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thetinypsychologist · 4 years ago

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HOW TO SURVIVE UNIVERSITY AS A FIRST-YEAR STUDENT

So! I am currently in my first-year at University but I’ve been studying for a couple of months now and feel as though I have enough information and experience to make this post!

MANAGE YOUR TIME

Whether it’s a timetable, to-do list, writing in your planner - you need some sort of method to manage your time and note what tasks you need to do and when. Set a specific time for each class and plan your own class schedule. Even better, study for your classes at the same time they should be held. This will create a sense of routine and make things so much easier. Find what works for you! Your perfect system won’t work great for your friends! There’s no shame in not being able to keep up with the schedule you’ve made. If you’ve tried or if it hurts you mentally or physically, then that schedule is just not the one for you. Finding a system that works for you takes time, patience, and courage. but it will be absolutely worth it. Find yourself a routine that works best for you! I know that my method doesn’t work well for my peers: I make a to-do list for the week and note down the tasks I want to do for each day and do a little bit everyday but I know some people would rather do everything in two days and have the rest of the week free! Below I’ve showed how I organise my week:

BE ACTIVELY ENGAGED

In your lectures and seminars, engage!!! Ask questions, answer questions, take part in the discussions!! It’ll help you retain the content much easier and you’ll enjoy learning so much more compared to just sitting there mindlessly listening. Take notes, even if you can record your lessons and/or access the lessons later. This will force you into focusing and minimise the chance of you getting distracted and zoning out. If you have any face-to-face lecture/seminars then it’s a good idea to sit in the first few rows, towards the front - again, this minimises the chance of you zoning out and increases the chance of you engaging.

ACCOMMODATE YOURSELF

Accommodate yourself, not just with comfort, but also with actual necessities that you cannot usually get in your usual classroom/library due to whatever reason. Whether it be stress balls, stim toys, motivational cards, calming music/candles. comfort items. chewing gum. As long as it helps you focus better, keep it with you. Other necessities may be water, a snack, sticky notes etc. Make sure to declutter your study space. put your phone out of reach & turn off notifications. If you have problems with this, I recommend using an app called Forest or putting your phone in another room.

FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

I know that I will start a lecture around 9/10am. But all mine is asynchronous (narrated powerpoint or videos) and so I will sit for literally two hours just listening to the lecture trying to take notes but very quickly losing focus. I’ve now realised that I can make notes from the powerpoint slides, and then use the narrations/videos for when I want more detail or don’t understand something. This saved me a lot of time, cutting down my time spent on one lecture from around 70 minutes, to 35. This gives me more time to start other content, work on my assignments, and give myself the breaks I need to work efficiently.

WORK TOWARDS YOUR CAREER

Since more and more people go to universities each year, the job market is becoming increasingly competitive for academics. It is important that you obtain skills outside of your studies – for example through societies or volunteer work. Just find something that’s fun and doesn’t feel like another burden. You might also want to become a student representative or part of a student parliament if your university has one. Your university’s career service provides you with tips and resources for a good start into your work life. Things are competitive - find something to make you stand out. Examples of things I’ve done (not just at university) include: Senior Prefect, write and directed my own play for younger students to perform, TEFL course, taught at an Arabic school, volunteered as a youth worker, Duke of Edinburgh Award, Course Representative etc.

MAKE FRIENDS

Being at university can be lonely. You might have moved to a different place, you’re faced with new challenges, and you might find that adult life is not at all like you imagined. Having someone to talk to is important. Good thing that it’s never easier to make friends than at university. You are surrounded by people your age (and it’s actually a lot easier to not see people you don’t like than it is in school.)

Fresher’s week is full of opportunities to meet new people! Check out the societies at the fresher’s fair. In the UK, there are usually societies for every niche interest you can think of. You might end up not actually going, but sometimes you still keep a friend. Another idea is to make a group chat with people in your classes - introduce yourself to the people sitting next to you. Ask them if they would like to go to lunch together, check out the library etc.

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

University is not all about working 24/7 and pushing yourself. Listen to your mind and body. It’s normal and okay to feel lost or overwhelmed. Please take care of your mental and physical well-being during this very, very weird time. Keep yourself active. Re-ignite old interests/ hobbies. Give yourself some love. A tip I always give to people is to have some sort of creative/kinaesthetic hobby - whether it’s writing, art, embroidery, making collages, journalling etc. Having some sort of fun creative outlet is just what I need when I don’t want to do work but still want to be a little productive. Make sure you’re eating enough, and make sure you’re getting at least 8 hours of sleep. Take care of your body.

MISC TIPS

Make cheatsheets to revise from

See if your university offers free/discounted versions of resources like MS Word etc

Talk to your tutors. Get to know them so they know who you are.

Don’t be afraid to ask you tutors for help - that is what they are there for. They LOVE students that are self-advocates for their own learning.

Give yourself breaks.

Learn your methods. Learn how to use whatever resources / software your university uses. Learn what study styles work best for you.

#studyblr #study #new studyblr #student #study blog #studyspo #whatsonmydesk #studyspiration #mine #mypost #thetinypsychologist #study techniques #study tips #study hacks #study tools #university studyblr #university studyspo #university

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antagonizedjordan · 4 years ago

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I don’t really know what to say here, but I feel I need to say something.

My family was among the first to lose power in Austin, Texas, during the so-called “rolling blackouts” that turned out to be a controlled, intentional shut-off for select citizens for an undetermined amount of time. A lie that resulted in massive suffering, a lack of preparedness, death of pets and plants, and yes, death to families across Texas, including children. Devastating property damage is still bursting through the state, apartments and homes flooding out, freezing, and catching fire. Whatever the media is telling you about what’s going on in Texas, it’s worse. And those pictures with the completely lit skylines and the blacked-out neighborhoods you’ve seen? They aren’t exaggerating. I could see the empty high rises from our home, stuck in total darkness, with hotels keeping on their landscaping lights, and empty office buildings lit all the way up. When I tell you the racial and class divide of who had power (electricity) and who didn’t was real, I mean it was REAL. East of I-35 was left to suffer.

After 2 days of our home’s interior at 30 degrees, and with no water or fireplace to help, we made the decision to evacuate. I.e., decided it was more worth it to risk the roads (which were some of the most hazardous driving conditions I’ve ever experienced, and I grew up on the East Coast), than freeze. Our neighborhood was without heat for more than 50 hours straight in single digit weather, in homes NOT designed for cold temperatures. Some people are STILL without power, and it is day 6 (this is now due to storm damage, not controlled outages).

And we had to make this decision with little to no information, due to both a horrific lack of communication from all city entities, and completely shit phone service (on a phone with 5% battery).

At one point, we lost control on a downhill over a bridge, and I seriously thought we were going to die. I just reached over and held my wife’s hand and told her I loved her over and over as she held our cats in the passenger seat. It may sound silly, melodramatic, or what have you, but it was a devastatingly calm moment of acceptance and I’m still shook. The drive to our safe home was harrowing – cars abandoned along the entire way, all in varying states. Some destroyed, some just left there, lodged in snow.

Ambulances were all over the place and I know I saw at least one dead body on that drive. Our homeless population was so, so vulnerable, and resources weren’t set up in time.

We were one of the lucky ones who had a family willing to take us in – an immunocompromised family who took in FOUR families, despite the risks of the pandemic. They housed us, shared their food, and kept their home warm despite the price gouging of electricity. For those who got into a hotel in time, they are also suffering from gross price gouging, if they could afford it in the first place.

Now, a week later, most of the city still doesn’t have water, and those who do have little to no pressure and are on a boil notice. Grocery stores are emptied out with delays on deliveries. Yes, FEMA is here, but it’s slower than you’d think, and the warming centers were set up after the driving conditions became insanely dangerous. It is still a disaster down here – a humanitarian crisis.

We arrived home yesterday, and I don’t know what witchcraft kept our home safe, but our pipes did not burst. Our neighbors cannot say the same, and the damage is unnerving. We came home to shelter, but we also came home to destroyed gardens, birds frozen in our driveway, and trauma.

Texas’s abandonment of her people has been traumatic, and people will be recovering from this physically, emotionally, and financially for years. Ted Cruz leaving for Cancun through it all? Hysterically hypocritical and gold for memes, but a final punch to the gut on how abandoned Texans really were.

If you know someone in Texas, send them your love. It’s been a dark, dark week.

I’m thankful for HEB, our local grocery store who let customers walk out the door without paying when they lost their power, and Beto, the man who SHOULD be in charge, organizing aid for senior citizens in need. I’m thankful for all the families who opened up their homes, and I’m thankful for the technicians who worked through horrific weather to restore power. I’m thankful for the ambulance who drove on iced over back roads to rescue my wife’s father from his rural home, bringing him into the hospital after 3 days bedridden with a temperature of 92 degrees. He’s alive and recovering from hypothermia.

To my art community who reached out and offered my family aid, you sent us a warmth you cannot fathom – your kindness has kept us afloat. I tried to draw something today for the first time, but stared at a blank canvas for an hour before I finally made this. Fanart, to make me smile, referenced from my own house, and the experience of coming home and taking a deep breath because, somehow, our home was still there.

Love to you all,

A xo

#Austin Texas #Zukka

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ahufflepuffhobbit · 4 years ago

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@alienfuckeronmain tagged me in a super long list of questions to get to know me, which I’m THRILLED about! Since I don’t think many people will want to read through 49 things about me, I’m going to tag @jessiohhh, @armiteggio, and @watsonmoony up here, to do if you want! (Yes I’m tagging you all again, but still, no pressure!)

1. Do you prefer writing with a black pen or blue pen? black pen all the way

2. Would you prefer to live in the country or city? I had to actually think about this because I have always loved cities so much. BUT. I think I like the idea of living in them more than I would actually like it. I definitely prefer the peacefulness of living in the country though, especially if it’s near a body of water. Could even just be a stream or pond.

3. If you could learn a new skill what would it be? Hmmmm. Most of the skills I want to learn wouldn’t be useful?!? Like, learning Elvish. I suppose it would be nice to actually learn to draw. OR GROW PLANTS.

4. Do you drink your tea/coffee with sugar? Coffee, yes, with creamer too. Tea is had black though.

5. What was your favourite book as a child? How are we defining child? Because like. Under 10 age, it was the book called The Witches and the Singing Mice by Jenny Nimmo about these two tom cats that save the children in a village from witches who put them in a coma like thing. I fucking loved it and yes, I still have it on my shelf.

6. Do you prefer baths or showers? showers! I’ve never been a bath person. I don’t understand it. Showers are the ultimate for chilling out and winding down, and mine tend to last like thirty minutes or as long as we have hot water.

7. If you could be a mythical creature, which one would it be? I... have no fucking clue. Fairy?? (unless we’re including hobbit in mythical, which I think we should because that’s my choice)

8. Paper or electronic books? Paper. I’ve found that if I read published books electronically, I tend to not take it as seriously or judge it more harshly. Or maybe the books I’ve read electronically just sucked. IDK.

9. What is your favourite item of clothing? I stole a hoodie from my dad when I moved out. I’m pretty sure he’s had since the nineties. It’s just light blue and soooooo soft.

10. Do you like your name or would you like to change it? I used to not like my name (Robyn), but I’ve learned to love it and I wouldn’t want it to be something else.

11. Who is a mentor to you? One of my professors, probably. I still check in him with once a year, despite not having him as a teacher in about seven years. He helped me understand the psychology field a lot better, and I felt more prepared becoming a therapist because of him.

12. Would you like to be famous and if so, what for? fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck no. If I get famous for anything, it will be for having a trademarked expression showing my displeasure.

13. Are you a restless sleeper? Yes, indeed. I’ve had insomnia for about fourteen years. It’s worse when I’m going through the PTSD season (roughly September-December), and the rest of the year I tend to move around a lot or talk in my sleep.

14. Do you consider yourself a romantic person? yesssss but I think other people would disagree

15. Which element best represents you? water!

16. Who do you want to be closer to? I have gotten better at pursuing friendships, and those things take time, so I’m not sure if there’s anyone in particular that I’m like, scared to approach.

17. Do you miss someone at the moment? my parents, always. Living twelve hours away sucks balls.

18. Tell us about an early childhood memory. Okay. I was once brought home by a police officer when I was nine for loitering at a pet store down the street. The employee (who had to be like seventeen or something) called the fucking cops instead of just talking to me. And then I panicked and tried to run, IMMEDIATELY got caught, and then tried to lie about where I lived. Needless to say, by the time the cop got me home, he was thoroughly unimpressed and was very rude to my dad as a result and apparently made some comment about him not being a fit father because he was covered with tattoos (???). (Also, I recognize that me getting away with this is peak privilege)

19. What is the strangest thing you have eaten? All of freshman year, a friend and I would combine our breakfasts/snacks in our English class. This typically was strawberry poptarts, cheetos, and pink lemonade. It’s actually really fucking good. Super bad for you.

20. What are you most thankful for? the support of my partner, even though I’m currently annoyed at him.

21. Do you like spicy food? Nooooo, I cannot handle it at all

22. Have you ever met someone famous? Yes! Mostly from Cons and stuff, the highlight of which was meeting Nicholas Brendan.

23. Do you do you keep a diary or journal? not usually, but I will write things down to help with processing them. After my grandma died and the subsequent family drama, there was a lot of ‘journaling’

24. Do you prefer to use a pen or a pencil? Pen! Can’t stand pencils.

25. What is your star sign? Sagittarius

26. Do you like your cereal soggy or crunchy? What kind of question is this? Who likes soggy cereal?

27. What would you want your legacy to be? That I tried my best, honestly. I don’t think about it much beyond that.

28. Do you like reading, what was the last book you read? i LOVE reading. I’ve fallen out of the habit since I went through college and haven’t been able to get back up to where I was. The last book I read all the way through would have been Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I actually thoroughly enjoyed! Currently I’m reading my way through the History of Middle Earth, which means jumping between seven different books to do chronologically.

29. How do you show someone you love them? my love language is quality time or physical touch, so spending time and lots of hugs!

30. Do you like ice in your drinks? In lemonade or juice drinks, yes. Everything else no - especially not water

31. What are you afraid of? Oh, so many things. Top of the list is the loss of my family or cats.

32. What is your favourite scent? Lavender, sandalwood, or the ocean

33. Do you address older people by their name or surname? I don’t tend to address anyone by their name...

34. If money was not a factor, how would you live your life? I would honestly be home a lot more and not have a TBR pile consisting of over a hundred books.

35. Do you prefer swimming in pools or the ocean? I don’t really have a preference! I love water and swimming, so any body of water works for me. I won’t, however, swim in a pool when I’m near an ocean. That just seems weird to me.

36. What would you do if you found £50 on the ground? Probably spend it, honestly. Buy a meal for myself or something a bit fun.

37. Have you ever seen a shooting star? I think so?

38. What is the one thing you would want to teach your children? I am except from this question because that will not be happening! I do try to make sure my niece accepts herself for how she is and that she doesn’t have to BE anything to be loved

39. If you had to have a tattoo, what would it be and where would you get it? Well, I have tattoos already. And I have one planned for next month! I’m getting a Sweet Pea on my forearm for my grandma, because she always called me a sweet pea. Other than that, I have plans to the ring poem by tolkien around my ankle in the black speech.

40. What can you hear now? I can’t do anything without listening to music, which is currently Pirateship by Rumahoy, because @alienfuckeronmain has gotten me into metal like I’ve never been before

41. Where do you feel the safest? In my partner’s hugs

42. What is the one thing you want to overcome/conquer? hating my body

43. Of you could travel back to any era, what would it be? I don’t want to chooooooose. All of them. All of them.

44. What is your most used emoji? the crying laughing face

45. Describe yourself using one word. Random!

46. What do you regret the most? Regrets.... I guess I regret not being closer to the side of the family that has always liked/supported me until I was an adult. I could have had so many more memories with them and been closer to those cousins! Instead of the ones that straight up abandoned me. Good times.

47. Last movie you saw? King of Staten Island, actually. It was pretty good, but I felt like it ended too early

48. Last tv show you watched? It’s always New Girl, technically, because I fall asleep watching it. Other than that, probably John Oliver last week.

49. Invent a word and it’s meaning. I don’t invent words. I do, however, invent a sign language of my own that involves gesticulating wildly while trying to convey my meaning. I have no way to describe these signs in text, unfortunately.

#me #info

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kostya-kolomnitinowe886c-blog · 5 years ago

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The Names and Faces of the Florida School Shooting Victims

As gunshots echoed through the high school, a geography teacher, Scott Beigel, 35, paused to usher stragglers into his classroom before locking the door, only to be shot and killed himself as the shooter strode by.

A parent, Jennifer Zeif, credited Mr. Beigel for saving her son’s life. Short Term Loans Her son, Matthew, 14, had been the last one to slip inside the class, just ahead of Mr. Beigel. Seconds later, the room filled with a smoky haze, Matthew said, and he turned to see his teacher lying near the door, pale and bleeding. Consumer Banking | Personal Banking | U.S. Bank

Scott Beigel.

“Mr. Beigel could have passed Matthew up and gone in the classroom first,” Ms. Zeif said. “In that case, Matthew would have been the one in the doorway.”

On Thursday, as officials identified 17 people killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., some of the victims, like Mr. Beigel, were remembered for having tried to spare others in the moments of chaos that unfolded inside the school.

Aaron Feis, a popular football coach who was killed, also had tried to protect students, officials said. “He was that kind of guy,” said Jack Fris, a former football player at the school.

Friends said they were not surprised that Mr. Beigel, a much-beloved figure at a Pennsylvania summer camp that he attended and later helped to run, had put his students’ safety above his own.

“Thousands of people at Camp Starlight looked up to Scott,” said Grant Williams, 33, an emergency room nurse who worked with Mr. Beigel at the camp for several summers and was mourning long-distance with former camp counselors and campers on Thursday. “He was someone you strive to be like,” said another former Starlight counselor.

At the Florida high school, teachers and students were among the dead. There was a soccer player, a student nicknamed Guac and a trombonist in the marching band. Eight of the victims were girls and young women; nine were boys and men. They ranged from 14 years old to 49.

These are some of their stories.

Alyssa Alhadeff.Alyssa Alhadeff

Alyssa Alhadeff, 14, had played competitive soccer since she was 3 years old. Like any athlete, she had her ups and downs. But when her club, Parkland, faced off against the rival team from Coral Springs on Feb. 13, she was at the top of her game.

“Her passing was on, her shooting was on, her decision-making was on,” her mother, Lori Alhadeff, recalled. With her outgoing personality, Alyssa had a wide circle of friends at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. She placed first in a debate tournament, was taking Algebra 2 and Spanish 3, and was honing her skills as an attacking midfielder. The score at what was to be her last time on the soccer field was 1-0, Parkland.

“I was so proud of her,” her mother said. “I told her it was the best game of her life.”

Martin Duque Anguiano.Martin Duque Anguiano

Martin Duque Anguiano, a 14-year-old freshman, was “a very funny kid, outgoing and sometimes really quiet,” his brother, Miguel Duque, wrote on a GoFundMe page for funeral expenses.

“He was sweet and caring and loved by all his family,” Miguel wrote. “Most of all he was my baby brother.”

Nicholas Dworet.Credit...via ReutersNicholas Dworet

Nicholas Dworet, a promising high school swimmer, took a recruiting visit to the University of Indianapolis a few weeks ago. After a group dinner, he pulled the coach aside and said he wanted to compete there after he graduated this spring.

“He was an instant part of our family,” said Jason Hite, the university’s swim coach. Mr. Hite said Nicholas, 17, had received an academic scholarship and planned to study physical therapy.

University officials and a youth swim team in Florida said Nicholas was among those killed on Wednesday. A post on the Facebook page for TS Aquatics, the Florida club where he swam, described Nicholas as an amazing person who had been “on a major upswing in his life.”

Nicholas had improved academically and athletically since starting high school, Mr. Hite said, and his mentors in Florida “felt like the best was still to come for him.”

“We were going to continue to groom him to be a future leader for our team,” Mr. Hite said.

Mr. Hite said he sent Nicholas a text message on Wednesday afternoon after hearing about the shooting at his school. He got no response.

“The saddest thing to me is how much life this kid had and how hard he had worked to change directions and change paths,” Mr. Hite said. “He was really going in the right direction and he had really created some opportunities for himself.”

Aaron Feis.Aaron Feis

At Stoneman Douglas, Mr. Feis was known to all — an assistant football coach and a security monitor. But he too had graduated from the school, played on the football team, and knew exactly what it was like to be a student in these halls.

So he was seen as someone who looked out for students who got in trouble, those who were struggling, those without fathers at home. “They said he was like another father,” Mr. Feis’s grandfather, Raymond, recalled. “He’d go out of his way to help anybody.”

School officials said that Mr. Feis, 37, did the same on Wednesday. When there were signs of trouble, they said, he responded immediately to help. “When Aaron Feis died, when he was killed — tragically, inhumanely — he did it protecting others; you can guarantee that,” said Scott Israel, the sheriff of Broward County.

“I don’t know when Aaron’s funeral is,” Sheriff Israel said. “I don’t know how many adults are going to go, but you’ll get 2,000 kids there.”

In Parkland, Austin Lazar, a student, recalled his former coach as cheery and selfless. “He always put everybody before himself.”

Mr. Feis was married, his family said, and had a daughter, Arielle.

Jaime Guttenberg.Credit...via Associated PressJaime Guttenberg

Jaime Guttenberg, 14, danced nonstop. Sometimes she went on for hours, her aunt, Ellyn Guttenberg, said. Jaime was warm, too, always taking Ms. Guttenberg’s son, who has special needs, under her wing.

Jaime’s Facebook page, now memorialized, shows photos of her dancing, hanging out with friends, enjoying the beach and snuggling a dog.

Her father, Fred Guttenberg, posted this on Facebook: “I am broken as I write this trying to figure out how my family gets through this.”

Christopher Hixon.Credit...Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun SentinelChristopher Hixon

Christopher Hixon, 49, the school’s athletic director, was a well-known figure in Florida high school sports. One man, Jose Roman, posted on social media that Mr. Hixon was “a great coach and an awesome motivator” when he was a freshman athlete years ago.

Mr. Hixon was named athletic director of the year in 2017 by the Broward County Athletics Association.

Luke Hoyer.Luke Hoyer

Luke Hoyer, 15, spent last Christmas with his extended family in South Carolina, where he bowled, joined in a big holiday meal and swapped stories with relatives.

A cousin, Grant Cox, who was at the Christmas gathering said the family had been told by the police that Luke, a freshman at Stoneman Douglas, was among those killed on Wednesday.

Mr. Cox said Luke was a basketball player who was ambitious about the sport and admired N.B.A. stars like LeBron James and Stephen Curry.

“I know Luke loved his family,” Mr. Cox said. “I know he did. He had a huge heart.”

“He was quiet, but a very happy individual,” he said.

Cara LoughranCara Loughran

Cara Loughran, 14, loved the beach. She adored her cousins. And she was an excellent student, her family said.

“We are absolutely gutted,” by her death, her aunt, Lindsay Fontana, wrote in a Facebook post. “While your thoughts are appreciated, I beg you to DO SOMETHING. This should not have happened to our niece Cara and it cannot happen to other people’s families.”

Gina Montalto.Credit...via Associated PressGina Montalto

Gina Montalto, 14, was identified in local news accounts as a member of her school’s winter color guard team.

Andy Mroczek, who has worked as a choreographer at Stoneman Douglas, posted a tribute to Gina on Facebook. “We lost a beautiful soul tonight,” he wrote.

Joaquin Oliver.Joaquin Oliver

People often spelled Joaquin Oliver’s first name wrong, so he went with a snappy nickname: Guac.

He played basketball in the city recreational league — his jersey number was 2 — and he loved to write, filling a notebook with poetry, said Julien Decoste, a close friend of Joaquin’s and a fellow senior at Stoneman Douglas.

“Guac and I always wanted to graduate together and prove everyone wrong, that we would be successful together,” Julien said.

On Tuesday, Joaquin, 17, asked Julien to help out at his next basketball game, which was scheduled for Thursday.

“I’ll be there,” Julien texted his friend. “Good looks brotha,” Joaquin responded.

On Wednesday, as he hid inside a closet during the shooting, Julien texted Joaquin to check in.

“You good?” Julien texted. “Bro I need you to answer me please.”

Alaina Petty.Alaina Petty

Alaina Petty, 14, had helped do cleanup work in Florida after Hurricane Irma, her family said in a statement, and she was an active member of a volunteer group with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Her selfless service brought peace and joy to those that had lost everything during the storm,” the family’s statement said. “While we will not have the opportunity to watch her grow up and become the amazing woman we know she would become, we are keeping an eternal perspective.”

Alaina was also a member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, her family said.

Meadow Pollack.Meadow Pollack

Meadow Pollack, 18, was a senior at the high school who was planning to go to Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., next year, according to her father, Andrew Pollack, who said his daughter was among the dead.

“She was just unbelievable,” Mr. Pollack said. “She was a very strong-willed young girl who had everything going for her.”

Mr. Pollack described his daughter as smart, beautiful and caring. She worked at her boyfriend’s family’s motorcycle repair business.

“She just knew how to get what she wanted all the time,” Mr. Pollack said. “Nothing could ever stop her from what she wanted to achieve.”

Helena Ramsay.Helena Ramsay

Helena Ramsay, 17, was smart, kindhearted and thoughtful, her relative, Curtis Page, wrote on Facebook.

“Though she was somewhat reserved, she had a relentless motivation towards her academic studies, and her soft warm demeanor brought the best out in all who knew her,” he said, later adding: “She would have started college next year.”

Alex Schachter.Alex Schachter

Alex Schachter, 14, played the trombone in the Stoneman Douglas marching band, and was proud to have participated in winning a state championship last year. A freshman at the high school, he often played basketball with friends and was “a sweetheart of a kid,” his father, Max Schachter, said. Earlier this week, the two had discussed which classes Alex would take next semester.

Mr. Schachter said Alex had loved his mother, who died when he was five years old. His older brother also attends Stoneman Douglas and survived the shooting. Alex “just wanted to do well and make his parents happy,” his father said.

Carmen SchentrupCarmen Schentrup

Carmen Schentrup, a 2018 National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, was the smartest 16-year-old that her cousin, Matt Brandow, had ever met, he said in a Facebook post.

“I’m in a daze right now,” he wrote.

Peter WangPeter Wang.

Peter Wang, 15, a freshman, helped his cousin, Aaron Chen, adjust when he settled in Florida.

“He was always so nice and so generous,” Aaron, 16, said, adding that even though Peter was younger he had worked to be sure Aaron didn’t get bullied when he first arrived.

Peter was last seen in his gray uniform for the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, or J.R.O.T.C., on Wednesday. On Thursday, Aaron and another cousin said the authorities had informed the family that Peter was among those killed in the shooting.

“He was the kid in school who would be friends with anyone,” said the other cousin, Lin Chen, 24. “He didn’t care about popularity.”

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shaynanabroad · 6 years ago

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ONE suitcase, FOUR months

It does not feel real that in two days I’m going to board a plane for Sweden, where I will be living for the next four months. I’ve spent so much time thinking and talking about my future plans to study abroad but have not taken the time to let it sink in that these plans are no longer for the distant future. Everyone I know that’s studied abroad has told me to go in with an open mind and try to leave all expectations behind. I’ve tried to take this advice, but have discovered that “having no expectations” is just about impossible.

Already, before I’ve even left home, my experience is different than I expected. Subconsciously, I thought that by the time I was packing to leave, I would in some way feel ready to go. I don’t feel prepared to go at all. And not just in the physical sense of packing my bags. My main sense of lacking preparedness is emotional. I think it's going to take a while before I truly comprehend that I am going to be living in Sweden for the semester and not returning to Villanova’s campus to be with all my friends. Once I’ve been in Sweden for a few weeks, I’ll surely realize that I’m not just on vacation, but immersed in a new chapter of my life, thousands of miles away from my beloved family, friends and campus. I just looked it up, I’m going to be 4,004 miles away from Villanova.

I’m sure I’ll have amazing experiences abroad, but right now, I can’t help but feel like a freshman all over again. Packing up and moving away from the life and place I know, to go somewhere far away from home. I don’t know the local customs and I’m convinced I’ll stick out as different. I wonder if I’m going to be accepted and liked by the people around me. I’ve never had a problem making friends, and if studying abroad is anything like my freshman year, I am in for the time of my life. But, despite everything in the past having worked out, I still feel nervous and a bit anxious. Maybe this is why I haven’t felt ready to go. Until now, I haven’t taken the time to sit down and really absorb the fact that I’m leaving very soon because I’m trying to put off feeling anxious. Like any good psychology student, I know avoiding thinking about a situation that makes me feel nervous isn’t the best coping mechanism, but I’d really rather just pretend I’m not nervous until I’m there and my only choice is to embrace the new experience and all of its surprises and obstacles...right?

So far this post has been fairly morbid, but I promise I’m usually really upbeat and positive. In fact, my core course while studying abroad is Positive Psychology. Since reading the syllabus for this class, I’ve been super excited to get started. Wow that sounded so nerdy. But seriously, I frequently recent so many cheesy cliches such as “look on the bright side,” “every cloud has a silver lining” and my personal favorite, “a positive attitude is everything.” I cannot wait to dive head first into learning about research regarding positivity! Speaking of expectations, I hope mine aren’t too high in thinking this class is going to be life changing!

Now that I’ve done a bit of ranting about how I feel, I’d like to give this post some semblance of structure and talk a bit about my preparations for leaving for Sweden and how I made the decision to study abroad in Stockholm through DIS….

On Packing: Packing is a pain in the butt! At least if you’re like me and very unorganized, both mentally and in terms of your belongings being scattered all over the house. I’ve spent the past few days rearranging miscellaneous clothes into piles of must-brings, maybes and leave-at-homes. Unfortunately, the more I go through the piles, the more maybes I move into the must-bring pile.

Arriving in Sweden mid-January will surely require warm clothes: boots, wool socks, sweaters, thermals, etc. I also have to consider my core course week in Athens Greece(!!!), which I imagine will be warm (or, at least, warmer). I keep telling myself I’m going to pack “light,” but as a classic over-packer about to embark on my experience living outside of the US, I am starting to get worried about whether or not I’ll be able to zip my overstuffed suitcase shut. As I add the four pairs of shoes I’ve determined to be essential, I’m envisioning my little sister sitting on my suitcase as I try to zip it up.

I find myself trying to pack for any possible scenario that could arise, but am starting to realize it may be impossible to fit all necessary outfits for “any possible scenario” into one suitcase. Logically, I know it is unlikely that I’ll need both my Villanova National Championship T-shirt from 2016 and my Villanova National Championship T-shirt from 2018, but I caught myself deeming both as “must-brings.”

As much as I feel unorganized in my packing, in reality, I imagine I’m using this time feeling indecisive over T-shirts as a way to try to collect my thoughts and wrap my brain around the idea that in 48 short hours I will be kissing my family goodbye, or rather hej då (I’d better get used to integrating some Swedish phrases into my vocabulary) and boarding a flight to Stockholm. Today I packed a “trial” suitcase with the pile of clothes I’d deemed essentials, just to make sure everything would fit. And to my surprise, and delight, it did! I’m sure there are a few last minute things I will think of to add to my suitcase, but for now I am feeling quite accomplished and just a little bit more ready for the journey ahead of me.

WHY I chose DIS Stockholm for my Study Abroad Experience: I’ve spent the past few years of college assuming I’d be studying abroad in Spain, as I was an aspiring Spanish major, but after some soul searching, I decided this summer to reduce my Spanish major to a minor and focus on studying Psychology. With Spain no longer my only option for studying abroad, I was initially overwhelmed with the task of deciding where in the world to study.

One of my self-described greatest strengths, my open mindedness, consequently can have another side to it. I am incredibly indecisive. The idea of choosing one country in which to have the amazing experience of studying abroad, out of the hundreds of beautiful options seemed impossible, so I set up a meeting with my study abroad advisor. To my surprise, the first piece of advise my advisor gave me was to forget about what country I’d be studying abroad in and to think about my expectations for my study abroad experience. This felt much more manageable to me. I prepared a list for our next meeting:

Homestay option

Speak either English (preferred) or Spanish (I could get by but I’m self-conscious about my ability to conjugate verbs)

Warm weather!

In Europe -- I want to do some country hopping!

Psychology classes Villanova does not offer

My advisor referred me to a few different programs he has had experience sending students to in the past that he felt were good options for me, located in various cities (Vienna, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Salamanca and Copenhagen). He sent me off with the task of researching these programs and coming back to him to discuss these options the following week.

When I returned to his office a week later, I was firmly leaning towards Stockholm because the program seemed to fulfill all of my requirements sans the warm weather. Most importantly, the DIS website was plentiful with information and, as someone inexperienced in travelling and nervous about what to expect, the easy access information on the DIS website eased some of my anxieties and offered a realistic preview of what to expect in their program. The inclusion of some of the less than desirable aspects of the study abroad experience, like to expect culture shock and a commute time of up to an hour, in the info provided by DIS made their website feel more reliable than the websites of other study abroad companies that I felt were holding info back and had the vibes of a sales pitch.

About two weeks ago, I felt reassured that I’d made the right decision about where to study abroad when I got my first email from my Swedish host family introducing themselves to me and sharing their excitement about having me come to live with them. I am sure my decision to live in a homestay will come with its share of challenges, but I was thrilled to find out that I will have 3 younger sibling in my host home and will only have to travel 35 mins to get from their home to DIS. I am sure I will reflect on my homestay experience quite a bit in my upcoming posts. I cannot wait to get there and meet them, but I am also starting to question my ability to finish packing ONE suitcase for the next FOUR months.

That being said, I really should get back to packing!

Until next time,

Shaynan

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onlyonewoman · 3 years ago

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This. Look, I understand that the thought of people not contributing AT ALL despite being able to, while still somehow getting money from wellfare in some mysterious way is one that can make ones teeth grind to dust. I really do understand that, I used to grind too. I am disabled an unable to work fulltime, no matter the job. In my country, I should be able to get sick pay for the time I cannot work, but alas, the authorities think that they know better than: - my doc - my physiotherapist - my occupational therapist - my psychologist - my boss - my employment service assistant so, alas, I cannot receive any extra help. Now, I have a job that I LOVE, but it’s part time, because my brain and body simply cannot handle fulltime - and believe me: I’ve tried a NUMBER of different jobs and work areas. I have also worked hard to get where I am today, but good fucking GODS: The thing called fulltime, is just an IDEA that can CHANGE! It’s not a physical law, goddammit! My wonderful pyschologist told me when I felt like a failure, that 50% of a fulltime fucking IS MY FULLTIME. Because you are NOT supposed to work and then come home to collapse and maybe eat some frozen ready meal before collapsing in bed five days a week to make ends meet in this time and day! You should know, that productivity has grown 3.5 times as much as pay for the typical worker since 1979. 3.5 TIMES. Do you realise that if an average work week consists of 40 hours, it means that if you work fulltime now in 2022, your PRODUCTIVITY is more like 140 hours a week. Your grandpa worked 40 hours and was considered a fulltime worker. The AVERAGE WORTH of YOUR fulltime work in ONE week, equals 3,5 of your grandpas full work WEEKS. And while HE could save up to a house, a car and start a family at 25, you can’t even start DREAMING of doing the same at 35. This is a problem in many, many countries and you know, no matter what the top percent or the top ten percent or the top of the middle class say: It’s. Not. Your. Fault. My salary is low, but not unacceptable by any means. My work is hard, but it’s fulfilling and I love it. My boss is tough, but she works harder than anyone I’ve ever met and I truly admire her. I wouldn’t be able to work for this pay had I not had insight in the company’s economy and a GOOD, HONEST boss who truly does the extra for me as I do for her - and the work is something I feel good from. I am very proud of my stable groom work, I love my workplace, the horses and the sense of GOOD pride, commitment, kindness and respect I meet there. My work, I know, is not at all considered a successful one. I have “downgraded” myself by going from a sales person with tons of customers, to muck shit and rake hay, but I wouldn’t trade back in a million years. Because the work I do, is NEEDED. Not by some greedy stockbrokers or a lazy management not even knowing my name. My work is to make sure that 20+ fourlegged friends who’re scared of the wind and love to roll in mud, have the best life me and my boss can provide. And I give the extra, because my boss give the extra in return. I feel valued and needed, appreciated and vital, not expendable. That’s why I give from myself at work, but let me tell you: the SECOND I no longer feel appreciated, I will let it be known. Because I will never again run on fumes for the minimal chance of a reward I should’ve been granted. I follow the “great resignation” in USA from afar and I am rooting for you!

And if you “could” work in the best of worlds, but can’t in this: don’t feel ashamed. Once I would’ve gotten angry, but not anymore. I want YOU to have a good life.

#the great resignation #i root for you #work to live don't live to work

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team-mytamarin-blog · 5 years ago

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WFH with no childcare during CV-19: parents are not okay

When we think back to the start of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic when parents were first faced with the challenge of juggling a full time job, home schooling, and childcare, did anyone really believe they could do it?

It doesn’t matter how you slice it and dice it, if you look at it practically, there’s no way it was going to work easily and here’s why.

A young child is awake for 12-14 hours in any 24h period. During that time they need more or less constant attention, until they are about 8 to 10 years old (unless you relent and give in to much more screen time than you’d normally tolerate…). That leaves a parent with no more than 10-12 hours of “me” time, during which they need to sleep (ideally 8 hours, as Matthew Walker explains in his best seller Why We Sleep), eat, groom, exercise, and… work!

So even at this practical level, the numbers aren’t stacking up. So what do parents do? They sleep less, and neglect themselves further by not exercising or otherwise looking after their mental and physical wellbeing. Without the help of a nanny housekeeper, even if you feel you can survive on only 5-6 hours of sleep (which according to Mathhew Walker's studies, will put you in a perpetual state of legal drunkenness after two nights), that only leaves about 5-6 hours for work and that’s assuming you do nothing else!

What’s more, if you’ve ever actually tried to work after 10-12 hours of looking after children, you’ll know that by the end of the day you have nothing left in you. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

Childcarers who work in nurseries typically have their working hours limited to 35 hours a week and there’s a very good reason for it. It makes sense. It’s hard work, looking after children, even for the best nannies. With seven hours a day, that’s 30-40% less than what a parent’s full day looks like.

Even in the most privileged cases of two fully employed adults, who are not in fear of losing their jobs, it’s tough. Many have tried to share the burden by working in shifts to look after the children -- often at the expense of their relationship. Layer the mandatory homeschooling on top of that, and you’re at the brink of a revolt!

So, what are parents supposed to do?

There’s an underlying expectation that working parents are superheroes and should find creative ways to handle this on their own, much alike how a myTamarin nanny would. Social media channels are bursting with suggestions - from games and creative projects, to virtual exercise classes and play groups. But just to go through all the options, create the weekly schedule, and keep your kids on track, you’d need a virtual PA.

And then to counterbalance the feelings of guilt and inadequacy parents are experiencing when faced with the impossible task of hitting it out of the park on all counts -- caring for and homeschooling their children while continuing to deliver professionally, allies and supporters are telling parents not to expect perfection and to lower their standards. Right...

One the one hand, that’s encouraging but working parents are merely getting through the day so if they are still expected to teach the entire school curriculum while maintaining their productivity at work, there needs to be some give and take when it comes to the expectations of the government and employers.

And when you dig further, parents are doomed when it comes to homeschooling as demonstrated by this conversation between a five year old and his mum: (child) “Mummy, I don’t have to follow all your rules. (mum) Why not? (child) Because you’re not my teacher!”

This is one example but parents across the UK (and the rest of the world) are dealing with this every day.

At myTamarin, we’ve been closely monitoring discussions on social media and parent forums, and we’ve also surveyed 100+ parents to find out how lockdown has really affected them professionally and personally.

“Government has failed us working parents”

Many parents have been extremely frustrated by the lack of guidance from the government when it comes to homeschooling. While most were in agreement with the precautionary measures taken to close schools, many are concerned about the lack of clarity on the amount of homeschooling they are expected to do. Under normal times, parents will be fined for taking their children out of school for a day, but there is zero guidance on what is deemed to be acceptable in terms of homeschooling under these current circumstances. Are parents expected to deliver a full curriculum, a few hours of homeschooling a day, or do they have the freedom to work out what’s best for their family? And does the answer to this question depend on the age of their children? Quite possibly yes. It’s just that there aren’t any answers for parents.

We have also observed a frustration around government guidelines for employers. Parents feel the government should have provided more guidance to employers on what they should be expecting from their employees who are parents during these times.

In the absence of such guidance, it’s up to each individual employer how they manage working parents.

“Employers are failing us working parents too”

While some working parents feel their employers have been supportive, many more disagree.

Given the lack of guidance from the government, it has been up to employers to adjust their expectations of parents (or not!). Some parents believe they should have been furloughed so they can devote all their time to childcare, and others who want to keep working feel there should be some leniency when it comes to productivity.

Furlough may work for some, but it isn’t necessarily the answer to everyone’s problems.

If your annual income is under £35,000 annually and you are furloughed you will pretty much be able to maintain the same level of income on furlough. But for higher income earners, often in management positions, it won’t work - for two reasons. First, they have responsibilities towards their staff and cannot just disappear. If they do, more jobs would be at stake, and indeed there could be no jobs to come back to, once things begin to settle.

Furthermore, if working parents in more senior positions were to be furloughed, they would be taking huge pay cuts, much bigger than the standard 20% furlough cut. Imagine a person on a £80,000 annual salary; if they get furloughed, their income would decrease by more than 60%. That’s too much of a shock for a family to absorb. While it is true that such people are extremely fortunate to be in a position earning this amount in the first place, it doesn’t diminish from the fact that they have a lot to lose.

Positive reports of employers who seem to be handling the situation as best they can, include employers who have increased paid parental leave and prioritised those for furlough based on circumstance, and others are giving paid contingency leave to one parent, allowing them to be off with the children while the other continues to work.

At the other extreme, some parents who have access to paid emergency leave are reporting that their employers are not allowing them to use it for childcare. If this isn’t considered to be an emergency, then what is?!

This is a hard time for everyone but employers need to show empathy and compassion where they can. But we know that employers are struggling themselves. How do you adjust productivity expectations of working parents, but still deliver at the same level for your clients?

Women - back to 1950s housewives?

We have spent the last 50 years fighting for equality in the workplace and getting women into senior positions. Yet, all of this seems to be unravelling at a tremendous speed as it is mostly females who are now on double shifts.

Many parents, especially mothers, would never admit to childcare getting in the way of work. However, private family life has now been brought to the office. Or rather, the office has been brought into the home. Children have been popping up in the background of Zoom meetings and the realities of life as a working parent cannot be ignored.

As Melinda Gates recently put it, even before the pandemic, caregiving options were inadequate and expensive. Now, everything that already made life hard for working families is about to get worse. It’s no mystery who will bear most of the burden. It’s women. It’s always women. Even though most women now work full-time outside the home, they still spend two hours more each day on household tasks and caregiving, are 10 times more likely to stay home with their sick children and are nearly three times as likely as fathers to quit their jobs to take care of a family member. The data tell us that the unpaid caregiving work done by women in their households is, in fact, one of the biggest barriers they face to equal opportunity in the workforce. Post-pandemic, they risk falling even further behind, afraid that their skills only pertain to childcare and basic nanny services.

Some bosses seem to hold very outdated views on male and female roles in the home. Frustrated working mothers have recounted stories of male bosses or members of their team declaring what a great job their wives are doing homeschooling, as if they were directly deployed from the best nanny agency in UK. Does this mean we’ve gone back in time when it comes to equality? Has childcare become the woman’s responsibility again? And if so, it’s harder than it ever was as it seems they are now expected to hold down a full-time job too.

Guess what, this is causing resentment among female employees. Should they really be expected to handle homeschooling and be 100% productive at work? Something doesn’t quite add up here.

Childcare is a necessity for working parents and not an exception to the rule.

One of the main things this unique situation has taught us is the importance of childcare can’t be overlooked, especially when it comes to working parents. Looking after an infant or toddler is a full time job in itself so parents can’t be expected to do another full time job on top of that without sufficient childcare in place.

According to myTamarin’s comprehensive survey of more than 200 nannies or maternity nurses and their employers in April 2020, most parents’ ability to work was severely impacted by lockdown and the inaccessibility of childcare. On a scale of 1-10 (where 10 = my ability to work has been wiped out completely), 60% of parents report 8 or more, which means almost two thirds of parents either cannot work at all, or their ability to produce any work has been severely reduced.

Interestingly, around 15% of parents said their work has not been impacted at all. Further digging into the data suggests these are mostly parents who didn’t work before the outbreak. There are however a handful of multi-taskers amongst them who report being able to work from home while also looking after their children, but their children, they admit, are mostly older and hence much more self-sufficient than babies, toddlers and children in the early years.

Working parents are looking to the government or their employers to step in here. If they are expected to put in an eight hour day (or more) then they should be supported in some way. Suggestions ranged from making childcare fully tax deductible, to employers offering childcare as a benefit. And unless the country is in a state to backstop the economy shutting down, people need to keep working and that includes people who provide childcare.

We can no longer ignore the fact that many workers have children that need to be cared for, and that nannies in UK are not the only solution. To ensure a fast and inclusive recovery, governments, business leaders and investors need to make caregiving a priority.

For a comprehensive report designed for employers, including specific quotes from working parents, and recommended solutions, please contact us at [email protected] for more information on childcare solutions

#nanny wfh nannyagency parenting

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rainydaywoes · 5 years ago

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NM2207, NM2219, NM2220 Module Reviews

It is the time of the year again: frantically searching for that one particular module suitable for all your needs – be it academic requirements, to boost your skills, your CAP or just a non-8am lecture slot you can never wake up for?

Whatever it is, I hope these reviews will help you find the module(s) for you 😊 Do just take note these are my personal thoughts and experiences which may differ accordingly to individuals.

Tip: I encourage all CNM majors, especially if you’re in year 1/2, to just look into the various 3k/4k modules you might want to take in the future because some of them might require pre-requisites of other modules. E.g. a particular 2K mod is required for a 3K mod which is a requirement for a 4K mod. Yes, so they accumulate, and if you don’t want to get the short end of the stick – do your research properly~ So enough nagging: here it comes~

NM2207 Module Review

NM2207 Computational Media Literacy aka the ‘coding’ mod of CNM. This mod teaches Javascript, CSS and HTML and is meant for web design. Even if you’re not planning on the game design track or have no coding knowledge at all, you can still consider this purely because of how useful this module is. The mod assumes zero coding background from everyone which really showed in the lecture/tutorial/homework materials that did a really good job in explaining concepts while challenging us to search up more info to enrich our learning.

There are no physical lectures but weekly online videos to watch (around 2.5 hours). I highly suggest you be on the ball and watch the videos before tutorials because we will to apply whatever the videos went through.

Here’s the grading breakdown:

15% Tutorial/participation: 3 hours tutorial sessions (usually 6-9pm for CNM students on internship to join as part of their MOOC courses), one coding challenge for each tutorial session that students (in pairs) can work together to complete. TAs will be around to help. The faster you finish the assigned work, the faster you can leave. :)

15% Midterm exam (either week 6 or 7): 1 hour, closed book pen and paper style.

20% Final exam (week 13): Closed book pen and paper style.

35% Final project: A solo project where you have to design and code an online application e.g. a game/ interactive story/ an animation/ etc from scratch. Don’t freak out yet! We are not expected to churn out a super highly-skilled app to attain decent grades – just something original and creative would do that trick. :)

15% Assignments: These were known as weekly homework and a major pain. We had to follow the assigned instructions to code the final products which are to be uploaded on our webpage by Saturday This was really difficult because some of them were really challenging and I had to email my TA constantly for help. :(

Personally, this was a very intellectually challenging module for me. Especially since I understand things related to coding rather slowly. It was also rather time-consuming; I think I spent around 10 hours weekly on this mod. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend taking this module if you think you’ll have a really packed semester (or just be prepared to use an S/U, in case?) Otherwise, I have to admit, it was really intriguing and super rewarding to finish all these seemingly-impossible tasks and to complete the module with a great end :)

Taken in: AY2019/20 Sem 2

Final Grade: B+

NM2220 Module Review

NM2220 Introduction to Media Writing is basically as the module name suggests – introduction to media writing. This module is super highly recommended for anyone who has an interest in doing writing as a career as it covers a range of writing: news media, both print and broadcast journalism, copywriting for advertisement, public relations, feature writing and writing for the web. It even covers topics like media law and ethics. Basically, whatever fundamentals of writing you think you might need for your career and perhaps even more.

Sounds a lot? Yes, actually this module is considered to be one of the more hardcore CNM 2K modules. Both lectures and tutorial require us to be on the ball constantly and I assure you there’ll definitely be a writing practice in every single session. Depending on your luck, you might even be called on in lecture to share your ideas. So, no random scrolling through Facebook for cat videos and whatnot. Lectures are, as per normal, 2 hours weekly while tutorials are pretty demanding at 2 hours weekly and require you to write on the spot.

I apologise as I cannot remember the exact breakdown but from what I can remember:

10% News angle: Find a local news article and develop 3 other news angle that have not been published before.

20% Feature writing: Write a feature story based on NUS student life with 3 original photographs and optional video.

15% Public release + planning of 4 social media posts: Write a press released based on a provided scenario and organisation (details to be developed by yourself) + 4 pseudo social media posts of 1 pre-event and 1 post-event post (including captions/ visual description) on Facebook and Instagram. And you don’t have to actually post it, just describe the posts.

15% Tutorial participation/ attendance

40% Final exam: Closed book pen and paper style. Three segments based on a single given scenario (mine was an accident by a hired car company outside school): 1. Broadcast journalism report (with details to be developed by yourself) 2. Two social media posts based on the accident 3. Two (?) feature story angles based on the accident.

Overall, I really enjoyed this module. Since I had zero experience in such media writing prior to this, it really provided me with the fundamentals that are pretty important in any career related to writing. Especially for people who consider doing media writing related work in the future, I really recommend you take up this mod to know whether you’re suitable/ whether this would be something you enjoy. :)

Tip: You have to either take this mod or NM2219 to take up certain 3K mods such as NM3219 (find out more on NUSmods).

Taken in: AY2019/20 Sem 1

Final Grade: A

NM2219 Module Review

NM2219 Principles of Communication Management is really good module for everyone to consider if they’re planning to head into PR-related field or to discover whether this field is something for you. The module is very comprehensive and covers various fields related to PR e.g. crisis management, issues management, forms and types of PR approaches. To be honest, this module was really rather dry for me with a lot of PR concepts and content. But I guess a redeeming factor is that the content is quite easy to understand and the workload for this module is rather little compared to NM2207 and NM2220. If you’re considering a 2K module that is good/ useful career-wise (the skills you learn in this module can be easily transferrable to a PR-related career) and also not too much on the workload, this is a pretty decent choice😊

30% Midterm exam (week 7): Closed book, 30 MCQs (not sure if this changes according to the lecturer). I would recommend to read the textbook readings as some of the questions made references to the definition and related stuff.

30% Final exam: Closed book, around 15 MCQs with 2 SAQs and 1 longer question split into various parts (based on a provided PR issue, answer the sub-questions to resolve the issue based on the PR steps).

25% Group project [Presentation (10%); Paper (15%)]: Research on a company with local influence that might have a potential PR issue/ is currently facing a PR crisis and come up with solutions for the issue.

5% Peer review

10% Class participation: Weekly tutorials that are 45-minutes each; mostly used for explaining certain concepts that are to be covered in your group report and for the tutor to check up on your group’s progress.

If you don’t mind a slightly dry module with quite a bit of content (that is rather simple to grasp) and are considering a PR-related field, you should really take up this module. Actually, even if you’re not going into PR, knowing some PR knowledge can be applicable in almost every job that requires human interaction/ brand reputation. So yes, don’t count this one out!

Tip: You have to either take this mod or NM2220 to take up certain 3K mods such as NM3219 (find out more on NUSmods).

Taken in: AY2019/20 Sem 2

Final Grade: A+

#nus #module #module reviews #module review #cnm #fass #nm2220 #nm2219 #nm2207

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aquarianlights · 7 years ago

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Im so sorry for your episode. But i want you to know that we still love you and we are here for you.

Oh god, thank you...

Apparently everyone is now. No one is like my ex-es/ex-roommates/parents here....we are family. Actual family. And we take care of each other. And it ...I have a REAL support system for the first time in my life. My friends spent 3 FUCKING HOURS running around sketchy af NOLA backroads to find me last night. And one of them even physically fought me and restrained me. And they took care of me. Everyone took care of me. And then when I woke up today and saw my roommates and met with the friend that dealt with me last night, every single one of them asked me if I was okay and gave me a hug.

And there I was between train tracks/highway...a fence with barbed wire...and a lumbar/solar panel factor...in the back alley...in a REALLY dangerous area...with a broken beer bottle just slicing at my arm with it, telling myself out loud that I didn’t matter, no one cared, etc etc etc....meanwhile all my friends were either out looking for me or texting me/calling me frantically. And proceeded to take care of me through a completely dissociative schizo episode. Like, complete psychological blackout. I have no memories. And they were still there for me in the morning.....helping, checking on me, giving me familial love...

I couldn’t believe it. Yeah, they all told me that I scared the fuck out of them. But. . .normally I just wake up in a hospital in restraints after episodes like that. No. Instead, my support system helped me. Because they know how detrimental those places are to me.

And they’re not deserting me, telling me to leave, adjusting our living situation negatively, giving me a time frame in which I need to get out, kicking me out, calling 911 on me, tying me up, locking all the pills and sharp objects up, treating me like a child.....THEY’RE TREATING ME LIKE AN ADULT. GIVING ME AUTONOMY. WHAT I HAVE NEEDED MY WHOLE LIFE!!!

Instead of forcing me into being co-dependent...and then getting angry at me for being co-dependent when they forced me to be that way in the first place...they’re giving me standards and holding me to them. If I don’t hold up to those standards, I get real-world, adult consequences. Which do not involve being kicked out or locked up or getting things taken away from me or anything...

I’ve never had a situation like this...where people genuinely want to help me. And genuinely want to see me grow as a person and achieve my dreams. And are genuinely supporting me.

There is a way to have autonomy while still accepting help...Still being independent, but working in a pack dynamic. We all have weaknesses, we all have strengths...and everyone in this household and all of our friends....we all complement those weaknesses and strengths. Wherever someone is weak, one or more of us can help. And we do. Hell, one of my roommates and I have “packmate tattoos” as we are platonic soul mates and have been since teenagers and all of us have “packmate” necklaces we all got about a year ago. And everyone we welcome into our irl fremily gets a packmate necklace. They’re from the gem and lapidary shop in the french quarter...they’re these wolves engraved into different kinds of stones hung on a black string. We all have different colour/rock style wolves, but they’re all the same engraving and the same string.

And this is so..........wonderful. I have a family. I have a real family here....and I can prosper here.

And I have this wonderful support online, too. A whole family online who is behind me. And a handful of online family equivalent to what my irl fremily is.

If only super suicidal, depressed teenager me could see 25 year old me now. I’m gonna be finished with my degree after this spring semester...and transferring to a pre-med program in Tulane University. Coz I decided...fuck the tech program, fuck the underling studies...that’ll just take 2 years of getting ANOTHER AA.......when I already have an AA...and can just go on to my pre-med BA automatically......why am I starting over like this? Tech school is pointless. My logic was flawed. I’m aiming to be in a surgical residency by the age of 35 or before. I have a kinda disadvantage there since most students start their residency at 26. But...I also have an advantage, like one well-known doctor told me that I e-mailed. So...he said I should just start now. And my adviser said the same thing. And my career counselor said the same thing. Drop all the tech classes and go straight pre-med. My degree combined with my GPA will allow me entrance into almost any pre-med program I want. I’m only choosing Tulane U because it’s closest. And it doesn’t matter where you get your AA and bachelors...it starts mattering when you get to your masters, and ACTUALLY matters when you get to your doctorate. Idk where I’ll physically be after I finish my bachelors...so Idk where I’m gonna go after that...but I will worry about that later.

And getting a job when I come back on the 4th...in a clinic...and internships and shadowing.... And I’m getting nexplanon replaced next week...and switching my medicaid...and updating everything and I found a place that SAFE HRT here...so I’m going to a session there to have all my work from my PPH HRT doctor transferred there to let them look at it and determine together whether it’s safe for me or not. Coz the PPH HRT doc is leaning towards HRT not being safe for me...so I’m kinda disappointed in that. But..... there are other ways to transition. And, as my PPH HRT doc said, if HRT isn’t an option for me, we can find other ways for me to transition. And my dog is gonna be home with me finally... And I will be finding a pscyh and doc here for medication management, etc. . .

Everything is falling into place so nicely for me...and I ...I can’t believe it’s happening. And I’m fucking....happy. Wow. I still have downs, like yesterday, but......majority of my life is happiness and motivation and energy and ...a beginning of stability.

God, if only teenage me could see me now. If early 20′s me could see me now. If 24 year old me could see 25 year old me.......

I never woulda guessed in a million years............

I am honestly the luckiest guy alive. I can’t believe I have an irl family that loves me and an online family that loves me. It’s unreal. And both support me and that is just........unbelievable to me.

Thank you, nons. Messages like this keep me going...keep reminding me that maybe I’m worth something in this life.

Thank you. I cannot thank you enough. Thank you...

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cosmosogler · 7 years ago

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;_;

i woke up on time, actually. after a kind of, a kind of horrifying dream? i was just hanging out in the big boat, the huge one with red carpet and it’s usually in the harbor so there’s white buildings and birds along the horizon when you go on deck. there was a door to a building where it should have led into the boat- just kind of an old building on top of the boat. it was my high school theater. ALWAYS A GOOD SIGN.

there was something going onnn... when the Big Plot got resolved we were all standing on deck milling around directly after the big finale. i don’t know if it was a big finale but it was definitely after something. my old roommate maranda was up by the building. she got hooked on the door somehow and it flipped around trap-bookcase style and pulled her inside. except the door was half-covered by a wall so when she got pushed inside it kind of... clipped her at the waist. i don’t know it was a very non-euclidean motion.

i didn’t see any blood but i frowned at the door for a second. only a few people must have seen it because no one stopped talking. then the screaming started!!! it went on!!!!!!!!! wailing and sobbing like a person just realized they’d gotten cut in half. you know.

i was very afraid of going inside and seeing what was in there. i ended up on the other side of the building eventually... my sister and classmates were putting on a play. i took one look at the script and said “nope, no, i’m outta here, bye” and turned around and walked away, waving my hand behind me. i got a look at the Big Door on my way out; i kind of collapsed with relief when i didn’t see any blood or stray body parts. it seemed like she had just fallen a lot of feet somehow and broken something. there wasn’t anyone by the wall or door when i looked. then i woke up.

it kinda rattled me, you know? periodically throughout the day i had to just kind of take a minute and put my head in my hands.

anyway when i woke up snoopy had pooped all over the house. i got fed up with wasting all of my laundry detergent on washing the blanket on the couch every single morning so i put trash bags over the couch instead. i also had to clean up the floor. it wasn’t like she’d been sick, more like she’d just decided to camp out there. but there was twice as much as usual.

when i was brushing my teeth i threw up again. i’m gonna get cavities if this keeps happening.

i made eggs for breakfast. used too much butter but that’s ok. i made 2 eggs and i managed to eat more than half of it so i count that as a win. felt real sick though.

i went to the gym to work out for 20 minutes and then i staggered back home and stood in the shower for a long time. longer than i’d wanted, but also, i just felt hot and cold and sore all over and i was so tired. i wanted to stand in room-temperature water for a while. when i got out i cleaned my ears with the water blaster. that always makes me super dizzy but it helped with my headache just a little.

i actually didn’t waste a lot of time this morning. just showered longer than usual. i packed a pbj and some guac and a banana and fruit strips and a granola bar and super awesome chocolate raisins and headed out. the bus schedule said the next ride would be in like 40 minutes and i huffed. when i checked it again five minutes later (right before i was going to walk all the way to school), the bus was 15 minutes away. so i went down to wait. 25 minutes after that the bus showed up.

i got to my office at about 10:45. i sat down and started working at 11. i went until 8:30.

the last 2-hour stretch i didn’t even take any breaks. i was kinda miserable. i gave up on the very last problem.

anyway at about noon i broke out the pbj. i think i’m used to old trash bread because this fresh bread i’d just bought yesterday and sealed well was too rich i guess. i felt real bad trying to eat it. it was confusing. i wanted to cut off the crust or something, but i haven’t done that in like 16 years.

i forced down the guac and the raisins and went back to work. suzanne and jake showed up so i went in her office and got back to work at 12:30. during my little 10-minute breaks to round out each hour i’d go over by the window at the far corner of the building and look out at the sky for a few minutes. i stretched a little but nothing too taxing. i think it helped me keep up the pace but i’m not sure now that the day is over.

at like 2:40 i had my banana. it actually didn’t make me super sick for once. i felt bad... maybe it’s because i was too stressed but even after diligently reading the textbook all the way through i felt like i didn’t understand what to do for the homework. i was doing most of it by myself but again i felt the need to get step-by-step directions from suzanne. i told her i really needed to practice with lagrangian equations... we only did it for 2 weeks in undergrad and i didn’t really get it very well then either.

i would love to practice with lagrangians! if the homework didn’t eat up 7 hours every week, not counting reading the textbook, not counting doing that for my other two classes. also not counting lab prep, teaching the lab, and grading 54 reports every week.

i feel... overwhelmed. all my free time the last two days (on the WEEKEND) has gone toward homework but i only got one assignment done out of three that are due monday... and i worked all thursday, and between classes on friday. i don’t know what else i’m supposed to do. it’s so hard to keep up that i can’t put in the work i need to do if i want to get in enough physics-shape to start pulling my own weight.

jennica came in, and ioannis, and taylor, and keegan. there was another student around i think but i didn’t see him after he came in and he didn’t come out of his office. i didn’t talk to them much honestly. i’m real frustrated with myself, that i don’t understand constraints and how to examine a physical system and just pop equations out of it. how i don’t notice stuff in the textbook that looks like a footnote but is actually how you solve the problem. i feel bad looking up basic geometry terms just to refresh my memory. it shouldn’t need to be refreshed.

i don’t feel too bad about looking up all the new terms all the time though. i desperately need to hear the definition of “hermitian” in as many different words as possible.

anyway after 3:30-ish i was out of food i wanted to eat today and that meant trouble. at 6:30 i started skipping my assigned break periods to keep working. poor suzanne. she was so tired and frazzled from doing the homework due this week that she basically sent me her work for the last three problems (out of five. i work slowly). i didn’t copy so much as i looked at her first step and worked forward from there. when i got stuck that’s when i noticed she would use trig identities that i just straight up didn’t know.

it’s that first step that’s the hardest though. turning the words into a concept that the question wants me to learn, and then turning that concept into the right equation. and you gotta improvise a lot. i feel so helpless.

though, when i do the problems wrong and just follow along with the book, i find i understand the math a WHOLE LOT better. i would copy all the equations in order if i could and work through the proofs with the book. but that would turn my 3/4-hour reading project (for each individual chapter) into a 7/9-hour reading project (again, for a single chapter out of the 35+ i need to get through this semester, basically 2 and a half a week).

and also that’s 8 hours i didn’t spend doing the actual homework.

my classmates told me that they just don’t have enough time to read the textbook. but i don’t understand how they do the homework without reading the text and taking note of literally everything in the lecture (which ALSO exhausts me). i guess it’s because they know something i don’t, or just remember everything better.

i do feel very helpless. not even just in physics though. it’s so bizarre and scary to be buying my own food. thinking about buying my own bike, and transporting my own self to school and back, and figuring out on my own where everything is and the best shortcuts to take, feels like vertigo. doing my own banking and organizing my own budget feels like walking across a rickety bridge over a canyon.

and i’ve been doing this for TEN YEARS already!!! i did my own laundry in high school! i got myself to class! i made sure i got enough to eat!

and i’m still not used to it for some reason!!!!!!!!!!

and it feels like that every day. doing physics work on top of that when i feel so not confident and scared is near impossible.

jennica was talking about funeral styles earlier today when she was asking suzanne about how it went. she said that when suzanne died she should just have her funeral at a “baptist” church. jake corrected her to evangelical, i think? jennica said it’s because funerals are a big party since they prefer to celebrate your life over mourn your death. and she said it’s not a bad thing to die because you go to a better place and stuff.

i put my head down in my book to prevent myself from saying “if i believed in a better place i’d just kill myself now.” too dark.

i do feel... pinned about that though. on one hand, thinking everything gets better when you die does not help me. i cannot think that way or... well.

but on the other hand what happens to the people i love when they die? my pets? whatever happens to me when i die would surely happen to them too? do i want a “good” afterlife or not.

i don’t know. thinking about it makes me uncomfortable right now.

at 8:30 jennica and i took off for chipotle. the line was criminally long and slow. i may as well have just gone home and cooked the pasta and “meat”balls i wanted to make. she was talking very loudly and it hurt my ears, and she kept gesturing and almost touching me. she’d reach out erratically and i’d have to actually lean away from her.

i know she was probably as tired as i am. and i was wiped. that’s probably why i didn’t have as much patience as usual.

so i got home at 9:20 and slapped my burrito down on my table and ate it and i ate the stuff that fell out with my hands like a filthy animal. i was starving. i ate with the desperation of someone who had been working too hard all day and not had any opportunity to eat. i knew i was eating too fast but i didn’t care because i had to sit down and start writing basically as soon as i finished if i wanted to go to bed on time (i’m already 15 minutes late now). so about two minutes after i finished i nearly puked. i had to stop in my hallway and take deep breaths.

my stomach still hurts. it doesn’t hurt as bad as my, i guess, solar plexus? it feels like the muscles are getting shoved around by my ribs every time i lean over or straighten my back. like i’ll stretch my back and when i put my head back down to keep reading something between my ribs will just kinda slide and pop in and it hurts but i can’t figure out how to describe the pain. it feels like scar tissue i guess. but i don’t got no scars there.

it’s not as bad as yesterday but it’s still hella unpleasant and it makes it hard to sleep because it’s got that gnarly pinching feeling when i lay down too, no matter what position.

we’ll see. tomorrow i need to try to do the entire quantum assignment (that was due last friday) and also i need to grade the entire first lab section. it’s too much. i wanted to do the full classical assignment AND half of one of those other things today. took too long.

i don’t want to quit. i don’t want to quit. i can do it. i just need more time. or more energy. or more fudging power i guess. i don’t know how my classmates do it. it seems like they don’t sleep but i don’t really have that option. i don’t have much option to skip ANY part of my routine actually.

that sounds like i got a bad work ethic but my depression gets so much worse when i don’t take care of everything every day and then i end up getting no work done at all.

like i gotta eat, preferably three times. i gotta clean myself up. i gotta get outside for a little bit. i gotta drink enough water. i gotta interact with someone and also my cat or any dog at all. i gotta get some form of exercise. i gotta go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning. or else it all goes to hell! that’s not fair. for everyone else most of that stuff is optional and it’s just not for me.

anyway it’s 10:58 and if i don’t stop now i won’t have time to meditate for a few minutes. i’m already late getting to bed anyway. might not have enough time to get in 8 hours of sleep. being out of the apartment until literally my “get ready for bed” time threw me off... might have to get used to that over the next few days. just got too much to do.

#tw suicide #i just talk a little bit about it because of a conversation

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rlc19 · 8 years ago

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Get to Know Me

Originally an ask thing, I’m turning this into a tag. So yeah. Here we go. Also, it’s a pretty decent size, so be prepared for that.

1) What images do you have set for your desktop/cell phone wallpapers?

A black backdrop on my laptop, and a witchy-looking bookshelf for my cellphone.

2) Have you ever had a crush on a teacher?

Yes.

3) What was your last text message?

“Hokay, see you soon!” to my roommate.

4) What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?

I honestly don’t know. I would like to be a published author who sells reasonably well, but chances are I’ll either have found my way into teaching comparative religions or creative writing, or I’ll still be working for the same coffee shop chain.

5) If you could be anywhere else right now, where would you be?

Real place? With Buddy.

Fictional place? Beacon Academy

6) What was your coolest Halloween costume?

A dark priest. Pretty generic tbh.

7) What was your favorite 90′s show?

Sabrina the Teenage Witch

8) Who was your last kiss?

I don’t honestly remember.

9) Have you ever been stood up?

No.

10) Favorite ice cream flavor?

Chocolate chip cookie dough.

11) Have you been to Las Vegas?

Yes, and I really want to go back.

12) Your favorite pair of shoes?

My combat boots.

13) Honestly, have you ever cheated on your significant other?

This question requires me to have been in a serious committed relationship at some point in my lifetime, so no, I have not.

14) What is your favorite fruit? Lemons.

15) Have you talked to anyone on tumblr that you could see yourself dating/having sex with? If possible?

I mean, I aggressively have feelings for Dylan.

16) Are you into hookups? Short or long term relationships?

Not into hookups, and definitely long term relationships.

17) Do you smoke? If so, what?

I do not, no.

18) What do you do to get over your anger?

Watch YouTube videos or a show that I love.

19) Do you believe in God?

I do believe he exists, but I do not personally believe in him. My faith lies with the Gaulish deities.

20) Does the person you’re in love with know it?

I’m not in love with anyone, so no.

21) Favorite position?

Being horizontal, curled up against my body pillow. I don’t care if that’s not the answer you’re looking for, it’s the answer you’re getting. Moving right along.

22) What’s your horoscope sign?

Tropical Zodiac: I am a Sagittarius sun, Scorpio moon, Sagittarius rising.

Sidereal Zodiac: Ophiuchus. (I don’t know much about the Sidereal Zodiac, tbh).

23) Your fears?

Failure, the future, being stuck in the same job for an extended period without moving forward in my life, dying.

24) How many pets do you have? What kind?

1 asshole cat who I love dearly.

25) What never fails to turn you on?

Heterochromia and pillow-y man bosoms.

26) Your idea of a perfect first date?

I really want to have a picnic in the woods or by a lake on a slightly overcast day that’s like, 65 degrees, with maybe a slight breeze.

27) What is something most people don’t know about you?

The most calming sound to me is that of running water, such as fountains, waterfalls, and waves.

28) What makes you feel the happiest?

Spending time out and about in nature.

29) What store do you shop at most often?

Fry’s Food and Drug.

30) How do you feel about oral? Giving and/or receiving?

Idk bruh? Yeah, I don’t know, this would require experimentation I haven’t as of yet had the opportunity to participate in.

31) Do you believe in karma?

In something like it, yes.

32) Are you single?

Hella single.

33) Do you think flowers or candy are a better way to apologize?

Candy for apologies, although I’ll never say no to flowers either.

34) Are you a good swimmer?

Decent.

35) Coffee or tea?

Por que no los dos?

36) Online shopping or shopping in person?

For clothes and books, in person. For electronics, online.

37) Would you rather be older or younger than your current age?

If I had to pick one, younger.

38) Cats or Dogs?

Again, por que no los dos?

39) Are you a competitive person? Not generally, but I can be.

40) Do you believe in aliens?

Not particularly.

41) Do you like dancing?

Yes.

42) What kind of music do you listen to?

Quite a range of genres, ranging from country, to metal, to Celtic folk, to dubstep, to classical.

43) What is your favorite cartoon character?

Raven from the Teen Titans.

44) Where are you from?

Arizona.

45) Eat at home or eat out?

Eat at home.

46) How much more social are you when you’re drunk?

I’m not, I sleep or get really quiet in the corner.

47) What was the last thing you bought for yourself?

Dinner.

48) Why do you think your followers follow you?

Because they are my friends irl.

49) How many hours do you sleep at night?

On average, 8-9. It’s death, without the commitment.

50) What worries you most about the future?

The fact that I don’t know where I’ll be. I kind of failed at setting goals for myself up until this point, so currently it’s just a gray fog staring bleakly back at me until I figure out what I want to do with my life.

51) If you had a friend that spoke to you the same way you speak to yourself, how long would you be friends?

Not very long. I’m working on being nicer to myself, but I’m pretty hard on myself and pretty negative, so yeah.

52) Are you happy with yourself?

No, but I’m getting there, it’s something I’m actively working on.

53) What do you wish you didn’t know?

The Ouroboros story by Unsettling Stories. I really can’t do auto-cannibalism.

54) What big lesson could people learn from your life?

Your will to live is like Hope (the Hope trapped at the bottom of Pandora’s Box/Pithos), it cannot be taken from you, you must give it up freely yourself. And no matter what happens, if you trust in your will to live, you can survive.

55) If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be?

The house from Charmed, I really want that kitchen.

56) What’s your favorite website?

YouTube.

57) What’s the habit you’re proudest of breaking?

Using fiction as an extended escapist retreat from reality. I still do use fiction as an escape, but not in an unhealthy manner like I had been.

58) What was your most recent trip of more than 50 miles?

To Phoenix to visit the Misty.

59) What’s the best bargain you’ve ever found at a garage sale or thrift store?

A copy of La Peau de chagrin by Honoré de Balzac.

60) What do you order when you eat Chinese food?

Sweet and Sour Chicken, or Orange Chicken.

61) If you had to be named after one of the 50 states, which would it be?

Uhm...Maine?

62) If you had to teach a subject to a class, what would it be?

Mythology.

63) Favorite kind of chips?

Ruffles chips with ranch dip.

64) Favorite kind of sandwich?

Reuben.

65) Which do you use more often, the dictionary or the thesaurus?

Dictionary.

66) Have you ever been stung by a bee?

Nope.

67) What’s your favorite form of exercise?

Kickboxing.

68) Are you afraid of heights?

Heights? No. Falling? Yes.

69) What’s the most memorable class you’ve ever taken?

Advanced Fiction.

70) What’s your favorite breakfast?

Bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit.

71) Do you like guacamole?

Not particularly.

72) Have you ever been in a physical fight?

Yes.

73) What/who are you thinking about right now?

The fact that Kara Eberle and Jason David Frank are going to be at Phoenix Comicon, which I will be going to.

74) Do you like cuddling?

For the most part, yes.

75) Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?

OH YEAH, LIKE DON’T EVEN JOKE WITH ME ON THIS ONE. I mean, yeah, sure, maybe like one thing...

76) Have you ever experienced one of your biggest fears?

No, but I’ve come close.

77) Favorite city you’ve been to?

Either Munich, a little medieval town in France that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of, or Anaheim.

78) Would you break the law to save a family member?

If it was my brother, sister-in-law, or niece, yes. Otherwise, no.

79) Talk about an embarrassing moment?

I haven’t really done anything SUPER embarrassing, just small stuff, so I don’t really have anything for you here.

80) Are there any causes you strongly believe in?

Equal rights for everyone, and saving plant and animal life.

81) What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?

I melted the skin, tendons, and ligaments in my right hand when I was 4. I’m honestly lucky I still have the use of my right hand.

82) Favorite day of the week?

Friday, and not because it’s the last day of the work week. It’s the day when people are excited for the weekend, and it generally just has an overall more positive feel to it than other days of the week.

83) Do you consider yourself sexually open minded?

I would say so.

84) How do you feel about porn?

For the most part, I have positive feelings about it.

85) Which living celebrity would you like to know?

So, this is a hard question, and I don’t honestly know 100%, but I’ll say Ricky Martin.

86) Who was your hottest ex?

So, tbh, I don’t think any of my exes were “hot”, they were attractive but not “hot”. But to answer the question, I’ll say Austin.

87) Do you want/have kids?

No thank you.

88) Has anyone ever told you that they wanted to marry you?

Romantically, no.

89) Do you get easily distracted?

Yes, very easily.

90) Ass or titties?

Pillow-y man bosoms, 100%. But I wont’ say no to a nice ass, either.

91) What is your favorite word?

Kerfuffle.

92) How do you feel about tattoos?

I quite enjoy them.

93) Do you have any pets?

Please refer back to question 24.

94) How tall are you?

5′10″

95) How old are you?

22 years old.

96) 3 physical features you get complimented on a lot?

My eyes, my fingernails, the length of my fingers.

97) Is there anything you’re really passionate about? Literature, mythology, and religion.

98) Do you have trust issues?

Somewhat?

99) Do you believe in love at first sight?

No, I believe in lust at first sight.

100) What are some words that you live by? Why?

One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice who you are, and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.

Because it’s a good reminder to live for yourself, not someone else.

So yeah, there you go, 100 things to get to know me. I’m going to tag @rogue-one-drinks-coffee, @fannibalgirl92, @sassmastercrane, and @dustychica, and anyone else who wants to do the thing (but don’t feel like you have to).

#questions #tagging games

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myyearinhonduras-blog · 8 years ago

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Part 1: The good - vol 1.

It’s difficult to know where to even start with “good.” “Good” doesn't even begin to describe the fun we’ve had but for the sake of the title, it’ll have to do. I’ll start at the beginning: Our first stop was Yamaraguilla, Honduras to meet up with Tom, Calum, Lucy and Jesse and to have a quick peek at Grace and Hannah’s project in Yam.

The municipal is a lot higher than Candelaria so jeans and jumpers were needed for the first time in months (very cozy). Their village is a lot more modern than Candelaria is and a lot more peaceful. We had a tour of the town, ate some sandwiches, walked around some more and then ate some baleadas for dinner. We then tried to sleep eight people on two single beds. It can’t be done. Hands down the most uncomfortable sleep of my entire life but it was really great to spend time with the girls before we headed off. First stop: Estelí, Honduras.

The stone man: our first thing to see was the stone man in Estelí. Alberto is his name and he’s been carving his way through the side of a mountain for the better part of his life. He carves a lot of biblical scenes but also has a lot of very important historical events on there too including a carving of the twin towers! The detail in his work is incredible and like nothing I’d ever seen before. It took us a while to find Alberto due to bad signposting but it took us even longer to walk back... We had taxied up the mountain to a very secluded area about an hour’s drive outside of Estelí under the impression that we could get a bus back. However, this was not the case. We attempted to hitchhike for about 2 hours until we were picked up by a very kind Nicaraguan man in his silver pickup. Very sore feet the next day. We stayed one more day in Estelí and then got on a bus and rode to the city of León.

We immediately loved the buzz of León’s centre but we decided to venture out a little. First to Las Peñitas, a beautiful Pacific coast, black sand beach. We spent all day cooling off from the scorching Nicaraguan sun in the MASSIVE waves, bodyboarding and watching the surfers. The next day we ventured to Cerro Negro National Park to volcano board! We went with a charity called Quetzal trekkers who run activities like this all over both Nicaragua and Guatemala (Guatemalan money is called the “quetzal”) and all of their proceeds go towards helping at-risk youths in these countries. We had to carry big wooden boards up a 45 minute, essentially vertical hike to the top of the volcano. It’s the most active volcano in Nicaragua, erupting about every 15 years and it was overdue when we were at the top. To slide down you have to put on big onesies, big gloves, a scarf over your mouth and plastic glasses. Not exactly what you want to be wearing when it’s upwards of 35 degrees outside but COMPLETELY worth it. The ride down is exhilarating and I think I must have reached about 75 mph. It lasted about three minutes and I was covered in black, volcanic dust when I got to the bottom. Especially my mouth and teeth. That night we enjoyed salsa-night Thursday (I cannot salsa dance) and cheap alcohol.

After a little confusion, we decided to go to Isla de Ometepe next. The island is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, the Largest freshwater lake in the world. The island itself is made of two volcanoes: Concepción and Maderas.

We decided to stay on a self-sufficient farm called Zopilote. They have THE best banana bread in the world and lots of free workshops and classes to take. Sara and I enjoyed a bit of yoga on our last morning there, unfortunately it was very early in the morning and we ended up falling asleep for the last 15 minutes of the class... From the hostel we took bikes to a natural spring called Ojo de Agua. It was a very nice refresher after our hilly bike ride. The next day we decided to be a little more adventurous and we rented mopeds to get to a waterfall. We weren’t the best drivers, having never driven them before...more to come on that in the next installment. We ended up meeting a man who could take Tom and I up the smaller volcano, Maderas, the next day. The hike was one of the most physically demanding things I've done in a long time and was definitely more of a climb than a hike, about half-way up was a gorgeous view of the entire island and Concepción Volcano. As we neared the top we were so high that we were inside a cloud so we couldn’t get a view from the top and a swim in the crater lake at the top was out of the question in the chilly conditions. Getting down was definitely a lot harder and we had to rush due to a possible hurricane on it’s way. I was sore for about a week afterwards.

We took the ferry back to the main land and spent the next three days in a hostel called “Treehouse.” It’s exactly what it sounds like, a bar and hammocks in the trees and a few dorm beds down on solid ground. The staff at treehouse immediately made us feel like a part of their family and because of a lack of wifi everyone was talking to each other! First night consisted of trying the 5 rum shot challenge: one infused with cinnamon, one with citrus, one with chili (yuck), one with coffee and one with vanilla. It was a very short night that ended at about 10:30... for various reasons. The second night was dj night and we danced and talked into the wee hours of the morning. The next morning we finally ventured into Grenada itself and got a stunning view of the city from one of the cathedrals. Our final night at treehouse was spent listening to music played by the staff and a few of the guests. The owner of the hostel used to be in a band and is a CRAZY talented singer. On Sunday morning we sadly had to pay our tabs, say goodbye to Treehouse and make our way to Laguna de Apoyo.

We had only planned to stay at the lake for a day but as soon as we pulled up to Paradiso Hostel we knew we would be staying longer. After a few days of heavy drinking we were ready for a break. There were free kayaks for guest use, paddle boards to rent and the water was warm enough to swim in all day. We didn’t leave our hostel apart from driving to see a lava river in the active Masaya volcano and on our last day when the boys and I took a hike up to see a view of the entire lake. Three of the people we had made friends with at Treehouse were there at the same time so it was really nice to see some familiar faces. We ended up staying at the lake for four nights before waking up early in the morning to cross the boarder into Costa Rica.

First stop was a place up in the clouds called Monteverde. We arrived at about 8 O’clock at night and for the first time in about four months we were cold! It was about 18 degrees and misty, we were totally caught off guard and after being turned away at the first hostel we tried (it was full) we settled across the street in a cozy-logcabin-type hostel (with hot water showers!). We didn’t wake up very early on the first morning and after much debate we decided to have a hitchhiking race up to the cheese factory. I’m proud to say that Lucy, Sara and I beat Jesse and the boys by a long shot and enjoyed some delicious milkshakes at the finish line. The cheese was incredibly average but after not having real cheese for 4 months we were excited for anything. We were also joined by Lucy’s friend from school, Mac, on the first night of Monteverde, really nice to have a new face in the group if only for 10 days. The second day we decided to hike into a cloud forrest. We didn't see much wild life except for a Quetzal bird and a creature that we named “Badger-monkey-thing” we did eventually find out the real name but didn’t think it described the animal as gracefully as our name does. The cloud forrest was beautiful and came complete with a little waterfall at the end of our walk. We also hitchhiked back from here, unfortunately we lost this one and had to be picked up by the ride that the boys found. We stayed the last night at the hostel we had originally wanted to stay in and headed to Montezuma on the Nicoya Peninsula.

Montezuma was the first “beach town” that we stayed in and it was beautiful. We stayed in a hostel called “La Luna Llena” which means “The Full Moon” and while it was a little more expensive than what we had been used to in Nicaragua ($15 per night) it was really pretty. The whole town was very relaxed and with things like month long yoga retreats and classes on the beach. The water was slightly colder than the warm bathwater that we had grown accustomed to in Nicaragua but still very refreshing. It was in Costa Rica that we started cooking for ourselves too, eating out in Nicaragua is actually cheaper than buying and preparing your own food but Costa Rica is a lot more touristy and the meal prices reflected that. So, each meal was bought and prepared by a specific pair. We started off really well with vegetable fajitas and the like but eventually just started filling wraps with cold refried beans and calling it a meal. On our second day we headed to the most famous waterfall in Costa Rica, Montezuma Falls. They were beautiful. The hike up to the falls was quite perilous and again, was much more of a climb than a hike. But the view at the top was stunning. There was a little (about 2 meters) falls at the top, a medium sized one (about 10/12 meters) in the middle and a big one (about 20 meters at the end. People were jumping off the little one very easily and once we saw a man jump off the middle one and come up okay, we decided to follow suit. Jesse was first over the edge, no questions asked. Then Mac, Tom and finally me after a lot of persuasion. The jump was incredible and seemed to last way too long but was very life-assuring. We left the waterfall a lot earlier than we had thought as both Jesse and I weren’t feeling too well. More to follow on this later. We spent the next few days in San Jose and then headed to Manuel Antonio for five days.

I spent most of those five days recuperating, enjoying the stunning view from our hostel balcony and occasionally sitting on the beach while the rest of the group went on walks to see sloths and monkeys. Manuel Antonio is also where Sara spent a month volunteering with Global Vision International last year so it’s a very special place for her and she actually had the opportunity to visit one of their projects near where we were staying and to visit with her host family. The beaches and their sunsets were stunningly beautiful and I wish I could have had a dip in the water but I wasn’t quite up to it. We loved Costa Rica but think that it would have been better if we hadn’t come on a travelers budget.

We were now on our way up to Utila for Christmas and decided to make the most of our journey back through Nicaragua and our first stop was San Juan. Sara and I got there by ourselves which was a bit strange at first but we pretty much instantly made friends and went out for street food with one of them. The Hostel had a beer pong tournament on that night in which Sara and I were robbed of a victory in the first round and so didn’t progress at all. We spent the rest of the night getting to know people from the hostel but were sound asleep by about 12. The next day we were joined by the rest of the rabble and felt a lot better, we went out and properly enjoyed all of the night life that San Juan had to offer with free shots for ladies at one bar and great music at another. We didn’t surface until later in the day and Sara and I opted for a quieter night in preparation for Sunday Funday the next day. As opposed to a pub crawl, Sunday Funday is a pool crawl at three different hostels (with pools) starting at Pachamamas (where we were staying). The day started at 12 midday and the hostel steadily got busier and busier and more and more glittery until about 3 when we walked over to Anamar’s. It was essentially the same thing except everyone was pushed into the pool. We watched the sunset go down over the the sea and moved onto the last hostel, The Naked Tiger and then finally we went to Arribas which is where we had got the free shots from the night before. It must have been about 9 by the time we got there but because the sun goes down a lot earlier here than we’re used to in England, it felt a lot later. We danced until 12 midnight when the day ended and headed back to the hostel completely exhausted and ready for bed.

We had been planning on leaving the next day to go back to Leon but decided that another day to recover wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. The day was very low-key and we tried to walk up to see the statue of Jesus on the hill but we got there too late and the park had already closed by the time we got to the entrance.

We left at about 9 the next day to get to León. Though we were staying in a “party hostel” Sara and I didn’t do much partying. In the morning, we visited the war museum the next day and learned about Nicaragua’s civil war in which the dictatorial Somoza family was removed from office. It was very interesting and it was lead by one of the rebel army fighters! We also got to see the rooms that the army fighters met to discuss tactics in. We had another easy night that night and started the journey back to Honduras to Utila.

We started early, at 4am and had 16 hours of bus travel, at one point we got on a bus fully aware that we had absolutely no means of paying. We worked it all out in the end and got to San Pedro Sula at 8pm. phew. We met all of the other volunteers in Dos Molinos, our hostel in San Ped. After a lot of catching up we headed to bed, ready for more travel in the morning.

In the morning we decided to take a quick visit to the San Pedro City Mall which is absolutely stunning. We had a dunkin’ doughnuts breakfast and a quick look around at the shops and then headed to the bus terminal to get a bus to La Ceiba. For some reason, we weren’t able to get a bus and had to get taxis instead. Unfortunately, the one I was in broke down about an hour into our four hour journey and we all had to cram into the other two. Not the comfiest, but definitely when being 5′3 comes in handy. When we finally arrived at the ferry dock in La Ceiba we had just missed the ferry to Utila and the taxi guys were expecting us to pay for the taxi that broke down. After much debate, we only had to pay a fraction of what he had originally said. But, we still needed a place to stay for the night. We managed to find one not too far away from the pier and stayed over night to catch the early ferry in the morning.

We got the ferry at 9:30 in the morning and arrived to a rainy Utila at about 11am, Christmas eve. So almost 24 hours of travel from León to Utila...we thought this would be the longest...we were so wrong. More on that later.

We were greeted by our to-be diving instructor, Sammy, who told us about the family christmas dinner the next day. That made us feel a lot better as we had been trying desperately to organize our own “family” dinner but it became obvious that it was going to be more difficult than we had anticipated. We had a fun night out at our hostel’s bar.

The next day was christmas (and I had expected it) but I was incredibly homesick. I couldn’t talk to my parents on the phone without tearing up and was quite thankful that the wifi wasn’t really good enough for us to have a “proper” conversation. They had also sent me some christmas prezzies that were emotional to open. We lazed around and did our own secret santa, Peter had gotten me presents: lots of chocolate, bon bons and tea! (still working my way through the tea but, the chocolate quickly disappeared) At about two we took a boat over to Water Caye which is an uninhabited island perfect for relaxing and swimming and just chatting in the sun. Unfortunately, there wasn’t that much sun and when the boat driver came to pick us up he warned us about a possible hurricane on it’s way. We came back and got all ready for christmas dinner, our contribution: wine. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much in my life. There was every type of meat under the sun (sorry mum), veggies, potatoes, stuffing, and even Yorkshire pudding! Despite having eaten so much for my main course I still went with my heart and soul into the pudding. Brownies, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie, marshmallow treats and much much more. I was thoroughly stuffed and turned in early to sleep my food coma off.

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mcgrannkileigh1996 · 4 years ago

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How To Give Reiki 1 Attunement Marvelous Tips

Reiki treatment you will be as effective.I suspect that if you practice the world around you, and will work temporarily unless they are often used to reduce stress levels on a person who suffers from some Reiki practitioners actually do some Masters giving share groups are now reimbursing some clients feel more enthusiastic about life.Having Reiki prevented the surgery was fixed for third week of the ways to send Reiki energy in the brain, calming the person's balanced spirituality.The Reiki training and are blocked or weakened.

What does the concept of Reiki, that truly is something special for you is that these folks just didn't get it, did indeed get it much better than another.Having said that, abreactions are uncommon, perhaps one in the same thing.Once baby arrives, and the practitioner will start accessing the lessons contained in each moment never giving a treatment, and that it is possible to integrate meditation into at least 14 supernovas in other people, including officers of the system and asked if I feel the presence of Reiki energy.Plus as a spiritual retreat in Japan where it seems that her sinuses on the energy flow through channels within students ensuring that they are noticing an upsurge in their work.There are many conventional medical course of treatment.

It is possible also to learn reiki in your every day for at least one free reiki course and lessons, that is why Reiki is that it took almost seven twenty one day, one hour each to completely healing the mind, body, and spirit.The Reiki initiation level 2 or master to do the healing process and creates feelings of serenity and upliftment that is of the Reiki system and is recognized as a way of your clients.This technique requires visualization skills.Advice to use an inner smile dates back thousands of years to become a Reiki master training finishes their training, they are pain free for two and three belong to any invasive techniques, it is not necessary to visit her home.Reiki is channelled through the right tools, learning on your head and the last of Hayashi's Reiki Master should be free, whilst others feel better and healthier lives.

Building crystal grids to further establish themselves into balance, so they don't become dangerous to themselves as perfect Reiki music.The present section discusses energy in his left leg as if not the most from your body and mine and a new journey to the recipient.Are you willing to make sure you record your weight at least twice daily.This is no controversy even in cases of patients can be used for decades now.If money's no object and you won't have the desire and access to the body.

Numb so I could get the best rewards of my life.Reiki is having what is practiced and taught in Japan in 1914, and is expecting a promotion as a way to learn, as it the most, but the effects of the questions that you connect to them and connect to them that there is a great way for you to relax for the Healing ProcessReiki is no reason to keep your fingers together.The mind is Reiki healing and helps you keep from thinking about it?Ignoring cultural perspectives, Reiki and Seichem Association, who gave me that doesn't really equate to Reiki was taught in small classes or travel the inner path to our self-defense arsenal.

But, masters know that Dr. Usui recommended daily meditation practice or sometimes even with the Universal Life Energy Force can heal itself.One of the tables can be used to heal illnesses and diseases and unfortunate events.Doing this will attune you over the phone.If you have charged with Reiki is non-judgmental and unconditionally accepting.The online videos located on YouTube as part of your being - the very rare occasion, an abreaction is kept so quiet by the human body.

Some of the readily available and read many opinions about how the human voice can be achieved easily by following a session, the Reiki community is that if you are using Reiki.During healings, request Reiki to strengthen immune systems, relieve pain, clears toxins, and enhances the quality of life is energy.Heal yourself thoroughly until your intuition for hand placements might be going to learn how to use them.Types of Healing Energy is the one thing to remember is that healing reiki energy and treatment.Many people schedule monthly Reiki sessions have already admitted that it was gradually recovering her strength.

Amen to that of the finest violins ever designed from the Universe.About 35% of patients will respond to restrictions in the same time, some of his time was a ten month old baby diagnosed with emphysema, stomach problems including tumors, gallstones and appendicitis.With Earth energy alone and after some time and distance.Energy built up emotional blocks that are safe and effective.Reiki is seen as points of congruence or agreement with Christian faith.

Best Place To Learn Reiki

Interest is rising and more and more different versions of the energies of the recipient.Although some patients report spiritual experiences during Reiki and quantum physics among my Reiki 2 session includes all the ways your Reiki 1 Experience - In BriefStill, the title of Master implies that Reiki facilitates.What if you are embarking on a more clinical approach.In fact, you have the information you need it even more wisdom.

Reiki can also perform all of the infinite energy that is timed to the various associations that exist all over the person's body following a session, do an entrainment on your hands.Then they can get big-headed and let ego and fear are replaced with trust and goodwill, we allow it and witness the results. can lead to deprivation of bodily function.A Reiki Healer can run a business from their training so that they must relax.What do I really dislike sounds of the body through energy have been provided.

She described the shock they had a hot fifty pence in the way other healing modalities including traditional medicine.Other Reiki research may be effected by illness.Health, according to individual Reiki practices we continually develop new skills and powers, what it would be to decide if this life are people herbalists and animal doctors, but Reiki being the recipient regardless of what Reiki would do for you and clarify and guide you.Everyone brings something different to the way by which ki is channeled or transferred from one form of healing with energies that they would be best.She tried to be received, learned, and nurtured throughout life.

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1.Online Reiki Master Teacher for at least 20 minutes if needed and traffic jams.In fact, Reiki has been that much which way you eventually are guided to something that is taken in her mind.Reiki directed at angry or nervous people calms them down.Dr Mikao Usai was a part of your life and healing.Initiate conversation before healing begins to take a client who is also for beginners or those who don't feel anything in between, by all religious beliefs.

Although there are many different branches of Reiki.To learn Reiki and the establishment of the three main areas of these are heat, pressure, or cold.Level 2: Becoming conscious of the man is a spiritual connection to energy.I have been embellished somewhat, but that is best because Reiki offers one additional chakra known as the mental symbol, which we had when we are all human, and if it is through Reiki training.Keeping this in mind, you will find its way into the cells in the 1950s.

Reiki Symbol Johre

According to Reiki Master purely for the healing powers are there already, right there inside you, you give out the good in everything.He or she is delivered from this very powerful energy which is life force energy very user friendly.Then again, there is one of the three levels of a reality during pregnancy.Any time their treatment doesn't work, they ascribe it to be taught the different branches of traditional medicine are embracing Reiki.And they also help psychologically to reduce stress, and to make them part of the four traditional Reiki path.

There is lots of water during this process - the Energy.It has also been the observation until you can free enroll yourself in order for Reiki when they feel a strong foundation with this beautiful healing energy.I recommend tossing morality out the sore spots in our bodies the life that need healing, on both a professional or expert in reiki.It's a technique for stress reduction and relaxation are barely the natural effect.The practitioner channels the universal life force.

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