#Robert Cole/Ethics

[ravenkings]

The news business is in upheaval. A presidential election is barreling down the pike. Facing financial challenges and political division, several of America’s largest news organizations have turned over the reins to editors who prize relentless reporting on a budget. And they all happen to be British. Will Lewis, a veteran of London’s Daily Telegraph and News UK, is now the chief executive of The Washington Post, where reporters have raised questions about his Fleet Street ethics. He recently ousted the paper’s American editor and replaced her with a former colleague from The Telegraph, dumbfounding American reporters who had never heard of him. Emma Tucker (formerly of The Sunday Times) took over The Wall Street Journal last year, shortly after Mark Thompson (formerly of the BBC) became chairman of CNN, where he has ordered an American remake of the long-running BBC comedy quiz show “Have I Got News for You.”

They joined a slew of Brits already ensconced in the American media establishment. Michael Bloomberg, a noted Anglophile, hired John Micklethwait (former editor of the London-based Economist) in 2015 to run Bloomberg News. Rupert Murdoch tapped Keith Poole (The Sun and The Daily Mail) to edit The New York Post in 2021, the same year that The Associated Press named an Englishwoman, Daisy Veerasingham, as its chief executive. “We are the ultimate trophies for American billionaires,” joked Joanna Coles, the English-born editor who in April became head of The Daily Beast, the online news outlet itself named after a newspaper in an Evelyn Waugh novel. Ms. Coles has not hesitated to recruit more of her compatriots, installing a Scot as editor in chief and a Guardian reporter as Washington bureau chief. “We are loading up on Brits,” she said in an interview. [...] But while British journalists are used to intense competition, their journalistic rule book is not always in line with American standards. At The Washington Post, the home of Woodward and Bernstein, some of Mr. Lewis’s behavior has unsettled the newsroom. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Mr. Lewis had urged The Post’s former editor, Sally Buzbee, to not cover a court decision concerning his involvement in Rupert Murdoch’s phone-hacking scandal in Britain. (A spokeswoman for Mr. Lewis has said that account of the conversation was inaccurate.) An NPR reporter then disclosed that Mr. Lewis had offered an exclusive interview if the reporter agreed to drop an article about the scandal. (The spokeswoman said that Mr. Lewis had spoken with NPR before joining The Post, and that after he joined The Post interview requests were “through the normal corporate communication channels.”) This kind of behavior may be acceptable at some London papers, where proprietors are less hesitant to fiddle with coverage. In American newsrooms, it’s verboten — as is the practice of paying for information. At The Telegraph, Mr. Lewis spent 110,000 pounds for documents that fueled a damaging exposé of parliamentary corruption. (His rivals at The Sun and The Times of London balked at a similar deal.) The Telegraph reporter who secured the documents, Robert Winnett, is set to become The Post’s editor later this year. As for the view across the pond? “We are all greeting this with a mix of amusement and indignation,” said one Fleet Street editor, who requested anonymity to avoid the ire of any overly sensitive superiors. (In keeping with the spirit of British tabloids, the request was granted.) “Amusement that these fancy high priests of American journalism are being monstered by good old-fashioned, tough-guy British editors; indignation that they find it so extraordinary that they might have something to learn from across the pond,” the editor said. “Yes, our standards are a bit lower, but we’re extremely competitive and intense and no-nonsense, and that’s probably helpful given how the industry is going.”

the fact that a lot of american billionaires seem to be spearheading this makes me wonder how much of it has to do with these journalists coming from a country where they have to work with notoriously wack libel laws and an extremely rigid class structure (and a monarchy which they kiss the ass of tbh) thus presumably making them more willing to kowtow to authority.............🤔🧐

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Batman: Under the Red Hood

Rating: PG-13

Director: Brandon Vietti

Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Jensen Ackles, Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Isaacs, John DiMaggio, Wade Williams, Carlos Alazraqui, Robert Clotworthy, Gary Cole, Brian George, Kelly Hu, Phil LaMarr, Alexander Martella, Jim Piddock, Kevin Michael Richardson

Release year: 2010

Genres: science fiction, mystery, action, crime

Blurb: There's a mystery afoot in Gotham City, and Batman must go toe-to-toe with mysterious vigilante Red Hood. Subsequently, old wounds reopen, and old once-buried memories come into the light. Batman faces his ultimate challenge as the mysterious Red Hood takes Gotham City by firestorm. One part vigilante, one part criminal kingpin, Red Hood begins cleaning up Gotham with the efficiency of Batman...but without following the same ethical code.

[tfmedianews]

L.A. council candidate starts paying $91,000 fine for bogus donor information

A Los Angeles City Council candidate accused of submitting bogus information about campaign contributions has begun paying his $91,548 fine after missing a first payment earlier this year, under an agreement approved by a city commission Wednesday.

Robert L. Cole Jr. was fined by the City Ethics Commission for submitting names of phony contributors — including multiple donations that were attributed to dead people — when seeking matching funds from the city for his unsuccessful bid to replace longtime Councilman Bernard C. Parks earlier this year.

To qualify for matching funds, candidates must show they have gotten at least $5 each from a minimum of 200 residents living in the area they seek to represent.

Cole was turned down for the money after Ethics Commission officials concluded that his campaign had filed false information about its donors.

Many people who were named as contributors told investigators that they had not made donations: Overall, more than 71% of the people that investigators were able to contact said they hadn’t donated to the Cole campaign.

Cole said in an interview earlier this year that the problems stemmed from an overzealous volunteer and that he was unaware that incorrect information had been submitted. Cole nonetheless took overall responsibility and agreed to pay the fine.

“I didn’t do my due diligence,” he said earlier this year.

City investigators found that Cole told the volunteer to raise the needed money “by any means necessary.” At the time, the campaign owed roughly $9,000 to staff for salaries and $17,000 to Cole himself for personal loans.

After struggling to raise enough money, the volunteer took donations from Cole’s family and friends, divided them up and attributed them to people named on an outdated list of local residents, some of whom were dead and some of whom now live outside California, according to a city report summarizing the case.

During a lengthy discussion Wednesday, ethics commissioner Nathan Hochman questioned whether Cole was aware of the more “scintillating” facts of the case — that the campaign was claiming donations from dead people and individuals who had not given to the campaign.

In reaction, Ethics Commission enforcement director Sergio Perez said he needed to honor the agreement already reached by Cole and the city, which supported facts about what had happened.

Cole “failed to review the contributions and supporting documents that he received from the volunteer,” a city report detailing the agreement states.

The document also states that Cole himself supplied false information about the date of the contributions, as well as employment information for the named donors.

Members of the Ethics Commission were scheduled to approve the fine and a payment agreement in June, but rejected it after Cole failed to make his first $10,000 installment. Failing to abide by the terms of the agreement could have jeopardized his payment plan or enabled the commission to pursue more violations against him.

However, Cole later provided nearly $25,000 to the city, bringing him back in line with the scheduled payments, according to city staffers.

Cole has agreed to pay the remaining sum of nearly $67,000 in monthly installments from September to May 2016. Members of the Ethics Commission unanimously voted to approve the proposed agreement Wednesday.

[femmefatalevibe]

Femme Fatale Booklist:

Books to become your dream girl. This list is curated to unleash the empowered woman inside, tap into your dark feminine energy, and help you succeed in every area of life. Sections are listed below:

Self-Development/Mindset 

Seductive Psychology 

Femme Fatale/Dark Feminine/Feminist Reads 

Business/Finance/Entrepreneurship 

Productivity

Mental Health 

Physical Health 

Fashion & Beauty

Get educated. Expand your mind. Enjoy xx

Self-Development/Mindset:

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

Atomic Habits by James Clear

You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay

Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen

The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery by Brianna Wiest

Boundary Boss: The Essential Guide to Talk True, Be Seen, and (Finally) Live Free by Terri Cole

The Confidence Formula: May Cause: Lower Self-Doubt, Higher Self-Esteem, and Comfort In Your Own Skin by Patrick King

The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson

Choose Your Story, Change Your Life: Silence Your Inner Critic and Rewrite Your Life from the Inside Out by Kindra Hall

When You’re Ready, This Is How To Heal  by Brianna Wiest

Hunting Discomfort: How to Get Breakthrough Results in Life and Business No Matter What by Sterling Hawkins

The Four Pivots: Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves by Shawn Ginwright

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Seductive Psychology:

48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

Mastery by Robert Greene

The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene

How To Win Friends & Influence People  by Dale Carnegie

Power vs. Force by David Hawkins 

Femme Fatale/Dark Feminine/Feminist Reads:

Unbound: A Woman’s Guide To Power by Kasia Urbaniak 

Pussy: A Reclamation by Regena Thomashauer 

Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl―A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship by Sherry Argov 

A Single Revolution by Shani Silver 

This Is Your Brain On Birth Control by Sarah Hill 

Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler

Regretting Motherhood: A Study by Orna Donath 

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Me by Caroline Criado Perez 

Women Who Run With The Wolves: ​​Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes 

The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir 

The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone De Beauvoir

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf 

Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard 

Spinster by Kate Bolick 

What French Women Know: About Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind by Debra Ollivier 

Living Forever Chic: Frenchwomen's Timeless Secrets for Everyday Elegance, Gracious Entertaining, and Enduring Allure by Tish Jett

Business/Finance/Entrepreneurship:

Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss 

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini 

The 2-Hour Cocktail Party by Nick Gray 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey 

Girl On Fire by Cara Alwill Leyba 

Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense & Sensibility by Mireille Guiliano 

Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Joseph Grenny 

Living On Purpose: Five Deliberate Choices to Realize Fulfillment by Amy Eliza Wong 

The Earned Life: Lose Regret, Choose Fulfillment by Marshall Goldsmith 

The High 5 Habit: Take Control of Your Life with One Simple Habit by Mel Robbins 

Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential by Tiago Forte

The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle 

Rich As F*ck: More Money Than You Know What to Do With by Amanda Frances 

Rich Bitch  by Nicole Lapin 

Like She Owns the Place by Cara Alwill Leyba 

So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport 

The First Minute: How To Start Conversations That Get Results by Chris Fenning 

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman 

Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell 

The Hard About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz 

The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel

Productivity:

The Science of Self-Discipline:  The Willpower, Mental Toughness, and Self-Control to Resist Temptation and Achieve Your Goals by Peter Hollins 

Free Time: Lose The Busy Work, Love Your Business by Jenny Blake 

Vision to Reality: Stop Working, Start Living by Curtis Jenkins

Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success in A Distracted World by Cal Newport 

Finish What You Start by Peter Hollins

Mental Health:

Becoming The One by Sheleana Aiyana  

Attached by Amir Levine 

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns 

Whole Again by Jackson MacKenzie 

Take Your Lunch Break by Massoma Alam Chohan

Stop Overthinking by Nick Trenton 

Codependent No More by Melody Beattie

Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture by Ryan A. Bush 

Radical Acceptance: Awakening The Love That Heals Fear and Shame by Tara Brach 

Recovery from Gaslighting & Narcissistic Abuse, Codependency & Complex PTSD by Don Barlow 

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson 

Inner Child Recovery Work with Radical Self-Compassion by Don Barlow 

What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry & Oprah Winfrey 

Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown 

Physical Health:

The China Study by T. Collin Campbell 

The Blue Zones  by Dan Buettner 

How Not To Die by Dr. Michael Greger 

Befriending Your Body by Ann Saffi Biasetti 

Brain Over Binge by Kathryn Hansen 

The Power of Self-Discipline by Peter Hollins 

Fit at Any Age: It's Never Too Late by Susan Niebergall 

French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano 

The Archetype Diet by Dana James 

Fashion & Beauty: 

The Lucky Shopping Manual: Building and Improving Your Wardrobe Piece by Piece by Andrea Linett & Kim France 

Dress Like A Parisian by Alois Guinut

Parisian Chic by Ines de la Fressange & Sophie Gachet 

Why French Women Wear Vintage: And other secrets of sustainable style by Alois Guinut

Ageless Beauty the French Way: Secrets from Three Generations of French Beauty Editors by Clemence von Mueffling 

Skincare: The Ultimate No-Nonsense Guide by Caroline Hirons

[interculturalpragmaticsblog]

Want to know where all the good knowledge came from?

Citations yay!

Greetings

Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1978). Universals in Language Usage: Politeness Phenomena. In E. Goody (Ed.), Questions and Politeness: Strategies in Social Interaction (pp. 56-310). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Firth, R. (1972). Verbal and bodily rituals of greeting and parting. In J. S. La Fontaine (Ed.), The Interpretation of Rituals. Routledge.

Fox, K. (2004). Watching the English: The hidden rules of English behaviour. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Geddes, L. (2015, December 17). Why do Brits talk about the weather so much? BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20151214-why-do-brits-talk-about-the-weather-so-much

Grice, H. P. (1975) Logic and conversation. In P. Cole and J. Morgan (Eds.), Studies in Syntax and Semantics III: Speech Acts (pp. 183-98). New York: Academic Press.

Laver, J. (2011). Linguistic Routines and Politeness in Greeting and Parting. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), Volume 2 Conversational Routine (pp. 289-304). Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton.

Spencer-Oatey, H., & Kádár, D. Z. (2021). Intercultural politeness: Managing relations across cultures. Cambridge University Press.

Small Talk 

Coupland, J. (2014). Introduction: Sociolinguistic perspectives on small talk. In Small talk (pp. 1-25). Routledge.

Coupland, J. (2003). Small talk: Social functions. Research on language and social interaction, 36(1), 1-6, -6, DOI:10.1207/S15327973RLSI3601_1

McAndrew, F.T. (2020, January 18). Why Small Talk Is a Big Deal.  https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/out-the-ooze/202001/why-small-talk-is-big-deal

Cuncic, A. (2021, April 12). 10 Best and Worst Small Talk Topics. https://www.verywellmind.com/small-talk-topics-3024421 

Rolfe, A. How to Up Your Small Talk game. https://www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/how-to-up-your-small-talk-game/?utm_source=pocket_mylist

https://nextstepenglish.com/how-to-make-small-talk-britain/?utm_source=pocket_mylist

Roberts, D. (2019, December 30). Why is small talk so excruciating. https://www.vox.com/2015/7/7/8903123/small-talk

Watkins, N. (2021, July 23). Hate Small Talk? Here’s Why and What to Do About It. https://socialpronow.com/blog/i-hate-small-talk/

Public Behaviour 

The Muse Editor. (n.d.). Why Your Handshake Matters (and How to Get it Right). https://www.themuse.com/advice/why-your-handshake-matters-and-how-to-get-it-right

Landau, H.C. (2018, August 9) Importance of a Good Handshake. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-good-handshake-henry-chesky-landau

WhatsApp Conduct 

Patel, M. (2017). WhatsApp Group Rules Guidelines: Maintain your Ethics and Etiquette. https://www.kadvacorp.com/technology/whatsapp-group-rules/

Baz S, R. (2017, September 1). A Proposal of Basic Conduct/Behavior Rules for WhatsAoo Groups. https://medium.com/en-los-espejos-de-un-cafe/a-proposal-of-basic-conduct-behavior-rules-for-whatsapp-groups-ef241d7f54f6

Mallick, Z. (n.d.). https://youyaa.com/whatsapp-group-rules/

8 Rules for WhatsApp Group Chat Etiuquette. (March 2020).  https://sheerluxe.com/life/8-rules-for-whatsapp-group-chat-etiquette

Simpson Millar. (2018, March 28). Solicitors Tips for Employers on WhatsApp in the Workplace. https://www.simpsonmillar.co.uk/media/solicitor-s-tips-for-employers-on-whatsapp-in-the-workplace/

Rules For A WhatsApp Group. (n.d.). https://nrf.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Rules-for-a-Whatsapp-Group-.pdf

FAQ (n.d.). https://emojipedia.org/faq/

Apologies

Journal of International Students. Bista, K. 2016. Cooper, P. Newsome, LK. 2016. International Students’ Cultural and Social Experiences in a British University: “Such a hard life [it] is here’. OJED/STAR

Hitchings, H. 2013. Sorry!: The English and their Manners. Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Holmes, J. 1990. Apologies in New Zealand English. Cambridge University Press

Leech, G. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London; New York; Longman

Taylor, C. 2016. Mock politeness and culture: Perceptions and practice in UK and Italian data. Intercultural Pragmatics. De Gruyter Mouton

Thank Yous

Spencer-Oatey, 2000. Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport Through Talk Across Cultures. Continuum; London; New York

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/britain-thank-you-say-more-world-manners-polite-etiquette-study-a8364806.html

Services

Grieve, A. (2010). “Aber ganz ehrlich”: Differences in episodic structure, apologies and truth-orientation in German and Australian workplace telephone discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 42(1), 190-219.

Coupland, J. (2014). Introduction: Sociolinguistic perspectives on small talk. In Small talk (pp. 1-25). Routledge.

Wierzbicka, A. (2010). 1. Cultural scripts and intercultural communication. In Pragmatics across languages and cultures(pp. 43-78). De Gruyter Mouton.

Meng, H. (2008). Social script theory and cross-cultural communication. Intercultural Communication Studies, 17(1), 132-138.

Goddard, C. (2009). Cultural scripts. Culture and language use, 2, 68-80.

Personal space

Beaulieu, C. (2006). Intercultural Study of Personal Space: A Case Study. Journal Of Applied Social Psychology, 34(4), 794-805. doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb02571.x

Norris, A. (2021). prints. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://www.theohnoshop.com/collections/prints-1?page=2

Humour

Reimann, A. (2010). Intercultural communication and the essence of humour. Journal of the Faculty of International Studies, Utsunomiya University, (29), 23-34.

Itchy Feet: the Travel and Language Comic. (2021). Retrieved 24 November 2021, from http://www.itchyfeetcomic.com/

Bonus mini-post

Firth, R. (1972). Verbal and bodily rituals of greeting and parting. In J. S. La Fontaine (Ed.), The Interpretation of Rituals. Routledge.

Goodbyes

Firth, R. (1972). Verbal and bodily rituals of greeting and parting. In J. S. La Fontaine (Ed.), The Interpretation of Rituals. Routledge.

Laver, J. (2011). Linguistic Routines and Politeness in Greeting and Parting. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), Volume 2 Conversational Routine (pp. 289-304). Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton.

[rivalsofnycupdates]

“There is nobody more terrible than the desperate.”  

■ ABOUT. ■

name: Robert Beauford age: fifty-eight occupation: CEO at Sunlight Investments gender: cis-male pronouns: he/him  sexuality: heterosexual

■ HISTORY. ■

Robert is the first and only born child of Cole and Evelyn Beaufort. At the time of his birth, his parents were only seventeen years old. His family was never considered civil or high-class, in fact, he was raised in one of the worst parts of New York City with one of the shadiest families one could find. The Beaufort name isn’t what it was now. Now when someone heard the name Beaufort they thought, wealth, class, success. Growing up, Robert’s last name didn’t grab anyone’s attention. Growing up with bums for parents, Robert knew he wanted more for himself then the life his parents gave him. He wanted to be wealthy, successful, though most of all, he wanted to be respected. Now many years later, Robert Beaufort still wasn’t exactly respected, he was feared. The man was well known within the business sector of New York City, he was the CEO of one of the largest investment companies in the world. Though his work ethic wasn’t what got him his fame and wealth. When he was in University for business, he met a woman by the name of Sophie Grant. She was a beautiful, smart, and incredibly personable woman, who came from different worlds. At first, Robert didn’t think she’d give him two minutes of her time. Though when they were both paired up for a group project, the two were able to get to know one another.

Meeting Sophie is what allowed Robert to turn his life around, she’d introduced him to a work he’d wished he’d had ever since he was a kid. She showed him the height of luxury and he knew that he couldn’t screw this up, and he didn’t. He made a good impression on everyone he met in Sophie’s life, especially her father. The man who offered him a job at his company after only a few months of knowing him. The day after he graduated from his undergraduate degree, he started his job at Sunlight Investments. Despite starting at the bottom, that company started his long-lasting career. His life changed in many ways as he continued to succeed and improve. He was soon becoming wealthier than his parents combined income, he and Sophie’s relationship continued to grow, he made a best friend through the company named Daniel Rathburn, Robert had become one of the happiest men alive. Over twenty years, married Sophie and had two beautiful children, he made his way up the company, became the wealthy man he’d always wanted to be. He was able to provide the life he’d always wanted to his kids. Summers in the Hamptons, tennis lessons, credit cards without limits, whatever they wanted, the sky was the limit. What he hadn’t expected was the strains his work would put on him, and his relationship. After the birth of their second child, he was still incredibly happy, though he could feel something missing.

Around the same time, he’s been assigned a new assistant Madeline Cartwell. She was young, full of life, and incredibly promiscuous. He was infatuated by her, he began seeing her in secret out of the office. Despite knowing it was wrong to have an affair, especially when married to the woman who gave him this life. Madeline was new and fresh, she was fun and exciting. She allowed him to feel young and exciting again. One day she left the company without a word, he didn’t think anything of it until months later, she returned to him at his favourite coffee shop with a large baby bump. Despite his initial mistake, he wasn’t ready to accept the consequences, though she was demanding money. Robert shrugged the woman off. He thought he’d gotten rid of her since it had been months since they’d been together. She could have been sleeping with many men. Though a few months later, when she returned with a baby in her arms, and paternity test results. She not only demanded a larger sum, though she threatened to reveal this child to his family. Robert knew he couldn’t have that happen. His family would have fallen apart and the life he felt he worked so hard to achieve would be gone in the blink of an eye.

■ WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON? ■

He knew he needed to provide her with the money she demanded. Though in order to do that without creating suspicion from his wife. He needed to do something worse than cheating. He needed to steal money from the company in order to fund this mistake. He’d succeeded at properly funnelling money into offshore accounts which eventually made into Madeline’s account. He felt he’d handled the Madeline situation and truly felt he wouldn’t ever hear the name again. Although after a few years, his best friend and partner Daniel Hathburn was able to learn why over the last five years had the company’s book not been completely regular. Robert tried his best to encourage Daniel that, it all balances out. Robert felt he’d convinced Daniel that everything was alright until one night his best friend confronted him about the money. Proof of the hundreds of thousands of dollars he’d stolen for the benefit of another woman he’d kept a secret. Robert knew that Daniel was a good man, a better man than he’d ever been. He couldn’t risk Daniel keeping this secret, instead of coming clean, he chose to commit yet another crime.

■ KEEP THIS AWAY FROM YOUR ENEMIES ■

After Daniel found out about his secret family, Robert and his best friend had a huge falling out. Weeks after the initial argument, Robert came up with a plan that would conclude Daniel as a threat to his current livelihood. Robert paid off an IT employee to forge the financial records to make it look like Daniel had stolen money from the company. When all the forgeries were completed, he brought up the fake issue to his father-in-law and had Daniel Hathburn arrested. Daniel was a strong-willed man and while Robert assumed that sending him to prison was warning enough to keep quiet. That wasn’t the case. In a moment of weakness, Robert set up a meeting with a Royals of Purgatory member and offered him an incredibly large sum of money, for one of their incarcerated members to kill Daniel Hathburn and make it look like a suicide. Between the talking to his father-in-law, court dates, lawyers his plan held out for months, though within a year. Robert’s life was back to normal. The funds continued to make their way to Madeline’s account and he lived his life in peace. Little did he know the daughter Daniel Hathburn left behind, was looking for revenge and his head was her number one target.

■ RELATIONSHIPS. ■

■ Oliver Cartwell: Oliver was the son he funded though he didn’t care to know. He wasn’t a priority or even a thought in his mind. His life was a nuisance especially with what he claimed to be a bitch of a mother who caused him to go lengths he never would have before he was born.  

■ Joshua Krongold: He remembers Joshua when he made a deal with his gang to take care of Daniel Hathburn, he has since never needed to inquire about their services. 

■ Olivia Talbot: Olivia was someone he’d easily recognize in the world of business. She and he have often posted together for the top one hundred business people in New York for various magazines over the years. 

■ CONNECTIONS. ■

■  Laina Dixon > Current favourite porn star 

■  Emilie Nolan > Daniel Rathburn's Daughter 

■  Janelle Beaufort > Daughter

■  Oscar Beaufort > Son 

Robert Beaufort is an OPEN character and is portrayed by Hugh Laurie who’s FC IS SEMI-NEGOTIABLE.

[chiasepremiumdotcom]

Review tốc độ cập nhật khóa học mới trên tài khoản LinkedIn Learning

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(Tuy nhiên, LinkedIn Learning có khá ít khóa học miễn phí. Kể từ khi nền tảng này đã hoàn thiện giai đoạn chuyển đổi từ thương hiệu Lynđa thành LinkedIn Learning thì chúng ta có thể thấy có rất ít ưu đãi (free) ở nền tảng này.  Mình nhớ lần miễn phí rộng rãi trước đó, có lẽ, truy cập free 30 khóa học trong vòng 3-6 tháng, kể từ cuối 2020).

Quay trở lại câu chuyện TỐC ĐỘ CẬP NHẬT KHÓA HỌC.

LinkedIn Learning cập nhật khóc học theo tuần, trung bình 10-15 khóa học mới được bổ sung vào nền tảng này mỗi tuần. Các khóa học đào tạo về nhiều kỹ năng khác nhau.

✅LinkedIn cho biết:

Mỗi tuần chúng tôi đều mang đến cơ hội học các kỹ năng mới để giúp người học định hướng phát triển trong cuộc sống và sự nghiệp.

Tại LinkedIn Learning, chúng tôi muốn cung cấp các khóa học trực tuyến mà bạn cần để học những kỹ năng đó. Mỗi tuần, chúng tôi đều bổ sung thêm khóa học mới vào thư viện hiện đã có hơn 17.000 khóa học. Tuần trước, chúng tôi đã thêm 33 khóa học. Và tuần này chúng tôi tiếp tục mang đến các khóa học mới để phục vụ nhu cầu học tập của bạn.

Cho dù bạn đang học cách vượt qua FOMO tại nơi làm việc hay trau dồi kỹ năng sử dụng Python của mình, LinkedIn Learning sẽ giúp bạn với các khóa học về các chủ đề đó và hơn thế nữa. Dưới đây là danh sách các khóa học mới nhất vừa có trên LinkedIn Learning:

- [ ] Career Development - Connecting Your Work to Your Purpose with Alexandra Cole, Madecraft - Navigating Your Career Through Restructuring, Layoffs, and Furloughs with Chris Taylor - [ ] General Business Software - Sway Essential Training with Gini von Courter - [ ] General Skills - Creating Behavioral Change that Lasts with Madecraft, Ramona Shaw - Influence versus Manipulation: The Ethics of Persuasion with Don Gilman, Madecraft - Navigating Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) at Work with Patrick McGinnis - Stop Overthinking and Manage Your Inner Critic with Pete Mockaitis | How to Be Awesome at Your Job - Understanding Augmented and Virtual Reality: An Introduction with Catherine Henry, Madecraft - [ ] Leadership and Management - Making More Impact as a Middle Manager with Pete Mockaitis | How to Be Awesome at Your Job - [ ] Sales - Sales Management Foundations with Drew Boyd - [ ] Specialized Business Software - Microsoft Access Essential Training (Office 2021/LTSC) with Adam Wilbert - [ ] Art and Design - InDesign: Layout and Composition with Nigel French - [ ] Product Design and Manufacturing - Additive Manufacturing: Metal 3D Printing with Rich Cameron - [ ] User Experience - Adobe Animate Essential Training with Joseph Labrecque - Remote User Testing with UserTesting.com with Lija Hogan - UX Research: International Projects with Cory Lebson - [ ] Back-End Web Development - ASP.NET Core: Building a GraphQL API with Ervis Trupja - [ ] Cloud Computing - AWS: Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation with Brandon Rich - Google Cloud Platform Cloud Engineer - Associate: 1 Setting Up a Cloud Solutions Environment with ITProTV - Google Cloud Platform Cloud Engineer - Associate: 2 Planning and Configuring a Cloud Solution with ITProTV - Google Cloud Platform Cloud Engineer - Associate: 3 Deploying and Implementing a Cloud Solution with ITProTV - Migrating to AWS with Vicky Seno - [ ] Data Science - CompTIA Data+ (DA0-001) Cert Prep: The Basics with Mike Chapple - CompTIA Data+ (DA0-001) Cert Prep: Visualization with Mike Chapple - [ ] Networking and System Administration - Microsoft 365 Messaging: Planning, Implementation, and Security with Robert McMillen - [ ] Programming Languages - Applied Concurrency in Go with Adelina Simion - C# Essential Training 1: Types and Control Flow with Matt Milner - Java with JSON with Jon-Luke West - Learning Python with PyCharm with Mehdi Oulmakki - Programming for Non-Programmers: iOS 15 and Swift 5 with Todd Perkins - Tech Trends with David Gassner - [ ] Security - Implementing and Administering Microsoft Sentinel with Pete Zerger - Wireshark: Functionality with Lisa Bock (Source: LinkedIn)

✅Mình có chia sẻ trải nghiệm & hướng dẫn sử dụng, so sánh LinkedIn Learning với Udemy ở bài viết dưới đây: https://chiasepremium.com/tai-khoan-lynda-linkedin-learning/

✅Tài liệu hướng dẫn sử dụng LinkedIn Learning: https://www.scribd.com/document/522234900/Lil-Guide-How-to-Use-Linkedin-Learning

#chiasepremium,

[impeach-trump2018]

Cole Launius

English 212

Professor Kim Lacey

30 June 2018

Analytical Reflection

            This class was a great surprise for me. I had no idea that the course would be based off of this great book. As I engaged in the reading and further went through the subjects inside with my review of “The Truman Show,” my ability to identify with the surveillance around me grew as I gained more insight and information. The issue at hand is not only a matter of unethical decision making above the governed heads, but also the idea that surveillance and the lack of privacy can create a negative impact on the human condition. Surveillance culture is exemplified in today’s society primarily through films, music, and art, and informative pieces all in which I intend to dive into as I examine and reflect on a world surrounded by the camera lens.

          I think that ethically speaking we can all agree that it is wrong to invade someone else’s personal space. According to information from The University of Tennessee at Martin, surveillance involves paying close attention to someone else, and to me that is another reason it is made unethical because everyone deserves their own space and privacy and by watching closely, that perimeter is destroyed. It is annoying to find yourself being watched by the overhead camera in the local Walmart or VG’s, but when someone gets close to you it rekindles a different kind of emotion. One that makes you question the persons upbringing and their morals to go along with it. “Stop reading my texts,” your friend yells as you lean back into your seat in the car. Why do you feel the need to read what I am saying? Why are you so interested in my conversations? Did your parents teach you any manners? It becomes more of an issue of ethics than it does about us solely being watched and recorded for other purposes. Trust and privacy go hand and hand, and when someone’s privacy is compromised by the public environment, they tend to lose trust and have more opposition. In an example from a clip from “The Dark Knight,” Batman attempts to link all cell phones in the city together to create a virtual map to find his objective.

          Surveillance changes the way people act around each other and in public especially. For a moment I had reacted with such hostility when I first had discovered that I was constantly being watched and others reassured me that I no longer had any privacy. I would stand taller, push out my chest and walk like I had just done a great workout at the gym. I am a very big fan of Hip-Hop and moreover I have noted that most of the artists that I listen to have a gig for fashion. They are always wearing something extravagant in the spotlight. Said perfectly by 2 Chainz in one of his songs, “Feds Watching,” he states that he will be dressed accordingly if they are watching him. This is most definitely interesting because he chooses to boast about changing his view under surveillance because I am sure he wears sweatpants lounging around the house. Another unfortunate way that people change and act differently when being watched is in a show called “Hansen Vs Predator.” In this show Chris Hansen creates a fake meet up with creeps on the internet and then interviews them right on the spot to find out why they choose to do what they do and try to trap young children. When watching the predator as Chris enters the room, his facial expression changes so quickly, you know he knows something went wrong, and that now he is being watched very closely.

          A few pictures I happen to come across on the global web reminded me that those cameras we see in our peripheral are not about just keeping us out of danger and harm’s way, but it is about the politicians, according to Mike Harris from The Telegraph. And I also agree, that anything related to the law never is about the people first, but the ones who put it into effect. The first image scripted, “We need rules that limit our leaders’ power more than we need rules that limit our rights.” I really felt as if I related to this quote or even wrote it because it seems like a thought that would come screaming out of my head in the middle of the night. How doesn’t everyone in the world agree with what this says? It makes more than complete sense, think about it. If we live in a democracy, then we have the ultimate say, yet we don’t, and we are still under claims as a democracy. If the people truly had the power, not power restricted by congressmen, we could change the way things are imposed on us all and put the spotlight on the ones who get to make the big decisions. Another photo that I saw was more of a political cartoon if anything, but it still recreated the idea of militant opposition towards the government. The cartoon was an army ranger pointing a gun to an unarmed victim, with the victim saying not to shoot, but also the ranger looking back at a tv recorder saying, “don’t shoot!”  The irony of this situation is also a great factor and a reason why I chose to include it. You are pointing a gun at someone, yet yelling at a camera not to record? Sounds like something fishy is going on.

          In life today people and companies, and the government use surveillance in other ways as well. One common way surveillance is utilized in today’s economy is that there is a lot of online traffic so app developers share information gained from watching users and allow them to shape apps and clothing and shopping related goods to a specific audience and you could be targeted depending on what you post. You may post different things to avoid this then becoming someone you’re not. This is called social sorting when companies take advantage of your information that you post to social media sites. There are also other ways that surveillance can cause change within someone. For example, if your co-worker is staring at you everyday after work, you might get a new car, or park in a different spot to get away from the state of being watched in your own space.

          Cell phones, iPads, MacBooks and cameras have taken over the life of the youth. Then there are memes which have taken over the internet. What is ironic is that as the amount of surveillance in the world increases, the more we joke about being watched and create memes about it on our social media sites. But the fact that we are creating jokes and messing around with being watched and surveilled by the government and others is kind of scary. Why are we joking about having zero sense of privacy around us and for others? That is unnatural and strange, and it is upsetting to think that everyone else in society has come to accept being watched all of the time. Surveillance has had its way weaving into everyones lives so easily because it was not a choice but an unfortunate and irreversible consequence.

 Works Cited

 Always, Clean Music, director. 2 Chainz - Feds Watching. YouTube, YouTube, 7 July

          2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pkd2lUxwQE.

Borg, Anna. “EurWORK European Observatory of Working Life.” Finland: Wage

          Formation | Eurofound, 31 July 2014, www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/

          eurwork/articles/working-conditions/impact-of-electronic-surveillance-in-the-

          workplace.

Daily, Crime Watch, director. Hansen Vs Predator. YouTube, YouTube, 15 Sept. 2016,

          www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOBgE10sEQE.

DeGeurin, Mack. “Mass Surveillance Memes Show Our Collective Anxiety Over

          Government Spying.” Motherboard, Motherboard, 2 Apr. 2018,

          motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/zmg3ky/surveillance-memes-nsa-fbi-

          facebook.

Ellis, Daniel, director. Bragging Gone Wrong. YouTube, YouTube, 21 Apr. 2015,

          www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ9kKgZ0-pM.

Gleisner, David. “This Is My Jam: Government Surveillance Memes.” Are There Really

          3,700 Abortions Each Day in the U.S.?, North by Northwestern, 29 Jan. 2018,

          www.northbynorthwestern.com/story/this-is-my-jam-government-surveillance-

          memes/.

Harris, Mike. “The Politics of Surveillance Are about Politics, Not Keeping Us Safe.”

          The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 4 Nov. 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/

          uknews/crime/11975759/The-politics-of-surveillance-are-about-politics-not-

          keeping-us-safe.html.

Legend, Dark, director. The Dark Knight. YouTube, YouTube, 10 Dec. 2015,

          www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRELLH86Edo.

Macnish, Kevin. “Surveillance Ethics.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2008,

          www.iep.utm.edu/surv-eth/.

Moran, Sean. “Surveillance Ethics.” Philosophy Now: a Magazine of Ideas, Philosophy

          Now, 2015, philosophynow.org/issues/110/Surveillance_Ethics.

Munn, Nathan. “How Mass Surveillance Harms Societies and Individuals - and What

          You Can Do About It.” CJFE | Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, 8 Nov.

          2016, www.cjfe.org            how_mass_surveillance_harms_societies_and_individuals_and_what_you_can_d

o_about_it.

OB, Andres, director. Robert Downey Jr. Blooper. YouTube, YouTube, 18 July 2015,

          www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCC5SfQHOfo.

Shaw, Jonathan. “The Watchers.” Harvard Magazine, Harvard Magazine, 18 Dec. 2016,

          harvardmagazine.com/2017/01/the-watchers.

Wang, Victoria, et al. “Surveillance and Identity: Conceptual Framework and Formal

          Models | Journal of Cybersecurity | Oxford Academic.” OUP Academic, Oxford

          University Press, 15 Dec. 2017, academic.oup.com/cybersecurity/article/

          3/3/145/4748787.

[worldfoodbooks]

NEW IN THE BOOKSHOP: DISTRIBUTED edited by DAVID BLAMEY and BRAD HAYLOCK (2018) • Texts by Ahmed Ansari, Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey, David Blamey, Justin Clemens, Alex Coles, Neil Arthur & Jonathan Lindley, David Cross, Neil Cummings, Arnaud Desjardin, Sean Dockray & Benjamin Forster, Iliana Fokianaki, Susan Hawthorne, Brad Haylock, Robert Hetherington, Ross jardine, Gareth Long, Markus Miessen & Jens-Maier Rothe, Billie Muraben, Rathna Ramanathan, Patricia Reed, Adrian Shaughnessy & Freek Lomme, Martine Syms & Pip Wallis, Jake Tilson, Eva Weinmayr • The power of knowledge lies not only in generating ideas, but also in controlling their dispersion. For those who would seek to influence others, the dissemination of ideas is paramount. For those looking to protect the fruits of intellectual labor for reasons of profit or ethics, distribution is something to control. Either way, distribution is a key concern across the spectrum of cultural production, particularly at a time when digital networks have facilitated an unprecedented access to audiences. • Bringing together contributors from a variety of backgrounds, Distributed presents the act of distribution as a subject of significant social and economic importance and argues that it merits serious creative consideration. From the attention-seeking impulse of the “influencer” to the democratization of art via books, performances, videos or sound, the increased urge to disseminate is explored here as an elemental phenomenon of our time. • Available via our website. • #worldfoodbooks #openeditions #bradhaylock #davidblamey #distributed (at WORLD FOOD BOOKS)

[axekerose54]

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This supplement uses the actual litigation documents from Anderson v. Cryovac, the toxic torts case portrayed in Jonathan Harr's best seller A Civil Action to explore issues in civil procedure. It can be used in conjunction with Harr's book and any civil procedure casebook to teach the first-year civil procedure course. It can also serve as the sole text for an advanced litigation class. The authors have arranged the documents from the case topically to illustrate every phase of the litigation process from notice to appeal. Their extensive notes and comments contain informative analysis of the legal, tactical, and ethical issues.

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Let's be real: 2020 has been a nightmare. Between the political unrest and novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it's difficult to look back on the year and find something, anything, that was a potential bright spot in an otherwise turbulent trip around the sun. Luckily, there were a few bright spots: namely, some of the excellent works of military history and analysis, fiction and non-fiction, novels and graphic novels that we've absorbed over the last year. 

Here's a brief list of some of the best books we read here at Task & Purpose in the last year. Have a recommendation of your own? Send an email to jared@taskandpurpose.Com and we'll include it in a future story.

Missionaries by Phil Klay

I loved Phil Klay’s first book, Redeployment (which won the National Book Award), so Missionaries was high on my list of must-reads when it came out in October. It took Klay six years to research and write the book, which follows four characters in Colombia who come together in the shadow of our post-9/11 wars. As Klay’s prophetic novel shows, the machinery of technology, drones, and targeted killings that was built on the Middle East battlefield will continue to grow in far-flung lands that rarely garner headlines. [Buy]

 - Paul Szoldra, editor-in-chief

Battle Born: Lapis Lazuli by Max Uriarte

Written by 'Terminal Lance' creator Maximilian Uriarte, this full-length graphic novel follows a Marine infantry squad on a bloody odyssey through the mountain reaches of northern Afghanistan. The full-color comic is basically 'Conan the Barbarian' in MARPAT. [Buy]

 - James Clark, senior reporter

The Liberator by Alex Kershaw

Now a gritty and grim animated World War II miniseries from Netflix, The Liberator follows the 157th Infantry Battalion of the 45th Division from the beaches of Sicily to the mountains of Italy and the Battle of Anzio, then on to France and later still to Bavaria for some of the bloodiest urban battles of the conflict before culminating in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. It's a harrowing tale, but one worth reading before enjoying the acclaimed Netflix series. [Buy]

 - Jared Keller, deputy editor

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett Graff

If you haven’t gotten this must-read account of the September 11th attacks, you need to put The Only Plane In the Sky at the top of your Christmas list. Graff expertly explains the timeline of that day through the re-telling of those who lived it, including the loved ones of those who were lost, the persistently brave first responders who were on the ground in New York, and the service members working in the Pentagon. My only suggestion is to not read it in public — if you’re anything like me, you’ll be consistently left in tears. [Buy]

- Haley Britzky, Army reporter

The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World by Elaine Scarry

Why do we even fight wars? Wouldn’t a massive tennis tournament be a nicer way for nations to settle their differences? This is one of the many questions Harvard professor Elaine Scarry attempts to answer, along with why nuclear war is akin to torture, why the language surrounding war is sterilized in public discourse, and why both war and torture unmake human worlds by destroying access to language. It’s a big lift of a read, but even if you just read chapter two (like I did), you’ll come away thinking about war in new and refreshing ways. [Buy]

 - David Roza, Air Force reporter

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 by Antony Beevor

Stalingrad takes readers all the way from the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union to the collapse of the 6th Army at Stalingrad in February 1943. It gives you the perspective of German and Soviet soldiers during the most apocalyptic battle of the 20th century. [Buy]

- Jeff Schogol, Pentagon correspondent 

America's War for the Greater Middle East by Andrew J. Bacevich

I picked up America's War for the Greater Middle East earlier this year and couldn’t put it down. Published in 2016 by Andrew Bacevich, a historian and retired Army officer who served in Vietnam, the book unravels the long and winding history of how America got so entangled in the Middle East and shows that we’ve been fighting one long war since the 1980s — with errors in judgment from political leaders on both sides of the aisle to blame. “From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift?” the book jacket asks. As Bacevich details in this definitive history, the mission creep of our Vietnam experience has been played out again and again over the past 30 years, with disastrous results. [Buy]

 - Paul Szoldra, editor-in-chief

Burn In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution by P.W. Singer and August Cole

In Burn In, Singer and Cole take readers on a journey at an unknown date in the future, in which an FBI agent searches for a high-tech terrorist in Washington, D.C. Set after what the authors called the "real robotic revolution," Agent Lara Keegan is teamed up with a robot that is less Terminator and far more of a useful, and highly intelligent, law enforcement tool. Perhaps the most interesting part: Just about everything that happens in the story can be traced back to technologies that are being researched today. You can read Task & Purpose's interview with the authors here. [Buy]

 - James Clark, senior reporter

SAS: Rogue Heroes by Ben MacIntyre

Like WWII? Like a band of eccentric daredevils wreaking havoc on fascists? Then you'll love SAS: Rogue Heroes, which re-tells some truly insane heists performed by one of the first modern special forces units. Best of all, Ben MacIntyre grounds his history in a compassionate, balanced tone that displays both the best and worst of the SAS men, who are, like anyone else, only human after all. [Buy]

 - David Roza, Air Force reporter

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

The Alice Network is a gripping novel which follows two courageous women through different time periods — one living in the aftermath of World War II, determined to find out what has happened to someone she loves, and the other working in a secret network of spies behind enemy lines during World War I. This gripping historical fiction is based on the true story of a network that infiltrated German lines in France during The Great War and weaves a tale so packed full of drama, suspense, and tragedy that you won’t be able to put it down. [Buy]

Katherine Rondina, Anchor Books

“Because I published a new book this year, I've been answering questions about my inspirations. This means I've been thinking about and so thankful for The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender. I can't credit it with making me want to be a writer — that desire was already there — but it inspired me to write stories where the fantastical complicates the ordinary, and the impossible becomes possible. A girl in a nice dress with no one to appreciate it. An unremarkable boy with a remarkable knack for finding things. The stories in this book taught me that the everydayness of my world could become magical and strange, and in that strangeness I could find a new kind of truth.”

Diane Cook is the author of the novel The New Wilderness, which was long-listed for the 2020 Booker Prize, and the story collection Man V. Nature, which was a finalist for the Guardian First Book Award, the Believer Book Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the Los Angeles Times Award for First Fiction. Read an excerpt from The New Wilderness.

Bill Johnston, University of California Press

“I’ve revisited a lot of old favorites in this grim year of fear and isolation, and have been most thankful of all for The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara. Witty, reflexive, intimate, queer, disarmingly occasional and monumentally serious all at once, they’ve been a constant balm and inspiration. ‘The only thing to do is simply continue,’ he wrote, in 'Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and Jean-Paul'; ‘is that simple/yes, it is simple because it is the only thing to do/can you do it/yes, you can because it is the only thing to do.’”

Helen Macdonald is a nature essayist with a semiregular column in the New York Times Magazine. Her latest novel, Vesper Flights, is a collection of her best-loved essays, and her debut book, H Is for Hawk, won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction and the Costa Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction.

Andrea Scher, Scholastic Press

“This year, I’m so grateful for You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson. Reading — like everything else — has been a struggle for me in 2020. It’s been tough to let go of all of my anxieties about the state of the world and our country and get swept away by a story. But You Should See Me in a Crown pulled me in right away; for the blissful time that I was reading it, it made me think about a world outside of 2020 and it made me smile from ear to ear. Joy has been hard to come by this year, and I’m so thankful for this book for the joy it brought me.”

Jasmine Guillory is the New York Times bestselling author of five romance novels, including this year’s Party of Two. Her work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Real Simple, and Time.

Nelson Fitch, Random House

“Last year, stuck in a prolonged reading rut that left me wondering if I even liked books anymore, I stumbled across Tenth of December by George Saunders, a collection of stories Saunders wrote between 1995 and 2012 that are at turns funny, moving, startling, weird, profound, and often all of those things at the same time. As a writer, what I crave most from books is to find one so excellent it makes me feel like I'd be better off quitting — and so wonderful that it reminds me what it is to be purely a reader again, encountering new worlds and revelations every time I turn a page. Tenth of December is that, and I'm so grateful that it fell off a high shelf and into my life.”

Veronica Roth is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Divergent series and the Carve the Mark duology. Her latest novel, Chosen Ones, is her first novel for adults. Read an excerpt from Chosen Ones.

Ian Byers-Gamber, Blazevox Books

“Waking up today to the prospect of some hours spent reading away part of another day of this disastrous, delirious pandemic year, I’m most grateful for the book in my hands, one itself full of gratitude for a life spent reading: Gloria Frym’s How Proust Ruined My Life. Frym’s essays — on Marcel Proust, yes, and Walt Whitman, and Lucia Berlin, but also peppermint-stick candy and Allen Ginsburg’s knees, among other Proustian memory-prompts — restore me to my sense of my eerie luck at a life spent rushing to the next book, the next page, the next word.”

Jonathan Lethem is the author of a number of critically acclaimed novels, including The Fortress of Solitude and the National Book Critics Circle Award winner Motherless Brooklyn. His latest novel, The Arrest, is a postapocalyptic tale about two siblings, the man that came between them, and a nuclear-powered super car.

David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Riverhead

“I’m incredibly grateful for the magnificent The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer. This book — a mélange of history, memoir, and reportage — is the reconceptualization of Native life that’s been urgently needed since the last great indigenous history, Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It’s at once a counternarrative and a replacement for Brown’s book, and it rejects the standard tale of Native victimization, conquest, and defeat. Even though I teach Native American studies to college students, I found new insights and revelations in almost every chapter. Not only a great read, the book is a tremendous contribution to Native American — and American — intellectual and cultural history.”

David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, is author of the novel Winter Counts, which is BuzzFeed Book Club’s November pick. He is also the author of the children’s book Spotted Tail, which won the 2020 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. Read an excerpt from Winter Counts.

Valerie Mosley, Tordotcom

“In 2020, I've been lucky to finish a single book within 30 days, but I burned through this 507-page brick in the span of a weekend. Harrow the Ninth reminded me that even when absolutely everything is terrible, it's still possible to feel deep, gratifying, brain-buzzing admiration for brilliant art. Thank you, Harrow, for being one of the brightest spots in a dark year and for keeping the home fires burning.”

Casey McQuiston is the New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue, and her next book, One Last Stop, comes out in 2021.

"I'm grateful for V.S. Naipaul's troubling masterpiece, A Bend in the River — which not only made me see the world anew, but made me see what literature could do. It's a book that's lucid enough to reveal the brutality of the forces shaping our world and its politics; yet soulful enough to penetrate the most recondite secrets of human interiority. A book of great beauty without a moment of mercy. A marriage of opposites that continues to shape my own deeper sense of just how much a writer can actually accomplish."

Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright, and his latest novel, Homeland Elegies, is about an American son and his immigrant father searching for belonging in a post-9/11 country. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Vanessa German, Feminist Press

“I'm most thankful for Daddy Was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether. It's a YA book set in 1930s Harlem, and it was the first Black-girl-coming-of-age book I ever read, the first time I ever saw myself in a book. I appreciate how it expanded my world and my understanding that books can speak to you right where you are and take you on a journey, at the same time.”

Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. She is also the co-author of Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce, written in collaboration with her ex-husband. Philyaw’s writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, McSweeney’s, the Rumpus, and elsewhere. Read a story from The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.

Philippa Gedge, W. W. Norton & Company

“As both a writer and a reader I am hugely grateful for Patricia Highsmith’s plotting and writing suspense fiction. As a writer I’m thankful for Highsmith’s generosity with her wisdom and experience: She talks us through how to tease out the narrative strands and develop character, how to know when things are going awry, even how to decide to give things up as a bad job. She’s unabashed about sharing her own ‘failures,’ and in my experience, there’s nothing more encouraging for a writer than learning that our literary gods are mortal! As a reader, it provides a fascinating insight into the genesis of one of my favorite novels of all time — The Talented Mr. Ripley, as well as the rest of her brilliant oeuvre. And because it’s Highsmith, it’s so much more than just a how-to guide: It’s hugely engaging and, while accessible, also provides a glimpse into the mind of a genius. I’ve read it twice — while working on each of my thrillers, The Hunting Party and The Guest List — and I know I’ll be returning to the well-thumbed copy on my shelf again soon!”

Lucy Foley is the New York Times bestselling author of the thrillers The Guest List and The Hunting Party. She has also written two historical fiction novels and previously worked in the publishing industry as a fiction editor.

“The books I'm most thankful for this year are a three-book series titled Tales from the Gas Station by Jack Townsend. Walking a fine line between comedy and horror (which is much harder than people think), the books follow Jack, an employee at a gas station in a nameless town where all manner of horrifyingly fantastical things happen. And while the monsters are scary and more than a little ridiculous, it's Jack's bone-dry narration, along with his best friend/emotional support human, Jerry, that elevates the books into something that are as lovely as they are absurd.”

T.J. Klune is a Lambda Literary Award–winning author and an ex-claims examiner for an insurance company. His novels include The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Extraordinaries.

Sylvernus Darku (Team Black Image Studio), Ayebia Clarke Publishing

"Nervous Conditions is a book that I have read several times over the years, including this year. The novel covers the themes of gender and race and has at its heart Tambu, a young girl in 1960s Rhodesia determined to get an education and to create a better life for herself. Dangarembga’s prose is evocative and witty, and the story is thought-provoking. I’ve been inspired anew by Tambu each time I’ve read this book."

Peace Adzo Medie is Senior Lecturer in Gender and International Politics at the University of Bristol. She is the author of Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence against Women in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2020). His Only Wife is her debut novel.

Jenna Maurice, HarperCollins

“The book I'm most thankful for? Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. My mother and father would read me poems from it before bed — I'm convinced it infused me not only with a sense of poetic cadence, but also a wry sense of humor.”

Victoria “V.E.” Schwab is the bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including Vicious, the Shades of Magic series, and This Savage Song. Her latest novel, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, is BuzzFeed Book Club’s December pick. Read an excerpt from The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

Meg Vázquez, Square Fish

“My childhood best friend gave me Troubling a Star by Madeleine L'Engle for Hanukkah when I was 11 years old, and it's still my favorite book of all time. I love the way it defies genre (it's a political thriller/YA romance that includes a lot of scientific research and also poetry??), and the way it values smartness, gutsiness, vulnerability, kindness, and a sense of adventure. The book follows 16-year-old Vicky Austin's life-altering trip to Antarctica; her trip changed my life, too. In a year when safe travel is almost impossible, I'm so grateful to be able to return to her story again and again.”

Kate Stayman-London's debut novel, One to Watch, is about a plus-size blogger who’s been asked to star on a Bachelorette-like reality show. Stayman-London served as lead digital writer for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and has written for notable figures, from former president Obama and Malala Yousafzai to Anna Wintour and Cher.

Katharine McGee is grateful for the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. Chris Bailey Photography, Firebird

“I’m thankful for the Redwall books by Brian Jacques. I discovered the series in elementary school, and it sparked a love of big, epic stories that has never left me. (If you read my books, you know I can’t resist a broad cast of characters!) I used to read the books aloud to my younger sister, using funny voices for all the narrators. Now that I have a little boy of my own, I can’t wait to someday share Redwall with him.”

Katharine McGee is the New York Times bestselling author of American Royals and its sequel, Majesty. She is also the author of the Thousandth Floor trilogy.

Beth Gwinn, Time-Life Books

"I am thankful most for books that carry me out of the world and back again, and while I find it painful to choose among them, here's one early and one late: Zen Cho's Black Water Sister, which comes out in 2021 but I devoured just two days ago, and the long out-of-print Wizards and Witches volume of the Time-Life Enchanted World series, which is where I first read about the legend of the Scholomance."

Naomi Novik is the New York Times bestselling author of the Nebula Award–winning novel Uprooted, Spinning Silver, and the nine-volume Temeraire series. Her latest novel, A Deadly Education, is the first of the Scholomance trilogy.

Christina Lauren are grateful for the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Christina Lauren, Little, Brown and Company

"We are thankful for the Twilight series for about a million reasons, not the least of which it's what brought the two of us together. Writing fanfic in a space where we could be silly and messy together taught us that we don't have to be perfect, but there's no harm in trying to get better with every attempt. It also cemented for us that the best relationships are the ones in which you can be your real, authentic self, even when you're struggling to do things you never thought you'd be brave enough to attempt. Twilight brought millions of readers back into the fold and inspired hundreds of romance authors. We really do thank Stephenie Meyer every day for the gift of Twilight and the fandom it created."

[frustratedcastingdirector]

Photo credit:  Mark Ruffalo Central website

THE CITY OBSERVED PICKING FLOWERS WITH ACTOR MARK RUFFALO

Dave Gardetta - Los Angeles Magazine

HERE ARE THE SOCIAL ORDERS--AT LEAST IN HIS FILMS--THAT MARK Ruffalo has shunned: friendship, marriage, family, community, the army, Unitarians. "You've lost hold of any kind of anchor," Laura Linney's character tells him in his best film, 2000's You Can Count on Me. "Any kind of truth in anything." She could be speaking to many of Ruffalo's roles--not just the wounded Uncle Terry, busy drifting from Florida jail time to Alaskan cannery jobs. There's the army convict Yates in 2001's The Last Castle, a prison bookie toting an arrest record that reads "highly effective officer with no moral grounding." Or the commercial director Coles in the current XX/XY, a failed artist failing in his relationship, who spends his downtime rummaging through the attic of his psyche for an emotional epiphany that never shows. In all these roles, Ruffalo portrays men who do not break down well, who often find it impossible to do a good turn without following with a bad one, who can hold a grudge against an eight-year-old. He is happiest playing scarily gifted smarty-guys, skeptics who have seen life for what it is, a ruse and a rigged game, and cut their losses early Yet Ruffalo's characters are still somehow the most likeable of Hollywood's fuckups.

Oh, and he loves flowers, too.

"My god! What are those? They are beautiful!" Mark Ruffalo is shopping for lavender for his new Los Feliz home.

"Oh, those?" says Shelly Jennings, the owner of the Worldwide Exotics nursery in Lakeview Terrace. "Those are watsonias."

"Are they fragrant like lavender?"

"No--but they attract hummingbirds."

"Can I pull one?"

"Darling," Jennings smiles with a Southern twang, "you can pull whatever you want."

Ruffalo wears a maroon-and-gray-striped sweater, frayed and going ratty at the neck--think of Freddy Krueger's in Nightmare on Elm Street--blue jeans, and the cool sunglasses that some men wear when they want to evoke producer Robert Evans. Ruffalo does not evoke Evans--he evokes Al Pacino. He has the young Pacino's build, a boyish face that can go petulant in his films, a brow that puckers easily into worry; the puffy bps (lips?) of an adolescent, a mop of hair that any mother would march into Super-cuts, and a blunt Roman nose that's pulling the rest of his face kicking into adulthood.

"I'm not the kind of guy everyone says I am," Ruffalo tells us in You Can Count on Me. We never believe him. He may be a well of self-denial in his films, but he's also the kind of guy who has realized he's exactly the guy everyone says he is yet is incapable of admitting it. He often plays intelligent men, like Coles in XX/XY, who question everything but themselves and are, for all their troubles, beautiful losers. In this acting progression, he has revealed all of us--at least those of us who lay claim to the XY chromosome--men for the new millennium.

"I don't know how this culture dealt with manhood before," says Ruffalo, "but it did seem like there was a moment when you suddenly became a man." He stops dead in his tracks. "Hey, Shelly, are these hibiscus?"

Across the lot, Jennings pops out of the papyruses and the parrot feather ferns. "You mean those big purple bitchin' ones? Those are lavatera."

"Oh my god! I love these!" Ruffalo takes a step back. "Anyway. I don't know if it was when you beat your dad's ass or had sex with a woman, but there was a point in the past where American culture suddenly said, 'You're a man now.' That's gone. I can't be my grandfather today, a super-macho bar fighter, a fur trapper. The world has turned its back on that kind of a guy--we call them 'knuckleheads.'"

Ruffalo eyes a spotted calla lily "I wonder if these need a lot of nitrogen," he asks no one in particular.

We root for actors like Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington because they wear all-access passes to their interior lives on their chests. Ruffalo is endearing, however, because as hard as his characters strive, they're not on the guest list to their own emotional selves.

Ruffalo holds up a purple elephant ear plant. "What I like about these characters I've played so far is that they're honest modern men, full of foibles. There's something divinely comic about their struggles. All of them are like this continuing query into how to live your life as a man, as ethical and responsible, alive with a virile maleness, yet not so squished down by political correctness that you're just a dickhead."

He looks over the ear, spots a pretty purple salvia, and says, "I wonder if that would propagate itself."

In the early '90s, Ruffalo worked as a doorman at the now-defunct Olive restaurant. Daytimes he was staging one-acts in small theaters to get notice; nights he spent curtsying to baby-boy actors who were getting all the work. "It came to the point," he says, "where I quite unabashedly hated the people walking up to the door because they were so obnoxious and entitled." Then, in 1996, playwright Kenneth Lonergan noticed Ruffalo and asked him to open his play This Is Our Youth in New York. Lonergan's film You Can Count on Me came next, where Ruffalo began whetting the performances that would follow.

"People watch XX/XY," says Ruffalo, finally stumbling on the lavender, "and say to me, 'Why do you always play the same guy?' Maybe I am doing the same thing. In some ways, there is a fatherless theme in all these characters, guys suffering from not having any guidance of what it is to be a man. Wow, look at this lavender!"

"That's sweet lavender," says Jennings, appearing from behind the polygonum.

"Now," Ruffalo asks, "does it get too woody?"

"No. That's French--this is fragrant. You can make bread with it."

"Ahh," Ruffalo murmurs, breathing in and looking as content as a man can these days. "I love these."

[boobasprite]

ENDLESS LONELY PLANET6

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[pes2019patch]

In early lockdown I decided to send a letter to my future self. It read: "I feel calmer, yoga helps. I wish I had a dog." They say brevity is the soul of wit but I'm not sure that applies in this case. To be fair, the letter was written in Animal Crossing: New Horizons using the Nintendo Switch keyboard interface, so it's at least a testament to my stubborn button-pressing. Luckily there are far more interesting ways to chronicle the pandemic through New Horizons: the National Videogame Museum is launching The Animal Crossing Diaries project with this in mind.

Alex Roberts, a curator at the museum, explained that the research project aims to "expand the possibilities of what it means to collect experiences in games and document how to go about doing it in an ethical and sustainable way." The latest instalment in the Animal Crossing franchise is the perfect case study for this, as they put it: "the serendipity of Animal Crossing: New Horizons' release coinciding with the COVID-19 lockdown led to the game becoming an unexpected escape and a lifeline for many players." The game doesn't just provide you with a customizable pristine island paradise, it lets you visit your friends' as well. As Alex pointed out, "finding a place in which you are able to go outside and meet up with friends transformed the role Animal Crossing could play."

It seems like there are as many social media posts about ACNH as there are stars in the sky, but one shone particularly brightly for me. The "Good Night" exhibition was the first installation at the Woodsorrel Garden Gallery, with six pieces of art themed around night time. "The Garden Gallery came about when my partner decided to try Animal Crossing on my Switch, played long enough to set up a tent, and then didn't log in again," creator Sarah Cole explains on her website. "Second homes aren't my style, so I decided to upgrade it, move it back into the garden, and turn it into a creative outlet-an art gallery."

Read more

[madelinerhetoricandethics]

What Does it Mean to Be a Good Person?

What does it mean to be a good person? Are you willing to change from being a bad person to a good person? How does being a good or bad person inform who I am as a writer? Who will I be in the future? What is next for me? Over the course of this semester, I have explored the idea of what it means to be a good person.

This past semester a girl in one of my classes asked me for assistance on an assignment. I had my topic ingrained into my brain and I was absolutely thrilled to analyze Beyoncé as a twenty-first-century feminist. I pride myself on the fact that my work and writing pieces are my own thoughts and ideas, therefore making me a strong writer. I had met with my teacher to discuss my topic as well as go over key details of a TED talk Beyoncé used in one of her major songs. I could not wait to write. In class, this girl and I were assigned to be peer review partners and I sent her my finalized draft. She never sent me hers. Then when the papers were due we both handed ours in. She told me we ironically we had the same topic, even though I had mentioned mine to her earlier in the semester. I thought to myself “oh wow, that’s interesting,” but never really thought anything of it. Weeks go by. Then I am sent an email saying my paper was similar to another student in the class. She copied me. I felt completely taken advantage of. I went out of my way to help her and instead of thanking me she took my piece and copied it. I had never been in such a position I was at a loss. Why would she copy me? Why would she risk both of us getting in trouble? I immediately arranged a meeting with my teacher and explained the timeline of events to her. Plagiarizing a paper is one of the most common errors that occur on college campuses worldwide I just never would have thought it would happen to me. My professor recognized the error and thought it was very strange how examples we had to discuss ended up in the other girl's paper and apologized. Now, when I see the girl it is extremely awkward. She never apologized. She never owned up to her fault. I do not even know what happened to her in this situation. Did she get a zero? What kind of person does that make her? She put my name on the line and barely knows me. I replay this situation in my head most days. Was it my fault that I sent her my paper even though we were peer review partners? Should I have asked for the draft? What could I have done differently? Do you think she learned from this experience? Having had this happen to me I look to the Coles reading for some sort of explanation, but I just could not find one. How could someone I am aquatinted with actively choose to copy me? I had to let it go and move on. Now every time I have to read other peoples work or conduct peer review I give them feedback and I ask questions. I take my writing, my ideas, and thoughts very seriously because at the end of the day they are mind. My mom told me it happens in business all the time, but to me, this was not business; this was a school assignment, this was a grade and that it would define me. I ended up getting an A.

Robert Coles analyzed the idea if intellect is attributed to our character and whether or not being smart makes you a good person. Based on his experience with his student he found this claim to be false. His goal was to, “pursue the discussion, applaud her for taking on a large subject in a forthright, incisive manner, and tell her she was right in understanding that moral reasoning is not to be equated with moral conduct (Coles, 1995). Most people assume if you are a smart person, you will know how to conduct yourself in a social setting, therefore making you a good person, but that is not necessarily true. Coles’ student brought up a good point she asked him, “what’s the point of knowing good if you don’t keep trying to become a good person” (Coles, 1995). She made a fair point here, but she can not speak for others experience. The male student she encountered was extremely smart but was unable to channel his wit into his character. He was able to study and get straight A’s, but never knew the proper way to interact with women and his peers. It is upsetting to see the lack of character in a person, but this student is who he is based on his experience and genetics. He was not open to making a change he was fine with his life and was going to continue to be smart, but never live up to his full potential to be a good person. In 2017, HarperCollins withdrew the digital version of Monica Crowley’s book “What the (Bleep) Just Happened?” from all retailers due to the realization she had plagiarized from Wikipedia and other newspaper articles. The book discussed Barack Obama’s presidential term as well as his policies and was quite the success. She sold over 20,000 hardcover copies and was also re-written in multiple languages. Reporters have re-evaluated her other work and have found plagiarism in her own dissertation, in which she copied multiple examples of passages from other scholarly works. After our experience with the ELI students, I have realized that all people are different. This one student, Joy, I spoke to told me her Chinese teacher encouraged her to cheat on her version of the SATs. I was completely shocked. If an American student were caught cheating on the SATs, they would be given a zero, and you can potentially be banned from the College Board.

A writer is defined as a person who has written a particular text, a person who writes books, stories, or articles as a job or regular occupation or a person who writes in a specified way. During my four years at Syracuse University being a writing major has opened my eyes to the field. I believe that to be a writer you have a responsibility to the arts. Last year in one of my classes I wrote a controversial piece about my own personal experience. The story was about a time in my life that basically felt like I was at war with my family. I felt completely isolated and misunderstood by my parents to the point I would do anything to upset them. We were instructed to share our pieces in class. I am not a very outspoken person especially when it comes to sharing my own work. It took me many years to have the courage and to believe in my own writing pieces. Through my supportive professor, I was able to create this masterpiece, an explanation of my thoughts and feelings during this critical time period in my life. I remember that class period like no other. It was the day I had to read my piece. I had to show my true color to my peers and hear their feedback. I wanted to skip. I wanted to cry. I tried to think of any excuse I could, but it was too late. I took a deep breath and started reading my story. As it went on I glanced around the room. Everyone was invested. Eyes were wide and mouths were open. As I finished they were stunned. They wanted to know more and were surprised that such an experience had happened to me. Looking back on the reflective work I did that semester I found that I am a writer.

I told my truth and I learned to believe in my own work. I had made it my own art form my own way to express my feelings. I have found that when you are a writer you carry a type of ethical responsibility because you are the bearer of major information and in turn, keeping silent would hinder the shared knowledge. The New York Times claims that it “pays to be a writer,” but ironically writing was never considered a lucrative career choice. A recent survey claims that the median pay for full-time writers ranges from $20,000 and gradually increased from 2017-2019. A few years ago writing for a magazine or a newspaper used to be a solid source for additional income, but due to the decline of freelance journalism, there is less of an opportunity for authors to write for pay. Now that everything is digital writers are able to freelance on their own and all they need is a computer. This claim suggests that most people can write and become a writer if they choose to. Based on my personal experience I think a writer is more than just their computer or platform they have to have a passion for it.

Roy believes that “you have a platform, use it,” but find a way to make it your own and implement your own ideas. It is a writers job to write their feelings and thoughts even in a world that may disagree. This course and exploration have taught me that it is okay to have a differing opinion than others, but in order to be a good writer, I need to stand by my decisions. I have found through my experience that writing is a complicated art because it involves opinions and facts. I think being a good writer is all about taking risks and providing new and different perspectives. In addition, Roy also mentions the idea of “professionalizing the business protest,” as she describes the term “writer-activist.” She highlights the problem of being a writer-activist within the writing world professionally. Roy’s main point is that writers are ethically bound to be emotionally involved in certain issues because they are reporting about human beings. As a millennial, it is our job to offer our interpretation and being activists in our own community. In Roy’s reading, she also discusses how whether or not speaking out is a positive or negative thing.

As a child, you are taught to mind your own business and not get involved, but also told: “if you see something, say something.” In a way these two saying contradict each other. Witnessing an act of crime is still taking part in it. A person is just as involved in this situation as if they committed the actual crime; they become a key witness, a point-person in this scenario. It is assumed that keeping quiet will save you from trouble, but if anything it leads to further questioning of your character. I think not speaking up is the wrong course of action. If you see something, you need to say something. Our justice system is extremely cruel and daily innocent people end up in jail due to "not speaking out." Roy discusses how accountability is a significant factor in the way people present themselves and justify their actions. I wanted to further investigate this idea of speaking out vs. not saying anything and there have been multiple discussions on, which is ethical.

This course has taught me to not only reflect on myself but listen to the ideas of others. Based on the coursework, analyzing texts and hearing from my peers I have found that being “a good person,” means you are open. You are open to learning and transforming. You are a yes person, meaning you are willing to try new things and hear peoples ideas. Most people assume that being a good person stems from nature, but I have found it comes from nature and nurture. Who you are as a person is what defines your decision as well as your past. I know for myself who I am as a person is because of the many decisions I have made in the past whether they are good or bad they have all shaped me to who I am today. I have taken this class as a reflective experience as well because it has given me the opportunity to figure out the type of person I am and who I hope to be in the future. Throughout the readings of Coles and Roy, I wanted to explore the idea of being a good person, but also what defines a good writer. Being that I am a writing major, I do more than just write I have become an informant. I write for pleasure, I write for academic reason, I write for the yearbook, but I also write to tell a story and to tell my truth. As I sat down to write this piece and think about everything, I have done to make me a twenty-two-year-old washed up senior I have found that I would not want to change a thing about myself. Graduation is right around the corner, which is beyond frightening and my next question is what now? Who will I be? I am open to learning new ideas and shifting perspectives on certain issues, but at this point, I am who I am and I believe I am a good person.