#craft and don’t mind spending time putting the ideas or joys of others into visuals as well EEP!!

[cozen]

I simply must purchase more commissions right away!!!

[blindwyrm]

Basics of Energy Work - Part One

Expanding Awareness Energy work is a subtle art, a foundational building block to successful magic. Almost all magical practices involve some form of energy work - and there are countless forms - but how it will function from individual to individual will differ greatly. To put it simply, energy work is the practice of manipulating unseen energies. Everything - people, places, animals, inanimate objects, even our thoughts - vibrates at a specific energetic frequency and emits energy. By learning how to identify and tune into these energies, we can use them to direct our magic and spell work. Chances are, you have worked your own personal energy before. More often than not, your own energy will be the easiest for you to tap into. To do this, we need to learn how to expand our awareness. Meditation Meditation is a good practice to have when pursuing any kind of magical endeavor; there are many ways to meditate and there is much to achieve through it. The overall key to meditation is, generally, focus. You are training your mind to simply observe with non judgement; not to simply clear your mind of any thought at all, which is the common misconception. There is not just one way to meditate - if sitting cross legged in a room bathed with incense as you engage breathing exercises works for you, great! Some people meditate through dance, yoga, exercise, crafts, etc. Anything where your mind can drift, “tune out” so to speak, as your body instinctively goes through the motions. There are also several forms of guided meditations that you can use for specific goals, such as attentiveness, visualization, improving memory, empowerment, etc. Elemental meditation is popular among the witchcraft community. What’s great about guided meditation is it extremely accessible through apps and things like youtube (favorites of mine are the fire meditation and the water meditation from magickians!) and makes the whole process of learning to meditate a lot less intimidating.  As meditation relates to energy work, it will sharpen your ability for visualization, increase your focus, have you more in touch with your physical and inner self as both the same and separate entities, and increase your awareness of changes in and around you - all of this working towards an enhanced ability to sense energy and its movement.  What is this mystical “energy?”  If you’re having trouble wrapping your head around the idea of the elusive and all encompassing vaguery of “energy”, don’t worry. The idea may seem intimidating, but they are not inaccessible. If you are struggling, it only indicates that you are human. This will take practice and it will require you to understand the concepts on a physical level. Luckily, these are steps that nearly every magical practitioner, old and new, has and will continue to work on for the rest of their spiritual journey. Every question you have has likely already been answered. Some may just take a bit of research to find! However, I’m going to try and provide at least some cursory information here. To get a real idea of what “energy” feels like, set aside some quiet time for youself. Close the door, dim the lights, turn off your phone. Light your candles and make sure you will be left alone. Sit down on the floor and make yourself comfortable - not too comfortable! You don’t want to fall asleep. Draw in some deep breaths and clear your mind, as you did in your meditation. Continue until you feel your breathing regulated and yourself relaxed. Now, close your eyes and rub your palms together, like you’re trying to warm them up, then pull them an inch or two apart. You should feel a charged sensation tingling between your hands, maybe even like a ball, vibrating and pulsating in your hands. If you concentrate, you may even be able to feel a sort of magnetic resistance if you attempt to push it back together. That’s energy. It’s really that simple. If you don’t feel it at first, just try again. The more you do this, the easier it will become to identify your own and different types of energy all around you through a technique called centering, which will be discussed below.  Grounding The term grounding, sometimes called Earthing, means to recalibrate your energy. Essentially, the purpose of grounding is to shake off “excess” energy and ground yourself back in reality, into the rhythm of the plane on which we exist. And while grounding does restore balance and connectedness, there are greater implications to explore when it comes to grounding. Everything on this earth is shaped by forces and presence of the Earth and cosmos, and as such, “this connection is deeply inherent to a sustainable state of well being. The Earth, as an organic and inorganic system, is constantly bathing all life on the planet with its highly ordered and coherent electromagnetic field. The natural tendency of an organism is to couple with the Earth’s energy field and come to a mutual state of cooperation and harmony within its environment, finding its niche and proper place within a system. What we need to understand is that all systems strive to achieve, return to and/or maintain a state of coherence. Whether one is aware of it or not, we are always taking part in a constant process within our universe, coupling with other energy fields and finding some sort of balance within this space. This happens everywhere within the context of an ecosystem, whenever two forces interact for any reason. The more organized or coherent these fields are, the more effectively and efficiently energy can be [manipulated.]”  Grounding allows us to cultivate a relationship with the earth and facilitate a healthier, more coherent state of being. It allows us to align our energy for more accurate working. Like meditation, there are many ways to ground; a list of some of my personal favorite methods can be found (here.) Shielding and Centering Shielding is important for magical workings as it provides a protective barrier to maintain our center. To do this, you’ll want to get a feel for your personal energy first. A good way to do is something called centering. Throughout the day, you naturally will pick up on all kinds of external energy; some good, some bad, most of it probably neither of the two - either way, it is energy that is not yours. Meditation and shadow work will be useful in identifying what feels distinctly you, but you should be able to know when you’re not feeling entirely you. If you’ve been feeling particularly out of sorts, a good tip to get back in touch with yourself before centering or shielding is to spend some time in self care. Turn off your phone and go to your room or a friendly space in nature, a library, a favorite haunt and engage in a creative project, put on your favorite music, eat your favorite food. Be mindful of your physical space, your body, sensations your are experiencing. Be attentive to you and only you; your wants, needs, feelings, comforts, etc. Take a bath and allow yourself to relax. Your only responsibility right now is you have no responsibilities - if even for just a short while. Just do what you can to access some “me time” to do something you love to do and observe yourself. Take note of what you choose to do that brings you joy, why those things make you feel happy and fulfilled, how exactly these feelings and activities resonate with you. Record this in your Book of Shadows, as it is useful information to getting to yourself on a more intimate level. Learn to recognize this energy and get familiar with what it means to feel yourself. It can be easy to get lost. Centering can get you back, especially when you make these feelings more accessible to yourself.  To center, we’re going to go back to the exercise in the beginning; in a quiet place, meditate and rub your palms together - build up that energy between them again. When you pull your hands apart, you want to visualize this sensation. What color is it? What does it feel like? Is it light? Heavy? Is it vibrating? Focus on the pulsation and how it pushes against you. Allow it to move and grow. Picture it contracting and growing until you no longer can. Pull it in close to you, somewhere you can focus on it - many people use their solar plexus or heart chakras. This is the same energy you’re going to use to shield yourself. Instead of centering this energy, however, you’re going to push it out to envelope you. Visualization in your meditation and centering exercises should help with this; visualizing energy usually makes it easier for people to push it outward. Again, knowing what specifically makes this your protective energy will be useful - what color is it? Texture? Is it elemental? Perhaps your energy doesn’t feel like light, but water or air. Maybe white is a protective color to you or maybe green is, for Earth. Maybe your energy shield is a network of stars in the shape of your zodiac constellation. Maybe the outside is reflective, to reflect any negativity directed your way. Maybe its a shield of smoke, to conceal yourself. No matter what it looks like to you, just make sure it is yours. Don’t feel pressured to commit to something either - your idea of what these concepts look like will grow and change as much as you do.  Push this energy outward and around you, as if you are creating a protective bubble for yourself. To enhance the intensity of desired outcome, surround yourself with corresponding elements. Light white candles or wear black tourmaline. I personally like to use dragon’s blood incense or oils. There are many things you can do in tandem with any of these practices, so long as they make sense for you and are helping you to achieve your desired results. This shield will become stronger the more you do this and keep you protected from psychic attacks, curses and hexes, negative energy, and bad intent.  These exercises are all building blocks to unlocking great power within oneself, but they are also a great power on their own as well. Taking the time and patience to hone these skills will aid you in all your magical endeavors, whether through sharper focus, strong visual associations, enforced protective barriers, and/or knowing your true self above all else. Once you have established your abilities, you will be able to do them any time, anywhere and begin to play more with energy, both internal and external. In the follow up, I will focus on charging and programming. 

[sweetsmellosuccess]

Sundance 2021: Days 6 & 7

Films: 5 Best Film of the Day(s): Users

All Light, Everywhere: In 2015, during the riots and rebellion in the immediate aftermath of the Freddy Gray killing by local police, the Baltimore Police department agreed with a private entrepreneur to send up a secret surveillance plane over the city, in order to monitor, in clear HD images, those neighborhoods most primed for a violent reaction. They did this without informing the mayor’s office, or other local government agencies. This is only a facet of Theo Anthony’s far-reaching doc on the subject, not just of surveillance, but also the Act of Looking as any type of objective measure of reality. Anthony stays fixated on Baltimore, his hometown, when he tours the AXON corporate headquarters in Arizona, the makers of the most used police body cams and taser weapons, where the company CEO enthusiastically walks through the offices and production warehouse, as these items are being manufactured. Not surprisingly, despite their near-ubiquity amongst American police stations, AXON’s most lucrative asset is its intense data collection, via its evidence.com portal, where law enforcement uploads thousands of hours of video each day. Anthony also spends time with marketing focus groups, camera-toting carrier pigeons, and scientists exploring the framework of our visual understanding. It’s at times an abstract experience  —  the film communicates its intentions largely through bracketed text blocks, and a voice-actor, who acknowledges their role in your understanding the film’s premise. He also makes frequent use of past scientific thought on the subject, including the creation of the earliest forms of motion picture recording, to best exemplify the more we attempt to create visual “truth,” the more the standard slips through our fingers. Notably, the AXON recording equipment is designed to give the idea of full-disclosure with respect to the police’ behavior, as a means of protecting the community, but it’s clear that the appeal to law-enforcement is actually quite the opposite: Providing enough legally permissible evidence to either exonerate their officers, or to put the plaintiff behind bars. As Anthony’s pithy film points out, the act of seeing is still an act.

The World to Come: It is, of course, deeply unfair to compare each film to the highwater mark in a given genre  —  to say, for example, ‘Well, I quite liked that hard-boiled egg, but it’s no souffle au fromage’  —  but the current spate of turn-of-the-century hardship lesbian romance films makes it near impossible not to put them in canonical order. Leading the way, it must be said, is the first of this current iterations of romances, Céline Sicamma’s excellent Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which took my breath away. If the low-water mark of this triad is last year’s Ammonite, which relied far too much on its esteemed leads to do all the heavy lifting; Mona Fastvold’s film nestles somewhere close to the latter, but nowhere near the rarefied air of the former. What Fastvold does make use of is the natural environment in which the film was shot (Bucharest, as a believable stand-in for Upstate New York), filled with snow, and mud, and the damp gray features of that clump of woods in the valley of the mountains nearby. The story gives us two farming couples, both miserable, albeit in slightly different ways. Abigail (Katherine Waterston) and Dyer (Casey Affleck) genuinely care about one another, but the loss of their young daughter to diphtheria has turned their marriage into a sort of continual wake; and Tallie (Vanessa Kirby) and her dour husband, Finney (Christopher Abbott), who don’t have any children, and with Finney’s grimly cruel nature, aren’t likely to have any. In their shared loneliness and misery, Abigail and Tallie become friends, then eventually lovers, finding in each other’s arms, the wonder of worlds and joys otherwise lost to them. The film certainly means well, but as told mainly in journal entry and letter VO  —  Waterston’s voice so muted and unwavering, she sounds like an NPR journalist reporting a story  —  it's so modulated and chaste, the emotional arc never rises beyond the slightly bowed. We aren’t given enough privvy into Tallie’s own state of mind, so thoroughly are we inside the consciousness of Abigail, to feel the full weight of her decisions. It’s earnest, but not particularly moving.

Flee: You don’t see a ton of animated documentaries, but in the case of Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s harrowing immigrant’s survivor tale, there was no way to catalogue the early life of Amin, the film’s subject, without extensive recreations in the first place. As a result, there is a strikingly evocative visual element to the manner Rasmussen and his animation team document Amin’s journey from war-torn Afghanistan, to Moscow, to Estonia, back to Moscow, and finally to Copenhagen. After his father is taken into custody by the Mujahideen in the late ‘80s, Amin and his mother, brother, and sisters fly out to Russia, in the months just after the fall of communism. From one chaotic country to another, the family desperately try to leave Russia for western Europe, but with unreliable traffickers, and a lone older sibling in Sweden, having to scrounge every penny he makes in order to make arrangements, things move in an agonizingly halting way. Eventually, Amin gets safely to Copenhagen, but is allowed to stay only by having to lie to Swedish authorities that the rest of his family is dead. If that weren’t enough, adding to Amin’s fears, he feels the need to tell his family  —  now scattered about Europe  —  about his being gay. Through extended interviews with Amin, Rasmussen teases out his friend’s full story, spread out over multiple flashbacks, while interlocking with Amin’s current serious relationship in Copenhagen, with a man he plans to marry, if only he can finally accept and trust in the idea of having a permanent home. Rasmussen’s genuine friendship with Amin adds a warm sheen of empathy to the proceedings, even in the ways not everything makes perfect sense. You get the understanding that Amin, having long buried his extremely difficult past journeys, is hesitating, even now, to fully unburden himself all at once, as if he has to take the time to reconcile all the different versions of his own story he’s had to live with, in order to make sense of it all.

Hive: In the era of #metoo, and Sundance’s continued efforts to represent female-helmed films at the festival, it’s becoming ever more clear in film after film, the biggest impediment to systemic change in culture and government is the ever-so-delicate male ego, which protects itself from damage more often than not by absolutely brutalizing anything that would dare threaten it. In Blerta Basholli’s excellent debut feature, based on a true story, the year is 1999, and in the aftermath of the grisly Serbian War, many communities are still awaiting word on the many missing, presumed dead family members who were taken away and will very likely not be coming back. One such half-widow is a fierce woman named Fahirje (Yllka Gashi), who still takes care of her missing husband’s father (Cun Lajci), as well as her two children. With funds dwindling, and her honey business not faring as well without her husband, a seasoned beekeeper, Fahirje gets a drivers’ license and begins a new business, hand-crafting jars of ajvar, the Serbian roasted red pepper sauce, and selling them at the local grocery. Despite violent, brutish opposition from many of the men in her small village of Krusha, whose favorite put-down is to call her a “whore,” Fahirje soldiers on, eventually enlisting many of the other village widows to join her business. Through it all, she has to contend with her own emotional pain  —  her husband vanished years ago, but has yet to be identified amongst the remains of the mass graves that become the final resting place for many Serbians. Basholli shoots the film primarily as handheld verite, documenting the day-to-day building of the business as well as the emotional upheaval of her protagonist. In this, Gashi, with her smoldering eyes, the lines of determination etched into her face, is a revelation. Fahrije suffers the multitude of slings and arrows  —  most miserably coming from her own teen daughter, who is embarrassed at first at the attention and gossip her mother is getting   —  with dignified solemnity. By the end, she has empowered a generation of women, while paving the way for countless others. Not all revolutions are won on the battlefield.

Users: It’s indeed jarring to see a film so dedicated to visual sumptuousness, so satisfyingly transfixing in its use of pattern, motion, and juxtaposition, but all in service towards an epitaph to our inevitable extinction. Natalia Almada’s cinematic essay uses its visual poetics to lure us in, to bewitch us with its beauty as it gently eases the blade of the knife deep in our midsection. A mother of two young children, Almada begins the film contemplating her babies, and the world in which they have been brought into, voracious in its use of natural materials, polluting the oceans with miles of fiber-optic cable, burning our forests to the ground, exploiting the Earth for every gram of mineable material, every ounce of oil, all to fill the growing chasm between ourselves and the formerly natural world in which we used to inhabit. The film moves at a placid, even-keeled pace. There are many beautifully composed slow-fixed shots of fields, trees, cityscapes from high above; juxtaposed against contrasting conceptions: an overhead drone shot of the Pacific’s cresting coastline cutting to an AT&T manhole cover; her own child’s face lit by the glow of a computer as he fixates on the screen in front of him, to a distant plane’s long vapor trail through a swath of sky; an infant breast-feeding to the endless rows of sprouts in a hydroponic lab. There is so much stuff, so many things, from shipping crates to solar panels, all slipping past the lens of DP Bennett Cerf’s cameras, so as to become something akin to a sort of visual intervention: You can see it, the film is telling us, you know very well how this is going to end. Almada doesn’t provide answers, or even firm conclusions, exactly. These are the things she is wrestling with in her own conscience, the horrific implications of otherwise deeply pleasing symmetric images. The film is a stunning ode to our demise.

Sundance goes mostly virtual for this year’s edition, sparing filmgoers the altitude, long waits, standing lines, and panicked eating binges  —  but also, these things and more that make the festival so damn endearing. In any event, Sundance via living room is still a hell of a lot better than no Sundance. A daily report.

[millennialmoderator]

10 Great Seasonal Marketing Ideas from Real Brands

Whether we like it or not, our life is organized around seasonal events to a great extent..

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

Seasonal marketing is a professional response to those culturally long-established occasions and is an excellent example of the skillful taking of every opportunity to keep the business successfully running.

Marketing is the art of attending to the needs of many, while good marketing is the talent to professionally use every significant public event to spice up promotions. The seasonal events are the perfect opportunity for marketers to bring something new on the table by merely implementing all the ready symbols and topics of the particular holiday.

Holidays - an inexhaustible source of marketers' inspiration

The first holiday to sprang up in everyone's mind when talking about holiday marketing is, with high probability, Christmas. So let's cite an example without further ado. In order to prepare content for the Christmas campaign, marketers do not have to face a tremendous obstacle of reinventing the wheel; the set of ready-made, time-tested ideas, marks, and symbols is right here at their disposal. We are talking here about traditional red and green colors, brightly wrapped presents, good old Santa, Rudolph, Christmas miracles, cookies, family reunions - you name it.

The list goes on, giving the perfect, fertile ground for marketers to generate fascinating ideas. Easter, Halloween, Valentine's Day, St. Patricks Day - seize these opportunities of driving more interest to your business, thus boosting the revenue! Customers will not only lose track of their wallets, but also get inspired by festive spirit and, quite often, really enjoy the mastery of marketer's merry-making campaigns.

We have put together a list of great seasonal marketing ideas from real marketing craft professionals - get inspired for new campaigns and do not waste your seasonal opportunities!

Let's Hear it From the Real Brands

1. Grammarly's guide to the faultless Valentine's Day.

Nowadays, it is more than ever difficult to imagine the actual communication percentage that has moved to the online world. And as we all know, written communication leaves a lot of room for error. This unfortunate truth is particularly embarrassing when it comes to a romantic relationship that strives online. Grammarly, a software company that runs an English language digital writing tool, has got you covered. The company's specialists have a campaign each year to come up with the top tips on making a beautiful romantic gesture and not to embarrass yourself with their app's help. What a great idea! If you set out on a quest to write the perfect love note - Grammarly can help.

2. Nintendo's launch of Luigi's Mansion 3 on Halloween day, what a treat!

Halloween presents yet another excellent opportunity to stand out among the competitors. Some brands really know how not to miss this train. We are talking about universally recognized masters of all things scary — video game companies.

On the 31st of October, 2019, Nintendo presented their fans with a spooktacular Halloween gift - the new game's launch, loudly promoted using all the famous Halloween-related codes. The company celebrated the launch with special offers, thematic rewards for users, and impressive social media campaigns. The launch later turned out to be a sweeping success, chartered as the best ghostbuster game ever released. Well played, Nintendo!

Seasonal marketing does not exclusively include holidays; Johanna Bohm, the Head of Marketing at Adsy, shared. There is one big annual marketing event that all the professionals anticipate. And it is, absolute beyond comparison, Black Friday. Both small and big businesses introduce time-sensitive sales to boost their revenue. Make sure your content marketing campaigns are working a few weeks before the biggest sale of the year; for example, by submitting a guest post to Adsy.com and reap the results.

3. Opt outside with REI on Black Friday.

While we are on the topic, there is one intriguing campaign we cannot omit to mention. REI, an American retail and outdoor recreation services corporation, launched a campaign to protest the annual rise of consumerism associated with Black Friday, inspiring people to spend this day outdoors. All the current and potential customers and users of their services were encouraged to share their outdoor adventures on Instagram with the hashtag #OptOutside.

This bold marketing move, which rang true to the brand's values, formed the outdoor enthusiast's; community, loyal to the brand all year round.

4. Virtual Easter egg hunt with Freefly VR

There is no Easter without an egg hunt, and, in this day and age, comes the time to finally test intriguing, ultra-modern approaches to this festive activity from childhood. Freefly VR, a company dedicated to offering robust, highly engaging virtual reality products, knows how to use the time of year to its advantage and set a festive mood for its customers.

The company came up with unique promotions around Easter, announcing a virtual Easter Egg Hunt where customers can find eggs around the website for the chance to win prizes and special offers.

5. HotelTonight: Visit. Don’t Stay.

This is a unique example on our list since it does not relate to any of the seasonal events in particular. At the same time, it applies to all the holidays that involve family gatherings. HotelTonight took a different approach to the joy of family reunions, stressing sheer uneasiness of staying with the family under one roof. We find this plot absolutely brilliant since almost everyone can relate.

The campaign presents the message across many formats, including various visual ads, social media posts, and offers to take part in a competition to win a stay at one of their hotels during the holiday season. Such a brilliant and concise storytelling! They definitely managed to engage human emotions, quickly making people want to share their experience, and, in a joking manner, reevaluate their housing decisions.

6. Hinge - find someone special to share holiday joy with (or maybe even your life journey).

Around Thanksgiving, this dating app sent out an email inviting people to reconsider their everyday dating habits and concentrate on finding someone special to build long-lasting relationships with. Family and loved ones' importance is usually highly stressed in the media and other cultural narratives around Christmas, so Hinge marketing professionals decided not to let this beautiful opportunity of sentimentally reminding their current and potential users of what is truly important leak away.

Within the letter, they recommended to stop swiping the perfectly retouched portraits and instead concentrate on starting a new meaningful relationship, of course, with the help of their service.

7. The Body Shop is sending Kisses!

This deserves a spot on this list because it is an excellent example of how a simple campaign, presented at the right time, still may get the desirable brand exposure and increase revenue around holidays.

Marketers at the Body Shop decided to act by employing an effective method of user engagement. They promoted Valentine's Day launch of a new lip balm by encouraging the audience to share a photo of them blowing a kiss to someone special with a hashtag #SendingAKiss. The campaign went international and included prizes for the most ingenious photo ideas. Needless to say, thanks to perfect timing, the company’s marketing goals were achieved.

8. Macaulay Culkin stays Home Alone again for Google Assistant.

Opening our Christmas-related great seasonal marketing campaigns is the most famous child (well, not anymore) to have spent Christmas alone at his home. Google marketing team members are well aware that seasonal events are fantastic opportunities to provoke positive emotions connected with the particular holiday, and skillfully extrapolate them onto your product. And they couldn't be more right about picking the hit Home Alone as a set for the sentimental setting of Christmas atmosphere to remind what Google's voice-activated gadgets can do.

Being at home alone around Christmas time, the actor uses a Google Home Hub, his phone to check the calendar, set reminders, order pizza, and adjust the house temperature. We think it is a perfect case of skillful appropriation of festive emotions brought around by this iconic classic.

9. Starbucks’ holiday marks.

The company is well-known for its highly professional and diverse seasonal brand amplification. Starbucks lavishly spreads festive cheer, whether it's Halloween o'clock, aka pumpkin spice latte season, or hot cocoa in annual reddish holiday cups around Christmas. Moreover, the company takes many other paths to make the most significant winter holiday their perfect marketing actor.

As mentioned above, one of the time-proven and most popular with the customers marketing ideas is encouraging user-generated content, such as photo competitions. In one of the annual winter holiday campaigns, the company encouraged its customers to design their red cups and share them on Instagram with a specific hashtag. The winners got valuable prizes; the company acquired the desired promotion.

10. Coca-Cola's Holidays Are Coming.

Last but not least, the long-running ad that, with the years, grew into one of the most recognizable marketing Christmas campaigns - Coca-Cola's Holidays Are Coming. The famous trucks have become unquestionable Christmassy icons since they were launched on TV in 1995. Since then, spotting this ad somewhere around the beginning of November marks the sweet starting point of anticipation of the marvelous winter holiday.

Each year, Coca-Cola adds something new, like social networks integration, new outdoor activities, decorations, prizes, and ads that viewers already perceive as mere Christmas family and friends reunion stories. All the ideas mentioned above work perfectly, boosting positive engagement with the brand.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are numerous options to choose from. Your main goal is to opt for those most applicable to your niche. Do not worry if you currently find yourself out of brilliant ideas; look for inspiration within ready-made ones that have proven to be effective in the past. Our list above is a great starter pack to get inspired by real brands and unravel your own creative potential.

If you enjoyed this Mod, you might like to read more about these How to Start a Dropshipping Business! Please share this Mod using the social links below. Any questions or comments? Let us know on Twitter!

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

[godfirstgodalways]

Hello so happy that I found your page. Could I ask a favour?? Could you please please please pray for me? I'm really trying to get closer to god and really trying to strengthen my faith in him. I also accepted him as my lord and saviour. I've also been reading his words almost everyday and I've also started to study it. But I feel like my faith is still weak and the temptations still comes to me and sometimes I can't resist it and I give in.

Sorry for this late reply. I’m glad you found my page. :) I’m even more glad that you’ve accepted the Lord as your Savior. Spiritual growth takes time, it’s not an overnight, over a week, or over a month thing. It’s a lifelong journey and it’s going to be hard but try your best not to compare your spiritual growth with another. Your maturity is between you and God because it depends on your relationship with Him. Please don’t stress about how weak you are or how little you think your faith is. Focus instead on what you can do with that mustard seed of faith. It’s baby steps, God doesn’t expect you to change so much in a short amount of time just by reading the Bible. He knows you’re still a baby in this and He will deal with you at just the right pace, don’t try to do so much because He knows you’re new at this. Ask for Him to give you eyes to see what areas in life you have grown more mature about and thank Him for those little changes in you. Ask Him to show you how you can use your little faith to bless others and when you sense joy in your heart because they are sincerely received, praise the Lord He worked in you and enabled you to be His vessel. It’s what you do on a daily basis, the new habits you’re forming that help build your faith. I believe spiritual growth requires desire for change, commitment to follow Him, and discipline for making action. In order to support these requirements you have to make sure your daily habits are practical and pleasing to God. Besides the obvious like reading the Bible, studying it, and praying, what else do you think would help you to grow spiritually? It can be watching what you eat (because your body is His temple), it can be tithing (because it challenges you to trust God more), it can be writing Bible verses or positive affirmations all over your bedroom (because they make good reminders for you to focus on Him), it can be working on not cussing (because it’s a baby step towards other more important disciplines), it can be limiting your time with certain people and hanging out (fellowshipping) with church goers instead, it can be whatever habits you know you should form depending on what your temptations are. For me I am tempted to fantasize/daydream…about anything, so the habits I must practice could be reading about anything motivational, DIY crafts, or self-development books….anything that would help me be more productive and proactive. If someone is tempted to spend money they don’t have then that person should daily gain knowledge on how to make extra cash on the side or how to manage money wisely by say dedicating 20-30 minutes watching videos about the subject on YouTube. You can write down a practical schedule just for implementing new habits. I honestly think it’s a good idea because for myself it’s hard to make new habits if it’s not written down for me to see. You can take a whole day of reflection, being honest with yourself, praying, and just a lot of brainstorming and planning…..write down your strengths and weaknesses. Your weaknesses are your temptations, so that list should help you determine what habits you must form, and your strengths are there to help remind you of your purpose, they are there to encourage you of your potential if you keep up with those good habits. You can put together a few pages dedicated to spiritual growth, keep it all in one binder. I have one for myself filled with Bible verses, motivating quotes, positive affirmations, a daily meditation, my daily planner, my goals and visuals. I’ve also written a contract to myself and how I am going to meet them with a plan of action. The more detailed you are the better. If anyone wants a closer relationship with God, you have to be practical and detailed about it until they become second nature to you. I forgot where I heard or read something like this but…..a disciple doesn’t know exactly when he is being used by God because he lives his entire life pursuing no one but Him. In other words a true follower of Christ should be so used to obeying Him that he is not even aware of the fact that he is a blessing to others. He is humble yet he is confident. Just remember that whenever you are disappointed in yourself for feeling like you haven’t grown more faithful, you are focusing too much on getting there rather than realizing the growth opportunity you are in right now. Right now your lesson is patience and trust. Focus on trusting and being patient in God and His perfect time through obedience, through good habits. Wow long intro again, but let’s pray.

Dear God, thank You for inspiring me to encourage others who want to be closer to You. Thank You for giving me this relationship I can always count on and Father thank You for making it possible for others to come to You in the same way. Thank You for putting in our hearts the desire to be better than yesterday. Lord I lift up this person who is struggling to understand how faith is worked in them, please allow them to see Your wonderful and mysterious works around them so that they can count these as blessings and miracles that build on the faith they already have. Father show them that their efforts and desire for more of You is pleasing to Your eyes and worth all the hardships they have endured. I ask that you work with their childishness, helping them put aside their old ways and replacing this behavior with childlike faith. And I ask that You reveal Yourself to be that rock and refuge they have been searching for whenever they feel they are weak in faith so that they continually praise You with a heart overwhelmed with joy. God, please provide them the focus they need to make changes in their daily habits and give them patience to wait on You, give them the confidence and security that You have everything under control when they do not have they strength to keep walking in this relationship. Lord let them know that You are working in their heart right now and everyday that they walk with You, so that their hope is multiplied and they are encouraged to keep going. Father we believe that You are mighty to save and mighty to keep guiding us. You would never start anything You can’t finish that’s why in Your will and in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Colossians 2:6-7 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Colossians 2:2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself,

Colossians 1:9-10 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

By His Grace, Sheela (Via godfirstgodalways)

[creativesage]

(via The 5 Habits to Raise Your Innovation IQ | Inc.com)

Cultivating innovation has as much to do with how you spend your time outside of work as on the job.

By Natalie Nixon

Innovation is invention converted into value.  That value could be financial, social, or cultural value.  If you want to create an innovation culture in your organization, you have to make the time and space for creativity, because creativity is the engine for innovation.

An Innovation IQ consists of 3 competencies: inventive thinking, collaboration, and customer-centric products and services.  Each competency leads to real business results.

1. Inventive thinking leads to new business models that can identify alternative strategic partners and revenue streams.  

2. Collaborative ways of working end up reducing silos, improving efficiencies, and ultimately lowering operating costs.  

3. Customer-centric products & services lead to higher ROI and brand loyalty.  

Here are 5 questions to ask yourself and pose to your team to test your Innovation IQ.

1. Do you have a hobby outside of your daily job?

If you practice a craft or hobby diligently outside of your paid work, then you are regularly putting yourself into a beginners' mindset.  This is crucial because it primes you to get good at embracing being clumsy, learning from mistakes, and asking the naive questions.  Inevitably, the beginners' mindset that hobbies cultivate transfers into your work environment.  You will get better at questioning the status quo, one of the first steps towards innovating.

   2. Do you play regularly?

I mean really play, have fun, and do activities that bring you joy.  Ingrid Fetell Lee gives an amazing TED talk about joy and why we should incorporate it into our lives.  Joy is distinct from happiness.  While happiness is something we expect to sustain long term, joy is episodic and is all about your perspective.  A corollary to being more playful is developing a sense of humor. A sense of humor signals your capacity for abstract thinking- instead of only focusing on what is literally in front of you. Note that having a sense of humor will also be developed from question No. 1 above--having a hobby.

3. Do you deliberately do things outside of your comfort zone?

At least twice a year, visit a place outside of your comfort zone or go to a conference that is totally outside of your sector, where you will be sure to learn something new.  This helps you to practice lateral thinking.  You can also practice getting outside of your comfort zone on a daily basis.  For example, if you do not consider yourself an artistically visual type, begin practicing doodling.  Set the timer for 5 minutes, and doodle away.  It is one of the best ways to make the mind more limber.

4. Do you experiment with technology?

Sometimes we forget that at the end of the day, technology is a tool. It is there to help amplify what is uniquely human about us and free us up to do more creative work.  In addition to the usual suspects of workshare platforms like Slack, Basecamp, and Zoom, also try experimenting with augmented reality tools, and visualization tools like Canva, Mural or Ziteboard.

5. Do you incentivize collaboration?

Even superheroes don't go it alone, so why should you? It's one thing to say you value collaboration, but until you incentivize it by linking collaboration to compensation or time, chances are your employees won't put collaboration into practice.  One of the best outcomes of collaboration is the necessary thought diversity that results. You quickly learn to invite in and lean on people from different departments and backgrounds. Remember: the more diverse the inputs, the more innovative the output.

 If you answered YES to at least 3 of these questions, you're doing a good job. Make it your goal in 2019 to be able to tick off YES to all 5 questions and share your techniques with others. 

[Entire article — click on the title link to read it at Inc.com.]

***

We’re glad that “new Silicon Valleys,” or place-specific innovation centers, are growing all over the world, at least in terms of innovation and the development of creative economy ecosystems — and we would love to visit them all! We all learn best by exchanging ideas across cultures and industries. We fully support complete diversity in the workplace, and overcoming the inequality challenges that are still too prevalent in our world.

Now, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and organizational leaders from other cities and countries who are visiting the San Francisco Bay Area can have access to Silicon Valley companies to learn from their cultures, hiring, leadership and innovation methods. Come join us for a dynamic, unforgettable, and very enjoyable Innovation Tour in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, the East Bay (Emeryville, Oakland, Berkeley, and more), in the Wine Country, or on the beautiful, rural Northern California seacoast in Mendocino County, including Fort Bragg, California, where we have worked on business, arts and tourism projects.

At Creative Sage™, we design high impact, customized creativity, innovation, and leadership programs, and we are now offering related tours, events, corporate retreats, and workshops in wonderful urban and rural settings that will spark your imagination — and your team’s — to come up with brilliant ideas and plan how to implement new innovations in services, products, your organization’s business model, operations, or in any other area. We also design programs for specific areas and markets, such as health care and health-related travel.

We use the latest in value-tested creativity and innovation techniques and processes; and we select world-class facilitators and partners to help your organization gain lasting value from your experience working — and playing — with us. Creativity and innovation processes could include design thinking, business model canvas, arts-based, interactive creativity activities, lateral thinking, gamification, World Cafe, or other proven methods.

We also work on workplace culture issues, leadership challenges, handling transitions, and building resilience in organizations and individual clients. You’ll be able to see first-hand how Silicon Valley companies create a culture of creativity and innovation, and you’ll be able to talk with their leaders. We’ll arrange a customized tour for you that addresses your organization’s issues.

We can design additional customized programs and tours for individuals, families, work teams, university students and faculty, including those in undergraduate or graduate entrepreneurship or MBA programs, and other special interest groups, such as the charitable tourism activities.

Join our email list and visit our web site, or call: (510) 845-5510 for more information.

You’ll take away essential, valuable insights that you could not achieve in any other way, while enjoying the experience of a lifetime!

***

[mubal4]

The Journal Journey Part 18

 Writing is a challenging endeavor.  I made a commitment last year to write, three days a week and hit publish.  I try hard to honor this and, for the most part, I have been executing well.  There are weeks that just get the better of me and I may only do two days, but I still am staying consistent in getting my work out there.  There are days that I draw a blank and am unable to come up with a topic.  Typically, it is just my mind racing in other directions I am not willing to sit down and contemplate something or, nothing is tugging at me.  Last year, I was able to create this Journal Journey to help me, not only find topics to share, but also allow me to reflect on where my mind was when I first began writing at the beginning of 2017.  It is great to see the quotes and thoughts that were on my mind, or the lessons I was learning at certain times in the past and to have them come up to the surface again.  It is also interesting to see how my perspective may have changed over the course of 12-18 months.  Yesterday and today have been more unpredictable as usual and I wasn’t sure how things were going to go so I haven’t had much time to put thought into a blog post. Therefore, I am reverting to my growth journal to share some thoughts from almost two years to the day, January 28, 2017.  For me, I think it is still good, even though I am calling on this practice to come up with ideas, to still get something out there and stay consistent with the actual writing.  No matter the content, topic, or message, for me it is beneficial, and my intent is that it is for you too.

 On we go!

 -          “Position of Discipline – What is the message I am sending here? I will judge and punish you? Or I will help you think and learn?” – Carol Dweck – This is from Carol Dweck’s book, “Grit.” Great read and suggest you give a whirl.  I believe this can be used in so many contexts.  As a leader, mentor, manager, etc.  I see it, or, it hit me as a parent.   An area where I believe I need to improve is around the discipline of my daughters.  I think we do a good job, for the most part. Our girls are great, and it is very rare that I feel the need to “discipline” them.  I was going to say, “correct them, yes,” but I stopped because I don’t think that is appropriate either.  What is correct behavior for us may not be for them.  I mean, obvious stuff right, don’t push a lady into traffic is not the right behavior, but I am thinking in more gray areas.  Offering wisdom and guidance is what I am speaking about.  Where I need the improvement is in my delivery.  Kids will screw up and they will frustrate us as parents, and I have a tendency to let that frustration show in my tone.  A few weeks ago, we had this conversation as a family and my girls shared with me, this area, as one where I can improve.  I think, just based on tone, one can perceive the message you are sending, or, the wisdom you are trying to share, as judgement/discipline or as an opportunity to think and learn.  I think with discipline and judgement we are trying to control the situation.  With offering the ability for them to think and learn, we are giving control over to them to make the decisions.  If gives them the ability to be creative, to grow, to fail, to get uncomfortable.  We begin to give them some independence and I think it creates a level of trust between the parent and child.  In turn, it may give them more confidence and self-esteem, and certainly more self-awareness.  

-          “The body has limitations.  The mind does not.” – I’ve heard this said by many throughout the years and have experienced it personally.  That said, I am surprised sometimes on how far we can push our bodies.  But, does that have to do with our body, or our mind. There was a dude that I had the opportunity to spend some time with during an event that liked to say, “you’ll pass out before you die.” I think that has some relevancy here because, at least I think with our bodies, when we reach a limit physically, our body will just give out. I see this with my body and when it doesn’t feel right because of tweaks, soreness, injury.  As I’ve gotten older, I have gotten better at listening to these messages; still have work to do there as well but progress.  However, there are those moments when, you think your body can’t go another step, you feel you are spent, and your mind is willing you to keep moving forward. This can be in any type of endeavor; I am not just talking about a physical activity like running!!  Is this what this message above is referring to?  I think it has some play there because, the reason we do quit, at least in my opinion, is because of those demon thoughts that enter our mind telling us to stop, stay in bed, it’s too cold out, etc.  Our body, with its limitations, listens to our mind. However, just as easy as it is to listen to those thoughts, our mind makes it easy to talk to ourselves too; to tell us to get out of bed, get active, and get moving.  We can dig into this deeper as well.  I am 5’6” – I was okay all my life knowing I wasn’t going into the NBA 😊.  In that respect, my body had limitations. However, my mind would have let me create that dream and visualize it if I wanted it.  Our mind affords us the ability to create big dreams, but our body sometimes prevents us from acting on those dreams.  Or, IS IT our mind that is preventing us?

-          “We have all been given a gift to share with the world.  It is up to us to figure it out.” – I truly believe this and am experiencing it each day.  I’ve shared this story with you all and it is something that I have been fortunate to find out.  It took me about 40 years to figure out what my gift was, and it is to provide my girls, and others, the tools, skills and knowledge to live joyful and fulfilled lives while positively impacting the world.  These are the skills that I have been able to learn through failure, mistakes, growth, learning, asking, and living.  For me, being able to share my gift, writing in this blog, producing the podcasts, and connecting with people every day, provides me with joy and fulfillment.  This was what I was given by God, and my gift to Him is to share it.  That is what, at least I believe, is our purpose, to share our gift, our story, with the world.  How many of us go to the grave without sharing our gift?  How many of us don’t ever realize what our gift was? How many don’t believe they have one? We all do, and we just have to find it. It took me a long time to realize it and many moments of being incredibly uncomfortable. I had to ask myself some tough questions about myself, my life, my family, and what I really deemed as what was important to me.  What was I willing to give up and let go of? What really brought me joy and fulfillment.  What of those challenges is, understanding that, whatever the gift is, it is YOUR GIFT and you must not give a damn about what others think of it? Share it and be proud of it.

-          “The point at which change happens starts with a decision.” – I would go a bit further on this and say action, but I guess you are making that decision to take action. You want to change something in your life that you are not happy with?  Make the decision to take action and do it.  I had this thought yesterday as I was walking around my house.  Our shower, which is a walk-in separate from the bath, leaks a bit from the one part of the door.  It is not a big leak but, if you are in the shower long enough, it is noticeable on the floor.  I replaced the seal and it helped but hasn’t completely eliminated the leak.  When I thought about this the other day, I realized that this circumstance hasn’t become intolerable for me to make that decision to really fix it.  I believe once a situation becomes intolerable, that is when we make the decision to change.  We have thoughts of changing something all the time; we want things to be better, easier, etc.  But, are we willing to invest the time and effort to take that action?  Most of the time, that change would be “a nice to have,” therefore, we don’t feel the need to take the action.  However, when shit becomes intolerable, that is when we get our assess in motion.  

-          “The purpose of the goal isn’t achievement of the goal but who we become during the process.” – I’ve heard this often and shared it many times as well.  I believe it to be incredibly true.  NOW!!  Up until a few short years ago, I was all about the achievement.  That achievement was what determined who I was; what I was. Then I realized that when I got the “achievement,” yeah, I may have felt “special” for a moment, but that moment was fleeting.  It didn’t last.  However, when I began reflecting on what I had to do to get to that achievement, what I learned through that process, and who I became; or, how I became different, changed!!! That is what caught my attention. Our culture sells the glory and winning! The big reward at the end of the road.  But the real story is in the journey to get there.  The hours and hours of working on your craft.  The stuff that is not sexy; going to bed late, waking up early, getting the nasty, gritty shit down when you don’t want to do it.  Sacrificing time with your family, risking what is comfortable and easy, doing those things that so many others are not willing to do. It sucks sometimes.  It hurts.  It is exhausting, and, you are going to question why?  But you were given that gift, and this is all part of that journey to identify that gift.  To share it with the world.  To make that impact. To make yourself, and this place, a little bit better than how we found it!!

[connorrenwick]

Friday Five with Jordan Rogove of DXA studio

Jordan Rogove has accomplished a lot in his 20-year career. He’s co-founded DXA studio with partner Wayne Norbeck, completed a tower that straddles Manhattan’s High Line, and won design competitions for health-focused housing in Haiti, an arena for the New Jersey Devils, a pedestrian bridge, and park in midtown Manhattan. He’s designed and fabricated scenic sets for television and stage, helped realize the Louis Sullivan Award winning historic Carbide & Carbon Building renovation as well as the AN Best Renovation Project 100 Barclay, and designed and overseen over twenty high-end residential and commercial projects in New York City. Among 40 current projects Jordan is currently working on, there are a number of socially-minded endeavors underway, including the development of an orphanage in Zambia, a health-focused community in St. Marc, Haiti and the renovation of multiple derelict buildings in Detroit being turned into campuses for performance and visual artists. Jordan is currently a visiting Professor of Practice at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Chief Architect & Design Officer at Residential Connected Health, and proud father of three amazing children with his wife Laura. He’s taken some time out of that busy schedule to share a few favorites that keep him inspired for today’s Friday Five.

Photo by Jordan Rogove

1. Books I fall short in just about every metric relative to my heroes. Reading about the likes of Lincoln, Michelangelo, DaVinci, Franklin, and Vermeer among others helps put the adversity they all faced, the genius they exhibited in overcoming it, and their leadership and/or creativity into perspective and helps push me to be better. While I don’t think I’ll ever come close to catching up, their stories make the daily trivialities I face stay that way and add fuel to my creative fire. I also enjoy reading about impossible projects, like the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the original Penn Station. And if you ever want to truly understand why New York is so messed up with its relationship to its airports and how destructive endeavors like the BQE and Cross Bronx Expressway happened, look no further than the Power Broker by Robert Caro. This epic book about Robert Moses and his increasingly grim vision for the city is one of the best books I’ve ever read.

Photo by Jordan Rogove

2. Drawings/Paintings Since I was little, I have identified with drawing and painting as the most natural means by which to express myself and explore the big ideas. I have filled hundreds of sketchbooks with ideas, most only interesting to me, but some with seeds that have led to some of DXA’s better projects. A majority are pen and ink drawings, but when time allows I turn to watercolors and oil paints. Before having kids my wife and I spent marvelous Saturdays with renowned painter Marvin Mattelson learning the art of portrait painting. What is more difficult than painting people’s faces? The thrill that you feel when you capture some tiny detail that brings everything together is indescribable and addictive. A recent method of sketching has been the new iPad Pro with the Concept and Adobe Sketch apps. Just scratching the surface with them, and it’s been a lot of fun.

Attic by Willem de Kooning 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York

3. The Met/The Attic While I am a modernist at heart, I favor the Met over MoMA. To understand modernism you need to understand all that came before. At the Met, much of human history is on display and the evolution of craft and expression through time is thrilling no matter how many times you have walked through its halls. Seeing the paintings of Sargent and Bougereau up close is a thrill, and a reminder of just how far I still have to go to even venture to call myself a painter. Most recently it has been the couple of Willem de Kooning paintings, Easter Sunday and The Attic, that I’ve spent a lot of time with. DXA has been working on a renovation and addition to de Kooning’s studio near Union Square, so exploring a way to celebrate his work and contributions to both New York City and the world of art have been a focus for the duration. The Attic in particular seems to capture the energy of the city. It is a painting you can spend quite a bit of time observing and exploring, going from space to space across its canvas.

Photo by Ari Burling

4. Garden On one of my earliest projects in New York I had the pleasure of collaborating with the High Line Team as the tracks of the NY Central Railroad, the tableau for the High Line, passed through the building I was working on. From that collaboration came a friendship with the incredibly talented horticulturalist/landscape designer Patrick Cullina. When I renovated my townhome he stepped in to design its gardens. Watching them evolve these past few years has been a joy, and they have served as the focal point of the entire home, from planting seeds with the kiddos in the spring to hosting long summer and fall dinners with friends and family. It is the heart of our home.

Photo by Jordan Rogove

5. Water Over the past 7 years we have been taking frequent trips to the North Fork of Long Island. It is truly a respite from the torrid pace of the design and construction worlds of New York City. We are trying to spend more and more time there of late. It has wonderful beaches and waterways, and the Sound summons memories of the cliffs of Scotland from the days of being an itinerate architecture student. From outdoor meditations, to sailing, to lounging with friends on the beach, it is a place of restoration and serenity that I am becoming increasing dependent upon.

via http://design-milk.com/

from WordPress https://connorrenwickblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/23/friday-five-with-jordan-rogove-of-dxa-studio/

[terryblount]

Resident Evil 2 Review: Gruesomely Gorgeous

Ah, Resident Evil 2, the 1998 survival-horror classic adored by millions! And now the 2019 survival-horror classic-in-the-making adored by ever growing multitudes. Two games, both excellent, but how does this new RE2 compare? Thankfully, it retains the original survival-horror charm while also delivering a modern experience. Unfortunately, a bit too much outdated design causes it to occasionally stumble and fall like a clumsy zombie. Read on to discover the joys and bugbears of 2019’s RE2.

Atmospheric Horror-Delight

By far the most brilliant thing about RE2 is the stunningly immersive world built for you to slowly explore and unravel. There’s a palpable feeling of despair mixed with hyper-focus on graphical detail making every room, passageway, and crevice a wonder to discover.

The famous S.T.A.R.S. room. So much 1990s detail! Much pretty!

The moody vibes of the abandoned city and desperate plights of the few survivors meshes perfectly with a spectacular visual presentation. Get ready for one visual and aural treat after another.

Setting Up the Story

You begin on the dark, rainy city streets outside Raccoon City, a fictional US city with a disturbing history. By way of one ill-fated event after another, you go from surreal police station, to the sewers, and beyond. Thanks to the cutting-edge graphics engine and superb game direction, delving deeper and deeper into this twisted underworld is gruesome, gorgeous, and mesmerizing.

Never before has such an iconic and impressive survival horror world been crafted, and RE2 exudes character and personality from the very floors, halls, and walls of its macabre locations.

Just another pleasant stroll through zombie-infested sewers. It’ll be fine! (Run!)

As far as the actual story goes, it’s best you discover it for yourself. There’s zombies, an evil corporation, corrupt authorities, and experiments gone wrong. All the usual stuff.

The story is presented through excellent cutscenes with extremely detailed characters and facial animation combined with smooth motion capture and top-notch voice acting. There’s some standout performances here, but just know there’s only handful of story cutscenes. RE2 gives you just enough plot to make sense but not enough to sink your teeth into, just like the original 1998 game. That’s not a fault per-se; it’s just its style.

Bloody Zombie Survival-Horror

Besides the immaculate RE2 world, the enemy design is absolutely incredible. The attention to detail in each shambling zombie, ferocious dog, and other creature is best in class. Particularly impressive is the zombie dismemberment system that keeps you finding creative ways to eliminate, outmaneuver, and overcome the undead underlings found all across the environments.

This zombie’s just been hit by an acid round. He’ll be fine…feel the burn.

These ghastly and imposing enemies sometimes seem too much to contend with. At first, you often don’t have enough ammo and perhaps question how you can survive. After a while, you learn how to think quickly and overcome RE2. This empowering feeling of increasing mastery is just like how I felt when I played the original back in the day. Speaking of which, let me address this topic.

Disclaimer: RE2 is Special to Me

I should disclose that 1998’s RE2 was my first Resident Evil game. This was back when 3D graphics were young, and I adored this “realistic” PlayStation CD-ROM work of art.

I remember going over to a friend’s house and playing late at night, slowly inching forward through scary hallways on the edge of our seats. It was creepy, scary, and fascinating. I have wonderful memories of playing and replaying the game, finally unlocking the extra weapons and modes, feeling like such a pro.

Even to this day I consider RE2 one of my defining video game experiences. Just keep in mind that a new player to this remake might have that same “revelatory” experience I had in 1998, while I may be more critical of this remake than someone who doesn’t know the brilliance and joy of the original game. Back to the review!

Third-Person Puzzling Exploration

The heart of RE2 is a puzzle-like level design that sees you exploring, discovering, unlocking, backtracking, and going around in circles as you attempt to piece together the mysterious reason for all this horror. The game is quite cerebral in how you must pay very close attention to what items you need, where to use them, and how to make the most of your limited resources.

Fortunately the game provides a very helpful map, without which you’d probably go insane. The map does an excellent job of indicating which rooms are unexplored or still have items left in them.

You’ll be spending quite a lot of time deciphering the map. At least it’s a nice map.

At this point, a large warning should be issued: this is not a typical third-person shooter where you are pushed forward from one set piece to another. No, RE2 retains the sometimes obtuse 1998-style item and level design that seems to revel in hindering the player.

Each item has a specific and often unclear purpose much like an old point-and-click adventure game. For example, you might find yourself going to the lounge room to find a metal tin you must examine to find a film roll to develop in the dark room to reveal a puzzle about a lion statue that unlocks a key to a door to a secret room. Because obviously that’s what the metal tin is for! Duh!

At least the items all have wonderful detail! I love shiny medallions! I want to bite it hard!!

Some players will love this esoteric puzzling retained from the original game, but there will surely be times you’ll leave an essential item back in storage and find yourself out of ammo, isolated, and possibly very dead. Speaking of items and storage space…it’s time to discuss one of RE2’s more tiresome aspects.

Inventory Woes Like It’s 1998

For all the graphical and controls modernization in RE2, what’s confusingly archaic is the inventory and item design. For those of us who played the original PlayStation era Resident Evil games, we all remember the massive headache of organizing a far-too-small inventory with far-too-many items. Sadly, this headache is back in a lesser but still frustrating way.

Sorting through items is way more fun than actually playing the game! NOT!

Most bizarrely unforgivable is how RE2 does NOT bring forward all the excellent quality-of-life changes included in the last 14 years of RE games (over six titles). Faithfully recreating what people loved about RE2 makes sense, but purposefully taking us back to the bad-old-days of Resident Evil inventory design is not cool.

Irksome Item Issues: A Story

So what are these serious inventory issues? Let’s start with an easy one: you can’t use items directly from the pick-up screen. Think this is no big deal? Let me take you on a very scary true RE2 story that’ll have you weeping and gnashing your teeth by the end (or not).

Picture this: you’re one hit from death as you finally limp to a First Aid Spray (fully heals you). So glad to have finally found healing, you attempt to use the item immediately. Sorry, you can’t! Your inventory is full! You confusingly exclaim, “Um, I don’t need to put it in my inventory…just pick it up and use it!”

Being an imprisoned zombie is how it feels to engage in full inventory item management.

The game smiles and patronizingly says, “Nope, sorry, we didn’t build ‘Use’ into our interface…you’ll need an empty inventory slot, you pathetic player.” As the game mocks you, you attempt to find a solution. Every second gone by you can feel the dehumanizing horror of 1998 item management coming back to haunt you.

Suddenly a brilliant idea sparks your mind. You guardedly ask, “Ok…well, can I quickly drop another item to make room and then pick that item back up from the ground?” RE2 begins boisterous, unnerving laughter… “No, silly player! Feel free to drop an item but it’ll be PERMANENTLY deleted as punishment for your full-inventory sins!”

Now you’re livid. You shout furiously, “What about RE4, RE5, RE6, and Revelations 1 & 2?” [Deep breath…] You begin to speak in a low, quivering tone: “This idiotic conundrum was solved years ago in 2005 with a simple ‘Use’ prompt upon item-pickup! How do you not know that?! How, RE2?!”

You continue and defeatedly plead, “Heck, Resident Evil 0 Remaster from 2016 even let us drop items and would display them on our map to be picked up again later! It was the best feature ever introduced to Resident Evil!”

Claire is repulsed at RE2 removing all the inventory improvements from prior RE games.

But RE2 doesn’t respond. It merely smirks, knowing that you’re going to have to PERMANENTLY sacrifice one of your items just to immediately heal yourself…and then you’ll have to stare at that newly created EMPTY inventory slot because “this is old-skool survival-horror.” More like “this is real bad design.”

Item Woes Continued

Ok, maybe I went a little off the rails in the last few paragraphs. But seriously folks. RE2’s inventory system is obnoxious, and I’m not done yet describing the issues!

Did I mention you also can’t use items directly from the storage transfer screen? Then there’s times the game isn’t smart enough to automatically combine the same ammo types when using gunpowder. Just weird.

Another bizarre design choice is how the game forces you to manually discard items with no further use. Past games like the RE0 and RE1 remasters would do this for you because why waste the player’s time? It’s strange that RE2 is so polished overall but has these dumb, rough inventory edges.

This is engineer Claire. She loves trains. Let’s be happy and forgot our item woes!

Some players will defend these design choices saying all this is “part of the experience” and it “builds tension” and challenges you. Yeah, it builds artificial and nonsensical tension. Maybe you’ll disagree, but I feel all these issues do nothing but frustrate and slow-down the actual playing of the outstanding game.

All this dubious design needlessly complicates what should be simple player-to-game-world interactions. They damage immersion and anger players. RE2 would be a VASTLY better game if it included all the excellent inventory improvements the series has seen in the 20 years since 1998’s RE2! Enough said on that.

The Stylishness of RE2’s Story: Multiple Playthoughs

Exactly like the original RE2, this modern incarnation keeps the same story-framing style: multiple playthroughs. Most modern games try to fit everything in to one playthrough, perhaps having a New Game Plus mode just for fun. RE2 defies this approach and asks, nay, dares you to play over and over to unlock the full experience.

Let’s explain RE2’s campaigns real quickly. RE2 is broken into four main campaigns, each telling the story from a slightly different angle with modified items, enemies, locations, and puzzles. Upon first playing, you have the choice of two main campaigns: Leon or Claire. Leon’s campaign is what 80% of players have chosen to begin with, according to Capcom.

The game nicely tracks your various playthroughs, urging you to go faster next time!

Upon completing Leon’s campaign, the game abruptly ends and you unlock a “2nd Run” mode, which is a slightly shorter remixed version of Leon’s original campaign that must be completed to reveal the true ending.

However, most players will want to play Claire’s campaign after finishing Leon’s first campaign, in order to break up the Leon-monotony. Claire’s campaign features a large amount of unique content, including important characters and entire environments not found in either of Leon’s runs.

Getting confused yet? RE2 doesn’t do a great job of explaining these four campaigns, and the menu system isn’t so helpful either. It makes sense that some players will get confused as to the “proper” order to play everything. Basically, the most common pattern will be Leon, Claire, Leon 2nd Run, and then you can choose between Claire 2nd Run or Extra Mode 1.

Will you be able to unlock the secret “Tofu” mode? Do you even want to try?!

Speaking of Extra Modes, if you complete the campaigns fast enough, you unlock two semi-silly modes that each take about 10 to 15 minutes and are pure run-and-gun/survival modes. There’s no saving, and you either die or reach the end. Honestly, most players will attempt these modes a few times and quit in frustration because they’re not particularly well-balanced and rely on memorizing enemy locations and behaviors.

All told, it’ll take you somewhere between 13 to 20 hours to unlock the true ending, at which point what’s left is completing optional objectives, speedruns to get that coveted “S” rank, and Achievements if that’s your thing. So RE2 is definitely a premium title, giving you short but memorable gameplay as opposed to the larger, more expansive action/adventure/RPG/sim games.

I’m so proud of my “S” rank. Let’s celebrate, Resident Evil style! (Just don’t invite the Tyrant.)

Audio: Crisp Creaking and Much Moaning

On the aural front, RE2 deserves special praise for the atmospheric audio touches placed all over the locations. From creaking floorboards, flickering and shorting electrical panels, pouring water, shattered windows, and other horrific matters, this game builds a wondrous world for your ears. It all works extremely well, although the combat sound effects aren’t quite as good as the world sounds.

And the music is very forgettable…you can buy DLC (yuck) to unlock the original PlayStation soundtrack and effects, which some may enjoy for nostalgia reasons. Regardless, RE2’s music isn’t a highlight.

Technically Near-Perfect

On the technical side, RE2 is a dream. The load times are often just one or two seconds even on a non-solid-state drive install. Seriously, how does this game load so fast?! Overachieve much? Please also note I never once had a crash or glitch, and the game alt-tab’s like a champ. Basically RE2 is too legit to quit (working).

There’s only a few slightly odd graphical shimmering effects with the lighting engine, but that’s very minor. Occasionally the game will freeze for a split-second upon entering new areas or finding collectibles, but it’s not a huge deal.

For new players, who could this mysterious lady be? For fans of the series, look who it is!

The game also features a very robust graphical customization menu. It’s wonderful to see the robust configurability that the PC platform deserves. Being able to adjust the FOV, motion blur, depth of field, lens flares, and chromatic aberration is much appreciated. So kudos to Capcom for creating such a native PC experience!

Zombie Bullet Sponges & Damage Issues

Another contentious point is how unexpectedly tough zombies are. It’s clear RE2 is trying to be a “hardcore” survival game rather than an action game, but there’s something profoundly unsatisfying when you put six to nine bullets directly into the head of a zombie and it still gets up again.

As detailed as the zombies are, they’re heads don’t realistically deform when shot with bullets. They simply have blood textures applied instead of starting to cave in and lose parts. This is an unfortunate lack of detail. Also missing are blood pools around some dead zombies. Fans of the original game will lament this omission.

Especially galling is how occasionally you can pull out your shotgun and directly blast a zombie in the head an arm’s length away and sometimes still not kill it! In this shotgun case, you only can truly count on a one-hit-kill with a fully upgraded shotgun. This makes sense in “video game progression land” but it’s contrived and unsatisfying. Watch the GIF below in abject horror.

https://media.giphy.com/media/3NxgDeGa7iQEcWPK2Z/source.mp4

When a shotgun at point blank can’t explode a zombie’s head on Normal difficulty it brings to mind the meme: you had one job, shotgun, one job! Zombie’s head should go boom.

What’s also missing is the satisfying (but unrealistic) blood spurting when you decapitate a zombie with a powerful weapon. The original RE2 was so enjoyable in this way, and RE2’s “head split” animation is just not nearly as enjoyable as the original. Oh well…

Dinky Combat & No CQC

What makes the zombie bullet sponges even more unfortunate is the little sense of power and lethality of most combat engagements, which is perhaps intended to once again “heighten tension” but doesn’t feel very good to play. Your aim is inaccurate. Bullets hitting zombies can feel more like foam darts. Your knife slashes are imprecise and feel like you’re attempting to slather butter on the zombies rather than expertly slash and murder them.

Sometimes scripted sequences override player actions, which is a big sin. At one point several zombies were around me, and one  grabbed me. I used my equipped flashbang to stun it, but another zombie grabbed me a split-second before the flash detonated. Despite a flashbang going off right next to it, the zombie played its scripted grab animation and badly damaged me. These conflicts between player input and scripted results happen too often.

Another huge issue is the player has zero close-quarters-combat (CQC) skills. You would think you could at least have basic self-defense moves when your ammo is gone. Nope. You can’t kick, punch, push, or otherwise repel zombie attacks. You just stand like a fool as zombies lunge at you. They’ve artificially limited your ability to respond to threats, which makes the game a lot less fun to play.

Claire was never taught to KICK when a zombie chews your leg. Another poor education.

It’s just too jarring to have Leon and Claire, both fit and athletic young people, be unable to duck, weave, roll, dodge, and quickly outmaneuver zombies…unless it’s in a cutscene when suddenly they stop being movement morons. I personally hate when games have characters do things in cutscenes that are taken away from you when you actually play. Not cool.

So once again some of the combat improvements in the more modern games have been stripped out…an unfortunate design decision perhaps done because Capcom was too afraid to deliver “an action feel” after the utter disaster that was RE6.

Some Kind of Tyrant

I’m not going to say much, but during the game you’ll encounter this one guy who follows you around and tries to kill you. You might enjoy these segments. More likely, you’ll find them a bit annoying by the end. I personally found these segments to be fairly brief, so I’m not knocking or praising the game in this regard.

This guy is not the Tyrant, but this guy is also disturbingly scary. He needs serious therapy.

Keyboard and Mouse Issues

If you’re using a controller, you can move very slowly by barely pushing the analog stick (like nearly every third-person game). Sadly Capcom forgot to include a keyboard binding for this “slow walk” style, so if you’re playing with keyboard and mouse you’ll be unable to avoid detection in certain important areas. All it would take is a menu option to press down “Ctrl” or whatnot to get your creep on and safely avoid serious consequences. Needed more PC testing.

DLC Costumes, Unlockables, & Promised Content

On the very negative side, one thing they haven’t kept from the old days is quality unlockable costumes. Rather, they’ve opted to modernize things with unacceptable DLC outfits. You only unlock the original 1998 outfits by playing. The interesting outfits…you need to pay for them. I will never condone this practice in a full-price release.

No! Charging for what used to be free unlockable costumes is NOT cool! A terrible practice.

Also sad is how much more annoying it is to unlock the good infinite ammo weapons in this modern RE2. It’s just silly to lock the best stuff behind modes about maybe 2% of your players will finish.

On a brighter side, Capcom has promised three mini-stories to be released for free in the future. They’ll probably be very short, but free post-release content is nice.

Other Minor Annoyances

There’s a 20 save-game limit for some silly reason. This means you won’t be able to keep all your save games from the four different campaigns (eight counting the Hardcore modes), which makes hunting down missed Achievements or unlockables a bit more tedious. I don’t see why the game couldn’t keep separate save “folders” for each playthrough…this isn’t 1998.

Here you play as a little girl. It was the most terrifying part for me. Play it to find out why.

While you can skip all the major cutscenes (thankfully), for some bizarre reason you cannot skip other short cutscenes such as certain item placements and death scenes. When you’re playing the game for the fourth time you really don’t need to sit through a 10 second sequence seeing yourself torn to shreds…just let me load my game already.

It’s also too bad that RE2 lacks a photo mode since this would be a perfect fit for a game as visually attractive as this one! Oh well.

Overlooking Faults: Yes or No?

In reading the overwhelmingly positive Steam reviews and mostly glowing critic reviews, I think it’s fair to say most players are choosing to overlook the larger issues of RE2 perhaps out of nostalgia or relief that Capcom mostly delivered. These issues chiefly are the less-than-stellar combat, lack of CQC, muddy maneuverability, and the tedious item management.

Another gorgeous, breath-taking scene. Amazing what 20 years of technology can do.

As a critic I can’t just overlook any issues, even if I also love RE2. Therefore, what we have here is a faithful and gorgeous remake that retains the original’s mood but lacks the fluid and intelligent modern gameplay it truly deserves.

If you can overlook the faults, RE2 is as perfect a recreation of the 1998 survival-horror experience as you’ll ever get. I still love the original RE2 and the remake brings back all that I love, even if it also drags in a bit too much less-lovely archaic design.

Perfect atmosphere & mood

Optimized & efficient engine

Gorgeously detailed world

Balanced survival-horror

Super-fast loading times

Immersive locational audio

Extremely faithful remake

Free content updates

Inventory annoyances!

Lack of any CQC defense

Some flimsy/quirky combat

Bullet-sponge zombies

Some obtuse item puzzles

Semi-short campaigns

Pointless 20-save limit

Good costumes are all DLC

Playtime: 26 hours total. Nick completed Leon’s “scenic” playthrough in 7 hours. Next was Claire’s in 4 hours. Leon’s 2nd Run took 3 hours, and Claire’s 2nd Run came in at a quick 2.5 hours. Nick proceeded to unlock Achievements and collectibles for a good while more. He’s looking forward to maybe attempting Hardcore mode someday…maybe.

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using an Intel i7-3930k CPU, 32GB of memory, and a nVidia GTX 980 Ti graphics card.

Also read the Resident Evil 2 PC Performance Analysis.

Resident Evil 2 Review: Gruesomely Gorgeous published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[thegloober]

Lost Your Love for Photography? Here's How to Relight Your Passion

Have you ever felt so uninterested and indifferent towards photography that you could barely look at your camera, let alone pick it up and go out shooting? I have, but I found a few things I’d like to share with you today that really helped me rediscover my passion.

The alarm goes off. It’s 04:30am and the camera bag’s packed. But instead of waking up with enthusiasm and excitement I look out the window and pray that it’s too cloudy. Or that it’s not cloudy enough. Or that it’s raining. Anything to validate me crawling back in to bed.

When this started happening to me pretty much every morning, I knew something was really amiss. My love for photography had gone and I was in a deep, dark hole. But rather than put the bag away and find something new, I examined what was causing the torpor and made a pact to resolve the issues. These four tips below really helped and I am once again full of zest and love for my craft.

Limit Yourself

Focus on one type of photography at a time. The time period is up to you, it could be a day, a week, a month, a year, whatever. But don’t try to be a jack of all trades and cram everything into one day. I was trying to do macro, portrait work, sunset landscapes, surfing shots from land and in water, plus some product work for friends but I wasn’t setting myself a schedule. I love all those genres at certain times but when you wake up of a morning and you have no clear indication in your mind about what you want to do, it can be incredibly frustrating and you end up suffering paralysis by analysis and disillusion through confusion.

If you use music as an analogy, you might say you love music but you can’t wake up of a morning and try to bust out a hip-hop track before breakfast, then a bluegrass song mid-morning, then a thrash metal ditty at lunch, followed by an afternoon power ballad and rounded off in the evening with some R&B. It sounds ridiculous, right, and would lead to serious burnout. But that’s what many of us do, and it’s exhausting. So I stopped. I made a decision to limit myself to particular styles of photography for certain periods of time.

For example, I recently spent a couple of weeks exploring the beautiful little island of Tanegashima, in far SW Japan. I decided before I left I would only do land shots of surfing, sunset landscapes, and waterfall shots and never more than one on the same day. That was my rigid plan and I stuck to it. So I brought the necessary equipment and left all other lenses and gear at home. It was so liberating and refreshing. On one particular day I spent four hours in a small waterfall area that wasn’t much more than 100 meters long. But I really thought about my work, and angles, and lenses. I knew I wasn’t going anywhere else and that I’d committed to that location for the day. Here are a couple of results. 

Back Yourself 

Do what you love and what you’re good at rather than following trends and doing things you don’t like. That also extends to post-production. There was a time when I lost a lot of confidence in my photography because I was stepping out of my comfort zone and into a zone that wasn’t only uncomfortable, but entirely unenjoyable for me. And I found I wasn’t producing images of the quality that I expected of myself. But that wasn’t because I didn’t have the ability to learn or adapt, it was simply because I had no real interest in that genre or style of photography, yet I was forcing myself to do it because I felt like I had to “push myself” and “expand myself”. It was poppycock — I had no interest in it and it showed in my results. And it started to become laborious and I almost resented picking up the camera at times. Why do something that you don’t enjoy? It makes no sense whatsoever.

One example was portrait work. Many friends up in Tokyo love that gritty, high contrast look that works so well with monochrome and black backgrounds. And they were having a lot of commercial success with it. So I tried to incorporate it into my work but it wasn’t for me. I grew up on a beach. My friends are mostly surfers and sun-lovers so the idea of dark, moody photos of mostly happy-go-lucky people was just a forced mismatch; so I stopped. Now I take photos that I love and that represent my outlook on life and how I like to portray scenes. For example, here’s a couple of shots I took of my daughter recently.

She loves the sun, I love the sun, and we both love being outside. So these photos really resonate with me and reflect her growing love of nature. They aren’t to everyone’s taste but I love them and so does my wife. As the saying goes, “you can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.” So don’t try. Just do what you love and work on perfecting it. 

Print Yourself

With so much social media around these days it’s quite easy to fall into the trap of being a social media photographer and spend all your time and energy on uploading your photos to social networks. Especially when we’re told ad nauseam that it’s important to build our online brand and use the power of the internet to market ourselves and put ourselves in front of as many eyes as possible. That’s all well and good and I’m all too aware of how powerful social media can be, but if your entire photographic existence consists of putting photos up online to be compressed by the whims of respective social media platform algorithms, then I think you’re doing yourself and your work a disservice.

Print your photos and in all different formats. Whether it’s on big canvas prints used as centerpieces in your living room, or little albums that you can put under the coffee table and reminisce over with your loved ones for years to come. There’s nothing quite like the excitement of hearing the doorbell ring when you’re expecting a big print. You run to the door with beating heart and excited anticipation and unwrap the box like a little kid at Christmas. Then you hold that big print up in your hands and run your fingers along the edges, surveying the colors and the light and the tones. Then you hold it up on the wall where you’ve planned to place it and stand back and admire it. That’s your work. That’s a real manifestation of your passions and the time and resources and energy you’ve put into learning your craft. Seeing it up there every day is far more rewarding for the soul than a couple hundred likes on a post that disappears for all intents and purposes within a matter of days. Here’s a print of mine up on the wall back at home in Australia.

If you’re looking for affordable prints, then you might want to look at Zno. I’m not an ambassador for them or linked to them in any way, but I have had great success using them and they’re very affordable for all types of products.

Educate Yourself

It’s quite ironic that as an Associate Professor in Japan with almost 20 years experience teaching at college, my learning of the photographic craft had stagnated and I’d become far too complacent. That led to boredom because my routine was pretty much the same whenever I went out shooting and whenever I did post-production. Sure, it was working, and I’d carved out a nice little existence for myself through photography but I wasn’t getting inspired and my creativity was utterly dormant.

So I made a pact to keep learning and to incorporate as many new things into my photography that I felt could help me. I scoured free things on YouTube a lot but I also invested in a few online courses, including one on newborn photography. But without doubt the best course I’ve had the pleasure of using over the last couple of months has been the Photographing the World course available here on Fstoppers. It’s a 15 part series where the first 8 episodes are set in Iceland and the last 7 episodes are set in New Zealand. The cinematography alone is visually stunning and wouldn’t look out of place on the Travel Channel.

But it’s the educational side of things that I love even more than the awe-inspiring scenery. Each episode is broken down into 2 halves: the first is out in the field and examines the thought processes behind making a beautifully composed photo, and the second half is back in the studio where you learn lots of new editing techniques in software such as Lightroom, Photoshop, and Color Efex Pro. I haven’t even reached the New Zealand part yet but already I’ve noticed a huge improvement in the way I approach photography and my finished results. In particular I’ve introduced a new style of luminosity masking and blending exposures for highlights and shadows without the need for HDR. Some clients have also commented positively on some recent shots I produced so there is a definite change going on in my work and it’s exciting to learn so many new things from each episode. 

Any source of education whether paid or free is good if it adds value to your creativity and helps you improve. I thoroughly recommend the Photographing the World course, which is available here.

When you’ve invested so much time, effort, love, and money into a passion it’s a horrible sensation when you feel that love slowly slipping away. But if you incorporate any of these things I’ve introduced today, I really think it’ll help you rediscover your fire. What have you done to rediscover the joys of photography any time you’ve felt a real lack of enthusiasm? I’d love you to share them in the comments below.

Source: https://bloghyped.com/lost-your-love-for-photography-heres-how-to-relight-your-passion/

[pauldeckerus]

Guest Blog: Karen Hutton – Photographer, Purveyor of Awesomeness

Love and awe.

Two of my favorite concepts in all of art and Life itself.

Oh, also pithy. I freakin’ love that word. It means: “a language or style that is concise and forcefully expressive.” Yeah, pithy is cool. And fun to say!

Scott Kelby… thank you for providing a place for all three of my favorite things to thrive in uncountable ways. And I don’t just mean for me – I mean for everyone who loves photography and learning. You are indeed a force of nature for Good.

BTW… I still get such positive comments about this episode of “The Chat” (a show I self-produced a few years ago, just for fun), from all the way back in 2014, I wanted to re-share it here. It was a revelation…

Which brings us in perfect full-circle manner back to Love and Awe; two of the most powerful creative forces in the universe.

Photography is Love Made Visible. That’s a statement, isn’t it? I could also say that “Art” is love made visible. Or creativity, period – if it results in something that is actually visible.

In my opinion, if you want to take a beautiful, defining image that speaks from your soul, you have to fall in love with it. Madly, truly, deeply in love.

A picture is a poem without words. -Horace

People sometimes think I’m a little “woo-woo” about all this. They (mistakenly) think I don’t focus on the technical aspects of photography.

Mais non!

At a certain point in my life, I got busy and focused so MUCH on the technical aspects of my photography that it simply doesn’t lead the show anymore. Sufficiently internalized, technique becomes like muscle memory in photography, just as it does in sports. It’s just there, like a car with a full tank of gas, engine humming, waiting to see where to next. Which, in turn, frees you to focus upon the feeling, vision or the message of your art. I call it: Technique in Service of Vision.

Of course,  if a new technique were to present itself that I really wanted to master, then I’d get busy! I’d practice it, repeat it, over and over, till it was embedded into my nervous system, so that I could speak fluently in its language without thinking about it. Only then could I spontaneously create with it.

Mastering technique so you can go do cool stuff with it was basic to every sport and artistic discipline I’ve done to a high level, whether it was acting, singing, figure skating, equestrian sports, downhill skiing, voiceovers. I’m a great believer in “technique will set you free” in most disciplines. But only if it’s set into its proper place; which is “in service of” performing said discipline in a signature fashion – and not as an end unto itself.

Here’s how I see it… 

The camera and lens(es) you have ought to inspire you with new ideas, not demand that you conform to its way of thinking. For instance: if you hate menu-diving, don’t choose a camera that forces you to do that, no matter how popular it is.

Settings are made to be broken! Learn which settings allow you bend light YOUR way. For instance: love to smooth the water, but prefer a bit of thready texture in it? Learn how many seconds of exposure creates that effect, under which light conditions and with which filters so you can have just the way you want it every time, quickly and without fuss. Task yourself to go out and spend a day around bodies of water (oceans, lakes, rivers, puddles, streams, fountains, etc.) and practice this until you figure it out. Then do drills under as many varying circumstances as you can find until it’s second nature. I had a ski coach once who said “You can call yourself a good skier when you can ski down any part of this mountain anytime, under any conditions. You don’t have to do it fast, you just have to be able to do it – anytime, anywhere.” I approach photography in the same way, because only then will technique sit in the background, ready to be of service and not tug at your attention like a needy kid. Only then will your mind be free to create.

Frame the elements and relationships – no more, no less – that contain the feeling you want to get across in its entirety. I’m talking composition, of course. Keep asking yourself “What is it about this frame do I love so much?” “Why?”  “Where’s the story?” and move around, close in, pull back, push yourself to get so specific until you’ve honed in precisely on what it is that’s filling you with a sense of awe. Only then press the shutter!

Learn your craft, do your homework and pretty soon, you’ll be free to fall in love and feel awestruck about your subject – and create a visual poem about it.

That’s when your images will finally become the story that only you can tell – and that the world is waiting breathlessly to hear.

It’s the ultimate blend of technical, feeling and experiential – all wrapped up into one split-second moment of time where you press the shutter and capture a moment that moves your soul.

I lead a series of retreats and adventures I call “The Artist’s Voice”, that go way into this process. And it IS a process! I’ve been doing it my whole life over several different disciplines and I’m still learning. It’ll never stop. As I change as a person, so do the stories and feelings I want to share.

The Power of Awe As photographers, we all know the feeling Awe. Incredible sunrises, sunsets – and dramatic weather… the perfect moment captured on the streets… a newborn baby… any of these can be absolutely spiritual and awe-inspiring.

Studies have now been done to quantify the utterly transformative power that Awe has on us. We are hard-wired for it and are at our absolute best when we’re infused with wonder and awe – large or small – on a daily basis. Art becomes a transcendent medium when it moves people in that direction.  

Some researchers have described awe as “that sense of wonder we feel in the presence of something vast that transcends our understanding of the world.” In those moments, we lose that tired, boring sense of self-importance. Instead, we tend feel more at peace, kinder, more creative and big-thinking (vs. small-minded).

The cool thing is that you don’t have to seek out ever-larger events like some adrenaline junkie to experience wonder and awe; you can find it in everyday, simple ways. It takes focus, desire, willingness to see it. And practice, practice, practice to capture it.

Learning to look through the lens of wonder and awe is both a technique and a discipline. It’s one that opens you up to so much more. It’s how the voice of your soul can finally be heard. It’s how you unleash the creative flow into your mind’s eye – your camera, and the lens through which you see life itself. It’s how you flip technique around to where it serves you – not the other way around.

I think most photographers forget this.

And it keeps them in bondage to the “Am I doing it right?” monster, which – as many of us know too well – leads to self-doubt, second guessing ourselves and feeling generally not creative and frankly, feeling kinda crappy about ourselves.

It’s time to STOP THE MADNESS!!

Love and awe.

Two of my favorite concepts.

Because they will set you – and the creative force that is your birthright – free.

What’s Your Story? Why does any of this matter, in the grand scheme of things? Because every day, we create our reality selection through the choices we make. How we choose to see things, what we choose to focus upon, the stories we tell ourselves and others about our life experience. Our desires, creations and the way we choose to feel ALL become part of our  “book of life.”

At this point in my own life, I’m much more interested in building a world full of people, feelings and experiences that I love. Ones that make me happy, fill me with awe and think better thoughts. And that I can talk about with pithiness. Did I mention how much I love that word?

Grin.

You know that old saying “Thoughts become things”? I’ve learned for sure that it’s true, every word.

Every day we are giving the opportunity to look through the lens of more beauty, love, joy and happiness into our life. And to notice what some might call “the mundane” in delightful and unusual ways. Talk about seeing photographically!

A Primer for Practice Now then.

Wondering how to put all of this into practice? I thought you’d never ask. I’d suggest experimenting with something like this:

Slow down. Slow your breath, your mind, even your steps. Heck, try putting your camera down for a minute!

Feel. “Feel what?” I hear you ask. Oh – just feel. Feel your breath, the air, the light, your heartbeat. Just feel – both emotionally and physically. What do you feel in your legs? Your gut? Your throat? These are not things photographers normally think about, but they are the beginnings of putting yourself into the present moment. Which is where life (and art) actually happen.

Ask yourself “Why?” A lot.  “Why does this scene move me?” “What could I tell (show) someone about it – specifically – that would let them feel it too?” “What do I love so much about this?” Keep asking yourself these questions – and sense your responses – until you’re moved to pick up your camera. Hint: Don’t pick up that camera until you can’t NOT do it.

Frame the shot by feel. Leave out any element that doesn’t contribute to the story. Then, like a geiger counter, sense when you get an “Aha!” response in your body. It might be a gasp, your heart might leap, you might get butterflies – some physical response will tip you off.

Only then press the shutter. Y’know. When Awe calls.

Other Stuff I lead photography retreats and other photo adventures all about finding your artistic voice in photography and the power of awe. Lake Tahoe is coming up in October, 2018, and I would love for you to join me!

If all this intrigues you, check out my KelbyOne courses (a brand new one is coming out Sept. 2018!).

I love sharing my current obsessions with friends and subscribers. This week it’s this mini washing machine, which rocks the clean in tiny homes and apartments. I’ve been using one, as we’ve been going through a home renovation. It’s awesome! Now I’m trying to figure out how to bring it with me when I hit the road for some extended trips with my truck ‘n travel trailer next year. ;)

Karen Hutton is a Professional Fujifilm X Photographer, International Landscape and Travel Photographer, Voice. Through stunning imagery, humor, thought-provoking ideas and a genuinely positive outlook, she inspires people to discover their artistic voice in photography — while making it all feel like an unforgettable and eye-opening adventure.

She has been featured internationally by Fujifilm, presented at Photographer Talks at Google, created online courses for KelbyOne, has been translated into multiple languages and speaks all over the country about photography and inspiration.

Her adoring fans + customers have called her “Pure JOY, LIGHT & absolute FUN!”, “An inspirational gem” and “Incredibly artistic. Captivatingly genius. World class!”

Guilty pleasures? When she’s not traveling the world, you can find her watching epic movie trailers, crunching popcorn at the latest Marvel Comics blockbuster and sipping Bulletproof coffee, wondering if anyone realizes she’s basically drinking butter.

Discover the soul-vibrancy of your photographic artistic voice at KarenHutton.com and The Artists Voice Adventures, and keep up with her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

The post Guest Blog: Karen Hutton – Photographer, Purveyor of Awesomeness appeared first on Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider.

from Photography News https://scottkelby.com/guest-blog-karen-hutton-photographer-purveyor-of-awesomeness/

[sherrygorugh]

Mastering Roasting Concepts With Joe Marrocco

Mastering Roasting Concepts With Joe Marrocco by Michael

There are few jobs in the coffee industry as romantic or mysterious as roaster. Traditionally, the tradecraft of the making-coffee-darker arts has been a closely guarded secret, passed on from roaster to roaster in old fashioned apprenticeships. Other than a couple of good books, there’s not many resources available to aspiring novice roasters. Joe Marrocco is helping to change that. The longtime Cafe Imports educator recently moved on to work with Mill City Roasters, but the year-long video project Roasting Concepts is now free to view on YouTube. We caught up with “Roaster Joe” over email in the midst of his busy travel schedule to learn the thought behind the project, and how young roasters can develop their skills. 

Over the last seven months Cafe Imports have been releasing a series of videos called “Roasting Concepts.” What inspired the project?

This is a project that I worked on with Cafe Imports over several years. I know that the videos seem very simple and short, but they took a long time to conceptualize, carve out time for and put together. The idea was born out of teaching people roasting at the Cafe Imports headquarters in Minneapolis.

I would spend essentially four to five days between prep and execution teaching 8-12 people how to roast in a two-day class. My desire was that I wanted to teach as many people as I possibly could, and get the information to them in a way that was effective, easily digested, meaningful, and low cost to them. This would require something more than asking 12 people at a time to come and visit us. I simply didn’t have the time to invest in spending four to five days away from my desk on a regular basis as well. I mean, my main job there was sales. So, I decided it would be best to spend time with people in their own homes, offices, wherever, and through the magic of technology. I then began to develop the curriculum that would achieve all of those goals, and lean on Andy Reiland, the director of marketing at Cafe Imports, to add the visual aids to pull everything together. That alone was an incredible process of collaboration.

Coffee roaster is one job without very defined career paths. How did you become “Roaster Joe”?

I knew, fairly soon after becoming a barista, that roasting is where I would spend some quality years of my life. I was not satisfied, from a craft and culinary perspective, only knowing extraction. I wanted to control more than that in the process, or at least understand that control.

I was offered a job at Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting Company in Saint Louis as a roaster and I loved it. Well, kind of. I loved the art and science of it. I did not love the monotony of roasting day in and day out. I would kind of deal with that part of the job as a payment forward to get me to those opportunities to dig into and unlock a profile on a new coffee, or sample roast a bunch of new arrivals, or better yet, teach a group that was coming through about the roasting process. Teaching is where I thrive. Kaldi’s was quick to recognize this and made me an educator with perks of being able to roast as I wished after only about a year and a half beside the machines.

Upon leaving Kaldi’s in 2011, I jumped into Cafe Imports with an exploratory hunger. I mean, they have HUNDREDS of different coffees. So, I began roasting these coffees and trying to figure out how to best highlight them. I began, and very controversially at the time, posting my profiles and taste notes on their website. Although I had already been “roasterjoe” for a while, this is where people outside of my normal circles began to care a bit more about my style and ramblings. Cafe Imports also supported me and encouraged me in this area and allowed me to do a lot more work with the (then called) Roasters Guild.

Beyond this, I think that one key thing that helped me the most in my journey was, once I was at Cafe Imports I was able to spend quality time with a huge number of roasters on their equipment with coffee that I knew, and simply roast a bunch of different styles on all of these machines. The cross-referencing that your mind does through taste and smell is incredibly powerful. I was able to see how roasters were implementing different strategies to achieve the results they wanted. I saw how a roaster on one machine would have a strategy that opposed a roaster’s on another machine, but their results were the same, or vice versa. I began to connect a lot more dots and learn about the deeper science of roasting in general, and not the exact craft of roasting on one particular machine. This was revolutionary and has been something that I have made my mind up to continually share with as many roasters as I can, open source, or as free as possible.

You’ve worked with a wide variety of different coffee roasters through out your career. What is it about Mill City that made you willing to throw in with this company?

I have been doing collaborative work with Mill City, really since they started about five years ago. The belief that roasting coffee should not be an exclusive job, more people can and should be doing it and doing it well, information on how to cook green coffee should not be a huge secret as it is actually fairly simple to do it fairly well, and the ability that their equipment has at empowering entrepreneurs who are otherwise kind of on the fringes of society are all things we agree on, full force. I have aligned goals with Mill City’s goals. I want to help people who are brave enough to venture out into business on their own become successful. The idea of putting my full-time devotion toward these ends was impossible to say no too.

Along with this, the machines are LEGIT. As a roaster nerd, I have this personal list of things like, “I wish this machine didn’t simply have a damper, but that I could control the airflow by using a dial to control the fan speed,” along with so many more. Over the years, Steve Green and Nick Green of Mill City Roasters have heard all of these wishes from us roasters and have worked tirelessly at implementing the controls and information read-outs that matter to roasters, and actually matter to coffee. Sure, they have vetted these and thrown out ideas that don’t truly matter. This makes things even better! The machines are incredibly interactive, intuitive, repeatable, and honestly, FUN to roast on. We have people come through all of the time who have roasted on other equipment and feel sad leaving at the end of the day because the machines are just so fun. Helping my roaster friends have fun in their day to day job, which for me began to get so boring, is worth taking on this new job all by itself.

Do you still get to roast coffee with your new role? If so, what coffee have you been enjoying roasting recently?

HA! Yes. Indeed I do. I have been spending a lot of time getting into some of the other systems within the company, so I have not gotten to devote a lot of time to this yet, but I have full access to our green coffee and roasting equipment at any and all times. Most of the time I spend roasting is spent with other people either during a class, or a demo, or simply talking shop. I was recently able to take a trip through Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and teach four two day courses. I was able to roast on a lot of interesting equipment on this trip and it just continued to drive home how special our machines are.

I have been enjoying a natural Ethiopia that we picked up from Cafe Imports. But, if I am honest, I find the most joy in whatever is in the drum at the time I am roasting it. I know that sounds cheesy and made up, but it is absolutely true.

What advice would you give to an aspiring roaster? (Besides watching “Roasting Concepts”!)

Every roaster is different in their own goals and aspirations. Being successful in roasting is not about producing the perfect roast, the perfect coffee, the ultimate machine. If you chase that myth, you will only find disappointment and form firm ideals around how one “should” roast coffee. Being successful in roasting is about you. This is why it is very hard for me to define. It is about fulfillment, contentment, respect, equity in something, and so many other things. I know that for myself, it is that sense that I am making the world a better place, I am supporting my family, I am helping people around the world support their families, I am creating something of beauty that matters, and I am heard as a professional. In roasting, there are a lot of roadblocks to many people in achieving these goals. For those folks who cannot achieve this through the traditional methods of simply getting a job at a great company as a roaster, I recommend working toward creating your own thing. Carve out your success, and work toward including others in that space who have experienced your same struggle.

Ok, that may be a bit more philosophical than you were hoping for. Here are some practical things as well.

– Roast a bunch and fail a bunch. Burn a bunch of coffee. – Taste everything you roast. – Taste other people’s roasts. – Try to get on a number of different machines. – Try a bunch of different strategies. – Stop freaking out about dark roasts, and realize that a roast level is not a moral issue. – Don’t believe everything you hear just because a powerful voice says it. – Don’t disregard everything you hear, because there is likely a nugget of truth in just about everything, or that individual would not believe it. – Try to find something beyond yourself to work for in your pursuit for success, in order to make your success actually valuable and not simply ego. – Collaborate with people who you strongly disagree with. – Stop being as worried about long-term success and try to focus in on the short-term successes every day. If you do the small things well, they snowball to big things. – Focus your attention on, in other words, be mindful and intentional, when eating. Every taste experience you have is a learning opportunity. – Try to sleep well, eat well, move often, drink moderately, and stay healthy. Nothing is more important to your success than your health. – Remember, the best roasters on earth are likely the people who you will never see on video or in a magazine. The best of us are too busy ROASTING for all of that.

Mastering Roasting Concepts With Joe Marrocco was first posted by Michael on The Coffee Compass, The Coffee Compass - Your Guide for Craft Coffee

Mastering Roasting Concepts With Joe Marrocco published first on https://linlincoffeeequipment.tumblr.com/

[opalmothnightingale]

5- 14- 18 - A little place in my house, my secret room, not really,...  But my room yes where I keep my secrets, my books, my papers, my place I can retreat and not be disturbed, I have this now in our new house, small house, but big enough with enough bedrooms that I can have such a space, and there 

...I keep my cheap decorations and handmade and dollar store decorations that I find beautiful nonetheless, toddler-made decorations from our endless hours of crafts we did all those years when she needed 

...to have constant interaction and crafts were the few things that I actually could enjoy, with a toddler very often it seems...  And constant affirmations, reminders, symbols, and talismans were...

Really, and simply the only thing that supplemented my poor sad tired brain that was in such a haze, allergies overwhelming it too, pain, pain, so much of the time...  

And all around were things that are so totally absurdly colorful, brilliant, striking and what others often call clashing, in my culture,

... but it’s not so in other cultures, where colors and patterns cross the boundaries of what is called matching, harmonious, and my toddler taught me about that too... 

Over the window, covering the light, making a cave, is a big cheap tapestry... not that ultra cheap but for the amoung of space it covers, yes, and in the center is a black circle, which reminds me of an eclipse, because the last total solar eclipse was a time of great realizations and transformations, ..

and hope and facing darkness, and symbolism... 

I think that it does,...  

doesn’t it?  ... seems fitting, something that is sometimes seen as ... stupidly, they see, I think...  Stupidly they blindly view it, because society taught and drilled, and unconsciously the internalized voices took over their minds and they can’t be reached almost at all, most of them, beyond these barbed wire barriers.

somehow, being strange, dangerous, opening to malefic influences, would serve to be a symbol to me of hope, light, transformation, and in fact it can be seen that heaven might shine down on you at this time, if you’re open to this and align and turn that direction, by some,... And, again, as often is,...

and some cultures, including the more modern spiritual new age circles, of which I am not really among them, by a far cry...  hahaha... But some yes do see the eclipse as a time of heaven shining down without the dark impinging,...

the crush, the crash, smash and distortion,...  Lol  Sigh but now I move past, can’t see it....  Even though that was figured up largely in my experience, I can’t feel it, the superstitious warnings, which often marked and guided my days because I couldn’t stand to step outside proscribed lines too fragile and needing all the help I could get...

And now the more I go on, the fewer fears or warnings have any significance in my life,...  Things almost everyone panics, judges, but no, more I go on, not me...  I still have fears and worries, but not like before... 

So, all the weights and risks...  Whatever the case, it was a time of change ...

, a turning point in the road or fork in the road maybe...  for me, and I have many but that one stuck out boldly in my life...

So I was going to post a few pictures, but I just posted one, at top, of this room, one spot in it...  and other pictures of the moon and circles....  Thinking of the cycles of nature, the dark and what shines in the darkest of times, and sand that changes, over time but stays the same, and of the circles and the rays that are spokes of change and turning, and newness and life, and balance,...  Thinking of my circle of self, life and sustenance from all directions, inner and outer and spirit and nature and ideas and values and thinking of the circle of those I welcome and connect with, the few I choose among people, but many in the world of books, ideas, and art, practices, things I love and enjoy and find beautiful and give and share and create and insights made and shared, and symbols and spiritual tools, energy, talismans, made and shared,...  My circle is the circle of giving back and taking in, both in the circle of life...  

I was going to post the pictures but I decided to just look at them, because that works as well generally,...  I like to post some pictures but I also like to spend some time looking at pictures...  

But I like the pictures of my room, even though the pictures look silly perhaps, as the room itself might also, I will put the pictures here, because it’s my own blog, my online journal, my spiritual path, what works for me without wanting to hear either good or bad feedback, which all makes me feel like I’m meant to impress and not to put off,...  But I don’t care if I put off and I don’t want to even take time to think, what might impress?  If I do that, I am sure a cascade of avalanche of energy and internalized voices, and feelings, and ideas and information that is not even realistic, not scientific enough if at all, not applicable to me,...  Not invited,...  After I have tried so much such stuff and had it not work, make things worse, can’t I shut the door of my mind, emotions and heart to that?  Yes, I can.  This is why depression, anxiety, pessimismm, etc is totally and fully understood by me.  There is a time when you have to shut the door to the “light”, “bright”, and “cheery things” that others deem you need or the “healing”, “cures”, “answers to your problems”, things that fix “all problems”, almost or at least in this, this, this and that areas of life, they say or at least, in your particular case because I’m just like you and you’re not special, just lazy, blah blah...  So there is a time when you have to say, no, no, no way in all of the recesses of the swamps and nether regions of the last gates of hell, will I bend to listen to what has so often led me only to spiral and shatter into more full blown arrays of pain and disaster, confusion and isolation, betrayal and scorn at the hands of the would be helpers...

But in my own cave of becoming and unfolding, much light and bright, color, glowing, glitter and rainbows and absurd cheer and fantastical fairy tale imagery explodes and guides me on trails of wonder and truth and healing and magic so really, I am about as light and bright and sweet and idealistic and all this as they come, right along with the darkness, diving in deep, secluding myself, hiding, anger explosions that I explore only in the secret release of my own need and inevitability that I can’t meditate away, having meditated probably going on more than a decade, brought on by the sheer pain that silenced my brain so that I meditated without trying...  And it helped so much strangely, in the spiritual evolution I was going through at that time...  Since then my brain returned to somewhat decent functioning, after years of brain fog, etc....  And now I am able to hold the dark and light but I know that many taboos aren’t rightly taboo, but are things that are wrong, atrocities of heart and soul and mind, leveled like shattering debilitating ongoing abuse against those who can’t help, literally, at all, but be like the taboos say is wrong and a choice, little, and terrible choice that makes you so bad and worthless, blah blah...

But in my cave I tune all this out, to see what I need to see only....  Love, truth, beauty, light, honesty, darkness, unseen truths, strange beauty that others call tacky or ugly but lifts me to immense soaring sparkling sheer heights and euphoric insights and flying above...  

So there, no silver bullet can untangle the tremendously tangled strands of this entanglement.  Or if they are available, somewhere, the right silver bullet can only be found and experienced by myself, and I will only be led there with the help of spirit and my own judgment,...  so no, believe it’s so and then the stone wall will magically open in to a beautiful kingdom of ease and healing and joy... hahaha...  Therefore no law of attraction complete and total wilful denial and blaming victims, even if I know sometimes that alignment and visualization and such can help, but only sometimes and somewhat...  I know my own situation enough to know when to try a possible “silver bullet” or when to leave the tangled strands alone in their loose but immense tangle, rather than pull the threads wilfully and make the whole thing a big entrenched knotted bundle that I can’t work with at all...  

I am happy today, even though it’s one of those good old “it’s a good day because”...  “just because” and because of this I make what I can of what is happening, call it good, find the good in it, even things others would find to be horrible, but strong, cheerful, bright, optimistic, and all that I am, deep, spiritual, transcendent, open, loving, flexible, wise, and idealistic, in the real ideal sense, I can find the best in it to thrive after learning so many tools and healing enough that I can actually reach that and seize and hold it, clasp it gently, lovingly in my hand, all day through storms...  gazing at the beauty and wonder and appreciating the things I find with the fullest open glowing heart I can shine and explode and beam on to it with my warmth and light of self and looking for the best, focusing on the best without being in denial of what needs facing in the right time, letting it slip if it’s not the right time...  and I can tell with my sense of intuition and felt sense, body sense and spirit’s guidance, what to do when...  

[expectationtherapy-artcostello]

27 Simple And Enjoyable Things You Can Do Right Now To Improve Your Mental Health: via Unsplash Over the years, I have compiled a list of simple things to do which have a big impact on my mental health. Sometimes, it is not the grand gestures which work. You do not need to quit your job, go on a silent meditation retreat or move countries to feel better (although those are all cool things to do.) Making the effort to look after yourself in subtle ways is so important. However rough you feel, however hard life is, try incorporating one of these each day. Most only take a few minutes and your mind will thank you for it. 1. Put a weekly telephone call to someone you care about in your calendar We all know how good it feels to speak on the phone, but it is easy to lapse into only communicating through texts and messages. Make a plan to call someone – perhaps a childhood best friend or a relation who lives far away – once a week. You will both come away happier afterward. 2. Say no to a commitment which is draining your energy Maybe it's an extra shift at work, a volunteer role, a class or anything else. It's not selfish to say no to something which is wearing you out. You'll have more time and energy to focus on looking after yourself. 3. Get outside Whatever the weather, find some green space to relax for a few minutes each day. This is proven to relieve stress, sharpen your thinking and generally boost your mood. Take your laptop out and work in the garden (which I am doing right down), go for a walk in the woods or take your lunch to a park. All photos credited to Rosie Leizrowice unless indicated otherwise 4. Watch the stars Try taking some time to look up at the sky each night. Just like getting outside, this has been shown to improve mental health by giving you a sense of connection to something larger than yourself. 5. Find your ‘snowball' In BJ Miller's incredible TED talk, he describes a nurse in a burn unit bringing him a snowball after he lost his limbs from being hit by lightning. The simple feeling of the snow melting in his palm was enough to inspire awe at the world. Find something small to make you feel a sense of appreciation for being alive. One of my recent ‘snowballs' was when a pigeon perched on my hand for several minutes while in Venice. Some people might find that gross, but my bad mood completely lifted as I stroked the bird and fed him bread crumbs. The happiness lasted all day as I kept smiling at the memory. I might have been alone in a strange city, yet I had felt a brief sense of companionship with another living creature. 6. Read ‘Meditations' by Marcus Aurelius It will change your life forever. 7. Then, read ‘Letters from a Stoic' by Seneca Again, it will change everything. Learning about Stoicism has helped my mental health perhaps more than anything else. 8. Delete a social media account Even if you feel like looking at cat pictures at 3 am makes you happier, study after study has highlighted the impact social media has on mental health. I said goodbye to mine earlier this year and it felt amazing. Give this a go and you will be amazed by how much clearer your mind is. No one will miss you, I promise and you will not want to go back to it. 9. Turn off notifications They are stressful, even if you don't realize it. Switch them off – no one needs alerting every time they get an email or text. 10. If you are on medication for mental health problems but it isn't helping, ask your doctor the review it So many people neglect to do this and it is vital. There are lots of options and even a change in dose can have an enormous impact on your well-being. 11. Delete apps off your phone If you are not willing to delete your accounts altogether, at least take them off your phone. You can always access to them on your computer. 12. Decide on a regular bedtime Chances are high you haven't done this since you were about 6 years old. But having a regular bedtime can mean better sleep as your body adjusts. It will also create a rhythm to your day as you get used to switching off at a certain time. 13. Also, decide on a regular time to wake up Forget the myth that waking up early is necessary. There is no difference in terms of success between early birds and night owls. You do not need to get up at 5 am to make the best use of your day. Our biological prime times are genetic (find out your chromotype here) and forcing yourself to be awake at suboptimum times will make you miserable. Even, so a regular sleep schedule makes it much easier to structure your life. 14. Commit to 1 minute of meditation per day Building a meditation habit can be tricky. So, try starting with just 60 seconds per day, then building it up over time. You can do anything for 1 minute and it will have a huge impact on your mental health. I recommend the Calm app for guided meditations and breathing exercises. 15. Write out your worst fears Then write how you would handle them. I learned this technique called ‘fear-setting' from Tim Ferris. Whenever my anxiety flares up, I use this to remind myself that even the worst case scenario is not that bad. 16. Track how you spend the day in 15-minute increments Just set a timer and record what you are doing each time it goes off. How you spend your days is how you spend your life. Seeing exactly where all your time goes is a powerful exercise. Good mental health requires plenty of time for yourself and for self-care. 17. Make a list of the assumptions you have about yourself, others and life in general Here are some from the list I recently made: I will never be successful without a degree, no one will pay me for my work, my partner will eventually desert me, I will never fully overcome my mental health problems, other people understand life better than I do. Perhaps you have similar assumptions. Looking at them written down starkly on a piece of paper can help to highlight which are harmful or plain untrue. Then you can be self-aware enough to tackle them. 18. Decide to stop speaking to a toxic person There is no need to feel guilty. If someone makes you feel bad, stop associating with them. They do not deserve your company. Let them be bitter and gloomy on their own, without you to take it out on. This does not mean deserting a friend in a time of need, it means moving away from those who make your life miserable on purpose. 19. Make the choice to say goodbye to an addiction Most people have at least one harmful addiction. Maybe it's alcohol, smoking, junk food, whatever. Only you can decide to leave it behind and you can make that choice today. Addiction can seem like a viable way to handle mental health problems, yet they invariably worsen the problem. 20. Book a ticket for something a few months ahead – a concert, a film a weekend away or even a longer trip Having something to look forward to is an ideal way to stay positive and avoid dwelling on the past. Whatever is happening right now, you have something exciting ahead. 21. Throw out your crap A year ago, I realized that my overcrowded bedroom was exacerbating my anxiety. I took the plunge and decluttered 90% of my belongings, reducing everything down to just a few bags of stuff. The result? Much less stress and much more freedom. Chances are, you own far more stuff than you need. It takes up space, time and energy. A tidy living space will bring far more joy than owning excess stuff. Try throwing out one thing each day, or take the plunge and have a huge clear out. Donate, give away or sell the unwanted stuff. Someone else can make better use of it. 22. Look after your gut No, seriously. Your gut plays a surprising role in your mental health. communicating with your brain and even producing serotonin. Try eating more fermented foods, drinking bone broth or taking a probiotic. As weird as it seems, the science is sound. 23. Practice negative visualization This technique comes from Stoic philosophy. The idea is this; imagine that the worst has happened. Really picture the absolute worst which could happen to you. Your house burns down, someone sues you, the industry you work in collapses, your qualifications become null, you lose a limb, your family dies. Close your eyes and feel the pain for a few moments. Then, open your eyes and look at the world anew, knowing that none of it has happened. As grim as it sounds, it is a positive method of finding appreciation. 24. Move. An obvious point which still bears repeating NOTHING helps me with depression more than exercise. Find the type and time which works for you. Don't run on a treadmill for an hour if you know yoga would make you happier. Don't force yourself to do team sports if you would be happier working out alone. Don't feel like you have enough time for exercise? Intersperse 5-minute bursts throughout your day. Intervals are even more effective than lengthy stints and will help with energy levels. My personal favorite is 5-10 minutes of body weight exercises and stretches every hour or so. It makes a big difference if you spend most of your day hunched over a laptop. 25. Make a list of 3 things you are grateful for and 3 things you would like to improve each night Gratitude is proven to have a big impact on your mental health. A friend and I used to do get in touch and do this before bed every night. Even on the worst days, we were forced to find something good to list. Funnily enough, there always were 3 good things however small; some sunshine, a nice coffee, petting a cat in the street, a book, a conversation. 26. Get uncomfortable Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is a perfect way to overcome doubt and grow. Doing something which scares you might be counterintuitive, yet it is always worthwhile. 27. Stop trying to craft a perfect image of yourself You are a person, not a brand. Live your life authentically, rather than striving to be something you are not. http://tcat.tc/2ntWiP6

[mialoveslife339]

Royalty Income

Chapter 8: Skills for Success

There is one overarching skill that holds all of the skills together. That skill is clarifying your VISION. Your VISION is synonymous with your reason to achieve. It’s your crystal clear image of what your future looks like. Living in congruence or in alignment with your deepest values is what your ideal life is all about. Your VISION is a picture of what this life looks like. This is the mysterious source of your motivation. And, like the other skills, vision needs to be intentionally developed.

Once you begin to dream about your future life, something powerful happens. When you dream, you use your imagination. Your imagination creates a picture of the future before it happens. Every physical structure in existence was created twice--first in the mind, and then in physical form. If it didn’t first exist in the mind, it would never manifest in physical form.

When we dream, we create a powerful awareness at the subconscious level. We actually have two brains, one conscious and one subconscious. Your conscious brain takes care of things you are conscious of--like driving, cooking, reading, and talking. Your subconscious mind takes care of everything else. And unlike your conscious mind that goes to sleep, your subconscious mind never sleeps.

This part of our mysterious central nervous system is useful for helping us achieve. Our subconscious minds can’t distinguish between what is real and what is vividly imagined. When you dream about your future life, doing what you love, you feel AMAZING!

Amazing energy gets translated into productive activity. Our clear images of our future gets converted into productive work. Consistent, creative, hard-to-discourage work will grow a profitable business. It could accomplish anything. You are unstoppable. When you imagine a compelling picture of your future life in detail, your subconscious mind will act in congruence with what it believes is the current reality. It will solve problems and help you move closer to your dream becoming reality. 

If giving up on your dream is more painful than the fear of rejection, then you will work harder to avoid that pain. You will work harder to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. If your dream really matters, then the thought of losing it is what causes you the most pain. It’s more painful than even the thought of rejection. So you make those calls and invite your prospects to meet. Your vision of your future life compels you to do the hard work that no one wants to do. Successful people don’t enjoy hard things like rejection. Successful people just do it anyway. They refuse to let the emotion of fear stand in the way of reaching their goals. 

Always look for the clues. “Success leaves clues.”

We all visualize. We all have a dominant expectation of how we expect our lives to turn out. You can accept the default vision that’s been installed into your mental hard drive by a take-the-least-path-of-resistance culture. Or you can intentionally write your own vision. Your choice.

Successful people refuse to accept the default vision. Instead, they choose their own dreams carefully. Decades of research show people with written goals are much more likely to accomplish them. You will also learn from high-achievers that what they wrote down on paper, and sincerely desired to happen, was much more likely to happen. It’s not enough to “think” your dream. Put it down on paper. Write it out in first person, present tense. You write it out like it is happening today, right now. You describe how it makes you feel. Your subconscious mind believes what it sees! Go to a quiet place and give your subconscious mind something amazing to start believing in!

Clear images first; feelings second; productive action third. 

The mind is powerful. You literally have power to influence your future. The journey won’t be easy, but you will learn a lot. It’s really up to you. What do you want your life to look like in three to five years? It’s astonishing that most people will spend more time planning a vacation than they spend planning their lives. Accept that you are 100% responsible for your results. No blaming.

Grab a pad of paper, and go off to a quiet place and dream again. Dream like you did when life was simpler, and when you used to imagine that anything was possible. Use your imagination again. What is burning in your heart to accomplish before your one only life on this planet is gone. Do you realize that whatever you accomplish with your life is what you traded your life for? Are you satisfied with what you are currently trading your life for?

No one drifts into a meaningful life. The flow of human nature is to take the path of least resistance. If you remain inside your comfort zone, you will die a slow death. 

You must be intentional. You must be okay with being unique, even eccentric if need be. Others may misunderstand you, question your motives, even ridicule you. Don’t worry about them. Let it go. Keep your eye on the prize. Keep your vision statement where you can reread it regularly. Hang around like-minded people. Limit your association with negative friends. Be discerning with the words you let take root in your mind. Your mind is like a garden; it must be cultivated carefully or weeds will grow. Be vigilant about which words and ideas you allow in there. 

The most influential person Who ever lived is Jesus Christ. “Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.” What helped Jesus endure His trial was the joy that was set before him. He focused on the joy, not the trial. “Without vision the people will perish.” Our vision of the future is an unstoppable force that can fortify us to withstand much difficulty.

Defining your vision is more than just wanting. Defining your vision is more than just wanting. We all want. We want more or less of something; we want a better life. We want more free time. We want more money. Wanting is not a skill. It’s mental laziness.

Creating a vision statement that emotionally moves you is going to take work. You have to think. You think about your core values. You think about what really matters to you. You think about what is worth fighting for. That’s hard work. Then you put it down on paper, over and over, until the words bring tears to your eyes. Once you have crafted your vision statement in present tense, first person, you have your marching orders. You have created the prize--the prize you will either achieve, or die trying. 

Without your vision to aim for, you will grow weary. You will quit. With a clear and compelling vision, nothing will stop you. You may fall down a thousand times, but you won’t quit. 

If you know what is coming up ahead, you can mentally prepare. You have informed expectations. Much of your work will accomplish nothing long-term for your business. When you are out there inviting, presenting, and training, many of the people who get started won’t be around in five years. This can be really frustrating. With network marketing, much of the work you will do is gone five years later. The customers stopped ordering the products. The business partners quit. 

The mystery of NWM is you won’t know who the “won’t quit minority” is, so you must give your best all the time to everyone!

Even though many of the people you spend time and energy with will not be in your business in five years, you will be paid extremely well on the productivity of those who do remain. These lasting business partners are building their own businesses. They are finding their own customers. They are training their own teams. Since you will be likely working with a team where everyone has the same opportunities to grow, you are experiencing real leverage.

These six skills are the foundation for success in network marketing. If you partner with a good company, these skills can change your life in just a few years. 

“Strive not to be a success, but rather be of value.”

[opalmothnightingale]

Small Rewards, Tiny Reminders & Magic Seeds

11- 23- 17 - 

Small rewards are all I can afford and often break the task down to reward all I can dredge up out of my tired and blah existence as it often happens.  Then I reward it because I can.  It keeps me going and it makes me feel like I earned my gold foil sticker. I can break things down into the five minutes, ten, thirty, or however.  

But the thing is that when I do that it keeps the flow flowing.  I just do a little each day at something.  I just reward myself for that.  I just give myself credit and in my mind I say, good for you, you did it...”  

And even if others are like you only half-assed it, and you’re supposed to do 10 times more work, every day, or every hour, I’m like...  No.  

I just don’t feel and can’t motivate and too tired and you have no idea the agony of the crushing spiritual despair I am in, not to mention brain fog, exhaustion, pain, loneliness, confusion,...  I trust my feelings and reward my small things..

I just give small rewards because often it doesn’t take much.  Even days when I do big things, I just give small rewards often because my simple mind is often riveted on it...  I can stretch it out, rehash, turn it over in my mind and my eye, savor it...  I can see it from other angles, alter and embellish it,...  combine it with other things...  

So if it’s a form of an idea, an image, that I can do that with and I have the free uncluttered mind that I can do that with...  

And if I have lots of other small pleasures, small rewards, that are available at a glance for my mind...  Mental candy, and this occupies much of my time.  Idle one could say but what happens instead,...  Is that I get ecstatically high from all the feel good simple pleasures of just, simply even thinking of things.  

Then I use that to take real actions, and to realize things, more and more progress, healing, and good energy, kundalini/energy, insight, spirit connection...  All are facilitated with the all day long imagery, symbolism, associations flowing free in my head...

I can do this even when I do other things, such as homeschool kindergarten for my daughter, or do housework, etc...  Not probably the mentally intensive stuff, which occupies my whole mind.  But I can do art, crafts, housework, all manner of things that don’t use up my whole mind and still let my eyes and associations wander, so it’s by no means like I spend a lot of time just lazing around with this.

However it’s an ideal, healing, inspiring and productive form of entertainment, far better than the mentally proliferating or ungrounding, dissociating stuff that the internet or tv or reading may often be (which I like in moderation but for me and I know for many others, it is not balanced to run wildly through the wasteland of the internet, tv or reading and filling the linear mind with more and more fodder and entangled, entrenched pathways...  Free association, right brained thought, instead leaves me so much happier and more aware and mindful and insightful and productive when I return from my “entertainment” to goals or routines). 

Combining them...  Remembering.  Laughing.  Savoring good memories and good ideas of my favorite things or dreams and visions.  

These are my favorite rewards, images and ideas, that I use to anchor myself into a good feeling...  Something often related to the accomplishment or realizations that I’m congratulating and rewarding.  Often I do reward myself for realizations and ideas, for breakthroughs however little...  

I reward myself with imagery...  Nonverbal things I can continually squeeze all the fragments of joy and turn them around and associate for more ideas and more intuitions, more symbolism...  

I reward my small progress at a spiritual, a mental and an emotional level of breakthroughs and realizations and even just small ideas...  Small possibilities...

I reward myself for coming up with good focuses, possibilities,...  Half formed ideas I want to make realer...  I find some kind of reminder, however simplistic and dull and tiny and ordinary and small, but I use it like a symbol and I put it where I will see it and my whole wardrobe and journals and books, artwork I do, writing I do and my walls and shelves and dressers are covered.  

Then I let them sink in and jump about, dance with each other as my eye travels across them.  This is a fantastical visualization tool.  For me.  It works far better.  It captures spur of the moment ideas that would be hard to document and remember.  It makes them feel powerful, because images are powerful, even humble, tiny objects and simple dull images, nothing beautiful and impressive...  Mostly just simple as can be...  

Often the ordinariness makes it more poignant,...  Because the ordinary object is lifted up and that feels surreal and magical to me...  No limits to what creativity can use to be something special and powerful and symbolic...  And then, I see the same common ordinary image when I go out and about here and there, continually reaffirming my idea or breakthrough to me.