Where Science and Inspiration Meet

Many of you have probably already heard of Jill Bolte Taylor. She is a neuro-scientist who had a stroke and studied her own experience to better understand the workings of the brain. She has recently released a new book about her experience entitled: Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey. She is an eloquent speaker and has a message for humanity about consciousness and choice. Please watch her 18 minute TED lecture here. It is one of the most fascinating and inspiring talks I have ever witnessed.

UCCS Survey Needs Participants

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is conducting research via an online survey. The survey is a bit lengthy at 40-60 minutes long, but you are not required to answer every question. Participation in this survey would make you an important part of new scientific research. Richard Dawkins writes, " I strongly support this research. It is being carried out to the highest standards, and I am very much looking forward to seeing the results when they are all analysed. I shall be filling in the Survey myself and I urge others to do the same." If Prof. Dawkins had the time to fill out this survey, so do most of us. I encourage you all to click on the link below and do what you can to further scientific research.

To participate in the survey, please visit: http://recornwelllab.com/consent_form.html

Sam Harris Needs Your Opinions!

Sam Harris, author of such works as: The End of Faith, and Letter to a Christian Nation, is preparing to run an fMRI study of belief and disbelief and he needs research volunteers to help him refine his experimental stimuli. All you have to do is take some surveys! Sam will post the survey results on his website when the research is completed. Go to http://www.samharris.org/ to participate.

From www.richarddawkins.net:

Research Volunteers Needed
by Sam Harris
We are preparing to run another fMRI study of belief and disbelief, and we need volunteers to help us refine our experimental stimuli. This promises to be the first study of religious faith at the level of the brain. By responding to the four surveys I have posted online, you can make an enormous contribution to this work. You'll find links to these surveys on my home page. Please answer as many of the surveys as you can. If you only have time to answer one, please choose at random (otherwise, we will have many more responses to the first than to the others). Feel free to post this message to your blog or to forward the relevant links to your friends. I especially need Christians to respond, as one of the goals of these surveys is to design stimuli that a majority of Christians will find doctrinally sound. I will, of course, pass along the results of this work the moment I have something to report.
Many thanks for your help.
All the best,
Sam
www.samharris.org

My Path's Twist and Turn

When people ask me what I do, I often have to pause for a moment to figure out what to say. Most people, I think, do not have difficulty with this question. They can say, I'm a lawyer, I'm a contractor, I'm a journalist, I'm a mechanic, etc. Their careers are easily defined. I once dreamt that I too would be able to have any easy answer to this question, but at nearly 28 years of age, I am beginning to come to terms with the fact that I do not fit cleanly into any one category.

I generally take a deep breath, and begin with, "Well, I do ______________ for regular money, but I am also working on building my own business, and I freelance writing and editing on the side. People arch their eye brows at me and wonder if I am fooling myself.

I'm not fooling myself; I do have an ultimate goal in mind. One day I want to be able to tell people that I own my own editing services business. I want to be able to say, "Oh, I am the owner and operator of A Write Word. It keeps me busy." But in order to be able to say that, I have to be able to provide for myself, and make enough money to build a business. That is no small task in today's economy.

This past year I have had a lot of employment switches. Usually, I stay at the same job for several years, but lately I have been feeling like there is no time to waste in a dead end job. My criteria for "good" employment has changed drastically. I used to look for a job that was in my field, that had good hours, good pay, nice people, and opportunity for advancement. Now I am looking for a job that has flexible hours, is close to my home (the current site of my business), and offers me the opportunity to learn about running a business.

As such, I have taken a job that does not pay well and has a LOT of other detracting features. I have also had to take a second job just to help pay the bills. This second job is a real twist in the road for me. I am doing wine and spirits promotion. This is something I have never done before. I tend to be a rather shy and reserved person. This job is forcing me to become outgoing, conversational, upbeat, and excessively friendly. Unwittingly, I seem to have taken a job that will teach me social skills that I have never cultivated, and that will be extremely useful to me when I am trying to sell my services for A Write Word.

It just goes to show you, though the road is twisting and turning and causing motion sickness, you never know what you are going to learn around the next bend. You just have to be willing to ride out the nausea.

Ooh la la la

I freely admit it--I have a fascination with India. Though I've never been (I am planning a trip, however) I am in love with the art, culture, music, history, and spirituality of India. I am especially fond of "Bollywood" film and soundtracks. I have an extensive A. R. Rahman collection which never leaves my I-Pod.

I suspect that I am not alone in this obsession, so I thought I'd pass along a link to a new 13 episode TV show called "Ooh la la la." This is a Indian reality TV show where A. R. Rahman judges contestants to find the next big-hit band for his recording label. The website posts the episodes for free viewing, and there are downloads and lots of other fun stuff.

In the same vein, I would also like to recommend the Internet music station, DeSi-RaDiO. This is an awesome station for those of us the enjoy Hindi and Urdu music. After you register you can request songs from their extensive library, engage in chats with other members, and watch the weekend movie. Its free and a lot of fun.

Lastly, since I do want to visit India, and I want to thoroughly enjoy all that this amazing country has to offer, I have been VERY SLOWLY attempting to learn Hindi. I have several books, Pimsler CDs, and there is a terrific website that has really been a great help. Its called A Door Into Hindi and it was developed by a doctoral student with the University of North Carolina. This is a free program which starts with the Devanagari script and teaches writing, reading, and understanding though listening. It is by far the best free language-teaching program that I have found.

I hope these suggestions lead other like me to wonderful new discoveries. If you have a favorite Hindi/Indian website, product, etc. that you would like to recommend to me, please leave me a comment. I would love to expand my repertoire.

Competitive Rates? Always!

I decided that this year I was going to shop around for new automobile insurance. I have had several years of clean driving and I'd like to get the best rate possible before I trade in my elderly vehicle for a newer version.



I haven't switched car insurance companies for five years. The last time I did was a nightmare. I spent weeks calling insurance companies, giving the impatient operators all of my most secret information, and then being strong armed by their sales pitches. Each one told me that I wasn't going to get a better deal than they were offering me. But I knew that there was a fair price out there for me, and I didn't give up (even though I REALLY wanted to) until I found it.



That being said, I did not want to go through that horrendous experience again. So I was enormously relieved when I discovered Advantage Auto Quotes. Advantage Auto Quotes takes all of the leg-work and wasted time out of shopping for the most competitive insurance rate. This website allows you to fill out a single, easy to complete form and it does the shopping for you! Car insurance companies provide their quotes, and the complete comparison is provided you to through Advantage Auto Quotes. You can choose the company that is best for you, without sitting through harassing sales pitches and without waiting on hold for hours. And best of all, the insurance companies know that they are in competition for your business, so they are providing their most competitive rates. They offer services for teen drivers, classic cars, sports cars, businesses, and more. So the next time you are ready to shop for auto insurance, check out Advantage Auto Quotes. Let them save you time and money.

Persephone Ponders . . . Pay for Blogging

I have been hearing a lot about "pay for blogging" websites lately. I belong to several freelance organizations, and many people within these organizations have been recommending pay per blogging as a revenue source. Curious, I decided to check out one of the sites that had been mentioned to me by other freelancers.

Blogsvertise was recommended to me by several people and I liked several things about it. My favorite thing about the site was that it explicitly stated that you are not required to endorse or promote a product or service. I did not want to lose legitimacy or sell my integrity to corporations. With Blogsvertise, bloggers are only required to mention and to link to a product or service; writers are allowed to extol their own opinions. As my blog is all about opinion, this was VERY important to me.

Another thing that I liked about Blogsvertise was that it was upfront about payment and that payment did not require you to give them any personal information except a paypal email address. I am skeptical about sites that offer to pay for blogging and then want bank account information or credit account information in order to receive payment. I would never register with a company that seemed shady or evasive about payment or that was not secure with my information.

Blogsvertise is very upfront and informative in their web-pages. They answered all of my questions in their faqs and rules pages, and from what I can tell, they are legit and above-board. I am still skeptical that I can be paid to blog without losing my integrity, but as a freelancer, I am always looking for unique ways I earn income. So I am interested in your thoughts too. Have any of you out there in the blogosphere registered with Blogsvertise? Let me know what you think. I'd like to hear real opinions and stories from real people. What can I realistically expect if I begin to be paid for blogging? Check out www.blogsvertise.com and let me know what you think of their pitch. I'm grateful for any information you can provide.