Category Archives: Uncategorized

Learning from Obama’s speaking skills

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When then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama took the stage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he was relatively unknown on the national stage. But by the end of his speech, he had become a household name. Obama’s speech was so successful because it told a story that was relatable to many Americans. It wasn’t a speech about politics or policy. Instead, it was a speech about values and principles. Obama started by talking about his upbringing. He talked about his mother, who was from Kansas, and his father, who was from Kenya. He talked about how his parents met and how they divorced when he was just two years old. Obama then talked about how he was raised by his grandparents in Hawaii. He talked about how they instilled in him the values of hard work and responsibility. Obama then talked about his own life experiences. He talked about going to school in Indonesia and how he had to adjust to a new culture. He talked about working as a community organizer in Chicago. And he talked about his time as a state senator in Illinois. Through these stories, Obama was able to connect with his audience. He wasn’t just another politician giving a speech. He was a person who had experienced many of the same things that his audience had experienced. Obama ended his speech by talking about the future. He talked about the need for change in America. He talked about the need to come together as a country and to work towards a common goal. Obama’s speech was so successful because it was relatable, it was personal, and it was inspirational. It showed Americans that he was just like them and that he understood their experiences. It also showed that he was a leader who could bring about change. There are several lessons that we can learn from Obama’s 2004 DNC speech. First, it is important to connect with your audience. Tell stories that they can relate to. Second, it is important to be personal. Share your own experiences and let people get to know you as a person. Third, it is important to be inspirational. Show people that you are a leader who can make a difference.

Here is a link to the transcript of Obama’s 2004 DNC speech: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/barackobamadnc04.htm

How has social media changed the way we interact?

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The way we interact with each other has changed dramatically in the last two decades. The rise of digital social media networks has had a profound effect on the way we communicate, connect, and interact with each other. The way we interact with each other online is very different from the way we interact with each other in person. There are some major differences between the two that have important implications for our society. In early human civilizations, people were divided into small groups that were based on kinship ties. Everyone in a group knew each other and there was a strong sense of community. People in these groups were interconnected and depended on each other for their survival. This type of social structure is very different from the way we interact with each other on digital social media networks. On digital social media networks, we are connected to a much larger number of people than we are in real life. We are also connected to people who we don’t know in real life. This can have both positive and negative implications for our society. One of the positive implications of digital social media networks is that they give us access to a larger number of people. This can be beneficial because it allows us to connect with people who we would not be able to connect with in real life. It also allows us to connect with people who have similar interests and experiences. One of the negative implications of digital social media networks is that they can create a sense of isolation. When we are constantly interacting with people online, we can start to feel like we are not really connected to anyone in a meaningful way. This can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Digital social media networks also have the potential to create echo chambers. An echo chamber is a situation where people only see information that reinforces their existing beliefs. This can happen when people only follow and interact with people who have similar beliefs to their own. Echo chambers can be harmful because they can prevent people from hearing other points of view and from learning new information. Overall, digital social media networks have both positive and negative implications for our society. They give us access to a larger number of people, but they can also lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness. They can also create echo chambers that prevent us from hearing other points of view. 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201706/the-pros-and-cons-social-media

Blog type 4

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The United States is facing an economic crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread unemployment and businesses are struggling to stay afloat. The government has stimulus packages and relief programs in place, but they are not enough. The economy needs a boost, and that boost can come from the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana is currently a Schedule I drug, which means that it is considered to have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. But marijuana has been shown to have medical benefits for a variety of conditions, including pain relief, anxiety, and nausea. If marijuana were to be legalized, it would create a new industry and generate tax revenue that could be used to help fund the stimulus packages and relief programs. Some people are concerned that legalization would lead to increased use of marijuana, but studies have shown that this is not the case. In states where marijuana is legal, there has been no increase in use among adults. And while there has been an increase in use among teens, this is most likely due to the fact that legalization has made marijuana more accessible, not because legalization has made it more acceptable. I think it should be legalized in order to help boost the economy, and lower arrests. Here are a couple of supporting links.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/politics/cbo-report-marijuana-legalization-economic-impact/index.html 2. https://www.colorado.edu/today/2019/02/28/study-finds-teen-marijuana-use-states-legalization-does-not-increase-use

Blog post type 3

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I am going to critique the website http://www.nohomophobes.com. This website is dedicated to combating homophobia, and I think it does a good job of raising awareness about the issue. However, I think it could be more effective in a few ways. First of all, I think the website is too focused on statistics and facts. While it is important to educate people about the prevalence of homophobia, I think the website would be more effective if it also included personal stories and testimonials. Reading about someone’s personal experience with homophobia is much more likely to generate empathy and understanding than simply looking at a bunch of numbers. Secondly, I think the website does a good job of addressing homophobia in the present day, but I think it could do more to address the historical roots of homophobia. I think it’s important for people to understand where homophobia comes from and how it has been used to justify discrimination and violence in the past. Overall, I think http://www.nohomophobes.com is a good resource for people who want to learn more about homophobia. However, I think it could be more effective if it included more personal stories and if it did more to address the historical roots of homophobia.

Blog type 2

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I was reading a blog post the other day about the importance of networking. The author was talking about how, in today’s job market, it’s not enough to just be qualified for a position. You also have to know the right people, and be able to sell yourself to potential employers. They need to see you as a person, not just a resume. 

The author gave the example of two job seekers. The first is a recent college graduate who has great grades, relevant work experience, and a strong network of professional contacts. The second is a recent college graduate with average grades and no relevant work experience. The second job seeker might be just as qualified as the first, but because they don’t have a network of contacts, they’re not going to get the job. 

They then went on to say that networking isn’t just important for finding a job. It’s also important for finding mentors, colleagues, and friends. People who can help you grow professionally and personally. 

I realized that the same is true of networking. It’s not enough to just be qualified for a position. You also have to know the right people, and be able to sell yourself to potential employers. They need to see you as a person, not just a resume. And another article I read showed me that the same is true of blogging as well. It’s not enough to just write good content. You also need to get your work out there, and get people to read it. You need to build a network of readers, and sell yourself to potential readers. You need to let them see you as a person, not just a blog. 

Networking and blogging can be important for finding a job, building a following, and finding mentors, colleagues, and friends. People who can help you grow professionally and personally.

https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-importance-of-networking-and-how-to-do-it-right

https://www.problogger.com/why-blogging-networks-are-important/

Blog type 1

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I wanted to share this blog to teach everyone about the Ebola virus. The purpose of the blog post is to educate the reader on the Ebola virus and how it is spread. The blog post also provides information on how to protect oneself from the virus. There is a link to the initial post where I got all of this information!

As the blog post states, the Ebola virus is a serious concern and it is important for everyone to be aware of the risks associated with the virus. The virus is spread through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. It is important to avoid contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is sick with Ebola.

There are many ways to protect oneself from the Ebola virus. It is important to practice good hygiene, such as washing one’s hands often. It is also important to avoid contact with sick people. If someone is sick with Ebola, it is important to isolate them from other people to prevent the spread of the virus.

The Ebola virus is a serious concern, especially to low income communities in Africa and it is important for everyone to be informed about the risks associated with the virus. It is important to practice good hygiene and to avoid contact with sick people. If someone is sick with Ebola, it is important to isolate them from other people to prevent the spread of the virus.

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/qa-blog.html

MACHI KORO

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I love board games! Catan, Ticket to Ride, Love Letters, Citadels, you name it. Sometimes when it’s just me and my husband we like to bring out fun 2-player games to challenge each other. We can get competitive with one another, but my current obsession is Machi Koro. The obvious reason is that I destroy him at this game two out of three times we play.

Machi Koro is a 2-4 player game and if you enjoy deck building, this game is for you. As the mayor of Machi Koro, you must decide what goes in your city. It’s very fast-paced where each player gets to develop their city by completing all the landmarks under construction, while also trying to be the largest city in the region.

On their turn, each player rolls one or two dice. If the sum of the dice rolled matches the number of a building that a player owns, they get the effect of that building; in some cases, opponents will also benefit from your dice (just as you can benefit from theirs). Then, with money in hand a player can build a landmark or a new building, ideally adding to the wealth of their city on future turns. The first player to construct all their landmarks wins!

That’s usually me. I love this game because it takes a lot of thinking and pre-planning to successfully out beat your opponents. It tests your critical thinking abilities and helps improve your problem-solving skills. Board games are a great way to develop yourself in a fun way. It increases your brain function, offers tremendous decision-making, as well as improves your learning skills. You just have to get past the learning part, soon after it gets easier.

My group of friends didn’t like board games before knowing me and my husband. Now they ask to play every other week and have even implemented game nights with their own families. Board games can bring out the competitive side of people (for sure me) but it’s a great way to relieve stress. It helps with social interactivity and allows you to bond with others. It can help with breaking the ice or even teach you things about people that you wouldn’t have known prior.

I love a good board/card game and would love to hear what your favorite ones are as well.

Resource: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/143884/machi-koro

THE PHO ONE ONE

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Last September, Eater Twin Cities published a blog on Where to Find Pho in the Twin Cities to help with ringing in “soup season”. The purpose of this website is to provide options for pho restaurants within the metro area. This list offers 31 different places from Minnetonka to Osseo, Minnesota, and includes beautiful pictures of pho throughout.

The great thing about this website is that it has my current favorite restaurant on the list, Trieu Chau. It’s at number 21 on the list and it makes me wonder if these are placed in order of best to decent. If not, I think that is something the website lacks. Not only is it unclear which pho restaurant is the best, but we also don’t know the rating of pho at these places. I know for a fact that some listed aren’t my cup of tea – or pho – and wouldn’t recommend them.

I understand the purpose of this website is to provide choices, however, I think it would be helpful to also include ratings. It would be too much work for someone to move from this website to a google review or something of the sort. Having all the information on one page keeps people on the website longer, which is beneficial for Eater. Not only that, if someone were to eat at one of the restaurants and have terrible pho, they would probably blame it on Eater. They wouldn’t be as satisfied and might even give Eater a bad review.

I think it’s great that this page includes different types of pho from throughout the metro area. There are also more pho restaurants than what is listed here, and I think that should be mentioned. Eater needs to work on providing reviews on the featured restaurants which would better convince someone to spend their money there.

Resource: https://twincities.eater.com/maps/where-to-find-pho-in-the-twin-cities

Summertime Sadness Isn’t Just an Annoying Song, it Can Actually Be a Fact of Life

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Every day, the sky’s a little brighter. The days have begun to stretch, and fair winds blow in from far afield, bringing the faintest whiffs of flowers and verdancy to come as the temperature starts to rise. Right now, its lovely, a world on the brink of warmth and light, and in a short month or two, that warmth will swell into joy…for most people. I will be in hell.

You know that thing where people really struggle with depression in the Winter and come alive in the Summer? I have the exact opposite of that, and I’m not alone. For about a tenth of all seasonal Affective Disorder cases, the Winter is wondrous and its the scorching sun that instead brings acute suffering. This happens enough that it has its own name, Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder. Creative, I know.

Lack of naming creativity aside, the condition is real, and it sucks. Psychologists speculate that factors for this might include disruption to routine, too much light, temperature and societal expectations. After all, Summer is a string of parties, beaches and places where bodies are expected to be showing in full force. If any of those things don’t work, there’s obviously something wrong…right? Wrong. Anything someone doesn’t want to do or doesn’t enjoy needs to be totally fine. Thankfully, most I know are pretty good about letting that be ok, but a startling number also had no idea this feeling in the middle of their favorite season could be a thing, so I figured the topic could use a couple words.

I only really have two main points I want to get across, here. First, if you’re like me and find that your energy goes down and your anxiety goes up when the temp soars above 75, you’re not alone. We’re here, and there are more of us than you think. I’m not a Facebook user, but if you are, consider I Hate Summer,  a group with almost 10000 members who are at least a little in a like mind. Don’t be afraid to stay in the cool if you need or want to. And remember, if you’re an introvert like me, that every party isn’t required. That said, if you have something you feel like it could be fun to do, try. The season’s horrible, but you might find something, however weird or simple, that makes it even a little easier to breathe. Mine’s bubble tea, and it would be swimming if I had any good way to get to water. Inhale, exhale, one day at a time. You’ll make it through. I’m still really sorry for what’s coming.

If you’re someone who adores Summer, let me start with the fact that I’m really happy for you. Winter is Brutal for so many folks, and we’re finally coming out of that. Its your time to shine, to breathe and stretch and dance and do all the hot, sun-burned things your heart desires. You’ve earned it. Its been a hard year, a hard couple, really, and it looks like this Summer will be freer than the ones in recent memory. So go get ‘em! My only request is that you try to understand and remember the friends or family who might not want to be tanning right beside you. That sun you love can feel oppressive, stifling or painful. Parties can be loud or overwhelming, especially with the crowds allowed by outside venues. Fireworks and flies are not always welcome in what could have been an otherwise peaceful evening. Give them space. Help them breathe, the way they hopefully did for you when everything was frigid and black and slippery with the stupid ice you hated so much. Maybe do an inside thing once in a while, and if you want to be outside with them, which is totally valid, try and find places with shade or that stay away from swimsuits, depending on your person. All that said, also don’t forget to savor every bright, beautiful day like the jewels they are for you, because I meant it, earlier, you earned it.

Everybody has a season. But it isn’t always Summer. If we remember that, if we take care of one another in whatever weather makes us falter, we just might all make it through the year without falling down… too hard.

Yeah, Actually, I’m a Writer… on Twitter!

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Every writer has known the dread of a blank document, of grappling with the crushing weight of unwritten pages and unformed words. Sometimes, it all seems too much. Sometimes, its hard to know what to say. But Twitter is here to solve both of these problems, and provide a heap of creative connection besides.

One doesn’t generally think of Twitter and writing in the same sentence, but the hashtag #VSS365 began changing the landscape when it sprung to life in 2015, with a rotating cast providing prompt words every day of the year to be written into a VSS, (very short story,) that then gets posted back to the hashtag by any who participated. Since then, the genre has expanded to include poetry, contemplative work, and any other creative piece that can fit in 280 characters. And its not alone. Other hashtags have since since popped up to join the scene with words or phrases that seek to stimulate writers weekly, daily and every interval in between. Most of them are cross-genre and have few, (if any,) rules so that its easy to dive in, and many have specific accounts to coordinate and post so that those few rules are clear and in one place. An example smattering of other popular prompts, with requirements and without, include #BraveWrite, #VSSDaily, #HorrorPrompt, #VSSHumour, #MoonMystic and #ConverStory. MoveMePoetry is also an excellent resource community if you happen to be a poet, extremely active on Twitter and a few other platforms. In case this post leaves you with more questions than you have answers, their discord server is a haven for writers of all types and there are many lurkers who know about all these prompts. Poke @MoveMePoetry for details, if you’d like the link, its an open place that welcomes all.


One last thing of note, if you want something a little more immediate than one prompt running over the entire day, there are a few real time writing extravaganzas where a prompt word is released every ten minutes or so over a preset period, and people craft responses and comment on work in real time. SlamWords and FastPrompt are two very popular examples of this, and both are very friendly to jump into.

To post to any of these prompts, all you have to do is write something up within the character limit and put it out into the world with the appropriate hashtag attached, either in a thread/quote or in the tweet itself. That’s all it takes. Congratulations. You’ll have just created and connected. Magic, right?

But Wait, That’s So many Things! I can’t!

Fear not! Not only do you have no requirement to do every prompt out there, but there are also resources that gather them into one place. I bring you… @TheWritePrompt, an account that tweets out all the prompts for the day in a nice, organized list every morning, like this just one of Today’s tweets:

If at any point you get confused, have questions or become overwhelmed, people are super helpful. Yes, dear reader, people. The plus to doing these writings around hashtags is the fact that others can see your work. If there is one main coordinator, they will likely retweet anything put to that tag, which means other kindly author folk will notice and say wonderful things, or give feedback, should you ask for that. And if there are no leaders, people tend to keep a lookout for new folks and amplify them a little. Bonus, you get to meet some more wordsmiths who can help. Many are the days when I’ve been unsure of a process or a prompt and someone’s been able to set me on the right path. Too shy to do that? That’s ok, too. You can look at other contributions or the main account, (usually a quick google will bring you there,) to see if that might make things easier. Either way, you’ll only find excellent stories and wonderful poems and a welcoming community ready to read what you have to say inside these screens. If you’re one of those writers who sometimes struggles with length, might want some prompts or is seeking new connections, do hop in and give one of these a try. You won’t regret it. Maybe you’ll even see me there, @musicfairy15, the girl with the weird poetry and the unicorn love. I’m also happy to field questions or just to chat, so don’t be afraid to poke me on your way to that blank document, or when you’re in the bowels of the alphabet looking for just the right word.