#i am now what people would call a professional student i.e. a plan to start graduate school already having a graduate degree

[ilostyou]

it’s so funny telling people that seeing pictures of taylor swift at nyu’s graduation is quite literally what made me realize that i want my own graduation and decided not to drop out of school because. that’s literally what happened

[bagge01lindgaard-blog]

The Threefold Power of a Sanctified Time, Person, & Area

Component 1: The Power of Sanctified Time Genesis 2:3 (NKJV) Then God blessed the 7th day as well as sanctified it, since in it He relaxed from all His job which God had produced and made. The even more I research words of God, the a lot more I am blown away by His knowledge. It can be claimed that God is the ultimate authority in a timely manner management and also productivity. Only He might produce and also arrange a cosmos in six days! What I discover interesting is that before God ever before sanctified a place or a people, He sanctified a time. God pulled out His calendar and also said to male: "You get the initial 6 days in a week, yet the 7th day I want you to invest it with Me." I think the Lord recognized how we can get in some cases. We get so busy in the ordinary things of life that we quickly forget one of the most vital ones! Later on, after He retrieved His people from Egypt, He increased His designated times (divine visits) to include His Feasts in which all men needed to show up before Him in Jerusalem. The point of all this is: God put within our DNA the requirement to sanctify times for prayer, research and a host of other essential things in our lives. What we do not set up time for; we will never locate time for. This is a Genesis Principle that seems to always function. All of us have violated this concept to our own pain. Now it is time to place this biblical Genesis Concept to work for you, rather than against you. Action 1: Get a Daytimer or various other sort of organizing system. You will certainly discover them at Wal-Mart, Staples and even several Medication Shops. Action 2: Start sanctifying time at the start of each week. Pull out your Daytimer as well as block out times for petition and study. Think about these as "holy" times for you. These are times that you have consultations with God to either fellowship with Him or to pick up from His Word. Action 3: Be safety of those times. The opponent will certainly do everything in his power to frustrate you and to maintain you from your visits. Reject the tactics of the adversary and also ask the Holy Spirit to give you the poise to keep and to use those times effectively for the Kingdom of God. Incidentally, did you understand that part of the anointing from the Holy Spirit is all concerning effectiveness? Let's finish this pointer with checking out Acts 1:8 from the Intensified Bible: Acts 1:8 (AMP) However you will get power [capacity, efficiency, as well as might] when the Holy Spirit has actually encountered you, as well as you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea as well as Samaria and throughout [the very bounds] of the earth. Go forth and also be reliable by the power of the Holy Spirit! Part 2: The Power of a Sanctified Person In our last suggestion, we took care of the idea and also the demand for sanctified time in your life. Have you taken the lesson seriously? Have you been producing blocks of sanctified time in your life that belongs just to the Lord? Keep in mind, this needs to be a component of your spiritual DNA. Place it right into your structure as well as never ever permit anyone or anything to remove it! The 2nd Genesis concept I intend to take care of is the following thing God sanctified in His Word: an individual (which later came to be a people.) The individual that I am talking is Abraham, the father people all (Rom. 4:16). God called Abraham to stroll with Him and He divided Abraham out for His usage in the earth. There are some interesting characteristics about Abraham that parallel our lives: He addressed the phone call of God. God called him by name as well as he reacted. Most of us have actually done the same point - twice. First God called us by name to salvation. We asked that telephone call and made Jesus our Lord and Hero. Second God called us by name into the ministry. If you are looking at BLCS as a college or are currently a trainee, you have answered that phone call. He believed God. Not just did he believe God and entered right into commitment with Him (i.e. redemption), he thought God regarding his calling: to end up being a daddy of several countries, to be honored as well as to be a blessing. In the exact same method, you should think God that He has actually called you to achieve something in the Kingdom. This is the call to ministry. Below is an important reality that additionally uses to you: Abraham can not come to be the papa of numerous countries without the assistance of God. He can refrain it by himself. It goes without saying, he and also Sarah had actually pursued several years to have youngsters, yet it confirmed impossible. If you can do what you believe God has called you to do in ministry without the magnificent aid, you do not know what your calls is! God will never ever call you to do something that you can do without Him. https://pairengine67.crsblog.org/2018/11/12/wooden-phone-booth-sighting-harmonie-club/ must daily find out to depend on His power, His leading and also His arrangement. Abraham had a phone call to learn and also to show. One of the reasons God chose Abraham was that he would faithfully teach the ways of God to his kids (Gen 18:19). Just how can you instruct something you have never ever been shown on your own? Abraham did not come prepackaged out of the womb with the knowledge of God. He was a person of Babylon, had lived there all his life and was involved in the family business. What was the family members company? It was professionally making idols for the people of Babylon! Abraham was thoroughly versed in exactly how to be an idol worshiping Babylonian, yet God saw in his heart that he would be thorough about discovering the methods of the one and only real God. Are you ready to unlearn whatever in your life that does not associate the Word and to faithfully discover new means of residing in the Kingdom? If you are, then you are complying with the confidence of our dad Abraham. 3. Abraham enjoyed justice! On the planet of oily grace and also anything goes, Abraham in a raw comparison. God picked him since he enjoyed justice. Abraham had a well balanced principle of justice and also poise in his life. This is an essential principle to that we should understand. Around, much of the Church is entirely out of balance. The rabbis show that when God created the heavens and the earth, He called Himself "Yahweh Elohim." "Yahweh" describes the elegance of God and "Elohim" describes His justice. In the development of all things, God balanced out grace and justice with each other. If He hadn't and it was all justice, Adam as well as Eve would certainly have died in the Garden. If it was all elegance, male would have forever stayed in his sinful state. (Cohen, Abraham, Everyman's Talmud: The Major Mentors of the Rabbinic Sages. Schocken Books, New York City, NY. Â © 1995. Page 17). Yet God expanded elegance to male by creating a plan of salvation. His justice required Him to give His own life on the cross to redeem us. Back to Redemption and Getting Involved In Your Researches Permission is both instant as well as modern. The minute we make Jesus the Lord and also Savior of our lives, we are separated unto the Lord. At the very same time, as we progressively bring each part of our lives in accordance with the Word, it comes to be apart to Him as well. So I am sanctified by the elegance of God, but I am additionally sanctified by what I do (2 Tim 2:20 -21). As I provide myself fully to the research of God's Word, I am functioning with the Holy Spirit to sanctify my life for use in the Kingdom. The level of persistance you create in your study behaviors will show up in equal degrees of exterior ministry! Even more study, even more efficiency. Little study, little performance. Using Your Anointing Anything God sanctifies (or separates) for His use, He likewise anoints. Any individual contacted us to the ministry has actually experienced the terrific anointing of the Holy Spirit as you are ministering: whether in the pulpit or face to face. We enjoy that anointing, we aim to see it enhance whenever we preacher and also we are so reversed when it is not there. In ministry, we rely so heavily on the anointing that is on our lives. But did you understand that there is an anointing readily available that couple of priests every draw upon or become competent in streaming with? If you are called to God to be a preacher, you are called of God to become a master learner also (There are no exemptions, just different levels!). To the Hebrews, a master student was one of the most recognized position within their culture. (Another word for master learner is a sage.) The Sages of Israel are valued greater than any person else. Why, you may ask? Hebraically, the highest type of prayer is research study! One is recognized when they devote their lives for the purpose of discovering just how to walking with God. This belongs of your calls. You have an anointing from God to become a master student. (1 John 2:27). You need to make every effort to flow in the anointing you have from the Holy Spirit to become a master learner. It has to be as important as moving in the anointing to priest to people! If you do not, it will certainly permanently limit the level you can achieve in ministry. Paul told the young minister Timothy:. 2 Timothy 2:15 (AMP) 15 Study and also aspire and also do your utmost to present on your own to God approved (checked by test), a workman who has no reason to be ashamed, appropriately assessing as well as properly splitting [appropriately managing as well as skillfully teaching] the Word of Reality. Why do you think Satan has combated you so hard in either enrolling or entering into your researches? Finding out to move in the anointing to find out will certainly raise your anointing to instruct and preach. You require passion and also knowledge. There are times that your passion will dwindle and appear to dry up. It is your understanding and also knowledge of the Word that will bring you through as well as reignite the zeal within your spirit. This is why the writer of Adages informs us:. Sayings 3:13 -18 (NKJV) 13 Happy is the male that discovers knowledge, As well as the male that acquires understanding; 14 For her proceeds are far better than the revenues of silver, And her gain than fine gold. 15 She is a lot more priceless than rubies, As well as all the important things you might desire can not compare to her. 16 Size of days remains in her right-hand man, In her left hand treasures and also honor. 17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, And also all her courses are tranquility. 18 She is a tree of life to those that grab her, And happy are all that retain her. Beginning seeking the face of God about flowing in your anointing to learn! It is actual, it is effective and it will take you to the next level of effectiveness in ministry! My Petition for You. " Papa, I raise before you every Scriptural Life trainee. I come versus every wall surface or restriction the enemy has placed in their lives to keep back the anointing to come to be a master learner. I ask that You would take down whatever the adversary has actually constructed! I ask that You would loose the anointing of a Bible trainee upon them which Your Holy Spirit would make them grasp learners so they can satisfy Your calling and also functions in the earth. In Jesus name!". Component Three: The Power of a Sanctified Area. Genesis 3:8 a (NKJV) "8 As well as they listened to the audio of the Lord God strolling in the yard in the cool of the day ...". There are lots of effective things that we can bring to light in this little section of bible:. God has a cycle of coming to fellowship with you. There are seasons of powerful visitation in the life of a preacher. We anticipate that seasonal visitation, however we can so conveniently ignore the everyday visitation that He desires to have in our lives. This bible teaches us the significance of daily consistency in our meeting with the LORD. The second effective reality that is suggested to below is that there was a particular area within the Garden that God would involve stroll and also fellowship with His kids. This is the 3rd in a series of teachings that I have been composing that can generate an effective threefold cable of redemption in your life. As you put this final block right into area, you will certainly feel resistance by the opponent. He does not wish to you obtain all three into place! He knows that you will certainly be a lot more difficult to get quit and even devoured from what God desires for your life. David, Jerusalem and a Sanctified Area. As we check out the Holy bible, we see God coming down and checking out with His people. We have Adam as well as Eve in the Yard. We see God involving see with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Actually, these three guys would make altars or rocks of remembrance at places where God saw them to note the spots. I make certain they visited those locations commonly to construct their belief. Then we involve a really unique area to be sanctified. Israel had remained in the land for a very long time, actually many generations. Yet we locate that the land that came to be Jerusalem was never taken. By the time that David came about, folks quite much had picked the fact that it would certainly never ever come under Israel's control (sort of like today). However David picked up in his spirit that the LORD had positioned His name on that particular series of three hills. He agreed to go to war to get the place where for centuries all guys of Israel would certainly be called for of God to meet Him there three times a year (throughout the Feasts.) Not just did David have to win it with warfare, he then had to buy a threshing flooring to develop the holy place on. (One day I will teach you concerning the importance of the threshing flooring.) Here is my factor: We had a people that comprehended the power of sanctified time. They likewise understood they were a sanctified individuals that had an anointing to empower them to examine, prayer as well as pray. The last item of the challenge Satan could not enable them to have - a sanctified place. Take a look at the power of what took place when all three collaborated. The reign of David and Solomon were effective and Israel had a gold age. This age will only be gone beyond when Jesus involves rule and rule in Jerusalem for a thousand years. We call this time around period the "Messianic Age." What a marvelous time it will be! For several that response the telephone call to ministry, right below is where you obtain some genuine resistance from the adversary. You realize God is calling you to a time of prayer as well as research study. You additionally realize that you are contacted us to ministry and also start separating yourself for both. Satan will certainly fight you with every available resource from obtaining all three into place. Since many trainees (or also ministers) do not understand exactly how important all 3 are when they are placed together, are not gotten ready for the war that is introduced by the enemy at them. The opponent is terrified that you will certainly position all three together as well as establish your very own mini-Jerusalem within your residence and ministry! Right here are some steps to help you combat:. Step One:. Sanctify time. Arrange time to get right into the Word, to hope, worship as well as have fellowship with the LORD. Be consistent and also MAKE THE TIME! Step 2:. Sanctify yourself. Realize that God has divided you from every person else in the world to make use of for His objectives. You have an anointing to ministry. You likewise have an anointing to pray and to obtain deep into research study. Commit yourself to uncovering as well as creating proficiency in all of your anointing! Tip 3:. Sanctify an area. Distinguish an area or somewhere that can be tidy, silent and efficient for prayer as well as research. If you have an office at home, see to it that it you have excellent illumination, comfy chair, racks for publications, etc. Take anything out that would be distracting. That's right, that TV needs to go! Unless you are viewing videos as a component of your guideline, get that temptation out of there that would eliminate from petition and study. If you have issues with repeatedly surfing the internet, turn it off unless you are investigating something required for your research studies. Maintain the location divine. If it does not facilitate study, prayer, prayer, discovery, etc., get it out of there. If you enter into the habit of always fulfilling God in this sanctified location, constantly getting into words and hearing from Paradise, you will locate with time that it becomes virtually automatic. All you need to do is go into the space and you can feel your spirit increase up to pray, worship as well as research. This is why the adversary is fighting you so hard. When you reach that area, the adversary will have hell to pay. All you need to do is to stroll right into your sanctified place and also you will certainly speak with Heaven, words will certainly start ahead active and he can not obtain anything therein to stop it! So sanctify a location, a time, and come to be that sanctified individual who God can use to alter a generation! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I50oXOosMzo

[davidjjohnston3]

1. Others' innocence can make us feel more alive and cleanly but we have sooner or later to 'cleanse the inside of your own cup' (Jesus).

2. I miss 'sis.'  That's all. I'm not married at 36.5 but someone did say, 'as a sister.'

3. I listened to Sowon's cover of 'Happy' and wrote a letter to Taeyeon on Instagram that she said something nice to.

4. I have several wishes pace Pope Francis' 'Come Let Us Dream' in the Covid era.  One of these is to move to Korea of course again, another to move to LA, and another to publish under the imprint of (Mrs.) Catherine Cho's literary imprint as 'Inferno' was terrifying to me in a good way and I too encountered both racism, antagonism towards introverts and quiet people, warehousing by TV, and other forms of evil and crime in the mental healthcare system from people who just want money or, worse in a way, fun and PRIDE.  I also think now that the mental healthcare system in Milwaukee Conuty was designed to give nursing school graduates either an 'easy money' job or exposure to a new Nazi-like system pace abortion-culture under the Democratic Party (including at least one Asian sadly; Andrew Yang), in which the mentally abnormal are considered second-class citizens if not Hitlerian 'life unworthy of life.' My parents are Democrats incidentally and fully support this.

5. I am pro-life 100%; I was going to be aborted and my biological 'father in law' still wants to post-partum-abort me; I could describe the spiritual realization but it's anatomical as well as literally electric.  I hope and pray the pro-life movement will be able to present a living paradigm whereby the value of orphan life can be demonstrated and God glorifide in a literal 'spirit of adoption' or at least a very good orphanage.  This has been part of my dream or 'ghost' since at least 2010.

6. I was driving to see Bethlehem Baptist Church + Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis and felt a crucifying energy from the church; I also thought about Monica and the 'white garments' of righteousness and covered sin ('white as snow' - Isaiah).  

7. I don't want to 'nuke the Johnston clan' but as I was brutally attacked by both my parents in a campaign involving widespread exaggeration lying to both biomedical professionals / sci-tech establishment as well as civil authority (police) I have written some notes and passages of a 'purple and gold' project, 'Johnston Family Promises; or How Easter Became April Fools,' which could be characterized as a parody of self-destruction, specifically self-post-partum-abortion by reversing the fact that medical doctor brain trust thought I'd be born on April Fool's but was actually born on Easter Sunday in Los Angeles, CA.  

8. I just want a future at this point however as my biological 'family' turned violently against me and I am in the position of 'gathering in the summer' (Proverbs).

9. I thought, 'an authentic love'... I love Changrae Lee also but it took me a long time to understand the spiritual 'Requiem' sense of his best book, by far, 'The Surrendered.'  Koreans I sometimes think are the one race or rather _ _ now taking the past seriously without throwing away the future.  With Secretary Pompeo I feel America could fall in on itself or at least on people like me, including many vulnerable loved ones of all of yours, my Facebook friends.

10. On a lighter note I like (Ms. / Artist) Kim Taeyeon's 'Cover Up' - 'I can't cover up my heart.'  

11. I still like Baskin Robbins Pineapple Coconut thoguh for some reason it makes me think of being a billionaire world-saving commerce-warrior in financial triller Michael Kim's 'Offerings.''

12. I gave the wrong things to the wrong people and made them worse; I expect to be judged by Moses as well as my former teacher-trainers and mentors for being 's/Sensei' who failed his students in both senses of fail (gave them F's and failed to teach them things that made them 'better').  It was a traumatic experience that made me feel demoted from EdAdmin that I had just been offered to wanting to assist-teach K4 or Spec/ExcepEd.  That's what you get for 'adult education' / being honest with Boomers about your thoughts, feelings, and decades of study.  I think Confuciu would say you can't teach constructively who have no sense of shame (old American whites), and moreover participate in a rape-culture including both literal rape, sex-traficking, university campus-culture, porneia,

13. I haven't yet had an EKG but could have experienced acute idiopathic cardiac distress from the Pfizer vaccine since too many beautiful women ages 11-80 all love me.  I thought a while back at 36, 'How to use my last half of my life.'  Then suddenly with pericardial effusion on my mind I thought, 'What to do with 3 months to 2.8 years.'  I wanted to go to Korea; I saw a Servants of Christ video where she was in Korea walking by a river to 'I Need Thee Every Hour' a Christian hymn to Jesus about absolute dependency, 'most precious Lord.'  I remembered Psalm 23 and a time I just wanted to be buried in a certain cemetery in Incheon.  Some other things happened involving my marital future, 'Skinship,' but now I am hoping for at least 5-10 years as the acute issues have mostly settled down and I am a clever self-dietician.  Honestly though with the state of healthcare in Wisconsin I thought about purchasing a needle myself for a pericardocentesis to drain the H2O.  

14. I have one writing-project I might not complete but I feel a solid start that could / should be published about abortion-culture and based on 'Love in Color,' a popular song by a no-longer-pop-idol.  

15. I still think about expositing American literature but suddenly 'The Old New World' means more to me; the old Midwestern novel, 'Winterlight,' 'My Soul at Night.'  And, 'The Magnificent Ambersons,' destined love.  I had a student in Korea who would be the card-carrying image of Lucy Morgan if they adapted it in addition to Mark Helprin's 'In Sunlight and in Shadow.'  

16. I am (too?) afraid of the Cross of Gold.  America getting rich.  China's 'moderately prosperous nation' i.e. Get Middle Class or Die (and Take World w/ Us) Tryinng.'  I want to be poor and poor-in-spirit except that I love some people who could use the money.  That is part of why I think about Michael B. Kim.

17. I like green peas, peanut butter, and blueberries.

18. The best audiobook I read lately is almost holy to me, 'Inferno' by Catherine Cho but 'Forgotten God' by Francis Chan is also incredible.  I listen to it while sleeping on audio and it always seems to wake me up at the perfect moment.  

19. I finally figured out an 'audience' as well.  If I could finally write a couple novels with a 'professional' utterance in addition to 'Love in Color' my 'caritas et amor' homage to a beautiful song and also something on the Covid era and old and young.  Like Pastor John MacArthur, or with him / following him I just feel like the whole point of Covid was to give people a chance to do better by / with kids.  'We plant the trees; our children enjoy the shade' - a Chinese proverb that the orthodox preacher / shepherd John MacArthur cites nonetheless. The American Families Plan.  Also even more (AUTHENTIC, non-guru-guff, non-fetishistic, non-trends-based) professionalization and humane policing and children's rights within the South Korean public and private schooling sectors.

20. I had one grand project as well called 'The Distant Lights of Seoul' that is kind of my take on 'In Sunlight and in Shadow' but it evolved in to something more personal that that's all... a trip I thought of taking, in the days when I was unsure whether to be the new or old.

21. I remember the most anguished summer of my life till now was 2003.  'Deep Inside of You' by 3EB.  'I would change myself if I could / I would walk with my people if I could find them / and I'd say I'm sorry to you.'  Coincidentally I went on an 'icy-hot' date with a hyper-beautiful woman at the cafe-bar where Jenkins wrote 'Motorcycle Driveby.'

22. I made a 'partial audiobook' of the early Psalms - particularly 5, about God defending - and had a beautiful experience like reading to children.

23. I don't want to broaden myself out too much physically or experientially; I'm afraid of becoming mentally American.  'Leaving Babylon, Leaving America, Leaving Milwaukee, Leaving.'  My homage to Madison Kwon Eunbi as well, theme-music 'Eraser.'  But I have to be a better man to approach my new _.

24. My original 'Korea project' was called 'Transferring to Line Zero' and like many Millennial writers in 2010 I tried to sound like a Haruki Murakami narrator but my experience turned out to be more like Kazuo Ishiguro, Marcel Proust.  I aimed for whisky but got wine.  I wish I could write this as I know for whom.  IDK if anyone cares though as Millennials almost all had 'these.'  I just wish I could make something of it instead of seeming like 'Acute Fangirl's No. 1 Fanboy.'  There wasn't a 'zero.'  

25. I had a crush on Dreamcatcher JiU 'Lily Kim' I saw once in Chicago - 'prettier in real life' is a good way to zonk people out into falling in love with a picture - but I saw a picture of her in traditional Joseon garment and just thought, 'cordial neighbor.'  That's all.

26. I used to write 'nuke Harvard' self-hyper-fanfiction about me v. the more customary winners and my ideal project is 'The Chinaman (or Chinese Poet) at American-Korean Thanksgiving.'

27. remembering my 2003 self / poet persona

akaka soru no

I thought about snow falling on velvet.  I got in trouble in the neighborhood. I liked Red Velvet's 'Wish Tree.'  I liked Wendy Son and Kim Yerim. A noble name, Son Seungwan, I'll say it once.

Maoists.  I read 'Wild Swans.'   I wanted to join you in your sadness and your beauty but I wasn't being Kawabata Yasunari. I don't want to generalize about my love for you but I don't believe in things either; Time disappears; mathematics inspires my disbelief; I think it can change.

'I love other people.'

What is it when parents grow old Do they go in to a new world They go to Heaven before us They know about being young

Wine, Elizabeth Strout novel 'Protestant endurance' in the old Midwest 'We are different from everybody'

The only question a bomb-threat at the school after 9.11 'Sospiro' fioritura In those days they were innocent 'I would take you seriously' (if I were a teacher) Now they try to be like New Yorkers I am not home

The poem that belonged to everyone flower a flower Can the passive-aggressive therapist Chinese girlfriend tea in the morning 'If I had to live with you'

the children of tomorrow where understanding ends require a world

a walk by the river i was old then carrying something i knew how to cook i knew how to live you sang 'dream' i said something like someone once said to me my old love contacted me via e-mail she said she had become materialistic and Republican she looked really good / happy married with kid after Covid-19 anaesthesiologist

28. Dov Danilov had abjected himself; he was known; on one cared.  The only decisive or critical factor... There was that armored 'girlfriend of steel' or perhaps better-than-girlfriend, the trial by ordeal, the one-look judgmentality, but it was all the past.  There was 'When You Are Old' and there had always been the presence of the Other like in 'The New World' with Pocahontas and John Smith; 'Who are you that haunts my dreams?'  That was a gooood movie.  He watched 'The Last Samurai' back in the day and didn't take it seriously but believed it contained good 'advices.'  There was Manheim Wagner's 'Korea: How You Feel' that had a great photo that seemed to mean something about the author's feelings but the book was all about illegal narcotics and sex-trafficking.  There was 'Brother One Fell' but it was all about masturbation and poor diet and illegal narcotics and what the Native Amerrian Indian shepherd-scholar hda called 'Mental Europeanness.'   The shepherd-scholar called himself a 'sheep-rancher.'  It was RU, 2005 autumn. 'Being known and ont cared for,' like HAndong from Dreamcatcher.  Maybe, it was the beginning of the end of the nightmare. - I could eat again a little if I got another love-letter from a female student... or even another bouquet from a gay male student... Maybe I'll mrary a North Korean woman after reunification... Remember 'Honey and Clover?' - Good song. - It's an anime-drama.  Originally it was a dorama.  Pramodh liked it before BLM stole his soul and he death-threated me with Cannibal COrpse and hate.  'Moon River' on pianoforte.  

- 'The Remains of DJ.'  'LA Dream.'  'Red Mansion Dream.'  'Pandemic of Honesty.'  'At the End of the Winter-Light; the Last of the Good Old Wisconsin Blue.'  'John Updike R

and I am not ashamed while my love is near me and I know it will be so till it's time to go So count the storms of winter and then the birds in spring again

'doctrine of unconditional evil'

29. My father acted in a really scary obsessive fashion toward me lately and now suddenly he is just eating and drinking.  

30. Jesus Himself said in the Gospel not to curse your parents.

31. I thought something about 'Sentimental Education' lately.

32. A while ago I wanted to write or read 'stories about families.'

33. I want to return to my '2003' project that predicted bioweapons and stuff but not really.

If I were redoing it I might just make it about 'Honesty' and instead of magic assassins it would be the medical doctor charged with mitigating bioweapon magic damage and the FBI agent investigating the bad guys.  Psalm 5.

34. Wanting to be the spiritual-intellectual successor to Bruce Cumings (hyper-meta historiography of the Korean War and, by extension, Covid, the world, Christ / CHristology, and the problems with non-Asia-based E. Asian Studies academicians or anyone who lacks Confucian scholar-gentleman / 'sunbi' / Scholar in Kingdom of Heaven sincerity).  China buries corrrput intellectuals alive.

35. 'Final Offer' in Time (on Pres. Moon Jaein).  'Peace in Our Time?'  Blessed are the peacemakers; blessed are the pure in heart.  

36. IDK if it's worth saying but - dept. of Anti-Christology or study of Antichrist - the 'first world' as it used to be called by and large seemed to be trending towards Imperium.  I honestly feel as if Barack Obama could be pulling the strings from within the CIA building and David Cameron adn Angela Merkel are in charge of all of Europe, while POpe Francis holds suzerainty of influence if not command-authority over the Spanish-speaking world.  IDK if there is meaningful dissent outside of a few republic-nations such as Poland and South Korea, who paradoxically take on a posture of what Park Chunghee callde 'itnernational responsiblity' despite a history of atrocious suffering and monoethnic somewhat xenophobic traditional social makeup.

37. Flaubert's notes to his supreme masterpiece 'Sentimental Education'... I'll just say... How he taught Frederic Moureau to fall in love with Marie Arnoux; taught himself how to LOVE Marie both before the beginning and after the end of being 'in love' with this mother-paramour.  

That said, I still remember the days when I had 'optimism' and someone said, '[woman] is happy because of you.'

38. I can't write more but do have specific goals, chiefly, master Korean and learn all the basic facts.  Professionals and experts believe in facts; as my Russian Yale MBA friend used to say, 'I am a scientist.'

I wish I had a profession... 'literary criticism of life?'  I am interested in 'the condition of fiction' and 'the logic of pulverization' but I just track John MacArthur.  I need to reconstitute my body and mind then maybe...

Dreams of [doctoral degrees].

39. 2 Timothy, Acts 2, Thessalonians, Revelation, in the Covid era.

40. Dreaming of Bethlehem College and Seminary.

41. Dov Danilov had abjected himself; he was known; on one cared.  The only decisive or critical factor... There was that armored 'girlfriend of steel' or perhaps better-than-girlfriend, the trial by ordeal, the one-look judgmentality, but it was all the past.  There was 'When You Are Old' and there had always been the presence of the Other like in 'The New World' with Pocahontas and John Smith; 'Who are you that haunts my dreams?'  That was a gooood movie.  He watched 'The Last Samurai' back in the day and didn't take it seriously but believed it contained good 'advices.'  There was Manheim Wagner's 'Korea: How You Feel' that had a great photo that seemed to mean something about the author's feelings but the book was all about illegal narcotics and sex-trafficking.  There was 'Brother One Fell' but it was all about masturbation and poor diet and illegal narcotics and what the Native Amerrian Indian shepherd-scholar hda called 'Mental Europeanness.'   The shepherd-scholar called himself a 'sheep-rancher.'  It was RU, 2005 autumn. 'Being known and ont cared for,' like HAndong from Dreamcatcher.  Maybe, it was the beginning of the end of the nightmare. - I could eat again a little if I got another love-letter from a female student... or even another bouquet from a gay male student... Maybe I'll mrary a North Korean woman after reunification... Remember 'Honey and Clover?' - Good song. - It's an anime-drama.  Originally it was a dorama.  Pramodh liked it before BLM stole his soul and he death-threated me with Cannibal COrpse and hate.  'Moon River' on pianoforte.  

- 'The Remains of DJ.'  'LA Dream.'  'Red Mansion Dream.'  'Pandemic of Honesty.'  'At the End of the Winter-Light; the Last of the Good Old Wisconsin Blue.'  'John Updike R

and I am not ashamed while my love is near me and I know it will be so till it's time to go So count the storms of winter and then the birds in spring again

'doctrine of unconditional evil' - humans mistaking themselves for God the Father - abortion-culture - Pope Saint John Paul II 'Humana Vitae'

42. Ideas of Christianity versus praxis and parataxis of Christianity

43. I was fond of Becca on Xanga but not as much as 'Clover' People open so much they can't but close off like a French novel 'humanity-rule' though their psychology of women is 'unconvincing' Glenn Gould ate a lot of eggs he was a hypochrondriac I want to drink 'Delta Covid Winter Summer Wine' and think of Mary HK Choi 'Yolk,' Lear's Cordelia and the real one, caritas / a'ga'pe I hope I don't get kilt with a _ _ _

44. Side- / mini-project 'My Brother's Type' about anti-Asian racism.

45. Ideal YA novel / counter to all corrupt YAL books, 'Clover' from the Promise / Fromis song.  It's beautiful, beauteous, 'fragrance from life to life.'  'I kept wishing for luck until I realized that which I wanted was happiness, yes?'

46. They were bored psychopathic Boomers; retirement had made them cannibal sociopaths.  His mom was like Volumnia in Coriolanus.  He didn't want to think about it.  He remembered Shan by the Han River, 'Fair Love.'  It was ten years ago; he weighed 25 pounds less but his mentality was the same. People were different.  Children were different.  In Wisconsin they evinced a... He was tired of being a bridge between West and East.  No one was curious.

47. I approached something really intense and pure and holy - and absolutely specific - and can't back off or back down without harm to myself.  This might be my last FBI.

48. I was 'boring guy.'

49. Summer rain.

50. That holiness... but also... CVA ('Charity edifieth')...

51. I want to read Korean poetry again as well.  Better poetry than ever, I imagine, better people.  'Perfect Children.'

52. 'And When We Are Older' - A Poem for Someone about My Age

And when we are old it won't necessarily get easier or fall into place or smooth into bonhomie or grow delicate as papery exquisite autumn leaves like the face of Jennifer Aniston and sometimes at the gym my smaller shoulder-muscles push harder but they remind me in this cute, precious way of some kind knowing amid Cross and sword that ever valor is a risk and God has got his hour writ. I thought that by now I would know what it's like to be one flesh with a wife, to watch a daughter practicing pianoforte, play catch with a son in the yard of a house by New Jersey reedy ponds.  That dream began in 1994 and there it stays, between the 'cello-clabbered music-room and gildered auditorium and still, in these institutions, nowhere to confess my love, nowhere to begin, just papers to plan on or wise. I used to love book-reviews, the language of dictionaries that could seem to get life so right, "Validity in Interpretation," the days when newspapers seemed to love me more than my own teachers, Colossians 4:6, editing sprinkled with salt, giving reason for hope, appropriate, apt, jeongdokhada. They get old and old and much is made of the things we can experience; sometimes I think that my dear friend quit Samsung too soon to know how to build his own team and I quit at least three jobs too soon and didn't stay in hot pursuit and now feel almost as if only my thoughts are as brightly alive with a love-light as your face once was. I get so lost at shopping malls, drowning; I don't get what anyone is up to. There was a Monsignor who composed or redacted this immense ethnography of all Korea but it must have broken his heart too, man who never took a wife, knitting red, his memory, the kind of person who arrives as I, watching Pompeo et al, in the hope of a benevolent ruler both forever and for the time being too... My friend used to say I could lead but I couldn't even shut down the snark-machine and Reddit had a field day with me and honestly maybe I've never loved anyone adequately. Let's be young a while more and though I didn't like this as a kid we can talk to the TV like at my grandparents' house long ago and again born on the new day, maybe we'll spend some time married.

53. 'Happy Days'

54. I miss the good K-dramas from Dramafever days though I don't watch television anymore... I wish I did just to rest my eyes... I miss 'Please Come Back Ahjusshi'... He's on the flying aerospace train to Heaven with his tears of contrition but decidees to return to Earth to delete his porn-collection for his wife and daughter surviving him... I deleted my biological father's literary porn collection ('daddy'-stepdaughter coercive / rape; adulterous housewife)... but he tried to send me to death and Hell.

55. It was like autumn in Korea this morning with the lamps and air-moisture; it was like Korean summer this early evening with August rain.

56. I want to regain my purity of literary style but hopefully God willing write something profitable / fruitful.   I might just teach again for pay..

[funemploymentin]

Moving to California: One Month Update

Growing up, I never considered that I would one day live in California. To me, California was Hollywood, hard drugs, pool parties, tech, wineries, and weed farms. My perception has been based completely on what I have seen on Weeds, Californication, The O.C., and more recently Silicon Valley. So far, California seems to be all these things, and more. Here I share my first impressions based on one month living in California.   

We landed in the small-ish city of San Mateo, so I have yet to experience the hard drugs and pool parties. S and I can walk to all essential places (i.e. coffee, groceries, and S’s office) from our flat. For everything else and venturing outside city limits, there is Uber or the occasional weekend rental. I suspect we will encounter the dirty needles and human feces littering the streets of SF when we finally make it to the city this weekend.

What I have noticed the most about where we live is that I am not the majority. There are students from abroad, immigrant professionals, and first generation Americans still closely connected to their roots, but not many white girls, especially from the Midwest. One exception, is my new gynecologist. She’s a proud UW-Madison alumna from a small town in Iowa. There is also Morgan who works at the car rental place, but I actually have no idea where she is from. But I notice more when someone is similar to me in this way because it feels rare. To give more context, S asked if I plan to wear a saree the next time we go to Ikea.   

The cost of living is high enough to make almost anyone cringe. We knew this coming in. I used to think people were mad when they commented online that HelloFresh, Plated, GreenChef, etc. were saving them money compared to ordering-in. Now I know where those people live. Rental prices for apartments in our area have increased by $500 per month since we moved into our flat just a couple weeks ago. We will think of the obnoxious boiler room noise below us as white noise because we cannot afford to go anywhere anytime soon.   

What amazes me is that there are normal people here, working normal jobs. I have absolutely no idea how anyone affords to be here long term. People with regular jobs in retail, service, banking, etc. must have lengthy commutes and extremely tight budgets. It isn’t even a dichotomy because the average worker in the tech industry isn’t living large. I know from experience that the Goodwill stores are picked through and items in the “free” section on Craigslist go fast. 

We won’t be parents or homebuyers anytime soon, so what I am most excited about is spending time outdoors. We took a drive on Highway One and saw the Pacific for the first time. It’s sunny here and we’re going to enjoy the moderate weather. S is excited and energized by his job, but he still makes it home by 5:30 most days. We aren't very social people, but he is ready for our quiet fun on weekends. I wish this kind of passion and balance with work for everyone, including myself.   

On Monday, the ER doctor reminded us that we are still very much newly weds. (S sliced his hand open in the kitchen.) My point is that as we are figuring out a new city/state/country, we are also navigating how to be married. I didn’t notice much difference in our relationship after our court marriage. However, something about moving across the world and trying to plan weddings remotely makes the waters a little rougher. It is not smooth sailing, people!   

What I miss the most no matter where I am is the people. I went out to breakfast with my mom and sister the other day via Facetime. (The waitress kept glaring at me, so I didn't tip her for my coffee.) I chat with my cousin on WhatsApp while she is on a bus in Southern Mexico, I video call on Signal with my in-laws, and I keep in touch with my closest gal pals on Hangouts. It would be better to spend time in person, but you can't be with everyone you love all the time. We will be positive about having people in so many places because it means more cities we must visit. 

I know from experience that it will take time to build a life here. I’ve started by applying for communications and EA roles for the obvious financial benefits but also to facilitate making friends. It will take networking and effort to land the right role. We will figure out the best restaurants to order from and the best dishes in our city. (There is a 4.5 star Indian restaurant with 900 reviews on Yelp, but the chicken tikka masala is too sweet for S. It’s obviously no Khaaja Chowk.) We will eventually agree on and purchase a car to stop paying $15 to go three miles via Uber. And, our wedding will be fun no matter what we spend because life is what you make it. So, we’re minutes from Silicon Valley and all their apps and websites are only solving some of our issues. We're having fun and making it work anyways. 

Photo Credit: S  

[aparecium-hq]

Welcome to Aparecium, Ash! You have been accepted for James Potter with your planned faceclaim. We love that you created a complex version of James and really leaned into his strengths and weaknesses, as well as the way they influence each other. We’re excited to have you! Check out the new member checklist, and jump right in. 

Character Basics

Birthday (Age): 1, September 2004 - twenty-three

Gender (Pronouns): he/him

Sexuality: pansexual 

Blood Status: halfbood

Hogwarts House/School: Gryffindor

Occupation: Beater for the Caerphilly Catapults 

Faceclaim: Jordan Fisher

Any requested changes? 

Biography: 

After his birth, James’s name had managed to take up full pages on every major paper, officially marking the start of the difference between James S. Potter, and little Jamie. As Harry Potter’s first born, attention had been on him since the moment the public caught attention his mother was pregnant and never seemed to leave him alone since. As a child he had been terribly shy, most of his time was spent clung to either Harry or Ginny’s leg, especially around people who he didn’t seem to know all that well. He liked to play with his friends he was already comfortable with, or the massive amount of cousins he had and he struggled for a while to reach outside that carefully built comfort zone. Those who meet him now would never expect to see his more introverted side; likely because he was only eleven when the weight of his name finally came to light, forcing an entirely new persona onto the newly sorted Gryffindor. The difficult part was living up to the name of two people who he had never met, but he had heard enough stories from various people over the years that any action that seemed to get the approval of those around him just became part of his personality. Some called him a follower, James preferred to say he was one to go with the flow. Either way he had three larger than life names to live up to, and he was determined to do so with a smile on his face, missing teeth and all. 

Starting Hogwarts James had quickly been deemed a problem child, the student who was constantly speaking over his teachers and had consistently fallen to the bottom of his class. At first he thought things would simply work themselves out, the oldest members of the Hogwarts staff telling him his namesakes weren’t ones for paying attention to lectures either and they were both bright as could be. Things will come together for him too. And as they got further along in classes, things had gotten easier. He picked electives that involved a lot more practical work, which had been an area James seemed to excel in. More lessons that involved trial and error and allowed for tactile learning. Things had gotten easier, but that didn’t mean every problem had been fixed overnight. His exams were coming back with an Acceptable to Poor average, and he’d go off on tangents in the middle of his essays. Classes with more wand work and practical portions tended to even out his grades enough but by third year he had learned to shrug it off, deal with the fact that he was just the stupid Potter sibling and put his effort into his new position as Gryffindor’s beater. 

While James and Forrest were a double act taking up the majority of James’s free time, the endless number of relatives and their friends along with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, left James to appear quite the social butterfly. Henrietta was by his side, leaving James feeling invincible and the adults around him convinced he was more like James his namesake than you saw at first glance. He was a pro at keeping up with his slightly larger comfort zone, pressing a now straight smile across his face and waving off whispers of how he’s only where he is because he’s Harry Potter’s son or because he’s good on a broomstick.

He came out of his OWLs with four passing grades, three high enough to continue the course which really did little to help the ‘dumb quidditch player’ stereotype he picked up over his time in school, but again he just went with it. Sure, he didn’t get along swimmingly with a good portion of Ravenclaw, and the look on his mother’s face when she asked to read his scores still keeps him up some nights, but then attached had been the note that he had been made Quidditch Captain. He didn’t need to be smart as long as he kept playing as well as he was, all he wanted to do was play professionally, and he really thought he could get there. 

The beginning James’s seventh year everything fell into place when a recruiter for the Chudley Cannons sat down with him and his parents to discuss him leaving school early to sub for a player next season. His parent’s reluctance however, was clear, and not necessarily met with understanding at the time, although now James is very much glad he listened to their advice (i.e. their forcing him to finish his schooling). It made no sense to drop out of school for a career that would only last him a few months, even if it was his dream. Then Puddlemere offered him a three year contract after he finished his NEWTs, and while his Uncle Ron still seemed bummed he never played for the Cannons, James had an amazing few years on the team before recently being traded to the Catapults. 

PERSONALITY

+ Protective: Not everyone is granted access to see this particular side of James, however those he feels closest to, especially his family, can definitely attest to his protective side. He’s the one who stands a bit closer to you when a situation makes you uncomfortable or isn’t afraid to throw a hex at someone who needs it.

+ Paternal: He’s never been sure if it’s simply a trait of all eldest children or if it’s a character trait of his own but he is always the one looking out for the people around him. He doesn’t always pay attention to his own needs but he’s the first one to notice if someone around him has skipped a meal or sit up with a friend until they’ve fallen asleep. What frightens him the most is how much like his mum he tends to look when he gets into a lecture. 

+ Loving: Showing how much he cares about the people in his life has never been an issue for James. While some shy away from the more gushy gestures, he’s never been afraid to snuggle up to his friends and family, or tell someone how much they mean to him. 

- Unmerciful: For the most part James is a sweetheart. However, once you’ve gotten on his bad side he will stop at nothing to make sure you know it. He doesn’t give up, and has gotten in a fair amount of trouble in his teen years for his relentless temper.

- Impatient: When James wants something, he wants it now. Not just in the means of struggling to wait his turn or be told he’ll get something later (although that’s difficult for him as well) but working towards a goal is a struggle for him. He tends to give up quickly without immediate results which makes it difficult to succeed. 

- Quarrelsome: Even years after graduating James is petitioning for Hogwarts to get a debate team. He isn’t sure what it is, but he’s always had a need to get in the last word and is very much unable to let things go. He’s an instigator, constantly looking to squabble and while he’s gotten better at not picking fights for the sake of it, he will go on endlessly if someone expresses an opposing opinion to his own.

Character Questionnaire

How does your character feel about their family?

Nothing is more important, even if that family isn’t always blood. Out of all the similarities people try to force on me and my late grandfather, this is probably the one from what I know that we really do share quite strongly. Although I think I get it more from my dad than anyone else. It’s the hardest part about moving to Wales I think, the fact that I don’t get to see any of them as often as I’m used to. Growing up in such a big family, I think I clung to them a bit more than most of my friends, and perhaps I’m a tad too overprotective of the littler ones, but I don’t mind it. 

How would your character describe their own work ethic? Is that an accurate measure of themself?

People tell me I’m too hard on myself… I don’t really think that’s true, honestly I really can be quite lazy. Although when it comes to Quidditch I work myself a little too much, perhaps now that it’s my career that’s all that really matters but would you call someone who only received three OWLs hard working? Perhaps I only have any real work ethic when it comes to something I actually want, Mum says I like to self-sabotage when I think I won’t do well. It would make sense why I never tried all that hard in school but spend hours on the pitch. 

How would a stranger who has just met your character describe them?

They typically immediately look for ways I’m like my dad. Or mum, or the first James Potter or Sirius Black and cling to any similarities between us until I’m some mishmash of my parents and people who died long before I was even born. More recently I’ve been that beater who just got traded to the Wasps. I’m young but had a good last season, or I should have been moved down for that muggleborn Matthew Copper who only just graduated but can fly circles around me. I’m shorter than they thought I’d be, and quieter. No matter how hard I try someone always says I’m standoffish because no matter how hard I try around fans, people swarm and I get awkward because I’ve hung out with the same five people my entire life and I’ve spent little time before graduating Hogwarts having to speak for myself.  

And it doesn’t matter how hard I worked to get here, my failures are pretty public knowledge and even if I think I’m pretty good at what I do people will always tell me I only made the team in the first place because Mum has connections from her days on the Harpies. I’m nothing more than Harry and Ginny Potter’s kid, I’d kind of like to be more than that though. It’s true though isn’t it? They’re the only reason anyone pays any attention to me in the first place. Perhaps I’m good enough to be where I am on my own, but I’m not better than all the other people who worked so much harder than me whose last name isn’t Potter. 

A stranger who just met me would likely say I’m nothing special and they’re right. Anything praising me is only for my family, not me. 

Para Sample

James had only moved from his little flat in Diagon Alley three months ago, but already after his first trip back to London he realized just how much he missed the city. He’d decided to take a portkey to the Leaky Caldron rather than the floo, having learned better the first time he visited a couple months ago and wound up missing practice as his mother forced him to eat before leaving. Merlin knows she knew exactly just how hard he would be punished for it, perhaps she was trying to punish him for moving so far away. She hadn’t seemed to even get over the fact he no longer lived at home with her to begin with. 

He was going to stop home later that night, the only thing more terrifying than losing his job over missed practice was either of his parents learning he was in town without stopping to say hello. But he wanted a few hours to sneak into his favorite local places before he told anyone he was here. Turning the corner into Muggle London James popped into his favorite coffee shop during the year he lived here and looked around, hoping any of the regular baristas that would serve him were on and remembered him. His teammates found that amusing, the way he always introduced himself as if the person they were with had no clue who he was, but not everyone was into sports. Or war history. Although people have started recognizing him more by face than by name as of late, but that always made him more unsure of how to respond than people thinking they know him because they know his last name. It was easier to give proper introductions, not to mention more polite. Luckily a young witch who lived in his building seemed to be behind the register, calling out loudly across the small shop once she recognized him and causing James to laugh as he joined the small line of people gathered. 

“I’m not telling anyone I’m home so shush.” he shook his head, grinning widely. “But what time do you get off? I’ll get this for here and wait, I have to be in bed early but we need to catch up.”

[msbrittonsblog]

Helpful Resources: Teacher Edition

They always tell you never to start anything with a quote, so instead, I’ll start with the idea that every single day, you always learn something new, even when something doesn't match exactly what you wanted, you can actually learn quite a bit from it. Or, if you don’t receive as much as you were looking for, sometimes less is better. 

After receiving two out of three emails back from my old high school teachers, I was able to look into some of the resources that they gave to me in preparation for becoming a teacher. Some I already was very familiar with such as Kahoot and Quizlet, but I challenged myself to find something new about them that I never once knew before. Some resources were Latin oriented because my old Latin teachers still want me to pursue a career involving Latin as I took it for four years in high school, and I was also a Teacher's Aide for my last two years. Even though they were Latin specific, I tried to see if I could spin it for my concentration, which I will later discuss. I also wanted to look into a book called “Boy’s Life” by Robert R. McCammon, which was recommended to me by my practicum mentor teacher, Mr. Smith. He swears by this book and thinks it is the best book to teach your students, and that it is definitely underappreciated as a resource to use in the classroom as it is his favorite book. Mr. Smith shared with me his story about encountering this book, and I thought it was only fair to dedicate some of my time in order to look into it so maybe one day I can teach it to my students. 

The first resource I started looking into was one given to me by D-Whit, also known as Ms. Whitmore, my old advisor, who was also a Latin teacher. This was a website called “Maine Classics,” where a group of Latin teachers and classics professors run a site dedicated to “spreading the teaching of the classics in Maine.” At first, I thought I wasn’t going to be able to use a lot of the resources found on this site, but I then came across a newsletter called “Clamor.” Each newsletter discusses upcoming events, paraphrases what happened at recent conferences, and also in the March 2018 issue, they stated the top essays that won the recent competition based on a given prompt. The prompt stated was, “to compose a writing based on a quote from Lucretius and how he might respond to a recent report from NASA about three planets 39 light years away that may contain life.” This is where my interest was sparked. Yes, I wasn’t going to be a Latin teacher any time soon, but Latin and English have a wonderful relationship, and the prompt stated in this newsletter was quite engaging and innovative. I think Latin interests a lot of students in school, whether they want to take it or not because the culture is so interesting, and the fact that Latin is referred to as the “dead language,” really peaks people's interests. This site, because it is created by professionals in Latin and the classics, the information provided is very relevant to the subject. I think that as an English concentration, I could spin a lot of Latin prompts into one for English, as long as the Latin itself isn’t too complicated, and as long as I have a translation ready. I could also do prompts similar to this based on the characters of the book I plan on teaching, such as “How would Dr. Frankenstein react towards the recent news outbreak about the Corona Virus?” The prompt is relevant to recent events, and the students must really understand the character and their development throughout the story in order to provide their response. I think that I personally am going to keep track of these newsletters because I feel that doing lessons that cross into other subjects may potentially increase engagement and interest in students. 

The other resources I have looked into were Kahoot and Quizlet. I have used both of these resources before and thought they were both very successful in how they were used. Kahoot, a lot of the time has been used as a fun way to refresh students’ minds on a certain topic being taught. The winner can also be given a prize i.e. the satisfaction of winning, some cool stickers, etc. I did learn that Kahoot can be played at home as they have premade vocabulary sets for many different subjects (English, history, math, science, etc.) as well. Another cool thing about Kahoot is that they have accessibility options that allow those who are “text-to-speech technology users, Braille users, and other users with sensory, cognitive, or other disabilities,” to have the opportunity to use Kahoot and have all the options easily available to them. 

Similar to Kahoot, Quizlet also has premade flashcard sets. This site is used “To help students (and their teachers) practice and master whatever they are learning. Quizlet provides engaging, customizable activities with contributions from people everywhere.” I personally have used this site previously, and it is able to be accessed via an app on your phone (iPad, tablet, etc.) and also your laptop/desktop. I think this is a great option for at-home preparation for any type of memorization. It creates flashcards and offers different games/activities as well such as “learn”, where they increase levels with multiple choice and writing definitions; ���write”, where you write definitions that fit the word or vice versa; “spell”, where Quizlet speaks the word/definition out loud and you have to type what you hear; “test”, where they create a mock test that you can choose what sections you would like, whether that be multiple-choice, matching, and/or writing definitions; “match”, a game where you match the word/definition to the correct one; and then the final game being “gravity”, a timed game where you have to drag the correct word to fit the correct definition listed below. I think this respects the multiple different learning types that students and even teachers have because they aren’t stuck using the standard flashcards. Quizlet provides options. And, allowing your students that option to find what best learning strategy works best for them, will help them not only in the future but also in your classroom. 

For my final resource, I looked in the book “Boy’s Life” by Robert R. McCammon like discussed at the beginning of my blog post. My mentor teacher swore by this text, and looking into it (really only reading the first chapter, prologue, and summary so far), I definitely agree. Just reading the book description, I was hooked. Being a huge nerd for books about murder and the supernatural, this book has it all as it is about a boy and his father who see something no one should have seen, and now they are haunted by the traumatic sight until they find out the secrets their town has within. Through reading this book you get to investigate the mysterious murder along with the characters of the novel and “learn more about the meaning of both life and death.” Seen in the description, the opportunities for lessons on symbolism alone seem to be endless as a “green feather” is brought up due to it “leading [the boy] deeper into the mystery.” So far, this description has hooked at least one reader, two if you count Mr. Smith. This book’s genre (murder mystery and supernatural fiction) also seems to be popular amongst the age demographic seen in high school. I personally have not seen many books in this genre taught in English classes because I have really only learned from classic literature myself. Even though the supernatural aspects of the novel may not be real, as a reader, you can still learn a lot from the author’s choices. You can connect supernatural themes into something seen in today’s time if you analyze deep enough. And, if I were to teach this novel, I could turn this lesson into one focusing on reading comprehension and literary analysis in order to have students make connections to plots that may not seem relevant to real-life to something that is. Students are creative, and sometimes it takes something outside of the box to lure in students’ interests. This creativity, I think, could shine with the proper outlines and objectives, especially if you use materials that possibly no teacher has ever been willing to teach before because it is outside of the set curriculum/norm. 

The variety of teaching opportunities that this novel provides is quite large. The first chapter itself practically uses a simile or metaphor every paragraph as the main character really likes to describe things through comparison. The time that this book is set in is also 1964, which was around the time of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. This opens up the chance to collaborate with your colleagues in the social studies concentration because you could do a lesson together (time period recaps, research project, connecting common themes from the book to current/past events, etc.). So far, I am really hooked by the book and I am very interested in reading the whole thing in order to see what I can do with it in the future. I already have many ideas, and this is just from reading the first chapter! 

Sometimes something that may not seem as useful as another thing, it truly is if you dig a little deeper. This connects to all the resources I have received so far from my old high school teachers and now my current mentor teacher. I am continuously learning from my fellow colleagues and mentors, and I do not think that this will ever stop. To conclude this long discussion of teaching resources, I would like to say that each resource has provided me with a helpful tool/tidbit that I will someday be able to use in my own classroom. Whether that be a Kahoot filled with literay terms or quotes, a Quizlet containing a unit/lesson’s taught vocabulary, a newsletter that gives me an idea for a writing prompt, or a book that can have any type of literary/reading analysis learning objectives I can think of. Anything can have at least one take away. 

All the love, 

Ms. Kellsie Britton 

[michaeljohnsonthemojomaster]

Avoid Burnout

If so, probabilities are high you’re not content along with your paintings/lifestyles balance. Chances are excessive you may be dealing with burnout. Truly, if you’re now not content together with your paintings life, burnout may be the cause. And if you suspect it is, keep reading, due to the fact we have some insights in this post to help you keep away from burnout. Now, if the state of affairs described inside the starting is all you feel, take into account your self lucky. Why? Because a few hard-working human beings facing burnout attain a point where they turn out to be fainting, developing twitches, or even getting depressed. Hopefully, you have got yet to attain that point. Before we get into it, you must realize that getting burnout isn't always a hassle you face on your very own. Truth is, burning out is something all and sundry feel in some unspecified time in the future in their career. It can even start in excessive school, and in case you don’t fight to triumph over the “work dread”, it could stick around well into your retirement years. But don’t despair. Psychologists and workaholics everywhere in the globe have struggled with this issue, and they’ve discovered many approaches to conquer it. This article discusses 10 ways to avoid burnout, based on professional input and private experiences fighting this all too not unusual mental challenge. 1. Work Towards A Goal Students at The Harvard MBA Business School did a look at returned in 1979 about goal-placing. They discovered that 83% of graduates have no dreams whatsoever, 13% of them have a few dreams, and three% of them have clean, written-down goals. Want to bet who become extra successful? The 13% that had a few desires ended up making twice as an awful lot as those that had no goals, at the same time as the pinnacle three% that had clean, written down dreams ended up making ten times (10x!!) extra than their former colleagues. The validity of this take a look at has been questioned in the past, and monetary gain may not be the handiest metric for success, however psychologists, entrepreneurs, and CEOs agree that goal-setting is important. And it makes the experience. It’s less difficult to live focused and hold operating when you see a more purpose (and finality) in your efforts. But, you don’t need to JUST set some desires and write them down. This creates ambiguity for your unconscious mind, which creates an unclear picture of that higher purpose. To keep away from this, be as unique as possible to your goal-placing – don’t say you want to be wealthy, clarify how wealthy and in what timeline. 2. Schedule Your Day Goals appear unreachable when you just throw a 3 years decision out there, no matter how specific. For that purpose, you need to get nitty-gritty together with your destiny plans. The excellent way to try this is to plan each day in advance. I use the goal-setting planner(click to download) for that – You can without problems create responsibilities, you may colour-code them and you could proportion them with other humans. Once you have got a project list, make sure you stick to it. That’s a challenge in and of itself, however, the subsequent steps have to help with that as properly. 3. Build A Positive Outlook On Life You might think “Easy in an effort to say, you’re now not caught with a shitty task that you need to warfare to preserve as a way to pay the bills” First of all, quite a few successful, happy human beings were on your shoes at some point in their lifestyles. Secondly, an advantageous outlook on lifestyles can be built (key-word built) no matter your job, debt or problems. Did I say build a tremendous outlook? Yes, I did, due to the fact a healthy mindset doesn’t appear out of nowhere – you may have fine thinking. You must paintings for it. What would possibly you do? There are a few matters that can assist: Focus on (re)building healthful relationships with the ones close to you. Spend extra time doing what you love (It can even change into a full-time gig if your consciousness is difficult enough). Eat healthily, sleep nicely and workout. Get support. There’s nothing incorrect with seeing a therapist even if your intellectual status incompletely wrecked. Developing excessive emotional intelligence is key whilst you suppose of how to avoid burnout. 4. Practice Deep Work to Avoid Burnout I must admit, Cal Newport is a massive source of thought for me. For those of you who don’t know, he wrote a book called Deep Work. It’s a very smooth read on the way to attention completely on what you’re doing and reap more in less time. If you haven’t examined it, I advocate it. It modified my standpoint on work ethic completely and it did help me obtain plenty more in less time. So what's Deep Work? Basically, someone that plays deep work is so immersed in what they’re doing (i.E. Writing, coding, talking) that there are truely no distractions. It’s a trance-like meditative state wherein the mind is absolutely focused on a singular project for an extended length of time (I practice it for approximately 2-4 hours a day). Practically, for 2-4 hours there aren't any telephone calls, no emails, no social media, absolutely not anything else apart from the challenge at hand. “I can’t try this, humans rely upon me, I need to provide set off answers to their queries over e email or phone”. You probably won’t be able, to begin with a four hour Deep Work push. That’s all proper, I started with 30 mins of deep paintings every day and worked my way up from that. Regardless of how you do it, try it out – you’ll reap a newfound feeling of satisfaction and completeness about your paintings, which continues the pressure at bay. 5. Exercise Regularly This one is frequently thrown around for a higher everything. Regardless of ways mainstream it is to say exercising for any type of improvement, it’s truly crucial for better work-existence. How come? Making time to workout gets your glad chemicals operating – serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, all mind hormones related to happiness are launched when exercising. And whilst you think about it, burnout is a chemical response in our mind, much like everything else we feel. When it became first coined in 1974 through Herbert Freudenberger, the term “burnout” referred to “emotional depletion” among other things. The jury’s out on that, normal workout is a deterrent to emotional depletion, so running each morning should assist. 6. Optimize Work We don’t become bored or mentally destroyed by creative and attractive in new duties. By nature, humans love a superb challenge, and we get excited while we ought to provide you with new thoughts, even supposing that’s at a meh workplace. What gets the stress wheel going are the tedious obligations – sending and answering emails, repetitive statistics entry, maintaining the equal workshop the 23rd time, etc. That’s why you should find approaches to work efficiently. If you could have enough money it, personal assistants assist plenty with that. They take the tedious part from your paintings so that you can awareness on the good stuff. You don’t even ought to hire a person full-time for that, you may locate awesome, tremendously trained virtual assistants on locations like Zirtual for as low as $four hundred a month. Don’t really want and/or find the money for a virtual assistant? That’s all proper, era is right here to assist. You can automate the boring parts of your paintings with a software programs like Zapier, Memberful and MailChimp. Emails, information access and scheduling are all done less difficult with those apps. 7. Do Fulfilled Projections Meditation is great for an extra effective lifestyle. It teaches you self-control, it improves your emotional stability and it’s a good device for removing pressure. There’s a myriad of sources online about why you should do it and how you have to do it. What I’d like to speak approximately now could be a special type of meditation, known as projections. So, as soon as you’re capable to do away with every concept out of your head for at least 10-20 minutes, you should strive to imagine yourself in certain situations. While you’re in a meditative stance, take your goals one at a time. Know them through the heart and start projecting yourself in a state of affairs where you’ve completed your dreams. Don’t simply usually consider them, be unique about how you feel, what you spot and what you do after you’ve made 1,000,000 greenbacks or quit smoking. Once you’ve got a clear photo of your exceptional possible destiny scenario, also venture your self in situations wherein there’s a battle. Imagine the obstacles along the way, which includes getting bored, being confused, and maximum importantly: failing. After that, also consider the way you’ve overcome the obstacle. This will make burning out an easier obstacle to triumph over, really because you’ve mentally been there before. It’s like a trick for your mind – if the unconscious believes you’ve been in this state of affairs in the past, and yet succeeded, it will likely be tons easier to live focused and stick with a schedule. 8. Sleep Well Any effort in the direction of burnout prevention is futile in case you’re tired. No rely how a whole lot inspired or hard-running you are, in case you don’t have a wholesome snoozing time table it'll be physically impossible to live focused and be efficient. Nobody knows why people must sleep, but all of us knows that they do need to Experts endorse that for the average person 7 to nine hours of sleep must do the trick, but all people are specific and you may additionally want more or less. The basic wholesome sleep time table is a superb 10 pm to six am slumber because that is the interval our brain secretes the most melatonin, a hormone that facilitates with getting a restful shuteye. You need to begin there and experiment with slicing or adding a few hours, based on how you feel. Can’t accomplish the whole lot you need with simplest sixteen hours of conscious existence every day? Is this proper for you? You can discover extra over here. 9. Take a Break Taking a well-deserved break doesn’t suggest giving in to burnout symptoms. It’s sincerely a wonderful manner to overcome them. Everybody has a breaking point and there’s no disgrace in either stopping for a talk at the water cooler or taking a three-day city break in the weekend. Disconnecting out of your each dayobligations is a exceptional manner to prevent burning out due to the fact your subconsciousrealizes the tedious tasks don’t go on forever, and there’s amusing on the cease of the dreadedtunnel. However, ensure you don’t spend an excessive amount of time within the Bahamas! Taking breaks that are too long (or too often) can have the alternative effect. To nice avoid this, define clean breaks for your agenda. 10. Work For Yourself The easiest way to not be overcome through dread each time you take a seat at your table is to work for you. Your dreams, your desires, your thoughts, your pursuits and your beliefs. Stuck at a shitty, name centre activity whilst you dream to have your own business promotingconsultancy services? There’s continually something you can do to be towards your dream. If right now you are dependent on a task you don’t like, there’s nevertheless time after five o’clock to examine a newskill, cross returned to school, put inside the hours for a side undertaking, etc. You can believe your modern-day job as a tool – brings money in so that you can invest them in your own ideas later on. That in and of itself will make each challenge easier to complete, and you’ll be lots higher prepared on how to conquer burnout at work. The point is, you must continually align your efforts with your desires, and make modifications on your lifestyles accordingly: begin saving money, create your personal website, volunteer, get some other degree. -The Mojo Master Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheMojoMasterCoach Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mojo_master/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/the_mojo_master

[cherry-bomb-styles-blog]

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In response to the Oct. 16 Arkansas Blog post "UA Little Rock picks firm to study football"

I guess UALR has money to waste. This study will probably conclude with the same results the 30 Crossing [study] did, i.e. this is a "have to" idea.

From the web

In response to the Oct. 16 Arkansas Blog post "UA Little Rock picks firm to study football":

I guess UALR has money to waste. This study will probably conclude with the same results the 30 Crossing [study] did, i.e. this is a "have to" idea. Then UALR can follow the ASU model of funding it, charge the students, use tax dollars, and borrow from the budgets of other departments.

arkdemocrat

Great idea. Then let big daddy UA give them Bielema to finish out his contract as their coach. He'll probably last about a month in that job given the "talent" that surely exists at UALR. That should be enough to save UA the cost of firing him or buying out the contract.

Razorblade

If UALR is fortunate enough to gain a marching band, I pray that they'll have saucy majorettes instead of those whiney flag squads.

louie

No no no no.

Who thinks this is remotely a good idea? With the growing evidence of health concerns combined with the vast majority of schools losing money on football, what the what?

Their AD answered the question — don't waste money, especially if it's a veiled excuse to try and save the crappy War Memorial Stadium. That ship has sailed and so should any serious thought that money should be spent to discover something already answered.

yapperjohn

Look for a "study" that says, "It's Time For Some Big-Time Collegiate Football in War Memorial Stadium!" Schools don't puke up big bux for studies that say, "Naw, You Small-Time Colleges With No On-Campus Student Body Would Be Pissing Money Down a Rat Hole If You Ponied Up $5M a Year for a Top Rated Coach Like Bret Bielema to Put You in the Alabama-Buckeyes Big Time." Claude Bahls

Well, it's a good thing they aren't wasting any of that money on expanding academic programs or scholarships for underrepresented populations.

tsallernarng

A feasibility study does not actually give a recommendation. It puts numbers on start-up and annual costs. Those numbers are based on things like what stadium will be used, what conferences the school can play in, and what the average revenue and expenses of programs in those conferences are like.

LRreporter

In response to the Oct. 16 Arkansas Blog post "Fort Smith legislator paid almost $700,000 on port concept. A waste, says one evaluation.":

Conservative welfare at its finest.

What is it about Fort Smith elected officials? Jake Files and now this guy. I think the finances of all our legislators need to be examined.

Poison Apple

Does [Mat] Pitsch have ANY professional qualifications in the freight transportation area? The Arkansas Department of Transportation has multimodal planning responsibilities and actually has qualified consultants on retainer for river port studies. This should have come through them IF there was a need to study, which there was not.

Arbiter of All Things AOAT

[He said] he has had to pay taxes on his income and bear the cost of his "family's benefits package."

Oh, wow! Just imagine if everyone had to do that! And on an average of, what, about $80,000 a year — not including his income, etc., from his legislative boondoggling, er, work, of course.

Doigotta

Fort Smith and Sebastian County seem to be most eager to allow members of the legislature to rip them off for projects that never get built. I guess that is the conservative ethic at work.

Plainjim

In response to the Arkansas Times' Oct. 12 profile of attorney Mike Laux, who has sued the Little Rock Police Department five times over police-involved shootings. Yes, there are criminals that should be arrested for breaking the law, but glossing over unjustified excessive force and fatal shootings is making the city of Little Rock more violent. Mr. Laux explained what he sees happening in Little Rock and I agree with his comments. You can pray about the violence until you are blue in the face, but nothing will change until the state government, city officials and the police department show the public that they take police shootings seriously, want the truth and will pursue justice, so everyone else involved will take it seriously. If they don't, the violence will get worse and it will be their fault.

ShineonLibby

In response to the Times' Oct. 12 story "DHS rule change threatens disabled care: ARChoices algorithm inspires state and federal lawsuits."

Now how did DHS "lose the data" for the algorithm that determined the level of care? This is not believable. Either someone is lying or incompetent. Legal Services needs to depose Tami Harlan, the deputy director of medical services under oath. Let us see what Tami Harlan says.

Orval Falsebus

Choosing levels of care by the use of the abacus is the same as length of the rope vs. body weight to insure a successful hanging. Medical care is not Moneyball. This is the situation of getting what you want but not wanting what you get.

Going for the record again

Why can't DHS or any state agency answer questions? This attitude of we don't have to account to anyone for why or what we do is increasing and it is approved of by the governor. It sounds like they are covering up something they don't want the public to know. I consider lying a sin, even if it isn't on Charlton Moses Heston's Ten Commandments chart. What happened to the Arkansas government's morals, integrity, and common decency toward other human beings? You would almost think they want people who are elderly, disabled, sick and poor to die so they won't be a liability to the state budget. If that were true, they should not be governing or in charge of people's lives. They practice fetus worship but kill off people they think aren't important to their voter base. They are really pro-death. There is nothing pro-life about them. Are they getting their orders from Donald? Or has he allowed them to finally show their true natures?

ShineonLibby

From Facebook

In response to the Oct. 16 Arkansas Blog post "Judge objects to trainer's reference to Black Lives Matter," about Pulaski County Judge Wendell Griffen's complaint that during a recent training for courtroom personnel an instructor called BLM a hate group "like the KKK": But which of these groups have a history of murder, intimidation and government sanctioned terror?

Reginald Ford

One group wants to wipe out all others who are not white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants, though it is sometimes vague on just HOW they plan to accomplish that ... as they hold their AR-15s. The other group is protesting the injustice that allows police to kill blacks at a very high rate, with the judiciary further allowing it. Their implementation to accomplish that is peaceful protest, and to continue to bring the blatant injustice to light through video and publicity of cases. HOW is BLM a hate group, again?

Betty J. Rousey

Well, black lies (sic) matter is a violent deceitful hate group, little different than the old-time KKK.

Steve Estrada

Black Lives Matter was begun by grieving mothers of sons slaughtered by police. So this guy equates moms w/the KKK???

Denise Parkinson

I am so pleased that Judge Griffen spoke out.

Margaret Ann Gibson Niven

In response to the Oct. 15 Arkansas Blog post "Talking Turkey, Yellville Turkey Trot Style:

This is godawful and cruel - what kind of a person would participate in this?

Fran Owens

Few People up here take pride in their barbarism. Look who they vote for. As for AG&F's sponsorship, I believe they have a turkey calling contest at the Kelley Slab site. Don't expect Chamber sponsors to effect much change. Remember the Klan exists quite openly just over the county line in Boone. Institutionalized animal cruelty is par for such a community.

J.R. Pinky

Arkansas, you're proving your ignorance by keeping this tradition going another year. This is barbaric. Stop! These turkeys don't always land safely when being thrown from an airplane at 100 mph and the people who think this is funny and entertaining are ridiculous.

Jessica Garrison

Animal cruelty should be EVERYONE'S business. Ditto child abuse, elderly abuse. Arkansas has become the laughing stock of the country, thanks to Yellville. This gene pool needs to be drained, and fast. Such an embarrassment to the State.

Elizabeth Wood

Maybe you should visit a chicken/turkey processing plant and watch the hang them upside down it a dark room and cut their throats so they will bleed out. Then steam their feather off before the suck their guts out with a vacuum. Then dropping them from a plane won't seem so bad.

Sonny Bell

In response to the Oct. 16 Arkansas Blog post "UA Little Rock picks firm to study football"

[phonerepairingcourse-blog]

Best Career options after 10th

What are the career options after 10th standard?

An individual’s decision making skills are the most sought-after skills in each and every career; no matter which job you do, your success will be based on the reasoning applied behind the decisions you take. This skill is spurred in a student from time to time and it starts right after you finish your 10th grade. Before 10th, the only choice you made was selecting your second language. After 10th the story changes, for the first time, you have the steering wheel of your career. For most of the students, this phase appears like a complex maze with lots of doors leading to the different direction, and it becomes difficult to find the door that leads towards the student’s dream career.

A plethora of career options after 10th:

His is one of the biggest problems faced by the parents. If we go back a decade or two, when your parents were in your place, all they had to choose between mathematics and biology. This is not the case anymore, there are many options available and as it is said, more options mean more chances of making the wrong choice.

What to consider:

While making any decision in life you need to keep in mind the consequences of the choice you make. Similarly, after your 10th you should not only look at the future and make a decision according to the career you want but also consider your past and make the decision based on your strengths and weaknesses.

Selecting Board:

After 10th, you have the option of sticking to the same education board or going for a different board. This decision should be taken after understanding the difficulty level of every board. For example, if you have studied in state board till your 10th, you should be ready to face the difficulty, if you want to shift to boards like CBSE or IGCSE.

Why make a choice?

Commonly, students are advised to keep their options open and go with the general science, arts or commerce streams. While this advice works for many, some students feel that they are burdening themselves with a subject they are weak in and could have easily omitted and improved their performance. The career counseling after 10th explores your potential and help you make the right career choice.

Is this an important step?

Many parents ask this question and feel that this is not a very important choice of life and can be taken again after 12th grade. On the contrary, this may be the first but also a decision which gives your career direction. It’s always better to start early.

Every student has a unique set of skills, strengths, and weaknesses and hence it’s very important to take unique decision for every student. The career experts while offering career guidance after 10th explore the students’ set of skills and help them choose a right career path.

If you have already finished your class 10th and are awaiting results then it is the right time to think about the career options. This will help you decide which course to choose. Many students just take up any stream without a proper career path in mind. It can be because of a number of reasons like they might think that it is too early to worry about a career, or because they want to stick with their friends or they take up a particular stream under parental pressure or just because they think that it is the easiest. But we do not want you to do such mistakes.

At this stage it is very important for a student to understand the difference between a job and a career. Many students study to get a job. It is not entirely their fault, as their parents also usually make this mistake in guiding them. While it is important to make money and get settled, but career means much more than that. It is a continuous growth path on your career chart which leads you to where you ultimately want to be. Thus for a right career path, self-analyzing is very important. So ask yourself, where do you see yourself after 10 years from now?

Your answer may be “I see myself as a doctor 10 years from now”. In that case you would need to take up the science stream. Where you would know about which stream to take in this case, you might like to consider whether you really like studying science or biology, or not. If that doesn’t interest you, then this profession is not for you. Any profession requires your full commitment and dedication. And unless you it really interesting, you cannot give your best in it. If you have any doubts in your mind, you can visit a professional career counselor at this stage.

I am stressing on this stage because in later classes it will not be feasible to change streams if you would not like studying what’s on your plate. Also, apart from being doctor, engineer, and teacher etc., there are thousands of career option available these days and you should have a good knowledge about it. Discuss about it and plan in advance. It will give you an edge above the competition. For instance if we again take the example of medicine as profession, then you would want to take coaching classes to help crack the entrance examination. And these would have to start as soon as you enter class 11th.

This is because the entrance course would comprise of both class 11th and class 12th subjects. And if not joined earlier, you might face tough times ahead with both board examinations and entrance examinations falling almost at the same time.

We have talked about the science stream here just as an example. There are commerce and Arts streams also which give a plethora of career opportunities. It is just not true that the one who choses science becomes an engineer or doctor, the one going for commerce becomes a banker and the one pursuing arts is doing so just because he or she could not get any other streams. I have seen many people hailing from arts background who have been doing better than many a science and commerce graduates.

Never join any course on the basis of going for traditional career only because someone convinced you to do so. Following is a snippet of what the different stream subjects comprise of. This might give you an idea about what is in store for you if you take up a particular stream.

Science: If you are interested in taking up science, then Physics and Chemistry will be your compulsory subjects. There will be an option of PCB, which is Physics, Chemistry and Biology or PCM, which is Physics, Chemistry and Maths. If you are a medical aspirant, then you must choose the prior whereas if you are interested in pursuing engineering, you should take the latter. Since you would have to study compulsory 5 subjects, then you will have a language subject, mostly English.

The other subject can be physical education, computer science or a second language like Hindi, which may differ from school to school. There is also an option of pure science which is PCMB i.e. Physics, Chemistry, Math’s and Biology, which is available in CBSE board but the state boards do not offer it. You can opt for it if you are still unsure about what to do after 12th and want to study first and then decide. But this stream calls for a lot of hard work and sincerity as all the four subjects require a lot of attention and time. And a little negligence in any of these will bring your aggregate score down.

Commerce: Where science stream might sound familiar to you since you have been studying science as a subject from primary school, commerce might baffle a few students. Basically commerce is for those who like to play with the numbers. If you are the once who would want to make a mark in the business and financial world, then this is for you.

If you want to become an entrepreneur or would want to join the family business, then you are at the right path. Normally the cut off marks for commerce remains below science in all the schools but the situation reverses at the graduation level. So if you a 60% holder and are looking forward to the commerce stream, you should work hard in 11th and 12th so that you can get admission in a top notch college. The subjects you will have to study would be: Accounting, Business Studies, Economics and Math’s, along with English. There might or might not be an optional subject in lieu of math’s, but it is better to take up math’s. This is because you will study statistics in math’s which will be very beneficial for you for future commerce courses.

Arts: In arts the options are much more than what is available in the science and commerce streams. Gone are the days when arts students were considered not up to the mark. Now many students willingly take up arts and prepare for civil service exams. The subjects covered in Arts are history, geography and political science which are basics and other options can be psychology, economics, physical education, or a second language like Hindi, apart from English as a compulsory language.

Thus, after 10th the options are umpteen, but what is important is that you need to understand what you interest areas are!

Also if we look forward to the best career options after 10th, Mobile repairing course is one of the best career options if you are interested in technology and looking for a field that offers you growth faster as compared to other career options. If you are in Delhi or around Delhi you can consider Hitech institute. Hitech institute is the leader when we talk about providing quality technical training and best learning environment. 

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SU19 Internship_ Week 1

For my practicum credit (LAR561), I am required to write journals for each week of the internship. While each week has an assigned theme, I like to just muse about everything and use this opportunity as a chance to record my experiences. 

This week, I talk about the firm, some tasks I’ve worked on, and a(n ongoing reflection) on skills that are taught in school and how they transfer to practice. 

_ the firm 

Firma Studio started in 2015 by Scott Dismukes, who has been working as a landscape architect for over 15 years. Scott had worked for 12 years at Olin, one of the very well-known LA firms in North America. Currently the firm has two employees total, Scott and Sarah, who is an alumna of the UTKSoLA program. The range of work is truly wide - so far, I have only worked on non-residential projects, but know that a lot of work is also done on that side. Their website unfortunately only has most of Scott’s former works, but I’ve been told that Firma’s works are finally mature enough to take good photographs - and that would be part of my scope this summer. 

_ planting plans + sketching elevations 

Skills practiced: + creating a planting schedule + laying out plants in accordance with recommended spacing + (re-)learning popular and appropriate plants in the Southeast and TN  + handdrawing, a little bit  + understanding plant height and massing per species  + learning about picking varieties per height/massing preference  + AutoCAD, learned a bit more about how to navigate x-refs, and freezing layers (there’s a button) 

The first project I’ve started working on is for a small entry way into a church. The current and existing conditions for the limit of work is not very inspiring and has a lot of room for plant work. When I started working, Sarah had already chosen a list of plants and had a rough planting scheme set out. My task was to transfer this idea into the digital space, both as a list of plants (plant schedule and a digital catalog of plants) and actually spacing and drawing them out on AutoCAD. 

Afterwards, I was tasked to draw a ‘gestrual’ elevation for the planting, to show the massing and height relationship for all of the plants involved. Scott definitely redrew and took over the task (to create the drawing that would be presented to the clients... see pic above for Scott in action), but it was still a really good chance to get an idea of the drawing standards for this field. 

(My scribbles to establish plant height) 

Our program promotes hand-drawing as more of a brainstorming tool. Almost all representational outputs are almost always digital renderings. The idea of an “illustrative” drawing- something that’s less 'crisp’ and I guess, more ‘pretty’? - hasn’t been asked of us until this semester (4 out of 6). I hope to practice more hand drawing in this capacity and get to a point where I feel comfortable incorporating it into my own studio process. 

(Elevation sketch example from Firma’s website-- fluid and gestural!)

_ product research: artificial turf and outdoor furniture 

(1967 Monsanto ad - from this great article about materiality and artificial turf) 

Skills practiced: + learning about artificial turf + research presentation and organization 

Product research! At our externship presentation, one of the students (who went to a nationally recognized firm) shared that he spent a whole day or two looking up “litter receptacles,” and we had a good laugh about that. However, product research is probably a very important part of, well, working in the field. I got to spent a few days this week researching artificial turf and outdoor furniture. 

Each of them had different motivations for the research: Firma wanted to gain a bigger understanding about artificial turf products through the artificial turf research (expanding the “knowledge base”), while the outdoor furniture one was to offer the client a range of alternatives for “value engineering” -- which seems like a lofty word for “finding something that’s cheaper.” 

The products for both tasks are going to be included (after review) into a client presentation to present a few options, their qualities, and their costs, so that the client can review them and make their call (for now?) (--still figuring out this process). 

However, I’ve put more weight on creating an internal research document for the artificial turf stuff, including a short history from AstroTurf; while the outdoor furnishing is focused more on getting a range of different chairs, etc. and showing how much they would be per quantity, and as by the budget that was in the proposal. 

_ reflection: from school to practice 

I had a great conversation with Sarah about whether ‘what’s taught in school’ is mutually exclusive from ‘what’s done in practice.’ The director of our program (whom Sarah has worked with) has been explicit from the beginning that what’s taught at our school won’t be the ‘basic technical skills’ in practice. 

This conversation also involved the recent Landscape Architecture Magazine article about the cost of an MLA degree. The article is not published online, but it is literally the front cover of this month’s issue: 

Sarah and I have been indoctrinated thoroughly agree that the MLA is not meant to supply those practice-specific skills, i.e. creating planting schedules in AutoCAD, but to really practice and stimulate the creative thinking (”design thinking”) skills via extremely talented design thinkers in the industry. BUT, (I believe this was the stance of the article:) if you have a BLA, pursuing an MLA probably is not worth it, strictly in terms of what (professional) skills you learn or (surprisingly) to increase pay. 

1 week into professional work (i.e. I aware that my opinion on this matter may change and develop as the numbers increase) - I am strongly in agreement with both sides. (1), without the “extra” time spent on learning about detail and drafting construction documents, however rudimentary they were, I would not feel comfortable placing plants in equal spacing on AutoCAD on my first week of internship (-- all of this would have been thoroughly taught in a BLA program, I think!) and (2) but without the abstract and academic engagement at the masters level, I would not be able to appreciate and wish to challenge the scope of the profession! 

This post has gotten too long already, so I hope to continue this thought and (in-head) discussion at a later time. I’ll be asking around what people think! 

_ week ahead 

There is a big? client presentation on Tuesday that I will work on tomorrow. I am not sure what the rest of the week looks like, but there seems to be something to do all the time! 

[araitsume]

Detentionaire Recap 48: Mummy Ping And The Snake Man Of Evil a.k.a. “No, Lee. I am your[Spoilers!].” or The Chaz Moneranian Show: The Bitch-Off at A. Nigma

After a year since the last recap:

… Man, I’m behind… Well, time to fix that!

Lee’s Streetcar Ride to A. Nigma High

Lee Ping: *Boards the streetcar, starting his inner monologue* Howdy, folks! Lee Ping here. I’m the kid who got detention for a whole year! But that was ages ago. *Sits next to a humming Holger who’s holding a strange gift basket* OK, Holg, seriously! What the what is with all that? Holger Holgaart: It be Holger-meister’s for Papa of Pings! Because Holger accidentally be giving Daddy Ping fish-pizza, and he being allergic to its deadly yumminess! Lee: OK. So, you’re going to the hospital to give my dad that – um, lovely gift basket? Holger: No-oh! Holger go to harbor to sacrifice traditional basket of happy offerings for untimely fish-illness to Poseidon. But, your idea being much better! OK, bye! *Gets off on his stop* Lee: Tell Dad I’ll visit him after detention! *Back to inner monologue* OK, so where was I? Ping, detention, whole year, Dad, hospital – Right! So, besides all that, turns out Stink-Ninja has been spying on me and my family, and not just in the creepy “watching every move we make” way, more in a “collecting our DNA” kind of way. Which is def-balls into the “full-throttle creepy “category. And why?! So not sure! But he did say: The Serpent: *In flashback* You’re nothing but a half-rate copy of me. Lee: … Which is über weird, considering some – most – ALL of our teachers are clones a.k.a. copies. Oh, and the proof of that? Biffy and I found their regeneration pods, so maybe I am a clone of that guy. Whoa. Heavy. *Signals a suddenly arrived Jenny to sit next to him* Or maybe he said that to mess me up. Dude loves messing with people, like how he used Jenny, dating her, and stealing the Book. What a – Jenny Jergens: Lee, sorry for losing the Book! *Frustrated groan* Major league bad judgment on my part, I know! But, what’s the deal between you guys? You, like, almost have the exact same tattoos. Lee: I don’t know, but there’s a slight chance that I’m his clone, so that kind of bites. *They both get off at their stop*

Yes, audience, Jenny is safe and sound. Plus, based on her line, it looks like she’s done with the Serpent for good, which is good for the most of us that had a problem with it [*Maniacal laugh*] but not so much for the few who legitimately thought they could’ve worked as a couple despite the number of problems that it breeds. But I hope you don’t get attached to Jenny’s perspective; this is the only time we see her in this episode. Bye, Jenny!

Day 85/X34: Instead of the usual cold-opening, we’re taken to A. Nigma High’s front yard where our favorite ex-Prez Camillio makes his “glorious” return to school after last week’s suspension by the co-principals. Considering the contrast between his rather laid-back term and the tyrannical reign of Beth, I anticipate that the student body would welcome Cam back with open arms.

Unlucky Freshman: Look! It’s the cheater! Tubby Baseball Player: I bet he cheated to become president! Lee’s Scrapped Non-PC Character Design: Get him, everyone who actually works and studies hard! Cam: *Shocked* Get me?! Come on!!*They all chase Cam*

Well, they are sort of right, but Lee and their respective campaign managers were also guilty, making Beth the only candidate that did nothing wrong (as bizarre as that sounds). After narrowly giving the mob the slip by hiding in the bushes, our distressed Latin lover called up his girl Brandy to figure why she isn’t at school yet to be used a buffer against the student body’s contempt towards him. The answer is quite obvious: her own reputation is bound to be tarnished after she was unceremoniously kicked out of the Glamazons. To stave off any public humiliation, she’s planning on staying home for the foreseeable future, but even that has its downsides as made evident by her off-screen mother (whose voice actor doesn’t sound really convincing) asking if Brandy has been going through her private belongings, i.e. the new lipstick she’s been using during the call. Oh, and there was something the disembodied mother mentioned about “a breach in the database” to Cassandra, but that was probably nothing. So rather than being stirred her boo’s “encouraging” words, Brandy decided to finally go out to school before her mom found out about the lipstick. Either way, Cam breaks his cover to celebrate this victory… for about a few seconds before the mob of angry nerds chased him again.

Just when Brandy was about to leave the condo, she opened the door to reveal a squad of Hazmat cleaners whom she mistakenly thought were summoned by her mother, and in response, she just threw the “stolen” lipstick at them and got away as fast as they could. What she didn’t know was that the unintelligible robots were here to determine the culprits that used Mrs. Silver’s login to get into the Coral Grove prisoner database. Frankly, it’s really her own fault since she had the genius idea to write her password onto a pamphlet related to the organization and left it on a night stand. Twice. As the rest of us already know, the results have identified them as Tina and Jenny. Viewing all this from her secret, underground lair/conference room through a drone’s eyes like she has done previously through Barrage, Cassandra McAdams knew exactly what to do regarding the two suspected minors that have only scratched the surface of the conspiracy: send a professional assassin after them. Naturally, she changed the screen to the Serpent’s office/penthouse… only to find said ninja-hitman apparently bedridden on his rather expensive sofa.

Cassandra: *Using the multi-screen display as a video chat* I’ve sent you a file about a mission. What’s wrong now? The Serpent: What does it look like? I’m sick! Achoo! The least you could do is offer me some hot and sour soup. *Checks his tablet to see his mission involves the two minor girls that got too nosy* Cassandra: I’ll have my chef whip some up, with a side order of roasted sarcasm. You just rest your weary, little head, and I’ll have someone else do your job! *Signs out*

No sooner after that briefing, the Serpent springs out of the sofa, making it plain that he was faking the illness!

Even though we get a glimpse of his humanity of showing some concern over what’s going to happen to Jenny (and Tina by proxy) [that said, his nickname for her, Jay-Jay, has made me feel too uncomfortable even thinking of a certain show about anthropomorphized aircraft], the Serpent has a more personal priority: paying Dr. Ping a visit at the hospital with some sinister implications.

And by an elevator transition, we join Holger who mistakes a completely bandage-covered soul for Lee’s Dad, even name-dropping part of the episode’s title. Of course, the real Dr. Ping is pretty much ok and holds no ill will towards Holger’s pizza faux pas. He even agrees to play a board game (which I have no idea how to spell) that Holger brought with his “get well soon” basket, knowing that he’ll eventually fall asleep due an earlier injection. Then again, Holger’s exposition on the rules of the game would’ve sent Dr. Ping to dreamland anyway.

Back at school, Lee had just run into Biffy attempting to crack the electronic lock on the teachers’ lounge. You know, the same one that had the Green Apple Splat knock-out gas going off inside it and might be another depositing base to the clone rejuvenation pod room like the Silver Condo? But who wants to learn more about that, am I right? Instead, let’s have Chaz Moneranian, the only reporter who is less legitimate than the ones on cable news networks, usurp the news from Tina yet again to break a story of his own the making from inside a locker. And in another use of scene whiplash, we cut to the now dethroned power couple, consisting of Cam & Brandy, doing all they can to avoid notice on their way to class. Even with her man’s attempts to lift her spirits (including complementing her new lip-gloss choice), the poor Silver can’t help but fear that this is one of the worst days of her life. Well, she’s not wrong as Chaz busts out of his hiding place, revealing that the two are his latest scoop on “Chaz’s Corner!” I would say that publicly shaming these poor kids is the moral event horizon for Chaz’s character, but…

That said, what kind of monster would humiliate a girl for her lip gloss and her boyfriend for standing up to them? As you probably guessed, Lee ain’t standing for this and even contacts Tina who was already trying to rectify the problem herself. Omigosh, they’re so in sync! While the usually silent Stepak is trying to work around Chaz’s changes to the network security, she’s going to put an end to Chaz’s nonsense personally.

Tina: This isn’t news; it’s tabloid junk!

If only we lived back in that innocent time where the two were truly separate entities. But instead of heading over to beat Chaz within an inch of his life, Tina was suddenly stopped by Principal Wurst who says to have uncovered something related to Coral Grove; this instantly grabs Tina’s attention away from the abuse of the press’ power. And for extra caution, Wurst provided some form of disguise: Groucho glasses. I’m not kidding.

Back at the hospital, Holger had just completed his turn on that weird board game and just now realized that Dr. Ping was fast asleep. This lead to a rather sweet moment with Holger tucking his best friend’s dad in… which is immediately ruined by the eccentric teen’s attempts to wake him up. Though this might have been a good thing as this leads to Holger seeing the Serpent just entering the hospital parking lot!

After the break, we resume “Chaz’s Corner” as our “humble” host has managed to keep his subjects/targets from getting away by firmly grasping them by the back of their tops with a single hand; that’s close to Biffy’s strength feats. This guy must be swole. And with a brief look back at Lee and Biffy trying and failing to access the lock, the affront to the free press continued with this snippet:

Chaz: Brandy, so Kimmie totally booted you from the Glamazons and destroyed your social status, like, completely! If you could say just one thing to her, what would it be? Brandy: *Feeling like she had nothing left to lose* You know that pink sweater that went missing? I took it! I look better in it anyway. Kimmie: *Once Chaz frees her from the locker he stashed her in* Ha! I knew it! And you so do not look better in it. *Turns to Chaz* And what is wrong with you? You do not go trapping people in lockers! And you do not look as good as you think you do in that outfit. Chaz: *Reeling from that blow to his ego* Ouch! Felt that one. Point: Kimmie!

Immediately after giving Biffy a ribbing over his “girlfriend’s” sudden appearance, Lee just got a call from Holger about the Serpent’s presence at the hospital (including name-dropping the rest of the episode title) and that Dr. Ping is out for the count.

Lee: OK, listen to me, Holg. Stink-Ninja must be after Dad, which means – Holger: Oh! Holger using old hospital body parts to create a second dad and giving that to Snake Man of Evil?

Lee: *Just about as shocked and horrified as the audience* NO! Dude, please! Don’t do that, like ever!

Having just been given his instructions to keep Dr. Ping out of the Serpent’s reach until Lee meets him, Holger soon contemplated on a couple of ways to hide the sleeping man, one of which being to gouge out everyone’s eyes. What did that eclipse beam do to your mind that made you so damn twisted? Thankfully, he went with option B: dress him up from head to toe in hospital bandages like that the other patient in the room, thus giving relevance to the title again.

Back to Tina, she and Principal Wurst had just arrived at the latter’s office, so now they can get rid of this pathetic “disguises”. And it’s at that moment that Wurst reveals that he was forced into some sort of think-tank at Coral Grove, and he went to Tina see if they could get some dirt on them. And it just so happens that Tina has access to the Coral Grove database. How convenient! A little too convenient…

At the hospital, Holger, in his “Doctor Detective-Cop” costume, had just finished wrapping up Dr. Ping 99% with medical wrappings and rolling him away in a wheelchair towards the elevator. Of course, if you couldn’t see that for yourselves, his call with Lee described it as a suspicious medical procedure made it sound like he did something horrible to Lee’s Dad. As if this wasn’t questionable enough for the staff that seemed to allow this to happen, Holger just had to make things worse by rambling about the show his cosplay is based on and calling Dr. Ping a “mummy transplant.” Of course, the staff calls in security, which takes the form of green Hazmats who sound strangely like the robotic ones from the school. Oh crap, MWF owns the hospitals too?! Run, Holger, run! And luck smiles on “Dr. Detective-Cop” as the elevator he just missed was revealed to have the Serpent as the passenger. As the villain of the day entered the former patient’s room, he mistakes the other mummy-patient as Dr. Ping, though this time there isn’t anyone to correct him.

The Serpent: *In a playful tone* Oh! Someone is extra allergic to fish, huh? Guess it runs in the family! Might want to try moisturizer for the hives instead wrapping yourself up like a mummy. You know, like normal people do? *Bandaged patient’s muffled speech while he digs through Holger’s gift basket and pulls out a lollipop* Just saying. Gee! Relax. You gonna eat this? *Beat* I guess not. OK, Dr. Ping. Let’s have that “Father-Son” chat we never had. So, I met this girl. And, well, gosh darn! – I like her, and how do I tell if she likes me? *Laughs with playful menace* Just kidding! Let’s go back further than that. *Takes out a mysterious photo* To about this time.

Well, this could only lead to good. Also, dude, spoilers!

Back at school, Biffy bore witness to the potential evolution from a bitch-off to a catfight between Brandy and Kimmie. And at last, Kimmie delivers her finishing burn:

Kimmie: The only reason we even let you into the Glams was because I wanted to see if I could turn an ugly duckling into a swan. Turns out, you were a donkey.

It was at that moment that Brandy nearly snapped and almost strangled Kimmie if it wasn’t for Cam restraining her. And with that, Kimmie smugly walked off-screen. With that the distraction over, Biffy could focus on the lock again, at least until Lee called to inform him about the Serpent.

Dangit, Kimmie; stop giving the shippers fuel! Anyway, Biffy “compliments” his totally-not-girlfriend for displaying her alpha bitch cruelty for the entire school to see, even though she seems to regret acting out like that. This soon led to the argument over whether Kimmie’s mom, Cassandra, is actually evil or not. And, in an attempt to manipulate him, the Glamazon queen was willing to share the passcode to the teachers’ lounge on the condition that Biffy recants on the awful but true stuff he said about her mom. Yeah, the only way that would work is if she went all Inquisition on him.

Back at the hospital, the Serpent has finished pouring out his soul to the irresponsive person he believes to be Dr. Ping and is quite impatient with no real response from the invalid patient so he rips off the bandage covering the mouth.

Patient-Who-Clearly-Isn’t-Dr. Ping: Dude, you’ve got some serious issues. And the wrong guy!

The Serpent:

And we cut back to Holger as he and the incapacitated Dr. Ping have suddenly been trapped in a hall with a green Hazmat on each end headed towards them. And the elevator is taking forever to reach their floor, with Holger’s freedom being so close yet so far.

Ah, but who cares about that? How about we check on Tina and Principal Wurst, OK? Inside the head faculty’s office, Tina has been having some trouble logging onto the Coral Grove website, leading to Wurst to suspect that they might be on to her. This gets the young school news reporter to talk about how Jenny is the only other person who knew about this stuff and how the files were recorded orders from Cassandra on forced relocating people to Coral Grove & were made legal through Mrs. Silver’s use of her authority as a judge or justice. What she didn’t notice was Wurst stealthily pressing a button on the side of his desk. Hmm…

Back the hospital, the elevator finally opened to reveal Lee inside of it, who quickly ascertained the situation, pulled both Holger and his dad inside, and swiftly set the elevator to the ground level. So with Dr. Ping slowly waking up, is the trio finally home free?

Without warning, the elevator suddenly stopped with a crunching halt. And Lee had to make things worse by asking “Now, what?”, leading to a familiar laugh right above them. Wow, this just got even more intense. Let’s ditch them for a trip back to school!

Back in front of the teachers’ lounge, Biffy still can’t bring himself to say “Your [Kimmie’s] Mom’s not evil”, not even for the code Kimmie is using against him as leverage. And the pressure isn’t helping.

Biffy: *After seeing Kimmie giving him her signature glare* Oh, what?! She has robots on her beck and call! Those bugs she put in everyone’s bedroom?! That was to find a key Lee had so they could open a pyramid under the school!! HELLO?! SHE TRIED TO POISON ME THE OTHER DAY!! Kimmie: *Firmly* Four words. Biffy: Oh, the only reason you know the code is because your evil mom came up with it! It’s probably something all villainy like the first four letters of her name or something. *Sudden epiphany* Oh! C-A-S-S. Eh, it’s worth a try? *Types the code in according to the alphanumerical key lock and the door opens* HAH! TOTALLY WORKED!!

To say that Kimmie was shocked that it worked is an understatement. Though to be fair to her, this isn’t really an indicator that Cassandra was evil, but rather she’s a bit of an idiot. Anyway, Biffy filled his quota for the episode and hopes that Lee will be pleased. I’d make a Senpai joke here, but that would most likely be conceived as racist.

Instead, let’s check back with Lee, Holger, Dr. Ping and their “mysterious stranger” in the elevator. And our guest makes a meme worthy entrance:

Come on, try it. I’ll start:

With him effortlessly stopping a charging Holger and seeing Dr. Ping shuddering in his bandages, the Serpent turns his attention to Lee and shows him the picture he planned to present to the father of the Ping clan. Said picture is that of the much younger Dr. Ping & Mrs. Ping and their little bundle of joy from that other cryptic picture; a few key additions to this one are that the baby has a different marking on his left arm and there’s the year the photo was taken on the back.

Lee: “1992”? But I was born in 1997. The Serpent: Ah! But I was born in 1992. Not everything is about you, Lee Ping.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?! A few key things actually:

There’s a five year age gap between the Serpent and Lee’s sophomore class, just a year above the 15th graders. So, congrats to you Serpent/Jenny shippers; your pairing is about as acceptable as Chopper/Beth… except Chopper’s maturity is closer to that of a teen who fell in love akin to normal customs and the Serpent is a dangerous hitman who used Jenny and is only showing signs of becoming the fake persona (plus I doubt that she’s still interested).

The Serpent is one of two characters I’m aware of that share the same birth year as me; the other being Jolyne Cujoh from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Plus, I currently hate myself for not working on this recap last year since it was the Year of the Monkey, just like 1992.

The show takes place during the fall of 2012. You know, the same year that the world was almost in peril by Weirdmageddon in the summer. Because dammit, someone needs to get both the Gravity Falls and Detentionaire fandoms to make crossover stuff!

Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Lee finally realizes that the baby in the picture is, in fact, the Serpent. And to drill the point into younger Ping’s head, the Serpent shows his weird birthmark Lee and while pointing out Lee’s doesn’t quite match, but Lee’s is a perfect one to his father’s which somehow caught Lee’s surprise despite it staring him in the face from the first photo.

Dr. Ping: *After the Serpent cuts the bandages covering his face and upper left arm off* Lee! Don’t trust him! He works for them! It could all be a trick! The Serpent: *Restraining Dr. Ping* If I’m not who I say I am, then why do I know that your father added a tattoo to your birthmark and you added the same protection to him [Lee]?! But not me! Why was that?! Dr. Ping: *Sudden realization* No! It is you.

And with that, the Serpent restarted the elevator, kicked both Lee & Holger to the floor, and rolled Papa Ping out to show him his proof, but not without saying farewell to his “bro”. This shocking moment has left Lee with two unsettling realities: he’s either a clone of the Serpent or the Serpent is his older brother (seeing that there are both resemblances and differences, I’d go with the latter). Of course, the moment is a little muddled by Holger going goo-goo-gaga over the Serpent’s baby picture. *Imitating Holger’s cutesy voice* Aw, who’s going to grow up into a dangerous assassin? You will! You will!

OK, now it’s time for the real twist. Back in the Principal’s office, Wurst was just introducing Tina to his new guest: a blue Reaper-mat! As it turns out, Wurst has been in league with Coral Grove this whole time and was just getting Tina to reveal her findings to him while prepping for her to be taken away. I guess that’s what happens when you “know too much”. How’s that for a cliffhanger?!

General Thoughts:

The audience’s reaction to this episode:

Boy, this was a much-needed follow-up to the last episode. The reveal that the Serpent has been Lee’s brother this whole time was both shocking and expected. I tried my best to not draw too much towards the hints that were expected until Lee was finally up to speed; it was not an easy task, especially with the last episode turning it into a non-twist. Speaking of which, co-creator Charles Johnston reveal Aside from that, the other sub-plots were given some love but were left hanging for the next episode. But seriously, what is it with this school that has the “nice” faculty members turn out to be evil? Then again, Wurst’s connection to MWF should’ve been suspected ever since we learned the acronym included “Wurst”. Man, it feels good to practice writing with this again.

Channel Awesome gifs by @thatchickwiththegifs

Detentionaire gifs by @acelaces

Episode links: Amazon Instant Video; watchcartoononline.com

[First Episode][Previous Episode][Next Episode]

[suzzannelaidlaw]

Ask Me Anything Q&A

I was recently invited to participate in an online Q&A style forum, through Ask Me Anything, whereby the public had the opportunity to ask me any question in my area of expertise.

It was an interesting exercise and a lot of questions asked pertained to mindset, as well as other questions that I have been asked many times before.

I thought I would share my answers here, for anyone exploring my website who may be asking the same questions. You can see the full feed here, or see the full list of Questions and Answers below.

Q. One of the major reasons why people struggle with problems is that they are too involved and are unable to see things objectively, as strangers coaches have the advantage of objectivity. Even as a coach, do you ever feel the need of having a coach to help you figure out your problems?

A. Most definitely!

I, too, work with a coach and am always learning from others (whether directly from a coach, reading books, listening to audio books and podcasts, studying & other means of professional development, through my own coaching accreditation and learning, from accountability buddies, and much more).

I wholeheartedly agree that someone outside of a direct situation has the advantage of objectivity and I often consult with my coach and others in my team when making important decisions.

I also practice what I preach and am held accountable to my goals by others (including my coach), I plan ahead, I set targets, I test and measure my activities, and am endlessly trying to improve and better myself and my business with the help of others.

The vast majority of coaches I know (especially those who are very successful in their own right) work with their own coach, and I’m no different.

A business coach is no different to a sports coach, and I’ve yet to hear of a hugely successful sportsperson who doesn’t have a great coach working with them to help them achieve their dreams.

Q. What is a business plan and why do you need one?

A. One of my top passions as a business coach is business planning!

It’s the first step for any business owner to reach success by getting everything out of their head and onto paper. Business owners should have a comprehensive company overview, financial & marketing plan, sales strategy, product overview, industry analysis and a strong road map of strategies (and more).

It’s critical to have clarity of a starting point and end goal, to ensure the right path and direction is specified. By writing down your goals, it places you in the top 3% of people who achieve success.

I have recently written a series of blogs on my website, covering the ABC’s of Business Planning.

I suggest having a read of the above blog, then my subsequent supporting blogs on Vision and Purpose.

Q.What do you consider to be the biggest challenges to starting a business? How do you help business owners get through these challenges?

A. The biggest challenge to starting a business it that people often don’t know where to start – there are so many things running through their head and they have no idea how to prioritise or what steps to take to get their business off the ground.

I help business owners to get clear on what their long-term vision is, what it is they are going to deliver and then step them through the process of creating a really good business plan which takes them through every part of running a business and breaks it down into clear, easy to follow steps. Having a business plan puts all the jigsaw pieces together into one big puzzle, so that the client  can see the big picture (and everything is out of their head and ‘onto paper’).

It’s important to assess every aspect of a business to see whether it’s viable and how to make it a profitable and successful enterprise, delivering to the customers what is promised and ultimately giving the business owner the freedom of choices and giving them the desired result of starting the business in the first place.

Q. Is there an effective way to achieve a positive, long term change in a person’s behavior?

A. Most certainly. The first thing someone needs is the awareness & desire to change. As I have answered above, I consider the steps are as follows:

1.  Awareness of what change is required

The first thing someone needs, however, is awareness of what they want to change.

2.  Desire / mindset / willingness to change

Secondly, once the awareness is there, they need to actually want to change and be prepared to make changes.

Sometimes people are aware they need to change (i.e. they may want to lose weight or get fit or stop smoking) – in fact, some are aware of what they want to change for many years – but it’s committing to taking the actions required to make the change, for change to happen.

My husband was aware that he needed to stop drinking for 10 years, but it took a decade for him to finally take action in line with that knowledge and awareness and desire to beat his alcoholism.

3.  Actions

Acting on the awareness is the the third step, making small steps consistently to affect that change.

It’s also important to change their environment to break old habits, whatever that means for the person and the challenge they are wanting to overcome. They need to be in the right environment with the right support.

For example, an alcoholic is going to find it far harder to break their alcohol addiction, surrounding themselves with other people drinking at a pub.

By removing the temptation of breaking a habit, or reverting back to old ways, there must be choices made to make that happen the easiest way possible.

They say, you’re the sum of the 5 closest people around you; so if you want to make change then you must surround yourself with the people who are living the life you want to live.

4.  Consistency / follow through / keeping the actions up (change takes time!)

The last step is following through consistently to make the changes permanent.

It is said that on average, it takes 21 days to change habits so consistency is key and reverting back to the actions whenever a hurdle gets in the way, is vital to continuing the path to making change.

Sometimes it takes far longer to make a change and stick to it, so it’s consistently reverting back to the goal and making steps towards that goal, to stay on the right path.

Q. Have you coached young students to make well-thought career decisions? Are there any success stories so far?

A. Many years ago, I used to run an employment agency and I remember a young girl coming to me straight out of school wanting to get a job as she wanted to start making money.  She was highly intellegent, achieving in the top percentage of achievers in her school exam results, and I had a conversation with her about her direction and choices and where they would lead her, and she came to her own conclusion from the mentoring and questions that I asked; that she wanted to continue her learning and development by studying at university and furthering her tuition.

She realised in her own heart of hearts, that she should utilise the high academic results she received to her advantage (simply by me listening to her and asking her leading questions).

Despite my own pursuits, I was able to mentor this young girl to make the best decision for HER life.

Within a day I had a call from this girl’s Mum and Dad, thanking me from the bottom of their hearts for seeing the potential in their daughter and allowing her to realise the potential she could reach by following a different path (and coming to that decision herself). They had tried numerous times to convince their daughter to continue study and go to uni, to no avail.

I feel that I made a difference by listening to and understanding this girl’s bigger vision, and helping her to listen to her own heart.

I bumped into this girl many years later, who had gone on to study medicine at university and was now a doctor. She thanked me profusely for the conversation we had and the questions I asked that ultimately led her to believe how much impact her decision would make on the rest of her life.

Q. In what ways business people limit themselves through personal stereotyping?

A. That’s an interesting question.

A lot of small business people or tradesmen, for example, may limit their beliefs by thinking that sterotypically, in their industry, most are “one man bands” or have a small team and thus they only consider their business to be capable of that stereotypical make-up (and not greater).

I think it happens a lot that people  look at the ‘norm’ and stereotype and limit their beliefs accordingly.

If people are looking at the norm, they’ll be the norm.

If they want to achieve greater than normal, then they need to look outside the box and learn from other people who have achieved success. As I’ve said many times before in my answers above, it all starts with a shift in mindset.

Q. How do you develop yourself and continue to grow as a professional and on a personal level?

A. I continue to grow by looking at which areas I need to develop and improve on, and identifying what learning I need to do professionally to icrease my learning in that area.

I look at my big vision, the goals I want to achieve from that vision, and in those goals; what are the areas of those goals that I need to work on or need to develop? I base my learning based on those.

My professional development and personal development is decided through the above process.

As an example, I love classical piano. I’m not very good at it, so I have a piano teacher who helps me learn, I practice as often as I can and it helps to challenge my brain, improve my dexterity and brings me joy.

Profesionally, I am interested in always learning more about people and their personalities. I have worked with DISC profiling for many years, and one of my goals is to be accredited in DISC profiling.

I am also currently accredited as a business coach with the International Coaching Federation, but one of my goals is to reach the highest level of coaching accreditation with ICF and thus, I work to develop my skills and learning through various webinars and resource development/learning.

Q. Can you talk about how ego can get in the way of effective coaching?

A. Some coaches may find that ego gets in the way of coaching because they want to be “right” and have all the answers.

But, I don’t feel that ego has a big part for me as I’m not a dominant person and always focus the attention outside of myself, i.e. what are the client’s hopes and dreams?

I am results driven but don’t feel that’s from ego, I think that’s from wanting to help my clients achieve good results for their own happiness and ensuring they get a good return on their investment.

Coaching should not be telling the client what to do, it should be listening to the client and asking good questions. Being right & wrong shouldn’t be part of the equation.

I would look out for this when looking to work with a coach, as coaches shouldn’t feel the need to justify themselves or be right and have all the answers. That can get in the way with the coaching process, and often the less the coach talks the better (so you will notice if a coach has a big ego because they will talk about themselves rather than listen to the client).

Hope this answers your question.

Q. It sounds like you’ve been through quite alot. I believe we grow the most from adversity. Do you feel there is a clear plan/path for rising above challenges whether personal or professional? What would you recommend as a key approach to overcoming boundaries?

A. I certainly have. You can visit my website and download a copy of my story ‘Burning Desire’ to read one example of adversity I have overcome (scroll down to the bottom to download your copy).

I do feel there is a clear path to rising above challenges.

1. Be aware of the challenge.

2. Make a decision to get through that challenge (whether you accept it or not) – Make that mindset shift to tackle the challenge head on.

3. Go forth and consciously choose one action (or one small step each day) towards overcoming the challenge.

For example, when I had endometriosis riddled throughout my body, had mutiple surgeries was given 5 years to live when I first came home from hospital, I couldn’t even walk. I set myself a small goal of walking down the stairs in my house, and then to walk across the road to the oval and back, and then to walk around the oval. So it’s about changing the mindset and breaking it up into small achievable steps, one by one, to reach that bigger goal.

4. Draw on inspiration from mentors.

My mentor at the time, was Lance Armstrong. I grew great strength from reading his book and his journey, and that helped me overcome my challenge.

Success leaves clues so it’s important to learn from others who have been through the same challenge as you, and I draw a lot of courage and inspiration from other people (either face to face or through books) who have overcome challenges before.

That’s also why I am so open about the challenges I have overcome as I believe it’s important to share my wisdom and experiences so others can draw strength from what I have overcome.

It’s about what you do with what you have.

Q. What advice do you have for other women entrepreneurs who are looking to start a business or to continue to grow their business?

A. 1.  Work harder on yourself than you do on your business;

2.  Network and surround yourself with people who you can learn from, particularly other female entrepreneurs; that you can also add value to (so it’s a reciprocal relationship).

3.  Spend regular structured time working “on your business”, getting clear on a business plan and put time aside to proactively work on the business on a regular basis.

4.  Don’t make the mistake of just learning about your profession, it’s important to develop your business accumen too. The biggest thing that prohibits people in business is their own self-limiting beliefs and their own mindset so by working on your mindset, this will allow you the biggest opportunity for growth and impacting others.

Q. What is the highlight success in your career that is significant to excellence in business?

A. I’d say that the first time I won a Global Award for Business Planning, i.e. helping the most amount of business owners in the world to create a business plan for success (out of any other business coach).

I knew I was passionate about helping owners plan their business for success but out of the thousands of business coaches in the world, I had no idea that I was the most passionate and that I had made the biggest impact in business planning in the world.

That was a huge highlight in my business accolades & coaching career (and I have since gone on to win many more business planning awards both regionally and globally).

On a personal level, I also represented Australia for the World Triathlon Championships in London and that was a pretty significant highlight for me, particularly as I had not long before been told I had a heart disease and I wouldn’t be able to compete again. So it was a huge challenge for me, making the Australian team whilst competing at a level where I was keeping my heart rate down under 80% capacity (posing its own challenges when competing in an olympic distance triathlon). Overcoming that challenge was a highlight for me, and still achieving success with that limitation put on me.  It was a great example of what happens to people all the time – they are thrown challenges, but it’s what people do with those challenges that determine their success.

Q. What are the top challenges people have in an existing business?

A. The most common challenges I come across with my clients are:

1. People aren’t educated enough on how to run a business; they are generally educated in their industry but not in business operations. Thus, they are proactive about professionally developing their own business accumen or that of their team (i.e. they will promote a manager from within, who also doesn’t have managerial experience, they have just come from the shop floor).

2. A lot of businessses are running the business owner/s, not the business owner/s running the business. They are therefore making reactive decisions on a regular basis rather than proactive ones. They’re not sitting down assessing where they are now, where they want to go, and how to get there.

3. Cash flow. People don’t know the areas in their business that are triggers for declining/lumpy cash flow and how to change it. I.e., they may have too much stock, their debtors and creditors might be out, they haven’t reviewed their expenses, their wages have increased but their revenue hasn’t.

That’s a general overview of the main challenges people face, but within those categories comes a breakdown of challenges.

The number one overriding challenge in terms of the above is business owners NOT SPENDING TIME WORKING “ON” THE BUSINESS (but rather, just working “in” it).

Q. What are some of those questions that should be asked before a business crisis happens?

A. Some of the questions you should ask yourself regularly are:

What was my target this month? Did I achieve that target?

What was my gross profit this month, and was my gross profit margin in right range?

Are my expenses in line with my budget?

How is my marketing plan going?

Are we producing a good return on investement with our marketing investment?

Are my team on board with the organisations’ vision?

Are the strategies that we are proactively working on to grow the business, working?

Are we testing & measuring our activities against results?

Is my business plan up-to-date?

Is my business pro-active?

Is my business running me or am I running the business?

Do I have a clear picture of where my business is going?

Have I done a competitor analysis?

Is my business properly represented in my industry?

Q. What is the single metric you will measure your success by (not how anyone else will measure your success– how you will measure your own success). What are you doing about it?

A. My success is based on how happy I am within my heart, how much impact I am making in the world and the difference I make to others’ lives.

My goal of being a “Millionaire of Hearts” (reaching and inspiring one million people) was my choice of goal, and I have a calculation for how I measure this (how many people I reach) but more importantly, I measure my success by how happy I am in the heart, how calm I am, how happy the people are around me and how much love is in my life.

If we’re talking about how I measure the success of my clients that I work with, that’s based on how happy they are and ultimately from a business perspective, how much net profit they are making in their business.

Q. If a better competitor opened up tomorrow, what would you want them to be like?

A. I actually don’t believe there are enough business coaches available, helping people to reach their potential and creating world abundance through business re-education.

I would want everyone to have available to them, a coach that is honest, authentic, caring, personable, structured and clear with their clients (with a focus on good results) and transparent.

I work with a lot of business coaches and don’t see them as competitors, I see them as colleagues who can work together with me in our joint plight to help others.

Q. Everyone faces adversity in their lives, but why some people just prefer to complain and do nothing about it? Is the key to successfully overcome adversity or failure in each person’s approach or mindset towards how to handle these situations or are there other external factors that could be of help?

A. Some people are stuck in their own mindset, that it’s second nature to ‘complain’.

It all starts with the mind- one person decides to complain and do nothing about it, but then there are people like Stephen Hawking whose mindset drove him to make a huge impact despite his catastrophic physical limitations.

So yes, I absolutely concur that it is within each person’s mindset that will determine their ability to overcome adversity or failure. A different mindset is what make people take a different approach – i.e., do something about a problem, or just think about it/complain about it and do nothing.

Everything starts with the mind.

Of course, there are always external factors that can play a part, too. For example, if you have a great support network and people that can help you in your journey and to achieve your aspirations, then you’ll have an advantage. You can ‘borrow the belief’ of someone else, before you have that belief yourself. Great mentors can help you change your mindset but ultimately it’s something you have to want.

Childhood experiences and how people were raised, contribute greatly to one’s mindset. They can either have a mindset of growth, or a fixed mindset.

Carol Dwek’s book, Mindset – Changing The Way You think To Fulfil Your Potential is a fantastic example.

Through wanting to change mindset, with the support of mentors and learning, it is most definitely possible.

A really powerful quote that I often refer to, is “It’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do about it.”

Q. You mentioned that one of the keys to success in life is a balance of mental, physical and spiritual health. How do you achieve this? Where do you start?

A. I recently wrote a blog on my website, outlining my 7 Daily Top Tips that have helped me on my journey of life.

I have also outlined them below for your reading:

1. Have a positive attitude 

I choose to have a positive attitude of gratitude, every single day.  Each day is the first day of the rest of my life, so I want to make it count.

2. Plan & set goals

I have created an ever evolving and morphing plan of what I want my future vision of my life to be (including long, medium and short term goals, covering all areas of my life together with immediate family members through our family’s yearly goals & vision book).

3. Exercise regularly

I made myself fall in love with exercise, even if I had to trick myself to become an early person.  Strategies to help me keep this up including eating fresh healthy whole food to fuel my body, putting a fitness plan on the fridge, I have walking & running buddies to hold me accountable and I also regularly enter charity run/walk/cycle events.  Exercise is my free hit of endorphins every day.

4. Follow the law of reciprocity

I work daily to keep open, positive, honest, vulnerable communication with the people in my life that matter, focusing on where I can help them and not me. I follow the law of reciprocity every day, the giver’s gain philosophy.

5. Challenge my brain

I regularly assess where I need to be focusing my learning, and what I should be researching to develop myself more.  Always learning is my way of keeping my brain active and challenged.

6. Tackle challenges head on

6. I tackle challenges head on. As Gabrielle Bernstein says in her book Daring Greatly, ‘Our challenges in life are just life’s assignments and we are never given an assignment we can’t handle.’

7. Meditate daily

I make it mandatory to do daily mediation both upon waking and before I go to sleep, focusing on all the things I am grateful for.  I also mediate during the day when fear comes knocking on the door, and within minutes my fear runs away and my heart rates slows.

Rememeber, these are some of the things that have helped me to live my best life, and overcome obstacles in my way.

I recommend that you too should sit down and think about your core values, and what motivates you to be the best person you can be. If you are regularly going against your beliefs and not living your life in line with your true essence of being, then it’s time to reflect on that and make better daily choices to live your best life possible.

Q. If someone asked you which of your traits would make you a great business coach for his business, what would you say?

A. I have an open heart and open mind, and am empathetic to people’s situations. I use this, together with my focus and experience, to bring the client back to what it is that they really wish to achieve.

A lot of businesses have “bright shiny object syndrome” – they get distracted by another idea, but I’m always making sure they stay true to their goals and making sure they focus on and prioritise the development of their business in accordance with their vision.

I also consider that my experience starting & running my own businesses, puts me in a position of understanding what it takes to be successful.  One of the businesses I ran for 13 years was with my husband, so I understand what it’s like to work with family (so I understand the dynamic of working with family). We also successfully sold our business for a profit, so having that experience first hand puts me in a better position to be a successful business coach.

So I’d say my top 3 traits are:

1. Open mind & open heart

2. Focus

3. Experience as a business owner myself

Q. How long did it take you to really make a name for yourself as a business coach?

A. I would say it took around 5 years, to not only feel that I was recognised for my business coaching but that I had reached success with my clients and more importantly that I impacted many many people through my desire to help.

I have always had the philosophy that if I can help anyone out, regardless of whether they are a paying client or not, I will always do my best to help.

Whether it’s lending a book, referring someone to a trusted colleague, connecting like-minded people, sharing my insights, etc, I am always thinking of ways I can help others.

Many times people walk around with a jigsaw piece in their back pocket and they don’t let go of it because they’re too scared to be vulnerable and put themselves out there, but I have been brought up with the belief that if I can help a fellow human when the situation arises, then I will.

I’d like to think that who I am as a person, and my values, has contributed to me making a name for myself.

Q. How can someone make their voice heard above the masses of people online?

A. I don’t proclaim to be an expert on digital/online presence however I will say that it’s important to be genuinely yourself and post regularly.

If you post content in your own voice, with your own values and opinions, and if your content inspires others, then you will organically grow your presence as people will notice you for being authentic.

You will draw the people to you, who align with your values.

Q. Do you have remote clients? If so what’s your approach to provide the best customer experience when dealing with different locations?

A. That’s a great question. Yes, I have remote clients – I have coached people all over the world and am currently working with a client in South Africa, and another locally who does remote coaching sessions.

All of my clients have the option of coaching face-to-face, via Zoom/Skype or via phone. Most prefer face-to-face however my customer service to my remote clients differs only in that I can’t offer them a coffee or a hug when they arrive in my office

My coaching method and available services to them is exactly the same, and I have had no negative experiences with coaching clients in remote locations thus far.

Hope this helps.

Q. What are some examples of ways in which you have helped clients?

A. I recently posted a Facebook video about the success I have shared with one of my newest clients.

In the last 12 months, we increased their annual turnover by 50% and increased their net profit by around 220%.

How did we do that?

1. The first thing we did was write a business plan, identifying some of their problems,

2. One of the weak areas we identified was that some of their debtors weren’t paying on time so we decided not to teal with that target market any more,

3. We then identified their ideal target, getting really clear on the best people to deal with in their industry,

4. We created a website based on that demographic,

5. We created a budget to get a handle on finances, reduced expenses and increased gross profit margin

6. We created a cash flow projection (so the cash flow wasn’t lumpy),

7. We started to build a solid team and put some team processes in place.

Hope this helps you – This is just one case study of how I worked with one of my clients over a one year period to dramatically improve their results.

Q. What are the personality traits of a person who is capable of change?

A. I don’t believe there are particular personality traits of a person who is capable of change. I feel that ANYBODY is capable of change.

The first thing someone needs, however, is awareness of what they want to change.

Secondly, once the awareness is there, they need to actually want to change and be prepared to make changes.

Sometimes people are aware they need to change (i.e. they may want to lose weight or get fit or stop smoking) – in fact, some are aware of what they want to change for many years – but it’s committing to taking the actions required to make the change, for change to happen.

My husband was aware that he needed to stop drinking for 10 years, but it took a decade for him to finally take action in line with that knowledge and awareness and desire to beat his alcoholism.

Acting on the awareness is the the third step, and the last step is following through consistently to make the changes permanent.

To summarise,

1.  Awareness

2.  Desire

3.  Actions

4.  Consistency / follow through / keeping the actions up (change takes time!)

It is said that on average, it takes 21 days to change habits so consistency is key and reverting back to the actions whenever a hurdle gets in the way, is vital to continuing the path to making change.

Q. Do brands and individuals typically contact you for your skills and expertise, or do you reach out to brands you’d like to work with?

A. 100% of my clients contact me first and I work with a range of individuals and businesses through my various services.

I personally think that unless someone is ready to work with a coach, then there is little point in me reaching out & trying to convince them otherwise.

I will work with any individual, business or organisation that aligns with my coaching method and where I can see they will receive a return on their investment.

Q. What’s the single most useful tip you can offer with regards to increasing one’s digital presence?

A.  My tip is for you to increase your digital presence and exposure by being GENUINELY YOURSELF. If you regularly post content that is in your own voice, with your own values and opinions, and if your content inspires others, then you will organically grow your presence as people will notice you for being authentic.

Good luck.

Q. What are the long-range objectives that you have developed for your work?

A. I have a long-term objective to be a “Millionaire of Hearts” before I die- meaning, I want to reach and inspire one million people to achieve their dreams (beyond what they thought they were capable of) by coaching, motivating, inspiring and sharing my experiences of my life with them.

I want to continue having a global impact and leave a legacy of my work.

Q. In your experience, are people comfortable working with coaches, or do they think they don’t need one and what techniques do you use when having to work with a somewhat sceptical client?

A. Good question!

Some people are not comfortable working with a coach (and thus don’t engage a coach), some people think they know everything and simply aren’t open to change.

Techniques I use with people that are somewhat sceptical but wanting to engage a coach, are focusing on the results and how they can achieve their goals in the shortest amount of time. Coaching is about THE CLIENT,  it’s about helping them to understand what needs to be done and the client following through with the actions.

For coaching to work, a client must follow through so it’s in their control whether coaching works or not.

People sometimes think they are ready for coaching but they are in fact not prepared to do what it takes to achieve results.

A client needs to be ready for change to get results because “what got them here, won’t get them there.”

Scepticism comes from them, and it’s my job to help them understand that frame of mind.

An amazing book that explains this well (and I would recommend you read if you want to explore this question more) is Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts–Becoming the Person You Want to Be by Marshall Goldsmith (who is a top executive coach).

Q. How did you first become interested in assisting businesses with aspects such as personal growth and leadership?

A. As a young child, I was always really good at sport so I started coaching swimming at the age of 13 and loved seeing the potential in someone and them then going on to achieve beyond their own expectations.

I continued to coach through my adulthood and after starting a couple of businesses and running them for 20 years, I then decided that I wanted to join my two loves (the love of helping people in business and the love of watching people achieve beyond what they thought they were capable of) and decided to study to become a business coach.

I love seeing people step up and become better leaders. I once read in a book, “leadership is about what you do when no-one’s looking” so I believe leadership is from within, an essence of being.

It always thrills me when I see people step out of their comfort zones and achieve things beyond their wildest dreams.

Q. What makes you different? Why are your clients choosing to work with you?

A. Some of the comments I have received from my clients are that I am “genuine”, that I “sincerely care about the results of my clients”, that I “walk the walk, not just talk the talk” and that my “success is a result of who I am”. Feel free to watch many testimonials on my YouTube channel, so you can see for yourself what my clients have to say.

I consider that my own multitude of experiences and success sets me apart from my competitors, as well as the variance of products that I offer.

You can read my biography here… In summary,

– I am a multiple award-winner in my industry (on both a national and international scale),

– I am an accredited qualified coach with the International Coaching Federation (whereby I am always continuing my professional development),

– I am a small business owner myself,

– I have founded and run many businesses successfully,

– I am highly motivated with solid family values,

– I started coaching as a sports coach,

– I have achieved success in both sport and business,

– I have overcome challenging life set-backs (such as saving my husband from a house fire and watching him struggle with many years of alcoholism and depression as a result of his intensive burn recovery),

– I have overcome a life threatening illness myself,

– I am genuine and authentic, and holisically life my life,

– My passion is to help business owners to achieve their dreams, and my plight is to reach & inspire one million hearts before I leave this earth.

Of course, I always encourage prospective clients to do their research and find a coach that they align with and someone they can see themselves working with.

I offer a comprehensive range of services, as outlined on my website.

Hope this helps.

Q. How can one become an authoritative leader without being too demanding? How is the role of the leader evolving?

A. Becoming an authoritative leader without being too demanding is about understanding the area of expertise you would like to become a leader in and researching and understanding and living that area of expertise.

By not becoming too demanding, I find that you could actually be demonstrating what it is that you’re an expert in rather than telling – so, leading by example.

Leaders are evolving by leading by example and leading by having that level 5 leadership (leading greater than your own ego, making a difference, impacting beyond one person and leaving a legacy). The greater a global impact one can have, the greater a leader they are seen as.

Leading is about inspiring people to change and learn and go to the next level themselves, it’s not about the leader themselves.

Q. In what ways does the critical, self-sabotaging internal voice (the voice of self-doubt or lack of believing) limit your clients?

A. It limits them in many ways each and every day. My clients are just normal humans like everyone else, so all their limiting beliefs are different depending on the journey of life they have had so far.

To give you a few examples;

I have one client who has mainly worked on the tools so he sometimes does not belive in his abilities around business decisions as his knowlege around business is limited to just one industry.

Another client has had a bad track history with team members stealing from him before so he has trust issues around giving them access to the banking and financials.

One other client finds it very hard to delegate to people in the business, they hold on to every process so much so that they are the bottle neck of their own businesses growth.  Their limiting belief is that no one will be able to do it as well as they do.

Q. How competitive is the business coaching industry? How do you set yourself apart from the competition?

A. Yes, the coaching industry is highly competitive and I consider that my own multitude of experiences and success sets me apart from my competitors, as well as the variance of products that I offer.

You can read my biography here… In summary,

– I am a multiple award-winner in my industry (on both a national and international scale),

– I am an accredited qualified coach with the International Coaching Federation (whereby I am always continuing my professional development),

– I am a small business owner myself,

– I have founded and run many businesses successfully,

– I am highly motivated with solid family values,

– I started coaching as a sports coach,

– I have achieved success in both sport and business,

– I have overcome challenging life set-backs (such as saving my husband from a house fire and watching him struggle with many years of alcoholism and depression as a result of his intensive burn recovery),

– I have overcome a life threatening illness myself,

– I am genuine and authentic, and holisically life my life,

– My passion is to help business owners to achieve their dreams, and my plight is to reach & inspire one million hearts before I leave this earth.

Of course, I always encourage prospective clients to do their research and find a coach that they align with and someone they can see themselves working with.

Q. How many clients do you normally take on? How long is a typical coaching process?

A. It depends on my other commitments at any given time (i.e. on top of my one-on-one clients, I am currently also involved in various focus groups or industry boards as an expert/leader in my industry, which takes up a considerable amount of my time).

At the most, I have 12 one on one clients at once. This allows me to ensure I support the clients I have at the highest of standards, without spreading my time too thin.

Depending on each client’s goals, will depend on how long their coaching journey with me lasts. For example, one client may be looking to sell their business and their goal may be to have it ready to sell at the most profitable price after 12 months (thus ending their coaching journey after 12 months). Another client may be a start-up and want to continue their growth beyond the start-up stage into growing a team and later franchising, which may mean our relationship extends to around 3-5 years. I work with each of my clients to find out what THEIR goal is so there is no ‘typical’ coaching process, other than to help my clients achieve exactly what they set out to achieve (in the timeframe they deem successful).

Q. What has been a project or accomplishment that you consider to be the most significant in your career?

A. As a business coach one would think it would be about a business, but it is actually the opposite. In 1999, my husband and I were running our own business and unfortunately were given the news that due to a disease I had eating up some of my vital organs, I only had 5 years to live. So in the essence of living life to the fullest of what we potentially  had left, we promoted someone we trusted within our organisation to run our business for the year and backpacked the world in 1999 with our 5 and 7 year old children which we home schooled along the way. This is by far my biggest business achievement, because our business was working for us, instead of us working for the business like a lot of people tend to do. I hope that makes sense.

BTW, Yes I did get rid of the disease and am fine, fit and well and truly still alive beyond their expectations.

Q. What variety of training programs do you currently have available and what do you programs entail?

A. I work with businesses through a range of my programs, that collectively offer a comprehensive guide for business owners.

I currently have 4 programs available:

1.   Business Planning (2-day Business Planning Workshop)

2.  Entrepreneurs Unlimited Program (12 month Quarterly Coaching & Accountability Program)

3.  One on One Private Coaching  (Weekly or Fortnightly Coaching)

4.  Engage & Grow Team Engagement  (12 week team program to improve culture and engagement levels in an organisation).

For a comprehensive overview of what I offer, you can see more on the services page of my website.

from Suzzanne Laidlaw https://www.suzzannelaidlaw.com.au/ask-me-anything-qa/ via https://www.suzzannelaidlaw.com.au

[lastseatlastrow]

5 things we’re never told about self harm that could have saved me a lotta trouble

TW self harm, mental illness, emotional abuse

Disclaimer: I am not a mental health professional.  I am talking from lived experience but no training or expertise.

Hi!  I feel like this needs an introduction because it might be weird to start a post with 

1.

but I actually haven’t really planned this part...

A few days ago, I read something (which I’ll explain in point 1) that made me think, why am I just hearing this now?  

After enjoying using that as Righteous Anger Fuel for a little while, the thought started spawning into all these thoughts about other things.  Things that could have helped me take a better path over the last five years or so.  Things that sound like common sense but aren’t. Things the system doesn’t tell us - or actively denies.

So, what better time to take to the internet?  I’ve found some things that need saying, and a space to say them - my idea of utopia!  So here we go, five things:

1. Fingernails count

So this is the thing I just read.  I don’t even know how many years I hurt myself only by pinching and scratching, thinking this wasn’t an issue.  

It’s an issue.

Likewise biting, hair-pulling interfering with healing...

Self harm is anything that intentionally causes pain or injury.

If you cause pain with your fingernails, that’s something you share with more than 50% of students who say they self harm.  In most cases, they engage in other methods too.

This low-risk self injury needs to be taken seriously.  Partly because this is ‘how it starts’ for many people, as it was for me.  It can escalate to more physically dangerous methods, very quickly and without warning.  But it’s not only that - hurting yourself in any way means there is pain under the surface.  The decent thing to do is not to ignore it!

2. Looking at pictures of self-inflicted injuries is dangerous

On my first university campus, well-meaning awareness groups sprinkled posters and pamphlets about self harm everywhere.  And like most posters and pamphlets, they came with nice big eye-catching pictures of the thing they were about.  For me, this had the effect of never letting me forget about the thoughts I was having, while also reinforcing my belief that what I was doing wasn’t a ‘real’ problem - because hey, it didn’t look like the pictures!

In other words, these images increased my self harm ideation, and gave me ideas about how to hurt myself ‘better’ i.e. worse.  And it turns out, this is common.  Not to mention topical, what with a certain Netflix series that doesn’t deserve a shout-out but has at least led to some good discussion about the damage such imagery can do.

If I’d known this at the time, I could have asked for the posters to be replaced with something more sensitive and constructive.  

Instead, I internalised all of the blame: I gave myself a hard time for my increasing fascination with the media this awareness group was spreading, for ‘faking’ self harm with fingernail injuries, and for being the only one who wasn’t strong enough to barely register the awareness group’s work.

None of that is anything you should ever blame yourself for.

3. If you have a friend who self harms, you’re at risk

This is called the cluster effect.  Kind of a pretty name I think.

This study of thousands of students in UK high schools found that self harm by a friend or family member is one of the biggest risk factors.

There’s more research still going on about why this is, but it’s known to be true. Self harm clusters.

If you’re helping a loved one through a rough time that includes self harm, you’re doing great.  Go you!

But please please please don’t neglect yourself.  Introspect on how this is affecting your thoughts.  If you need to reach out for help, you are not selfish, weak or stealing the person’s thunder!

But wait!  Isn’t this weird to think about?  Aren’t you...making yourself paranoid??

Well, so what if you make yourself paranoid?

If you don’t know whether you’re having thoughts of self harm or not - especially if there are risk factors around - make a doctor’s or counselor's appointment, or call a helpline, to work through your worries.  

Sorted!

4. Threatening self harm is abuse

So, you’re a good person.  You want to keep everyone in a good place mentally and physically.  That’s awesome.  But it helps if we all know where lines are drawn.

As per point 3, I’ve been in friendship circles where self harm is the norm and folks with good mental health and self worth are about as common as superheroes.  That’s OK.  

But I’ve also been in situations where friends have talked about self harm as a way of getting compliance with their requests through guilt and fear.

This is especially manipulative if the person being threatened also self harms. Our empathy with the abuser’s need to inflict pain or injury drives home the guilt that much further.  But it’s abuse regardless.

5.  Your feelings - positive or negative - are valid, no matter what you do or don’t do to your body

OK.  I have to remember to breathe in and out as I’m writing this one because I still get messages that contradict this all.  The.  Time.

For example, I was recently called back to the doctor’s surgery a couple of weeks after a phone assessment.  I’d said a lot of things in that assessment: the distress and guilt I felt over global tragedies, how deeply loneliness affected me, and yes, that I was still cutting occasionally, although it wasn’t physically serious.

Guess which one the doctor wanted to follow up on.

It also still bums me that my university get so self-righteous about their anxiety-busting workshops around exam time - as if the anxiety caused by the exam system just fell on them from the sky.

We are constantly told that our feelings our worthless unless they can be seen, named and quantified by others.  But that’s not true!

For many of us, self harm would not even be necessary without this message. Self harm can be a maladaptive way of expressing pain, and/or gaining evidence for yourself that your pain was real.  That should never have to happen.

So here’s something for everyone to try!  Take notice of when and how you’re fed this narrative.  And push back against it!  If you can, call out the person spreading the message.  Work on expressing your feelings, positive and negative, through creative hobbies and through continuously improving your communication skills.

Reaffirm to yourself and others that you are valid.

You are worthy of love.  You are worthy of help.

[allianceinternational-blog]

What are the various registrations needed for providing manpower services in India? What are tips to get government tenders?

There is many opportunity in India for recruitment agencies Click Here to know more. There are the various registrations required as below

 Business Registration

 When you start recruitment agency first decide business entity. Business can be started as a Proprietorship, Partnership, Private Limited company or Limited company. Recruitment company can be started as a LLP or Private Limited Company. They provide number of the employees with the labor laws .

 2. Tax Registration

 Recruitment business would have to have a services tax registration with service tax regulations.Service tax registration can be obtained for the recruitment business once the annual sales turnover crosses Rs.9 lakhs. The recruitment business would have to levy service tax at the rate of 14.00% and remit the same with the Government once the annual sales turnover crosses Rs.10 lakhs. VAT or TIN registration is typically not required for a recruitment business, as recruitment agencies are not involved in the selling of goods or products.

 3. ESI /PF Registration

 If the recruitment business provides employment only to 10 or less persons, ESI registration is not required. ESI registration is required when the number of persons employed in a business exceeds 10. PF registration is required when the number of persons employed in a business exceeds 20

 4. Recruiting Agent License

 The Emigration Act, 1983 requires that those who wish to recruit Indian citizens for employment abroad be registered with the Protector General of Emigrants (PGE), The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.

  Video Source :

Image Source :

  19) Associate yourself a good up-line providing internet based marketing things. The days of knocking on doors and calling the white pages are just about over. Today, the internet dominates the minds of the masses, and that is where they pay a visit to search for about at all. So needless to say, you want a team the best help explode your recruiting success with the web, Continue Reading. Good for your health to keep company with a team that can display you how to setup extremely webinars, online training, also better, an up-line likewise let do everything for anybody!

 Finally, if your good that folks do is consistently recognised, then people furthermore more planning to respond positively when feedback needs to be given about improving performance. This is, what Stephen Covey calls, the emotional banking account process. The family deposit heavily into an employee's emotional bank account with positive feedback and affirmation, then, if eventually in upcoming we have to make a withdrawal by giving them a call to take into account their reduce satisfactory performance, we don't bankrupt the relationship. There is plenty of goodwill there still.

 Visit Here : Alliance International

 Communicate in concert with your staff. Obtain their views and suggestions and listen to what they say - the majority of which always be valid and useful towards organisation.

 What are the initial year goals for this situation? Are there strategic duties required, pertaining to instance recruitment strategy development? What planning responsibilities are necessary?

 Make certain you advertise in the right publications. For example, you will not want to enhance the position in a small remodeling magazine or a national magazine since these publications definitely would not be great for recruiting.

 Banks play a very crucial role in our lives, because they manage money and in the current world, funds is the power of life. Money is an essential commodity to grasp out perhaps the necessities of life. Banks provide loans for various requirements and are a blessing to the students who could not afford ed. Banking sector is a difficult field of career. The very best art with this career choices that can not confined to commerce students. Students from arts and science background can also apply in this sector, provided they qualify the requirement.

 2) In video, Cruise states he's doing all he can accomplish to make a difference and he wants in order to do more. Alright, so what does Cruise do that's making such an impact on world? Is he building schools in poverty-stricken countries or physically raising money for the perfect cause? People read headlines on celebrity charity - where is he mentioned amongst names like Sean Penn, Oprah, Danny Glover, and Bono? Perhaps he was speaking of the founding and donation-raising for Downtown Medical to provide 9/11-rescue workers detoxification therapy based upon the works of C. Ron Hubbard. Medical professionals and firefighters were within an uproar. I've to admit - religious-based treatments really touchy subject.

 Applications that like everyone else's application, he says, are simply part in the herd and quite often are partially read, overlooked, or worse, discarded before being read because nobody in order to read all 150 practices. (As an HR specialist with a recruiting background, I can attest to that).

 When choosing your report on prospects, it's imperative the leads have been sold once. Using recycled leads can be described as problem and show a potential negative influence on your venture. If the prospects you're contacting as well receiving messages from other prospectors, your chances of an effective sale are low. No-one wants in order to slammed with multitudes of offers. It might a little more costly initially for incredibly best lead lists, but you can rest assured the investment will be worth things.

 Finding a right job anyone is not really that easy, you have recommendable knowledge, a person are confident enough to deal with any involving interview, but here take my words you should get to be able to deserve and sometime you simple don't realize what information mill now. I am frequently keep our self small in regards to demand. We need to have in mind the market; currently have to get insight information to be aware of regarding the demand patterns. If you are a skilled IT professional and trying to find a change, you could be a real gold for someone, but you have in order to locate who is actually need? Is not it.

 One technique many home-based business owners online forget to take associated with is the signature line in emails and when posting in forums. This is often an useful gizmo to market your business, specials and tournaments. I receive many emails from business owners who don't include a signature line with their business name, and sometimes they for you to even put their name towards the end of the email! This is linkedin profile unprofessional, but makes it much harder to garner more information about their business. Every email sent this technique is a potential sale alone.

 Keeping these minor points in mind would allow you clear your bank tests. Keep yourself updated with any adjustments to the bank exam syllabus and prepare from is not question papers accordingly. Once the goal is placed and you might be thoroughly prepared, you can secure an encouraging future.

 Coaches should ask their team leaders/captains to describe their own philosophy of leadership. For this states history difficult terminology for a child. Coaches can also ask players what it indicates to be an effective leader. "Their experience of leadership may quite different from yours. Talk about the leaders whom they respect their particular lives and why. Also ask them about leaders don't respect exactly why." This in itself can be an interesting conversation because many players today have very different role models than when coaches were growing up.

 Really, might be. All it takes is a piece of the ingenuity once they be reaping the advantages of low cost recruitment within weeks at practically. Expensive recruitment is becoming something of slimming thanks to our own little friend called the internet. The digital world has abolished needing having to cover expensive printed advertisements or advertising with several recruitment enterprises. The internet can be your low cost saviour.

 Types of bodybuilding routines - complete and ripped. Full body means that you work all major muscle groups in one workout session 2 or 3 times a seven days. Split routine means that you work different muscular tissues on different days (i.e. chest, shoulders, triceps day 1; legs abd day 2, back, biceps day 3, etc). How are you aware which one to choose? There is no definitive give an account to this main issue. My recommendation would be to use a full body routine 3 days a week for customers 3 months if you have not lifted weights before, then switch with split basic.

 11.Observe a candidate acts after a job interview. Few candidates email you a best wishes note. If does post disaster with a thank you note, action some indication of organization and caring on negligence the nominee.

 Image Source :

 For More Information about Recruitment Consultants In Gurgaon

Visit : allianceinternational.co.in/

[charlesjening]

Let’s Talk About How CPA Canada Totally F*cked Up Last Week’s CFE

Many years ago in another lifetime, I dated this total loser. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Adrienne, what the hell do your dubious dating choices have to do with accounting?” Bear with me, we’ll get there.

So, this loser. He was an adorable if grungy scamp with tattoos dotted across his body like scribbles on my middle school notebook covers and dirty blonde hair that managed to be both greasy and perfectly-coiffed at all times. Young me, not yet schooled in the fine art of red flags that subsequent years of dating would teach me, was weak to his charms despite the fact that he brought little to the table other than a killer smile and the occasional bottle of Remy, the latter of which impressed young me since I was too young then to buy my own and too lazy to stand outside of the liquor store waiting for some 30-year-old dorky sap to buy me one.

As I’m sure you can imagine by this point in the story, this guy came with more issues than National Geographic, not least of which being his attraction to substances — both licit and not. This generally wasn’t a problem as he was clever enough to weasel out of most predicaments his unfortunate choices got him into, and I clever enough to avoid him when he was on a bender. But every now and then, he’d find himself face-to-face with some cop who was sick of having to drag his drunk ass in every other week.

In one whiskey-and-who-knows-what-else-fueled incident I can recall, he called me from the drunk tank to inform me that A) I was a bitch for ditching him earlier in the evening, and B) he was in jail, possibly facing an actual charge for fighting or stealing or who the hell can remember, it doesn’t matter now. Given that I lacked both the bail money to get him out and the will to do a favor for someone who just called me a bitch, I let him sit there. A few short hours later, he was out. The time from arrest to his release couldn’t have been more than maybe three or four hours.

So why did I just tell this story? To put into perspective the fact that CPA Canada just treated the country’s future CPAs worse than police treated my loser ex-boyfriend who definitely deserved to be locked up for being an absolute waste of carbon.

Let’s get caught up on this, likely the worst professional examination debacle I think we’ve ever covered in our 10 years here on Going Concern. Because we’re a mostly American-based rag, I feel obligated to explain what the CFE (Common Final Examination) is and how it’s administered, if briefly. Unlike here in the good ole U. S. of A. where future CPAs can schedule exams with relative flexibility, Canadian accountants have to endure a three-day exam that is usually administered just once a year, though sometimes like next year they get lucky and have two chances. This year, the CFE started on Sept. 11 and, according to many reports, was already off to a bad start. But by Sept. 12, the shit had totally hit the fan.

9:15 in Vancouver on day 2 CFE. No one can load secure exam. from r/Accounting

On Monday, a tipster caught us up on the drama which we missed because A) we regrettably forget about our friends up north sometimes, and B) at least for me, I was too busy with Borderlands 3 to waste my time trolling r/accounting for something to write about last weekend and totally missed the complaining.

Hi there,

I am reporting on CPA Canada’s negligence in carrying out this year’s Common Final Examination (“CFE”) last week. This is a very important 3-day examination that prospective accountants must pass to obtain the professional licence to practice accounting in Canada.

There was a massive breach of integrity of the exam because of CPA Canada’s negligence to carry out their job properly. This resulted in many students (i.e. Edmonton location) where they were forced to sit inside the examination centre for 4 hours before the exam started. In other words, when the exam was supposed to start at 9AM, they started at 1PM. They were starved and asked to stay inside the examination centre.

Jesus, even my loser ex-boyfriend got a moldy bologna sandwich in the holding tank.

CPA Canada’s failure to administer the exam and treat candidates with the minimum of dignity while they waited to take what is quite possibly the most important test of their lives has been picked up by all sorts of media, including the Financial Post.

FP writes:

Another online poster, who spoke to the Financial Post on the condition that he would not be identified, described seeing people in Edmonton in emotional and physical distress on the second day of the exam, which was delayed for five hours, and which ultimately proceeded without access to a crucial digital handbook.

“Everyone was tired, exhausted and seemed in no shape to write” by the time the exam started, the poster said on Reddit, adding that a series of delays left the candidates in the examination room for about 12 hours and facing huge lineups for access to limited food and water.

“We study our butts off and stress for 8 weeks only to experience this?” the exam-writer wrote.

A statement we received from an anonymous collective consisting of Canadian Big 4 employees operating under the name Wayne Gretzky (LOL) details the CFE failures, disappointments, and plans to hold CPA Canada responsible. It also explains the situation far better than I can with far fewer tangents about greasy ex-boyfriends, so let’s check it out:

After a poorly administered examination took place last week, Chartered Professional Accountant (“CPA”) candidates across Canada are left to question the integrity and competency of their governing bodies. More than eight thousand CPA students wrote the annual Common Final Examination (“CFE”) from September 11, 2019 to September 13, 2019. The CFE is a three-day examination which requires students who have completed certain post-graduate programs to write four to five hours of simulated business cases each day, testing their competencies to be licensed as a CPA. The CFE is known to be one of the most challenging examinations to write—arguably on par with other professional examinations such as the bar exam for lawyers or qualification exam for doctors—with the majority of candidates sacrificing weeks of time off from work in order to prepare and perform at their best.

What students could not prepare for, however, was the myriad of unexpected technical and administrative issues during this year’s examination. These issues severely disrupted their ability to perform and compromised the validity of examination results. This is the first year that new examination software, called Surpass, was rolled out, and it appears that CPA Canada—the organization which governs the profession and administers the examination—had not adequately prepared themselves for the issues that would come along with this rollout.

This led a number of test centres across the country to delay the examination for up to five hours with limited access to food, drinks, and washrooms. It was likened to being held hostage, and those students ended up writing from 2PM to 7PM when they should have been writing from 9AM to 2PM. One student writes, “I came in that morning ready, […] but the fatigue from sitting and waiting for hours plus unnecessary stress resulted in what I believe to be a clear fail. I’m a good student, I studied like my life depended on it. In a normal exam condition, I’d have passed without any issue.”

In addition, some students were handicapped by being forced to write responses by hand as opposed to typing, with no access to reference material on their computers during the “open-book” examination. The examination was supposed to be written through the Surpass software, which saved typed responses and allowed students to view certain reference material, while locking down their computers from opening other applications. The software was ultimately used by only a fraction of students, and even so, these students faced slow response times and periodic glitches. There are also students falling in the last category of being told to write on Microsoft Word and access the internet for reference material, because the software did not work for the entire centre. To this point, one student wonders, “The test was going to be written at one point with three different groups having various resources […] How can you mark a test three different ways and make that fair?”

Not only are there issues in the fairness of marking, but students are convinced that examination results were also compromised due to the opportunities that opened up for cheating. A student from the West coast wrote, “Our start time was after when Eastern Canada [sic] would have finished their exam and there was no measure taken to ensure that there was no exam information leakage across the country.”

Indeed, some students from the Eastern time zones posted details about specific questions on social media despite having accepted a confidentiality agreement prior to the examination, and their posts benefitted users in the West who had unsupervised access to the internet during the delays.

The inappropriate handling of the situation by CPA Canada only made matters worse. Proctors appeared to not have been trained or communicated with properly because they made last-minute decisions and provided inconsistent instructions. One student recalls that “the staff in the room were very disorganized and clearly had no clue what to do.” To add on, another student expresses, “I’m mostly upset with the time it took to resolve the issues, and the lack of communication provided to the candidates.”

Social media sites such as Reddit were flooded with comments after each day, from students sharing their “disappointing”, “horrifying”, and “disastrous” experiences while expressing their thoughts surrounding the “lack of professionalism” by CPA Canada. The issues mentioned in this article make up only a small number of many more outlined by the accounts of hundreds of students. Even individuals who did not write the examination had something to say about the series of events: “As a mentor to a student, and a current CPA profession member, the way the CFE was handled and carried out this year was blatantly unacceptable. I’m ashamed of my profession for the way this was carried out. There is no excuse for this.”

The Surpass software mentioned in the statement was first used for last year’s exams and is supposed to offer “enhanced functionality and flexibility for examination writers and administrators.” It’s unclear at this point what part if any Surpass played in this debacle. That said, I’ve got a PDF of hundreds of candidate comments in front of me with countless complaints about the software, leading a reasonable person to assume it had a lot to do with last week’s drama. Since this is already running long and I know you guys, like me, have the attention span of a gnat, I’ll only share a choice few.

Surpass has been a nightmare. I wasn’t even able to upload my exam today. Day 1 they kept us for an extra hour after the exam due to technical difficulties with the software. We were advised not to use the cut function because it would freeze the software. The whole rollout of Surpass seems very poorly planned and basically exactly what they are teaching us not to do, as CPAs. I certainly expected better, considering the amount of money I paid to write the CFE.

And:

Surpass froze on me roughly 3 hours into the exam. A proctor took my computer and spent 30 minutes working on it without telling me what he was doing. I saw him with a back-up laptop and a USB key, so I assumed he was transferring my work, but when I asked him about it, he told me that the work I did was saved on the USB, and that I would have to finish the exam by hand.

And:

Please note that this is not the first time that there have been issues with the new software. I wrote my elective exam in December, 2018 and experienced the same issues (actually worse, because my computer crashed multiple times and I lost 20-30 minutes).

And my favorite comment of all:

As I said, the thing goes on for comment after comment. We’d be here all day and probably piss off our benevolent overlords at Accountingfly for all the server space we’d have to buy just to host every single complaint if I posted every single one. Let’s just say Surpass isn’t looking good at this point.

Like damn. As some of y’all know, I’m a day one Fallout 76 player and even Bethesda isn’t this bad when it comes to glitches, good Lord.

Oh hey, Mr Glitched Ghoul Guy

Of course CPA Canada was forced to make a statement, the entirety of which we’re including below because why not, this thing is already long as hell.

During the administration of the three-day Common Final Exam (CFE) there were technical delays resulting in a challenging exam writing experience for many students. We extend our sincere apologies to everyone who was affected as we know how much work goes into preparing and writing this important examination and how stressful it has been for our students.

In response to issues caused by technical problems with the CFE, CPA Canada is retaining a third-party expert to conduct an independent, comprehensive review. The mandate includes evaluating the integrity and reliability of the September 2019 examination process.

To inform our review, we are actively gathering information from students, proctors, and others to understand what happened and how it impacted the exam-writing experience. We are committed to maintaining the integrity of the profession and the Common Final Examination.

An independent board of examiners oversees the CFE evaluation process. Over many years, they have developed a robust system for taking into account extenuating circumstances that affect exam-writers. Given what occurred during this year’s exam, this CFE evaluation process will be supplemented by the third-party review.

We will proceed as quickly as possible, but our main priority is to provide the time necessary for a fair, accurate and equitable outcome.

At the same time, we are also immediately reviewing the technical issues that arose across the country and are working with our service providers to do everything possible to avoid a future reoccurrence.

We recognize what a difficult time this has been for many and we want to reassure exam-writers we have the people and processes in place to resolve the situation as quickly and effectively as possible.

Yeah, tell that to the poor bastards holed up in a gymnasium for hours on end last week.

This disaster comes just after CPA Canada released a likely multimillion-dollar advertising campaign on “The New Face” of Canada’s CPAs, making for an awkward discussion about CPA Canada’s priorities when they’re burning the future new faces this hard.

The post Let’s Talk About How CPA Canada Totally F*cked Up Last Week’s CFE appeared first on Going Concern.

republished from Going Concern