Thursday, March 19, 2020

Where Are The Best Places To Write

Where Are The Best Places To Write A year or so ago, Id written a blog post   on  being purposeful about where we write. In 1997, author David Shenk wrote the book Data Smog: Surviving The Information Glut. He theorized that the explosive growth of information made possible by the Internet was both helping society make forward-progress while simultaneously overwhelming us, the individual. He later revisited his original ideas, and posited that some still held true. In one section of the book, Shenk noted that with the use of computers, our geography of learning has become singular. That is, we read, learn, write, communicate, buy, and sell all from the same geographic place: in front of our computer. He was concerned about how well we would retain information, since our memory and retention of information is often tied to the place and situation in which it was learned. By limiting where and how we learn (in front of a computer, reading/watching a screen), we have the potential to lessen our ability to retain information. The same can be said for the geography of writing. Where we write has an impact on what we write. With that in mind, where do you find the best places to write? Is it possible that where you are writing has an effect on how and what you are writing for your blog? 1. Somewhere Warm Sure, the beach would work, unless youre like me and dont really care for a lot of sun. But lets remove the idea of a geographic location from this one, and think instead that warm isnt a place near the equator, but a temperature. According to a recent study, actual physical warmth makes us more likely to buy products because it effects us positively and makes us transfer positive feelings to the product we are buying. What might that same positive feeling do for your writing? Im from North Dakota. Im familiar with cold and how it can distract with numb fingers and shivering. When its cold, Im mainly interested in finding a way to be warm. This probably explains why I drink several cups of hot herbal tea whenever Im writing. Theres something about holding a warm cup and drinking the warm water. Dont ignore the physical nature that may be affecting your writing. A laptop thats too hot for your lap, an apartment thats too cold, a chair thats too hard, a couch thats too comfythese things affect how we write. We love excuses to stop writing. 2. Anywhere But Here The downfall of the freelancer isnt too much freedom, or the exhausting pursuit of work. It might not even be the tight budget. Its most often that innocuous Wednesday when he snaps because his entire life seems to happen within 30 feet of where he eats and sleeps. In other words, he never leaves his house. That kind of situation may be great for manifesto-writing, but not so great for blog writing, especially if youre an extrovert. Sometimes you need a different set of walls to look at, and different background noises, to jolt your writing into finding a different approach. Dont let your thoughts and input be too inbred. You might need to leave the house once in a while. The sheer need to get out and be around other people and not inside your house and inside your head makes the next location seem pretty tempting. 3. Coffee Shop Coffee Shop This is the big debate: do public locations help or distract when you are writing? J. K. Rowling claims to have written her first Harry Potter novel in her local cafà ©. But youll find that writing in a public place can be pretty loud and disruptive. There are probably just as many people who would tell you to avoid writing in a public place by any means possible. Writing in a public location has its moments, though its probably not the time to write a detailed 2,500 word blog post involving several A/B tests and datasets that you want to communicate clearly. Or, maybe it is. It depends on one thing: how do you handle distraction? I generally prefer silence when I write, and that means no music with words (classical is OK). But I can tune crowd noise out pretty well and sometimes welcome the feeling of having other humans around me even though Im not interacting with them. This is a good antidote for those bloggers and freelancers who work alone in the silence of their home too much. But, if people-watching and eavesdropping tend to win out, you might want to skip the coffee shop, the pub, or the morning commuter train. Dont overestimate your ability to not get distracted by activity around you. 4. The Library Writing at the library is just about unbeatable IMHO. (Unless your local library has become more of a noisy social place than a quite place of study.) A classic old-school library is quiet, but there are other people around so you get that Im with humans buzz. You have a wifi connection available, you have books and magazines for research and reference, and, if your library is hopping on the coffee shop trend, you have easy access to sustenance. When I was working towards my private pilots license, I spent hours and hours at the library, studying and working on my sectionals and FAA test questions. I discovered that it was a phenomenal place to work, with the sound of rustling papers and the smell of ink and books prodding you on to writing something great. Everything about the library seems to beckon you to become part of the great pantheon of writers. Dont ignore the library. It isnt just for kids and checking out books. Its a great place to do real work. And lets not forget: the library is free. You can just go there. You dont have to buy anything. 5. At Your Job If you blog as part of your job, youd probably better find a way to make blogging at your job something that works. This may mean you have a cubicle, an private office, or if youre like me, in an open room of desks with the rest of the team. This also means that I got a nice noise canceling headset because it can be challenging to write about content marketing when the developers are talking about code. Sometimes I take my laptop to one of two couches and do a bit of writing there as well. I like to mix things up and just moving from my standing desk to a couch changes my attitude. For one thing, I stop thinking my feet are tired of standing which has a tendency to make me want to hurry and get this post done. The nice thing about blogging at work is that, such distractions aside, youre working alongside the team that your blog is a part of, too. Their feedback, input–even just their presence–helps you work towards the same goal they are with your writing. 6. Where Twitter Has No Name Chrome extensions like Stay Focused seem a strange concoction, limiting the time we can spend on certain sites during the day. Why would we need an extension to keep us from visiting sites that distract us? Cant we just do that ourselves? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. I cant tell you how many times Ive been chugging along writing and then my phone beeps and I open a new tab to see if Ive gotten another @mention on Twitter or if theres a new email and andmy thoughts are derailed. It takes a while to get back into what I was writing and recollect where I was headed. Not only is it about wasted time, but sometimes thoughts come in faint wisps that you cant grab onto and youd better write them down before they get away but–beep! You completely forget what you were going to write. Its gone for good. Want to get your writing done? Get away from notifications on your phone and computer.Find a place to write where the Pavlovian beeps of your phone and your computer wont be a problem. Find a way to keep from stumbling into social media sites, RSS readers, and other legitimate content marketing tools you dont need to be using when it comes time to actually write. Have a research time, and collect all your research so youre not tempted to wander about the internet researching when its time to write. Considering writing with pen and paper (or typewriter, in a non-ironic way) to get the first draft done to keep yourself from the distraction of the internet.  Ive started writing with pen and paper for some writing projects just because I stay focused better. My writing output has jumped as Ive moved to starting things out on paper. Dont write where there is a TV handy, unless youre certain you wont turn it on. These are just a few tactics I use to make sure I get my writing done. We each have different distractions, and therefore, different solutions on avoiding those distractions.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

The Multiple Meanings of Hail

The Multiple Meanings of Hail The Multiple Meanings of Hail The Multiple Meanings of Hail By Mark Nichol When listing hail as one of the words used to describe precipitation recently, I thought about the other definitions of the word. Hail is also used as an interjection to acclaim (â€Å"Hail to the chief!†) or salute (â€Å"Hail, fellow well met!†) someone, though it’s an archaic usage rarely applied anymore. This meaning stems from the Old Norse word heill, used for the same purpose but derived from that word’s original meaning, â€Å"healthy.† The homophone hale, rarely used outside of the expression â€Å"hale and hearty,† carries a connotation of good health persisting into old age. (The archaic salutation wassail, with a second syllable sharing the same etymology, stems from an Old Norse exhortation to be well; modern usage refers to a hot alcoholic drink served from a bowl at a Christmas celebration, or to revelry in general.) The verb hail means not only â€Å"acclaim† but also â€Å"greet† or â€Å"summon.† It’s rarely used in the sense of greeting, but the expression â€Å"hail a taxi† (or â€Å"cab†), referring to summoning a vehicle for hire, is common. (The rare verb hale, meaning â€Å"drag† or â€Å"pull† in the sense of drawing a horse’s reins or a weapon, or to haul a net or an anchor, is cognate with haul and is distantly related to hail in the sense of â€Å"call.†) Meanwhile, the Catholic devotional salutation â€Å"Hail, Mary† inspired the colorful expression â€Å"Hail Mary pass† or â€Å"Hail Mary play† to describe a desperate gambit in football. One who hails is a hailer, though this term is all but unknown except in the British English term loud-hailer, the name of a device also known as a megaphone or a bullhorn. In maritime usage, sailors are said to hail one another as their vessels pass each other, identifying themselves and passing news; in earlier times, they would be said to speak each other. Also, to stay within hail or within hailing distance is to remain close enough to be heard. A related usage from the nautical sense is to say that someone hails from somewhere, meaning that the person is a native or a resident of a place. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:45 Synonyms for â€Å"Food†English Grammar 101: Verb MoodPreposition Mistakes #3: Two Idioms

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Define the importance of the doctrine of the Trinity for the Christian Research Paper

Define the importance of the doctrine of the Trinity for the Christian faith. Analyze the history and development of that doctr - Research Paper Example Basically Christian understanding concerning the Trinity starts from the two elements, namely His essense and His acts, which are the way of functioning of the three Persons in the Trinity. Human beings thus far haven't been able to have a frame of reference in order to explain the Mystery of Trinity and can never do that also. But only thing we can know is Logic cannot transcend divinity. If man's knowledge is like a drop of water, then the knowledge of God would be like an ocean which transcends all limits. Thus we don't have the eligibility, neither have we the capability to comprehend His mystery. His true entity no one can ever understand. Gregory of Nazianzen expresses God as, â€Å"One God, One in diversity, diverse in Unity, wherein is a marvel† (Second Theological Oration par. 1). We believe in His essence because we experience his energies. Rational bases even if are good, not always vital for stability of our faith. Still we have Scriptural resources, and historic t heological literatures which definitely help us to grasp enough about the mystery of the Triune God. Only whatever is necessary for our finite understanding is revealed by God. In this paper, the writer would try to analyse how important the doctrine of Trinity is for the Christians, further looking through the historical development of the doctrine and the firmness of the doctrine in the minds of the Christians. IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY: As we said at the outset, Christian faith balances upon the reality of God, His Triune existence. The doctrine elaborates the reality of God and explains the mysteries. It reveals God's personality. It says that God is not simply a supernatural entity but He is a person with a personality. It brings into light the function of the Godhead in three streams- The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, explaining their acts in history of humanity and the sole focus to redeem humanity from the clutches of sin and death. The Father, the fi rst Person in the Godhead is the sender of the Son who came down to earth, sacrificing all the glory of the Heaven, to offer Himself as a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of the entire humanity. The Father reveals the grandeur of His love for humanity through His Son. The Son is the second Person in the Godhead Who alone was qualified to do the task. He finished His work of bringing redemption for man by defeating death and overpowering the effect of sin. Moreover He became an ideal for being obedient, which was the very mistake of Man that brought sin into the world. Holy Spirit is the third Person in the Godhead Who is the transformer of human heart by the planting of Christ into his/her life through penitence, making him/her return from sin. He guides a person in the spiritual journey in this life making the person more like Christ every day. Without the Holy Spirit, the redemption offered by Christ cannot be experienced fully. â€Å"Redemption, therefore, in historic Christiani ty is initiated by the Father (Galatians 4:4), accomplished through the Son (1 Peter 3:18), and is applied by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5)† (Samples par.3). Thus the whole process of redemption which is the core of God's mission in this world is not feasible without the Trinity i.e. Father, Son and the Holy Spirit all together. Trinitarian concept of God also solves another problem. According to St. Augustine, only the God Who is united in His plural nature can be loving. Unless God is plural in Himself and is solitary, then the

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Cartier Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Cartier - Essay Example The stimuli related to the brand that evokes various behavioural responses of the consumers are due to various features of the brand which are namely, the communications of the brand, the packaging of the products offered under the brand names and the market environment created by the brand strategies of the company (Aaker, 1996, p.47). Brand experience is of high importance to the companies in today’s market as the brand experience enjoyed by the customers creates an attachment towards preferred brands and hence, develops brand loyalty. In order to sustain business growth in the competitive markets, the companies put additional focus in including brand experience in their market strategies. By acquiring a loyal set of customer through brand experience, the companies have been able to acquire and maintain substantial market share in the industry. This piece of work includes a review of the literature on brand experience and the marketing strategies adopted by the companies in order to develop their brand experience (Aaker, 1997, p.352). The aspect of brand experience has been discussed in context to Cartier luxury brand. Literature Review The age of globalization has opened up the markets in several economies and the companies have expanded in the global markets in order to tap the potential market demand. The increase in market competition has increased the bargaining power of the customers. Over the years, the companies have observed changing trends in the customer behaviour in accepting brands from the available market options. Thus understanding the customer behaviour is important from the point of view of the companies in order to sustain their market shares. Brand experience has emerged as an important consideration for addressing the behaviour of the customers and their responses to various brands that they use in today’s competitive market. The behaviour of the customers related to brand experience depends on not one but several features o f the brand like brand personality, brand community, brand attachment, brand trust and brand love (Ariely, 1998, p.36). The brand experience could be conceptualised as the generation of feelings, sensations, emotion of the customers in response to the brand related stimuli. The concept of brand experience emerges with the classification of customer’s experience into sensory, affective, intellectual, behavioural features of the customer’s behaviour (Schmitt, Zarantonello and Brakus, 2009, p.65). The feelings generated in the customer due to the sensory stimulus refer to the customer’s response to the aesthetic features of the product. The sensory emotions within the customer are generated by the focus on beautifying the product through better packaging. The better packaging in comparison to others provides as sense of assurance and belief to the consumer. The affective component of brand experience generates different customer behaviour as a result of the underly ing belief and ideas of the customer on the particular brand. The affective behaviour of the customer is based on the direct and indirect interaction that the customer had in relation to the bran

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Euthanasia and Living Wills :: Free Euthanasia Essay

Euthanasia and Living Wills Imagine someone you love...better yet, imagine yourself lying in a hospital bed oblivious to the world around you, unable to move or show any signs of life, your own existence controlled by an I.V., a respiratory machine, and a feeding tube. In essence you are dead. Your body is no longer able to sustain life, its entire purpose is now replaced by a machine - you are being kept alive by artificial means. At this point the question arises - should you be kept alive by these means or should you be allowed to die a natural death? Unfortunately you are unable to answer this question because your voice is limited to a "beep" on a heart monitor machine. Who then is going to decide if you live artificially or die naturally? Who gets to play God? Well, if your family doesn't have your written consent in the form of a living will, to cease life support, then the doctor will make the ultimate decision for both you and your family. Most often this is the case. Even though writing a living will is just as easy if not easier than writing a death will, many people don't take the time to do so. Therefore, doctors have to debate the question of euthanasia - a question that each one of us should ponder long before we are put in this situation. What is euthanasia? Euthanasia is not mercy killing. It has absolutely nothing to do with killing. On the contrary, euthanasia by definition simply means "good death" and in the applied sense it refers to "the patients own natural death without prolonging their dying process unduly." What this attempts to accomplish is to allow a person to die with peace and dignity. In most cases life-support systems simply prolong the terminal suffering of a patient by a few more weeks or months, they do nothing to return a patient to a normal functioning human being. With most terminally ill patients life support does not mean prolonging life - it means prolonging suffering, for both the patient and their family. Although there are no statutes legalizing euthanasia in the U.S. many doctors end a terminal patients life by administering a fatal dose of a drug that they were previously administering.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Return to Paradise Essay

Return to Paradise Return to Paradise is a film that has a lot of meanings within the story line. But also has many ethical issues among the morals that are in today’s society. Three ethical issues in the film are capital punishment, drug use, and media treatment. Capital punishment is an ethical issue because it is highly opinionated. Some people believe that people shouldn’t have to die to pay for their crime, while others believe that death is the best way to pay for what they’ve done as a consequence. This makes an argument that if someone has killed another human, should they be killed too? It makes it hard in different countries as their laws may be different and death penalties can really occur and happen. Drug use is also an ethical issue because they believe they aren’t harming anyone and a majority of the drug users want illicit drugs to be legalised. A lot of today’s society argues that the drug users affect more than just themselves such us driving under the influence of drugs, can lead to other innocent people into serious injuries or death in a crash. Media treatment is another ethical issue in the film; this is because M.J Major wanted the story to get out so bad it was more important than Lewis’s life. This is an ethical issue because the media have the rights to tell the story to the public but in a bit to try save Lewis’s life instead of just telling the story. In the start of the film, Sheriff was completely an individual and his worldview was all about himself and what he wanted to do; what is best for him. Sheriff was also a pleasure seeker and really only cared for the wellbeing of himself. For example, when Tony, Sheriff and Lewis were riding a bike they borrowed and crashed it, Lewis wanted it to return it to the owner but sheriff didn’t want to get into trouble and threw the bike away. Also Sheriff left all the hash they had in a bin outside of the house where Lewis stayed and the cops found out about that and bike. When Sheriff found out that Lewis was in prison, he definitely didn’t want to go back, he thought about spending 3-6 years in prison for someone else and didn’t want it. Sheriff then fell in love with Beth. After he found out that Beth was Lewis’s sister, he realised what he wanted and knew his mistakes, with this his worldview changed. In court he confessed to all the crimes that had been put on Lewis, taking responsibility for his actions really was a change of person. Sheriff had  developed a humanistic world view and also a Christian view on life. He believed at the end that every life was worth just as much as his own, and that everyone deserves to live and have the same rights. Throughout the film in the plot and themes, the film promotes and encourages Christian values and ethics. The film shows and promotes these values and ethics through the character of Sheriff. At the start of the movie, Sheriff was a selfish and individual person, but towards the end of the movie he became a loving and caring person, thinking of others and not about himself. It is a noticeable change when he just starts thinking of others. To show the Christian values, they promote them through Sheriff about helping and thinking of others, compassion and that everyone’s life is worth as much as your own. This is also shown when Sheriff stops thinking of the wellbeing of himself and really tries to help Lewis. Sheriff was willing to give up a bit of his life to save Lewis’s life. Sheriff shows human value by going back to Malaysia and not leaving with Tony, he also fell in love and Beth became a big part in showing him the right way. Just before Lewis died Sheriff was showing great compassion to Lewis making sure he knew he wasn’t alone and everyone was there for him.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

The Rise Of Andrew Jackson - 1696 Words

The Westward Movement The rise of Andrew Jackson, the first president form beyond the Appalachian Mountains, exemplified the inexorable westward march of the American people; the West, with its raw frontier, was the most typically American part of America The Republic and the people were so young —as late as 1850, half of Americans were under the age of thirty; By 1840 the â€Å"demographic center† of the American population map had crossed the Alleghenies; by the Civil War it had crossed the Ohio River Legend portraying men carving civilization out of the western woods were false as in reality, life was downright grim for most pioneer families in the West Poorly fed, ill-clad, housed in hastily erected shanties, they were perpetual victims of†¦show more content†¦Louis to the Rocky Mountain valley and waited for the trappers and Indians to arrive with beaver pelts to swap for manufactured goods from the East The trade thrived for two decades before the hats went out of style and fewer beavers Trade in buffalo robbers also flourished, leading eventually to the virtually total annihilation of the massive bison herds and still farther west, on the California coast, other traders bought up sea-otter pelts, driving otters to the point of near-extinction Aggressive, heedless exploitation of West natural bounty—â€Å"ecological imperialism† Yet Americans in this period also revered nature and admired its beauty; the spirit of nationalism fed the growing appreciation of the uniqueness of the American wilderness Searching for the United States’