#365 day challenge

Happy Thanksgiving! Let’s get basted!

Partnership with @lazyoaf

Have a ‘Stachcake, they’re Zero Calories! Happy Fathers Day!

Well nothing much happened except me working a lot. We have a new boss. He looked cool enough before we realised he was a hearltess shark who made everyone cry and people are fleeing the company. I am grateful though because at least we see this from the very beginning and I suppose it should be easier to decide how to deal with it. I thuoght my manager was about to leave us to go somewhere else. She didn’t, I felt so relieved and very grateful about that. Lots of small things happened but they all are very powerful together. Lots of emotional photo moments too. Soon I hope it’ll be my photos that inspire the same feelings in peoples’ hearts 

12/05/2014

Not much today, apart from feeling happy all the time. The major thing was a status of the bride saying that they received their photod and that they love them!!!! This made me feel so happy and relieved mostly… Feeling much much better!! Now to prepare for the 2nd wedding I have to shoot on May, 29th !!! 

My first page of my 365 sketch book!

If you know which type of learner you are, you are able to learn much faster! Everyone learns in another way. Just because something works good for person A, doesn’t mean it will work good for person B. Many years ago I found a blog written by a guy who learns languages really fast. So I tried to use the same methods but for some reason it didn’t work AT ALL. I just moved on trying to find “the best learning method ever”. Of course I didn’t find it, because there is non that works for all. If I think about it now, all his methods were for people who learn through listening. And I’m to 90% a visual learner. No way it could have worked for me. But there are still people trying to use the newest, best and most trending language hack. In the end most of them will be disappointed.

Let’s look at it like it’s a superpower. If you can remember stuff someone told you months ago, then your superpower is your listening skill, because many people couldn’t even remember it, if their life depends on it. And if you saw a photo as a child, and still know how it looked like, then congratulations, your superpower is your visual learning skill.

So to learn as fast as you can and especially to remember it later, it’s important for you to find out which superpower you have and USE IT!

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Time to find out which superpower you have! There are several tests on the internet but they will more or less all tell you the same.

Here’s a test I chose with 20 questions you have to answer. You will find out if you learn best through listening, seeing or doing. There are other tests that even divide it into 7 learning types or more, but in the end it’s still one of these 3.

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Here are learning methods you should try, depending on your result.

Visual (learning through seeing):

• Use colors.
  
• Take photos
• Look at pictures.
• Use well organized layouts.
• Make mindmaps.
• Use/Make diagrams.
• Make a visual journey in front of your inner eye.
• Use flashcards
• Draw pictures
• Visualize things you hear
• Try to make everything look pleasant to your eyes
• If you learn a new word picture the situation. When could you use it?
• Write with native speakers.
• Watch movies.

Auditory (learning through hearing and speaking):

• Listen to music while reading the lyrics.
  
• Podcasts
• Radio
• Try rhymes.
• Use the right sounds/music playing in the background while studying.
• Record yourself and listen to it.
• Change the lyrics of your favorite song and sing along of a karaoke version.
• Talk to yourself.
• Talk to native speakers.
• Read everything out loud.
• Speak out loud what you are writing.

Tactile (learning through doing):

• Use your touch sense.
  
• Walk around while studying.
• Imagine how it would feel like to do the things you learn. For example the word pizza, imagine how you make one.
• Describe things. For example if you learn the German word “Kaffee” (coffee), describe the warmth, how the cup feels, were you put it, etc.
• Use physical objects as much as you can (flashcards, etc.)
• Draw pictures.
• Build things with your hands.
• Write stuff down.
• Use role playing while you act like you’re in a specific situation.
• Pay attention to your breathing.
• Chew a gum.
• Trace words with your fingers.

There are many more things you can do, depending on your superpower. You just have to be a little bit creative (or google what learning methods work best for [insert your superpower here] lol). ^_^

This is my last review before Christmas and it’s one of our annual traditions to watch it every year.  We love the movie so much in our house that we even stopped by the actual real life house from the movie while on vacation in Cleveland.  With great characters, memorable lines, and a small town setting it’s as close to a perfect Christmas movie as you’ll find.

A Christmas Story is mostly based on a series of short stories in Jean Shepherd’s book “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash.”  It centers on a boy named Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) and his family and his all consuming Christmas wish to receive a “Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time.”

Ralphie and his friends have a series of adventures including licking a pole to see if your tongue will stick (above), dealing with bullies, the disappointment of 1950s cross promotion, and the trouble that comes when you swear in front of your parents for the first time (below).

The film is less of a cohesive story and more of a series of vignettes, which makes sense considering the fact that it was based on a book of short stories.  But Ralphie and his family have a very relatable quality where almost everyone watching can relate to them.  I see a lot of myself in Ralphie with his laser-like focus on one gift that he wants over and above any others. (That is a trait that I share to this day as a grown 33 year old man.)

Ralphie’s mother (Melinda Dillon) and father (Darren McGavin), along with his younger brother Randy (Ian Patrella) all have their own unique contributions to the story.  "The Old Man,“ as Ralphie refers to his father, is a virtuoso of profanity and routinely demonstrates his talent when battling their faulty furnace.  Mrs. Parker is a sweet and kind woman that tries to keep everyone in the family happy and has a silly streak too.  And Randy…poor Randy.  He’s the subject of some of my favorite moments in the movie but they have more to do with him whining while stuff is happening. 

The production is relatively low budget, but it almost feels like watching someone’s home movies with the narration provided by the story’s author Jean Shepherd.  Shepherd was always coy about divulging which of his stories were completely fictional and which were based on real life events.  I am of the opinion that many of these stories were at least based on things from Shepherd’s real life as a boy growing up because everything in the movie seems like it’s something that could really happen.

If you are a fan of the film, I would highly recommend visiting A Christmas Story House in Cleveland if you are ever in the area.  Not only is it great to see the location for yourself and pretend like you’re in the movie, but they have a museum as well with memorabilia and all kinds of behind the scenes information about the film and how it was made.  Plus they have a gift shop with all kinds of cool merchandise including pink bunny pajamas and, of course, leg lamps complete with wooden crates marked "fragile.”

A Christmas Story is a classic, and it’s status as one of the most beloved Christmas movies of all time has been boosted by a musical version and the annual TBS 24 hour marathon where the movie is shown on repeat.  This year is no different.  For the 18th time, TBS will begin airing A Christmas Story non-stop for 24 hours beginning Christmas eve at 8pm.  I know our family will be tuning in to watch and see people warn Ralphie time and again, “You’ll shoot your eye out!”

-Phil