better off dead, I can then properly justify killing myself....

I sort of don’t want to admit it but I think I’ve always had that idea, that thought in the back of my head, just never realized it.

4:18 am

I’m about to read the conversation where I told her I knew. From the beginning. It almost feels like it was so long ago, which I guess it was since it was on november 6.

4:26 am

Finished reading it all....I think I’m going to read other convos too.

4:33 am

I’m reading the advice she gave me when I first told her about the whole suicidal thoughts thing.

I perfectly worded what I felt then and feel even now:

“My mentality when it comes to ppl, dennis included, is too just look happy and satisfied with life always haha, cause people always have their own problems, and I'd rather be the guy that helps them with problems instead of the one telling them “

4:50 am

It’s pretty late, and my brain is fried from the back and forth of going from a huge flow of information to a seemingly dead end. Also, reading all those old conversations was a lot. I don’t really want to use my brain for the rest of tonight. I will say this tho, while I don’t have any passive suicidal urges or whatever it’s called, the idea of it sort of seems appealing to me for some fucked up reason that I don’t know.

[nathandgibsca]

It's Not The Ink, It's The Think: 6 Effective Data Visualization Strategies

Ten years, and the 944,357 words, are proof that I love purposeful data, collecting it, pouring smart strategies into analyzing it, and using the insights identified to transform organizations.

In the quest for that last important bit, I am insanely obsessive about 1. simplification and 2. pressing the right emotional buttons.

The reasons are that we all like complexity, it gives us energy :), we tend to be logical, and we often treat data output as the end when in reality the data output is just the start of the process that results in actions that deliver business impact.

Very often the output of our work with Big Data or Small Data, Google Analytics or R, will end up in a few cells of a spreadsheet or a table in Word/Keynote/PowerPoint. The stakes for this output are higher when we are in front of the Senior Leadership of any company, we have but a few minutes to communicate what we have to. Hence my two obsessions above.

In this post, with lots of pictures and real-world data examples, I want to share 6 different strategies you can leverage in service of simplification and pressing the right emotional buttons. Along our journey, I've also sprinkled in 15 universal truths that will bring you joy.

Here are the sections in this post:

An important assumption. Death at the last-mile.     1. Rebel against crapification via cluttering.     2. Don't fragment data, don't forget higher order bits.     3. Obsess with deleting information provided.     4. Don't run away, make the tough choices.     5. So what? So What?? So WHAT!     6. Sell smarter, make choices, love your boss/client. But Wait, There's More!

I've written a couple other posts in this same spirit, with 17 additional tips. I'll link to those posts and an article in Forbes in the last section.

You'll also find two examples below where I want you to play along. I'll share the before version, and I want you to challenge yourself, create a better after version, and share it with me. I'll add a couple of the best in each case below with your name (and your permission).

Before we head any further I should stress that all the examples below are real. Some are from slides I saw at conferences, some from our company, and some from yours. In all cases, I've spent time changing company names or the names of the things on the slide (so if you see Display Ads, that might be TV data). I did not want to call anyone out, we all suck at this and we all need to get better together.

An important assumption.

I'm assuming for the rest of this post that either you are the person responsible for presenting the output of the analytical efforts OR you are working with a person who will present and that they are curious and will commit the time and intellectual horsepower required.

99% of the final data outputs are heartbreakingly bad because the person telling the story did not create the story (thus the intellectual vacuum) and they furthermore did not commit the time required to understand the story enough to make it their own, to be able to tell it with passion/commitment.

The end result in all these cases is that data efforts come to naught. It is a simple yet hard to solve problem. Commit to addressing it, or at least exposing it and crap will not exist.

For the purpose of this post, I'm going to assume it does not exist.

Let's go, and have some sexy data presentation fun!

Death at the last-mile.

This is what I mean by an Analyst's death at the last mile… I'm confident a ton of work went into getting the data, analyzing it, creating this graph and choosing just the right fonts…

It is also true that it is completely ineffective and no one will understand anything.

Too many bars, inside them too many slices, odd color choices, all end up with this question: what the heck's going on here?

This whole thing should probably be just three bars (or if you really push me, four). In its current form it will take too long to explain and as a result you are going to lose the audience pretty quickly. And, this is likely 1 of 45 slides you have.

That is what I mean bydeath at the last-mile . A lot of great effort went into this, with no impact.

Or, checkout this beauty…

It breaks my heart. The Analyst who was presenting this at the conference was really smart. The output above is trying to do too many things, there are too many things on it, and the outcome will be that your audience of 5 or 5000 is on their phone reconsidering their dating pool.

The above should be a table with two rows and three columns. That's it. Obsessively simple, pressing the right emotional buttons.

One more.

Just because this one is from one of the largest business consulting companies in the world, and the title of the study was: Cutting Complexity and Adding Value. #ironic

There is only one simple message above, and just two metrics that matter. It should have just focused on those two. Everything else is a distraction or a ill-conceived strategy to prove the hourly consulting rate is worth it by pummeling the audience by taking up all available space on the slide.

In each case of death by last mile, how did we end up quickly identifying that only two numbers are important above or that the Cancer one has three columns or first one is best as three bars?

Rules learned from a lifetime of practice. And, an unhealthy obsession with simplicity.

Here are some of them, more at the end of this post.

1. Rebel against crapification via cluttering.

This is such a simple rule, and one that will fix any problem. Just don't clutter. Don't. Just don't.

Negative space is a good thing. Don't feel obligated to use every pixel available.

Know the difference between a handout – to be printed, to be shared after, to be sent off to lots of people who will not read it – and a presentation.

Universal Truth #1: You are the presentation, not the slides.

100% of the most memorable things that will be retained by your audience are going to come out of your mouth and won't be on the thing in the screen. I know. Even with the greatest data in the universe on the screen. You are the presentation. Please keep that in mind as we go and look at how to do the slide part, the table part, the analysis part smarter.

Let's look at this example, the research done is expensive and good. A copious amount of effort was put in by the Research Analysts. The whole thing dies at the last mile…

Universal Truth #2: Clipart is for adult earthlings with questionable taste (or young earthlings who don't know any better).

Universal Truth #3: Let things upset you. It is how you make things better.

Setting aside universal truth #2, it irritated me that you can't actually hold your phone like the lady in the clipart. Take out your phone. Try it. Position your fingers exactly like her. Are you feeling weird? Where's your thumb? See? Now, are you irritated like I am? Be irritated. Take that irritation, fix things. It is the path to glory.

Your goal is to present the data, as simply as possible. Let's KonMari!

Universal Truth #4: Don't puke all the data out at one.

Animations are your best friends. Control the pace of the story, let things be reveled as you speak/present, keep the focus on you.

Universal Truth #5: The only acceptable Animation on a slide is Fade.

The first thing we do is declutter the title (if you insist on having a title, I dislike them quite a bit as demonstrated by all the after examples in this post). Here it is…

The simplest way to communicate effectively is to have a structure that people can internalize and follow easily. In this case, with just a couple of minutes of thought we can come up with a simple structure to communicate the findings.

Share the first one, Shops…

Now dwell on it. There is nothing else to read on the slide. Just one insight. Talk about why it is interesting. Talk about what the audience can do with it. Talk about what shifts it represents. So on and so forth.

The process is how you'll establish your personal value. Nothing in the presentation, on the slide, no matter how compelling, will do that. The context you surround the data with, your words, will do that.

I won't stretch the entire process, but you'll present one element of the structure at a time, and this is where your Ashley slide will end up…

Shops, Loves, Watching.

Three relatable elements of a structure, they are sticky, and an insight under each.

Scroll back up. Look at the original.

Would you have gotten this simple and direct message from the clipart and the copious text?

Universal Truth #6: It's not the ink, it's the think.

The slide is not effective because there is less ink, it is effective because of the think that went into simplifying it and into extracting the story you want to tell. An obsession with having less ink is simply a forcing mechanism to cause more think .

Ok, time for you to practice a bit. Don't scroll further, just enough to take a look at this example… You've seen it at a major conference…

Consider our simple guideline: Declutter.

Get a post-it, sketch your version of it. As you consider the ink, let it force the think as well.

Ready to look at some alternatives?

You might have noticed the redundancy, the circles are trying to say the same thing as the numbers. Don't be redundant, unless it is your signature style thing. :)

If you just remove the numbers, you have something simpler…

It is not unusual for me to see tons of redundancy in our data analysis outputs. Focus on eliminating them. Picture a smiling Marie Kondo.

Universal Truth #7: Never force your audience to do the math. That's your job.

This is where the cute circles fail. Your audience has to figure out how much the second and third circles represent exactly.

Get rid of anything that fails universal truth 7. This would be my first step in decluttering…

Simpler. More direct.

Reduced clutter also encourages the application of universal truth 5, it forces you to see what's there. I mean really see.

When I look at the above, I realize the Analyst has ordered the story randomly. In the real-world Halloween comes first, then Cyber Monday and then Post-Holiday.

Small thing, but it matters so much to the flow of the story. This will ensure that in a very subtle way you don't jumble the brain of your audience…

Better. But, you are not done yet.

There is still too much text.

Universal Truth #8: Anything that is going to come out of your mouth should not be on a slide. (Also see truth #1.)

Applying the combination of what we did in the Ashley example, try and find a structure to communicate the story, and universal truth #8, you end up with this…

Started, Finished, Picked. Simple elemental structure to plant in the audience's mind.

Text simplified down to just the important days.

A little orange line to evoke the end of the period when retailers typically stop paying attention, stop doing the cool things and stop paying attention. But, they should not. The orange line subtly forces a closer look at the 44%, and that will prompt them to discuss what they can do to take advantage of this opportunity.

Nice, right? Scroll up a little, look at the original.

I'm sure you have even more ideas of how to make our two examples less cluttered. I would love to see them, hear your ideas. What matters most is less that my after versions are the gospelic best ones, I simply want to illustrate how with just a tiny amount of effort, and your brilliant think, the outcome can be so much better. You just have to care enough.

2. Don't fragment data, don't forget higher order bits.

It is not uncommon that we might end up presenting ten or twelve slides (or 106 if that is what you are into!). One sad outcome of this is that we'll tend to fragment the data, which results in our inability to tell the story as powerfully as it deserves to be told. It also forces a lot less think than might be optimal.

Let's look at this real data for a fictitious company… This is slide one…

Ok. Interesting trend. Up and down and up.

You ruminate on it, you let all the bars sink in. You are going to some kind of conclusion, and then comes the next slide with some more data…

It all looks new. You try to analyze it mentally (ignoring the speaker of course, yes they are still talking).

Usually the first instinct is to try and see if there's connective tissue between the two slides. It might take a second because of scale is different on both slides, but you'll ultimately get that the green bars are the same ones as before. They just seem to be different.

Why have the fragmented view?

Every time the ink creates a pause for you, an opportunity will kick in for more brilliant think.

What is the problem we are trying to solve with this data?

The higher order bit is that we want Reliance to be encouraged into action because as the above slides shows they are not competitive with the Market Leader. Sucks.

That in turn provokes these thoughts: Do we really need the trend if that's the higher order bit? Can we frame the problem in a different way, than percents, to create a sense of urgency? What above is really going to seem painful to Reliance?

Good think questions, right?

We are not really framing things cleanly, we are obsessing about something the Analyst loves, trends, and in the end, across two slides, the pain you want to deliver to drive action is completely absent.

Let's try something different, I would animate this to show one element at a time so that I could tell this story: In the last year there were 336 million (!) opportunities to engage with expressed intent, the average for your peer was 24 million…

Nice appetizer. Actual numbers. Making things really real.

Universal Truth #9: Actual numbers make reality real a million times better than percentages.

That set's the stage for one more click: Your performance doing this time period was…

Jaws dropped. People squirm in their seats. Things are getting hot. It does not look good. Sweet, that's what you want.

Everything you see above is framed simply, it is pretty much the same data you saw in the green/gray bars above.

Good so far, but the pain is missing. Let's show the cost by quantifying the impact due to the difference between 7 million and 24 million.

Be a true change agent, add the pain…

Now, you're cooking.

The other three numbers suddenly are a lot less important. the only one the audience can see is $80 mil lost revenue.

And, the conversation shifts from discussing the twelve month trends and the green/gray bars and excuses about advantages of the Market Leader. You have now singularly focused the conversation on the higher order bit: What should we do?

That's the difference between someone who reports data to someone who drives change in behavior. #winning

Yes, the trended data will be important in some executional kind of way. We have it handy, we'll use it. But, to make the most important decision, at a time when as a company Reliance is not doing well, that trend is simply a distraction.

Just to bring this home for you, here's my final version slide with the originals…

It is not just that we reduced the number of slides. It is that the fragmentation of data resulted in more ink less think and zero obsession with what really matters.

I do want to be cautious. I'm not fond of people who say that you should only have 10 slides, or some low number. It does not incentivize right behavior. I'm a firm believer in…

Universal Truth #10: Limit the number of stories you tell, don't limit the number of slides.

But as you go about that process, remember that fragmentation is not your best friend. And, remember to obsess about the higher order bits (what the heck is your end goal with all this data?).

Let's make all this real by looking at one more example.

This one pained me because the data is trying to make the case for solving a very important problem that women are faced with, yet the way data is being presented gets in the way of making a highly important point quickly.

Here's the first fragment…

It seems interesting on the surface.

Does not quite make the case for why it is an interesting something to ponder.

Here's the second fragment…

Also interesting in a superficial oh that is so intriguing kind of way.

Yet, even if here you can look at them both together, even with the y-axis being different for the two fragmented views, it is hard get the jolt you need to sit up and take notice. A part of it is also breaking universal truth #7.

Stop scrolling.

Go back up a little.

What would you do differently to make a version that is defragmented and keeps the higher-order bit squarely in the forefront?

Get a post-it. Sketch something.

Ready?

After thinking about what the higher order bit is, to help me focus sharply, and applying the other lessons you've learned thus far, here's my simple version…

Sharp focus.

The biggest delta between the two trends is for women under 40. That's the only thing I care about.

The moment you see those two bars, so starkly illustrate the problem, you are on to what the heck should we do about this?

I felt this still did not "starkify" the opportunity clearly enough.

So I went and got me some real numbers…

Boom! Excitement delivered.

We often break our data story into too many pieces. Partly because we have this hidden worry that our jobs are not that justified. We throw off a lot of data as a subtle way of earning a great job performance review. Sadly the outcome is exactly the opposite.

What you want to do instead is to do all the slicing, dicing, segmentation, beautiful math, and then step above it. Reach for the higher order bit. It will lead to defragmentation of what you are trying to say, and the ensuing simplicity will drive the type of impact that will earn you a promotion faster.

Universal Truth #11: Data is just a means to an end. It can't be the end in of itself.

3. Obsess with deleting information provided.

This rule originates in the above universal truth. Because we are trying to get to the end that will drive the higher order bit outcome faster, one strategy you can embrace with impunity is to simple delete stuff.

Train yourself to find joy in killing things. Clipart of course, you are not a child after all. But all kinds of other stuff too. Enjoy the killing.

Whenever you see a data output, your first instinct should be what can I kill in service of enhancing simplicity and the effectiveness of the story?

Take this example… Don't drink it all in at one time, slow down, let it all sink in…

What do you see?

Grab that post-it.

How many universal truths does the above slide break? How many rules we've looked at so far are not followed? How many things you personally have in your arsenal of things you hate that are above?

Ready with your rough sketch of what you would do?

My approach was simple. Delete anything that's redundant, and simply visualize what's left for sharper focus. Here's my version…

Honestly. What else is there to say?

Show the distribution, add the ages, use colors to highlight segments you want to bring attention to, add a orange bar so they don't have to do the math, and happy birthday!

You get to this important place so much faster: What the heck am I actually trying to say?

Scroll back up and compare.

Let's make this even more real by looking at a more complex example of a multi-channel marketing recommendation…

I am sure your instinct is: OMG!

There is a lot going on here. Everything seems sub-optimal. But, what I want you to recognize and appreciate is that there is no way that the person who put this together did not do a ton of work to get to this point. But, it dies at the last mile.

If you assess it carefully, the above recommendation set is trying to do five different jobs. That contributes to the problem. In the end, the audience is not impressed by the intelligence, they either start swiping left or right on their phone or become super confused.

Grab your post-it.

Just based on the information you see above, what would a version you'll simplify look like?

Apply the lessons learned thus far, primary amongst which would be to just delete, delete, delete.

If it helps, ask yourself if I had to focus on this data doing just one job, what would that one job be?

Don't scroll. Do the work, I promise you'll learn more.

Ready?

There are many valid stories to tell above. My decision was that the most impactful one was the recommendation around the media plan for the six month period. Additionally, the higher order bit to solve for was to give that media plan a purpose.

Here's the quick five minute simple result…

Nothing gloriously sexy. Just effective.

Shows the key time-periods, start and end dates of each media recommendation, and leverages the See-Think-Do-Care business framework to give each media effort a purpose. The latter is especially important because it directly ties to what content the ads/marketing should contain, what the tone and texture should be of the landing page/app experience, and what we'll use to measure success (S, T, D, C metrics).

Universal Truth #12: Never ever never never end your story with a buffet of purpose-deficient "ideas."

Notice the subtle shift in posture as well.

I dislike ending on a buffet of choices after all the hard work. Here are five ideas, take whatever you want. It is is irresponsible behavior. You did all the work, why not benefit the audience? Hence, you see everything framed into two clusters of intent.

This does not mean everyone will agree with you and lift up your chair and parade you around the tiny cramped conference room. They'll argue with you, they'll debate amongst each other, there might even be a productive food-fight. At least everyone will know what your POV is, and over time your profile will be bigger and more influential.

Ok. Exercise time.

Here's a simple example similar to the before versions we've looked at in this section….

What would a version fixed by you look like?

I bet it would only take a few minutes for you to apply the lessons in this post. I would love to see what you do with it. You are welcome to comment below, or you can email me your version.

In a week, I'll update this post with my simple five minute version and I'll share a couple examples from you (with your name, and permission).

Let's have some fun. Oh, and one more universal truth from the macro thought in this section…

Universal Truth #13: An Analyst is not a dispassionate participant. Invest in knowing the business, develop you personal point of view. Then, Express It. Let the audience benefit from your wisdom.

4. Don't run away, make the tough choices.

I'm sure you are noticing how these rules act like layers on a cake. One on top of another on top of the next one… each adding yummy deliciousness.

[In case you jumped here, just a reminder that was at the start of this post: All the examples are real, from different places, but names of companies and marketing channels have been changed or anonymized.]

Here's our next example… don't scroll too far ahead, grab your post-it again, note down what would you do differently…

Some things are obvious. Yes, redundancy can be eliminated. Yes, colors are a bit garish. Yes, text can be optimized. So on and so forth.

I hope your review also exposed that there are two different ways to frame the story. The author above decides not to make a tough choice. I encourage you to make tough choices. It is hard enough to change minds in the first place, harder still when you are sharing lots of data, why make it nearly impossible by being shy.

Since this slide is framing the value of AOL, we could frame the value as an absolute or with the percentages. The problem with raw numbers is that you don't have any context to make them a bit more hard hitting. Hence, my choice was to anchor the story in Reach. You'll see in a moment that it is an imperfect choice, but it is important to make a choice.

Here's the first view you would see in my version…

What I want to communicate is my assessment of what is AOL's core value proposition here, something that will surprise people.

The second click would revel how the story is framed… For folks that unfortunately suffer from Diabetes, AOL has close to 50% Reach…

I could just keep it at the Reach number, but you've noticed an aversion to just percents in this post as they don't quite get the message all the way across. The number in the yellow font adds a little bit of sizing of the audience, invaluable context.

A couple more clicks, and the rest of the story fills itself out…

You can get the core message very simply now. And, you have a sense for the size that is easy to understand.

The challenge of course is that it is quite odd to see that the 2,120k number is on a graph that is visually lower than 106k. It is hard for folks to wrap their heads around that concept – understandably so.

There is a legitimate case to be made that you could cross-tab this simpler version to create a workable alternative. Have the orange line be a raw number benchmark, say 500k, the blue bars represent the raw numbers, and yellow text becomes the Reach numbers.

But, it was my judgment, there's that word :), that based on my understanding of the situation that a Reach centered story would have a higher impact in terms of the idea that we were selling.

I could have totally bombed, it is a price I'm willing to pay. I'm doing it to have the ability to simplify things, and take risks. I'm willing to make a tough choice. I highly recommend that you do too. Your couple failures will be dwarfed by the numerous successes.

Let's try to apply this rule one more time.

Here's the picture that was painted… It was a reflection of a company's possible growth…

What's missing above is the Nascar-esq parade of logos, to preserve anonymity. You can be assured that it was appropriately eye-striking.

Get a post-it.

If you had to make tough choices, what would they be?

Sketch it out.

Some of the rules you've learned thus far are easily to apply, and I hope you caught those things.

For me there are two tough things to consider. Should we have the logo parade, though it contributes in the above view to explaining each bar? Is this the best way to frame the story we want to tell?

The first one was an easy decision due to this…

Universal Truth #14: Don't tell the audience things they already know.

Please remember this. Every moment you have is precious. If you don't have enough to say, it is ok to fill the gaps with thoughtful pauses. Regurgitating a parade of data/ideas/facts that people already know is a terrible choice.

On the second question I decided to step away from the waterfall chart. First, because I'm not sure it is adding much value. Second, you may or may not have noticed this, the second bar, 1.9 M, is actually a loss. It is illustrated weirdly, I wanted it to be more clear.

Here's the first view I would show… The past and the part of next year that is not great clearly identified…

I love having the focus starkly on the core of what we want to say, and all the negative space to let the data/visual breathe.

Then, element by element we reveal rest of the story…

The green and the yellow bars have insights that the presenter is delivering, we put them clearly out there for something new to be told to the audience.

Compare the before and after, I hope you feel the shift from having the slide/data being the center of attention in the original to the person telling the story becoming the center of attention.

One more exercise to help you truly internalize the lessons.

Here's the original that you can take a crack at fixing…

What would your version with tough choices look like?

Make tough choices. I would love for you to email me your version. Or, share your thoughts in the comment section below.

In a week, I'll take a couple of the best versions from you and add them here with your name and permission. I'll also add the version I've already created

Remember, life is too tough for you not to be brave and make tough choices. :)

5. So what? So What?? So WHAT!

We have one more rule to go, but I think this is probably the most important one on the list.

One big way to focus the story you are telling is to ensure every beat in the story has a purpose. In our case, every table, every slide that comes from a piece of data, has to pass the so what test. It should be really clear why someone should deeply care.

An example of this that you saw above was quantifying the pain. The so what was $80 million in missed revenue. It can be other things as well, you saw the quantified opportunity size above. It can be any of the numerous brand metrics avilable to us. But, it always has to be something that would give your table/data/slide a clear purpose, something that causes people to lean-in.

Here's an example that illustrates that….

If you've been paying attention you'll notice this is a great example of how you can be seemingly uncluttered, and yet miss the mark by a wide margin.

And, if you've been paying attention you'll quickly get rid of the disappointing clipart, you'll notice the redundant numbers and text, you'll pick out the sadness of using percentages of percentages (see universal truth #7 above), additionally you'll be confused about what the +44% YOY numbers refers to because nothing seems to match that number, and other sub-optimal things.

You'll also consider the higher order bit and realize you can make tougher choices and frame what you want to say simply…

Sweet, right?

Gets the very core of the message in front of the audience, as fast and as simply as we possibly can.

But, you are like… Avinash you said quantifying the opportunity size is more powerful than percentage deltas!

Yes, you are getting ahead of me.

Here… Yes, that is always better… quantify…

So 22 million more Hispanics watch videos as a part of their shopping experience.

You see a compelling so what from the data there. Video is a valuable source, more people are using it, hurray.

I want you to push yourself harder. Shoot for the very best so what. In my experience, that comes from obsessing about the impact.

In this case…. Here's a more powerful so what that we found with a little bit of effort… People watch videos during their shopping experience, fine… What's the influence of that video watching?

OMG. Great question….

This last piece of data, how much video advertising's influence has changed between 2013 and 2015 in the individual making their final choice, is killer. You're not just talking about raw reach, raw views, raw acquisition metrics. You're talking about tying the acquisition opportunity to the outcome/impact. That my dear readers drives action. The ultimate destiny of data.

Universal Truth #15: Purposeful data wins. Does your data have a powerful answer to the question so what ?

This is the hardest possible thing to do. It requires a fundamental understanding of the business, the various business strategies currently being executed, merging of various data sources, deep analytical skills, and an ability to predict impact. It is certainly the place where Analysis Ninjas are separated from Reporting Squirrels.

6. Sell smarter, make choices, love your boss/client.

Regardless of your role when you email a succinct summary of your insightful findings, or when you are standing in front of an audience, you are selling. Your audience – internal, external, at a conference – are your clients. Bring that perspective with you. It will cause you to lean-in a bit more.

Here's an example of some of the rules you've already learned, related to simplicity, tough choices, with an additional posture I want you to adopt: Taking the client's perspective.

We look at things too narrowly, or in a sales situation (see above) only care about ourselves. It is natural. Look at the data, think about the story, step outside your body, look at the situation from your client's perspective.

Let's make this real.

Ponder this incredibly complicated example…

What are the issues you see?

Take a post-it. Make a note of them.

There is a buffet here, we covered in story three why buffets are almost always sub-optimal as the client/audience does not benefit from your wisdom. You'll also see that there is just too much stuff, some of it unnecessary and other bits expressed in a more complex manner than might be optimal. It looks like there are two choices, but they are hard to see.

Applying the lessons we've learned today, here's what you can get to with only a tiny amount of effort.

If you are going to have a title (honestly, they add little to negative value), try and put some attitude in them. :)

We center the story on two choices, and make it super-duper easy to compare every equivalent element across the choices.

It takes you maybe five seconds to see the deltas, and perhaps make up your mind as to what you want to do.

You could be happy at this point. You should not be.

If you go back and look at the original you'll notice that that you don't really have two packages to choose from. Scroll back up, it is not very hard to spot.

Two of the elements are the same. There is a new element in package two, it is of immense value to consider what value you'll get from adding it. And, is it really worth giving up 600k views for $56k when it comes to TrueView In-Stream Skippable?

That should lead you to wonder, as did I, is it really of value to get "3.0 M impressions" for $100k with Pre-Roll, when compared to "2.8 M Views" for almost half the cost with Bumpers?

If you truly think about what you are saying from the unselfish perspective of your client/audience, because you loooooove them, truly and deeply, you might end up framing the opportunity completely differently.

My choice was to eliminate the poorly created package business complexity, frame the story as three advertising choices with the investment required for max impact, and then, with truly the client-centric view, say that they should choose just two…

Because I don't like buffets and want the audience to benefit from my point of view, I put two smiley faces for the choices that I would make if I were them.

Yes, I can get more money by choosing the first two. But, I would value Views more than Impressions. Hence my final version above.

I leave some money on the table in the short run, but I leave the lasting impression that I care for them first, I care for myself fifth. The true and glorious path to both driving big change and creating trusting relationships.

Always, always, always, look frame things from the client's perspective. [If you are in Team SDM remember we have even higher standards: Obsess about the client's client!]

But Wait, There's More!

This is a topic with deep fascination for me, if that's true for you as well then here's a small collection of paths you can walk down in order to truly master this delicious topic.

There are fifteen additional rules, with tons of real-world before – after examples like above, across these two posts: Great Storytelling With Data: Visualize Simply And Focus Obsessively |7 Data Presentation Tips: Think, Focus, Simplify, Calibrate, Visualize

If you are interested in inspiration related to different types of visualization techniques you can use in your analytical practice, you are going to die of delight: Data Visualization Inspiration: Analysis To Insights To Action, Faster!

The very best lesson when it comes to data, the one thing you should never forget and you can never apply enough of, is this one: A Great Analyst's Best Friends: Skepticism & Wisdom

At Google we've developed an amazing framework we use to tell stories with data, more on that in this Forbes article: The Digital Evangelist Leading Google's Storytelling Movement.

I hope you find the knowledge in these links to be of value as you tell your stories with data.

As always, it is your turn now.

Have you shared your versions of the two exercises with me? Which of our six rules is your favourite? Are there other rules you would apply to any of these examples to make the output even more impactful? Which after version did you love the most? Did any of your sketches take you in a different direction than where I ended up? Do you have golden rules for telling stories with data that are not covered here?

Please share your insights, critique, lessons, examples, post-it pictures, and guidance via email (blog at kaushik dot net) or via comments below.

Thank you.

It's Not The Ink, It's The Think: 6 Effective Data Visualization Strategies is a post from: Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

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