Do you track your own development? By looking into the past of our photography career, we can learn a lot about our progress and how to move on.

No matter what age you are, as long as you are able to read these lines and make sense of them, you are able to learn photography. If you will master it, however, depends on your dedication and your time. Talent is just a very small fracture of your skills and will only help you develop a little faster than others. Its just a small advantage that can be balanced by your enthusiasm and eagerness.

Developing a skill needs practice. You need to learn how to use your camera, see light, create ideas, and process them. It also means doing your homework. Read articles on the web, get photography books, talk to fellow photographers, and visit galleries or exhibitions. Also, do a lot of research in the field of photography which you prefer.

There are a few stages which you will come across sooner or later in your career as a photographer. In the beginning you will be amazed. You shoot your first images in manual mode and feel superior. Showing your work to everyone, you might get a little shocked that no one cares. Friends and family smile at you and say Wow, nice, but they wont give your images too much attention, even if you tell them about what was so special about a long shutter-speed or the sharpness of your lens at f/5.6. This is when you must not give up. You just started.

Later, you become humble. You learn the ABC of photography and become more self-critical. As you are more and more interested in other peoples work, you are constantly asking yourself: How did they do that?. By growing your interest, you try things out and you improve your skills. Still, you should not just look at what others did, but also what you did. How did you achieve your goals and which ones did you miss?

Tracking your photography means looking back. Take a look at your older work every now and then. Actually, there are a few different reasons for that. Firstly, seeing improvement will give you satisfaction. A little dopamine never hurt somebody. Whenever youre stuck and think you will never become a good photographer, take a look at your origins. Where did you come from? Isnt there a huge difference between your first DSRL snapshot of Auntie Helen and your recent Junior portrait? Being satisfied prevents you from frustration. In times of failure and struggle, remind yourself that its all a part of our development. Look at how far you've already come.

Secondly, you will find out that there might have been some really nice images among your old portfolio. Not only your skills developed, but also your eye. Maybe, you didnt like an image before, because it didnt fit into the rule of thirds. Now, you will realize that you like it, because it works well without the rule of thirds. You can find out why and develop your eye. Or you post process your images again and find some gems hidden underneath your first attempts with Lightroom! I found some horrible HDR landscape images and over-processed portraits of my family, the last time I went through my older collections. Reducing the contrast and most of all the clarity, made them become a nice memory of that time.

Thirdly, you can also remind yourself about what you already tried out, where you stopped, and in which direction you developed. You can track the development of your style and also critically review if you took the right path. Did you follow your initial goals? Didnt you like shooting the milky way more than you like creating portraits? Where does your heart belong? Seeing old images can release a nostalgic feeling in you, which might bring you back on track. You can also rediscover that you were great in shooting portraits, before you started product photography. Maybe, you should try to open a small side business, again.

There are many conclusions which can follow your review. Firstly, you can simply analyze and learn. You can give your photography a new direction or get back to techniques that you once tried out, but never properly developed. I once figured out that I was kind of okay in retouching faces but started to do documentary and landscape photography. Every now and then, I go back to not forget about dodge and burn or frequency separation. Its fun, too!

Find out what you like about the images and what is common in them. This is how you can find your own style. Do you like this style, or do you need to improve something? Is there a really good concept that is missing something? Re-shoot it. Shooting the same image (or an improved concept) after a while is an amazing way to check your improvement and build up your self-confidence.

Im not even talking about the comments of others, yet. If you had once taken an image that was technically weak, but your friends and family already liked it, how cool would it be to improve the weaknesses? Make it perfect, print it, and hand it over to the people who already liked your first version. Youll be proud as a peacock and others will be amazed. Appreciation is the engine of our work. Tracking your development can inspire you. Letting others take part in your development will motivate you to continue.

Going back through your old photographs can also be very entertaining. You will remember funny situations and see hilarious facial expressions. You might have forgotten them, because they were never meant to be published. But what about the 50th birthday party of your best friend? Additionally, you will be confronted with the sins of your photography youth. Did you really tell that model to pose like this? Why would you flash your corporate headshot backdrop with an orange gel? Did you believe that this was a witty, provocative thing?

Whatever you will find, its always worth looking back, every now and then. In my case, its hardly more than seven years of photography. I wonder what will happen when our more experienced photographers open their treasure chests on the attic?!

View post:
How Looking Into the Past Can Help Your Photography in the Future - Fstoppers

Circumstances are leading to raise abomination towards an existing system in place in which everything appears to be going fine but subliminally there is a wave of uneasiness, Civil society conflict and economic crisis throughout the county.

The unemployment ratio has gone sky-high. Jobs are rare for educated circles of society. Laborious and odd jobs are there to maintain a false pretense yet educated and unemployed youth, middle-aged professionals are struggling to make both ends meet. Talking about each sector where there can be a possible job opportunity we get to know that the entire analogy of self-improvement, motivation or the best job hunt techniques are all rubbish talks. There is no such thing. The problem is different than what is being taught.

Among the top ten job sites of Pakistan, there is no website that is truly helping the cause of eradicating unemployment because obviously they mean business they dont help the government or promote populism. Their business-oriented strategies only maintain a certain amount of job posts to make it look like there is no right candidate for these jobs, truth is these job postings help websites run their Fake Show. Which eventually ads on to the frustration of already unemployed.

The rise in the Job posting categories indicates the required skill which stems from the need for new disciplines to be introduced in our Universities and educational institutions. But the monopoly of business does not let it happen. Customary Degrees like Business Administration, Arts or General Sciences are there for average and below-average students since forever. Anyone with slightly a better aptitude ends up opting to engineer, Medical Science or Accountancy.

The only don amid all other categories is Information Technology. The best might get the best, we cant even be sure about it after all the best is never spare by the state-owned enterprises to cure their miseries, there is no Job or business in the field of IT for an average or below-average professional or student. Job posts related to this field are made to sound either too technical or unachievable.

Political conflicts have been taken to a whole different level they are everywhere, Dining tables to playgrounds to offices and even entertainment content we watch on TV is no more entertaining it always has some satire to knock a certain ideology down and support civil supremacy of the powerful.

There is no room for neutrality, you cant be like that at all. This is a tool used in modern warfare which corrupts the source of the fact, and facts dont remain facts they become accessory to create mob mentality, eventually results in a collapse in the economy and social system.

Religious clergy is on the roads these days in Pakistan asking Prime Minister who has always encouraged people to keep the hope for a better tomorrow but it looks as if he will not be able to fight with ignorance, Vested interest of the powerful non-state enterprises for a long time.

I dont want to be fooled by this utopia. Id rather prefer to face the truth which tells that Its a time of hopelessness, distress and despair in Pakistan.

See more here:
Unemployment and the fake show of job postings in Pakistan - Daily Times

There was a point in time where Beejus, host of the DIY podcast Awkward Convos with Beejus, didn't think he could carry a conversation. A bit of a surprising reveal, considering his easy-going personality and storytelling abilities as a rapper. But in an act of self-improvement, Beejus decided to put those growing pains on tape and started a podcast. It was a challenge that he didn't know would turn into anything, really like most handmade projects, Beejus just wanted to try something different.

Fours years and over 200 episodes later, Beejus' pod has rendered him just as much popularity as his music (his latest album, Beautiful was released earlier this summer). Listeners are flies-on-the-wall to some of the most humorous, yet thought-provoking, heart-to-hearts with local creatives in and out of music, like Caleborate, Cal-A and even graduate of the 2017 class of Chronicle Rising Star Chefs and Top Chef competitor, Tu David Phu. His latest episode featuring the Portland transplant Tope is out today, the first of many Bay Bridged-supported convos to come.

We spoke with Beejus (and it wasn't awkward at all!) on his early podcast beginnings, the longevity of his project and some of the greatest stories he's unearthed so far.

The Bay Bridged: Beejus, youve been doing this podcast, Awkward Conversations with Beejus, for a while now youre at 219 episodes. What do you remember about recording that very first one?

Beejus: I was extremely nervous. I didnt know where it was going to go. The reason I even wanted to do a podcast was because I was listening to the Joe Rogan podcast and other podcasts where it felt like it was just a hangout. They were just with their friends, getting drunk, having fun. I never really prided myself on someone that could curate and keep a conversation going. Id be comfortable around my friends and could open up with them, but at the time I didnt think I could do that especially with a mic in my hand and being forced to keep it going. It was just one of those things where I wanted to recreate that [hangout] experience. If nobody ever listens to it at least Ill have fun with my friends. I just wanted to capture those moments.

TBB: Within the podcast world, its said that once you hit 50 episodes then you know your idea has legs. When did you know you had a good thing going with your pod?

B: Pretty much straight from the gate. I was in a unique position because the timing of me putting a podcast out was just great because my music was also growing legs, I started getting a following behind my music and collecting a network of friends [and] colleagues that helped out. The first episode I released was a two-in-one; The first episode all my guests, who were my friends, were Black. The second was still my friends, but two guys were white so we just talked about different subject matters and that was the introduction of me doing a podcast. The third episode was with a childhood friend of mine named Daghe. His name is big out here and me and him go way back.

Putting those three episodes out, the people that were involved and me just having a fan base already, it was a perfect timing for everything. Like I said, I was extremely nervous and I knew that people loved me rapping, but can they sit and hear me talk for two hours? And the feedback was amazing. And thats what motivated me to keep it going.

TBB: Do you have a strategy or schedule you abide by when it comes to who you want to feature on the next episode?

B: Its really random and thats where my brand, The Free Spirit, comes from. Ive been fortunate enough to ride a wave that the universe has put me on, so through my podcast, conversation is key. It doesnt really matter what someone does as long as they can have an interesting conversation with me for over an hour. There will be times Ill meet someone at a party and we strike up a conversation those have turned into podcasts. There will be times Ill be on Instagram and notice a local artist is dropping a new album that could be a podcast. So it really just depends. I dont research people beforehand either. I want a genuine conversation and you should be able to get that info while were sitting there talking. My strategy usually at the beginning is to intro them with who they are and what they do and then we just take it from there. Its also the easiest way to get people comfortable, to get them to talk about themselves.

TBB: Are there any episodes that mean a lot to you, whether it was the conversation had or it made you learn something important about podcasting?

B: There are three episodes in particular. Ill always credit Daghe because he did a lot in that third episode. When people get to talk about themselves freely and not constrained to certain questions or points, theyll do a lot to promote it because they can promote themselves. Its a mutual favor; That was the one that got the podcast a little bit of legs through his huge following.

Episode 100 is the one with Anthony Dragons and Moe Green theyre my unofficial co-hosts. Whenever I do a special episode, I bring them on because the chemistry between us three is fuckin hilarious. But Episode 100 really sparked a friendship between me and Moe that made us brothers for life.

My third favorite is my recap of a solo trip I did to Thailand. That was a huge moment in my life because a big scary dream I had was to go to a foreign country, where I didnt speak the language, completely by myself and just make it happen. That trip and that moment in my life, I hold that two weeks in my life very dear. And so I came back and recorded a five-hour podcast by myself, recapping everything I did in those two weeks.

TBB: Your subjects are so far and wide. You talk with so many different types of folks in and out of music rappers, producers, but even A&R folks, photographers. What do you think your pod reveals about the creative community out here?

B: To tell you the truth, I dont think my podcast [does] anything new that others haven't done before, interviewing the same type of people. What I can say is that I think it sheds a light on this generation of artists in the Bay Area. Im proud that not only am a part of this generation that is blowing up and getting all this shine, but my podcast is chronologizing it all, gathering all these stories and connecting these timelines together, all these connections of how people meet each other and what has sprung from that. I feel like Im writing the history books of a time and place right now.

TBB: What do you think podcast Beejus would want to know about rapper Beejus?

B: Damn, that's a good question! I think Id want to ask myself the first question I ask most artists: Give me the story from the beginning up until right now. I love to tell that shit, I love to talk about myself and say what inspires me. If I love it, then I know other artists love to tell that shit. We could make this shit five hours, tell your story as much as you want. But the other thing Id want to know is to go back to all of my albums, every song and go down the list and be like, Song #1: Where was your mind at, what was the motivation, what comes to mind?. Id just go through the stories because theres meaning behind each one. All those little lines I put out and waiting for someone to ask me about it and no one ever did, Id definitely ask those questions!

TBB: Moving forward, Awkward Convos with Beejus will be hosted on The Bay Bridged. What do you hope this does for the pod?

B: Ive been doing this by myself for so long, I think itd help out a lot to get some support so I can work on both music and the podcast easier.

Stay tuned every Wednesday for the next Awkward Convos with Beejus episode.

View post:
The Bay Bridged Q&A: A Not-So-Awkward Convo with Beejus - The Bay Bridged

It doesnt take a Harvard degree to conclude that American education changes in response to changes in systems of labor and employment. But one proposed change that might surprise is the so-called 60-year curriculum. Challenging the notion of education as something that stops in ones early twenties, the idea of the 60-year curriculum promises to put the life back in the life of the mind.

As the retirement age rises to levels not seen since the 1960s, and the number of jobs the average American worker has in their career takes a parallel leap, doubling for millennials as compared to their Gen X predecessors in the decade after college alone, its clear that economic change is mandating innovation in how we prepare students, both young and old, for productive, meaningful, and dynamic careers. While the liberal arts prerogative of intellectual enrichment as such remains an ever-relevant endeavor, todays students need more than a one-time preparation for a singular career. Harvard, as a leader in education, must also lead the charge in exploring non-traditional routes to continuing education.

Let us be clear: We are in no way negating nor have we negated the value of a liberal arts education. The intellectual exploration and genuine life of the mind institutions like Harvard facilitate at their best is not only essential to the personal fulfillment of students but also an innovative and lively economic and social society. Still, Harvard can and should serve a wider student body and a larger purpose.

Indeed, a form of the 60-year curriculum has been championed by Huntington D. Lambert, dean of the Division of Continuing Education. In this vein, its worth noting that the Division of Continuing Education has done important work in striving to fulfill the needs of students seeking education at all stages of their professional and intellectual journeys, and we applaud its efforts. From the communal experience of the Institute for Learning in Retirement, which hosts peer-led seminars, to professional development programming that helps professionals to enhance and buttress their skills, to the Premedical Program which provides students who might not have had the opportunity to prepare for medical education in college to do so at a more advantageous juncture, the Division of Continuing Education has and should continue to broaden our sense of education and at what stages of life it belongs.

To the same end, we encourage the expansion of open curriculum projects that can make available the knowledge that we are so grateful to have access to. The online course provider edX, pioneered by individuals from MIT and Harvard, allows anyone to access material taught at the two schools. Many other institutions have since joined the initiative, which provides a mix of liberal arts-serving and career-oriented courses offerings, many of which are completely free.

In continuing with their important work, the Division of Continuing Education could also look at the ways other institutions have contributed to great social mobility, more so than many elite institutions like Harvard. After all, why isnt Harvard in the list of top ten colleges for social mobility?

If rising movements toward lifelong learning represent a radically democratic impulse one in which age is no barrier to self-improvement then it will only be successful if made available to those of all backgrounds and socioeconomic positions.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

Read more in Opinion

Read the original post:
Continuing On with Continuing Ed | Opinion - Harvard Crimson

Stephen Cluxton has spoken about his return from serious injury last season, his obsessive focus on self-improvement, and his admiration for manager Jim Gavin.

In a lengthy interview on the occasion of winning the GAA/GPA Footballer of the Year, Cluxton paid tribute to Gavin as well as his teammates who were also nominated for the award, Con OCallaghan and Jack McCaffrey.

"I have complete respect for what he (Gavin) does and what he has done for this team. Nobody has worked harder than he has," said Cluxton.

Con (O'Callaghan) has dug us out of a few holes on more than one occasion and Jack (McCaffrey) the same. Jack had a phenomenal first All-Ireland, he bagged 1-3 that day. Con was fantastic in the semi-final when we needed to turn up the heat.

And, I think, throughout the team when guys have had poor days, that's the sign and mark of a great team that your team-mates are digging you out. Okay, it's an individual award, but I certainly think that it was a team effort throughout the year to get it.

The goalkeeper also acknowledged the influence of past leaders and teammates in his career: When I look back to 2001 and up to 2010, the ups and downs that we had throughout those years, they were very turbulent. Maybe from 2010 onwards we found our feet and started working harder.

I think when you look back on it, I think that time-frame has stood to me. You learn something new from everybody. Whether it's positive or negative you'll learn something from something someone else is doing and you can take. Especially from captains like Bryan Cullen and people like Denis Bastick, some great leaders. Paul Flynn as well, they've all put their shoulder to the wheel. Paul Casey, Toms Quinn, the list is endless to be quite honest.

You just take small nuggets from them and you try to bring that into your own game and bring it into your own captaincy.

I'm very competitive, I would have to say. Medals to the side, it's about going out and trying to compete against the best. And that starts with trying to compete with the goalkeepers that are in Dublin.

Evan (Comerford) and Michael (Shields) are phenomenal goalkeepers. They're young and they're hungry and probably brought a bit of freshness to me over the last number of years because they want the jersey and I want it too. There's that bit of competitiveness to want to be the best.

I suppose after that then, it's more or less what is best for the team. I think if I'm not the best for the job I don't have a problem with that. If I've given my all and we come up short, then I don't have a problem with that. I'm definitely hungry and competitive for success. If you get beaten and you're beaten by a better team then hats off and you maybe have to have a look at next year and doing more.

This year Cluxton focused closely on his own performance in the All-Ireland final and replay: When you're down to 14 men in the first game and you're trying to work out scenarios and obviously one of the scenarios is if they can get a goal there's a chance for them to either beat us or get a draw out of it. I suppose up to that point we were relatively comfortable and they just came hard at us. In fairness to Killian, he stepped really hard off his right foot, came around, and planted it into the bottom corner.

I just thought that at that point I could have done more to maybe come out and get closer to him. Or certainly adjust my feet and try to make a save. I got probably caught flat-footed.

So, yeah, the following morning I was out with the laptop with the two guys and obviously Josh Moran the goalkeeping coach and we were just trying to figure out what I could have done better, what I should have done better, and we maybe wouldn't have had to play a replay. So I'll blame myself for that one!

I just don't want to let anyone down. I think if I train really, really hard and I made a mistake then I can accept that because I know the hours I've put in. But I suppose in a team game I'm kind of worried I could make a mistake and cost the team and that drives me as well to try to train harder. I did say to the guys at the start of the year that I wouldn't want to let them down during the year.

So, yeah, this year was fortuitous in the way it kind of unfolded. I'm happy out, I suppose.

Cluxton had to fight his way back to fitness after picking up serious injuries in the clash with Longford last year:

I broke three bones in my back, had a punctured lung, and I had cartilage damage in my shoulder. I still have dodgy ankles from a long time ago. So it was a struggle to try to get back up to the level I wanted.

I thought I had gotten up to a really good level up to the Longford game. I actually thought it was the best I had been in terms of my standard in training. I was actually making saves instead of picking the ball out of the net more often than not.

Yeah, when I got the injuries then it just curtailed all the training and it leads to doubts in my mind then as to my ability at the standard that I want to be at and whether or not it will cost the team in the end. Thankfully the guys got us over the line last year. Then I had to spend five months rehabbing up to maybe February of this year.

I wasn't really sure then as to whether or not I'd have the gr and the hunger for it because Evan was playing so well in the League. I felt maybe it was his turn to go. But, in fairness, the guys coaxed me back to do another year and I'm delighted I did it in the end, to be honest.

A science teacher by day, he says the analytical skills needed for the job help him as a keeper.

Yeah, I'd have to say it probably does. A huge part of my life is analysing things. Certainly when it comes to kick-outs for a team, you're looking at maybe what the opposition might try and you're trying to get the guys to work on something that might never happen, but, if it did, then you have that Eureka moment in a game saying I've been here before in training and the guys know what to do.

That's kind of the level you're playing at in this day and age. If you asked Jim (Gavin), he's probably sick of me saying, 'we need to do more kick-out training in collective training'. But, in fairness, he does give me the time with the guys and when it works on the pitch you're kind of saying to yourself, great, that's exactly what you want.

That work has led to credit for revolutionising kick-outs, but the Dublin captain is keen to spread that credit around.

That's it, it's not about me. We formulate a plan, I go back to Jim (Gavin) and have a discussion with him about why I think it might or might not work. Then we go out and see it on the practice field and do a couple of runs with it. We try and hide it from some of the teams so that they don't see what's happening and see if they can respond to it. And if they respond, how are the guys going to respond.

So there's a lot of moving parts in it, you're dead right. There are some really, really intelligent footballers in our team, all of them. The back six, the two midfielders, the half-forwards and even the full-forwards are sometimes involved in the kick-out. And, you know, the sign of a good team is that when there are these clutch moments they make the right decisions. And, more often than not, the guys out the field make the right run and you pick them out and it's possession gained.

Oddly, saving a penalty in an All-Ireland final isnt the ultimate for the Dublin captain.

It's not for me. It's just part and parcel of what you have to do for the job. It worked out that we ended up getting a replay in the first game. If they had of scored that or any chances subsequent to that, we might not have been in a replay. So you're just so kind of focused on the job at that moment in time.

I mean, if you were celebrating after saving a penalty and it goes out for a '45 and the next ball comes in and someone tips it into the back of the net...you just have to be on 100 per cent alert and fully-focused all the time and you don't really get an opportunity to have a come-down from something like a save until after the game when you can say, right, you were part of the draw.

I've probably conceded more than I've saved, to be quite honest. I conceded one last year against Tyrone. Saved one against Tyrone the year previous, I think it was. I think it's just pot-luck, really. Again, you can look at a lot of footage of players in terms of where they place the ball, but sometimes it just comes down to a gut feeling.

Cluxton paid tribute to the group dynamic which has helped Dublin achieve so much: I'd go to the cinema with someone like Eoin Murchan, Brian Fenton and his partner Sarah, and sometimes Con O'Callaghan.

Obviously when we're within the championship season you don't obviously get to go out and have a drink with these guys. We get on so well outside of football that I think it makes you that bit hungrier and that bit more willing to put it all out on the line for them. That's the sign of this team, their humility, and just the friendship we have in the group is fantastic.

Like, if I never won a medal in football for any team, the friendship we have is just better than anything. We kind of live out of each other's pockets for most of the year. In years previously I wouldn't have been that close to guys I would have just gone to training, trained hard, and gone home and that was it. But, for some reason, maybe it's the captaincy or whatever, there just seems to be that kind of friendship there now. I think the best times that you have with these guys are in training.

That's when you actually have the most joy and fun and the joking and stuff like that. The dressing-room banter and stuff like that, you just can't get it anywhere.

Dublin manager Jim Gavin is part of that group, though Cluxton laughs that sometimes the dynamic isnt completely in sync: He might want one thing and I might want the other! No, I have complete respect for what he does and what he has done for this team.

Nobody has worked harder than he has. He just spends hours poring over it. I don't know where he gets the time from with his job and family at home. He has been absolutely inspirational to everybody. He has been a huge leader for me and it's probably rubbed off a small bit on what I do. Definitely he's just been phenomenal.

Cluxton paid tribute to family and friends for their support throughout his career:

In fairness all of my siblings have had to put up with me at one stage or another. I'd feel sorry for them more than anybody else. I've missed weddings, I've missed baptisms and communions and confirmations and things like that and they've been very understanding. My brother and sisters are just so understanding. Again, without their support I wouldn't have started that journey.

Obviously my wife has taken on the baton, God love her! You can imagine it's not easy when I come home and have had a poor training session! But it's water off a duck's back for her and I think that works really well for both of us. She has been a phenomenal support and without her I certainly wouldn't be here today.

I didn't play Gaelic Football until I was about 13 or 14. And when I was playing I was playing as a corner-forward in school I was just lucky when I got into goal in school that the coaches I had were fantastic. Brian Talty, a Galway man, Brian Moran, Brian Lavin, two Kerry-men. Those guys got me started into Gaelic Football and on that journey.

Brian Murphy, another Kerry guy who was goalkeeper at the time with me in the early years. We were starting to put drills together and things like that. Phenomenal fellas have started that. And obviously nowadays Josh Byrne is a phenomenal coach for me, a great character, a great presence to have around. He always comes in with a smile. He's just a phenomenal character.

But it does start with your parents and their dedication to bring me to games as a child and any sport that was available was a huge bearing on where I am today. Within all those I wouldn't be here, that's for sure.

And finally, his age - 38 in September or December this year?

Yeah, December! I'll be 38 in December, getting close to the pension!

Excerpt from:
Stephen Cluxton: 'I broke three bones in my back, had a punctured lung, and cartilage damage in my shoulder' - Irish Examiner

ATHENS Georgia football had a busy bye week, the Bulldogs mixing in work on Florida with self-improvement drills and scheme adjustments.

Indeed, the season will be on the line for the No. 10-ranked Bulldogs (6-1, 3-1 SEC) when they play the No 7-ranked Gators (7-1, 4-1) at 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 2 in Jacksonville, Fla.

Georgias concerns, from the receivers working on separation, to the defense amping up is Havoc rate, have been well-documented by Kirby Smart throughout the season.

The Bulldogs injury situation has also been monitored closely, the latest update containing more good news than bad.

Orlando Sentinel Florida beat writer Edgar Thompson took some time to share some insight into what the Gators needed to work on during the bye week.

Georgia fans wanting to keep up with their rivals should follow Edgar on Twitter here.

Here are three things the veteran journalist pointed to in Gainesville:

ET: The Gators expect three of their top playmakers back just in time for the biggest game of the season.

Do-everything receiver Kadarius Toney will be back after missing the past six games with a shoulder injury suffered Sept. 7 against UT-Martin. Two weeks earlier, Toneys 66-yard catch and run on the seasons opening drive helped propel Florida to a 24-20 win against Miami.

Toney averaged 10.9 yards on 46 touches from scrimmage as a sophomore and was expected to be a key cog in Dan Mullens offense.

The Gators defense could receive an even bigger lift against Georgia with the return of defenders Jon Greenard and Jabari Zuniga. The pass-rushing duo will be on the field together for the first time since Zuniga sustained an ankle injury during the first quarter of UFs 29-21 win Sept. 14 at Kentucky.

Zuniga, who entered the Kentucky game with three sacks in two games, re-aggravated the injury during the first half of the Gators Oct. 12 visit to LSU. Greenard sat out most of the LSU game after he injured his ankle a week earlier against Auburn.

Greenard has 28 tackles, including 6.5 for loss four of them sacks.

An extra week of rest also could help star cornerback CJ Henderson, who has not been at his best since returning Oct. 5 against Auburn following a three-game layoff with an ankle injury. Considered a first-round draft pick in 2020, Henderson has given up a catch of at least 40 yards in three straight games.

ET: The Gators have been gashed during consecutive games in the middle of the defense.

A week after LSU averaged 9.1 yards per carry, the Gators gave up explosive plays on the ground during key situations at South Carolina. Facing third-and-11, the Gamecocks raced 21 yards for a score following a draw play. South Carolina had gains of 13, 25, 14 and 14 yards to set up a go-ahead field goal.

Florida now faces the SECs top running game behind one of the nations top offensive lines and tailbacks, DAndre Swift. Swift could have a huge day if the Gators continue to lose gap control, get hung up on blockers and miss tackles.

ET: Kyle Trask has been brilliant stepping in for injured starter Feleipe Franks. He is completing 67.5 percent of his throws, averaging 8.2 yards per attempt and has a 14-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Trasks four-touchdown effort last week at South Carolina was the first four-TD-pass game by a UF QB on the road since Tim Tebow.

To beat Georgia, though, Trask might need a helping hand from Jones. The redshirt freshman provided a dual-threat option and change of pace during the Gators hard-fought 42-28 loss at LSU.

Florida ultimately could not keep pace with the nations top-scoring offense. Jones helped give the Gators a chance. He handled 12 snaps and picked up key first downs during the Gators first two scoring drives the second culminating with Jones first touchdown pass in an SEC game.

The Gators QB shuffle was a textbook case of teamwork and Mullens ability to shake up the game plan. Florida will need both to have a shot against the Bulldogs.

How Florida is start of season-ending venture

Kirby Smart says atrocious Georgia defense must improve

UGA practice observations on Tuesday

Bulldogs defense says it has offenses backs

RELATED: DAndre Swift stands up for team after 21-0 win

Georgia game recap, how the Bulldogs beat Kentucky

WATCH: Kirby Smart proud Bulldogs able to chop wood

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Florida scouting report: 3 bye week issues for the Gators - DawgNation

Youre being too emotional.

That phrase is simply a red flag to a bull no matter our gender, and many of us are familiar with a gush of lame retort options then flooding our brain. We were obviously on the defensive at the start and now were in danger of doubling down.

Once our primal fight or flight response has bolted its a big challenge to rein it in, but the better leader in us will want to learn to try. Logic dictates that were at our best when were thinking strategically and have a grounded sense of clarity around what we value in the moment. Not when were flailing at our assailant.

Our emotional reactions are valid and they will persist but when we practice the skill of leveraging their dynamic energy for positive effect, thats when magic happens. When we try our hand at being accountable for managing our own response, were suddenly empowered by personal choice and weve opened the door to our emotional intelligence.

Here are some tips for pulling the handbrake on your emotional knee-jerk reaction once its started.

On the next occasion where you feel triggered to react, make a conscious choice to create a gap between your initial emotion and your verbal response to it. Take a slow deep breath. In the next few seconds, ask yourself:

You may be asking yourself if its really possible to think through all of this in a matter of seconds and shift your gears in time, but youll find that even just your increased focus on self-awareness will make a difference, and the rest will follow in time.

Following are a few rewards for your efforts.

Increased Presence through Self-Awareness: With a sharpened ability to recognise our emotions as they arise, were empowered with the opportunity to manage them purposefully in alignment with our true objectives.

Self-Control: When we work to identify, acknowledge and accept our personal conflict triggers and are practiced at managing them quickly, we can bypass those spontaneous reactions that inflame, by creating a short gap in time. Its in that space that we can contemplate and manage our response.

Effective Relationships: With this new emotional agility, were better able to curb our defensive tendencies, and avoid the disruptive finger pointing and blame.

Flexibility: Our world is transforming so quickly, its more important than ever to develop a mindset that is skilled at being open, accepting and adaptive to change at every turn.

Solution Focus: By managing emotions and remaining as objective as possible during conversations that have the potential to be volatile and unproductive, we can focus our attention on outcomes and end results. Knowing how to regulate our emotional responses in alignment with best outcomes is an empowering place to start.

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Managing your emotional responses in the boardroom - The CEO Magazine

Rabbi Jeffrey Schein returns to Cleveland Nov. 3 to host Digital Cube: Our Evolving Digital Selves, a panel discussion based on his book, Text Me: Ancient Jewish Wisdom Meets Contemporary Jewish Technology.

The event takes place at Temple Emanu El in Orange with an interfaith panel composed of the Rev. Andy Call, lead pastor of Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights; Rabbi Peter Haas, who is Abba Hillel Silver professor emeritus of Religious Studies at Case Western Reserve University, and Simee Malik, a community leader of Chagrin Valley Islamic Center in Solon.

The discussion, which will explore the connections between faith and technology, will be followed by interfaith dialogues facilitated by Rabbi Steven Denker, spiritual leader of Temple Emanu El; Rabbi Enid Lader, spiritual leader of Beth Israel-The West Temple in Cleveland; Rabbi Steve Segar, spiritual leader of Kol HaLev in Pepper Pike; and Masroor Malik, board member of the Chagrin Valley Islamic Center.

What the book tries to do by using various Jewish sources is offer what I call the three gifts of perspective, balance and self-awareness, Schein told the Cleveland Jewish News Oct. 25. Its a workbook. It draws a lot from the Jewish tradition of Musar to figure out and help us be more mindful about our own relationships to technology and when our devices are serving important purposes, our purposes, and when we end up serving the intentions, however unexpressed, of those devices and of technologies, when technologies drive us rather than us technologies.

The Temple Emanu El event will be Scheins second of eight appearances in a book tour. He is appearing in Toronto the day before and in Minneapolis afterward.

He said his favorite sources for the text include Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, founder of the Reconstructionist movement, and Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, who wrote a book about the impact of television called The Medium is the Massage.

Schein, 71, who was the founding rabbi of Kol HaLev in Pepper Pike, relocated to Minneapolis four years ago to live near his grandchildren.

Originally posted here:
Former rabbi of Kol HaLev to discuss his book - Cleveland Jewish News

As you watch The Morning Show, more context, again, helps. The first three episodes made available to critics are remarkably flat for such a lavish venture. The series looks fantasticpolished and sumptuous in its re-creation of glaring TV studios, glassy Tribeca lofts, ballroom galas. Even a West Virginia coal-mine protest gets juiced with vivid landscapes and countless fleece-wearing extras clutching banners. But the initial story, which features the anchor Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) dealing with misconduct allegations about her on-air partner, Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell), feels strangely inert. Anistons Alex is a difficult character to absorb: Shes prickly, guarded even with family members, and mired in an existential crisis even before scandal hits. Carells Mitch, groomed to physically resemble Lauer, is enraged, barking at handlers who seem ill at ease in his presence. Reese Witherspoon plays Bradley Jackson, a local reporter on another network whose viral rant at the coal-mine protest turns her into national news, and whose scrappy underdog status is hard to square with Witherspoons preternatural star presence.

But then, on Thursday, Apple released more episodes to critics, and I watched more, and something changed. The pilot is an odd cocktail of stilted Sorkinian monologues and cashmere-swaddled nervous breakdowns, energized occasionally by Billy Crudups scenery-chewing performance as a satanic network honcho, Cory Ellison. There are periodic explicative orations about the state of the nation. (I think America is tired of Twitter fighting. Its ignorant, and its contributing to the dumbing down of our country.) A scene where a drunken Alex tries to process the news cycle outing Mitch as a serial harasser by going into his dressing room and rifling through his kombucha stash feels emotionally idle, and endless.

And yet, when The Morning Show finally gets its setup established, and starts to grapple with the consequences and the meaning of what Mitch has actually done, the show finds some momentum. Its at its most fascinating, and meaningful, when its picking at the cultural scar tissue left by so many allegations: the men in puddles of self-pitying reprisal, the dishonest proclamations that persist even now about movements going too far and all men being tarred with the same sticky brush, regardless of the scale of their reported offenses. With Carells Mitch, The Morning Show gets to think about the self-aggrandizement and denial that make some abusers incapable of honestly evaluating themselves. But it also gives space to the women he harassed to explain how his behavior affected them.

The moments in which Kerry Ehrin, The Morning Shows showrunner, and Mimi Leder, its director and executive producer, etch out Mitchs stages of delusion are riveting to watch. In the pilot, hes irate. They cant just do this to me, he rants, a cornered child smashing his toys. Its illegal. They cant just ruin my career based on hearsay. I didnt rape anybody. By Episode 2, hes in denial, insisting to his business manager that this substantial hit to his income is only temporary. But in Episode 3, when Mitch plays tennis with a scandal-ridden film director (played by Martin Short) whom he initially sees as a fellow victim of an overbearing witch hunt, you can finally sense the sharper edges of self-awareness start to pierce Mitchs armor. It gradually dawns on him that the man hes aligning himself with is actually a predator. But that same realization makes it harder to conceal the fact that he might be one, too.

The rest is here:
A #MeToo Scandal Erupts. The Morning Show Captures What Happens Next. - The Atlantic

Embrace your guilty pleasures

While solo dining might conjure up images of a corner booth at a cafe or a bar stool at a local restaurant, the ultimate solo dining experience is eating home alone. Its when were home alone with no one watching what were eating, how or where that our quirks, eccentricities and guilty pleasures come out.

Samantha Widder, now a graduate adviser for the food studies program at New York University, spent several months during her own graduate studies gathering accounts from 150 people of their food habits when eating alone. Responses showed a wide spectrum of food experiences, representing the joys, stigmas and even fears around eating alone. (One respondent said he would eat only soft food when eating by himself, for fear he would choke.)

I was thinking that I was going to find more of a celebratory tone, and there was more shame than I expected, Ms. Widder said.

People described eating frozen food, takeout leftovers in bed, cold cuts slathered in mustard, and in more than one case an entire box of crackers with an entire block of cheese.

Personally, I find that if theres no one around then I can almost celebrate those habits and those things, Ms. Widder said, citing a love of processed food. Whether people felt fear or freedom, shame or pleasure seemed to come down to their own attitude.

For her part, Ms. Widder said she found a certain comfort in the ubiquity of eating alone in a place like New York City. After all, if youre eating old pickles out of the fridge in a Brooklyn apartment, chances are that more than one neighbor is, too.

If dining alone still carries stigma and anxiety for many people, drinking alone might be the last frontier. But as Victoria James, a New York City sommelier and the beverage director at Cote, explained, treating yourself to a quality cocktail or a glass of wine can play a part in the richness of the experience. I think that the best way to savor a beverage when youre alone is just sort of have that recognition; toast to yourself, she said. I think its a really beautiful thing. So first and foremost, celebrate that moment.

Link:
How to Eat Alone (and Like It) - The New York Times