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Carved In Stone
My parents took my sister and me on a trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota in summer of 2004, here’s why it was great and what a kid (like myself at the time) can learn from this kind of trip. Before this trip, we hadn’t really taken long family road trips. We had done weekend camping trips, numerous trips across the state to my grandparents home, and maybe a couple of local adventures. But this was big, we brought the pop-up camper my parents had at the time and started driving. One of our first stops to my knowledge was Wall Drug, the best tourist trap in South…
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A Whole New World
My parents took my sister and me on a trip to Disney world in summer of 2005, here’s why it was great and what a kid (like myself at the time) can learn from this kind of trip. I love Disney, even in college when asked to come up with what my favorite brand was I decided to write down Disney. I know it’s a huge corporation and everything, but I still grew up with this stuff, and love many of the movies to this day. Let me first acknowledge that my parents took me at a nearly perfect age. Just before I turned 10, I was old enough to…
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Beverage of Choice
I’m a millennial, at least from the research I’ve done. I grew up looking forward to the times my parents would let me have pop (some people call it a soft drink). I tried coffee in late high school and discovered that I liked it, and still do. I’ll even admit that I like the “fru-fru” drinks, but that’s a lot of caffeine and money so those are a once-in-a-great-while treat. My parents, a baby-boomer and gen X-er, still like their pop though. Mostly classics like Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, and Mountain Dew. I’m personally not a huge fan of that sugary syrup anymore, but whatever floats their boats I guess.…
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Holy Guacamole
Since college, I’ve come to love guacamole (guac). Every once in a while I’ll get some with my burritos, or order a meal with it at a restaurant. One day I decided I wanted to try making my own at home, I thought, maybe it’ll be cheap and easy. So I looked up recipes online. I tried one and although it was relatively simple, it called for a lot of ingredients. I did it all and it was good, but I wondered if I could make it simpler. I did. Although my recipe is bare bones if you just want a snack and you have these 2 ingredients on hand…
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What could you teach through images? Or do you just need words?
Everyone knows that old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words”. I’ll add to that that a memory may be worth a thousand pictures, but I really do like pictures. That said, what could you teach through images? Could you draw a doodle to help a child understand something simple like the water cycle? Could you show a friend an image of your trip to convince them to join you on the next one? Could you use screenshots and diagrams to teach your Grandma how to use her smartphone more effectively so you could easily chat more? Maybe you would rather teach with words, I get that. For instance,…
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What could you teach through stories?
I learned a lot at FEEcon this past weekend, and although I won’t be able to repeat all of it, here are some more thoughts. Think about how real people consume information. Through stories, there may be some of us that are compelled by cold hard facts, but the general population likes the personalization that stories often bring, even if its in addition to facts. Creating stories often makes for content that is more interesting to watch and/or engage with. It then often leads to more sharing of said content. Although this isn’t always the case, it’s often an asset. Take digital providers, ie the Netflixs and Hulus, and even…
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Changing the World One Mind at a Time.
I learned a lot at FEEcon this past weekend, and although I won’t be able to repeat all of it, here are some more thoughts. At one of the breakout seminars, I heard from Yaron Brock, who talked about freedom, economics, and truth. Although I don’t agree with him on everything, I still enjoyed the seminar. I really appreciated him talking about how we are freer than ever. Within that same vein, though, economists can’t measure happiness and that sometimes throws off our counting for freedom, success, and exchange. To give an example: Say you pay for an amusement park ticket, and you have a personal account you give your…
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The Recovery of the Monarch
A Review of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King This one finally explains some of Gollum’s back story. Which I found helpful for understanding his motivation throughout the other films. This one’s really gory in my opinion. I did not like that, but I understand that most of it was probably important to the story This one has more action though, and seemed more interesting to me. Turns out it’s called The Lord of the Rings because whoever holds the “main” one ring controls them all making him, you guessed it: The Lord of the Rings. I still think it’s still a super odd story but…
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Don’t stop with awesome, keep going.
I learned a lot at FEEcon this past weekend, and although I won’t be able to repeat all of it, here are some more thoughts. One of my favorite speakers was Dewitt Jones, a National Geographic photographer who did his first film project at 23 and has traveled the globe grabbing wonderful shots and learning about his skills along the way. See his website here: https://dewittjones.com/ (all quotes in this post are from Jones’) I want to share some of what he shared during his keynote presentation and add some of my own analysis. “Don’t be competitive with anyone else, you have your own set of skills.” (paraphrased). Understand that…
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Taking the Leap
I learned a lot at FEEcon this past weekend, and although I won’t be able to repeat all of it, here are some more thoughts One of my favorite speakers was Dan Harmon, and I got to hear from him during a couple of the break out groups. He’s part of Harmon Brothers marketing, and, in my opinion, a creative genius. He is the creator of some famous commercials such as Poo-Pourri, Squatty Potty, and Purple mattresses. One of the (paraphrased) quotes I wrote down was: “The Harmon Brothers aren’t brilliant, you just need more iterations of your product.” This was ridiculously meaningful to me. It means that it may…
