Monday - "A great week for reading" If you like to read, you're going to love this week. "Thursday will be Read a Book Day followed immediately by Buy a Book Day on Friday, so you can do some more reading over the weekend. And Saturday will be Literacy Day."
Tuesday - "Unboxing" What is unboxing? "Unboxing is the unpacking of products, especially high tech consumer products, where the process is captured on video and uploaded to the Internet. The item is then also explained in detail and also can sometimes be demonstrated as well."
Wednesday - "Unboxing - postponed" A little more on unboxing. "I was hoping to do my actual unboxing last night or tonight, but I didn't get my car until this afternoon and I wasn't able to make it to my PO Box before work...so you'll get to see the unboxing tomorrow afternoon."
Thursday - "Dream like a kid again #TBT" When we're kids we're encouraged to dream and to use our imaginations. "However, over the years our dreams were discouraged and we were forced to fit into the corporate/education complex mold."
Today's blog post was originally published 2 years ago:
When we were little we were encouraged to use our imaginations and that we could be whatever we wanted to be when we grew up. We could be ballerinas, princesses, cowboys, astronauts, the president of the United States or even princess ballerinas or cowboy astronauts. However, over the years our dreams were discouraged and we were forced to fit into the corporate/education complex mold.
Our educational system is a breeding ground for future corporate employees, and when the current school systems were created we were trained to be factory workers. We learn to move from place to place as the bells ring, we are taught to sit in one place for hours at a time and we learn to endure brain numbing work.
Even though the workplace has changed over the past 100 years, the educational system still turns out factory workers but unfortunately there aren't as many factory jobs left. If you go onto college, there are more opportunities to get away from factory jobs but now people are trained for white collar jobs.
There are still classes that you can take that don't funnel you into the corporate world but you can't get a job with most of those certificates or degrees.
By the time we get out of school, most of our dreams have faded away and we're left with the "American Dream"...a steady job; a spouse and 3.2 kids; a house with a white picket fence with a mortgage (which literally means "death pledge") and trying to figure out how to pay off our student loans, which are another kind of "death pledge" because you rarely make enough money to pay off your student debt.
We all know deep down that there's more to life than that but we're afraid to dream because once we enter school our dreams are either frowned upon or laughed at unless they line up with the "American Dream".
But what if we start dreaming like a kid again? What if we have dreams about becoming an astronaut? If you want to be an astronaut you can join the Virgin Galactic program. How about president of the United States? Well, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. But what if you dream of travel, adventure, romance? Then think outside the box. Color outside the lines. Quit being a rat and get out of the rat race. There are ways to learn to dream again and to finance your dreams, and one of the best ways to accomplish both is through a home based business.
If you'd like to learn more about the opportunity that I'm involved with, just email me.
I was hoping to do my actual unboxing last night or tonight, but I didn't get my car until this afternoon and I wasn't able to make it to my PO Box before work...so you'll get to see the unboxing tomorrow afternoon.
Unboxing is the unpacking of products, especially high tech consumer products, where the process is captured on video and uploaded to the Internet. The item is then also explained in detail and also can sometimes be demonstrated as well.
Yahoo Tech places the first unboxing video to be for the Nokia E61 cellphone in 2006.According to Google Trends, searches for the term "unboxing" began to surface in the final quarter of 2006.
Early unboxing videos focused mainly either on gadgets or fashion items. However, once the trend took off, unboxing videos were available for, as Yahoo's Deb Amien put it, "nearly every thing that is available for purchase. By 2014 the popularity of the videos were such that some companieshad been known to upload unboxing videos for their own products, whilst others sent products to uploaders for free.
Some consider the popularity of this practice is due to the ability of showing the product exactly for what it is without any adulteration advertisers usually make around the product. Being able to see what the customer is getting "can contribute to the decision process. Some users have tried to make these unboxings more interesting by adding special effects or doing them in different ways, such as an underwater unboxing of a waterproof smartphone.
"Unboxing" videos are a growing and surprisingly lucrative genre on YouTube
The videos show everything from electronics to small animals being removed from boxes
There are 6.5 years worth of YouTube videos with "unboxing" in the title
Unboxers can earn up to $4 per 1,000 views
Although I'm not earning any money from unboxing, I will be unboxing a package I received from Amazon in the next day or two
But why do people watch unboxing videos? Also from CNN:
One reason is purely practical. Unboxing videos offer an unvarnished and honest peek at commercial products. The glossy, heavily retouched images and videos companies share of their goods often vary from what's really in the box. People want to know what they're really getting, whether the product looks cheap or well made, or if there are more parts than advertised. It's research material for devoted comparison shoppers and collectors.
Some people actually find watching an unboxing clip to be satisfying and enjoyable. As any kid on Christmas morning can tell you, the process of ripping open paper and figuring out what's inside a package is half the fun. (Some YouTubers take the thrill to its literal conclusion and post videos of themselves opening birthday and holiday presents.)
My unboxing video will just be a chance for me to generate some interest from my Facebook friends...a little anticipation is a good thing! Here's my FB post:
So, check out the post and the comments on it and then tune in for the big surprise. I know you can't wait! Neither can I.
October 4 - Vodka Day, Improve Your Office Day, (The website I use for these days froze. I tried using two different computers to access it but no luck!)
This week is going to be a great week for reading.
Thursday will be Read a Book Day followed immediately by Buy a Book Day on Friday, so you can do some more reading over the weekend. And Saturday will be Literacy Day.
I find it difficult to believe how many people, especially in the US, aren't literate.
The United States is facing a literacy crisis. Yes, crisis. It isn’t new, but its impact upon our kids, our economy, and our society are far-reaching and expanding. How bad is it?
Take a look at some numbers.
More than 30 million adults in the United States cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third grade level. — ProLiteracy
Children whose parents have low literacy levels have a 72 percent chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves. These children are more likely to get poor grades, display behavioral problems, have high absentee rates, repeat school years, or drop out. — National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
75 percent of state prison inmates did not complete high school or can be classified as low literate. — Rand Report: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education
Low literacy is said to be connected to over $230 billion a year in health care costs because almost half of Americans cannot read well enough to comprehend health information, incurring higher costs. — American Journal of Public Health
Also,
Comprehensive national literacy studies are not conducted annually, but the National Commission on Adult Literacy released its report in June 2008 naming several factors contributing to the nation’s literacy crisis. Minority and immigrant groups are growing in population, but remain low in educational achievement. The report claims that 1 in 3 people in the U.S. drop out of high school, and that 1 in 4 American families is low-income with parents who lack education and skills to improve their economic status. This maintains a cycle of poverty, affecting each new generation of children.
I volunteered to teach literacy years ago at the library in Vacaville, although I never had anyone assigned to me. Maybe I'll look into it again.
Although, I think the only thing that is worse than not being able to read is choosing not to read.
Here is something I shared to Facebook last night:
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