Do you remember your 2014 New Year’s resolutions

Do you remember your 2014 New Year’s resolutions I honestly had forgotten all but two of mine, and only looked at them today because I knew it was time to write my New Year’s â€Å"Ressaylutions† update. In January I promised to report both my wins and my fails for the year in August. Oops. It’s September. That’s my first fail. I completely forgot about my promise to do an August update! I’m a couple of weeks late, but I’m keeping honest – even though I feel a bit scared to do so since I am not on track to meet some of my goals. My invitation to you is to do an honest assessment of where you are in achieving your New Year’s goals. The first step is to remember what they were! Then evaluate your progress. 2014 â€Å"Ressaylutions† and Current Status: Increase college essay / personal statement portion of my business to 25% of business. I took action on this goal but have not reached the goal (so far this year I’m at 5%; projected 10% by end of year). Actions taken: Gave interviews for an article in the Catholic Herald and another one in The Educated Mom blog. Advertised a summer program for rising high school seniors to work on college essays, but received no inquiries. Will be speaking at the NRWA Conference this week about how to write a standout college essay. I’m letting more resume writers know about my services so they know they can refer clients to me if they do not do personal statement coaching themselves. Roll out a new â€Å"responsive† (mobile-friendly) website. This project has been delayed numerous times despite starting work on a new website in December 2013. I just transitioned to a new company and I’m hoping to have a new website by the end of the year! Choose a CRM and project management system. I decided to implement Infusionsoft and I am working with an Infusionsoft expert to do it. We are plugging away and the plan is to launch the new website and the Infusionsoft functionality all at the same time. I look forward to having things run seamlessly by Q1 2015! Serve 250 clients. Last year The Essay Expert worked with 200 clients to find new jobs, get into school, and achieve business results. Total clients this year is 119. I am not on track to reach my goal. I will be looking at my lead generations strategies and expect that my new website and Infusionsoft implementation will support The Essay Expert’s expansion to a wider client base. Generate 214 success stories. I have not met this goal (we’re at 45) and will need to step up my follow-up efforts with clients to increase this number! As you can see, I am likely not going to fulfill all my Ressaylutions for 2014. However I can still use them to motivate myself to action – and I will! When I make my 2015 resolutions, I will be taking a hard look at both my successes and failures from 2014, as well as my priorities for the coming year. I hope you will too. What were your New Year’s Resolutions and have you held yourself accountable? Please share! Category:Life and LeadershipBy Brenda BernsteinSeptember 15, 2014

Paleolithic Art of the Old Stone Age

Paleolithic Art of the Old Stone Age The Paleolithic (literally Old Stone Age) period covered between two and one-half and three million years, depending on which scientist has done the calculations. For art historys purposes, Paleolithic Art refers to the Late Upper Paleolithic period. This began roughly around 40,000 years ago and lasted through the Pleistocene ice age, which ended about 8,000 BCE. This period was marked by the rise of Homo sapiens and their ever-developing ability to create tools and weapons. What the World Was Like There was a lot more ice and the ocean shoreline was far different than it is now. Lower water levels and, in some cases, land bridges (which have long since disappeared) allowed humans to migrate to the Americas and Australia. The ice also made for a cooler climate worldwide and prevented migration to the far north. Humans at this time were strictly hunter-gatherers, meaning they were constantly on the move in search of food. Art of the Time There were only two kinds of art: portable or stationary, and both forms were limited in scope. Portable art during the Upper Paleolithic period was necessarily small (in order to be portable) and consisted of either figurines or decorated objects. These things were carved (from stone, bone, or antler) or modeled with clay. Most of the portable art from this time was figurative, meaning it depicted something recognizable, whether animal or human in form. The figurines are often referred to by the collective name of Venus, as they are unmistakably females of a child-bearing build. Stationary art was just that: It didnt move. The best examples exist in (now famous) cave paintings in western Europe, created during the Paleolithic period. Paints were manufactured from combinations of minerals, ochres, burnt bone meal, and charcoal mixed into mediums of water, blood, animal fats, and tree saps. Experts guess (and its only a guess) that these paintings served some form of ritualistic or magical purpose, as they are located far from the mouths of caves where everyday life took place. Cave paintings contain far more non-figurative art, meaning many elements are symbolic rather than realistic. The clear exception, here, is in the depiction of animals, which are vividly realistic (humans, on the other hand, are either completely absent or stick figures). Key Characteristics It seems a bit flippant to try to characterize the art from a period that encompasses most of human history. Paleolithic art is intricately bound to anthropological and archaeological studies that professionals have devoted entire lives researching and compiling. That said, to make some sweeping generalizations, Paleolithic art: Paleolithic art concerned itself with either food (hunting scenes, animal carvings) or fertility (Venus figurines). Its predominant theme was animals.It is considered to be an attempt, by Stone Age peoples, to gain some sort of control over their environment, whether by magic or ritual.Art from this period represents a giant leap in human cognition: abstract thinking.