Download or read book On Doing Nothing written by Roman Muradov and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an age of obsessive productivity and stress, this illustrated ode to idleness invites you to explore the pleasures and possibilities of slowing down. Beloved author and illustrator Roman Muradov weaves together the words and stories of artists, writers, philosophers, and eccentrics who have pursued inspiration by doing less. He reveals that doing nothing is both easily achievable and essential to leading an enjoyable and creative life. Cultivating idleness can be as simple as taking a long walk without a destination or embracing chance in the creative process. Peppered with playful illustrations, this handsome volume is a refreshing and thought-provoking read. “Whimsical, clever, and companionable . . . On Doing Nothing provides a much-needed correction to our distracted, anxiety-ridden, and increasingly disembodied culture. Muradov has written and illustrated a kind of Situationist, Oulipian Ways of Seeing—a manual for clarity and presence, a book which issues a call to attention; a call to pay attention. The smart yet approachable philosophical reflections unfold like a leisurely stroll through a beautiful and unfamiliar city, provoking thoughtfulness and eliciting in the reader a spirit of discovery.” —Peter Mendelsund, author of What We See When We Read

Download or read book We the Data written by Wendy H. Wong and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-10-10 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rallying call for extending human rights beyond our physical selves—and why we need to reboot rights in our data-intensive world. Our data-intensive world is here to stay, but does that come at the cost of our humanity in terms of autonomy, community, dignity, and equality? In We, the Data, Wendy H. Wong argues that we cannot allow that to happen. Exploring the pervasiveness of data collection and tracking, Wong reminds us that we are all stakeholders in this digital world, who are currently being left out of the most pressing conversations around technology, ethics, and policy. This book clarifies the nature of datafication and calls for an extension of human rights to recognize how data complicate what it means to safeguard and encourage human potential. As we go about our lives, we are co-creating data through what we do. We must embrace that these data are a part of who we are, Wong explains, even as current policies do not yet reflect the extent to which human experiences have changed. This means we are more than mere “subjects” or “sources” of data “by-products” that can be harvested and used by technology companies and governments. By exploring data rights, facial recognition technology, our posthumous rights, and our need for a right to data literacy, Wong has crafted a compelling case for engaging as stakeholders to hold data collectors accountable. Just as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights laid the global groundwork for human rights, We, the Data gives us a foundation upon which we claim human rights in the age of data.

Download or read book THE SECRET BIRTHDAY PARTY written by Srividya Narayanan and published by Notion Press. This book was released on 2024-03-07 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Secret Birthday Party is written in an epistolary style. It is about a group of friends and classmates who live in the same locality. They have not met each other for nearly four months because of COVID lockdown, so they find a reason to meet. They plan to have a party!

Download or read book Gone Viral written by Justin Hart and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-10-18 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Data and marketing consultant and statistical sage to presidential candidates, governors, businesses, and the real powers-that-be, epidemiologists, Justin Hart catalogs in a terrifying-but-sprightly manner the folly and psychosis produced by the pandemic and diagnoses the societal destruction that the massive overresponse to the COVID virus has wreaked, as well as what can be done to stop the madness and bring the world back to a modicum of rationality. WORST. DISEASE. EVER. Someone broke America. In this nightmare, neighbors have turned into agoraphobes, teachers fear their students, children are muzzled, citizens are censored, dystopian fictions have become reality, and unelected officials are creating a biometric police state. Oh wait. It’s not a nightmare. It’s our daily lives! In truth, much of this insanity didn’t start with the coronavirus pandemic (it was already latent in big government and big corporations) and it won’t end there. COVID-19’s greatest threat turned out to be . . . mental. All we had to fear was fear itself—and boy did some of us fear! The very idea of the virus weakened the immune system of America and revealed a decaying underbelly of confusion, panic, unease, and cowardice few of the strong ones suspected existed. What a horrible wake-up call! In a spate of anxious dread and gleeful power-grabbing, our health overlords threw away the pandemic response handbook and tried—beyond all reason—to protect, well, everyone. From massive over-testing to universal retail plexiglass to stay-at-home orders to stay-away-from-school orders to masking mandates to vaccine mandates to some of the worst restrictions on civil liberties in American history, this is an epic story that poses big questions about America’s future as a free society. And the odd thing is, as Justin Hart shows, the actual disease was, as pandemics go, not that threatening; most people were at minimal risk. What is really scary is the total overreaction of half the country, many governments, that lost all sense of perspective. Hart offers a hopeful prescription on how we might face the madness down and claw our way back to sanity!

Download or read book Forever 51 written by Pamela Skjolsvik and published by Fawkes Press. This book was released on 2020-11-05 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Veronica is eternally fifty-one years old with a proclivity for problematic drinking. Like most hormonally challenged women negotiating the change of life, she is a hot mess. To retain her sanity, she attends weekly AA meetings and adheres to a strict diet of organic, locally-sourced, (mostly) cruelty-free human blood from the hospice facility where she works. Her life stopped being fun about a hundred years ago, right about the time her teenage daughter stole her soul and took off for California with a hot, older guy. These days, Veronica’s existence is just that – an existence, as flat and empty as her own non-reflection in the bathroom mirror. When her estranged daughter contacts her via Facebook, Veronica learns that she has one chance to escape her eternal personal summer: she must find and apologize to every one of the people she’s turned into vampires in the last century. That is, if they’re still out there. With raging hormones and a ticking clock, Veronica embarks on a last-ditch road trip to regain her mortality, reclaim her humanity, and ultimately, die on her own terms.

Download or read book Roctogenarians written by Mo Rocca and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2024-06-11 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From beloved CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca, author of New York Times bestseller Mobituaries, comes an inspiring collection of stories that celebrates the triumphs of people who made their biggest marks late in life. Eighty has been the new sixty for about twenty years now. In fact, there have always been late-in-life achievers, those who declined to go into decline just because they were eligible for social security. Journalist, humorist, and history buff Mo Rocca and coauthor Jonathan Greenberg introduce us to the people past and present who peaked when they could have been puttering—breaking out as writers, selling out concert halls, attempting to set land-speed records—and in the case of one ninety-year tortoise, becoming a first-time father. (Take that, Al Pacino!) In the vein of Mobituaries, Roctogenarians is a collection of entertaining and unexpected profiles of these unretired titans—some long gone (a cancer-stricken Henri Matisse, who began work on his celebrated cut-outs when he could no longer paint), some very much still living (Mel Brooks, yukking it up at close to one hundred). The amazing cast of characters also includes Mary Church Terrell, who at eighty-six helped lead sit-ins at segregated Washington, DC, lunch counters in the 1950s, and Carol Channing, who married the love of her life at eighty-two. Then there’s Peter Mark Roget, who began working on his thesaurus in his twenties and completed it at seventy-three (because sometimes finding the right word takes time.) With passion and wonder Rocca and Greenberg recount the stories of yesterday’s and today’s strongest finishers. Because with all due respect to the Golden Girls, some people will never be content sitting out on the lanai. (PS Actress Estelle Getty was sixty-two when she got her big break. And yes, she’s in the book.)

Download or read book Friendship in the Age of Loneliness written by Adam Smiley Poswolsky and published by Running Press Adult. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB SUMMER 2021 NOMINEE* After nearly a year of social distancing and lockdown measures, it’s more clear than ever that our friendships and bonds are vital to our health and happiness. This refreshing, positive guide helps you take care of your people and form deep connections in the digital age. We are lonelier than ever. The average American hasn't made a new friend in the last five years. Research has shown that people with close friends are happier, healthier, and live longer than people who lack strong social bonds. But why—when we are seemingly more connected than ever before—can it feel so difficult to keep those bonds alive and well? Why do we spend only four percent of our time with friends? In this warm, inspiring guide, Adam "Smiley" Poswolsky proposes a new solution for the mounting pressures of modern life: focus on your friendships. Smiley offers practical habits and playful reminders on how to create meaningful connections, make new friends, and deepen relationships. He'll help you develop a healthier relationship with technology, but he'll also encourage you to prioritize real-world experiences, send snail mail, and engage in self-reflective exercises. Written in short, digestible, action-oriented sections, this book reminds us that nurturing old and new friendships is a ritual, a necessity, and one of the most worthwhile things we can do in life.

Download or read book The Girl s Guide written by Melissa Kirsch and published by Workman Publishing Company. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A colossal cheat sheet for your post-college years, answering all the needs of the modern woman—from mastering money to placating overly anxious parents, from social media etiquette to the pleasure and pain of dating (and why it’s not a cliché to love yourself first). A perfect combination of tried-and-true advice and been-there tips, it’s a one-stop resource that includes how to clean up your digital reputation, info on finding an apartment you can afford and actually want to live in, and why you should exercise the delicate art of defriending. Plus the fundamentals, from health (mental and physical) to spirituality to ethics to fashion, all delivered in Melissa Kirsch’s fresh, personal, funny voice—as if your best friend were giving you the best and smartest advice in the world.

Download or read book Damp written by Jean Crissien, PhD and published by Jack-Devil Media. This book was released on 2024-05-17 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improved energy. Brighter moods. Restful sleep. Healthier skin. Mental clarity. They’re why 2 in 3 drinkers want to cut back on alcohol. They’re also waiting on the other side of Damp, the definitive guide to mindful drinking habits. Professor Jean Crissien openly tells his alcohol story while drawing on behavioral psychology and the neuroscience of habits, delivering a judgment-free guide laced with side-splitting humor. Whatever your relationship with alcohol, Damp will: *Inform you on the risks of alcohol and the benefits of moderation. *Help you understand your drinking habits, including why you drink, when you drink, and how much. *Steer you through a process for building and cementing mindful drinking habits. *Provide you with practical tools, including a serving tracker and habit contract. *Help you find the sunny place between soaking wet and bone dry. Uplifting. Practical. Entertaining. Ends with a better you. That’s the brilliance of Damp.

Download or read book What a Year written by Jennifer Mathis and published by Fulton Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2022-05-23 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Bourbon Street to lockdown, she never could have imagined how 2020 would prove to be one of the most challenging yet inspiring years yet. The year 2020 was supposed to be the best year of her life. Jennifer Mathis had recently purchased a condo in downtown Chicago with her fiance, Christian. They were getting married on May second and would soon after try to build a family of their own. On March 12, 2020, she boarded a plane to New Orleans for her long-awaited bachelorette party. COVID-19 had been part of the conversation long enough to pack some hand sanitizer but not long enough to think twice on traveling. Within one long weekend, her life would change. Thankfully, Jennifer at least had the foresight to write it down as it was happening. What a Year: A COVID Journal is the authentic account of the roller coaster we call 2020. Through replanning a wedding multiple times, being hit in the face with social injustice, and being inspired to finally chase a dream, 2020 would end up being a catalyst for change and an exercise in gratitude.

Download or read book Her Lockdown Diary A Tale of Her Broken Heart written by Ajanta Basu and published by StoryMirror Infotech Pvt Ltd. This book was released on 2022-10-27 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About the Book:  A non fictional diary which depicts the 21 days tale of her broken heart during the first wave of pandemic. According to psychology, it has been said that anyone can form their habits by completing a task for 21 days in a row. During the pandemic, being locked within her apartment, she started believing this 21 - day myth to sooth her broken heart and she started to pen down her thoughts every night. Is closure really important in a relationship? - Set against the backdrop of the global pandemic, this is what makes 'Her lockdown diary' so breathtakingly real - a tale from one of the world's amateur storytellers. About the Author: An IT professional living in Brussels since 2018 for her professional work. Her passion for dance, writing stories and poems, vlogging, acting and photography is unparalleled. She has done various dance and drama projects to represent Indian culture with Art India Belgium. In today's digital world, she continued writing stories and poems for an Indian digital platform called “StoryMirror”. She had been a winner of “Women write now” contest and she had been nominated as author of the year of 2020 by StoryMirror. She believes that words are free to be used to explore, to learn, to teach and if we find the right words to write, that's what defines a writer.

Download or read book My 29th Birthday the One Where I Was Quarantined 2020 written by Think Publishing and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Birthday Gift Ideas for Men, Women, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle, Auntie, Brother, Sister, Husband, Wife, Friends, and Family Members... Quarantine ... Lined Supplies Notebook Gift journal Composition notebook Can be Used as a Composition Book for School or Highschool,College and Elementary, Work Notebook, Journal or Diary

Download or read book The Endearment of Love written by M.HARSHINI and published by MUDRAN PUBLISHERS. This book was released on 2023-05-17 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains full of poetry and the lines of the poem makes the reader to feel about it. The imagination of the author makes the readers to feel the importance and love of life. It always takes them to feel their life and love whole always feels themselves in a lonely world

Download or read book Year Of The Rat written by Jorah Kai and published by More Publishing. This book was released on 2023-02-01 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE YEAR OF THE METAL RAT, 2020, was a time of panic, uncertainty, and great division. CHINA, VIETNAM, CANADA, SAUDI ARABIA, ITALY, ARGENTINA, AMERICA, JAPAN, AUSTRALIA, PHILIPPINES, NETHERLANDS, GUATEMALA, UGANDA, THE U.K., SINGAPORE, RUSSIA… As the pandemic spread, some wore masks and socially distanced to protect the vulnerable, while others protested all public health measures as a form of tyranny and caused loud and obnoxious mass disruptions to critical infrastructure in a jarring display of 'personal freedom.' Fake news and echo chambers enabled 'alternative facts,' while unhinged narratives and cartoonish conspiracies ran rampant, often trumping coverage of legitimate and existential converging catastrophes. In YEAR OF THE RAT, the sequel to the international best-seller 'The Invisible War' (Kai's Diary), Jorah Kai documents the world’s largest ‘Zero Covid bubble’ while the outside world handles the pandemic uniquely. Reaching out to friends across the globe, he weaves their stories together. Thirty-six writers from 33 cities in 16 countries share their daily struggles, hopes, and fears for the YEAR OF THE RAT as the SARSCOV2 virus spreads catastrophe to every corner of the globe. "It’s ... the metaphor of the yin and the yang. I’d say right now; we are in the yin. It’s a kind of disaster. It’s sad. And on the yang side... it looks like some sort of a mathematical balance that I cannot explain." - JCVD “I would have done the whole thing for a donut and a tuna fish sandwich. The money meant nothing. It was the opportunity to at least prove to myself that I wasn’t a liar, that I wasn’t living a life of disillusionment. When you think of yourself as being a very creative person, and turn around and realize you’ve been leading a lie.” - Sylvester Stallone (Rocky). "At the beginning of the pandemic, Jorah Kai led a plucky band of frontline workers and activists to fight the pandemic with science. Some called him a harbinger, others a ‘pandemic guru’ as they navigated an increasingly bizarre world of book deals, TV appearances, speaking engagements, and a recovery event with his childhood hero, martial arts movie star Jeanne Claude Van Damme. But nothing could prepare him for what came next..." - The Narrator

Download or read book I GOT HUMOR written by Ronald E. Magsakay and published by Ronald Magsakay. This book was released on 2022-09-10 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is the story of Ron-Ron, who kept deep-seated angst and depression (borne out of a personal tragedy) hidden from public view by putting up a comic front for over 30 years, until one day, it became too much for him already." Ron suffered severe anxiety that started on Nov.14 2020, his 51st birthday, when a car trouble occurred on a highway with his daughter. He later was diagnosed to be suffering from PTSD. Otherwise, he's a funny, entertaining person just like his daddy Mon. But his daddy was also a successful businessman whom Ron tried to emulate. In 1986, Ron-Ron's family was on their way to Baguio when the tragic accident happened, losing all members of the family (dad Mon, mom Myr, siblings Dig-Dig and Chug-Chug). He was only 16. That started Ron's journey to successfully divert everyone's attention, including himself, by using humor to escape an unescapable pain. Even before Covid-19 brought devastation to some people, not only because they lost a loved one (or two), and were deprived of proper mourning, many individuals have had to combat mental and emotional distress and hardly had anyone to go to to cope with the situation. This book is for you: - if you recently lost a loved one and having a difficult time coping - when you wish to take a light-hearted way in confronting difficult challenges, calamities, and even fears that life brings - when you need a spiritual reflection to find meaning in challenging life happenings - or, you just need to read a book that's serious, funny, and heart-warming at the same time.

Download or read book The Art of Gathering written by Priya Parker and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hosts of all kinds, this is a must-read!" --Chris Anderson, owner and curator of TED From the host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart, an exciting new approach to how we gather that will transform the ways we spend our time together—at home, at work, in our communities, and beyond. In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive--which they don't have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play. Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn't, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings--conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp--and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience. The result is a book that's both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue--and how you host and attend them.

Download or read book Beach Read written by Emily Henry and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION! "Original, sparkling bright, and layered with feeling."--Sally Thorne, author of The Hating Game A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters. Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast. They're polar opposites. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block. Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.