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The Practices of Ramadan
By Mike Ghouse, Dallas, Texas
A Syrian baker makes Ma'rouk cake during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in old Damascus city September 20, 2008. The sales of Ma'rouk increase during Ramadan.
REUTERS /Khaled al-Hariri
From the moment we are born to the last rites of our life and every moment in-between we follow rituals, though some may deny it. Whether we go to the gym, eat our food, go to sleep, wear clothes, drive some place, in our intimate moments, going to the mall or picking that phone up, every turn and every significant moment of the day is a ritual.
Spiritual masters have captured the human gravity for rituals and have molded it with the art and science of self-discipline in their respective religion. The noble purpose of each one of them was to bring a balance in our lives and a balance with things that surround us; life and environment.
The Spirit of Ramadan
Every faith is composed of a set of unique rituals to bring discipline and peace to human life. Fasting is one of the five key rituals that Muslims around the world observe.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and is generally observed with a ritual precision; it is an annual training or a refresher. It requires one to abstain from food, drink, intimate relations, ill will, ill talk, ill actions or any temptations from dawn to dusk. One has rise above his or her baser desires. Islam gifts this month to its followers to inculcate such a discipline to bring moderation in their daily lives. 2500 years ago, Buddha, the enlightened one taught that human suffering is caused by unrestrained desire to own and had recommended a middle path.
God has no need for the hunger or thirst of someone who hurts others, violates their dignity or usurps their rights, said Prophet Muhammad (s). The fasting of the stomach must be matched by the fasting of the limbs. The eyes, ears, tongue, hands and feet all have their respective fasts to undergo. The tongue's temptations, for example–lies, backbiting, slander, vulgarity and senseless argumentation–must be challenged and curbed to maintain the integrity of the fast.
Consciousness of behavior and vigilance over action are the most profound dimensions of fasting: the fasting of the heart focuses on the attachment to the divine. That is when Ramadan really becomes a source of peace and solace, just as Christmas goes beyond the rituals to bring forth kindness, charity and caring.
True fasting is self-purification; and from this, a rich inner life that bring about values such as justice, generosity, patience, kindness, forgiveness, mercy and empathy–values that are indispensable for the success of the community.
Knowing about hunger is different from knowing hunger. Empathy is not an intellectual equation; it is a human experience. Our hardness of heart often springs from our distance from the human condition of others. The poor, sick, disenfranchised, oppressed – we rarely walk a mile in their shoes, not even a few steps. "Rest assured," cautioned one teacher, "if you do not taste what it feels like to be hungry, you will not care for those who are."
For fasting to be truly universal, its benefits must extend beyond the fraternal ties of Muslims and must extend to forging a common humanity with others. Fasting is meant to impart a sense of what it means to be truly human, and its universality is reflected by its observance in Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Sikh, Zoroastrian and other faiths.
The Rituals of Ramadan
Rituals vary in different Muslim cultures—where I am from, it is Chandni Raat, moonlit night festivities, and it is an expression of joy of people coming together. It is almost like the National night out or the last night shopping prior to Christmas.
For 30 days, with small variations in practices, families rise up early around 4:00 AM. In my tradition, the whole family gathers in the kitchen and participates in cooking the meals and about 5 minutes before the cut-off time, everyone<|fim_middle|> and starts another year with good will. Every one hugs three times; I am your friend, you are my friend and we are friends.
Though the annual ritual of fasting takes 30 days its true destination is endless. May we always hunger to discover our hearts. May we always aspire to find our balance, connect with each other, open our hearts and minds to fellow beings; the joy that comes with it is ours to keep.
Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer, the founding president of the World Muslim Congress.
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When you break the fast it is a healthy practice to eat appetizer-sized fruits, vegetables, and refreshments. Dates are the most popular item as it was the practice of Prophet Muhammad's (s).
The iftar has become a community event, where Muslims invite their non-Muslim friends to join in their celebration of that day. President Clinton started the tradition of holding an Iftaar party carried forward by President Bush. It has become a major social event for the politicians just as it is with Diwali, Rosh Hashanah and other festivals.
At the end of 29th or 30th day, the fasting comes to an end with 'Eid, a major celebration where literally all Muslims gather in an open space and pray the thanksgiving prayer for having a blessed Ramadan. It is a day one formally forgives and gets forgiven | 212 |
Left-hander Blake Snell, the best bargain in baseball, struck out Bryce Harper in a highly anticipated matchup as the Tampa Bay Rays cruised to an 8-2 victory over the host Philadelphia Phillies on Monday at Clearwater Fla.
Snell, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, had his contract renewed for $573,700, a raise of just $15,500. But Harper, who landed a $330 million contract over 13 seasons to join the Phillies, was overmatched and struck out looking on three pitches during their first-inning matchup.
Snell struck out two while tossing two perfect innings. Avisail<|fim_middle|> Fla. Colin Moran and Patrick Kivlehan had RBI singles for the Pirates.
JaCoby Jones drilled a two-run homer to help Detroit blank host Minnesota at Fort Myers, Fla. The Twins had just three hits against four Tigers' hurlers.
Kyle Tucker delivered the tiebreaking two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning to help Houston knock off New York at West Palm Beach, Fla. Brandon Nimmo went 3-for-4 with a RBI for the Mets.
Ryan Braun belted a two-run blast for his first homer of the spring and Cory Spangenberg added a three-run blast as host Milwaukee knocked off Chicago at Phoenix, Ariz. Adam Engel homered for the White Sox.
Joey Bart delivered a tiebreaking three-run double in the top of the ninth inning as San Francisco defeated host Los Angeles at Phoenix, Ariz. Justin Turner's first-inning sacrifice fly plated the Dodgers' lone run.
Noel Cuevas hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning and Ian Desmond and Elliot Soto also went deep as Colorado beat visiting Oakland at Scottsdale, Ariz. Mark Canha had a two-run single and Marcus Semien went 3-for-3 for the Athletics.
Jack Kruger homered and drove in six runs as Los Angeles outlasted host Texas at Surprise, Ariz. Hunter Pence and Preston Beck went deep for the Rangers.
Eric Haase hit a tying two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning to allow Cleveland to play Cincinnati to a draw at Goodyear, Ariz. Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp homered for the Reds. | Garcia homered and had three RBIs for Tampa Bay.
Paul Goldschmidt lined a tiebreaking two-run double in the third inning as St. Louis edged visiting Washington at Jupiter, Fla. Juan Soto and Kurt Suzuki had run-scoring singles for the Nationals.
Ronald Acuna Jr. clubbed a two-run homer and reached base three times to lead Atlanta past visiting Pittsburgh at Kissimmee, | 82 |
Murcia is a great place to learn and explore scuba diving. The Mar Menor's shallow, calm and warm waters are great for beginners and the Mediterranean itself has loads of opportunities once you've got your certificate. The Federación de Actividades Subacuáticas de la Región de Murcia, www.fasrm.com, provides a central point of contact for most clubs in the region. Also, have a look at the PADI web site for accredited dive centres in Murcia: www.padi.com.
Around the whole Mar Menor region there are extensive beaches used for diving: el Mojón beach, Torre Derribada, La L<|fim_middle|>ormigas.com.
Cabo de Palos, Planeta Azul, PADI Dive Centre, 968 564532, www.planeta-azul.com.
La Azohía, Andrómeda, 968 150328.
Places to go fishes to meet! | lana, Las Salinas, Barraca Quemada and Punto de Algas, all in the Salinas Regional Park. The seabed offers a surprising range of attractive sands and the remains of Roman shipwrecks.
On the Mediterranean, all along the south coast there are Scuba clubs. Have a look on www.yumping.com for more details of all the clubs in the region, plus an easy contact form.
Águilas, Buceo Águilas, Calle Isaac Peral, 13, 968 493215 or 617 910973.
Águilas, Escuela de buceo ESTELA, Paseo de Parra, 38, www.escueladebuceo.com, 627 522233.
Cabo de Palos, Islas Hormigas Club, 968 145530, www.islash | 210 |
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King's College London learns how to unlock the power of data
May 2, 2019 | Microsoft reporter
King's College London is using Microsoft technology to help staff easily gather and analyse data from across the university.
King's, which teaches more than 30,000 people a year, will move information about students, courses,<|fim_middle|> help to solidify their advanced understanding of the rapidly moving data space, setting them up as a leading university well into the future."
Before King's rolled out Azure, the database management system SQL Server and data visualisation tool Power BI, staff were faced with a lack of data and little automation. Questions such as "Which teaching spaces should King's use for which courses in the next academic year?" were almost impossible to answer because that information was held in multiple systems in separate departments.
"The decisions being taken were not necessarily the ones people would have made if they'd had the data available," Gordon added.
Founded in 1829, King's is London's most central university
Behind the scenes, the university's strategy, planning and analytics team were struggling to keep up with demand for information. Trying to get the evidence that stakeholders needed meant spending huge amounts of time attempting to access and collate data from multiple systems scattered across departments. Senior stakeholders were also unable to get the real-time insights they needed to track their progress against key performance indicators.
Another key objective was to reduce the amount of time analysts at King's spent getting hold of data, so they could spend more time analysing it and producing meaningful reports and insights that could support strategic decision-making.
"We can now start to answer questions such as 'if we increase numbers on a specific course, can we accommodate those numbers with the space we have?'," Gordon said.
Founded in 1829, King's is London's most central university, with four campuses bordering the Thames and a fifth located in Denmark Hill. It is also one of the UK's leading research universities.
Tags: Azure, campus, college, King's, london, microsoft
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Sea of Thieves notches up 10 million players, Rare reveals | teaching spaces, research and finances from each department into a single data lake hosted on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.
Having this data in one place will allow the university's 7,000+ staff to quickly see how they can make the best use of teaching spaces in multiple locations across one of the world's most expensive cities, understand research funding, track offers to potential students, and help them enrol and settle in during their first weeks on campus, among other things.
Matt Gordon, Associate Director of Data and Analytics at King's, said: "By using Azure, data from Student Records, Admissions, Finance, Research Management, Timetabling and Estate Management has been successfully collated and integrated, which previously was not possible. Traditionally, working with these data sets required our analysts to be familiar with multiple programming languages and to spend large amounts of time gaining access. Previously, more than 80% of their time was spent on routine extractions and integration of the same data and from the same the systems.
"Now, they can refocus their time on finding new insights, building new reports and engaging with users across the university to explain their work and conclusions. We have also used this as the basis for a suite of Power BI reports that allow users to access and explore data for themselves, relieving our analysts of the need to email staff requesting information from them."
King's College London teaches more than 30,000 students a year
King's chose Adatis to help them with the transformation, and the Microsoft partner is also teaching digital skills to university staff.
Martin Philpott, Commercial Director at Adatis, said: "Adatis is very proud to be partnering with such a progressive establishment in the higher education sector. King's is one of the world's most respected educational and researched focused universities. This data amalgamation project will only | 376 |
The first few hours of the day are arguably the most important, setting the tone for the rest of your day. Whether you wake up and head straight to the gym or straight to the coffee pot, the way you spend that time can have far-reaching effects on your productivity, mindset and mood.
We caught up with three local tech leaders to see how they start their days to set themselves up for success.
Katie Smith serves as EVP and chief compliance officer for Denver-based compliance management company Convercent. Smith has stuck to a simple yet intentional morning routine for the last five years in order to maintain a clear head throughout the work day.
1. Walk the dog and experience life — unplugged. No music, no phone, just aware of the sounds of the world as it wakes. It's incredibly grounding. And it's in those pockets of quiet where I solve problems and come up with brilliant ideas.
2. Have a gratitude mindset. Sometimes I capture it in a journal, other times on social media, and<|fim_middle|> and why?
Prepare for your morning routine the night before. If you don't know what your plan is going to be when you wake up, you're already behind. It's easier to make excuses or get off track if you're still deciding what to do first thing in the morning.
And make sure to get some sleep. I used to be a three- or four-hour sleeper and power through days with a dozen cups a coffee. The lack of sleep clouded my judgment. So, if you went to bed late, start your day a little later. It will pay off tenfold.
Chief of staff Sarah Innocenzi spends her days ensuring the Sovrn team has the people, resources and culture to do their best work. She found her go-to morning routine about a year ago, and says it's critical to staying grounded during even the busiest days.
Supposedly making your bed in the morning makes you more productive throughout the day, so I always start there. Then I like to dedicate time toward my mental and physical health before starting work. We live on a country road, so I enjoy taking my dog for a quiet walk when it's just the two of us out. It's the perfect time to watch the sunrise and prepare myself for the day. I head to the gym before I get to work so that I can start my day feeling accomplished before my work day even starts.
The mental reflection and physical exercise help me stay centered and manage my stress throughout the day.
Find some time to reflect and/or meditate. I usually meditate at night because I am on more of a time crunch in the morning, but finding that time to clear your mind is so important. | even sometimes in the comfort of my bed before my feet hit the ground. But after almost 25 years in corporate America, I've learned that being grateful for what you have, where you are in your journey (both personal and professional) and the blessings in your life give you a sense of humility, appreciation and the ability to see the big picture.
3. Take my son to school. I made a commitment that regardless of professional achievement, my son would always know what mattered most to me. He and I have a routine that I cherish: I take him to school (be it Vespa, car, walk or scooter) and we chat about what we're excited about that day. Sometimes we're problem-solving, sometimes we're cramming on a spelling list, and sometimes we're singing at the top of our lungs to a tune on Hits 1.
4. Eat breakfast. I've learned to never skip breakfast. My protein shake wakes up the mind and body, fuels me for a marathon of meetings, and sets the right nutritional groundwork for the day.
5. Read every morning. Be a sponge with knowledge and be interesting—both will take you far. In my line of work, the headlines are crucial, so I spend time each morning reading the WSJ, several news blogs, media outlets and sites pertinent to my field. The best leaders read voraciously, so figure out a way to stay current on current events and find genres of books that pique your interest. Being interesting makes you a stronger employee, better spouse, better parent, and sets you up for success in your career.
How do you think your morning routine impacts the rest of your day?
It dramatically impacts the rest of my day. I approach problems differently, my head is clearer, I know what matters, and it gives me the fortitude to handle those stressful meetings and phrenetic days with multiple deadlines. Then I bookend the day with a workout. It's a way to clear my head, relieve stress, and calm my mind so that I'm not up at 2 a.m. sorting through a work dilemma.
What's the number one thing you would recommend people do in the morning before they start the workday?
Make your bed. The first few actions and decisions you make set the tone for the rest of your day. Making your bed sets the tone that you will have an organized, thoughtful and productive day. And let's face it, it's way more appealing to come home to that night!
Lawrence Hester founded FareHarbor with his brother in 2013, working tirelessly to build an activity and tour booking platform from the ground up. It was only recently, when he started training for a 100-kilometer race, that he realized the need for a morning routine that didn't involve coffee and work at the beginning of the day.
A recent addition to my routine is that I won't open my email or Slack until I'm done running. I found that jumping into work was an excuse I used for not exercising. More importantly, it hampered one of my favorite things about running — uninterrupted time to think. When I'm done running, I have a list of things I want to focus on and accomplish for the day. It truly is my jump start.
My morning routine sets me up for success for the rest of the day. It allows me to set goals and get outside. There is a huge difference in my productivity when I don't follow my normal plan.
What's the number one thing you would recommend people do in the morning before they start the workday, | 733 |
The Italian trade show Samoter, held at the Verona Exhibition Centre for the first time with Asphaltica and Transpotec-Logitec, under an agreement between Fiera Milano and<|fim_middle|> event as the most important and well-attended business opportunity for sector operators in Italy.
"The interest shown by visitors to the show in the exhibits often turned into contracts and is the result of recovery and new awareness among operators, but also a sign of willingness to renew fleets, thereby making an effective contribution to the development of the entire country system in terms of efficiency and environmental sustainability."
"Our goal as trade show organizers is to develop events capable of being effective business and promotion tools at the service of the entire sector," said Veronafiere president Maurizio Danese. "The construction machinery sector in recent years has experienced one of its most serious recessions ever and Samoter 2017, together with Asphaltica, was consequently a major challenge involving a great deal of responsibility for the 450 companies who, with us, believed in the project to re-launch the format initiated in 2014. The return of several major brands, significant business on the stands, more and more qualified operators and expansion of international buyers, confirm the success of Samoter number 30 and we are already looking forward optimistically to the next edition." | Veronafiere, attracted 84,000 visitors from 84 countries over the show's four days.
There were 780 exhibitors from 25 countries, in 10 halls and six outside areas covering the three shows. The Under-secretary for infrastructure and transport, Umberto Del Basso De Caro, said during the inauguration that they combined to highlight key sectors for the development of Italy.
"The decision to work together, build a system and activate synergies with Veronafiere has certainly borne fruit, given the results achieved by the three events," said, Fiera Milano president Roberto Rettani. "This edition of Transpotec confirms the approach taken by Fiera Milano three editions ago. Facts and figures, optimism and overall satisfaction clearly evident in the halls confirm the | 166 |
U.S. retail sales rose modestly in October, evidence that recent job gains and lower gas prices are lifting consumer spending as the holiday shopping season begins.
The Commerce Department said Friday that retail sales rose 0.3 percent last month after falling by the same amount in September. Excluding gas stations, where falling prices lowered spending, sales rose a solid 0.5 percent.
Employers have stepped up hiring, giving more Americans paychecks to spend and boosting consumer confidence. Stock<|fim_middle|>, a six-year low, from 7.2 percent 12 months earlier.
Gas prices have dropped for 49 straight days to an average of $2.92 a gallon nationwide, according to AAA. That is the lowest in nearly four years. According to one rough rule of thumb, every one-cent decline in gas prices frees up about $1 billion for consumers to spend on other items.
Those trends have made Americans more confident about the economy. Measures of consumer confidence reached seven-year highs last month.
At the same time, there are factors that have kept consumers cautious.
Despite the pickup in job growth, paychecks have barely stayed ahead of inflation since the recession ended more than five years ago. Average hourly wages, adjusted for inflation, rose just 0.3 percent in September from a year earlier.
And many Americans who once worked full-time now have part-time jobs. There are still nearly 2 million fewer people working full time than in December 2007, when the Great Recession began. | prices have reached new highs, possibly encouraging more spending by wealthier households. Greater spending could spur more growth because consumer spending makes up about 70 percent of economic activity.
Auto sales rose a solid 0.5 percent, after falling sharply in September. Americans also spent more at restaurants and at sporting goods and health care stores.
Paul Diggle, an economist at Capital Economics, said the figures suggest consumer spending could rise 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter. That would be only a moderate gain, but above the July-September quarter's 1.8-percent increase.
"October's retail sales numbers bode well for the crucial holiday shopping season," Diggle said.
The category that includes major department stores and other general retailers reported flat sales last month. That echoes the largely disappointing sales reports this week from many retail chains, including Macy's, J.C. Penney and Kohl's.
Wal-Mart, however, said that cheaper gas helped boost sales at its stores in the August-October quarter, its first sales gain in nearly two years. But the world's largest retailer also warned that deep discounting would likely lower profit over the holiday shopping season.
Outside retail chains, sales were mostly healthy. Online and catalog retail sales jumped 1.9 percent, the biggest gain since March. And sales at restaurants and bars rose 0.9 percent, the most since May. Sporting goods stores said their sales jumped 1.2 percent.
The economy and job market have improving for most of this year. Employers have added an average of 229,000 jobs a month through October. That's put hiring in 2014 on track to be the strongest in 15 years. The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.8 percent | 361 |
Tony Hoagland Engages Students and Faculty
Lee Tremblay
English professors were muttering to each other about the weather and attendance as they waited anxiously at the front of Persson Auditorium at 4:30 p.m. last Wednesday afternoon. But as student after student blew into the already packed room up to 10 minutes late, it became clear that Tony Hoagland's poetry reading, sponsored by the English department, would be wildly popular.
Hoagland, a professor at the University of Houston, has twice won grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, in addition to a Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry and a place as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
"Tony Hoag<|fim_middle|> all, everyone was well-entertained for the hour during which Hoagland read, spoke and mused.
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Cuomo Tightens State Gathering, Restaurant and Bar Guidelines as Students Prepare to Leave Campus for Break | land brings together pieces of American poetic tradition…in order to find what's true, hard and real," Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor in Humanities, Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing Peter Balakian stated in his introduction. "He finds the comic in the grotesque, the grotesque in the ordinary…His lines often work like a swivel saw; you get a sense of the edge sliding between dangerous parameters that define his work."
Hoagland, a wispy-haired man in his sixties, was part of a larger weekend program on the theme of education in America created by the Colgate Arts Council and Associate Professor of Educational Studies Barbara Regenspan. He wrote an article which can be found free online in Harper's Magazine called "Twenty Little Poems that Could Change America: Imagining a renewed role for poetry in the national discourse-and a new canon." In it, he argues how poetry has and hasn't played a role in education, and what it could do to change the country and the world.
"As part of this whole theme I was thinking, as I have before, what is poetry good for? I think it's three things: one, it gathers unlikely things together…another thing it does is it focuses…and then, the last thing it does is it expresses the whole range of human emotion. Anyway, I'll just start out reading and maybe as I go through them I'll be able to classify them into these three absolutely encompassing categories," Hoagland said, ending on a wry note after his introduction.
Hoagland began with his poem "Candlelight," which was based on a saying of one his friends in Arizona: "You can't live without causing
some damage."
The poet prefaced each of his poems with a not-so-brief explanatory introduction that provided insight into his life, his writing style and his personality. There was so little change between the conversational tone he used to discuss the poems and his reading voice that sometimes he would slip naturally from one to the other, making it difficult to distinguish where his impromptu meditations ended and the written ones began.
Yet, as witty as Hoagland was in person, his poetry was even cleverer. "Candlelight," for example, quietly points out, in the manner of "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" by Laura Numeroff, that one thing is always connected to another; saving a marriage means steak dinners from cows raised on land that was once rainforest, which damages the atmosphere and will one day cause a grandchild from said marriage to contract skin cancer.
This kind of intricate – and sometimes disheartening – interconnection continued throughout the readings but with increasing, significant humor. One poem was about what Hoagland described as "the very odd sensation of feeling sorry for Britney Spears," while another described the mating habits of various species as witnessed by a couple on their second date on a nature documentary. The audience snickered as Hoagland calmly described the bull penguin vomiting into its mate's mouth and the female Brazilian leopard frog pummeling its mate in a pond; how a poet managed to include an orange refrigerator magnet carrot into a poem; and, finally, how Hoagland struggled with the existence of his parents, resulting in the purely fictional death of his father in many poems.
All in | 682 |
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A New Movie from John Newcombe: Winnetka Story
Saturday, March 13th, 1PM
La Crescenta<|fim_middle|> over 100 newspapers.
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The award-winning documentary Rancho La Canada was created by local filmmaker and historian John Newcombe. The success of that film inspired Newcombe to examine the town he grew up in and create this tribute in the same engaging style as Rancho La Canada. John will present selected clips from this feature length movie, including the dramatic shipwreck story of the Lady Elgin, and the story of Winnetka's contribution to the world, the invention of the speed bump.
Winnetka Story is a feature length documentary about the history of Winnetka and the North Shore, Illinois. Winnetka native, John Newcombe, is an award-winning filmmaker who lives and works in Los Angeles. His documentary, Rancho La Canada, was given the prestigious LA County Commendation Award. John is also an accomplished cartoonist. His nationally syndicated comic strip Zack Hill can be found in | 190 |
SermonIndex.net : Christian Books : LECTURE XV. PAUL AND BARNABAS IN LYSTRA.
LECTURE XV. PAUL AND BARNABAS IN LYSTRA.
The passage which I have read, begins with the account of a miracle, performed in the first of those cities. |And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked.| His case resembles that of the man who was cured by Peter and John at the gate of the temple; and a particular statement of it is given, to show the reality, and the greatness of the miracle. It was not an incidental, but a radical infirmity, which was removed. He was impotent in his feet; he had been lame from his birth; and the disorder was such, that at no period of his life had he been able to walk. His situation rendered him the proper object of a miracle. No person of humanity could look upon him without pity; and his cure would appear to all to be the effect, not of superior skill, but of supernatural power. Thus, the design of the miracle would be gained, which was not only to relieve the patient, but to demonstrate to the inhabitants of Lystra, that God was present with Paul and Barnabas, and consequently that their doctrine was true.
Miracles are a sign to |them that believe not.| They are not merely prodigies, or strange sights, intended to raise the wonder of the spectators, and to draw their attention to the person who performs them, but tokens, or proofs, of the divine approbation of him, and of the religion which he teaches. To the Jews, the argument from prophecy was sufficient to prove that Jesus was the Christ; and accordingly, we find the Apostles insisting much upon it, in their discourses to that people. But to the Gentiles, it would not have been addressed with propriety, or any hope of success, because they were not acquainted with the prophecies, and had no evidence, that the books containing them, were written prior to the event. Miracles were an obvious and easy species of evidence. It required no investigation or discussion; it pressed upon the senses; and the right inference could be drawn by the plainest understanding. |Rabbi, we know, that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou dost, except God be with him.| The purpose for which the Apostles were furnished with the power of working miracles, was to prove to the ignorant, the illiterate, and the unthinking, who are the great majority of mankind, the divine authority of the gospel.
Paul perceived that the lame man had |faith to be healed.| This faith seems to signify either a general belief of the power of Barnabas and Paul, or rather of Jesus Christ, whose ministers they were, to heal infirmities and diseases or a persuasion, that a cure would be performed upon himself in particular. In the former case, his faith was founded on the account which he had heard of the character and miracles of Christ, and of the extraordinary gifts which he had bestowed upon his followers; in the latter, it was the effect of a supernatural impression upon his mind. This faith Paul perceived by the power of discerning spirits, or the power with which the Apostles were occasionally endowed, of discovering the thoughts and dispositions of men. |If thou canst believe,| said our Lord to a father deeply afflicted by the sufferings of his son; |if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.| The expectation which the promises of God, or the suggestions of his Spirit have excited, shall not make him ashamed. |Paul therefore, steadfastly beholding this man, said with a loud voice, Stand up right on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.| The cure immediately followed the command. The disorder in his joints was removed; his limbs recovered strength, and with the fondness so natural to a man who has recently acquired a new power, which he had long and earnestly desired, but despaired of ever possessing, he tried it in every way, leaping and walking.
Paul said, |with a loud voice,| Stand up right on thy feet. The miracle was wrought for the sake of the inhabitants of Lystra, as well as of the impotent man; and for this reason it was publicly announced. The circumstances in which the miracles of the gospel were performed, leave no room for suspecting, that they were dexterous impositions upon the credulity of mankind. That they were real miracles is evident from this important fact, that they were not done in a corner, but in the chief places of concourse; in the streets of cities, in the midst of assembled multitudes, in the presence of enemies as well as of friends. The miracles of false religions were performed, or are said to have been performed, in distant ages, of which we have only fabulous accounts; in remote countries, where any thing may be feigned to have taken place, without the risk of detection; in temples under the command of priests, who could securely practise there the arts of deceit; or in some obscure retreat, sheltered from every inquisitive eye, before witnesses, select, and favourably disposed. |If they shall say unto you, Behold he is in the desert, go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not.| Truth courts the light, that it may be made manifest. The juggling tricks of heathenism and popery require only a strict examination, to be rejected with contempt; whereas, the miracles of Christianity are displays of omnipotent power, which will be the more admired, the more closely they are considered.
The evidence of miracles is not irresistible, but may be counteracted by the power of prejudice. The Jews attributed the miracles of our Saviour to Satanical influence; the Gentiles believed, that those of the Apostles were operations of magic; and the inhabitants of Lystra were disposed to turn this miracle into an argument in favour of their own idolatrous religion. |And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lift up their voices, saying, in the speech of Lycaonia, The Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.| The Gentiles had corrupted the fundamental doctrine of the unity of God; and their various systems of religion were founded on the supposition of a plurality of Deities, male and female, differing in their rank, their attributes, and the provinces or functions assigned to them. These imaginary beings were conceived to superintend the affairs of the earth. There was, indeed, one sect of philosophers, the disciples of Epicurus, who, while they admitted their existence, denied that they governed the world; but they were justly suspected of atheism. Other sects of philosophers, and the common people, believed, that men were objects of the attention and care of the Gods, who observed their conduct, and interfered in their transactions, and, for this purpose, descended, on some occasions, to the earth in a visible form. Their histories and poems are& full of such appearances. When the inhabitants of Lystra, therefore, cried out, |The Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men;| they did not express surprise at the event as unusual, but rather joy because the Gods had deigned to honour their city with a visit. They have come down to us, |in the likeness of men.| They were supposed to appear in the human form, which was believed to be their real shape; for the heathen Deities were clothed with bodies like ours, and differed from men only in the extent of their power, and the attribute of immortality.
As soon as the idea was adopted, that Paul and Barnabas were Gods, the people assigned to them their respective names. |They called Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.| Jupiter was the Supreme Divinity of the heathens, whom they called the Father of Gods and men, and represented as swaying his sceptre over heaven and earth. Sometimes they speak of him in a style not unworthy of the true God, describing him as shaking heaven with his nod, and terrifying the world by his thunder; but, at other times, they degrade him below the dignity of a man, by portraying him with the basest passions, and foulest crimes, of a profligate. There is something mysterious and inexplicable in the creed of the Gentiles, affording a lamentable proof of the astonishing, and almost incredible, blindness and stupidity of the human mind. This Jupiter, whom they placed at the head of the universe, they believed to have been a man, who was born, reigned, and died, in the island of Crete. An inextricable confusion pervades the Pagan mythology; it is full of inconsistencies and absurdities, which,. one should think, could not have been digested by the most barbarous nation, and still less by the learned Greeks and Romans; and there is no way of accounting for the fact, that they did give credit to the tales of their priests and poets, but by the information of Paul, |that because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.| Mercury was one of the sons of Jupiter. Among the various offices with which he was invested, it is necessary to mention only, that he was reputed the messenger of the Gods, and the interpreter of their will. Paul was called Mercury, because he most frequently addressed the people. If he was a God, there was none whose character so exactly suited him, as that of the Deity who conveyed the messages of Jupiter to mankind. Barnabas was supposed to be Jupiter, because he was older than Paul, or of a more dignified appearance.
If the Gods had condescended to visit the city of Lystra, religion required that they should be received with appropriate honours. |The priest of Jupiter, therefore, which was before their city,| or had a temple without the walls, or in the suburbs, |brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people.| Sacrifices were a distinguished part of the worship of the heathens; and in this general feature, their religion resembled that of the Jews. The practice was undoubtedly derived from traditionary accounts of the original institution of sacrifices; for the death of irrational animals would not have occurred to the uninstructed human mind, as a proper expedient for propitiating the Deity. The victims were generally crowned with garlands of flowers. The religion of the Gentiles was of a cheerful nature. The eye was captivated with magnificent spectacles; the ear was charmed with the sound of musical instruments, and the melody of songs; and, at some festivals, the grossest debauchery was permitted in honour of their licentious Divinities.
In the Old Testament, the heathen Gods are frequently styled vanities. It is a contemptuous title, which at the same time, is expressive of their nature. Of the Deities, whom the blinded nations adored, some had no existence, except in the imagination of their worshippers; and the rest were dead men and women, whom the gratitude and admiration of posterity had consecrated. Their images, in which a divine virtue was supposed to reside, were constructed of stone, and wood, and the precious metals; and were alike unworthy of religious honours, and incapable of doing either good or evil, as inanimate matter in any other shape. |They had eyes, but they saw not; and ears, but they heard not. They that made them were like unto them; so was every one that trusted in them.| All was vanity. These pretended Gods, and their unprofitable service, the apostles called upon the men of Lystra to forsake, and hence<|fim_middle|>, that vegetation is the effect of certain independent qualities, or powers of matter. Men may impose upon themselves by words and theories; but it is impossible to conceive what is lifeless and inert to act, without being first acted upon by some external cause, or an unconscious substance to work according to a regular and uniform plan. Wherever we observe design, wherever we see an end aimed at, and a series of means employed to accomplish it, reason and experience point to an intelligent agent. It was never supposed by any man in his senses, that a watch was made by itself, or that a house was reared by the accidental meeting of wood, and stones, and mortar. The process, by which |out hearts are filled with food and gladness,| consists of so many steps, all conducting to a specific termination, that no person can survey them, without an immediate conviction of the existence and providence of God. From the surface of the ocean, of rivers, and of lakes, and from every part of the earth, water is raised, in the form of vapour, to the sky. There it is condensed by cold, and falls down by the law of gravitation. The rain penetrating the soil, cherishes the seeds deposited in it, and entering the roots of vegetables, ascends by the stem or trunk, and is circulated through the branches and leaves. At the same time, plants imbibe nourishment from the air and the sun; and arriving at maturity, by slower or more rapid progress, according to their nature, present their fruits to man, as a gift of the bounty of his Creator.
This process is so often repeated, that it attracts little notice. Many a careless spectator of the varied scenes of spring, summer, and autumn, never extends his thoughts beyond the objects before his eyes. But the changes produced upon the face of the earth, by the vicissitudes of the seasons, are unquestionable proofs of divine wisdom and beneficence. The heathens, amidst their ignorance, were not so atheistical as some modern philosophers, who would confine the attention of others, as well as their own, to the operation of natural causes. They erred only in overlooking the true Author of their enjoyments, and returning thanks for their fruitful seasons to Jupiter, and Ceres, and Pomona, instead of acknowledging the various productions of the earth to be the work of one God, |from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift.| The uniformity amidst variety, which is observable in the system of nature, the regularity of the seasons, the connexion and combination of the causes which contribute to the fertility of the earth, and the sameness of the result, afford evidence upon which we may safely rest this conclusion, that there is one First Cause, |who worketh all in all.| Thus in the darkest times of heathenism, there were not wanting testimonies to the existence and perfections of God. |The invisible things of him were clearly seen from the creation and government of the world, even his eternal power and godhead; so that the Gentiles were without excuse.| This is the important truth, which it was the intention of Paul and Barnabas to establish.
It was, however, with difficulty, that they prevailed upon the people to abstain from offering sacrifice to them. The men of Lystra were addicted to idolatry, in which they had been trained from their earliest years; and so fully were they persuaded of the divinity of the two Apostles, that their own testimony hardly sufficed to convince them of their error. It was with reluctance that they renounced the flattering idea, that their city had been honoured with a visit of the Gods.
We learn from this passage, that the contemplation of nature should be rendered subservient to the purposes of piety. God did not place so many glorious luminaries in the heavens, nor diversify the surface of the earth with mountains and vallies, nor collect the immense mass of water in the ocean, merely to furnish us with the pleasures of imagination. Man is delighted with the view of what is sublime and beautiful, and with the instances of curious contrivance, and exquisite workmanship; but the ultimate design of this delight, is to conduct him to the knowledge and love of its Author. All the objects around us bear witness to the existence of God. Philosophy will afford us much entertainment, by unfolding the secret operations of nature; but the pleasure of the unlettered Christian, who knows scarcely any thing about the laws of the material system, the structure of plants, and the mechanism of animals, is incomparably greater, when he traces, in the grand outlines of creation, the footsteps of his Father, and sees in its varying scenes, the wonders of his power, and the smiles of his goodness. | forward to worship |the living God.| The living God is Jehovah the self-existent being, who comprehends in himself the past, the present, and the future, and is the source of life to all who breathe and think. His existence alone is necessary and immutable; that of all other beings is contingent and fluctuating. He is here opposed to the Gods of the Gentiles, who were dead men, or imaginary beings, and whose lifeless images, enveloped in clouds of smoke, and adored with profound reverence, were as insensible of their unmerited honours, as the walls of their temples. |Choose now,| said the Apostles, |whether you will serve the living or the dead.| |None of the vanities of the Gentiles could give rain;| they had less power even than the men who implored their protection. |But the living God made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.| The universe arose out of nothing at his command, was arranged by his wisdom, and is sustained by his power. It demonstrates his existence and attributes; and, in language understood in every nation, calls upon the spectators of his glory to adore and serve him.
But if the God, whom Paul and Barnabas preached, was the true God, the Creator of the world and its inhabitants, why was he so late in asserting his claim to their homage? Whence had he remained unknown for many ages, while other beings were suffered to usurp his place and his honours? To obviate this objection against the Christian doctrine as a novel system, which laboured under the great disadvantage of being opposed to the ancient established opinions of mankind, the Apostles subjoin the following remark. |Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.| The cause of the recent introduction of his worship, was, not that he was an upstart God, a Divinity of yesterday, but that, for wise and holy reasons, he had permitted the nations, during a long succession of ages, to apostatize from himself, and follow the suggestions of their vain imaginations. Although, as we shall afterwards see, he did not leave himself altogether without a witness, yet he laid no restraint upon them in their deviations from truth; and employed no extraordinary means to stem the torrent of apostasy. No Prophet arose among them to reprove their errors, and restore the knowledge and service of the Creator. |The times of this ignorance he winked at,| seeming to take no notice of it, as a man closes his eyes, that he may not observe what is passing around him. Every nation was suffered to adopt whatever form of religion was most agreeable to its taste. Gods were multiplied by the creative power of superstition; temples rose in every city, and altars in every grove; so that the true God was banished from the greater part of his own world. The duration of this period of darkness and impiety is expressed by the indefinite phrase, |times past.| Idolatry seems to have begun early after the flood. It was practised in the family of Abraham prior to his call. But the true God continued to be known and worshipped long after, by individuals and families, amidst the general corruption. The covenant with Abraham and his posterity, by which they were constituted the peculiar people of God, did not operate to the exclusion of other nations, till about the time of the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. The oracles of heaven were then committed to his descendants, and the rest of mankind were abandoned to their own conduct.
Notwithstanding the rejection of the Gentiles, their idolatry was inexcusable, because |God did not leave himself without a witness, in that he did good, and gave them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness.| Canaan was a land |flowing with milk and honey,| and it is called |the glory of all the lands.| But notwithstanding the high character bestowed upon it, in consequence of the divine blessing, which rendered it uncommonly fertile, the other regions of the earth were not deserts, yielding only briers and thorns. Some of the countries, which the Gentiles inhabited, abounded in the choicest productions of the vegetable kingdom. The rain fell upon their fields, and the year was crowned with the goodness of the Lord. There is not a more agreeable prospect than a country smiling under the influences of heaven, presenting to the eye vallies covered with corn, and mountains clothed with pasture, or shaded with forests. As such a scene charms us with its beauties and cheers our hearts with the hope of plenty, so it is fitted to raise our thoughts to the source of all good, the almighty, and beneficent Parent of the universe. A reflecting mind learns wisdom from trees, and flowers, and every thing.
No man, who consults his reason, can consider the productions of the earth as the result of chance, because chance signifies no cause of any kind, but merely expresses our ignorance. It is not less irrational to imagine | 1,055 |
Inspired by the legendary pickups in the Teisco Del Ray guitars of the 60s,<|fim_middle|> radius than most electric 12-strings, and a custom cut nut with narrower string pairings, the six-string player will feel right at home.
This model is available in all of our standard finishes. A 3-ply White, Black, Mint, Tortoise Shell, or Pearl pickguard, and either a rosewood or maple fretboard complete this superior 12-string offering.
The T12TL is the thinline version of our T12. It offers all the same weight relief and unique tonal characteristics of our T69TL, with our exclusive 12-string setup.
This visually intriguing mash-up of the T and JM Models combines all the sound and playability of a T Model with the look of the JM.
Available in both ash and alder in any standard color we offer, with a rosewood or maple neck and a 3-ply pickguard in Black, Pearl, Tortoise Shell, or White. | Lollar created some of the most sought after tones in these new but authentic recreations. Our Gold Foil was designed and built around these unique pickups. Using the T Model footprint, we engineered the body and neck so that these pickups bolt directly to the wood at the optimum string-to-pickup height. The Gold Foil is available in both 2 and 3 pickup configurations. Ash or alder bodies are available in all standard colors we offer, with either a maple or rosewood neck. The pickguard can be 1-ply Black or White; or 3-ply White, Black, Mint, Tortoise Shell, or Pearl.
The T12 is the 12-String version of our T63 model.
Our goal was to build a 12-string guitar specifically for the electric player. With a wider neck, a flatter | 176 |
<|fim_middle|>thinking how they utilize data, approach failure, structure teams, and set goals—in short, how they can become more innovative. | The Open Organization Field Guide is a community-produced companion to Jim Whitehurst's initial thoughts on the future of work, management, and leadership. The book collects cutting-edge ideas about the ways open source values are changing the ways we work, manage, and lead.
The Open Organization Leaders Manual is a handbook for anyone attempting to harness the power of openness to lead teams that are more transparent, agile, collaborative, and mission-driven.
The Open Organization Workbook features contributions from more than 30 managers, educators, technologists, consultants, and other experts, who offer concrete and actionable strategies for putting the principles of transparency, inclusivity, adaptability, collaboration, and community into practice.
In Organize for Innovation, Red Hat President and CEO Jim Whitehurst reflects on the technological, social, and economic forces impacting the ways we work. Arguing that solving contemporary business problems requires new organizational principles, models, and dynamics, Whitehurst explains how leaders everywhere can begin re | 192 |
Netflix's "Let It Snow" Has A Queer Love Story That Wasn't In The Original Book And The Authors Love It
"I hope more young people feel supported coming out and being who they are," John Green told BuzzFeed News. Spoilers ahead!
by Krystie Lee Yandoli
Posted on November 9, 2019, 2:30 pm
Steve Wilkie / Netflix / Steve Wilkie
Kerry (Anna Akana) and Dorrie (Liv Hewson) in Let It Snow.
When YA authors John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson were approached by an editor at Penguin Books to write an anthology of Christmas love stories for teens back in 2008, they didn't realize their book, Let It Snow, would get adapted into a Netflix film more than a decade later.
As new writers at the time, Green, Myracle, and Johnson said they were just excited to have an opportunity to work with their friends and write three fun, interconnected stories about young people falling in love<|fim_middle|> to be associated with something that feels good, feels positive, and feels warm and welcoming."
Krystie Lee Yandoli
Contact Krystie Lee Yandoli at krystie.yandoli@buzzfeed.com. | , falling out of love, and realizing the power of friendship in a small town on Christmas. "I totally thought, 'This is Love Actually for teens,'" Myracle told BuzzFeed News.
As is the case in many adaptations, there are some differences in the Netflix version of Let It Snow, which stars Kiernan Shipka and Shameik Moore and starts streaming on Nov. 8. One of the major shifts in the film is the inclusion of a queer a love story between two young women, Dorrie (Liv Hewson) and Kerry (Anna Akana).
"Having a heteronormative story all around would be abnormal. It would be weird," Myracle said. "The version in the movie is much more satisfying."
Dorrie, who works at the local Waffle Town restaurant, gushes to her BFF Addie (Odeya Rush) about her massive crush on Kerry, but when Kerry shows up at Waffle Town with her friends on the cheerleading squad, she ignores Dorrie. Not long afterward, though, Kerry finds Dorrie in the restaurant bathroom and kisses her, sparking much-warranted confusion on Dorrie's end.
In the film, Dorrie struggles with her feelings of confusion and rejection, and she eventually finds the courage to confront Kerry. At the end of Let It Snow, Kerry apologizes to Dorrie and reveals that she's not out about her sexuality.
"What made it difficult for them to be together is that the world in which we live in is not a world of equality that it needs to be," Green told BuzzFeed News about Dorrie and Kerry's characters. "I hope that is changing for a lot of young people, that they do feel supported. I hope more young people feel supported coming out and being who they are, because certainly that was different when I went to high school."
On a red carpet event for Let It Snow, Hewson told MEAWW, "Coming out in high school is really hard, and some people aren't able to come out in high school in the same way that others are."
"Dorrie is out and proud and it's a nonissue, which is lovely to see in a film like this, and also with Anna [Akana]'s character, there's more complexity there," Hewson added. "But that is treated with the same amount of empathy and respect as anyone else's journey."
Like any classic holiday rom-com, there's a happy ending for Dorrie and Kerry. After Kerry tells Dorrie she's afraid to come out to her friends and family, and that Dorrie inspires her to be brave, the two of them kiss again.
"I think it's important to celebrate those moments," Green said. "They don't happen all the time in pop culture, they should happen all the time, but I think it's important to celebrate them."
LGBTQ representation on television is at an all-time high, according to GLAAD's 2019 media report. The nonprofit media monitoring organization found that 10.2% of characters on primetime broadcast television are LGBTQ. The report also highlighted streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu that included 153 LGBTQ characters in their series this year.
While the authors didn't come up with the Dorrie and Kerry storyline in Netflix's adaptation of Let It Snow, they said they "all read every draft and felt really listened to" by the screenwriters. Green, speaking on behalf of all three authors, said they feel "grateful" the queer love story was included because it's important representation for teens and young people, especially when it comes to holiday-themed romantic comedies where LGBTQ representation is rare.
The kiss between Dorrie and Kerry is interrupted by cheerleaders banging on the Waffle Town's window, cheering them on. The support and encouragement from Kerry's friends is a major victory for her after fearing judgment and criticism from others.
"Christmas movies are about the world we want to see, and this is the world you want to see, this is the model of what this is," Johnson told BuzzFeed News. "Your friends are there for you. Give them the chance to stand up for you."
According to Johnson, Dorrie and Kerry are important in Let It Snow beyond the LGBTQ representation they provide onscreen. The author said their love story demonstrates "all those feelings when you don't know if the person you like likes you back, and the pain in wondering if they're willing to say it knowing you're willing to say it," which can be a relatable emotion for young people — or anyone — watching the movie.
Plus, "they're adorable together," Johnson said.
The different characters in the film all go through their own ups and downs, facing challenges and enjoying moments of triumph, and a common thread that Green said he appreciates about Let It Snow is the fact that "the kids in the movie are good to each other."
"They don't always know how to be good to each other," Green said. "They're learning how to be kind, they're learning how to love one another better, and there's just such a genuine warmth there."
The ending for Dorrie and Kerry, which involves a lot of smiles and kissing, is as predictable as every other character's, but heartfelt and feel-good holiday movies are sometimes just what people need, the authors said.
"We live in really terrible times," Myracle said. "And it's nice | 1,109 |
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Ground-breaking ceremony marks the start of new Extra Care apartments
Building work is underway on a new Extra Care Living scheme in Westergate after a ground-breaking ceremony last week.
The new scheme in West Sussex, which is being developed by Housing 21 in partnership with Arun District Council and West Sussex County Council, will provide 60 one and two bedroom apartments for affordable rent and shared ownership.
The development will offer people over the age of 55 a range of services and facilities including a 24 hour on-site care team for those who<|fim_middle|>upp, West Sussex County Council Cabinet Member for Adults and Health said: "Enabling people to retain their independence in later life is a significant priority for the county council, so I'm excited to see the start of this new scheme. We are delighted to be working in partnership with Housing 21 which will own and manage the scheme, and with Arun District Council which has also helped to make this scheme possible."
Tracy Jones, Head of Extra Care at Housing 21 said: "We are delighted to be working in partnership with West Sussex County Council and Arun District Council to provide the latest Extra Care scheme in West Sussex, which will be named after the royal winning racehorse Monaveen.
"Housing 21 is the leading provider of Extra Care across England, providing at least 10 percent of the country's provision. We will be working closely with the local schools, older peoples groups and the social work teams in Westergate to ensure a fully integrated and community feel to the scheme upon opening. This ceremony marks the beginning of a very exciting build journey in West Sussex!"
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Produced and hosted by Far Design Ltd - chat@fardesign.com | need it, a café/bistro, hair salon and communal lounge which is also available to the local community.
The scheme will be named Monaveen in memory of the royal racehorse, which was the first horse to run in The Queen's colours and made its first winning appearance at local racecourse, Fontwell Park in October 1949.
Housing 21's Monaveen is being constructed alongside Taylor Wimpey's 'The Hedgerows' development, which will provide 208 family homes on Fontwell Avenue. The Extra Care Living development is set for completion in December 2020 with the first residents moving into their homes in early 2021.
Representatives of Housing 21, Arun District Council and West Sussex County Council were also joined by students from Ormiston Six Villages School who will take on the challenge of producing a piece of artwork with their peers. The finished piece celebrating Monaveen is to be unveiled at the scheme's grand opening event in 2021.
Amanda J | 219 |
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.
You are invited to a short video presentation of Jeanette and reception in her honor in Sapp Hall immediately following the<|fim_middle|>, I wish my heart was worthy more. | service. The presentation is offered as a tribute by Roger Hastings, son.
How appropriate to honor our mother at the "vesper hour" when the colors of the day collect themselves in one last hurrah and celebration of another God-given day. For us it also is filled with tender memories of attending the 5:00 p.m. service on Sundays at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, a time when we were enveloped by sunset light filtering through stained glass windows and knew the chiming of the hour would be followed by the Crusader Youth Choir singing in hushed tones, "Now the Day is Over." For mother, it meant a respite from another hectic day that had begun with trying to make five children presentable in Sunday best, followed by the flurry of activity around getting a roast on the table, and then, if lucky, a quick read of the paper or short nap before loading up the car to head back to church. How exhausting it must have been to get her small army to their appointed rounds, yet how rich and full those days were and are in our hearts.
Jerusalem, the Golden was not sung often - if ever - at these vesper services. It's a "golden nugget" beloved by our dad, though until now, unknown to us kids. Not long ago Mom mentioned Dad's love of hymnody, reporting that she would frequently find him up in the middle of the night if he awoke with some hymn in mind whose words he needed to track down. We awake with a thirst for water; Dad awakes with a thirst for knowledge.
As you see the tributes accumulate, you might remember that yes, there are five children. Youngest son, Roger, will be giving his tribute to Mom in the form of a slide presentation in Sapp Hall, immediately following the service upstairs. We feel privileged to count Shizue Kaneko Fukuda in our family and in addition to her treasured presence with us today, she has brought an urn from Japan for the final resting place of Mother's ashes. We know that Mother is pleased and honored by this gesture from Shizue and her family.
Mom was able to see Jessica dance Come, Ye Disconsolate as Darrell sang this beloved hymn, and we know she cherished the experience. It gives us particular delight to be able to share it again today and we are so grateful to Darrell for his generosity in participating in this service. It means a great deal to us.
The flowers on the altar remind us of the irises Mother grew in her Dallas garden. She had a great love of flowers and plants, and seemed to take responsibility for wayward ones that just needed a little extra care, a different pot, a sunnier window. The other things on the altar today were placed there because of a revelation we only found out about this week. Our friend Annie from Memphis told us that some years ago she and Mom were at a meeting where they were told to pair off and "talk about what kind of funeral you would want." Annie said Mom expressed the desire that her funeral be of comfort to the living because she knew she would be at rest. She didn't need anything in particular but wanted the service to be a celebration of life. She didn't want the funeral industry to enhance its coffers by her passing, so she wasn't interested in fancy boxes or big floral sprays. She thought in lieu of flowers it would be nice if people would bring things from nature that were particularly meaningful to them. She mentioned rocks, she liked the symbolism of rocks, although Annie couldn't quite remember why rocks were so important. It seems Mom was enamored of the way things work in this world and was quite comfortable with the cycle of life reality that would some day render her body ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
The past two weeks have been, of course, a major blow to our family. We have lost the embodiment of our family's heart and soul. And yet, we have all stood in amazement at what this great loss has afforded us: we have witnessed the most generous outpouring of support and comfort imaginable. Our special thanks go to Dr. Stephen Lucas, Carol Lucas, Rev. Jill Spruce, doctors and nurses at Round Rock Medical Center, and many others from this church and from Mom's circle of friends.
We feel blessed to have this celebration at a time when Dee Dee Wilson and Dr. Brooks Whitmore were able to contribute their remarkable musical talents to the service. Mother took such delight in what they bring to worship at Highland Park, we know she is pleased they could be a part of our vespers today.
In these difficult passages, it is true ministry to extend hospitality to families. We have known this, but have experienced it personally in a profound way in the preparation for this day. We are grateful more than we can say to Fran Hattin, Rev. Cheryl Hill and all who are on the Hospitality Committee for their help in arranging today's reception and for assistance with audio-visual needs.
Finally, our day is complete because we are able to share it with our dear aunts and uncles who have come to Austin from all over the country: Sunny Wheeler from Glendale, CA.; Trudy and Charles Taylor from Harrisburg, IL; and George and Edna Earl Allard from Flora, MS. We are thankful to have cousin Pat and her son Scott here, as well as Shizue and Naohisa Fukuda from Tokyo in attendance.
Touch my face with love.
Brush my face with love.
For these two gifts I can but love thee more.
Fain | 1,147 |
Marton Cricket Club was founded circa 1853, with the first newspaper report in 1864 of a match against North Ormesby. For the first hundred and twenty years or so, games were played on land adjacent to and just to the south of the Rudds Arms Public House on Stokesley Road. They were a true village side, with John Handisides, the local blacksmith, their best player.
In 1885, Marton were founder members of what became known eventually as the Cleveland and Teesside League, they enjoyed much success. The Cleveland Cup in the trophy cabinet six times in twelve years around the turn of the century, with Jack Newstead, a Yorkshire County player in the side.
The Brunton<|fim_middle|>, the cricket field was gifted by William Brunton to the then recently founded 'Marton-in-Cleveland War Memorial Playing Fields Trust'. This is recorded on the plaque on the pillar at the entrance to Memorial Drive, off Stokesley Road. This trust land was designated for sporting use by the people of Marton. Nowadays the playing and social areas are managed under the joint stewardship of Marton CC and Marton War Memorial Trust. The Sparks family (local bakers) used to live on the site of the Marton Hotel & Country Club (now closed for business). Mr Sparks offered 10 shillings to any Marton batsman who could break a window in his house with a six hit! Rumour has it that the 10 bob note never left his wallet!
The north facing photograph below, shows the Marton cricket field in the 1950's. In the background is The Rudds Arms (left), Marton Post Office (centre) and the Sparks house (extreme right). The tall tree in the far background (centre) is in Stewart Park and very close to the birthplace cottage of Captain James Cook (RN). The Marton Cricket Club badge depicts Captain Cook's ship, the HM Bark Endeavour.
Major changes came about in the 1970's, when the council decided part of the cricket field was to be the slip-road for the new A174 Marton interchange. A quid pro quo was agreed with the council, whereby the original field was exchanged for the present 'Parkway' ground, which opened in 1973. This enforced move proved to be the catalyst the Club needed to develop into the community club it is today. This change, coupled with the foresight of several club members who saw the potential for the club in the growing community of Marton. These members were most notably Fred Brunton, Harold Appleton, Trevor Gaynon & Dave Foster, who worked voluntarily in a variety of areas to enhance the Marton Cricket Club cause. Marton Furness Hockey Club joined in 1976 and played on the cricket outfield.
The club is particularly proud of the numerous achievements of their thriving Junior Section, which was founded in the late 1970's, under the initial guidance of coach Keith Brett. In the 1980's Marton juniors (U17's, U15's & U13's) were prolific winners of the various area age group league and cup competitions, with the Under 13's All England Finalists in 1981. This early success has been continued year on year to the present day.
Marton have been Champions of the old 'B' Division on 4 occasions & a record breaking 10 time winners of the Haith Cup. The Club gained promotion from Division 1 to the Premier Division in 2005 and enjoyed league and cup success relatively quickly. In 2007, the overseas professional was a young South African, Imran Tahir, who helped secure the MacMillan Cup that year. Imran has since gone on to be a world class bowler with the Springboks, representing them 140 times (and counting) in all formats of the game.
The most successful year in the long history of Marton was arguably 2009, when led by Graham Shaw, they became Premier Division Champions, Kerridge Cup & MacMillan Cup winners and runners-up in the Premier 15/15 final. Success continued in 2011, when Marton were crowned Premier Division Champions again and in 2013 they lifted the Kerridge Cup for the fourth year out of five!
In 1975, Marton's first Clubhouse was affectionately known by it's members as 'The Wooden Hut', it was replaced in 1981 by the brick built building used today. The photograph shows the first sod being dug for the new Clubhouse by Club President Fred Brunton in 1980.
The new Clubhouse proved to be very popular with both sporting members and an ever increasing social membership. So much so that it was extended in 1993 and again in 2005 to provide improved member facilities and also a spectator balcony overlooking the ground. Several local community groups regularly use the facilities, either in the Harold Appleton Lounge or the Fred Brunton Bar. The Presidents Lounge is a members (and their guests) only room. A separate pavilion block & outdoor artificial nets were constructed in 1995, with a new tea room and balcony added to the pavilion in 2012. Three new 'state of the art' outdoor nets were opened in 2016.
Quite a journey from being a village side in the late 1800's, to running two sides in the 1950's, and three sides plus an under 17 XI in the 1970's. The ground change in 1973 and the explosion of junior cricket soon afterwards, lead us to the present day set up. Marton CC now field three weekend teams in the NYSD Leagues and a further eight junior age-group teams (including girls) in various area leagues. | & Appleton families have been synonymous with Marton cricket throughout most of the 20th century. William Brunton was the Club President, 1st XI Captain, Groundsman and also Landlord of The Rudds Arms (Bill Brunton seemed to have his work / life balance about right?) George Appleton was Chairman and later Secretary of the Cleveland Cricket Association in the 20's and 30's. His son Harold, a player and later Club Chairman & President, was responsible for the tree planting we see surrounding the present ground today.
In 1925, Marton joined the North Yorkshire & South Durham League 'B' Division and have continued their association with the NYSD since. Elevated to the 'A' Division for one season in 1940, the Club failed to complete its fixtures finishing bottom of the table with a meagre 4 points. The reason was quite simple, 10 of the 11 senior players were all called up for war service during the season!
In 1951 | 217 |
If you are someone who is into details<|fim_middle|>, and blue. | then these are your pens.
There are two things we love about the Fineliner Xpress: the way it produces a meticulous fine line and that if you forget the cap (its been known to happen) it won't dry even for a few days. We love writing with them because they are just like a felt tip, only with a super fine line. In fact, we love them so much we have been known to keep taking notes, even after the meeting is finished.
The Fineliner Xpress is a 3-piece wallet pack equipped with a black, red, and blue fiber-tipped pen. Great for marking up documents or editing, the 0.8mm tip delivers a striking and expressive writing experience.
The Fineliner Xpress is a bold pen for your biggest, boldest projects. We think it writes like a super thin marker tip, making it great for not only things like editing or labeling, but craft projects too. The Fineliners perform best on super smooth, thicker paper (such as that in our Ink+Volt products!), or materials like notecards, greeting cards, cardstock, etc. The most impressive fact? Your ink won't run dry even if the cap is removed for 2-3 days.
Slightly curvy shape and rubberized barrel for comfort.
Your basic, trusty set of black, red | 277 |
SOLD! - Nov 24, 2018 - Deco-Licious Ivory 1953 Sentinel Model 344 AM Tube Radio Excellent Condition<|fim_middle|>oking, mature, clean professional environment no pets. This thing belongs in a museum! | Sounds Divine!
DECO-LICIOUS IVORY 1953 Sentinel Model 344 AM Tube Radio Excellent Condition Sounds Divine!
DESCRIPTION: Nice bandstand looking front grill. Reminiscent of elevator floor dial indicators in skyscraper buildings. Going Up! Tabletop tube AM radio manufactured by Sentinel in 1953 in excellent condition. No cracks or chips or major scratches anywhere on cabinet. All original factory ivory paint. Not repainted. No over sprays or touch-ups. None needed! All knobs are original and securely attached. This radio is over 60 years old! No missing ink, smudges, or rub-off on dial lettering. The tuning dial works fine. The tuning dial gold metal is tarnished. The tuning dial mount post is not cracked or weak securely attached. No slipping. The power cable is securely attached. The tubes are working fine. All out-of-spec resistors have been replaced with modern correct value and voltage equivalents. There is no loud or pervasive hum. There is no loud or pervasive static between stations. The set has been aligned according to factory specifications. The brand new replacement power cord and plug in excellent condition with no cracks, or splits. No exposed wiring. The radio has been thoroughly cleaned and inspected. All wiring has been thoroughly checked for possible bridging and weak solder connection. Comes from non-sm | 277 |
HHS Publishes COVID-19 Hospital Facility-Level Data, CareSet to Host Community FAQ
(PRWEB) Yesterday the Federal Government released new hospital COVID-19 capacity data at the hospitals-level. Previously released data about hospital capacity had only been released at the state level. The Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) provided CareSet with early access to the data in order to facilitate the creation of a community Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document, detailing how to work with the new dataset.
The community FAQ for this data release is hosted by CareSet on GitHub, and invites healthcare professionals, data journalists, and researchers to ask questions and comment at https://bit.ly/COV-PUF-FAQ.
"This data release will allow CareSet and other Data Journalists to report on the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic on each hospital. Previously, this detailed information was available only to local and federal public health officials," reports Ashish Patel, Chief Growth Officer and Data Journalist at CareSet Journal.
The new, more granular, data release aggregates daily hospital reports into a "week at a time" picture in order to protect patient privacy, while still providing a picture of how COVID-19 is specifically impacting hospitals and local communities across the country. You may view this data at https://bit.ly/COV-PUF.
"Social Media continues to promote misinformation about the seriousness of the COVID pandemic. It is easy to disconnect from the negative impacts of COVID-19 if no one you know personally has been seriously ill, says Fred Trotter, CareSet CTO and Editor of the CareSet Journal. "This dataset allows for communities to see how their local hospitals are impacted, which should vividly combat misinformation, and demonstrate the local impact of the pandemic."
According to HHS, with this data release, the picture of how hospitals are impacted by COVID-19 will be revealed on a per-hospital basis, allowing researchers, policymakers, and others to have greater insights into local COVID-19 response efforts.<|fim_middle|>, the public will have access to hospital-specific COVID-19 numbers to understand hyper-localized community impacts. This new level of transparency and increased access will accelerate COVID-19 insights and understanding.
The Community FAQ for this data release was developed in collaboration with researchers from the University of Minnesota COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project, and the COVID Exit Strategy Project.
About CareSet Systems
← CareSet Collects COVID Collaborators
Never Before Seen COVID Data Report Released by HHS → | This time-series data will update weekly, going back to August 1, 2020.
With aggregated county or state data, the average across all facilities often masks what is happening at each local hospital. Some hospitals might have additional COVID-19 capacity while others are at or over capacity. Using this new data | 65 |
CRAFT Beer Market – 100+ beers on tap!
Craft beer market has been my favourite place to sip a beer, relax and hang out with my<|fim_middle|> train ride from downtown. If you visit this place, a quick walk along the sea wall from Science world to the Olympic village is always relaxing, and occasionally you can see dragon boat teams or kayaks.
With over 100 beers on tap (140 last time I checked), I always have an excuse to go grab a beer (Erdinger Dunkel being my favourite) here and eat some Maui ribs with my co-workers or my friends. They also have wine on tap.
Tip – If its your birthday, they give you a discount equal to your age. This place is always busy and the usual wait time is 45 minutes. Please call them and reserve a spot in advance. They have good specials on local craft beer during happy hours. | friends. This place is hip and has a very relaxed attitude.
It's located near the Science world station, just a fifteen-minute sky | 27 |
Dan Oshodin, veteran advertising media strategist and champion of accountability and measurability of out of home advertising<|fim_middle|>, learn new things and rediscover self before launching his next entrepreneurial venture. | has resigned his position as managing director of Posterscope Nigeria and from the board of Media Fuse Dentsu Aegis Network its holding company. Dan who launched the Nigerian office of the global OOH communication business 3 years ago will be leaving the group at the end of August, 2018 having served a 3-month notice to the boards of the respective entities since June.
An entrepreneur and industry thought leader with a robust mix of traditional and digital media management skills, Dan was, before coming to Posterscope, founding CEO of TMKG where he pioneered media auditing in Nigeria and led his team to track and optimize advertising and marketing investment for multinational clients and brands. He has also held senior management roles in leading advertising and media agencies including Rosabel (then Leo Burnett affiliate), Starcom MediaVest (now Media Seal WPI) and Insight Communication (then Grey Worldwide affiliate).
Pressed for what his next move will be, Dan revealed that he will be taking a sabbatical to spend time with family, travel the world | 209 |
Cryptoeconomic business models offer financial utility and network ownership for all network participants and create strong incentives for early adopters to participate even before a critical mass of users is achieved. This is a new, promising path to overcoming the "chicken and egg" problem where, in the old model, networks tend to provide value to participants only upon reaching a critical 7 mass of users. This is important in today's landscape, where a few monopolistic media networks exercise powerful network effects that serve as a barrier to healthy competition.
In order to compete, decentralized networks must<|fim_middle|> a strong foundation for the development of the PROPS Ecosystem.
✅ COMMENTS: ICO "PROPS by YouNow" | still develop cohesive user experiences, viable economics and platform ubiquity that consumers have come to expect. If these challenges can be met, an opportunity will emerge to reshape the digital media landscape.
The YouNow team is uniquely positioned to take on this challenge. Since 2011, YouNow has been a pioneer in the live streaming video space and was the first company to popularize live mobile video in the U.S. In stark contrast to the monetization strategies of most social media companies, YouNow successfully invented a microtransaction-driven, two-sided economy within the context of video entertainment that allows YouNow to reward content creators. Over the 7 last three years, YouNow has generated over $50 million in virtual goods sales and shared the majority of its earnings with its content contributors. In launching the PROPS Ecosystem, the YouNow team continues to pioneer video networks via an open video platform and an ecosystem with a decentralized economy. The PROPS Ecosystem will benefit from YouNow's millions-strong user base and creator community, a new many-to-many video technology and a 40 person team with notable video and virtual economy expertise.
YouNow Inc. plans to transition from its current state as a C Corp to become a B Corp, with a PROPS centric mission: creating a more open and sustainable media ecosystem. Through the adoption of PROPS, all network participants, users, content creators, developers and others will be aligned around the long-term growth of the network. This combination of a community of users engaged in earning and spending PROPS through participation and consumption, with a large reward pool for third-party developers who enhance it with new use cases, provides | 336 |
From<|fim_middle|> Favorite Author." Some excepts:
J.D. Salinger
Kids who don't fit in (duh).
People who type like this: OMG. Mah fAvvv <3 <3.
Smart geeks.
People who like good music.
People who can start a fire.
People who used to sleep so heavy that they would pee their pants.
Ninth graders who think they're going to be authors someday but end up in marketing.
Doctors who went to medical schools in the Dominican Republic.
People who used to get lost in supermarkets when they were kids.
Readers will find many more meaningful match-ups here.
[TotH to @temiri]
As we simmer at the shelves, we might send muckraking birthday greetings to Upton Beall Sinclair Jr.; he was born on this date in 1878. Sinclair paid his way through City College and Columbia writing dime novels, then turned to journalism. Moved by what he saw (and heard and smelled) in covering the Chicago stockyards, he wrote his first novel, The Jungle. Unable to find a publisher willing to release an expose of conditions in the U.S. meatpacking industry, he published it himself– and created a public uproar sufficient to drive, within months, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. Sinclair tried his hand as a politician, but stayed true to his typewriter: before he died in 1968, he had written over 100 books of fiction and non-fiction– including the novel Oil, which was the basis of Paul Thomas Anderson's film There Will Be Blood.
Writing of Sinclair in 1957, Time pronounced him, "a man with every gift except humor and silence."
Tagged with famous authors, humor, journalism, literature, muckraking, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
« Cracking the uncrackable code?…
Pictures that *contain* a thousand words (and then some)… » | Lauren Leto, an amusing exercise in "Stereotyping People by Their | 15 |
Fitness Journal: Track your Progress: Keeping with the theme of "New Day, New Year, New You", let me offer you another tactic you can add to your arsenal for progress. Over the years, I have helped hundreds of athletes with performance problems. However, as my Practice grew, I began to see the athletes along with others. I would see them accompanied by their significant other, their trainers, their coaches, and even their sponsors. So, I have become a "go-to" resource for Coaches, Trainers, and Instructors (CTIs). What I offer here is one of the most useful tools to promote and maintain progressive change. It is so important, that I make it a mandatory condition to see me. It is non-negotiable. Either you do this, or you're fired! As with many meaningful things in life, this tactic is simple. However, I did not say it would be easy! It requires discipline and paying attention. It also requires a sense of unvarnished honesty.
I like to compare the skills necessary to be successful to the three elements of the Socratic Method. The elements are: Intelligence (you need to know what you're talking about), Candor (a matter-of-fact, brutal honesty), and Good Will (a sense of humor and in everyone's best interest). Socrates must have had something worthwhile to say. It is still as relevant today as it was in his day. However, I have found that "ego" may tend to interfere with your Intelligence, Candor, & Good Will. So, you need to relax, and regard this as an investment in your performance future. The "tactic" to which refer is keeping an accurate and consistent Journal. A hallmark of being a CTI is to always base your opinion on facts. As a CTI, the first responsibility in serving the needs of your athletes is to measure progress. Given the technology available, you cannot afford to simply "wing-it" and guess. Regardless of the activity, do your best to weigh it, time it, or put it to a tape-measure. Quantify it as accurately as possible, but just as important, write it down. Keep accurate and consistent records. A convenient tool to do so is the Journal. As a CTI, you can keep your records, but it is necessary for the athlete to keep their own Journal. It serves many functions, so let me explain the "method to my madness".
A few things need to be said about the nature of a Fitness Journal.
First, it is meant to be "eyes only"… That means the Journal is not open for public display, or for sharing. For it to be useful, it needs to be a private discussion; the author to themselves. This helps promote openness and honesty with the daily entries (no guarantees, but let's try to swing the odds in favor of success…!) This privacy helps minimize "ego inflation" for the sake of other readers.
Second, I am often asked about what should be said. Remember that the Journal is your Journal. You alone own it. I usually leave the contents to the discretion of the author. (You know, better than anyone, the problems you have and the things that concern you). I usually suggest some entries that are universally useful. These include: things that you did well, things you believe could use some work, some basic thoughts, basic feelings (positive or negative), things to do, a daily "satisfaction score" (1-10), etc. You might want to also write about anything unusual that happened that day. (It always bothers me when I ask someone about how they are doing. When I get an answer like "Oh, same stuff, different day", I think about the tragedy of not paying attention. Geez, you need to get out more…!) The entries will, typically, take on a life of their own. An object lesson is to have the author compare entries when they started (perhaps weeks or months ago) to entries currently being made. Are they longer or shorter? Are they more or less detailed? Are you even tracking the same things? Just have them notice the pattern. For some, just the act of writing to yourself may be a bit uncomfortable. Stick with it. Invest in yourself. Pay attention…!
Fifth, The Journal is useful on several levels. It allows a private "sounding board" for the author. Thoughts, feelings, plans, and dreams are all written down to minimize going over the same material again and again without resolving them. You<|fim_middle|> up where you left off. It will also be evident that you are making progress. It is written by you, to you, without a filter. This becomes even more apparent when you have several months of entries documenting your working through problems. You have a written history of your work!
A special note to Coaches, Trainers, and Instructors (CTIs). Some of the most difficult athletes I have dealt with involve significant injury & rehabilitation. On the rare occasion, the injury is "career-ending", and requires the athlete to "reinvent" themselves. More often, the rehab process is drawn out, full of pain, frustration, and fear of not getting back to the game. Here, the Journal takes on a very different role. The athlete is required to keep a personal, eyes-only, accurate, daily Journal of the entire rehab process. Most of the athletes I see are action-oriented. They are not particularly patient. They want it all, and they want it now. If I begin to hear complaints about "not getting anywhere", I have them re-read their Journal entries from several weeks prior. They read their own words written to themselves. This usually helps to put the rehab process in perspective, and it avoids arguing opinions.
A final note to all, but especially CTIs. I am often approached by people who want to improve performance, but want to do something real. They want to do something substantial, and be an active participant in their own progress instead of a passive spectator. The Journal is an ideal vehicle to address that need. It beats the hell out of simply reading a book, watching a video, or listening to a CD. Journaling is active involvement. As a reward, you are left with a written account of your journey that might help put you entire Life into perspective.
Next articleDr. Tom Here! Gotta Minute? Want To Get Things Done? | can simply pick | 3 |
"Успение Богородично" () е православна църква в град Елбасан, Албания. В 1963 година църквата е обявена за културен паметник на Албания под № 50.
Местоположение
Църквата е разположена в рамките на средновековната Елбасанска крепост, в северната ѝ част.
История
Изграждането на храма започва в 1486 година, но първата служба е извършена в 1556 година. Според записките на семейната кондика Делиана църквата изгаря в 1818 година. От датировката на външната страна на апсидата се разбира, че е възстановена в 1833 година.
В храма служат Фан Нол<|fim_middle|>вата е в ръцете на разколническа националистическа групировка, начело с Никола Марку, която не признава каноничното управление на Албанската православна църква, което според нея е под силно гръцко влияние.
Описание
Църквата е изцяло каменна, трикорабна базилика с полусферичен таван. На запад има притвор с женска църква над него. На изток има три апсиди, като централната е с внушителни размери. От запад, юг и север има открит трем на каменни арки.
Камбанарията е по-късна, което се вижда от архитектурния стил и от материала – червена тухла.
Зад апсидата е гробът на Констандин Кристофориди.
Иконостасът на храма е дело на видните дебърски майстори от рода Филипови – братята Васил Аврамов и Филип Аврамов. Работата по иконостаса продължава 10 години.
Иконите на иконостаса и царските двери са дело на самаринските майстори Михаил Анагност и Димитър Михайлов (1826 – 1828). Михаил е автор на престолните икони "Свети Георги", "Свети Никола", "Богородица Царица с Христос", "Исус Христос", "Свети Йоан Предтеча" и изписаването на царските двери, както и на другите икони от иконостаса, някои от които датирани 1828 година.
В 2008 година църквата и иконостасът са реставрирани.
Бележки
Православни църкви в Албания
Елбасан
Паметници на културата в Албания
Произведения на Самаринската художествена школа
Произведения на Дебърската художествена школа | и, Висарион Джувани и други видни албански национални дейци.
От 1993 година църк | 38 |
JD Franz Research, Inc. is a full-service public opinion, public policy and marketing research firm.
We JD Franz Research, Inc. provides survey research, focus group research, and data analytic services. Survey capabilities include telephone, mail, Internet, and intercept. We also conduct mystery shopping.
We have two research designers, two focus group moderators, and two statisticians among our full-time professional staff. We also have a CATI-equipped call center with full-time, non-interviewing supervisors. Software capabilities include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, SPSS Data Entry, and SPSS for data analysis.
JD Franz Research operates in a standard office setting. Included are professional offices, a supervisory office with monitoring and observational capabilities, and a call center with 20-CATI equipped stations.
JD Franz Research has a broad base<|fim_middle|> staff program all CATI surveys using Ci3 software.
Clients can monitor interviews live, as they are conducted, visually and via audio links.
Our supervisor to interviewer ratio is 1 to 8.
We also employ highly-trained executive level interviewers (for most projects such interviewers represent approximately 20% of our interviewing team).
Note that we do not use predictive or autodialers when contacting potential respondents by telephone.
We conduct all data analysis, including cross-tab creation, in-house.
Cross-tabs are created using SPSS Data Entry and SPSS for Windows software packages.
JD Franz Research is proficient with all types of data analytical techniques. The selection of a particular analytical method is dictated by the type of analysis that is required by the project or is indicated by the data. | of experience and expertise from which to draw.
The topics we have studied are extremely wide-ranging.
We do, however, have particularly extensive experience in conducting studies for local government (especially cities and special districts), for public transportation providers, for airports, on environmental issues, and for organizations providing financial and health care services.
JD Franz Research is an organization that provides public opinion, public policy and marketing research to both the public and commercial sectors. Our core philosophies include being thoroughly ethical in our conduct and delivering a product in which quality is never compromised.
Be fully responsive to customers' needs.
Become a leader in the field with respect to quality, innovation, creativity, and problem-solving.
Provide our employees with a supportive environment in which they can experience job satisfaction and both personal and career development.
JD Franz Research, Inc. was founded in January of 1981 by Dr. Jennifer D. Franz, the firm's President. Over the years, it has grown from a staff of one person working in 85 square feet to a full and part-time staff of approximately 40 people working in close to 3,000 square feet.
Twice, the firm won national quality research product awards, first for a handbook on conducting public opinion surveys and second for a report on the results of its public opinion research.
The firm has conducted literally thousands of public opinion and marketing research surveys during its 24 years of operation, including telephone interviews, in-person interviews, and mail questionnaire surveys. Focus groups conducted by the firm number in the hundreds.
JD Franz Research operates a 20-station, CATI-equipped call center. Our in-house | 333 |
On Friday, Sept. 28, the College of Law will host its second annual Supreme Court Preview program, examining the court in the midst of a politically contentious transition and analyzing a selection of the<|fim_middle|> obtaining CLE credit online. | cases that will be decided this term.
The event, which is open to the public is from 1:30-4:15 p.m. in the Gray Ceremonial Courtroom in Dineen Hall.
The program features speaker Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate, who will open the afternoon with a lecture, "The Supreme Court in Transition: A Supreme Court Reporter's Perspective," reflecting on the impacts that significant court transitions have on the journalists who regularly cover the court.
Lithwick will then join the Hon. Rosemary Pooler of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and College of Law professors Sanjay Chhablani and Margaret Harding for a panel discussion moderated by Vice Dean Keith Bybee.
The panel will preview some of the cases that are currently pending before the court, including cases involving arbitration, the death penalty, the double jeopardy clause, the Armed Career Criminals Act and First Amendment retaliatory arrest, among others. A list of the cases on the docket for the October 2018 term can be found on SCOTUSblog.
See the full schedule and information about | 227 |
The other week (19th March 2010) Sports Relief took place in the United Kingdom. One of the TV specials that built up to the 'telethon' event on the 19th was a programme about Eddie Izzard, a comedian, who had completed a quite extraordinary feat; he ran the equivalent of 43 marathons over the course of 51 days, a total of 1166 miles. I didn't actually watch the programme at the time but had recorded it and finally got round to watching it on Friday evening (9th April).
As a bit of a recreational runner, I have never seriously entertained running a full marathon and consider it quite an achievement (as I prepare for a half-marathon later in 2010)<|fim_middle|> Great Blog Rob!
What this amazingly moving ( and at times difficult to watch) program showed better than any amount of life coaching etc is 'mind over matter'. Having support is absolutely critical too… Without support it is easy to talk yourself out of things with your inner voice. Learning to overirde the negative is a difficult task but well worth it.
What this amazingly moving ( and at times difficult to watch) program showed better than any amount of life coaching etc is 'mind over matter'. Having support is absolutely critical too… Without support it is easy to talk yourself out of things with your inner voice. Learning to overirde the negative is a difficult task but well worth it.
This is a great article, such an achievement – just want to agree with Roberta's comment on the significance of mind over matter – it is so often underestimated just what we CAN do.
And I think you hit on one of the key ways we can achieve just about anything we set our hearts on, Rob, when you said that Eddie took "personal responsibility for completing the task and showed determination to the point of out and out stubborness to make sure that happened ".
We do all need help sometimes from experts but all the experts in the world won't give you sheer bloody-mindedness to just get on and do something. We've all been to those AWFUL meetings where all that's decided by the end of the meeting is that they need another meeting…..I think we need to just get on and do and it's so refreshing to read of someone doing just that!
This is a great article, such an achievement – just want to agree with Roberta's comment on the significance of mind over matter – it is so often underestimated just what we CAN do.
We do all need help sometimes from experts but all the experts in the world won't give you sheer bloody-mindedness to just get on and do something. We've all been to those AWFUL meetings where all that's decided by the end of the meeting is that they need another meeting…..I think we need to just get on and do and it's so refreshing to read of someone doing just that!
Joanne (@joannerourke) – thanks for taking the time to comment no my blog. You are quite correct, we all have to have it within ourselves to get on and get stuff done, if we do not have the motivation internally it is less likely we will succeed. I recognise that meeting culture oh so well, it is such a waste of peoples talents & time. | to have completed 8 miles so I tug my forlock (metaphorically, as I am somewhat folically challenged ;o) ) to anyone who has completed the 26 miles 385 yards of a marathon. Yet, here is a man who with only 6 or 7 weeks training ran a marathon for 6 out of 7 days, for just over 7 weeks. During the programme the attempt was described as ludicrous and it was highlighted that Eddie was carrying a number of injuries and physiological problems that simply meant he was not designed for running. In completing this feat, Eddie Izzard defied the odds and the musings of some of the most respected sports scientists/coaches in the UK Olympic movement.
This entry was posted by Rob Cameron on April 11, 2010 at 6:24 pm, and is filed under Goals. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.
Rob, I am not a great runner, have never competed in any marathons, and I think I ran for a bus once!! But for @EddieIzzard to undertake and complete suc a huge feat is simply amazing, and I can only congratulate him in doing so!! A true hero, showing a bit of British fighting spirit…it's what this country is about!! Great Blog Rob!
Paul ( @PaulWeston33 ) thanks very much for your comment and the humour (as always). You are quite correct the feat completed by Eddie Izzard ( @EddieIzzard ) is immense and shows true grit and determination – a great example to us all of what can be achieved when people put their minds to something and truly commit.
Rob, I am not a great runner, have never competed in any marathons, and I think I ran for a bus once!! But for @EddieIzzard to undertake and complete suc a huge feat is simply amazing, and I can only congratulate him in doing so!! A true hero, showing a bit of British fighting spirit…it's what this country is about!! | 439 |
Getting here Click here for help planning your journey to the Crawley Campus of the University of Western Australia.
Parking on campus is free after 5pm, though it can get busy. The closest car park<|fim_middle|>1932, Winthrop Hall is WA's most spectacular ceremonial space. Seating 974 people, the Hall has played host to many spectacular events, welcoming world-famous artists, Prime Ministers and royalty through its doors.
You can read more about the Hall's history here. | with access bays is Car Park 1. You can get more information here.
Access There are a dozen steps up into the Hall - patrons can instead use the lift. Lift access available from the Undercroft on the south western corner of the building. Access to the lift lobby is through an automated swing door – please press the green button. Seating consists of removable seating; wheelchair spaces are available on the outside ends of the rows.There is no hearing loop.
Toilets An accessible toilet is located by the south-side lift entrance. All other toilets are in the Hall's foyer, and are also accessible by lift.
Lost Property Call 08 6488 2691 in office hours.
Prams For safety reasons, when the Hall is seated prams may not be brought into the Hall. Collapsed prams can be left with our front of house staff.
Smoking The University of Western Australia is smoke free. Smoking is not allowed anywhere on campus.
Built in | 202 |
Singapore (October 18, 2018<|fim_middle|> travel and hospitality industry, Naoki has a strong background in sales and marketing from his roles at Resorts World at Sentosa, Genting International Japan, Agoda, and American Express Nippon Travel Agency. He will be working closely with Ng to support RCI affiliates in Japan and South Korea and strengthen the company's presence in the region. | ) -- RCI Asia Pacific has recently announced the appointment of Isabella Ng as the new director of business development for North Asia.
Ng joined RCI in 2016 and was the incumbent director of business development for the China region. Her portfolio now expands to oversee the whole North Asia region, including Japan and South Korea. She and her team will be responsible for driving RCI's shared business development and growth goals across the region by identifying and developing new and existing business partnerships for RCI with leading tourism developers, hospitality companies and holiday clubs.
Ng brings vast experience in relationship management, leadership and business development in the hospitality and travel industry. Prior to joining RCI, she worked with Orbitz Worldwide, where she was responsible for overseeing the general business performance and partner relationships across the North Asia region. Her portfolio included key hotel chains such as Lotte Hotel Group, Shilla Stay, Prince Hotel Group, Ishin Hotel Group and Miyako Group. Ng was also with Langham Hospitality Group for 10 years and served as director of internet marketing.
"Japan and Korea are two exciting areas of growth for RCI, and we are very pleased to appoint Isabella as the head of business development in these regions. Her long standing track-record of forging relationships in these markets means that RCI can continue to provide great results to our affiliates," said Jonathan Mills, managing director of RCI Asia Pacific & DAE global.
Ng will be supported by Naoki Shimazu, manager, business development for Japan and Korea. With over 10 years of experience in the | 316 |
Andre Rieu-international classical superstar launches national tour in live concert at the TODAY SHOW, NBC-TV
Story and photos by Dwight Casimere
New York--The NBC Plaza at 30 Rockefeller Center was awash "Mit Schlage" and "Gemutlichkeit") (alternating feelings of sentimental emotion and intoxicating warmth and togetherness) when Dutch violinist, composer and classical music superstar Andre Rieu brought his colorfully dressed Johann Strauss before a live international television audience on the Today Show, June 16. The performance was done to herald the start of his national tour, which will bring him to the area's Allstate Arena in Rosemont on June 28th.
The "Celebration of Music" 2010 North American Tour will support the release of his Universal Music Enterprises (UME) CD, "Forever Vienna," which drops the following day, June 29.
Andre Rieu's charismatic demeanor and high-energy style have catapulted him to worldwide fame, matching such stadium concert superstars as The Rolling Stones and U2. His albums have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. The second leg of his tour will commence in Mexico City where nearly 40-thousand fans will witness<|fim_middle|> erect a huge concert stage to accommodate the 55-piece orchestra, featuring some of the world's greatest concert musicians, all dressed in brightly colored costumes that heralded the beginning of summer. For more on the tour, visit www.andrerieu.com.
Andre Rieu-international classical superstar launc...
James Taylor and Carole King launch national tour ...
Michael Feinstein debuts new cabaret home with sty...
Stars of Broadway, TV, Film converge at 2010 Tony ... | his electrifying brand of classical music.
Andre Rieu's shows promise a spectacle like none other. His world stadium tour has the largest transportable set-up ever; with a life-sized replica of a Viennese castle featuring fountains, ice rinks, horse-drawn carriages and flying angels.
NBC's Today Show had to | 67 |
'Cool Grey' Air Jordan 3s Are Returning in Spring 2021
Here's an official look.
By Brandon Richard
The most coveted colorways of the Air Jordan 3 will always be the originals, but one of the more beloved non-original pairs may be in line for a 2021 return.
According to Soleheatonfeet, a pair styled in Silver/Light Graphite-Orange Peel-Sport Red will release early next year. While it's not a confirmation of the "Cool Grey" pair and SHOF suggests it could be something very similar, the color combination is exactly the same as the popular 2007 release. That pair, now 13 years old, goes for a reasonable $350 on the resale market but is highly vulnerable to cracking if worn.
Images of the upcoming retro haven't yet surfaced, but we'll keep you updated with a first look and new developments in the coming months.
UPDATE (07/15): New information regarding next year's "Cool Grey" Air Jordan 3 release has leaked. According to zSneakerheadz and mr_unloved1s, the beloved colorway from 2007 is set to return on Feb. 27, 2021, for $190. Stay tuned to Sole Collector for updates.
UPDATE (10/31): A first look has surfaced of<|fim_middle|> Jordan 3
● Air Jordan
● Air Jordan III
● Jordan
● Jordan Brand | next year's "Cool Grey" Air Jordan 3 release courtesy of S.sam.group. The fan-favorite iteration is slated to return to shelves on Feb. 27, 2021.
UPDATE (11/16): Jordan Brand has confirmed that the "Cool Grey" Air Jordan 3 is returning early next year as part of the brand's Spring 2021 Air Jordan retro lineup. While the specific launch date has yet to be announced, the pair is rumored to drop at select retailers on Feb. 27, 2021 for $190.
Air Jordan 3 Retro "Cool Grey"
Color: Silver/Light Graphite/Orange Peel/Sport Red
Style #: CT8532-012
● Air | 161 |
….. sent to clients 27 February…. Stage by stage, Mark Barnes, Group Chief Executive Officer of South African Post Office (SAPO), appears to be reforming cultures and cleaning out "ten years of decay", as he put it to the Portfolio Committee on Telecommunications and Postal Services.
Introduced by Minister Siyabonga Cwele, Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, on the utility's presentation on its corporate progress report and prospects for the third quarter, CEO Mark Barnes claimed that SAPO is becoming profitable; is well capitalised and the long-awaited corporatisation process is back on track with many of its labour problems sorted out.
When introducing him to new members of the committee, the Minister said that for the last few years SAPO had been facing many challenges, but CEO Barnes, with a new Group Chief Financial Officer, "had put SA<|fim_middle|> for the wrong things. Working money was one thing but depositor's funds and reserves were a completely different issue, he said, and these were the security needed for developmental issues to get SAPO off the starting block.
"This is changing", he said, "and we have to change the corporate customer mindset to show that we can do things again". | PO on the road to recovery".
Because of its struggles with old systems of the past, digging it out of financial mismanagement and the need to pay urgently its creditors, SAPO was given a cash injection from the State. The Minister said this was a good decision. In 2017 SAPO was starting to focus on new businesses, with part of the strategic planning focused on the internet. One of the key goals was corporatisation, the Minister concluded.
Mark Barnes described the position when he took over the reins to save the utility from "self-inflicted suicide" was far worse than was originally thought. He described a process whereby he had to send specialised "swat" teams into each major sorting complex starting with the large Johannesburg complex and eventually to other major towns and cities.
It took months, he said, to "clean up the mess and try to establish order out of chaos", a good deal of which had been caused by the extended postal strike but mainly poor systems and management disinterest.
The delays caused by basic simple clean-up housekeeping held the initial financial assessment back whilst the physical clean-up operations, after years of neglect were undertaken, he said. The "swat" teams eventually established what SAPO assets had and where they were located.
In answer to criticism from Shadow Minister Cameron MacKenzie (DA) who said that "this SAPO report is being prefaced by the same remarks as before" and who added that it "was the same story of promises made last year but re-hashed", CEO Barnes made a rebuttal. He retorted that "It is a mistake to take just a superficial look from the outside. Internal organization is being achieved and we haven't had time to wave flags." He gave a long list of what had been achieved.
Postbank's depositor funds were now standing at R4.9bn, having increased by 128m. Postbank itself had invested R7.3bn, he said. Payables, Barnes also said, were reduced by R531m and the group met liquidity and solvency standards. The Post Office is backed by a R4.2bn Treasury guarantee.
An overdraft of R270m had been repaid and R17m had been realized from the sale of pointless property holdings. Rental from existing tenants had increased and a more suitable and less expensive head office was now being targeted. He said he was always trying to get officials out of their old mindset about SAPO and to realize they were in business.
On the labour front, there were 18,000 less staff this year, Barnes said, "brought about by a process of natural attrition" and it was hoped to transfer a large portion of a "hopelessly overstaffed head office" to operational duties.
If operational revenue failed to provide the necessary improved results in the short term, he said, then a retrenchment programme may have to be negotiated. "It will be tough but that's how it is. The unions are aware of the long-term planning processes that have been undertaken and the alternatives understood", he said.
CEO Barnes expanded on the possibility of SAPO handling all payments of SASSA grants in the light of the volumes of "points of presence which amounted", he repeated, "to approximately 5,000 counter points Postbank is also to make an application to government to both handle all government mail business and a submission to SASSA in the very near future as current hiatus evolves.
He said that they had been talking to National Treasury on the savings to the national fiscus that could be gained. It was agreed that it would take much to achieve this possibility but was highly "do-able".
He said Postbank had sufficient funds of its own to capitalize such a venture with IT networks and training should the security of such a contract be awarded. He commented that ordinary mail had dropped to 50% of original volumes due to the advent of electronic mail.
The plan was now to diversify into courier services probably with a partner and to focus on selling Postbank services at package rates to corporate business.
So far, four offer attempts had been made to "buy in" as partners, CEO Barnes said, all four of which had been found totally unacceptable. There had been an obvious attempt in all cases just to acquire Postbank's extensive national footprint as if a possible merger of interests was a fire sale, in each case contenders having given no consideration to the idea of what "was in it" as a revenue source to Postbank. All propositions were rejected out of hand.
Barnes told Parliamentarians, with the Minister still present at the portfolio committee meeting, that e-commerce in the form of public hubs or malls to the SADC area as well as locally will become a major revenue base for SAPO especially in lower income groups.
Generally, on all fronts, 22 significant projects had been approved, CEO Barnes said, with a further 9 in the project stage; 4 projects were in the procurement stage and others in testing and feasibility stages.
The overall corporate plan forecast is mixed, Barnes said, and whilst revenue has declined significantly on a net basis, which was expected and planned for whilst SAPO re-grouped and cut out unprofitable exercises, it will still meet its corporate plan targets and "looked headed to be back into the black by a small amount in 2016/7", said Barnes.
When it came to the balance sheet, he remarked SAPO still has an extremely large amount of debt which needs to be paid. However, it was important to note that the entity was now solvent and could pay. It also had liquidity in cash of its own available for development.
He told the Committee that the key to SAPO's future was the corporatisation of the Post Bank, with approval to establish the bank being granted by the SA Reserve Bank in July 2016. Preparations were currently underway to submit for registration in February 2017 as a South African Postbank Limited entity with CIPC.
The Postbank staff, operations and balance sheet will transfer from the Postbank division to the new entity after the incorporation process. The Postbank will allow for broader financial inclusion for all South Africans and it has the capacity to do this, he said.
SAPO, he said, had a relatively sophisticated E-commerce infrastructure with a large footprint which allowed it to facilitate speedy connections and deliveries. This, combined with the ports, vehicles and the access SAPO has at airports could make SAPO the E-commerce hub for Africa.
Ms M Shinn (DA) asked whether anything had been done address the security of IT systems and whether SAPO had the money to recruit and retain cyber-security skills. Cameron MacKenzie asked for more information on the SASSA bid.
Outsourcing was now underway and tenders being called for on biometrics, CEO Barnes said, which was the only route to stop fraud, duplicated payments to persons claiming or withdrawing twice under different names; to follow world trends and to get SAPO into the future to serve the nation as it should. Such was necessary if they were to handle the SASSA account which would be a great achievement and was the correct thing to do.
He said that partnerships in the IT sector were very likely to be sought as well as outsourcing, as SAPO, given its size and history, was not going to be able to keep up with the latest developments in the IT sector, nor would SAPO wish to be that expert, he said. Their focus was to get into courier work and banking, not IT. So, partnerships were going to be needed on the right terms.
He said that there had been half-expected problems with the data centre and disaster recovery this year as new equipment was being added to old. Repairs had been undertaken and there were negotiations underway to outsource the work of the data centre.
CEO Barnes said motor vehicles licence renewal processing was up by about R7m transactions in the year but this figure was coming from a very low base.
In response to the question of when was SAPO likely to return to profitability, he re-confirmed that SAPO expects to start trading profitably during the 2018 financial year.
On complaints from the DA that SAPO still needed help from Treasury, Barnes explained that it was the nature of a turnaround situation not use cash in hand | 1,713 |
People around the globe spend countless dollars gambling on the link between their favorite sporting event. Big fans of certain sports bet just for the fun of this , but there are professional sports bettors that make sports betting as their primary source of income. Nonetheless it generally does not matter what type of bettor you're, the two these kinds of bettors have one thing at heart, and that is due to his or her bet to acquire. Therefore due to the, a great deal of individuals that are engaged in online sports gambling desire to learn just how can they're able to increase the odds of their bet<|fim_middle|> mind to bet sensibly. Some online sports gambling websites have a money management system which may help the bettors track their money so that they wont bet a lot more than what they want to reduce.
One other crucial thing that players should possess is learning how to restrain their emotions or feelings. Don't allow your emotions get on your way. Part of the game is losing, there's no sports betting bettor who hasn't lost while in the annals of sports betting betting. However, what's crucial is that you just stay calm even once you lose, as the point of the game will be to become more wins than just lose. That is also true when you are at a winning streak, because most bettors are more aggressive and spontaneous. If you feel it's your lucky day, then do not ruin it by making stakes that are humorous.
Always remember that don't place a bet because you simply really feel good about it. You always have to ensure it is indeed a great bet. Otherwise, you'll just lose your own cash. The key to winning within a online sports gambling is to have a fantastic system of betting and assessing each match. | to acquire.
Winning in a online sports betting involves several elements. A bettor FIFA55 should carefully consider the factors in order for him or her to have a great likelihood of winning. There are many expert advices available online that can enable you to become a professional online sports bettor. Some of these expert advices come with a minor fee however there are many others that are given for free. Here are several tips that you could use in order for you to win and have fun in a online sports gambling.
One of the very important facets when betting online sports on the internet is none apart from the comprehension of the entire game. One must know the way a betting procedure works and learn about the sports gambling lines along with the various types of odds which needs to be followed. There are a few online sports betting internet sites that gives the bettors several tools which may be utilized to appraise the game so you can make the very best choice in whichever sport you will be betting.
Aside from being proficient in the machine and the full sport where you are going to be gambling, it'd continue to be vital that you keep in your | 229 |
Arriving in an unfamiliar country is a stressful experience, even if you've made an effort to learn the local language before<|fim_middle|> common to find entrepreneurs even in the strangest possible locations, and more sites like Smooth World would be a huge improvement on basic Wikipedia pages and endless forums giving conflicting advice at best and bad advice at worst. All expats could benefit from insights into culture, lifestyles, social etiquette and local bureaucracies, as well as how to adjust without compromising their own personalities and abilities. Whether or not they use other services provided by such sites is up to them, but the sites won't survive unless they do. | you left home.
Even if you can communicate to some extent, finding your way around local bureaucracy, renting an apartment or even opening a bank account can be a confusing experience for the newly-arrived expat. In this technological age, using a search engine to find local forums with information which might help you adjust and settle in is one solution, but posts on social media often don't relate to the immediate problems of recently arrived expats.
A recent European start-up using the English language may well be the answer to your dilemma as it includes a good number of targeted, well-researched article covering most aspects of life in your new home. Hints on housing, job-seeking, submitting your CV, renting an apartment and dealing with confusing administrative processes at present relate only to France, but the website is due to expand and include different countries one at a time.
Founder Gaetan Garnotel knows exactly what it's like to arrive in a unfamiliar country and fight to get things right without any previous knowledge of how everything works, with his own experience inspiring him to set up his project, cleverly named Smooth World. He knows exactly how an understanding of the country's culture can ease newcomers into making sense of their new environment. The website's business model aims to provide free articles of interest to relocating expats along with persuading them to use his personalised services to make their transition as smooth as silk. It's a tall order attempting to provide content covering all 27 EU member states as an European startup, but it's needed in these days of migration for personal, political or career-oriented reasons.
Nowadays, it's | 328 |
Zip code means? this was a question that our readers. At first, I thought of answering the question through the comment box, but after thinking about it, I decided, not only to answer through the comment section, but through a blog post too.
So today, I will be sharing with you, the full meaning of Zip codes.
A code which was established by the United States Postal Service, and for the Zip code was established solely for the purposes of identifying a location and routing a/the mail to that location.
A zip code was first, or I should put it, a Zip code was originally 5 digits long, but due to increased locations and other factors, it has now been expanded to 9 digits for more detailed identification.
Although the 5 digit zip code is still sufficient for sending all items of mail, the 9 digit zip code plays a much bigger role.
The newly introduced 9 digits is used primarily by<|fim_middle|> recent renovations and the other was in total disrepair.
You should note here, that one of the most well-known zip codes is "90210". This Zip code is currently the Beverly Hills designation, this famous number was the title of a popular 90's TV show, which was shoot and set in that city. | businesses as they sometimes get a discount for doing so.
Zip code stands for 'Zoning Improvement Plan' code.
Despite being located in the same zip code, the two residences were have nothing in common, one was located in the desired school district and had | 51 |
Our HistoryJenny White2020-01-24T21:44:04+00:00
THE FOUNDATION THEN AND NOW
The Cambridge Community Foundation was one of the first community foundations in the nation, established to make a difference in the lives of Cambridge residents. Created in 1916 to serve as a vehicle for local giving and to address local needs, the Foundation has expanded its commitment to the power of philanthropy and to civic leadership over the past century.
A founding gift from cattleman Jonathan Maynard Parmenter was dedicated to college scholarships, and has since enabled generations of students to study at Harvard College.
As the Foundation's endowment grew through gifts and bequests, it expanded its range of activity. Since the 1950s, organized grantmaking to support nonprofit organizations has steadily increased. Last year, the Foundation awarded $1.7 million in grants to nonprofits and scholarships. That support has also grown more strategic over time, focused on long-term impact and addressing critical community needs.
Today Cambridge stands as an epicenter of a global innovation economy. Yet many residents continue to struggle, and there are unintended consequences of our growth: escalating real estate costs, increases in evictions and homelessness, and loss of the middle class. Too many youth grow up ill equipped to thrive in the very economy that drives the city and the region.
To address these critical challenges, the Foundation works to support systemic change for shared prosperity, social equity, and cultural richness. Help us protect our city's time-tested values. We need community participation to help Cambridge be a diverse, inclusive, and vibrant city for all.
1916 - FOUNDATION ESTABLISHED The Cambridge Foundation, one of the first community foundations in the U.S., is established as a community trust by the Harvard Trust Company "for the purpose of assisting citizens of Cambridge and others in providing for wise and general charity." The first bequest, the Parmenter Fund, is established to provide scholarships for needy students. Continue Reading 1931<|fim_middle|> and community leaders gathered last month to honor Bob Hurlbut, Executive Director of the Cambridge Community Foundation (CCF), who has announced his retirement after 21 years. The May 13 tribute at the Microsoft NERD Center raised around $220,000 in support of the newly launched Hurlbut Legacy Fund for Cambridge. "I was overwhelmed and it has been my good fortune to work with so many good people in Cambridge – agency heads, donors, and those who really care about the city," Bob Hurlbut said. "It is they who deserve Continue Reading 2015 - GEETA PRADHAN NEW FOUNDATION PRESIDENT The Board of Overseers of the Cambridge Community Foundation has named Geeta Pradhan to be its president. She comes from the Boston Foundation, where she oversaw community impact and grantmaking in Education, Health, Jobs, Housing & Neighborhoods and the Arts. Pradhan also played a leading role in a range of initiatives and collaborative ventures, including work on the Fairmount Corridor Initiative, a project on a grand scale which seeks to create greater opportunity for Boston's low-income neighborhoods by improving transit access as well as housing and community economic development through the arts, entrepreneurship, Continue Reading | - COMBINED FUND ESTABLISHED The first Combined Fund is established so that, in addition to starting a fund, donors have the option of giving a gift of any size that is pooled so that it can be "invested with economy" and grants can be disbursed at the discretion of the Distribution Committee, which consists of "Cambridge citizens who are chosen for their knowledge of philanthropic affairs and community needs." Continue Reading 1938 - COLLABORATION IS FORMED The Cambridge Foundation and Cambridge Community Services (the local Red Feather agency / community chest) form a collaboration to support programs of agencies serving the community. Continue Reading 1954 - PUBLISHED FIRST ANNUAL REPORT The Cambridge Foundation publishes its first annual report, reporting to the public on its stewardship of funds totaling $627,000 and grants awarded in Early Childhood Services: $550; Youth Services: $4,925; Senior Services: $350; Community Services: $3,500; Emergency Outreach: $903; in addition to $19,765 in scholarships awarded by the Parmenter Fund. Continue Reading 1964 - ENDOWMENT EXCEEDS ONE MILLION DOLLARS The Cambridge Foundation's endowment exceeds $1 million. Continue Reading 1966 - GRANTS AWARDED Grants awarded in Early Childhood Services: $2,705; Youth Services: $7,630; Senior Services: $1,865; Community Services: $14,523; Emergency Outreach: $900. Continue Reading 1976 - GRANTS AWARDED Grants awarded in Early Childhood Services: $3,650; Youth Services: $13,500; Senior Services: $2,207; Community Services: $15,300; Emergency Outreach: $1,000; Arts and the Environment: $750. Continue Reading 1986 - COMMUNITY ADDED TO NAME "Community" is added to the organization's name in order to better describe the work of the Foundation. The mission of the Cambridge Community Foundation (CCF) is redefined: "To stimulate the establishment of endowments to serve the local community now and in the future. To address community needs by providing leadership and resources." Grants awarded in Early Childhood Services: $9,500; Youth Services: $43,800; Senior Services: $12,732; Community Services: $32,200; Emergency Outreach: $14,000; Arts and the environment: $2,500. Continue Reading 1991 - CELEBRATES 75TH ANNIVERSARY The Cambridge Community Foundation celebrates its 75th anniversary. Mayor Alice Wolf proclaims a week in May as "Cambridge Community Founda- tion Week" commemorating 75 years of service to the community and honoring CCF supported agencies. CCF becomes fiscal agent for the Kendall Community Group, a unique business-community collaboration between corporations in Kendall Square and human service agencies designed to support local youth programs in Area 4. KCG's mission is to provide financial, in-kind, and volunteer support to the Community Art Center, the Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House, and Tutoring Plus of Cambridge, as Continue Reading 1992 - CONVENER OF CAMBRIDGE FUNDERS CCF becomes the convener of Cambridge Funders, which provides an opportunity for Cambridge private and corporate foundations, universities, and banks to network, share ideas on grant making and explore collaborative possibilities while building a broader base for community understanding and philanthropy. Cambridge's selection as one of the "100 Best Communities for Young People" and recognition of the Let's Talk campaign by the National Association of County and City Health Officials reinforced the potential for such teamwork. Together we were making a difference to the City's most vulnerable learners, not to Continue Reading 1993 - FIRST EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR The Cambridge Community Foundation hires its first full-time executive director, after many years of sharing staff with Cambridge Community Services, in order to increase its effectiveness in providing financial support to the City of Cambridge. Continue Reading 1996 - GRANTS AWARDED Grants awarded in 1995–1996 in Early Childhood Services: $10,500; Youth Services: $45,000; Senior Services: $13,160; Community Services: $40,000; Emergency Outreach: $26,500; Arts and the Environment: $9,500. Continue Reading AGENDA FOR CHILDREN DEVELOPED The Cambridge Community Foundation, along with various city departments and over 80 neighborhood groups collaborate in the development of the Agenda for Children. The first goals of this initiative are to promote literacy among children and their families and to assure youth access to supervised activities in nurturing Continue Reading 2001 - AGENDA FOR CHILDREN PLEDGED CCF pledges $100,000 per year for five years to support the Agenda for Children's out-of-school time and early childhood literacy initiatives. Continue Reading 2002 - LEADERSHIP FUND ESTABLISHED The Leadership Fund is established to provide ongoing support to the Foundation's administration. Its purpose is to provide the financial resources to ensure CCF's lasting role as an institution essential to the well-being of Cambridge. Continue Reading 2006 - GROWING BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS The Cambridge Community Foundation has grown leaps and bounds from its modest beginnings. In the past 10 years alone the Foundation has experienced growth of over 150% to the endowment (currently $19.3 mil- lion), and 128% in grants (currently $666,444 from 60 funds) with over 183 agencies served. Grants awarded in 2005–2006 in Early Childhood Services: $58,500; Youth Services: $243,200; Senior Services: $34,466; Community Services: $148,440; Emergency Outreach: $77,500; Arts and the Environment: $62,000. CCF continues to increase its role as a support for Cambridge-serving organizations, a convener of coalitions that identify Continue Reading 2015 - LONGTIME CCF DIRECTOR HONORED About 280 supporters | 1,382 |
Sam Goes to Norway, Day 2
By Sam Hockley-Smith
The most interesting thing about By:Larm is that, like American multi-day festivals, there is always one band that sticks out as the most talked about. This happens without fail. I remember one year at CMJ people talked about The Knife more in four days than their entire career since then, combined. By far the name I heard the most was The Megaphonic Thrift, probably because it seemed like they were playing upwards of five times a day, every day.
Okay that is kind of an exaggeration. But they were playing a lot. Based on band name alone, it's pretty much an automatic skip. It's rare that I've heard such an uninteresting band name applied to a band I actually enjoyed watching. To get it out of the way: Yes, they sound like Sonic Youth—a lot like Sonic Youth. Everyone knows it—the band probably knows it too—but there's something in that acceptance that makes it great. An unabashed pairing of monotone boy-girl vocals and the kind of driving guitar feedback that made everyone love Sonic<|fim_middle|>ley-Smith
By:Larm, Norway, Sam Hockley-Smith | Youth in the first place. Basically the band got on stage, didn't say much, played their set and then got off just in time for the club to shepherd anyone over 18 (everyone was over 18) out of the room so their youth rock night could begin.
Here's where it gets a little weird. The festival is laid out in a way complimentary to the already somewhat confusing downtown Oslo. Most venues are within a five minute walking distance of each other, so once you actually get your bearings it's pretty easy to club hop. The Rockefeller was a cavernous concert hall with multiple stages designed for everyone from the smaller bands to the kind of band that can fill out a multi-tiered setup without even trying. Manna is a Finnish artist who takes a few cues from PJ Harvey and Karen O in a way that makes me mostly ambivalent about the music itself. She can certainly sing. Her songs are solid if unremarkable. But her stage presence makes her shine. Not shines in a way that makes me think, Oh boy the press she gets from this blog post is really going to get her going, but more shines in the way that two years from now when she's headlining a show at a stadium the size of a small city, I'll be like…well at least I called the stage presence thing. In summary: the music wasn't my deal, but she's got the kind of star power that makes me feel like a sleazy record executive that actually says things like "star power."
Before I flew to Oslo, the first question I would get asked was if I was going to see a lot of Black Metal. The answer was always No, probably not. This is more of a pop-based festival, but there's still room for baby steps into the scene. Altaar played at the Stereogum party, which was on the roof of the same building I caught Fontan the night before. There was an awesome patio I totally would have hung out on if it wasn't covered in snow and if the chairs didn't look like they were made out of cold steel.
Here was another band that could have benefited from a longer set, as their songs often consisted of endless circular riffs beaten into guitars. I'd be surprised if any of them even worked by the end of the show. Mainly though, I've been shocked by the acceptance of black metal in the US. It's a pretty impenetrable genre, yet those first, cautious moves have been made to bring bands like Altaar into the more mainstream, safe rock world. The following morning I was informed that there will soon be a night (day?) in Oslo designed to introduce six and seven year olds to the genre. More on that hopefully soon.
Finally it was back to Sentrum Scene—where I previously zoned out to Supersilent on a vaguely uncomfortable step—to catch Serena Maneesh, who, of all the bands playing the festival, have a pretty decent US following as well. By the time I got inside, the place was wall to wall packed and I was forced to head to the second tier of the venue—where the band all looked like tiny bugs, except spindly bassist Hilma Nikolaisen, who looked like a praying mantis stalking around the stage. If you're unfamiliar with the band, they owe a pretty huge debt to My Bloody Valentine, piling layers of reverb on top of each other until the experience—a whopping 45 minutes compared to most bands' normal 30—feels exhausting. Never has being repeatedly punched in the face with noise felt so appealing.
Sam Hock | 741 |
❶You must also evaluate and comment on each study's worth and validity. What is a Literature Review?.
Understanding cultural differences between researchers and<|fim_middle|>. This helps to eliminate the non-relevant work and also some of the lower quality research. If it sets off alarm bells, there may be something wrong, and the paper is probably of a low quality. But be very careful not to fall into the trap of rejecting research just because it conflicts with your hypothesis. Failure to do this will completely invalidate the literature review and potentially undermine the research project.
Any research that may be relevant should be moved to the shortlist folder. The next stage is to critically evaluate the paper and decide if the research is sufficient quality. Think about it this way: A smaller number of quality sources is far preferable than a long but irrelevant list.
Conducting a good literature review takes patience and is a matter of practice. Take solace that even the best scientists can fall into the trap of using poor evidence.
If your research program is well constructed, a less-than-perfect literature review will not affect the results. Check out our quiz-page with tests about:. Martyn Shuttleworth Sep 16, What is a Literature Review?. Retrieved Sep 13, from Explorable. The text in this article is licensed under the Creative Commons-License Attribution 4. You can use it freely with some kind of link , and we're also okay with people reprinting in publications like books, blogs, newsletters, course-material, papers, wikipedia and presentations with clear attribution.
Integrative literature review reviews, critiques, and synthesizes secondary data about research topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are eroticlesbian.ml your research does not involve primary data collection and data analysis, then using integrative literature review will be your only option. Sources for the literature and examples. Your literature review should integrate a wide range of sources such as: eroticlesbian.mloks remain as the most important source to find models and theories related to the research . | decisionmakers. Addressing ethical, legal, or social implications ELSI of a research report.
The few initial articles that had been reviewed before the key themes emerged were re-reviewed to specifically identify key themes. A third reviewer read all of the articles deemed relevant by the two primary reviewers and resolved any disagreements about the relevance of a given article. In addition, to address the goal of understanding the technical aspects of developing an SOW, a standard text entitled Delivering Project Excellence with the Statement of Work by Michael G.
Martin 2 was read by one reviewer, who provided the other two reviewers with a written summary. This book describes the development of a successful statement of work from a management perspective.
Information gathered from this text provided a foundation for thinking about statements of work. Other books from project management, 3 — 7 risk analysis, 8 business, 9 government contracting, 10 — 13 and qualitative analysis, 14 — 16 were used for background information, and written summaries of the relevant information were shared with all reviewers.
In reviewing the literature, we concluded that the major themes were conceptually similar to those uncovered in the informant interview, although they were perhaps articulated a bit differently.
Indeed, we were able to regroup the 11 themes above into the three areas covered by the informant interview: Thus, for simplicity of exposition, we focus here on specific insights proposed in the literature linked to each of the three themes.
The differences between researchers and decisionmakers are manifest in multiple fundamental ways, ranging from the way they choose to craft questions as researchable bites vs. Decisionmakers have frequent, absolute deadlines; if a report is not available for a meeting at which a decision is made, it is useless.
Assuming that researchers and policymakers articulate key questions in researchable form, and bridge misunderstandings during project development, cultural differences may still sabotage the final product. Lomas points out that researchers and decisionmakers tend to connect more frequently at the end of a research project, when trying to generate a final product. Different professional cultures generate different visions of the end product. Sorian and Baugh's survey of State government decisionmakers revealed that aides to decisionmakers may read longer evidence reports, but decisionmakers often need shorter, simpler end products than researchers envision.
The literature supports the notion of approaching cultural differences through active education and integration. Many studies advocated communication between researchers and decisionmakers as early as possible, even during the proposal stage. Looking Beyond Health is that researchers should ask about the policy implications of the questions they are considering, if they are not explicitly told.
In addition to concerns raised in the Step 1 interviews, the literature provided additional insight into strategic concerns. As a measure of what resources such work might require, a study of applied research organizations in Canada revealed that on average, 14 percent of organizational budget went to knowledge transfer. One strategic determinant of a successful technical report is clear definition of roles and responsibilities.
As described by Ross et al. A related issue is the importance of establishing the operational definition of non-normativity. Typically, EPC reports are intended to inform, not direct, policy.
Sorian and Baugh's survey of State government decisionmakers revealed that decisionmakers want to see potential implications of various decisions within evidence reports, but not researcher opinion.
Two crucial resource issues are accounting for project costs when the true costs are not known until work begins, and adjusting funding to account for changes in project scope, as when new issues become apparent.
One issue raised in the literature is the critical importance of the due diligence phase. It is customary to pay contractors during the due diligence phase. A contracting concept relevant to the production of policy reports is that of the relational contract. Relational contract theory suggests that current Federal contracting practices overemphasize fixed-pricing and bottom line price competition.
The SOO formally requires parties to work together to define the contractual requirements. Third, the partner or knowledge broker would conduct an initial competition. The next stage is to use the internet, and this is where the difficulties begin. It can be helpful to structure your internet research as if it were conducted on paper.
The easiest way is to scan the work, using the abstract and introduction as guides | 853 |
Dr. Farouk Shami Appointed National Defense University Foundation's Special Representative & Adviser For International Affairs - Behindthechair.com
News > News > Dr. Farouk Shami Appointed National Defense University Foundation's Special Representative & Adviser For International Affairs
Dr. Farouk Shami Appointed National Defense University Foundation's Special Representative & Adviser For International Affairs
National Defense University (NDU) Foundation Chairman and retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Jack A. Pellicci recently appointed Dr. Farouk Shami, Founder and Chairman of Farouk Systems, Inc., as the Foundation's Special Representative and Adviser for International Affairs. Farouk has served the NDU Foundation as a Board Member for the past 7 years, and his dedication and generous support has significantly enhanced the goals for all graduates and especially for the International Fellows.
The NDU Foundation seeks to drive excellence and innovation in the faculty and student body through external partnerships, financial support and original initiatives, bringing together industry and individuals with military, diplomatic and intelligence leaders to ensure our collective national and international security.
Farouk's appointment as the NDU Foundation Special Representative and Adviser for International Affairs was overwhelmingly accepted by NDU President, VADM Fritz Roegge; his Senior Vice President Ambassador, Mike Hammer; the newly appointed Director of the International Student Management Office (ISMO), Ambassador Mekila James; and her deputy Jorge Asunce.
The purpose of this position is to significantly strengthen ties between the Foundation, the International Fellows, the ISMO and the University. The decision was based on Farouk's involvement with, and support for, the International Fellows Program and his extensive international business experience. His guidance and counsel to the NDU Foundation will be extremely valuable to help increase support of the NDU International Fellows Program. Equally important is that it will emphasize the<|fim_middle|>ows (IF) program to the long-term strategic interests of the United States.
Farouk came to America more than 50 years ago. Growing up in Palestine, he learned the importance of peace in the world and how he wanted to make a difference. He arrived in America with only $71 dollars in his pocket as a student, however, he entered cosmetology school and secured his license as a hairdresser. It was here that he began to utilize his profession as a platform to bring people together and create environmentally conscious and safer hair care products and haircolor. After forming his own company with his best friend and business partner, John McCall, Farouk Systems, Inc. became the makers of BioSilk® and CHI® in 1986. He has since attained 25 patents and distributes his products worldwide.
Farouk has also helped build schools for education and manufacturing plants in the Middle East to help those in need of a career or simply a job. Here in the United States, his company has more than 500 CHI® Partner Schools to help educate students in the field of cosmetology and employs more than 2000 people. He stands as a leader in protecting the environment, holding true to strong ethics and devoting his time to the betterment of mankind and the world.
In addition to his humanitarian efforts, Farouk serves on the board for many organizations and is a frequent speaker on leadership at Harvard University. His many awards include: The Palestinian Diaspora Award, The International Salon/Spa Business Network (ISBN) Legend Award, Apollo Green Award, Beautymaker Award (BMA) and BMA's First World Humanitarian, Arab American Businessman of the Year, 2003 Ameristar Award and 2018 Outstanding Arab American Philanthropist Award to name a few.
"This appointment is truly an honor and I am most grateful to the NDU, NDU Foundation and the Board of Directors for this wonderful opportunity," says Farouk. "Serving the interest of the United States of America and honoring our military has, and always will be, a priority in my life. This is the land of opportunity that has allowed me to live the American dream, serve my country and be American by choice."
Farouk R. Shami II Appointed Vice President Of Operations
Farouk Systems Inc. Appoints Edwin Hofstede As Managing Director For Europe
A Cut Above the Rest: Project Runway Winner Gets Exclusive Role with CHI
Lisa Marie Garcia Promoted to President of Innovation | increasing importance of the International Fell | 6 |
The University of South Dakota strives to be inclusive of many different groups including GLBTIQ students, staff, and faculty. As our country continues to struggle to be inclusive of GLBTIQ individuals at all levels of society, many higher education institutions - including USD - are investing in education for students, staff, and faculty.
We want to create a climate that is inclusive, safe and welcoming to members of the GL<|fim_middle|> members of the USD GLBTIQ community.
This Safe Zone Training Program consists of nine modules which appear on the right-hand side of the page. After you have reviewed the modules, take the Safe Zone Training Quiz. If you achieve 80 percent correct answers, you will receive a Safe Zone training certificate for display.
This Safe Zone Online Training Program was adapted from the online initiative at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) and from the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Safe Zone Training Manual. | BTIQ community. As part of Inclusive Excellence, USD's diversity strategic initiative, we've created an online training program to help create safe zones for members of the GLBTIQ community. Creating a safe zone means establishing a network of supportive people who can provide support, information, and a safe place for GLBTIQ individuals within our campus community.
We designed this online training to create greater awareness of issues, challenges, and opportunities facing GLBTIQ individuals. The program modules address a range of issues in the GLBTIQ community. This is an introduction to different facets of this very important USD community.
Thanks for your willingness to undertake this training and efforts to create a welcoming, safe, and inclusive environment for | 142 |
Recently our intrepid Jillian Brash went on an adventurous trip throughout Thailand. Along the way she undertook some charitable works in a Hill Village in Thailand helping them rebuild some of their key structures. In addition to the established<|fim_middle|> the kids were always playing.
Thank you to everyone who donated and made this possible. | volunteering on her programmer she also wanted to bring a little Artistic fun and joy along for the children.
From the generous donations I received at our Art Exhibition and before leaving for Northern Thailand I purchased colouring and painting materials, watercolour paints, paper, palettes and donated brushes.
I held a 2 1/2hr class underneath our accommodation with a total of 20 children by the end of the class.
Our guide Paew was my interpreter and at the end of the class we had an 'official' handover.
Also using the chalk sticks I drew out 3 hopscotches down the concrete driveway, teaching Paew first how to play then she instructed the children.
They all enjoyed this game and for the following days | 151 |
It's been<|fim_middle|> the bitter end. | a long time coming but finally the follow up to 2007's Human The Death Dance drops and it sees Mr. Francis all grown up. I remember seeing Sage Francis at Plastic People many many years ago as he stood in the middle of the crowd spitting venomously into his mic and backed by a CD of recorded beats that he himself had to operate. Well Li(f)e is a far cry from that set up and is the first time Sage's unique and intricate poetry is given the panoramic backdrop of a a full and live band, not to mention the guest appearances. Opener Little Houdini sees Sage hook up with Grandaddy's Jason Lytle and Slow Man teems up with Joey Burns of Calexico. The result is a far richer concoction and one that works on may levels. It's more low key than previous releases and the warmth with which his beats emanate seem to give Sage's rhymes more body.
Three Sheets To The Wind livens up the general slow pace with Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla on guitar, Slow Man shimmers with midwest heat and closer The Best OF Times continues Sage's tradition of ending on an epic note. WIth rich orchestration he wrenches the heartstrings to | 253 |
Libertarians Hold Online Presidential Caucus
Press Releases / By Website Staff / December 1, 2019 December 1, 2019 / Leave a Comment
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Patrick Glasgow
Libertarians in Ohio will get the chance to express their preference for the party's 2020 Presidential nominee in an online Presidential Caucus, to be conducted from March 16 to 21. The caucus will be hosted by votefreeohio.com.
The Libertarian Party will hold its 2020 National Convention in Austin, TX, from May 21 to 25, 2020. Delegates from across the country<|fim_middle|> determine the eventual winner and, as is always the case in LP elections, "none of the above" will always be an option.
While the caucus results are non-binding, the process is important, given the LPO's stakes in the 2020 Presidential election. Thanks to the draconian ballot access law passed in 2013 by a Republican legislative majority and signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich, the Libertarian candidate for President must gain 3% of the vote in order to stay on the ballot. "We need to get our activists excited about our candidates and the process," Glasgow explained. "This caucus, we hope, will be the first step in doing this." | , including Ohio, will nominate candidates for President and Vice-President, as well as conducting other business and selecting party officials. Ohio LP delegates are not bound by the results of the caucus. Nonetheless, it is an important way for the rank and file members of the party to make their preferences known. LPO Political Director Patrick Glasgow said, "Because the State of Ohio denies presidential primaries to minor parties, it is important to our Delegation that we know the opinion of the state membership for the presidential nominee."
Glasgow explained that candidate participation will be limited to Libertarian candidates who have filed with the Federal Elections Commission and have more than $1 in their account. "The LP is a serious political party," he stated. "As Libertarians, we may not always be happy about the rules of the game as set by the two legacy parties and their representatives. But we feel that we're stuck with them until we're in a position to change them." Instant runoff voting, also known as ranked choice voting, will be used to | 206 |
Steve Harley Acoustic Band
Sun 16 May , 7:30pm Pavilion Arts Centrebutton--dates-and-timesDates & Times
Please note: this event has been rescheduled from Saturday 26 September 2020.
Widely considered one of the most charismatic performers on stage, Steve Harley continues to play<|fim_middle|>The acoustic sets for 2020 will include songs from the new CD, plus a selection from the vast and eclectic Harley Songbook. Mr Soft, Judy Teen, Sebastian and the legendary Make Me Smile will all be re-produced in the unique acoustic style.
Sun 16 May 7:30pm | to sold-out venues across the UK and Europe.
For Steve, life on the road is more than just a job: it is almost his life's blood. And with the February 2020 release of the all-acoustic CD, Uncovered, the original Cockney Rebel shows no sign of slowing down.
The Acoustic Band for 2020 will find Steve supported by long-standing violinist/guitarist Barry Wickens, Oli Hayhurst on double bass, with Dave Delarre on lead guitar.
Steve has been playing live shows around the world for over 45 years and the thrill of another night in another place to another audience has not dimmed at all.
Uncovered includes a re-recording of Steve's own highly-esteemed song Love, Compared With You with a newly composed third verse, plus his thus-far unrecorded Only You, and nine other songs he's always wanted to perform. The album features Barry Wickens on viola and acoustic guitar, Oli Hayhurst on double bass, Tom Hooper on percussion and the Roots Music Legend, Martin Simpson, on guitar. Steve also sings a duet with the amazing Scottish singer, Eddi Reader.
| 246 |
Dragonflies / Damselflies
Dragonflies and damselflies belong to the order Odonata. There about 5,500 species worldwide and 430 species in North America. It is one of the largest aquatic insect orders, giving them an important role in aquatic ecosystems. They differ from other insects by having 4 cellophane-like wings of equal length and tiny, bristle-like antennae. The Odonata represent one of the most primitive living insect groups. Protodonata, the probable ancestors of Odonata, lived about 300 million years ago and some had 2 foot wingspans. The closest living relatives are the mayflies. Odonates retain some primitive features such as the inability to fold the wings flat and fanlike over the abdomen, dense wing venation and the fact that each wing is fully functional and independently movable. Odonates do not undergo complete metamorphosis because they skip the pupal stage, with the lar<|fim_middle|>
Pond Damsels
Spread-winged Damselflies | va transforming directly into the adult. They are some of the most beneficial insects because they are voracious predators and their main prey species are mosquitoes.
Dragonflies are generally larger and more robust than damselflies. The larvae hatch from eggs laid in water, on aquatic plants or along river banks. Dragonflies spend most of their lives underwater as larvae. The larvae have stout, pointed terminal appendages. When development is complete the larva leaves the water and climbs onto a rock or plant stem to emerge from its larval skin (exuvia) as an adult dragonfly. This is the most dangerous time in its life because it is unable to fly for the first hour or two and is very vulnerable to predation from birds and other insects. The juvenile dragonfly moves away from the water and spends a few weeks feeding until sexually mature when it returns to the water to mate. The male claspers (appendages at the end of the abdomen) are used to capture females for mating. Most male dragonflies have an apparatus which allows them to remove sperm from a female that has been deposited by another male. Since the eggs are actually fertilized by the last male that mates with her, the males in some species guard the female while she is laying eggs to drive away other males. Dragonflies usually perch with the wings straight out to the sides, although a few species hold them downward.
Damselflies are generally smaller and weaker fliers than dragonflies. Most damselflies perch with the wings pressed together over the back, however, the Spreadwings hold them partly spread. Damselfly larvae have terminal appendages that are 3 "leaf-like" gills. Their life stages are the same as for dragonflies.
Disclaimer: The content of NatureSearch is provided by dedicated volunteer Naturalists of Fontenelle Nature Association who strive to provide the most accurate information available. Contributors of the images retain their copyrights. The point of contact for this page is: Babs Padelford.
Home > Insects > Dragonflies / Damselflies
Broad-winged Damselflies
Clubtails
Darners | 426 |
Mario Giacinto Peracca (21 November 1861, Turin – 23 May 1923, Turin) was an Italian<|fim_middle|> frog (Xenopus clivii), Mantidactylus peraccae, Anolis peraccae, and Lepidoblepharis peraccae, the latter three species being described by his friend, George Albert Boulenger (1858–1937).
Publications
Descrizione di nuove specie di Rettili e Anfibi di Madagascar, 1892.
Viaggio del Dr. Enrico Festa nella Repubblica dell'Ecuador e regioni vicine. VI. Rettili, 1897.
Viaggio del Dr. Enrico Festa nell'Ecuador e regioni vicine. Rettili ed Anfibi, 1904.
"The Life and Herpetological Contributions of Mario Giacinto Peracca (1861-1923)", Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 2007, 570 pp.
See also
Raymond Rollinat
References
External links
SSARHerps (biography).
Italian zoologists
Scientists from Turin
University of Turin alumni
1861 births
1923 deaths | herpetologist.
He discovered zoology through his father, an amateur ornithologist. He started taking medical classes at the University of Turin, with his studies eventually turning to zoology. In 1886, he obtained his degree from the university under the direction of Michele Lessona (1823-1894). After graduation, he remained in Turin as an assistant to Lessona, and later Lorenzo Camerano (1856-1917), at the zoological institute. Here he worked until his retirement in 1920.
At the zoological institute, he served as curator of herpetological collections. Among the specimens at the museum were reptiles and amphibians that were produced at his estate, where he kept a large temperature-controlled vivarium with tropical plants, containing animals that included giant salamanders and Galapagos tortoises.
Many of his written works dealt with herpetological collections from South America and Africa (including Madagascar), with some publications on specimens from Italy, the Middle East, China and Australia. He was the taxonomic authority of numerous reptile and amphibian species, and has several species named after him, such as Peracca's clawed | 253 |
If our life is just a mirror of our previous actions and thoughts I'd love to design the future life now, so I know that every single moment leads me to life I'd only be dreaming about. Many times I feel like am dreaming while traveling but at the same time I know that at the certain point I need to stop and make money. At that point I'll be back to the normal life.
Recently I've met wonderful Colombians who showed me another lifestyle. The type of lifestyle that most of us only dream about. Lifestyle with the great weather for the whole year, decent salary and many days off, kind friends who are not afraid to say I love you, I like you. Life with good home made food, positive family vibe, love, joy and fun without falling into boredom I usually can experience while hanging out with random backpackers.
I decided to take a day break from crazy Colombian nights and think what's next. I need to design a rough plan for my life for next few years.
1. Traveling across South America and maybe Africa finishing at Israel.
2. Learning decent level of conversational Spanish.
My long term goals are mystery even for myself. Apart from obvious (family, health, good money, good friends, lots of fun, happiness) I can't make a decision where I want to live, what I want to do for living. It's probably nothing new for most of us. Especially for these who have seen many countries, met zillions of different people and experienced lifestyles on the edge. Maybe it's time to start asking questions, look for some answers and get focused on few options rather then dream about many opportunities without taking actions.
It's so easy to loose control over your life chasing party after party, sightseeing galleries after museums, trekking after snorkeling, dancing, kissing and sleeping with the most amazing women a man can only imagine, killing time at the hostels with fellow travelers, wandering around the colonial towns with camera, taking photos of strangers, friends, kids, girls, students, streets, shops, parks.
It's been already 10 days in Medellin and I feel like I am stuck in one place for ages. Too many new experiences to even think about. It's like waking<|fim_middle|>wasz bedzie ci otoczka i oslona. Jestes czlowiekiem ktory nie raz udowodnil ze granice sa tam gdzie my je stawiamy a nie tam gdzie je znajdujemy. Jestes wielki i nie pozwol by ktos lub cos wlalo ci lyzke dziegdziu do beczki miodu. Emocje ktore odczuwasz sa tak pelne i wspaniale.
it's a pleasure coming back here every now and then.
pictures are pictures, I believe you create some tension only with your reflections, just like in the post here.
what I dislike, however, is when you regularly get into this simplistic view of things, dichotomy between boring life and its cool antithesis, "the type of lifestyle that most of us only dream about".
spanish must be a good bet, but trust me: the real misery is that you let your german go slack, ha ha! | up and being pushed into the happy train, not having a time to think about life, not because lack of time, but rather because of constant emotional or physical hangover and insecurity. It's like being a teenager who enjoys every moment of holidays but subconsciously knows that soon or later has to go to school and wake up at 6.30 in the morning in order to reach school and trying hard not to feel asleep caused by boring teachers and unrealistic school programs.
Where I want to live? Or maybe I should stay gypsy forever. I am not a big fan of cold weather, lack of sun, waking up early in the morning, seeing depressed or complaining people, drinking every night in order to forget miserable life and lack of real human affection while being sober. I feel sorry being surrounded by people who value the most money, carrier, celebrities, tv and social status. I also hate doing boring stuff. So I need to take some time and think what's next and how to prevent myself from samsara.
Are you familiar with that feeling? Any thoughts?
Es verdad que a veces somos un poco ciegos y no disfrutamos nuestra vida (somos muy cotidianos)y olvidamos que la vida es para Conocer, Disfrutar y Ser Felices con lo que queremos hacer, y enfrentar nuestros miedos.
Hm. Chlopie. podrozuj ile mozesz, a potem? No coz. Niech to co przezy | 307 |
This has been such an exciting season at YWAM Yosemite<|fim_middle|> just in the nick of time. Fall 2016, we're comin' for ya! | . Such a crazy, full, beautiful, exciting season. We're in the midst of prepping for the biggest DTS we've ever had, and it's included a three-week jaunt to Greece and back, belaying the base director up a tree, one brand-new staff member (Yay Pam!!), several brief escapes into the backcountry, and about 215 gallons of coffee. It's the best!There are times I just stand in the parking lot and think back to the first time I ever saw the property that would become our base. There were weeds up to my knees and a bare, sunbaked look to everything around me, but I remember the light in my friends' eyes as we gestured to where we would someday build seven-story dorms and a great big dining hall to hold several hundred of our closest friends. The land and buildings didn't even belong to us when we started dreaming those dreams. For that matter, I wasn't planning on ever coming back to staff here! But here we are, two years later... and while the "dorms" are still an old cement house and the dining hall comfortably seats about 24, they're ours all the same. I'm staffing my first-ever DTS, we've got a new tent-cabin coming together behind the offices, and there's a team of people halfway around the world making Jesus known in the tents of a refugee camp. I never could have imagined this… and it's just barely the beginning! This season has taught me, if nothing else, that God is able to do far more than we could ever ask. Someday I will stand in the parking lot of YWAM Yosemite as we break ground on buildings we haven't even thought of yet. Someday I will stand in the entrance of those buildings to welcome in students who haven't even yet met the Lord. Someday soon, dear friends will return from Greece and graduate their DTS, and go on to become pastors and teachers, missionaries and engineers and artists who love Jesus more than life itself. And it will be by no power of our own that any of this has come about. We serve the God of surprises, the God of abundant life and new beginnings and promises fulfilled, the King of Kings before whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. We serve the One who knows each hair on our heads and who is redeeming all people back to Himself. He makes rivers spring up from the dry earth and provides tent-cabins | 515 |
Mischief and Mystery in Moomin Valley
The Albany · 25 NOV - 25 NOV
Open a book and discover a world where anything is possible.
Be sure to pack your imagination and join us on<|fim_middle|> SE8 4AG London, UK · Get Directions
Get Lost and Found | an unforgettable journey to Moomin Valley where everyone is welcome, nature thrives and adventures are plentiful. Magical puppetry, an ingenious set, original music and interactive play will delight young audiences and encourage them to immerse themselves in a unique participatory story-telling experience. Expect snow, surprises and plenty of Moomin mischief!
Based on the much-loved Moominland novels by Tove Jansson, this gentle heart-warming show tells the story of a year in Moominvalley. Moomintroll wakes up in the middle of winter with a "something- wrong -feeling". There's no sign of his good friend Snufkin, or the note Snufkin left him. As winter turns to Spring Snufkin returns, the days lengthen into a lazy summer and "the sea brings them all the adventures they could wish for". Autumn barges in and Snufkin leaves once more for the Lonely Mountains.
Each section of the story has an interactive element; audience members have a snowball fight, building a camp-fire and go sea-swimming. The characters of Moomintroll, Snufkin, Little My and Thingummy & Bob are brought to life with 2D rod puppets and life size 3D puppets. The show uses beautiful original music and songs, and pre-recorded narration. The iconic Tove Jansson illustrations are recreated in a magical pop up book.
Sun 25 Nov, 11am, 1pm & 3pm
The Albany
Douglas Way, Deptford | 319 |
PRAISE FOR _Faster Than Normal_
"Peter is a pioneer, an adventurer, an inventor, and a seer. His advice is the best kind of advice. It is advice learned in the trenches, in the arena, on the fields of life."
—Edward Hallowell, MD, bestselling author of _Driven to Distraction_
"Peter Shankman is living proof that living outside the bell-shaped curve, combined with a drive to succeed, can produce amazing results."
—Jordan D. Metzl, MD, author of _The Exercise Cure_
"While ADHD may be considered a 'deficit' to some, Shankman positions it as an attribute within the context of our immediate future. ADHD is a unique gift of creative synthesis that makes sense only inside the complex digital networks and hyperstimulation that now define us."
—Amanda Steinberg, CEO of Worth Financial Management and author of _Worth It_
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
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Copyright © 2017 by Peter Shankman
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Shankman, Peter, author.
Title: Faster than normal : turbocharge your focus, productivity, and success with the secrets of the ADHD brain / Peter Shankman ; foreword by Edward Hallowell.
Description: New York, New York : TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, [2017] | "A Tarcherperigee book." | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017014311 (print) | LCCN 2017031342 (ebook) | ISBN 9781524704995 (ebook) | ISBN 9780143131229 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Attention-deficit-disordered adults. | Success. | Self-care, Health. | BISAC: PSYCHOLOGY / Psychopathology / Attention-Deficit Disorder (ADD-ADHD). | SELF-HELP / Time Management. | SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / Success.
Classification: LCC RC394.A85 (ebook) | LCC RC394.A85 S53 2017 (print) | DDC 616.85/89—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017014311
Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, procedures, and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician. All matters regarding your health require medical supervision. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book.
Cover design: Will Staehle
Version_1
# Contents
Foreword by Edward Hallowell, M.D.
Chapter One
An Introduction to the World of Attention Deficit . . . Ooh! Shiny!
Chapter Two
A Very Brief (Because ADHD) History of ADHD and How the World and Anything Cool in It Was Built by People with ADHD (and Four Ways You Can Be Like Them Right Now)
Chapter Three
The Four ADHD Undeniable Life Rules
Chapter Four
Triggers: How to Minimize—or Even Eliminate—Your ADHD Hot Buttons
Chapter Five
ADHD and Productivity: The Tools I Use, Both Digital and Analog, to Run My Life
Chapter Six
ADHD and the People You Care About. Like Students, Loved Ones, and the People Who Care About You. And ADHD. Oh, Wait, I Said That Already. What's on TV?
Chapter Seven
Wrapping It All Up: What We Can Take Away from . . . Wait . . . What Were We Talking About, Again?
_Acknowledgments_
_Index_
_About the Author_
# Foreword
# _By Edward Hallowell, M.D._
ABOUT A YEAR ago, a man came to my office in New York City (117 West Seventy-second Street, third floor, if you are ever in the neighborhood and would like to drop in) to interview me for his soon-to-be-launched podcast called _Faster Than Normal_. I was interested because, with no small degree of trepidation, I had recently launched a podcast of my own, called _Distraction_. But unlike my visitor, I was and am a rank novice, a thoroughgoing nitwit at marketing and self-promotion, so I was eager to learn from this man who was about to interview me. His name was—is—Peter Shankman.
I don't believe I had ever met him before. You may think it strange that I say I don't believe I had met him before, that I cannot say for sure whether I had met Mr. Shankman prior to that day in my office, but it is, I'm afraid, altogether typical of the workings of my mind that I do not always have at my fingertips an awareness of where I've been, what I've done, or the people I have met. My reality changes its contours on a daily, indeed hourly basis.
So I felt somewhat on edge as I rose to greet Mr. Shankman, whom I now call Peter. Should I embrace him, as if he were an old friend, or should I extend my hand as if this were the first time we'd met, or should I do something somewhere in between? I was pretty sure the first option was out; even I remember dear old friends. But what if I had met him once or twice before? It would be awkward to say, "Good to meet you," only to put him in the dicey spot of having to think of some way to tactfully let me know we'd met before.
To my great relief Peter simply whisked into the room, started talking, and began to set up his equipment. I need not have worried a whit. He instantly understood, or intuited, my situation and carried the ball without a pause or a twitch.
So it was that two men, one thirty-three years older than the other (yes, I am the older), both of whose brains are, to use Peter's adept term, "faster than normal," came to meet (for the ?th time) and begin, or resume, a lovely relationship.
What happened between Peter's entering the room and our embrace upon his leaving it (yes, in that hour or so we reached embracing terms) could serve as a documentary of the workings of faster than normal brains.
Time raced by. Put differently, time disappeared. We completed each other's thoughts, added on to each other's sentences, interrupted without giving or taking offense, took in each other's words and ideas ("take in" is more what people like us do, as opposed to "listen to"), pumped energy back and forth, while Peter conducted what could be called an interview but was more like a conversational jitterbug.
I am still just getting to know Peter, but at the same time, I feel as if I've known him forever. There is a similarity among people with the kind of brain we share. There are major differences, to be sure, as each one of us is unique. But in a fundamental way, I "knew" Peter after about eleven seconds, and, I daresay, he "knew" me.
Peter and I share a desire to celebrate this kind of brain, while at the same time offering pointers on how to get the best out of it, and dodge the worst. I've had sixty-seven years of living with this kind of brain—my own—and thirty-five years seeing patients who have it. I've also written six different books about it. I came to my place via a classical education and medical school; Peter came to it by the extraordinary power of his imagination, intuition, and drive.
Plus one other ingredient I know of. The last time I saw Peter, we were on a panel together. In the audience sat Peter's mother. She told me she comes to as many of his events as she can. I doubt it's a stretch to say she played a pivotal role in Peter's being the extraordinary man he is today.
And just who is he? You will learn that, by inference, as you read this book. No matter the topic, every book reveals its author in ways far more subtle and true than any bio ever could.
But let me add just a bit from what I've seen. Peter is a good man, a kind man, a devoted father, and a man who wants to leave the world a better place than when he found it, which he has already done (improve the world, that is, not leave it!). It is good to know, when reading a book, especially a book that offers you advice on how to live your life, that the author is a good person.
And let me also say to you, dear reader (all of us authors consider our readers dear, to put it mildly), that the advice you will find herein is the best kind of advice. It is advice learned in the trenches, in the arena, on the fields of life. It is not professorial advice. It is not advice strained through a fine mesh of sanitary filtration.
No, it is the kind of advice that you can not only use but relate to and feel in its source a kindred spirit, a person who has been there himself and is not sitting on high.
Peter is a pioneer, an adventurer, an inventor, and a seer. But he is also a mensch. He wants you, the reader, to find in this book ways of making your life better.
It is my firm belief that you will do exactly that.
_—Edward "Ned" Hallowell, M.D._
_The Hallowell Center_
_New York City_
# Chapter One
# An Introduction to the World of Attention Deficit . . . Ooh! Shiny!
Ask me about my Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or skydiving, or my bicycle. Do you ride bikes? Is that a cat? I like cats. I saw a rock. Hi!
—The writing on my all-time favorite T-shirt
HI, I'M PETER Shankman. I'm the most ADHD person you're ever going to meet. But I'm also really, really proud of that. My ADHD is responsible for the majority of my success, and I've had a little bit of success. I've started and successfully sold three companies, the most well-known of which is called Help a Reporter Out (or HARO), which singlehandedly changed how journalists around the world find their sources and how companies and regular people get into the media. I'm also a worldwide keynote speaker, spending the majority of my time on an airplane to give keynote talks to major companies across the globe, including American Express, Disney, Huawei, Starwood Hotels, and hundreds of others. I host one of the top podcasts on ADD and ADHD, called (duh) _Faster Than Normal_. I run an online entrepreneurial community of more than three hundred people called ShankMinds. I've written four business books, including two bestsellers. I built a top-selling video course on ADHD, called the FTN Course. I go on TV a lot, including CNN, Fox, Bloomberg, and CNBC, talking about marketing, advertising, business, and the customer economy. I'm an Ironman Triathlete, a "B" licensed skydiver with more than four hundred jumps, and possibly most important, a dad to an amazing four-year-old daughter.
While you're reading this book, look for the word "SQUIRREL!" Why? Because I get it—I'm ADHD. I know that books in general are occasionally hard to read—not because we don't like reading, but because sitting through sixty thousand words can, at times, make us want to do anything else. Again: I get it. That's why I'm going to use the term "SQUIRREL!" When you see "SQUIRREL!" it means that I'm saying something even more useful than everything else. It'll be something small, it'll be something tweetable or great for posting on Facebook, it'll be something you'll want to highlight and share with people, it'll be a quick tip that can truly change your life. So keep an eye out for "SQUIRREL!" They're essentially the cheat sheets of this book.
I've also been diagnosed with ADHD three times, have a very addictive personality, and wake up every single morning _sure_ that today will be the day I'm found out to be nothing more than a fraud who's never done anything good in his life. I've blown countless past relationships because I didn't know how to slow down and match the life-speed of my partner, I've had some spectacular failures, both professionally and personally, and for whatever this is worth, I've cried at more than 70 percent of all episodes of _The West Wing_.
Needless to say, an introduction like that doesn't get me very many matches at speed-dating events.
If you're reading this and you _don't_ have ADHD—or maybe you've never been diagnosed—or you know friends or family or loved ones who do—keep reading. One of the beauties of this book is that it's also for everyone—not just those with ADHD. Those without it are going to learn just as much (if not more) from the tips, tricks, and hacks that I lay down here. Trust me—you'll get three hours a day back in your life, just for starters.
If you _do_ have ADHD, though, some of the stories here will be incredibly familiar to you, I have no doubt. Like sitting in my dorm room at Boston University two days into my freshman year, asking myself why I simply couldn't _shut up_ every once in a while, because I'd just blurted out something that I thought was funny, but no one else in the room did, and I was sure I'd just blown the next four years of my social life.
Or perhaps the frequent trips to the principal's office in grade school, where one of my parents would come collect me after school, and each meeting would start with "If he only applied himself . . ."
Maybe you might relate to the constant "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" looks that I would get every time I had a new or (in my mind, anyway) amazing idea, after I presented it to my bosses, or even to people who I thought loved me. (Definitely one of the reasons I went out on my own professionally, that's for sure.)
During my time researching this book, and doing all of the homework for it, I've run into countless similar stories from people I've met, those whom I've interviewed on the podcast, and others who have e-mailed me out of the blue to say "I can relate."
Do any of these scenarios make any sense to you?
After getting a note from the dean of students in my son's bag six times in two weeks, I called the dean up and asked him point-blank, "Can you tell me if there is anything my son is doing _right_ lately?"
If I get into the office super early and work before anyone else shows up, I'm so much more productive. The second the office fills with people, it's like my brain shuts down and I start spacing out.
I finally had to explain to my boss that I needed a half hour in the middle of the day to go exercise, or I'd be useless to him for the remainder of the day. Once I got that and he understood why, my productivity went through the roof, and I've been named "Employee of the Month" three times in the past four months!
**SQUIRREL!: Here's what matters more than anything: You're not broken. You're not damaged, you're not defective, and you're not destroyed. You're not on the island of misfit toys, and your life isn't "wrong" because you've been diagnosed with ADHD.**
In fact, I hate that term "diagnosed." You get "diagnosed" with a disease that can hurt you, one that can kill you. You don't get "diagnosed" for good things. No one has ever been "diagnosed" as a lottery winner, or "diagnosed" as stunning enough to win a beauty pageant.
ADHD is _not a negative._
So the first rule here is this: you're never allowed to say "diagnosed with ADHD" again, because ADHD is _not a negative_. Say it with me: ADHD is not a negative! Quite the opposite. You're gifted with a brain that's faster than normal, and in this book, we're going to learn how to operate it to its maximum potential. It's going to be awesome.
## A Bit of Backstory
I always knew I was different. I often wondered why I couldn't keep my mouth shut in class. I couldn't understand why I couldn't pay attention in math class, but absolutely _loved_ writing and English class. My mom never understood why she had to ask me to do something not once, not twice, but forty times before I did it, yet every once in a while, she'd come into my room to find that I'd not only cleaned it from top to bottom, but done all the family's laundry as well.
About fifteen or so years ago, a then-girlfriend stood in my living room (I live in a Manhattan apartment, so chances are it was the kitchen), about to drop some harsh reality: she was breaking up with me. As soon as "we have to talk" escaped her lips, I knew where the conversation was headed. I'd had the same discussion with countless other women before her. To be honest, up until fairly recently I had a tough time maintaining romantic relationships. "Joan" (obviously not her real name) was no different. Her complaints were also the same as those of every other woman I had dated: I wasn't focused on her when we were together, but instead was doing a million different things. I was incredibly passionate about what I did for a living, but my passion for her came in spurts. While I loved doing out-of-the-blue things for her, my day-to-day actions left a lot to be desired. In her words, I was there, but I wasn't there. Not in the sense that I wasn't there for her if she needed me in a crisis (I had no problem with that sort of thing), but that I simply wasn't entirely present even when I was sitting next to her on the couch. The worst part about hearing all of this, in my mind, was that it sounded like I didn't love her at all, like she wasn't important to me. But the opposite was true—she was the most important thing in the world to me. But I couldn't show it on a day-to-day basis. As far as Joan could tell, I was more concerned about what I was doing on the Internet as I was sitting next to her than I was about her. And even though this couldn't be further from the truth, _and even though I worked so hard at trying to show it to her_ , she simply wasn't seeing it.
Sitting in my therapist's office the following week, I was feeling sorry for myself, lamenting about how it was quite possible that I was destined to be alone forever. In my head, I was figuring out what clothing I should buy for my new life as a multimillionaire, globetrotting playboy, despite being neither a multimillionaire nor a globetrotting playboy at the time. The _thud_ of a book hitting me in the stomach brought me back to reality. "This is for you," she said. "Read it." That was the day my life changed. (Do other people have therapists who throw things at them, or is it only me?)
The book, _Delivered from Distraction_ by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., and John J. Ratey, M.D., was my awakening. The first line of the book hit me so hard it literally took my breath away. I read it over and over in my therapist's office, crying as I did so:
Having ADHD makes life paradoxical. You can super-focus sometimes, but also space out when you least mean to. You can radiate confidence and also feel as insecure as a cat in a kennel. You can perform at the highest level, feeling incompetent as you do so. You can be loved by many, but feel as if no one really likes you. You can absolutely, totally intend to do something, then forget to do it. You can have the greatest ideas in the world, but feel as if you can't accomplish a thing.
Did these guys know me? I felt blatantly exposed. At the same time, I was more exhilarated than I'd ever been in my life. I always knew I was different. I don't have a middle ground: essentially I have two switches—Off, and 1,000 percent On. As it says on another shirt I own, "I have two speeds: _Namaste_ , and _I'll cut a bitch_."
(By the way, in classic ADHD fashion, I contacted Dr. Hallowell via e-mail one day to say hi. We're now great friends, and he was the opening interview on my podcast! He even wrote the foreword for this book. Seriously, you can find the podcast here: www.fasterthannormal.com/podcast.)
Well, well. Now I had a name for my "thing"! For the first time, I realized that I wasn't alone, and more important, there might be hope! According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 4 percent of the adult population has been officially diagnosed with ADHD, but the same experts caution that adults who were not diagnosed in childhood (like me) are more likely to remain undiagnosed into adulthood. That means the true prevalence of adult ADHD is likely significantly higher than reported, particularly as most of us don't "grow out of it" when we turn twenty-one.
Someone posted on my Facebook wall just yesterday, in fact (www.facebook.com/petershankman), asking why there weren't more resources for _adults_ with ADHD. It's a good question, and a problem I hope I can help to change with this book, and with my podcast.
## Turning Negatives into Positives
Quick self-check here: Do you identify with any of the things I've said above? Do you often feel completely insecure? Do you set multiple alarms and reminders, yet still forget to do the thing for which you set them? Ever get bored when everyone else in the class or meeting is able to keep their focus? Ever long for that text message so much that you do the stupid thing? (The stupid thing, of course, is looking at your phone while driving.) Do you find yourself with strange habits that, while you know they're strange to the rest of the world, seem completely normal to you?
Ever get up super early in the morning, raring to go and attack the day? You take a shower, go to your closet to pick out what you're going to wear, and then, inexplicably, find yourself three hours later, still not dressed, but Googling an ex because they gave you a sweater you happened to find in your closet? Ever plan a whole schedule out, put an entire time line down on paper, yet still manage to be late to everything?
Yeah. Me, too. But over time, I learned that I could fix those problems, and realized that the benefits of fixing those problems outweighed the drawbacks that might come with fixing them. I learned that things I do that I thought were normal, turns out were not only _not_ normal, but gifts that I could use to my advantage, because "regular" people didn't have them! I realized that not everyone had it in them to start and successfully sell their first company by the time they were twenty-seven. I realized that the very things that used to get me beaten up, used to get me in trouble, and used to get me kicked out of class and sent to the principal's office were the exact same things that were making me lots of money fifteen years later. I just had to learn how to harness those talents, how to drive that faster than normal brain, and how to learn how to control it. So I started working on it, without even realizing that I was.
I figured out the secret to changing these traits from negatives to positives. I figured out how to avoid some of them, how to utilize others, and how to find a middle ground with the rest of them. Most important, I realized that everything happens for a reason, and those years of hell growing up were actually prepping me for what was to come. I realized, shockingly, that I was incredibly lucky. Almost everything I thought was a bad thing was actually a good thing. And once I realized that, well . . . everything changed.
It occurred to me that if I could figure out what makes me successful, what makes me different, what makes me "faster than normal," I could not only figure out ways to help me, but possibly, I could figure out ways to help the rest of the world as well, both those with ADHD and those involved in the life of someone with it. Heck, possibly I could even help those who have no connection to ADHD at all—because, let's face it, one of the keys to using ADHD as your superpower is understanding how to channel your hyperfocus. And who wouldn't benefit from learning that?
So I decided to write the very book you're holding in your hands, the ultimate brain- and life-hacking guide for people with ADHD and the people who love them, work with them, teach them, or supervise them, as well as a guidebook for anyone who wants to make their brains simply work a little bit better. That's what you're reading. This book came out of my podcast, _Faster Than Normal_. The podcast came out of a webinar I decided to hold on how I use my ADHD to my advantage. The webinar came out of years and years of trial and error in my life, my mistakes, my failures, my successes, and my wins as well.
Back to that webinar for a second. Why does it matter that this book came from my webinar? Well, unlike "regular people," I didn't think about the pros and cons of doing a webinar, or spend even one second worrying about what would happen if it failed. I didn't test my theory. I didn't even come up with the presentation for it beforehand. I simply said, "You know, I think that people can benefit from what I've learned about how I use my ADHD to my advantage, and I think it'd be fun to see if I can help people." An hour later, I'd reserved a webinar time, and posted on Facebook that people should save the date and time to come to my webinar. By that evening, I had three hundred sign-ups. By the next day, more than two thousand.
**SQUIRREL!: One of the biggest advantages and disadvantages to having ADHD is that your brain doesn't play by the same rules as everyone else's. You can decide to do something, and five minutes later, you're doing it. You don't think, "Well, what if it fails," you simply do it. That's both good and bad. We're going to discuss this a lot over the course of the book, and I'm going to teach you how I've hacked this trait to be a lot more "good," and a lot less "bad."**
ADHD isn't a diagnosis, it's a gift.
See, this book is all about how to make your life better by understanding that ADHD is not a flaw; it's a bonus. ADHD isn't a diagnosis, it's a gift. We're going to change the game. You're going to learn how to unleash the hidden power of your ADHD. Once you do, you're going to be amazed at what you can do, and who you'll become. See, once I learned to do it, my life went from frustrating to freaking awesome. I consider myself one of the most fortunate people alive.
Learning to utilize my ADHD as a power has fundamentally changed my life for the better. Now that I understand how to make it work for me, not against me, I use it as a true advantage both professionally and personally. After all, we have a lot to work with. Chances are anyone who has ever done anything to change the world had ADHD. Hell, the founders of this very country had ADHD, no doubt about it. Think about it: those of us with ADHD can entertain our friends with witty repartee, we can hyperfocus on things that interest us, we tend to do really well at things we enjoy doing. We're enthusiastic, creative, willing to take risks, innovative, intuitive, spontaneous, compassionate, persistent, and have the brain processing power of the world's fastest supercomputers. As such, we can connect seemingly unrelated dots, see the forest for the trees in ways that "regular" people can't even fathom—oh, and by the way, we can usually do it at the speed of sound.
Can you honestly tell me that the very founders of our country, the ones who said, "Let's risk our lives, defy our king, cross an ocean, start a new country, a new form of government, and make up the rules as we go along," weren't just a little bit "off"? Come on. All the best people in the world who ever did anything amazing—I'm almost positive they all had ADHD.
But yeah (and you knew this part was coming), there are, unfortunately, downsides. We get distracted easily. We forget things. We occasionally let people down. We often let ourselves down. Things that seem so ridiculously easy for others are nightmares for us. We wander off in the middle of important conversations. Sometimes, to get from A to B requires a side trip involving eighteen other letters. More often than not, our brains are so fast that we can't shut them off. All of this bothers the hell out of those without ADHD.
To dig deeper, we occasionally blurt things out without thinking. Let me tell you, _that_ fun little trait right there got me beaten up countless times growing up in public school in New York City in the 1980s. There are definitely downsides to having a faster than normal brain. But I can tell you that the good far, far, far outweighs the bad, and if you're able to train your brain to do the things that I do to help me keep _my_ brain on track, then your curse can quickly become a superpower, and you can keep those downsides to a minimum. You can even use what few downsides you have left to your advantage as well.
## Faster, Sharper, More More More
People with faster brains usually have intense multiple interests, and we love to share them. We're keen observers and can process many ideas simultaneously with minimal effort. We're great conversationalists, and can often improvise on the fly when speaking. (Ask me if I've ever used a PowerPoint or notes of any sort in any of my thousands of keynote speeches around the globe—I haven't.) Tell me if any of this sounds familiar, right? We usually have a ridiculously sharp wit, and we can instantly assimilate new information into previous knowledge to create original insights; we're inspired by the novelty of change, and have an ability to find quick solutions to complex situations. We think laterally and solve problems in distinctive and creative ways. But of course, if we don't know how to harness these gifts, we'll go crashing into a concrete wall at six hundred miles an hour, every single time.
Every expert seems to have a slightly different description of what ADHD is chemically. From what I've been told, and what I can extrapolate from my own experience (again, because I'm not a doctor), it simply means that my body doesn't naturally produce enough of three major "focus and happy" chemicals on its own. These chemicals are dopamine, serotonin, and adrenaline, and they're the chemicals that make it easy for humans to concentrate and stay focused. They're also the chemicals that have kept us alive as a species for millions of years. How much we have of these chemicals, or how much or how little our bodies can produce under normal circumstances, is why some people can sit and file TPS reports for hours without getting bored, and others (like us) simply can't.
Knowing what I know now, it makes perfect sense that I became a licensed skydiver, and trained for and finished several Ironman Triathlons simply because a twenty-six-mile marathon wasn't exciting enough. (By the way, neither of these things made my parents happy.) I'm great when I'm talking onstage in front of twenty thousand people, or traveling (especially airplane travel), or when I'm engaged in any kind of extreme sport or any activity or task that captures my imagination and intellect, like coming up with a new business idea. But put me at a party where I have to make small talk, or force me to sit down and itemize my receipts for my accountant? I'd rather break my own wrist.
Here's a classic example of how ADHD can benefit me from a focus and creativity standpoint:
You'd think that with my inability to focus sometimes, skydiving wouldn't be for me, right? That there'd be way too many things to distract me from doing that one major important thing: opening my parachute. But it's actually the complete opposite. Why?
Well, the beauty of skydiving is what you're actually doing during it: defying all instinctual logic. Instinct is the very thing that's kept us alive for millions of years, prevented us from getting eaten (as a species) by giant tigers and woolly mammoths, and tells us, "Hey, you probably shouldn't walk down that dark alley—stay on the main street instead." Yet here I am willfully ignoring millions of years of evolution by opening a plane door, 13,500 feet in the air. My body is telling me that this plane I'm in can probably land on its own, and I don't need to jump out of it. Yet I continue to do it.
This seriously pisses off my brain. In fact, it'll do everything in its power to prevent me from jumping. When I'm boarding the plane and riding up to altitude for my next jump, I imagine my brain is essentially doing this:
HE'S JUMPING _AGAIN?_ BLOODY HELL!
OKAY, TROOPS: FORMATION: THIS IS NOT A DRILL. OUR IDIOT IS SKYDIVING AGAIN. FALL IN AND SOUND OFF FOR ROLL CALL:
DOPAMINE: (HERE!)
ADRENALINE: (HERE!)
SEROTONIN: (HERE!)
LISTEN UP, GENTLEMEN: OUR IDIOT IS JUMPING OUT OF AN AIRPLANE AGAIN. WITH HIS LUCK, HE'LL SEE THE SUN AND GO "OOH, SHINY," AND FORGET TO OPEN HIS PARACHUTE AT THE RIGHT TIME. SO AS USUAL, IT'S OUR JOB TO PREVENT THAT.
ALL CHEMICALS: FIRE ON MY MARK:
TARGET: BRAIN FRONTAL LOBE.
READY: (READY!)
GO!! GO!! GO!! GO!! GO!! ALL SQUADS DEPLOY!! ALL SQUADS DEPLOY!!
So what does this _Scrubs_ -like cutaway happening in my head actually mean? Well, my body is instinctively trying to protect itself, because it knows I'm about to do something that can kill me. So it's doing whatever it can to make me focus, as much as possible, on not dying. Lucky for us, it does that by giving us what people like us don't get enough of normally, but which we crave.
Instead of doling out a few malnourishing drops of serotonin here, a few crappy drops of adrenaline there, the way my brain normally does, in this situation it pulls every last drop from every reserve in the body and fires them all at once. Result: instant, 100 percent attention, allowing me to jump out of the plane, do what I need to do in the air, open my parachute, deal with any problems, find the drop zone, approach, and land there safely.
But here's why I continue to do this (and why it makes perfect sense that I love skydiving): When I land safely, I still have a ton more of those chemicals firing around in my brain. They don't just immediately dissipate. Rather, my brain has to flush them out over time. Essentially, I'm high for the next several hours.
So I land, drop my parachute off at my feet in a corner of the drop zone, pull out my laptop, and write a few thousand words in a few minutes, or record a bunch of videos for my audience, or answer a few hundred e-mails over the next hour. Why? Because my brain is full of the same chemicals that it would have if I didn't have ADHD, or if I were on medication. It's full of attention-producing chemicals. As I said, at that moment, I'm high. A natural high, but a high nonetheless. To quote from the original _Point Break_ (not the remake, we all know the remake sucked): "Some guys snort for it, jab a vein for it; all you gotta do is jump." And that high gives me the focus I need, the focus I sometimes otherwise lack. And _that's_ when I do what I need to do. I get that same high from speaking, and from countless other things I do regularly in my life.
**SQUIRREL!: I've learned to do two things: teach my body to make more "focus and happy" chemicals on demand, and also live my life in such a way that I don't need to constantly rely on my body making more, as "normal" people do. In other words, I've learned how to fill up my gas tank, but also learned how to drive so efficiently that I get the best gas mileage in the universe, by far.**
## Figuring Out What Works—and What Doesn't
There are two proven ways to harness the power and benefits of ADHD. One helps in the short term, but has potentially bad side effects. The other helps long-term, and can be a true game changer for improving one's life.
Common short-term fixes often have serious and unwanted consequences. Those who don't know they have ADHD might find themselves gravitating to negative behaviors, without really knowing why. Things like illegal drugs and risky behavior (not calculated risks, but the opposite) are quite common for those with ADHD. When you have ADHD, what often starts as an impulsive, irrational act can quickly lead to an arrest, and then a missed court date, unpaid fines, or procrastination about community service. The downward spiral can lead directly to jail. As a result, there are many people in prison with undiagnosed or untreated ADHD. The law enforcement community has only recently started to recognize this issue and respond to it.
I promised myself when I wrote this book that I'd be blatantly honest, because I'm speaking from the heart—what other choice do I have? So here it is: I believe that at any given time, I'm just three bad decisions away from becoming a junkie on the street. Illegal drug use, substance abuse, or addiction of any kind is another negative commonality among people with ADHD. I'm fortunate that I never went down that rabbit hole, and I'm also fortunate that I learned about myself early enough in life to prevent it. As of today, I don't drink. I quit a while back, and we'll talk about why I did later in this book. Suffice it to say, it has a lot to do with my ADHD.
**SQUIRREL!: No matter how well you're handling your ADHD, no matter how well you think things are going for you, you can NEVER let yourself forget that it truly is a condition, and it doesn't ever just "go away." If you lose sight of that even for a second, it can cause you to do stupid things and can be your downfall. I make myself remember that every single day.**
You wouldn't take your eyes off the road for ten minutes to have a conversation with someone in the backseat while you're going sixty on a crowded highway, right? Same is true here. You need to be monitoring yourself constantly to make sure you're doing the right things to stay on the right track. That said, it's not hard, and over time, it'll become second nature—you won't have to think about it. But it still has to be done.
Because I know myself, I know how to make sure that I do the right things, make the right choices, and more often than not, I don't even allow myself to have those choices in the first place.
Example: When I go to Las Vegas to give a speech, it's in my contract that I will speak only at a lunchtime keynote—between 11:30 A.M. and 2:30 P.M. Why would I put such a restriction in my contract? Doesn't that mean I lose occasional speaking gigs, because I won't speak in the morning or evening? Yes, it does. But it's worth it to me, and here's why: if I had to do a morning or evening keynote, I'd have to stay overnight in Las Vegas, and I know myself well enough to tell you here and now that _absolutely nothing good would ever come from my having an entire night unsupervised in Las Vegas with nothing to do_. I speak from honest experience here, guys. You learn to do these things. ADHD and addiction are not very far apart on the social scale. You learn to do the things that, for lack of a better term, "save you." Would I gamble away my apartment? Probably not. Would I start playing blackjack and "forget" I no longer drink? Probably not. But if I have an easy way to avoid the option to do so, why should I take that chance?
Remember the movie _WarGames_? "The only winning move is not to play." In certain situations, I simply don't play. I eliminate the threat. You're going to learn how to do that, and why it's so important.
The urge to self-medicate is powerful in many people with ADHD. Again, I speak from experience. It's also true that when young people stop getting ADHD meds when they leave high school or college, some turn to illicit drugs as a replacement, and this has been cited as a factor in the rise of cocaine and heroin use among young people. Another study showed that a good number of people in their twenties and thirties in prison for non-drug-related crimes had been on ADHD drugs in their youth, and then were cut off when they reached adulthood (as if ADHD magically disappears when you turn twenty-one).
Sadly, kids get the worst of overprescription: If Johnny isn't sitting still in his seat all day at school or if he seems distracted and talks out loud in class, there's a tendency to label him as disabled and put him on Adderall or Ritalin. The teacher wants him in his seat, wants him to pay attention, wants him to do well on that standardized test that the state requires in order for the school to get funding.
If Johnny "acts out" (i.e., behaves normally for Johnny) too often, a note goes home to the parents. The state or the school might ask Johnny's parents to have him evaluated. The evaluator may urge the parents to put Johnny on ADHD meds. What could easily be corrected by simple changes in Johnny's diet and daily routine is now at the mercy of a quick-fix pill that doesn't address the problem, but rather, masks it. I'm reminded of the quote "A headache isn't an aspirin deficiency."
It's a sad state of affairs: 20 percent of all American boys, or one in seven, will be diagnosed with ADHD by the time they reach high school. Twice as many boys as girls are given drugs for behavioral "conditions." Millions of those boys will be prescribed a powerful stimulant to "normalize" them because they are acting like boys.
Let me say at the outset that this book is _not_ about hating on pharmaceuticals. I don't have any problem with the concept of carefully monitored medication in general, but I do believe that we wrongly look at meds as a first-line or stand-alone treatment, when they should really be either a last resort or an adjunct to behavioral strategies to manage ADHD. Some children and adults with extreme ADHD can benefit from judicious pharmaceutical treatment. About three years ago, my therapist recommended I try an ADHD medication called Concerta, a long-acting ADHD drug that I now take occasionally, only as needed.
I don't take Concerta every day, and more often than not I don't take it at all. For example, I don't take it when I'm on a six-country speaking tour. I don't need it when I'm skydiving or when I'm training for an athletic event, because my body makes the chemicals just fine on its own at those points. I do take it, however, when I need to focus on tasks that don't hold my attention, such as paperwork, listening at meetings, completing expense reports, and sometimes focusing on people with whom I need to do business. I take Concerta in those situations because it benefits me and, as important, everyone around me.
However, Concerta is a very small part of what's helped me get to where I am now. It's helped me enhance other behaviors that let me function at the highest level that I can and, in fact, take even more advantage of all the benefits of ADHD. The one thing Concerta, or any ADHD medication, can't do is teach me the skills required to be the best I can. Drugs do not equip children or adults with the life skills they need to manage their ADHD as they grow into adulthood.
Managing ADHD is a lifelong undertaking.
Studies show that once a child is off ADHD medication, they have no way of coping with their ADHD unless they have been taught behaviors that help them enhance their condition and make it into a plus. Managing ADHD is a lifelong undertaking. If you do it right, it can be a great way to manage your life—and exploit the gifts of a faster than normal brain.
I'm going to share with you a series of rules and strategies that are integral to my life. Without them, I can't function anywhere near my best. As a consequence, I force myself to practice them every single day. If I don't, bad things tend to happen. I lose business, people become angry with me, and I'm not the best father I can be. My daughter senses my pain, and there's nothing worse than that. The best thing I've ever done was devise go-to strategies for both my professional and personal lives. And I know a lot of you can use them too.
Throughout my twenties and thirties, before I knew I had ADHD, I just made my life work somehow—life was imperfect but it was livable. When I finished school and got a job, I didn't stay in it very long. I've never been able to stay in office jobs for more than six months, with the exception of my time working for America Online in the nineties, where they pretty much let us work the way we wanted to, as long as we got our jobs done.
(Side note: AOL was my first job out of college. As I said, they didn't care how we worked, as long as we got what we needed to get done, done. Steve Case was, and still is, quite the visionary, and I'm so grateful for having been able to learn from him back in the day.)
But can you imagine my shock at my _next_ job when I found out that all the freedom we had at AOL was in fact _not the norm_? My second job involved coming in at certain times and leaving at certain times. Dress code? You're not serious. Wait, what do you mean I have "set times" for lunch? What is this, Russia?! Needless to say, two weeks into my second "real" job, I started feeling the calling to become an entrepreneur.
Now, I didn't know it at the time, nor did I put two and two together, but ADHD happens to work very well for entrepreneurs. Many of the most successful entrepreneurs (many of whom are inspirational to me) have ADHD: Richard Branson, Cameron Herold, Seth Godin (who actually turned me down for my second job after AOL, thankfully), John Lee Dumas, David Needleman, even me. We don't succeed despite ADHD; we succeed _because_ of it.
You'll meet some of these people in this book. You'll also meet other, more anonymous people who have made ADHD work for them. Their stories are so inspiring that they have to be shared. We can understand more about ourselves when we understand people like us who have succeeded. With the insights from studies, real-life case histories, hacks, tips, and tricks from all over the world, plus my life rules, you can stop looking at ADHD as a disability and start seeing it for what it truly is: like driving a Lamborghini of a brain, while the rest of the world is pedaling a tricycle.
Again: Even if you don't have an ADD or ADHD diagnosis, and your child or spouse or another loved one doesn't either, the advice in this book can help you. Face it—who couldn't do with better time management, or better rules for being their best? That's what this book is about: sharing the tips, tricks, and hacks I've learned and created in my forty-four years on this planet that make me very successful, both professionally and personally, as well as sharing how these skills work for other people.
**SQUIRREL!: Finally, I need to say this: I truly believe that if you've had any modicum of success, you have a responsibility to send the elevator back down. That's a major reason I'm writing this book. So with that said, I truly encourage you to reach out and connect with me. I really do want to hear from you. I spend about 80 percent of my days answering e-mail. I'd love to talk to you, too. Here's how:**
1. **E-mail:** peter@shankman.com **(I answer all my own e-mail personally)**
2. **Facebook:** www.facebook.com/petershankman
3. **Twitter:** www.twitter.com/petershankman
4. **Snapchat:** snapchat.com/add/petershankman
5. **Instagram:** www.instagram.com/petershankman
6. **My website:** www.shankman.com
7. **The** Faster Than Normal **Podcast:** www.fasterthannormal.com
8. **The** Faster Than Normal **Course:** www.ftncourse.com
**Please reach out. I want to hear from you. I want to know if this book has helped you. I want to get your feedback and figure out how I can help you turn your ADHD upside down into something that can truly benefit you. As I said in the very beginning, I like helping people. I'm ADHD. I love talking to people. So reach out.**
Now then: Ready to take the plunge? Go drink a large glass of water (it's been proven to increase focus) and let's go.
Welcome to a faster than normal world. I'm glad you're here. Let's have some fun.
# Chapter Two
# A Very Brief (Because ADHD) History of ADHD and How the World and Anything Cool in It Was Built by People with ADHD (and Four Ways You Can Be Like Them Right Now)
"People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow."
—K, _Men in Black_
WHEN DECIDING TO write this book, I promised myself I wouldn't resort to technobabble or medical-speak. I actually didn't have to promise myself that at all—what person with ADHD would willingly sit and read a book made up entirely of medical jargon and big words we'd have to look up?
But I did promise myself that I'd write this book in a way that was easy to read, but also offered the most "bang for the buck," as it were. That's what I'm hoping to accomplish, and why I have to start this chapter with a little bit of . . . yup . . . medical jargon and words we have to look up. But once we finish it, I won't have to do it again, I promise. So here we go:
Our modern concept of ADHD as defined in the American Psychiatric Association's bible, the DSM-IV-TR, is relatively new compared with other defined neurological issues. (How lucky for us.)
However, excessively hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive children and adults have been both observed and described since at least the nineteenth century—and likely earlier. In 1844, the German physician Heinrich Hoffmann created illustrated children's stories depicting kids with ADHD-like behavior, including "The Story of Fidgety Philip" and _Struwwelpeter_ , which he created as a Christmas present for his three-year-old son Carl Philipp.
Hoffmann observed ADHD behavior among his young patients, and possibly in his own son. When his publisher saw the potential in these stories, he persuaded Hoffmann to offer the stories to the general public. Since that time, Hoffmann's _Struwwelpeter_ has been translated into several languages. The four-hundredth edition was released in 1917, the number of editions can no longer be counted, and the stories have now become classics. (So to those who say "Oh, ADHD isn't real because it was just discovered," I can flatly say, "Stuff it.")
Hoffmann was not the only doctor to notice a certain pattern of behavior among some children and adults. Researchers noticed a discernible pattern of behavior before the actual term for ADHD was cemented in the medical world and scientists began to study and write about this phenomenon.
While it's impossible to know for sure, we can look back in history and see that some of our most respected and important scientists and inventors had some traits that, if they were alive today, could have possibly resulted in an ADHD diagnosis. Many of them have certain traits in common: a rebellious youth; below average or average performance in educational settings; a tendency to switch between seemingly unrelated pursuits and to struggle with everyday tasks; and a seemingly superhuman ability to hyperfocus for long periods at a time, usually followed by a long period of either lull or engagement in something completely unrelated. Here's a partial list of these people, in no particular order:
* Albert Einstein
* Thomas Edison
* Leonardo da Vinci
* Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway, which of course I bought the second it hit the market)
* Walter "Walt" Disney
* Sir John B. Gurdon (2012 Nobel Prize in Medicine)
* The Wright brothers
* Benjamin Franklin
* Sir Isaac Newton
* Louis Pasteur
* Galileo Galilei
* Alexander Graham Bell
* Stephen Hawking
* Henry Ford
* Wernher von Braun (the father of rocket science)
* Steve Jobs
* Richard Branson
And the list goes on and on and on. What do all these great people have in common? They were thought of as different, but adapted accordingly and helped to change the world. In other words, they did what worked for them, in a way that allowed them to achieve the greatness for which they are known worldwide today.
* They had determination, and weren't put off by multiple failures. (Steve Jobs couldn't get a business loan for the original Apple Computer.)
* They saw things differently, and weren't afraid to challenge the status quo. (Henry Ford invented a mass-production car when the rest of the world just wanted a faster horse.)
* They listened to advice, but didn't listen to the haters. (Wernher von Braun grew up in a world where it was taken as gospel that no man-made rocket would ever leave our atmosphere.)
* They kept pushing forward, following their own dreams and desires, because they knew they had something more. (Albert Einstein's mother was told to homeschool him because he wasn't smart enough to learn.)
Seeing commonalities here? Different ways of thinking, failure to sit still and be like everyone else, pushing forward regardless of what anyone else said . . .
I recently wrote an opinion piece for the _New York Post_ in which I talked about how giving medication to ADHD-diagnosed children shouldn't be our first option, because we might be drugging the creativity out of our next generation of leaders, and the comments were, as to be expected, off the charts, both pro and con. One of the comments struck a chord with me. In a nutshell, the commenter suggested that ADHD wasn't real, and was just something made up by the pharmaceutical industry, because it didn't exist fifty years ago.
I've learned early on not to respond to the commenters, but this time, I couldn't help myself:
_So if ADHD is just a "made-up" condition, what was my excuse as a kid? I tried my hardest, yet in certain areas, I couldn't keep up as well as my peers in the same class. Is your suggestion that I'm just "slow"?_
_You know who else couldn't keep up? People two hundred years ago who contracted strep throat. But we didn't call it strep throat then. You know what we called it? Nothing, because it didn't have a name. Instead, we thought that there was something wrong with them that leeches attached to their body could cure. Then, penicillin was discovered, and all of a sudden, the concept that "demons were in their blood" became a thing of the past. Imagine the surprise of the cynics such as yourself, shouting "WITCH!" from the rooftops, until this tiny little pill "cured the witch" and gave a name to "the devil's work."_
_Or how about those people who were locked up in an asylum because they heard voices—or became someone else, and spoke as if they weren't themselves? Obviously the work of the devil, because, heck, it couldn't be anything else! But guess what happened then? We learned a little more about our brains, and all of a sudden it became clear that when certain things in the brain didn't work, it manifested into conditions like bipolar disorder, mental illness, and borderline personality._
_Just because something didn't have a name a hundred years ago doesn't mean it isn't very real, and very treatable. You typed this comment on a computer, right? Pretty sure those didn't exist a hundred years ago, either._
_To quote Jesse from_ Breaking Bad: _"Science, Bitch!"_
Happily, because of the life rules I've set up for myself, which we'll discuss in later chapters, I never got to post the comment, because my assistant heard me "typing with purpose," as she calls it, and quietly disconnected the Internet router, preventing me from sending my comment until I'd calmed down and taken another look at it to decide whether or not I should really send it.
But my point remains: Just because we didn't know what to call ADHD fifty years ago doesn't mean it didn't exist. It does, however, mean that with the new information we have, and the breakthroughs in human science that are occurring almost daily, we have better ways to understand the things that make us who we are, and react accordingly. The bigger issue is being allowed to do it.
We live in an amazing time. Imagine hitching a ride with Marty McFly in Doc Brown's DeLorean, and having to explain to people in 1955 some of 2017's top jobs:
Well, there are people who make a living creating digital videos with their phones that they upload to a streaming service and then are watched by millions of people. And they're mostly about cats and video games.
Or,
There are people called "location agnostic entrepreneurs" who spend their time on a beach writing computer code, or building websites, or even teaching others how to do the same, and because of a network of computers around the world all connected to one another, they never have to go into an office, or see coworkers, or even walk into a bank to cash a check! They're making an incredible living doing the things they want to do, the way they want to do them!
Yeah, Goldie Wilson would probably look at you a little strangely in Lou's Cafe, too.
**SQUIRREL!: There has never been a better time in the history of our society to take full advantage of the gifts of ADHD to live your life the way you want, and be happier than you ever could have imagined possible.**
When applied the right way, ADHD is the greatest driver of creativity in the known world, and can take your life in incredible directions.
## "Not How It's Done!"
Entrepreneur, author, and all-around brilliant guy Seth Godin shared a great story with me on the _Faster Than Normal_ podcast. He mentioned that when he was in grade school, he felt like he wasn't called on enough by his teachers. So he made a giant hand out of construction paper and attached it to a long stick, so that when he had an answer to a question, the teacher would be sure to see his hand above those of all the other students. _Who does this?!_
On the same note, I remember playing a game of Scrabble several years ago. I read all the rules, and when it came my turn, I found a great seven-letter word and placed it on the board, enjoying my ninety-something point boost. My opponent immediately called me out on it:
"What does 'enalpria' mean? That's not a real word! I challenge!" She screamed.
"Huh?" I asked, curiously. "It's not 'enalpria'! It's 'airplane'! I started from the bottom of the word and worked my way up!"
"YOU CAN'T DO THAT," she argued.
"Why not?" I replied. "It doesn't say in the rules that I can't!"
"IT DOESN'T HAVE TO," she shouted, getting visibly more worked up by the second. "It's just not how it's done!"
She was effectively telling me that I wasn't allowed to do something because it obviously wasn't done. Didn't she know who she was playing against?
My point in those two stories is this: we are quickly becoming a society where the ones who "change things up" are winning, in all facets of life. A few hundred years ago, you simply did what everyone else did, or you were blacklisted, or more than likely, called a heretic, tied to a stake, and burned alive. The concept of working thirty years for the same company in exchange for a small pension and cheap gold watch has gone the way of the teletype and fax machine. In its place is the ability to be great and embrace your differences—without the fear of failure that was so prevalent in the past. Instead, we can act positively on our impulses and craft something meaningful. If it works, we can keep doing it. If it doesn't work, we can stop doing it and start doing something else. Investment is minimal, possibilities are endless. If the human brain can think it up, we can do it—and as anyone with ADHD knows, our brains have _no_ shortage of ideas.
So what does that mean? Simply put, the ADHD brain is an untapped, nearly limitless source of creative ideas, energy, and passion, much, much more so than a "regular" brain. The caveat, however, is that we need to learn how to tap into it, and then we need to learn how to channel, harness, and properly utilize that power. It's _not_ knowing how to use that energy and power that gets us into trouble, causes us to act out in class or zone out in the meeting, or forget to take the trash out, despite the bag sitting by the door for three days in a futile effort to remind us.
As I was writing that last paragraph, I thought of a great metaphor for learning how to harness that energy. Think of a fire hose. Like, a real one that firefighters use. They're spraying thousands of gallons of water a minute at a warehouse fire. Have you ever stopped to think about the power those thousands of gallons of water have? How strong that spray is? Imagine putting that hose on the ground and turning the water on full blast. Good luck if you're standing anywhere near that hose. As the water rushes through it, it goes from a flat, benign piece of fabric to a dangerous force, whipping back and forth with enough velocity to easily break both your legs. It'll take you down, it'll take down anyone else near you, and it won't stop to apologize.
But . . . if you take several firefighters and put them all in specific places on the hose, making sure they all have their grips, and then turn on the water full blast, you get an incredibly powerful tool that can put out that fire, save lives and property, and offer tremendous support in a time of need.
When you have ADHD, that fire hose _is_ your brain. It's constantly coming up with ideas. It wants to spit them out one right after the other. It doesn't care that you're doing something else, and, like a three-year-old who sees a lollipop, all else but _right now this second_ is irrelevant. And therein lies the problem. How can you possibly get anything done?
Well, much like classes at the fire academy, if you learn how to control your brain and can teach yourself how to harness that power in a way that works for you, then it'll always be there for you. It'll be there when you need it, and it'll hold fast when you don't. It'll let you live your life to the fullest, and also allow you to do the right things at the right times. It'll give you all the tools you need to be creative, come up with the best ideas, and implement them on a moment's notice, but you'll also be able to hold some things back for a better time.
So let's start learning how to control the fire hose.
## Why Our Brains Are More Creative Than "Normal" People's Brains
Again, I'm not a doctor, so don't expect some scientific explanation for this. Heck, I don't even know if there is one. But I know how my brain works, I know how my mind works, and I know what happens that allows me to use my creativity. So I'm going to share that. I'll also tell you what used to happen before I could control it, and before I learned to manage it.
**SQUIRREL!: I'm of the opinion that because my brain doesn't get enough dopamine, adrenaline, and serotonin on a regular basis, when I do get some, I'm much more reactive to it than "regular" people. I can't prove this via science, primarily because I'm not a scientist, but I'm betting that somewhere out there, there's a neuroscientist who can.**
See, it's like anything else. If you ate chocolate every day, having yet another piece wouldn't do that much for you. But go on a low-sugar diet, and that first piece of chocolate a month later is going to be the closest thing to pure bliss that you've experienced in quite some time. It's the same thing with ADHD. (Says the guy who falls into a "twenty grams or less of carbs per day" lifestyle when he needs to drop weight. Remember? All or nothing.)
Anyhow, a "normal" day might not be that exciting, and having to focus on regular tasks that I find boring would be difficult for me, at best. But if I've just gone for a six-mile run, or worked out for an hour with my trainer, or if I've just spoken onstage to a live audience, or yes, even if I've just completed a skydive, I've just fed my brain that first piece of chocolate—in my case, the exercise has upped my dopamine, adrenaline, and serotonin levels, and they're entering my brain in much larger quantities than they were an hour ago. And as I mentioned in the last chapter when I talked about skydiving, they're going to stay there for a while. So now my creativity, my energy, and my ability to sit still and hyperfocus go through the roof. I think that because my brain doesn't make the "normal" amount of those chemicals 24/7 like "regular" people, when I do something that makes my brain produce them, my body eats them up like a dry sponge being doused in water. The funny thing is, we think of ADHD as the dog from _Up_ , constantly running around and going from here to there, back and forth—the "hyper" in "attention deficit hyperactivity disorder."
The fact is, though, that the true ADHD brain, when given that boost of chemicals it so greatly desires, can become the most focused being on the planet. I'm not joking when I say that if I set myself up right, I can sit down and hyperfocus on the same task for six hours. Heck, how do you think I'm currently writing this book?
The great part of all of this is that during the time your brain is "supercharged," you can accomplish things better, faster, and more creatively than "regular" people. It's the equivalent of running a race with a human being when you're Superman. His molecular structure, when touched by the yellow sun, gives him incredible powers that mere mortals don't have.
**Having ADHD allows you to supercharge your brain when you need it, letting you hyperfocus on tasks, solve problems in untraditional ways, and come up with ideas that haven't been thought of before.**
I suppose it's possible that we come up with these ideas because our brains are moving too fast to stop and say, "Hey, why hasn't anyone done this already?" But I don't think it really matters. What matters is being able to call on your brain's "boost" feature when you need it, and use it to your advantage.
Another reason I use my brain to be more creative than normal is because of something the majority of us can relate to, especially if we're a little older and facing up to our ADHD for the first time. Chances are, we spent a good portion of our youth (or even most of adulthood) being ostracized or shunned for being different, for not "falling in line," for not being like everyone else. And if we managed to come out on the other side, we either let it destroy us, or we survived and can now use it to make us stronger.
I truly believe that almost every idea I've thought up and had some modicum of success with has manifested itself in the real world because _I simply didn't care what others thought of it._ After years of being thought of as "different," I woke up one day and no longer cared what other people thought. I simply did my thing, for better or for worse. I decided several years ago that I am who I am, and others' opinions of me aren't needed or valid.
Now this doesn't mean I don't seek approval, especially from my daughter and my family. Of course I do. Everyone does. The difference, though, is that I'm not about to let myself be driven off course by not getting that approval, or even worse, being told I'm doing the wrong thing by people who don't matter. What matters to me is that I have an idea on which I want to follow through. It may work, it may not, but in the end, I won't miss out on a potentially great idea simply because I'm afraid what other people might think. As the saying goes, _What would you do if you weren't afraid?_ The answers can be life-changing.
**SQUIRREL!: Take five minutes, right now, stand up, and go walk around. Seriously. Put down this book (or device on which you're reading it) and go walk around. If you're in your office, go walk down the hall; if you're at home, go walk outside; and if you're in your dorm room, go walk to another building.**
You _need_ to get into the habit of taking frequent "dopamine breaks," as I call them. They're little five-minute windows when you do something completely different. Getting up and simply walking around is the easiest thing to do, in almost any environment. I've heard stories of professors at major universities who are allowing their students to get up and walk to the back of the classroom and stretch, do some squats, anything that kicks up the dopamine. And it doesn't have to take a long time, either. I've done some nonscientific studies, and I can tell you that something as quick as dropping for ten push-ups or deep squats is enough to chemically change my brain. When I sit down, I've got my focus again.
Start making "dopamine breaks" a part of your life.
Start making "dopamine breaks" a part of your life. Download an app called _Productive_ , on the app store for both iOS and Android. _Productive_ lets you set little goals for things that you'd like to become habit, and reminds you to do them at intervals you set. It turns the practice of creating habits into a game, and makes it super easy to remember to take those five minutes (or even two minutes when you are pressed) to reset your brain. It's one of my core apps on my home screen. (I'll share the rest of them with you in an upcoming chapter—they're massively important to keeping me on track.)
Look . . . I know that this is just how I work, and I'm relating these ideas to you based on my life. But as I grew the podcast and interviewed more and more people for both the podcast as well as for this book, one thing struck me: the majority of people who have succeeded _because of, not in spite of_ , their ADHD learned a long time ago not to worry about the naysayers and to ignore the haters. So I offer you this: If you don't have haters, it means you're not doing enough to change the status quo. And you know who changes the status quo more than any other group? The creative people of the world.
Embrace the fact that your ADHD has made you creative. Embrace it and use it for all it's worth. It's who you are, and it's most definitely one of the things that makes you great.
Let's move into practice. Let's talk about four things you can do, _right this very second_ , that will help kick-start you into a more productive and controlled brain, resulting in your being able to harness the awesome power that is ADHD.
## The First Thing: Make Rituals, Not Resolutions
It's December 31, around 8:00 P.M. You have a few hours left to make some resolutions. Sure, you've done this in the past (last year, in fact) with no success whatsoever, but this year is gonna be different. This year, you've actually taken the time to _write them down!_ Woo-hoo! So here they are: lose twenty pounds, go to the gym every morning before 6:00 A.M., and don't eat any junk food. Good for you!
So you shout "Happy New Year" at midnight, have a few more drinks, and go to bed, secure in the knowledge that tomorrow, you're gonna wake up at 5:00 A.M. and get to the gym! Here it goes! The new you!
Well, not _tomorrow_ , per se, because you've been up super late tonight celebrating, and you know, tomorrow is January 1, and everything is closed on January 1, so you'll sleep in, but hey, come January 2, you're in the game!
Oh, wait—January 2 is a Saturday. Wouldn't it make sense to start on Monday, the 4th, you know, for the sake of continuity? Yeah. That works. And hey, if you're starting your resolution on Monday, then it's like you've been given a few extra days off! So come tomorrow morning, you can have those two grilled cheese, bacon, and tomato sandwiches, because it's _not really cheating_ , and hey, you need something to get all that alcohol out of your system, right?
Okay. So here it is, Monday morning, 5:15 A.M., and the alarm goes off. You sit up, ready to rock, get dressed, go to the gym, have an awesome workout, eat a healthy breakfast, and then you bolt awake from that lovely dream, it's 8:15 A.M., and you're just waking up and late for work.
Resolutions fail for most people, but fail ridiculously hard for those with ADHD because we are unbelievably adept at convincing ourselves of anything, including talking ourselves out of things that we know we should do. Resolutions are flaky. They're little shacks we build in our mind that can be knocked over by the slightest breeze, and usually are.
But _rituals_ —rituals are a completely different animal. If a resolution is a shack, a ritual is a solid six-story building, built with a concrete center core that extends fifteen feet into the ground, with cement and rebar supports through the entire facility. It's fireproof, waterproof, and has a security system second to none. Compared with a resolution, a ritual is the secret backup data center that powers Google, Apple, and Facebook, somewhere in the middle of the desert under two hundred feet of earth. Ain't nothing knocking that over.
So we need to focus on creating _rituals_. How do we do it? It's a process—and not one that comes easily. It takes work, determination, focus, and repetition. You need to know that you're going to fail on occasion. But the end result is worth it, and the trick is to constantly focus on both how you feel when you do it and how you feel when you don't. Let's create a ritual. Say you want to get up earlier than you currently do. Instead of saying "Tomorrow, I'm going to start getting up earlier than I normally do" (which we know won't happen), you need to focus on deconstructing the ritual and building it from scratch, one piece at a time.
To build the ritual, I first focus on the reason I want to create the ritual in the first place. For me and my ADHD brain, if I have a reason for wanting to make the change, I have something to which I can refer when I'm putting the steps in place to make the ritual happen.
So instead of telling myself, "I want to get up earlier so I can do X, Y, and Z," I start with this:
"I want to repeat the feeling I get when I have a truly productive day." So all of a sudden, my ritual isn't about waking up early, it's about chasing the awesome feeling I get when I've accomplished a ton more stuff than I normally do. I feel productive, I feel empowered, and I feel "complete."
It's a lot easier to create a ritual for yourself if you take the crappy parts out of the equation. I wake up, on average, between 3:30 and 4:00 each morning. When I tell people that, all they focus on is the time. They can't comprehend why I do what I do, because all they see is this: "Three-thirty A.M.! That's horrible! What are you, a farmer?"
They're not looking at it like we do: I don't think about waking up at 3:30 A.M., because that's not the end goal for me. The end goal is how I'm going to feel when I go to bed at night: happy, productive, and complete. _I'm chasing the positive high, not the negative._
Of course you're going to fail at your ritual if in your head your ritual sucks! _Stop focusing on the negative, and start thinking about the positives!_ I honestly don't even think about the time I get up anymore; it's simply second nature to me.
**So Rule A in creating a ritual: The ritual has to come from a positive place.** A negative place won't do it.
**Rule B in creating a ritual: Continue to work backward from the reward.** For me, the reward of getting up early is that I have a great feeling at the end the day. I've had time to do what I wanted to do, I wasn't rushed, I got to the gym, I got my work done, I've been _useful_. And when it comes time to go to sleep, I'm exhausted in a great way.
So continuing to work backward from the reward to the ritual, you know that if you want to have that productive feeling, you need to wake up early, which means you need to go to sleep earlier than you were used to, which means you need to prioritize your time. It also means you'll probably have to give something up. For me, there was at least an hour before I fell asleep, but after I got into bed, that escaped each night into the ether. Whether I was on my phone, or browsing Facebook, or watching TV, I'd get into bed, but not fall asleep for at least an hour. Come morning, that hour came back to bite me. So I prioritized and determined what I didn't need. Now when I get into bed, the TV stays off, the devices are shut down, and I close my eyes and fall asleep. End result? I worked backward to determine where I could plant the foundation of my ritual and build a much stronger building, instead of a flimsy shack.
To put it another way, if you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done. So you have to change it up. And getting up earlier means going to sleep earlier. Why? _Because the reward is worth it._
**Rule C in creating a ritual: Build fail-safes.** Fail-safes are exactly what they sound like: if A doesn't happen, B kicks in to fix A. For the first few weeks, no matter how much sleep I got, my alarm going off at 3:30 A.M. was quite the jolt, and instinctively, I would want to pound the hell out of my snooze bar. But I knew that's what I'd want to do, so I put fail-safes in place.
I went out and bought a new Sylvania connected lightbulb. It's technically a bulb that has Wi-Fi built into it. Connect it to your network, and it can be controlled by an app and programmed to do certain things. Like turn on slowly and light up a room at 3:28 in the morning, for instance. So when my alarm went off at 3:30 A.M., and I opened my eyes and the entire room was awash in light, well, that made it just that much harder to go back to bed. It was a fail-safe for my ritual. The beauty of this fail-safe is that once I got used to it, I couldn't imagine waking up without the lights on! It acts as a backup on the off chance that the alarm doesn't work, and my body is now programmed to expect light when I wake up. It makes it that much easier.
**Finally, Rule D for setting up a ritual: Visualize yourself achieving what you were going for with the ritual in the first place.** We all know the power of positive thinking, and how that can work to our advantage. There's a reason coaches give their teams "pep talks," and not "defeat talks." So when you fall asleep, and the second that alarm goes off, think about what you're going to get out of it. "If I wake up now and start my day, I'll hit the gym, get into the office, and be much more productive, and at the end of the day, I'll be awash in the satisfied glow of someone who rocked their day, as opposed to just getting through it."
It can also help to think for a second about what happens if you _don't_ get out of bed and continue your ritual. In some circles, it's called "playing the tape forward," and it goes something like this:
"Yeah, I can hit the snooze bar and reset the alarm for 7:00 A.M. But then I'll be rushed to get out of the house, I'll get to work/school with no time to spare, I won't have worked out, I'll be in a funk all day, and at the end of the day, I'll feel like I haven't accomplished a thing. Is that what I want?"
I've been doing the super-early thing for years, and I can tell you that from time to time, I still have to remind myself what I'll be giving up if I don't get out of bed. And yes, every once in a long while, it doesn't work, and I fall back asleep, and I suffer the consequences. But each time I do, I get a reminder of why I do what I do, and the times I fail become fewer and fewer.
Do this for three to four weeks, and guess what? You've created a ritual!
**Rituals are the holy grail for those with ADHD.** I'll talk more about the rituals by which I force myself to live in the next chapter, but for now, you can start creating rituals _today_ , and reap the rewards of them immediately.
I guess the goal in explaining why rituals are so important is simply this: if you've ever looked at a successful person and said "I wish I could be like that," rituals can help you get there. Once you've tasted the benefit of a ritual (whether it's being more productive, eating healthier, or whatever goal you have for yourself), your brain remembers that feeling (primarily because it's a good feeling) and you want more of it. So the only thing preventing you from getting it is setting up the parameters to make your ritual succeed, and following them as well as you can. Remember: When you have ADHD, you're all about _the feeling_. When that feeling is a healthy one, then building something (like a ritual) to make getting that feeling easier and more frequent is a good thing, possibly the best of things.
## The Second Thing: Start Exercising at Least Six Times a Week—but Don't Worry, It's Not Really Exercise
Okay, don't freak out. Seriously. Stop freaking out. I'm not talking about running a 10K before breakfast each morning. I'm truly not. You might already do that, or you might want to get to that point someday, which is great. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about making specific time in your schedule to _be more active than you currently are, for at least twenty minutes a day_.
Why is this important? Well, we've already talked about how exercise fundamentally changes the brain, releasing those good chemicals for you and giving you the ability to focus, hyperfocus, be more creative, and concentrate when you really need it, right? But study after study seems to suggest that those things could just be the tip of the iceberg. Exercise can combat ADHD!
The fact is, up until about two hundred years ago, the concept of sitting down all day was pretty foreign to us. Ever wonder why the only people in history books who are fat are kings and rulers? They sat on their asses—I mean, thrones—all day. Everyone else? Running around doing stuff.
The majority of us today? We simply don't do stuff, and if we do, it's a lot less stuff than our ancestors did. _You need to do stuff_. You need to move.
You need to move.
I know that when a lot of people hear the word " _exercise_ ," they cringe. I get it. I used to cringe, too. And I promise, I'm not ever going to get on you about the other health benefits of exercise. This isn't a _Men's Health_ article. You make the decisions about those things on your own. It's your life. All I'm talking about are the benefits of exercise for the ADHD brain.
When my attendance is mandatory at a meeting to which I don't want to go, I already know my brain is going to check out. Chances are, if I don't stop it, my brain will have checked out of the meeting before I even walk through the conference room door. I then sit there, trying to nod at the appropriate times, and hope that I don't get asked any questions. I'm probably also calculating how long it would take until I could realistically be on a beach in Phuket, taking into account flight times, scheduling, transfers from airports, and time changes, _if I left right now_.
Needless to say, nothing good comes out of my attending a meeting in that state. So I don't. But I also don't have time to hit the gym in the middle of the day just because there's a meeting. So necessity being the mother of invention, I improvise.
Meeting on the ninth floor? I take the elevator to the lobby and walk back up to it. No stairs? I go outside and walk around the building for ten minutes before it starts. Raining? I find an empty office and drop for push-ups or do jumping jacks before I walk in. In fact, it turns out I did this in high school, too, but didn't realize why at the time. I'd constantly run the stairs before class and arrive sweaty and out of breath, but I was able to focus! Everyone (including myself) just thought I was strange. But in fact, I was self-medicating.
So I'm not telling you to buy a gym membership and start lifting things up and putting them down, if you don't want to. I'm simply saying that the most basic of increased activity, walking up stairs, parking farther away from the building, even getting off the bus a stop or two early—can give you the chemicals you need to pump up your mental focus and creativity. I know it can, because I do it every day.
## The Third Thing: Eat When You're Hungry, and Eat Real Food
Years ago, a roommate of mine noticed that whenever I was procrastinating on something I had to get done, I'd always have food in my hand or in my mouth. Like Brad Pitt in practically every scene of _Ocean's Eleven_ , if I had to do something I didn't want to do, I'd be eating. Not only did this not make my waistline happy, it was a hugely detrimental crutch that prevented me from operating anywhere near my best.
See, not only was I using food as a replacement for just _getting my stuff done_ , I was doing it using the worst foods possible. Snacks, corn chips, junk food. (It didn't help that I lived in Virginia at the time, with every fast-food restaurant known to man within a mile drive of my apartment.)
My roommate taught me something I'll never, ever forget. She taught me the "apple test."
It's incredibly simple. When you're hungry, ask yourself one single question: Am I hungry enough to eat an apple? Chances are, you're not. If you were, you'd devour that apple without thinking about it. But if you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, yet hungry enough to eat a bag of nacho chips, well, that tells you that you're not really hungry, but rather, your brain is looking for dopamine.
I use the apple test as a ritual now, whenever a hunger pang strikes unexpectedly.
BRAIN _:_ "Go to the vending machine and get some Doritos."
ME _:_ "Do I really want Doritos?"
BRAIN: "Of course you want Doritos. I'm your Brain. I know what you should have. Trust me."
ME _:_ "I'm not sure. How about this apple on my desk? Why don't I eat that?"
BRAIN _:_ "Dude, you don't want that apple. YOU WANT DORITOS. GO GET THEM."
ME _:_ "I know you're my brain and I should listen to you, but could it be that you're being influenced by a desire for something you don't currently have?"
BRAIN _:_ "YES, DUMBASS! I DON'T CURRENTLY HAVE DORITOS! GO GET SOME!"
ME _:_ "See, I don't really want that apple, which tells me that I probably don't want those Doritos, either. Hmm . . . What if I were to drop for twenty push-ups and drink a liter of cold water? Would that satisfy you, brain?"
BRAIN _:_ _(Frustrated)_ "I GUESS." _(Mumbling to itself)_ "I hate that guy."
ME _:_ "You know I can hear you, right?"
BRAIN _:_ "I didn't say anything!"
So what's happened here? Several things: I've saved myself a few hundred calories and a ton of empty carbohydrates. I've rehydrated, which I probably needed to do anyway, and of course, I've shaken up my brain chemistry for the next few hours. The apple test stops what would be a very, very strong impulse that might not otherwise be controllable. End result? I got the same chemicals I was craving, in a much, much healthier way.
Studies have shown that eating large quantities of chocolate gives you the same sensation as being in love. You guessed it: dopamine is at play. Junk food is the same way. So rather than succumb, why not trick your brain and give it the chemicals it so desperately craves, but in a healthier way? All it takes is implementing that fail-safe ritual first.
Now look—if you really are hungry, eat something! (God, I sound like my grandmother: "Eat! What can I make you? Eat!") But it's true. You need good, healthy, _real_ foods to exist, and let me tell you, when I eat like crap versus eating healthy, I can so totally feel the difference in my brain. We'll talk about that later, too.
So for now, learn to ritualize the apple test. It was a game changer for me, and I bet it will be for you, too.
## The Fourth Thing: Simplify Your Environment
This is probably the easiest thing to do, because it doesn't involve creating a ritual, and it won't take that long, either. I work out of a little office in midtown Manhattan, in one of those executive office spaces that give you access to locations all over the world. I don't need a lot of room, and in fact, until my child was born, I worked from home for a good fifteen years.
I can afford a much bigger space than the little office cubbyhole I currently rent, so why don't I give myself some room? Two reasons. The first is simple—I'm not there that often, as I spend at least half of each month on a plane somewhere, giving speeches to companies and organizations around the world, talking about ADHD and my other love, the customer economy.
But the bigger reason? If I had more space, I'd fill it with more stuff, and that's detrimental to the way I work.
**SQUIRREL!: When you're ADHD, less stuff is better.**
Until I learned this, I was working at probably 50 percent capacity. Every time I'd get into a zone in my office and start buckling down to get something done, I'd catch, out of the corner of my eye, some papers that needed to be filed, or a half-empty cup of coffee, or an envelope that I'd opened and left on my desk two days before. My focus would break, and next thing I knew, I'd be chest-deep in old documents, papers, and magazines. Six hours later, it'd be time to go home, and I'd have done none of the things I'd set out to do that day.
So right now, go to your desk and toss out half the crap on it. Or go to your briefcase, or your kitchen table, wherever you work, and seriously, toss at least half the crap on it. I _guarantee you_ , you can do this. You don't need at least half the stuff on your desk right now, and chances are, you never will. And clutter is just distractions waiting to happen.
Clutter is just distractions waiting to happen.
Too scared to do that? Okay, I hear you. Do this, then: Take a box. Any box. Dump half the crap on your desk into the box, close the box, and tape it up. Now put it in another room. The basement, a storage unit, wherever, I don't care, just not in your office where you can see it.
In one week, ask yourself how many times you needed anything in that box. Chances are, you didn't. Forget about the box for another six months. After that, toss it.
We'll talk about digitizing everything and other things that'll help you avoid this mess in the future in the chapter on tools. But for right now, start by dumping half your stuff and cleaning your desk and office.
A clean environment allows your brain to devote all resources to your current task, as opposed to having to think about "We need to do this report, but ugh, that pizza box has been sitting there for a month! I've got to throw it out, and then wash down the table underneath it since it's now covered with grease."
Take a half hour now and clean up your work environment. It's the easiest, most foolproof way to instantly improve your focus and work at a frighteningly higher level than you're used to.
Funny story time: I was working out at the gym a few weeks ago, complaining about something related to my workout, I don't remember what. Probably something to do with the fact that my trainer is Satan, and I have proof of this. But anyway, he changed the topic by asking me how the book was going, and I was putting the finishing touches on this chapter at the time.
I told him about what I'd been working on, the concept of the apple test, et cetera, and he said something that made me think: "Peter, all that stuff is common sense!"
Except here's the thing: it's totally and completely not. If it were, I wouldn't be writing this book, ADHD wouldn't be a ridiculously beneficial gift, and we'd all walk around looking gorgeous, with rippling six-pack abs and butts off which you could bounce a quarter.
See, common sense isn't really that common. Sure, we _know_ that Doritos aren't as healthy for us as an apple, yet we choose the Doritos. We know we should keep our desk clean, yet we waste time digging through mountains of papers we don't need to find that one piece that we do. We know we should exercise more and sit less, yet we think about it as we're waiting for the elevator to take us from the second floor to the first floor. (By the way, if you're not differently abled, and you take the elevator from the second floor to the first floor, I truly believe you should be fined.) We know that we should get up earlier and go to sleep earlier, yet we're on Facebook liking a photo of a car from a guy we sat next to in second grade and will never physically talk to again.
So while it seems like this book is made up of "common sense," in fact, it's not—it's made up of tried-and-true rituals and solutions that work not only for me, but for tons of people around the world— _as long as they're actually put into play_. In the end, it doesn't matter how logical this or any advice you get is—if you're not doing anything with it, it won't help you at all.
So I encourage you: Figure out what works for you from the advice here, augment it to benefit you more, change what needs to be changed, adjust what helps you the most. But do _something_. Much like a gym membership, all the tools, tricks, and hacks in the world won't help you if you don't choose to use them.
Again—and I'll be doing this a lot throughout the book—I want to know what you think. More important, I want you to tell me anything you think I might have missed, or any of _your_ tips and tricks that I didn't cover in this chapter, or in this book as a whole. If you do something different, and you think it can help people with ADHD be better, then by all means, shoot me an e-mail, and I'll share it with the world! My e-mail address is peter@shankman.com, and I encourage you to use it.
How are you doing? Still with me? Cool. It might be a good time to take a break now. Relax, go get some healthy food, perhaps some veggies, some protein, and definitely some water. In chapter 3, coming up, we're going to dive headfirst into what I call my "undeniable life rules."
These life rules are four things that I simply have to do every day. There's no discussion, there's no argument, there's no wiggle room. These four things, in some capacity or another, simply have to be done if I'm going to have the best possible day I can. On the days I don't do them? Well, those days can be pretty crappy. If I touch on all four rules each day, my best days become even better, and my worst days aren't anywhere near as bad as they could have been. And as we talked about earlier, all four things in the next chapter are, for me, ingrained rituals. I don't have to think about them, I simply do them. They don't take any extra time out of my life (in fact, they give me time back!) and they keep me at peak performance.
# Chapter Three
# The Four ADHD Undeniable Life Rules
THIS CHAPTER COMES to you from seat 10K on a United Airlines 777, on my way from Newark Airport nonstop to Shanghai, China, to give a speech at a conference. I do the majority of my writing in the air, and occasionally, a flight attendant will remember me as "the laptop guy."
So it's here that I find myself tackling this chapter, and it's funny that it focuses on rules—because nowhere are there more rules than in the airport and on a plane. Thanks to the events of September 2001, the concept of flying is seen less as an enjoyment, and more as an impediment that needs to be dealt with, with thousands of rules that must be followed. "Get to the airport, go through security with your eyes down, board the plane, take a pill, fall asleep, wake up when you get there, and pretend it didn't happen." Anything other than that, and you'll be detained at best, denied boarding at worst.
It's funny, though, because I don't see it like that. Quite the opposite—I simply _love_ flying. The amazing concept that you can get into a pressurized tin tube on one side of the world, shut the door, and emerge fourteen hours later on the other side of the world is just an incredible thing to me, and I consider myself so blessed that I get to do it as frequently as I do. The occasional delay on the ground or turbulence in the skies is more than worth the experience I have of getting to live my life all over the world.
But there's more to it than that for me. It took me several years to realize it, but once I did, my entire life changed. It's a beautiful irony, too: An airplane, the machine that can take me to any place in the world of my choosing, is also one of the most confined spaces known to man. I can't get out and do something else. I can't walk into a different room. I can't get up and head to the gym in the middle of my flight. I can occasionally use the Internet, but even that's spotty at best. Being on this beast of the skies is simultaneously the path to all my freedom and also the most constrained I'll ever be. In effect, I have absolutely no freedom while I'm in the vehicle that enables me to have the most freedom. And let me tell you, the day I realized that was the day my brain exploded, and the day I learned that in order to live the life I want, in order to use my ADHD to my advantage, in order to take advantage of my "faster brain" and drive it at maximum speed without crashing into a tree around every turn, I'd need to implement rules for my life, just like they exist on a plane.
Essentially, in order to be truly free, I'd have to make sure I was also my own prisoner in the best way possible.
Paradox? Sure. How could I be free if I was a prisoner to rules? Isn't the very premise of being free that you're also free from rules? Sure. But when you're ADHD, _not_ having rules means that your freedom can cost you everything.
I'll put it another way. When I was a kid, I wanted a hamster. I assume every kid wanted a hamster at some point. My parents were incredibly up front with me about it: I could get one—but I'd be the one changing his litter, I'd be the one feeding him, I'd be the one taking care of him. Not them. If I wanted a hamster, he would be my hamster, and my responsibility. If I wanted the fun of playing with my hamster, then I had to accept the responsibility that came with this living thing's life.
Sure enough, when it was a Sunday night, and I was tired, and finally done with all the homework I should have done earlier instead of leaving it to the last minute, I'd be getting ready for bed, and my mom or dad would be there to remind me that I don't get to go to bed yet, because Fuzzball's (yes, I got to name him myself, too) litter wasn't changed yet. I'd have to put Fuzzball in his little roller play ball thing, get a garbage bag, dump the litter, wash the cage, put the new litter in, find Fuzzball (always under the damn couch), then clean his little roller play ball, and finally get to sleep. Mad props to Fuzzball. He taught me some good lessons.
We have rules for a reason. You want freedom? You want to be faster than everybody else? You want to let your ADHD take you to places you never thought possible? It can, beyond your wildest dreams. But it's not free. It comes with a price. That freedom looks at you and says, "You want me? Fine. Here's what it's going to take to get me." Sounds trite, but it's true.
For those of you who are fans of _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ , I can put it another way:
_"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."_
_—_ Q
For me, that price is four unalterable, undeniable, unforgettable, unchangeable life rules that I simply must follow. I don't have a choice. If I want the life that I have to continue, then I have to follow these rules. If I don't, I simply won't have what I want. It's not rocket science. I know myself well enough to say that these rules simply must be followed. I can't fake it. And I'll be blatantly honest: if I stop following these rules, my life will start spiraling into a really, really bad place, really, really fast.
To truly thrive with ADHD, you simply have to have rules.
Your rules may differ. They may be similar, they may be quite different, but this much I know to be true: To truly thrive with ADHD, you simply have to have rules, whatever they may be.
ADHD is tricky. As free as we can be, as much as we can come up with ideas that work on the fly, we can occasionally start to get cocky. We can forget that it takes only one bad decision to start a cycle that doesn't end until we do. In skydiving, there's nothing worse than getting away with breaking a basic safety rule once, because it can lead you down a path that makes you think you can do it again. And sooner or later (usually sooner), that's how you get killed.
**SQUIRREL!: The benefits of ADHD have a cost. They're not free. Want to enjoy your faster than normal brain? You've got to pay for it, and that payment comes in the form of following some rules.**
Rules are there for a reason. I found a quote on Reddit once: _"The evil of my subconscious is too strong to resist. The only way to win is to deny it battle."_ I'm not saying my subconscious is full of evil, but I can tell you that it doesn't take much to derail the life of anyone with ADHD. And once we're off the rails, forget about it. It's just easier to stay on our path. And the best part is that our path, to everyone else, doesn't look much like a path at all. It looks like—heck, I'll say it. To the uneducated, it can look like madness.
"You're quitting your job and starting a company called The Geek Factory? Peter, are you insane?" My parents said that to me back in 1998. Certainly didn't seem to them that I was on any kind of path at the time. In fact, it seemed to them that I was going off the rails completely. But as it turns out, it was starting that company that launched my fascination with rules, and once I learned them, it's been a great ride. So let's talk about rules.
## Free Will Isn't Always Free
_"Free will, it's a bitch."_
_—_ Al Pacino, _The Devil's Advocate_
I'm not a philosopher, nor am I pompous enough to think I can adequately explain free will to you in a half page, so I'll do this: I'll explain what free will is, _to me_. To me, free will is this: pizza.
Yeah. I never said I was a poet.
I live in New York City, the pizza capital of the universe. (Don't even bother arguing this point with me; you won't win. Just accept it and move on.) Anyhow, within a three-block radius of my apartment, there are nine pizza places. _Nine._ Nine pizza places, from 99-cent storefronts to full-scale "scene" restaurants that put $30 slices of prosciutto on vegan bread made from the dust of thousand-year-old pixies.
I truly love pizza. I've loved pizza all my life, from as far back as I can remember. It's delicious, it's easy to eat, I can walk down the street while eating it, it's good hot, it's good cold, it's good after being left out on the kitchen counter overnight by mistake, and it's definitely a dopamine release food. The problem is, I love pizza way too much, and that's where free will comes in.
I have a next-door neighbor in my office building who has a weekly meeting on Fridays. She always orders a few pizza pies for her team, and always knocks on my door when the meeting is over, asking me if I'd like some leftover pizza. After about three weeks of her doing this, I had to stop her, because I couldn't understand what she was asking me.
See, in my world, _leftover pizza is not a thing_. If I order a pizza, I'm going to eat THE PIZZA. Not a slice or two, but THE PIZZA. There won't be leftover pizza. Heh. Leftover pizza. Even the name sounds funny. It's like leftover wine. It's not a real thing for the majority of us with ADHD.
So how does this relate to free will? Well, normal people have a different type of free will than we do.
Normal people's free will: "I think I want pizza tonight. I'll order a small pie, eat two slices, and put the rest in the fridge for lunch tomorrow." And that's exactly what they do.
_Faster than normal_ people's free will: "I think I want pizza tonight. I'll order a large pie and eat two slices and put the rest in the fridge for tomorrow and the next day and the pizza is here and I've just eaten all eight slices and now I hate myself and why did I do this?"
In other words, when you have ADHD, there's a lot of free will that isn't exactly free. For us, free will works up to a point, then something else happens. I don't know whether it's the dopamine (it probably is) or if it's just the fact that ADHD people tend to have much higher instances of addictive personality than non-ADHD people, but the logic gland that told us we'd have only two slices of pizza is promptly shut off, and eight slices later, we're sitting there, grease coming out of our pores, unable to move, wondering if this is truly the way we're going to die.
_So when you're blessed with ADHD, but you're also blessed with free will, you simply have to employ some systems for handling the two, otherwise you'll never tap your full potential. And that's how we get back to our undeniable life rules._
**SQUIRREL!: A few well-chosen life rules make it much easier to live life by design instead of by default. They streamline our options, so that we can perform at our best no matter what comes our way.**
There are things in our lives we need to control, or else they'll control us.
Once I was able to rationalize that concept, I was able to start the process of crafting the rules I now live by that allow me to live the best life I can. And let me tell you, it wasn't easy. It won't be for you, either. Sometimes, it absolutely kills me that I can't just live life like everyone else, but then I realize that _I don't want to do that, I want to be better_. Could I break any of these rules tomorrow, or heck, right now, as I'm flying somewhere over the Pacific? Sure I could. But would the payoff from breaking any of them be worth it an hour from now? Tomorrow? Next year? As far as I've been able to tell, not in the slightest. Again, it comes down to accepting that if we want to truly utilize our faster than normal brains, or even if we just want to be happy, we have to understand that there are things in our lives we need to control, or else they'll control us.
I'm not suggesting that these rules are draconian, because they're not, nor will I suggest that we eliminate our ability to think for ourselves. Quite the opposite is true, in fact. These rules let us analyze every decision with which we're faced, and almost instantly decide, beyond a shadow of a doubt, whether the decision is beneficial or negative, and act accordingly. While there's some wiggle room, you'll find more often than not that you don't actually need it.
Finally, I've said this before, but it's worth repeating: These rules work for me. They might work for you, too, but just like an exercise program, or choosing a place to live, in the end, you need to adapt to what works best for you and lets you live the best way possible, _for you_.
So . . . let's do it.
## Rule One: Eliminate Choice Whenever Possible
The elimination of choice is just what it sounds like. There are certain parts of my life that I simply don't need to think about. I don't need to expend energy on them, either because they're not worth it or because I already know what the outcome is going to be. Let's start with something basic: the closet.
Hands-down the number one most important way to get your day off to a great start is the removal of choices, whenever possible, from the moment you open your eyes in the morning. This may seem absurdly simple to those who have no difficulty selecting what pair of pants to put on. For me, and for many people with ADHD, the simple act of getting dressed in the morning can be a time-consuming, and ultimately frustrating, process. How do I prevent this? I eliminate choice.
On a regular day in the office or when traveling, I wear a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. If I'm speaking, I wear a button-down shirt, jacket, and shoes. I have enough pairs of jeans, button-down shirts, and T-shirts that I can keep them clean and rotate them on a weekly basis. It's not that I don't have any style. I do. I have a lot of style. I own several beautiful suits, gorgeous pieces made in Italy, that I wear on high holidays or to weddings and other special occasions. But they stay in another closet in a different room altogether. My daily office uniform is a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. If I'm going on television or speaking it's a button-down shirt, jeans, and shoes. Easy.
**SQUIRREL!: Creating an easy-to-care-for and consistent wardrobe eliminates my need to think about getting dressed. Instead I can focus on things that really matter to me.**
If I went into my closet and found it stuffed with an assortment of choices (turtlenecks, T-shirts, button-down shirts, sweaters, jeans, khakis, dress pants, sneakers, loafers, tie shoes) it would mean rummaging around and remembering various occasions when I wore specific items.
"OMG, I wore that shirt when I spoke in front of NASA! What an awesome experience that was! I got to see the shuttle launch the next day from the roof of Mission Control! I should look for pictures from that event." It's now two hours later, and I'm on my computer, in my underwear, posting photos.
If I spend long enough in the closet, I'll start scrutinizing it: "Look at that stain! I have to clean the rug; it's really dirty." I've now brought out the vacuum, have cleaned all the mirrors, too, but I'm not dressed, have missed two meetings, and for what?
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg got a lot of flack for wearing a hoodie and jeans all the time, but I totally get it. Former president Obama wears only two or three suits. Why? Because the less time they have to devote to things that don't matter the more time they can spend focusing on what does.
Identify anything in your day that you can eliminate or minimize.
Identify anything in your day that you can eliminate or minimize. What minor decisions do you agonize over? How can you eliminate them? Simplify. Create rituals, remember?
When you simplify and create rituals, you automatically reduce choices. Reducing your wardrobe to a few interchangeable pieces that all go together streamlines the process of getting dressed in the morning. Because my closet isn't jammed with a million different kinds of clothing choices, it takes me less than twenty seconds to figure out what to wear and get dressed. I've eliminated the choice in the process, and at the same time, reduced the amount of time and brainpower I'd otherwise have to devote to something as basic as figuring out what to wear.
There are other ways to eliminate choice, too. I have the same shopping list each week. All that changes is food for my daughter. For me, I eat the same because it's easy, it's healthy, and I enjoy it. Occasionally I'll try something new and if I like it, add it to my repertoire. But more often than not, skinless chicken breast is the staple of my life, and tons of veggies is the other. Why? Because I know how to make it, I know what it's going to taste like, and I don't have to think about it. I eat it when my schedule allows, it's ready (I make all my food for the week on Sunday), and it's done. No choices, no potential for mistakes. Even more important, no potential for "all or nothing." I don't have to think about not eating the other six slices of the pizza, because there is no pizza.
What are the distraction points for you in any part of your life? It could be getting dressed or eating, as for me. But it could also be how you get to work, or what you do at the gym, or how you hold meetings. Eliminate as much choice as possible, and life becomes much simpler. You can focus on using your brain for what matters.
Eliminating choice runs deep in my daily life, and doesn't just end with my closet. Let's get super personal here for a second, and talk about moderation.
Actually, I'll make the topic of moderation the shortest point in the book. Ready?
**Moderation: We don't have it.**
Just like with pizza, I rarely have the ability to moderate. Most people with ADHD can relate to this: when you're ADHD, moderation simply isn't one of your best qualities, if it's a quality at all. For non-fast brains, moderation is a skill that comes without having to think about it. "I'll spend three hundred dollars at the blackjack tables when I'm in Vegas for my conference next month, because that's all I'm comfortable losing." They go to Vegas and spend their three hundred dollars. Lose or win, when the three hundred dollars is gone, they go up to their room and go to sleep.
Not so much when you have ADHD. That's why a lot of people with ADHD who understand that simply avoid Vegas, or set themselves up when they have to go there for work so that they're not near a casino unescorted.
You ever meet those people who decide to start running, and do a "couch to 5K" program? They complete their 5K, accept cheers and high fives, and then get on with their lives?
_Honestly, what the hell is wrong with those people?_
I tried that once. I started running back in 2000. Built myself up to a 5K. Ran my 5K. Loved it! The person I did it with was happy, too, and she focused on improving her 5K times in future races. Me? Nope. I finished my 5K and immediately went home and signed up for a full marathon. _It's simply what we do._
And while it's good to run marathons and challenge yourself (I've got two Ironman Triathlons under my belt, and by the time you read this I hope to have a third), if given the choice in other situations, we'll more often than not take the one that's not the best for us. And that can result in our not living the lives we want to live at best, and at worst, well, the consequences could be pretty dire.
So I eliminate choice.
I have a speaking contract that's probably the most basic contract in the world. In essence, it says, "I'll speak, you'll pay me and pay for my travel." It's that simple. And it works 99 percent of the time. But as I said in chapter 1, it doesn't work that way in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, I have a rider on my contract, guaranteeing that I don't have to be on the ground from wheels down to wheels up for more than eight hours. I get in, I speak, I get out. _I eliminate the choice of staying in Vegas and doing something that doesn't work for me._
Ever hear of intermittent fasting? I learned about it six or so years ago from a friend with whom I worked out in the gym. Essentially, he would eat between 2:00 P.M. and 9:00 P.M., fasting the rest of the time. He did this because he was competing in bodybuilding contests, and something about his body mass versus caloric intake—I don't know, I wound up being distracted by something shiny. But the gist of what he did stuck with me, and I tried applying it to how I eat and consume food. Turns out, it's another way to eliminate choice, and works great for me!
I eat between 1:00 P.M. and 8:00 P.M. I stick to my nutrient numbers and caloric intake, and do a bunch of stuff we'll talk about a little later, but for now, understand this: If it's not between 1:00 P.M. and 8:00 P.M., I don't eat. (I have a protein shake after my early morning workouts, but that's not what I mean.) I mean I eliminate the choices that affect most people in the morning: Donut or Egg McMuffin? Double Venti Espresso Grande Single Squad Goals UGG Boots Mocha Latte Extra Whip Frappuccino, or Coca-Cola?
Do you have ANY idea how freeing it is to not have to think about that? I can walk to my office, and if I pass a Starbucks, or a deli, or someone brought donuts to the office, I can simply look at my watch. If it's 8:45 A.M., or 11:23 A.M., or anytime between 8:00 P.M. and 1:00 P.M., _I simply don't have the choice of eating_. It has been one of the easiest game changers I've ever found.
(And yes, I've talked to my doctor about intermittent fasting, and he's well aware of everything I do. Similarly, before you take my advice here, talk to your doctor. That's what they're there for. They went to school for this. For many, many years.)
I'll give you one more example: I sleep in my gym clothes. All I'm wearing to the gym is a T-shirt, shorts, socks, and sneakers anyway, right? So I put my sneakers at the foot of my bed, and fall asleep in my shirt, shorts, and socks. I wake up, and put my sneakers on within ten seconds of opening my eyes. Once I'm in my gym clothes, the choice to go to the gym has pretty much been made for me. Besides, it's hard to go back to sleep with sneakers on.
Sounds weird? Sure. But you know what's weirder? Using ADHD as an excuse for not hitting my goals or living the life I want, or worse, letting ADHD and/or bad decisions lead me down a path that can negatively affect me for years to come.
Elimination of choice isn't all or nothing. I'm a human being, and I'll occasionally screw up. I'll occasionally blow my intermittent fasting, I'll occasionally oversleep. But having ingrained these rituals into my brain means that the chances of my doing it again the next day and falling out of habit are minimal—and besides, when I don't eliminate choice, and have a less-than-stellar day, that right there is usually enough to kick me back on track.
## Rule Two: Eat Well
Let me tell you something. For every person in the world there's someone else telling them that the way they're eating is wrong. It's truly amazing. Go online sometime and look at the amount of new diets that come out every year. For years it was low fat. Fat was the enemy! Then somehow fat became our friend, and carbs were the enemy. Death to carbs! (I kinda fall into that camp.) Then it's not carbs, carbs are good, and only saturated fats are bad! But don't worry, bacon is okay, because it's so darn tasty. Just make sure you eat nothing but bacon, and drink heavy cream, and the pounds will melt right off!
Ugh. Seriously?
I'm not a nutritionist. All I know is this: what I eat plays a pretty huge role in how I'm able to manage my ADHD, and is a big determining factor in whether or not I can use my ADHD to my advantage. Again: this is info that works for me, and the majority of people I've interviewed for the _FTN_ podcast agree with me. I'm not telling you to go be a vegan if you don't want to, or to eat only foods that don't cast a shadow, or anything like that. I'm simply telling you that the research I've done, both on myself and on others, shows certain undeniable facts:
**FACT:** Eating processed food more often than not results in my feeling less than optimal, and doesn't allow me to operate at my best.
**FACT:** Having to think too much about what I'm eating is as bad as eating processed food. It winds up taking up a lot of my time, and prevents me from focusing on important things in my life that matter much more.
Eat healthy, look healthy, think healthy.
**FACT:** What I eat is obviously related to my physical appearance as well, and that's tied into my well-being and everyday happiness. Eat crap, look like crap, think like crap. Eat healthy, look healthy, think healthy.
Some guests I've had on the podcast, like Adam Sud, a former addict who's now one of the healthiest people you'll ever meet, believe in the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, while others believe that meats can be included with those veggies. I'm not here to argue that point, or advocate for a specific type of diet. I am here to say this, though: The one thing that every single guest on my podcast has in common is that they all, in some capacity or another, eat "clean."
Essentially, clean eating simply means that one goes out of one's way to avoid as much "crap" as possible. It doesn't mean you have to avoid everything good, and it doesn't mean you don't get to live a little. It simply means that as a rule, you eat good, nutritious, healthy foods that have minimal "things" added to them.
I know a professional triathlete—someone who actually races for a living. She doesn't have ADHD, but she's ridiculously strict about what she eats, and manages to incorporate a glass of wine or two into her training schedule each evening. Why? Because she enjoys it. So no, I'm not saying we should deprive ourselves. Quite the opposite.
It's not that hard, really. Up your veggie intake, up your water intake, drop your intake of most everything that has a commercial. Think about it: You rarely see a commercial for broccoli or for apples. But you always see commercials for fast food, soda, and junk food.
My rule is this: if my grandmother wouldn't have recognized it as food when she was ten years old, I'll try not to eat it. Michael Pollan, author of _Food Rules_ and _In Defense of Food_ , says the same thing, so see, it's not just me. The simple rules are usually the easiest to remember, anyway. So when I walk into the office and someone down the hall had a birthday and there are fourteen bags of potato chips lying around for the taking, I imagine Grandma Betty, confused as anything at the sight of a plastic bag full of processed potato chips. She'd recognize the word "potato," sure—but that's where the similarities would end for her. Mind you, I only have to do this if it's between 1:00 P.M. and 8:00 P.M. anyway, but it's a great reminder to me of my goals—stay healthy, and utilize my ADHD to my best advantage. I can't do that if I gorge myself on whatever food happens to be lying there. I like to think that Grandma Betty, who passed away in 2008 at the age of ninety-eight, is keeping an eye on me, helping me do that.
So what can you do to eat clean? What can you _stop_ doing? I'll tell you this: when I started focusing on what I put in my mouth, what came _out_ of it was a hundred times better. I was able to focus my ADHD like a laser—I stopped being tired, despite working as hard as I do. When I was tired, it was at the end of the day, and it was a satisfying tired, something I never had before. Oh, added bonus? I dropped fifty pounds.
John Fleming, Ph.D., of the Nutritional Disorders Clinic in Toronto, Ontario, studied a group of fifty disordered eating clients who did not meet the criteria for either anorexia or bulimia but "clearly had disturbed eating habits, with typically no regularly planned meals or snacks, and an inability to follow dietary plans for any useful length of time."
As the clients were more carefully evaluated, it became clear that the incidence of undiagnosed ADHD was very high. Dr. Fleming is careful to note that this statistic does not imply that most people with ADHD have disordered eating, but rather that there is a definite "sub-population of individuals with disordered eating, [and ADHD] plays a major role in the etiology and maintenance of the disorder."
Let's face it, ADHD makes planning harder to begin with, right? So it would make sense that focusing on eliminating the crap we eat, and instead making a concerted effort to eat foods that nourish our faster brains, would be in our best interest. Dropping junk food, sugary snacks, soda, et cetera, would seem to be a good first step.
Author of _Delivered from Distraction_ and founder of the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health, Edward Hallowell, M.D., advises all of his ADHD patients to fill half their dinner plate with fruits or vegetables, one fourth with a protein, and one fourth with carbohydrates. He also advocates eating several servings of whole grains, which are rich in fiber, each day to prevent blood sugar levels from spiking and then plummeting. Simple, basic stuff—yet things that in the frenetic, hectic world in which we live are often forgotten, or put aside in favor of "convenience." But that convenience comes with a cost, as we're learning.
In the end, we're just beginning to scratch the surface of what role food plays in our lives, as well as in the world of ADHD. I can tell you this, though, strictly from personal experience: Remember that old adage "we are what we eat"? Eat healthy, be healthy. Eat crap, be crap. I know that the more good I put into my body, the more good I can produce with it. It might just be that simple.
## Rule Three: Sleep Well
I remember once being featured in an article in the local newspaper on people who drink a lot of caffeine. They photographed me at my desk, with countless empty cans of Diet Pepsi, and I talked all about how I drink a ton of diet soda. "No calories, and a ton of caffeine to keep me going," I was quoted as saying.
I was an idiot. Not so much because I was drinking so much soda (although I don't do that anymore either, because water is much healthier), but because I needed the caffeine in the first place. If I needed that much caffeine to stay awake and simply get through my day, what did that say about my sleep?
Quite a lot, in fact, but I can sum it up in one sentence: I wasn't getting anywhere near enough sleep, and I was wearing that as a badge of honor. "Oh, look at me, I'm so busy that I have to stay up and only sleep a few hours a night, but that's okay, I can suck down Diet Pepsi and Red Bull and I'll be fine because I'm awesome!"
Nope.
When I started getting serious about my health, specifically about turning my ADHD from a disability to an advantage, I learned that one of the most detrimental things I could do to myself was to skimp on my sleep. Five hours a night? Who was I kidding? I wasn't some superhero who could rock my life on a few hours. In fact, I was performing way below the standards I set for myself today. It was only when I discovered sleep, and the benefits a good night's sleep gives me, that I realized how truly wrong I was all those years.
Nowadays I might go for weeks without consciously ingesting caffeine for the sake of ingesting caffeine. I might have a cup of coffee once in a while, but more often than not it comes after a lovely dinner with friends, as opposed to a "first thing in the morning necessity." All that diet soda? Gone. Replaced with seltzer. Water and carbonation. All the benefits of water, all the awesome hysterics that come from my four-year-old daughter when I burp the carbonation back out, but none of the crap that goes into making those sodas, and none of the caffeine, either. When I decided to learn how to sleep the right way, the entire game changed.
So . . . let's meet David. David is my best friend, and he's also my training partner for those ridiculous Ironman Triathlons we do together. We met on the run course of Ironman Cozumel back in 2010. We were both hurting, and desperate to take our minds off how much longer we had to go. We instantly bonded, and David and I are best friends to this day. He's also the only person in my life crazy enough to meet me at 3:30 A.M. for a ten-mile run once or twice a week, and was literally my partner in crime when we both got stopped by the New York City Police as we were jogging in Central Park one morning at 4:45 A.M. The charge? "Violating curfew." It was actually pretty funny. Anyhow, David is awesome.
David is also a husband, a father to two boys, and a public school teacher, which makes his schedule almost as insane as mine. Yet at least once a week, we find ourselves outside in the darkness of the New York City streets (not Central Park anymore, for obvious reasons), sweating as we train for whatever race is on our calendar next.
When I asked David about his sleep habits, he admitted to me that on the days we run, he gets around five hours sleep a night, but makes up for it the night before and night after. In his words:
"I know who I am when I don't get enough sleep, and it's not the person I want to be. My ADHD is magnified, and not in a good way. When I don't sleep enough, I feel like I'm in a fog for the day, one that I usually can't shake until I make up my sleep deficit. It's not only me, either. I know which of my students are getting good quality sleep versus poor or little sleep, and it's no contest in terms of which ones do better in class. We are a sleep-deprived nation, and it's hurting us in so many ways."
ADHD is magnified by a lack of sleep.
David is right. Studies show that ADHD is magnified by a lack of sleep, sometimes dramatically so. Sleep deprivation makes it very difficult to focus; it affects your mood and your concentration. This can be true of anyone, but it is especially marked in people who have ADHD. When you're tired, you're more likely to make bad choices and uninformed decisions. Impulsivity increases, as does the propensity to anger quickly. If you're not getting the proper amount of sleep, I encourage you to start now.
Research during the last five years substantiates what ADHD experts have suspected for decades: ADHD carries with it intrinsic challenges to sleep. During the 1980s, restless sleep was part of the diagnostic criteria for ADHD. It was dropped because specifics as to its causes were lacking—but more recent research suggests the connection is strong. ADHD is always awake; ADHD neurobiology just doesn't turn off when the day ends. ADHD works 24/7 to distract, delay, and disorder your ability to get restorative sleep. It's not easy to just flip the switch. As I've said countless times, I am either "fully on" or "fully off," which makes the twilight time between those degrees of consciousness difficult for me to capture. So I work at it, and here's how:
**What I've accepted:** I've accepted that in order for me to perform at my best, good quality sleep is mandatory. I simply must have it; there's no middle ground. This means making some tough choices, but choices that I believe are beneficial for me. On any given night during the week, I put my daughter to bed around 8:00 P.M., and I'm asleep by 9:00 P.M.
I know, I know. "Nine P.M.?! Is this the 1600s? Are you a farmer?" I hear you. But think about it: I'm up around 3:30 or 4:00 A.M. every day to begin with. That gives me seven hours of uninterrupted sleep. That's more than most people get who wake up at "normal" times.
So what have I given up? As it turns out, not that much! So I don't go to evening networking events that often anymore. Turns out, I'm not missing much, because during those first few hours in the morning, before anyone else is up, I'm reaching through my network and making one-on-one contact with people to whom I haven't spoken in a while. There's inherently much more benefit in that.
I've also given up late-night TV watching. No great loss there. With Netflix, Apple TV, and entire seasons available for download at the click of a button, I wind up watching almost all of my TV on airplanes anyway. (I'm actually _this close_ to becoming a cord cutter and losing cable altogether, although my daughter might go ballistic without _Dora the Explorer_ on demand.)
What else? I focus on practicing good "sleep hygiene." For me, this means doing certain things with the goal of sleeping better. I make sure my room is completely dark. Blackout shades are the best. I turn off my phone. Not just put it down, but actually turn it off. This eliminates noise and light, of course, but also eliminates the subtle desire to check the phone if I happen to wake up at 1:00 A.M. to use the bathroom. It takes, what, forty-five seconds to power on and find a signal on an iPhone? No way am I going to wait that long, plus however long it takes to populate all the messages that now have to be delivered. My logic is this: If they need me at 1:00 A.M., they can get me at 4:00 A.M. when I wake up. So far, I've never been proven wrong.
Those Wi-Fi-enabled lightbulbs I told you about? In my bathroom, they're connected to motion sensors that know the time of day. If I stumble in during the middle of the night, the light goes on at around 10 percent luminosity, a nice deep red. That prevents my body from "waking up," and the second I'm done in the bathroom, I'm back asleep. No bothering with light switches, either.
As a doctor once told me, "The bedroom is for sleeping and for sex." He has a point. Get out of the habit of using your bed for everything _plus_ sleeping. Once your brain gains an understanding that your bed is only for sleeping (and sex), the desires to work, watch TV, eat, and whatever else in bed will fade. Once they do, you'll be amazed how your sleep improves, and more important, how your time awake does, too.
Finally, track your sleep data. While I'll talk more about this in the tools section, I can tell you that I monitor how I sleep and check my data frequently, making adjustments as needed. I can tell you exactly what temperature is too warm for me, and can tell you how long my light and deep REM cycles are. Data rocks. Knowing your own data, and knowing how your sleep affects you, is game-changing.
You'd be amazed what little things can do to help or hinder your sleep quality, and I encourage you to play with them all until you find out what works best for you. I tried meditation, for instance. Turns out, that wasn't for me. I was so hung up on trying to achieve that level of "Zen" that people talk about that it actually got me more wound up when I couldn't reach it, and did the exact opposite of helping me get to sleep.
On the flip side, though, I read about how colors can help your sleep. So as I fall asleep, I have a slight reddish glow from my Withings Aura alarm clock. It lasts about ten minutes, and I'll be damned if it doesn't help me sleep deeper and more soundly. The Aura also monitors my REM cycles, and engages the alarm to wake me up at the optimal moment when I'm coming out of a REM cycle. It makes waking up easier, and much more pleasant.
Sometimes, the simple act of making choices (remember free will?) can help you get more sleep. For instance, the choice I made to shut off my phone eliminates the desire to peruse Facebook for a half hour until I fall asleep. That in turn grants me a deeper sleep, and allows me to focus my ADHD to my advantage when I wake up.
I'm not saying you have to shut off your phone or do any of the things I do. But I am saying (and science backs me up here) that better sleep can allow you to control your ADHD, as well as prosper from it. (This goes for those without ADHD too, as do most of the things in this book.) Better sleep makes for better waking hours. It's that simple.
If you do _nothing else_ to improve your sleep hygiene, at least turn on your phone's "nighttime mode," which varies the color on the screen to eliminate the harsh blue light that studies have shown will keep you awake and disrupt your sleep. It's a simple button in settings. A small change that makes a big difference.
## Rule Four: Exercise, and Do It Outside as Much as Possible
I know I mentioned exercise in the last chapter, but I'm going to do it again, because it truly is one of my life rules, and in a few pages, I'll share with you firsthand info on what happens when I don't do it enough.
Back in 2004, researchers completed a study, published in the _American Journal of Public Health_ , that found that kids with ADHD showed an improvement in the negative expressions of the condition after playing outside in a natural environment.
A similar 2008 study from the University of Illinois showed that attention improved in kids who took a twenty-minute stroll in the park more than it did in kids who walked outside in a downtown or residential area without much greenery.
This isn't rocket science. It's pretty safe to say that adults probably get the same benefit from being outside on a regular basis as kids do.
In fact, they even have a name for people who don't get outside much: it's called nature deficit disorder, which describes the human costs of alienation from nature, including diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional sickness.
Can I just go on record as saying that the fact that we even have to have a name for this is ridiculously sad? Seriously.
Nature deficit can even change human behavior. Long-standing studies show that the absence or inaccessibility of parks and open spaces is associated with high crime rates, depression, and other urban troubles.
Depression, anxiety, agitation, and impulsivity can increase in the ADHD person if he or she is not able to get outside and breathe the fresh air. Even in major cities like New York, the air outside can do wonders for you, if you allow yourself to get out and experience it.
One of the most vivid memories I have came from a random skydive several years ago. It was a warm summer day, but in the sky at altitude, it's a lot cooler. The door opened at 13,500 feet, and I stepped out into nothingness. I inhaled deeply, and it was like I'd instantly been drugged with the best drug ever. I tasted the air—the chill of it, the freshness of it—it had its own taste, its own smell, and for those five seconds I inhaled, I swear I tasted nothing but pure energy. It was one of the most incredible feelings I've ever had. Good luck getting that feeling by standing in front of your air conditioner. So get outside!
Exercise doesn't come in the same flavor for everyone. I'm living proof of that. But the one commonality is this: ANY kind of exercise physically and greatly alters the chemistry of your brain. From walking up a flight of stairs to running a five-minute mile (yeah, I wish . . . ), movement _changes you_. It changes you for the better. For those who have discovered this, there's rarely any going back. And if for some reason you do get led astray, and abandon exercise and the benefits it can give you, you're left longing for those endorphins again, and you'll do anything you can to get them.
## A Rule Is Born
When my daughter came into the world in 2013, my world shifted to focusing on her as much as possible. This isn't uncommon; I'm sure every dad does that. Problem was, between my travel schedule, and now caring for a daughter, I was having a hard time finding time to exercise. And I let it slip, and let it slip some more, and some more, until I hadn't been to the gym or out for a run in weeks, and was dying for those endorphins. The problem was, I didn't realize it at the time.
The human brain is fascinating, and more often than not, when exposed to something good, will do anything it can to get that exposure again. There's a reason smoking is so hard to quit; same with any other kind of "vice."
Well, I'd gone from exercising and looking/feeling amazing to doing the exact opposite. And while I justified it as wanting to spend time with my family, I was doing all the wrong things, and even worse, I was feeding my brain with the absolute worst things for my ADHD. I was eating like crap, and I was drinking too much, and I was justifying it all under the guise of "I'm just busy, and trying to make it work the best I can." But the fact was, I wasn't making it work, I was gaining weight, I was miserable, my ADHD was off the charts in a totally negative way, I was becoming forgetful, my work was suffering, and it was becoming noticeable.
In October 2015, I'd just flown back from a business meeting in Asia and I was unable to sleep. I blamed it on jet lag, but deep down, I knew it was because I'd had several drinks on the flight to "take the edge off" a busy trip, and now, twelve hours later, I was feeling it.
I was in the bathroom at 2:00 A.M. and caught sight of myself in the mirror, and I honestly didn't recognize the person staring back at me. He was puffy, had gained close to forty pounds, had bad skin, big, dark circles under his eyes, and overall looked pretty miserable.
I sat down on the edge of the tub and let out a long sigh. As I traced it all back, I realized that it all had to do with the one thing I _wasn't_ doing: exercise. I'd become lazy. I'd given up that which made me better under the guise of thinking it could help me. And I knew right then it had to change.
ADHD, right? We don't do things in moderation. I swore that night that it would end right there. I gave up drinking that very night. I called New York Health & Racquet Club the next morning, gave them my credit card over the phone, and signed up for a nonrefundable yearlong membership, as well as paid in advance for a trainer, for the accountability. Then I looked in on my still sleeping daughter and silently told her that her dad was better than what she saw in front of her, and that she deserved a father who was better than me.
The reasons you do what you do don't matter. What matters is how you feel. That first day at the gym was the weirdest feeling in the world. It was a pure split: 50 percent endorphins, and 50 percent pain. But I got home, recalled the endorphins and how they felt, and went back the next day and did it again. And again. And again. I made my own ritual, and I kept at it. I kept at it because I knew that nothing else in my life could be fully right until I was fully right.
## Keep Checking Yourself Before . . .
In the end, you have to believe in the oxygen mask theory. You know how on planes, they tell you that if there's a loss of cabin pressure, you should put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others? The same is true in life. You can't be at your best until you're willing to put yourself first, and make yourself the priority you need and deserve to be. It took my daughter and a hard look in the mirror to help me learn that. But it was worth it.
When you have ADHD, it's so easy to go down a road of bad decisions. One drink becomes seven. One grilled cheese becomes five. And one week of not exercising becomes two years. It happens _really, really_ fast. Be alert to the signs, and be hyperfocused on sticking to those rules. In the end, the rules exist to keep us alive, as well as letting us work to our best.
Once you find the rules that work for you, do not deviate from them. I speak from experience here. Remember what I said earlier about ADHD being tricky? Your job is to keep ADHD working _for_ you, rather than against you. The best way to do that? Come up with your own set of undeniable life rules. Start working on them now.
I'm now five hours into my flight to Shanghai. Thanks for sticking with me so far.
# Chapter Four
# Triggers: How to Minimize—or Even Eliminate—Your ADHD Hot Buttons
THERE'S A GREAT scene in one of the early seasons of _South Park_ , where Kyle and Stan realize that when Cartman hears even just one line of the Styx song "Come Sail Away," he has no choice but to sing the entire song out loud, and it drives him crazy. Hearing just that one line is a trigger for Cartman, much to the amusement of all his friends.
In the faster than normal world, triggers are things in your life that when activated, can throw you off course, kick your ass, or in some other way be detrimental to you and your goal of being the best you can be. If you imagine riding along in your car, and all of a sudden you hit a massive pothole, several things are going to happen at once:
* Your car's suspension will immediately go to hell.
* You'll probably pop a tire.
* You'll be freaked out after hearing the _BOOM_ that comes with your car's suspension going to hell.
* Your focus, which five seconds ago was on getting to your destination, has completely shifted, and it's now all about getting to the side of the road before your car quite literally falls apart on the highway.
* And finally, if the pothole was deep enough, your day is pretty much shot.
Metaphorically, you just hit a trigger. In an ADHD environment, the same thing can happen. Something occurs out of nowhere and throws you off your entire game. For those with ADHD, triggers can ruin days, weeks, relationships, even special events or otherwise wonderful nights. Triggers can pop up anywhere, at any time.
Short of sitting in your room and never coming out, there's really no way to eliminate all the triggers that can set off ADHD. Besides, what's the point of life if you're not really living it, right?
But we _can_ learn tips, tricks, and hacks to minimize the triggers. We can take steps to drastically cut down the number of triggers in our lives and potentially even defuse triggers we can see but haven't yet set off.
**Trigger types:** We're going to divide up the triggers in this chapter into a few different categories. Obviously, your mileage may vary. Some may not apply to you, or by point three you could be shouting "OMG, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS TO ME!" It doesn't matter which (any, all) of these triggers apply to you. The key is to understand how triggers materialize, and how to put practices into place to avoid them in the first place. Once you're able to start doing that, you'll start noticing triggers before they occur. You'll learn to notice certain situations, behaviors, workplace events, heck, even foods, drinks, or places that can lead to triggers. When you're able to make course corrections on the fly, the chance of walking into a trigger zone becomes almost nonexistent. That's what we're going for here. But for now, we can start off by identifying the five places triggers are most likely to occur, and breaking them down one by one.
## Professional Triggers, Personal Triggers, Just Lots and Lots of Triggers . . .
Let's go through these triggers one by one. But first, a story about my cat, NASA.
I call him NASA because I'm a huge fan of our space program, but also because when I first adopted him from a shelter, he got to my apartment and proceeded to run around for a solid twenty-four straight hours. After about hour sixteen, I looked at him and said, "You know, you have enough energy there to launch yourself into orbit!" And NASA the Wonder Cat was named.
Anyhow, as far as cats go, NASA is pretty chill. Like most cats, he spends the majority of his time sleeping, eating, pooping, and sleeping some more. He's fifteen years old now, so he's not into playing as much as he used to be, but he's still very much about the eating, sleeping, and pooping.
Here's the thing, though. Let's say something happens to disrupt his routine. Perhaps my daughter decides that NASA should join Peppa Pig, Kermit the Frog, and herself for a tea party. She'll go over and attempt to pick NASA up. This will usually fail miserably because she's young, and he's still rather fast for fifteen. So he'll wake up from a sound sleep and see this lumbering child on her way over, arms outstretched, shouting "TEA PARTY!" What does he do?
Well, he's a cat. He'll do all he knows how to do: He'll stand up and walk away. He'll head into my bedroom, or into the kitchen, essentially anywhere my daughter is not. And then he'll lie back down and go right back to sleep. Situation resolved, life goes on.
Why do I bring this up? Well, NASA doesn't know from triggers. Heck, NASA doesn't even know he's a cat. All NASA knows is that my daughter, who isn't a threat to him other than trying to shove a toy teacup in his face, is on her way over, and he'd rather not be all up in that. So he simply walks away and avoids the situation. He knows that because my daughter isn't a threat, he doesn't need to get nervous, or angry; he doesn't need to pull out the claws, or meow, or anything. He's learned that my daughter won't hurt him, so all he needs to do is leave. No matter how much something has the _potential_ to set NASA off, his first instinct is just to be somewhere else. Of course, if NASA were to stay there and let my daughter shove a teacup in his face for a half hour, he'd probably wind up a little pissed off, and that would result in my daughter crying. So NASA instinctually avoids the trigger, and he's back to sleeping or doing other catlike things in a matter of seconds.
In a perfect world, I'd suggest that we all be like NASA, and this would be an incredibly short chapter. Obviously, it's not that easy. We don't think like cats. We have a tendency to let potential triggers attack us, and instead of simply walking away, we'll get sucked in, and we'll try to fight it or do a host of different things _other_ than ignoring the trigger or avoiding it in the first place.
Ever have a meeting with a coworker who drives you insane? You promise yourself you won't let them get to you this time. You're not going to engage. You're not going to get sucked into their . . . Next thing you know you're both screaming at each other, or you say nothing but brood about it for the rest of the day. Yeah. That's a trigger.
It doesn't matter why we do this. It could be because we think we can "outgun" the trigger this time. Or we simply get angry at the wrong thing; for example, we take a phone call from someone when we're in a "hyperfocus zone," and then get angry at the person for calling, instead of getting angry at ourselves for not having shut off the phone in the first place. The end result is that by letting our triggers get the best of us, we create an instant opportunity for our ADHD to control us, instead of the other way around.
**SQUIRREL!: Regardless of what the situation is, the following main rule applies: Once you know what your triggers are in each aspect of your life, you can go out of your way to avoid them in the first place.**
On the off chance that a trigger still presents itself, you'll have practiced ways to remove yourself from them as soon as humanly possible. The goal for you in this chapter is to figure out what all of your triggers have in common. Think about it like a leaky faucet that's overflowing the sink onto your kitchen floor: you could spend all your time constantly cleaning up the water that's destroying your floor (i.e., fixing the things that happened because a trigger set you off) or you could fix the leak in the first place. Fixing the leak is a lot easier, right? Same thing with triggers. Figuring out what they all have in common, and fixing _that_ commonality, allows you to shut off the flow of water _before_ it drips down the sink and ruins your kitchen tiles.
< _Rant starting_ > By the way, I feel like I should mention this: "Triggers" are a very real thing for people with ADHD, but I'm not talking about "trigger warnings," like we're seeing on the Internet lately. Life isn't Tumblr. This isn't an excuse to avoid your problems, or require that the world give you a safe space, or complain that life's unfair. Guess what? Life _is_ unfair. But as grown-ups, we deal with it by _improving ourselves_ , as opposed to complaining that everyone else needs to change to suit us. That's not ever going to happen, and if you're spending all your time blaming the world because they're not changing to suit your ADHD, then you're wasting your life. You do the changing, and work on making yourself better. That's your only job. < _Rant over_ >
## Professional Triggers
Let's start with professional triggers, as these used to drive me crazy on a regular basis before I figured out ways to prevent them. Professional triggers would always come down to two things for me: feeling like the grass was growing under my feet, and/or feeling like I had so much to do but wasn't getting any of it done.
Remember what Dr. Hallowell said in the foreword to this book? "You can have the greatest ideas in the world, but feel as if you can't accomplish a thing." Yup. That's the worst possible place for me. Once I'm in that zone, getting out of it becomes extremely difficult. I've essentially entered a funk, and it can last for days, weeks, or, at one point in my life several years ago, for about twenty-four months. And it was _miserable_. So, for me, the key to avoiding professional triggers is to make sure that I never feel like the grass is growing under my feet, and also that I never feel like I have so much to do but I'm not doing any of it.
**SQUIRREL!: Learn to do an "intake evaluation" on yourself to find out and defuse the trigger ASAP.**
If you've ever been admitted to the emergency room, one of the first things that happens (if you're conscious) is that they do an emergency intake evaluation on you. They ask you all kinds of questions to determine the best course of treatment for your particular issue, whatever it may be. You need to do the same thing on yourself, so you can figure out what's causing your symptoms—in this case, what are you doing that's causing your triggers to appear?
I worked backward: _Why_ do I feel as though the grass is growing under my feet and I'm not getting anything done? Why do I feel as though I'm not as productive as I should be? Over time, I was able to determine that there were three main factors preventing me from getting things done: lack of focus, lack of "workable time," and constant interruptions. To make matters worse, each issue fed off the others. If I had to go to a 2:00 P.M. meeting, I knew I wouldn't be able to get a full day's work in, so I'd be hesitant to start any new project, and wind up futzing around until it was time to leave for the meeting. So now I've ruined my morning by not doing anything productive, and I've got that hanging over my head as I leave for the meeting.
With that running around my brain, I'm obviously not paying anywhere near as much attention as I should be in the meeting, so now I've got that thought in my brain as well.
The meeting ends, I don't remember a damn thing that happened in it, and now it's 3:30 P.M. and going back to the office seems pointless, because I'll have to leave in a few hours to head home. So I go home, where I have lots of shiny things to distract me. By this point, it's close to 5:00 P.M. and, well, screw it, I didn't do anything of value all day, so I might as well have a drink to relax. Well, we all know what happens when I have one drink, but I'm so upset about not doing anything all day that I have one anyway. And of course, one turns into four, and by the time I go to sleep, I'm pretty drunk. So my sleep is fitful, at best, and I wake up tired, probably hungover, and most certainly dehydrated. So I slam some water, order a few bacon and tomato grilled cheese sandwiches, which make me feel logy and greasy . . . and I might as well work from home, because I don't feel that good, and the cycle continues, and it's two months later, and I can't figure out why I feel like I'm getting nothing done. Oh, and I've gained ten pounds, and I hate everyone.
So what's happening here? Well, in the most basic terms, I'm ignoring the warning signs that there are triggers in the area. I hit every single trigger in sight, over and over. I'm compounding the feelings again and again, and the situation just gets worse and worse, until it's practically unsurvivable. Sounds like fun, huh?
But . . . it never has to be this way! If I'd just opened my damn eyes in the very beginning, it could have all been avoidable. Of course, it's not so easy to see the forest for the trees when you're right in the thick of it. Or, as my great-aunt used to say, "It's hard to see the edge of the bowl when you're swimming in the middle of the tomato soup." It's a pretty safe bet in my family that my great-aunt wasn't all there, but, whatever, this specific saying of hers makes a lot of sense.
**Take a step back.** I had to somehow get to the bottom of why I wasn't being productive. I was meeting with the right people, trying to get things done as quickly as I could . . . so what was wrong? Why wasn't it working?
I took a step back and talked to my assistant. I had always prided myself on keeping my meetings short and to the point, so as not to waste time. But we realized that even though we were doing that, we weren't taking into account things like prep, travel time, getting through building security, et cetera. A twenty-minute meeting, in theory, sounds awesome, but if it takes me twenty minutes to prep before I leave the office, then thirty minutes to get there, thirty minutes to get back, and another half hour to get productive again, that twenty-minute meeting just cost me two to three hours of my day. Two twenty-minute meetings a day could easily eat 85 percent of a day's productivity.
As soon as you realize what the triggers are, the goal becomes to eliminate them as much as possible. Sometimes that calls for drastic measures. My assistant and I implemented some new rules: I was to have meetings only one day a week. The other four days would be devoted to working—whether writing, creating content, whatever—no meetings, and as few phone calls as possible. I would accept and understand that the one day a week that I was in meetings, I wouldn't get "work" done. And that was fine, because I knew that the other four days, I'd rock it.
**Be willing to try something new, and stick with it.** To prove the theory that the meetings were the cause of my triggers, I agreed to let only my assistant schedule things for me—I gave up control of my calendar. I won't lie, it was difficult—I had to tell my assistant when I wanted to do something, and she'd either give me permission to do it or assign it to a later time—and if it was a meeting, I could have only one day a week, as agreed.
As I said, it was difficult—but the results started speaking for themselves. Slowly but surely, I was generating content again—I was getting things done, and I was feeling productive. And as anyone with ADHD knows, once you get that first good feeling back, you want it more and more, and you'll do the things necessary to get there. Fast forward to today: I still have meetings only one day a week, and I simply won't deviate from that. Obviously, sometimes things happen—for instance, a potential client happens to be in town and wants to meet with me, can I find the time? I can, and I do—but I do it in a way that doesn't decrease my productivity. My assistant works really hard to make those "emergency meetings" as early as possible—with any luck, before breakfast. That lets me get into the office and still get into my zone of work, without breaking the day up and pushing me back toward that rut.
**SQUIRREL!: To figure out what your professional triggers are, and then to figure out how to avoid them, you need to step back and figure out what's not working.**
It's hard to do it on your own. Find a trusted colleague, employee, or friend who can help you work out what's not working for you. Chances are, you can't see it yourself. Stick with the solution, and give it a fair shot.
## Lack of Preparedness Is a Massive Trigger
Meet Mark. Mark spends a ton of time meeting new people. He works in sales for a living and is constantly at some new company's office, or on a sales call with a new district buyer, or on a plane to go see his best client. Mark is also ADHD.
Mark tells the story of how he spent a lot of time bouncing from job to job his first several years in the sales industry. Boss after boss told him he wasn't cut out for sales, but Mark knew in his blood that he loved nothing more than to sell. "Why wasn't it working? Where was the disconnect?" Mark kept asking himself.
One day, Mark blew a huge sales call with one of his best, oldest clients. According to Mark, the client's company had upgraded a certain piece of hardware, and that required Mark to sell them an entirely new widget. (I'm not going to get into the boring details. I don't understand them anyway.) But long story short, Mark had been told multiple times that the client had upgraded, but Mark simply didn't "hear" it and walked into the client's office with an entire sell sheet of the latest model of the widget that Mark's client no longer needed.
Fortunately, the client really liked Mark, and as Mark was about to leave the meeting knowing he'd be fired yet again, the client sat him down and asked him a tough question:
"Mark, have you ever been tested for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?"
"At first, I was offended," said Mark. "I wasn't crazy. This client was asking me if I'd seen a shrink because I forgot they upgraded their machines?"
But when Mark got home and started doing his own research, he noticed a lot of similarities between the descriptions of ADHD and what he was doing.
"Things like working really hard on preparing the wrong thing, or not remembering that a meeting time had been updated, those resonated with me," said Mark. He found a doctor he liked, he got evaluated, and of course, he was gifted with ADHD.
"I was worried about taking meds. I didn't want them to change my personality," Mark recalls. On his doctor's advice, he started on a small daily dose of Adderall, but more important, he focused on changing his behavior.
Mark now devotes one hour a day to preparing for the next day's meetings and events. He builds it into his schedule and requires the time each day, letting nothing interfere with that one hour of prep time. The difference, Mark says, is off the charts.
"When I walk into a meeting, I have a confidence that I no longer have to force, or worse, fake," says Mark. "Additionally, I've been promoted at the same company already, and have some of the highest sales numbers the company has ever seen. Sure, being treated by a psychologist helps, but learning how to prepare lets me use my ADHD in ways I never before knew I could!"
**SQUIRREL!: Taking the time to be prepared is one of the best trigger avoiders there is.**
When we don't prepare, we wind up getting flustered, and rarely perform at our best. Focusing on the little details we tend to overlook can make all the difference. We'll talk about the tools I use to prepare and benefit from my ADHD in chapter 5.
## The Early Bird Catches Everything (Not Just the Worm)
This is worth thinking about again: the benefits of being early might singlehandedly be the best possible defense against the challenges of ADHD. I think, however, that the reason we don't focus enough on being early is twofold: we don't associate the benefits of being early with ADHD, and we've become used to being able to use our devices to "excuse" our lateness.
But the beautiful thing about being early is that you're preventing many common ADHD-related triggers before they ever have a chance to strike. Think about it for a second:
There's a "feeling" you get when you're rushed. It's not just stress, although that's a big part of it. It's also nervousness, it's a feeling of "incompleteness," as in, "Did I remember to bring everything I need for this thing I'm rushing out the door to do?"
Stress creates cortisol, otherwise known, aptly enough, as the "stress hormone." Among other things, it tells the body to focus on saving fat, on the off chance that your stress is due to your encountering a woolly mammoth that wants to kill you on Forty-eighth Street and Sixth Avenue. (The logic here is that you can use more fat for energy to run away from said woolly mammoth, but the chances of encountering one these days are minimal at best, so cortisol is just an annoying chemical, to put it mildly.)
Live your life thirty minutes early.
Stress also makes you focus _on the stress_ , instead of on what you have to do at the time. Unlike pain, which serves a very useful purpose (i.e., it tells you you're not dead yet, but that you should probably finish your job and get the hell home), stress has very few useful qualities, unless you're, as I said, in a fight-or-flight mode from a woolly mammoth. So your job is to avoid most stresses if you can. Leave them for the gym. Stress your muscles. Don't stress your brain when you're heading to a potentially huge meeting, or a first date with someone who might be awesome. And the best way to not stress, hands down, is this: **Live your life thirty minutes early.**
**Strategy to do it:** I asked my online audience the best way they knew to make sure they were always on time, and it overwhelmingly came down to two words: "Prepare beforehand." Whether they were talking about laying their clothes out the night before, or even putting Post-it notes on specific points in a presentation they had to give the next day, less stress came from preparedness.
I saw some other trends, too. Being prepared means that if they _do_ forget something, or if the trains are late, they have that built-in buffer time to deal with it, resulting in less stress. A lot of the people I asked also focus on technology, specifically automation, to help them stay on the early track, and we'll discuss that as well in the next chapter.
Finally, accountability buddies seem to really help. If you can find someone on the same page as you, who also believes that being early helps you win battles, then you can plan to do things together, or at least similarly, to allow both of you to stay focused on your goals. In the end, simply living your life thirty minutes early can radically change how you use your ADHD to your advantage.
## The Power of Positive Habits
Lisa handles public relations for a major entertainment company and is constantly on the go. She might have eight meetings in one day, all around the building, and often all over the city. Three months into her new job, "I'm just so stressed" became her mantra. The more she tried to calm down during the day, the more she tried to stay on time and in the moment, the more she focused on the stress of her job, the more her ADHD brain wandered, and the worse her performance got. In her words:
I was constantly focusing on what I forgot, what I left at the last meeting, the thing I didn't bring to the next meeting, or the change of shoes I left at home that I needed for tonight. My performance was suffering, I was truly unhappy, and was crying in the bathroom all the time. I started doubling up on my ADHD medication without telling my doctor, and it wasn't helping. I was headed for a fall.
Her therapist suggested she focus on dialectical behavior therapy, a specific type of cognitive behavioral therapy that is designed to help people change bad or self-harming habits and replace them with positive behaviors. By utilizing DBT, over time Lisa was able to replace her stress with other habits, and she learned that creating stress was actually a way of "dealing" with her ADHD. "As long as I was stressed, I had an excuse for when things went bad," she said. Once she focused on positive habits, she was able to remove some of the triggers that came with her new job and lessen the effects of others. In the end, Lisa focused on preparation and organization—everything Lisa does now for any project on which she's working is labeled as such; she doesn't so much as send an e-mail without tagging it to a specific project. She also does this offline, with color-coded tabs in a giant binder she carries with her everywhere she goes. "If I have eight meetings in a day, I won't leave my house in the morning unless I've filled up eight binders," says Lisa. In the end, Lisa was able to focus on being much more productive, instead of constantly having to focus on negating the issues that were coming up due to her lack of focus.
Best of all, not only has Lisa stopped doubling up on her medication, but she's actually (under her doctor's care) decreased the dosage she was on to begin with.
Just like everything else in the world, your daily professional routine will differ from everyone else's, and you need to figure out what works for you. Not for anyone else, but for you. Focusing on what works for _you_ , and doing that, is the key to survival in the professional space. And hey—if anyone thinks it's weird, or tries to call you out on it, have them talk to me. I'll set them straight.
Now let's move on to some personal triggers. Much like professional triggers, they can strike without warning at first, until you know what to look for. And as above, I don't cover every personal trigger out there, only what I have room for, and what I see as affecting the greatest number of those with ADHD. I can tell you, however, that almost every guest we've ever had on the podcast mentions at least one personal trigger. So I encourage you to start listening at www.fasterthannormal.com if you haven't already!
## Personal Triggers
Several years ago I was on vacation, and found myself sitting in the lobby of a hotel in the Caribbean at 7:55 P.M. I was waiting for my girlfriend at the time, M, who, despite my having told her that our dinner reservation at the best restaurant on the island was for 8:00 P.M., was still in the room getting ready. As I watched other couples walking through the lobby, I started getting more and more upset. It was clear we were going to miss our reservation, we obviously weren't going to be able to get our table at this restaurant that I'd worked so hard to secure, we were going to wind up eating in a local bar, if one was even open, et cetera, et cetera. In my head, the entire vacation was ruined, because my girlfriend couldn't do the easiest of things to get ready on time. I was so frustrated that I decided I needed some fresh air.
I walked out of the hotel and onto the beach, lost in my own thoughts. I was angry that we weren't going to get to the restaurant on time. I was upset that (in my mind) the entire rest of the vacation was ruined. I hated myself for not being able to choose someone who understood that being on time is important to me. Not to mention that I was hungry, and probably had low blood sugar.
This, of course, led to my brain going into ADHD overdrive, where not only was I thinking about a million things at once, but they were all negative, and the more I thought about them, the unhappier I got, and the less I was focused on what was actually happening around me. I was projecting ridiculous thoughts that were simply impossible in the real world, but it didn't matter. I'd passed the logical point of no return, and it was a free-for-all of anger, frustration, and sadness in my brain's cerebral cortex. I'd hit the personal trigger jackpot, and the lights and sirens were going off all through my head.
The next thing I knew, I looked at my watch, and it was 8:45 P.M. I'd been walking on the beach for more than forty-five minutes. I looked up and realized I had no idea where I was, and I certainly had no idea where my girlfriend was. I turned around and started hightailing it back to the hotel. By the time I got there, it was close to 9:20 P.M., and let's just say my girlfriend was . . . not pleased.
Of course, I blamed her for being late in the first place, and she blamed me for running off and not caring about her. This turned into a major argument, and needless to say, the rest of the vacation wasn't pleasant, to put it mildly.
You can't control people. All you can do is control how you react to people.
Several years later, in therapy, I remembered this situation, and my therapist and I spent several sessions analyzing it. One of the key conclusions we reached was this: _You can't control people. All you can do is control how you react to people._
That's possibly the single greatest lesson my therapist ever taught me.
See, when you're ADHD, you want to "fix" things, because you want them to be perfect. We're usually terrible at explaining things to people, but we're great at pushing them out of the way and doing it for them ourselves. (Come on, how many times has someone asked you to teach them how to do something on their phone, but instead of teaching them, you just take their phone and do it _for_ them? It's why I've "shown" my mother thirty times how to send me a photo, yet she still manages to call me each time to tell me that she has a photo for me to look at. Seriously. It's like my going to your house to see if you got the FedEx I sent.)
How many times have you had the same conversation with your partner that I've had below?
PARTNER _:_ "See? That's the problem, Peter! You always try to _fix_ things, when what I really need you to do is just _listen_!"
ME _:_ "See, I don't think that _is_ what you need, I think what you _need_ is for me to fix the thing that's wrong."
PARTNER _:_ "See? You're not even listening now!"
ME _:_ "Fine. I'll listen. Fine."
PARTNER _:_ "Well, I'm not going to tell you if you're going to get frustrated."
ME _:_ "ARRRGH!!!"
PARTNER _:_ "See? I knew you were frustrated."
The problem is, though, we simply can't "fix" other people. All we can do is work on how we react to what other people do. Instead of trying to "fix" M and her inability to be on time, perhaps I could have fixed how I handled it, or even better, prevented it from happening in the first place, by knowing and reminding myself that her issues with lateness were a trigger for me.
The good part about learning that, though, is that it lets us focus on figuring out how we're going to react to any scene, no matter how ridiculous it might be, because we've already played out in our head what we'll do. We can refer to our "instructions," as it were, and prevent ourselves from doing something stupid. Then, in the future, when the same situation presents itself, we can take steps to prevent those triggers from flaring up in the first place.
In the situation above, I told my girlfriend that dinner was at 8:00 P.M. What I _should_ have said was, "Hey, M, dinner is at eight, and it's really important to me that we get there a few minutes early. It's an amazing, popular restaurant, and I want to make sure we get there in time to get a great table, and that we don't feel rushed or worried that we won't make it. Do you think you could make sure you're ready to go at seven-thirty?"
The simple act of saying this would have done two things: it would have conveyed that this was important to me, which would have resulted in M's knowing that she needed to make sure she was on time, but also, it would allow me to stay focused without setting off any triggers, because I'd _know_ that _she knew_ that I'd want to be on time. So she'd focus on making that happen. Additionally, I wouldn't have worried, and she would have appreciated that I reached out to her to share my feelings.
Instead, I let my triggers get the best of me, and I ruined a perfectly good dinner, and probably vacation. Now look, I know it wasn't entirely my fault, and in the end, she should have been more responsible. But I'd rather prevent a trigger from happening than have to apologize because I was rude, or wrong, or whatever. I should have focused on how I could have reacted to her _before_ it turned into a major incident.
Discussing this chapter with my seatmate on this flight (because he's nosy and I caught him looking at my screen as I typed), he suggested my telling my girlfriend that dinner was a half hour earlier than it actually was, thus giving me a buffer of time and allowing me not to worry. While the logic there is sound, the issue I have with that strategy is that it forces me to lie (as innocent a lie as it might be), and that sets a bad precedent. Additionally, there's no guarantee that she wouldn't be more than thirty minutes late anyway. If I did that, I'd have to worry not only that she'd catch me in the lie, but that she'd still be late. It wouldn't really solve anything—plus, it would deprive me of the chance to share my feelings in a transparent way. The honest approach, in this situation, is a better one, in my opinion.
**SQUIRREL!: When you're ADHD, one of the most beneficial things you can do for yourself, as well as for others, is to live your life "one minute in the future." This means you're constantly on the lookout for the effect that things you're doing** right now **will have one minute, five minutes, an hour, a day into the future. (People in AA meetings sometimes refer to this as "playing the tape forward," which is a wonderful tool for those with ADHD as well.)**
In other words, if I had told M that I was concerned about being late to the dinner and given her the warning, I would have been able to predict a much happier future for me. Instead, by not saying anything, and not thinking of how the evening would play out, I let my ADHD (and her lateness) get the best of me and ruin the night.
Personal triggers can be dangerous for many reasons, the least of which is that we often don't realize we're being triggered until it's too late, and we're already in the throes of it. I've found that one of the best ways to prevent triggers is to avoid being placed in situations that stress you out. It's similar to getting sick—if you're loading up on vitamins each day and making sure to get enough sleep, you can usually avoid coming down with a cold or the flu. But you need to be loading up on those vitamins. If you start taking vitamins after you notice that your throat is hurting, they won't do anything for you, and you'll have to ride out the cold all the way through.
## Know Your Triggers (and Avoid Them)
Stress in our personal lives usually occurs because we're in situations that let our ADHD take root and flourish. I encourage you to figure out what in your life does that. What situations in your life cause your ADHD to bloom? Is it a messy room? Is it dishes left in the sink? I know from experience that one messy room leads to a messy apartment. The simple act of making your bed after you get out of it in the morning can put you on a path that keeps you satisfied all through the day, as opposed to the opposite path, where you leave your bed unmade, and that leads to your not cleaning up from breakfast, which will hang over your head all day, which will detract from your ability to work at your best, and so on, and so on. The same thing is true with deadlines, whether work or personal. If they're hanging over your head, they're all you're going to focus on, at the expense of everything (and everyone) else in your life. And the worst part? You might not even realize you're focusing on whatever's hanging over your head. You might truly try to be present. But you won't be, and the person (or persons) you're with will notice, possibly before you do.
Having something hanging over our heads prevents us from being present.
Emotional stuff is tricky that way. Just because you're not thinking about that thing that's bothering you doesn't mean it's not manifesting itself in your brain as something else. You could be focusing on the thing bothering you, or it could just be something shiny—maybe looking up how many times the F-word appeared in the movie _Pulp Fiction_ (265, by the way). Doesn't matter. Having something hanging over our heads prevents us from being present. So focus on getting what's _in_ your head _out_ of your head, by getting it done.
## Recognize That Deadlines Are Your Friend
Here's an awesome example of what I mean. It's a professional story, but it ties nicely into the personal aspect of ADHD as well.
My friend JP is diagnosed ADHD. He works at a computer software company that, while they have deadlines per se, allows each employee to work at their own pace, at their own times, and on their own schedules, as long as all of the projects coincide with the software launch date. When JP took the job, he was over the moon with how they let him work. "I can do it whenever I want, and get it done!" he screamed. He couldn't have been happier. A lot of times, the employees are working on more than one project at a time, and budget their time accordingly.
When I checked in with him a month later, he wasn't happy anymore. Turns out, not having a deadline was destroying JP's productivity. See, if you put a project in front of JP, he's going to immediately start it and work it to completion. Nothing will get in his way, except one thing: if you put another project in front of him. Do that, and the first project is now in competition with the second project, and both of them wind up not being finished.
JP talked to his bosses, and quite possibly became the first person in the history of the company to actively _request deadlines_. By having a specific deadline, JP knows when his project is due, and he can work backward from the due date to figure out when he has to start it and how long it will take. He's rocking his job now, and his bosses are more than happy to give him a due date for every project he takes on.
**SQUIRREL!: "Soon" isn't an actual due date. If you're ADHD, always, always, always request a deadline. Deadlines are actualities, and actualities allow people with ADHD to plan their hyperfocus accordingly and get their work done on time, every time. This goes for your personal life as well as your professional life.**
Same thing is true in JP's personal life. "If I want to talk to my wife about something, I used to interrupt whatever she was doing, because I wanted to share it with her NOW NOW NOW! The problem is, she wasn't focused on me, she was more focused on the fact that I just interrupted her, and I'd never feel like I was able to truly share anything with her. She didn't listen, I got angry, and it was killing us.
"Now," says JP, "I actually schedule time to talk with my wife. We put down our devices and truly focus on each other. We work hard on not interrupting each other, we let each other speak, and I feel like she truly listens to me. It's so much better!"
See, ADHD people simply _love_ to be able to start a project, get it done, and file it away. "I have to do this thing, I'll do this thing, this thing is done, I don't have to think about this thing anymore." It's the same reason we need to feel heard in an argument: if we don't feel like you heard us, we can't file what we just said and move on to the next point, so we'll raise our voices and keep talking. It's a self-defeating process, because the more we feel like we're not being heard, the more we'll raise our voices, and the more you won't want to interact with us—which of course will cause us to raise our voices more. It's also why, counterintuitively, we can actually do relatively well on a test as long as we know what's going to be on it. We can study it, learn it, spit it out, and forget it. We like to finish things _NOW_.
**SQUIRREL!: If you have the choice between finishing something now or leaving it for later,** always finish it now **. Finishing things now will allow you to "cross it off" in your mind and move on.**
## Learn to "Unenjoy" Things
I don't even know if "unenjoy" is a word, but it totally should be. Amy, a college student on the West Coast, tells us how to "unenjoy" things.
One of the ways Amy combats the negative effects of her ADHD is to focus on not doing something she really wants to be doing until she finishes the thing she's _supposed_ to be doing.
"Well, duh," I hear you saying. "If I could do that, I wouldn't have ADHD!"
Not exactly. You'd still have it, but you'd have it with one fewer negative aspect, and that's a good thing! Here's how Amy does it:
Let's say Amy wants to kill time on Facebook, but needs to focus on getting her paper done. She makes a simple agreement with herself: she won't launch her browser until she's written her paper for forty-five minutes. She sets a timer and works nonstop for forty-five minutes. She doesn't do anything but work on her paper during that time. When the timer goes off, she resets it for ten minutes, browses Facebook and likes and comments on all her friends' posts, and then resets her timer again for four minutes. During those four minutes she refreshes her water, goes to the bathroom, and stretches a bit. Then she repeats the process.
End result, she's able to focus on her paper, or any other assignment she has, for a solid forty-five minutes at a time without distractions, because she's trained her brain to know that the distraction, the thing she likes, will be there soon enough. According to Amy, it works like a charm, and she's able to get through almost all of her big projects this way.
## Personal Triggers in Other Forms
When I began writing this book, I promised myself I was going to be open and honest in it, the same way I try to be in my life as much as possible. So here's one of those moments when I've been staring at the screen for the past hour, trying to figure out how to start typing.
As a completely socially awkward kid in high school (otherwise known as a "dork"), I was into computers, tech, and the Internet. While this is considered cool today, keep in mind that this was the eighties, and the majority of people who were into those things were also social rejects like myself. (Remember "Comic Book Guy" from _The Simpsons_? Yeah. Him.) I had a few friends, and we were all very similar. The popular kids? Simply put, we weren't them. And most of the time, that was okay. Think Ronald Miller from _Can't Buy Me Love_. Happy 99 percent of the time, doing his own thing with his own friends, but still secretly and subconsciously desiring to be popular.
Anyhow, one of the interesting side notes that came out of not being popular was that I rarely went to parties or hung out with the "dangerous kids," so I never experienced what most kids do in high school, namely, experimenting with alcohol or drugs. In fact, with the exception of one night in high school when my best friend and I thought it would be fun to try alcohol (we went to my parents' basement, found a bottle of rum, each took two giant gulps from the bottle, each immediately threw up, and then ordered a pizza), I didn't drink at all until well into my late twenties. The only reason I even started then was because I was running my own public relations firm, and clients and journalists expected to be taken out for dinner and/or drinks.
So here I am, successful, in the early 2000s, with a little bit of money, running a PR agency, and I discover alcohol for the first time. Like cavemen discovering fire, it turns out that I _like_ alcohol! Like, I _really like alcohol_. This is a classic ADHD trait, by the way. I don't like getting "drunk," per se, and I'm not in a dorm room doing shots of Everclear, but rather, I'm out with journalists and clients almost every night, going through bottles of wine, or having a drink at the airport lounge before we take off, and so on.
_"I'm not having a glass of wine, Sharon, I'm having six. It's called a tasting, and it's classy."_
—Randy Marsh, _South Park_
Sure enough, by 2005, I found my daily run or other exercise was more often than not being replaced by "going out for a drink." Bad day? Instead of a loop around the park, I'd meet some friends for a few drinks. Again, I wasn't getting _drunk_ drunk, I wasn't doing anything stupid, but it was taking a toll on me that I didn't see right away. My ADHD was exploding off the charts, but I wasn't attributing it to my drinking, because I wasn't noticing it while I was drinking. I just figured I was tired a lot and should get more sleep.
Then, in May 2006, I broke up with someone I'd been dating for about a year. In my efforts to get over her, I did what almost every guy has done at some point in his life: I decided I was going to do nothing over the next six months but eat, sleep, work, and train for the New York City Marathon. No dating, no going out, and no drinking. I quit cold turkey.
Several things happened during the next several months: I lost about thirty pounds (one of the many times in my life I've swung down and up on the scale), I dropped my marathon time from a 5:10 to a 3:58, and I also increased my revenue from my consulting by 100 percent over the previous year. Again, I didn't quite put two and two together, and didn't realize that I'd quit only because it was all I knew how to do. I honestly thought I was quitting drinking for several months so I could train for my race.
Funny thing was, of course, after the marathon, when I'd finally "hit my goals" and "proved I could do it," I wanted to start dating again, so of course, I went back to drinking. (Remember, I didn't think I had a problem with alcohol, and I didn't realize that alcohol was exacerbating my ADHD.) It took about eight years after 2006 for me to figure it all out and decide that I was done drinking for good.
Today, I no longer drink— _at all_.
It took me awhile to make the connection—ADHD, impulsiveness, all those things that benefit me in the real world can be sent entirely to the negative when I drink. Again, I wasn't doing anything stupid. I never drove drunk, not even after one drink. I never drunk-texted anyone, and only once did I put up a status on Twitter that I regretted. The only questionable thing I ever did when I was drunk was to buy many domain names. (As of today, I have close to four hundred or so domain names that _seemed like such a good idea at the time_.) So while I "didn't have a problem with alcohol," I clearly did, and just didn't see it, because I wasn't like those "people who have problems with alcohol" that you hear about.
Like anyone who's ADHD, we're freaking AMAZING at convincing anyone in the world of almost _anything_. Unfortunately, we're also really good at convincing _ourselves_ of almost anything. So the next day, when I'd wake up tired, cranky, dehydrated, or all three, I'd convince myself that the best way to stop feeling like that was to order three grilled cheese, tomato, and bacon sandwiches, and because I was my own boss, work from home that day. Obviously, this wasn't the right answer; the right answer was not to drink so much. And I'd tell myself that, too. Over and over. So the next time I went out, I'd make sure to have only one drink.
That sounds easy, right? Not when you're ADHD. Friends of mine in alcohol recovery always say that it's never the first drink that's the problem, and they're right. It's what happens after that first drink, when your good intentions go right out the window. Six drinks in, those good intentions are history, and now it's 2:00 A.M. and I've just bought SocialVelcro.com on GoDaddy.
End result: As people with faster than normal brains, "moderation" isn't a thing for us. It doesn't exist. It's like the mythical "leftover pizza" or "extra wine" that I talked about earlier. We simply can't do it.
If I ever have another drink again, I know I won't have just one. Triggers don't respect you, they're out to get you. That's simply what they do. I learned that alcohol is a trigger for me, and to avoid winding up in a place down the road where I don't want to be (heavy, unhappy, less productive) I can no longer have that first drink. There's a great joke: "I don't drink a lot. But when I drink, I turn into a different person, and he drinks a lot." I've finally recognized the trigger and I avoid it altogether.
Triggers don't respect you, they're out to get you.
What are your nonhuman triggers? What substances, beverages, or even foods can lead you astray? And what's the best way to eliminate them? We'll get into a bunch of anti-trigger strategies in a moment. In the meantime, though, I want you to meet someone.
Listen to Adam Sud. He's been a guest on the _Faster Than Normal_ podcast, and he describes it better than I ever could:
A little over three years ago I weighed three hundred pounds, I was a type II diabetic, a drug addict, fast food addict, and suffering from severe depression. My addiction started in high school. Adderall made me feel superhuman. It was also a way for me to control my weight. I have always had issues with self-image and self-confidence. It also allowed me to be able to stay up for days at a time without loss of concentration or energy, and I loved that feeling. But after college, the drug had destroyed my metabolism, and I started to gain weight. The heavier I got, the more I started to isolate. After a while, I just stopped caring and became addicted to fast food. By this time, my life revolved solely around when was I getting more Adderall, getting more Adderall, and eating fast food, while the entire time being severely depressed and angry at everyone and everything else. My relationships with my family were strained and I never socialized with my friends. I was barely working and running out of money. I knew that I was heading toward the day when I would be living on the street. I finally picked up the phone and called my father for help. Two weeks later I checked into rehab.
Adam has since reversed his diabetes completely, he's dropped more than 165 pounds, has four years sober, and lives in Los Angeles, where he's a motivational speaker and coach. He figured out how to eliminate those triggers. Simply put, Adam identified his triggers, what caused them to fire, and most important, learned strategies to avoid them in the first place. He's on a plant-based diet now, and he talks a lot more about how he did this on the podcast, at fasterthannormal.com. It's one of my favorite episodes, and I encourage you to listen to it.
**SQUIRREL!: Everyone has different triggers that result in either firing up their ADHD or causing them to do things that are self-destructive in some way. Focusing on what those are and learning strategies to avoid them can be a game changer, as it was for me, Adam, and many, many other people.**
**Anti-Trigger Strategy: Write down how you feel when you've given in to a trigger.** On my nightstand, I have a few paragraphs I wrote on the back of a paper bag awhile back. I'd just woken up in a hotel, after a client keynote the night before that rocked. I was psyched at how well the talk had been received, and when the client asked if I wanted to get a drink, I of course said yes. Waking up at 4:00 A.M. for a 7:00 A.M. flight when you're probably still mildly buzzed, and after you've gone to bed at 1:00 A.M., is not the greatest feeling in the world. I sat on the side of the bed and wrote out exactly how I felt, writing about the nausea, the dry mouth, the inability to focus, and the desire to do nothing all day. I wrote down how I was worried that I might have said something stupid while drinking. I wrote it all down and put it in my suitcase before heading into the shower and to the airport.
The first several months I quit drinking, I looked at that piece of paper almost every single day to remind myself that I never want to feel that way again. I don't look at it as often now, but I still keep it on my nightstand, and I've transcribed the words on it to my phone's notepad so it's with me when I travel, just in case.
When Robin Williams was once asked about his cocaine use, he spoke about coming offstage after having an amazing comedy set in front of thousands of people, and how making people laugh was a huge, huge high for him. He mentioned that when you come offstage, _of course_ you want to continue the high! Who wouldn't? He talked about turning to drugs to do that. Understanding why you make bad decisions, and how it feels when you do, is a great step in changing your habits to avoid them in the future.
**Anti-Trigger Strategy: Find other ways to continue the high.** I won't give a speech without having exercised beforehand. I don't care how early my keynote is, I'll get up even earlier to do at least thirty minutes of some kind of cardio exercise, even if it means running the stairs in my hotel. Why? Because the dopamine and serotonin my brain will produce from that workout will last me long after my speech is over, and it'll continue the "high" I get from speaking until I'm ready for bed in the evening.
Amazing how it always comes back to dopamine, huh? In the genetic lottery of life, we've won big-time, as long as we learn how to master our gifts. ADHD means we need more dopamine than a normal person. We can get that through negative means, or we can find positive ways to do it.
Your goal is to set up your personal and professional life in such a way that you can avoid the negative things that can trip those triggers, while focusing on the positive ways of getting the chemicals our brains so sorely crave.
I'll end this chapter with a story that happened a few years ago about how one of the ways I fight my triggers provided me with an amusing moment at Union Station. I had to attend a meeting in Washington, D.C., and was taking a morning Amtrak from Penn Station in New York to Union Station, D.C. As the train was leaving NYC, I pulled out my headphones and my laptop and set out to work for the almost three hours the trip would take. I had some good music and a bottle of water with me; I was golden. I started working, and three hours later had about eight blog posts written, the water was gone, and I'd been bopping along to some great dance music the entire time. I was happy, and was so "in my zone of focus" that I didn't even realize we'd arrived in D.C. until I saw, out of the corner of my eye, people getting up and packing their stuff. I had a good smile on my face, some good dopamine running through my head from the music, I was hydrated, I felt incredibly productive, and I was ready to rock my meeting.
The train stopped at Union Station, the doors opened, I put my headphones and laptop away and started making my way off the train. On the platform at Union Station, a man who'd also gotten off the train came up and started talking to me. He told me he was a doctor who dealt with addiction and wanted to give me his card, because if I ever felt like I needed some help, I should reach out, without any judgments.
I was completely confused. I wasn't on anything, I wasn't even drinking. I was in my "zone of focus." And when I've got music on, and I'm working (like I'm doing now, on this flight), I tend to lose track of everything else in the world, and _just_ work. Well, apparently I was _so_ focused, _so_ hardworking, and _so_ in my zone of focus that this nice doctor across the aisle from me assumed I was high as a kite.
I couldn't stop laughing as I told him that I was simply managing my ADHD in a positive way, one that let me be that productive. He apologized profusely—he simply couldn't believe I wasn't on anything, and that this was my "natural state." We wound up staying in touch, and we still get a kick out of it when we talk.
In the end, it doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter how you're perceived as "different," or what people think of how you make your life work for you. What matters is how you handle yourself, how you're feeling, and how you're able to focus on changing yourself for the better, not other people. Always remember that. It's a hard lesson to grasp; God knows, it took me countless years, and I still forget it from time to time. But in the end, I'm better for knowing it, and I hope you are, too.
Still with me? Put this book down and go exercise for a little bit. You're four chapters in, about 35,000 words or so. Hope you're finding value in it, and I hope you're having a blast reading it. Most important, I hope this book is helping you realize that you're not crazy, you're not disabled. Quite the opposite. You're awesome. As always, @petershankman on all the socials—I want to hear what you think!
# Chapter Five
# ADHD and Productivity: The Tools I Use, Both Digital and Analog, to Run My Life
"Peter, are you coming to bed?"
"Yes, I'm just putting on my gym clothes for tomorrow."
"You're putting on your gym clothes to come to bed?"
"Yeah, so, I should explain some things to you. . . ."
—An actual conversation I had with a woman I dated, the first time she stayed over at my apartment
BACK IN LATE 2014, I had two weeks left on deadline to finish writing my last business book, _Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans_. My publisher was getting antsy, as I hadn't sent her anything yet, other than several e-mails that told her the book was "coming along nicely." I'd done all the research; the problem, as always, was sitting down and getting the writing done. Yet I wasn't worried. I'd been here many, many times before. With twelve days left until my deadline, I went to the United Airlines website and bought a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo, leaving the next day. Understand, I had absolutely no reason whatsoever to be in Tokyo. No speeches, no meetings, nothing in the world to put me on a plane and fly halfway around the world. Yet I took the train to Newark Airport, I got on the plane, armed with nothing but my laptop, a power cord, headphones, and my phone, all neatly tucked away in my SCOTTeVEST travel jacket. (More on that jacket later; it's one of my tools.)
When the plane took off, I took out my laptop, and in the fourteen hours it took us to get from Newark to Narita, I wrote chapters 1 through 5. We landed in Tokyo. I went through immigration, walked outside, took a deep breath of fresh air, turned right back around, went back through security, back through immigration (still amazed I wasn't detained for that), back to the gate, and boarded the same plane, from Tokyo back to Newark. I even sat in the same seat. On the thirteen-hour flight home, I wrote chapters 6 through 10. I landed thirty hours after I took off, with a completed book, and my second bestseller. (I also needed a shower, but that's to be expected.)
When I tell this story to "normal" people, they look at me like I'm insane. Why? Because what normal person would spend upwards of $5,000 to not really go anywhere, and write a book in thirty-one hours? Not one normal person. But then, if you've ever met me, you know: I'm not normal. I'm faster than normal. Like, waaaay faster than normal. If you've read the first four chapters so far, this shouldn't come as _any_ surprise to you.
There are ways, as you'll learn, to do this cheaply, too. Go for a day hike—find a trail somewhere, leave your phone in the car, and just bring your laptop. Sure, you'll get some looks for writing on the side of a mountain, but who cares? You're doing you—you're getting what needs to be done, done, and doing it the way that works best for you.
Having a faster than normal brain is responsible for a lot of my success, if not all of it. Thinking differently helps, as does realizing that what other people think of me doesn't matter, as long as I'm happy with myself. We've talked about that already.
I focus my time on doing things that improve my life. I'm a constant reinvention of myself, always striving for the next great thing. Like most people with ADHD, I'm never satisfied with achieving a goal. I constantly need to improve that goal.
In the end, the goal is to create, build, and keep myself occupied with things that work for me, so I'm focused on doing positive things, as opposed to that which could negatively affect me.
Okay, so what does that mean? It means I use whatever I can, both digital and analog, to run my life and make it as productive as possible. I am on a continual quest to eliminate wasted time, to find tools that work for me and help me remove distractions from my life, and I'm always figuring out ways to hack those tools, as well as my life, to achieve a perfect combination of form, function, speed, and design. I'm going to share all the tools I use here in this chapter. Before I do, though, I want to paint a broader picture for you, an overview, as it were, of how I structure my days to do the best I can with what I have.
Once I do that, we're going to focus on the specific tools. I'm always discovering new ways to up my productivity, and not all of them have to include flying to Tokyo. Still, I see $5,000 as a small and very good investment in my productivity and success. A lot of people spend a whole lot more money trying to get things done and don't come close to writing a book in less than thirty-six hours.
**SQUIRREL!: Using apps and other tools at your disposal isn't "cheating," and it's not being "weak." Quite the opposite—it's recognizing that any edge you can give yourself to be more in control of your fast brain is a benefit.**
One thing: You should know that I actually _am_ writing this chapter on a flight to Tokyo, but I'm not flying there just to have time to write. I'm actually connecting in Tokyo to head to Singapore, where I'm keynoting a conference called Customer Experience Asia, and it just so happens that the timing works for writing.
## Life Tools
### A Clean and Simple Environment Is Mandatory
I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating: I cannot work in an office that is cluttered, messy, or dirty, and I've found that most people with ADHD can't, either. If my desk is in disarray and I'm trying to work on a project, I have a tendency to get very distracted by the piles of papers and small objects around me. I start looking at unrelated documents, reading papers that have nothing to do with the project at hand, and then attempting to organize and put things away to no avail because I get involved in some article or project I found as I was sorting through a pile.
Understand: Your desk does not have to be perfect. There's no need to have a fancy filing system. Even if you put things away by category in open boxes lined up against the wall, you're better off than if all that paper was piled on your desk. Best advice I ever received? Throw 90 percent of the crap on your desk into a box and put the box somewhere else. If you didn't look at it in a month, throw the whole thing out.
Now, this is just me. There are ADHD people who are not bothered by desk chaos. However, when your mess starts to limit you, it's time to take a step back and assess the problem. Here are some of the warning signs you're one of those people who need to control your chaos so it's not controlling you:
* Do you purchase items to replace those you can't find?
* Do you spend time looking for things you use on a regular basis, such as your car or house keys and cell phone?
* Does your spouse, family member, roommate, or colleague complain that your stuff is encroaching on their personal space?
* Is the mess on your desk (in your bedroom, kitchen, etc.) a distraction in itself?
* Are items in the wrong rooms? For instance, is your bike helmet on the kitchen counter, are cereal bowls in your bedroom, or coats piled up on a chair in the living room instead of the hall closet? (You have no idea how embarrassing it is to have someone you like lie down on your bed only to nearly get a concussion because your bike helmet was under a pillow. That didn't happen to me. . . . It happened to . . . a friend . . . yeah . . . a friend . . . that's it. . . .)
* Do you ever find yourself stepping over things to walk across the room, or push things out of the way so you can set a plate down on the dining room table to eat?
Keeping your _home_ clean is also massively important. I'm beyond overwhelmed and depressed when my house is a mess. I simply can't focus, and it causes a severe drop in my already low dopamine levels. Me with lower-than-normal dopamine levels = a completely unproductive me. A non-ADHD person may see a rug that needs vacuuming, dishes in the sink, or clothes that need to be washed as minor annoyances that can be dispensed with quickly. For me, and many others who are faster than normal, these same things can bring a potentially productive day to a screeching halt. Paralysis sets in—sometimes you can't find the energy to clean the house, but you can't seem to get anything done because your space is so messy. I know a lot of fellow ADHD people who feel the same way.
If you can afford it, I urge you: hire someone to come in once a week and clean your home. I'm _not_ saying that in a socialite "oh, look at me" way, I swear. I would give up good pizza before I gave up my wonderful housekeeper. Dina has kept me in order for the past fifteen years, and some of the happiest times for my brain are when I come home on a Monday evening and find my entire apartment in perfect condition.
If you can't afford someone to help you clean your home, I suggest another tactic: Swap cleaning duties once a week with a good friend. You clean their place, and they clean yours. It sounds crazy, but it works. For some reason, it's a lot easier to find the energy to clean a friend's house than it is to clean your own. Perhaps because it feels more like an adventure when you're cleaning someone else's house, and more like a chore when you're cleaning your own.
There are other, cheaper ways to "keep the Zen" in your home space, as well. Perhaps it's some kind of chore board, where you have to knock certain things out each day—breaking up the cleaning, eating the elephant one bite at a time, makes things easier. A friend of mine who is a few years into being an entrepreneur, and for whom a cleaning service isn't currently in the cards, treats himself as a "client" and blocks out three hours a week for home housekeeping duties—laundry, et cetera—that he knows he needs to get done. He does this as soon as he wakes up, and doesn't get onto his computer that morning until he's done, preventing distractions of half-finished chores. He told me that when he started doing this, he'd actually put an out-of-office reply on his e-mail for those three hours, because he was so afraid of angering a client. After a few months, he realized that three hours one day a week wasn't a deal breaker, and he no longer worries about taking his "client" time. In fact, doing it has made him more productive and happier, because he's eliminated the dark cloud of "I have to get this done" distraction that used to float over his head.
Our clutter can tell us a lot about our deeper needs and unfinished business. My friend Paula Rizzo, the author of _Listful Thinking: Using Lists to Be More Productive, Highly Successful and Less Stressed_ , puts it this way:
It's so difficult to remove emotion from objects when they are your own. It's because we get caught up in what we wanted to achieve with that item or what it was a symbol for. For instance, cookbooks were very difficult for one woman to part with even though she didn't cook, because they represented the kind of mother she always wanted to be. The one who would whip up meals from those books and make her kids happy with food. Once she let go of that vision she was able to let go of the books.
Whatever you do, working in a cluttered, dirty, or disorganized space can severely limit your ability to get stuff done, and more than likely will drop your productivity levels to almost zero.
Minimalism works for a lot of us, although our tendency is to mindlessly accumulate things. Unless we manage it, clutter seems to follow us around. If we reduce as much as possible and _refrain from acquiring more_ (which is key, because ADHD often promotes late-night online shopping binges), we can gain the control over our personal spaces that we so desperately crave. George, who runs an ecotourism business, is like a lot of people with ADHD in that everywhere he sets up to work—whether it's in his home office on the dining room table, in his business office, wherever—the piles of paper and related items ranging from remote controls to keys seem to almost magically metastasize in front of him. He's like the stuff magnet.
When you walk into George's master bathroom, you can tell immediately which side belongs to George and which side belongs to his wife (who does not have the gift of ADHD). George's vanity is completely covered with bottles, jars, tubes, pill dispensers, and several assorted toothbrushes. (Mind you, he's a guy. Ask George about his morning routine, and he will tell you he uses five items: soap, shaving cream, razor, deodorant, and toothpaste.) How all this other stuff gets on his bathroom counter is beyond George, but it's clear that seeing all the clutter is a very bad way for George to start the day. George just feels hopeless and like a failure. It's downhill from there. The man has a bottle of foot moisturizer on his counter that he's never opened. Seriously, George? Why can't he get organized?
Organization and cleanliness are crucial for the ADHD person to succeed. A neat environment, one in which you can locate things you need, helps you be more productive—whether that means focusing or letting your mind wander and create. For George, his strategy for being the best he can be involved spending an hour, with help from his wife (with a _lot_ of help from his wife), tossing out every item in his bathroom he did not use. He also made a conscious decision to eliminate choice. He now sticks to one brand of each of the five items he uses, and he buys replacements only when he is running out of something. Stockpiling Crest when it goes on sale does not work for George.
For you, cleaning up and clearing out may mean embarking on the often-difficult task of downsizing your possessions. Let me tell you something—the first time I downsized my possessions, I wanted to cry. It took at least a month before I was okay with all the space I'd achieved. I had an _echo in my bedroom! Who has that, especially in New York City?_
Those who are faster than normal have a tendency to collect things, sometimes unconsciously. There are some people with ADHD who thrive in cluttered environments, but I don't know many of them. It's kind of hard to function at an optimal level when every surface, including the floor, is covered with papers, photographs, newspapers, clothing, dishes, books, and other natural distractions. When I decided to downsize for the first time, I discovered that I had twenty-two Android device charging cords. I hadn't owned an Android device in over a year.
Possessions can weigh us down physically and psychologically.
Possessions can weigh us down physically and psychologically. Think of how easy it would be to keep your place neat and functional if you reduced its contents by half or even by a third. As an added bonus, the more you decide to reduce, the more you can give away! There's an animal shelter near me that was overjoyed to find that I had two extra _never before used_ litter boxes in the bottom of my closet, and a retirement center down the street couldn't have been happier when I downsized, as they were the recipient of more than 150 books that were sitting in boxes in my office, all of which had been sent to me for review on my blog over the past several years. Gone! Space! Joy!
In one of my favorite movies, _Up in the Air_ , George Clooney's character Ryan Bingham says, "Photos are for people who can't remember. Take some _Ginkgo biloba_ and let the photos burn." Now, I'm not advocating you set your memories on fire, but you know those hundreds, if not thousands of slides, pictures, and negatives you have stored somewhere in your home? Come on, let's be honest: you're never going to look at them again. So why not dump them into a giant envelope and get them all digitized? Seriously. Scanmyphotos.com is one of several companies that will send you a giant envelope. Dump every photo you have into it. Pictures, negatives, even disc camera reel negatives! (Remember the Kodak disc camera, or did I just really date myself?) Anyhow, dump everything in there, seal it up, mail it to them, and a week or so later they send you back a USB drive with every single photo, negative, slide, whatever, scanned at top resolution. They even send you back your originals, which you can then put in storage—or, I suppose, technically, you could burn them. Either way, now your photos are readily available when you want them, but out of the way when you don't, and that's one more thing you can cross right off your list.
Bonus: I contacted scanmyphotos.com to tell them I'd be mentioning them in this book. They gave me a code for 10 percent off everything: VIP. That's it. Just VIP. Use it, and think of me.
**SQUIRREL!: Outsource as much of your cleaning and decluttering as you can. You'll find that there are** tons **of companies that will take your old stuff and digitize it into newer, much smaller stuff. Find out what you can digitize and no longer need to worry about. Digitize, donate, discard . . . freedom.**
At the end of the day, a clean home, a clean work space, a clean environment keeps the mind clean and sharp, as well. I haven't done the scientific research, but I guarantee that when I walk into my apartment, and it's just been cleaned, my brain squirts out a tiny hit of dopamine for me. I'm sure of it.
### Organize Your Life Around Deadlines
I need a deadline.
I spoke earlier about my friend JP, who absolutely needs deadlines to make sure he's on track. He's not alone. One of the biggest danger zones for me is an open-ended project, or projects with no end date in sight. It's such a major trigger for me that my solution has become a mantra in many ways, and deserves individual treatment. _I need a deadline._ If you have ADHD and you don't have a deadline for the thing (whatever that thing happens to be), that means you can do it whenever the hell you want to do it, which means you can do whatever the hell you want to do with your time, which means that you're probably not going to get the thing done. When someone says to me, "Peter, just get this back to me when you can," that's a death sentence, a guarantee that whoever asked me for it isn't going to get it. To me, ASAP is never, or at the very best, ten years from now. Let's face it, we're never going to be done taking care of everything else in our lives, so "soon" is not a reality. "Soon" is BS. "Soon" simply does not exist in the ADHD-affected person's mind.
**SQUIRREL!: I have a deadline for everything I do,** every **single thing I do. My friends, you should, too.**
If you don't, you simply won't get anything done. Pick a date for everything you want to accomplish and set it in stone. Be realistic, though. "Lose thirty pounds by next Tuesday" probably won't work, nor will "completely redesign the back-end architecture of our website by the weekend." But still, set deadlines. If you have a boss who says, "Joe, just get this to me as soon as you can," tell him that it's better for everyone if he gives you a deadline. Work with him to explain why. Even if he knows he doesn't need it by that date, at least in my head, I'll know I have to get it done by a certain day and time, and that allows me to start the process of working backward.
If I know it's due Thursday, I have to do it before Thursday so it will be done by Thursday. This isn't a debate, this isn't up for discussion. This is _it_. It'll be done Thursday, end of story, thank you for your time, Mr. President.
When you're ADHD, time is fluid. Time moves as you move—it can stop for hours, it can go at light speed. The key is to manage your time so you flow in sync with your time. Deadlines, hard stops, guaranteed "by then" dates—they all help those of us who are faster than normal to do that.
### Work Backward
I know my audience, I know what I'm talking about, and I'm really good at walking into a room to give a speech. I can walk onto a stage with no notes, no presentation, talk for ninety minutes off the cuff, and wow the audience into next week. I'm not bragging, honestly. I'm so incredibly blessed and fortunate that I've been able to figure out how to use my ability to talk—what used to get me in trouble in school—and make a really decent living from it. "Best speaker I've ever heard" is a standard post–Shankman speech comment.
In fact, most ADHD people are really good at this sort of improvisation. I could talk for six hours about anything, and I'll sound good. With one caveat: if I'm not prepared physically, if I don't feel good, if I'm not well rested, it will show. I'll be off my game. Having a deadline and responding to it through planning just ups my performance that much more.
Once I have a deadline, I can work backward from the goal to create a plan of action to reach the deadline. For instance, if I have a meeting or a speech next Tuesday, I want to walk in knowing what I'm talking about. How do I get there? I work backward. I know that by the previous Thursday I'm going to have done my research on the audience, I know I have to plan my sleep the night before very carefully. I'll have had my assistant book my flights and backup flights, and I know I'll have to have my clothes ready and my bag packed.
This is called a _night-before plan_ , and I can't stress enough what kind of a game changer it is to have one. It's truly a no-brainer. If I have a 9:00 A.M. meeting or speech, I have to leave the house or hotel at 7:00 A.M. I have to be ready to leave the house at 6:45 A.M., so by 6:45 I should have everything together that I need for the meeting or speech. That means I have to get up by 3:45 A.M. so I can get my mandatory workout in, get in the shower, and get dressed. Because I don't eat breakfast and I already know what I am going to wear (because I put out my clothes the night before), I'm all set from that angle. I make sure my bag is packed the night before with everything I need, as well. That allows me to get up, shower, dress, grab my bag, and feel secure that I haven't missed a thing.
This is why I sleep in my workout clothes. This saves me so much morning planning because it eliminates having to get up, fumble around for gym clothes, find my sneakers, and then go to the gym. Thinking about where you put things means, for me, and probably for many of you, staying in bed and hitting the snooze button.
**SQUIRREL!: The more you can eliminate the need to think first thing in the morning by doing things the night before, the easier it'll be to start your day like a boss.**
### Outsource the Small Stuff
In the world of straight lines, the faster than normal person is the zigzag. About 99.999 percent of the time, this is awesome. Think about it: zigzagging means we're not like the rest. We can think differently, we can come up with new ideas while everyone else is on the same boring path, and if you believe the movies, we're least likely to get hit if a bad guy trying to take over the world is shooting at us as we run away after breaking out of his lair.
But zigzagging has a few downsides, as well. We're tangent magnets. Look, something shiny! Let me stop paying attention to you while I check out that thing I saw from the corner of my eye! (Remember my favorite T-shirt from chapter 1? "A bike! I like cats! Hi!") So if not managed properly, our tangents can kill us, or at least cause us considerable pain, suffering, and misery. The good news, however, is that we can use our zigzags for good only, and avoid the negatives that come with them. (I'm now totally researching the logistics of making a T-shirt that says "I'm a tangent magnet," by the way.)
While the zigzags are great when you're trying to be creative, when I just need to get something accomplished, I have strategies to avoid them. For starters, I remember Archimedes. Think back to your geometry class. Archimedes is famous for determining that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. This is super true when it comes to ADHD. When I have to do something I'm not necessarily thrilled about doing, I always first figure out how I can most quickly and effectively get from point A to point B with as few exit ramps, back roads, or detours as possible.
One way I do this is by getting great help when I need it. Virgin founder Richard Branson, who both is dyslexic and has ADHD, attributes much of his productivity to delegation. "You must understand the art of delegation. I have to be good at helping people run the individual businesses, and I have to be willing to step back. The company must be set up so it can continue without me," he says. Good advice. There's no reason why you can't apply this wisdom on a microlevel to your own life, your education, your business, or your office job.
Remember above when I told you I have a cleaning woman? Now it makes more sense, right? Here's an example:
In addition to cleaning my apartment, many years ago Dina took it upon herself to start doing my laundry. Why? Because she'd come to my house every Monday and find that I'd done it over the weekend, but without fail, had left a load of laundry in the dryer, or had started hanging it all up but left it out because something else popped up in my field of vision, and clean clothes were now mixed in with dirty clothes, and they were all over the place.
So Dina does my laundry. A couple years later, Dina took it upon herself to figure out where I had my dry-cleaning done, and call them for a pickup whenever there were a bunch of shirts in my dry-cleaning bag. Why? Because I'd continually forget to do it, and without fail, I wouldn't have any clean shirts when CNN or Fox called and asked me to come on TV. I'd wind up running out and buying a new shirt. Long story short (or shirt, I suppose), I probably had close to twenty-five button-down shirts, and they were all dirty. So Dina removed that obstacle from my life and made the shortest way from point A to point B that much shorter for me.
By the way—it's not only me. Think of all the things that overwhelm you and keep you from getting from point A to point B. I tell the story of Audra, a mother, wife, and entrepreneur who ran her own small business out of her home.
Like other faster than normal people who discovered the minimalistic lifestyle, Audra had a super small wardrobe. The problem is, her husband and her son did not, and neither her husband nor her nine-year-old was much good at doing laundry. The chore fell to her.
The amount of laundry the family created was probably in line with that of any other similar family of three, one of them a child who plays sports, but Audra easily lost track of time and dirty clothes piled up and overwhelmed her. She would clean what was needed at night or early in the morning, and everyone would grab what they needed out of the dryer. In fact, there were very few clothes that were actually kept in closets or dressers. Most of the family's clothing was in the laundry room, either dirty, in the wash, or in the dryer. Despite Audra's asking for her husband's help, there were always struggles in the morning trying to find clean clothes for everyone to wear. Her husband never had a shirt ironed and ready to go. Finally, she hired a high school girl to come twice a week to do the laundry and iron shirts. The $60 it cost the family per week to have the laundry done, folded, put away, and shirts ironed helped her increase her own productivity at her home business, making it well worth the investment. Essentially the laundry service paid for itself in a matter of weeks.
Even if you can't afford real live help, as in the form of an assistant, there are many "virtual assistant" options, and many phone and computer applications that make life easier for people who need to stay oriented toward their goal. (Stay tuned for the ultimate list of my online and virtual tools.)
Without these tools, or at least processes in place for yourself, you might end up in Shanghai when you really wanted to go to Singapore, like I did once.
Back in the days before I had my amazing assistant Meagan, I was tapped to give a speech in Singapore. I was _so_ stoked, because this was my first invitation to speak outside the country! I was getting paid, all expenses were being covered, this was amazing! I was so excited that the second I got the signed contract e-mailed back to me, I immediately went online and booked a ticket to Singapore. Or so I thought.
Months went by, and it was time to head to the airport for my awesome trip. I showed up at Newark Airport, all smiles and happiness, and the person behind the counter asked why I was in such a great mood. I told her proudly how I'd been picked to keynote this amazing conference in Singapore, how I was so stoked to go, how this was a huge turning point in my professional career, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Only when she furrowed her brow in confusion did I finally shut up.
"Sir, you said you're giving this speech in Singapore?"
"Yup," I replied. "Long flight, but totally worth it."
"Okay, sir, you're going to Shanghai."
I was so unable to process that statement that I think I just looked at her with my smile still ablaze and said, "Yup! Going to Singapore! Totally!"
She repeated, much more slowly this time, "Sir, you purchased a ticket to Shanghai."
The magnitude of my error hadn't fully hit me, but it was starting to. The smile on my face was gone, and I looked sheepishly at the ticketing agent, who now probably thought she was dealing with someone who had the mental capacity of a stalk of celery.
"So . . ." I asked. "Are they close? Can I rent a car?"
She looked at me again, and I'm pretty sure a stalk of celery would have been smarter than I was at that moment. "Sir, they're not close. They're about 2,500 miles apart, and most of that is over water. Shall I price a new ticket for you?"
That, my friends, was a $3,000 mistake, eliminating almost my entire keynote fee before I even boarded the plane.
Two things have happened in the twelve or so years since that incident. I never book my own travel anymore, and my keynote fee has gone up by about a factor of ten. Both, in my opinion, are excellent things.
I one-hundred-percent embrace the necessity of having assistants who are involved in every aspect of my life, as well as any technology that can help me manage that which I'm not good at managing otherwise. Google Calendar is my friend.
Professionally, I've been blessed with a phenomenal assistant who keeps my life on track. I recommend finding someone to help you with the tasks that you find the most onerous, the most distracting, the most difficult.
For someone faster than normal, the most difficult tasks can also be some of the most mundane, but oftentimes it's the most mundane tasks that require the most focus. For example, by this point, you know I can't keep my calendar straight. Therefore, Meagan is terrific at keeping my calendar and, as a consequence, me, organized and efficient. Not only is it my friend, but as I mentioned, I don't even have write-access to it anymore, and once I got over the indignity of being denied access to my calendar because it was accepted that if I had it I'd screw it up, I came to appreciate it.
Now I never miss an appointment. No more screwing up different cities and countries in Asia. When someone asks to meet me tomorrow at 2:00 P.M., I tell him or her that they need to ask Meagan, and I'll copy her on the e-mail response. Not because I'm "that guy" who makes you go to "my people" (quite the opposite—I'm so not—I freaking hate that guy), but rather, because Meagan is in total control of that area of my life.
At the beginning of each day my calendar, created by Meagan, tells me what my schedule is. I don't have to think about it; I just have to show up. In fact, Meagan has gotten so good that she actually puts the text of the e-mail where the person asked for the meeting in the first place _in the notes section of my calendar_. Who am I meeting and why? All I have to do is look at the calendar entry. Boom. Problem solved, homework done, prep done, all in one place.
I'll take it a step further. By using Amazon's Echo, the small device that sits on my bedroom dresser and functions as my alarm and the ears of my "smart home," I can find out my schedule as I'm waking up. Once I tell Alexa to shut off her wake-up alarm and tell me the weather, I can ask her for my schedule, because I've synced her with Google Calendar. I do this before I go to bed, and as soon as I wake up. Now I know when and where my first meeting is before I leave the house, before I even brush my teeth.
I have a colleague who has to do a tremendous amount of research in her work. The research is really not the main function or goal of her work, it's just a way of getting information to do what she needs to do. Therefore, she hires graduate students and stay-at-home moms, smart people who don't have ADHD who happen to be very good at research. It's not even that expensive, especially as she doesn't live in an urban area where even hourly part-time help can be pricey. There's so much good help out there that doesn't cost a lot of money. All you have to do is look for it.
I have a friend, Chris Ducker, who runs a virtual assistant company. He bridges the gap between busy business owners and virtual assistants in the Philippines. The Philippines! These are real people, all of whom are brilliant at keeping entrepreneurs on track, all of whom speak English, and all for a fraction of the cost of what an assistant down the street would cost you. Find him at ChrisDucker.com.
**SQUIRREL!: In the end, zigzagging is great, and can push your creativity through the roof—as long as you have someone else who can walk your straight line when need be.**
### Compartmentalize Tasks
Do what you do, and do it for as long as it takes, then do something else, and repeat. Sounds simple, and it works, but we rarely do it. Instead, with ADHD, we focus on doing multiple things at the same time, whether we plan on it or not. After being that way for many years, I found that it simply doesn't work for me. If I come out of something to do something else, the time it takes to get into the "deep work" phase of whatever task I'm switching to takes way too long, and winds up actually being counterproductive.
Instead, I focus on compartmentalizing. Turns out, I'm good at it! In another life, I would have been an awesome spy, except I hate pain. (That's right, thanks to a hideous incident involving body wax, I know I'd actually be a horrible spy.)
Make and return phone calls every morning between 10:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M. Hold meetings from 3:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Whatever works for you—as long as it is _consistent_ and gives you a deadline and a set time period. That way, you're not sitting there worrying about the things you need to do—you are doing them because you gave yourself deadlines and compartmentalized tasks, and you know that even though you're in a meeting _now_ , you won't be tomorrow, because tomorrow is all about doing the other things you do.
My professional life is defined by this. I'm either on a plane or in an office. When I'm in an office, I know that I have to make these calls at this time, I have to have meetings between this time and this time, and so on. When I'm on a plane, I know that I'm either writing, or zoning out with downloaded seasons of _The West Wing_ or something else for enjoyment.
The beauty of the cloud and digital communication (as I'm going to show you below) is that you can stick to these deadlines and time frames, no matter where you are in the world.
### A Scheduled Day in the Life
Let's look at an average day for me when I'm on the road, then one when I'm not.
If I'm in a hotel, no matter how long the flight took to get there, I'm awake the entire flight, and fall asleep when it's bedtime in the city I'm in. I wake up early and hit the hotel gym. This is especially needed if I'm giving a speech, which is usually the reason I'm away in the first place.
By 7:00 A.M., I've worked out, gotten dressed, been caffeinated, and am usually in the conference center or ballroom where I'll be speaking. Doesn't matter how early I am. If I'm super early, I'll pull out my laptop and answer some e-mails.
Once the speech is over, I'm usually high on dopamine already, so I'll either head right back to the airport and find a lounge or corner to sit down and type (which is primarily what I do for a living when I'm not speaking), or I'll head to a public area in the hotel and do the same, if I'm not leaving right away. I _won't_ go back to my room, because the temptation to "just sit for a few minutes and catch my breath" is too easy, and can turn into "let's take a nap," which then kills my day. (Trigger and bad decision avoided.)
By the end of the day, I'm usually on a plane back home, and once I'm home, I'm catching up on my sleep (if it's bedtime, which it usually is) to begin the next day again. I never let "Oh, I was traveling" come into play as an excuse for why I can't do something.
A regular day for me when I'm not traveling usually starts the same way, up super early, at the gym by 5:00 A.M., and in the office by 7:00 A.M. If it's a nonmeeting day, I'm creating content for most of it. Writing, recording videos, putting together new courses for fasterthannormal.com, working on my mastermind group at shankminds.com. If it's a meeting day, then I'm in my office with bottles of water, or traveling to said meetings.
As much as possible, I try to keep my meetings no longer than twenty minutes. Sometimes that's not doable, but most of the time it is. I tell the people with whom I'm meeting that we'll have twenty minutes, and we'll start on time. This helps keep my day flowing. The worst thing for me is getting behind schedule on meeting days. Since I have so many, one overrun can throw off my entire day. Because of that, I'll build in several ten-minute breaks between meetings, so that even if one meeting runs twenty minutes over, it doesn't ruin my entire day, just means the next two meetings will be back-to-back with no break.
Obviously, between each meeting (or between writing sessions on nonmeeting days) I'm doing something physical at least once an hour: jumping jacks, push-ups, stair climbing, whatever I need to kick some more dopamine and endorphins into my brain.
My schedules aren't that insane or different from yours, other than probably starting much earlier. But it works for me. I encourage you to find your own schedule, find what works, and then stick to it as much as you can. Change is great when you're trying to be creative, but not so much when you need to focus.
**SQUIRREL!: Stick to a routine as much as you can. It lets you focus more of your attention on the creative side of your day and think less about the routine itself.**
### Maximize Long-Burst and Short-Burst Downtimes
We ADHD people can be thrown off the rails if we don't plan for those random bursts of time when things change, or when circumstances prevent us from doing anything else. These times are an inevitable and predictable part of life, but can be incredibly advantageous if planned for correctly. I call these times long-burst and short-burst downtimes, and if properly handled, they're awesome for those with faster than normal brains.
**Long-burst downtimes** are easiest to deal with, such as an airplane trip. No problem. I can work. I can read. You already know this book you're reading has been written entirely on a plane. A plane is a clean slate for me. Few distractions, I'm in a cocoon of suspended time. I can work on a project, catch up on long-form reading (in-depth articles, books) that I would find harder to do outside the confines of an airplane. Always have something to read or work on with you at all times. Keep a book in your bag, or an e-book on your phone. (For a great book on the beauty of plane flight and its amazing effect on the mind, check out _Skyfaring_ , written by a pilot, Mark Vanhoenacker. He gives a very cool perspective about life on a plane.)
Long-burst downtime is like a gift from the gods. I remember a time when a freak snowstorm canceled a speech I was supposed to give, and I was already at the location to give the speech. I went into the ballroom with my laptop just in case anyone happened to show up. No one did, and it was eight hours before I looked up and realized I'd spent practically all day there. Hyperfocus: it's a thing!
There are days (especially my meeting days) when I wish I were on a plane going somewhere, or trapped in a ballroom by myself. Doesn't matter where, I just want to be back in my zone of focus. Long-burst downtime is something we never appreciate as much as we should, until it's gone. Treasure it, whenever you can get it, but know you can't force it. Sometimes, you might have all the time in the world, and the ideas just won't come. It happens. Put the laptop away, and catch a movie. The creativity and focus will come back, I promise.
Planning for **short-burst downtimes** is a bit harder, because, as the name implies, these are a bit more unpredictable. Short-burst downtime is the fifteen or so minutes from the time you enter the subway outside your apartment until you exit the subway outside your office, or the twenty or so minutes when you're sitting in dead-stop traffic in the valley without a signal, or the "please switch to airplane mode" time in the doctor's office. If a fire drill in your building finds you standing around on the sidewalk for thirty minutes, it's a span of time that can throw a wrench in your day and put you off-kilter—unless you have a plan!
If you _do_ have a plan for short-burst downtime, you've just been gifted with extra, unexpected productivity. Here's how to use it to your advantage:
* **Say hi.** Send "Hey, what's going on" replies via text, or WhatsApp, or WeChat, or whatever you use. All communications apps have a "store" feature, where you can send as many messages as you want, and the second you have signal, it'll send them all. This rocks. Answer all those texts or messages that weren't urgent, firm up plans for the night, or just say hi to a friend you haven't spoken to in a while (the real beauty of mobile messaging).
* **Restart.** Hard restarts of all your devices. We tend to forget that our iPhones, Androids, and the like are all simply computers—that tend to get a little fuzzy at times. Next time you have a few minutes of unexpected downtime, hit restart on your phone (or take out the battery, if it's not an iPhone), then reinsert and watch it come back to life, just a bit faster. That's an easy way to gain back some mobile speed and memory.
* **Dump e-mails.** We all keep those certain e-mails because we need some information in them—a date, a place we're supposed to go, et cetera. But once the event or information happens, we don't need it anymore, but we usually forget to delete it. Scroll all the way to the bottom of your mobile device's e-mail and see what you don't need anymore. Delete it. It'll make you happy. The device will sync once you get signal back anyway. Dumping unneeded photos, such as duplicates, is also satisfying and frees up storage space.
* **Reboot your brain.** Finally, the ultimate benefit of short-burst downtime is to do a quick reboot on your brain. I've said it before, but when I have those ten minutes between arriving to my meeting early and people actually showing up, I'll drop for push-ups or squats. Honestly, it refreshes me. I know it sounds crazy, but it totally and completely settles me. It works. I've been caught jumping around by people in the meeting or by security, which is always a lot of fun, but again, it's beneficial. When I walk into that meeting, I'm rebooted. I'm more on point. I'm faster. I'm ready to go. I'm on my game. I've used that short-term time burst wisely, to relax and refresh instead of spending the time worrying about things I can't control. For you, it might be a brisk walk around the block, or ten minutes of mindful meditation. Maybe a little juggling, or triangle pose. Figure out what reboots you and use your brief windows of downtime to do it.
### Create a Network
My last "life tool" productivity hack (before we get to the digital tools) is this: Create a network. If you're the smartest person in the room, then my friend, your ass is in the wrong room. You need to have a trusted group of people with whom you can talk, take advice, and complain when the need arises. I don't care how you find these people, but make sure that one or more of them are smarter than you, one or more are older, one or more are younger, and one or more are not as smart (so that you can give back).
Join a networking group, but be careful to choose one that's right for you. I got so turned off by bad networking groups that I went out and formed my own. The ShankMinds Breakthrough Entrepreneur Community (shankminds.com) has more than two hundred people in it, and I trust each and every member with my life. Not only have they helped me improve my business, but they've helped me improve my personal life as well, and most important, they've kept me honest and accountable. I'm not necessarily saying join mine, but I'm saying join something, even if you have to make your own. You need a team. You need a circle of people you can count on, and who can call you on your BS when you're down, and who will never, ever, ever let you get away with using your ADHD as an excuse for disappointing people, not following through on promises, or not living up to your full potential. Get a group. Get a trusted circle. Just trust me on this.
You need a team.
### Finally, Keep Your Eye on the Finish Line
When using these life tools above, and the digital tools below to improve productivity, stay on task, and keep your priorities straight and valued correctly, remember that without consistency, none of them will work. Without consistency, you've literally got nothing. Complaining is a waste of time. On the bike course at Ironman Cozumel, 40 mph headwinds were the norm for 85 of the 112 miles, and I was miserable, bitching to myself for a full two hours, sure that I'd never finish the race. I was actually composing the blog post in my brain that I'd have to write later about how I failed.
Of course, I finished the race. In my head, though, I'd already given up before the finish line was in sight. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Imagine how much faster I could have been had I not spent so much of my energy complaining and tearing myself down. It's _supposed_ to be a tough race. If it wasn't, it wouldn't matter.
Instead, I _should_ have focused on the problem or challenge at hand, which was to _cross the finish line_. ADHD people are always trying to cross the finish line. It's what we do, it's what productivity means to us. So with that knowledge, every time you face a new challenge, simply ask yourself this:
What is the essential problem each obligation, task, job, challenge, or desire represents, and how can you solve it? Break it down into manageable pieces, employ the strategies you've learned that you know will help you do it, and _get it done_. Whatever it is that helps you get to the finish line, that's what you need to do. Remember the great adage: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
**SQUIRREL!: Here comes the "tools" part! You made it! Take five minutes, get a glass of water, and do ten jumping jacks before you read on.**
## Digital Tools
While I advocate using some kind of assistant, or housekeeper, or whatever, I also know that I wasn't able to afford any of that for quite some time as I was getting my career off the ground, and I certainly didn't have anyone to hire when I was in school who could help me. How I _wish_ the amount of technology that's out there today existed when I was just starting out.
Remember the scene in the eighties film _Wall Street_ where Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) looked at his computer first thing in the morning, and a calendar program told him it was Gordon Gekko's (Michael Douglas) birthday? I remember watching that movie around the time I was in high school and thinking that if I had that calendar program, I could save myself a ton of missed deadlines! I went to a computer store to buy it, and nearly fainted when the person behind the counter told me that the cheapest calendar software program was $250, and worked only on PCs! (I had an Apple IIe, so I was out of luck either way.)
These tools can replace about 75 percent of the busywork you hate to do.
Today? Calendar.google.com. And of course, it's free. Meanwhile, the $35 a month I spend on Google Apps is worth its weight in gold, every single day.
Knowing that a lot of people reading this chapter are entrepreneurs, students, or somewhere in between who simply can't hire someone at this moment in their lives, I'm going to share with you the tools I use and swear by. The majority of them are free or super cheap and don't require an assistant or anyone else to do their jobs. These tools can replace about 75 percent of the busywork you hate to do. These tools control every facet of my life and make so much of my daily life just _so much easier_.
**SQUIRREL!: If you fall in love with a program that truly helps you with your life, try to find the money to upgrade to the paid version. Not only is it good karma to pay back the developers, but you'll get the latest upgrades and usually be first in the queue if you need support.**
I'll try to group these into some logical categories. As always, I'd love to hear about your favorite apps—I'm always hunting for new ones! Tweet me: @petershankman.
## Laptop Tools
Let's start off with the big ones—the apps on my computer—and then we'll move to the phone. I've tried carrying an iPad, I've tried the Surface, I've even tried carrying an extended keyboard with me and connecting it to various devices via Bluetooth. In the end, I always come back to my MacBook Air.
### Always Be Backing Up
Because my Air stays with me everywhere I go, and because I go a _lot_ of places, I'm a freak and a half about backing up. I have one off-site backup program running at all times. Check out Backblaze, Carbonite, or a host of others. Their plans and fees vary, but they help me because I always know that if my laptop ever falls into the ocean (or more likely, gets stolen or left somewhere), I'm covered.
Of course, I use the cloud as much as possible, and I use more than one cloud. Dropbox, iCloud, and even Google Drive come into play on my computer. Each has its pluses and drawbacks, but they all work for me based on my needs. Also, redundancy is key: if one goes down for a bit, I have my stuff elsewhere as well.
### Embrace the Cloud
The cloud is a gift for people with ADHD.
The cloud is a gift for people with ADHD. There are times when I come up with a great idea, or a way to improve something I've been working on previously—and I have the time _right now_ to work on it. But if I don't have the files I need, well, I'm screwed. Even if I don't have my laptop with me, I at least have my phone and can dictate to it, or make changes on the fly if need be. Within the next five years, our entire life will be in the cloud. Stuff will just be wherever we need it to be. We'll be less and less dependent on the physical thing, which is great for those with ADHD! (See above about getting rid of stuff and digitizing the rest.)
DJ Vallauri, an entrepreneur who runs Lodging Interactive, a company with fifty-two employees and $7 million in sales, sums it up this way:
I run my entire company in the "cloud." Been this way for fifteen years now. Google Apps for Business, Dropbox, etc. Sometimes people ask me, aren't you afraid to get hacked? And my answer is always, "Google has more security in place than any small business could afford to buy. So my stuff is more secure in the cloud with Google than in my office running on servers."
Also, the ability to collaborate with team members from around the world with ease is a plus for my business. It has always been a dream of mine to run a multinational business from just a laptop and from anywhere . . . even on the beach. So you can say I'm living the dream.
My friend Christopher Penn has another reason he lives in the cloud:
It's synchronization across devices. I don't have clinically diagnosed ADHD, but I certainly am all over the place. Having cloud access means that no matter what device I have (including the ones I forgot), I'm able to get to what I need. Ease of access is the primary consideration.
So yeah. The cloud rocks. I've written several posts at both shankman.com and fasterthannormal.com about how I best use the cloud both for my business and as someone with ADHD. Check them out!
### Manage Your Passphrases
Because we're all moving toward a cloud-based environment, let's talk for a second about passwords and security. Keeping stuff on the cloud has an inherent risk attached to it, of course. While the security used to keep your files safe is improving each year, at the end of the day it still comes down to you. Right now your data is still only as safe as the password you choose. And because we're ADHD, remembering a hundred different passwords becomes a nightmare. So what do we do? We either write them all down, or we use the same password for everything. Both of those are terrible options for security. I use a **password manager**. There are several, including 1Password, LastPass, and others.
There are multiple benefits to using a password manager: I can choose one passphrase (note, I didn't say "password"—more on that in a second) that then unlocks all my other passwords. I don't know any of my other passwords, because the password manager creates them and maintains them for me. I know they're longer than twenty characters, I know they have letters, numbers, uppercase, lowercase, dollar signs, carrots, ampersands, and probably two ferrets in them, among other things. I don't need to know this, though, because all I need to remember is my one master passphrase.
Instead of a memorable password, which is usually pretty simple to crack, I use a passphrase. It's a full sentence, complete with letters, numbers, punctuation, and spaces. The sentence makes perfect sense to me. I probably think about it or say it ten times a day. But to a computer password cracking program, or someone trying to guess, it's virtually impossible to figure out. Of course, I've turned on dual authentication on any and all sites that allow it, so even if someone managed to get one of my passwords, unless they've also stolen my phone, the chances of their getting into anything are quite minimal.
The final added bonus of using a password manager is this: it's just that much less that I have to remember or think about, giving me yet another way to focus on the things that are most important to me.
One more vote for the cloud. This one comes from Jai Decker, a confirmed faster than normal San Franciscan:
For me and my ADHD, it allows me to always have files, passwords, media, and entertainment anywhere I go. This is especially true since I now use Plex Media Server with my cloud. I'm very visual, and it helps me visualize my content as my memory is terrible.
### Hold Everything
Because I'm almost always with my laptop, headphones, and power cord, I need something in which to carry it all, preferably something I won't forget. About sixteen years ago, I discovered SCOTTeVEST. In completely full disclosure, I'm now on the SeV advisory board, and I am friends with the founder and almost everyone who works for the company since buying my first jacket back in 2000.
SCOTTeVEST is a clothing company with multiple lines of jackets, pants, shirts, shorts, women's and men's clothing, all with multiple pockets, streamlined for those on the road, or those who just carry stuff and don't want to take a bag. It's hands-down the most useful clothing I own.
I'd be lost without my SeV. The jacket I travel with has more than thirty pockets that hold everything from my laptop to my headphones, power cords, adapters, and even a toothbrush and toothpaste, a few Band-Aids, and an extra pair of underwear and socks. (Hey, you never know what might happen.)
The point is, I have everything I need to be and stay productive at all times, so if I find myself with some unexpected short-burst downtime (as explained above) I can get right to work.
Here's a bonus for you: If you wind up buying anything from SCOTTeVEST.com, use the code PETERSHANKMAN at checkout for a discount on everything they sell. You're welcome.
### Write in Peace
So now we know I use my Mac to write all the time. But I can't write if I'm distracted. You're asking, "How can he possibly write wherever he is, on an airplane, on a bus, in a shopping center, with all that's going on around him?"
The answer is simple: my headphones, plus an app I discovered a few years ago called OmmWriter. OmmWriter is a wonderful word-processing app that works both on Macs and PCs and goes full-screen while playing very calming music accompanied by a peaceful snow scene. Most important, it shuts down all your other alerts, anything else that could pop up from your computer when you're trying to get something done. It lets you put on your headphones and work without interruption. It's like your own private writing room where you can close the door behind you to focus on writing in peace. Anywhere I am—on an airplane, in a busy airport terminal, at a loud coffee shop—I have access to distraction-free writing. There are a few other apps like OmmWriter. Use whichever one you prefer. I love OmmWriter. It serves me very, very well.
### Splurge on Good Headphones
If you're into music while you work, for Pete's sake, don't skimp on the headphones! I need my music to work, it's simply what I do. For that, I need good headphones that allow the music to enter my very soul. I love my Bowers & Wilkins P7 Bluetooth headphones, but I also have a great pair of Bose headphones in my office. Whatever works for you is what you should use, but again, don't skimp on the things that can directly improve your life and your workflow. You'll only wind up regretting it later if you do. I also go through headphones when I work out like I drink water—fast. If anyone has a truly great pair of Bluetooth headphones that don't fall out and are impervious to sweat, I'm all ears.
### Dim the Lights
Finally, if your laptop has a program like Nightshade, which automatically changes the screen to a more muted, less blue color when it gets later as the sun goes down (similar to how the real world looks), I recommend you use it. If not, try f.lux for the Mac. I've found that working on a muted screen at night is so much better—not only for my eyes, but for my productivity. And when I'm ready to go to sleep, I'm not lying awake staring at the ceiling for several hours. The science backs this up. Try it and see.
## Mobile Apps
I'm going to group my apps here the way I do on my phone. These are what work for me, as well as what work for people in my network.
First off, my home screen: Everything I need every day is on one page. Folders on a device are truly your greatest ally. The apps I use the most are sans folder, and then everything else is in a folder. One page. Try it. The first time you use your phone without having to scroll through three screens to get to an app, your life will radically change. ADHD means that if we're scrolling, that's just more distractions that could come up and bite us. Scrolling is not our friend. So let's avoid that trigger by putting everything on one screen.
Scrolling is not our friend.
The main apps are obvious, but I'll give you a few more you might not be so familiar with:
### Take Note
Wunderlist is brilliant for keeping track of everything that comes into my head—ideas, to-do items, you name it. I type it in, and it shows up everywhere, including on my desktop, thanks to a website where everything syncs up automatically. Think of it as Evernote, but for one-line items you don't want to forget. There are similar apps out there, like Simplenote. Find the one that works best for you.
### Stay on Track
Productive is another one I recommend: it tracks what you want to do and encourages you to build streaks of doing it. Keeps me at the gym and focused on the prize. When you're ADHD, you _hate_ breaking streaks.
### Name That Tune
Shazam is a faster than normal person's best friend. We can be in the middle of a conversation and hear a song in the background that we really like. Instead of having to stop the conversation and try to find out what it is, I can simply click Shazam and it's done, and I can refer to it later, download it, add it to my running or workout mix, whatever. I can't imagine that the founders of Shazam imagined "keeping people present" as a reason to build the app, but it so totally does. Bonus: it works on my Apple Watch, and I don't even have to break gaze from the person to whom I'm speaking.
## To the Folders!
### Money Matters
For business and finance, I pick my bank based on two things: customer service, and whether their app does everything I want. The less I have to speak to a live human, the more I can get on with my life and do more important things. I use Apple Wallet extensively as well, and Venmo, PayPal, and XE. Because most clients pay me via wire or ACH, maybe I have to hit an ATM once a month, max. In 2017, there's no reason everything can't be done digitally. I don't see money going away anytime soon, but I can tell you that I rarely carry cash anymore, except money for tips when I'm traveling.
### Entertain Me
Entertainment comes next: iBooks, Kindle, my workout music, downloaded videos, and Spotify. While I love to work, I don't underestimate the creative power that a good movie or song has for me, as well. Same goes for books. Being able to shut off the "out port" of my brain and allow the "in port" to get some nourishment, whether via reading, watching, or listening, is absolutely essential when you have ADHD. These tools let me find my balance.
### Food and Drink
This folder includes Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, Yummly, and OpenTable. I find that by using the Starbucks or Dunkin' app, as opposed to paying cash or pulling out my credit card, I'm more aware of what I do and don't need. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like if I can track what I'm ordering and see it in front of me as I pay, I'm more likely to order healthy. (More on that in the "Health" folder, my most important folder.) There are often special deals and discounts, too. Starbucks gives you a free drink when you "level up" by using the app enough. It's free coffee. Why wouldn't you want free coffee?
Play is a powerful tool in our arsenal.
### Game On
Games is next. I have about four or five go-to games, including Words with Friends, a few car racing games, Plants vs. Zombies, and some flight simulators. Again, don't dismiss gaming. For those of us with ADHD, play is a powerful tool in our arsenal. More and more studies are showing that the challenges of ADHD can be greatly reduced by allowing children to play. (Check out the podcast where I interviewed Dr. Kirsten Milliken, author of _PlayDHD_ , who's done tons of research into why playing is mandatory for people of all ages.) Be aware, though, that playing a game can in itself be an addictive and risky venture. "I just want to beat that level" can end your productivity for the day. So make sure you put limits on what you can and can't do. "I can play while I'm waiting for the flight to take off" is one for me. Once we're in the air, the phone goes off, the laptop comes out, and work begins.
### Let Me Google That for You
Google comes after that, which is self-explanatory. I live on Google Apps (Google, Gmail, Maps, Docs, Drive, Hangouts, etc.). I'm not going to tell you which ecosystem will work for you, but I will say this: get one ecosystem that does, and use the hell out of it. Be loyal to it. The easier it is to do things from memory without thinking, the more you recognize the app's interface without having to look, the less brainpower you need to devote to the menial tasks, and the more you can focus on what matters: the stuff inside the app. For me, it's the Google ecosystem.
### Let's Get Physical
Now comes my favorite folder: Health. I have several apps in here, but I'll focus on three: Withings, Runkeeper, and MyFitnessPal. Here's why:
**SQUIRREL!: When you're ADHD, data is the only thing that will save you in the end. It doesn't matter how you're living your life. If you're not tracking what you're doing and giving yourself a baseline on how to do it, if you're not able to see if you're improving or declining, and if you're not able to look back over time to give yourself a way to see where you want to get, you simply won't move forward. As Seth Godin said during his interview on** FTN **, "Forward motion is thrilling. Find a way to get forward motion."**
For me, that's tracking the data. I don't put anything in my mouth, I don't take a step from the second I wake up until the second I go to sleep, and absolutely no exercise occurs without my tracking it in one of those three apps. Withings tracks my weight, my sleep, my blood pressure, and my air quality. Runkeeper tracks my steps and any exercise I do, and MyFitnessPal tracks my caloric intake and my nutritional numbers.
**I AM PETER, LORD OF THE DATA!**
If I'm not tracking, I'm not doing.
Okay, I'm more like Peter, Lord of the Guys Who Still Need to Lose Those Last Five Pounds, but the logic is sound. If I'm not tracking, I'm not doing. If I'm not doing, I'm not moving forward, and if I'm not moving forward, I'm going backward. That's not how I want to live, so I track the data. Always.
I also wear an Apple Watch, which tracks my steps and sends the info to those three apps as well. I can't recommend wearables enough. The category is only going to get bigger. Imagine a world where your watch can tell before you can that you might be having a heart attack, and automatically tells your car to detour to the nearest hospital. It's less than five years off, at most.
### Message Me
After health comes messaging, which is as simple as it sounds. I use a multitude of apps for messaging, primarily because I go overseas a lot, and some are banned in some countries, and I always use a local SIM card, so I can't just use texting alone. My primary messaging apps are Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, and of course, regular texting when I'm home on my home SIM. The nice thing about texting is that it forces you to keep your conversations short. The shorter the conversations, the less time you have to get sidetracked. In a perfect world, I'd never talk on the phone.
### Breaking News
News is next. I try to check in with the world at least three times per day to get quick updates. It satisfies any curiosity I might have, and lets my ADHD go back to simmer, instead of boil. See, a text alert about breaking news is the only alert I allow on my phone. In the end, I'm a news junkie; I was a journalist in my first career. The key for me, though, is not to get drawn in when I'm in the middle of something else. If I'm working and I hear the "breaking news" ding, I can look over, and it automatically disappears from my phone in three seconds. The phone stays locked, I don't have to open it, but I've kept my ADHD at bay (simmering) as opposed to "I WONDER WHAT I'M MISSING I SHOULD BROWSE _THE NEW YORK TIMES_ FOR THE NEXT SIX HOURS!" (Boil.)
### Filling My Cart
Shopping comes after that, and here's why I love my shopping folder: when I think of something I want to buy (and it passes my minimalism test, i.e., do I really need it?), I can go right there and add it to my cart. If I want it immediately, I can have it overnight by Amazon (or in some cases, in an hour with Google Express). If it's not urgent, for example, "I'm running low on toilet paper, I should do something about that," I can put it in my cart and have it arrive with a multitude of other nonurgent things. As always, it's all about priorities and focus—automating as much of the small stuff as I can, so that my attention is freed up for the big stuff. My schedule is so varied that I can't automate by subscription—for instance, I can't have Amazon deliver me toilet paper every month, because I'd be gone for six weeks and come home to a jungle of toilet paper. But I can automate the small stuff by, as I mentioned, just noticing when I need something, putting it in the "cart," and getting one massive delivery for the next time I'm home.
### People Power
My social folder is next, and this one is interesting. Because of what I do for a living, I'm on the socials quite frequently. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are my top three. But I have a foolproof way of making sure they don't get the best of me, and that I'm not constantly distracted by them.
Don't be a slave to the beep.
**SQUIRREL!: Turn off your notifications for ALL of your apps. EVERY SINGLE ONE. (Except Breaking News, if you want . . .) Turn off the beeps, buzzes, and flashes. Instead, look at them on YOUR schedule. Don't be a slave to the beep. Studies show that our brains emit dopamine when we get a text or a tweet. Of course they do, and of course we want that. Understand that we're more susceptible to that dopamine hit than other people are, and we have to be very careful with what we allow to give it to us. In this case, it's not beneficial. Turn off the alerts and check social on your schedule. Stick to this for a few weeks and you'll stop craving it.**
### Tripping
Travel comes next, and that includes the mother of all travel apps, TripIt. When TripIt combines with my assistant and Google Calendar, it does so many amazing things: It guarantees that everyone who needs to know where I'm supposed to be (including me) in fact knows. It syncs to everyone's calendar, so I know what time my flight leaves, and from what airport (don't get me started on the number of times before TripIt I've gone to EWR when I was supposed to go to LGA); it lets my mom know where her son is, thus negating her need to call me and ask. It lets my daughter, her mom, and her nanny know where Daddy is, and when Daddy is coming home, and finally, it does all this automatically. Seriously: if you travel _at all_ , and you're not using TripIt, you're wasting brainpower and making life harder for yourself.
I also have all the apps necessary for my travel—United, Starwood, Lyft, essentially everything that guarantees I can handle 99 percent of my travel logistics from the road. I can check in to my flight, and even my hotel, from my phone. I can use my Starwood app to unlock my door, negating the need for me to carry a key. Lyft (or Uber, if I have no other choice) gives me a car in every city, so I don't have to worry about whether a late-night cab accepts credit cards or not. Travel would be a million times harder without my apps.
Let's not forget the ADHD-powering ability of mass transit. If I land in a city with a good mass transit system, like Chicago, San Francisco, or Boston, chances are great that I'll take a bus or subway instead of a cab. Not only is it cheaper, but it's usually faster, and most important, allows me to spend the thirty minutes during the ride looking around "at all the shiny things," and filling my dopamine reserves until I can get to a gym. After a long flight, that's awesome.
### Everything Else
Finally, my Utilities folder contains all the other things I need, but don't know where to put. Things like my mobile password manager app, and the tools that control my home when I'm there or away.
### Home Smart Home
Which brings up the concept of a connected home. As we get more and more technologically advanced as a species, the concept of the connected home (the Internet of Things, as it were) becomes more and more of a reality, and this is a massive benefit for those with ADHD.
I've set up my home in such a way that I've completely removed the occasional worries I used to have—things like "Did I shut off the lights?" Or, "Did I leave the air-conditioning on for the cat?" With one simple app, I can log in, check what's going on, and forget about it. These apps and my connected home also allow me to think a little less about the everyday tasks I used to spend time on. My phone, thanks to GPS, knows when I'm a tenth of a mile from my apartment building, and depending on the season and time of day, will turn on the lights, or heat, or AC before I'm even in the elevator. When I leave, it'll do the same thing in reverse. Having one or two or three fewer things to think about, for the ADHD brain, eliminates the need to worry about things that would otherwise drive me up a wall.
It's a new world out there. For those with ADHD, it's never been more exciting.
Again: Tell me your favorite tool, online or offline—tweet me, @petershankman; e-mail me, peter@shankman.com; or comment on _Faster Than Normal_ : www.fasterthannormal.com.
Go get some water. I'm two hours outside of Tokyo. I'm headed to the galley to do some squats.
# Chapter Six
# ADHD and the People You Care About. Like Students, Loved Ones, and the People Who Care About You. And ADHD. Oh, Wait, I Said That Already. What's on TV?
"Every animal is great in their own way, and every animal has their special gifts. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, you'll be very disappointed."
—Albert Einstein
**SQUIRREL!: We're going to start this chapter with a note for parents who might be reading this book because their child was just diagnosed with ADHD. From there, we're going to move on to dealing with someone you love who has ADHD, and finally, we're going to focus on things you can do when you have ADHD and the person you love doesn't.**
I remember when I came up with the idea for the _Faster Than Normal_ podcast—I talked to one of the very few people in my life who truly gets me, and is smart enough to see through the walls that I sometimes put up when people start to get close. I asked her if she thought it was a good idea, and I'll never forget her response:
"Peter, if you can help people understand that what you have is a gift, not a curse, and you can help them be better at their lives, you'll be doing a great, great thing." Then she paused and added, "But you also need to make sure that you're teaching the people who love them how to best deal with them, too. Because otherwise, it's a one-sided battle, and probably not winnable."
This woman knew what she was talking about. See, not only is Dr. Jennifer Hartstein a psychologist, and not only is she a contributor to everything from the _Today_ show to the CBS _Early Show_ to CNN to MTV, not only is she a published author, but she's also my ex-girlfriend of four years. I'm very fortunate to still have her in my life—I have no doubt that she could have learned enough about ADHD from interacting with me to fill several medical textbooks—and I'm lucky to call her a friend.
The reason I bring her up to start this chapter is that I asked her to contribute an overview of what it's like to have someone in your life with ADHD. She returned with sort of a primer for parents, which I want to share with you in its entirety. I also encourage you to check Jen out at www.hartsteinpsychological.com.
## For Parents of ADHD Kids
No child is perfect. In fact, it is their _imperfections_ that influence their personalities and really make them who they are. A diagnosis of AD(H)D is no different. It just means that you have to parent that child differently from your other children. In many ways, the first step is complete! You know that your child has a different way of approaching the world, of learning, and of controlling his or her emotions. Now it's up to you to shift your approach in order to help your child navigate life more effectively and to the best of his/her ability.
Below is a short list of ways to approach this new diagnosis.
* **Don't panic:** Attention deficit disorder is not the end of the world, although it may feel overwhelming initially. There are many effective treatments to investigate and a great deal of support available. Try to look at the diagnosis as a positive thing. You now have a better understanding as to why your child cannot follow directions like others, why he may be more impulsive than other children, and why she cannot organize and plan like her siblings and cousins. Take a deep breath and recognize that your child is the same wonderful one you've always had. You now can be better armed to help him be even better.
* **Understand the diagnosis:** AD(H)D presents differently in everyone. While one child might be more inattentive, another might be more impulsive. One child can organize and another cannot remember a list of instructions. It's important to understand all the different facets of the diagnosis and how it specifically impacts your child. As noted, all children are different, so you'll want to clarify which symptoms impact your child specifically and tailor treatment to her.
* **Get support:** There are many effective treatments for AD(H)D, for the individual, for the family, and within a school setting. Although many believe that medication is the best, and most effective, intervention, do not overestimate it. We want children to learn self-modulation and self-control on their own, and not to rely solely on external factors for managing themselves. That's not to say that medication does not often play an important part in treating AD(H)D. But it is not the only intervention to consider.
Psychotherapy, especially cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), is often recommended to help those with AD(H)D. It teaches strategies that help one identify the thoughts that she is having, connect that thought with the behaviors, and learn how to shift it. Social skills groups are also often recommended, as frequently children with AD(H)D do not read social cues well. Incorporating a group that helps teach these skills has proven incredibly effective. Additionally, effective parenting is a huge piece of helping children manage their AD(H)D diagnosis. Getting support as to how to change past parenting behaviors, such as learning the difference between punishment and discipline or working with the strengths of your child and managing frustration, is key in translating the work to the home environment. Lastly, work with your child's teachers to implement any accommodations that might help him succeed academically and socially.
* **Involve your child:** Your child needs to know about his diagnosis. This will help normalize it and allow him to take ownership of the strategies he will be learning. Knowing that there is a reason that he has trouble focusing or is impulsive will also be a source of relief for him, especially if he is frequently yelled at or disciplined for the behaviors that he cannot control. Work with him to understand what AD(H)D is and how it impacts him. Help him to articulate what he needs by way of support and how you can provide that. Encourage him to recognize how this can be a positive diagnosis and how to work within his strengths. Awareness is really important in helping your child feel comfortable with what is happening and how to be the best he can.
* **Focus on the positive:** It can be challenging to manage the changes that come with having a child diagnosed with AD(H)D. You'll have to shift some of the parenting strategies you've used in the past. In fact, you may have to change them altogether. Remember to take some deep breaths and look at the strengths in your child. Identify how the AD(H)D makes your child unique and different and how she can use that to her advantage. Although there will be bumps in the road, if you can keep a positive attitude about it, it will all fall into place.
• • •
Jen has some really good points here. I'm reminded of the line that Mister Rogers used to explain tragedies to children: "Always look for the helpers." It's the same thing here. We're trying to find the positives in ADHD, and if you truly look for them, you'll find them to be amazingly plentiful. Those are the lessons you can impart to your child: _"Your differences make you better."_
I'd add one suggestion to Jen's very helpful points above: **Try to find some success stories for your child**. One of the key points I hear repeated over and over by people who e-mail me after listening to the podcast is that they can finally explain to their child that they're not alone. They're not "bad," or "broken," and there are hundreds of thousands of successful people thriving in their lives _thanks to, not despite_ , their ADHD. It's going to take a lot of explaining, and a lot of repeating. Finding success stories can definitely help.
I remember the days of elementary and junior high school for me. Not fun times. My mom and dad would constantly repeat to me the mantra "You walk to the beat of a different drummer." I didn't believe them at the time (they were my parents, right?). But as I got older, and truly started to see that my "different brain" worked better than a normal brain, I grudgingly admitted to them that yes, they might have known what they were talking about. Next time I have dinner with them, I'm going to ask exactly how smug they feel, knowing that I'm writing, in a book, that my parents were right. (Postscript: I've since had dinner with them. Yes. They feel smug.)
But the interesting thing here is this: We're still in a society that automatically assumes that anything different is wrong. I subscribe to Bill Murray's line in _Groundhog Day_ , when he finally wakes up and it's not the same day: "Anything different is good."
The problem, of course, is that when you're a kid (and heck, long into adulthood), you're told that being different is wrong. Growing up on Staten Island, I truly believed that should be their motto, and being different and trying to believe I _wasn't_ wrong was a defining factor in my going to LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan. I could be different, and for the first time outside of my family, _that would be okay_. That in itself was totally and completely worth the three-hour round-trip commute for four straight years.
Different is good. Say it with me: Different is good.
Different is good. Say it with me: _Different is good_.
## For Loved Ones
This next section is for those who _don't_ have ADD or ADHD, but who love, or are in love with, someone who does.
As always, full transparency: I wrote this several months ago, after my wife and I separated. She is truly a wonderful woman, a wonderful mother, and a wonderful friend to me. We are simply very different people, and that's okay. We're still close friends, and I'm blessed to have her in my life, and doubly blessed that she's the mother of my daughter. I wrote this piece as sort of a thank-you to her for putting up with me for as long as she did. _Understand that my ADHD didn't cause us to separate._ There are millions of happily married couples, families, and partners in which one person has ADHD and the other doesn't. My goal in this next section is to help those couples or families who might be struggling, by understanding that when you're in love with someone with ADHD, there are amazing highs, devastating lows, and moments of "WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?", all of which you experience repeatedly, if not multiple times per day.
In the end, marriage, dating, and any kind of partnership is hard. It takes a lot of work. Throw in ADHD, and that just ups the challenges. But they're surmountable, and survivable. I hope this section helps you.
### Top Ten Ways to Live Happily with Someone Who Has ADHD
Here are ten ways<|fim_middle|> will pay me to do, and that I am good at because of my faster than normal brain.
**SQUIRREL!: If you find something to do for a living that you love, it won't bore you. Those with ADHD excel at things that don't bore us much more than the things that don't excite us.**
## Rule One: Good Judgment Comes from Experience, and Experience Comes from Bad Judgment
### Life Hacks: Doing Stuff I Hate Doing, Keeping a Notebook, Elimination of Choice
Having a faster than normal brain means that I have an addictive personality, and that I push myself to the edge of incompetence, failure, or injury. For example, when biking up a hill, I hate needing to shift into the lowest gear, or worse, getting off and walking the bike, because both feel like admitting defeat. Instead, I push myself until I vomit, because then my willpower defeated my gut, instead of the hill defeating my willpower. For all of us with ADHD, being aware of our limits is an exercise in self-preservation, but finding them comes only from experience. What better time or place to test your limits than college, right?
My first semester at Notre Dame was the first time I was not the best in the classroom. Nearly 80 percent of the freshman class, myself included, was in the top 5 percent of their high school and earned one or more varsity letters. I took the required large lecture courses in general biology, general and organic chemistry, and calculus. I had never been in a large lecture before, let alone with people who were by the numbers like me. I would zone out almost immediately on my phone or laptop. My grades were bimodal—B's and C's in large lecture courses, A's in small seminars and lab sections.
I never suspected ADHD. I started to think that others were just naturally smarter than me, or were more motivated than me, or could study more effectively than I ever could. I had made it through school to this point with no study skills whatsoever and on brainpower alone. I simply chose _not_ to compete; instead I found my lower limit of work to still do okay. It made me feel better, strangely, that if I wasn't trying as hard as everyone else, or didn't care as much as someone else, then was I really "less-than"? Or was I a genius for getting by with less work to free up time and energy for something else?
**SQUIRREL PRO TIP: For large lecture courses, be that person who sits in front. It makes everyone else disappear, and makes you accountable for paying attention because the professor can actually see you.**
**Life Hack #1:** For doing things you don't want to do, listen to an album or song you like on repeat. It keeps me in work mode. The anxiety of a deadline and pressure of time is almost as good as caffeine or Adderall (which I surprisingly never tried in college). I would put off my exam prep until one or two days before, and then stay up all night until the morning exam. I saw it this way: I only have until 7:45 A.M. to learn as much as I can, but after 9:30 A.M. I'm done. I found my lower limit of sleep after having four exams in four days during a midterm week as a freshman. To study, I would write and rewrite my notes several times, or listen to recorded lectures while on the elliptical. Simply reading my notes or a textbook just wouldn't stick. I mark up pages as I read. I chew gum. Caffeine pills also help to keep me "on." Many large lecture courses are required, but I avoided them as much as I could. I opted for additional elective courses or graduate biology courses, where I got to know the professor and no one actually cared about their final grade.
**Life Hack #2:** Always keep a notebook with you. My mind moves really quickly through thoughts and ideas. If I don't write it down, it's gone. For most days I also use this notebook to write out my schedule by the hour or block. Making a list and checking off an item is itself rewarding. Committing to a written schedule eliminates the choice of what to prioritize or do next in the middle of the day. The "what now?" question slows me down. I keep the calendar app on my computer set to month view so I can see things at a glance that are farther out. The sticky-note app on my desktop has become a collection of notes and lists that are long running.
**Life Hack #3:** Simplify and eliminate choices. I wore a uniform in school from age five to age eighteen. Now, if I don't already have my outfit picked out in my head while I'm in the shower, deciding what to wear will add twenty minutes to my morning. If I find a piece of clothing I like, I'll buy it in multiple colors. In college, getting kicked out of the dorms during the holiday breaks and every summer provided regular opportunities to organize and eliminate things from my life. All of my stuff had to fit in a small storage unit or my little two-door Ford Focus hatchback. I tried to resist the urge to take that free T-shirt, or that free pizza (because I don't really want to eat it, but I will anyway for the sake of completing a task). **For clothing or things, I would ask myself—if I lost this in a fire, would I miss it?** Does this make me feel good when I put it on? When was the last time I used/wore this? If I wanted to just pick up and leave tomorrow, would I take this thing, or resent having to make a decision about it? I understand the urge to hold on to things, but I also understand the frustration of being weighed down with stuff.
My natural state is a "See Food" diet. If I see it, I'll eat it, but I'll hate myself. I cannot keep snack food in the house. My being vegetarian has mostly to do with elimination of choice. I've stuck with it since high school. I can quickly distill a menu or a dining hall of overwhelming choices down to a few things, and I have a reason to say no. That's not to say I'm the healthiest. For almost a whole summer when doing immunology research at the National Institutes of Health, I survived mostly on ramen noodles and peanut butter (not together, that's gross). Caffeine is an appetite suppressant, so I sometimes forgot to eat. I learned my lower limit for nutrient intake when I got mononucleosis after that summer.
## Rule Two: Idea Generation and Hyperfocus—If It Doesn't Challenge You, It Won't Change You
### Life Hacks: Manage Yourself and Manage Up; Lean on Mentors and Mentees
Hyperfocus is a common but little-known asset of ADHD. As the name implies, it is the ability to focus intensely on something for hours or days at a time. Others might describe this feeling as being in work mode or a state of flow.
Having never taken an immunology class, I spent a ton of time reading immunology journals on my own to try to figure things out. Hyperfocus was my superpower here. I didn't call it hyperfocus then, but rather "circling the literature search drain" or "going in the hole." One Thanksgiving, I stayed at Notre Dame and spent three days reading about alternatively activated macrophages and Th17 cells. Nerd alert, right? One idea would lead to the next and the next and sometimes two or three days would have gone by before I could bring myself out of it. The only way that really worked was to write up something of an analysis to organize my thoughts. Though not intentional, this was great practice in scientific writing for when I would later publish my own work. Now in my graduate program, I frequently receive positive feedback on my scientific writing. I absolutely attribute that to my hyperfocus immunology binges.
**Life Hack #4:** Manage yourself, then manage up. As a scientist who is faster than normal, something I'm great at is coming up with different ideas about how the immune system might work. Designing, doing, and optimizing experimental systems to test those ideas takes some time, and is also something I think I do well. The most useful book I've read on management has been _It's Okay to Manage Your Boss_ by Bruce Tulgan. As I learn more in immunology, do more experiments, and become more independent, what I need from my mentors and what they need from me changes. In science, perhaps more so than in the business world Tulgan describes, a perceived problem of micromanagement is actually a reaction to "undermanagement": a deficit in communicating clear goals, deadlines, and expectations. Science is full of people who are self-critical, value their intellectual space, and decide that their hypothesis and way of testing that hypothesis has enough merit to warrant doing it. Combine that with an environment in which personal eccentricities are not just the norm but glamorized, and where there are little to no workplace rules because no one likes rules, and we've got a system in which giving and receiving feedback and clarifying expectations can quickly devolve into a communication blunder.
## Rule Three: The "Aha" Moment for an Imposter
### Life Hack: Take Ownership of Your Narrative and Repeat It Often
I distinctly remember a run the weekend after I was invited to join the Harvard Immunology Program. It was the middle of winter in South Bend, a sunny (rare) 20-degree (not so rare) day after the polar vortex dumped two feet of snow on us. The whole 10K with the latest Lady Gaga song set to repeat, all I could think was, "THIS. IS NOT. MY LIFE." Harvard simply did not fit in with how I viewed myself and how I thought others saw me.
Harvard was the only Ph.D. program I applied to where I didn't already know any of the faculty members. Before my interview, I expected to hate the place for being stuck-up, cutthroat, and competitive. That couldn't have been further from the truth, as Harvard Immunology is a wonderful community where the students are supported and no one really takes himself or herself too seriously. The most common questions I was asked were, "Are you normal? What do you do for fun?" The student who interviewed me, now my roommate and among my best friends, said she was expecting a robot after reading my application. One of the professors did, too, then said, "Well . . . you don't _not_ match your application."
I felt a bit lost at Harvard for over a year. My expectations for myself skyrocketed. Every time someone said, "You must _love_ being at Harvard, you totally belong there," I shrank smaller and smaller. I was admittedly a total positive feedback whore at Notre Dame, but any compliments on my work at Harvard made me doubt myself more. "She's just saying that to be nice," or "He's just pandering to me," I would think. I downplayed the positives and searched for implicit criticisms to validate how I felt about myself.
Imposter syndrome, coined by Dr. Pauline Clance and Dr. Suzanne Imes in 1978, describes high-achieving individuals who struggle to recognize their own accomplishments, as if they were fraudulent. Imposter syndrome and ADHD go hand in hand, especially for high-achieving women. This was certainly the case for me. Imposter syndrome is epidemic at places like Harvard, so much so that new graduate students get e-mail blasts about it. Everyone with imposter syndrome is terrified of being found out as the fraud they believe themselves to be.
**Life Hack #5:** Take ownership of your narrative and repeat it often.
Dr. Amy Cuddy, an associate professor at Harvard Business School and author of _Presence_ , tackles imposter syndrome head-on. Well known for her TED talk on power posing, she investigates ways to boost one's presence and personal power. Imposter syndrome or not, self-doubt and the challenge to be present are very real for many of us with a faster than normal brain. One topic Cuddy discusses is self-affirmation. For example, to get ready for a presentation or performance or big game, some of us might talk ourselves up, repeating, "I'm confident," "I'm strong," or "I'm awesome" in a mirror. However, this can actually be more detrimental than doing nothing if we do not believe those things about ourselves. Instead, individuals who repeat a simple narrative affirming their core values and the abilities central to their "authentic best self" can go into a situation more grounded and less easily shaken by distraction or criticism.
Those of us who are faster than normal constantly seek the thrill of a new challenge. We're always moving among new projects and experiencing new people, places, and things. We crave it. The fundamental need of our faster than normal brains to dive headfirst into the unfamiliar, to make ourselves a little uncomfortable, to push ourselves, is exactly how I have been able to find the life hacks that work or don't work for me. I find and note my limits. I eliminate choice. I write everything down. I keep in touch with my mentors and mentees. I listen to a song on repeat to help me focus. I remind myself as much as I can about what I value and what I know I'm good at to combat negative self-talk. Now I'm supposed to say here that as I reflect on my life, my set of rules and brain hacks have been and will continue to be critical to my success, but that is an oversimplification. The truth is, I'm still learning. Every new experience brings with it some new challenge and perspective with which to uncover another brain hack for my arsenal.
For example, nearly all of the other scientists in my Ph.D. thesis lab are early morning people, and we have open-concept desk space. This was frustrating at first. My peak productive early morning hours, when I would normally have the lab to myself, are not so productive when everyone else comes in early, too! So I shift my sleep and work schedule to be later in, later out, and still get to feel like queen of the lab. I've also found other spaces on my floor for thinking, writing, or analyzing data with fewer distractions. I'm now better able to identify spaces that maximize or minimize my productivity.
Not every hack works in every new environment I throw myself into, and that's okay. I know I have the tools to figure out what will work. At the end of the day, my ability to generate ideas, hyperfocus, and have an entrepreneurial mind-set with ADHD are my biggest assets. My being faster than normal isn't going to change, and for that, I'm truly thankful. You should be, too.
• • •
Huge, huge thanks to Rachel Cotton for showing us what it's like for a student who's aware of her ADHD and uses it to her advantage. How I wish I had that knowledge in high school and college. But although I didn't, I can do the next best thing—I can share it with you now.
Still with me? We've got one more chapter to go. Go take a break, get in a workout, and let's finish strong with the last chapter coming up.
As always, thanks for reading! Want to chat more? Follow me on Facebook—facebook.com/petershankman—and let's keep the conversation going!
# Chapter Seven
# Wrapping It All Up: What We Can Take Away from . . . Wait . . . What Were We Talking About, Again?
"A waterfall begins with a single drop of water."
—Some philosopher, long dead
SO HERE WE are. You've made it to the final chapter in the book. For people like us, that's something to be celebrated. Congratulations! So . . . now what?
In a perfect world, you'd finish this chapter, put the book down, walk outside, and simply start being more awesome than you've ever been in your life. Everything would fall into place for you, you'd totally understand how ADHD can be a gift, and you'd use all the skills, tricks, tips, and hacks you've been taught here to go and rock your world. Easy, right?
Except it's totally not, and we all know it. Things take time. Nothing happens overnight, nothing good happens without a lot of hard work, and nothing great comes just by wishing for it. Learning to use your superpower is going to take time, effort, and hard work. But I promise you: it's completely doable.
If there are any children of the eighties here you'll remember a wonderful TV show called _The Greatest American Hero_ , starring William Katt as a schoolteacher who finds a superhero suit left for him by an alien, but upon trying it out, loses the instructions and has to spend the entire series learning by, essentially, screwing up. He could fly, but he never mastered the landing and would always crash into the bad guy he was chasing, or into a wall. He could be invisible, but never at the right time. So he became the Greatest American Hero by trial and error. A lot of error, as it were.
I realize now, much later in life, why I loved that show so much. The Greatest American Hero and I had a lot in common—we had these special gifts and talents, we knew they were there, and we knew they could allow us to do great, great things. But we had absolutely no idea how to bring them out. We had no rule book, no step-by-step instruction guide. We had no choice but to learn as we went along. When we got it right, we'd try to remember exactly what we did, so we could do it again. More often than not, however, it would take us several tries before we were able to get it right, and even when we did, we'd constantly have to adapt, change, and mix things up, always looking for that perfect way of being, living, and existing _better_ than others.
That's ADHD in a nutshell. That, my friends, is being faster than normal. Are we screwups? Absolutely. Are we disasters? Yes, but we're beautiful disasters. And you know what? I'd much rather be a beautiful disaster any day of the week than an average, boring, plain, and _regular_ part of the masses.
Are normal, everyday problems compounded by the fact that our brains are going 120 miles an hour, thirty-seven hours a day? Of course they are. And can that cause us a ton more drama than slower people? Absolutely. **But** . . . when we figure out the solutions to those problems that work for us, we're then presented with this massive straight stretch of highway with no curves, bumps, or potholes in sight, and we can let the true power of our faster than normal brains come out and shine. Once we learn how to find that straight stretch of highway, we can outsmart, outthink, and outmaneuver the masses every second of the day. And that . . . well, that's where it gets really, really fun.
**SQUIRREL!: Embrace your differences. Know that what makes you different is what makes you great. Embrace it, wrap yourself in it like armor. Use it to your advantage every step of your way. OWN IT. Once you do that, you'll realize that your biggest weakness has been your greatest gift all along, and you'll be able to truly utilize all of your wonderful speed. Once you do this, no one will be able to use your differences against you ever again.**
## Know Yourself to Hack Your Life
Other cool things are going to happen as you start to put the tools in this book into daily practice. You're going to come to understand yourself better than you ever thought possible. I have absolutely no doubt that I understand myself better than any of my friends understand themselves. This is without question one of the key reasons for my success. I know what makes me tick, I know what sets me off. I know what puts me into a great mood, I know how to get there, and how to keep it there. I also know what can destroy me, and because of that, I'm well aware of how to avoid it.
There's a line in the original version of the movie _Wall Street_ where Gordon Gekko says to Bud Fox, "Never get emotional about stock." The same can be said for about 99 percent of our lives. When you come to know yourself better, you can figure out which responses are emotional, and how to control them.
For example, when someone is pissed off and taking it out on me, my initial reaction used to be to fight back, argue, and _win_. Turns out, it's so much more beneficial to _figure out why they're angry_ and help them solve their problem. If you learn about yourself, you can project forward into the future, and leave the present moment for a second. Instead of thinking about the fight you're currently having, you can focus on what it might be like in the future if you're able to help the person with whom you're arguing. That knowledge can keep you calm and get you through the situation. It sounds crazy, but it really, really works. Remember these lines from a favorite movie of those who are faster than normal, _Limitless?_ (For those who haven't seen it, the lead character takes a pill that lets him use all 100 percent of his brain at once. This is the first conversation he has once he "wakes up" his brain. And see the movie. Trust me.)
You don't like me, and I don't blame you—you see a schlumpy, energy-sucking, defeated sack of shit sponging off your husband. You're hoping I'll blow my brains out. But my existence shouldn't make you this upset. What is it? Is something wrong at law school?
If you're writing a paper, that's not the book I'd use. Cal Berkeley has her oral history. I'd start there. Her son is still alive. You could Google him. Sons of famous people always want to dish dirt about their parents. You'd get something no one else has, and you'd've gone the extra mile, a nice little apple for the professor.
At this point in the movie, the woman who hated our hero is now smiling, and of course, five minutes later, they're sleeping together.
Now, I'm not necessarily saying you'll wind up sleeping with the person with whom you're currently arguing, but I _am_ saying that by learning what sets you off, and how to manage those triggers, by understanding what good can come from _not_ letting yourself get set off, you can truly lead a happier, better life.
It's not just arguments, it's everything in your life. As you come to better understand your faster brain, you'll have a better grasp of what truly makes you perform at your most optimal levels. For me, that's working out super early and starting my day with the endorphins that provides. For you, it might be that, or maybe some kind of variation on that. I don't expect everyone who reads this book to immediately start doing 4:00 A.M. workouts or start jumping out of perfectly good airplanes for fun. But understanding what makes you function at your best is hugely important, and one of the top takeaways from the time you've spent reading this book.
Something important to realize: the tips I give in this book aren't designed to be copied and followed exactly as written. It's pretty obvious that not everything I do will work for everyone, just like not everything others do will work for me. Rather, the goal of this book is to get you to think differently about yourself and your world, and to understand how certain things can affect you, both positively and negatively, and what you can do to either increase or decrease those effects. If I've done that, I consider writing this book worth it.
Not everyone is as . . . um . . . _extreme_ as I am. I know this. But I also know that when you've got ADHD, you want to find things that _do_ work for you, and there's probably a connection between what works for me and what works for you. It might be muted by 50 percent, but it's still there.
**SQUIRREL!: Did you happen to notice that everything we've talked about in this book would also work perfectly for those** without **ADHD, who are just looking to run their lives a little bit better? Now's the perfect time to start putting together a list of those people who could benefit from reading this book, who may not have brains as fast as ours. Maybe they need a push to get themselves organized, or perhaps they need some help trying to figure out how to work with, love, or simply live with someone with ADHD. Perhaps they just want three hours back from each of their days. Whatever the reason, I'd be willing to bet that there are countless people who** don't **have the gifts we have who could get some benefit out of peeking into our world. Why not share with them?**
## A Note for Parents
When I was growing up, they didn't have a name for what I had. As I mentioned earlier, it was essentially "sit down, you're disrupting the class" disease. I knew I was different, but I never thought I was "broken." In school, I never thought I had any kind of "condition," other than the innate ability to get in trouble more frequently than my fellow students. Because I wasn't diagnosed, my parents never thought of putting me on any kind of medication. I had to simply "do better."
That line of thinking was both a gift and a curse. While I often found myself on the receiving end of a grounding due to my acting out in school, I had no choice but to learn how to do things differently and better—in other words, I had to learn how to not screw up.
I can tell you with no uncertainty that a child gifted with ADHD isn't broken, bungled, or botched. He or she has a unique opportunity to see the world just a little bit differently, and let me tell you—in a world where most everything is the same, and the 2.7-second sound bites of information we're offered on a daily basis are enough to satiate most of the masses, **seeing the world a little bit differently is a huge, huge advantage**. I know it doesn't look like it to your child, who is dealing with the whole "OMG, I'm different, and that's wrong" mentality of being a child who isn't like everyone else, but trust me—it's the best thing that could possibly happen to them.
**Different is good.** To quote 99-percent correctly from _Wall Street_ again, "Different clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Different, in all of its forms; different for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind, and different, you mark my words, will save us all."
Obviously, I'm not talking about greed and the fictitious Teldar Paper, but the words fit. Different has pushed us. Different has allowed us to grow, to live, to prosper, and to be happy. Or, let me put it another way, this time from an Apple Computer commercial:
Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
I'm paraphrasing the whole quote here, but you get the idea. So where does that leave you, when you have a child crying about being labeled different? It's up to us to explain that different is better, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them. I'm fortunate that my parents did that for me. It took a whole lot of years, but I am who I am because of them, and because they never let me see myself as broken. **PLEASE BELIEVE ME: YOUR CHILDREN ARE NOT BROKEN. THEY ARE FASTER THAN NORMAL. AND WHEN THEY LEARN TO TREAT THEMSELVES WITH THE RESPECT THAT THEY DESERVE, ALL THE AWESOME POWER OF THEIR ADHD WILL BE THEIRS FOR THE TAKING.**
I'll tell you, I wish I knew some of the things I've learned from parents I've spoken to who have heard the podcast when I was a kid. For example:
I have my child make an "action sheet" as soon as she gets home from school. It contains the top three things she learned in school that day, and what she needs to do with them (file them, study more for a test, do homework on them, etc.). This action sheet lets her feel focused and not overwhelmed, and allows her to go into her homework feeling in control. Plus, it acts as sort of a scheduler for her, giving her an idea of what's next on her agenda.
My eleven-year-old was prone to acting first and thinking later. I've been working with him daily on what you mentioned on the podcast, "thinking ten seconds into the future." Instead of punishing him when he gets angry and acts out, we discuss ways that next time, he can imagine what will happen based on the actions he takes. I'm truly seeing a difference in his behavior both at school and at home.
There's no one "right answer" here, and no one right path for everyone. But I'm also here to tell you that ADHD isn't the end of your child's world. Looked at a certain way, it's actually the beginning.
So right now, it's 4:41 P.M. New York City time, but I'm on yet _another_ flight to Tokyo, this time to speak at a mobile congress. But here's an interesting thing—I took a break from writing to jump online for a second, and found out that there was just a major earthquake in Japan. As I look around the cabin on this plane, I realize that I'm the only one, out of sixty-four people in business class, who knows this—because I'm the only one awake and working. That, in a weird way, is a prime example of the power of ADHD.
I obviously can't do anything with this information at this time; I'm on a plane with nowhere to go. But the bigger picture is fascinating: those like me feed off the energy of information. We are more adept at knowing what to do with it than the slower ones. We know what matters, and we can assimilate that which does, while instantly dismissing that which doesn't. That's a massive gift that comes with the awesome responsibility of having a faster brain.
I've spent the past sixty thousand or so words explaining how I believe ADHD to be a gift, and how my life is infinitely better since I learned how to embrace my ADHD and manage my life to get the most out of it. I've tried to offer you the tools and rules that I use every day, in the hopes that I could help you make just a little more sense out of how our brains work. I hope I've done that.
I'll leave you with a story. . . .
When I was twelve years old, my grandfather (my dad's dad) passed away. In the Jewish religion, when a parent passes away, the child is supposed to say a prayer called the Kaddish, every day for a year. The problem is, to do that, the parent needs to be part of a minyan, a gathering of at least ten Jewish men.
At one point during the year, our family went down to Florida via Amtrak. I have no idea why. It's not something I'd ever recommend. But anyway, we did it. As the day drew to a close, my dad remarked that this was the first day he wouldn't be able to say Kaddish since his father had passed away. He made this remark to my mom and me in an offhand way and went back to reading a magazine.
I didn't hear it as an offhand remark, however. I heard it as a challenge. I left my seat and walked to the first car of the train. I then proceeded to walk the entire length of the train, asking every adult male if they were Jewish. If they said they were, I asked them to follow me back to where my dad was sitting.
Sure enough, about twenty minutes after I left my seat, I appeared in front of my father leading ten men, like a Jewish Pied Piper. My dad was able to say the prayer for his father.
My dad proceeded to tell this story over and over for years and years to anyone who would listen. You could see the pride spilling out of his eyes every time he told it.
I, on the other hand, _truly couldn't understand why he was making such a big deal about this_. In my head, he had a situation that needed rectifying, so I tried my best to rectify it. That's all! In my head, it never occurred to me that walking the length of a passenger train asking people if they're Jewish would be weird or wrong. I just did it, because it needed to get done.
In a way, having ADHD is a lot like the story of the Fisher King, one of my all-time favorites. It begins with the king as a boy, having to spend the night alone in the forest to prove his courage so he can become king. While he's spending the night alone, he's visited by a sacred vision. Out of the fire appears the Holy Grail, symbol of God's divine grace. And a voice said to the boy, "You shall be keeper of the Grail so that it may heal the hearts of men." But the boy was blinded by greater visions of a life filled with power and glory and beauty.
And in this state of radical amazement he felt for a brief moment not like a boy, but invincible, like God, so he reached into the fire to take the Grail, but the Grail vanished, leaving him with his hand in the fire, terribly burned.
As this boy grew older, his wound grew deeper until one day, life for him lost its reason. He had no faith in any man, not even himself. He began to die.
One day a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. And being a fool, he was simpleminded; he didn't see a king. He saw only a man alone and in pain. And he asked the king, "What ails you, friend?"
The king replied, "I'm thirsty. I need some water to cool my throat."
The fool took a cup from beside his bed, filled it with water and handed it to the king. As the king began to drink, he realized his wound was healed. He looked in his hands and there was the Holy Grail, that which he had sought all his life. And he turned to the fool and said with amazement, "How can you find that which my brightest and bravest could not?"
And the fool replied, "I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty."
We see things others don't. We process things differently, usually with better results. We understand what it's like to be made to feel different, and we work to find happiness everywhere in the world in the hope that other people don't have to go through what we went through.
Are we fools? Not at all. We're faster than normal, just doing our thing, waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. And me? I wouldn't want it any other way.
Thanks for reading, my friends. I encourage you to reach out anytime—peter@shankman.com—I welcome the opportunity to talk with you. I have an interactive course that I encourage you to explore, as well—you can find that at www .ftncourse.com. I'm @petershankman on all of the socials, and I invite you to connect with me.
I hope I've been useful to you. I hope you have a renewed sense of who you are, and all the amazing things of which you're capable. I hope you go out and have fun with life, and embrace the special gifts we've been fortunate enough to receive.
I hope you stand proudly and announce to the world that you are, one hundred percent, faster than normal.
Thank you for reading.
# Acknowledgments
This labor of love wouldn't have been possible without some truly special people, without whom I'd be living a much emptier life.
Thank you to Marian Lizzi, a writer's dream and a truly wonderful editor. What a pleasure to have had you by my side during this journey! And of course, this is my third book with my wonderful agent Carol Mann—thank you, Carol!
As always, Meagan Walker continues to be the best assistant known to man. She's the reason I first learned to channel my ADHD into something beneficial, and she's stuck with me through thick and thin, even when I didn't think she would, and even when she'd tell me something, I'd say "Uh-huh," and then immediately forget everything she just told me. Meagan, you're my rock, and I love you.
David Roher and Todd Evans, thank you both for being there. David for being my 3:00 A.M. running accountability partner (let's not get arrested anymore), and Todd for always being one text message away.
To all my guests on the _Faster Than Normal_ podcast, I've learned so much from you, and you're the real heroes of the podcast. Thank you for trusting me with your stories. Special shout-out to Dr. Ned Hallowell for being my first guest, and more important, giving me that first glimmer of hope that what I was struggling with could actually be a huge, huge benefit. I'm so glad we've become friends!
Family first, always! Mom and Dad, I thought about you daily while writing this book—I can't imagine what it must have been like to have a younger version of me running around in the seventies and eighties, full of energy, full of ridiculous ideas, and full of . . . well, a lot of questions. Somehow you managed to teach me that the thing that made me the most different was actually my best gift to myself and the world. For that, I'll always be eternally grateful.
To Kira Shalom—I'm blessed to have known you, and I'm fortunate to have been allowed into your life for as long as I was. I know I wasn't easy to live with, and your patience, kindness, and, well, patience again, showed in everything you did. A lot of this book came out of what I learned from our interactions, and I thank you for all the lessons I've learned from you. You're an amazing woman, a great friend, and a truly wonderful mother.
Finally, to my daughter Jessa—sometimes, when I sneak into your room after you've fallen asleep, I watch you and I realize that you're already so much smarter than I ever possibly could be. I only want you to know that no matter what happens in your life, no matter what great things you go on to do, I'll always, always, always have your back, and my love, my protection, and my faster than normal brain will be forever at your disposal.
# Index
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader.
1Password,
Accountability buddies,
Adderall, , , , ,
Addiction, ,
ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)
addiction and, ,
alcohol use and, –122,
behavioral strategies and, ,
creating rituals and, –48, ,
as defined in DSM-IV-TR,
diet and ( _see_ Diet and nutrition)
exercise and, , , –50, , –88, , , , ,
gender and,
in history, –33
life rules and ( _see_ Life rules)
limiting downsides of, –201
loved ones and, –200
managing,
medication and, –22, , , , , , ,
naysayers and, –32
parenting and, –184, –223
prevalence of, ,
productivity and, –101, , , –132, , , , ,
relationships and, –6, –200
scientists and inventors with, –30
success stories and,
tools for managing ( _see_ Life tools)
traits,
triggers and ( _see_ Triggers)
turning negatives into positives, –13,
understanding diagnosis of,
Adrenaline, –16, ,
Alcohol use, , , , –122,
Alexa,
Amazon,
Amazon Echo,
American Express,
_American Journal of Public Health_ ,
American Psychiatric Association,
Anger, sleep deficit and,
AOL (America Online),
Apple Computer, ,
Apple test, –52,
Apple Wallet,
Apple Watch, ,
Approval, need for, –40
Archimedes,
Assistants, , –149
Backblaze,
Behavioral strategies and, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and, ,
Bell, Alexander Graham,
Bipolar disorder,
Bluetooth,
Borderline personality,
Bose headphones,
Bowers & Wilkins P7 Bluetooth headphones,
Brain chemicals ( _see_ Adrenaline; Dopamine; Serotonin)
Branson, Richard, , ,
Braun, Wernher von, ,
_Breaking Bad_ (television show),
Breathing, ,
Caffeine, , , , –208
_Can't Buy Me Love_ (movie),
Carbohydrates, –74,
Carbonite,
Case, Steve,
Centers for Disease Control (CDC),
Chemicals in brain ( _see_ Adrenaline; Cortisol; Dopamine; Serotonin)
Chocolate,
Choice, elimination of, –73, , –193, , , ,
Chore board,
Clance, Pauline,
Clean eating, ,
Cleaning house, , –135, –140,
Cleanliness, , –140
Clooney, George,
Clothing, –69, , , –146, ,
Cloud, –163
Clutter, –54, –138,
Cocaine,
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), ,
Compartmentalized tasks, –151
Concerta, –22
Connected home concept,
Contract with yourself, –201
Cortisol,
Cotton, Rachel, –213
Creativity, , , –39, ,
Cuddy, Amy, –212
Curiosity,
Customer Experience Asia,
Daily schedule, , –153
Deadlines, –116, , –142, ,
Decker, Jai,
Delegation,
_Delivered from Distraction_ (Hallowell and Ratey), ,
Desk chaos, –54, –133
_Devil's Advocate, The_ (movie),
Dialectical behavior therapy,
Diet and nutrition, , –52, , –77, , , ,
intermittent fasting, –72,
junk food, –52, , , ,
Digital tools, , , , –160
connected home concept,
headphones, –167
laptops, –167
messaging, ,
mobile apps, –169
passwords and security, –164
SCOTTeVEST travel jacket, ,
Disney, Walter "Walt,"
Disney Corporation,
_Distraction_ (podcast), vii
Dopamine, –16, , , –41, , , , , , , , , , ,
"Dopamine breaks," –41
Douglas, Michael,
Downsizing possessions, –138
Downtime bursts, –157,
Dropbox,
Drug use, , ,
DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association),
Ducker, Chris,
Dumas, John Lee,
Dunkin' Donuts,
Eating ( _see_ Diet and nutrition)
Edison, Thomas,
Einstein, Albert, , ,
Endorphins, , , ,
Entertainment folders, –170
Environment, –54, –139
Exercise, , , –50, , –88, , , , ,
Facebook, , , ,
Facebook Messenger,
Fail-safes, building, –46
fasterthannormal.com, , ,
_Faster Than Normal_ Course, ,
_Faster Than Normal_ podcast, vii, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Fasting, intermittent, –72,
Fiber,
Fight-or-flight mode,
Fisher King, story of the, –226
Fixing things, –110,
Fleming, John, –77
f.lux,
Focus, –16, , , –40, , , , , , –209
Folders, –176
Food and drink folders,
_Food Rules_ (Pollan),
Ford, Henry, ,
Founding Fathers,
Franklin, Benjamin,
Free will, , 664–65
Galileo Galilei,
Gambling,
Game folders, –171
Geek Factory, The,
Gender, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and,
Godin, Seth, , ,
Google Apps,
Google Calendar, , , ,
Google Drive,
Google Express,
Google Hangouts,
_Greatest American Hero, The_ (television show),
_Groundhog Day_ (movie),
Gurdon, Sir John B.,
Habits, creating,
Hallowell, Edward "Ned," vii–x, , ,
Hartstein, Jennifer,
Harvard University, , , –211
Hawking, Stephen,
Headphones, –167
Health folders, –172
Help a Reporter Out (HARO),
Heroin,
Herold, Cameron,
History, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in, –33
Hoffman, Heinrich,
Hoffmann, Carl Philipp,
Home screens,
House cleaning, , –135, –140,
Huawei,
Hyperfocus ( _see_ Focus)
iBooks,
iCloud,
Imes, Suzanne,
Imposter syndrome, –212
Impulsivity
nature deficit and,
sleep deficit and,
_In Defense of Food_ (Pollan),
Instagram, ,
Instinct,
Intake evaluation,
Intermittent fasting, –72,
Internet of Things,
Interruptions, , –116, –190
iPad,
Ironman Cozumel, ,
_It's Okay to Manage Your Boss_ (Tulgan),
Jet lag,
Jobs, Steve,
Junk food, –52, , , ,
Kamen, Dean,
Katt, William,
Kindle,
Laptops, –167
LastPass,
Lateness, –112
Lateral thinking,
Laundry and dry-cleaning, ,
Leonardo da Vinci,
Life rules, –57, –89,
diet and nutrition, –77, ,
elimination of choice, –73, , –193, , , ,
exercise, , , –50, , –88, , ,
sleep, , –84,
Life tools, –177,
assistants, , –149
cleaning house, –135, –140,
compartmentalized tasks, –151
daily schedule, –153
deadlines, –116, , –142, ,
digital ( _see_ Digital tools)
downtime bursts, –157
environment, –54, –139
laptop tools, –167
organization, –133,
scheduling, –149
_Listful Thinking: Using Lists to Be More Productive, Highly Successful and Less Stressed_ (Rizzo),
Lodging Interactive,
Long-burst downtimes, –155
Lyft,
Lying,
MacBook Air,
Mass transit,
medication and, –22, , , , , , ,
Meditation,
Meeting length, –153
_Men in Black_ (movie),
Mental illness,
Messaging, ,
Milliken, Kirsten,
Minimalism, , ,
Mister Rogers,
Mobile apps, –169
Moderation, ,
Money folders,
Murray, Bill,
Music, –169
Muted screens,
MyFitnessPal, ,
Nature deficit disorder,
Needleman, David,
Negative behaviors, –18
Networks, creation of, –158
News, –174
Newton, Sir Isaac,
_New York Post_ ,
Night-before plan, , –143
Nightshade,
Notebooks, ,
Nutrition ( _see_ Diet and nutrition)
Obama, Barack,
_Ocean's Eleven_ (movie),
OmmWriter,
Online and virtual tools ( _see_ Digital tools)
Online shopping,
OpenTable,
Organization, –133,
Overprescription,
Oxygen mask theory,
Pacino, Al,
Parenting, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and, –184, –223
Passphrases, –164
Password managers, –164
Passwords and security, –164
Pasteur, Louis,
PayPal,
Penn, Christopher, –163
Personal triggers, , –113, –123
Pharmaceutical industry,
Photographs, –139
Pitt, Brad,
Plants vs. Zombies,
_PlayDHD_ (Milliken),
Playing, –171
Plex Media Server,
_Point Break_ (movie),
Pollan, Michael,
Positive habits, –107
Positive thinking,
Possessions, downsizing, –138
Preparedness, triggers and, –103,
_Presence_ (Cuddy),
Prison, ,
Processed food,
_Productive_ app, ,
Productivity, –101, , , –132, , , , ,
Professional triggers, , –101
Protein, ,
Psychotherapy,
Ratey, John J.,
Reading,
Relationships, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and, –6, –200
REM cycles,
Resolutions, –43
Restarting devices,
Risky behavior, –18
Ritalin,
Rituals, creating, –48, ,
Rizzo, Paula, –136
Rules ( _see_ Life rules)
Runkeeper, ,
Scanmyphotos.com,
Scheduling, –149,
Scientists and inventors, –30
SCOTTeVEST travel jacket, ,
Self-affirmation,
Seltzer,
Serotonin, –16, , ,
shankman.com, ,
ShankMinds, ,
Sharing, –191
Shazam, –169
Sheen, Charlie,
Shopping folders,
Short-burst downtimes, –157,
Simplenote,
_Simpsons, The_ (television show),
_Skyfaring_ (Vanhoenacker),
Sleep, , –84, ,
Snapchat,
Social media, –175
Social skills groups,
Soda, , ,
Sonmez, John,
_South Park_ (television show), ,
Space, personal, –53
Spotify,
Starbucks,
_Star Trek: The Next Generation_ ,
Starwood Hotels, ,
"Story of Fidgety Philip, The" (Hoffman),
Stress, –106,
_Struwwelpeter_ (Hoffman),
Success stories,
Sud, Adam, , –123
Surface,
Tangent magnets, –144
Technology (automation) ( _see_ Digital tools)
Television viewing, –82
Texting, ,
Tiredness,
Tools ( _see_ Life tools)
Tracking data, ,
Travel apps, –176
Triggers, –127,
anti-trigger strategy, –125
being early and, –105
deadlines, –116
personal, , –113, –123
preparedness, –103,
professional, , –101
types, –93
TripIt, –176
Tulgan, Bruce,
Twitter, ,
Uber,
United,
University of Illinois,
_Up in the Air_ (movie),
_Up_ (movie),
Utilities folder,
Vallauri, DJ,
Vanhoenacker, Mark,
Vegetables, ,
Venmo,
Visualization,
_Wall Street_ (movie), , , –222
Wardrobe, –69, , , –146, ,
_WarGames_ (movie),
Water intake, , , ,
WeChat,
Weight loss, , ,
WhatsApp,
Whole grains,
Williams, Robin,
Wit,
Withings, ,
Withings Aura alarm clock,
Words with Friends,
Workable time, lack of,
Wright brothers,
Wunderlist,
XE,
Yummly,
Zigzagging, –144
_Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans_ (Shankman), –130,
Zuckerberg, Mark,
# About the Author
Peter Shankman is an entrepreneur, CEO, runner, skydiver, podcaster, Ironman triathlete, and most importantly, a dad. He's the founder of ShankMinds: Breakthrough, a private, online entrepreneur community with hundreds of members from around the world. He's perhaps best known for founding Help a Reporter Out, the largest source repository in the world, which fundamentally changed how journalists source their stories. His customer service and social media clients have included American Express, E! Entertainment, NBCUniversal, RE/MAX, Royal Bank of Canada, Saudi Aramco, Snapple, Sprint, the United States Department of Defense, Walt Disney World, and many others. Peter is the author of five books, including his most recent bestseller, _Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans_. Peter also hosts the top-rated podcast _Faster Than Normal_ , helping people to understand that ADD and ADHD are a gift, not a curse. He's based in New York City.
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## Contents
1. Cover
2. Praise for FASTER THAN NORMAL
3. Title Page
4. Copyright
5. Contents
6. Foreword By Edward Hallowell, M.D.
7. Chapter One: An Introduction to the World of Attention Deficit . . . Ooh! Shiny!
1. A Bit of Backstory
2. Turning Negatives into Positives
3. Faster, Sharper, More More More
4. Figuring Out What Works—and What Doesn't
8. Chapter Two: A Very Brief (Because ADHD) History of ADHD and How the World and Anything Cool in It Was Built by People with ADHD (and Four Ways You Can Be Like Them Right Now)
1. "Not How It's Done!"
2. Why Our Brains Are More Creative Than "Normal" People's Brains
3. The First Thing: Make Rituals, Not Resolutions
4. The Second Thing: Start Exercising at Least Six Times a Week—but Don't Worry, It's Not Really Exercise
5. The Third Thing: Eat When You're Hungry, and Eat Real Food
6. The Fourth Thing: Simplify Your Environment
9. Chapter Three: The Four ADHD Undeniable Life Rules
1. Free Will Isn't Always Free
2. Rule One: Eliminate Choice Whenever Possible
3. Rule Two: Eat Well
4. Rule Three: Sleep Well
5. Rule Four: Exercise, and Do It Outside as Much as Possible
6. A Rule Is Born
7. Keep Checking Yourself Before . . .
10. Chapter Four: Triggers: How to Minimize—or Even Eliminate—Your ADHD Hot Buttons
1. Professional Triggers, Personal Triggers, Just Lots and Lots of Triggers . . .
2. Professional Triggers
3. Lack of Preparedness Is a Massive Trigger
4. The Early Bird Catches Everything (Not Just the Worm)
5. The Power of Positive Habits
6. Personal Triggers
7. Know Your Triggers (and Avoid Them)
8. Recognize That Deadlines Are Your Friend
9. Learn to "Unenjoy" Things
10. Personal Triggers in Other Forms
11. Chapter Five: ADHD and Productivity: The Tools I Use, Both Digital and Analog, to Run My Life
1. Life Tools
2. Digital Tools
3. Laptop Tools
4. Mobile Apps
5. To the Folders!
12. Chapter Six: ADHD and the People You Care About. Like Students, Loved Ones, and the People Who Care About You. And ADHD. Oh, Wait, I Said That Already. What's on TV?
1. For Parents of ADHD Kids
2. For Loved Ones
3. Three Ways to Limit the Downsides of ADHD
4. ADHD/Ph.D.
5. Rule One: Good Judgment Comes from Experience, and Experience Comes from Bad Judgment
6. Rule Two: Idea Generation and Hyperfocus—If It Doesn't Challenge You, It Won't Change You
7. Rule Three: The "Aha" Moment for an Imposter
13. Chapter Seven: Wrapping It All Up: What We Can Take Away from . . . Wait . . . What Were We Talking About, Again?
1. Know Yourself to Hack Your Life
2. A Note for Parents
14. Acknowledgments
15. Index
16. About the Author
1. Cover
2. Table of Contents
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| to make your life just a little bit easier, for those moments when you're questioning whatever prompted you to hire/date/fall in love with/marry someone with ADHD in the first place.
1. **Our ADHD drives us crazy, too!** Always remember that on those rare occasions when ADHD gets the best of us, it makes us even more insane than it does you. Can you imagine living a life where you absolutely, positively, one hundred percent intend to do something, and then forget to do it? You've written down reminders, you've noted the time every five minutes, and you've set multiple alarms, but for whatever reason, you simply don't do the thing? Yeah. That sucks. And as much as it sucks for you to be on the receiving end of it, trust me—it sucks a million times more for us. Not only didn't we do the thing, not only didn't we fulfill what we were supposed to accomplish, but worst of all? We let you down. And that just kills us. Which leads to . . .
2. **Thanks, but we already feel like crap for our mistake.** You don't have to remind us. Think back to that time when you were a kid, and did something truly wrong. Remember how you felt when you got caught, or maybe when you came clean and admitted it? Remember when your mom or dad said, "I'm not angry, I'm just very disappointed in you. I thought I raised you better than that"? Remember how you wanted a hole to open up in the floor and the universe to suck you through to oblivion? Yeah. That. That's how we feel when we blow something we truly intended to do. Do you have every right to be angry? Of course you do. But if you're thinking that you simply have to beat it into us how hurt you are by our actions, know this: If it's truly an ADHD moment that caused us to not do the thing, we're already beyond hurt. We're horrified, mortified, and many other verbs that end in -fied, and we'd do anything to take back what we didn't do.
3. **Sometimes when we're excited, our brains move so fast that in our heads, we've already friended, best-friended, argued, broken up, and divorced you from our lives in the space of four minutes.** Let me explain something to you about how excitement works when someone has ADHD: Imagine I just landed a huge contract, worth a ton of money. In my head, here's what happens.
"Well, thank you, Mr. Johnson. Yes, I look forward to working with you, too. Excellent. We'll be in touch tomorrow morning. Yes, sir. Goodbye."
OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE I GOT THIS I DID THIS ALL MYSELF THIS IS SO AMAZING I NEED TO SHARE THIS WITH THE PERSON I LOVE AND PROVE I DID THIS THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER! <DIALS PERSON'S WORK PHONE, NO ANSWER> WHY ISN'T SHE ANSWERING? DOES SHE KNOW HOW GREAT I AM AND WHAT I DID? WHY WOULDN'T SHE WANT TO TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS? <DIALS PERSON'S MOBILE PHONE, NO ANSWER> WHAT THE HELL? THIS IS AN AMAZING THING I JUST DID WHY DOES SHE ALWAYS DO THIS? SHE OBVIOUSLY DOESN'T CARE THIS IS BULL, WHY AM I WITH SOMEONE WHO OBVIOUSLY DOESN'T CARE ABOUT ME? <DIALS WORK PHONE AGAIN, NO ANSWER> THIS IS RIDICULOUS. I'M PRETTY MUCH DONE WITH HER. WHY WOULD SHE DELIBERATELY GO OUT OF HER WAY TO RUIN MY AMAZING MOMENT? THIS IS CRAP. SHE'S EVIL AND I HATE HER. <SENDS E-MAIL>: Dear person in my life who obviously doesn't care about me: I had really great news and was in an amazing mood and wanted to share it and celebrate it with you so you could feel the same as I do and I don't understand why you wouldn't want to do that and you obviously dislike me, you're a horrible person and you've totally taken all my happiness today and just crushed it like putting out a cigarette with your boot. I'm coming home and packing my things and moving out. Goodbye.
<Five minutes later, phone rings, it's the person I love calling me>: "Hey, honey, I was in an impromptu meeting with my boss, I saw that you called—what's up? Oh, I got an e-mail from you as well, let me . . . WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU??" <CLICK.>
Occasionally, you're going to get these kinds of situations from us. It's not you, it's us. And we're embarrassed that we did it, and hopefully, over time, they become more and more infrequent. But they'll still happen every once in a while, because, no matter how good we get at slowing down our brains, sometimes our brakes simply fail. When that happens, laugh it off, dial us back, call us an idiot, and then congratulate us on our good news. We'll try even harder to prevent it next time.
4. **Don't drag us out of "the zone."** Ever do this? You call the ADHD person in your life, and they answer with "Hey, is everything okay?" "Yeah, all is fine, I just had a question for you."
Chances are, the next thing out of the ADHDer's mouth is going to be "Okay, can we talk later? I'm in the middle of something here."
I know, because this happens to me all the time. Why? Because when you're ADHD, you can't shut off your phone, in case "something happens." That something could be a new client, or the person we love falling down a manhole. But therein lies a problem: if we answer, you assume we have the time to talk, otherwise, why would we answer, right? Unfortunately, therein lies a paradox, and it usually goes something like this:
"Hey, can I call you back later? I'm in the middle of something here."
"Sure, I just want to know this one thing. . . ."
And then you proceed to ask us a question. You know what the problem is there? The problem is, you've just taken us out of our zone. See, when you're ADHD, "zones" are lifesavers. They allow us to work nonstop, they allow us to go from idea to paper to computer to implementation, all in a matter of minutes, while it would take a "normal" person hours, if not days.
But if we're interrupted, we're screwed, and getting back on track becomes a process that often results in our not doing anything at all. It's simply the way it is. We have zones. Happy zones, work zones, love zones. Work with us to figure out what our zones are, let us alone during our "work" zones, and we'll be awesome for you in every other zone there is.
5. **Don't downplay our sharing.** You know what makes someone with ADHD truly happy? Sharing. The ability to share with someone good or bad news, or even our latest crazy purchase, idea, or thought. We buy a new jacket? We're going to want to show it to you. The same thing applies when we have what we think is a good idea for you, whether it's personal or professional. When we first get to share the idea with you, you know what we don't want? We don't want notes. We don't want to know it's a crappy idea. We don't want you to tell us why our news, purchase, or even life-changing idea is wrong. All we want, for the first few minutes, is to be heard.
If it truly is the stupidest idea you've ever heard, feel free to tell us—but not right away. Give us an hour. Let us get it out of our system, let us enjoy it. Let us have those few seconds where all that buildup finally gets released. Let us recover from that afterward. Then you can tell us that our idea sucks. Just give us those first few minutes. Because if you don't, over time, we're going to stop telling you things. And even worse, we're going to find other people to tell. And that sucks, because we'd much rather tell you.
6. **If it seems strange, it probably is. TO YOU.** When one has ADHD, one does things that would _not_ seem normal to any rational person with a slower brain. Things like running at 3:15 A.M. Things like flying to Asia to write a book. But it's not that we're strange. (Well, not only that we're strange.) Fact is, we do the things we do for a reason.
I can't tell you how many people with ADHD manage it by exercising super early. Why? Because we know that's the only time we can fit it in, and if we don't, our days aren't as good as they could be. We get up early to fly somewhere for one meeting that could be handled via FaceTime not only because in-person is better, but because it's ten hours round-trip of uninterrupted work time. We don't do certain things because we know that if we do them one time, we'll do them a thousand, because we've got ADHD, remember?
Trust us—we know ourselves. And we also know that some of the things we do seem crazy. But they work for us. So let us do them. Heck, ask to join us every once in a while. You'd be amazed what you could learn.
7. **Accept that we're naturally curious.** Help guide us as to what to be curious about! We love asking questions. We love knowing what's going on. We love talking to people. When you see us at the water cooler talking to someone, it doesn't mean we're blowing off work. When we're with you on an airplane and before the flight we already know everyone on the plane, it doesn't mean we're not interested in you. It just means we're interested in everything. Those with ADHD are surprisingly loyal. Don't think our natural curiosity means we're looking for something better. We're just feeding our need to know, to learn, to explore.
8. **When you can, try to help us eliminate choice.** The worst thing to do to someone with ADHD is say, "Oh, whatever you want is fine." Chances are, it won't be fine, because the person with the faster brain doesn't think entirely the same way you do. If you truly want to give them a choice, make it as limited a choice as possible. Instead of saying, "Oh, you pick a restaurant for dinner, anything is fine with me," how about saying "I'm good with either pizza or Mexican, why don't you pick one?" Giving us two choices as opposed to an infinite number helps rein us in, and you won't find yourself trying monkey brains when all you really wanted was a large pepperoni.
9. **Show us that you've really heard us.** When I get into a heated discussion, whether with someone in my personal life or with a business associate, it's imperative that I know they're truly hearing me. Not just "uh-huh-ing" me, but truly hearing me. Because if I don't feel like they're truly hearing me, I can't let the situation go and move on to the next point.
When you're arguing with someone with ADHD, try to make it a point to truly listen to them, and show them that you've comprehended what they've said. You certainly don't have to agree with it, but at the very least, let them know you've heard them. That allows them to move on to the next point. If you're not listening, we can't do that, and we'll simply say it again, but louder. That never solves anything.
10. **None of what we do is done maliciously or with hurtful intent.** Sometimes we screw up. And the reason our screwups look so bad is because they're often things that people with slower brains wouldn't screw up. You tell someone with a slower brain to take out the trash, they're going to walk to the trash can, grab the bag, and take it to the compactor. Not us. We'll have every intention of taking out the trash, and will probably even start walking toward the trash can. But occasionally, something will catch our eye, and six hours later, we're looking up Roman sewage canals on Wikipedia. It's what we go through on a daily basis, and despite our best efforts, sometimes we're going to screw up. But know that we're working on it, trying to get better every day, and we're not doing it to hurt you or make things difficult. Truly, we're not. And please know: We're trying to improve. Every single day, we're trying to improve. For us, and equally important, for you.
## Three Ways to Limit the Downsides of ADHD
The hardest thing to do for most people with ADHD is to admit when ADHD gets the best of us. We _hate_ that this wonderful gift we have, this amazing brain that runs faster than normal, can screw us _big-time_ when we least expect it. There is _nothing_ worse for someone with ADHD than failing someone they care about. On the rare occasions where ADHD got the best of me and it affected my wife, or worse, my daughter, well, I can't even begin to tell you how truly horrible I felt. Like, truly, truly horrible. I wanted to cry. (Many times, lying awake at night replaying what I did—or didn't do—over and over in my head, I would cry.)
When you have ADHD, it's imperative that you explain to people who matter in your life that you're not making excuses, that you're not blaming your occasional inability to listen on it. I refuse to let ADHD define the negatives about me. I desperately try to own my screwups. But occasionally, ADHD does get the best of me. By explaining to the person I love _beforehand_ that this gift may, on rare occasions, backfire in a really bad way, I can lessen the blow, for lack of a better term. The key, of course, is to train your brain in such a way that those mistakes are less and less frequent.
1. **Stop, look, listen, before you become present with the person you're about to see.** Sounds crazy, but when I come home, I actually stand outside my apartment door for about five minutes in the hallway and actively force myself to relax. I take deep breaths. I think of something calming and soothing. I go to a happy mental place and actively visualize myself walking in calmly, without any stress or excitement.
See, most people think that if you're ADHD, you'll be distracted and focus on a million things at once right as you walk into your home. And sometimes, that's true. But more often than not, during our commute home, we've gotten into some kind of hyperfocus mode, and now we're entirely thinking about that one thing. So of course, when we walk in the door, we want to share it immediately and tell you how awesome it is! Unfortunately, that comes at the expense of whatever the heck you happened to be doing before we got there, whether it was making dinner, working on your own stuff, or talking on the phone. Doesn't matter. We're home, time to share!
So by taking a few minutes by the door and actively calming down, it allows me to leave my zone of focus and come back home, back to where the people I love are, back to a different place, a place of peace and tranquillity. Breathe and relax _before_ you open the door. It truly makes a world of difference.
2. **Ask three questions.** One downside to ADHD is that, while we're incredibly thoughtful people in the grand scheme of things, we often forget to do the most basic of things—for example, ask about your loved one's day. Because we like to share, because we like to help, and because we like to "fix things," we tend to forget, on occasion, to ask the basic questions. We might be in the middle of planning to propose to you by skydiving into your office from space, yet it's been six months since we asked you about your day.
To counter this, I've trained myself to always take a second to truly "notice" people, and have three questions ready in my head, whether I'm coming home, whether I'm visiting my parents, whether I'm meeting a friend for dinner or having a coffee with someone new. They don't have to be deep, pressing questions, and they're usually not. When I first walk in, or meet them, or see them at the table, I notice something interesting about them; what they're wearing, what they're doing on their phone at the time, or anything that allows me to step fully into the moment and be as present as possible for them. Then I ask a question. It could be about their day, or about their family, their job, or anything. I'm not doing this to blow smoke, either. I've trained myself to ask these questions because deep down, in my heart, I truly _am_ interested in what they have to say, I'm truly interested _in them!_ It's just that in the heat of the moment (and with ADHD, every moment can be the heat of the moment), it's better to focus on them to begin with. This prevents me from starting to talk the second I see them, and never stopping until they don't want anything to do with me anymore.
3. **Find ways to listen and relinquish control,** no matter how difficult it may be to do so. I was reading "Little Red Riding Hood" to my three-year-old daughter a while back, and something occurred to me. In almost every fairy tale I've ever heard, everyone's destiny hinges on someone's coming out of the blue and performing a bit of derring-do. The hunter shoots the wolf, or the prince rescues Snow White, or Shrek kisses Fiona. . . . My point is, in fairy tales, it always seems to be someone "rescuing" or "taking charge of the situation," when in real life that isn't always the case.
A great example of number 3 here would be Jonathan and Josephine. Known as "JJ" by their circle of friends (which I suppose is still better than "Brangelina"), they've been married for about four years now. Josephine has ADHD, Jonathan does not.
According to Jonathan, their marriage is great—except when Jonathan needs help with anything. Without fail, it then turns into a giant argument. In Jonathan's words:
We were cooking dinner together one night, and Jo had told me about a certain way to sear a steak—"reverse sear," she called it. I asked her to teach me how to do it. Instead of taking me through it step by step, she took the pan, put it on the stove, and started heating it up. When I asked her to slow down and show me, she got frustrated if I asked the simplest of questions. I couldn't get a word in edgewise, I couldn't even ask about the thickness of the steak, or the heat of the flame. "Oh, I'll just do it" became my cue to sit down in the living room and wait for her to call me to dinner.
Of course, when Jo actually looked up from the stove for a second and noticed I wasn't there, she'd come storming into the living room, asking why I would ask to cook with her if I was just going to walk off and ignore her. It was like she didn't even realize what she was doing that was causing me to leave!
Jo, of course, has a different take on the situation: "I love that Jon wants to cook with me! I went out, bought all the ingredients, and was really looking forward to cooking dinner with him, showing him how to make my favorite steak, but no matter how I tried to help him with the meal, he didn't seem to want my help. He was going to burn the steak if I didn't get involved, and it was like he was mad at me for trying to help! Then the next thing I know, he's stormed off into the living room and is watching TV. It's like he never wanted to cook with me in the first place!"
Needless to say, two completely different scenarios here. What Jo saw as offering Jon help was actually more along the lines of taking over. Jon, of course, didn't feel like he was learning anything, other than to stay out of Jo's way.
When you have a faster than normal brain, you really and truly _do_ want to help. We tend to be magnanimous, we're often happy to do whatever we can to help you with whatever you need. The problem lies, however, in the fact that we're often so hyperaware of what we have to do and how to do it that our ADHD causes us to simply take over, shutting out the other person, while we're convinced in our own minds that we're totally doing the right thing—we're helping!
Obviously, in a marriage, "taking over" usually isn't the way to win the other's heart. It's funny, too—because I totally see myself in Jo's shoes. When I first heard the story, I wanted to rush in to defend Jo. "Come on, Jon! She was trying to help you!" But then I remembered how my mom stopped asking me for help with her phone, because I would take over and do whatever she was asking for help with, instead of teaching her how to do it herself. Thus, she never learned.
Those of us with faster brains rely on having control. Without it, we feel like we're useless. Control grounds us; it allows us to know that everything will be okay, because we trust ourselves to make it okay.
But when someone wants to learn something, or is asking for help so they don't have to keep asking, then taking control _isn't_ the best way to help. Quite the opposite—it's detrimental, and as we see above, can hurt the relationship.
So sometimes, relinquishing control is quite possibly the best thing you can do. The key to doing it is to _understand you're going to do it, and understand that nothing bad will come of it_.
Say you're trying to show someone how to use their new phone. In my case, when my mom didn't immediately understand what to do, I took it away from her and did it myself. In my head, I was helping, I was preventing us from wasting time, and I was getting things _done_. In her mind, though, I wasn't helping her, I was taking over.
So the next time she asked for help, I went in with this attitude in my brain: "Peter, you have three hours with your mom today, as you get together with your parents for dinner. For good or for bad, you have three hours. So instead of getting frustrated when she does something wrong, just show her once, then watch her, and see if she makes a mistake. If she does, _let her ask you_." As soon as I took _time_ out of the equation, life got much calmer for me. I didn't need to worry about getting her phone set up, because I knew I was there for three hours, regardless. I was able to breathe and watch. Was it still irritating that she didn't get it the first time? Of course. But by the time I left, she knew what to do and was more confident in how to do it than she'd ever been before.
I had a computer data consultant on the podcast once, John Sonmez. He gave me a great tip that I use to this day: make a weekly contract with yourself that can't be renegotiated for a week. In other words, if you're afraid you're going to do something you don't want to do (or not do something you should be doing), make a contract that you can't renegotiate for one week.
Example: If I know I need to do two ten-mile runs this week for an upcoming race, and I know the only time to do them is Tuesday and Friday mornings, I'll make a contract with myself on Sunday that says I'll get a ten-miler done on Tuesday morning, and again on Friday morning. When the alarm goes off way before sunrise, I can't shut it off and go back to bed, because I'm not allowed to renegotiate my contract until next Sunday. Sounds simple, sure. But there's something about knowing you have that contract with yourself (at least for me) that keeps me going and prevents me from doing the thing I'm not supposed to be doing, whether it's going back to sleep or grabbing my mom's phone out of frustration.
## ADHD/Ph.D.
Someone else who thinks this way as well is a lovely young woman named Rachel Cotton. I had Rachel on the podcast awhile back, and it was such an amazing show for a multitude of reasons, the least of which is because she talks faster than I do. That's nothing short of a miracle. After the podcast interview was over, Rachel and I kept in touch, and I was constantly amazed by almost everything she said during our conversations. She is a prime example of doing what's needed to turn a disability into a pure advantage.
What fascinates me about Rachel, though, is that she's been able to turn her ADHD into her superpower, allowing her to work on her Ph.D.! I'm not even kidding—she's a Ph.D. candidate in immunology at Harvard (Harvard!) and she uses her ADHD to help her do everything from study to write ridiculously long articles in medical journals. She tried to tell me what she does, but it flew over my head in about two seconds. I was so impressed with Rachel, in fact, that I asked her to document her story for me, so that I could include it in this chapter. Fortunately for both you and me, she agreed to do just that. So here's Rachel "The ADHD Ph.D." Cotton's story, direct from her laboratory at Harvard University.
**SQUIRREL!: If you're a parent of a child with ADHD, do NOT skip this next part!**
RACHEL'S STORY
Being a scientist with a faster than normal brain became pretty awesome once I figured out a few life rules to keep me on track. I know my limits. I eliminate choice. I write stuff down all the time. I keep in touch with my mentors and mentees. I clarify expectations. I remind myself as much as I can about what I value and what I know I'm good at to combat my negative self-talk. Idea generation, hyperfocus, and the entrepreneurial mind-set, coupled with my ADHD, make me a better scientist.
In the second year of my Ph.D. program, at age twenty-four, I saw a new and incredibly perceptive primary care physician. When I mentioned my then 4 x 200 mg caffeine pill per day routine, he was the first one to ask why. I talked about discovering caffeine in high school, how it made me feel clearer and more communicative. Without missing a beat, he said, "I think you have been self-medicating ADHD." I was surprised, because I'm not classically hyperactive. However, I had known for a long time that I was a little bit . . . "atypical." I didn't have a name for it, but it was, and still very much is, a _big_ part of my identity.
I talk and walk insanely fast. I have obsessive-compulsive tendencies. I am organized to a fault and am a little bit of a competitive adrenaline junkie. Yet I have been called a "space case" or "space cadet" and frequently get "Earth to Rachel" or "nerd alert" for zoning out from my surroundings or getting lost in a book. (Sound familiar?) I lock my keys in the car all the time—AAA even billed me extra one year for too many lockout calls. I almost set the house on fire by getting excited about an e-mail and forgetting the toaster oven. I have a hard time interpreting conversational nuances and group dynamics. My mind moves faster than my mouth, so I revise sentences as I'm saying them, frequently mumbling or speaking too softly for some to hear. My thesis adviser aptly calls me "a nervous conversationalist." I am my own worst critic.
I had absolutely no idea that these behaviors were consistent with ADHD. I figured they were just personality quirks that make me, me.
_(Note from Peter: How many of us have made that same assumption? "It's just who I am, it's what I do." Story of my life!)_
Key experiences in adolescence gave me the confidence to unlock my faster than normal brain:
I tested well, school came easily to me until college, and I was only labeled ADHD as an adult.
But for as much positive feedback and attention I received for being "smart," I still struggle to this day with self-doubt. I was constantly in some sport or activity after school. Literally falling on my ass—or my head (cheerleading and gymnastics)—smacking the water from three meters up (diving), or just never being good enough (ballet) taught me how to fail and get back up.
I started to notice in high school that my work habits, learning style, and communication style were just _different_ from those of my friends and classmates. At fifteen, I discovered energy drinks, which seemed to do more for me than they did for my friends. I spoke more clearly and was more confident. Communication was just easier. I figured out that my peak productivity is roughly between 3:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M. I started pulling one all-nighter a week and modified my sleep schedule to hit that window. The Academy of Our Lady of Peace, my all-girls high school, was academically rigorous, but I was the only one I knew who had _that_ schedule. I graduated in the top five in my class and was captain of the varsity cheerleading team. I say it that way to point out the juxtaposition. In reality, I felt just as everyone else does—socially awkward—as if life were about to implode at any second.
I loved my biology classes and landed a summer research internship at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology—it changed my life even more than discovering caffeine did. The goal of biomedical research is to create new knowledge that may inform new therapies for disease; a sharp contrast to the memorize-regurgitate-repeat cycle of high school. I was seventeen, but I've been doing immunology research ever since and it has yet to get boring! I feel extremely lucky to have found something early on that I enjoy, that someone | 6,558 |
Cisco systems are a global leader in the fields of communication and networking. They're known all over the world as a leading IT brand and their products & services are individual enough that they have their own batch of qualifications, known as Cisco certifications. These qualifications can be very useful when setting out on an IT related career path, but how do you know which path is right for you?
Online IT training courses in Cisco are widely available, so let's take a look at 9 of the most popular certifications and what they're useful for.
This is one of the entry-level qualifications into Cisco career paths. This certification will cover the skills needed for you to install, maintain and troubleshoot small networks. It covers the basics, as you would expect from an entry course, and is finished off with a single exam. CCENT is<|fim_middle|> the CCIE, this is an expert qualification. However, this one isn't based on networks and the maintenance of them. Instead, it's a design path, so you could be focused on designing and creating new networks or infrastructure in a variety of fields.
Architect level certifications are above even the expert level. This is the pinnacle of Cisco certifications and qualifies you as an expert on their systems. It's been described as the Cisco equivalent of achieving a doctorate at the university.
The title says it all, and to elaborate on it, I'd say investing in your body by eating healthy and going to a gym to work with a professional trainer is also important. Everything you spend on yourself, make it useful for your growth, be it your career, your body, or your mind.
I agree 100%, Gen! You're your best project, after all.
It's great to live in the era of online education and improvement. There are some many online sources to find courses or any additional information about literally any professional field.
I second Jack on this!! Also, it's great those courses provide certificates, many of which are recognized by employers. Total benefit!
I'm working on changing my professional direction to IT, so Cisco is a gold mine for me. Thank you, Daniela, for providing more info about it.
This is the purpose of my blog, Larry. You're welcome! | the place to start for technicians and is a prerequisite for some more advanced qualifications along this career path.
The technician path is aimed more at people who will be maintaining or installing networks on site. These people work to diagnose and maintain equipment and networks of a basic level, with an eye to specializing in individual areas (like data centers) over time.
This isn't an entry-level certification and can have different prerequisites depending on which path you want to follow. Here you will learn skills related to installing and supporting networks. You can choose to specialize in fields including cloud servers, data centers, security, and more. Each field will require 2-3 exams to complete your qualification.
The CCDA was created for people who wish to follow the path to becoming a design professional (CCDP). This is a required certification that you must complete first, and you need either a CCENT, CCNA Routing & Switching, or a CCIE qualification before you can enter this course.
The network professional credentials require you to pass 4 exams for most specialities, except routing & switching which requires 3. This is the path for network specialists who wish to continue along a similar route, focusing specifically on local networks and how they interact.
As the name suggests, a design professional is involved more in the design process than the maintenance process. These are the people who design and implement new networks, with the aim of making them scalable over time and maintainable.
For many network professionals, the CCIE is an end-goal. This is the point where you will have reached an expert-level of knowledge within your speciality field. To achieve this you'll need to be aware of emerging technologies in your field along with the current tech and standards. This is because Cisco believes an 'expert' should not only be highly qualified now, they should also be as 'future-proof' as possible.
Like | 376 |
With over 50 years of knowledge between our coaches, Woy Woy Judo Club has the biggest and most experienced coaching staff on the Central Coast region, All of our coaches are CAF accredited and hold a First Aid Certificate, Our coaching staff continue to follow on the traditional Japanese teachings from our founder and chief instructor, Danny Simmons Snr. Each of our coach's strives to<|fim_middle|>
Juniors and Seniors Coach
Kieren is one of our most valued coaches and has been with Woy Woy Judo Club since he began Judo at seven years of age.
In his 15 years in the sport he has achieved an amazing amount during his time. He has represented New South Wales at the National Championships 9 times and has won 2 Junior National Titles and a bronze at Senior Nationals, Kieren has also represented Australia at the Junior Oceania Championships and won a Silver Medal.
Kieren has also trained overseas in both Japan and America as well as the Australian Institute of Sport as part of the Australian team. In 2014 he acquired the rank of Sho Dan (1st Dan).
With a wealth of experience, Kieren possesses certain coaching attributes that contribute greatly to our club and the sport of Judo.
Kieren works closely with all players ensuring precision and correct guidance within all aspects of players learning.
Rhys Johnson
1st Dan Black Belt
Tinys, Kids, Juniors and Seniors Coach
Rhys has been playing the sport of Judo since the age of 16. Inspired by his Father, Barry Johnson a x2 Australian Olympian, Rhys took to Judo with extreme ease.
Rhys has represented New South Wales several times at the National Championships and is also a multiple state and national medallist. He received his Sho Dan (1st Dan) in 2013.
A huge passion for Judo, Rhys is always dedicating time and skills to our up and coming students along with our beginner's program
Liz Grenier
1st Kyu Brown Belt
Tinys, Kids & Junior Coach
Liz began Judo at the young age of 7 years old under the instruction of Danny Simmons Snr at Woy Woy Judo Club in 1983. Liz has an amazing passion for Judo and an outstanding record for competition.
Liz was a multiple State Champion and State Medalist and also won the Lake Macquarie Games on multiple occasions, She was also awarded the Peninsula Community Centre Excellene Award in 1996, 1997 and 1998. In 1998 Liz was invited to join the State team, however she was getting married at the time the team would be away.
After a 13 year break, Liz returned to Woy Woy Judo Club in 2013 along with her family of 3 boys, who themselves are following in their Mum's footsteps as motivated and passionate mini Judokas.
Liz takes tradition very seriously and encourages our players to not only learn an incredible sport, but to take with them the pride and discipline they learn in the Dojo and apply it to their every day lives.
Coralie Johnson
Coralie has been involved in judo since she was able to walk, her passion for judo ran in the family with her father and founder Danny as her coach.
Coralie was a multiple Junior NSW State Champion and National Medalist.
After a few years off the mat, She has come back to keep the family dojo going and now is one of kids coaches and is a vital asset to our kids program.
Cathy Roach
Over 40 Years Judo Experience
Beginners Head Coach
National Medalist
State Medalist
Kevin Moss
Head Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Coach
Marek Mydlo
Assistant Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Coach | give your judo journey a diverse and amazing experience.
Danny Simmons
Founder & Chief Instructor
Beginning with an interest in boxing at the South Sydney Police Boys Club, Waterloo, Danny was introduced to Judo in 1955 at the age of 14 and it is here where he flourished.
With an absolutely stellar career in Judo, Danny represented New South Wales at the National Championships on multiple occasions, he also represented Australia at the Oceania Championships in New Zealand in 1968, winning a silver medal in the longest match in Judo history, and also tried out for the Australian Olympic Team in 1964 & 1968. After the Olympic try outs in 1968, Danny moved to Japan to further study the art of Judo, learning tradtional techniques of Judo and upon returning to Australia, incorporating them into his own career.
After coaching in Sydney for many years, Danny moved to the Central Coast in 1982 and opened his own club. Teaching children, teenagers and adults not only Judo, but life skills of respect, compassion and strength through his incredible ability as a Coach. Danny saw to it that every member & player had the opportunity to show their talents and work to their strengths. Danny has sent countless players to National, International, World Championships & Olympic Games throughout his career.
Danny's accolades for his achievements and dedication to the sport of judo and the community have been rewarded on many levels including:
Australian Sports Medal
Life Membership of Kodokan Judo Institute, Tokyo,Japan
Life Memebership of Judo NSW
Life Membership of the Black Belt Register
Induction into the Australasian Martial Arts Hall Of Fame (AMAHOF)
National Judo Grades & Kata Examiner
Rotary International (Woy Woy Branch) Volunteer of the Year
Danny was not only a coach but an inspiration and friend to all in the judo community and who passed through the halls of Woy Woy Judo Club.
Sadly in October 2014, we lost Danny to a long battle with illness. However, we stand by his legacy and continue a strong club, one that still holds the same ideals that were taught to us by him.
In 2016 in memory of Danny, the Woy Woy Judo Club created the Danny Simmons Memorial Judo Tournament, which is a yearly run competition.
Daniel Simmons
Junior and Senior Coach
Since being allowed to step foot on a judo mat at age five, under the guidance of his father Danny Snr, Daniel's love for judo was instant.
His passion has seen him excel in the sport, having represented New South Wales at 10 National Championships. In 2010 until 2014 Daniel represented Australia at International Level, competing at multiple World Cups, Grand Slams & Grand Prix's in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Canada & our Oceania region, vying for Olympic Games selection.
Throughout his career Daniel has trained extensively overseas in Japan, North America & Europe.
In 2010 Daniel achieved the rank of Sho Dan (1st Dan) with his father present as a member of the National Grades Commission, then in 2014 he obtained the rank of Ni Dan (2nd Dan).
Since the passing of his father and mentor in 2014, Daniel retired from competition and has taken the reins of the Woy Woy Judo Club as Head Coach and has been an Assistant NSW Junior State Coach since 2015.
Daniel enjoys every aspect of Judo both as a player and coach, with over 25 years experience, his passion, and knowledge passed on by his father is infectious to all who walk through the Woy Woy Judo Club door.
Kieren Handley
1st Degree Black Belt | 796 |
In Focus: Britten Kuckelman
Talent | In Focus
Published on December 13 2016, 10:19 pm
These are the stories of those pushing toward a better Wichita. You may know some, others you won't. Either way, these people deserve our attention.
These are the stories of those leading the push toward a better Wichita.
You may know some, others you won't. Either way, these people deserve our attention.
HEAR BRITTEN'S STORY:
ABOUT BRITTEN
Britten's interest in libraries started<|fim_middle|> herself how to code. Through those resources, she started relationships with coding and developing groups like DevICT, Open Wichita and Women Who Code.
Britten works on her laptop during a meeting with Open Wichita. She is a co-brigade captain with the organization, which focuses on finding technology solutions for problems throughout the city by using open government data.
Through Open Wichita, Britten became interested in using open government data to solve civic problems, which she was close to because of her job at the library.
"Working in government, working in the library — sometimes these are the jobs that haven't quite had technology applied to them yet," Britten says. "So it's this unique opportunity to take a passion for technology and put it into a place that hasn't been using technology to its fullest."
While Britten's original intent was to learn coding so she could get out of Wichita, groups like Open Wichita and Women Who Code, in which she quickly took up leadership positions, changed her attitude toward her hometown.
"The people that I found ... were really passionate about Wichita, which was something I had never experienced before," she says. "I started to get more involved and the more people I met, and the more places I went, and the more food I tried, and the more beer I drank, it was great. Wichita totally grew on me and it stuck."
Even with this newfound appreciation for her home, Britten had no illusions about the types of careers she felt Wichita could host.
"It really is this little gem, but when it comes to jobs and when it comes to careers, Wichita is kind of this dusty place where we don't have all the opportunities that you might find in another city," she says.
When James Chung presented his research on behalf of the Wichita Community Foundation, Britten felt justified. She had experienced the effects of the problems James was now proving with cold, hard facts.
Britten sits near her former office in the back room of the Wichita Public Library's downtown branch.
She especially felt vindicated when James revealed that young workers are among the least-welcomed groups in Wichita.
"I honestly fist-pumped the air and was pointing at him and looking around to see if everyone was listening because that's exactly what I was feeling," she says.
But along with vindication came dread. The data was pointing to a failing Wichita. Or at least a Wichita in need of great help.
At first, Britten's instinct was to flee. But it quickly turned to "fight."
"I didn't feel like we were too far gone," she says. "I feel like we still had a shot. And if we still had a shot, I wanted to help."
Britten says her coding groups now see Wichita as "the opportunity capital of the world," where anything can happen if people simply step up and commit to change.
Britten says Wichita is built for change. But it needs a push from its people.
"Wichita is just one of those communities where we see something new happening and we know the person who's doing it because it's small enough that we know everyone who's doing everything," she says. "Someone literally just has to do it and, people will come because that's Wichita."
While Britten sees Wichita's trajectory turning because of James' work, she also sees more work to be done.
Britten sits at Verita Coffee Bar & Roastery, one of her favorite west-side hangouts.
Change is being implemented in the new ventures and the way the city supports young entrepreneurs, but Britten says established companies and organizations also need to change.
I started to get more involved and the more people I met, and the more places I went, and the more food I tried, and the more beer I drank, it was great. Wichita totally grew on me and it stuck.
"That is going to take a lot more time and a lot more conscious effort from the leaders in those institutions to make that change for the young people who are coming in as their new workforce," she says.
Britten still works in Wichita and recently accepted a new position at the Wichita Area Technical College, working as the director of academic support and information services.
Even though she now loves Wichita and the work she is doing here, she admits that without quick change, she may need to look elsewhere to continue her career.
"For me, right now, with what I'm doing, Wichita is great," she says. "But in the future, when I'm ready to maybe take the next step up, I might not be able to do it here."
Even if Wichita can't offer what big cities like New York or San Francisco can, Britten says it's important to love where you are and take advantage of every opportunity.
"We really are the opportunity capital of the world," she says. "If we take this chance and change our path, we can do anything we want right now."
See Noreen Carrocci's In Focus Profile | early. At the age of 13, she volunteered every summer at the Wichita Public Library until she moved away to study anthropology and history at the University of Kansas.
"It was the best thing ever," she says. "That love followed me into college, and I worked at the University library there."
It also followed her into her career. When she began looking for jobs, she knew libraries were where she wanted to be. Still, she had to go somewhere she already had a background — somewhere with networks she could use to find a position.
"Wichita is where I had a background," she says.
Britten's relationship with Wichita was complicated at the time. She grew up on the west side, but she was ready to get out. She figured she would start her career in Wichita, develop skills and leave as soon as possible.
One skill she decided to focus on was coding.
My first foray into coding and learning how to code was almost out of necessity. It was one of those new skills you needed for the 21st century. Britten Kuckelman
"My first foray into coding and learning how to code was almost out of necessity," she says. "It was one of those new skills you needed for the 21st century."
Using online resources, Britten taught | 265 |
Atlanta college names building for baseball icon Hank Aaron
Feb.<|fim_middle|> where he spent most of his playing career.
He also has lobbied for efforts to encourage more young African American athletes to choose baseball.
"I would like to see more blacks in baseball, and it's just a matter of them going out and playing," he said.
He said Major League Baseball can contribute by making more resources available.
"They can build more field baseball fields. Number 1, they can have more baseball equipment; 2, they can teach coaches in them and learn how to play the game," he said. | 5, 2020 at 6:24 pm Updated Feb. 6, 2020 at 10:47 am
Former Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron, center, is surrounded by family and friends as Atlanta Technical College celebrates his 86th birthday, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020 in Atlanta. Atlanta Technical College renamed an academic complex for the former Atlanta Braves slugger, christening it the Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron Academic Complex. Aaron, a longtime supporter of the college, donates thousands of dollars to the school every year and his Chasing the Dream Foundation awards scholarships to several students. (AP Photo/Ritu Shukla)
RITU SHUKLA
ATLANTA (AP) — Dozens of students dressed in blue excitedly welcomed Hank Aaron to their Atlanta college campus Wednesday as the school named a building for the baseball icon on his 86th birthday.
Atlanta Technical College renamed a building for the former Atlanta Braves slugger, christening it the Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron Academic Complex. Aaron, a longtime supporter of the college, donates thousands of dollars to the school every year and his Chasing the Dream Foundation awards scholarships to several students.
As the legend arrived, there was cheering all around. Aaron looked calm and smiled as students, teachers and several big names from baseball honored him on his birthday. Even former President Bill Clinton sent a video message.
"I don't feel like I'm 86, but I am 86," Aaron said.
Known as the "Home Run King," Aaron had 755 home runs over a career that spanned from 1954 to 1976 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. Now, he serves many roles with the Braves, | 381 |
Daniel Israel: Musical Theatre in Motion
Posted in MusicWorld on February 11, 2011 by James Wells
The direction of Daniel Israel's career is decidedly more clear than that of the characters in his new musical, who<|fim_middle|> Broadway. In the meantime, Israel is feverously working with another creative team on a musical about obesity and wellness. The piece was commissioned by the George Street Playhouse Touring Theatre and is being produced in conjunction with the New Jersey Department of Health and Human services.
At this pace, it's merely a matter of time before Israel will be dealing with his own bands of devotees.
SOURCEMusicWorld TAGS Musical Theatre New York Feature Daniel Israel Phish
Connect with BMI & Professional Songwriters | bounce from parking lot to parking lot following the eccentric orbit of the brightest star in their universe, the jam band Liquid Brick. The musical, which goes by the working title "The Dirty Hippie Jam Band Project," is the beautiful love child of Israel's collaboration with Pheobe Kreutz, with whom he was happily paired at BMI's prestigious Lehman Engel Musical Theatre workshop. The musical deliberately eschews featuring the music of Liquid Brick, which one character describes as "the sound of Jesus having an orgasm," so that it may focus intently on the dreams and relationships of a select group of the band's devotees.
Keeping the actual band in the background and at a distance from the characters underscores those characters' idealism and their near spiritual veneration of the band. Musically, it enables Israel to let the "music come from the individual more than from a genre rock score." Thus, he composes so as to "distinguish [among] the musical voices of characters." The "uptight" Julie has a "rigid music style," more characteristic of "classic music theater." Pops, who has come to Liquid Brick after following the Dead, Phish, and Dave Matthews ("It was a dark time") is "Bob Seegeresque."
The show depicts the struggles these characters face when they come together. On the surface everything is placid. "They're playing hacky sack; they're smoking weed," Israel says. But beneath, the waters roil. "They've all run away from something," and while one of the production's songs "Testify" proclaims Liquid Brick a panacea, they will need to look deeper to experience real growth, even if means they must, to quote another song, "let go of letting go." They find that depth in the community that has formed in their presence even while their sight was focused elsewhere. As Israel puts it, "Liquid Brick has brought them together, but they stay for the community."
The show is currently undergoing revisions. Israel and the show's other creators hope to have it up in a regional theatre this year, all the while setting their own sights on | 434 |
Your children will be encouraged to learn through their play. We strive to ensure all children are embedded with the knowledge needed to achieve happiness, satisfaction, friendships and self belief.
Our suitably qualified and experienced staff provide a high standard of care to all children whilst taking on-board every child's unique individuality.
Children interests will be encouraged to allow them time to build and reflect on there own natural instinct. Focusing on children's interests allows us to promote the development of language skills, mathematical problems , using their imagination, being creative and enjoying their physical play, to build social relationships and to explore the world around them.
Your child's time at Nursery will be a mixture of both structured time and free play. The nursery day is well planned to ensure that the children gain the most from their day. The children are given support, encouragement ad assistance from the staff to participate and carryout activities. The toys and activities on offer during the sessions are designed to provide a wide range of learning opportunities, that will encourage children to become competent learners ready for the more formal learning once they start school. By observing children in their own initiated play we are able to make notes on their development and plan for further learning opportunities for them. During our continuous provision staff observe children achieving in the prime and specific areas as set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage. All of our activities are planned carefully to reflect the interests and capabilities of the children within our care.
Nursery Routine – During a nursery<|fim_middle|> child have medical conditions or allergies please inform us once your child has been offered a space, so that we are able to plan for their needs. | session children have access to play both inside and outside so we encourage them to come suitably dressed for the days weather. We have spare hats, coats and wellington boots should anyone need to borrow them to access play outside. Sun cream is provided by the nursery in the warmer weather.
Snack bar – We operate a rolling snack bar that children are able to access when they are hungry, providing a wide selections, of fruits, vegetables, cheese and other snacks. Children also have free access to running water throughout the nursery day. Should your | 108 |
Hello again!!! It's Club Scrap Blog Hop time! Woo hoo! If you've been following along the Hop you should have just come from Hetty's blog. The Club Scrap kit for December is called Shades of Winter and is so beautiful! One of my favorite kits for sure!
I decided to make 3 different kinds of Luminary Cards.
You just put a little battery powered tea light behind the vellum "window" to light up the card!
There's a great video here on how to make this card. I glued<|fim_middle|>.
These cards are so easy to make and have great presentation! They fit in a standard envelope too!
Now on to Tricia's blog to see what she's done with this fabulous kit!!!
Love them all, thanks for sharing your art.
What a super cool idea for this kit. I love luminary cards and bags and yours are just lovely. Happy new year.
What fun! Super cute gift ideas - easy to mail too!
I love love love all of your little luminary cards Pam!! Such beautiful work!!
Heavens...these are terrific! I love that you were able to create three completely unique luminary cards with the collection. The theme and designs are perfect!
Wow! These are gorgeous! I really need to try some luminaries.
Oh the luminaries are all so perfect, great with this collection, so cool, each one of them!
What a cool project - so perfect for the holidays!!
Great ideas! Beautiful projects! I truly appreciate the tutorial. Thank you so much for sharing these ideas.
What a great sampling of luminary cards! These would make great gifts. TFS!
awwww love all your cards, they are BEAUTIFUL!!! And they look lovely lit up! How fun!!
All three of these are simply gorgeous. I'm going to make some of these soon!
Those lights are a brilliant idea, Pam.
What a great decoration in the winter time.
May 2017 be a very creative year for you! | the sides together and added the brads that are available with this kit as embellishment.
I colored the raised print paper with a makeup sponge and blue ink. The raised part resists the color and makes a gorgeous design!
I think this style is my favorite! Check out the tutorial for how to make it. I just love those snowflake dazzle stickers!
I stamped on the inside too! I used Club Scrap metallic silver ink on the blue shimmery paper that came with the kit. I've found the little tea lights in many places-Dollar Stores even have them! I've found star shaped, red and green glittered ones and plain white.
There's a great tutorial here on how to make this card. I folded the printed paper so that the design was on the inside to give it depth and more interest. I stamped the sentiment on a piece of vellum- I wanted to have the paper design show - I didn't want to cover it up. I used embossing powder on the sentiment. I stamped the snowflake images onto the vellum for the "window" with blue ink | 226 |
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1935
Hans Spemann - Explore Lecture
Hans Spemann - Nobel Lecture: The Organizer-Effect in Embryonic Development
Hans Spemann - Facts
Hans Spemann - Biographical
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Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1935
The Organizer-Effect in Embryonic Development
The experiments which finally led to the discovery of the phenomena which are now designated as "organizer-effect" were prompted by a question which actually goes back to the beginnings of developmental mechanics, indeed to the beginnings of the history of evolution in general. How does that harmonious interlocking of separate processes come about which makes up the complete process of development? Do they go on side by side independently of each other (by "self-differentiation", Roux), but from the very beginning so in equilibrium that they form the highly complicated end product of the complete organism, or is their influence on each other one of mutual stimulation, advancement or limitation?
These questions, various answers to which constitute the theories of preformation or epigenesis, were lifted out of the realm of speculation up into that of an exact science when first Wilhelm Roux and then Hans Driesch used experimental methods in their research into development. The first experiments consisted in separating the individual parts of the embryo from each other and culturing them in isolation. This would show what each part was capable of by itself, while at the same time showing how far the developmental processes depending on them were dependent on or independent of each other.
In this way Roux was able after taking a frog's egg, pricking and destroying one of its two blastomeres, to obtain half an embryo from the other. Driesch, on the other hand, took a sea-urchin's egg, separated one segmental cell from the other and obtained a smaller but complete embryo. Further experiments showed that the differing results depended not on the material but on the method. The completely isolated segmental cell which has been reduced by half can grow into a whole in the case not only of the sea-urchin's egg, but also of amphibian's egg. This growth is inhibited if the dead cell is left attached; when this happens, the cell grows in accordance with its original determination, forming, first at least, half an embryo.
Even in those early days of research into developmental mechanics a second method of enquiry into this same question was discovered – that of "embryonic transplantation". Gustav Born observed that portions of young larval amphibians united if their freshly cut edges happened to come into contact with each other. He followed up this phenomenon and found that the individual portions were capable of self-differentiation to an astonishing degree.
It was from these premises that I began my experiments. They were all carried out on young amphibian embryos, mostly those of the common striped newt (Triton taeniatus). To make these experiments intelligible to the non-specialist it will be necessary in the first place to describe the main features in the normal development of these eggs.
Development begins immediately after fertilization, with a fairly protracted period of cell division which is called segmentation on account of the furrowing which appears on the surface. By the formation of an inner cavity or blastocoele, the blastocyst or blastula comes into being. Its lower, vegetative half (the thick floor of the blastocyst) consists of large cells rich in yolk, while the upper, animal half (the thin roof) is made up of numerous small cells poorer in yolk. Between the two is the marginal zone – a ring of medium-sized cells.
Next begins a very complicated and in many ways puzzling process: the so-called gastrulation. The end result of it is that all the material of the marginal zone and of the vegetative half of the blastula becomes invaginated and is thus covered over by animal material. Then along the line of invagination, i.e. the primitive orifice or blastopore, runs the outer layer of cells or ectoderm into the two invaginated layers, the mesoderm (originating from the marginal zone), and entoderm (corresponding to the vegetative half of the blastula, rich in yolk).
With this the primordia of the most important organs, the skin and central nervous system, vertebral column and musculature, gut and body cavity have in the main achieved their final dispositions. Their visible differentiation occupies the next phase of development.
The primordium of the central nervous system originates in the ectoderm of the dorsal surface, starting from the blastopore and coming forward as a thickened plate shaped like a shield with its anterior half broader than its posterior. This is the neural plate, and its lateral margins rise up as the neural folds. The neural folds are brought closer to each other and fused together so that the neural plate becomes a tube – the neural tube. This becomes separated from the epidermis<|fim_middle|> parts of the embryo which develop inwards during gastrulation. We can, for example, establish whether the exchange is feasible not only as between one and the same layer of cells but also as between two different layers.
By and large this is in fact the case. So O. Mangold was able to show that mesodermal organs such as notochord, somites and pronephric ducts could arise from presumptive ectoderm by suitable transplantation at the beginning of gastrulation.
Now, when random samples were taken from the whole surface of the gastrula and transplanted in this way in an indifferent place it became apparent that a limited area, namely the region of the upper and lateral blastopore lip did not conform. A portion of this kind, transplanted in an indifferent place in another embryo of the same age did not develop according to its new environment but rather persisted in the course previously entered upon and constrained its environment to follow it. It invaginates altogether as if it were still in its old place, builds up part of the axial organs and completes itself out of the mesodermal environment. Above all, it induces in the overlying ectoderm a neural plate which closes to a tube, in favourable cases bulges out into optical vesicles and adds lenses and auditory vesicles.
First carried out at my instigation by Hilde Mangold, this experiment shows, therefore, that there is an area in the embryo whose parts, when transplanted into an indifferent part of another embryo, there organize the primordia for a secondary embryo. These parts were therefore given the name of "organizers" and the region of the embryos in which they are gathered together at the beginning of gastrulation was called the "centre of organization". H. Bautzmann has defined the limits of this area by systematic probing outwards and has found that it coincides more or less with the area of the presumptive notochord-mesoderm which invaginates later.
From these two facts – the development of an indifferent piece in conformity with its location and the inductive effect of an organizer – several series of experiments proceeded, connected with obvious questions. We will just touch on a few of them.
Since at first the organizer becomes invaginated, that is, completes the gastrulation it has begun, so that material in the neighbourhood can be included in the process, one might suppose that it is this process itself which causes further determination of the parts it has affected. But this is, to say the least, extremely unlikely, because the induction of neural plate takes place even though it has not itself been invaginated. This can be proved by a method which is highly significant for the whole progress of research. That is to say, those parts of the embryo which are being examined for their inductive capacity can be made to bypass the activte invagination and can be made effective by inserting them in the blastocoele through a small slit in the roof of the blastula or young gastrula which quickly heals over. The gastrulation does not suffer any essential disturbance from this and while it goes on, the blastocoele disappears and the piece we are examining comes to lie directly under the ectoderm and there shows what it is capable of. Thus a portion of the upper marginal zone of the blastula or early gastrula, or else a piece of the roof of the archenteron of the mature gastrula was planted in the blastocoele of a young gastrula and so brought beneath the ectoderm from the beginning; it was demonstrated that these portions were able to induce neural plate.
Now, these methods made it also possible to examine for their inductive capacity pieces which could not be embodied in the host embryo by any other means, either because they differed too much in age and origin or else because they were no longer living, or even not of living origin. We will have a look at these experiments next.
It had already been demonstrated in my early experiments that host and donor did not need to be exactly the same age in order to be able to work together. It was O. Mangold in particular who followed up this question and made the important discovery that the inductive reaction capacity is strictly limited in time while the inductive action capacity remains for a long time, far beyond the stage necessary for normal development.
This is true not only, as H. Bautzmann showed, for the notochord which normally induces in the earlier stages, but strangely enough also for a portion of embryo in which there would otherwise be no question if this kind of induction, viz. the neural plate. Both O. Mangold and I found simultaneously but independently, and starting from different lines of enquiry, that it can induce after transplantation. To this, O. Mangold added the important statement that the inductive capacity of this tissue persists into late stages, until there is a functioning brain in the hatched out larva.
Associated with this is the question whether and how far the inductive influence is specific in nature. Also, and this is connected with the other question, what role the action and reaction system plays in bringing about the highly complicated product of development. I had already expressed the opinion earlier that the inductive stimulus does not prescribe the specific character but releases that already inherent in the reaction system. The inductive potential already adduced of parts which have far exceeded the stage of observed normal effectiveness also points in the same direction. Still more is this true of the more recent experiments by Holtfreter which prove the extensive diffusion of factors which are able to induce a neural plate in the ectoderm of the young gastrula. So pretty well the whole animal kingdom from tapeworms to human beings was examined by the implantation method and shown to be capable of induction.
However, this does not only make obvious the largely unspecific character of the inducting agent; it also seems probable that it is chemical in nature. It was always thought to be so from the beginning. To make quite sure, experiments had to be made in which the inductor had been destroyed in various ways – by desiccation, freezing, or boiling. We got no clearly positive result from these first experiments; not until later similar ones by Holtfreter. It became apparent that this kind of treatment did not destroy the capacity of the inductors and, further, quite paradoxically, that this can in fact call forth such capacity in non-inductors.
The first experiment with a chemically treated inductor was carried out by Else Wehmeier and proved that an inductor immersed in 96% alcohol for 3f minutes did not lose its capacity.
After this, the chemical analysis was tackled in various quarters: in Germany by F. G. Fischer and E. Wehmeier, later with H. Lehmann, L. Jühling, and K. Hultzsch; in England by J. Needham, D. M. Needham, and C. H. Waddington. From the large number of separate results which still seem to be coming in I should like to draw attention to one only which is of the utmost importance in this connection. Chemically simple substances as, for example, synthetic oleic acid can nevertheless induce a complicated and in a certain sense complete structure such as a neural plate which will close over into a neural tube. Again, that would therefore indicate, as do some of the results from abnormal inductors, that most of the complication is based in the structure of the reaction system, and that the inductor has only a triggering and in some circumstances directing effect. Whether and, if so, how far and in what way such "unorganized inductors" (for it would be a contradiction in terms to speak here of "organizers") determine the direction is at the moment one of the most interesting but also most difficult questions.
But this broaches a new complex of questions which goes right back to the first induction experiments. It had already turned out in Hilde Mangold's experiments that the induced embryonic primordia were in the main arranged in the same direction as the primary ones and on a level with them. This seemed to emerge either from a general structural plan of the embryo or else from an influence of the primary embryonic primordia.
To investigate the former phenomenon, the similarity of direction of the constituents of the two embryos, two different experiments were set up. Upper blastopore lip still engaged in invagination was implanted in a different orientation in relation to the host embryo – crosswise and opposite to the orientation of the later primary primordia. With crosswise implantation it was shown that the invaginating cells of the graft were carried along by the gastrulating movements of the host and that thus the substratum was laid down along the long axis of the embryo. With opposite implantation the cells of the graft migrating against the stream get jammed but are not deflected. A controlling structure of the embryo, therefore, only works in so far as it determines the direction of the gastrulation movements both of the host embryo and the graft. It becomes even more obvious when a piece of the roof of the archenteron is planted in the blastocoele. The graft does not lie fixed in the cell formation of the host embryo so it can rather keep its original position and the induced secondary embryo primordia can be either crosswise or entirely opposite to those of the primary.
Of even greater interest, perhaps, is the result of the experiments which were to explain how the secondary primordia of the embryo were on the same level. For example, it can be seen that the auditory vesicles of both lie in nearly the same cross section of the embryo. In order to find out the cause of this regional determination or at least to establish its position the implantation was varied in two ways. To understand this we must remember one simple fact about development. In the course of gastrulation the invaginating material is rolled inwards around the upper lip of the blastopore. Thus, the material first invaginated lies farthest towards the front underneath the subsequent brain, while material invaginating later underlies the future spinal cord. Now it could be that the substratum of the head also determines the brain character of the anterior end of the neural plate ("head-organizer") and the substratum of the trunk area determines the character of the spinal cord ("trunk-organizer"). In order to test this, a portion of upper blastopore lip at the beginning of gastrulation (head-organizer) and one from an advanced and mature gastrula (trunk-organizer) were transplanted in the same place in an early gastrula, i.e. at the site where the lower blastopore lip would later develop; this was done also at different sites – in the head and trunk areas. It was shown that in fact something like a head- and trunk-organizer does exist, since the former is able to induce a brain also in the trunk region. It was shown moreover that the level in the embryo at which the induction takes place co-determines its nature, since at the head level even a trunk-organizer can induce a brain.
We have already indicated above that this last could have two different reasons. It could be that the disposition for building the head surrounds the whole embryo at head level in a broad circular band. But it could equally well be that a regional differentiating influence is exerted by the primary embryo primordia which co-determines the shape of the secondary embryo. In the region of the primary brain, respectively its primordia, there would be a "brain area" in which neural substance which had been stimulated by induction would develop into brain.
On the basis of definite facts established by experiment, Holtfreter has decided against the first and in favour of the second possibility. Moreover he has in addition discovered some more extremely interesting examples of these "embryonic areas". As we have seen, inducing tissues retain their induction capacity for a long time, and far beyond the stage of development required in the normal course. That being so, in a normal-embryo neural substance would have to be induced afresh in the epidermis which lies over the neural tube or the somites, unless that tissue had already exceeded its ephemeral period of reaction capacity. We could therefore infer, what Holtfreter discovered in a different enquiry, that a young portion still capable of reaction would in fact behave differently in this site. And it really is true that in particles of ectoderm from early gastrula implanted superficially at different levels in older gastrula a great variety of inherent potencies is activated. It depends on the region, so that in an anterior area, brain with optic and aural vesicles is induced, while further back, notochord and pronephric ducts are induced, and further back still, little tails. That shows that even the older embryo is still riddled with "embryonic areas" which do not normally come to light but can be detected at any time by indicators rich in potencies.
These inductions between parts of different ages do not complete the embryo by replacing what has been taken away; they are not "complementary" (O. Mangold) as in the case of a graft of the same age from an exactly similar site. Rather do the induced parts develop according to site only in a general sense, through "autonomic" induction; they are produced in excess and have a certain independence (O. Mangold).
A still further series of questions and experiments arose out of the first induction experiments and we will just touch on these in conclusion. As said earlier the induction effect is also possible with heteroplastic transplantation, i.e. between embryos of different species. For example; presumptive brain of a Triton taeniatus embryo can be made into epidermis in the gill area of a Triton cristatus. But the outer gills covered by it will have taeniatus properties; that is to say, they will be similar not to those of the species which has caused their development (instead of that of brain) but will resemble that of the species from which the implant originates. Potencies are not transferred to the "gill area" of the host; it is merely that those potencies relevant to its location are awakened. And in heteroplastic transplantation these diverge somewhat from those of the host. If an exchange between samples of different genus or even between systematic groups remote from each other (xeno-plastic) were possible and followed by induction effects, very valuable conclusions could be expected.
In this respect there is another question that must be dealt with which cropped up during those first experiments: whether in fact the induced organ is laid down part for part or as a whole. From the example of the outer gills we were not able to answer the question, but we could do so from two other organs – the lens and the balancers.
In the Triton, as with most amphibia, the lens of the eye arises as a sequel to the optic cup and its size depends strictly on it. Thus, if the optic cup diminishes in size so does the lens. So it follows that the smaller eye of the Triton taeniatus has a smaller lens than the larger eye of Triton cristatus at the same stage of development. E. Rotmann now interchanged presumptive lens epidermis with presumptive ventral epidermis in each of the two species at the beginning of gastrulation. The lenses which are formed at a certainmoment thereafter follow the size and degree of development of the donor. This can be seen very clearly in the constricted lens primordia with early fibre development; but even quite early stages show lens growth in the epidermis which in one case is too large for the optic cup and in the other case too small. The lens potencies therefore react in the field that activates them not only qualitatively but also quantitatively in accordance with the heredity of the species to which they belong. The lens potencies are not stimulated by the optic cup to the extent within which, with its drawn-in retina layer, it comes into contact with the epidermis. Rather is the lens more or less put in hand as a whole with the epidermis.
The balancers behave in the same way in a further completely analogous experiment of Rotmann's. In its structure and in its angle to the head it is similar to the species from which the transplanted ectoderm is derived and not to the other from which the induction has proceeded.
Added to this problem of uniformity according to species there is another in those cases of xenoplastic transplantation in which organs of different morphological significance are situated in the same region. This is so, for instance, when the ectoderm of the presumptive mouth region is exchanged between the embryos of Urodela and Anura. In the newt larva, lateral to the head and beneath the eyes are two balancers, while the tadpole has beneath the mouth near the ventral mid-line two lower suction cups. Moreover, the newt has real teeth in its mouth which both in origin and structure are comparable to our own teeth. The tadpole's mouth, on the other hand, is furnished with horny jaws and little horny processes. These are quite different in origin and structure from real teeth and indeed have nothing to do with them morphologically. It has been an old dream of mine to substitute for the presumptive mouth region of a newt the foreign ectoderm which comes from a frog early in gastrulation, since I wanted to find out what kind of "armoury" the mouth would form then. This experiment has now been successfully carried out several times since then, and also the other way round. It was first performed at my instigation and in my Institute by O. Schottt, later by Holtfreter, O. Mangold, and E. Rotmann with results we expected but hardly dared hope for. In the mouth region of a Triton larva there arose from transplanted Anura ectoderm of the early gastrula, suction cups and horny jaws; in a tadpole, balancers arose from Urodela ectoderm. When the foreign implant was so narrow that it left the place of origin of the characteristic organs wholly or partly free, these could then themselves develop alongside.
After these results we can say with all certainty of the inducing stimulus that as regards what arises, it must be of a very special nature; but as to how it arises, it must be of a very general character. We have, however, no idea at all how the "mouth area" releases potencies of the "mouth structures", even when they are of an entirely different species.
From Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965
MLA style: Hans Spemann – Nobel Lecture. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Thu. 20 Jan 2022. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1935/spemann/lecture/> | and sinks below the surface. Its front end, which is thicker and originated in the broader anterior part of the neural plate will become brain; its thinner posterior part will become spinal cord. The neural plate lies over mesoderm. When the plate forms the neural tube, separates off and sinks below the surface, the mesoderm divides into five longitudinal strips lying side by side. The median strip is destined to be the axial skeleton or notochord. To the right and left of it is a row of mesodermal blocks or somites. These in turn are flanked on either side by the lateral plates from which arises the primordium of the coelum.
Finally, the entoderm first forms a broad open gutter, which is shaped like a trough. Its margins then bend inward towards the middle, and, along the mid-line – that is, just beneath the notochord – it completes the intestinal tube.
All these processes which, given a favourable temperature, go forward surprisingly quickly depend essentially not on the production of new material from the embryo substance but on the rearrangement of what is already there. It is therefore possible, and W. Vogt did this to perfection by means of staining, to show in the blastula or early gastrula, as it were, a topography of the rudiments of the presumptive organs.
In the face of this sort of topographical map we are again confronted with the question whether there is a real diversity in these parts which corresponds to the pattern of the presumptive rudiments in the early gastrula; whether they are more or less predestined, i.e. "determined", for their subsequent fate or whether they are still indifferent and do not have their ultimate determination impressed on them until later.
The first answer to this question was given by experiments in isolation. Thus, if the bisection is not made as early as between the two cells after the first segmentation but later, even at the blastula stage, or at that of the very young gastrula, you can still get twins. So up to this stage the cell material must still be to a large degree indifferent and capable of being used for various purposes in constructing the body. This becomes especially clear when the bisection is made in such a way that it separates the ventral half of the embryo from the dorsal half. Even then the latter half can develop into a miniature embryo of normal proportions. Here the new allocation of the material becomes perfectly clear. According to the evidence of our topographical map, the dorsal half contains almost all the material for the neural plate, i.e. much too much for a half-sized embryo; on the other hand, it lacks all of the presumptive epidermis. This latter must therefore be made good by material from the former.
Now if presumptive neural plate and presumptive epidermis are interchangeable, they must therefore also be interchangeable without prejudicing further normal development. Embryonic transplantation at this early stage must therefore produce different consequences than it would if performed in the later stages in which Gustav Born experimented.
It was on these thoughts and on the development of a way to facilitate the manipulation of these uncommonly fragile young embryos and operation upon them that the success of the new experiments rested.
The first experiment consisted in exchanging a portion of presumptive epidermis and neural plate between two embryos of the same age, each being at the beginning of gastrulation. The grafts took so smoothly and development proceeded so normally that their margins left no trace except that the grafted tissue itself was distinguishable for a while by means of its natural pigmentation, or by artificial vital staining. From this it was obvious hat, as we had expected, the portions were interchansable – that is to say, presumptive epidermis could become neural plate and presumptive neural plate could become epidermis.
From this we can infer not only the very indifferent nature of the cells at this early stage of development; the result allows the much more important conclusion that the transplanted portion must in its new environment be subjected to some kind of influence which determines its subsequent development.
It is here that the analytical superiority of this experiment is shown over the previous ones, whereby use was made of the regulation power of the embryo. For it was now possible to examine all the parts of the embryo separately for their active and reactive induction capacity, and also to vary the age and species of the implant with great latitude.
At the same time this opens important fresh possibilities: first of all in the matter of procedures. The interchangeability may be undertaken not only between embryos of the same species but also between those of different species, e.g. between embryos of Triton taeniatus which have a fair amount of pigmentation and those of Triton cristatus which have little or none. This allows us to distinguish the implant more or less clearly for a very long time even in sections and often to define its limits in terms of its cells. Let me describe a case of this kind in more detail.
A portion of presumptive neural plate was removed from an embryo Triton taeniatus at the beginning of gastrulation and exchanged with a portion of presumptive epidermis from a Triton cristatus embryo of the same age. The embryo in which the host was taeniatus later showed anteriorly and to the left in the neutral plate a smoothly grafted oblong area of white cristatus tissue which developed further into parts of the brain and eye. The other embryo with cristatus as the host showed on the right-hand side in the epidermis of the gill area a long streak of dark taeniatus tissue which developed further as epidermis and formed the covering of the outer gills. Since the portions have been exchanged, and since one portion is now settled where the other came from, we can see at once from sections that brain substance has come from presumptive epidermis, and epidermis has come from presumptive brain substance.
Because the implant in this "heteroplastic" transplantation remains distinguishable for a fairly long time it is possible to test the interchangeability of those | 1,239 |
Connemara - Miles upon miles and then more miles of some of the most breathtaking and stunning that Earth has to offer. From gentle strolls to coastal walks to<|fim_middle|> assist you. | hill climbs with views over the glens, out onto the wild Atlantic ocean and across the bog lands and lakes, Connemara is a haven for walkers and hikers from the debutants to the highly experienced. So what have we here in THE MAOL REIDH to offer. AS each group have different requirements we are more than happy to converse and assist you in putting together your trip. Here in base camp you can be assured of a warm welcome, warm comfortable rooms and quality food with emphasis on local seafood's and lamb. A good breakfast to start the day is a surety. Furthermore, we will be happy to assist in planning routes, advising on transport arrangements and putting together packed lunches. For a good ramble, take no gambles and call us to | 156 |
SHS boy's basketball team defeats Henry Ford II during Midnight Madness
Jessica Weihs, copy editor|December 9, 2017
Shooting toward the basket and a new season, the Stevenson High School boys basketball team hosted and won the 5th Annual Midnight Madness scrimmage versing Henry Ford II Nov. 18.
"The Midnight Madness scrimmage is the way we start every season," said Mark Lacombe, varsity coach. "Throughout the night, the team goes through player introductions, dunk contests, 3-point contests and a varsity scrimmage. We won the scrimmage, but the score does not really matter since it was just a scrimmage and not a real season game. This scrimmage helps us get excited for our season games though."
Midnight Madness opens the love fest between the team and fans.
"The Midnight Madness game is different from regular games," Niko Ramsey '18 said. "As high school athletes, we do not really get to interact with the fans at our games, but at this game, it is different. We take the time to talk with fans and we can enjoy them being there and cheering us on. I think the only thing we have to work on now as a team is our offense. There is no specific team we would like to beat, but just try to win all of our games. I think we will do very well based on how this scrimmage went and I think we will have a lot of<|fim_middle|> basketball."
The event brings peers together.
"The Midnight Madness event was pretty crazy, but very cool this year," Grace Ferland '18 said. "There were so many more events than just a game. During the night, there was a dunk contest, shooting competition, player introductions and then the scrimmage. I think this is a great school event that helps launch the basketball season. I cannot wait to go next year and see what other events they will come up with."
The first game of the season is away at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor Dec. 9. at 8 p.m.
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Hoping not to sink in the standings, the boys swim team continues to make strides in the MAC Blue Division. The boys meet Jan. 19 showcased five te...
Remembering the Titans
Too Much Responsibility, Too Little Appreciation
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Green light on Driver's Ed | success.
Midnight Madness creates an open forum and dialogue.
"Midnight Madness was really fun this year," Alyssa Rhein '20 said. "The team got to interact with the crowd, which is something they normally do not do. I had a lot of fun with my friends this year and it was a great way for the boys team to start off their season. Plus, the team won and it is always better to be at game where the team wins."
The Midnight Madness scrimmage allowed the team to see some of the things they need to work on before the season starts.
"I think that we did a good job with our defense during the game," Nathan Nemens '19 said. "We won by 17 points, so I think that shows that our defense is pretty good to start off. On the other hand, we do have to work on conditioning. When I first got on the court, I felt good, but then I got slower as the game went on. I am more in shape for soccer right now, but I need to be in shape for | 220 |
Deborah Robertson, Author . MacAdam/Cage $23 (300p) ISBN 978-1-59692-275-4 ISBN 978-1-59692-276-1
In the bleak first novel from Australian Robertson (following the 1998 story collection P<|fim_middle|> down (along with several other children) by a madman's car, Lily tries to peddle Pearl's grief to the media. She then gets involved with Adam, an artist who has created a scandal by making and showing a body cast of a dead teenage heroin addict. With Adam up for the design of the memorial to honor the children slain with her son, Lily morbidly attempts to secure his affection. A sideline follows Sonia, a recent widow of a famous woodcarver and furniture maker, from whom Adam rents studio space. Pearl, meanwhile, to deal with her grief and keep chaos at bay, draws Frank Lloyd Wright's house Fallingwater over and over again. Marked by lyrical prose, credible characters and some artful links between the several story lines, the novel stays too close to numb Pearl and calculating Lily and comes off as emotionally flat and chilly. (Feb.)
Hardcover - 300 pages - 978-1-59692-275-4 | roudflesh ), Pearl, at eight, already exerts a self-punishing precision on a world she cannot control. When her younger brother, Riley, whom Pearl's aloof single mother, Lily, charged Pearl with caring for, is mowed | 51 |
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: US states have introduced bills requiring sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) to display health warning labels. This study examined how such labels may influence parents and which labels are most impactful.
METHODS: In this study, 2381 demographically and<|fim_middle|>, 1 concern is that warning labels on SSBs would be ineffective at reducing overconsumption of calories and sugar because people would simply compensate by buying other high sugar foods that are unlabeled.
These results suggest that SSB warning labels are likely to reduce parents' perceptions of SSBs' healthfulness, increase perceptions of the health risks posed by SSBs, and decrease parents' likelihood of buying SSBs for their children.
This work was commissioned by the Healthy Eating Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
FUNDING: Supported by RWJF Healthy Eating Research. | educationally diverse parents participated in an online survey. Parents were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 conditions: (1) no warning label (control); (2) calorie label; or (3–6) 1 of 4 text versions of a warning label (eg, Safety Warning: Drinking beverages with added sugar[s] contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay). Parents chose a beverage for their child in a vending machine choice task, rated perceptions of different beverages, and indicated interest in receiving beverage coupons.
RESULTS: Regression analyses controlling for frequency of beverage purchases were used to compare the no warning label group, calorie label group, and all warning label groups combined. Significantly fewer parents chose an SSB for their child in the warning label condition (40%) versus the no label (60%) and calorie label conditions (53%). Parents in the warning label condition also chose significantly fewer SSB coupons, believed that SSBs were less healthy for their child, and were less likely to intend to purchase SSBs. All P values <.05 after correcting for multiple comparisons. There were no consistent differences among different versions of the warning labels.
CONCLUSIONS: Health warning labels on SSBs improved parents' understanding of health harms associated with overconsumption of such beverages and may reduce parents' purchase of SSBs for their children.
Research finds that large tobacco text warnings are associated with increased risk perceptions of the health harms of using tobacco products. Although this suggests sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) warning labels will help educate consumers, few studies have investigated SSB warning labels.
In an online study of 2381 demographically and educationally diverse parents, SSB health warning labels improved parents understanding of health harms associated with overconsumption of SSBs. The warning labels also lowered parents' intentions to purchase SSBs for their children.
From a public health perspective, the first goal of a warning label is to educate consumers about the potential health harms of a product. In the case of SSBs, such education may be particularly needed for certain beverages. For example, 1 study of 982 parents revealed that many believed some SSBs, including flavored waters and fruit and sports drinks, were healthy options for children.10 The second goal of a warning is to reduce consumption by making salient the long-term consequences of drinking SSBs at moments of purchase and consumption.
Do warning labels educate parents' about the health harms associated with SSB intake above and beyond current beverage industry standards of placing calorie information on beverages?
Do warning labels influence parents' intentions to buy SSBs for their children and is this effect moderated by education level?
Do warning labels influence parents' perceptions and intentions toward nonlabeled beverages?
Do the effects of warning labels differ across different label phrasings?
What are parents' beliefs about proposals to put warning labels on SSBs?
Overall, we hypothesized that a warning label would be more likely to increase perceptions of the health harms of SSBs and reduce purchase intentions for SSBs relative to calorie labels or no labels. This research has the potential to inform regulatory efforts in states and municipalities considering SSB warning label policies.
We recruited 3136 primary caregivers of a child aged 6 to 11 years old through Survey Sampling International (SSI), a firm that recruits research participants through their online panels and other online communities, social networks, and Web sites by using banner advertisements, SMS and text messaging, and telephone alerts. SSI uses a 3-stage randomization process in matching participants with surveys they are likely to be eligible for and complete. First, randomly selected participants from SSI's panels are combined with people entering the sample who have responded to other SSI recruitment advertisements. An invitation is sent asking them to "take a survey." To reduce selection bias, no specific details of the survey are included in the invitation. After recruitment, potential participants complete proprietary quality control questions before inclusion in a study sample. Participants are then randomly assigned to surveys they are likely to be able to take. There are also quality controls to ensure participants do not take the same survey twice. Based on the target population being recruited, SSI offers a diversity of incentives, including cash, points, prizes, sweepstakes, or being able to donate to charity. For the current study, SSI determined whether a 6- to 11-year-old resided in the household and then randomly selected caregivers in those households to participate. The survey had to be completed on a computer size screen; smart phones or tablets were not permitted. Recruitment efforts were targeted so that the sample reflected the educational make-up of the United States on the basis of 2010 census data. We also oversampled Hispanics and African Americans because they have the highest obesity prevalence in the United States (Table 1).12 Of the 3136 participants who started the survey, 2492 completed it, and 2381 accurately answered the data integrity check question described below; these participants composed the final sample.
After agreeing to participate, child caregivers were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 label conditions. The conditions did not significantly differ on sociodemographic variables. The first condition (No Label Control) was a no health warning label control group in which participants viewed beverages without any label. The second condition (Calorie Label) displayed a "Calories per Bottle" label that appeared on all beverages, not just SSBs, which were identical to the American Beverage Association's "Clear on Calories" labels.13 Conditions 3 to 6 displayed warning labels. The first warning label condition (California Label) included the text proposed in the California bill (Safety Warning: Drinking beverages with added sugar[s] contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay). We then tested 3 modifications of that text designed to make aspects of the warning more salient. A scientific advisory board and legal team reviewed all labels to ensure they accurately reflected current scientific evidence and would be legally viable.
The second warning label condition (Weight Gain Label) modified the California label by changing "obesity" to "weight gain." The rationale was that obesity might seem like a distant problem affecting older adults and may therefore be less salient to parents making decisions for children. Because people tend to focus on the present rather than the future, we hypothesized that the phrase "weight gain" would be more influential than "obesity." For the third warning label condition (Preventable Label), the words "preventable diseases like" were inserted before "obesity." We hypothesized this would be more effective than the California label because it makes salient that these diseases could be prevented. Finally, to respond to concerns that the labels are misleading because the messaging does not apply to type 1 diabetes, we tested a fourth label condition (Type 2 Diabetes Label) that includes the words "type 2" before diabetes. See Fig 1 for label images. We hypothesized that the Type 2 Diabetes Label would not differ from the California Label.
Different label conditions. A, Calorie label; B, California label; C, Weight gain label; D, Preventable label; E, Type 2 diabetes label.
We used the criteria in the proposed California legislation to determine which beverages qualified for a warning label. These criteria were as follows: any sweetened nonalcoholic beverages with added sweeteners that contain 75 or more calories per 12 fluid ounces qualified for a label.8 Beverages containing 100% natural fruit juice or natural vegetable juice with no added caloric sweeteners, liquid products used as "dietary aid," products used for oral nutritional therapy and/or a source of necessary nutrition as a result of a medical condition, oral electrolyte solutions, infant formula, and milk were excluded.
This study was approved by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Institutional Review Board. After providing informed consent, caregivers took a 20-minute survey (median completion time was 23 minutes). At the beginning of the survey, they were asked if they had more than 1 child between the ages of 6 and 11 years old, and if so, to answer the questions on the basis of their youngest child within that age range.
The first task required parents to imagine they were looking at a vending machine while shopping because they wanted to purchase a beverage for their child. They were asked to scroll down on 1 screen to view 20 popular, 20-ounce beverages (12 of which were SSBs) presented in 2 columns and then select 1. Beverages were presented in random order. Participants had to view all the beverages before they could advance to the next question. We included beverages with a wide range of added sugar content. Participants were told to select the beverage brand they wanted even if they typically buy a different flavor. Those in a warning label condition were also told that, "drinks with a lot of added sugar have a safety warning label on them." When a calorie or warning label appeared on a product, it was enlarged and displayed above the beverage image (Fig 2). Because this is among the first studies on SSB warning labels, we tested labels under conditions when they were highly visible and salient. If no effects are detected, there is little reason to think warning labels would work better in the real world.
Sample beverage image with warning label. Color pictures of actual branded beverages were used in the survey.
After completing the vending machine task, participants answered questions about 14 of the twenty, 20-ounce beverages used in the vending machine task (9 of which were SSBs). After pilot testing the survey, we only included a subset of beverages from the vending machine task so the survey did not take too long. Beverages were shown in random order displaying labels on the basis of study condition (see Table 2 for survey questions).
After the perceptions and intentions task, participants scrolled down on 1 screen to view the same 20 beverages in random order that were presented in the vending machine task. They were asked to indicate all beverages they would buy for their child for which they would like to receive a coupon.
After the coupon task, we asked several health-related questions, including a question asking participants to indicate their relationship with their weight. Participants also provided information about health conditions and whether their doctor ever told them their child is overweight or obese or has type 2 diabetes. Finally, participants indicated their age, gender, height, weight, number of children, ethnicity, race, educational level, marital status, household income, political party affiliation, and the US state or territory they reside in.
As a manipulation check, participants were asked whether they saw a warning label on any of the beverages (choosing among: yes, no, and I don't know).
At the end of the survey, participants were presented with either the California warning label if they were in the control, calorie label, or California condition or a picture of the warning label they were assigned to for the other conditions (see Table 2 for survey questions).
The last question asked people to indicate how many days are in a week (options ranged from 1–7). Those answering incorrectly were excluded from the analyses (N = 111).
First, we assessed differences across the 4 warning label conditions by using logistic regression for categorical outcomes and ordinary least squares regression for continuous outcomes. We regressed each dependent variable on label condition, controlling for self-reported frequency of purchasing SSBs and beverages that would not qualify for a warning label over the past month. Controlling for past behavior is important because people's perceptions, beliefs, intentions, and behavior are partially a product of people's past behavior. We ran all pairwise comparisons by varying which condition was the reference group.
We then collapsed across all warning label conditions and repeated these analyses, running all pairwise comparisons to assess differences among the No Label Control condition, The Calorie Label condition and the Warning Label condition. For this analysis, we examined label effects on both SSBs and beverages that would not qualify for a warning label to see if the labels had spillover effects on beverages that did not have a warning label.
Do Different Warning Labels Exert Different Effects?
Our first set of analyses explored whether the 4 warning label conditions exerted different effects on the outcome measures. As shown in Table 3, the differences were minimal. Among the 16 measures analyzed, only estimated calories differed, whereby those who saw the California Label estimated that the SSBs contained fewer calories than those who saw the Preventable Label. However, the California Label group performed better, although not significantly so, on most other measures. These results suggest that the label modifications did not detectably affect our primary outcome measures, and thus are unlikely to be consequential. As a result, the warning label conditions were collapsed for the main analyses, described below.
Do Warning Labels Affect Choices, Perceptions, and Intentions?
As shown in Table 4, putting warning labels on the 9 qualifying SSBs exerted powerful effects relative to both the No Label and Calorie Label conditions. In the vending machine choice task, those in the Warning Label group were significantly less likely than The Calorie Label or No Label groups to choose an SSB for their child. Calorie labels did not have a significant effect compared with the control condition.
Second, warning labels led parents to believe that SSBs were significantly less healthy, less likely to make their child feel energized, less likely to help their child to focus, and more likely to increase their child's risk of weight gain, heart disease, and diabetes relative to both the Calorie Label and control groups. Although calorie labels significantly increased parents' estimates of the calorie content of SSBs, warning labels did so as well, but to a lesser extent. Participants in the warning label condition judged SSBs to have more added sugar, and they indicated they were less likely to purchase them for their child. Willingness to pay did not significantly differ across groups. Finally, participants in The Warning Label condition chose significantly fewer SSB coupons than did those in The Calorie Label and No Label conditions.
Analyses of beverages that did not qualify for a warning label (averaged across the 5 beverages without warning labels) revealed only a few significant effects of warning label on disease risk and calorie estimation, all of which were very small, and possibly caused by anchoring on the values participants had given for SSBs (see Supplemental Table 5). Judgments of healthfulness and purchase intentions were unaffected.
Do the Effects Vary Across Levels of Education?
The Education × Warning Label interaction was barely significant for only 2 of the 16 outcomes, indicating that the warning label increased calorie estimates for SSBs (P = .02) and perceived diabetes risk (P = .05) more for those who were less educated. Education level did not moderate the effect of warning labels on other outcomes, including vending machine beverage choice (P = .93), number of SSB coupons chosen (P = .34), SSB purchase intentions (P = .32), and perceptions of SSB healthfulness (P = .950). The Calorie Label × Education interaction was nonsignificant for all outcomes.
Do People Support Warning Label Policies?
Most participants reported that a warning label would change their beliefs about a beverage's healthfulness (mean = 3.8 ± 1.2 on 5-point scale) and that a label would encourage them to purchase fewer of the beverages for their child (mean = 4.1 ± 1.1 on 5-point scale). Second, 73.3% of participants were in favor of an SSB warning label policy, with only 5.7% opposed (the average support was +1.1 ± 1.0 on a scale from −2 to +2). This did not differ across experimental conditions. Although Republicans (72.9%) and Independents (66.0%) favored the policy less than Democrats (79.2%), the policy had strong majority support among all 3 parties.
The first aim of this study was to test whether warning labels can effectively educate consumers about the health harms associated with SSB intake more so than current industry practices of printing calorie labels on beverages. The study also aimed to evaluate how warning labels influence parents' intentions to buy SSBs, as well as beverages that would not qualify for a label, whether these effects were moderated by education level, and whether the different label phrasings would be more or less effective. Finally, we assessed support for SSB warning labels.
We found that SSB warning labels may be an important way to educate parents about the health harms of SSBs and encourage them to purchase fewer of these beverages. Warning labels reduced parents' perceptions that SSBs are healthy beverages and that SSBs can increase their child's energy or ability to focus. We also found that the labels increased parents' perceptions of the child's risk of weight gain, heart disease, and diabetes from consuming SSBs. As predicted, calorie labels increased parents' ability to estimate the calories in SSBs as did warning labels, but to a lesser extent. However, warning labels led parents to judge SSBs to have more added sugar. Analyses of beverages that did not quality for a warning label suggested that SSB warning labels are unlikely to have spillover effects, either positively or negatively, on judgments of nonlabeled drinks.
Three outcomes measured in this study indicated that warning labels may influence behavior. When asked to make an in-the-moment hypothetical purchasing decision for their child, caregivers who saw SSBs with warning labels were significantly less likely to choose an SSB relative to those who saw calorie or no labels on beverages. When parents' were asked to select beverages for which they would want to receive coupons, those who saw warning labels chose significantly fewer coupons for SSBs than the control and calorie label conditions. Finally, warning labels led parents to report being less likely to purchase SSBs for their child in the future. These results suggest that when noticed, warning labels may encourage parents' to purchase healthier beverages for their children, while current efforts to place calories per bottle information may have little influence. However, research examining SSB purchases among low-income adolescents revealed that brightly colored signs displaying calorie-related information was associated with a decrease in purchases of these beverages over 6 months,16 but we do not know whether such decreases would be more dramatic if the signs had included warning labels.
The influence of warning labels on the vast majority of outcomes did not vary based on education level, suggesting they may be helpful for people across the education spectrum. However, the impact of more traditional nutrition labeling strategies tends to vary based on demographic subgroups. For example, research on posting calorie information on restaurant menus finds that those who are more educated or have higher incomes are more likely to use the information when make purchasing decisions.17,18 Although we are not seeing meaningful differences in this study on the basis of education level, our results might be unique to lower education populations in online samples.
Contrary to our hypotheses, we did not find that modified label phrasings differentially impacted the outcomes of interest. This provides support for keeping the proposed California text in future bills, but future research should continue to explore whether other types of label phrasings can increase the influence of text warnings and whether different phrasings resonate with different populations (eg, parents versus teenagers).
This study has several limitations. First, we studied the influence of warning labels via an online survey, not in the real world. However, given that such SSB labels do not exist in the real world, this is 1 of the first studies to look at the potential effect of such a policy. In addition, tobacco research suggests that labels are most likely to influence consumers if they are visible and salient, whereas more obscure text warning are less likely to have an impact.11 Therefore, we wanted to study warning labels under conditions where they are highly visible and salient to understand how they may impact consumers who see them. This means the study may have overestimated the effect of the warning label, but if we had found no effect, it would suggest that such labels would not be influential in real-world settings. The survey is also limited because of potential desirability bias. Consumers may be inclined to indicate they would not want to purchase an SSB because it is the desirable answer. However, consumers were completing the survey online and anonymously, likely reducing the desire to please the researcher. In addition, if there was a strong social desirability bias, we would expect to also see strong effects from exposure to salient calorie labels, but this did not happen. Although we have a large racially and ethnically diverse sample and we recruited so that our sample reflects the educational make-up of the United States, this does not mean we have a nationally representative sample. Therefore, these results may not generalize to other populations. In addition, we do not know how our study sample differs from those who opted not to take the survey. This study is also limited to parents making purchasing decisions for their children. Future research should assess the influence of warning labels on adults and adolescents. Finally, we tested the warning label guidelines on the basis of the California law so that the study could inform current policy debates. However, other laws might seek to include 100% fruit juices in labeling requirements, making it important to understand how warning labels would affect perceptions of those beverages.
This study has a number of strengths, including a large sample size, a randomized-controlled design with both a no label control group and a calorie label group, and a sample that included a range of education levels, as well as a large proportion of racial and ethnic minority participants. This study is among the first to examine the potential influence of SSB warning labels and provides timely data on the potential for such labels to educate consumers and reduce SSB intake. Although this study provides preliminary support for placing warning labels on SSBs, more research is needed to understand how they would influence a range of consumers and whether they would impact overall dietary choices. For example | 4,537 |
Top 10 Video Game Intros
It's hard to overstate the importance of a good beginning. The first five minutes of any video game must work especially hard to not only grab the attention of the audience, but also establish the game world in the minds of players in a way that makes sense. Sometimes this means introducing a gorgeous fantasy world through an opening cutscene or introducing the characters you'll be spending countless hours with through dialogue. At other times, this could mean simply introducing players to the basic mechanics of the game.
Either way, this generation has given us some especially memorable game beginnings. We<|fim_middle|> it seemed, when combined with the relaxing music and Stephen Fry's soothing narration, it hypnotized us with its promises of a world filled with creativity and magic that we knew we wouldn't want to leave for quite some time.
6. Fallout 3
Why is old-timey music so disturbing when paired with images of ruin and despair? Fallout 3 opened with something of a fake-out, showing us the inside of a bus and playing some low-fi tune from our grandparents' era. ("I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" by the Ink Spots, in case you were wondering.) As the camera slowly zoomed out, we saw images that seemed to point to a World War II setting—army enlistment posters, for example—as we heard some bombs go off somewhere in the background. Continuing the zoom, we saw a destroyed city and a person in power armor, realizing this was the unsettling place we were going to spend the next hundred plus hours of our gaming lives.
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CheatCC Community | have scoured our game collection to bring you the ten beginnings that have left the biggest impressions on us. Without further ado, here are our favorite game openings of this generation.
10. Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain brought an emotional impact that few other games have ever managed to, and the fact that we were in for a dark and gripping ride was apparent within the first minutes of the game. The piano and strings music coupled with the sad faces of people out in the rain really hit us hard. There was something both familiar and intriguing about the various images we were shown. The insertion of credits text as if it were a part of the environment was just icing on this gorgeous piece of emotional cake.
9. Portal 2
Portal 2 accomplished a lot within its first minutes. We saw the decay of the Aperture science facilities over the course of a hundred or so years. We met Wheatley, an A.I. personality who very quickly became one of the most hilarious video game characters of all time. We were shown that the game viewed us as nothing more than rats in a maze. For science. We even went through a brief tutorial that allowed us to play with the game controls a little bit. And all of this happened in under two minutes. However, we didn't realize how hard the game was working, because we were laughing too hard to notice.
8. Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead Redemption's intro was brilliant. It briefly showed us John Marston getting onto a train, but we couldn't shake the feeling that something was "off" here. Once he boarded the train, he just sat there, overhearing the conversations of his fellow passengers. The reason this setup worked so well was that there was a real sense of irony to the things these people said. More subtle, though, was the fact that these conversations made the player feel like an outsider. Modern day audiences most likely feel uncomfortable with talk of racism, religion, class warfare, and politics. And that's why Red Dead Redemption threw all these in our faces within the first minutes of the game. It told us we weren't welcome here, and we were going to have to deal with that. That was when we became John Marston.
7. LittleBigPlanet
LittleBigPlanet surprised us. When we popped that disc into the PS3, we expected to be greeted with something lighthearted and cartoony. Instead, we got a live-action video of people sleeping. As strange as | 502 |
Indietracks - an indiepop festival: Last minute reminders!
1. Tickets: weekend tickets and day tickets (Saturday or Sunday) will be available on the gates<|fim_middle|>!
10. Enjoy yourselves and have fun! Choo choo! | . They'll also be on sale online until at least Friday lunchtime from the Indietracks ticket page.
2. Line-up changes: We're sad to say that Love Is All and Burning Hearts have had to withdraw from the festival for personal reasons. However, we're delighted that Tender Trap and The Parallelograms have stepped in to take their respective places on the bill.
3. Schedule: the timeslots for the bands, DJs and workshops will be printed in the festival programme and are also listed on the Indietracks schedule page. For iPhone users, there's also now an exciting, free-to-download Indietracks iPhone App with a full guide to the festival.
4. Weather: the BBC five day forecast currently says 'sunny intervals' on Friday and Sunday and 'white cloud' on Saturday. So we guess it could rain or shine - please come prepared for sunshine on a rainy day or vice versa.
5. Getting to the site: You've hopefully sussed out how to get there by now, but just in case, there's some advice on bus, rail, taxi and car-sharing options on our travel page.
6. Mixtape swap: don't forget to bring your mix CDs for the Pic'n'mixx mixtape swap.
7. Cash: There isn't a cash machine on site, so please stock up on money beforehand. There will be real ale, fine foods and the Indietracks 2010 compilation CD all available and we wouldn't want you to miss out!
8. Sunday quiz: If you'd like to take part in the 'Never Mind The Pooh Sticks' quiz at 1pm on Sunday in the workshop tent, start swotting up now, get a team together and remember to sign up in the merchandise tent before it starts.
9. Follow the festival on Twitter: we'll be tweeting during the festival @indietracksfest, so please come and follow us! If you're also tweeting from the festival, put '#indietracks' at the end of your tweet so everyone can see what you're chatting about | 432 |
Slack is a cloud-based collaboration tool that gathers all of your team communication in one place. If you're looking for creative ways to reach out to passive candidates, consider Slack for recruiting.
Slack facilitates collaboration by creating open communication channels. It's easy to navigate and very user-friendly.
Slack communities are groups of Slack users who gather around a general field of interest. Each community consists of multiple channels, made for specific topics.
Channels support open conversations between all team members. A community member can freely join any channel they want. Here's an example (on the right) of a Content Research Optimization community, offering relevant advice to marketers.
There's also an option to create private channels, where the content is limited to small member groups. They are best used for sensitive or confidential topics. Members can only join a private channel by invitation.
Direct messages and group messages are useful for quick, private conversations between two or more team members.
Slack offers all the benefits of group chat with real-time response. Sending emails is a safe way to contact an interesting candidate, but, as your response rates might indicate, email is not always the most effective sourcing method. If you're having a conversation in a Slack channel, you can pose a question about, or comment on, something you found interesting and get an<|fim_middle|>e.g. Python programming) use Slack to share related ideas, spread industry news and have conversations. Its advantage is that it's playful and casual, which sets the right tone when you want to meet potential candidates without using formal or impersonal messages.
When you have conversations with people on Slack, you get first-hand experience of what keeps them motivated at work: what industry trends they follow, what upcoming conferences they're attending and where they find inspiration. Following discussions and actively asking questions make a recruiter's job easier. On Slack, recruiters can get a better idea of how to approach potential candidates by mentioning topics they're actually interested in.
What candidates will you find on Slack?
With roughly 3 million daily active users and an increasing number of new channels, it's worth exploring recruitment in the Slack world.
Slack is particularly popular with developers and designers who don't usually check their LinkedIn profiles or respond to cold recruiting emails. They're more likely to hang out in places like Slack.
Here are the most popular Slack communities, categorized by skill set.
When deciding which communities to join, read their descriptions and comments and take a look at how their discussions are flowing.
Some communities are open and viewable to the public, whereas other are private, meaning you have to request access. In most cases, all you need to do is fill out your name, your email and a brief description. Then, you wait for an invite email from the community moderator. Keep in mind that a few communities require a subscription fee.
When you choose an appropriate channel, you can let people know about your job opening. Introduce yourself, mention what you're looking for and provide any necessary information. Slack users could either contact you for more details or share your job ad with other people who might be interested.
Once you've found a potential candidate, it's best to contact them individually. You can send a private (direct) message, but only if you've previously introduced yourself and engaged in a public conversation. Otherwise, some channels could ban you for spamming.
You should discover more about each candidate before reaching out to them. Google them and search via LinkedIn and other social networks. Or, research them with People Search; a Chrome extension that gathers resumes, social profiles and contact details from multiple online sources.
To get the most out of Slack you'll have to invest some time in discussions. This mightn't be your first option when trying to hire an employee on short notice. But, building relationships with qualified professionals will improve your sourcing, long-term.
Slack is a good space to encourage employee referrals. You could simply create a Slack channel within your company, where you announce new job openings and prompt employees to refer candidates. Or, go a little further, like eFounders, and create an entire referral bonus program within Slack. Employees earn virtual currency – called the briqs – when their referred candidate moves to the next hiring level and can buy 'cool stuff' (like a Wii) for the office, or for themselves. All eFounders' referrals, update notifications and briqs rewards happen through Slack.
You can also use Slack to improve your employer brand. Create your own product development community and invite external members to join. You can announce new features, get feedback on your products and services and discuss new ideas. People will gain a sneak peek of how your company works and might actively apply to your next opening. It's best to complement your company's Slack presence with your other social media profiles to strengthen your brand.
Slack's competitive advantage is how it integrates with popular applications and tools. If you're using an ATS, you can get notifications for candidate applications, which could simplify and organize your recruiting.
If you're already using Slack for your internal communication, you know how much it can improve your team collaboration. You may want to consider complementing your onboarding process with a message in Slack to announce a new hire. This can be very helpful for remote teams that don't have the chance to meet every new employee in person. | instant reply. Between busy schedules and video meetings, it's usually easier to answer a quick, informal question than it is to craft a reply email.
Recruiters can use many of Slack's features and integrations to source candidates. All content inside Slack is searchable, including files, conversations and member profiles. Integration with tools like Google Drive makes communication even more efficient. Slack channels are like Facebook chats, Whatsapp groups or Skype calls. People with common professional interests ( | 93 |
Downtown New Orleans, Louisiana
For Industries of the Mind, Downtown New Orleans is<|fim_middle|> it their own. | a collage of distinct communities and opportunities whose absolute cultural authenticity makes it a muse that fires the imagination and energizes you to shape a prosperous future.
Large scale natural disasters are so all encompassing, they can come to define a place. How can a city move beyond the reputation of disaster victim to an identity grounded in prosperity? Consider the case of New Orleans. Ravaged by hurricane Katrina, the city suffered an exodus. But after a lot of hard work, the Downtown is open for business and ready for prosperity. What Katrina destroyed is being replaced with some of the world's best facilities. Despite that, the national conversation about New Orleans is still focused on Mardi Gras and recovery. Seeking to attract Industries of the Mind, the Downtown Development District (DDD) needed to change the collective subject, focusing instead on progress, innovation, opportunity and success.
Most defining cities have been established and there is little an individual can do to impact them. Not so with New Orleans, where the environment is ripe for creative people looking to define this city's rebirth. According to North Star CEO Don McEachern, "The city provides an environment of freedom and collaboration where people can design their own preferred future and lifestyle while contributing to the renaissance and rebirth of one of the world's most authentic cities. The relationship this city has with her creative class is so passionate, mysterious and fiery; she literally is a Modern Muse for Industries of the Mind. New Orleans may not be for everyone, but when the chemistry is right between this city and those she inspires… well, anything is possible."
Creativity focused on the idea of the city being both a muse and a blank canvas, inviting innovators to "raise your own bar." Complementary logos were developed for the DDD and Downtown New Orleans using a fresh, modern color palette that does not rely on stereotypical New Orleans' colors. The DDD logo was designed with an almost three-dimensional effect. The Downtown logo is available in horizontal and vertical orientations and uses a simple, bold, contemporary style designed to make a big impact in large and small spaces. Ads feature New Orleans entrepreneurs positioned in front of larger-than-life canvases that speak their mind about the city. Brand narrative sparks a connection between this city of sharp contrasts and the people who might make | 462 |
Showing results by narrator "Jamie Ecklund"
Addison is like a lot of other girls her age. Her interests include celebrities, fashion<|fim_middle|> bubbly and infectious. Not as infectious, however, as Hepfolk. After the deadly Hepfolk virus turned over 80% of the world into zombies, Addison started learning quickly that life was nothing like it used to be. Surviving after the zombie apocalypse can be hard for anyone, including teenage girls like Addison.
The largest structure ever built was not made by humans, but by incredibly tiny organisms known as coral polyps. Over the course of tens of thousands of years, these small organisms have put together a collection of nearly 3,000 reefs, known as the Great Barrier Reef, which form a collective stretching across 130,000 square miles. Scientists have counted about 1,500 different fish species that use the reef, and it's estimated that 1.5 million birds use the site. | , and blogging. She loves spending time with her friends at the mall. And her personality is both | 20 |
BREAKING: Former Super Eagles coach is dead,
Former Super Eagles coach Godwin is dead
By EgbemaVoice,
Former Green Eagles (now Super Eagles) player and coach, Godwin Etemike is dead.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that Etemike died around 5:30 PM on Friday in Warri, Delta State. He was 85 years old.
As a football trainer, Etemike was one of the unsung heroes of Nigeria's historic Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) victory on home soil in 1980.
Pa Etemike also distinguished himself as a homegrown coach. He was crucial to Bendel Insurance winning the National Challenge Cup (now Aiteo Cup) in an epic 1972 final that ended 3-2 in favour of 'the Benin Arsenals'. His coaching exploits did not end with Bendel Insurance as he was also the architect of other notable clubs including defunct NNPC Warri<|fim_middle|> holistic approach to sports development, | and Sharks of Port Harcourt.
Born on the 5th of July 1935 in Ellu town in present-day Isoko North LGA of Delta State, the late coach was bred in Warri, before moving to Benin City and onwards to Lagos, when football shot him into the limelight.
Pa Etemike is survived by 12 children; six men and six women.
Related Topics:Delta state
Okowa calls for | 93 |
Interview About Sound Effects and Music For Video Games
Published by admin on June 5, 2011 June 5, 2011
Interview with Indiegamepod.com About Sound Effects and Music For Video Games
INTERVIEWER: Can you talk about, can you give game developers an idea of the importance of sound and sound design for the games? I mean, it's something that usually they neglect.
Barry: Yeah. Well, it's hugely important. We did a talk about this on Monday and that when you have really bad voiceover and music and sound, it's really distracting from the game play.
INTERVIEWER: Are a lot of the players just turning off the sound anyways because they're playing a game while they're doing other things?
Barry: It's possible. I don't know. I don't have access to that usability data, I guess, but I think from my perspective one of the most compelling things about the games I have played a lot are that I thought the sound design and music was really excellent. I still remember, I think, the first Unreal Tournament that was released. The guy that did the sound design did a really fabulous job because every sound had a great character to it.
So, when the flag cannon is being pumped, the hair on the back of your neck goes up because oh, I'm about to get destroyed. If I can hear the sound somewhere in the environment, I don't know where it's coming from but I can hear it and it makes you react to the game in a completely different way than if you were just playing a record in the back.
We try and make really engaging sounds. To use the cinematic analogy, the first Star Wars movie was very notorious for having really fabulous sounds, like, everybody knows what a light saber sound is. And that sound really identified a lot of things in that movie to the film goer and it stuck with people for a lot of years.
It's no different in games. When you have really great music and sound, and from a music standpoint, things are getting more and more cinematic in games. So, there isn't any reason why you shouldn't have, like, in a console game you have a front end theme, and then you have that same theme reharmonized down across other levels and mini games of combat areas of the game.
That is<|fim_middle|>. They need the sounds for their interface, so they license it from us. We do a lot of independent film. A lot of broadcasters use our stuff as well, so it's not just built for games.
We start with broadcast level stuff and then conform it for games. We found a lot of interactive agencies doing, maybe, they're building a web banner that's got an animation in it and it needs some sounds. That often acts under the same limitations that game audio does. So, they'll license stuff out of the library because they need a quick little button click or like a reveal sound or they need a short clip of music to play under it.
We're real popular with game developers specifically and interactive developers more broadly.
INTERVIEWER: And where can people find out more information then and actually, just start listening to sounds and see if they're appropriate and start buying them?
Barry: SoundRangers.com. All you need is go to SoundRangers.com, and you can start auditioning and listening to our stuff straight out of the gates.
INTERVIEWER: Thank you very much!
Tags: customgame audioIndiegamepodlibrary musicSFXsound effectsvideo game sounds
Student and school discounts available for all Soundrangers sound effects and production music libraries.
Soundrangers Partners with Fmod
Soundrangers is pleased to announce that we've partnered with Firelight Technologies to bring our library of sound effects downloads to FMOD.io. This onboard sound library integrates high quality video game sounds into mobile and AAA Read more…
SoundSherpa Professional Sound Effects Libraries
Soundrangers recently added tens of thousands of new sound effects downloads from professional sound libraries, under a new sister brand called SoundSherpa. What sets SoundSherpa apart? The SoundSherpa collection has more of a traditional use sound effect Read more… | very similar to the way you would approach film where you have cinematical content and then it gets reused or identified with the character who uses the motif or whatever. The same thing is happening in games. I think that really gives the user something to remember the game by.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Would you say that there's anything as identifiable as the light saber, any game that's created that level of identifiability or no, not yet, like maybe, it's still…?
Barry: Well, there's some stuff out there. I think there's so much variety in games that it's hard to pinpoint any one example, but the example I just gave, for me personally Unreal Tournament, there were some great sounds in there I still remember them to this day. There's certain sound effects that all of us sound designers know about that were used on that game.
If there's a wind loop in the front end, we know exactly what library that came from and which sound it was. It's kind of fun to geek out on that stuff and try and identify where it came from. But, the film stuff because it reaches such a wide audience and there's not, obviously, films, it's more of a linear thing. It is what it is. It's easier to identify that stuff. And using that example, the guy that did the sound design for that film is notorious for going out and doing really creative things to build the sounds for that movie.
We kind of try to do the same thing, but oftentimes with games there's so many sounds and because they're not linear you hear them over and over and over and over and over. There's a lot of replay.
INTERVIEWER: That's a good question. Is that even a really bad thing to actually replay the same sound over and over again? You said in your sound library you have, like, many different variations of the same option. Is that a technique that developers should use to actually make it more interesting?
Barry: Yeah, definitely because, like, these days if you use the same story line over and over and over and over, it gets really repetitive. So, one of the things you have to do from an implementation standpoint is you have to have multiple variations of that sound. So, it sounds like the same sound, but it's been altered timing-wise and pitch-wise and it's just the little slight adjustments that are made across different variations really make it come to life.
So, you can have five sword clangs that all kind of sound the same, but each and every one is slightly different. So, it just sounds more realistic.
So, for instance, when we were talking on Monday, we went out and recorded an African lion a couple months ago. We knew then we were working on a project that we had to have a lot of creature sounds. All the creatures needed three emotes for an attack, three emotes for a pain sound, three emotes for a death sound, for instance.
In order for us to build that, we'd have to have a lot of source that was all ready, all recorded in the same place. So, the continuity's the same amongst all the sounds. So, we had the lion roar for us 20 times, and we'll take those 20 roars and each and every one of them sounds a little different. So, you can take three of those and use those as an attacking monster sound or whatever.
INTERVIEWER: Are there any other best sound design practices that you would recommend for game developers out there?
Barry: Yeah. I think probably if you have the time and the budget building stuff from the ground up is a really great way to go because sometimes, and this is a little bit of irony with our site, it's hard to find stuff in libraries that will work for games. But, you can always get stuff to work for your games if you go out and record it yourself.
I think a really great example of that are racing and flight simulator games where if you have the sound of an old World War II aircraft, it's hard to find, you cannot find in any other libraries a real World War II aircraft engine loop that loops correctly and replicates the different sounds, the RPM levels of an engine. So, you have to actually go out and find that plane, record it, record the pilot spinning it up at different RPM levels. And then, you take all your material and cut it into a format that's good for games.
Sometimes, it just makes the game sound better when you have all your original source, and sometimes you don't have any choice but to go out and record it yourself because of the demands of the material in the game. And, like, racing games are the same way. It's hard to find cars and race cars with engines looping correctly, so you have to go out and find the cars and record them yourself, knowing what's going to happen with the sounds later on in the game.
If you know you're going to have to have five different engine loops of this particular car, you have to go out and record it for the car and know that you're going to have to pull five loops out of it. So, you better make sure that whoever's stepping on the accelerator holds it steady so it's not wavering around because once you go back and loop it, it will be nearly impossible to loop it without hearing the other engines wavering back and forth. It's a lot of work.
INTERVIEWER: I looked at your customer list. You have a lot of customers that are outside of gaming. So, even if people aren't going to use it for their video game, can you talk about other applications of your sound effects, whether they're for websites or flash simulations?
Barry: Yeah. We do tons of stuff, like all the app developers are really into our library right now because everybody needs little sounds and alerts and stuff for their applications. So, we do a lot of licensing for that.
INTERVIEWER: So, you're talking about iPhone apps?
Barry: iPhone apps, a lot of web interfaces, some hardware. We do license out if somebody is making a digital interface for their printer or something and need UI interface. UI is user interface sound or button sound | 1,289 |
Greg_e/FlickrNo one goes to showrooms to look at batt insulation<|fim_middle|> and maybe even a little boring. No one goes to showrooms to look at fiberglass batts or cellulose, but they make a big difference in performance.
Builders and subcontractors are sometimes reluctant to try new materials and techniques; their profit on every job is at stake, and they need to work with partners and materials that are dependable. As a result, change filters through the industry only as fast as early adopters change and the competition forces the rest of the players to do the same.
And the industry still needs more financing products with reasonable rates, qualifying hurdles and application timelines. But we are optimistic that energy efficiency is about to have its best season yet. As costs decline, education improves and incentives promote change, the team will be unstoppable. | , but it's critical to making your home energy-efficient.
Holland & Nick Brown were on a quest for a Net Zero Nest: remodeling a house (on a mainstream budget) into a home that is energy- and water-efficient. See the finished project here.
Now that we are remodeling with energy efficiency in mind, we get asked a lot of questions by friends and neighbors. The most common, besides "how are you living through all that dust?" is "if I want to improve the comfort and efficiency of my home, which should I do first -- replace windows or add insulation to the walls?" The answer in most cases is insulation, but together they really perform.
Whether you are building to net zero or just want to lower your energy bills, windows and insulation are the blocking and tackling of home design -- one is flashy, the other not so much, but together they get%VIRTUAL-pullquote-For our Long Beach house with no existing wall insulation and original wood windows from the '50s, the answer was clear.% the job done. If a house is a football team, windows are a noticeable star like a wide receiver.
Their impact on a house is dramatic, flashy and hard to miss. Insulation might be the left guard (see Michael Lewis' The Blind Side). The left guard doesn't get mention in the sports pages, but he protects the quarterback's back from charging defenders.
Reducing the energy load of the home is step 1 in net-zero design; sizing the solar array is the last step. So it's worth spending time on the X's and O's -- evaluating various options to improve the home's defense against unwanted heat gain or loss. Windows and insulation are definitely the key players here.
Which to do first of course depends a great deal on where you live, what your existing windows and walls are, and other factors like solar orientation, tree shading, etc. But for our Long Beach house with no existing wall insulation and original wood windows from the '50s, the answer was clear.
Going from nothing to R-13 walls will reduce our heating/cooling load by 33 percent.
Installing new low-e dual-pane windows (U/SHGC=0.30/0.29) will reduce our load by 14 percent.
Doing both is almost additive, generating a combined heating/cooling load savings of 46 percent.
That load reduction means that we reduce the number of solar panels we need on our roof. If the solar panels are the quarterback of the house, a solid defense against unwanted heat gain or loss means the panels can be more impactful and high-step into the end zone. With proper blocking and tackling, even%VIRTUAL-pullquote-The stakes are higher than ever for energy efficiency....% a modest solar array has a shot at net-zero. That is real cost savings.
For us, the installation costs were roughly the same on insulation and windows. So performance bang-for-the-buck was best for wall insulation. And our game plan is to vary the type of insulation in each part of the house. Where we are opening walls, we can add traditional fiberglass batts. Where the walls are largely intact, we can drill a few holes and blow in cellulose insulation. Where we have a large attic space, we can super insulate with blow-in cellulose, reaching R-49 performance. Where our attics are narrow, like over the vaulted ceiling, we can use smaller batts and stop at R-19.
Windows come in an almost endless variety of options. In our analysis, springing for even more efficient windows (triple-pane, triple-coated) did not have payback relative to the extra cost. Why? Because our climate is fairly moderate. Move our house to Las Vegas or the Sierras and the high-end windows may have been worth the upgrade. Proper research makes these decisions clear.
So, why don't more remodels add insulation and windows?
3. Strict new energy codes encouraging the use of more energy efficient materials.
But change comes slowly to the building industry, for many reasons. Many homeowners still perceive efficiency features as expensive and optional, | 847 |
How do our genes program the complexity of our brains? Why is human culture so much richer than that of the Great Apes? And how has human cognitive achievement continued to accelerate, when<|fim_middle|> the informational limits in the blueprint of their genes and propelled them into a new phase of evolution. | our genetic makeup has changed very little over the past 100,000 years? The answers might lie in the adaptability and plasticity of the brain.
Development of connections in mammalian brains is specified not so much by precise instructions as by general rules, including adaptive mechanisms to fine-tune the connections between different levels in each pathway. And evolution has discovered genetic mechanisms that enable neurons to change the strength of their connections in response to the pattern of activity passing through them. Such plasticity gives us the capacity to remember and learn, and it helps to match our perceptions, thoughts and motor skills to the nature of the world around us. Brain plasticity, although genetically determined, enabled humans to escape from | 144 |
When Victoria and Alasdair asked me to be their Provence wedding photographer I was so excited. I adore France, especially Provence and the idea of doing what I love in such an incredible place was really amazing. I've shot weddings all over the world but France is dear to my heart. I got married in France. I only ever holiday in France and I escape there at any given opportunity!
It also helped that Victoria and Alasdair are such lovely people. From the moment I met them, I knew it was going to be an incredible event. All their friends and family made me feel so welcome. It's really<|fim_middle|> over a few sections, I started shooting at 1pm and finished at 4am and I would not have missed a moment of it. This part of the event features some details, getting ready and the beautiful outdoor ceremony. More to follow!
Not a cloud in the sky, perfect.
The stunning grounds of Le clos saint Estève.
The temperature was around 34 degrees. Pretty parasols and fans were handed out to the guests.
The caterers get ready. Did I mention the food was amazing? Thank you – to the Provence wedding caterers.
The guys all looked very cool. I like to shoot groups in a stylish more editorial way. Chinos by Jason Bevan head tailor at Clements & Church Just right for a wedding in the south of France.
The lemonade station was a welcome sight for the guests upon arrival. | hard to put into words all that I felt about the day. Capturing this beautiful wedding in such a wonderful place and being part of it was a real honour. I laughed, cried and shot lots and lots of pictures.
The team that surrounded the event were pretty amazing too! Stephanie Fayolle from the incredible Weddings of Excellence in Provence put everything together seamlessly. Her good humour, organisation and patience made everything a breeze. Thank you Stephanie!
There is so much to share, I've spit the wedding | 102 |
This study is devoted to a theoretical model of the membrane-mediated interactions between inclusions (proteins) incorporated into lipid bilayers. The interactions are due to the overlap of the bilayer deformations around each of two approaching inclusions. To determine the resulting stresses in the membrane we have developed an appropriate model of the lipid bilayer, which has been described as an elastic layer (the hydrocarbon-chain region) sandwiched between two Gibbs dividing surfaces (the two headgroup regions). Expressions for the membrane stretching and bending elastic moduli have been derived in terms of the lipid monolayer tension and elastic constants.<|fim_middle|> membrane processes and mechanisms, such as protein aggregation in lipid membranes, as well as to any process affected by the membrane stretching and bending elastic properties. | The interaction between two cylindrical inclusions have been calculated by using both force and energy approaches. The range of this interaction turns out to be of the order of several inclusion radii. The results, which are in qualitative agreement with the experimental observations, can be applied to the interpretation of | 56 |
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A principle of Corporate Finance is the worldwide leading text that describes the theory and practice of corporate finance Responsibility can come fast and your problem-solving skills will get put to work quickly in corporate finance. Rather the key to performing well in corporate finance is to work with a long view of what going to make your company successful.
A career in Corporate Finance means you would work for a company to help it find money to run the business, grow the business, make acquisitions<|fim_middle|> a long view of what going to make your company successful. Many would argue that corporate finance jobs are the most desirable in the entire field of finance.
1. You generally work in teams which help you work with people.
4. The pay in corporate finance is generally quite good.
A principle of Corporate Finance is the worldwide leading text that describes the theory and practice of corporate finance. Throughout the book the authors show how managers use financial theory to solve practical problems and as a way of learning how to respond to change by showing not just how but why companies and management act as they do. | , plan for it's financial future and manage any cash on hand. You might work for a large multinational company or a smaller player with high growth prospects. Responsibility can come fast and your problem-solving skills will get put to work quickly in corporate finance.
The job of the financial officer is to create value for a company. For example, the finance group at American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio has four main areas of concentration: liquidity, flexibility, compliance with laws and regulatory support. The goals of the objective are met through four main activities carried out by AEP's Finance Department: 1) designing, implementing and monitoring financial policies, 2) planning and executing the financing program, 3) managing cash resources , and 4) interfacing with the financial community and investors.
Jobs in corporate finance are also relatively stable while performance in these jobs counts. But it's not like your job is going to depend on whether you're selling enough this week or getting good deals finished this quarter. Rather the key to performing well in corporate finance is to work with | 212 |
Arutua is een atol dat onderdeel is van de Tuamotueilanden<|fim_middle|>-Polynesisch eiland
Tuamotu | in Frans-Polynesië. Het dichtst bijzijnde atol is Rangiroa, dat 34 km westelijker ligt. Aratua ligt 368 km van Tahiti. Atutua is een bestuurlijke entiteit (gemeente) waartoe ook de atollen Apataki en Kaukura behoren.
Geografie
Het atol is bijna rond met een lengte van 31 km, de breedte van 26 km. De lagune heeft een oppervlakte van 484 km². Het atol bestaat uit een vijftigtal motu's. Het atol ontstond rond de top van een vulkaan die 60,2 tot 62,1 miljoen jaar geleden 1380 m oprees vanaf de zeebodem.
Er is één bevaarbare opening in het atol in het oosten en daar ligt ook de voornaamste nederzetting Rautini waar de meeste van de 808 (in 2017) mensen permanent wonen.
Geschiedenis
De eerste Europeaan die het eiland documenteerde was de Zeeuwse ontdekkingsreizigers Jacob Roggeveen op 27 mei 1722. Kapitein James Cook vermeldde het eiland tijdens zijn tweede reis op 19 april 1774. Tijdens de Amerikaanse expeditie onder leiding van Charles Wilkes in 1840 werd het eiland twee maal aangedaan. In de tweede helft van de negentiende eeuw werd het eiland Frans bezit. Op gezag van het stamhoofd op het atol Kaukura werd de productie van kokosolie opgezet. Verder kwamen de missionarissen naar het eiland en werd een parochie gesticht waaronder ook de twee andere eilanden vielen en die weer afhankelijk zijn van het bisdom Papeete, zoals overigens alle bewoonde atollen binnen de archipel.
In 1983 werd een deel van het atol verwoest door een tropische cycloon.
Economie
Het atol is relatief dicht bewoond en leeft voornamelijk van het toerisme, het maken van kopra, visvangst en de teelt van pareloesters, speciaal zwart-lippareloesters (Pinctada margaritifera). Sinds 1984 is er een start- en landingsbaan van 1200 meter lengte. Volgens cijfers uit 2019 zijn er gemiddeld 350 tot 400 vluchten per jaar en worden 10.000 passagiers vervoerd. Sinds december 2018 beschikt het eiland, dankzij een glasvezelkabelverbinding met Tahiti, over snel internet.
Ecologie
Naast de grote rijkdom aan vissoorten, zijn de nauwelijks bewoonde motu's rijk aan vogels. Op het eiland komen 43 vogelsoorten voor waaronder negen soorten van de Rode Lijst van de IUCN waaronder het witkeelstormvogeltje (Nesofregetta fuliginosa) en de endemische tuamotujufferduif (Ptilinopus coralensis), saffierlori (Vini peruviana) en tuamotukarekiet (Acrocephalus atyphus).
De gemeente Rangiroa
Bestuurlijk vallen de volgende atollen onder deze gemeente:
Arutua (15 km²)
Apataki (20 km²)
Kaukura (11 km²).
Totaal aantal inwoners (in 2017): 1 664.
Frans | 882 |
Just bought our first Jayco. We are upgrading from our Coleman Utah PUP. Wanted something a bit easier to set up. Checked out the the Ultralites last weekend, and<|fim_middle|>, Integrated TBC, 3.73 LS axle, Firestone Ride Rite airbags.
I just picked up our first camper on Friday from the Traverse City area.
We stayed at TCSP a few years back when we lived in Petoskey. I don't remember much about it, but it wasn't a bad experience. One really good thing is location. East Bay (Lake Michigan) on the north and the TART trail to the south. The TART trail is a paved path that you can walk or bike to nearby Restaurants and stores. It leads downtown and connects to other hot spots.
If you are looking for a more laid back spot, Try Interlochen State Park. Still close to Traverse City. | came back to the dealer today. This Friday we will take home our X17Z. Very excited to get out for a shakedown trip, got to get to know our new home on wheels before Orlando this August.
Welcome to the forum and the Jayco family. Congrats on the new trailer and enjoy your weekend. Let us know how it went.
Congratulations! and Welcome to The Forum from the Grand Rapids area! Hope to get up your way later this summer.
Welcome from Kalamazoo! How about a review of Traverse City State Park? We are thinking of staying there in 2015.
2011 F150 4x4 SCREW Ecoboost, Max Tow | 146 |
File-based autobiographies after 1989
File-based autobiographies after 1989 Roy, Catherine Karen
This study analyzes four autobiographical accounts written after the fall of the Berlin Wall by former data subjects, i.e., by individuals who have been under the surveillance of the East German Stasi (Staatssicherheit). Following a suggestion by Cornelia Vismann, I refer to these texts as "file-based autobiographies." The term reflects the fact that they were written in response to the opening of the Stasi archives and the passing of the Stasi Files Act, which allowed data subjects to access their files. By constructing narratives using files written and compiled by informers and secret police officials rather than relying on their own, personal memories, these data subjects challenge the traditional aesthetics of autobiographies and subvert the usual expectations of autobiographical reading. "File-based autobiographies" constitute nothing less than a new autobiographical sub-genre. Rather than offering a personal story that begins in early childhood and ends later in life, data subjects engage in a revision of their lives using files written by a hostile third party. The four case studies show how people under surveillance may need to draw on such documents, even if they are inaccurate, in order to support their claims of authenticity and thus fulfill the autobiographical pact. In this way, these autobiographers acquire and re-functionalize the hostile documents, thus challenging the original purposes for which the files were kept. They show that using their files not only results in unexpected memory processes, but is also a political and literary process that supports their personal agendas and targets particular audiences. Access to and subsequent use of their files gives<|fim_middle|> | them the authority to discuss their reaction to the opening of the Stasi files as well as the records themselves.
Roy, Catherine Karen
Arts, Faculty of; Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies, Department of
ubc_2011_fall_roy_catherine.pdf -- 14.45MB | 67 |
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You are here: Home / news / The VA Program That Pays for Long-term Care for Vets
The VA Program That Pays for Long-term Care for Vets
August 3, 2017 by Andrea Hikel Leave a Comment
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Copyright © 2020 Lutheran Sunset Ministries · Login | This little-known benefit can be a help, but expect red tape.
By Richard Eisenberg for Next Avenue, written in 2015
Here's a frightening statistic from the just-released United States of Aging survey: Only three percent of professionals supporting people 60 and older say they are very confident older Americans will be able to afford their health care costs as they age. (The survey was conducted by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, National Council on Aging and UnitedHealthcare.) One reason: The steep and rising cost of long-term care.
What Long-Term Care Costs Now
The median price of a private room in a nursing home is $91,250, up 4.17 percent from a year ago, according to Genworth's 2015 Cost of Long-Term Care Survey. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College estimates 44 percent of men and 58 percent of women will use nursing home care. Many more will need long-term care in assisted living facilities or at home.
This is why I want to tell you about a little-known Veterans Administration (VA) program that pays for some long-term care costs for vets and their families, called the Aid and Attendance Benefit.
(Sorry for sounding like one of those reverse-mortgage TV commercials.) You might want to check out Aid and Attendance for yourself or for your parents.
Never heard of this benefit, which has been around for more than 60 years and covers some expenses for in-home care, nursing homes and assisted living facilities? You're in good company. "I think it's wildly underpublicized," said Maureen Lyons of the Moynihan Lyons estate planning and elder law firm in Riverside, Calif.
The Little-Known VA Long-term Care Benefit
By one estimate, only five percent of vets entitled to the benefit apply for it. In a January 2015 Los Angeles Daily News article, Robert W. McKenrick, of the VA's Los Angeles Regional Benefit Office, said: "My personal opinion is that if one veteran is unaware of their benefits, that's one too many."
Honorably-discharged wartime veterans older than 65 and their widowed spouses who are eligible for a VA pension and require the "aid and attendance" of another person or are housebound may be eligible for what the VA calls "additional pension benefits for care assistance in the home or in an assisted living community."
Aid and Attendance pays up to: $1,788 per month to a single veteran, $1,149 to a surviving spouse, $2,120 to a married veteran and $2,837 to a veteran couple. The benefit is tax-free.
Who Is Eligible for Aid and Attendance
To qualify, the applicant must either:
Require assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) such as dressing, undressing, bathing, cooking and eating
Be bedridden
Be a patient in a nursing home due to mental or physical incapacity
Or have eyesight limited to a corrected 5/200 visual acuity or less in both eyes or concentric contraction of the visual field to 5 degrees or less
Now here's the catch: applying for and receiving the money is daunting.
"It sucks the life out of anyone who attempts to crawl through the maze of paperwork and process," wrote Randi Kreiss in The Riverdale Press.
The VA says it takes 156 days (roughly five months), on average, for an Aid and Attendance claim to be processed after someone applies by writing to a VA regional office and submitting evidence. But some frustrated applicants have run into infuriating red tape and much longer waits.
One Vet's Three-Year Wait
The Daily News article cited the heartbreaking story of Frank Fassnacht, an 84-year-old former projectionist for Disney who's now living in a Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) home. He applied for Aid and Attendance three years ago, according to Naomi Rodda, MPTF's Director of Community Services.
Said Rodda: "We keep getting the runaround. The turnover there is so high it's hard to find a consistent person to help you. In the five years I've been doing this, I'm now working with my fifth different VA service officer."
I first learned about Aid and Attendance from Lyons when we both participated in the recent Intergenerational Summit on Aging sponsored by Kendal, a not-for-profit provider of retirement communities and services, and hosted by public television station WHYY-TV of Philadelphia, Pa.
Tips for Applying for the VA Benefit
Here's Lyons' advice to others who want to receive this VA pension supplement:
You may be denied the Aid and Attendance benefit if your assets are too large. "The VA doesn't have a hard and fast rule on how much assets you can have," said Lyons. "I've found that it's generally not more than $80,000, depending on your age." (That doesn't include your home.)
Get help from an elder law attorney to apply. The rules and paperwork can be a bear, so a pro who's familiar with them can make the process more tolerable. The lawyer may also be able to assist you in preserving assets and get the benefit. "A lot of middle-class folks can really benefit from this sort of planning," said Lyons.
Be prepared to document your long-term care expenses and provide all the application materials. "You must show the VA your ongoing prescription and in-home or assisted living expenses every month," said Lyons. "And if you had a previous marriage, you must show the VA your divorce decree."
Be patient. "When I was doing this a few years ago, it could take nine months before a client saw the money. Lately, it's been more like four months," said Lyons.
You can learn more about the Aid and Attendance program at the VA's website.
© Twin Cities Public Television – 2017. All rights reserved.
Filed Under: news Tagged With: aging, Aging in Place, Aging Well, Assisted Living, Bosque County, Care Giver, caregiver support, Clifton, Continuum of Care, Health and Wellness, Independent Living, Long-term care, Lutheran Sunset Ministries, Rest Home, retirement, Retirement living, Successful aging, Sunset Home, Texas, vet, veteran, Veteran benefits
Celebrating 65 years of ministry and service to the seniors of Clifton and Bosque County, Lutheran Sunset Ministries offers inspired retirement living options at every life stage. Our 32-acre campus is designed as an intimate setting of neighborhoods that accommodate residents at various levels of care. In addition to quality health and wellness opportunities, Lutheran Sunset Ministries provides an enriched lifestyle through innovative programs, interdisciplinary activities, and a focus on physical, intellectual, social and spiritual growth.
Providing the only full continuum of care available in Bosque County—including independent living, assisted living, long-term care, rehabilitation and therapy, memory support, hospice services and companion services—Lutheran Sunset Ministries is a cornerstone of the region. With a state-of-the-art healthcare building, an increase in services and amenities, and a rededication to providing services that allow people to live full and enriched lives, Lutheran Sunset Ministries has created a quality of life unparalleled in the region.
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It is appropriate that this message begins with a word of gratitude to all those who have made a financial investment in Texas A&M Athletics. Your dedication, passion and support are the pillars of our success, so thank you for what you do to make this one of the highest-achieving collections of student-athletes in the nation.
The 12th Man Foundation has been my home for 1<|fim_middle|>. Much of that stems from the great pride so many Aggies have for this university. Similarly, it is humbling to be able to serve the staff of this organization, all of whom work tirelessly to help fulfill our mission of funding scholarships, programs and facilities in support of championship athletics.
With that in mind, I would like to share with you four principles I have impressed on our staff in recent weeks. These truths should be what guide every decision we make and every interaction we have with you, our valued donors.
Respect — Donors are the reason this organization exists, and our commitment is that each will be treated with respect in every interaction.
Accuracy — This quality is crucial in every communication with our stakeholders.
Service — Our calling is to serve Texas A&M University, A&M Athletics and 12th Man Foundation donors.
Excellence — In all that we do, our desire is to be the best. While we do not profess to be perfect, a high standard of excellence is our goal. You deserve nothing less.
If we can succeed in meeting those tenets every day, great things will happen for this organization, its donors and Texas A&M Athletics. | 7 years, and leading this organization is a tremendous honor | 11 |
Map 1301 North State Parkway, Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60610 Call+1 312 787 3700 4.5 Stars 302 Reviews
Discover why being steps away from the Magnificent Mile and Michigan Avenue, there's no shortage of shopping and great dining. Visit the iconic Chicago steakhouses, snap photos in front of century-old landmarks, and explore a luxe, multi-story shopping center at 900 North Michigan.
1301 North State Parkway
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Local Food + Drink
3 Arts Club Café
This one-of-a-kind restaurant is housed in the garden courtyard of the RH Chicago, where guests can dine underneath the atrium or lounge in the wine vault.
Directions from our Hotel
3rd Coast Café<|fim_middle|> the Magnificent Mile.
American Girl Place
Kids can find their favorite historical or modern American Girl dolls plus many accessories inside this popular Water Tower Place destination, which includes a bookstore, dining, and specialty shops.
Breitling has pioneered luxury timepieces since 1884, and continues to make a name in fashion, sports, and aviation.
1301 North State Parkway, Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60610 |
Enjoy dishes with locally sourced ingredients at a vintage location that has been home to many famous restaurants since the 1920s.
Mario's Table
This classically Italian neighborhood restaurant is a hidden gem that has been serving the Gold Coast since 1995.
Maple & Ash
Run by Executive Chef Danny Grant, who's been awarded two Michelin stars, this modern steakhouse is known for wood-fired steaks and hearth-roasted seafood towers.
Lou Malnati's Pizzeria
A world-famous restaurant, Lou Malnati's has remained a staple for Chicago deep-dish pizza for over 50 years.
Gibson's Bar and Steakhouse
Visit the original location of this Chicago icon for filet mignon, burgers basted with steak sauce, fresh fish, and more.
Blue Door Kitchen & Garden
Taking the term "farm to table" to the next level is the specialty of Blue Door Kitchen, where seasonality and sustainability control the menu.
Shore Club (Seasonal)
Make the most of summertime in Chicago by dining at Shore Club on the North Avenue Beach, where stunning views of Lake Michigan and fun lawn activities are added bonuses.
See more than 1,100 animals—sloths, penguins, rhinos, and more—up close at one of the nation's oldest zoos. Admission is free.
Newberry Library
Free and open to the public, the rare book collections at this well-known research library are a must-see for literature and history buffs.
Oak Street Beach
Soak up the sun with beach chair rentals, sporting equipment, and tasty café dining at this popular summer location.
The place where countless comedians got their start, Second City is a renowned comedy and improv club that continues to produce innovative talent.
One of the city's oldest cultural institutions, the Chicago History Museum has built and bolstered its collection since 1856.
Museum of Contemporary Art
Come experience thousands of works in one of the world's largest contemporary art venues, an embodiment of today's culture.
International Museum of Surgical Science
The fascinating history of medicine and surgical science is on full display through exhibits, galleries, and artifacts from around the world.
Artspace 8
Located along the Michigan Avenue shopping scene, this art gallery and curating group specializes in engaging exhibits that highlight modern art and upcoming artists.
Madlener House
This 20th-century mansion now houses the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, which was founded to enhance the role of architecture in society.
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Founded in 1857 as the first private scientific museum in Chicago, and then the city's first public museum in 1869, this institution has remained the center of local culture and community education.
Oak Street District
If you're looking for luxury boutiques, jewelers, and top-tier designers, then Oak Street District is the perfect place to start your shopping spree.
Michigan Avenue (Magnificent Mile)
It's called the Magnificent Mile for a reason—this stretch of Michigan Avenue harbors over 450 retailers and 3 vertical shopping centers with their own individual perks.
900 North Michigan Shops
Shop seven floors of luxury retailers, like Bloomingdale's and Gucci, inside this historic skyscraper, a Magnificent Mile landmark.
Water Tower Place
Browse more than 100 stores—from The Art of Dr. Seuss to Sephora—at this 8-story vertical mall on | 722 |
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Sangamon Valley Roots Revival
From Ella Fitzgerald To John Boutté: Jazz Festing In Place Presents Archival Audio
By Scott Simon & Peter Breslow • May 2, 2020
John Boutte's famous performance at the 2006 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is just one of the beloved performances included in WWOZ's Jazz Festing in Place series.
Marc PoKempner / Courtesy of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, one of this country's greatest musical gatherings, would have celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. But instead the stages at Jazz Fest, as it is more commonly known, will be empty for the first time since 1970 after the organizers were forced to cancel due to the coronavirus pandemic. But there is still music coming from New Orleans.
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation is delving into its cast archives and, along with community radio station WWOZ, presenting a stream of some of the greatest performances in the festival's history. It's called Jazz Festing in Place, and it involves some of the most iconic names in New Orleans and American music history: Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Domino, Trombone Shorty, Allen Toussaint, The Neville Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Toots and the Maytals and many more.
NPR's Scott Simon spoke to Dave Ankers about what Jazz Fest means to the city of New Orleans, how he went about culling the archives into two weekends of broadcasts and some of his favorite sets in the festival's history. Listen to the radio version at the audio link above, and read on for highlights of the interview.
On the importance of Jazz Fest to the city of New Orleans
The Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans is part of the city's identity as much as Mardi Gras is. It's the music-loving side of the city. It's not just about the city and seeing touring bands who might come in, but it's about all this expression of New Orleans culture: the food, the crafts, the people, the way people connect to each other and the music, all in one place, manifesting itself for eight days. People really really care about this.
On selecting 120 performances for the program from the thousands of archival recordings
The first thing we did is we sat down and we looked to see what we had in the archives. We made a wish list. I talked to lots of our volunteer show hosts, who go to Jazz Fest every year, and we went through and we started off with a list of about 250 items, which still seems small considering the wealth of music we have in New Orleans. And then we went through, and we had to cross things off because we didn't have it, and then we circled things like three times, like "Oh my god, we have to have this thing." Time and again, people came back to John Boutté in 2006, or Ella [Fitzgerald] and Stevie [Wonder in 1977] or the [1974] Fire Benefit with Professor Longhair. And we knew that those were key things that we had to make sure that we included.
On the success of Jazz Festing at Home in its first weekend
When we started our broadcast on Thursday [April 23], in about 10 minutes we suddenly had surpassed our Mardi Gras numbers; and then we were four times Mardi Gras numbers. But we were stunned, really stunned, by what happened in that one hour. And we realized that people all over the world really, really wanted to be at Jazz Fest.
On one of his favorite Jazz Fest sets included in the broadcast: John Boutté performing at the first installment of the festival after Hurricane Katrina
I know so many people who were [at that performance] and they say that by the end of the set, everyone was down on their knees in tears. It is frequently referred to as one of the high points in the entire history of the festival. And when you listen to the entire set all the way through — which we're going to broadcast on Sunday — you see how John Boutté is responding to the moment in New Orleans, as many artists did in 2006 at that first Jazz Festival after Katrina, but he's responding so well and he's working with the audience and leading the audience through this cathartic, powerful connecting moment. It's really, really something to listen to.
Jazz Festing In Place will stream performances from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET. Find the full broadcast schedule at wwoz.org.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
One of this country's greatest musical gatherings celebrated it's 50th anniversary last year. This year, stages at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will be empty. But there'll still be music.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PROFESSOR LONGHAIR: (Singing) Me got fire me, can't put it out. Heap fire water gonna make me shout. I'm goin' down an-a get my squaw.
SIMON: The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation is delving into its vast archives and is presenting, along with community radio station WWOZ, a stream of some of the greatest performances in the festival's history. It's called Jazz Festing in Place. And Dave Ankers of WWOZ joins us. Dave, thanks so much for being with us.
DAVE ANKERS: Thanks for having me.
SIMON: The names involved here are legendary. Of course, Professor Longhair, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Domino, Trombone Shorty, Allen Toussaint, The Neville Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Toots and The Maytals - 120 acts in all. How did you decide what to include?
ANKERS: We made a wish list, and I talked to lots of our volunteer show hosts who go to Jazz Fest every year. And we went through, and we started off with a list of about 250 items, which still seemed small, considering the wealth of music that we have in New Orleans. And then we circled things - like, three times, oh my God, we have to have this thing. And time and again, people came back to, oh, John Boutte in 2006 or Ella and Stevie or the Fire Benefit with Professor Longhair. And we knew that those were key things that we had to make sure that we included.
SIMON: Well, and let me ask you about Ella and Stevie, 1977. Ella Fitzgerald and a very young Stevie Wonder. Let's hear a bit.
ELLA FITZGERALD: (Singing) You are the sunshine of my life. That's why I'll always be around.
STEVIE WONDER: (Singing) You are the apple of my eye. Forever you stay in my heart.
SIMON: Boy, that's extraordinary to hear.
ANKERS: It is an amazing performance.
SIMON: I've been told that your site crashed from too many visitors from around the world. Any sense of how many people are finding you?
ANKERS: When we started our broadcast on Thursday, in about 10 minutes, we suddenly had surpassed our Mardi Gras numbers. And then we were four times Mardi Gras numbers. But we were stunned, really stunned by what had happened in that one hour. And we realized that people all over the world really, really wanted to be at Jazz Fest.
SIMON: I gather you've laid out a kind of roadmap for people to be able to find their acts and times.
ANKERS: You can feel like you're wandering through the festival as you scroll down and you see that you've got Marcia Ball over here or Jason Marsalis or Ellis Marsalis or Irma Thomas. And you circle things on your paper schedule that you've printed out, and it's - planning Jazz Fest with these cubes is a ritual for people. You plan out your day. And people are going through the same thing, so we're able to give them that feeling of anticipation and planning for Jazz Fest, which is a big part of it, big part of the experience.
SIMON: I see, for example, tomorrow 1:30 Central, you're streaming John Boutte from 2006. And that, of course, is the first festival after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to so much of New Orleans. He's singing Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" about the Great Mississippi Flood of that year.
JOHN BOUTTE: (Singing) What's happened down here, y'all, is the winds done changed. The clouds rolled in from the north and started to rain. Rained real hard, rained a long, long time. Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline.
ANKERS: That performance - I was not there, but I know so many people<|fim_middle|> back to live music next year. Dave Ankers of WWOZ in New Orleans, thanks so much for speaking with us.
ANKERS: Thanks for having me.
THE NEVILLE BROTHERS: (Singing) One love, one heart. Let's get together and feel all right. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | who were. And they say that by the end of the set, everyone was down on their knees in tears. It is frequently referred to as one of the high points in the entire history of the festival. He's responding so well. And he's working with the audience and leading the audience through this cathartic, powerful, connecting moment. It's really, really something to listen to.
BOUTTE: God bless you. Thank you. Here I go.
SIMON: We'd like to go out the same way the Jazz Festing In Place, I gather, will go out tomorrow, 7 p.m. Central Time. The Neville Brothers in 1994 - they closed the Jazz Fest for years, didn't they?
ANKERS: Yeah. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is all about tradition, and for - I don't know - close to 30 years, the Neville Brothers were the closing act. And they would always end up closing with Aaron Neville singing "Amazing Grace." And then they would transition into "One Love" by Bob Marley. And it's this transcendent moment, and that's what we're doing to wrap up on Sunday night Jazz Festing In Place.
SIMON: Let's hope we can all get | 258 |
Nancy Taylor, left, works with her granddaughter Nancy Olson to make Coffee Cake, a family favorite topped with frosting and served with whipped cream.
PITTSFIELD, Ill. -- Three generations came together in a Pittsfield High School classroom last week with one sweet goal in mind.
"I'm going to cook a coffee cake," said Nancy Taylor, whose granddaughter Nancy Olson is a sophomore at PHS in Debbie Stendback's Intro to Family and Consumer Science class.
Taylor, her daughter Jenny Graham and Nancy worked together with two of Nancy's classmates on the recipe, which originally came from Bonnie Petty, the grandmother of another student in the class.
The simple recipe could be made in the amount of time available, and it's a favorite of Nancy.
"I like the icing," she<|fim_middle|>ed peanuts and coarsely chopped Snickers bars.
Spread cookie dough in the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish that has been lined with waxed paper and sprayed with cooking spray. Top with a layer of Oreos.
Prepare brownie mix, following package directions, adding the 1/4 cup hot fudge topping to the mix if desired. Pour brownie batter over the cookie dough and Oreos.
Cover with foil, and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove foil, and continue baking for an additional 15 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting. Brownies still may be gooey in the middle when warm, but will set up perfectly once cooled. | said. "The whole entire cake is just amazing."
Students invited guests to come to class and prepare a favorite recipe, an idea Stendback brought back from a conference in February and plans to repeat again next year.
"I think it's a great idea to learn new ways to cook and interact with people," freshman Dylan Leavell said.
Dylan prefers cooking over baking -- and cooks nearly every day -- but welcomed learning from Taylor how to make the coffee cake with its layers of cake batter and cinnamon filling. "We've had sisters and brothers come in, parents, grandparents, friends, friends' parents and friends' grandparents," Stendback said, and her students "have loved it. I think the eating part maybe helps."
Sophomore Bethany Gratton and her mom Angie Gratton admittedly don't do much cooking because they're too busy, but both do enjoy making Monkey Bread.
"This is one of our Christmas things that we make," Gratton said.
Knowing that the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie 'N Oreo Fudge Brownie Bars take time to bake and set up after baking, freshman Zoey Myers made a pan ahead of time to share with classmates, then enjoyed preparing the recipe again in class with her guest, her grandma Sherry Cook.
It's more fun than an average day in class "because we get to pick the recipe, and we get to have an experienced person," Zoey said.
The students honed cooking skills along with other skills important not just for school but for their future.
"They had to write out interview questions for their quests and do an interview. We talk about how to greet people, how to shake hands, make introductions. They write a thank you note to their guests," Stendback said. "They've done a lot of thinking, a lot of problem-solving, a lot of writing, a lot of discussion."
Jacqueline Davis helped her sister Reese, a freshman, bake the same Snicker Cupcakes the 21-year-old made when she was in Stendback's class.
"They're super simple. It's just a lot of ingredients," Jacqueline said. "There's going to be caramel and peanuts in the middle, and the icing is going to be kind of a marshmallow fluff."
The grandmas even pitched in with the dishes.
"She just stepped in," Zoey said.
"I didn't really do them all," Cook said. "They were starting, and I was trying to help them hurry up since we're so limited on time."
Beat together cake mix, pudding, eggs, water and oil for seven minutes. Combine sugar, cinnamon and pecans; set aside.
In a Bundt pan coated with butter, alternately pour cake batter and cinnamon-sugar mixture, ending with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes. Cool about 20 to 25 minutes before removing cake from pan.
NOTE: Cake also may be baked in two eight-inch square pans for 25 minutes. Taylor also tops the cake with canned vanilla frosting, and serves it with whipped cream.
Melt together butter, cinnamon and sugar.
Cut each biscuit into four pieces. Dip each biscuit piece into butter mixture, then put pieces into a Bundt pan or a loaf pan. If desired, nuts may be added to the pan before adding biscuits. Drizzle remaining butter mixture over top before baking. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes or until done.
In a bowl, beat together butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, and in a separate bowl or measuring cup, combine buttermilk, sour cream and water. Alternate adding dry ingredients and liquids to butter mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Scoop batter into paper-lined cupcake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely.
When ready to fill cupcakes, microwave caramels, cream and butter, stirring well after every 30 seconds until mixture is smooth and fluid. Stir in chopped peanuts.
Beat together butter and peanut butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, then add cream and powdered sugar. Beat on low speed until sugar is incorporated, then increase speed to medium and beat until mixture lightens and becomes fluffy and smooth. Stir in marshmallow crème by hand. Spoon frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip.
Using a frosting tip, small spoon or paring knife, cut a hole in the top of each cupcake. Fill the hole with Caramel-Peanut Filling. Top with Peanut-Marshmallow Frosting, then top each cupcake with a drizzle of chocolate fudge sauce, chopped salt | 966 |
Reese Berberet at the plate, he finished the game with two runs including a solo<|fim_middle|> face the Dons again at Santa Ana College on Thursday, March 29. | home run. Berberet recently broke LBCC's records for career and season homers.
After struggling in recent weeks, losing four games in a row, the LBCC Vikings' men's baseball team have found their rhythm, breaking school records on their way to a five-game winning streak secured by their 9-2 walk-off victory over the Santa Ana College Dons on Tuesday, March 27.
The Dons jumped to 2-0 lead early in top the first inning but were unable to score again for the rest of the game, overwhelmed by the Vikings' strong hitting and pitching throughout the last eight innings.
The Vikings showed great pitching from freshman Bryan Sandoval and sophomore Giovanni Ceballos, who held the Dons to seven hits, finishing with three strikeouts.
Viking's pitching coach Rylie Ogle credits strong pitching for the bulk of their recent success: "When we hold teams down to less than 5 runs we have a really good shot, and that's what we've been doing," Ogle said.
LBCC also proved to be unstoppable offensively for the remainder of the game, scoring nine runs in five innings, including two solo home runs by sophomore third baseman Reese Berberet and sophomore first baseman Bobby Funk in the bottom of the fifth.
Berberet added to his LBCC records for single season and career home runs, which were both broken in a double-header sweep of Compton College.
Berberet seemed very happy with his accomplishments: "It feels pretty good because I was really good friends with the guy that beat it last year, Vincent Byrd, and this year just got a lot easier for me and it feels nice to do it," Berberet said.
After the 9-2 win over Santa Ana, the Vikings' record improves to 15-12 overall and they are currently 6-5 in the CCCAA South Coast Conference, where they are in third place. They | 396 |
Line Haul Transportation: Definition, Comparisons & Carriers
Freight transportation is arguably the most important component in a supply chain, as it connects sellers and manufacturers with buyers and end-users. The US Department of Transportation claims that shippers move around 55.2 million tons of freight on average daily via road, sea, air, and rail – the four main modes of freight transport.
While it's crucial to distinguish between each mode of transport, it's also important to point out that there are different service types or classifications of transport that share similarities between land, sea, and air transport. One of these service types is line haul.
In this article, we deep-dive into the topic of line haul and compare it with other transport methods in the freight industry. Additionally, we've also listed some of the most popular companies that offer line haul services.
What Is a Line Haul?
Line haul is the transportation of cargo between two specified locations via land, air, or sea. The route between these two specified locations is typically fixed and includes transport between seaports, airports, cities, business facilities, factories, residences, or warehouses.
Businesses use line haul transportation to move large quantities of products and materials between two regularly frequented locations, which would otherwise be too expensive or difficult to ship using other methods or means.
A Line Haul Truck Moving Cargo
One of the major advantages of line haul transportation is that it can be done through the use of trucks, ocean vessels, trains, and cargo planes. As a result, shippers have multiple options to choose from.
These services would often have defined departure and arrival times, through a regular schedule, that is applicable to both local and international shipments.
Moreover, carriers offering line haul services usually have fixed routes and can move anything from paper documents to industrial machinery, between various heavily-frequently locations.
Example of a Line Haul Service:
To explain how line haul services work, we've prepared the following example. A shipper wants to move packaged goods to a customer that is located in another country. They decide to opt for a logistics provider that transports the goods via air freight between the origin and destination airport.
The logistics company picks up the goods at the shipper's premises, proceeds to load it onto its truck, and transports it to a consolidation warehouse. At the facility, the cargo is sorted according to its destination and transported to the airport through a line haul service that the logistics provider offers.
The route from the consolidation warehouse to the origin airport is a heavily-frequently that is scheduled twice a day, and is therefore classified as a line haul.
Thereafter, the goods along with other cargo are transported to the carrier's terminal and subsequently loaded onto a cargo plane, before it arrives at the destination country.
Line Haul Trucking
When it comes to the most popular mode of freight transportation, trucking (or road freight) leads the race, accounting for nearly 70% of goods shipped worldwide, as road networks give trucks greater coverage and more access.
That is also a reason why line haul services are most often, but not exclusively rendered by trucks, between two hubs, cities, or locations. Apart from line haul being a frequently used service type, it's often confused with short haul, long haul, and other transport terms due to overlapping definitions and other similarities.
To address this, we've dedicated a section to distinguishing line haul from some of the most common freight services in the market:
Line Haul vs. Long Haul
Long-haul transportation is commonly associated with moving goods over long distances (generally anything above 250 miles). Businesses commonly use long-haul transportation for shipments that need to be moved across cities or countries via rail, trucks, air, or sea.
As a result, deliveries can often take several days and even weeks, depending on the distance. Furthermore, long hauls may cover multiple trips to several locations before making a backhaul trip back to its original destination<|fim_middle|>. As a result, they stay closer to home since all deliveries are completed within the same day.
The main drawback is that short-haul drivers tend to earn less than line haul and long-haul drivers since they get paid by the mile and are required to take on smaller, less lucrative shipments.
As a result, they have to take on numerous short trips and optimize their truckloads to maximize their income. In addition to that, the more shipments they move, the more paperwork and loading/unloading processes they have to manage.
Line Haul vs. Regional Transport
Regional freight transportation involves moving cargo via trucks across different states. As a result, regional truck drivers are usually on the road for several days before delivery is completed.
Conversely, line haul drivers may complete multiple deliveries each day since they usually operate within a 150-mile radius. Since regional drivers cover more distances and transport cargo in different conditions, they earn more pay compared to line haul drivers.
However, being on the road for several days would mean that regional drivers are away from their homes for long periods and face increased truck expenses for overnight accommodations and more regular truck maintenance.
Furthermore, regional transportation usually entails longer idling times due to rest periods, traffic, or inclement weather. As a result, carriers usually incur higher fuel costs per mile than line haul companies.
Line Haul vs. Pick-Up & Delivery (P&D)
Pick-Up & Delivery (P&D) is similar to line haul transportation. The key difference is that P&D only covers short-distance deliveries as these operations are usually within the same town or city.
Moreover, deliveries are usually made using small freight vehicles, such as sprinter vans and box trucks. Therefore, pick-up & delivery services are often used for packages smaller in size and of lower weight or single consignments.
In contrast, line haul services cover local, inter-state, and international deliveries as long as the destination is within their operating areas. As a result, line haul drivers typically earn more since they cover more miles than P&D drivers and usually transport a full truckload.
However, P&D drivers are usually hired by companies that offer several other perks, such as insurance, vacation pay, and even a 401k.
Line Haul vs. Dedicated Transportation
Both line haul and dedicated transportation are similar in that they would normally deliver products between two specific locations such as production points, distribution centers, and retail stores.
However, line haul service providers offer their services to multiple shippers (usually by moving consolidated cargo, whereas dedicated freight transportation companies only pull freight for certain customers (sometimes even a single one).
Line haul companies have the edge over dedicated companies since they're not contract-bound and are allowed to transport cargo for multiple shippers. Therefore, they're not limited to a single source of income.
Nonetheless, dedicated company drivers don't have to worry about the market demand or securing loads. They have a steady income for driving goods and materials to and from different locations.
Line Haul Air
As mentioned earlier, line haul also applies to other modes of transport, including air freight. Line haul air carriers are the go-to choice for urgent shipments or areas inaccessible via trucks. Shipments are transported from small airports to different hubs using smaller cargo aircraft.
Line Haul Ocean
Line haul transportation can also be done via sea freight. In this case, cargo is transported on a single vessel (typically a container ship or barge) between two terminals or ports.
The industry also classifies the feeder vessel or cargo barge as a line haul since it facilitates the movement of goods between two fixed ports.
Line Haul Rail
Finally, line haul rail transportation is the movement of goods and materials via freight trains between two rail depots, ports, or hubs. This method is typically used to ship bulk cargo or containers using line-haul rail services instead of trucks.
Moving cargo via rail is typically more economical compared to trucks, especially since some rail networks are connected to seaports. We've written an article covering the differences between rail freight and truck services if you're interested in reading more about it.
Most Common Line Haul Carriers
Line haul service providers are an essential component of any supply chain, including international trade, e-Commerce, or domestic transport.
As a result, most national and international carriers worldwide offer line haul services and offer scheduled connections between various locations. Below are some of the most popular line haul carriers in the market:
ArcBest (US)
Blue Dart Express (India)
CRST Logistics (US)
DHL (Germany)
FedEx (US)
J.B. Hunt (US)
Knight-Swift Transportation (US)
Landstar (US)
Landstar System (US)
Old Dominion Freight Line (US)
Poste Italiane (Italy)
PostNL (Netherlands)
Royal Mail (UK)
S.F. Express (China)
Saia Motor Freight Line (US)
Schneider (US)
TFI International (Canada)
Toll Logistics (Japan)
UPS (US)
Werner Enterprises (US)
XPO Logistics (US)
Yamato Holdings (Japan)
YRC Worldwide (US)
ZTO Express (China) | .
In contrast, line haul transportation in road freight is typically associated with moving goods over shorter distances, usually within the same city or state. As a result, deliveries are much faster and generally completed within the same day.
Line haul transportation offers several lucrative benefits for truckers and carriers. For instance, fixed routes and faster deliveries mean drivers don't require long breaks while on the move.
Moreover, avoiding long breaks or layovers reduces fuel and maintenance costs from idling. Carriers with large fleets can also simplify operations and management with better tracking and incident response.
Nevertheless, since shipment costs are based on distance, line haul service providers don't usually generate as much income or revenue as long-haul service providers.
Line Haul vs. Short Haul
As the name implies, short-haul transportation is the process of moving goods within cities commonly using straight trucks, and usually within a 150-mile radius. Short-haul transportation would also typically involve transporting less-than-truckload (LTL) between multiple destinations or hubs.
In contrast, line haul transportation involves using both small and large freight vehicles between two specified locations, typically through scheduled departures. Moreover, line haul services are also extended to other modes of transport and can be domestic or international freight movements.
Short-haul truck drivers usually operate on routes within a fixed-mile radius | 269 |
Broadway Calls
Good Views,<|fim_middle|> The album's also about three songs and six minutes more concise.
Their subject matter is just as inspired too, though. First single and major standout, "Be All That You Can't Be" is a thinly veiled shot at military recruiters who target the poor and underprivileged, stripping kids of their potential. "Give Up the Ghost" seems to showcase the occasional bleakness of frontman Ty Vaughn's touring outlook.
Bassist Matt Koenig seems to sing a little more than he did on the self-titled record too, a dual vocal approach thankfully relied upon a little more than they had in the past. It's a dynamism that's subtle but goes a long way in keeping the songs interesting, pretty much nailing it in "Tonight's Alive" and the chorus of "Be All That You Can't Be."
Broadway Calls have been improving with every release, and while certain elements may be missed, weeding them out (temporarily?) may have been necessary for that to happen. Good Views, Bad News is far from perfect but it's another steady collection of songs that assuredly eclipses Broadway Calls' previous material.
Midnight Hour
Be All That You Can't Be
Tonight Is Alive
So Many Dynamos: The Loud Wars
Intro5pect: Realpolitik! | Bad News (2009)
SideOneDummy
There's a breeziness and simplicity to Broadway Calls' Good Views, Bad News that, when complemented by strong songwriting and honest personal and social struggles, makes for an album that's hard not to like.
Yeah, this is pop-punk (arguably a slower, straightforward take on the Nimrod-era Green Day variety). And yeah, this isn't quite as versatile and sprawling as the band's other full-length, a self-titled affair that featured aching acoustic romps and even a condensed yet layered and accomplished Smiths cover ("A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours"). Okay...so, this isn't quite as energetic, either (compare Good Views' generally mid-tempo pacing to scrappier old cuts like "Suffer the Kids"). However, the band's sense of melody is expanded here, generally more full-bodied and more consistent from song to song, and that makes a more complete listening experience from front to back. | 207 |
Missouri StatePublic Affairs Contest Sponsors
Contest Sponsors
Thank you to IDEAL and the Sigma Pi Fraternity as the creators and sponsors of the Dr. Michael N. Compton Essay Contest:
Dr. Compton, a 1970 graduate of MSU, wanted IDEAL to support the Public Affairs mission of the University. He envisioned an essay contest as the vehicle for achieving that support. The conduct of the contest is a joint undertaking between the Alpha Rho Chapter, IDEAL, its alumni, and the faculty and staff of MSU.
Sigma Pi Fraternity: Alpha Rho Chapter
Sigma Pi Fraternity was founded in 1897 at Vincennes University, in Vincennes, Indiana. Our Executive Office is located in Lebanon, Tennessee. The Fraternity is one of the top men's collegiate organizations in North<|fim_middle|> Bookstore gift cards. | America, with more than 120 active chapters and colonies in the United States and Canada. With over 100,000 alumni and 5,300 undergraduates; our men strive for excellence by living our core values to promote fellowship, develop character and leadership, advance heightened moral awareness, enable academic achievement, and inspire service. Sigma Pi is the only Greek letter organization with an international service program, The ACE Project, specifically designed to give back to our host institutions.
IDEAL: Institute for Development of Ethics and Leadership
IDEAL is a non-profit organization established by the alumni of the Alpha Rho Chapter of Sigma Pi Fraternity at MSU with the mission to further the development of ethics and leadership in the men of the fraternity. Dr. Compton, a 1970 graduate of MSU, wanted IDEAL to support the Public Affairs mission of the University. He envisioned an essay contest as the vehicle for achieving that support. The conduct of the contest is a joint undertaking between the Alpha Rho Chapter, its alumni, and the faculty and staff of MSU.
MSU Political Science Department
The Department of Political Science will again sponsor two 2nd place prizes of $300 each in the form of MSU | 257 |
AST Announces Multiyear Deal with WENDY'S as Title Sponsor for Tour's Third Stop Portland, Ore.
The AST Dew Tour, the world's premier season-long action sports tour, announced today that Wendy's has signed<|fim_middle|> 2007 Dew Cup winners include Ryan Sheckler (Skateboard Park), Shaun White (Skateboard Vert), Nate Adams (Freestyle Motocross), Jamie Bestwick (BMX Vert), Ryan Nyquist (BMX Dirt) and Daniel Dhers (BMX Park). | a multi-year deal as the new event title sponsor for the third stop of the AST Dew Tour, the Wendy's Invitational, in Portland, Oregon.
As title sponsor Wendy's will receive tour-wide exclusivity in the restaurant category. Wendy's also will receive fully integrated marketing benefits, including television ads on NBC and USA Network, online and on-site exposure as well as inclusion in the Tour's multi-million dollar marketing campaign.
"Wendy's is a great fit for the AST Dew Tour," said Wade Martin, President of the AST. "Wendy's builds upon what we feel is a best in class group of partners; we look forward to working with them to meet their marketing objectives and to continue to build the AST."
"We're delighted to be bringing action sports to Portland, and to have the opportunity to build our association with such a thrilling, engaging sport," said Robyn Simburger, Wendy's Vice President, media strategy and activation. "It's a perfect fit with our younger target audience."
Currently in its third year, the AST Dew Tour is the most watched and attended action sports property in the world. Attendance for the 2007 AST Dew Tour totaled nearly 300,000 and an average of 38 million viewers tuned in via NBC and USA each year. The top athletes in the world take part in the Tour, all competing for the highly coveted Dew Cup which will be awarded in Orlando at season's end to champions in each of the six disciplines. The | 305 |
This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. Please help improve it to make it understandable to non-experts, without removing the technical details. (April 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
In electromagnetism, the magnetic susceptibility (Latin: susceptibilis, "receptive"; denoted χ) is a measure of how much a material will become magnetized in an applied magnetic field. Mathematically, it is the ratio of magnetization M (magnetic moment per unit volume) to the applied magnetizing field intensity H. This allows a simple classification of most materials' response to an applied magnetic field into two categories: an alignment with the magnetic field, χ>0, called paramagnetism, or an alignment against the field, χ<0, called diamagnetism.
This alignment has several effects. First, the magnetic susceptibility indicates whether a material is attracted into or repelled out of a magnetic field. Paramagnetic materials align with the field, so are attracted to the magnetic field. Diamagnetic materials are anti-aligned, so are pushed away from magnetic fields. Second, on top of the applied field, the magnetic moment of the material adds its own magnetic field, causing the field lines to concentrate in paramagnetism, or be excluded<|fim_middle|>0−10 +1.7×10−5 +7.9×10−9 +6.3×10−7 +2.2×10−5 +1.75×10−6 26.98 2.70
Silver[22] 961 1 −2.31×10−5 −1.84×10−6 107.87
Bismuth[23] 20 1 −3.55×10−9 −2.82×10−4 −1.70×10−8 −1.35×10−6 −1.66×10−4 −1.32×10−5 208.98 9.78
Copper[17] 20 1 −1.0785×10−9 −9.63×10−6 −7.66×10−7 63.546 8.92
Nickel[17] 20 1 600 48 58.69 8.9
Iron[17] 20 1 200000 15900 55.847 7.874
Sources of confusion in published dataEdit
The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics has one of the only published magnetic susceptibility tables. Some of the data (e.g., for aluminium, bismuth, and diamond) is listed as cgs, which has caused confusion to some readers. "cgs" is an abbreviation of centimeters–grams–seconds; it represents the form of the units, but cgs does not specify units. Correct units of magnetic susceptibility in cgs is cm3/mol or cm3/g. Molar susceptibility and mass susceptibility are both listed in the CRC. Some table have listed magnetic susceptibility of diamagnets as positives. It is important to check the header of the table for the correct units and sign of magnetic susceptibility readings.
Curie constant
Electric susceptibility
Magnetic constant
Magnetic flux density
Magnetochemistry
Magnetometer
Maxwell's equations
Paleomagnetism
Permeability (electromagnetism)
Quantitative susceptibility mapping
Susceptibility weighted imaging
Application in GeosciencesEdit
Magnetism is a useful parameter to describe and analyze rocks. Additionally, the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) within a sample determines parameters as directions of paleocurrents, maturity of paleosol, flow direction of magma injection, tectonic strain, etc.[2] It is a non-destructive tool, which quantifies the average alignment and orientation of magnetic particles within a sample.[24]
References and notesEdit
^ Roger Grinter, The Quantum in Chemistry: An Experimentalist's View, John Wiley & Sons, 2005, ISBN 0470017627 page 364
^ a b Tauxe, Lisa (2019). Essentials of Paleomagnetism: Fifth Web Edition. UC Press.
^ "magnetizability, ξ". IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology—The Gold Book (2nd ed.). International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. 1997.
^ O'Handley, Robert C. (2000). Modern Magnetic Materials. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. ISBN 9780471155669.
^ Richard A. Clarke. "Magnetic properties of materials". Info.ee.surrey.ac.uk. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
^ a b Bennett, L. H.; Page, C. H. & Swartzendruber, L. J. (1978). "Comments on units in magnetism". Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards. NIST, USA. 83 (1): 9–12. doi:10.6028/jres.083.002.
^ "IEEE Magnetic unit conversions".
^ L. N. Mulay (1972). A. Weissberger; B. W. Rossiter (eds.). Techniques of Chemistry. 4. Wiley-Interscience: New York. p. 431.
^ "Magnetic Susceptibility Balances". Sherwood-scientific.com. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
^ J. R. Zimmerman, and M. R. Foster (1957). "Standardization of NMR high resolution spectra". J. Phys. Chem. 61 (3): 282–289. doi:10.1021/j150549a006.
^ Robert Engel; Donald Halpern & Susan Bienenfeld (1973). "Determination of magnetic moments in solution by nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry". Anal. Chem. 45 (2): 367–369. doi:10.1021/ac60324a054.
^ P. W. Kuchel; B. E. Chapman; W. A. Bubb; P. E. Hansen; C. J. Durrant & M. P. Hertzberg (2003). "Magnetic susceptibility: solutions, emulsions, and cells". Concepts Magn. Reson. A 18: 56–71. arXiv:q-bio/0601030. doi:10.1002/cmr.a.10066.
^ K. Frei & H. J. Bernstein (1962). "Method for determining magnetic susceptibilities by NMR". J. Chem. Phys. 37 (8): 1891–1892. Bibcode:1962JChPh..37.1891F. doi:10.1063/1.1733393.
^ R. E. Hoffman (2003). "Variations on the chemical shift of TMS". J. Magn. Reson. 163 (2): 325–331. Bibcode:2003JMagR.163..325H. doi:10.1016/S1090-7807(03)00142-3. PMID 12914848.
^ a b c d e Wapler, M. C.; Leupold, J.; Dragonu, I.; von Elverfeldt, D.; Zaitsev, M.; Wallrabe, U. (2014). "Magnetic properties of materials for MR engineering, micro-MR and beyond". JMR. 242: 233–242. arXiv:1403.4760. Bibcode:2014JMagR.242..233W. doi:10.1016/j.jmr.2014.02.005. PMID 24705364.
^ a b c d R. E. Glick (1961). "On the Diamagnetic Susceptibility of Gases". J. Phys. Chem. 65 (9): 1552–1555. doi:10.1021/j100905a020.
^ a b c d John F. Schenck (1993). "The role of magnetic susceptibility in magnetic resonance imaging: MRI magnetic compatibility of the first and second kinds". Medical Physics. 23 (6): 815–850. Bibcode:1996MedPh..23..815S. doi:10.1118/1.597854. PMID 8798169.
^ G. P. Arrighini; M. Maestro & R. Moccia (1968). "Magnetic Properties of Polyatomic Molecules: Magnetic Susceptibility of H2O, NH3, CH4, H2O2". J. Chem. Phys. 49 (2): 882–889. Bibcode:1968JChPh..49..882A. doi:10.1063/1.1670155.
^ J. Heremans, C. H. Olk and D. T. Morelli (1994). "Magnetic Susceptibility of Carbon Structures". Phys. Rev. B. 49 (21): 15122–15125. Bibcode:1994PhRvB..4915122H. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.49.15122.
^ a b c N. Ganguli & K.S. Krishnan (1941). "The Magnetic and Other Properties of the Free Electrons in Graphite". Proceedings of the Royal Society. 177 (969): 168–182. Bibcode:1941RSPSA.177..168G. doi:10.1098/rspa.1941.0002.
^ Nave, Carl L. "Magnetic Properties of Solids". HyperPhysics. Retrieved 2008-11-09.
^ R. Dupree & C. J. Ford (1973). "Magnetic susceptibility of the noble metals around their melting points". Phys. Rev. B. 8 (4): 1780–1782. Bibcode:1973PhRvB...8.1780D. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.8.1780.
^ S. Otake, M. Momiuchi & N. Matsuno (1980). "Temperature Dependence of the Magnetic Susceptibility of Bismuth". J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 49 (5): 1824–1828. Bibcode:1980JPSJ...49.1824O. doi:10.1143/JPSJ.49.1824. The tensor needs to be averaged over all orientations: χ = 1/3χ∥ + 2/3χ⊥.
^ Borradaile, Graham John (December 1988). "Magnetic susceptibility, petrofabrics and strain". Tectonophysics. 156 (1–2): 1–20. doi:10.1016/0040-1951(88)90279-X.
Linear Response Functions in Eva Pavarini, Erik Koch, Dieter Vollhardt, and Alexander Lichtenstein (eds.): DMFT at 25: Infinite Dimensions, Verlag des Forschungszentrum Jülich, 2014 ISBN 978-3-89336-953-9
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Magnetic_susceptibility&oldid=905994604" | in diamagnetism.[1] Quantitative measures of the magnetic susceptibility also provide insights into the structure of materials, providing insight into bonding and energy levels. Furthermore, it is widely used in geology for paleomagnetic studies and structural geology.[2]
Fundamentally, the magnetic moment of materials comes from the magnetism of the particles they are made of. Usually, this is dominated by the magnetic moments of electrons. Electrons are present in all materials, but without any external magnetic field, the magnetic moments of the electrons are usually in some way either paired up or randomized so the overall magnetism is zero (the exception to this usual case is ferromagnetism). The fundamental reasons why the magnetic moments of the electrons line up or don't can be very complex, and can not be explained with classical physics. However, it is a useful simplification to simply measure the magnetic susceptibility of a material, and apply the macroscopic form of Maxwell's equations. This allows classical physics to make useful predictions without getting into the underlying quantum mechanical details.
DefinitionEdit
See also: Permeability (electromagnetism) § Relative permeability and magnetic susceptibility
Volume susceptibilityEdit
Magnetic susceptibility is a dimensionless proportionality constant that indicates the degree of magnetization of a material in response to an applied magnetic field. A related term is magnetizability, the proportion between magnetic moment and magnetic flux density.[3] A closely related parameter is the permeability, which expresses the total magnetization of material and volume.
The volume magnetic susceptibility, represented by the symbol χv (often simply χ, sometimes χm – magnetic, to distinguish from the electric susceptibility), is defined in the International System of Units — in other systems there may be additional constants — by the following relationship:[4]
M = χ v H . {\displaystyle \mathbf {M} =\chi _{v}\mathbf {H} .}
M is the magnetization of the material (the magnetic dipole moment per unit volume), measured in amperes per meter, and
H is the magnetic field strength, also measured in amperes per meter.
χv is therefore a dimensionless quantity.
Using SI units, the magnetic induction B is related to H by the relationship
B = μ 0 ( H + M ) = μ 0 ( 1 + χ v ) H = μ H {\displaystyle \mathbf {B} \ =\ \mu _{0}\left(\mathbf {H} +\mathbf {M} \right)\ =\ \mu _{0}\left(1+\chi _{v}\right)\mathbf {H} \ =\ \mu \mathbf {H} }
where μ0 is the vacuum permeability (see table of physical constants), and (1 + χv) is the relative permeability of the material. Thus the volume magnetic susceptibility χv and the magnetic permeability μ are related by the following formula:
μ = μ 0 ( 1 + χ v ) . {\displaystyle \mu =\mu _{0}\left(1+\chi _{v}\right).}
Sometimes[5] an auxiliary quantity called intensity of magnetization I (also referred to as magnetic polarisation J) and measured in teslas, is defined as
I = μ 0 M . {\displaystyle \mathbf {I} =\mu _{0}\mathbf {M} .}
This allows an alternative description of all magnetization phenomena in terms of the quantities I and B, as opposed to the commonly used M and H.
Mass susceptibility and molar susceptibilityEdit
There are two other measures of susceptibility, the mass magnetic susceptibility (χmass or χg, sometimes χm), measured in m3/kg (SI) and the molar magnetic susceptibility (χmol) measured in m3/mol that are defined below, where ρ is the density in kg/m3 and M is molar mass in kg/mol:
χ mass = χ v ρ {\displaystyle \chi _{\text{mass}}={\frac {\chi _{v}}{\rho }}}
χ mol = M χ mass = M χ v ρ {\displaystyle \chi _{\text{mol}}=M\chi _{\text{mass}}={\frac {M\chi _{v}}{\rho }}}
In CGS unitsEdit
Note that the definitions above are according to SI conventions. However, many tables of magnetic susceptibility give cgs values (more specifically emu-cgs, short for electromagnetic units, or Gaussian-cgs; both are the same in this context). These units rely on a different definition of the permeability of free space:[6]
B cgs = H cgs + 4 π M cgs = ( 1 + 4 π χ v cgs ) H cgs {\displaystyle \mathbf {B} ^{\text{cgs}}\ =\ \mathbf {H} ^{\text{cgs}}+4\pi \mathbf {M} ^{\text{cgs}}\ =\ \left(1+4\pi \chi _{v}^{\text{cgs}}\right)\mathbf {H} ^{\text{cgs}}}
The dimensionless cgs value of volume susceptibility is multiplied by 4π to give the dimensionless SI volume susceptibility value:[6]
χ v SI = 4 π χ v cgs {\displaystyle \chi _{v}^{\text{SI}}=4\pi \chi _{v}^{\text{cgs}}}
For example, the cgs volume magnetic susceptibility of water at 20 °C is −7.19×10−7, which is −9.04×10−6 using the SI convention.
In physics it is common to see cgs mass susceptibility given in cm3/g or emu/g·Oe−1, so to convert to SI volume susceptibility we use the conversion [7]
χ v SI = 4 π ρ cgs χ m cgs {\displaystyle \chi _{v}^{\text{SI}}=4\pi \,\rho ^{\text{cgs}}\,\chi _{m}^{\text{cgs}}}
where ρcgs is the density given in g/cm3, or
χ v SI = ( 4 π × 10 − 3 ) ρ S I χ m cgs {\displaystyle \chi _{v}^{\text{SI}}=\left(4\pi \times 10^{-3}\right)\,\rho ^{\rm {SI}}\,\chi _{m}^{\text{cgs}}}
The molar susceptibility is measured cm3/mol or emu/mol·Oe−1 in cgs and is calculated using the molar mass in g/mol.
Paramagnetism and diamagnetismEdit
If χ is positive, a material can be paramagnetic. In this case, the magnetic field in the material is strengthened by the induced magnetization. Alternatively, if χ is negative, the material is diamagnetic. In this case, the magnetic field in the material is weakened by the induced magnetization. Generally, nonmagnetic materials are said to be para- or diamagnetic because they do not possess permanent magnetization without external magnetic field. Ferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic, or antiferromagnetic materials possess permanent magnetization even without external magnetic field and do not have a well defined zero-field susceptibility.
Experimental measurementEdit
Volume magnetic susceptibility is measured by the force change felt upon a substance when a magnetic field gradient is applied.[8] Early measurements are made using the Gouy balance where a sample is hung between the poles of an electromagnet. The change in weight when the electromagnet is turned on is proportional to the susceptibility. Today, high-end measurement systems use a superconductive magnet. An alternative is to measure the force change on a strong compact magnet upon insertion of the sample. This system, widely used today, is called the Evans balance.[9] For liquid samples, the susceptibility can be measured from the dependence of the NMR frequency of the sample on its shape or orientation.[10][11][12][13][14] Another method using NMR techniques measures the magnetic field distortion around a sample immersed in water inside an MR scanner. This method is highly accurate for diamagnetic materials with susceptibilities similar to water.[15]
Tensor susceptibilityEdit
The magnetic susceptibility of most crystals is not a scalar quantity. Magnetic response M is dependent upon the orientation of the sample and can occur in directions other than that of the applied field H. In these cases, volume susceptibility is defined as a tensor
M i = H j χ i j {\displaystyle M_{i}=H_{j}\chi _{ij}}
where i and j refer to the directions (e.g., x and y in Cartesian coordinates) of the applied field and magnetization, respectively. The tensor is thus rank 2 (second order), dimension (3,3) describing the component of magnetization in the ith direction from the external field applied in the jth direction.
Differential susceptibilityEdit
In ferromagnetic crystals, the relationship between M and H is not linear. To accommodate this, a more general definition of differential susceptibility is used
χ i j d = ∂ M i ∂ H j {\displaystyle \chi _{ij}^{d}={\frac {\partial M_{i}}{\partial H_{j}}}}
where χd
ij is a tensor derived from partial derivatives of components of M with respect to components of H. When the coercivity of the material parallel to an applied field is the smaller of the two, the differential susceptibility is a function of the applied field and self interactions, such as the magnetic anisotropy. When the material is not saturated, the effect will be nonlinear and dependent upon the domain wall configuration of the material.
Several experimental techniques allow for the measurement of the electronic properties of a material. An important effect in metals under strong magnetic fields, is the oscillation of the differential susceptibility as function of 1/H. This behaviour is known as the de Haas–van Alphen effect and relates the period of the susceptibility with the Fermi surface of the material.
In the frequency domainEdit
When the magnetic susceptibility is measured in response to an AC magnetic field (i.e. a magnetic field that varies sinusoidally), this is called AC susceptibility. AC susceptibility (and the closely related "AC permeability") are complex number quantities, and various phenomena, such as resonance, can be seen in AC susceptibility that cannot in constant-field (DC) susceptibility. In particular, when an AC field is applied perpendicular to the detection direction (called the "transverse susceptibility" regardless of the frequency), the effect has a peak at the ferromagnetic resonance frequency of the material with a given static applied field. Currently, this effect is called the microwave permeability or network ferromagnetic resonance in the literature. These results are sensitive to the domain wall configuration of the material and eddy currents.
In terms of ferromagnetic resonance, the effect of an AC-field applied along the direction of the magnetization is called parallel pumping.
ExamplesEdit
Magnetic susceptibility of some materials
Molar susc., χmol
Mass susc., χmass
Volume susc., χv
Molar mass, M
Density, ρ {\displaystyle \rho }
(°C)
(atm)
(m3/mol)
(cm3/mol)
(m3/kg)
(cm3/g)
(emu)
(10−3 kg/mol
= g/mol)
(103 kg/m3
= g/cm3)
Helium[16] 20 1 −2.38×10−11 −1.89×10−6 −5.93×10−9 −4.72×10−7 −9.85×10−10 −7.84×10−11 4.0026 1.66×10−4
Xenon[16] 20 1 −5.71×10−10 −4.54×10−5 −4.35×10−9 −3.46×10−7 −2.37×10−8 −1.89×10−9 131.29 5.46×10−3
Oxygen[16] 20 0.209 +4.3×10−8 +3.42×10−3 +1.34×10−6 +1.07×10−4 +3.73×10−7 +2.97×10−8 31.99 2.78×10−4
Nitrogen[16] 20 0.781 −1.56×10−10 −1.24×10−5 −5.56×10−9 −4.43×10−7 −5.06×10−9 −4.03×10−10 28.01 9.10×10−4
Air (NTP)[17] 20 1 +3.6×10−7 +2.9×10−8 28.97 1.29×10−3
Water[18] 20 1 −1.631×10−10 −1.298×10−5 −9.051×10−9 −7.203×10−7 −9.035×10−6 −7.190×10−7 18.015 0.9982
Paraffin oil, 220–260 cSt[15] 22 1 −1.01×10−8 −8.0×10−7 −8.8×10−6 −7.0×10−7 0.878
PMMA[15] 22 1 −7.61×10−9 −6.06×10−7 −9.06×10−6 −7.21×10−7 1.190
PVC[15] 22 1 −7.80×10−9 −6.21×10−7 −1.071×10−5 −8.52×10−7 1.372
Fused silica glass[15] 22 1 −5.12×10−9 −4.07×10−7 −1.128×10−5 −8.98×10−7 2.20
Diamond[19] r.t. 1 −7.4×10−11 −5.9×10−6 −6.2×10−9 −4.9×10−7 −2.2×10−5 −1.7×10−6 12.01 3.513
Graphite[20] χ∥ (to c-axis) r.t. 1 −7.5×10−11 −6.0×10−6 −6.3×10−9 −5.0×10−7 −1.4×10−5 −1.1×10−6 12.01 2.267
Graphite[20] χ∥ r.t. 1 −3.2×10−9 −2.6×10−4 −2.7×10−7 −2.2×10−5 −6.1×10−4 −4.9×10−5 12.01 2.267
Graphite[20] χ∥ −173 1 −4.4×10−9 −3.5×10−4 −3.6×10−7 −2.9×10−5 −8.3×10−4 −6.6×10−5 12.01 2.267
Aluminium[21] 1 +2.2×1 | 3,542 |
The Man Who Ate His Boots
The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage
By Anthony Brandt
Read by Simon Vance
Category: European World History
Category: European World History | Audiobooks
Mar 22, 2011 | ISBN 9780307276568
Mar 02, 2010 | 919 Minutes
Mar 02, 2010 | ISBN 9780307712295 | 919 Minutes
About The Man Who Ate His Boots
After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the sixteenth century: find the fabled Northwest Passage. For the next thirty-five years the British Admiralty sent out expedition after expedition to probe the ice-bound waters of the Canadian Arctic in search of a route, and then, after 1845, to find Sir John Franklin, the Royal Navy hero who led the last of these Admiralty expeditions. Enthralling and often harrowing, The Man Who Ate His Boots captures the glory and the folly of this ultimately tragic enterprise.
The enthralling and often harrowing history of the adventurers who searched for the Northwest Passage, the holy grail of nineteenth-century British exploration.
After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the sixteenth century: find the fabled Northwest Passage, a shortcut to the Orient via a sea route over northern Canada. For the next thirty-five years the British Admiralty sent out expedition after expedition to probe the ice-bound waters of the Canadian Arctic in search of a route, and then, after 1845, to find Sir John Franklin, the Royal Navy hero who led the last of these Admiralty expeditions and vanished into the maze of channels, sounds, and icy seas with two ships and 128 officers and men.
In The Man Who Ate His Boots, Anthony Brandt tells the whole story of the search for the Northwest Passage, from its beginnings early in the age of exploration through its development into a British national obsession to the final sordid, terrible descent into scurvy, starvation, and cannibalism. Sir John Franklin is the focus of the book but it covers all the major expeditions and a number of fascinating characters, including Franklin's extraordinary wife, Lady Jane, in vivid detail. The Man Who Ate His Boots is a rich and engaging work of narrative history that captures the glory and the folly of this ultimately tragic enterprise.
Listen to a sample from The Man Who Ate His Boots
About Anthony Brandt
Anthony Brandt is the editor of the Adventure Classics series published by National Geographic Society Press and the books editor at National Geographic Adventure magazine. Formerly the book critic at Men's Journal, he has written<|fim_middle|> think exists in the Arctic Basin. Already the Northwest Passage is a tourist attraction of sorts, and a Russian icebreaker makes the trip every summer with paying passengers. Maybe they'll take me along on one of these trips. I'd like to see it, if I can sleep in a warm cabin and eat good food while I'm there.
More from Anthony Brandt and book picks sent right to your inbox | for The Atlantic, GQ, Esquire, and many other magazines. Brandt lives… More about Anthony Brandt
Mar 22, 2011 | 464 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780307276568
Mar 02, 2010 | 464 Pages | ISBN 9780307592903
Mar 02, 2010 | 919 Minutes | ISBN 9780307712295
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"Exotic and thrilling. . . . One of those books that can keep a reader inside for an entire weekend."
"Thoughtful, compassionate and meticulously researched . . . offers readers a vivid, compelling, ultimately heartbreaking history of Arctic exploration."
"A fascinating, at times thrilling, narrative."
"Brandt is a superb and profound writer who leads us through a tale of such hardship you feel as if you've been aboard ship with them. It's no small feat to use a bit of history to illuminate the future, but Brandt pulls it off. This is narrative history at its absolute gripping best."
—Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm and War
"[Brandt is a] powerful storyteller, vividly re-creating the most dramatic episodes of the nineteenth century."
"A robust new history. . . . Brandt tells his story well. . . . [He] achieves a modern synthesis between the hagiography of the old days and the more recent historical revisionism."
"Brandt is a well-tempered storyteller, both thoroughgoing and agile, who knows what to do with a tale of high color and noble folly."
"A rich and satisfying read, and a classic history of Arctic exploration."
—Laurence Bergreen, author of Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu
"Lively, mischievous, and dryly ironic . . . deeply satisfying fare."
—Arctic Book Review
"A well-researched account. . . . Brandt is at his best when he weaves in back stories of the politics and petty feuds that shaped much of the public perception."
"A splendid, gripping account of an astounding, unbelievable quest. . . . What Brandt brings to this mesmerizing tale is what only fine writing can deliver: fully realized sense impressions that make history come memorably alive, and an informed, sensitive analysis of historical events that puts them in larger context."
—The Independent (Hamptons)
"Anthony Brandt's account of the fatal quest for the Northwest Passage is fascinating, horrifying and inspiring. It is not just a great tale of heroic exploration, wonderfully told, but an epic voyage of discovery into the recesses of the human spirit."
—Piers Brendon, author of The Decline and Fall of the British Empire
"Brandt pens a colorful narrative full of gothic horrors, quiet daring, and petty personality clashes, and probes the social meaning of these odysseys. . . . The result is a gripping—and sometimes appalling—tale of heroism and hubris."
Q: In THE MAN WHO ATE HIS BOOTS you tell the rousing and often horrifying story of the search for the Northwest Passage, the holy grail of nineteenth century British exploration. Why did so many people invest such time, energy and effort in to this search?
A: There's no simple answer. In part it had seemed since the sixteenth century—when the Spanish and the Portuguese were claiming all the easier routes to the Far East—like a peculiarly British mission to find this great unknown route to the East via the north; and after 1815, when the Napoleonic Wars ended with such a decisive British victory and the seas were theirs, the chance to use idle ships and idle seamen to find it became too attractive to resist. The British now thought they could do anything, no matter how difficult, especially at sea. But it was also to some degree the product of one man's enthusiasm, and that was John Barrow, the powerful second secretary of the Admiralty, who believed in an open, i.e. unfrozen, polar sea; and he had an ally in the first lord of the Admiralty, the second Lord Melville, who supported the idea and was able to gather Parliamentary support. The British people were excited by the idea, too, and got behind it.
Q: Was the mission a fool's errand?
A: It proved to be so, and there were skeptics from the beginning. But at the time the Arctic was completely unknown. The map was blank above 80 degrees north in all areas, and above 70 degrees north in most. Nobody knew what the Arctic Ocean was like, or whether there even was an Arctic Ocean for that matter. For all they knew Greenland might extend to Asia, and some mapmakers thought it did. Others firmly believed that salt water could not freeze. The Greenland whalers knew better, but they weren't scientists, they were commercial fishermen, and men like Barrow paid no attention to them. They weren't gentlemen. In retrospect, then, it certainly seems like a fool's errand, but life does not happen in retrospect, and what seems foolish now seemed like a noble effort at the time.
Q: Your title refers to John Franklin's 1819 failed expedition where 11 of the 20 men in the exploration party died of starvation and the survivors were forced to eat their boots! Franklin's expedition is perhaps the most famous, but there were dozens of missions sent to the Arctic in the first half of the nineteenth century, one failure after another. Each of the commanding officers felt as if he was prepared for the journey ahead so what was it that doomed these expeditions to failure and death?
A: The Arctic is intractable. No amount of preparation can ensure a person's safety in an environment full of so much risk. The margin of survival is extremely narrow in the Arctic, and even small mistakes—the loss of a glove; forgetting to bring sun glasses; the sudden collapse of an ice floe—can kill you, and in a very short time. More of Franklin's men might have survived in 1821 if he had turned back a week earlier, or even a few days. To survive in the Arctic, one must be very bold; one must also be very cautious.
Q: John Franklin's final journey in search of the passage ended in cannibalism. Many people will be shocked at the concept of crew members eating one another, but describe for us the conditions these explorers faced.
A: Franklin's men had food for three years, most of it salt meat, dried soups, tea, chocolate, grains, and hardtack, the biscuit only a sailor could love. After three years of exploring—two of them stranded in ice that ran up to thirty or forty feet thick in some places—it was obvious they weren't going anywhere, the food was running out, and none of it was fresh anyway. Almost all the survivors to that point must have been suffering from scurvy, a debilitating disease that eats away the body's connective tissue and is fatal soon enough. No one then knew its cause. Fresh food cures it, but in the middle of a frozen ocean fresh food is rare. Seals, mostly, if you knew how to catch them. When the survivors set out on foot for civilization, a thousand miles away, they would have been exhausted, desperate, starving, very weak, and very cold. Who's to judge them for trying to survive, once their companions started to die, with the only food available? It was called, at the time, the custom of the sea, and it was not uncommon. Herman Melville certainly knew of instances of it; so did every seaman.
Q: You say, "Great Britain's Arctic explorers sailed eagerly into the bitter seas of the far North, testing themselves against the deadliest climate in the world, in the service of something they believed in. The conclusion was tragic, but tragedy gives depth and meaning to death. Where would mankind be if it did not take risks? If it were not proud?" What has been the legacy of these explorers? Should we remember them as heroes?
A: Hero is a word that makes me uneasy. One man's hero is another's devil. There are multiple sides to every story. I prefer the word courageous. Parry, Franklin, the two Rosses: whatever one thinks of the project they were engaged on, there can be no question of their courage. One holds one's breath as Lt. Parry picks his way between the ice and the shoreline, half blinded by fog sometimes, hoping the wind doesn't shift and trap him between an ice floe perfectly capable of turning his ship into splinters and a shoreline composed of solid rock. These men were often religious, and one can't help but think that they would almost have to be, to do what they did.
Q: In THE MAN WHO ATE HIS BOOTS, you focus on the British explorers who searched for the Northwest Passage from 1818-1880. Where do these explorers fit in to the history of Arctic Exploration?
A. To a substantial degree they are the history of Arctic exploration. When they began in 1818 the Arctic was almost completely unknown. By the time they finished, the map of the western Arctic, above North America, was nearly complete. Attempts to reach the North Pole followed and it was attained, perhaps in 1909, when both Peary and Cook claimed it, although the claims are still challenged; but the British were the real pioneers, and whatever the costs in human life, their achievement was considerable.
Q: In your research, did you travel to the Arctic?
A: I hoped to be able to, but it didn't happen. I'm not sure it would have been helpful in any case. I was writing a general history covering a multitude of expeditions over the course of three centuries, and it was the expedition accounts that formed my basic sources. I could imagine the cold well enough.
Q: You are the editor of the "Adventure Classics" series published by National Geographic Society Press. Some of the books you've edited include, "The Tragic History of the Sea: Shipwrecks from the Bible to Titanic" and "South Pole: A Narrative History of Exploration of Antarctica". What is it about naval history that fascinates you?
A: All history fascinates me. But I'm drawn to the sea, having spent all my summers when I was young in a cottage on the Jersey Shore; I grew up knowing how to swim and sail, I had my first boat when I was nine, my first sailboat at eleven, and I was winning sailing trophies soon thereafter. It gets in your blood. I'm drawn to tragedy, too, because I think it comes the closest of all the ways of understanding human life to the way things are—to reality. And I've always wanted to live as much as possible without too many illusions.
Q: THE MAN WHO ATE HIS BOOTS is full of eccentric characters, many of whom bicker with each other in highly entertaining public battles. If you had to pick one, which historical character was most fun for you to bring to life?
A: I suppose egotistical, cranky, battleworn, and almost always wrong John Ross was my favorite sailor on this trip. For me he gave the stereotype of the British eccentric new levels of meaning, and it was always fun to watch him mess things up. The fact that he had once been run through with a bayonet added a bit of spice to his character, and his pamphlet wars with various enemies were always entertaining. But for sheer love I'll opt for Lady Jane, John Franklin's wife and one of the most extraordinary women of her time, surely the most intrepid woman traveler of the first half of the nineteenth century. I keep hoping someone will write a new biography of her. I got carried away a few times and devoted too much space to her and had to cut back. I think the memorial to her husband in Westminster Abbey should really be a memorial to her.
Q: Thanks to global warming, in the summer of 2007, the Northwest Passage opened to ship traffic. What can you tell us about the future of the Northwest Passage?
A: I wish I knew, so that I could invest in it. But, joking aside, the Passage was open in 2007 and 2008, but not in 2009. I doubt that it will be open reliably every summer for a while, perhaps a decade. But inevitably, if warming continues at the present rate, I don't see how it won't open every summer by 2020, and that will cut thousands of miles off the present sea routes to the Pacific from the Atlantic, and vice versa, reducing costs for shippers all over the world. Is this a good thing? Obviously, only in the short term, and only for shippers—and possibly oil and natural gas producers, if they find as much oil and natural gas as they | 3,083 |
Prashant Michael John
Nominations and Awards for Prashant's two cross-cultural world music bands:
Tandava" (2005) – CBC radio's ROOTS & WINGS 10 BEST ALBUMS OF 2006 (Internationally)
nominated for best 'World Fusion' category of the Independent Music Awards
nominated for FAVOURITE WORLD ARTIST/GROUP/DUO OF THE YEAR by the 7th Annual Independent Music Awards (Canadian)
nominated as 'Best Ensemble' and 'Best World Group' for the Canadian Folk Music Awards
reached #2 in the National Canadian Campus Radio 'International' charts in March 2006 and #1 at various stations for weeks. CJSW (Calgary), London (Ontario) and more.
Lehera
Independent Music Awards (Vox Populi) 2009 (World Fusion)
International Songwriting Competition 2010 - Nomination in World category for Heartsky
Just Plain Folks 2009 - Indian Album and Indian Song winners<|fim_middle|> Unknown Artist
Original Beauty - Unknown Artist
Amchok: Damyen, Vocals
Prashant: Bansuri, guitar,
dulcimer percussion,
arrangement, recording
and mixing
Amchok Gompo Dhondup was born in a nomadic family in Amdo,Tibet. He didn't have the opportunity to go to school when he was young, but he taught himself how to play the damnyen (a six-stringed lute) while he was herding yaks in the mountains. He also learned many songs from the elders in his village. When he was 14 years old, he started to study Tibetan folk music. He studied from many legendary Tibetan folk musicians in Amdo Machu. In the year 2000, he went to India as a refugee, and met with HH the Dalai Lama who asked him to teach at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. He taught there until coming to Canada in the year 2005 through the Banff Center of Performing Arts. Since coming to Canada he has continued to tour internationally as a musician and studies English, Western music and computers.
Prakriti
Prakriti Sampler Demo - Prakriti
Saraswati - Prakriti
Prakriti bridges the gap between the ancient and contemporary. With a firm grounding in Eastern and Western musical traditions, they explore the universality of rhythm and melody. Tabla beats and Indian rhythmic syllables dance together with evocative guitar improvisations. Bamboo flute melodies and soaring vocals in Eastern and Western musical styles converse with classical esraj improvisations.
Davinder ; Esraj
Prashant - Guitar, Bansuri
Sunny - Tabla/percussion
Davinder Singh Namdhari - Esraj/Taar-Shenai, Voice
Davinder specializes in Vocal Classical Gurbani Kirtan and the Esraj/Taar-shehnai. With the spiritual blessings and guidance of Sri Satguru Jagjit Singh, Davinder's rigorous training exposed him to a variety of Indian musical instruments and styles and he holds an MA in Indian Classical Vocal music from Punjab University. Davinder also teaches other instruments such as Sitar, Dilruba, Esraj, Taus, Taarshehnai, Sarandha, Harmonium and Sarangi
Sarabjit (Sunny) Matharu- Tabla/percussion, voice
Sunny has performed in a variety of musical genres including Indian and Western Classical, Jazz, Hip hop/Beatboxing, R&B, and East-West Fusion. Sunny has performed in Canada, US, UK and India. He is much sought after as a performer, teacher, and recording artist
Sunny has studied with many Tabla maestros including Pt. Sharda Sahai, Pt. Yogesh Samsi, and Ustad Zakir Hussain. Learning from these masters exposed Sunny to a variety of Tabla styles and traditions. Although Sunny specializes in Tabla he is also adept in Pakhawaj, Jori, and Dholak.
Adhruva - (not fixed, uncertain)
Adhruva is a project involving mostly improvisation usually - certainly not always - within a framework or from a starting point) consisting of the core musicians Khoji Vihara (Silver Flute) and Prashant John (guitars, Bamboo flutes, and other ethnic and hybrid instruments) musicians and including guest artists from different artistic disciplines.
"We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down."
"Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay."
--- J. Krishnamurti
Khoji Vihara - Flute
.BIO Coming
Prashant:
Guitar, Voice, composition, loops
Bob Fenske M. Mus. : percussion
More music by Adhruva on soundcloud
Prashant on Reverbnation
Prashant on soundcloud
Music and spoken-word
Vensan Kamberk - Spoken Word
Prashant - music
Incomplete list - to be updated
Prashant's Mantra and Sound website |
Listen/Buy
On Cdbaby
Buy on Spotify
Buy on Cdbaby
HEART SKY
"The music has the rigorous qualities of classical music and is also marked with the liberties that make up funk, folk and modern music." Joyce Janvier-Gagnon, Radio Canada
"Lehera is an inspired project established by….A great professional album adding a personal vision…." Cd review by Psychvanhetfolk
"I firmly believe in the Lehera project. It has a lot of energy and is well played!" – Dave King, Bassist ( Dizzy Gillespie, Laurie Anderson, Jimmy Smith, Tina Turner, Bobby McFerrin etc.)
HeartSky - Lehera
Thai Sunrise - Tandava
Tandava" (2005) – won CBC radio's ROOTS & WINGS BEST ALBUMS OF 2006
reached #2 in the National Canadian Campus Radio 'International' charts in March 2006 and #1 at various stations for weeks
Tandava acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canada Music Fund) and of Canada's Private Radio Broadcasters.
LEHERA & SARAH BUECHI
EP with award winning Swiss Singer Sarah Buechi.
available by emailing from contact page.
Tat Tvam Asi (You Are That) - Lehera with Sarah Beuchi
Demos and unreleased recordings - collaborations and solo
Soyala - | 309 |
Le mont-caume, appelé vin de pays du Mont Caume jusqu'en 2009, est un vin français d'indication géographique protégée (IGP) fabriqué dans le Var, à Toulon et dans ses alentours.
Histoire
Au avant notre ère, les Phocéens de Massalia établirent un de leurs comptoirs près de l'actuel village du Castellet qu'ils nommèrent Torroeis. Ils y plantèrent un vignoble. Avec la colonisation romaine celui-ci pris une nouvelle expansion et fut installé sur des restanques.
Les vins de pays du Mont Caume ont été reconnus par décret du 31 janvier 1982.
Il est à noter que le logo IGP décerné par l'Union européenne figure sur l'étiquette quand la mention indication géographique protégée est remplacée par celle plus traditionnelle de Vin de Pays.
Étymologie
Le Mont Caume qui donne à l'IGP son nom est une grande colline au-dessus de Toulon. C'est le plus haut des cinq monts qui encadrent la cité portuaire avec ses 801 mètres d'altitude. Il est entouré au sud par le Baou de Quatre Aures (560 m), au nord<|fim_middle|> tradition départementale où les vins rosés représentent près de 80 % de la production, l'IGP Mont Caume rosé n'excède pas 55 % des volumes. La production de vin rouge est importante puisqu'elle se situe, selon le millésime, entre 40 % et 50 %. Celle du vin blanc se cantonne à 5 % de la production des vins tranquilles. La production de vins mousseux, en blanc (clairette, ugni blanc) et en rosé (grenache et cinsault), est assurée par un domaine et une cave coopérative qui mettent en marché 33 000 bouteilles par an.
Le rouge, qui se présente dans une robe grenat, dégagé au nez des de fruits rouges confits ou confiturés, à l'agitation on perçoit des arômes discrets de garrigues. La bouche est ronde et délicate avec une empreinte mentholée en finale. Le rosé se présente dans une robe type pétale de rose avec beaucoup d'éclat et de brillance. Son nez, fin et délicat, est marqué par des notes d'agrumes et de fruits à chair blanche. Le blanc, qui possède une robe jaune pâle et chatoyante, exhale au nez des notes d'agrumes, de fruits à chair blanche ou exotiques. Sa bouche, vive, dense et légère, possède une belle longueur.
Terroir et vins
L'effet du climat, joint à l'implantation du vignoble sur des sols peu profonds et pentus, permettent l'obtention d'un vin rouge corsé et la puissant, et de vin blanc et rosé fruités et floraux. Leur volume annuel, les trois couleurs confondues, plafonne autour de hectolitres comme ce fut le cas des campagnes 2007 à 2009. Avec ses 220 hectares, cette IGP représente moins de 10 % de la totalité du vignoble.
Le cépage majoritaire est le carignan N. Les bonnes conditions climatiques permettent, grâce à des rendements maîtrisés, de mener à bonne maturité ce cépage assez tardif. Cette spécificité explique sa présence dominante dans le vignoble.
Type de vins et gastronomie
Les rouges sont des vins structurés et puissants. Les rosés se caractérisent par leurs arômes fruités. Les blancs, secs et nerveux, dégagent, quant à eux, des arômes floraux et fruités. Les vins mousseux, qui se distinguent par leur élégance, expriment leur qualité par des arômes fruités ou floraux.
Les rouges s'accordent avec des plats régionaux comme une bouillabaisse. Leur température de service est de 16 °C. Les rosés sont parfaits sur de la cuisine asiatique, sur des pâtes ou sur des poissons grillés. Les blancs se marient parfaitement avec des fromages de chèvre, et se révèlent parfaits à l'apéritif. Rosé et blancs se boivent frais à 8 °C.
Structure des exploitations et commercialisation
La viticulture a toujours été et reste un pilier de l'économie locale. Les vins de l'IOP ont acquis une excellente notoriété au sein de l'un des départements les plus touristiques de France. Leur commercialisation s'effectue par un réseau de distribution local où les caveaux tiennent une place prépondérante. Ils sont élaborés par vingt-deux domaines et trois caves coopératives.
Le quasi équilibre entre la production rosé/rouge . De plus face à une demande locale forte, il a été nécessaire d'offir des vins qui se distinguent du Bandol (AOC), tout en conservant les avantages d'un ancrage territorial.
Notes et références
Notes
Références
Voir aussi
Articles connexes
Var (IGP)
Maures (IGP)
Lien externe
IGP Mont Caume sur le site lefigaro.fr
Vignoble de Provence
Agriculture dans le Var
Vin IGP en France
Vin primeur
Bandol | par le Grand Cap et le plateau du Siou Blanc (qui s'étale du Mont Caume jusqu'à la vallée de Signes), à l'est par le mont Faron (584 m) et le mont Coudon (702 m) et à l'ouest par le Gros-Cerveau (430 m).
Le toponymiste Pierre-Louis Augereau lui donne comme origine la racine pré-celtique kal-, signifiant pierre, rocher qui s'est décliné en calma dans le sens de hauteur dénudé qui se retrouve, outre dans le Mont Caume (Calvus Mons), dans des toponymes comme Chaumont ou Calmont.
Situation géographique
Situé au sud-ouest du département du Var, le vignoble producteur longe la côte autour de Bandol, il est compris entre les agglomérations de Toulon, à l'est, et de Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, à l'ouest. Son terroir offre une grande cohérence morphologique.
Orographie
Cette zone constitue un amphithéâtre, large d'une dizaine de kilomètres, bordée de collines (200 à 300 mètres d'altitude), qui s'ouvre sur la Méditerranée au niveau de Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer. Son centre est occupé par les zones collinaires du Castellet, de la Cadière d'Azur, de Bandol, de la Migoua, du Gros Cerveau de Croupatier. Le paysage aux alentours est dominé au nord par la Sainte-Baume (plus de 600 mètres), à l'est par le Mont Caume, à l'ouest par les garrigues de l'arrière pays marseillais, et au nord-ouest par le Siou Blanc.
Les vignerons ont dû composer avec ce relief vallonné en créant des terrasses de culture ou restanques dont les dimensions diminuent avec l'altitude de 30 à 5 mètres.
Géologie
Les sols datés du trias forment . La roche mère, aux sols peu profonds (70 à 80 centimères), à un faciès plus ou moins sableux, argileux et calcaire. Y prédominent des grès et des terres argilo-calcaires, entrecoupés par des bancs de calcaire pur.
Climat
Le climat typiquement méditerranéen est marqué par un ensoleillement qui est l'un des plus élevés du littoral provençal avec une moyenne annuelle de 3 000 heures. La proximité de la Méditerranée et brises marines assurent une pluviométrie suffisante (650 à 800 mm/an) essentiellement en automne et en hiver. Le mistral, souvent violent, froid et sec, joue un rôle primordial dans le bon état sanitaire de la vigne en éliminant les parasites cryptogamiques et les insectes nuisibles. De plus ce vent venu du nord tempère l'air en période estivale (saison de croissance), ce qui ralentit le maturité et conserve aux raisins une bonne acidité.
Vignoble
Présentation
Sur une superficie totale de de vignobles plantés dans ce terroir viticole, le mont Caume intéresse 220 hectares pour une production de 10 000 hectolitres/an. Sont intéressés les communes suivantes dans le département du Var : Bandol, Evenos, La Cadière-d'Azur, La Seyne-sur-Mer, Le Beausset, Le Castellet, Le Revest-les-Eaux, Ollioules, Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer, Sanary-sur-Mer, Six-Fours-les-Plages.
Encépagement
Les vins rosés sont élaborés par assemblage des cépages grenache N, cinsault N et carignan N, les vins rouges sont essentiellement à base de mourvèdre N, carignan N et grenache N. Pour les blancs sont assemblés bourboulenc B, ugni blanc B et clairette B. Ces vins pour bénéficier de l'IGP ne peuvent être produits qu'à partir des cépages autorisés par l'arrêté du 20 février 2009.
Méthodes culturales et réglementaires
Les pentes ont été coupés en terrasses pour accueillir les vignobles et réduire l'érosion. Cette méthode culturale est identique à celle utilisée pour les vignes de Bandol (AOC) dont les vins du Mont Caume partagent le même terroir. Dans un amphithéâtre naturel, le vignoble s'étage en restanques (terrasses) soutenues par des murets de pierres sèches. Ces paysages structurés par des générations de vignerons ont sculpté les coteaux créant, par épierrage, des parcelles cultivables que se sont partagées vigne et olivier. Ces parcelles de terre conquises sur les collines et fixées en respectant les courbes de niveau, un temps délaissées, sont remises en culture, car elles sont particulièrement bénéfiques au vignoble en favorisant une bonne régulation hydrique.
Pour être labellisés, les vins de Mont Caume doivent provenir de vignes ayant un rendement maximum à l'hectare de 90 hectolitres pour les trois couleurs. Ces vins doivent titrer au minimum 10°. Le label est réservé aux vins tranquilles, vins mousseux de qualité, rouges, rosés et blancs. Cette IGP peut être complétée par le nom d'un ou de plusieurs cépages ainsi que par les mentions « primeur » ou « nouveau ».
Vinification et élevage
Contrairement à la | 1,383 |
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What annoys you? Traffic jams, car alarms, flight delays, phone trees, junk mail? People who cut in line? People who talk loudly on cellphones? People who eat noisily and clip their nails in public? You<|fim_middle|>'t stop clipping his nails: It usually makes for a good story later. | 're not alone. These are just some of the irksome things we confront daily.
Since annoyances are ubiquitous, and so many people are annoyed so much of the time, you might think that science could offer some insights about why we find certain things so annoying and what we can do about them. In fact, science can. But don't ask a scientist. As a group, they have almost completely dropped the ball on the topic. In fact, if you talk to scientists, you might get the idea that there is no such thing as annoyance at all.
"From my perspective, annoyance is mild anger," says James Gross, a psychologist at Stanford University. Paul Rozin, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, warns, "You have to be careful to distinguish annoyance from aversion." And University of Florida psychologist Clive Wynne says, "It's hard to distinguish annoyance from frustration."
It's true that annoyance shares qualities with anger, aversion and frustration. There is also some overlap with disgust, irritation, even ennui. But annoyance, as we who've felt it can attest, is its own thing. It captures elements of other emotions but belongs exclusively to none.
So it fell to us, two science journalists, to probe the findings of science for clues to what annoyance is all about. After talking with researchers in a variety of disciplines including (but not limited to) psychology, physics, acoustics, chemistry, molecular genetics, animal behavior and neuroscience, we came up with a formula for what makes something annoying.
First, to be annoying, something must be unpredictable. That may be the heart of why cellphone conversations are so grating. Research shows that when we listen to speech, our brains try to predict the words that will come next. But it's hard to predict the next words out of someone's mouth when you're only hearing one side of a conversation. Research on the topic indicates you get drawn in more; you get more distracted from what you'd rather be doing or thinking about; the annoyance level rises.
Next, it must be unpleasant. That's a giant category, and often subjective. Some people are annoyed when someone picks a piece of lint off a garment they are wearing; others are grateful. Some are annoyed when radio announcers leave the "g" off words such "going" and "rolling"; others hardly notice.
Though there's no accounting for taste, there may be a way to account for aversion. Detecting something unpleasant is among the first things that biological organisms learned to do. Thanks to a receptor that evolved half a billion years ago, certain chemical irritants — like the active ingredient in tear gas or the compound that makes up wasabi — have been annoying life on Earth since before the dinosaurs.
Some smells and sounds also seem to be intrinsically unpleasant. For instance, the annoying component in skunk smell is a sulfur-based compound. Sulfur-rich environments tend to be oxygen-poor environments, so it makes sense for creatures that need oxygen to avoid them. There may also be a biological component to why most of us can't abide the sound of fingernails on a blackboard. Some researchers suggest the fingernail noise resembles the acoustic signature of a primate warning call; others liken it to a human scream. We may be programmed to register that sound as a danger signal.
The final ingredient in the annoyance recipe is that it must be of uncertain duration. A cellphone call will end eventually; you just don't know when. That uncertainty, combined with a desire that it be over soon, feeds your annoyance. You can't craft a logical plan of action for dealing with an unpleasant, unpredictable situation if you don't know how long it will last.
The good news is that taking control of an annoyance seems to alleviate the feeling — and sometimes even the source of the annoyance itself. Take a baby's wail. The annoying sound of crying prompts you to take action — you shut off the sound by changing a diaper or providing a meal. And dealing with your annoyance sometimes prevents your having to confront something worse later. If you'd ignored the crying and the wet diaper had stayed next to your baby's sensitive skin longer, you might have had to deal with diaper rash — and an even fussier baby.
Annoyances are, by definition, trivial. If the sensory assault were putting you in real danger, it would no longer be annoying; it would be a crisis. That seems to be the essence of annoyance's special role in the emotional arena: Unlike something that makes you angry or sad, in which you might be rightly justified in your feeling, an annoyance is so petty that you're expected to put up with it, even though you don't like it. Your logical mind tells you that it makes no sense for your blood to boil when the guy next to you starts smacking his gum.
If you become aware that your reaction is out of proportion with the stimulus causing it, you become at risk for what we call "terminal annoyance." This is where you become annoyed with yourself for being annoyed, and then you become annoyed with yourself for being annoyed with yourself. You've entered the annoyance spiral. It's a bad state. But there is a small positive side to the times when you start sputtering and tearing your hair out because someone sitting next to you won | 1,080 |
Researchers discover the brain cells that make pain unpleasant
If you step on a tack, neurons in your brain will register two things: that there's a piercing physical sensation in your foot, and that it's not pleasant. A team of scientists at Stanford University has identified a bundle of brain cells in mice responsible for the latter — that is, the negative emotions of pain.
Pain research has traditionally focused on the neurons and molecules at the frontline of pain perception — the cells in nerves that process stings, cuts, burns and the like — and ultimately convey a physical threat message. What Grégory Scherrer, PhD, assistant professor of anesthesiology and of neurosurgery, and Mark Schnitzer, PhD, associate professor of biology and of applied physics, are studying goes one step further. "We're looking at what the brain makes of that information," Scherrer said. "While painful stimuli are detected by nerves, this information doesn't mean anything emotionally until it reaches the brain, so we set out to find the cells in the brain that are behind the unpleasantness of pain."
Backed by animal-brain imaging and molecular testing, the researchers have found an ensemble of cells in the amygdala, a region of the brain classically associated with emotion and fear, that seems to specifically function as an on-off switch for pain aversion. And although the finding was made in mice, there's reason to think it could one day serve as a therapeutic target for human pain, since the mouse and human amygdala aren't so different in function. Researching this group of cells could reveal a potential treatment for chronic pain, the scientists hope.
The idea is that patients suffer from the emotional unpleasantness of pain, rather than pain sensation itself. If there's a way to dull the emotional hurt, rather than the physical sensation of pain, that could be big for chronic pain patients.
A paper describing the results of the study was published in Science. Scherrer and Mark Schnitzer, PhD, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, share senior authorship. Postdoctoral scholar Gregory Corder, PhD and former graduate student Biafra Ahanonu, PhD, are the co-lead authors.
Peeping at pain neurons
The amygdala seemed to the researchers a logical place to start, since it's a well-established hub for emotion in the brain. Within the amygdala, they narrowed their search by looking for neurons in mice that were active during brief pain stimulation — such as a drop of hot, but not scalding, water applied to a paw. Neurons that are active express more of a specific gene called c-Fos, and indeed, a sea of c-Fos-expressing neurons flared after this stimulus.
"But that really only tells you that those neurons were active at some point, and it's not specific enough," Scherrer said. "What we wanted was to look at the neurons of freely moving animals."
To observe the deep-seated wiring of a mouse's brain, Scherrer partnered with Schnitzer, who<|fim_middle|> ensemble as a tool in pain therapy, Scherrer said, as an animal, or human, without the ability to physically feel anything at all leaves them vulnerable to injury.
Long term, Scherrer aims to confirm that the function of the basolateral ensemble in mice is the same as it is in people, and then down the line, find a safe and effective way to silence the ensemble's function without interfering with other neurons.
"There's really no good treatment for chronic pain in humans, and that's a major driver of the opioid epidemic," Scherrer said. "But you'll notice, patients who take opioids for pain report that they can still feel the sensation of pain but say it's less bothersome — the emotions of pain are different. Our big future hope is that the cells in the basolateral ensemble could be a tactic to curb the ailment of pain without causing addiction and thus, ideally, act as a possible substitute for opioid treatment."
Source: http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/01/researchers-discover-the-brain-cells-that-make-pain-unpleasant.html
Journal article: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6424/276
amygdala, emotions, medicine, neuroscience, pain, research | had developed a "miniscope" — a microscope about the length of a small paper clip, which could be affixed to a mouse's head to record activity in its brain. They positioned the device strategically to visualize the amygdala. The mouse, alive and well, could stroll as it pleased, while the miniscope recorded calcium flux in the neurons, a proxy for cell activity.
The scientists monitored the mouse brains with the microscope, watched the mice detect something uncomfortable, observed the aversive reactions and then checked which neurons were active. "With this setup, we identified a set of neurons in the amygdala that selectively encodes signals related to the emotional aspects of a painful experience," Schnitzer said.
When the mice touched a drop of uncomfortably hot or cold water (neither of which were severe enough to injure the mice), they withdrew, signaling to the scientists that the rodents were not pleased. Upon this withdrawal, the microscope's recording showed a bundle of neurons firing in the amygdala — specifically in the basolateral region — suggesting that these neurons were specifically responsible for the emotion of pain.
It was, however, still possible that this basolateral ensemble was simply firing to relay general emotion, rather than the unpleasantness of pain specifically. So, the researchers fed the mice sugar water — a sweet treat known to bring joy to any mouse — and kept an eye on the collection of neurons suspected to relay displeasure. As expected, those neurons stayed silent.
"There's also a difference between experiencing pain and experiencing something annoying, so we further wanted to test if the amygdala neurons active during pain were also associated with overall negative emotion, rather than pain particularly," Scherrer said.
What miffs a mouse? The same things that might bother a sibling: tiny puffs of air to the face, an unappetizingly bitter taste or a very bad smell. While bothering the mice, the researchers again monitored the basolateral amygdala pain ensemble, and here, too, the neurons remained subdued.
Tracking the perception of pain
"After all of that, we concluded that this ensemble of neurons selectively responds during pain," Scherrer said. "But it still didn't fully demonstrate that they underpinned the emotional response."
To investigate that question more deeply, the researchers set up a walking track with three invisible lanes: On the far left was a cold strip; on the right, a hot one; and in between the two was a temperate middle ground. (For context, walking in the two outer lanes was comparable to walking barefoot on pavement during winter or summer, respectively — uncomfortable, but not permanently damaging.)
Normal mice that walked on the track gradually learned that the middle lane was tolerable, while the outer two were unpleasant. But in a select group of mice, the researchers temporarily disabled the bundle of amygdala pain neurons thought to relay feelings of physical discomfort. These mice — free of pain-incited unpleasantness — skittered around the outer regions, undeterred by the extreme temperatures.
What's intriguing about this, Scherrer said, was that these mice weren't bereft of physical feeling. "Pain was just no longer unpleasant for them," he said. The rodents could still feel and respond to physical sensations, but the stimuli they once perceived as unpleasant (hot or cold drops of water) were no longer bothersome. When exposed to a drop of hot water, for example, the mice with a muted basolateral neural ensemble would move their paw away from the dropper, signaling that they felt the stimulus — but they would move their paw back to its original position, something that normal mice did not do. This is a crucial part of harnessing the | 753 |
Choosing one paint finish<|fim_middle|> finish, ideal for high-traffic areas that may require frequent cleaning.
If you would like more information about our paint finishes or if you have questions about your finish options with GVC painting, please contact us today. | or another can affect the final look of your building and the longevity of your paint. If you have a finish preference, we will work with you while planning your painting project to make sure you get the finish you want and the finish that will last the longest given your building's activities. If you're not sure which finish would look best and last longest in your building, we will help you make an informed decision.
Flat/Matte: Ideal for low-traffic areas, smooth camouflaging finish, difficult to clean.
Eggshell/Low Lustre: Ideal for low-traffic areas, low sheen, slightly easier to clean than matte.
Satin: Versatile finish, good for indoor or outdoor use, can be wiped clean.
Semi-Gloss: Ideal for high-traffic areas, higher sheen, can be wiped or scrubbed clean.
Gloss: High-shine | 179 |
As the UK distributors of world-renowned Ortery equipment EME Digital have been at the forefront<|fim_middle|>, so that it can quickly be done in-house without the need for a trained photographer. | of digital image creation for ecommerce since 2007. Back then it was our robust and reliable range of just three PhotoStudios that offered consistently lit top and side shots. They automatically processed and edited the images so that they were ready for use on websites by using our proprietary software to give white backgrounds for still images. Since then EME Digital has progressed from still photography, through 360 spins to spherical spins and 3D modelling. Our product range has blossomed to include a range of standalone turntables, and our PhotoStudios range from small highly configurable units for jewellery all the way up to quite large photostudios for photographing people. Our PhotoStudios are now endowed with integrated turntables, transparent turntables, automatic background removal, focus stacking and multi-zone LED lighting. Our software has also evolved and our new Capture* software can simultaneously control multiple photostudios and cameras. Throughout the expansion of our range and its capabilities we have maintained the goal of simplifying product photography | 203 |
Friday Fable. "THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE"*
Caption: In Need of No-Doz. (Illus. by Harrison Weir, 1871).
"A HARE one day made himself merry over the slow pace of the Tortoise, vainly boasting of his own great speed in running.
<|fim_middle|>, the one with the turn taking turtles.
Your browser does not have javascript enabled. Please type 856446 into the field below. | The Tortoise took the laughing and boasting in good part. 'Let us try a race,' she said; 'I will run with you five miles for five dollars, and the Fox out yonder shall be the judge."
The Hare agreed, a course was arranged, and away they started together. True to his boasting the Hare was out of sight in a moment.
The Tortoise never for a moment stopped, but jogged along with a slow, steady pace, straight to the end of the course. Full of sport, the Hare first outran the Tortoise, then fell behind. Having come midway to the goal, he began to nibble at the young herbage, and to amuse himself in many ways. After a while, the day being warm, he lay down for a nap, saying: 'She is behind me now. If she should go by, I can easily enough catch up.'
When the Hare awoke, the Tortoise was not in sight; and running as fast as he could, he found her comfortably dozing at their their goal.
Those who are very quick are apt to be too sure. Slow and steady often wins the race"
Probably among the two or three best known of Aesop's fables, is there any more to be said beyond the obvious?
Of course. There's always more with Aesop. All it takes is re-thinking the fable's meaning. I'll show you:
The turtle wins less for being slow and steady than for the hare's over confidence (and considerable smuggery). IOW, the hare is his own worst enemy.
And, so it can be at work.
Studies have shown it is not always the loudest, the smartest, the fittest, or the strongest in a group that holds the key to a knotty problem. Time and again, I have seen the quietest group member, or someone of average intelligence, or the physically weakest member offer the best idea for solving a problem.
Often, it is the person with the highest EQ (emotional intelligence) that facilitates the best decision-making. That's because of his or her capacity to work with others and to get others thinking.
A trickster or Team Turtle version of this fable has the turtle winning not because of the rabbit's laziness, but because of turn taking by different turtles. No matter how hard the hare dashed, there was always turtle in front, a la Rosie Ruiz.**
*Source: J. H. Stickney. "Aesop's Fables / A Version for Young Readers." Æsop's Fables: A Version for Young Readers
Illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull
New York: Ginn and Company 1915
Available at Gutenberg e-books
**Rosie Ruiz won the 1980 Boston Marathon in record time. Shortly after she was exposed as having run only the last mile. Her secret to winning: "Don't run the whole thing."
Maybe Rosie read the alternate version of the turtle/hare fable | 621 |
Music for children and adolescents with hearing loss
21 February @ 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
« Building Resilience for Students with Hearing Loss
Two topic areas in the field of hearing loss: Music and The Functional Listening Index-Paediatric® (FLI-P®) »
This workshop focuses on the benefits of music for listening and learning for young children through to the adolescent years. It explores music and hearing loss, the role of music in supporting wellbeing and social interaction, and practical strategies to support student engagement and participation.
Facilitated by Dr Chi Yhun Lo, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation and an Adjunct Fellow at Macquarie University. Chi has consulted with Cochlear Limited on a number of music-based applications such as "Bring Back the Beat".
Chi's research areas examine the intersection between music, hearing, deafness, and health. A champion for open access and open learning, Chi is a dedicated educator and communicator—a NSW Fresh Scientist, a 3-Minute Thesis Finalist, a guest speaker at the Sydney Science Festival, the co-creator of a workshop: "Breaking down the invisible barriers between the deaf and the hearing", and the recipient of a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning at Macquarie University.
Chi serves as the Committee Secretary for the Parents of Deaf Children—a not-for-profit organisation that advocates and provides support for families with deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Chi is also the founder of a Science Camp for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children which was a Finalist at the Engagement Australia 2021 Excellence Awards.
Face to face workshop, held at the 'Hear for You' office, Ground Floor, Australian Hearing Hub.
Key learnings
Explore the role of music for learning and engagement
Learn current research findings on music and hearing loss, including communication, social wellbeing and participation
Learn practical strategies to support student engagement and participation through the integration of music into learning programs
3 hour face-to-face course suited for professionals working with young children with hearing loss.
Multiple opportunities for group discussion of key concepts, case examples and application of techniques.
Download Course Overview (PDF)
Course duration: 3 hours
AUD $120 incl GST
This course can be extended as part of a full-day workshop.
Full Day Workshop
Chi Yhun Lo
Chi's research areas examine the intersection between<|fim_middle|>", and the recipient of a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning at Macquarie University. Chi serves as the Committee Secretary for the Parents of Deaf Children—a not-for-profit organisation that advocates and provides support for families with deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Chi is also the founder of a Science Camp for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children which was a Finalist at the Engagement Australia 2021 Excellence Awards.
Payment and registration
Not able to make it or missed out?
If you have any questions about this course, please contact us at [email protected]
Or register your interest for the next one and we'll be in touch with dates - please note in the comments which course you are interested in
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Audiologists, Counsellors, Educators, Face-to-face, Hearing Specialists, Music Therapists, New, Parents, Speech Pathologists, Teachers
The Shepherd Centre
professionaldevelopment@shepherdcentre.org.au
Face-to-Face – Australian Hearing Hub
Macquarie University,NSW2109Australia+ Google Map
Two topic areas in the field of hearing loss: Music and The Functional Listening Index-Paediatric® (FLI-P®)
21 February @ 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
28 February @ 11:00 am - 1:00 pm | music, hearing, deafness, and health. A champion for open access and open learning, Chi is a dedicated educator and communicator—a NSW Fresh Scientist, a 3-Minute Thesis Finalist, a guest speaker at the Sydney Science Festival, the co-creator of a workshop: "Breaking down the invisible barriers between the deaf and the hearing | 70 |
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