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Raleigh, NC
Fred retired from IBM after 31 years, then ran a small Internet-based business from home from 2003-2015: "Bracksco Wine Nook, featuring VintageView Wine Racks and Personalized Wine Accessories." He now offers his services as an Audio Describer and VoiceOver Artist and is the webmaster for the American Council of the Blind's Audio Description Project.
In February 2011, Kathy, along with her Seeing Eye dog Wilda, retired from her job as Director of the Client Assistance Program for the State of NC. In January 2020 she received her eighth dog, KOINU (which means puppy in Japanese), a very small black lab who is doing great! (Read this Facebook post about Kathy and her dogs!)
Daughter Michelle is a nurse in the (cardiac) Cath Lab at Rex hospital, following five years at Durham Regional Hospital. She lives in Durham with her Boston Terrier, Tanner.
Son Dan married (nurse practitioner) Reneé Denbow in March 2014. They "gave" us three grandchildren: Blakely, Hayden, and Ariella. At the start of 2019, Dan took a new job with Intuitive Surgical (which makes the da Vinci Surgical Robotic System), and they now live in the Atlanta area.
The Grandkids (August 2023)
Fred maintains websites for The Audio Description Project (for which he received an award in July 2016 and which is now a half-time contractor job); the Triangle Chapter of the American Wine Society, the Needham High School Class of 1964; and for members of Brown University's radio station WBRU in the 1960s. He continues in his role as an audio describer (since 1999) and trainer for Arts Access, and he records a weekly program for the NC Reading Service (since 1999). He was previously on the board of both organizations plus the Wine Society.
We moved into our custom designed new home in 2001. We also owned a condo on the Intracoastal Waterway in Belhaven, NC, from 2007-2020; but we sold it as we want to do more traveling elsewhere (like Atlanta!). We finally plan to resume yearly international travel in June 2023 with a twice-postponed trip down the Danube river.
|My Facebook Page
Current: I'm retired, but active maintaining the American Council of the Blind's Audio Description Project website, doing audio description, and some voice-over work.
I worked in software development and human resources for IBM for nearly 31 years, but I retired in 1999. I took time off to whittle away at my home project list and to "smell the roses" before deciding what to do next. From the Fall of 2000 to the end of 2006 I worked part-time from home for IBM Human Resources at RTP to help maintain the Lotus Notes databases I left behind when I retired.
When I retired, I was a Senior HR Professional, and my core HR responsibilities were primarily executive and technical resource development. However, during the last three years there I spent over half my time developing applications using Lotus Notes for use by my IBM HR teammates and internal customers, mostly software development managers, a position I held prior to joining HR.
In the summer of 2003, I started my own small business as a distributor for a unique line of wine racks called VintageView® (sample pictured left). I named the business BRACKSCO and named the website Bracksco Wine Nook (www.bracksco.com, now closed except for my article on how to build a wine room). I really enjoyed helping people design wine rooms, and I also sold personalized wine accessories, which required learning some new skills. I closed the business and retired in July 2015.
In June of 2014, I began work (part-time) as a professional voice-over artist. My voice profile can be viewed and listened to at www.bracksco.com/voiceover (additional recordings at www.voices.com/people/fbrack).
I am also a web page designer and webmaster. I have designed and maintained eight websites. My primary responsibility which keeps me busy every week is the Audio Description Project's website.
|Kathy and I love wine, and we built a
wine storage room
in our new house. We are life members of the
Wine Society and are active in the
local chapter.
Other interests include computers, boating, music, photography, amateur radio (I'm N4ECU, though inactive), tandem bike riding with my wife, walking, nature, fine dining, and occasional skydiving (well, I skydived once...).
My family consists of:
We have lived in Raleigh, North Carolina since 1981. Previously, we lived in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and the suburbs of Boston, where Kathy and I grew up (in Melrose and Needham, respectively). In the past, we used to go back to visit Cape Cod every couple of years, and we spent many vacations at Emerald Isle, NC; and we spent many weekends at our now-sold condo in Belhaven. My work in building a high school reunion website and college radio station memories website has renewed some old acquaintances, which I find most delightful. If you know me from "those days," send me an email to say hello!
I am a graduate of Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island; and Kathy is a graduate of Boston College and Emmanuel. I also attended IBM's System Research Institute back in the early 70s.


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St. Louis police summons: Parents need to keep tabs on kids or head to court
Is the St. Louis Police Department overstepping its bounds, or perhaps its expectations, by taking parents to court for not knowing where their teens are at all hours of the day?
Editor's note: This story has been updated with comments from the St. Louis Police Department.
Not all parents respond well to being told how to do their jobs, particularly by those accused of crossing the line while doing theirs.
This may be the case in St. Louis, Mo. as police have issued summonses to parents who can't keep track of their teenagers.
Police are taking parents and guardians to court for failing to know the whereabouts of their children. On Saturday night, officers issued summonses to relatives of four teens targeted in a downtown shooting late Saturday night, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The paper reported that at around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the foot by someone in a passing vehicle. Police took the boy's friends, two boys and a girl, to the police station and issued citations to the adults responsible for them.
Leah K. Freeman, public information officer for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department wrote in an email that the parents/guardians were issued summonses for "Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minors."
Freeman clarified that the teens were in violation of a city curfew law.
"This is not a new ordinance, it is just one that the investigators in this case decided to enforce after they were unable to get a hold of the parents/guardians of the juveniles for some time after the incident," Freeman wrote.
"It's a tactic police have begun using more frequently after several people became victims of downtown attacks by groups of teens," according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Because none of the adults responsible for the teens knew where the kids were at the time of the shooting, the adults were charged with violating the city's ordinance on parents' responsibility for their children.
The ordinance says it's illegal "to support, to encourage, aid, or cause" those younger than 17 to "commit any act or engage in any conduct which would be injurious" to such child's morals or health, according to the Post-Dispatch. The police's point: when parents don't know the whereabouts of their child, they place them in harm's way.
"I want parents to get in the loop," Capt. Daniel Howard, commander of the Fourth District, which includes downtown, told the Post-Dispatch. "If parents or guardians are held accountable, then maybe they'll have a conversation with their teens before they cut them loose on the streets."
Barbara Koppe, owner of Marriage & Family Therapy in Clayton, Missouri (about five minutes outside St. Louis) works as a private therapist with families, many of whom are fearful for their teenagers as a result of the ongoing violence in the region. In a phone interview she told the Monitor, "Parents are asking me how to keep their kids out of trouble and obviously you don't want them to set foot in Ferguson, but keeping track of teens at the best of times can be nearly impossible."
"I honestly don't know how the police can enforce something like that," Ms. Koppe says. "The way teens work these days with cell phones and texts that end up changing their trajectories as plans evolve it's just a completely impractical thing to expect of parents. Event he most well meaning parents."
Koppe added, "It's such a waste of our governmental powers citing parents for this. Sure there are parents who don't care, and this kind of action is not going to change that."
As the mom of four boys, ages 11, 15, 19, and 21, with multiple experiences dealing with the teen years and all the challenges they bring, I am tempted to tell the police that what looks good in theory could be totally unrealistic in real life.
Peaches Jones, a staff member at Victory Family Outreach Center in Washington, D.C. is the mom of three, boys ages 18 and 28, and a girl age 35 who spends her days helping families cope with issues such as errant teenagers, family values, and communication.
"Teenagers sneak out on the best parents," Ms. Jones said. "Also, I can see charging parents with not knowing with a six or 10-year-old is at night but not a teenager. Kids lie to parents about their whereabouts. I told my parents I was sleeping at a friend's when I was in the club!"
The summons come close to assuming that parents A: Don't care about their kids, B: Should be punished for their child being a victim to senseless violence, and C: The violence involving kids will be stopped by parents knowing their whereabouts.
Ms. Jones said she recommends that police talk to parents who are having trouble controlling their teenagers about getting mentors involved.
"So many times I see parents trying their best, but that teen may just be in a phase where anything the parent says is something to ignore and not respect," she said. "In those cases a mentor can really work. They will listen to a mentor when they won't listen to a parent."
Perhaps more officers in St. Louis can be encouraged by the department to learn about being mentors, or perhaps the department might engage groups like Mentor International in finding experienced mentors in their area to help. That organization offers a nationwide listing for both those who wish to volunteer and those in need of help.
I am not advocating loosie-goosie, no rules, free-range parenting of teenagers.
What I am suggesting is that there are better strategies for community engagement that do not involve criminalizing families who are in need of resources, education, and better strategies.

subset: commoncrawl


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audiobook (Unabridged) ∣ The Life of Rome's First Emperor
By Anthony Everitt
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He found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. As Rome's first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into the greatest empire the world had ever seen. His consolidation and expansion of Roman power two thousand years ago laid the foundations, for all of Western history to follow. Yet, despite Augustus's accomplishments, very few biographers have concentrated on the man himself, instead choosing to chronicle the age in which he lived. Here, Anthony Everitt, the bestselling author of Cicero, gives a spellbinding and intimate account of his illustrious subject. Augustus began his career as an inexperienced teenager plucked from his studies to take center stage in the drama of Roman politics, assisted by two school friends, Agrippa and Maecenas. Augustus's rise to power began with the assassination of his great-uncle and adoptive father, Julius Caesar, and culminated in the titanic duel with Mark Antony and Cleopatra. The world that made Augustus-and that he himself later remade-was driven by intrigue, sex, ceremony, violence, scandal, and naked ambition. Everitt has taken some of the household names of history-Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Antony, Cleopatra-whom few know the full truth about, and turned them into flesh-and-blood human beings. At a time when many consider America an empire, this stunning portrait of the greatest emperor who ever lived makes for enlightening and engrossing reading. Everitt brings to life the world of a giant, rendered faithfully and sympathetically in human scale. A study of power and political genius, Augustus is a vivid, compelling biography of one of the most important rulers in history.


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Shopee 4.4 Sale
I. Qualifications
The promo is open to all Robinsons Bank credit cardholders (UNO, DOS, Robinsons Cashback and Pru Life UK Credit Card) of good standing*. Promo is no applicable to Robinsons Bank Corporate Credit Card.
II. How to Avail
- Shop using the Shopee Mobile App.
- Select the items you wish to purchase and click "BUY NOW".
- To proceed with checkout, enter your e-mail address and shipping details.
- Discount offer:
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- Click "Select payment method" and choose "Credit / Debit Card" as option.
- Select or add your participating Robinsons Bank Credit Card and click "Confirm".
- Promo discount will be automatically applied to your purchase upon checkout.
III. Terms and Conditions
- Qualified Robinsons Bank Credit Cardholders are entitled to avail of the promo discounts from Shopee within the applicable promo periods.
- Promo discount is P300 OFF for a minimum spend of P3,000 per promo period.
- Promo discount is valid for eligible Shopee users during the promo durations.
- Promo discount is valid for one-time use only per promo period.
- Promo discount cannot be reapplied after a qualified order has been cancelled by the cardholder unless reason for cancellation is deemed valid upon investigation. (e.g. delay in receipt of OTP)
- Promo discount is valid for new and existing Shopee registered customers.
- Promo discount cannot be applied retroactively.
- The offer cannot be exchanged for cash or other products.
- Promo discounts are only valid on preferred and Shopee Mall stores excluding products under the "Load, Bills and eServices" category.
- Promo discount is valid on orders to be delivered via integrated couriers.
- By joining this promo, the user confirms that he/she has read, understood, and agreed to the promo mechanics and its terms & conditions.
- Shopee reserves the right to cancel transactions of accounts that are suspected to be invalid or fraudulent (i.e. abuse of system).
- Shopee reserves the right to vary these terms & conditions with prior approval of DTI.
IV. Customer support
For any questions or clarifications, please contact Shopee's Customer Service at (02) 88805200 or email email@example.com.
*Cardholders in good credit standing are those with Robinsons Bank credit cards which are not reported lost, stolen, whose accounts are not delinquent, not under investigation due to suspected fraud, and those who have not violated any of the Terms and Conditions Governing the Issuance and Use of Robinson Bank Credit Cards.
Per DTI-Fair Trade Permit No. FTEB-163718 Series of 2023.


text: How To Improve Your Business Today you are likely to interact with multiple companies and adhere to Business processes that ensure your interaction is transmitted less. It is also likely that you have encountered ineffective improve Business processes that made your experience with the company cynical. As companies grow, they …Read More »


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California - East Bay
Regional Community
We are located in the the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. From Bethel Island in the delta to Alameda Island on the bay, the town of Crockett to the city of Fremont and all points in between, we are everywhere!
We come together to bring Burning Man's values and community spirit to our neighbors and friends. Our focus is on community, participatory activities, learning and building art that we take to the desert and burn.
We meet periodically to socialize, to learn new things and have fun. Find out more by subscribing to our low-volume emails below or find us on social media.
Get involved and find out about local happenings by signing up on our Announcement list, chat with other Burners on our Discussion lists, or follow us via your social media of choice - but definitely come out and get involved!
Announcement List:
The California - East Bay Announce list is a moderated announcements-only list for events of interest to local Burners. Recipients get regular updates, event listings, and Burning Man news from this list.
To subscribe, send a blank email to:


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The lack of good governance in Nigeria and its impact on functional science education
Kola, Aina Jacob
Gana, Nathaniel Nnawo
Olasumbo, Ibitomi Oluyemi
MetadataShow full item record
The paper reviewed the importance of science education in the development of every nation of the world including Nigeria. However, it argued that the science education in Nigeria as studied in the Universities, Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education could not be functional. It is not functional because it only produced graduates who are not creative. The paper attributed this to the lack of the good governance in the country. The pinnacle of bad governance was summarized to be corruption in the nation. Visionary leaders, total war against corruption, Youth Scientific Collaboration Programme (YSCP) and much more are some of the solutions recommended by the authors.


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Close your eyes.
Can you hear that? That's the swelling narrative that says human creativity is fucked.
Take our industry. Creative agencies are struggling to grow their businesses. Artificial intelligence is writing scripts. Algorithms are taking basic, bland concepts, adding colours, music, imagery that the data says you like, and designing ad campaigns just for you. Fucked, fucked, fucked.
Does creativity need saving? Hell yes. Crusaders will find plenty of discussion in this month's print publication to insist that it does.
Ask Christopher Wylie, who reckons that bad use of data is killing good ideas and squeezing our humanity. And the ad industry's own voracious, parasitical demand for data, data, data is partly to blame, alongside governments' refusal to regulate.
Here's proof: Brainlabs founder Daniel Gilbert reckons we don't need people called creatives any more – the same person should be driving the programmatic media machine and "creating" the ads to drop into the digital boxes. Forget full-service agencies, we just need full-service people.
It's a chilling thought, though a compellingly practical one. It just doesn't have anything to do with creativity (which Google itself defines as "the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness"), and it's offensive, fraudulent even, to suggest that it does. Call it producing collateral, call it adapting assets, call it personalising utilities, but let's be clear, this is not creativity. How did we allow the word that describes the alchemical essence of big brand-building, emotion-touching work to become appropriated by data-driven tools?
Adam & Eve/DDB's David Golding warned us a couple of years ago when he drew a distinction between creativity and collateral. But here we are facing a creative crisis because we've allowed data to rule unchecked and the data drivers to claim the word creativity for their own.
Open your eyes: the best creative agencies are thriving; AI scripts are cold, dysfunctional; algorithmic dynamic "creativity" is a boring if bluntly effective utility, it doesn't move hearts and minds. So this month's Campaign is also full of brilliant creativity and exciting creative minds. Don't let the swelling narrative drown that out.
Does creativity need saving? Hell yes. Let's do it together.
Saving creativity: a Campaign manifesto
What is the ad industry's life force? What courses through everyone's veins? What surprises, delights, inspires, shocks, leaves you gasping for breath and thinking what a pleasure it is to be alive? Creativity.
So why is adland forgetting its magic power? Why is it sacrificing brilliant creativity at the altar of the algorithm?
Data is important. It can inform great creativity. It can help find audiences. It can help shape ideas. But as Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO's joint chief strategy officer Craig Mawdsley says, a machine can mimic and create variations of existing ideas but it can't create the concept of music.
So why has adland lost its voice? Why isn't it saying no to those who want to reduce everything to a number?
The obsession with data is also leading to some highly unethical practices. At its worst, it is ruining the very foundations of society, blurring truth, damaging democracy and eroding the entire concept of personal privacy – and all for what? To sell some more shampoo? So someone can get a bigger bonus this month?
We need to get a grip. We don't want our legacy to be a surveillance state.
It's time to stand up. We can write the future, not a machine. Stop demanding more and more data from social platforms. It's a vicious circle.
Instead, demand proper, effective regulation of online advertising and social media companies. It won't harm business, it will ensure everyone is playing from the same, ethical playbook.
Human imagination is more powerful than we give it credit for. Let us use it not to recreate a sci-fi fantasy but a world in which humans can thrive.
It's time to save creativity.


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Nevada State Seal of Biliteracy
The Nevada State Seal of Biliteracy is an award given to high school graduates who have demonstrated proficiency in English and one or more world language. An official Seal will be affixed to the high school diploma and the Seal of Biliteracy will appear on students' official transcript with designation of the specific language(s). Students can demonstrate world language proficiency by taking one of the various language assessments offered in the WCSD.
Seal of Biliteracy Data 2016-2019 - This is WCSD data showing the numbers of students earning the seal and in which languages.
Links to testing agencies:
* All tests must be taken at a WCSD school site with a certified proctor
Need more information? Contact Melissa Carson


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Field Trip: Duke FarmsWhen: April 12, 2014 (weather permitting)
Meeting Place: Sparta Police Station
Time: Leaving at 8 a.m. sharp! - please arrive a little earlier than 8 a.m. to arrange ride sharing.
Price: Free
Duke Farms opens at 8:30am. We want to arrive no later than 9 a.m. as they close the parking lots as soon as they are filled. The official portion of the club trip will end at 12:30 p.m. but you are welcome to stay on your own depending on your transportation arrangements. However, it will no longer be an official field trip.
What is there:
Orchid greenhouse
Old foundation of a mansion that was not built
Garden sculpture
Tram (runs on the 1/2 hour)
Walking Paths
For further information, please see the Duke Farms website:
All Content © Sparta Camera Club and their respective members.
No photos displayed on this site may be used without permission from the credited photographer.


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#AsiaTravChat is a twitter chat focused on living & Traveling around Asia. We meet online every Tuesday evening at 7pm Korean Time. I'm Mike (@LiveTravelTeach) and I started this twitter chat with cohosts Samantha of @ExpatAndTheCity and Kate from @TOSeoulcialite. Together we are excited to bring you new questions to inspire you to visit or move to Asia. If you have any suggestions for questions let us know and we'll consider them for next week!
How to join #AsiaTravChat
- Its easy. Simply log onto twitter and use the hashtag #AsiaTravChat on Tuesday January 31st starting at 7pm KST (Korean Standard Time)!
- Use this link to a time zone converter to see what time #AsiaTravChat is in your city!
- 3:30pm New Dehli
- 5pm Bangkok
- 6pm Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei & Manilla
- 7pm Seoul & Tokyo
- 9pm Sydney
- 11pm Auckland
- We will tweet out questions every 10 minutes with the Q1, Q2, etc. to help everyone stay organized.
- Answer each question using A1, A2, etc.
- Feel free to ask your own questions using #AsiaTravChat!
What is a Twitter Chat
A Twitter chat is a live Twitter event. To filter all the chatter on Twitter into a single conversation a hashtag is used. A set time is also established so that the moderator, guest or host is available to engage in the conversation.
#AsiaTravChat Week 4 Theme
Every week will have its own theme but since its our first week we are starting with the theme Jobs in Asia.
#AsiaTravChat Week 4 Questions
Here are the questions. See you on Tuesday!
Q1 Have you ever/do you work in Asia? Tell us about it! #AsiaTravChat
Q2 What is the best place to find jobs in Asia? #AsiaTravChat
Q3 What are some of the drawbacks to working in asia? #AsiaTravChat
Q4 What are some of the major cultural differences you've seen in the workplace? #AsiaTravChat
Q5 Share a funny story or memory about working in asia? #AsiaTravChat
Q6 Share a photo of something fun/you are proud of from working in Asia. #AsiaTravChat
Questions will be posted in approximately 10 minute intervals
Week 1 #AsiaTravChat Stats
In the first week of AsiaTravChat we has 92 posts from 13 users and a reach of 25,866 with 201,967 Impressions! Join us week 3 to make it even bigger!
Even if you can't make it to this weeks live chat feel free to tweet using the hashtag #AsiaTravChat and join us next time! Or if you use a scheduler like Buffer feel free to join us that way.


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NLP Practitioner
NLP Practitioner
An NLP Practitioner is an individual who has comprehensively understood how to employ the techniques and principles of NLP to augment their personal effectiveness and advance the same skills in others.
NLP is essentially, understanding how to be more effective at whatever you do. An NLP Program assists an individual in being more effective towards learning how to buildup your focus, deal with phobias and anxieties, enhance relationships, both personal and professional. Once you have achieved the expertise to be Practitioner, the next step in progression is a Master Practitioner NLP.
NLP Practitioner creates change
NLP Practitioner is in effect an extremely transformational technology. It has proved to yield rapid and deep change in people's beliefs, behavior, and identities. An accomplished NLP Practitioner will do this by mildly yet candidly challenging his/her "structure of reality" and assisting them in discovering constructive and useful substitutes. The personal change that's triggered is facilitated by advanced, full-body neurological re-patterning methods as well as caring.
A renowned NLP Trainer once revealed: "NLP by itself has no heart. It's the NLP Practitioner that brings the heart and compassion to the session with a client." This approach of permitting, compassion and heart, the principles and techniques of Neuro Linguistic Programming help become effective tools and agents for change that can transform chronic problems into new answers that are on most occasions even better than the old habits/choices.
NLP Practitioner Certification
Below are the criteria for a NLP Practitioner certification:
A. Length of Training: A Minimum of 120 hours of advanced training imparted by a certified trainer and a minimum of 15 hours of direct trainer supervision.
B. Demonstrating the ability to recognize the following techniques patterns, basic skills, and conceptions of NLP and to execute these competently with others and with self.
1.Behavioral integration of the basic presuppositions of NLP, including:
a. Outcome orientation with respect to other models of the world and the ecology of the system.
b. Distinguishing between map and territory.
c. There is only feedback (cybernetic) and not failure.
d. The meaning of your communication is the response you get.
e. Adaptive intent of all behavior.
f. Everyone has the necessary resources to succeed.
g. Resistance is a signal of insufficient pacing.
h.Law of requisite variety.
2. Rapport, establishment and maintenance of.
3. Pacing and Leading (verbal and non verbal).
4. Calibration (sensory based experience).
5. Representational systems (predicates, and accessing cues).
6. Meta-Model.
7. Milton-Model.
8. Elicitation of well-formed, ecological outcomes and structures of present state.
9. Overlap and Translation.
10. Metaphor creation.
11. Frames; contrast, relevancy, As If, Backtrack.
12. Anchoring (VAK).
13. Anchoring Techniques (contextualized to the field of application).
14. Ability to shift consciousness to external or internal, as required by the moment's task.
15. Dissociation and Association.
16. Chunking.
17. SubModalities.
18. Verbal and non-verbal elicitation of responses.
19. Accessing and building of resources.
20. Reframing.
21. Strategies; detection, elicitation, utilization, & installation.
22. Demonstration of behavioral flexibility.
To get started, check out our NLP 1-2-3 apps that presents you with an introduction to the NLP Practitioner level.


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Open House on Sunday, September 24, 2017 2:00PM - 4:00PM
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When you go to any store or online retailer, there are so many choices in every category, it makes you wonder how any one brand ever gets noticed over another. If you're like us, you recognize the brands that have consistently provided dependable value time and time again. Those are the brands you are looking for, and those are the brands you choose.
But that brand recognition didn't happen overnight. It may have taken years! Maybe you heard about a brand from a friend, colleague or family member who has used it successfully before. Maybe you were impressed by an ad you saw and now you recognize it in the marketplace. Or maybe, because of its reputation for great customer service, you chose it for the first time.
And even with all these compelling influences, the CPG logo, package, colors, and positioning must pop off the shelf or off the page. The brand's image must clearly distinguish itself from its competition. It must be compelling, and easy to spot. Strong brand recognition is a multifaceted challenge. It's not a one-time fix. It's earned every day in a dynamic and ever-changing marketplace.
So let's examine how to create brand recognition with consumer brands. Here's our top five steps:
1. Image. It's what your customers are looking for.
No discussion of strong brand recognition can begin without acknowledging the importance of the physical appearance of your branded product in the marketplace. It is, after all, what will catch the customer's eye when they first see it and help them find it when they look for it again. It is the graphic and physical image that speaks louder than words to convey your message and distinguish your brand.
This is why logos are so important. It may be all that your customer needs to see your brand and say, "That's the one!" But contrary to what most logo designers would lead you to believe, building brand recognition is a much bigger challenge! It's not just your logo, it's the total appearance of your branded product, it's positioning, and how it's promoted.
Your logo must be placed on a label. Your label must be placed on a package. Your packages must be placed in shipping cartons. And you must have point-of-purchase marketing materials that draw attention to your branded products on the shelf or on display. Each one of these designs must be orchestrated to do the job in a severely restricted trucking, warehouse, or retail environment in order to result in strong brand recognition.
The shapes, colors, designs, and images you choose must work in concert with each other and still pop in the various settings in which they appear.
Another important part of CPG brand image is the brand name. It must be memorable, easy to pronounce, and appropriate, with the fewest number of syllables possible. Ideally, your brand name should be the same as your logo to multiply the impression in your customer's memory. The brand name and logo should convey some compelling advantage the buyer attains by using it.
2. Distribution. It's where your customers can find your brand.
When it comes to distribution, we like to say, "You can't buy it if it isn't there!" Basically, all the great artwork and design in the world will do nothing to develop strong brand recognition if your customer can't find your product where they normally shop. Unlike personal branding, consumer brand building is dependent on physical distribution.
So achieving, maintaining, and building strong physical distribution is an essential ingredient in strong brand recognition. We would go so far as to say that many mediocre consumer brands with poor logos, labels, and packaging can still have strong brand recognition if they have excellent distribution management.
Building strong distribution is an expensive and time-consuming proposition. It's not just getting a placement for your branded products at some retailers. It's consistently maintaining your presence and expanding your volume over time. Distribution is a cornerstone of strong brand recognition in the physical consumer product space. It can also be quite a dangerous place if proper distribution management is not executed.
For instance, if you expand too quickly with borrowed or investor money and don't fully account for the cost of sales in each new territory, it can mean disaster! You will be unable to maintain shelf space and, in the process, hurt your brand's reputation by being out of stock. This sends your return customer a message that your product is "hard to get," "isn't being made anymore," or is "undependable."
So now, the very distribution required to build strong brand recognition is working against you because you can't service what you sell in new territories. This is why we advise consumer brand builders to start small, learn their lessons and make their mistakes in a small manageable territory. And take notes!
We also recommend engaging the services of a cost accountant. Unlike books and general ledger accountant, your cost accountant will factor in the cost of sales in every new territory. In fact, they will advise you when and where to expand so that your footprint is manageable and you can continue to be delivering great customer service and exceeding customer expectations.
In other words, it's better to build strong brand recognition in a smaller territory you can manage than to spread yourself so thin that your reputation for customer service suffers and damages your brand. But with physical brands, achieving retail shelf space requires sales and brand building at multiple levels of distribution often overlooked by brand builders who focus solely on the end-user consumer.
Every level of distribution has a different motivation for moving your branded products along the supply chain. If just one of those levels doesn't have their needs met by you, as the branded product producer, they will stop your brand in its tracks, and it will never make it to the retail shelf.
So, a critical part of strong brand recognition is getting your product in front of your consumer. You cannot do that without the cooperation of the other distribution players:
- The owners of your various distributors have strategic motives. They want to know how carrying your brand will improve their influence with the large buyers in their marketplace.
- Their sales managers want to know how your representative will sell your branded products for them so they can achieve their numbers – even if their own sales representatives don't sell your brand.
- Your distributors' sales representatives want to know how your representatives are going to sell your branded products for them and help them keep your products on the shelf.
- Your retail buyers want to know how fast your product turns at other retailers, and what you will do to achieve that volume in their stores.
- Their clerks want to know how your representatives will bring in customers and whether or not your rep will sample customers on your products to help sell them.
Everyone has a different motive, but none has much to do with your features and benefits. You simply can't have strong brand recognition without satisfying everybody in the distribution chain first!
At this point, some brand builders may say, "Well, I'll just sell my products online." And well they may. But if they are looking to build strong brand recognition with physical products, nothing is more effective than physical distribution. It is only through physical distribution that you can achieve quantity purchases, notion and impulse buys, tactile comparison with other products in your category, and a large check from each distributor or retailer rather than one-at-a-time sales.
Whether your consumer buys your product or not in the physical retail space, they see your product on a regular basis. This helps build strong brand recognition and familiarity even before they buy, and when they are finally ready, they know right where to get it .
3. Reputation. It's what your customer expects from your brand.
Your customer's expectations are what compels them to make the purchase in the first place, keeps them coming back, and encourages them to become advocates for your brand. Your reputation is made up of your consumers' expectations based on what they have seen, heard, or personally experienced with your brand.
Also known as the brand promise, reputation is the perception that your customers and prospects have about your brands and your company's behavior on many levels. Because it's their perception and not necessarily what you've been telling them, they own your brand promise. Strong brand recognition cannot be separated from brand promise. It's what you and your brand are supposed to do according to the expectations of the marketplace. If you or your brand violate those expectations you are breaking your brand promise.
Strong brand recognition is a double-edged sword. Once you have strong brand recognition, customers know who you are and have expectations about your behavior. Now you are being held accountable to deliver. Now it's not just your brand that's being judged, it's your labor, business, and environmental practices that are subject to scrutiny. When you are new and relatively unknown, you still have time to make corrections. But once your brand is established, it's nearly impossible to "un-ring that bell!"
Conversely, when you consistently are exceeding customer expectations with great customer service, strong brand recognition works to your advantage.
4. Endorsements. It's what others say about your brand.
The best form of advertising has always been word-of-mouth. When a friend, relative, or associate recommends your brand, they are putting their own reputation on the line. They do this because sharing it is part of their own discovery process. They know that the person they're recommending your brand to will be appreciative and they will be thanked for the tip.
Because of that, however, if they have a bad customer experience, see a deterioration in quality, or take exception to your company's business practices, they will be the first to warn those same folks against continuing to buy your brand. Again, their personal reputation is at stake.
There are several approaches to how to create brand recognition using endorsements:
- Quote celebrities endorsing your brand. Your customers and prospects who know the celebrities will transfer their "fame" to your brand which adds a level of authenticity to your claims.
- Quote satisfied customers who've used your branded products. This adds a level of accountability to your claims.
- High ratings from third-party publications is another effective way to establish credibility. Being the top offering in a category, the best value for the price, or the only brand that addresses a specific consumer need, all help distinguish your brand from the competition.
- Awards, medals and badges give your consumers the validation they need to make the purchase. They can justify their decision to others by citing these awards.
5. Causes. It's what you stand for besides your branded product.
Selling in retail stores is selling in neighborhoods. Neighborhoods have local worthy causes they champion. When your company supports these causes with goods, services, donations, and marketing support, you are giving the members of that organization a social reason to buy your product. If done right, this type of cause-based marketing can result in strong brand recognition albeit on a local level.
But because your shoppers are in the same neighborhoods as the stores that carry your brand, local level brand recognition is just what you need to bring those customers in the door to request and buy your brand. They can buy any brand in your category, but they choose to buy yours not necessarily because it has a better price or more awards, but because you support their cause.
And how do you support their cause? For one thing, you have access to a forum that they do not – the retail marketplace. In that forum, you can promote their goals on your products, displays, and signage right there on the shelf or on the floor in the stores where their own community shops. For another, you can help them promote their fundraisers, provide labor, and attend their meetings. This kind of support can create instant brand advocates in a local area, the same local area in which you are selling your branded products.
Support for larger causes important to your customers is also an effective way to get on their "good" side. Now more than ever, consumers know that they are voting with their brand choices. People want to make the right choices, not only for value and budget but for health and posterity.
Another way to support causes is by promoting a nonprofit's goals and activities in your company's business blogs. Ask to contribute supporting articles to their website as well. Basically, go on record as supporting their cause.
These are a few of the building blocks for how to create strong brand recognition in the CPG space. There are others to be sure, including temporary price reductions, special promotions, social marketing, seasonal selling, and display advertising. But whatever method you use to get the word out about your brand, these basic building blocks must be in place before you customer will reach for your brand and says, "That's the one!"


text:
on November 9, 2009 at 8:29 am
Chapter: comics
Discussion (6) ¬
I usually get the geeky humor, but i cant get this one. And google isnt helpful. Anyone care to give a fellow geek a hint ? :)
I'm just going to let the bad joke about the Tube Lemma make itself.
Oooh…does Sock Munkres have anything about Teddy Baer Addition?
Hooray!!! I have a 1974 copy of Munkres' that I first stumbled upon in my Freshman year of college. By the time I was finished with his excellent introduction to set theory and logic I had already decided I wanted to be a mathematician.
I actually made a joke about a particular generalization of the tube lemma, which I called the "tube sock lemma," in Munkres' topology class two years ago.


text:
Ord Grudobran
- Regular Price
- $15.00
- Sale Price
- $15.00
- Regular Price
- Unit Price
- per
Long before their reinvention as an army of conquest, the Sons of Ord were the Allied Guild of Terraformers charged with taming and reshaping dead planetoids and vacant Starlight alike. The lessons of pragmatism and practicality learned in those long, hard years have not been forgotten and while savage and bloodthirsty in the extreme, the Ordhren still practice a diabolically efficient method of warfare using the very tools that served them so well in the act of creation. Enormous networks of prefabricated fortification are dropped into the warzone with pinpoint accuracy serving not only as a bastion for the invading forces, but also as a form of troop and materiel transport. With their customary efficiency, the Sons of Ord can extend and enhance their network of buildings even in the midst of battle until any notion of counter-attack is rendered well nigh impossible.
Screaming from the heavens on a trail of flame, the calamitous arrival of an Ordhren Droppost signals the beginning of the end for defending forces; the very sight of its descent tearing the heart out of any resistance before the protection afforded by its indomitable walls is even required.
Typically the final piece of a tower to be dropped or Forged, the Grudobran, (or 'Grudo' as it is more commonly referred to by the rank and file) are the battlements that provide cover to snipers and observers on the roof of the tower.
It includes four removable walls. All are interchangeable with the walls from the Ord Mocht. This piece is designed to work as a roof or as a standalone piece. The doors are designed to connect to the Ord Mocht and Ord Braun pieces.
Dimensions: 8" x 8" x 1.5"
This 3mm MDF piece comes unpainted and unassembled. Building is shown for reference only and is sold separately.
Assembly instructions are available in this PDF.


text:
|Readers Say
|Ed Says
June 1, 2011
Atlanta Tribe Invitation
Good morning Ed,
I noticed you are planning a world-wide journey with the aim of visiting and supporting the various trading tribes. We in the Atlanta Trading Tribe (about 12 members) would like to invite you to one of our meetings if your schedule allows.
We would enjoy meeting with you, and more importantly, perhaps you could help point us in the right direction in terms of running a more "Seykota-like" tribe. We have been meeting since late 2009.
I could transport you to/from the ATL airport, although I may not be able to house you in ATL since my wife and I are in our first post-college apartment and there is barely enough room for the two of us and our puppy!
On a more personal note, I wish to thank you for doing what you do and thinking the way you do, in terms of operating your website and often questioning conventional wisdom. You inspire many, including myself, and because of you and a few other key influences, I have been able to manage a successful trend following fund for my friends and family since 2008. I feel very fortunate to be on the right track of living the Right Livelihood. Thank you.
Best regards,
PS While in Atlanta, if you would like to golf, fish, or even visit the North GA mountains (my in-laws have a lake house in N. GA on Lake Burton), I would be honored to spend time getting to know you.
Thank you for the invitation.
June 1, 2011
Creating Drama
Dear Master Ed,
First of all I want to apologize for not sending my report for the last meeting. I don't like falling behind my commitments.
I feel the meeting has a lower intensity, we are now working more towards using practical tools to overcome daily problems with the use of the Intimacy Model, I found these tools very useful, I want to put them in practice right now.
I also notice that some of the tribe members are very happy with their progress others less so, but we have definitely moved forward as a group. I feel weird, last month I was in the right way to fulfill my goals and I was feeling strong, in a single month everything crashed and then some more. You suggest I am probably addicted to the drama and I am the one creating it, from what I know about the system model, I realize this is true.
I send an e-mail to my partner telling him how I feel and proposing a new deal, he appreciates my sincerity and receives me. He doesn't feel very comfortable with my initial proposal but he says that he is happy we are clarifying everything, I get the feeling that no matter what we decide at the end, it is going to be the best solution for both. I notice that telling people how I feel works better than giving explanations.
My life has a lot of drama now, but I see that and accept responsibility, it is my intention to come back to Right Livelihood.
During the meeting Ed also performs hypnosis, the work is very interesting, he mentions it is useful in certain kind of situations. I cannot stop thinking how cool being in a tribe is, I always get new insights. At the end of the meeting, [Name] says goodbye to everybody because he won't be in the next meeting, I notice I am very sad, I consider him a very good friend. I hope we will stay in touch.
Thank you for sharing your process and insights.
June 1, 2011
Dear Ed,
Thank you for sharing your insights.
June 1, 2011
The End
June 1, 2011
We discuss some other situations or approaches that TTP is being utilized. We
discuss how TTP can be used as a type of medication and feelings being simply
exhausted. Feelings felt to exhaustion do not offer a change or shift in
response at the provocation of the feeling…so the feeling reasserts itself after
some time. TTP used as medication seems to be a temporary fix that exhausts the
feeling only.
|Thank you for sharing your process.
June 3, 2011
Austin Tribe Series Summary
Dear Ed and fellow tribe members,
I express gratitude to each of you for our journey together "in the trenches".
With No Doubt, our work together propels us to places we don't imagine.
Our new capabilities lead us to more fulfillment and provide more fulfillment to those around us.
I am more aware now of my listening to others and the very subtle difference between listening/acknowledging without judgment vs. listening/judging then offering remedy which then often leads to a "fight".
I wish to know how to deeply care at the interface in a manner that dignifies respect as well as indifference.
I report that perhaps I didn't realize the relationship I wished for in my goal is actually here.
[Name] is a very spirited woman. She amazes me with her beauty, animation, care and comfort.
I thank you all.
Thank you for sharing your insights.
June 3, 2011
Article on the Fed
Here is the article on the fed.
|Thank you for the link. Quinn seems to have the perceptiveness to put the story together and the courage to tell it.
June 3, 2011
Caning the Child - Unchaining the Adult
It's nearly two years since my first workshop, and over 6 months since my local tribe got going. Lots of good hot seats and role plays and good results from them. But I always defer one issue. I feel if I really open this one up my anger may get out of control and it may be dangerous to me and others.
Since age 8 I have daily flashbacks of a cruel teacher who used the cane every day. She would cane you for sitting next to someone who was caught talking in class, or for having to go to the toilet during class, and for lots of other things. Later there were other similar things with other teachers, parents. I thought an incident in year 7 - when I watched another boy get a huge belting - had the worst effect by far.
Last tribe I committed to take this one to the hot seat this time. This week I start by briefly explaining the background and why I am afraid to take this one to the hot seat and we start.
The first hot seat attempt goes for a while and I get a little bit worked up but I then I stop. I feel I am getting upset but I don't want to cry in front of everyone. I feel frustrated. Members encourage me to have another try and not hold back. This time I get more into it, screaming and raging, rolling on the floor and really feeling my anger at "Tiger" as we called her. I reach a point of maximum intensity and hold it for about 15-20 seconds. I hear the question - "Did you every feel like this before, early in your life?".
I am a bit surprised that an incident with the first teacher comes to mind that I rarely think about. It seems not the worst one at all. I ask to role play it. Other tribe members are reluctant, thinking I should do another round on the hot seat first. We argue about whether I have really got to the point of maximum intensity. We work through one of Ed's description of the rocks process. We are slow and laborious as each point seems to provoke extensive debate. Eventually we get to the actual role play and we do it. There is debate whether one person can play multiple roles in a role play (he did and it worked fine).
In the role play I am caught talking in class. I have to write my name on the board and wait until the next break, to be caned. I then have to come out the front of the class and get caned and then go back to my seat. We re-enact all this. I feel frightened and weak and vulnerable and embarrassed. After the re-enactment I burst into tears and sob loudly. I stop for a little while then start again, louder. Then I feel I have cried all my tears. It occurs to me these are the tears I wanted to cry at the time but "boys don't cry".
The next step is to find out what strategy I employ. I have a flash of insight. My strategy is to avoid thinking about what is happening and focus on the revenge I am going to get against this person. I hold onto the thought of revenge as a way to get through the situation. I hold onto it afterwards too. We go through my life picking out times when I employ this strategy. I notice that holding on to anger at past grievances is something I do constantly. I identify the rock donor. I think about the effects of this strategy on the donor as well as on me.
My tribe are not convinced - they think I am holding out on them. They are right. There is one situation where I hold on to my revenge that I feel ashamed of. I tell them this. I decide not to tell them about the situation but I am fully aware of it. It is not that I did a terrible thing to anyone but I just don't want to share it. They accept this.
Then we identify lots of good new resources. I decide that I want the new resources and that I want to mostly use the new resources instead of my old strategy of holding on to thoughts of revenge when a person does a bad thing to me.
We get to the point of re-enacting the role play. Using my new resources I believe I would have been able to avoid being punished that time so we re-enact the situation leading to the punishment and me using my new resources. Mentally I also re-enact the punishment scene to see what happens. It is bad but I seem to get over it this time. It hurts physically but that's all.
I release everyone from their roles and we debrief. The whole process took about 2 hours.
During the next few days I find myself revisiting all those incidents and somehow I reprocess them. I re-experience them using new strategies this time. All this happens without a conscious intention to do this. It just happens spontaneously.
One afternoon I go to the library with the idea of finding out if "Tiger" and other teachers are still alive by looking at old phone books etc. I can't find her. The other teachers are mostly dead. On the way home I realize that it doesn't matter much and I can leave it behind me now. I did find out the name of one teacher I loved. I just knew her as "Miss X" but now I know her first name and seeing her name triggers fond memories of her.
During the week a few things happen where people do bad things or let me down. I get angry briefly at times but then calmly take the required steps. I waste no time on thoughts of revenge. The flashbacks are gone.
My tenant has not complied with the notice to quit (I am selling the house and need her out). We will go through the process to get her removed. The agent is angry with the tenant, my wife is angry with the tenant and with the government for having laws biased towards the tenant. I am just angry enough to take the required steps. I realize she was an unsuitable tenant and I knew this and took the risk. I learn something. My wife expresses surprise that I did not fly into a (partially suppressed) rage as I normally would have.
The thing I mentioned about that I was so ashamed of also seems to have gone away.
It will take a while to integrate all this fully into my way of being but already a huge burden is lifted and I am functioning very differently.
Thank you for sharing your process of confronting your anger and developing new resources. This is a huge gift to yourself and to those around you.
June 3, 2011
|Thank you for sharing your music.
June 5, 2011
A Poem
Hi Ed,
Thinking of you buddy. Here is a poem I thought you might enjoy by Robinson Jeffers.
All the best,
|Thank you for the poem.
June 7, 2011
Wants to Join Austin Tribe
I am writing to inquire about joining the Austin trading tribe. Here is a little bit on my background. [brief CV]. At the beginning I was unaware of it, but I actually utilized many trend trading principles to select the best risks and cede the worst risks.
As a hobby over the past few years I spent a large amount of time reading about and studying trend trading. This included many visits to your site. During the next twelve months I am subject to a non-compete in the reinsurance industry which has given me the opportunity to explore a move into trading full time. Over the past two months I have written some trend trading models and portfolio management systems to support my risk taking. This work has been done primarily in Python. It has been very enjoyable and I find myself excited at the prospect of trading as a profession.
This brings me to what I want to accomplish using TTP. There are really two things. The first thing I would like to accomplish is to improve my connection to others. During my time at [firm] we had consultants coach management in communication. The consultants used something very similar to the TTP. I have even been in the hot seat previously. Since going it alone, I find that I miss the sessions with my teammates that helped us further our communication and work on our feelings. Specifically I was working on becoming better able to communicate effectively in the "medicinal" politically correct model which seemed to be the dominant model within my organization and in the reinsurance market in general. I think there maybe something in your intimacy model which would help me understand the point of view of those who use the politically correct model.
The second thing I would like to accomplish would be to work on the fear and anxiety that has crept into the development of my trading systems. When I was in a company environment there were plenty of people to talk about risk and reward with who had more or different experiences that could add value to my decisions. I think a tribe would be an effective replacement for the team environment I previously had access to.
In return, I think that I have much to offer the team. I have a strong understanding of risk management and capital management given the fact that I have managed portfolios of risk. Reinsurance portfolios are different than investment portfolios but I think that some of the principles that I am versed in could help others that have only been exposed to more traditional financial markets. I also have Python programming experience. Given the open nature of Python, I think that it is a language well suited to trend trading systems. In addition, my actuarial background and experience with statistics could be beneficial to those who come from other backgrounds.
My wife, three children, pets and myself are relocating to Austin sometime over the next 6 weeks. The exact date is dependent on finding a place to live. I would like the opportunity to attend a meeting if possible. Let me know if there are any prerequisites you may have. I can provide references if necessary. If the Austin tribe is closed, I would appreciate it if you could keep me on the list for your next workshop. Thank you for the effort you have put in over the past years in sharing your knowledge and process.
Kind Regards,
|Thank you for your interest in the work. Watch the index page for workshop notices.
June 8, 2011
Completing the Series
It was a great 10 sessions of learning and changing. I remember back when I was deciding whether to commit to the tribe and how I felt about traveling so far and wondering what it would be like. I feel great that I elected to join your tribe.
Have you ever heard the phrase, "The more I learn, the more I realize what I don't know"? That is how I feel right now. I feel you would agree with me that from the time I have worked with TTP since last December I have changed immensely. I see how much more I can do and have a real desire to do it!
One of our members spoke about the commitment to attend every meeting. There can be many hassles and it can be easy to find excuses not to attend but without a doubt the work that is done in a group like this is worth it.
I wish you great success in the new book and the ranch. I would like to offer to work with you on your project. If you feel that I would bring some help to you, please ask as I get a great feeling in being involved in your work.
|Thank you for your support.
June 9, 2011
Left Hand Red Head
Today, I meet a new woman.
{Name] expresses genuine desire to live what you love and we get what we want.
She communicates that feelings are at the root of everything, and with little prompting from me.
At the end of our evening, I express to her that I feel it is easy for her and I to develop and experience intimacy.
She simply concurs without a lot of fanfare.
She is a left-handed redheaded woman that is very present.
Thank you for your support.


text:
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text:
- photo essay
Synonyms for photo essay
Found 1 synonyms
Synonyms for photo
Synonyms for essay, synonyms with "photo".
photo session
photo shoot
photo shooting
Synonyms with "essay"
Video essay Synonyms
Video synonyms.
- telecasting
- video recording
- tape-record
- videocassette
- motion picture
Essay Synonyms
- composition
- dissertation
- undertaking
VE abbreviation
Definitions for video.
- (noun) a recording (as of a movie ) on magnetic tape for playback on a TV
- (noun) broadcasting visual images of stationary or moving objects
- (noun) a recording of both the visual and audible components (especially one containing a recording of a movie or television program)
Definitions for Essay
- (noun) a short piece of writing typically expressing a point of view
- (noun) an effort to do or accomplish something
- (noun) a procedure or operation carried out to resolve an uncertainty
Search for synonyms using the Visual Thesaurus
The Visual Thesaurus is an online thesaurus and dictionary of over 145,000 words that you explore and visualize using an interactive map.
Type in a word and the Visual Thesaurus will show you a map of synonyms, antonyms, and definitions.
Unlike Roget's Thesaurus, the Visual Thesaurus contains over 39,000 proper nouns and American and British spellings and pronunciations.
It's a tool for people who think visually. Look up your word now!
Writers Talk About Writing
Candlepower, ad and marketing creatives, language lounge, a monthly column for word lovers, spelling bee, blog excerpts, evasive maneuvers, euphemisms old and new.
- solicitation
- maintenance
- involuntary
More Word Lists:
Search the site, lesson plans, put the vt to work in your classroom.
- Introduction
- Featured Books and Publications
- Bibliography
- Recommended
- Design Projects and Student Work
- Extended Typeface Concept
- Accordion Book Format
- We Make Adventure With What's Called Choice
- 2011-2012 Academic Year
- 2012-2013 Academic Year
- 2013-2014 Academic Year
- 2016-2017 Academic Year
The Visual Essay
Visual essay.
What Does Creating a Visual Essay Imply?
To begin with, a visual essay appears to stand out of the crowd. Actually, it is a totally different assignment from a classic essay. The point is that while covering this written task, you shouldn't write anything at all except for some short informative statements!
In fact, this academic assignment requires expressing your thoughts on this or that topic using:
Moreover, to present your point of view on the required topic you may combine all above-mentioned means with some short informative statements related to the theme.
Handling Visual Assignments
Clearly, the most difficult and challenging step while fulfilling this task is finding really suitable and gripping visuals, pictures and images to use. Obviously, it presumes using creative approach and skills. In other words, ability to generate fresh ideas seems to be a determinant factor on your road to success.
Recommendations on Composing a Visual Essay
Are there any clear effective hints, which can help you to create your visual paper with ease? Of course, there are! And you shouldn't seek for them, because they are posted below:
- Surf the web and use camera to collect the data for your essay.
- Incorporate thought provoking visuals, images and pictures in your paper.
- To make your presentation more griping feel free to use graphs, various charts and bars.
- All the data you want to use should be up-to-date and relevant.
- Don't forget about numerous visuals aids while defending your paper.
- Show your paper to your relatives of friends before submitting it. They may give you favorable advice as well.
Competent Help with Visual Essays
Still feel a little bit frustrated because of these academic assignments? Don't fall into despair! There is always a way out from any tough situation! Visual papers are not an exception.
How to Write a Visual Essay
By Marlene Inglis, eHow Contributor
Visual essays tell a story either by using text or props.
A visual essay can be a group of pictures depicting or exploring a topic without any text or it can be a combination of visuals or images plus text. Your essay can be a commentary on ideas ranging from gardening to social uprisings and can focus on political or environmental issues. Pictures used in your essay can be current pictures or ones collected over a period of time and the essay can be presented either as a word document or as a .jpeg image file format with some accompanying text.
- Create your visual essay by deciding which format you will be using for your essay. Remember that the purpose of your essay is to inform, persuade or enlighten your reader. Create an essay that is factual but not boring, lots of images or pictures but not enough to overwhelm, thought provoking but not thoughtless.
- Use charts, bars or graphs to tell your story. Select a subject such as statistical processing control (SPC), a process used in the manufacturing industry to monitor product quality, and create graphic charts, bars and graphs. Use vivid colors in your presentation so your audience can observe and compare the variations in manufacturing the product over certain times of the year. Create comparative charts and graphs to show the current year's product quality compared to previous years. Using the appropriate visuals for your subject matter is paramount in keeping your audience interested and informed.
- Write your essay on a topic such as "uprisings" and use current pictures or images of an uprising in a country. Collect dozens of pictures pertinent to your subject matter and save them in a .jpeg format. Select pictures that can tell your story such as individuals looting and hauling store merchandise across their backs, people of all ages being unceremoniously dragged across roads, tanks lumbering through city streets while people run for cover and cars and buildings ablaze. Accompany the pictures with suitable background music and your visual essay would not need much text since the pictures by themselves will speak to your audience.
- Use visual aids or props. Purchase various fast foods such as hamburgers, fries, nachos, coke, etc. for your essay on "The obesity epidemic". Research the fat content, the amount of sugar, salt and other ingredients contained in each food item. Prepare a power point presentation with text to accompany your visual essay and include information on the normal amount of fat, salt, sugar etc. each body requires per day compared to the amount that these items provide. Include some pictures of people in various body sizes. Your presentation should be informative but not preachy. Let your audience make their own decision.
How to Write a Picture Analysis Essay
By Tom Becker, eHow Contributor
A picture is always more than the sum of its parts.
Art moves us. Whether it makes us feel joy, sorrow or revulsion, art has the power to affect us and express ideas that transcend rational thought and language. Art communicates these primal experiences not just through an artist's inspiration, but also through very clear, recognizable visual communication techniques. Writing a picture analysis essay requires a basic understanding of essay structure and these visual communication techniques. Excellent picture analysis essays combine both these elements while addressing the more ephemeral ideas and experiences communicated by a picture.
- Note how the picture makes you feel. Do this before you make any intellectual analysis of the picture. Immediate, unprepared and unguarded observation will often tell you more about the content communicated by the painting than rigorous analysis.
- Address the age of the picture. Take note of the period from which it comes, what styles dominated that era, what techniques artists used and who commissioned the work. Consider the current events going on at the time of the picture's creation and what social or cultural elements or changes may have affected its content.
- Find out the dimensions of the picture. A large picture communicates very differently from a small one. Generate reasons why the picture communicates well or poorly due to its size.
- Look for the composition of the picture. Composition refers to the way the elements are oriented in relationship to one another. Observe if the objects seem crowded or sparse, symmetrical or asymmetrical. Consider why the objects in the picture have their specific orientation.
- Take note of how the picture is cropped. Cropping refers to images that only partially appear in the picture, as if someone "cropped" them out of the picture. Address how cropping focuses the viewer on certain aspects of the picture and what ideas the cropping may help communicate.
- Observe the levels of light in the picture. Take note of the visible and obscured objects and where the picture draws the viewer's eye. Think of the role light and darkness play in communicating feelings or ideas in the picture.
- Look for color. Observe the way the picture utilizes color or lack of color. Address the effect different colors in the painting have on the ideas it communicates.
- Observe the form of the images in the picture. Whether an image has clearly defined lines and boundaries representing a real object, or has no defined shape can communicate very different ideas and emotions. Address the reasons why the image has or does not have a clearly defined shape.
- Look for texture. Pictures with completely flat surfaces may communicate differently than pictures with highly textured surfaces. Address how the texture or lack of texture conveys ideas and emotions in the picture.
- Take note of your gut reaction to the painting after your thorough analysis. Address how the various elements came together to help form your initial impressions and how analysis either strengthened or weakened your initial impressions.
Essay Structure
- Choose a thesis. A thesis represents the main idea of your essay, the point you wish to communicate. Use your thorough analysis of the picture to make a list of opinions you wish to assert about the picture. Choose the strongest idea that most clearly communicates and unifies your assertions as your thesis.
- Introduce the first assertion of your essay with a topic sentence stating that assertion.
- Develop the assertion in the next few paragraphs by citing specific examples that back up your assertion.
- Conclude each assertion by restating the assertion and briefly summarizing the manner in which you have proved your assertion.
- Introduce your next assertion with a topic sentence and continue in this fashion until you have made all the assertions backing up your thesis.
- Conclude the essay with a restatement of your thesis statement, briefly restate your assertions and finish with a sentence or two stating what you have proved with the essay.
Read more: How to Write a Picture Analysis Essay | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_7902271_write-picture-analysis-essay.html#ixzz2DdhmflLW
How to Start a Reflection Essay on Art
By Isaiah David, eHow Contributor
Because a reflection essay on art is your chance to go back and take an informal look at a substantial project you have completed, many people incorrectly assume that it will be the easiest part. In reality, it takes a mature perspective, a developed voice, and the ability to be simultaneously informal and articulate to write a good reflection essay on art. In this article, I assume that you are writing a reflective essay on art you have made yourself, but the instructions can be easily adapted to help you reflect on an art history unit or a report you did on an art exhibit.
- Consult the rubric. Generally, your teacher will provide a list of points you are expected to address. Jot down a few notes on each point. Don't try to be comprehensive – keep it light and flowing at this stage. Think of the first things that come to your mind.
- Look at your art project. What does it make you think about? Do you like it? Hate it? Take a closer look at the details. Was there some part that you had to struggle to complete? Was there something that came easy or hit like a burst of inspiration? Write down as much or as little as you are inspired to.
- Think about the project as a whole. Find a moment that encapsulated the whole process of creating, refining, and finishing your work of art. It could be the first moment where you really felt engaged in the project, or it could be an obstacle that nearly stopped you dead in your tracks and that you had to overcome. That is where you should start your reflective essay.
- Use the drama of the moment you just thought of to begin your essay. You want your essay as a whole to tell the story of your project, and your first paragraph to tell a story within that story to draw the reader in. Use vivid descriptive to make the reader feel what you felt.
- Leave the reader hanging. Don't tell the whole story of whatever moment you chose in your introductory paragraph – leave something for the ending. Then, you can keep the reader interested in the story within the story even as you lead them through the entire process.
- Step back to tell the rest of the story. For example, if you start with a description of a last minute problem you had to solve in your art project, you might start the next paragraph with something like "By that point, of course, I had been working on the project for 6 weeks." This will take you right back to the beginning of the project, allowing you to reflect on each stage in order.
- 7 As you go through, use the details you thought about in step 2. If there are some aspects of your work that you are especially proud of, tell the reader how they came about. If there are other aspects that you don't like, tell the reader why you don't like them. Don't just list them, but put them in at whatever stage of your project they occurred.
- Make sure to hit every detail on the rubric. Try to keep it in the back of your mind as you go through. Tat way, you can integrate it into the flow of your essay and make it sound more natural.
- For your conclusion, come back to the mini story and relate it to the project as a whole. If you found you had to trust your intuition to complete one aspect of your piece, explain what the project as a whole has taught you about intuition in art. If you had to scrap it all and start over at some stressful point, you might talk about what you learned about the need to plan, or the willingness to admit to yourself when you are wrong. Be humble. Show that there is something you had to learned, and that you learned it.
Read more: How to Start a Reflection Essay on Art | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4424616_start-reflection-essay-art.html#ixzz2DdmgOaj6
How to Write an Art Essay
By Melanie Novak, eHow Contributor
Writing an essay about a piece of art is best approached by considering two things:
- What did the artist set out to accomplish?
- How well did that artist achieve her goal?
This criterion is useful in a few ways. It's relatively fair (you won't be holding the work to unrealistic standards), it clearly sets up the basis for your critique, and looking at a work this way avoids a thumbs-up or thumbs-down review. You can use this approach to write about a book, movie, theatrical performance, painting, piece of music or any other creative work. The bulk of the work of writing about art is actually the time it takes to analyze the work and write the outline. There are some challenging steps in the first parts of this how-to, but if you have a strong, solid outline, the writing will be easy.
Analyzing the work
- Write what you think the artist was trying to achieve with this work of art. The famous Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century, is a notoriously inscrutable painting. You cannot, obviously, know exactly what da Vinci intended by painting this portrait. Many accomplished art historians have written extensively about this painting. So what can there be for you to say? Plenty. In this example, an essay on the well-known painting the Mona Lisa, you might conclude that the artist was trying to paint a portrait that told a story about a particular woman. This may seem obvious, but remember that goal is quite different from, say, an instructional painting with an obvious religious allegory or an abstract modern painting, and so the evaluation of this particular work will accordingly be different.
- Write what you know or feel as a result of the creative work. For instance, what do you know about the woman from looking at how she was painted by da Vinci? These needn't be facts about her identity, but rather impressions that you have of her. Be as honest and specific about your reactions as you can. Do not worry about your own authority. You don't need to be a professional art critic or have painted an Italian masterpiece yourself to be able to write an effective essay about the Mona Lisa.
- Compare your answer in Step 2 to the artist's goal in Step 1. Is your reaction what the artist intended—is the work of art successful? Remember that it doesn't matter whether or not you "like" whatever you are writing about. Rather you are using your own responses to write an analysis of the work itself. Remember that you can write an essay that examines how the work was unsuccessful using the same method as when writing an essay on a successful work.
- List the variables—all the decisions the artist or artists had to make—that went into creating the work. In the example of the Mona Lisa, the variables would be subject, composition, materials (paint and surface), color palette, brush strokes and level of detail.
- Write next to each variable a short description. For instance, for the Mona Lisa, you would write "subject–woman," "composition–close-up of face, centered in the frame," "color palette–muted," etc.
The thesis statement and finalizing the outline
- Write a rough thesis statement based on all the steps above. Don't use first person, even though your own responses have informed your thinking so far. A rough thesis statement might be "Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is a visually beautiful painting using Renaissance painting techniques, but its subject remains mysterious." Your thesis statement should not be "The Mona Lisa is good."
- Organize the variables in a way that supports your thesis statement. You don't need to include every variable you listed. You may want to write one paragraph for each variable.
- Note how each variable contributed to the overall success (or lack of success) of the creative work.
Writing the essay
- Write as specifically as possible when you are describing the variables and your responses to them. It is often the description that will convince your readers of your point.
- Write an engaging introduction and satisfying conclusion.
Read more: How to Write an Art Essay | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5137598_write-art-essay.html#ixzz2DdlSnkCh
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HTC One (M8) revisited: 4 months later, does the phone still impress?
Here in the world of tech media, there's a tendency to declare something as being "the best ever" -- and then promptly forget about it the minute something else comes along.
As I grumbled the other day, real consumers don't work that way. In the real world, phones remain relevant for months and even years after their release. Just because something new has arrived doesn't mean every other option is suddenly second class.
In an effort to combat that perpetual short-mindedness, I like to occasionally take the time to revisit noteworthy devices a while after their arrivals. Impressions can evolve, and it's interesting to see how well a product has aged -- both relative to itself and relative to the shifting technology around it.
This summer, I've decided to focus on the devices that stand out the most to me -- the products I actually recommend to my own friends and family. Up first is the HTC One (M8).
HTC One (M8): From then to now
When I originally reviewed the One (M8) back in April, I called it "a luxurious yet approachable object" that was close to being "the ultimate high-end device."
So how has it held up? Some scattered thoughts:
• Coming back to the M8 after months spent with a variety of other smartphones, I'm struck by how beautifully designed it is -- and how much of a joy it is to use. The One (M8) is simply unmatched in terms of premium design, and nothing's happened to change that.
I've been carrying the "Gunmetal Gray" model of the M8 this go-round, and the phone is just downright gorgeous -- sleek and classy as can be. What's more, with its all-metal encasing, it feels every bit as premium as it looks. That goes a long way in setting it apart from the competition.
• I said it when I reviewed the phone and I'll say it again now: The One (M8) is a big device. Lots of phones are big these days, of course, but the M8 is meant to be a standard-sized smartphone -- not a plus-sized device like the Galaxy Note -- and it's unusually tall for that class.
When I first got the M8 back in my hands, it felt huge. That was coming from my personal Moto X. Then I spent some time with the LG G3, and suddenly the M8 didn't feel so unmanageable anymore.
At this point, I've pretty much gotten used to it. When I switch back to my Moto X, that phone feels almost shockingly comfortable in comparison -- but after I've been toting the M8 around for a few hours, I quickly forget about its size and just enjoy using it. That being said, I do still think its size will be off-putting to some people.
• In comparing the G3 to the M8, some folks note that the G3 gives you more screen space in a similarly sized frame. That's true -- but what the M8 gives you instead is that killer set of front-facing stereo speakers. Using the M8, I never think for a second that its screen isn't spacious enough. But I do enjoy the hell out of those speakers, which are about the only ones I've used on a phone that sound really, really good -- good enough that I'd actually use them for an extended period of time.
Both approaches have their benefits.
• The M8's screen is still my favorite on any phone today. Sure, it's not Quad HD -- but the difference between Quad HD and 1080p just isn't terribly significant. The M8's screen is crisp, sharp, bright, and easy to view in any lighting condition. And its contrast and color saturation are second to none.
• After cycling through an army of different devices, I'm reminded just how exceptional the M8's performance truly is. Other Android phones -- including those with equal or greater specs -- just don't feel as fast. Chalk it up to software or whatever you want, but this thing just flies with everything it does. When you use enough phones to have a point of comparison, the difference is quite noticeable.
• The One (M8)'s camera isn't flawless -- but we've talked plenty about its pros and cons in the past. Nothing's really changed on that front.
Coming back to the M8 now, I'll say this: For me, as someone who uses his smartphone mainly for casual snapshots, HTC's camera is fast, dead-simple to use, and capable of capturing some great-looking photos (especially in low light). I'm not looking for huge-megapixel files I can manipulate; if you are, the M8's camera probably isn't right for you. It'd be nice if it were a little more versatile in that regard. But for my needs, it's one of the better all-around options I've used -- and given the choice between it and other phones in my pocket, it's almost always the one I reach for when a photo op arises.
• Software's extremely important to me, and that's one area where the One (M8) is particularly refreshing to return to. HTC's user interface still has a few quirks, but by and large, it's really pleasant to use right out of the box. I'm usually the first guy to cover up a manufacturer's mess with a custom Android launcher and other third-party tools, but I actually enjoy using HTC's Sense 6 UI. It's a legitimately compelling alternative to Google's stock setup.
HTC's promise to keep the M8 up-to-date with the latest Android software -- providing upgrades within 90 days of a release, for a minimum of two years from the device's launch -- makes me feel good about recommending this phone as well. Following in the footsteps of Google and Motorola, the company's also breaking out more and more of its custom apps and services into Play Store packages, which are then updated far more frequently than the OS itself -- and that's awesome for users.
Ongoing software support is a big deal in this day and age, and HTC is one of a few companies that actually handles it in a customer-focused way I can commend. That's no small quality to consider.
So four months later, the One (M8) is no less impressive to me than it was when I first reviewed it. It's by no means perfect -- no phone is -- and it's not going to be the right device for everyone.
But it provides one of the best overall user experiences you can get today -- and in my book, that means a lot.
[Original review: HTC One (M8): Smartphone sophistication, refined]
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