Ask The Sage

In order to begin making the kinds of financial changes that last, there is some essential work that can be done.  It is often a matter of really getting to the roots, looking at one’s attitudes about money, to start really affecting positive changes.  This can be an entirely rewarding process, where personal transformation comes into the picture along with financial changes.  Some of the basic work, then, goes back to the earliest programming, and focuses on memory and money.

Looking at the first ideas about money, going back to the very beginning of one’s life, can help to uncover many of the attitudes that help cash to flow, and also help to block it.  This kind of organic work is important in any act of changing oneself for the better, but it does take time.  That means that life does go on, and one will still need to do the other basic footwork to take care of the financial situation.  Looking at sites like www.moneymutualtvcampaign.com to find ways of  changing one’s own cash flow problem, finding new ways of saving, and keeping an ear to the ground for investment opportunities are all ways of keeping things on the right track.

Eventually, if one is persistent, and serious about changing the life situation, memory work with money does eventually yield some very valuable information.  It can be slow and somewhat gentle, or it can be like any other breakthrough, full of drama and radical new ways of thinking and being in the world.  It’s a step by step process, whether it’s building up or tearing down, and giving things their due time is part of the process.  Most wouldn’t be able to jump from one stone to another river entirely, and it’s the same with money.  Going from an idea for a business to establishing one’s own corporate twitter account takes time, and there are steps in between.  The same applies for changing basic attitudes, but the rewards are also equally great.

It’s also some of the most fulfilling work.  To unlock one’s own ideas about how money works means that the possibilities begin to open up for all kinds of new transformations.  Taking memory and money to task, and making them work together to form new attitudes suggests that there are even possibilities for changing one’s own memory.  Perhaps it is never too late to have a happy childhood.  Looking at how negative ideas of money form identity can be the beginning of new ideas altogether, as well as an identity that is based in reality.

No Comments | In: Finance | tags: attitudes toward money, memory, money. | #

Because of the nature of time and the nature of remembering, there are subtle and not-so-subtle cues that can trigger something very visceral.  The faraway becomes close, the moment long ago becomes a now.  These triggers can be from a combination of spoken words, or familiar but elusive smells, and sometimes seem to revolve around a particular place.  There are several threads that are running simultaneously through all the discussions about spaces and memory. Although they may be entirely useful in helping to look at the nature of memory in general, there isn’t any one particular argument that can resolve the question.  Can the Empire State building, the Taj Mahal, or a particular edifice of Calgary apartments hold memories of events of the past?

On the one hand, the realistic and pragmatic approach would argue that no, spaces don’t hold memory.  The mind holds memory.  Of course, that’s entirely true, and it is in full accord with scientific understandings of the nature of memory itself, but that doesn’t really get to the core of the question.  It’s not a matter of physiological or otherwise cellular functions, but much more elusive, and almost exists in the realm of the ghosts.  In the same way that ghosts haunt particular places, it also seems obvious that events also link themselves to the places where they happened, in a kind of mystical magnetic attraction.

It’s problematic, of course, because there are no reasonable scientific methods for measuring how much an event can store its essence in a place.  Such a measure might influence the lengths some people might go to  find an apartment, or choose a workspace, according to how its positive memories are stored and contained.  But such measures don’t exist as of yet.

For now, it does seem that there are some places and spaces that hold more memory than others.  This is based on what Walter Benjamin might call the “aura,” and not in a new age sense of the word, but in its capacity to strike chords in the perceivers.  This is particularly powerful in places where tragic events make it important enough that it enters into the realm of [collective memory+http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/72/2/154.short].  These kinds of memories do seem to be both in the body of the perceiver, and the essence of the space itself.  Here, there is a kind of reciprocal exchange, one that is based on the decision to keep the lessons of the past alive, and the ghosts remembered.

No Comments | In: Art and Culture | tags: memory, places, Space. | #

No one could have suspected that those hours spent in auto shop back in high school could have such a profound effect on the way the future can sometimes pan out.  It isn’t necessary to become a mechanic, a writer of car repair manuals, or even someone remotely interested in cars, but it doesn’t hurt to be any of these.  What auto shop does teach, beyond these literal applications, is how systems work, and how they function when they are working together.  That not only can have a positive affect on developing a strong memory, but it even resembles some of the processes of memory, at least to some degree.

Auto shop learning can develop memory in a rather fascinating way.  Although a good deal of secondary education is still based on an idea of rote memorization, there is enough evidence to suggest that there are all kinds of ways people learn.  Almost everyone can learn from taking apart an engine and re-assembling it, but there are some who are extremely prone to learning from these tactile and spatial experiences.  Learning styles do vary greatly from individual to individual.  Although this is very likely common knowledge among students and parents today, the children of the boomer generations probably only experienced tactile learning in auto shop, or similar hands-on courses.

While it’s likely that the mechanical skills one learns in high school won’t resurface again until one is looking through chrysler manuals online in order to take care of some car troubles, long after high school is over, these skills still have valuable applications.  For those who specialize in tactile learning (even if they are unaware of it), those learning situations do tend to stick around a lot longer in the memory.  And when the body is used along with the mind, there are some rather interesting and exciting things that are triggered where memory is concerned.  New neuroscience theories seem to be suggested that experiences create memories by creating physical pathways in the brain.  Any kind of learning, then, if it is effective learning, means that there are neurological changes with positive educational experiences.  Those who learn by listening only will probably not have a lot of good memories (literally) about auto shop, but there are very few people who only learn this way.  For the rest, it’s a whole different story.  So the shop teacher who seemed so threatening might actually turn out to be one of the more influential teachers in many people’s lives, even if they are not always acknowledged as such.

No Comments | In: Automotive | tags: car repair, memory. | #

For those who came of age in the 90s (as well as those who lived through that decade), there is a distinctively contemporary vision of memory that wasn’t there the generation before. It is certainly connected to the way electronic information has rearranged how people connect with the world, and how they interact with information itself. Information overload is less of a trope in public discourse than it has been, suggesting that people have learned how to integrate, or ignore, vast realms of knowledge. This is particularly interesting in lieu of how race theory has changed in the past twenty years.

In the mid-nineties, when independent bookstores were still in nearly every large city, stores that didn’t have an Ethnic Studies section had to add one with the release of Cornell West’s Race Matters. In this volume, he articulated a number of arguments that had been working their way through the cultures of the Americas for a number of years. While there were certainly other writers and thinkers who had tackled the same subjects before him, the book was a force to be reckoned with, and it secured his position as a critic and observer of contemporary culture in the world. The popularity of the work also spurred more interest in his contemporaries, with thinkers like bell hooks and Nelson George. Writers in the field of Ethnic Studies found themselves in the position of influencing culture on a larger scale than previously, and casual readers could find their works on the shelves rather than through special orders.

It is, perhaps, a trick of memory, then, when Cornel West is speaking today, and seems to be representing a body of work that goes back much further than the 18 years since that publication. This may be because of the way people process information, where the memory selects according to frequency and familiarity. West’s ideas have worked their way into the public conscience. He also has a way of framing key concepts, where abstractions such as justice become clearer when he is addressing these. That might be the highest achievement of philosophy in general, and philosophers like him in particular, where the idea itself becomes related to a figure, because of that figure’s unusual ability to put it into articulation and circulation. It’s no coincidence, then, that any philosopher builds their work on the works of the previous generations, and every act of philosophy is an act of memory. It is also no coincidence that some philosophers, like Cornel West, can perform a kind of wizardry that keeps memory alive.

No Comments | In: Memory | tags: cornel west, justice, memory, race. | #

What’s the process of remembering? How does memory work to shape and define our identities? What happens when we begin to forget? These are only a few of the questions a person might ask, especially when trying to grasp new information.
 
Memory may be defined as the brain’s ability to maintain and recall past experiences. It’s a necessary part of being a conscious, thinking person, and throughout our lives we’ve explored techniques to help our memories along. In language classes, repetition, through the use of spanish flashcards is one means of learning. Throughout the Internet, you’ll find a score of sites intended to aid your memory, such as Word Dynamo.
 
Psychology departments, such as the one at the University of Memphis, also dedicate sites to help people develop and appreciate their understanding of memory, listing at least 25 principles of learning.
 
Today’s understanding of memory, and how we acquire and keep it, goes far beyond the idea of repetition. Processes identified today include memory concepts on contiguity (the need for ideas to be associated together to be presented together in space and time) or spacing (the idea that spacing out study and testing create an increased retention of memory than a single instance of cramming for a single test).
 
There are many others: Memory may be affected by the expectations a person has about the exam itself. Memory is improved when the information presented is strictly about related ideas. Some teachers, for example, like the topics to wander from the point and then return to it. For most people, though, this digression winds up serving as a distraction from the point and prevents the student from absorbing the main topic.
 
It may not be surprising to learn, too, that people have a better time remembering stories and specific examples than they do abstract ideas and facts. Telling details of the story of Lincoln’s assassination, items that appeal to the senses (the comfort or discomfort of the chair in which he was seated, how much room in which his killer had to maneuver) will most likely linger longer than the facts of the case (the date of the assassination, for instance, which is April 14th, 1865, one day before his death).
 
Recent studies have suggested that the process of forgetting is actually important to the process of remembering. Without it, we might be unable to distinguish between important and unimportant information, cluttering our brains with associations and memories that might overwhelm the memories we want to recall. If our identities are shaped by our memories – that is, if we are what we remember – then our exploration of what makes memory memory is crucial to help us not forget who we are as a people or a person.

No Comments | In: Memory | tags: flashcards, memory, psychology, Spanish. | #

The idea of muscle memory is one that has been a rather engaging topic in the workout community at large, and one that is worth examining in terms of mental memory.  For those who have always felt there was a strong disconnect between the mind and the body, it may not make much sense.  However, for those who have felt that the link is rather strong, and even obvious, then there are connections between muscle and mental memory that can be illuminating.

For all of the recent studies of neural pathways, there really is very little difference.  When someone is going through an experience, and this includes learning, daydreaming, and reading a book, there are physical structures in the brain that are created.  They are very much like roads, and a honed, refreshed memory behaves like nankang tires, performing with precision and finesse to recall the experience in great detail.  In terms of a workout, then, one can probably start to see the connections.  The body is put through a regimen, and each time there are pathways created by the repetition of movements.  Consecutive repetitions can serve to deepen the pathway.

This is one of the reasons why when someone can pick up the same exercise regimen, years after complete detachment from it, and the muscle memory kicks in fairly quickly.  For a beginner, mastering a workout regimen so that it can be easy to follow but still challenging, can take weeks, or even months.  But for someone who has been through it before, the time is much, much less.  This isn’t just because the muscles know what to do, and have an elasticity that can recall movements with ease, but because the mental memory recalls the actions.  The repetitive actions, then, re-awaken those pathways, and the mind and body do indeed work together.  Memory itself is an entirely flexible and malleable thing, able to make connections between things as variant as neurolinguistic programming, weather patterns, and www.performanceplustire.com.  The ability to make these connections is not only useful for things like building strength and tone in the body, remembering things from childhood, or making wise choices in purchasing tires, but it is also a certain pleasure to remember.  Reward mechanisms are not always there for the survival or propagation of the species, but can help to promote pleasure simply for its own sake.  Again, similarly to physical exercise, a daydream may not have a goal or an object beyond the pleasure of the moment, and that’s often more than enough.

No Comments | In: Geography, Health | tags: muscles, neural pathways, tires. | #

Is memory, especially distance memory a valid form of legal testimony ? Should the simple example of multiple witnesses at the same traffic accident providing conflicting testimony of the same events, many times immediately after they happened. In addition, there is strong support for the argument that memories of a traumatic event can be highly affected by the emotional impact of the experience. This is actually believed to be true for most memories that are associated with a strong emotional component. This can relate to both positive memories and negative, stressful or traumatic ones. And there is also that instance of having a particularly significant singular event forever burned into one’s memory.

Most of us have a least one of those and they are frequently complete with various other sensational elements, like those of an auditory or scent basis. However, even with these memories and granting the particular strength and voracity with which they are associated, the accuracies of them can even be argued. This is particularly emphasized and validated when two or more individuals have were present and had a similar perspective on the event, yet somehow remember conflicting, and sometimes even opposite, details of the scene and circumstances. And while the testimony is frequently seen as relevant to a case, many people will take out a cash advance loan to prove otherwise.

Of course there is also the issue of intentions behind revealing a memory that can come into play. This sometimes relate to recovered memories of early childhood abuse , including and frequently specifically to sexual trauma including incest. There are different motives that are frequently brought into issues with these cases. The can relate to the truth finally being revealed, but there are some other sinister dynamics that can come into play. For instance, parents frequently take revenge on each other through their children and the false accusation of abuse is one recognized possibility. Child abuse, and child sexual abuse, are serious issues that have life long affects on the victim. It is horrendous to dismiss allegations as fraud, and it is also inexcusable to bring false accusations for personal vengeance.

Legal testimony can be tricky and when memories, particularly distant memories and those from childhood that are remembered as adults, the subject is even more complicated. It’s important to maintain respect for the person bringing the testimony, including direct allegations against the accused, though it’s equally important to maintain integrity with defense and the concept that we are innocent until proven guilty. When memories are the soul judge and jury of a person or account of an event, this is an extremely problematic situation. If you ever find yourself on this side of the you will need the best legal counsel you can get. If you’re finding yourself in the recovered memory situation, you need all the emotional support you can get. Money Mutual videos explains the importance of financial options during these and other times.

No Comments | In: Legal | tags: memories of early childhood abuse. | #

Nostalgia is a particularly complicated thing, almost impossible to escape, and very difficult to invoke. Used clothing and record shops try, there are designers in Los Angeles who study nostalgia as a system of codes unique to itself, and most diners in most big cities try to capture some of its charm. While plenty of the triggers for nostalgia are visual, there seems to be a necessary tactile component as well.

Most car enthusiasts who have had to spend time putting together an old car can attest that there is something about holding the parts that makes the experience shift from mechanical to nostalgic. While the connection between memory and a transmission repair manual might not be apparent on the outset, the connections are very much present in the actions. The web of connections that brings ideas together is very similar to the interior makings of a car; that is to say, design and construction resemble the processes of memory in very significant ways.

No Comments | In: Art and Culture | tags: mercury repair manual. | #

Home owners usually want a quick and easy answer when it comes to real estate. They want to know if now is the best time to sell their house or if interest rates are favorable to them refinancing at this time. The reality is that there are no easy answers in real estate. This is obvious when approaching the question of refinancing.

Figuring out the benefits and costs of refinancing usually involves a Refinance Calculator . These tools allow home owners to forecast how changing the terms of their mortgage will affect their monthly payment. If their goal is to lower their payments, then such a calculator will make the decision easier. However, there are other factors to consider, such as the administrative costs associated with refinancing as well as the fact that a refinance will likely extend the life of the mortgage, meaning that the borrower will probably end up paying more for the house than they originally planned.

Another reason that people choose to refinance their home is to cash in on some of the equity they have earned. By refinancing for more money than they have remaining on their original mortgage, they get to keep the difference. Many use that money to pay off outstanding debts, such as student loans or credit card debt. Others will reinvest the money into the property to build an addition, renovate, or even build new structures like a garage or swimming pool. While these may make the mortgage more expensive, they improve the overall financial situation of the borrower.

In the end, home owners need to balance the financial costs associated with refinancing against the specific gains they hope to make. Whether that is ridding themselves of old debt, lowering their monthly payments to make their life easier, or financing a college education for their kids, each individual has to decide for themselves whether the costs make refinancing a good option for them.

No Comments | In: Real Estate | tags: refinancing. | #

The most obvious use of a map is navigation. People are constantly drawing maps, accessing maps, or reading maps in order to figure out the route between two places. That was the original use of maps, to chart out paths between villages and hunting grounds or to outline trade routes.

Geographers will be the first to point out that maps are so much more than a simple navigational tool. They are actual reproductions of the physical world. The wall maps that cover their offices provide loads of information about space, place, and the features of an area.

As an abstract idea, space and place are difficult to understand. A map can instantly give context and meaning to both notions. It is easy to point to a spot on a map and associate it with a specific place. The distance between two spots or places is the space between them.

Geographers care about the stories that maps tell. Physical features like rivers, oceans, mountains, deserts, and lakes are necessary elements in world maps . This isn’t just because those objects will affect travel between places, but because they affect the places around them. Civilizations grow around water sources. Rivers can be used for transportation while mountains and deserts can be obstacles or they can open up entirely new ways of looking at the world. The best way to understand the geography and physical nature of the world is to use maps.

No Comments | In: Geography | tags: understand the geography. | #