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Book Reviews May 8, 2016
Embracing my vulnerability in "Rising Strong" by Brené Brown
I would like to begin by saying that I am not a fan of self-help or motivational books. I have nightmares of being the woman in that aisle of the bookstore crying, while searching through the stacks for a solution to my problems. I feel the same way about motivational speakers and the false sense of happiness that is often advertised. After saying all of that, there is one book that has snuck its way into my life and has undoubtedly changed me for the better.
Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution by Brené Brown was purchased by my cousin and given to me for Christmas. I admittedly let the book become a coffee table decoration for about six months and, after an especially hard day, decided to take a glance. I began to read the book and found that Brown's concept resonated very strongly with me. It didn't advocate for the easy route out or a simple tell-all solution as many self-help books do, but instead demanded hard work and acceptance.
Rising Strong begins by explaining the importance of vulnerability. People are often taught to reject feelings that aren't necessarily comfortable. They are told to tuck these emotions away by laughing it off or drinking it down. Brown recommends looking these feelings in the eye, and by doing so embrace our inherent human vulnerability. She also lightens the mood by saying "people who wade into the discomfort and vulnerability and tell the truth about their stories are the real badasses".
Once this idea of vulnerability is introduced, the idea of embracing it becomes overwhelming. How do I embrace such a scary emotion? How do I even begin to look at myself and my darker truths? How do I become this badass? Brown gives a set of steps to follow that are simple and direct. This is what appeals to me about Rising Strong: the path to self-realization isn't ambiguous or complex. Instead, the presentation of the steps is straight-forward and unpretentious.
It begins with "The Reckoning", which is the realization that if you are vulnerable, you will get knocked down. You will fail and life will hurt. This is the trade-off to living a fully authentic life. Brown's next step is "The Rumble", which is when you decide to embrace the uncomfortable feelings of being knocked down. "The most dangerous stories we make up are the narratives that diminish our inherent worthiness. We must reclaim the truth about our lovability, divinity, and creativity," she writes.
The book helps you to learn how to question the common self-damaging narratives we create and how to understand that parts of those stories are merely assumptions created out of insecurity and fear. "The Revolution" is when you rise up and are truly stronger for having faced some of your issues.
An essential component to Rising Strong includes learning how to question whether we judge others too often by asking yourself the simple question:
"Do you think people do the best they can?"
Brown explains that setting high expectations of ourselves in turn causes us to hold these same standards for people around us and it is bound to cause disappointment. Instead, understanding and empathizing with others helps to create appropriate boundaries and expectations in our relationships.
Brown has a Phd in Social Work from the University of Houston and has published a series of motivational books. The companion read to Rising Strong is Daring Greatly, and the series has sparked Brown to create workshops (including a free workshop on trust!) and a community to continue discussing her method. Brown was arguably popularized by her TEDx talks on vulnerability and shame. She has also been on Oprah.
Rising Strong is filled with examples and details of how to obtain a sense of self-assurance and an understanding of living an authentic life. I would definitely recommend reading this novel if you have often felt lost and afraid of your own vulnerability. There is nothing stronger than embracing your own emotions, and Brown will show you a way to do this that will make you a stronger and more badass woman.
Movie Reviews September 9, 2015
Still Alice (2014) : A Review
Julianne Moore plays Alice Howland in a moving performance as a happily married linguistics professor with three beautiful, grown children. Respected and successful, Alice finds her life in shambles when she receives a diagnosis of Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease, forcing her and her family to find their bonds thoroughly tested. Her journey through her quickly deteriorating memory is both heartbreaking and inspiring.
Still Alice is the perfect film for a rainy day in without the sappiness of a Nicolas Spark's movie. But don't tune in looking for tips of how to deal with Alzheimer's patients. Julianne Moore may have bagged an Academy Award for her performance, but the story is a little too Hollywood to be real.The plot twist begins as Alice stumbles over the a word, which as a linguistics professor – is bound to cause some panic. Moore's performance demonstrates the battle of dementia and the attack it has on her intelligence and independence- in the most Julianne Moore's way possible.
Even with her inability to remember her daughters' names, the location of her phone, or where the bathroom is, she always seems to have her loving, patient husband (Alec Baldwin) by her side at all times. Whether he's taking her out for ice-cream, going for morning runs, or comforting her during late night panic attacks – he never seems to lose his patience. He's the Prince Charming for any Alzheimer's patience.
The only family problem she seems to have is her daughter's (Kristen Stewart) decision to skip college to become a struggling actress. Meanwhile, Alice's MacBook and iPhone are used to play memory games and puzzles while her two other beautiful children lead perfect lives. I mean, having twins – one boy and one girl – just seems too good to be true, right?
Visually, the film, shot on a lowish budget and with the look of a Lifetime Movie, is underwhelming. At times slow, other times too smooth to be about dementia, Still Alice falls a little flat and conventional given its subject matter and Moore's searing performance. Rather lack luster, it's predictable and ambiguous at the same time.
It's Julianne Moore that steals the spotlight. She will have you at the edge of your seat at times, reminiscent of a psychological thriller. Other times, she will have you on the verge of tears, as you feel for her desire to have a that little extra time during the peak of her career.
Overall, this is the perfect film for a night in by yourself. There's not much depth to the film as there is only one plot line – allowing you to tune in and out of the film. Besides, the actors and actresses are all very aesthetically pleasing.
by Tasnia Nasar
Women of the Week June 30, 2015
Donna Green: Founder and President of Stella's Place
Last week, I sat down with Founder and President of a new mental health treatment assessment center for young adults. Donna Green, as quoted by the executive director of the organization, is 'an inspiring visionary philanthropist who is leading the charge to change the landscape of mental health services with the many young adults we are working with.' Her organization, called Stella's Place is looking to launch early next year. Being a student myself, I knew I had to find out more from Donna about this unique initiative:
What is Stella's Place?
Stella's Place will be Canada's first treatment and assessment centre for young adults with mental health issues. We are creating a hub that will be based in the community – the first location will be in Toronto's downtown core –making this facility accessible and welcoming, which is different from the very few services that are offered today.
Another thing that makes Stella's Place different from other facilities is that we are creating all our programs in partnership with young adults. We have a young adult council with more than 100 members. We are also working with professionals, and executed three years of research into what is available internationally so that we are able to draw on all the best practices while creating our program. But because our young adults have lived experience of the mental health system, nobody knows better than them what was really good, what was really bad, or what was really missing.
It is very important that we are based in the community, close to the subway line, which, again, is very different from going to a hospital or to an institution. What the research shows is that young adults who are not experiencing an emergency cannot even get into a hospital or institution. This is why we have designed a café storefront where you can come visit us. Behind this café is a full service of different treatments for kids struggling through various disorders.
Do you have any advice for those who are having trouble coming to terms with their mental health?
One of the things that our program has been very big on is peer support. We developed a Peer Support Training Program to train young people with lived experience to go out and actually speak with, or be available to, young adults who are not sure how to move forward or ask questions. When we complete our website, you will be able to go online to find support – we are not only going to have peer support workers but we're developing an online platform for engagement. Then, as a young person, if you're wondering how you feel, and what you should do, and where you should go, and how to ask questions, and who you can ask these questions to, you can get online to find help. Once we launch our online café, young adults will be able to speak to peer supporters, with lived experience, online and be part of a chat-line, but also find guidance to seek the clinical help you need.
What inspired you start this initiative?
Our daughter, Stella. When she was a teenager, she suffered a sudden bout of depression and anxiety. And it was then, in the middle of her high-school career, that we experienced first-hand the lack of appropriate services, coordination, and age appropriate treatment that is available in Canada without private dollars. When we were faced with all these situations first-hand, we then proceeded – for the next 3 or 4 years – to get the help she needed. We rallied around her as a family and did what we could until she was more stable.
When she was feeling better and getting on her way, I knew something had to change. I just felt that as a woman who has been involved in the community in other initiatives, this was something that I was really committed to taking on, to help the 1 in 5 young adults suffering with the same issue. We can't afford to lose our kids and not give them better support than they're getting now.
What can schools do to help their students with their mental health?
There are a lot of news article and traffic around mental health, especially for those in this age group (16-29). I know that there are some programs being offered that allow kids to either talk about it, or teach mindfulness or yoga-type exercises. Generally speaking, it's become less of a stigma so kids can now start talking to each other about these things. We're hoping to, at some point, partner with schools so that they understand that we are available to them.
What can the youth do to help themselves?
Talk to your friends! It's a double-edged sword – on one hand, if they speak to the wrong person, they might get stigmatized. But if they have a close friend, speak to them. If they can't, speak to their parents and say 'I'm not feeling great, and I don't know what to do.'
Go to your guidance counselor at school to find out what support you can get if you're feeling too much pressure, can't get out of bed anymore, or have too much anxiety. Some kids are self-harming and this is a sign of something that is more serious, and you should seek help.
How do you plan on achieving your goal of reaching thousands of students across Ontario?
We are building incrementally. Once we launch our online portal, in 2016, it will be a good way for people from across Ontario to connect with us. We have to establish the back-up clinical support for the online chat groups and peer support, so we are being very thoughtful about how we set it up. We're hoping to have kids contact us earlier on, to try and use early intervention and support to prevent more serious issues from coming up.
It's going to take a lot of work. We're launching our first program this June, training about 30 peer support workers, who we hope can then go out into various communities and start providing peer support to young adults that need someone to talk to. Sometimes just having someone to talk to and answer their questions can be of help, especially when it comes to dealing with preventive strategies before they get more involved in deeper issues.
How did George Brown get involved?
We decided as a community service to partner with as many community agencies as possible. We didn't want to duplicate any good services that were there and we knew that George Brown was doing some very innovative things. So we approached them to partner with our Peer Support Training Program and with the online café. The Peer Support Training Program just launched this week, and these students will graduate in August. We are working with all types of organizations and people to form a collaborative team.
When is the online café launching?
It's in development now. We're hoping to begin some trials in late 2015 with a plan to officially launch in 2016.
What are you looking most forward to with this project?
I think we're really excited by the new model of this initiative. The idea that Stella's Place is giving young people with lived experience a voice, a way to give back after their own experiences, is not being done anywhere else. We are developing our programs from the inside out instead of from the top down. We just don't believe that senior adults with professional experience can accurately dictate what is best for young adults. We need to share the voices of young adults. We're really proud to be working with such a wonderful group of young people who have helped get us this far.
We will continue to speak to our government officials and make it clear to them of the desperate need out there. The Stella's Place model is unique and they cannot continue with the same old strategies and medical support, because it's not working very well. We're really excited about reaching out to kids in a whole new way, ideally before they get into the deeper issues. Stella's Place will help the kids get what they need in a very recovery-based fashion.


David Zarza is currently headquartered in Seattle, WA and available for in-person, phone and Skype sessions. He also books appointments for sessions in Los Angeles and San Diego. To find out details about when David will be in the LA or San Diego areas and to book an appointment with him, please call 206.920.9409.
Reach out to David either by phone or by email or just go ahead and book a session. You know you're ready because you've done your research, read the reviews and something is telling you, this is the psychic for you. If you haven't seen what others are saying about David, then go to these sites here for the details. Pretty interesting stuff at GOOGLE+ and YELP.
It is really easy to find David. Do you know where the Space Needle is? Do you know where Pacific Science Center is? David is right across the street! Who knew that there were two Seattle landmarks so close to one another…yes, David is working on becoming one of Seattle's landmarks – the best psychic medium serving Seattle and the surrounding areas. Also there's plenty of parking.
DAVID WILL ALWAYS GUIDE YOU RIGHT!
Freeing clients from fear and doubt is what he does best. Remember, peace of mind may be just a conversation away…reach out, go for it!


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Alexishafen (auch Alexis Harbour) ist eine kleine Küstenstadt etwa 25 km nördlich von Madang in Papua-Neuguinea.

Geschichte

Der russische Forschungsreisende Nikolai Miklucho-Maklai hatte vom 27. Juni 1876 bis 10. November 1877 sein Standquartier in Konstantinhafen an der Astrolabebucht. Er hielt sich längere Zeit in Bilbil auf und entdeckte von dort aus einen Hafen, den er nach dem Generaladmiral der Kaiserlich Russischen Marine Alexei Alexandrowitsch Romanow Großfürst-Alexis-Hafen nannte.

1883 besuchte die russische Korvette Skobelew unter Kapitän Wadim Wassiljewitsch Blagodarew den Hafen, heute als Sek Harbour bezeichnet. Die vorgelagerte Insel erhielt den Namen Skobelew-Insel, heute wird sie Sek-Insel genannt.

1896 begannen die Steyler Missionare ihre Missionsarbeit in Neuguinea. Die Missionsstation Sankt Michael in Alexishafen wurde von ihnen 1905 gegründet und entwickelte sich wirtschaftlich schnell, sodass der Norddeutsche Lloyd entschied, auch Alexishafen mit seinem Reichspostdampfer Manila anzulaufen, nachdem die Missionare eine massive Pier für das Anlegen des Schiffes für die Übernahme der Kopra aus den Kokospalmenplantagen der Mission gebaut hatten. Diese Station bestand aus einer Schwesternstation, der bischöflichen Residenz, der Kathedrale St. Michael, Wohnungen, einer Katechetenschule, Werkstätten, Maschinenräumen, der Mädchenschule, dem Missionskrankenhaus, Lagerräumen und den Missionspflanzungen. Die Stadt war außerdem Sitz einer Apostolischen Präfektur.

1922 wurde das Territorium der Steyler Missionare im ehemaligen deutschen Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land zum Apostolischen Vikariat umgewandelt. Erster Apostolischer Vikar wurde Bischof Franziskus Wolf; am 24. November 1922 erhielt er seine Ernennung und begab sich in die Mission.

Zweiter Weltkrieg
In der Nacht zum 23. Dezember 1942 landeten Angehörige der japanischen Armee mit Lastkähnen in Alexishafen. Sie stießen auf keinerlei Gegenwehr. Zunächst sicherte die japanische Führung den katholischen Missionaren Unversehrtheit unter japanischer Bewachung zu. Später mussten die Steyler Missionare aus Alexishafen flüchten.

Die japanische Armee baute die Umgebung von Alexishafen zu einem Stützpunkt- und Flugplatzgelände aus. Die Japaner besetzten und erweiterten den existierenden Flugplatz (als Danip bzw. Alexishafen II bezeichnet) und bauten eine weitere größere Landebahn im Süden nahe der Siedlung (als Alexishafen I bezeichnet). Der Bereich wurde durch Flakgeschützbatterien verteidigt.

Die besetzte Stadt und ihre Umgebung, unter anderem auch die beiden Flugfelder, waren in der Folge häufiger Ziele alliierter Luftangriffe. Beim schwersten Angriff, der von der Fifth Air Force am 1. September 1943 mit mehr als 70 B-24 and B-25, die mehr als 200 Tonnen Bomben abwarfen, ausgeführt wurde, wurde der Hauptsitz der Mission vollständig vernichtet. Von der Kathedrale blieben nur Fundamentreste und die Freitreppe stehen. Die versteckt gehaltene Statue des "Heiligen Herzens Jesu" wurde später zurückgebracht. Auf dem alten Missionsfriedhof von Alexishafen entstand eine Gedenkstätte mit Kreuzigungsgruppe. In der Krypta der neu erbauten Kirche fand Franziskus Wolf seine letzte Ruhestätte.

Mitte April 1944, als sich die australische Armee näherte, verminten die Japaner das Gebiet entlang der North Coast Road, errichteten Sprengfallen und zogen sich schließlich zurück.

Am 26. April 1944 befreite das 30. Bataillon der Australier die Gegend. Bis Juli 1944 wurden einige Gebäude, unter anderem die ehemalige Priesterresidenz, wiederhergestellt und bis zum 17. Juli entstand auf dem Missionsgelände ein Feldlazarett.

Weitere Wiederaufbauarbeiten leistete das US-Militär ab Juni 1944 durch eine Einheit der US Navy. In der Folge entstanden in Alexishafen ein Stützpunkt für 400 Soldaten auf einer Halbinsel in der Bostrem Bay vor Alexishafen mit zusätzlichen Einrichtungen auf Megas Island und Ulimal Island. Neben einem Süßwasserversorgungssystem für Schiffe, das täglich eine halbe Million Gallonen unbehandeltes Wasser liefern konnte, wurden Reparaturmöglichkeiten für Boote auf schwimmenden Docks gebaut. Die Basis wurde am 17. August 1944 in Betrieb genommen.

Am 31. August 1944 besuchte die amerikanische Sängerin und Entertainerin Frances Langford Alexishafen in Verbindung mit der von Bob Hope initiierten USO Tour. Anfang November 1944 war die Basis zu weit hinter den Frontlinien und Pläne für die Demontage traten Ende Dezember in Kraft. Die Wasserversorgung wurde der Royal Australian Navy übergeben. Am 28. Januar 1945 wurde die Basis offiziell als US-Marinestützpunkt außer Dienst gestellt.

Nachkriegszeit

Heute gibt es in Alexishafen ein Health-Center, in dem Steyler Schwestern und Ärzte arbeiten.

Industrielle Zone PMIZ
Alexishafen ist Standort eines umstrittenen Projektes zur Schaffung einer 300 Millionen US-Dollar teuren industriellen Zone Pacific Marine Industrial Zone, (PMIZ). Die Regierung Papua-Neuguineas plant gemeinsam mit der Weltbank, der Volksrepublik China und Japan auf dem ehemaligen Gebiet der Missionsstation zehn neue Thunfischfabriken mit Hafenanlagen, Lagerhallen und Arbeiterunterkünften zu bauen.

Viele lokale Grundbesitzer der Volksgruppen Sek, Rempi und Kananam aus den Dörfern rund um den Bereich sind gegen die Pacific Marine Industrial Zone. Die PMIZ hat das Ziel, die reichen Thunfischvorkommen der Region abzufischen. Die von der Fischerei abhängigen Dorfbewohner fürchten um ihre Existenzgrundlage. Durch industrielle Überfischung würden die Thunfischvorkommen binnen weniger Jahre aufgebraucht sein. Ungelernte, günstige Arbeiter aus anderen asiatischen Ländern würden die Arbeit in den Fabriken übernehmen.

Die Ausbeutung der Fischgründe hätte auch Folgen für das regionale Ökosystem. Die Madang-Lagune besitzt eine ungewöhnlich reiche Artenvielfalt. Die im Juni 2010 vom Ministerium für Umwelt und Naturschutz von Papua-Neuguinea (Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC)) veröffentlichte Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung stellte fest, dass zwei endemische Fischarten und zwei weltweit gefährdete Fischarten in dem Gebiet vorkommen. Auch zwei Arten weltweit bedrohter Schildkröten sind im Projektgebiet gesichtet worden. Die Lagune ist die Heimat von drei gefährdeten Säugetierarten. An Land werden vier Tierarten vom Washingtoner Artenschutzübereinkommen CITES in Anhang 2 als schutzbedürftige Arten geführt, darunter der Allfarblori und der Edelpapagei.

Im Juni 2009 erfolgte der offizielle Spatenstich für das PMIZ-Projekt.

Literatur
 Stichwort: Alexishafen. Veröffentlicht in: Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, Band I. Quelle & Meyer. Leipzig 1920. Seite 717.

Weblinks
 Eintrag Alexishafen Catholic Mission auf Pacific Wrecks. Abgerufen am 29. Mai 2022.
 Eintrag Alexishafen (Alexishaven) auf Pacific Wrecks. Abgerufen am 29. Mai 2022.

Einzelnachweise

Ort in Papua-Neuguinea
Ort auf Neuguinea
Deutsch-Neuguinea
Madang Province

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


On Thursday, May 18, nearly 200 clients, staff and board members attended our 12th Annual Awards Celebration. The event brought us together to celebrate the successes and triumphs of our clients, and honor the outstanding dedication of staff and community supporters to making a difference in the lives of our clients.
For the first time, we changed things up this year and celebrated with a brunch. The festivities took place at the Doubletree Hotel in Pikesville, with fantastic food, presentation of awards, and of course, it wouldn't be a party without music and dancing! From the smiles, applause and some pretty awesome moves on the dance floor, it was clear that a great time was had by all!
A highlight of the event was the presentation of the Bobby Bateman Memorial Merit Award. This award is presented to a Mosaic employee who exemplifies the vision and values of Mosaic Community Services. This direct staff member is recognized for helping to transform the lives of the clients they serve. The trusting relationship between staff and clients is vital to an individual's recovery, and retaining quality staff who understand the unique needs of individuals with mental illness and addiction is essential. The Bateman Family have chosen to recognize the amazing work of those who care for Mosaic clients, like their brother, Bobby Bateman, who was a member of the Mosaic family for 17 years. Bobby is center front in the above photo of the Bateman Family.
Our deepest congratulations to Alexandria (Allie) Pavoncello, the 2016 recipient of the Bobby Bateman Memorial Merit Award! Allie, who works as a Service Coordinator in the Catonsville Residential Rehabilitation Program, was recognized for her exceptional dedication and service to clients and families. Kathy Sharman, Mosaic board member and sister of Bobby Bateman, presented the award to Allie on behalf of the Bateman family. She was also presented with a cowboy hat in honor of Bobby, who loved and wore a cowboy hat almost constantly.
Throughout the year, staff members are recognized for their exceptional contributions to Mosaic through Awards of Excellence. We are proud to honor and thank them for everything they do to advance Mosaic's mission each day!


Purchasing a car is a major investment for any driver. In this video, you will learn some tips and tricks for helping your car to have the longest lifespan possible. To help your car stay on the road for longer, you will want to set up routine maintenance services at your local mechanic. Additionally, it is very important to check and change your car's fluid. Engine steam cleaning near Sunnyvale can also help you clean and preserve the engine in your vehicle.
If you have questions about the benefits of engine steam cleaning, be sure to get in contact with a car detailing service near you. When you take the time to clean your car's interior and exterior components, you can ensure that it has a long and healthy lifespan.


RankTrackr is a new cloud-based keyword rank tracking tool. The company claims that this is the number one growth hacking tool for SEO. The tool comes with a unique feature that allows you to track your YouTube rankings. It provides a robust API and allows you to customize your data.
Choosing a reliable SEO software can vastly improve your SEO efforts. Over the years, we have used many similar rank tracking tools and some of the best we still use is WebCEO.
When we came to know about RankTrackr, we wanted to share our experience with the features of this tool. In this blog, we we will be talking about the customization, accuracy, pricing, and how it compares to some of the leading tools in the industry.
Before we can customize the features of this tool, we must add the specific website or keywords we want to track.
This is a very simple process. After you login, click the "Add URLs" option and add the website URL in the text area. Multiples URLs can be entered here as well.
Once the URL is added, the keywords can be added from the "Add Keyword" option. The list of keywords can be added as one per line. There is an option to select the country and language. The ranking will change according to country. So, be sure to select the country your website is targeting.
Add the URL that you want to track.
Select your search engine under their drop down menu.
Add Keywords that you are looking to track. You can also track by the city or area you are in or trying to target.
Then, you can add competitors by inserting their URL.
The dashboard shows the overall status of your rankings. This includes information such as your average position, keyword positions, keyword change, number of keywords, and websites added.
RankTrackr shows your Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, and number of indexed page. The Alexa Rank is a rank from the ranking system by Alexa.com. The amount of traffic recorded is over three months and only from the users that have the Alexa toolbar installed. Since there is a limited number of people with the Alexa toolbar installed, it's difficult to get an accurate ranking for all your website's traffic.
In addition, the dashboard shows the list of keywords with their rank and few other related data. The customizable cells make it easy to select and analyze the data. Based on your preference, you can customize the cell to show your Google Places ranking and even image Carousel rank.
Evolution, which is the rank history, is displayed as a graph for visualization of your results. Some other cells, include your last change in ranking and your day, weekly, monthly change. This way, you can have an understanding of your overall change over a certain time period.
Conveniently, the customizable columns allow you to compare your rank with competitors, search volume, average cost per click, location, language, and few more dimensions.
There is an option to preview SERP for each keyword, where we can see the complete list of sites listed organically up to the 10th page. This is good option to get to know about competitor sites. It allows you to know where you stand when compared to your competitors.
There are two type of pricing package, the Enterprises for business and agency use and normal user packages. For the enterprise package, the company provides unlimited API access, interface access, and fast support by Skype. The pricing for the enterprise packages are based on the number of keywords. The packages start at $980 for 10,000 keywords to a 1 million plus keywords package.
If you're just a small-medium sized business or professional looking for a rank tracking tool, you can consider the 4 other packages offered. The starter package starts at an affordable cost of $17.60 with 100 keywords.
RankTrackr offers online support to answer questions when using the tool. However, the website lacks a FAQ section. During the trial period, we received great response from the support team. They were easy accessible through emails and offered any assistance we needed.
RankTrackr is a tool, which as of now, is only for checking keyword ranking. When compared with other industry leading tools, like WebCEO and AWR, RankTrackr seems to be lacking many of the great features offered by these competitors.
Option to select many popular search engines.
Detailed competitor rank tracking data.
History of all previous ranking reports.
Easy comparison and more visualization of data.
Some of the industry leading tools, like WebCEO and AWR, offer the above features in their tool. In addition, they have other important features, such as backlink performance, web analytics, social media, keyword research, audit tools, and many more essential tools that are commonly used by marketers.
Despite some of the missing features, RankTrackr gives accurate rankings and a simple, easy to use interface. This allows any users to easily use the tool and customize the dashboard to their own preferences. If you're looking for an affordable and reliable ranking system, RankTrackr makes for a great alternative. Give the tool a try with their free trial. Let us know what you look for in a rank tracking tool and which one you're using in the comments below!
Web CEO Rank Tracker provides more features (YouTube, local, mobile and competitor rankings etc.) at lower costs.
Glad to know that you found my blog useful.
Well visualized dashboard. Are they proving any unique features than WebCeo or other leading softwares?
I don't see any unique features when I compare with WEBCeo. But yes the way of visualization, adding filters and column is good.
Seems overpriced for the amount of keywords you are allowed to use. We are using something at $29 and get over 1000 keywords I believe and unlimited sites. Allows competition comparison as well.
Yes, When we compare with other leading industry tools, it seems overpriced.


According to the complaint lodged by officials of PNB, the incident occurred between April and October in 2016. The Lashkar police said that FICN was deposited in different branches of the bank.
PUNE: Officials of the Lashkar police station have lodged a case against unidentified persons for depositing fake Indian currency notes (FICN) of face value Rs 21,500 at different branches of Punjab National Bank (PNB).
According to the complaint lodged by officials of PNB, the incident occurred between April and October in 2016. The Lashkar police said that FICN was deposited in different branches of the bank. It was found that 20 notes of Rs 1,000 denomination and three notes of Rs 500 denomination were fake. Accordingly, a case was lodged at Lashkar police station. Assistant Police Inspector SV Gade is investigating the case.


A 15-minute drive from Exeter, Courtbrook Farm offers bed and breakfast rooms and a 1-bedroom apartment. It has free parking and Wi-Fi access. Each room has a flat-screen TV and tea and coffee facilities.
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These superior rooms are in a newly converted stable block, and offer comfort and relaxation. The Blue Ball is only 6 minutes from Exeter Airport. Facilities include 32-inch flat-screen HD TVs, power showers and Wi-Fi in public areas.
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Refurbished in 2015, Innkeepers Lodge Exeter, Middlemoor is just 5 minutes drive from junction 30 on the M5 motorway, with free private parking and free Wi-Fi in public areas..
Featuring free WiFi, a restaurant and a terrace, The Kings Arms Otterton offers pet-friendly accommodation in Budleigh Salterton, 27 km from Torquay. Guests can enjoy the on-site bar. Free private parking is available on site.
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Tableau enhances links to Salesforce AI as it works to blend more into ecosystem
Ron Miller 9 months
When Salesforce spent almost $16 billion to buy Tableau in 2019, it was getting a company with a goal of bringing data to the masses. As a cloud solution, it fits nicely into the growing Salesforce federation of cloud products and services. Over time, it makes sense that the two companies are finding ways to integrate with each other's technology and across the family of products.
Today at Tableau's customer conference in Las Vegas the company announced deeper integration with Einstein, the Salesforce AI platform. Perhaps it's not surprising that this integration involves CRM data, the bread and butter of the Salesforce platform.
Tableau CEO Mark Nelson talked about the possibilities for customers when you combine the two companies' capabilities. "Salesforce Einstein AI generates more than 152 billion predictions every day. By harnessing these insights, even beginners can see beyond the what of their data and understand the why or they see what could happen in the future. And what you should do about it," he said at a press event on Monday ahead of the conference.
Francois Ajenstat, the company's chief product officer, says the two companies saw the value of integrating and exploring how Einstein could augment Tableau. "About a year ago, we introduced Einstein Discovery in Tableau, which was the first integration of Einstein into Tableau and that enabled people to do more, but it still required a lot of configuration," he explained.
This time around the goal was to simplify the integration and make it more accessible by automating the creation of a predictive model.
"It leverages everything that a customer has already configured in Tableau, their data connections, through data sources, through security, through their governance model. You don't have to go anywhere else," he said. What's more, although the models are fueled by Salesforce AI technology on the back end, they are built and live in Tableau.
While AI is a great integration point, the company has also built connections into Slack where you can discuss data as it's generated, into MuleSoft where it drives connections with APIs to a number of systems for which there might not be out-of-the-box connectors, and Salesforce Flow, the company's automation product which can use data as triggers to drive actions based on certain data points.
Ajenstat says the goal of these integrations is to make customer data more accessible and more actionable and to ultimately drive more business. "It is just a new world of opportunity. It's an opportunity…to accelerate innovation, accelerate customer success and ultimately accelerate the mission that we've been on to help people see and understand data," he said.
Salesforce's low-code workflow tool aims to unify CRM giant's largest acquisitions

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Enterprises are usually experts at their daily operation; however, many enterprises lack the knowledge concerning areas beyond their daily operation. NOVA bridges this gap by providing comprehensive financial advisory service to our clients. As a financial advisor, we offer advice to corporations not only on their financial performance, but also on other aspects like operational effectiveness, strategic planning, corporate positioning, capital structure and capital raising.
Apart from the advisory services NOVA provides for clients to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of their business and the market their business operates in, NOVA also renders clients the ability to access capital market whenever they need capital to expand.
Formulation and execution of strategy: conduct in-depth research on economy and industry where our clients operate in; adopt the best communication strategy for shareholder, customers, suppliers and other related intermediaries; identify possible alternatives and best solutions, and tailor the timing and strategy for value maximization.


Often, the most important conversations are the ones we struggle to have. As a community, commonwealth and country, we need to start having conversations about mental health, specifically suicide. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. and in 2017, about 47,173 Americans died by suicide, while an estimated 1.3 million Americans attempted it.


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Executive and Leadership Development
Organizational Change and Transitions
Interface Dynamics™ – Bridging Differences
Integral Culture
Workshops and Education
Polarity Thinking
Ken Wilber's Integral Model
Psychological Type
Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0)
StrengthsFinder 2.0
Full Circle POV
Nurturing a holistic, integral point of view for greater leader and team effectiveness and member well-being.
Bedrock: 'Above all, to thine own self be true.'
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was a German philosopher often referred to as the pessimistic philosopher. Although very male-centric in his writings (sometimes jarringly so), what he wrote about the sources of happiness in life rings true for everyone.
I observe that the fundamental differences in human lot may be reduced to three distinct classes:
What a man is: that is to say, personality, in the widest sense of the word; under which are included health, strength, beauty, temperament, moral character, intelligence and education.
What a man has: that is, property and possessions of every kind.
How a man stands in the estimation of others: by which is to be understood, as everybody knows, what a man is in the eyes of his fellow-men, or, more strictly, the light in which they regard him….(p. 11).
The only thing that stands in our power to achieve, is to make the most advantageous use possible of the personal qualities we possess, and accordingly to follow such pursuits only as will call them into play, to strive after the kind of perfection of which they admit and to avoid every other; consequently, to choose the position, occupation and manner of life which are most suitable for their development.
Imagine a man endowed with herculean strength who is compelled by circumstances to follow a sedentary occupation, some minute exquisite work of the hands, for example, or to engage in study and mental labor demanding quite other powers, and just those which he has not got––compelled, that is to leave unused the powers in which he is preeminently strong; a man placed like this will never feel happy all his life through. Even more miserable will be the lot of the man with intellectual powers of a very high order, who has to leave them undeveloped and unemployed, in the pursuit of a calling, for which his strength is insufficient….(p. 16).
What a man is contributes more to his happiness than what he has, or how he is regarded by others. What a man is , and so what he has in his own person, is always the chief thing to consider; for his individuality accompanies him always and everywhere, and gives its color to all his experiences. (p. 20).
Schopenhauer, A., Trans. Saunders, T. (1995), (See Bookshelf for full citation).
And which of the three classes is continually influenced by our culture to strive toward as most important? Classes 2 and 3, Schopenhauer concedes, have importance but pale compared with what we do with the inherent person that we are.
Team Differentials
An I Ching Reading to Live By
Workplace mistreatment: The importance of cross-situational empathy
Revisiting Plato's Cave
Monthly Archives Select Month August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 November 2014 October 2014
Follow Full Circle POV on WordPress.com
Full Circle Dynamics, LLC
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Peter D. Freeman, Ed.D., LICSW
and Full Circle Dynamics, LLC.
All contents (text or image), unless otherwise designated, are the intellectual property of the above.


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Q: XML + XSL to XSLT for an HTML Sorry if my Post won´t be so good i am not that good in expressing myself.
What i want:
I´ve got an XML and a XSL Data i want to convert to an XSLT for an HTML.
As transformating i use Altova XMLSpy and this webpage: http://www.freeformatter.com/xsl-transformer.html
What i´ve got:
My XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="Style.xsl"?>
<Configuration>
 <Environment>
  ...
 </Environment>
  <Configurations>
  ...
  <Config>
  ...
  </Config>
 </Configurations>
</Configuration>

My XSL:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
    <xsl:template match="/">

                    <xsl:apply-templates select="Configuration"/>

        >
</xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="Environment">

Environment

         Text
    <xsl:value-of select="Environment"/>

        Text2
    <xsl:value-of select="config"/>

           ...
           ...
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

This is just a example how i build it.
so far everything was fine, but then:
Problem:
If i start my XML in Firefox now everything works. If i start it in IE or Chrome i just get the XML Data but not the Table.
Trying to transform it in XSLT gives me this Error:
Unable to perform XSL transformation on your XML file. null
I hope you can help me. I am a bloody beginner in XML/XSl/XSLT but i hope my post will give you the Information you need.
Greetings
Max

A: You have made a very common beginner's mistake:
<xsl:template match="Environment">

Environment
...
   <xsl:value-of select="Environment"/>

In this template, the context node is an Environment element, and your xsl:value-of instruction is looking for a child of that element with the name Environment. But your Environment element (I assume) does not have any Environment children. What you should write (I assume) is
<xsl:value-of select="."/>

However, I don't think this is the whole problem. It doesn't account for all the symptoms described. You've actually made another beginner's mistake, which is trying to run your XSLT code in the browser before testing it elsewhere. The browser-based XSLT engines give lousy diagnostics (even when you use something like Firebug). Get your code working first in a desktop environment - preferably an XML IDE like oXygen. You'll then get a decent explanation of what is wrong.

A: Hi Here Is The Modified Version of Your Code.
XSL Template Match Must match the XML node you wish to apply templates.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="2.0">
  <xsl:stylesheet version="2.0">
    <xsl:template match="Configuration">

            <xsl:apply-templates select="Environment"/>

            <xsl:apply-templates select="Configurations"/>

    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="Environment">

          <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>

          <xsl:value-of select="."/>

    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="Configurations">

          <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>

          <xsl:apply-templates select="Config"/>

    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="Config">

          <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>

          <xsl:value-of select="."/>

    </xsl:template>
  </xsl:stylesheet>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


"Reflexology is the application of specific pressures to reflex points in the hands and feet." – William Fitzgerald (1872 – 1942).
While the art of Reflexology dates back to Ancient Egypt, India and China, it wasn't until 1913 that Dr. William Fitzgerald introduced this therapy to the West as 'zone therapy'. He noted that reflex areas on the feet and hands were linked to other areas and organs of the body within the same zone.
There are reflex areas in the feet and hands corresponding to all of the glands, organs, and parts of the body. Reflexology is the unique art and method of using fingers and thumbs on these different reflex areas.
Vanessa has been focusing on this technique thoroughly since 1996, therefore making Reflexology her specialty (especially on feet since this is where many people have pain and discomfort).
This modality is done with or without the use of lotion, most commonly without.
-> visit the "massage" page for some reflexology tips and learn more about the different areas of your feet.


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By Sufferance
August 21, 2020 Special Updatestheoldislander
A bit of a kerfuffle shaking the dust from filing cabinets in the Alberta Legislature Press Gallery. Seems that the worthy inmates of that venerable institution recently voted to uphold an earlier rejection of a Gallery membership bid from Rebel News Network Ltd.
That, trumpeted the National Post – the flagship of a once-powerful newspaper family – was a travesty of justice, a betrayal of all that is holy in the battle for free speech and a free press.
That was a bit much coming from a newspaper chain that has recently presided over the disarmament of a once-proud army of active journalists and amalgamated (read: gutted) the editorial staffs of the Vancouver Sun, the Province, the Calgary Herald, the Edmonton Journal … the heavy hitters out west.
Maybe the faded ivory towers of once-great newspapers brought back dreams of grandeur and persuaded remote control bosses that now would be a good time to win a second Pulitzer award. After all, the Edmonton Journal got to grasp a share of a Pulitzer – the first-ever awarded outside the USA – way back in 1938 because it went to bat for a relatively unknown political columnist named Donald C. Brown, who had been charged and found guilty of "scandalous misrepresentation."
(After being overruled by Ottawa and challenged by many others. Social Credit Premier William Aberhart withdrew all charges).
The National Post was roaring to the defence of Rebel News that had a hot reputation for ill-chosen language, controversy, and inaccuracy. The Post argued that even though the Rebel's publications could be a little wild at times, their breaches were not severe enough to justify withholding Gallery access from its staffers.
The Gallery executive disagreed. It held firm in its demand for high professional standards. Then, the Post flexed its national muscle and played what it thought was an ace card: "Grant Rebel certification or we will pull our reporters out of the Press Gallery."
As of this writing, the Gallery hasn't budged. It has carefully weighed the quality of Rebel's work and found it wanting. And, if it maintains that position of refusing to endorse journalism it regards as not just inferior but dangerous, the National Post editorial writers will have learned a fundamental lesson about newsgathering.
It might help them if they spent a few hours reading about how our system of parliament got started. It wasn't easy. That was because the last thing members of parliament wanted was publicity of any kind about what they were debating and how they were debating.
The first House of Commons did everything it could to prevent publication of debates and reports. Historians figure it took close to 100 years before MPs got used to telling the people what they were up to. Back in 1798, British MP and Minister of War William Windham, lamented that the naval mutiny of the previous year had been caused by "parliamentary reports of an evil nature."
Windham also waxed eloquent on the theme that newspaper writers "were not the best judges of political affairs" and that the great unwashed public was "not the most discerning class of society."
He lamented that when he moved around town, he saw newspapers "being carried everywhere, read everywhere, by persons of inferior capacities, and in common alehouses and places frequented chiefly by those who were least accustomed to reflection, to any great mental effort."
Fast forward 200 years to April 2002, and British MP Peter Mandelson is ending a long television interview with comments on the value of press interviews. "I think that those who report politics … I think they are a very inward-looking, very incestuous bunch of people who are overly preoccupied with process rather than policies. As a result, we are not getting the coverage of politics that the voters deserve."
As a reporter or columnist for 60 years or more, I always think at such times of my old columnist hero Bob Considine. He taught me long ago that "whenever readers call in to accuse you of being a bum, always consider the possibility they could be right."
I share that Considine thought for the benefit of those who defend the spiteful spread of malicious, racist, unfounded hate and those who defend such evil as justifiable "free speech."
One of the worst things to ever happen to "the press" was its description in 1787 by Edmund Burke, who used it in a parliamentary debate. Pointing to the Gallery where they sat, he proclaimed that there were "Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all." Arrogantly, we believed him; many reporters still do.
But only until we remember the alternative quote believed coined by Rudyard Kipling but first used, with permission, by his cousin Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in a speech in London on March 18, 1931. At least two major newspaper publishers were in the audience to hear his message that they held "power without responsibility: the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages."
The press retains its position in free world parliaments today as defined by Sir Barnett Cocks, when he was Clerk of the House of Commons in the 1960's. "The press,constitutionally and historically, is here on sufferance."
A sobering truth.
← Before We Had Any "safety nets"
"Obscure" — But Once Champions →
Wilf Popoff says:
The noble defence of free speech and a free press loses much of its dignity when it endorses fiction and bigotry. The National Post's grandiloquent editorial and its storming of the barricades should have been saved for something better than Rebel News.
David Hooper says:
Keep up the good work, Jim!


n. a plant that is native to a certain limited area; "it is an endemic found only this island"
adj. native to or confined to a certain region; "the islands have a number of interesting endemic species"
adj. of or relating to a disease (or anything resembling a disease) constantly present to greater or lesser extent in a particular locality; "diseases endemic to the tropics"; "endemic malaria"; "food shortages and starvation are endemic in certain parts of the world"
adj. produced in a particular country; "domestic wine"; "domestic oil"
adj. grown or originating in a particular place; "stands selling homegrown fruits and vegetables"
adj. belonging to a place by birth; "a native-born Scot"; "a native Scot"


Today South Korean boy band "SHINee" held their first concert in Japan at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo and have announced that they are going to make their official Japanese debut under "EMI Music Japan" in March 2011.
In 2008 they were awarded Rookie of the Year in South Korea. Since then their popularity has kept on growing and now they are going to follow their fellow idol groups to Japan to expand their fandom even further.
Even before their debut they are already a big number in Japan. Within one month more than 100,000 people applied for a ticket for their performance today. In the end, 24,000 lucky people were able to see the five members of SHINee today. They performed two shows, which adds up to about 5 hours and 60 songs. There is no doubt that this must have pleased their Japanese fans.
Member Jonghyun still wasn't able to fully perform with the others due to an injury on his left foot. "I'm sad that I can't perform as much as I want, but at least I'm able to stay on stage with the others," he said in tears.


Convert a GeoJSON object to a ReQL geometry object.
Only longitude/latitude coordinates are supported. GeoJSON objects that use Cartesian coordinates, specify an altitude, or specify their own coordinate reference system will be rejected.
Example: Convert a GeoJSON object to a ReQL geometry object.


IF YOU had invested £142,000 in a London house in 2004 you would now be sitting on a potential profit of about £100,000 — a 60% return on your money. A decent dividend, you might think.
Not to the buyer of a Ferrari 275 GTS, sold in 2004 by the American auction house Gooding & Company for $264,000 (£142,000 at 2004 rates). The same firm is selling another 275 GTS in August and it is expected to fetch up to $2m (£1.17m). Assuming the two cars are now of similar value, the buyer of the first 275 is sitting on a potential profit close to £1m.
Classic cars have been one of the best-performing investments over the past decade, with an average return of 456%, according to the Historic Automobile Group index, which tracks transactions of rare models. Cars have outperformed watches, wine, coins, stamps and art over the same period. As a result it has made several car collectors very rich.
"I started buying cars with my late husband around 20 years ago," says Jane Weitzmann, who now runs JHW Classics, which rents out classic cars for film and television. "We just bought what we liked. It wasn't an investment.
If you think that 10 years of spectacular growth sounds like an investment bubble, then you're not alone. Some in the industry, though, believe that there is still money to be made in classic cars.
"We can't see the current trends slowing down at the moment," says Marcus Atkinson of Hagerty, a specialist classic car insurer. "The difference between now and the early Nineties [when the market collapsed] is that people are not borrowing money to buy these cars. They are moving their money out of one asset into another.
Atkinson says buyers are looking for low-mileage examples with meticulous service records, while a celebrity connection or illustrious history — especially in the case of racing cars — can boost values. Buying a car in good condition also lessens the risk of having to carry out expensive repair work; sourcing and fitting rare parts can wipe out even large increases in value.
It is not just exotic marques that could prove decent investments. Many cars that cost £10,000 or less have the potential to become modern classics. We asked a panel of experts to nominate their favourites. The recommendations were interesting — and diverse — but they all agreed on one thing: investing in cars is no more certain than in anything else.
Prices can go down as well as up, so buy a car that you really want and regard any rise in value as a bonus. Another advantage in buying a car that you will drive is that it will be exempt from capital gains tax, which applies only to vehicles deemed to have been bought solely as an investment.
Our experts have selected some of the cars that they think have the best chance of appreciating in value. Their picks are based on their extensive experience of buying, selling, owning and restoring classic cars.
Prices can vary considerably depending on the car's history, mileage and condition. We have highlighted current values for a car in good condition, and estimated values in five years' time based on market conditions, which are red hot at the moment but could cool over the coming years.
Marcus Atkinson is the marketing director of Hagerty, a specialist classic car insurer.
Jane Weitzmann has built up a collection of almost 40 cars simply by buying what she likes. Her collection has tripled in value to £3m.
Tom Hartley sold his first luxury car in 1973, aged 12, and now runs a luxury car business in Derbyshire.
John Mayhead originally began restoring Alfa Romeos to make money as a side project and now writes about classic cars.
From its launch in 1977 this car was so in demand that for four years second-hand versions commanded a £6,000 premium over the £27,000 list price. Now its swooping coach lines, partially painted wheels and whitewall tyres instantly conjure up the 1970s. Keep it for five years and Tom Hartley predicts the value will double.
It's enough to make you feel old: the original MX-5 now qualifies as a classic. When it was launched in 1989 the simple, cheap, rear-wheel-drive roadster was a breath of fresh air — especially with the roof down. In an era with more electronics, regulations and complicated technology it stands out even more. Rust problems are making good examples rarer.
Porsche was making proper four-seat sports cars long before the Panamera, although the 928 did have only two doors. Marcus Atkinson points to the "stratospheric" prices now paid for early 911s, or that car's sibling, the 912, and predicts that the values for the 928 will begin a modest climb over the next 18 months.
John Mayhead says that a good rule of thumb when choosing a car to invest in is whether the die-cast model was cool back in the day. Which means that the BMW 2002 should be top of your list. The turbo versions that came with body kits are expensive, but good Tii models can be bought for less than £10,000.
Life doesn't get much better than threading an E-type through the countryside on a bright summer's day — especially if you're making money while doing so. It might be the best-known Jaguar, with a timeless design, but it's still affordable and tipped to rise over the coming years.
Money makes money and there's no better example of this than the McLaren F1. If you have the cash, then the toughest task will be finding an owner willing to sell. But if you get into the centrally mounted driver's seat now, Atkinson reckons you could be on course to almost treble your cash. "It's the Ferrari 250 GTO of the digital generation," he says.
Bought in 1965 for 2.5m lira, which was roughly £1,430 then and about £24,000 in today's money, the Ferrari 250 GTO, chassis number 3851, could be one of the best investments ever made. The buyer was a young Ferrari fan called Fabrizio Violati who bought the car without the knowledge of his family.
"I saved the car from scrap and hid it from my parents. I only drove it at night so nobody would see me," said Violati before his death in 2010. His car collection, including the 250 GTO, was sold in California by Bonhams in August and the car broke the world record for the most expensive car sold at auction.
The 250 GTO has brought huge wealth to early buyers, as it has become known as the ultimate Ferrari. Only 36 were built between 1962 and 1964 and it had huge success in racing, while remaining road-legal. Ten years ago an example sold for $9m (£4.8m). In 2013 a private buyer is said to have paid $52m (£32m) for another.
The bidding for Violati's car is expected to be fierce. Last week Driving featured a Porsche 917K and reported that it too could set a record auction price. With the appearance of this 250 GTO that is now unlikely to be the case.


text:
Opportunity! Nonprofit Communication Jobs
Social Media Marketing Strategist , Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota (St. Post YOUR comms job here —nonprofits, grantmakers, B Corps & vendors serving nonprofits. Advocacy & Communications Associate , RespectAbility (Bethesda, MD). Cause Marketing Business Development Leader , Phil & Co. New York, NY). Communications & Impact Specialist , Institute of International Education. San Francisco, CA). MORE
Jobs Nonprofit Communications San Francisco Communications 126
National Organization for Women targets women's rights offenders
DonorDigital
In anticipation of the GOP's aggressive efforts to criminalize abortion in states like North Dakota and Virginia, Donordigital is helping National Organization for Women raise funds to defend women's rights. Who do you think is the #1 women's rights offender? MORE
North Dakota Microsite Virginia Target 52
Hashtags for Every Day of the Week (Nonprofit Edition)
Here's RedRover Responders volunteer Jodi snuggling with a feline friend rescued during the 2011 flooding in Minot, North Dakota. ?#?TBT? Looking for an easy content idea for Instagram and Twitter? Try a day-of-the-week post with one of these hashtags. MORE
North Dakota Iowa Texas Ethics 285
How generous is your state?
Nonprofit Consultant Blog
And, at the bottom, Iowa, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and North Dakota. Thanksgiving is done with (hope yours was peaceful and happy), and we're now officially into the Holiday Season. That means plenty to each of us personally, of course, but as nonprofit professionals it also means quite a bit work-wise as well. MORE
South Dakota North Dakota West Virginia District of Columbia 40
Current Canadian Opinion on Cause Marketing
I'd caution American cause marketers from drawing exact parallels from their North American cousins. The rock-lined creek represents the border line between Canada and the United States and the borders of the Province of Manitoba and the State of North Dakota respectively.) MORE
Opinions Cause Marketing North Dakota Nov 147
Grants for Organizations, Designers, Artists, Etc. Working With Local and National Partners to Transform/Impact Community Vibrancy
Seeking Grant Money Today
Paul, as well as communities in Alaska, Arizona, California, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin. From The Foundation Center. [If If you are interested in this grant opportunity, click "Link to Complete RFP" at the end of this blog post for more information]. MORE
South Dakota North Dakota San Jose Alaska 46
This is what a fundraising email looks like
While many Americans are already aware that there is a national emergency in North Dakota, the email frames the urgency even more directly: "President Obama has already declared a state of emergency in this area, because of flood waters that could reach over 44 feet! Dakota flood emergency" -- it also gives the appearance of an email you might receive forwarded from a friend. Dakota flood emergency Fred, The situation for animals in North Dakota is bad. MORE
North Dakota Email Urgency Obama 116
North Dakota Related Topics
Microsite Opt-out Comparison Urgency Product Marketing Communications Interactive Vendor Mobile Ethics More Related Topics >
Here's RedRover Responders volunteer Jodi snuggling with a feline friend rescued during the 2011 flooding in Minot, North Dakota. ?#?TBT? Looking for an easy content idea for Instagram and Twitter? Try a day-of-the-week post with one of these hashtags.
Social Media Marketing Strategist , Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota (St. Post YOUR comms job here —nonprofits, grantmakers, B Corps & vendors serving nonprofits. Advocacy & Communications Associate , RespectAbility (Bethesda, MD). Cause Marketing Business Development Leader , Phil & Co. New York, NY). Communications & Impact Specialist , Institute of International Education. San Francisco, CA).
While many Americans are already aware that there is a national emergency in North Dakota, the email frames the urgency even more directly: "President Obama has already declared a state of emergency in this area, because of flood waters that could reach over 44 feet! Dakota flood emergency" -- it also gives the appearance of an email you might receive forwarded from a friend. Dakota flood emergency Fred, The situation for animals in North Dakota is bad.
In anticipation of the GOP's aggressive efforts to criminalize abortion in states like North Dakota and Virginia, Donordigital is helping National Organization for Women raise funds to defend women's rights. Who do you think is the #1 women's rights offender?
I'd caution American cause marketers from drawing exact parallels from their North American cousins. The rock-lined creek represents the border line between Canada and the United States and the borders of the Province of Manitoba and the State of North Dakota respectively.)
Paul, as well as communities in Alaska, Arizona, California, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin. From The Foundation Center. [If If you are interested in this grant opportunity, click "Link to Complete RFP" at the end of this blog post for more information].
And, at the bottom, Iowa, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and North Dakota. Thanksgiving is done with (hope yours was peaceful and happy), and we're now officially into the Holiday Season. That means plenty to each of us personally, of course, but as nonprofit professionals it also means quite a bit work-wise as well.


MISS NATASHA ENQUIST: ELECTRO-ACCORDION CHANTEUSE: Happy 2012!
The year 2011 was a full one! A lot of life happened. I had loved ones pass on, friends gave birth to new beautiful bundles of life, and I myself felt a transformation. I had the opportunity to travel quite a bit, and share the ride with a loving partner. I was able to spend a lot of time with the accordion, and have it take me on a wild ride, sharing smiles along the way.
"Auld lang syne" is melancholic, but it feels right for what I have to reflect on.


Tetra Pak has announced that it is developing an energy assessment programme in collaboration with ABB to help food and beverage producers lower their environmental impact and cut costs.
The programme provides an assessment of the entire plant, helping customers minimise their environmental impact and maximise profitability. Based on this analysis, Tetra Pak provides recommendations for food producers on opportunities to reduce energy consumption and help them make informed decisions about how resources are used in their plants.
Based on pilot projects in the Americas, the programme can potentially reduce carbon emissions for food and beverage manufacturing and cut energy cost by between 15% and 25%.


How Much Does the 2018 Audi Q5 Cost?
How Many MPG Does the 2018 Audi Q5 Get?
What's New for the 2018 Audi Q5?
The 2018 Audi Q5 is a compact crossover Sports Utility Vehicle that has two rows of seats for up to five people. With more than ten colors to choose from, you'll have a fun time customizing the exterior of this Audi car. Azores Green, Navarra Blue, Utopia Blue and Matador Red are great options if you want to make a bold fashion statement on the road. Brilliant Black, Florett Silver and Manhattan Gray give this crossover SUV some urban flair. Featuring five spokes, the wheels range between 18 and 21 inches in diameter. When you sit inside this luxurious Audi, you'll appreciate the meticulous craftsmanship of world-class interior designers. Soft-touch materials and bright ambient lighting accentuate the contemporary cockpit. Inspired by airplanes and spacecraft, a wind-style layout dominates the dashboard. The sleek and horizontal lines create a more harmonious and driver-centric feeling than before. Genuine Nappa leather is available for the climate-controlled front seats in the 2018 Q5. You can also get an automatic climate control system that circulates air in three different zones. Carbon Atlas inlays and a power sunroof are some of the other high-end amenities that are available in the comfortable cabin.
Engineered to generate more than 250 horsepower, a 2.0 L turbocharged engine is standard in the 2018 Audi Q5. Every movement of the valvetrain is precisely dictated by the signature Audi Valvelift technology. The TFSI powertrain offers an impressive 0-to-60 acceleration in only 5.9 seconds. This sporty model can reach a top track speed of 130 MPH. Ventilated 13.3-inch front disc brakes and 13.0-inch rear disc brakes help you bring the vehicle to a smooth halt. Shifting in the gearbox is done by dual clutches that run on the S Tronic technology. You can choose from seven gear ratios in the unique transmission system. Maximum torque is transmitted to the Quattro All-Wheel Drive that adapts well to hazardous weather and rough terrains. For 2018, the Audi Q5 gets some significant updates to the MMI infotainment system. You can use a touchpad, rotary knob or toggle switch to browse the menu on the 8.3-inch display. GPS navigation with Google Earth is integrated into the Audi Virtual Cockpit that measures more than 12 inches. You could also tune into INRIX XD Traffic to receive some traffic tips. Featuring 19 speakers, the Bang & Olufsen sound system plays your favorite tunes from HD Radio and SiriusXM. Releasing up to 755 acoustic watts, this high-end audio system comes with the 3D Sound technology. Some of the vehicle's mobile-friendly hardware includes multiple USB ports and SDXC card slots. You can also set the Android Auto and Apple CarPlay software to import apps from external smartphones.
Call our auto dealership today to reserve a tour of our 2018 Audi Q5 inventory. You'll get the chance to test drive this compact crossover SUV that's loaded with signature technology and mechanical installations. Whether you're looking for the Premium trim or Prestige edition, you'll find a Q5 model that's an excellent fit for your family.


Chelsea designer Tom Hoblyn has planted plenty of sculpted topiary shapes in his time, but is it time for a new style of trained planting?
Clipped, shaped, trained, topiarised - whatever you want to call them – shrubs and trees are all the rage. From the lowliest box ball to the cloud-clipped bonsai-style Pinus sylvestris, anything is possible; there are thousands of options available.
They add grandeur and sophistication to a planting scheme, an art form demonstrating man's dominance over Mother Nature. We, as indeed many designers, use them ... a lot. I suspect a walk down Main Avenue at this year's Chelsea flower show will underwrite this fact. Multi-stemmed shrubs provide heights without hindering views, pleached trees create privacy without stealing garden space and topiary provides structure to a flowery planting scheme. In 2012 I used Burkwood osmanthus (Osmanthus x burkwoodii) as clipped domes to give my Villa d'Este–inspired borders some backbone. Though not to great effect: according to the judges, I should have used more and they should have been bigger. Hence the justifications behind the Silver Gilt medal I received.
Though always popular, I can't help thinking that we are leaning too heavily on the sculpted form in recent years and that overuse is somewhat diminishing their elegance.
After tree selection, my usual next step of a planting plan is lower level structure, and this is determined by the plant's form. Whether domed, weeping or fastigiate, selection will have great visual impact on the mood of the scheme, and how they are placed will influence rhythm and pattern. This can all be done with the trained form. I'm not saying easily done, as proportion and frequency still have to be right – but it is worth the effort. Despite its bold statement, a solitary bonsai-style pine within a grassy scheme conjures up feelings of tranquillity. The frequency of clipped yew columns can almost govern the speed with which you walk among them.
Purely as an exercise, I recently created a planting scheme influenced by musical composition. I chose Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 by Chopin. I know this is the best known and possibly the easiest, but this was an experiment. And also its composition was conducive to the project: repetitive binary form (A, A, B, A, B, A, Coda and C) with each repetition of A and B becoming more embellished. Conveniently, the client's garden was broken up into seven sections. The waltz-like accompaniment was to be my structure and my autopilot choice, box and yew topiary. Easy. Columns, sentinels and domes emphasising 12 beats to the measure, you could practically hear the music, and as for the freeform (senza tempo) penultimate bar, irregular cloud-clipped box would draw your eyes to the far-reaching views.
I then tried it using natural shrub forms. Not so easy. Rhododendron yakushimanum would be my legato waltzing fluidity. I could have used Lavandula sp. or perhaps Hebe sp. But all three send out a completely different vibe. Rosa moyesii 'Geranium', Viburnum plicatum and Cornus contoversa fitted the places where the more forceful use of octaves are played with fortissimo. What was interesting was that using natural forms for structure made it easier to make that leap into perennials and grasses for colour and texture, harmony and contrast, sequence and emphasis, and thereby visually energise the scheme. Though a lot of fun, the scheme has so far not made it beyond paper; it needs fine-tuning.
This event caused me to re-define my plant palette selection process. CAD software Vectorworks Landmark has a pretty hefty plant database that I have cultivated over the years to suit my preferences, weeding out all of the hideousness within the default list and adding in gems from time to time. I have now got it so that I can search for shrubs by plant form, using categories such as: fountain, weeping, tiered and dome. This forces me to think in terms of its structural role rather than the usual child-in-a-sweetshop method. It has been an interesting process that has caused much analysis of plant habit before getting all worked up about how pretty the flowers are. There is still much work to be done. Genera with opposite growth such as cornus and acer will naturally exhibit good structure, and many conifers are conical… obviously. While on the subject of conifers, two worthy advocates for alternatives to the clipped ball are Pinus sylvestris 'Watereri' and Pinus mugo. Selected forms often have giveaway names such as 'Tristis' and 'Pendula'. There is quite a bit of information out there about tree habits, but not so much in the shrub department.
The clipped or trained form is here to stay and quite rightly so – little can beat it for elegance. We recently used box, yew and multi-stemmed Amelanchier lamarckii to formally mimic the ancient tree shapes across the valley, and I'm not sure anything else could have done that.
But the constant default position of balls, cubes and manmade shapes still smacks of lazy thinking. I'd go further and suggest it may reflect a real lack of interest in the natural design of our trees and shrubs. Perhaps this year's Chelsea judges should look less to the clipped and more to the controversa?


A university engineering professor said tunnelling expertise and changes to vehicle technology can help make the proposed Cambridge Metro a reality.
Prof John Miles said the city's narrow streets would make a conventional tram system impossible - so a radical solution was needed to cut congestion.
He said Britain was a world leader in "boring small tunnels".
But transport campaigners want improvements now on more conventional solutions such as smart traffic lights.
On Monday, a feasibility study suggested work could start in 2021 on the Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro (CAM), using trackless electric vehicles to link the city to outlying areas.
Part of the network would be underground.
The CAM has been proposed by the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority and its mayor and it would provide new links from the city to St Neots, Huntingdon, St Ives, Haverhill and Mildenhall.
Prof Miles, from the University of Cambridge's engineering department, told the BBC's Sunday Politics East programme that advances in vehicle technology made the CAM affordable.
"We have autonomous and electric vehicles so we can propose a trackless tram - we don't have to have rails in the ground or any overhead power cables," he said.
"It can all be run by batteries, just like electric buses and that makes a huge difference to the cost of these vehicles."
The CAM could take 10 years to develop and transport campaigners want congestion solutions more quickly.
"We need to utilise the existing infrastructure instead of laying more tarmac," said Chris Rand of Smarter Cambridge Transport.
"There are things the mayor could do, like looking in bus franchising, which are not as glamorous, but which would really make a difference."
Mr Rand said smart technology controlling traffic signals and bus information would also have an immediate impact.
Watch a report on Sunday Politics East on BBC One at 11:00 GMT on Sunday, 24 March and then available on the BBC iPlayer.
At least 137 people are reported killed and hundreds more hurt in six blasts in several cities.


Join City Winery, American Airlines, Uncorking Argentina and Wines Of Argentina as we celebrate the inaugural Malbec Tasting Day to taste over 60 different Malbecs. From small scale artisanal producers to larger household names, from Mendoza to Tierra Del Fuego and back again. Ticket purchases and additional information can be found here.


Fed up of dry skin that makes you look dull? The Vaseline Healthy White Complete 10 offers a healthy respite. With vital components like Vitamin B3, AHA and sun screen, Vaseline offers the best protection for your face and skin, in this lotion. It is endowed with numerous benefits that ensure younger, brighter looking skin. The Vaseline Healthy White Complete 10 lotion ensures that your skin gets a better tone and feel with every application. Can be applied once a day or several times depending on the weather or your individual needs, but it's sure to bring out your youthfulness! This one is a compact 100 ml bottle, easy to even carry around!


As a patron of young art, you are setting valuable impulses and actively participate in the preservation of cultural diversity in Germany. With your contribution, you are also securing some exclusive privileges for yourself.
It is granted that you will receive the limited print (maximum number of copies: 150) by the winner of the GOPEA advancement award. Among all the participating artists of a year, the patrons determine the winner of the advancement award in an online voting. The winner produces a print as an annual gift, exclusively for GOPEA. The quantity of this annual gift is limited to the exact number of patrons of the respective year, i.e. a maximum of 150. This off print is therefore only available for GOPEA patrons!
The annually published and high quality art book edition is strictly limited to the GOPEA patrons. It is not available on the open market.
Galleries are mostly acting as an intermediary between artists and art lovers. However, GOPEA offers you direct contact to the young artists - if you wish so. Within the online gallery, which is only accessible to you as a patron, you will get the contact details for each of the participants of the respective year. In addition, you can see up to three works of each participant, which you can also purchase – independent of GOPEA. Talk to the talent which impresses you the most, arrange to meet in their studio, or meet them at your home. Accompany their future artistic journey and experience the emerging art scene up close and personal! Of course you can also use this contact possibility to acquire more works of the artists – outside of the auction and regardless of GOPEA.
As a patron, you always have access to our archives in Nordhorn - you can examine the works to be auctioned off in the original state before you decide to actively participate in the auction. We are happy to take you on a private tour. Simply call or write an e-mail to make an appointment. We look forward to you!
Every year, you as a Gopea patron select the award winner out of the 55 participating artists. The award winner will receive half of the total sales surpluses.
Bid online for the 55 selected works by the most promising master students. As a GOPEA patron, you will receive access to the annual online auction where the 55 works of each year are up for auction. The auction is open for GOPEA patrons only. The minimum bid for each object is 250 Euros incl. VAT - regardless of the format or the material used. You can bid for a maximum of three objects.


t's 1993, you're a young Bangladeshi looking to start a life in the UK. You've just landed at Heathrow, you know no-one and have mastered "hello" – but that's about it. In one hand you have your suitcase, in the other, the address for Euston's Surma Centre.
From humble beginnings, the organisation started out as the Bengali Workers Action Group back in 1976. It was the brainchild of a group of local activists who wanted to provide a vital point of contact and source of community for recently arrived migrants.
The group offered a range of services from chaperoning people to the local halal shop and making phone calls for those yet to master the English tongue, to helping people find work and housing.
It was all volunteer-based at this stage but as more Bangladeshi migrants arrived – all of them instantly bee-lining it from the tarmac to Surma – Camden Council realised the demand and started funding it.
hey gradually evolved – changing their name to the Bengali Workers' Association (BWA) and, in 1990 moving into Hampstead Road's Surma Centre, the first space created specifically for the Bangladeshi community in Camden.
BWA soon became the largest and for a while, the only Bengali-specific support group in the borough. "There are of course other vital services now, like Hopscotch and KCBNA, but because it was the first it has a real reputation," says Mariam Hassan, Surma's youth and communities manager.
So what goes on at Surma now? Although they still offer the same essential support and advice, the group has transformed in accordance to the needs of locals, and as such, acts as much more of a community hub.
Twice a week they run a very reasonable (£4) lunch club, open to everyone; it's so rammed that they often run out of food. "It used to be all Bangladeshis," says Mariam, "we were thinking of ways to get a more diverse range of people in at one point – but now we couldn't keep them away if we tried," she jokes.
Surma also run study support and homework clubs, youth groups, women's group, employment advice services and exercise classes for the young and old.
However, what they are currently most renowned for are their dance classes, for adults, primary and secondary school kids. Faruk reckons that this is the "most popular dance class in Camden," and judging by the fact that they currently have a waiting list for primary school kids he might be right.
The youth streetdance group are called BWA Mix It. Why? It consists of kids from 15 different cultural backgrounds – white working class, various African countries and Kosovan children – all learning how to krump and b-boy together.
he dance crew's diversity nicely sums up the recent expansion in BWA's mandate. Over the last few years they've started working with the community at large, not Bangladeshi residents exclusively. This is primarily thanks to Mariam and her ethos of togetherness.
Having previously worked at Cumberland Market's H-Pod for six years prior to her move to Surma four years ago, building bridges across communities in Euston is what really drives her. Mariam does this by organising family-focused sessions, events and workshops.
And that is exactly what Surma offers: crucial opportunities to breakdown cultural barriers. Whether that's while twiddling your thumbs waiting for the kids dance class to end, sharing a curry at the weekly lunch club or, at the age of six, doing your homework alongside Somalis, Brits and Bangladeshis.
Long may Surma remain the home to Camden's Bengali community, and long may it keep leaving the door open to anyone wishing to join in.
Surma Community Centre, on the corner of Hampstead Road and Robert St, NW1. Lunch Club runs weekly, Wed & Thurs, £4. More info here.


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Red River College News
RRC and StandardAero Honoured for Contributions to Technology and Training
Red River College and StandardAero have been named recipients of the 2011 John Convey Innovation Award, for the contributions to training and technological development made possible by the Centre for Aerospace Technology and Training (CATT).
Awarded by ASM International (formerly the American Society for Metals), the annual honour recognizes companies for their contribution to furthering the development of the materials engineering industry in Canada.
RRC Receives Applied Research Grant
Red River College (RRC) was one of 35 colleges that will share in more than $8 million in federal grant money, via the federal government's recently announced Applied Research Tools and Instruments Grants, a brand new initiative under the College and Community Innovation Program.
This grant supports the purchase of research equipment and installations to foster and enhance the ability of colleges to conduct applied research.
"This funding helps us with our ongoing mandate of applying knowledge to solve real-world challenges," says Ray Hoemsen, Director of Applied Research and Commercialization at RRC.
RRC received a grant of $127,001, which will be used to upgrade the environmental test chambers in the College's Centre for Applied Research in Sustainable Infrastructure and acquire air leakage testing equipment to be used for commercial and industrial buildings.
"Upgrades are under way and we are already using the air leakage testing equipment on a handful of projects," says Hoemsen. "Applied research is a key element in improving Canada's productivity and innovation capacity. We are thankful for the federal government's continued support."
Click to learn more about RRC's office of Applied Research and Commercialization.
RRC Instructor, Grad Develop New Tooling Method
As part of their efforts to make composite manufacturing more economical, an instructor and a grad from RRC's Mechanical Engineering Technology program have developed a new means of making dissolvable mandrels and patterns, otherwise known as "rapid prototype composite tooling (RPCT)."
Composite manufacturing currently has substantial overhead costs, partly due to the expense of tooling.
"To produce these tools, one typically requires expensive machines that are also very slow and costly to operate," says Leon Fainstein, the instructor who led the development of the new RPCT. "By contrast, RPCT involves only one affordable machine — a 3D printer."
The 3D printer will print virtually any shape of dissolvable mandrels and patterns in about four to eight hours, and even print multiple mandrels or patterns at once.
"Manufacturers require permanent composite molds for short production runs. RPCT can make them with dissolvable patterns," says Serge Broeska (shown, above), the program grad who's now working as a Research Technologist at RRC's Centre for Applied Research in Sustainable Infrastructure (CARSI). "These composite molds can be very complex, have smooth surfaces, and are comparable to metal molds, with the exception that they are much less expensive."
While there are other methods of making dissolvable mandrels and patterns, RPCT is the only method whereby dissolvable mandrels and patterns can be made directly from CAD files.
"With the progressive development of RPCT, the possibilities for composite design and manufacturing are becoming endless," says Broeska.
To learn more about this breakthrough, read Broeska's article here.
Click here for more information about RRC's Mechanical Engineering Technology program.
Red River College @RRC
The RRC Library has a lot of online services! From live chat to their digital collection, this short post will give you six quick tips for using the Library online: https://t.co/sFP2zADwu9
RRC students! Register for a virtual presentation on resume writing! Obtain information on how to create an effective resume that highlights your skills and is tailored to your target industry.
12 – 12:45pm or 5 – 5:45pm
Register: https://t.co/naYMssM3Im
Student Employment Services is excited to share recruitment events and employment preparation sessions over the next few weeks! For an up-to-date listing of upcoming employer events, visit https://t.co/kYltQ4fxuj
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Red River College > News > Applied Research


Kids and Money: It's About Respect.
You are here: Home / For Moms & Parents / Mom Says / Kids and Money: It's About Respect.
We were bad with money. On the grand scale of Dinks (dual income no kids) who made a respectable combined income, we were surprisingly disrespectful of our hard earned dollars. We were impulsive, made bad decisions, made large purchases with good intentions that soon fell short of benefiting us, generally didn't give enough thought to it all.
During our financial revelation, our family started to take shape as well, with the birth of our little girl. During her first four years of life, while we have busy planning for her future, she has remained blissfully unaware of money, save the small, sporadic lessons at the cash register. But being painfully aware of what is coming; we have begun the semblance of a plan to teach her a level of respect for money alongside the lessons of respecting other people, emotions, material things, and herself.
We all fight upstream on this issue. Kids today have largely benefited from their Baby Boomer and Gen X parents, and have more disposable income than some less fortunate families can even fathom. The media presents an endless barrage of opportunities for kids to part with their earned and unearned dollars…and not to the tune of 25 cents for a pack of gum, but $60 games to go with their $400 game console. These things have become possessions of status, of belonging, of necessity in some minds. Each of us will decide what is important to us, and what we will, in turn, teach our kids. So let's not judge, let's learn from each other.
Before much more time passes, I want my kids to understand not only what money will allow them to come home from the store with, but what working hard for something feels like. The feeling of accomplishment that comes from achieving, earning, saving, and cherishing. I'm only part egotistical fool, so I understand that these are deep concepts for a 4 year old. Therefore, the biggest challenge will be to translate my adult brain concepts into ideals they can appreciate.
Kids want so much to feel accomplishment…which is why they are always looking to us for reinforcement. The first and most important lesson I can teach them is that earning something makes you feel great. Have them participate in some activity outside of what is routine. Set expectations properly about what is involved, what it means to complete the task, and what they will earn upon completion. Then make it fun, and make sure they complete the job. Shower them with praise, talk about how good it feels to do a great job, and see the end result. And finally, pay them what you agreed on. Make a big production of it, too. They are going to remember the experience, and the feeling.
Not Every Activity is Monetized.
Something I firmly believe in is that not all activities deserve compensation. Teach your kids about things that are done simply because it is "right", or helpful to the family. At no point do I want my daughter trying to negotiate what putting dishes in the dishwasher is worth after my wife spends two hours creating a nutritious meal for our family. Some things are done simply done out of love, membership and duty. But if my 1 year old son sets off a toy bomb in the playroom, I can easily give her the opportunity to earn by helping clean up a mess she had no part in creating.
Not every earning activity needs to be based around chores. I am a huge believer in the power of vocabulary, so my daughter earns now by learning new words and how to use them in sentences. At some point, I will transition this opportunity to include spelling those words. And what about a lemonade stand? During our feeble attempt at a garage sale last year, my daughter sold out of every cookie and every drop of lemonade long before we made HALF what she did trying to sell household goods. She understood the market, and she killed it.
Here is where I can start to teach about respecting money. My kids don't get to spend everything they earn. Without exception, they puts half of their earnings in one jar for spending money, and a no-withdrawal piggy bank for saving. My explanation of this to them is that we save half of our money for emergencies. My daughter doesn't truly understand what an emergency is yet, but in my view, it doesn't matter. Nor does the percentage that she is saving at this point. If she earns 2 quarters, she knows the first one goes into the saving piggy, and the other goes in the spending jar. I want to develop in her a knee-jerk instinct to first put money in her savings, no matter what, that she knows she will not be able to touch. Then she is open to make decisions about the rest…with help for a while. Depending on your beliefs regarding charitable giving and tithing, you may at some point structure the saving portion to include these concepts as well.
There are plenty of lessons that will be learned about spending money over the years. Some taught by me, some taught by their friends, some by the media and society in general. At this stage, I will begin to teach them about what things cost as compared to how much they have to spend, and ask them to consider if they want to spend part of their money, or all of it. I want them to also begin to think about what events are coming that may necessitate a need for money such as Christmas, a birthday, etc. Thinking forward and planning will start an undercurrent need to "budget". In doing these things, I hope to teach them respect for their spending money, and ultimately, responsibility.
I mentioned earlier that I was part egotistical fool, and I am. I regularly believe that I can control chaos, only to be disappointed…regularly. But to just hope that my kids will learn good lessons on their own would make me ALL fool, and respecting money is one I think I can teach.
Who knows…I don't plan to let my daughter out of the house until she is thirty anyway. After she earns her money, maybe I'll only have to teach her how to stack it.
Jay Lessons is a novice 'burb daddy, a husband-in-training, and a sarcasm specialist. You can find more of his reflective rants at HalftimeLessons.com, and Twitter @HalftimeLessons.
Once again good stuff here Jay. We are also on the Dave Ramsey bandwagon. We look back on our previous habits and lament the wasted time and money. And then we move forward. We pay our kids commissions for chores, making adjustments to what they get paid for as they get older. The walking the walk is still hard sometimes, but worth it in the end.
I keep telling myself that the family trip to Disney that feels like it will never happen will be way better knowing it is paid for before we hit the road. It gets me through the bad days.
Great Post Jay! We, too, keep careful watch on what our kids get and what we spend for them. It's hard when all their friends have Wii's and Nintendo DS games and new bikes and… and… But we try to help them understand that it's a choice we're making. It's not that we can't afford those things, we just choose not to buy them. I don't think our kids feel poor at all… rich in lessons, I hope.
Love this. This is something we struggle with at our house daily…teaching kids the value of money. My first born was obsessed with money by age 4 which I truly believe is WAY TOO EARLY, but who am I? It has made it challenging to watch the other boys watch him and then get interested in it earlier and earlier. UGH. UGH. UGH.
Great post!! Great insight- I agree with everything you said.
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'Welcome To My Nightmare' - Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees will always be our Horror film titans, so when 2003 gave us a film with both of these slashers in, we could not believe our eyes! This gore fuelled tee in black, features the nightmare duo above the 'bloody' text 'Let's Make Bad Decisions.' Official merchandise.