Friday, March 20, 2020

The Hobbit Journal essays

The Hobbit Journal essays There are two reasons I decided to read The Hobbit. One was because it was recommended to me by my sister, who also read this novel when she was my age. She said that its a great book if you enjoy adventures. And adventures are my preferred sort of literature to read. The other reason was it was on the California Standard reading list as well as one of the choices on the book list. As I began to read a few pages of the novel, I have to admit I was not much interested. However as the story progressed, I started to enjoy the book. The first pages of the novel just tell you about hobbits and about Bilbo Baggins relatives. Later on Bilbo is part of an adventure to the misty mountains with Gandalf and 13 other dwarves and has a near fatal encounter with three trolls. This work is written in third person and sound as though it is a story being told aloud. In The Hobbit, the narrator often interrupts himself to make little asides. The narrator usually follows the story through the eyes of the hobbits. This serves as two purposes. One, the hobbit I generally considered to be a representative of the modern world, and two, following the story from the hobbits point of view makes the hobbits the heroes of the book. This way the author shows the importance of ordinary people and what makes them so special. At this point, my favorite character would be Bilbo Baggins because he reminds me the most of me. I, similar to Bilbo, never do anything out of the ordinary and neither am fond of adventures. However, when the opportunity shows up Ill take it. And like Bilbo, change for the better. We are plain and quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things make you late for dinner. I cant see what anyone sees in them. I believe this passage is ironic because Bilbo says he hates adventures and he ends up joining Gandalf in an ...

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Changing Careers Avoid These 5 Biggest Mistakes

Changing Careers Avoid These 5 Biggest Mistakes You think you’re ready to change careers. You’ve got all the right stuff to make a change: you’re extremely good at what you want to do, confident in yourself and your abilities, clear about your expectations and goals, and you have the courage necessary to take the leap. Before you do, however, make sure not to make any of the following mistakes:1. Don’t wait until you’re desperateIt’s never a good idea to make a giant life-changing decision from a place of desperation or despair. If you’ve gotten to the point where you absolutely hate your job and can’t stand going to work, that is- counter-intuitively- the absolute wrong time to change careers.See if you can improve your situation and your day-to-day enjoyment of your work first. When you’ve stabilized a bit, that’s when to take a step back and decide what direction you’d most like to go in. It will save you a lot of backtracking if you quit your corporat e finance job to join the circus on a whim and need to find that middle ground. No need to go through this taxing process twice.2. Don’t forget you need to eat to liveCourage and pluck and a big fat dream are not enough to pay the rent. Before you embark on this crazy life-changing change of course, make sure to lay some solid financial groundwork to support you throughout your transition. Make sure you have enough of a safety net, and that you can make enough to maintain your lifestyle once you make it to the other side of the chasm.3. Don’t lose sight of what you wantIf you’re going to shake things up, make sure to do it right. This will help you avoid going through this process twice. Make sure you really examine- first and foremost- what you want. What values matter to you, what sorts of parameters are deal-breakers for you, what you want to accomplish with your career, etc. Then figure out the kind of actual work that will satisfy those needs. Then, and onl y then, pursue that work. Guesses are not your friend.4. Don’t forget to ask yourself the tough questionsDig deep. Revisit mistake #3. Have you really figured out your motives? Are you looking to make a drastic change for the wrong reasons? Would there be ways to accomplish everything you want and get everything you need within your current field? Even your current position? Figuring out what’s workable about where you are right now is a very useful skill, and it will save you being dissatisfied wherever you end up.5. Don’t give upBig transitions like this don’t come easily. If no one hands you a new career on a silver platter, don’t get too discouraged. Remember to persevere. If you’re not working hard enough to make this happen, it might be because it isn’t really what you want. But if it is? Just keep keeping at it.