Opportunities to learn span far beyond the conventional classroom; in fact, much of life's most valuable lessons occur while people are just living. So it's not difficult to recognize how Van'sWarped Tour has such an undeniable grip upon America's youth with its positive spin on issues of responsibility, charity, faith, camaraderie and environmental awareness. All of these aspects and more provide multiple opportunities for teens to become involved with/enlightened to concepts and values they may not otherwise encounter. In short, Warped Tour offers many benchmarks of social awareness for the youthful crowd to learn and apply in their own lives.
Being socially responsible is not typically at the forefront of adolescent minds, a reality that is shaken up with the strong social message Warped Tour organizers and performers bring to the fold. One of the best examples is the collection of exhibitor booths where attendees get an in-your-face reality check. Such tangible learning experiences are essential for making the gratitude connection with adolescents whose primary focus is to be self-serving; empowering them with the tools to think beyond their myopic worldview is the greatest influence Warped Tour has upon America's youth.
Knowles points out how Warped Tour has "made a consistent effort to galvanize festival-goers by sanctioning multiple booths like eco initiatives, recycling projects and hunger relief causes, pushing fans to not just rock, but rock for a cause." Some of the organizations whose presence has opened youthful eyes over the last seventeen years include Rainforest Action Network, My Friend's Place, Music Saves Lives, Music for Relief, Invisible Children, Keep a Breast, Create a Skate, Greenpeace, Boarding for Breast Cancer, Amnesty International, Shirts for a Cure and To Write Love on Her Arms.
Two of the greatest influences of adolescent identity - peers and parents - can either guide a teen down the positive road of personal growth or drop him into a quagmire of self-doubt from inadequate or harmful relations. Marked by the transition from family to peer support, adolescence is a precarious time of acceptance into this new realm of emotional and spiritual nurturing. Warped Tour acts as something of a bridge for those who may not have solid role models or strong peer ties, affording them the opportunity to cultivate social responsibility and sense of self within a fun environment.
Tour developer Kevin Lyman, who received Billboard's 2009 Humanitarian Award for his long-standing commitment to positive activism, spreads the message to impressionable youth how the very notion of global survival depends upon environmental citizenship, the collective effort of every living being to sustain the planet's ecosystem; however, man is the only species who doesn't abided by this fundamental doctrine. Lyman shows the young crowd he walks his own talk by using solar and biodiesel fuel to power the Warped Tour trucks, buses, stages and booths.
This type of unyielding dedication to humanitarian and environmental issues places Lyman and his Warped Tour in the top spot for teaching teens how personal growth demands awareness in order to incite positive change.
The meager beginnings of New York City's now-international event saw a hundred and twenty-seven runners invest one dollar for entry into a race that circled Central Park as many times as it took to reach 26.2 miles. Only 55 entrants actually stepped over the finish line in this 1970 marathon, which increased significantly to more than 22 thousand by 1996, yet it quietly set a precedent that expanded in subsequent years. The progressively increasing number of women runners over the recent past has closed the gender gap quite considerably where performance is concerned. With nearly 40,000 participants in the 2010 race and an entry fee of $171, it is fair to say that four decades later, the New York City Marathon continues its exponential growth and maintains its distinguished leader status among all other global marathons.
The many logistical tasks are not only to benefit of the tens of thousands of participating runners but also the millions of spectators who must have access to a lot of the same services. Just making sure these massive crowds can find their way along the 26-mile route is enough of a challenge, but they also need clear access to various race-related services and local merchants. Road and bridge closures create the need for additional signage to guide people through and around the logistical changes.
Directional signs must be formatted in both miles and kilometers;106 clocks are placed at these points, as well. The race begins with color-coded signs to differentiate among the staggered runners, with the first eight miles sporting orange, green and blue signage that converges at mile 8. Video captures the activity at various checkpoints along the route.
The expansive nature of New York's famous marathon is such that it snakes through five boroughs -- Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan -- with every inch of that course effectively mapped and monitored by police, paramedics, volunteers so the international runners and supportive fans alike are protected from such potential concerns as weather-related problems, inappropriate crowd behavior and the general confusion that can easily arise at such a competition. According to event developer Peter Ciaccia of New York Road Runners, the steps necessary to organize this marathon are along the same lines as planning the Olympics. But it was not always of such epic proportion as illustrated from the following past-versus-present profile:
REGISTRATION - THEN: Available race day; NOW: A lottery is held in June (5,000 get in through charity programs) SPECTATORS - THEN: 100+; NOW: 2,000,000+ VOLUNTEERS - THEN: 30; NOW: 6,000+ WINNINGS - THEN: Bowling trophies were recycled and presented to winners; NOW: $600,000 total prize purse COUNTRIES REPRESENTED - THEN: 1 (United States); NOW: 105
The initial challenge is to make sure all the runners reach Staten Island's Fort Wadsworth starting line, an objective that involves 12 ferries and 500 buses to move contestants from myriad outlying areas. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is quickly cleared once the final contestant has begun the race, a task that must take no longer than one hour to accomplish. At the other end of the race, over 70 UPS vehicles will meet the runners with their personal effects as they reach the finish line, where they will also be gifted with one of 52,000 food bags and medals, as well as one of 60,000 heat sheets.
All in all, some 1,200 vehicles from buses that retrieve slow pacers or race dropouts to convoys that keep the course clean as the runners advance are used in one capacity or another over the span of the race. Once the sweep buses have moved through a given area, those streets are once again open for normal motor vehicle use.
Food and hydration are important aspects for runner and spectator alike as both groups require them throughout the several-hour race. For the runners, there are checkpoint stations with over 40,000 PowerBars, nearly 100,000 Poland Spring bottled water and more than 500 pounds of Dunkin' Donuts Coffee beans that will transform into 45,000 cups of caffeinated energy. Spectators can partake of almost 63,000 gallons of water or half that amount of Lemon-lime Gatorade Endurance Formula sports drink at one of the two dozen fluid stations in what is now recyclable paper cups, a technological improvement from previous years whereby the more than 2,000,000 containers were loaded into the landfill.
An entire hydration station is set up at mile 17 where along with water, soaked sponges can be used to cool down a heated body. Mile 18 is the designated checkpoint where sixty thousand packets of PowerBar Gel are available for the taking, with bananas waiting at miles 20-23. When Mother Nature strikes, people are not far from one of the nearly seventeen hundred portable toilets that dot the entire route.
Given the nature of how a marathon operates, there can be long stretches of time when spectators have nothing to watch because runner activity becomes intermittent. More than 130 musical bands help to fill that void and keep the masses entertained as they are positioned at various spots along the route. A last surge of inspiration is often needed for those runners approaching the final two-tenths of a mile, so the live entertainment at Columbus Circle stage is particularly vital in providing that incentive to finish.
Then there is the consideration of what spectators leave behind after the race, not the least of which includes literally tons of sleeping bags, sweats and other cold-weather clothing that many of the more than 6,000 volunteers retrieve to be cleaned and donated. The mostly plastic and cardboard garbage created by the 2+ million spectators equates to approximately 11 tons that are dispersed among the 24 fluid stations.
Of the thousands of people who work behind the scenes, red-vested medical personnel are considered highly valuable volunteers for both participants and spectators alike since there are incidents that occur in both groups necessitating medical attention. Meeting the needs of such as huge number of people requires no fewer than 38 stations with more than 11,000 pounds of ice, nearly 14,000 bandages, just over 57,000 salt packets and a few hundred Vaseline containers. Two and a half dozen defibrillators are also on hand if someone has a heart problem, while others can repose on one of the more than 400 cots if they are overtaken by the sun or other physical ailment.
Other interesting logistic statistics include issuing 2,500 media credentials to cover the event; approximately half a million pictures are shot by 80 photographers; and a pre-marathon dinner sponsored by Barilla where 15,000 runners and their guests consume nearly 7,000 pounds of pasta and 1,800 pounds of salad, 15,000 apples and 18,000 cans of light beer.
If you're over 30, it's likely you were consumed by the sophisticated new technology that turned an ordinary TV set into a rockin' video arcade. If you're under 30, take the next 3 minutes to snicker at what we Baby Boomers called exciting in the 70s.
The enthralling experience known as Pong is considered the mainstream foray into a budding virtual world; but like a baby who, after much struggle, is delighted to pick up a single Cheerio, Pong proved to be the infantile springboard to today's World of Warcraft and Second Life. The same is true of AOL and Compuserve, the dynamic duo of early mainstream social media. Take a stroll along this timeline that recounts the short but profound journey of a global juggernaut. Thank you, Dr. Anthony Curtis, for such a thorough analysis that sets the stage for future expectations.
1969
CompuServe was the first major commercial Internet service provider for the public in the United States. Using a technology known then as dial-up, it dominated the field through the 1980s and remained a major player until the mid-1990s.
1971
The first email was delivered.
1978
Two Chicago computer hobbyists invented the bulletin board system (BBS) to inform friends of meetings, make announcements and share information through postings. It was the rudimentary beginning of a small virtual community. Trolling and flame wars began.
1979
Usenet was an early bulletin board that connected Duke University and the University of North Carolina.
1984
The Prodigy online service was introduced. Later, it grew to become the second-largest online service provider in 1990, with 465,000 subscribers compared with CompuServe's 600,000. In 1994, Prodigy pioneered sales of dial-up connections to the World Wide Web and hosting services for Web publishers. Subsequently, it was resold repeatedly and now is part of AT&T.
1985
The America Online (AOL) service opened.
1989
British engineer Tim Berners-Lee began work at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Switzerland), on what was to become the World Wide Web.
1992
Tripod opened as a community online for college students and young adults.
1993
CERN donated the WWW technology to the world.
Students at NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) displayed the first graphical browser, Mosaic, and Web pages as we know them today were born.
More than 200 Web servers were online.
1994
Beverly Hills Internet (BHI) started Geocities, which allowed users to create their own websites modeled after types of urban areas. GeoCities would cross the one million member mark by 1997. There were 38 million user Web pages on GeoCities before it was shut down for United States users in 2009. Yahoo, which opened as a major Internet search engine and index in 1994, owns GeoCities today and offers it only as a web hosting service for Japan.
More than 1,500 Web servers were online in 1994 and people were referring to the Internet as the Information Superhighway.
EarthLink started up as an online service provider.
1995
Newsweek headlines an article: The Internet? Bah! Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn't, and will never be, nirvana.
1997
The Web had one million sites.
Blogging begins.
SixDegrees.com lets users create profiles and list friends.
AOL Instant Messenger lets users chat.
Blackboard is founded as an online course management system for educators and learners.
1998
Google opens as a major Internet search engine and index.
1999
Friends Reunited, remembered as the first online social network to achieve prominence, was founded in Great Britain to relocate past school pals.
2000
In the world of business and commerce, the dot.com bubble burst and the future online seemed bleak as the millennium turned.
Seventy million computers were connected to the Internet.
2001
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia and world's largest wiki, was started.
Apple started selling iPods.
2002
Friendster, a social networking website, was opened to the public in the U.S. and grew to 3 million users in three months.
AOL had 34 million members.
2003
MySpace. another social networking website, was launched as a clone of Friendster.
Linden Lab opened the virtual world Second Life on the Internet.
LinkedIn was started as a business-oriented social networking site for professionals.
There were more than 3 billion Web pages.
Apple introduced the online music service iTunes.
2004
Facebook, another social networking website, was started for students at Harvard College. It was referred to at the time as a college version of Friendster.
MySpace surpassed Friendster in page views.
Podcasting began on the Internet.
Flickr image hosting website opened.
Digg was founded as a social news website where people shared stories found across the Internet.
2005
Bebo, an acronym for Blog Early, Blog Often, was started as another social networking website.
News Corporation, a global media company founded by Rupert Murdoch, with holdings in film, television, cable, magazines, newspapers and book publishing, purchased MySpace.
Facebook launched a version for high school students.
Friends Reunited, now with 15 million members, was sold to the British television company ITV.
YouTube began storing and retrieving videos.
There were more than 8 billion Web pages.
2006
MySpace was the most popular social networking site in the U.S. However, based on monthly unique visitors, Facebook would take away that lead later, in 2008.
Twitter was launched as a social networking and microblogging site, enabling members to send and receive 140-character messages called tweets.
Facebook membership was expanded and opened to anyone over age 13.
Google had indexed more than 25 billion web pages, 400 million queries per day, 1.3 billion images, and more than a billion Usenet messages.
2007
Microsoft bought a stake in Facebook.
Facebook initiated Facebook Platform which let third-party developers create applications (apps) for the site.
Facebook launched its Beacon advertising system, which exposed user purchasing activity. Beacon sent data from external websites to Facebook so targeted advertisements could be presented. The civic action group MoveOn.org and many others protested it as an invasion of privacy. Beacon was shut down in 2009.
Apple released the iPhone multimedia and Internet smartphone.
2008
Facebook surpassed MySpace in the total number of monthly unique visitors. Meanwhile, Facebook tried unsuccessfully to buy Twitter.
Bebo was purchased by AOL. Later, AOL would re-sell the relatively-unsuccessful social media site.
2009
Facebook ranked as the most-used social network worldwide with more than 200 million. The site's traffic was twice that of MySpace.
Citizen journalists everywhere were electrified when Twitter broke a hard news story about a plane crash in the Hudson River. The New York Times later reported a user on a ferry had sent a tweet, "There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy."
Unfriend was the New Oxford American Dictionary word of the year.
Microsoft's Bing joined Yahoo and Google as major search engines on the Internet.
ITV sold the relatively-unsuccessful Friends Reunited social media site to Brightsolid Limited.
It's estimated that a quarter of Earth's population used the Internet.
Google saw one trillion unique URLs – after eliminating duplicate entries.
The Internet had at least 27 billion web pages and could have had as many as 58 billion web pages. They changed so many times a day it was nearly impossible to count.
2010
Facebook's rapid growth moved it above 400 million users, while MySpace users declined to 57 million users, down from a peak of about 75 million.
To compete with Facebook and Twitter, Google launched Buzz, a social networking site integrated with the company's Gmail. It was reported that in the first week, millions of Gmail users created 9 million posts.
Apple released the iPad tablet computer with advanced multimedia and Internet capabilities.
AOL sold the relatively-unsuccessful Bebo social media site to Criterion Capital Partners.
The Democratic National Committee advertised for a social networks manager to oversee President Barack Obama's accounts on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
It was estimated the population of Internet users was 1.97 billion. That was almost 30 percent of the global population.
The Internet had surpassed newspapers as a primary way for Americans to get news, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The Internet was the third most popular news platform, with many users looking to social media and personalized feeds for news. National and local TV stations were strong, but the Internet was ahead of national and local newspapers.
2011
Social media were accessible from virtually anywhere and had become an integral part of our daily lives with more than 550 million people on Facebook, 65 million tweets sent through Twitter each day, and 2 billion video views every day on YouTube. LinkedIn has 90 million professional users.
Social media commerce was on the rise along with mobile social media via smartphones and tablet computers.
Public sharing of so much personal information via social media sites raised concern over privacy.
Apple introduced the Ping social network for music and integrated with iTunes.
Both MySpace and Bebo were redesigned and updated to compete with the far more successful social networks Facebook and Twitter.
It was estimated Internet users would double by 2015 to a global total of some four billion users, or nearly 60 percent of Earth's population.
Understanding how to reach your demographic is the fundamental principle to successfully influencing consumer behavior, but can you really pinpoint who is -- and isn't -- a potential client? Target markets aren't as easily definable as they were 50 years ago; consumers today are identified by the causes they support as much as the products they buy. Piggybacking is a low-cost approach to access a specific target market by joining forces with an already-established venue.
Event marketing is just one option that can play a key role in expanding your consumer base because of its interactive, hands-on opportunities. Mingle directly with attendees, offer product samples or brief consultations, hand out your newsletter & business card -- all the while creating an emotional connection with a captive audience. The barrier for many business owners, however, is they don't recognize how their product or service relates to seemingly incompatible markets.
For example, who besides food purveyors and hemp clothiers would consider advertising or exhibiting at the Berkeley Vegan Earth Day event April 22, 2012? Well, think about it. People with different dietary preferences who will attend this festival buy houses, plan lavish weddings, need insurance and take vacations the same as everyone else. Find a tie-in your company has with various event audiences, and you've just tapped into a new market segment.
Whether you're a real estate agent who educates clients about passive solar power or a dog trainer who teaches with positive-reinforcement methods, you're an example of how mainstream industries can stretch their reach into alternative markets such as Berkeley Vegan Earth Day without spending a lot of money. Paul Lawrence suggests to:
Hook up with other businesses that attract the kind of customers you're looking for, but sell non-competing products or services.
Analyzing marketing campaigns with Toulmin's model finds the need to change consumer attitudes from indifference, detachment and resistance to relevance, association and agreement. So why not let someone else do the primary legwork when it comes to realizing your business strategies when the outcome is win/win for both? Here are some specific tips on how to align your company with untapped clientele.
Share the success you've had with piggyback marketing. What tips do you recommend for a more lucrative outcome?
When it comes to attracting customers, incentive marketing represents a highly valuable tool for every industry. The real estate trade is no different from other sectors trying to boost clientele; because houses are big ticket items that require greater time and attention prior to purchase, agents and their clients alike can benefit from utilizing this particularly valuable approach.
Beyond a price reduction, real estate sales promotions might originate from the lender (percentage of loan fees), other companies (homeowner warranty, etc.), the agent (reduced commission) or even the seller (including appliances for no extra cost). Many first-time home buyers qualify for special discounts and savings, while military buyers also receive certain promotional markdowns for time served. There are myriad types of sales promotions depending upon the buyer's income level, home purchasing status, occupation, etc., and all are meant to improve sale probability.
While it may seem buyers reap the most benefit from incentive marketing, the agent also stands to collect commission for a home that otherwise might not sell. It makes good business sense to invest a few hundred dollars in non-reimbursable discounts to boost buyer interest and earn thousands in exchange. Some agents prefer to give rewards rather than discounts, keeping the original sales price firm for the seller but still allowing the buyer to reap additional incentives. According to Jim Logan, founder of revenue growth company Accelerate Business Group, LLC, "rewards preserve the value of your product or service and don't set a precedent of a lower price for an established offering."
Keep these two points in mind in order to maximize an incentive's benefit:
1) Place time limits so potential buyers feel an urgency to act now
2) Add an additional incentive for those who respond in that time frame
Logan also suggests infusing creativity to make sure all parties benefit from the incentive. For example, use money otherwise tagged for a price reduction as an offer back to the buyer in complimentary home accouterments, such as patio furniture or window treatments. This way, sellers realize a full sales price, agents still receive full commission and buyers spruce up their new home.
NOTE: Nothing here will make you squirm with discomfort.
Choosing to become vegan or vegetarian is a highly personal lifestyle decision that's more times than not guided by an ethical epiphany: animals are sentient creatures no different from human beings and are therefore not disposable commodities. This hotly debated topic forces people to consider the entire non-human animal kingdom in an completely different light to both understand and appreciate the inherent value of every living creature; to ignore this fact is to defend an antiquated and groundless argument that animals are placed on this earth for man's benefit.
Denying animals harbor consciousness is a conveniently disprovable stance that allows naysayers to claim humans as the only living being with perception and awareness, a coupling that has somehow excused and even justified the atrocious actions people inflict upon food animals. Factory farming is one of the most valid reasons people choose a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, with others citing different yet just as compelling reasons as Dick Gregory's nutrient density and spiritual cleansing, Forks Over Knives connection to degenerative disease and Gandhi's peaceful resistance.
No matter the motivational factor, it is clearly a decision based upon our own lifelong efforts to become more aware, connected and evolved. To draw that flexible line where it best fits at this moment, knowing that it can -- and likely will -- fluctuate with our ever-changing mindset.
Somewhere in all of this [information about veganism], something will strike you just right and everything will crystalize around you brilliantly–that's your vegan epiphany...Experiencing [this] can help to make the journey a little easier; suddenly, it doesn’t feel like such a chore or sacrifice or abnormal thing to be choosing veganism. Veganism becomes, simply, the way your world is and the only way you can conceive of living and being. ~ Tess
Man's disquieting ethical egoism has caused significant problems throughout his relatively short reign on this planet; with very few exceptions, everything humanity has done, is doing or will do to progress as a species comes at the cost of other entities. This blatant disregard for living in harmony with flora and fauna -- which existed long before we ever did -- is one of the most reprehensible of all human characteristics, particularly where animal treatment is concerned. Eating their flesh, wearing their skins/fur and gratuitous experimentation on their bodies should be extinct the way so many species have become, yet only a small percentage of the human population has stopped perpetuating these obsolete practices.
In short, mankind has deceived his animal counterparts with a shameful disregard for their basic rights as living beings. While perhaps the most developed of all species, people have no intrinsic entitlement to claim dominion over their nonspeaking neighbors. Whether or not animals have the same rights as humans is not the issue but rather that animals have the same expectation as man to a life free of pain, suffering and exploitation.
Satisfying the chewing desire of different dogs is often a lesson in futility.What Layla the Chihuahua considers a lengthy, enjoyable chew is a one-chomp-and-swallow affair for Bunny, the 90-pound hound mix.Biscuits and other quickly-eaten treats are great for instant gratification, but they fail to provide the kind of enthusiastic gnawing that sends dogs to another dimension.
Our canine children have been very willing participants in the quest to locate this ever-elusive dog chew, happily consuming the vast majority in less than ten minutes and with minimal chew value.That is, however, until we stumbled upon (not literally) elk antlers and the dogs' entire world changed.
In fact, it's to the point where we humans are feeling a bit slighted by the constant attention lavished on this tasty newcomer.I've even had to resort to the bait-and-switch tactic with Jake the Jack Russell Terrier in order to coerce the antler out of his little mouth in exchange for his dinner bowl.
And talk about a cost-effective option: We're just now ready to replace the first batch purchased nearly a year ago. Elk antlers, by comparison, are much sturdier and longer lasting than the smaller, more brittle deer rack. Our bigger kids do best with the thicker center cuts that are 6-10" long and about 2" in diameter, while little squirts enjoy the shorter, thinner part near the point.
After researching how elk antlers are obtained, we're resolved to purchasing these wonderful stain- and odor-free alternatives only from sellers whose inventory is humanely gathered from the elk's natural tendency to shed his rack. If you can find a seller who doesn't strip the natural velvet, your dog will reap additional health benefits. Amazon and eBay are good places to start, but also consider buying from a nearby dog specialty shop/bakery to help support your local economy or an online seller who contributes proceeds to animal rescue organizations.
A recently single friend braved the stigma of online dating and joined a couple of the more popular sites. Now, several months later and armed with a wealth of hard-earned experience, she has a better understanding why it takes a psychology degree to figure out what a person's profile is -- or isn't -- saying.
As much as people profess they want to meet someone with the potential for a long-term relationship, many of the actions they take (both men & women) illustrate just the opposite. The very function of online dating is to facilitate bringing people together, but as Dr. Ali Binazir so aptly notes in The Tao of Dating, it has instead made it difficult for the masses to connect due to inaccurate self-representation or overly high expectations. This tendency to bend the truth leads people to present themselves as they would like to be, not how they really are.
Another barrier comes from those who have nothing at all to say about themselves and resort to using negativity or such timeworn phrases as "no drama," "love to laugh," and "just a simple person." You have to take pity on someone who sees nothing wrong with saying "hate" anywhere in the profile, much less the very first sentence. It typically goes like this: I hate talking about myself; I hate having to summarize my whole life in 500 words; I hate being pigeon-holed; I hate tooting my own horn. Well, here's the thing: Introducing yourself involves none of that. The masses simply want to learn a bit about who you are, not what defines you. Sadly, many people don't know there is a difference.
The pics you choose to represent yourself are directly related to the type of people you will attract. And let's just say right up front there is no shame in clicking past a profile that doesn't have at least one clear, recent photo. Showcasing yourself in any arena requires putting forth 100% of who you are; physical appeal - while indeed in the eye of the beholder - is as much a critical component on dating sites as it is in real life. Would an actor send out his portfolio without any images and still expect to be cast in the right role?
Photo albums full of 6-pack abs, overflowing cleavage or 15 shots of your dog/cat/garden/most recent Hawaiian vacation (all without *you* in them) miss the point and give complete strangers visual TMI. That also goes for "trophy" pics: dead animals, vehicles/farm equipment, beer/alcohol in every shot. Consider who your audience is; you're not submitting for acceptance in Cabela's catalog, after all. It's the rare woman who will be impressed by seeing your truck filled to the brim with deer carcasses.
And then there are the "no photo" folks who are full of excuses: They don't have any current images, don't photograph well, don't want to be judged on looks, etc. My friend found a guy who said "I'm a well-known professional and don't want to jeopardize my reputation," which may be legit or may actually translate to "I'm married and don't want to get caught."
And since people are unforgivingly sized up in a matter of 7.5 seconds or less, nailing that all-important initial contact has become more important than brushing your teeth after every meal. The first no-no is counting on a nonverbal option to replace a thoughtful introduction. Winks/flowers/flirts and the like are equivalent to a 12-year-old boy showing his interest by punching the girl's arm. Show that person you've moved beyond the playground by saying hello in a message.
So, after sifting through the muck and mire, my friend found someone who looked worthwhile enough to spark a conversation. Little did she know she had embarked upon a fascinating study of human behavior; like being unable to turn away from a train wreck, she couldn't stop herself from exploring this specimen of dysfunction. The guy was pure gold for anthropological research.
He didn't use the word 'woman' but instead identified the fairer sex as either 'females' or 'pedestrians.' Always defensive and afraid of being judged no matter how innocent the question but chastised her if she didn't answer something in line with what he thought was correct. So proudly into porn that he freely referenced it in their conversations from the get-go (not to diss porn but to further illustrate his disconnect from what he claimed he wanted: someone with emotional and intellectual intelligence). Here are a couple of gems from this smug and angry misogynist:
Instead of simply saying he wasn't into it, this is how he replied to her inquiry about Scrabble:
Scrabble, crosswords and jigsaws are too far down on the ladder of intellectual stimulation for me. It would be a bleak day when I sit back and have nothing better to do than play Scrabble.
On why men seem to respond based only on photos while ignoring core value incompatibilities in the profile:
Men ignore what women say on their profiles [because] what [women] specify is more often negotiable than not. And men know that and exploit it. So there's probably a whole range of women out there who want me, but I won't contact them if they want someone with dark hair, or 6 ft tall, or blue eyes, etc. See how you kill it for yourselves?
Huh?
But by far the most intriguing element of their exchange was the rule book he required her to follow if she wanted to continue conversing with him. This all came about when she suggested they meet in real life; what ensued was both puzzling and scary in a world that has become far too socially inept.
Step 1: A minimum 3 months of emailing Step 2: If they were still interested in learning more, they could take it to voice calls for another couple of months Step 3: If they were still talking, they could move to video chats to round out the mandatory 6-month cyber discovery period Step 4: Entertain the idea of meeting in person
She lasted just over a month in Step 1 before realizing this guy really was clueless about his hostile, antisocial tendencies. I've begged her to turn this whole experience into an online picture book similar to the brilliance of Hyperbole and a Half, but she just rolls her eyes and swats me away.
Surely you have a tale or two to tell from your online dating excursions, right? And :::gasp::: maybe even a positive experience! C'mon, enlighten us by posting a comment below. :)
If you're familiar with the phrase "energy vampires," you likely strive to keep these people at arm's length - if not entirely avoid them - because surrounding yourself with those who suck the life force out of you is the quickest way to "catch" the disorder. As we saw in a previous blog post (Are You Eeyore or Pooh?), there's absolutely no effort needed to be a Debbie Downer, but we nearly kill ourselves tripping over mental road signs that remind us to emit only positive vibes. So what possible benefit is there in willingly sucking the discharge from other people's emotional exhaust pipe?
Relationships are fluid; many of the people who cross your path are not meant to stay there. There's no unspoken rule that says you must accommodate every acquaintance, friend, spouse or business associate for the rest of your life, yet so many of us feel a gnawing obligation to put up with baggage for fear of being less than a good friend/partner/family member. Instead your integrity suffers when you fail to be a friend to yourself first.
And yes, you are absolutely allowed to emotionally emancipate yourself from parents, siblings, aunts, uncles or anyone else in your clan who drags you through the gutter. Why should they receive special treatment simply because you share a genetic disposition? In fact, sometimes that's actually the best reason *to* break away.
It matters not if they're family, friends or coworkers; if you're a magnet for drama queens, boors, martyrs, attention seekers, criticizers and hypochondriacs, it's time to make some changes. But how do you expunge someone from your life without feelings getting hurt in the process? Well, you can't. But you can take steps that help the individual save face and you escape guilt. Therese Borchard's You Deplete Me: 10 Steps to End a Toxic Relationship is a snappy, somewhat snarky but completely engaging summation of who, what, when, why and how to purge an unhealthy relationship.
Have you had to remove someone from your life because of how the relationship drained you? How did you handle it and, just as importantly, how did the other person respond?
How many of us are card-carrying members of this club? If you think it's more than a chance encounter to catch clocks, signs and sales receipts with some form of 11:11, and it happens just often enough for you to wonder if there's something more to it than coincidence, then you're in good company.
But that's not really what this post is about. I did want to acknowledge a pretty significant occurrence most of us will never again experience, and now we'll take it in a slightly different direction.
Who you are and what you believe will determine how you'll celebrate -- or ignore -- this much-anticipated day. It's either synchronicity or hooey. The end of the world or just the beginning. Chaos or clarity. And for some just another reason to party. Even the Ku Klux Klan rally in Alabama qualifies as a bona fide celebration that day because, after all, "K" is the 11th letter of the alphabet. But really, it seems to be just a mystical approach to the law of attraction philosophy rather than anything evil or virtuous. Personal development blogger Steve Pavlina says:
11:11 is a doorway (one of many) to a new level of existence. It is the introductory chapter to a greater understanding of reality. Instead of going through life as a hapless victim, 11:11 shows you how to begin creating your reality.
The struggle between positive and negative forces has plagued man since he first started wondering "why." Some consider this dichotomy outside the realm of our control, since it really does seem humans are naturally hard-wired for negativity. Think about the conscious effort it takes to push aside doubt and pessimism in order to find courage and hope. When was the last time you had to remind yourself to be unhappy?
One of many uses for today's social media is as a global billboard for sharing mantras, affirmations and feel-good posts meant to inspire the masses; all are enjoyed and some are tucked away as reminders. Yet it's the rare individual who doesn't soon get pulled back into the endless loop of uncooperative thoughts despite such positive influences.
Berkeley and Plato believed man has complete jurisdiction over how he perceives - and thereby responds to - negative stimulus; the more spiritually evolved a person is, the greater tendency he or she has toward positive thinking and the opportunities it draws. Yes, it involves a lot of effort and yes, we will always be susceptible to drifting backward into negativity, but just remember there is an unlimited number of "do overs" for you to stay on track.
There's also no need to go it alone. Fortify your validity through those who have already laid down the groundwork. Borrow freely of their examples and experiences. Embrace what resonates. Build upon them so you can inspire others and continue the momentum. The Tao of Pooh is a great place to start because of its childhood familiarity. In it you'll understand why Eeyore frets, Piglet hesitates, Rabbit calculates, Owl pontificates while Pooh just is.
But just in case, it won't hurt to make a wish when the clock lights up with all those identical numerals. For right now, however, you'll find 4 minutes & 11 seconds of pure, fearless inspiration to embrace and share below.
What inspires you and keeps your path clear of negativity? Please share your insights here - we'd all love to learn from them.
Being socially responsible is not typically at the forefront of adolescent minds, a reality that is shaken up with the strong social message Warped Tour organizers and performers bring to the fold. One of the best examples is the collection of exhibitor booths where attendees get an in-your-face reality check. Such tangible learning experiences are essential for making the gratitude connection with adolescents whose primary focus is to be self-serving; empowering them with the tools to think beyond their myopic worldview is the greatest influence Warped Tour has upon America's youth.
Tour developer Kevin Lyman, who received Billboard's 2009 Humanitarian Award for his long-standing commitment to positive activism, spreads the message to impressionable youth how the very notion of global survival depends upon environmental citizenship, the collective effort of every living being to sustain the planet's ecosystem; however, man is the only species who doesn't abided by this fundamental doctrine. Lyman shows the young crowd he walks his own talk by using solar and biodiesel fuel to power the Warped Tour trucks, buses, stages and booths.
