| For Language-Learners: Livemocha Summer Challenge - Ends August 31, 2012 |
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Wednesday, July 11th, 2012 10:39:08 GMT |
| Languages |
If you're interested in learning a foreign language, you might be interested in the Livemocha Summer Challenge, which you can read about in Livemocha's blog:
In summary - you can get a one year all-access Gold Key pass (normally $99) for the Livemocha language-learning website just by submitting a minimum of
And, if I understand the challenge properly, it looks like you can win just by submitting your videos, without having to have any of your videos be selected as the best video of the week.
So, maybe I'll actually do the challenge myself using other visuals, and maybe an altered version of my voice. Or maybe not.
I haven't even decided definitely yet on what language(s) I want to learn, since I haven't yet decided what countries I might want to go to someday. Maybe I'll figure it out soon. Or maybe I'll just pick French temporarily just to do the challenge, since I know a little French already, and I found it the easiest of any foreign language I ever tried to learn.
My only connection with Livemocha is that I've been a Livemocha customer since January, though I've been quite lazy with my studies.5 videos (Update, 7/18/2012: Now only 3 videos!) before the end of August, each from 1 to 5 minutes long, which describe how you've been keeping your language fresh, and contain examples of you speaking your target language. And I assume the videos probably have to be submitted one per week instead of all in one batch. So, you probably shouldn't procrastinate too long to get started, otherwise you might not be able to win.
Happily, I don't see anything in the rules that insists that you have to actually put yourself on camera.
This post is not a paid ad and doesn't contain an affiliate link or anything like that - I just wanted to point the challenge out, since it looks like you have to do so relatively little to win, it's almost like a freebie, and I might participate in the challenge myself.
| Free: Chopra Center 21-Day Meditation Challenge - Begins July 16th, 2012 |
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Friday, July 13th, 2012 20:23:07 GMT |
| Self-Help |
Today, I signed up for the free Chopra Center 21-Day Meditation Challenge™, which begins Monday, July 16th, 2012.
Never did one of these meditation challenges before. Maybe it will be fun and beneficial. And if it's not - whatever, at least it's free.
According to their FAQ, you'll be able to download all the meditations
The theme or title of this challenge is "Free to Love". Sounds nice to me.
I guess I might like it. Looking forward to finding out. Guided meditations (especially with music - I hope there's music) do tend to be less boring for me than just sitting there silently. I'm definitely not much of a fan of meditation in general, though - it often seems like a boring waste of time to me.
But, lots of people think meditation is really awesome, so, maybe I've just been doing it wrong. And maybe this free challenge will help me figure out how to do it right.
I guess I just feel like I have too many more important things to do. First I tried doing the meditations soon after waking up, and I sort of liked them, but afterward, to my mild dismay, I found myself a bit less motivated to go and do the productive things I would rather have been doing other than meditation.
So I started putting off doing the meditations until closer to bedtime, but soon ended up putting them off so long I was too tired to want to do them anymore. Then I procrastinated until the meditations I didn't listen to yet were due to be taken down (7 days after they were posted), but, still didn't feel like doing them.
However, I still think meditation might be worth doing. Someday I'll probably get around to giving it another try.
Especially since Joseph Ducreux seems to think meditation is a good idea. :-)
for free. (Update, 7/28/2012. Sorry - actually for purchase. I misunderstood what I read. The way the FAQ phrased it was "for download" and not "for purchase", and I just mistakenly assumed it was a free download.) Each meditation will only be available to listen to for free for 7 days after it's posted.
Update, 7/28/2012: I pretty much lost interest around Day 4 - even though I liked the benefits of meditation I heard about in these Introduction to Meditation videos by Deepak Chopra, and the meditations were guided for the first several minutes and had music throughout, and were relaxing and not bad to listen to.
(Meme image not by me,
I found it on the web somewhere.)