text:
Оване́с Ерзнкаци́ (; около 1230—1293) — армянский мыслитель и церковно-общественный деятель. Автор трудов по философии, грамматике, космографии, многочисленных поэм и песен. В своих научных работах касался также вопросов богословия и искусствоведения, вёл активную педагогическую и просветительскую деятельность. Прозвище Плуз получил из-за малого роста. Первым в армянской поэзии создал любовную поэму.

Биография
Родился примерно в 1230 году, в городе Ерзнке или её окрестностях. Был сыном священника, по собственным словам, происходил из знатного рода. Начальное образование получил в родных краях, в частности в пустыни Сурб Минас. Продолжил обучение в Хор Вирапе, у Вардана Аревелци. В 1268 году получил степень вардапета. В 70-х годах путешествовал по Армении и Киликии, занимался преподаванием и проповедничеством. За это время обрёл большую известность, был одним из самых почитаемых проповедников и учёных Армении. К нему часто обращались за советом киликийские цари и дворяне высоких рангов. В 1280 году в Ерзнке, по просьбе священника Григора Санахнеци, написал два трактата — «Определения и правила ордена Братьев» и «Дальнейшие правила и советы светской молодёжи» (известные вместе как «Конституция братств Ерзнки»), с целью «исправления буйной молодёжи города». Эти труды основаны на тексты соответствующих реформ халифа ал-Насира. Затем стал сам возглавлять это «Братство Ерзнки», которое представляло собой объединение трудовых слоёв молодежи (вне зависимости от отрасльи ремесла или торговли). В 1281 году уехал в Иерусалим, где написал посвящённую церкви песню, «Истолкование речей Филона Александрийского», занимался переводами научных книг. Затем вернулся в Киликию, в 1284 году прочитал речь по поводу принятия рыцарства сыновей короля Левона — Хетума и Тороса. В конце 1284 года, по дороге обратно в Ерзнку, заехал в Тифлис, где прочитал проповедь для царского двора. После этого вернулся в Сурб Минас и занялся активной литературной деятельностью (большинство его произведений написаны в 1284—1293 годах). Боролся против униатства, писал антикатолические проповеди и речи. Современники называли его «святой и мудрый», «непобедимый», «сладкоголосый», «бюльбуль». Занимался переписью и распространением разных рукописей философского и богословского содержания, составлял сборники, сам написал множество трудов (сохранились более 100 авторских сочинений в стихотворной и прозаичной формах). В 1290 году, из-за вторжения мамлюков, был вынужден уехать в Киликию, где и скончался в 1293 году, в монастыре Акнер. Похоронен в монастыре Сурб Ншан в Ерзнке, согласно преданию, его могила долгое время была местом паломничества.

Ованеса Ерзнкаци Плуза долгое время путали с его младшим современником и одноимённым поэтом и философом, также известного как Ованес Ерзнакци или Цорцореци.

Творчество

Грамматика
Долгие годы изучал работы армянских и иностранных грамматиков, преподавал грамматику в Ерзнке и Киликии. В 1291 году закончил трактат «Собрание грамматических толкований» (), который представляет собой компиляцию почти всех предшествующих армянских грамматических трудов. Написал к нему подробное предисловие и сделал добавления, дающие ясное представление о его взглядах. Важное источниковедческое значение имеют оставленные на маржах примечания, в которых содержатся информация о потерянных трудах Давида Анахта, Степаноса Сюнеци, Амама Аревелци, и других. «Собрание» Ерзнкаци стал основным источникам для последующих армянских грамматиков — Ованеса Крнеци, Есаи Нчеци, Ованеса Цорцореци. Взгляды Ерзнкаци на грамматику и язык в основном опираются на Давида Анахта и Вардана Аревелци, хотя он расходится с ними в частных случаях. Рассматривал грамматику как разумное искусство, а человеческий разум — «нечто приобретенный и излагаемый», ибо имеет два источника: ведомое и чувственное. Строго различал буквы и звуки, рассматривая «буквы» как звуковые эквиваленты «письмен». Из всех частей речи по степени важности выделял подлежащее, логически выводя правило, что в предложении подлежащее должно стоять на первом месте. Для таблицы спряжения пользовался формами как древнеармянского, так и среднеармянского разговорного языка, в качестве примеров приводил формы живого разговорного языка, таким образом освобождая грамматику армянского от искусственных форм спряжения, созданных грекофильской школой.

Как и другие армянские грамматики, хорошо относился к многообразию языков, считая это «добром». Однако если большинство армянских мыслителей считают первым языком — языком Адама — еврейский, Ованес предполагал, что «языком Адама в настоящее время владеют сирийцы и халдейцы», одновременно отмечая лингвистическую близость халдейского, сирийского и еврейского. Считал, что в первоначальном языке слова были даны вещам по их природе, однако, поскольку у последующих поколений божественный «дар речи» постепенно ослабился, имена перестали прямо указывать на природу вещей. Приводит учение о «сопряжённых» звуках в стройную систему, указывая применения этого учения в области этимологии, диалектологии и правописания.

Поэзия

Написал более 10-и тагов, 5 шараканов, 2 панегирика, 1 космологическую поэму, более 70-и айренов и нравоучительных стихов. Язык произведений тщательно отработан и изыскан, в то же время ясен и доступен. Особую художественную ценность представляют его лирико-философские стихи и четверостишия, в которых поэт пишет о внутреннем мире человека того времени. В других произведениях, продолжая традиции армянской церковной поэзии, образно представлял мирных отцов-пустынников и святых как борцов против тьмы, называя их «боевые башни защищающей Армению крепости». Из церковных поэм особенна ценны его панегирики, один из которых посвящён Нерсесу Великому (1272 год), другой — Григорию Просветителю (1288 год). В космологической поэме «О небесных украшениях» (1012 строк) видно желание автора подражать стихотворным стилем «Тысяче строк» Григора Магистроса.

Из любовных стихов наиболее известен «Ованес и Аша», рассказывающий о любви между армянином и мусульманкой, дочерью кади, по имени Аша. Несмотря на средневековую религиозную нетерпимость, Ерзнкаци пишет о любви Ованеса и Аши с некоторым юмором, как о забавном случае. Для героев поэмы любовь сильнее веры: автор поставил земную жизнь человека, с её радостями и печалями, превыше всего и не призывал своих читателей к смирению и христианскому аскетизму.

В поэзии Ерзнкаци значительную роль играли его философские взгляды, что ясно выявляется в его получивших большую известность коротких нравоучительных стихотворениях и четверостишиях. В них нашёл отражение внутренний мир человека того времени, автор передаёт свою основную идею: «Мир слишком суетен, поэтому глупо жить недостойно». Остро реагировал на несправедливости и беззакония со стороны власть имущих.

Поэмы писал на среднеармянском языке.

Музыка
«Собрание грамматических толкований», помимо лингвистических, содержит ряд музыковедческих сведений, в которых описываются армянские народные музыкальные инструменты, изучаются свойства звука как физического явления. Ерзнкаци создал обширную таблицу «разновидностей звуков», в которой звуки распределены согласно «размеру», «весу» и музыкальности. Музыкальное искусство он рассматривает как один из способов познания человека. По-новому интерпретирует античные теории о влиянии музыки на душу и тело, основываясь на взгляды Давида Грамматика, который делит искусство на три вида («добрую», «злую» и «среднюю»), предлагает более корректное деление — на «божественную» и «человеческую». Рассказывает о широко практикуемой в средневековой Армении лечении больных посредством музыки, особенно церковной, внедряет важные идеи о взаимосвязи между здоровьем человека и разными видами мелодий.

Философские сочинения
Философские взгляды Ерзнкаци обобщены в сочинениях «О небесных телах», «Послание князьям гавара Екехяц», «Каждый, кто у власти…», «Великолепно учение Твоё», и т. д., но исключительную ценность представляет труд «Отрывки из писаний исламских философов». Пытался научным способом объяснить природные и социальные явления, найти причины их происхождения и развития. В вопросах мироздания придерживался материалистических взглядов, считал, что всё в природе (в том числе и созданное человеком) состоит из четырёх материй. Первая дала начало миру, вторая — звёздам и другим небесным телам, третья — четырём элементам, из которых состоят животные, растения и всё существующее на земле, а четвёртая — «материалам ремесленников» (дерево, железо и т. д.). Процесс получения новых составов при смешании четырёх элементов считал не «сверьестественным явлением», как некоторые его современники, а «тонкостью природы». Выражал идеи сохранения вещества, писав, что «вещество не может быть уничтожено, оно только меняет свой вид, форму и характер». Причиной существования времени и движения считал вращение неба вокруг земли, а следствием — рождение и смерть. Науки делил на три области:
 богословские, которых можно постичь только разумом и верой, ибо предмет их нематериальный
 естественные, которых можно постичь с помощью пяти чувств
 математика, которой можно постичь частично разумом и частично органами чувств.
Центральное место в его философских взглядах занимала осознание роли человека в космосе. Считал, что душа человека не имеет каких-то врождённых моральных качеств, сравнивал её с непашенным полем, на котором «что посеешь, то и пожнёшь». Человеческий разум образно представлял в виде судьи, который на основе принятого от органов чувств информации делает выводы и принимает решения.
Стремился к познанию мира образным мышлением и придавал важность художественному представлению действительности (например, когда писал «Бог создал все ощущаемые и телесные вещи из земли, одел их в зелень через посредство воды, сообщил им движение через воздух, придал им видимость и цвет посредством огня.» или «Весь этот мир вливается в наш разум через наши органы чувств, как через городские ворота.»). Особую ценность для изучения армяно-мусульманских философских взаимосвязей представляет его «Отрывки из писаний исламских философов». По всей видимости, это первый труд Ерзнкаци, написанный примерно в 1260 году. Представляет собой краткую редакцию «Посланий "Братьев чистоты"» и является первым переводом этих трудов арабских философов на другой язык и, в сущности, их христианизированной версией. Доктрина «Братьев чистоты» оказала большое влияние на сформирование мировоззрения Ерзнкаци. В труде не упоминаются какие-то конкретные имена, Ерзнкаци называет их просто «мудрецами иноверцов». Текст относительно небольшой (ок. 5000 слов). Долгое время ошибочно считался оригинальным произведением Ерзнкаци.

Естествознание

Изучал медицину и фармацевтику, в своих трудах писал о внутренних органах, мускулах, органах чувств, кровообращении, структурах тела и мозга. В основном разделял взгляды Гиппократа и Галена. Подчёркивал тесную связь душевного и физического состояний человека, изменения душевного состояния объяснял происходящими в организме процессами. Считал, что наука должна сначала изучать человеческое тело, и только потом — его духовный мир. Передаёт важные сведения о проводимых в армянских лечебницах вскрытиях.

Продолжая традиции Ширакаци, пытался найти естественные причины физических феноменов. В 1284 году в Тифлисе написал труд «О движении небес» (), в котором изучена структура космоса, объясняется движение планет и звёзд (вокруг Земли) и некоторые природные явления, содержатся ряд сведений об Арктике, о длящихся там полгода днях и ночах, которые автор объясняет переходом солнца из одной полусферы в другую. Пытается доказать, что луна имеет свой собственный свет, приводя в качестве аргумента в том числе и этимологию названия на армянском. Продолжая традицию научных поэм, начатую Нерсесом Шнорали, Ованес по просьбе князя Аплоца положил этот труд на стихи, озаглавив его «Поэма о небесных украшениях» (). Его перу принадлежит также труд «О причинах землетрясений» ().

В целом можно сказать, что Ерзнкаци боготворил науку и любовь к ней, говоря, например, что «любовь к знаниям является оружием выживания и источником нравственной чистоты» или «не восхищаясь переменами луны или разноцветностью радуги, невозможно изучить природу этих явлений». Считая значение и роль науки наднациональными и внерелигиозными, он призывал изучать труды иностранных и иноверных учёных.

Цитаты
 «И что же тогда искусство, если не познание мира мудростью и образным представлением, своевременно и надлежашим образом?»
 «Первая мудрость человека — познать самого себя.»

Примечания

Основная литература

Ссылки
 Песня «Сегодня голос Отцовский»  в обработке Комитаса.
 Фрагменты шараканов Ованеса Ерзнкаци в переводе на рус.  («Канон Григорию Просветителю», «Канон Нерсесу Великому», «Шаракан семи пустынникам», «Шаракан полководцу Саргису»).
 Лирические стихи Ованеса Ерзнкаци в переводе на рус. (четверостишия — стр. 224, «Ованес и Аша» — стр. 225—227)
 С. Закарян. Ованес Плуз Ерзнкаци о власти и управлении

Писатели Армении
Философы Армении
Армянские поэты
Грамматики средневековой Армении
Средневековые армянские переводчики
Космографы

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Home > Advice to Avoid > Are we really dumb at investing?
This site is about bringing you the best 'Insights' to help you make better decisions about your money.
So, I spend a lot of time exposing the lies that you'll find elsewhere.
In this Insight, I'll expose the problems with a report that's often used by some 'allegedly' leading financial advisers (here in the UK and the USA) to 'get' you on board as a client.
This book, rather like my own work, debunks a lot of myths about investing and exposes misleading advice around it too.
Michael Edesess is the lead author and an accomplished mathematician and economist. He's also the author of The Big Investment Lie, and a visiting fellow in the Centre for System Informatics Engineering at City University of Hong Kong and a research associate of the EDHEC–Risk Institute.
Kwok L. Tsui, a distinguished statistician, expert on the problem of spurious patterns in big data and currently chair professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management at City University of Hong Kong.
Carol Fabbri an experienced financial advisor, certified financial planner, a certified advisor in philanthropy and managing partner of Fair Advisors, an independent financial advisory firm.
And George Peacock, principal at Compendium Financial Investment Advisory and managing editor, investments for the online financial site FrankInsight.com.
And it devotes several pages to show how DALBAR's report produces misleading results about investor behaviour.
That's worth knowing if the DALBAR report has been used to persuade you that you need expensive investment advice.
For a number of years, a company named DALBAR has been publishing a report called the "Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior" (QAIB).
The QAIB purports to show that investors make bad decisions and, as a result, their investments underperform the market by several percentage points.
This material is a godsend to financial advisors because it implies that investors need to hire an expensive financial advisor to help them.
It's also been a godsend to DALBAR. It has captured headlines for years, perpetuating the myth that individual investors invest poorly, and therefore they do much worse than the market average.
Financial advisers have been purchasing the DALBAR report in droves.
For just $1,000, advisors can buy the right to make unlimited copies for their financial advisory clients and prospects. That $1,000 is well worth it because this report will show people how badly they'll do if they don't have "expert" help.
There's just one thing: the DALBAR result is wrong.
There have been serious questions (from serious academics) about the methodology used in the DALBAR study for a long time.
Why is the gap found by DALBAR so much wider (than in other surveys)?
To calculate investor return, all the other studies use a standard formula that adjusts the results to account for when the performance was earned and when money moved in or out of the fund.
Dalbar, however, uses a quirky formula of its own.
According to three leading experts on calculating returns—Prof. Dichev, finance professor Travis Sapp of Iowa State University and David Spaulding, founder and publisher of the Journal of Performance Measurement—there could be something amiss.
Dalbar's formula, according to these experts, has the effect of taking returns over the full period and dividing them by the total assets at the end—including money that wasn't in the funds from start to finish.
The result, they say, could significantly inflate the amount by which investors appear to lag behind their funds.
Well, sadly, it seems to be impossible to get DALBAR to provide a sensible explanation of how they produce their numbers.
So, it's been left to others – like Michael Edesess and Wade Pfau to do the sums to reverse-engineer their calculations.
Wade Pfau is a Ph.D., CFA, professor of retirement income in the Ph.D. program in financial services and retirement planning at The American College in Bryn Mawr, PA. And a principal and director at McLean Asset Management and the Chief Planning Scientist for inStream Solutions. He actively blogs at RetirementResearcher.com.
But what they've discovered, in a nutshell, is that the numbers are grossly misleading.
. . . Nobody with any knowledge could believe they (DALBAR) were really using that formula, because it is so far off base.
In other words, the sum of market changes in assets is divided by the sum of the cost basis of those assets to get investor return.
This formula is correct only if all of the net contributions were made at the beginning of the period.
Otherwise, in almost all cases, it will result in a percentage return that is much too low.
Suppose you invest $1,000 on day one of a two-year period and let it ride for a year. You are lucky enough that your investment vehicle achieves a 20% return in that year; so at the end of the year, you have $1,200.
Then at the beginning of year two, you contribute another $1,000. Now you have $2,200. You let that ride for all of year two. Once more you are lucky because your investment vehicle again returns 20% for the year. Your $2,200 therefore increases by $440. At the end of year two you have $2,640.
Your investment vehicle clearly had a 20% annualized return – and so did you.
But DALBAR's calculation says your investor return was 14.9%, not 20%.
DALBAR would therefore conclude that you underperformed your investment vehicle because of your poor decision making.
Here's how the 14.9% return is calculated using DALBAR's methodology.
They take your market gains of $200 in the first year and $440 in the second year and add them, getting $640.
They then annualize this to get a 14.9% annualized investor return – which is much less than the 20% annual return achieved by your investment vehicle.
I include this example over a 20-year period because DALBAR's results are often reported over a 20-year period.
Suppose an investor saves $1,000 at the beginning of each month for 20 years, and suppose that the investment vehicle the investor invests in realizes a steady 10% annual return (about 0.8% monthly).
The amount contributed over the 20 years – 240 months – is therefore $240,000.
A simple spreadsheet calculation shows that the sum of the gains due to market increases over those 240 months is $483,987.
Dividing $483,987 (the sum of the changes in market value) by $240,000 (the sum of the cost bases) yields an un-annualized "investor return" for the 20 years of 101.66%. This annualizes to 3.57% annually.
DALBAR would conclude from this that the investor underperformed her investment vehicles' return of 10% by 6.43% – the difference between 10% and the "investor return" of 3.57%.
This is obviously deeply wrong.
The investor did nothing but invest the same monthly amount during a 20-year period, and receive the same monthly return every month.
As incredible as it is, or should be, this error was undetected for 23 years.
The results reported by DALBAR based on this error have become the conventional wisdom.
Almost everybody in the financial world believes that investors underperform because they behave irrationally, getting in and out of the market at the wrong times – panicking after a drop and getting out, and becoming greedy and envious after a rise and getting in.
I don't know about you – but I really get IRATE when I find someone is trying to mislead me.
And, if you're to stand any chance at all – of making good decisions about your money YOU need to know the truth about it.
If you use an adviser – then you need to know HOW they can help you.
And let me be clear … I do believe that some advisers really can add a lot of value.
However, what you absolutely do NOT need is this scaremongering nonsense.
Like, this from the famous (and otherwise very helpful) financial educator, Carl Richards in the New York Times in 2010.
I have no idea whether Carl Richards has since learned about the 'flaw' in DALBAR's work?
But he clearly needs to take more care about the data he uses before turning them into an 'art form' with his 'napkin' drawings.
The New York Times might take more care about what they publish too.
Either get DALBAR to convince some serious mathematicians that their conclusions are valid – or stop using it.
Your clients do NOT want to be told that they're stupid.
And whilst some may indeed need to be protected from themselves – there are many dimensions to that challenge.
They most certainly do not need misleading reports shoved at them – in an attempt to sell a high ongoing advice charge.
This wonderful quote sums it up.
That said, from the discussions I've had, it's quite clear that some (and some very senior industry figure type) financial advisers had absolutely no idea about the flaws in this data.
Clearly, they're not all – good with numbers!
And some of the 'sales' types – simply latch onto to a story – to make a sale.
… but is based on flawed data – should not survive.
And if they can't provide any, just tell them where to shove it.
… if you'd like more ideas around money and personal performance, in an occasional newsletter, sign up here.


text:
module Xcode
  module Test
    module Formatters
      class StdoutFormatter
        include Xcode::TerminalOutput

        def initialize(options = {})
          @errors = []
          @test_count = 0
          options.each { |k,v| self.send("#{k}=", v) }
        end

        def before(report)
          print_task :test, "Begin tests", :info
        end

        def after(report)
          level = @errors.count>0 ? :error : :info
          if @errors.count>0
            print_task :test, "The following failures occured:", :warning
            @errors.each do |e|
              print_task :test, "[#{e.suite.name} #{e.name}]", :error
              e.errors.each do |error|
                print_task :test, "  #{error[:message]}", :error
                print_task :test, "    at #{error[:location]}", :error
                if error[:data].count>0
                  print_task :test, "\n   Test Output:", :error
                  print_task :test, "   > #{error[:data].join("   > ")}\n\n", :error
                end
              end

              # if there is left over data in the test report, show that
              if e.data.count>0
                print_task :test, "\n  There was this trailing output after the above failures", :error
                print_task :test, "   > #{e.data.join("   > ")}\n\n", :error
              end
            end
          end

          print_task :test, "Finished in #{report.duration} seconds", :info
          print_task :test, "#{@test_count} tests, #{@errors.count} failures", report.failed? ? :error : :info
        end

        def before_suite(suite)
          print_task :test, "#{suite.name}: ", :info, false
        end

        def after_suite(suite)
          color = (suite.total_passed_tests == suite.tests.count) ? :info : :error
          #print_task :test, "#{suite.total_passed_tests}/#{suite.tests.count}", color
          puts " [#{suite.total_passed_tests}/#{suite.tests.count}]", color
        end

        def before_test(test)
          # puts "[#{test.suite.name} #{test.name}] << BEGIN"
        end

        def after_test(test)
          @test_count += 1
          if test.passed?
            print ".", :green
          elsif test.failed?
            print "F", :red
            @errors << test
          end
        end

      end # StdoutFormatter
    end # Formatters
  end # Test
end # Xcode

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Hear Scott Miller wax poetic on Neil Diamond's abundant catalog of Christmas tunes, the virility of Knoxville musicians, and where he'll be on New Year's Eve. Photo by Clare.
Todd Steed: The man; The myth; The fella in this here interview. Hear Steed's thoughts on Knoxville's tap water, and the implosion of big record companies.


The Mercury glass pumpkins are going to get plenty of use this season. The last couple of years I had meant to get them, but they were sold out by the time I got by PB. This year I found them at Wisteria and they are the perfect addition to the other Mercury glass pieces around here.
The small white pumpkin was a ceramic one which originally was green & yellow. It was painted with a combo of Chalk Paint and some flat white paint, so that it was a bit whiter in the end, but still aged and chalky looking.
The books are quite old and the top one being so tattered adds fun to the mix. The vellum one on the bottom is Italian from the 1600's and came from 3 Fine Grains. She has beautiful books and other goodies!
The dish the big pumpkin is sitting on is a silver type serving platter with inlaid of white mother of pearl and black that echos the same colors as the black marble table top.
The monogram I created on the computer and then printed it out on paper, sealed it and adhered it to the pumpkin.
The little black pumpkin got a fresh coat of paint as well. It is the kind that probably came in a whole bag of little foam pumpkins that you can find at the craft store. At first it was painted with Fusion black flat paint. I still like how well that paint covers and seals. But for a fresh coat, I used Patio Paints flat black which is a great paint for coverage as well, and the black is quite flat.
This seemed the perfect time to add a touch of burlap. The contrast of burlap with marble, white, and mercury glass is such a fun twist to Halloween decorating!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing this fun season with me.
Great display, Donna! I love your monogram pumpkin and the lovely dish it sits on. Thanks for giving the info surrounding everything, too.
i am a newbie at this blog thing..i learn so much just look at your great ideas.
Donna- What a great looking vignette...I love it. Those pumpkins with spiders are just great! I just might steal that idea.
I love the mercury glass pumpkins! Really stylish Halloween display.
This is just gorgeous Donna. so elegant and fun at the same time, I love it!
I love those mercury glass pumpkins! Beautiful decorating-thanks for sharing!
What a gorgeous display! I especially love that mercury glass and your monogrammed pumpkin.
Love this arrangement - just lovely! Stop over to enter my giveaway of 100 printed postcards!
Donna, your display is absolutely delicious! I just found a couple of these mercury pumpkins at my local TJ Maxx a couple of weeks ago and I can't wait to create my own pumpkin display. My collection is in the same color scheme as yours. I'll post on it sometime soon.
Oooh...a very pretty autumn vignette, my friend! I love your mercury glass pumpkins...sooo pretty! I also like the beautiful monogram on the pumpkin! A "C" would work at my house too! Hehe! Thank you for sharing your beautiful vignette with us, my friend! I really enjoyed it!
Fantastical Halloween decor! The mercury glass is devine but so is your design. Enjoy!
Great decor!It would be great to have you link to Seasonal Sundays.
- The Tablescaper Love all of that mercury glass.
Your decorations look wonderful! I adore the mercury glass you have displayed.
Have a wonderful weekend, Donna!
I especially love that monogram, could you please direct me to that?
Also, how did you adhere it?
I created the monogram in a photo editing program (Photoshop). It was printed on paper then I glued it to the pumpkin with Golden's Gel Medium, but you could use a modpodge type product as well. I also used the gel medium over the image to protect it. Thanks for stopping by.


text:
Q: Conditional Formatting for Weather Precipitation, Temperature and Dates First time posting so a picture of the excel sheet is attached to the hyperlink.

I would like to format my weather data as seen in column P. The column would go, first cell (# of days in month","Three letter Abbreviation of Month"-"last two digits of year). Then combine column M and column E in that order with a comma delineation below it for each day in the month. After each month is has been completed, I would like to insert a row with the next months information as stated above (# of days in month","Three letter Abbreviation of Month"-"last two digits of year).
There is roughly 10,000 rows of data. I believe I will have to use a Macro or Conditional Formatting but do not know how to write this out. The row insert is not important as long as I can drag the formula down the column and still get the right corresponding Precipitation and Temperature Average numbers with the dates.

A: In cell P1, enter the formula:
=IF(ISNUMBER($C1),$M1&","&$E1,TEXT(DATE(YEAR($C2),MONTH($C2)+1,0),"d,mmm-yy"))
Then copy cell P1 and paste it to all the other cells in column P.
The way it works is that the IF function checks whether column C contains a number (such as a date). If so, it returns the values from columns M and E with a comma between them ($M1&","&$E1). Otherwise, this must be the gap between months and you want the number of days in the month as well as the data in mmm-yy format.
The the date of the first of the month will be one row down in columns C. The formula DATE(YEAR($C2),MONTH($C2)+1,0) returns the date of the last day of that month (actually, the zeroth day of the next month, but it works to get the last day of this month), and the TEXT function formats that date with the day first followed by a comma and the mmm-yy part of the date.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Who's next? Conference schedule set for Longwood men's basketball
Published 8:37 pm Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Longwood University Head Coach Griff Aldrich, center, gives instruction to his team during its NCAA Tournament game against the University of Tennessee. Though the Lancers fell to the Volunteers, the loss could not overshadow a season of unprecedented success for Longwood. (Photo by Mike Kropf)
FARMVILLE – After one of the biggest seasons in program history, the Lancers are ready for another round. Longwood men's basketball returns plenty of experience heading into the 2022-23 men's basketball conference slate. They will need it against an 18-game gauntlet as the Big South released its conference schedule on Tuesday afternoon.
The reigning Big South champs will attack the full schedule with a roster that includes returning starters Big South Honorable Mention and All-Tournament team member DeShaun Wade, Zac Watson, Jesper Granlund and Big South First Teamer and Tournament MVP Isaiah Wilkins. Along with those four, the Lancers also return mainstays Leslie Nkereuwem, Nate Lliteras and DA Houston, and they've added impact transfer Walyn Napper (Southern Mississippi).
Following the non-conference season, which will be released at a later date, the Lancers will dive into conference play at the end of December. Longwood will square off against the other nine teams in the Big South twice apiece in a double round-robin.
Familiar faces for Longwood men's basketball
The gauntlet begins on Dec. 29 when the Lancers host High Point, and it features plenty of matchups with familiar faces.
Longwood squares off with Winthrop twice in a rematch of the Big South Championship Game. The Lancers host Winthrop on Jan. 7 before making the return trip to Rock Hill, S.C. on Feb. 1.
Other highlights include two matchups with in-state rival Radford. Longwood heads to the Highlanders on Jan. 25 before hosting their Commonwealth counterpart on Feb. 18.
In addition, the Lancers will host USC Upstate on Jan. 14 in a rematch of the Big South Semifinals before traveling to play at USC Upstate on Feb. 15. The Lancers also close the regular season at home against UNC Asheville on Feb. 25.
Thursday, Dec. 29 vs. High Point
Saturday, Dec. 31 at Campbell
Wednesday, Jan. 4 at Charleston Southern
Saturday, Jan. 7 vs. Winthrop
Wednesday, Jan. 11 at UNC Asheville
Saturday, Jan. 14 vs. USC Upstate
Wednesday, Jan. 18 vs. Gardner-Webb
Saturday, Jan. 21 at Presbyterian
Wednesday, Jan. 25 at Radford
Saturday, Jan. 28 vs. Charleston Southern
Wednesday, Feb. 1 at Winthrop
Saturday, Feb. 4 vs. Campbell
Wednesday, Feb. 8 vs. Presbyterian
Saturday, Feb. 11 at High Point
Wednesday, Feb. 15 at USC Upstate
Saturday, Feb. 18 vs. Radford
Wednesday, Feb. 22 at Gardner-Webb
Saturday, Feb. 25 vs. UNC Asheville
Every game will be aired on Longwood's flagship station, 92.9 WVHL Kickin' Country, and all home games are aired on ESPN+.
Tired of long hospital delays? Cumberland EMS looks at a solution.
Hampden-Sydney beats #14 Guilford to continue winning streak
Longwood women claim fourth straight home win, beating Radford

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Mexico's ejidos are finding greater sustainability by involving youth and women
by Mike Gaworecki on 7 June 2018 |
Mongabay Series: Indigenous Peoples and Conservation
Ejidos now control more than two-thirds of Mexico's 64 million hectares (158 million acres) of forest. They have generally proven to be an effective means of preserving those forests while creating economic opportunities for local communities through sustainable farming, ranching, and forestry operations.
But ejidos themselves face challenges that must be overcome in order to ensure their sustainability. Chief among them has been the lack of inclusion of youth and women, an issue many ejidos have begun to seriously address over the course of the past decade.
The traditional hierarchies built into ejido communities once posed what many observers saw as a serious threat to the future viability of the ejido system. But young people now represent a hopeful future not just for the ejidos they come from and plan to return to in order to ply their newly acquired skills, but also, perhaps, for the future of conservation in Mexico.
"The forest gives us everything, everything we need, but we also have to give it something in return," says Carmelina Martinez. "It really is our heritage, we have to appreciate it. Without it we're nothing."
The 18-year-old Martinez may be intent on protecting forests now, but she did not always feel so strongly. She's from a community called Ejido Refugio Hernandez in the Mexican state of Campeche. After finishing middle school, she wanted to go to a high school in a nearby town called Xpujil, but her mother insisted she attend one in the nearby community of Zoh Laguna, instead. The technical high school there has two tracks, forestry and information sciences, neither of which interested Martinez.
"Computers are not my thing," she says, "so I chose the forestry track. But I really didn't like it. I couldn't find the passion, it didn't seem like it was for me."
Then one day there was an open call for an extracurricular program run by her high school in partnership with the New York City-based NGO Rainforest Alliance. The two-year program consists of 300 hours of workshops designed to enhance students' knowledge of forestry issues through a series of lectures and, more importantly, trips out into the field. The students explore the Mayan ruins of the Calakmul region of Campeche, get out into the forest for firsthand experience with tasks like measuring trees or counting mahogany fruits, and visit a variety of ejidos — community-based agroforestry operations that collectively own and manage their land. Many of the students, like Martinez, come from ejidos themselves, yet these field trips might be the first time they have any meaningful contact with ejido community leaders.
"My way of seeing nature changed," Martinez says of the effect those field trips had on her. "It gave me a lot of passion to see what we have. What I learned is that we really depend on the forest, that's where everything we have comes from. It's our home, our way of life, our everything. And it's something that I have to take care of. I hope to be a great biologist."
As research continues to find that community-based conservation is an effective means of protecting forests and other landscapes, Mexico's ejido system has attracted increased attention. The traditional hierarchies built into ejido communities once posed what many observers saw as a serious threat to the future viability of the ejido system. But young people like Carmelina Martinez represent a hopeful future not just for the ejidos they come from and plan to return to in order to ply their newly acquired skills, but also, perhaps, for the future of conservation in Mexico.
You can listen to an audio version of this report on the Mongabay Newscast:
Mayan ruins amidst the jungle in the Kohunlich Archaeological Zone on the Yucatán Peninsula. Photo by Michael Toolan.
Grappling with youth outmigration
An ejido is essentially an area of communally owned land used for agriculture and forestry purposes, but the term also refers to the community itself and the people who not only work the land but live on it as well. In many cases, the people of an ejido have lived on the land for generations. The ejido system dates back to the 1930s, when the Mexican government first began to distribute land amongst local communities in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution, which was sparked, at least in part, by anger toward the increasing concentration of land in the hands of the elite and wealthy. In the 1980s, title to those communal lands was officially transferred from private landowners to the communities themselves, giving rise to the ejido system as it exists today.
David Barton Bray, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University and an expert in Mexican community forestry, told Mongabay that multiple studies have shown that ejidos have lower deforestation rates even than many protected areas. "Specifically studies in southeastern Mexico show that they generally have deforestation rates equal to or lower than public protected areas, while at the same time generating more income for local communities," Bray says. "So you get both conservation and income-generation."
The structure of ejidos reflects the patriarchal society within which they were created: Each ejido had a certain number of founding members, all male heads of households, known as ejidatarios. These ejidatarios were each granted a parcel of the community's land upon the creation of the ejido, though the lands are managed and the profits are shared collectively (in some cases families do manage and work on their own individual plots). Ownership of a parcel of an ejido's land is typically inherited by the eldest son upon an ejidatario's death.
Not only does that leave all but the oldest male offspring with no official role in the community enterprise to look forward to, it also means women have traditionally been excluded from ejidatario assemblies and thus from positions of authority in ejido communities, as well. There are instances of land ownership having been inherited by the widow or daughter of an ejidatario, so there are a number of ejidatarias, but they make up a small fraction of the decision-makers in Mexico's ejido communities.
Lumber at the sawmill of Ejido Caobas, which specializes in mahogany. Photo by Michael Toolan.
Seeing few economic opportunities within their own communities, many young people leave, migrating to big cities or the United States. Mexico is not the only country where youth out-migration poses a significant problem for rural areas: According to a report by the Global Migration Group, more than 28 million migrants in 2013 were between the ages of 15 and 24. But out-migration of young people does pose a uniquely severe threat to the future of the ejido system and, in turn, Mexico's relative success at conserving its forests.
As Rainforest Alliance notes in a white paper: "Without a robust younger generation to uphold the tradition of forest conservation, ejidos may sell off land to private owners disinclined to use the land sustainably; a decrease in population also makes the forest more vulnerable to fire and illegal logging activities."
Many ejidatarios are keenly aware of this problem and have sought solutions. Guillermina Hernandez Cruz, an agave farmer at Ejido Cruz de Ocote, located in the municipality of Ixtacamaxtitlan in the state of Puebla, says that her community is working to create more economic opportunities for young people as a solution to the problem.
"Many people migrate because of lack of work," Hernandez Cruz says in a short film titled "Ejidos" produced by If Not Us Then Who?, a US-based non-profit that seeks to raise awareness about the critical role indigenous and local peoples play as stewards of the natural world. "Our plan is that [by] having employment here — in my case it will be my grandchildren because my children are already grown up — they will no longer emigrate, nor their families."
As Mongabay witnessed firsthand on a recent trip to Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, many other ejidos are taking a similar, proactive approach to preparing the next generation of leaders for their community-based enterprises by enticing their young people to get the education they need and then return to the community. And they're finding crucial success in that endeavor.
Take Ejido Nuevo Bécal, for instance. The only FSC-certified ejido in the state of Campeche, Nuevo Bécal owns a total of 51,800 hectares (128,000 acres) of land. The ejido's primary for-profit endeavor is the harvesting and selling of timber — 25,000 hectares of its land are approved for forest management, though only 10,000 hectares are actively managed at any given time. The rest of Nuevo Bécal's management area is allowed to regenerate, either naturally or through the community's reforestation program — 200 hectares of the community's land are set aside specifically for harvesting mahogany seeds. Another 2,346 hectares are enrolled in a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) program.
Luis Alfonso Guzman Sanchez (left), 26-year-old forestry technician for the Ejido Nuevo Bécal. This is a relatively new position within the ejido, and Luis Alfonso has technical skills that the community needs to maintain its FSC certification. Photo by Michael Toolan.
Most ejidos employ an outside technician to mark trees for harvest, but Nuevo Bécal has Luis Alfonso Guzmán Sanchez, the 26-year-old son of an ejidatario and the community's own forestry technician. He told Mongabay that he learned how to do the job by working his whole life in Nuevo Bécal's forests and by taking classes through a program subsidized by Mexico's National Forestry Commission. Since he is not one of the community's 84 ejidatarios, Guzmán Sanchez doesn't get to vote in the ejidatario assembly, but as the community's forest technician, he says his opinions carry weight nonetheless.
Luis Armando Tamay Yah, the president of Ejido Nuevo Bécal, told Mongabay that three other children of ejidatarios are currently studying forestry while simultaneously working in the ejido. But forestry is not the only option Nuevo Bécal makes available to its youth. Harvesting and selling mahogany and other tree species may be the community's main for-profit venture, but Nuevo Bécal also sells chicle (the sap of the chicozapote tree, which is used as a natural chewing gum), has two apiaries, and makes charcoal from waste wood leftover from its forestry operations.
Charcoal is the community's main non-timber product; young people are employed to dig the earthen ovens and women to pull the charcoal out of them when it's ready. "There's something for everyone to do if they want to work," Tamay Yah says. He notes that the charcoal business has helped create opportunities that keep Ejido Nuevo Bécal's kids from leaving the community and that an ejidataria named Emma is the community "champion" of the charcoal-making enterprise.
Bridging the generational divide
Before launching the forestry workshop in partnership with Carmelina Martinez's high school in Zoh Laguna, Rainforest Alliance (RA) studied the causes of youth outmigration in three ejidos in the Calakmul region. The group discovered that there seemed to be a profound misunderstanding between community leaders and youth:
"[A]dult leaders felt that there were abundant opportunities for youth involvement in local governance, but that youth lacked interest and motivation to participate," according to a report summarizing the results of RA's study. "Meanwhile, youth expressed sincere interest, but perceived a lack of opportunities and support from elders."
A young man takes a break from digging an earthen oven for charcoal production in Nuevo Becal, an ejido in Campeche whose forestry operations include FSC-certified timber, charcoal, and honey production. Photo by Michael Toolan.
There are many benefits to bridging this generational divide, as the report states: "The older generation brings an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the local environment, forestry trends, and traditional practices while the younger generation has greater experience with technology, climate-based science, and marketing strategies. With more specialized skills, youth can help propel their community forward to a more successful future."
Edgar Gonzalez Godoy, RA's Director General in Mexico, started working with ejidos 15 years ago, when he was with Mexico's National Forestry Commission. He says that the ejidos and communities of the Yucatán Peninsula have been particularly successful at preserving forests, noting that the three big Yucatán Peninsula states — Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatán — have rates of deforestation well below the national average due, in part, to the new "climate-smart" models of production they've adopted, often under the guidance of younger community members who left the ejido to get an education and then returned to apply what they learned.
Mexico's national deforestation rate is about 50,000 hectares a year, Godoy says, but only two or three percent of that occurs in the forests of the Yucatán Peninsula, which are part of the second-largest contiguous forest in the Americas after the Amazon.
The conservation success in the region is due to "all the history that ejidos and communities have on managing their landscapes, managing their forests," Godoy explains. He also gives much of the credit to ejidos' move away from conventional agricultural and ranching practices: "By implementing climate-smart production models on their landscapes, they are not letting the agricultural frontier to grow, but instead they are recovering forest coverage."
That change has developed over the course of the past decade, Godoy says, as youth have become more involved in managing the natural resources of ejidos. But they were not always afforded the opportunity to participate in such a meaningful way: "Many years ago, ejidatarios were not very convinced [about] including youth and women into their ejidatarios assemblies."
Add in the fact that many young, rural residents of the Yucatán Peninsula, like rural populations in many parts of the world, did not have sufficient access to higher education, and it's easy to see why youth were often unable to see how they might contribute to their community's future. But a number of programs administered by the Mexican government, NGOs like RA, and international sustainable development bodies like the World Bank's Forest Investment Program have helped them get the education and skills-training they need.
A young man working at the sawmill on the grounds of Ejido Petcacab. Photo by Michael Toolan.
"I think that, from different sides, there has been a lot of information and a lot of capacity-building for these youth," Godoy says. "I think this is very important because we are giving youth the tools that they need to keep living in their communities."
Godoy has seen this lead to a change in how the ejidatarios and elders view the young people in their communities: "As they are seeing that kids — and most of these young people are girls, women — as they are seeing that they have the capacity and they have the knowledge to make things different, they are trying to bring them up into the ejidatarios assemblies. And they are taking into account all the comments and observations that these young people are having on how to manage landscapes or the forest, or biodiversity." For example, he adds, "Instead of hunting, they are having this new vision of making ecotourism."
Diversifying markets
That's not to say the generational divide has been fully bridged, of course. At Ejido Petcacab in Quintana Roo, a traditionally Mayan community, for instance, only elders speak Mayan. The younger kids have no interest in learning the language, ejido president Rogelio Balam Aifaro told Mongabay. But that hasn't stopped the community from finding ways to provide economic opportunities to its younger members: Balam Aifaro estimates that 85 percent of Petcacab's community members are employed in the ejido's various enterprises, which include forestry and two sawmills.
Another challenge Balam Aifaro says Petcacab is working to overcome is gaining access to new markets for their products and thus increasing profits — which are re-invested in the community in the form of schools, roads, and hospitals. "Our projects don't only impact the environment, they also have social impact," he explains.
Petcacab's 206 ejidatarios manage 41,000 hectares of the ejido's 50,000 hectares of forest and turn harvested trees into timber at their two sawmills. The ejido maintains a forest management certification from the FSC, and is hoping to be granted Chain of Custody certification from FSC next year for their sawmill so they can expand their ability to sell their wood in international markets. Right now, the ejido sells to a middleman in the city of Chetumal who pays them less than they would make if they sold directly to end users — Balam Aifaro mentions that US-based Gibson Guitars was paying $4.50-per-foot for the same wood his ejido sells to the middleman for $2.50-per-foot.
The Instituto Tecnologico de la Zona Maya is a technical college in Quintana Roo. The woodworking shop on campus is a common resource funded and used by ejidos in the region to turn their wood into furniture, flooring, doors, and accessories. The ejidos who use the woodworking shop form the Alianza Selva Maya, which is a local Rainforest Alliance partner and promotes sustainable forest management and conservation. Pictured is Yuriria Hernandez Velasco, forewoman of the workshop. Photo by Michael Toolan.
Eventually, the ejidatarios of Petcacab want to start making furniture from their wood, as these kinds of "value-added" products are where the real money can be found. In fact, all of the ejidos Mongabay visited are looking to expand their revenue streams. Another community in Quintana Roo, Ejido Caoba, for example, has been FSC-certified for the past 25 years and already sells timber milled at its own sawmill directly to Gibson Guitars (the ejido sold the guitar-maker $173,000-worth of certified mahogany in 2016), so they are looking to expand into ecotourism (you can see a collection of camera trap videos from a wildlife preserve maintained by Ejido Caoba here).
Expanding economic opportunities and market access is exactly why the Alianza Selva Maya was formed. A partnership between five ejidos with Mayan constituencies — Ejido Bacalar, Ejido Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Ejido Noh-Bec, Ejido Petcacab, and Ejido X-Hazil — the Alianza has in turn partnered with the Institúto Tecnológico Zona Maya (ITZM), a technical forestry and agriculture college near the town of Bacalar in the state of Quintana Roo, to found a woodworking shop. Alfonso Arguelles, the head of the Alianza, an ejidatario from Ejido Noh-Bec, and the FSC representative for Mexico, personally recruited 27-year-old Yuriria Hernández Velasco to supervise the woodworking shop. Arguelles told Mongabay that the Alianza plans to open a showroom in Chetumal in order to sell the hardwood flooring, furniture, and other wooden goods made at the shop directly to consumers.
Here, as well, according to Arguelles, the new perspectives and experience of young people and women is proving invaluable in helping create the enterprises that will ensure the future of ejidos. His dream is that the Alianza will eventually help all of its member ejidos build the capacity to create value-added products right in their communities, and sell them through the Alianza's showroom as well as in other domestic and international markets. The Alianza's "industry," Arguelles said, will be owned 51 percent by the ejidos, and 49 percent by youth and women.
Arguelles also says that youth and women will be essential to building this industry from the ground up. That's got to be good news to the students of ITZM, many of whom come from or work on ejidos. It also means that there are likely to be a number of employment opportunities awaiting younger people like Carmelina Martinez, the student at the technical high school in Zoh Laguna, whenever they finish their studies.
That the younger generation is poised to avail themselves of these opportunities seems fairly certain, given the enthusiasm Mongabay witnessed. One of Martinez's classmates, 18-year-old Espiridion Gomez Jimenez, is so enamored of his forest studies that he wrote and recorded a rap song called "Rap de Calakmul."
You can listen to Jimenez's rap on a recent episode of the Mongabay Newscast; here are the lyrics in Spanish and English:
Calakmul es una zona de mayor diversidad
flora y fauna y bellas ruinas que son de antigüedad
habitadas por personas increíbles que tenían capacidad
de crear arquitectura de mayor diversidad
Calakmul es el hogar de muchos animales
por montón y cantidad
que se encuentran alejadas de la gente
por causas sorprendentes como el gusto de matar
o el trafico ilegal y otros porque no tienen cerebro
que son peor que el animal
[Calakmul is an area of great diversity
Flora and fauna and beautiful ruins that are of antiquity
Inhabited by incredible people who had ability
To create architecture of great diversity
Calakmul is home to many animals
By lot and quantity
Who keep away from people
For surprising reasons such as the pleasure of killing
Or illegal traffic and others because they have no brain
They are worse than the animal]
• Cooper, L., & Huff, E. (2017). Sustainable Forests, Sustainable Communities: A Case Study of the Forest Investment Program in Mexico. Climate Investment Funds.
• Rainforest Alliance. (2017). A Reason to Stay: Combating Youth Outmigration in Rural Mexico's Sustainable Forest Communities.
Featured image credit: Baby spider monkey spotted at Ejido Noh Bec's protected forest area. Photo by Michael Toolan.
Editor's note: Rainforest Alliance facilitated Mongabay's trip to the Yucatán Peninsula, but had no editorial control over this reporting.
Follow Mike Gaworecki on Twitter: @mikeg2001
Article published by Mike Gaworecki
Agroforestry, Community Development, Community Forestry, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Featured, Forestry, Forests, Human Migration, Indigenous Communities, Rainforests, Timber, timber trade


So you want to create your own clothes, right? Well you've come to the right place! The Create Your Own feature (CYO for short) allows you to be as creative as you can be. You can take existing clothes offered on the site, use a 3rd party program such as Photoshop, a little creative magic, and save and upload your own creations. You can sell these in your shop or use them yourself in your wardrobe.
The following links will take you to the tutorials located on the discussion forum.
So, you're ready to create clothing? Great! This is the place to turn your creations into reality. Remember, you can use a predefined clothing image which you can get from the shopping mall or you can make a completely new item from scratch.
Pick your appropriate category below, pay your fee, upload your creation!
It is your responsibility to ensure that the items you are uploading onto the site are your creations and/or do not violate copyright laws. Users who upload copyrighted material onto Diva Chix will have their items deleted from the server, could be banned from Diva Chix, and face criminal prosecution from the Copyright holders. Also, by using this feature, you agree that Diva Chix has the right to use the uploaded content for promotional purposes, as well as any external products Diva Chix may produce.
These are the prices for each item created. The layers are listed in the order that they appear on the doll from back to front.


Yoga is an important form of exercise which is all about positive mind in a fit body. Yoga as a form of exercise is aimed at the connection of the body and breath with the mind. In fact if you look at the origin of the word yoga, it originated from the word yog which means connection or union. It is the union of the body and the breath with the mind in a positive manner.
Yoga is all about existence in harmony. This harmony is between the body and the mind. This harmony is achieved by holding the body in steady poses and breathing to relax the body muscles plus achieve a positive frame of mind. This positivity is the essence of yoga. The exercises or the steady poses are called the asanas. There are five major constituents of the yogic form of exercise and these constituent are breathing, exercise, relaxation, diet and thinking or what we call as meditation. Now there are special ways to achieve synchronization between each of these elements. The main element of breating is very important as that focuses on the fact that you exhale bad air and very bad elements from your body like toxins. This helps the lungs to get clean air.
All the yoga asanas try to achieve muscle relaxation by deep breathing and also try to improve the flexibility of joints. The underlying theme of each exercise is that these are done in a very slow manner so as to increase that flexibility. The yoga gurus believe that fast movements cause the production of lactic acid which in turn can cause fatigue.
As a word of caution make sure to consult the doctor if you have any medical conditions before you start working on the yoga. Also make sure that the atmosphere where you practice yoga is conducive to perform exercises. That said it is make sure that you have an empty room to perform yoga or at least clear the room of majority of things to get that necessary space for free movement. You need to have a yoga mat or something on the floor to sit. You can do it on the hard floor if you so desire.
Yoga will get you best results if performed twice during the day which is early morning and evening. Morning exercise usually will tend you get your body in flexible mode and evening exercise will relieve you of all the tension of the day.
So make sure that you get your yoga mat now and begin exercises. There are a number of videos available to help you guide through the various yoga exercises.


text:
This is an automatic translation
Powered by Lexcelera
Please give us your feedback!
Fair Average Good
Lex Translator Deutsch English Español Français Italiano Nederlands Português
Audio Development
Intelligent Content
Markup Languages
Insider's List
WHAT STORYTELLING MEANS TO VOICE AND TONE STRATEGY
Posted by John Caldwell | Feb 11, 2020 | Content Strategy, Voice and Tone Strategy: Connecting with People through Content | 0 |
This post is part of the book Voice and Tone Strategy: Connecting with People Through Content, the 12th title in the content strategy series of books from XML Press (February 25, 2020) and The Content Wrangler.
John Caldwell
Content Design Strategist
As a content designer, UX writer, or content strategist working with or developing strategies for voice and tone, it could be argued that everything you're doing is rooted in storytelling. Deep customer empathy, character and voice, meaningful relationships; they all come from stories. Truly understanding why voice and tone works—how it resonates with people—comes from a deeper understanding of the rules and techniques used by storytellers. In my book Voice and Tone Strategy: Connecting with People Through Content, I touch upon the power of story in crafting a strategy. This article goes deeper into that topic.
To be clear, I'm not talking about turning your product into a screenplay. I'm talking about the application of storytelling rules that have the power to create connections with your customers and your audiences through voice.
Storytelling is key to characters and connections
Throughout history, nothing has created more human connection, brought more people together, and facilitated more change than storytelling. It is the oldest form of communication and still the most effective. Stories make sense out of words. We use storytelling in our everyday lives, often without realizing it. Through story, we are the keepers of tradition and the teachers of life's lessons. We connect with stories big and small that draw conclusions, form bonds, and bring our shared experiences to life in ways that the mere dissemination of information cannot. We are hard-wired to communicate through storytelling. And when we do we trigger imagination.
If you wish to truly connect with people in meaningful ways and influence their behavior as a result, you must learn from and leverage stories that resonate with your audience. Most good stories aren't just about mystery, adventure or conquest. At their heart, they're about the relationship between two characters. Treat the relationship between the character in your product's voice and the character of your customer as a story, one that builds and develops, and it will make a big difference for your business.
You can take inspiration from stories with great character relationships: Think about Jim and Tom Sawyer in "Huckleberry Finn," or Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Star Wars." What roles do those characters play in those relationships? Why do they work?
"The key to understanding our character, and our voice, is to understand the role each character plays regardless of their individual characteristics," says storytelling coach and long-time game writing pro Susan O'Connor. "Characters play archetypical roles. You've got to know what role you're playing in the story with your voice."
O'Connor and I worked together at Intuit to create a role for our character's voice based on a mentor archetype. Based on the needs and desires of our customers, we looked at stories with hero/mentor relationships, and then asked what attributes our mentor could embody to connect with our hero: the TurboTax customer.
Storytelling is important for digital content creators
The best speakers, the best leaders, the best coaches, and the best writers are all good storytellers. And so are the best content designers. Whether you realize it or not, you are telling a story. And whether your customers realize it or not, they are hearing a story.
But how can the content in the software that delivers healthcare services or powers an online shopping site be part of a story? Simply put, the strategic building blocks I cover in this book can represent the basics of a good story. Story is the essence of any relationship you might have with your customers. It brings humanity to your voice and tone. It builds trust and makes sense out of complex experiences.
It's true that story may not play out in all the content you create. At times you'll need to pull back and be deliberately transactional—more matter-of-fact—when that's what your customers need. It's also important to recognize that not everyone will want to engage with your product or experience in a way that taps into story and the emotion that comes with it.
But when the opportunity for you to lean in with emotion presents itself, especially with the many people who are open to it, a customer experience built around a narrative with character archetypes and a goal of transformation can take your product or service to new heights.
Getting good at this doesn't happen overnight. For many content pros, it starts by letting go of old habits, even those that resulted in success. This can get very uncomfortable. We're used to being mostly transactional, making things quick and easy for our customers. We're confident in our ability to guide people through a task by spitting out clear and concise information and then staying out of their way.
But this seldom creates meaning. If that's part of your goal—and it should be—then you should also think about your craft in terms of the story you can create. It's a skill that not only requires a change in mindset but also a bit of fortitude and courage.
The craft of storytelling is changing dramatically, and this has huge implications for how you can connect with your audience through digital media. For millennia, stories were passed down through word of mouth. In Greco-Roman times, the theater started playing a big role. By the nineteenth century, print media—mostly short stories and novels—were the dominant form of storytelling around the globe. Then in the twentieth-century movies came along and did the same thing through celluloid. In the twenty-first century, the Internet and video games are edging their way in as the mainstream form of storytelling, carving out an ever-larger space in the same way movies took over books.
Your customers, whether external or internal (that's right, employees are customers too) are tuned in to all of this. If you leverage and emulate popular forms of storytelling in your marketing and product experiences, people will want to engage with you and, in turn, may become passionately loyal.
Storytelling, as seen through the lens of a movie-maker/script-writer, has been and continues to influence content designers and voice and tone strategists. Video games, too, have some new and important lessons to share, including the dominance of interactive stories. But it all starts with the narrative. That's what engages people, and our digital content can do the same. Although most stories are about characters, those characters are defined by the role they play in the narrative.
It's all about the narrative
Simply put, a narrative is a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It can include challenges faced, rewards seized, and truths revealed. The beginning may be just that: the start to an awesome new journey. Or it can be the end of one loop and the start of another journey within a bigger story. The end might be about transformation and revelation. But the all-important middle can be about pushing through fears and emerging victorious. Sound like something your customers may experience?
Joseph Campbell's instrumental tome "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" is a good resource and a perfect place to start when learning how a plot-driven narrative works, one that follows a circular format with key thresholds that bring meaning to the journey, while relating to the audience with widely understood character archetypes. It's a model that has not only inspired many successful movie makers, including Stanley Kubrick and George Lucas, but a story format that has been used by successful content and marketing strategists for years. It has a lot to teach us and can help us create a winning strategy.
When we look at the world of marketing and user experience design it's fair to say that most companies, whether explicitly or implicitly, use some form of the hero's journey. Those that do it well succeed, because they understand their customer's story and the role the customer plays, and they recognize the role their company's brand character can play in that story.
The narrative circle
In this example our hero (or our customer) …
Lives in an ordinary world where thing are predictable:
The world of your customer when they first arrive at your front door
They are called to adventure, and after some resistance, are persuaded to go on the journey:
The result of a marketing experience that helps them overcome uncertainty and doubt by realizing the benefit of engaging with you
They are prepared for challenges with tools and knowledge, and then push through their fears to emerge victorious:
Your customer completing a task, purchasing a product, or learning something new, then feeling sense of accomplishment or purpose
They seize their reward and carry it forward to transform the ordinary world:
The closing of a loop in your product or experience, in which your customer "levels up" and shares their success and satisfaction with their friends and family through word of mouth
Through all of this, it's the relationship you're engaged in with your customer through voice and tone that can bring magic and meaning to the experience. Make it aspirational and your customers may want to stick with you. Don't just hand them a tool, entice them to discover something new, to feel stronger, or empowered to take on a challenge, no matter how simple or small. Don't just guide them through a complex or difficult task, help them to feel victorious and successful, to experience a sense of accomplishment and reward. And tie it all together by helping them to see the connections that make it all relevant to their own life story. A little goes a long way with this. In my book, I discuss the power of even the most seemingly simple language—a title on a screen, or some microcopy under a button can serve to build this sense of relationship through story.
The character of your customer is central to the story
"You're stepping into their story," O'Connor emphasizes. "not bringing your story to them."
Indeed, there are countless examples of companies that have fallen down hard because they thought customers would care about the story their company, and their writers, were imposing on them, without consideration of what the customer was thinking or feeling, the story they were telling themselves about what is important.
When Netflix decided in 2011 to start charging their customers for their streaming service, they thought everyone would be happy about that, because they were offering it as part of a broader service change. Instead, they lost 800,000 customers almost overnight, and trust in their brand took a huge hit. Ultimately, company founder Reed Hasting apologized and said he was guilty of "overconfidence." Some argued he was guilty of failing to understand the story his customers were telling themselves about what Netflix was all about, and what was important to them.
We've talked about how customers gravitate toward opportunities to connect with people. But the truth is, with only a few exceptions, customers aren't coming to a product looking for it to tell them why it's special or good. Most of the time, they're just looking for the best way to get something done. The most important lesson from decades of failure is that your company—and its product or service—is never the hero of the story. The customer is the hero. Start there and you're on track to create a winning voice and tone strategy.
"Understanding that the hero (your customer) may be on a journey of transformation is important," O'Connor says. "But it's all about what they're after. You're just going to help them get it."
And ideally help them feel like a winner when they do.
So, your customer has come to you with a story about what is going to happen and why it's important to them. It's already their story and you need to resonate with it and make it awesome.
Empathy mapping. Note pad with map and pen.
Using the narrative to understand your customer
But before you craft your own character and figure out the relationship between your voice and your customer, you need to get grounded in who your customer really is, the role they are playing. You need to start building deep customer empathy. Remember, the most important building block in your strategy—the foundation of it all—is identifying your customers' needs and desires. These are not only gleaned from a variety of proven research methods, they can be found by walking through their individual story using the narrative.
The storytelling workshop led by Greg Ames at Proctor & Gamble that I talked about in my book, is a perfect illustration of that. By telling the story of their target customer for Tide laundry detergent in South America, they were able to discover her biggest fears, which changed their strategy for how they would talk about Tide in that region.
Remember, we are all hardwired for story. We all fall in love with other people's stories, and you can fall in love with your customer's story. You can play a part in their story. That's exciting. By listening to your customers, you can learn what story they're living, apply classic storytelling rules to their narrative, and use that to engage with them in a powerful new way.
You play a role in your customer's story
So yes, you have a role to play in your customer's story, and your voice is key to making it real. They're the hero of the story, out in front, facing challenges and deciding whether or not to act. You're with them on the journey, talking to them in a way that inspires confidence, revealing tips and advice—wisdom and knowledge—at key moments to help them succeed and move forward, and ultimately stepping back to allow your customer to take action and seize their reward.
This is where character archetypes come into play. You need to become a character that has the potential to connect, one that a broad audience can relate to. An archetype, like those found in classic stories, is a universally understood character that follows predictable patterns in human nature. Applying this classic storytelling technique helps to identify the role you play in the narrative and, ultimately, the nature of your relationship with your customer.
You probably weren't telling yourself, "I want to learn about the field of psychology," when you started reading this post. That's why you became a writer, not a psychologist. But it applies to the craft of storytelling. Legendary psychologist Carl Jung was famous for identifying a set of character archetypes that each play a role in the story of our modern lives. They don't necessarily represent who we are, but rather an aspirational, idealized version of who we would could be, which we can apply to ourselves and our customers. These archetypes, which include personas such as "the everyman," "the innocent," or "the villain," are not only influential in the world of psychology to this day, they are used by marketing pros and content strategists to figure out their ideal brand character.
You're not limited to these classic Jungian archetypes when figuring out your role in a customer's story. Modern archetypes tend to resonate even more. Think about a "player's coach" or a "sidekick." There are thousands of archetypes that come from modern-day storytelling. And the relationships between them are tested and proven. The "retiring cop" paired with the "out-of-control rookie" in the "Lethal Weapon" series is a relationship that works, built on archetypes we all understand.
Story archetypes, in addition to character archetypes, are in play as well. Ever seen a movie you might describe as a "rags to riches" story? Or one that could be described as "a quest"? These are story archetypes, and you can apply them in your own quest to codify the story you are participating in with our customers.
The Hero's Journey from Joseph Campbell's book is built on one or more of these story archetypes and contains classic character archetypes in its narrative, including "the hero" and "the mentor."
TurboTax won with the hero and the mentor
At TurboTax, we developed a highly successful voice and tone strategy that was built on this hero/mentor relationship. Applying storytelling techniques to what we wanted to achieve, we recognized that our "new" customer or acquisition target was coming to us telling themselves a story about how scary and difficult it was going to be to do their own taxes. Instead of telling them it is easy, which didn't really connect with their story, we made the provocative decision to flip it around, and opened the door by validating their story.
"Yes, taxes are complex and difficult," we said, "but it's a challenge worth facing because the reward is great. And most importantly, we're going to be with you, by your side, giving you everything you need to be the hero and win the game."
We became a mentor character. And it worked because a good mentor meets the hero where they're at. Yoda in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back didn't say to Luke Skywalker "you need to become a Jedi." Luke just wanted to fly x-wing fighters, be victorious and get the girl. So, Yoda made it all about that. And when the door was opened by resonating with what Luke wanted, his character's voice became unmistakable. In the end, Luke was transformed into someone who was so much more than he ever imagined he could be.
This is the role of the mentor. They hold a bigger vision than the hero holds of themselves. As a mentor, you know where the hero could end up. You communicate this aspiration to your customer by making it specific to your product or service. "It's about painting a picture of the rosy life that lies ahead [if they use your product] and putting them at the center of that," O'Connor says. "We need to get them excited about it."
The end of the story is a powerful hook
This touches upon another powerful storytelling technique: revealing something about the end of the story at the beginning. This can be part of your character's role, and it comes through in your voice. Enticing the audience with what is going to happen at the end of the story is a common rule used in books, movies, and video games. And it's also a rule you can follow to entice your customers into your experience with your voice.
In video games, it's quite effective. Reveal up front what the player will get if they win, the prize for succeeding, and they'll be even more motivated to take on the challenges that lie before them. This is more than just showing the jackpot amount at the top of a slot machine. It's about revealing the emotional benefit. Don't just talk about simple benefits like money. Talk about aspirational benefits like becoming a better person or being able to care for your family.
As part of the "what"—the subject matter they cover with their voice—many companies are not only positioning themselves as the go-to expert in their field—perhaps as a kind of mentor or champion—they're increasingly talking about aspirational things. We all need to recognize that we're only a small part of our customer's story. You can't force them to buy your products. But through voice, you can connect, giving them the knowledge and advice they need to succeed, while getting them excited about the possibilities. They still have to choose to use what you give them, but your presence—your human-like voice and tone—can engage them by making things seem possible.
The role of story in an interactive age
The Internet has catapulted content design into an age of interactive storytelling. You need to be thinking about this, and how your voice and tone needs to adapt.
Unlike the sequential narratives found in fixed media like most books and movies, where readers and viewers passively consume the carefully prescribed story delivered in the way it was designed to be consumed, the web provides consumers with the opportunity to be active participants in their own journey. They can choose whether to read our text, listen to audio, or view videos, and they get to determine the order in which they consume your content. It's their journey. It's often non-linear. And, it's increasingly immersive. Consumers can click or tap (or not) on hyperlinks to learn more about a topic, or quickly browse a content collection stopping briefly only to pay attention to—and perhaps share with others—the pieces of your content they find most interesting.
While the web introduces a variety of communication opportunities you should explore, the fact is, consumers are overloaded with choices. They don't have to listen to the thousands of messages with which they are bombarded daily. They can swipe left or click away at any time. And they will. It's your job to leverage stories to engage them in new and more powerful ways.
"[The Internet] is inherently participatory," writes Frank Rosen, in a widely read article for Wired Magazine in 2011, "not just interactive, in the sense that it responds to your commands, but an instigator constantly encouraging you to comment, to contribute, to join in."
Narrative video games also are changing the way consumers engage with stories by making their storylines deeper and more immersive. The writers and designers of successful games recognize the role of their customers—the player character in the game—and the role of the non-player characters that tag along on the journey with them. They're crafting stories that resonate with players, complete with characters that don't just speak to them throughout the game, but rather invite them to interact. And what they say, their voice and tone, changes to match what their customers want in varying touchpoints and situations.
In this age of interaction, where customers expect to be able to interact in a way that resonates with what they want—storytelling becomes critical to your success as voice and tone strategists and content designers. Actively engage your audiences with story and you'll win them over every time.
A note about strategy vs. tactics
When you craft a story that resonates with the story your customers are telling themselves about what they want and what is going to happen, you are being strategic. By connecting with them, drawing them into a relationship—whether they realize it or not—you are more likely to keep them as customers and get them to speak positively about your product or service to other people.
In doing this there are a number of storytelling tactics you can employ, and it's important to know the difference between a tactic and strategic element as you dig deeper into things like voice attributes and principles. I cover these topics in the book.
Metaphors are a powerful communication tool—or tactic—used by the best storytellers, who know that we are all hard-wired to understand the world in this way.
When astrophysicist and renowned science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about comets, he doesn't say, "comets are ancient balls of prehistoric ice flying around our solar system." Instead, he starts with, "comets are the snowfalls of yesteryear." He engages his audience in a very complex and scientific topic by relating it to something they already know and understand: Snow. That very powerful metaphor delivers on a strategy, which is to bring people into the world of astrophysics by talking about it in a human way.
As a human, you are a storyteller. Every day we are telling stories. And every day we are hearing stories. Now, as a writer and a strategist, you can start to think about how to use the power of story to get what you want.
Storytelling also is a powerful tool to help you create presentations that hook people, something you'll need to do once you've crafted a strategy and are preparing to roll it out to your organization. I recommend this outstanding work from Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present visual stories that transform audiences.
If you are interested in learning more about the power of voice and tone — get it now. It's loaded with useful tips and tricks and contains a framework for the development of a voice and tone strategy and ideas for how to ensure your efforts help you accomplish your business goals.
PreviousViewpoint: Patient-focused Healthcare Information Requires an Omnichannel Content Strategy
NextHow to fuel creativity in the workplace
John Caldwell is an established Content Design Strategist in the field of software design, including software as a service and marketing. Among his many accomplishments, he has helped teams at top companies craft and govern winning strategies for voice and tone across multiple products and platforms. As the lead for content strategy at Intuit, he created and implemented a bold new strategy for voice that changed the game for TurboTax. John is a writing and innovation coach with more than 20 years of experience. In addition to user experience and content design, he has worked in magazine and broadcast journalism and continues to write on a wide array of topics, from tech to travel.
[WEBINAR] Shaping Content with the Deep Magic of Taxonomy
Monetizing Content: Leveraging Your Content Gold Mine
Terminology Management: A Critical First Step in Adopting a Content Strategy
XML Levels Educational Playing Field For Blind and Visually Impaired
Receive exclusive access to members-only content, invitations to in-person and virtual events, and sneak peeks at new tools and emerging technologies. Join today!
Categories Select Category CATEGORIES Accessibility Agentive Technology Artificial Intelligence Audio Development Chatbots Cognitive Computing Content Engineering Content Management Content Marketing Content Strategy Conversational Commerce Customer Experience Globalization Intelligent Content Localization and Translation Machine Learning Markup Languages Smart Products Technical Communication Text-to-Speech Visual Communication Voice Interfaces CONTENT TYPES Articles Books The Language of Content Strategy The Language of Cybersecurity The Language of Localization The Language of Technical Communication Voice and Tone Strategy: Connecting with People through Content Slide Decks Videos Webinars COVERAGE AREA Companies Ideas Methods People Standards Stats Tools SUB-CATEGORY Best Practices Case Studies Content Reuse How Tos Infographics Interviews Jobs Just For Fun News Opinion Reviews Topic Deep Dives Topic Overviews White papers Uncategorized
Select Author... Hilee Avrahami Rohan Ayyar Rahel Anne Bailie Mark Baker Deborah Bosley Richard Brooks Katherine (Kit) Brown-Hoekstra John Caldwell Charles Cooper Shelly Davies Robert J. Glushko Joe Gollner Joe Griffin Michael Haggerty-Villa Anne Harding David Hobbs Char James-Tanny Tom Johnson Marcia Riefer Johnston Paula Land Cheryl Landes Martin Magee Erik Martin Karl Montevirgen Eti Nachum Finkelstein Kevin P. Nichols Robert Norris Marc Posch Ann Rockley Barry Saiff Leon Segal, Ph.D Dr. Carmen Simon Nitish Singh, Ph. D. Tim Steele Nikolay Stoyanov Val Swisher Noz Urbina Elisa Valenzuela Nikoletta Vecsei Harrold Danielle M. Villegas Toby Wall Rick Yagodich Fatima Zehra
Global Marketing Insight: Don't Translate, Transcreate!
TED Translators Share Idioms From Around The World
The Future of Cognitive Computing
Global Marketing Insight: Localizing Content for 70 Countries or More
Balancing the Desire for Standardization with the Demand for Localization
How to fuel creativity in the workplace
Viewpoint: Patient-focused Healthcare Information Requires an Omnichannel Content Strategy
Viewpoint: The Disconnect Between Content Strategy, Information Science, and Healthcare
The Need for Plain Language in "Terms and Conditions"
Copyright ® 2017 The Content Wrangler, Inc. 4153 24 Street, San Francisco, CA 94114 — 415-857-2235 — info@thecontentwrangler.com