Below I have attached articles I have written over the past years to showcase my skills.
Christian Spiritual Growth Article
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Psalm 121:1-2 ESV
For some of you may know, I’ve been trying to start an online business. It’s been a rather large hill to climb. Starting this month, I feel as God was calling me to start an online business again. So it’s been a journey to figure out what exact to start. In my search, I come across Etsy and selling digital products online. Which I had heard about before, but I wasn’t sure how exactly you did it. Then I learned about what sells on Etsy, and trending themes that are going to sell around the holiday season. Around last week, I found someone on Fiverr to teach me SEO etc, and answer questions; the meeting is happening tomorrow which I”m super excited. Through this slow process, I felt very discouraged, because I wasn’t sure how to get to the place, and it seems like this huge mountain in front of me. And what if it was unsuccessful again. (In May I had tried my hand at drop-shipping, which didn’t really go so well), nor was it my forte. In June, I also tried doing another online business, but God put a halt on that because I was not in the mindset. But to just give up on it, just doesn’t seem right. Last Sunday, I was praying—talking about how I was discouraged about literally everything…and how it felt like a mountain…and literally mid-prayer God said to me, “Don’t look at the mountain, look at Me.” The words from the verses Psalm 121:1-2 come to mind.
When our focus is on the mountain and not God, that is when the stress comes in. And then we don’t set out to climb, because fear has come in. We have to trust God to give us the strength to take that one step. One foot in front of the other, so that we are able to reach the top. But this has been an encouragement to me to keep going. I hope this is an inspiration to someone to keep going when God.
IT Related Article
As humans, we are very limited with the number of tasks we can do at once. A task may take longer than expected, requiring more time, and pushing off other tasks that need to be done further out. Even sometimes, we can be faced with more barriers such as having the energy, forgetting the task, or postponing everything. For some, staying organized has helped them to plan achieve daily tasks; however, for some it’s even still a struggle. Often tasks handling doesn’t have to be in your personal life, but also in a business environment as well. An article from INC, says that roughly 92% of people have trouble meeting their goals, and only 8% have successfully met their goals.
Artificial intelligence personal assistants are a viable solution to achieving and remembering all the required tasks. The success rate of an AI personal assistant aiding humans with finishing tasks is significantly higher. An example is very common, from Amazon Alexa, Siri, to Google, and a few others. Just like every AI personal assistant, there is a wake word to activate the device and commands you could give the device to do: “{device name}, remind me at 7:30pm to mow the lawn.”
The AI should be able to run on existing hardware. You would be able to turn over tasks such as creating your schedule, or perhaps setting appointments. For me having the basic things taken care of lets me turn my focus on tasks that require more of my attention. There are a couple of ethical concerns that would arise one being, privacy and the next would be the potential of hacking. Is the device secured enough to not be hacked from another network.
Reference Sources:
Schwantes, M. (2018, June 13). Science Says Only 8 Percent of People Actually Achieve Their Goals. Here Are 7 Things They Do Differently. Inc.com; Inc. https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/science-says-only-8-percent-of-people-actually-achieve-their-goals-here-are-7-things-they-do-differently.html
Social Media Growth Article
When starting out as a social media influencer, there are many variables to take into consideration for growth. From getting the perfect angle for posts, to writing the perfect caption to gain attraction, to having a consistent schedule—all can contribute to creating stress. And without the ability to keep track of analytics on your posts, it can be difficult to understand where you need to improve. What if there a way to stay organized and stress-free? If you are an Instagram influencer looking to keep track website links and analytics on your posts, consider Flick.
Flick is a platform that creates a peace of mind for social media influencers. By using this platform, it allows you to keep track of the following: hashtags, scheduling, and analytics. This platform has proudly advertised that it has helped over 100,000 people in social media within the last year. Flick provides a 7-day trial so that you can try out the service risk-free. And if you love the product after 7-days, you can choose to continue from their four different plans. Upon sign-up you can select from 4 different plans: the Solo, Growth, Pro, and Agency. You can select between yearly and monthly options for all plans.
With the Solo plan, it is £10 a month. It comes with it the ability to: link up 1 Instagram account, schedule up to 10 posts per month, and track up to 10 posts. With the Growth plan, it is £16 a month. You can link 2 Instagram accounts, schedule and track up to 30 posts per month. The Pro plan is £24 a month. It lets you link 5 Instagram accounts; schedule and track unlimited posts. You are also able to invite up to 4 users. Lastly, the Agency plan is £50 per month. You can link up to 12 Instagram accounts, schedule and track unlimited posts, and invite up to 8 users.
Within all plans, it includes the ability to create searches, collections, hashtag data, access to their mobile app and more. Outside of its features, the platform offers 24/7 support if you are having any troubles. There’s also access to helpful resources for you to view. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner, or someone who already knows how to manage social media, you have access to course material, different templates, and helpful tips to help you grow as an influencer.
If you are a social media influencer looking to generate a bit more income, you can consider applying for Flick’s affiliate program. Affiliates working with Flick get a 20% recurring commission, and 30-day payment terms. There’s more information on the affiliates tab on Flicks. To get started as an affiliate, you must first apply, and read through their information. After looking over the material, you can then create content that will send visitors and potential customers over to Flick. Within the dashboard you can keep track of the links clicked, sign-ups and conversions. If the customers purchase from Flick, you will earn a 20% commission from all payments. There’s also access to a library of information that helps you understand more about the program. In order to understand how the commission works: let’s say for example, you refer someone to their Solo monthly plan, which is £10 per month. That is £2 every month, if they remain a user at Flick. However, if they choose a yearly solo plan, you will receive payment every year, up until the user cancels their subscription. The website continues to offer more information about any frequently asked questions about their program, how their program overall works and the addition of more social media platforms.
It doesn’t matter if you are a social media influencer, or beginner looking to start something, Flick offers a plethora of features that help people get the best of their social media. If you are in search of a way to stay organized for your social media, and trying to track website clicks through Instagram, consider checking out Flick. You can try their program risk-free. And they have a mobile application that you can also keep track of the results. Flick helps lighten the load for social media influencers. Take control today.
Research Topic Article
Narcissistic behavior is common among the human race; everyone wants to be the center of attention; but where does it draw the line as too far? There are examples where this behavior starts becoming problematic. About 0.5% of the population are affected by Narcissistic Personality disorder or NPD, (Peisley, Tanya). How does this contrast from regular narcissism? “Narcissism refers to a dimension ranging from healthy, to pathological, to the enduring NPD, and identified by degree of severity, dominance of aggression versus shame, and by the extent to which its manifestations are over or internally hidden. Pathological narcissism differs from health or normal narcissism since the self-esteem regulation is dysfunction serving to protect and support a grandiose but fragile self. The diagnostic term NPD refers to a stable long-term characterological function that meets the DSM-IV criteria for NPD.” (Ronningstam, E., & Gabbard, G. O. (2005). Narcissistic personality disorder. Personality disorders, 277-327).
Those who are affect by this disorder are mainly male. Those dealing with NPD are directly focused on themselves, and only themselves. However, when they interact with different people, they are fairly elusive about it. NPD is divided into two categories: grandiosity and vulnerability. This is a very significant issue because it heavily affects people they are with negatively, whether it may be in a common workplace, or even in relationships, ranging from romantic to friendships, or parent to child. For my research, I've found three helpful social science resources: “The Pathological Narcissism Inventory”, “What makes narcissists bloom?”, and “Narcissism and romantic relationships”.
These sources are similar in the fact that they talk about how the topic of the narcissistic behavior. Both of the articles are from reliable sources, such as Google Scholar, or the Shapiro Library. However, these articles address different aspects, such as how it's formed, real-life examples of how someone with NPD will act, some articles are older than others. This is very important to investigating my issue, because I can find articles in direct correlation with what I'm looking for. I think my main thoughts were solely comprised of whether the article was from a trusted source, and not a blog, nor did it include biases. I wanted to make sure that I could find recent articles on the issue. My choices were based upon thinking about how I accurate I wanted my research to be.
I think the principles that apply to the topic I’m studying would consist of belief and values, and social roles. The belief and values of my topic would apply, because through the eyes of a narcissist they have their own beliefs and value system, which would reflect off of themselves. Social role plays an important part in the topic I’ve chosen, for a few reasons. Narcissism is divided into two parts: narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic vulnerability. One of them displays a more dominate characteristic of a narcissist, and the other displays timid side of the narcissistic spectrum. Each in their own way, they play a role in society. “Narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability exhibit distinct associations with measures of self-esteem, self-conscious emotions, and core affect. vulnerability is negatively associated with self-esteem, whereas grandiosity is positively associated with self-esteem” (Pincus, A. L. (2013). The Pathological Narcissism Inventory. In J. S. Ogrodniczuk (Ed.), Understanding and treating pathological narcissism (p. 103).)
Based on my investigation, I’ve formulated my research question which is: " Is it possible for a narcissist to feel any emotion again, such as love, joy, etc? Are they conscientiously aware the impact of their actions on others?" A social scientist would break down my question, essentially into bits, such as addressing the mentality of a narcissist, and looking into the behaviors of a narcissist as well. They might consider looking into peer reviewed material, in relation to my question. However, they consider interviewing different people with the mental illness. A social science might consider looking into different statistics such as which gender is most affect, the age, etc. They would use a consider looking into the psychology side of a narcissist.
RESOURCES:
· Ronningstam, E., & Gabbard, G. O. (2005). Narcissistic personality disorder. Personality disorders, 277-327.
· Pincus, A. L. (2013). The Pathological Narcissism Inventory. In J. S. Ogrodniczuk (Ed.), Understanding and treating pathological narcissism (p. 103).)
· Pulay, A. J., & Grant, B. F. (2013). Sex and race—Ethnic differences in psychiatric comorbidity of narcissistic personality disorder. In Understanding and treating pathological narcissism. (pp. 183–204). American Psychological Association. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1037/14041-011
· Thomaes, S. C. E., Bushman, B. J., Orobio de Castro, B., & Stegge, H. (2009). What makes narcissists bloom? A framework for research on the etiology and development of narcissism. Development and Psychopathology, 21, 1233-1247
· Wurst, S. N., Gerlach, T. M., Dufner, M., Rauthmann, J. F., Grosz, M. P., Küfner, A. C., ... & Back, M. D. (2017). Narcissism and romantic relationships: The differential impact of narcissistic admiration and rivalry. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112(2), 280.
· (Peisley, Tanya (2017) Is Narcissism Common? The Answer may Surprise You) taken from: https://www.sane.org/information-stories/the-sane-blog/mental-illness/is-narcissism-common-the-answer-may-surprise-you
Poetry
My Child
My child I see you
The silent battles you fight everyday
I’ve seen you walk the lonely roads
I’ve seen you try
I’ve heard your pleas,
In these moments I’ve been so close to you
The weight of the sorrow from the past is no longer yours to carry
Yesterday’s doors are closed
It’s never to late to learn
