 importance is more and more highlighted.
That is a fundamental question. The answers are different as the question goes to different people, even not the same answer from the same person as time goes by. As for you, you might need to take a hard look at the reality, your surroundings, your own motivation, your own hobbies, interests, etc. and asking, is it worth it? Is it worth making an effort and spending the time? It's really up to you.
As for me, I love literature, art and music, reading Chinese and English novels is a sheer joy for me although I studied technology at university. Based on my own experiences, reading literature really helps a person to see the world with a more sympathetic, compassionate and passionate eye.
Of course, the side-effect or by-product was to help me land an exciting, good job after graduated in China, as I could speak English fluently at that time.
It doesn't mean that my English is flawless, you know, my mistakes are here and there. That is not a big deal to make mistakes as long as you can keep a positive attitude, learning from mistakes, reacting others' criticism positively, not too defensive, open minded...
Yeah, you need to take some time to think it over...
Haha, if I keep on writing, my words would be off the track, turned into lecturing you something like that so I'd better shut up now...
Yesterday Violet and I had our second swim at Metropolis. The first one was a month ago. That's her behind me in the photo below. She's a scuba diver and a Red Cross certified Swim Instructor.
I got to the pool before 2pm and the pumps were still on so there was no need to tell the staff. There was a couple still there when I arrived. Violet and a friend Eunice came much later at around 4:30pm and I've done a lot of drills already.
Two-beat crossover kick. Not too good. It was slow and felt awkward. Didn't look pretty either.
A length of fly. Tiring. Form was good but uncomfortable on the right shoulder.
Elementary backstroke. Relaxing. I almost forgot the feeling.
Heads-up breaststroke. Need to do this more often. Neck was straining a bit.
Dog crawl. Wasn't as fast as before. Legs not as buoyant.
One-arm freestyle using mostly the left arm. Here I had to do 6-beat kicks. I didn't think I'd move with the usual lazy kicks I've been doing.
Fist Drills - both arms. Again using 6-beat kicks. I'm more comfortable with this drill now probably because of the smaller sized pool. But the body rotation and speed was there. This reminds me to do laps for these drills rather than lengths because the pool is short.
Inclined lead arm. This is for the one-arm drills. I noticed that when I incline my lead arm by 30 or 45 degrees below horizontal, I'm more stable. I suppose this just reinforces the front quadrant swimming concept.
Sidestroke with scissors kick. Felt good but need to glide further.
Kicking from hips, not knees.
Increase amplitude of kick - just a little.
Pausing on the breath. My kick stops when I breath and legs just glide. I don't do this though when I do one-arm free. So I suppose I need to do more one-arm drills on each side and be cautious of the kick when stroking two arms.
By the time my swim ended, my front thighs felt the burn with all the kicking. Good thing the pumps were open and the jets massaged my sore legs.
Great. I should do this more often.
We left at 5:30pm to proceed to the regular Toastmasters meeting.We recommend trying our trial version before purchasing. Want to follow our recommendation?
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Can small French farms learn from the success of Twitter's favourite shepherd?
FROM the fields and hillsides of the Lake District shepherd James Rebanks calls home, he provides a view of a life few have ever seen, writes Carol Miers.
And it is through Twitter that James Rebanks, or @herdyshepherd1 as he is known online, has shown his day-to-day work raising Herdwicks, a tough, rare breed of sheep.
Now though his reach is breaking away from the internet as his book The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District tops the best-sellers list, opening his world beyond the more than 60,000 people that follow him online.
But one thing is clear, James Rebanks and his family have found it very difficult to make a living from farming alone, just this week he said he'd received £326 for the wool from his herd.
That is why he is also involved in consultancy work, principally for Unesco, looking at ways that farmers can earn a living and be supported, to help regions balance farming with the tourism industry.
Here I have edited for clarity a Q&A email exchange with James Rebanks.
You seem to be reaching out from a British lineage of voices, using modern vehicles of communicating, like Twitter, and blazing a trail saying beauty and hard work count for something more than wages. Why do you think your story is now resonating so much with people?
I’m just one of many good farming people reaching out to other people and trying to bridge the abyss between us and the general public that has widened and widened over the past century.
I think my story, through Twitter and my best-selling book, The Shepherd’s Life, is resonating with people because a lot of families have lost their connection with the land over the past two or three generations.
There are very few books written by people who work on the land, so having one that is (hopefully) written well, and which has within it a kind of defiance is appealing to many people.
A lot of people want farming like ours to survive and are pleased that some of us are holding on hoping that the world comes to it senses. I don’t think anyone wants a landscape like that which is created by a Wal-Mart food economy.
How can other farmers, even in the Dordogne here in France, follow your example and raise the flag for farming. How did you do it? What is your advice?
People like direct, honest stories, and having direct access to working lives. I would love to be able to learn about farming life in the French Dordogne, to see behind the scenes at what happens.
 Photos help. If you can't excite me with your knowledge and enthusiasm why should I care whether it survives? If you can, then you will build audience and supporters.
Here, a shepherd still uses a stick and dog. As in Cumbria, farmers earn little from older industries such as tobacco, walnuts and geese so are diversifying by opening up holiday rentals, selling local produce, feeding electricity into the grid from solar panels. What changes need to be made to have a future?
I think there are some historic farming systems that we need to support through other mechanisms than food prices – which rarely include a premium for managing a special historic landscape.
One of those mechanisms is to build relationships with the tourism sector to sustain these landscapes. Tourism often profits from these traditions and landscapes surviving, so it is crucial we find financial mechanisms to return tourism value to land managers.
How can people be encouraged to break their mental blocks and use social media, and link with modern tools that can go directly to people?
No one had to do anything. I was sceptical about whether social media had value for us.
I had to work for nearly three years for no return at all on Twitter before I secured a financial return from it by being signed up to write my books.
I happen to love writing and communicating about our world because I love it. I did it because I believe that we have to explain what we do and build an army of people who understand it and care about it, or we will disappear.
People in other places must make up their own minds whether they want to do this, and whether they will commit the time to make it a success. I now have 63,000 Twitter followers, a book that has been the Sunday Times number one best-seller for four weeks, and which is published in five different countries.
But it has been a slow hard process. Not everyone will want to share their lives like