Saturday, January 24, 2009

speed reading video

I'm going to see if I can embed the video here too I'm not sure if it will work, if not I'll post it elsewhere on the site.

Did you ever want to learn how to speed read?

Check out the following article on how...

How to Learn Speed Reading

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Whether you're hitting the textbooks in philosophy class, reading long-winded emails from co-workers, or just reading the morning newspaper, chances are at one time or another you've wished you could read a little faster. So widespread is the desire to learn speed reading, in fact, that teaching the skill has become big business: a host of companies now offer books, training sessions and even computer programs to increase reading speed, sometimes at a cost of hundreds of dollars. But why fork over your paycheck or student loan money for a speed reading system when you can start reading faster today by following these simple steps?

Steps

Have your eyes checked. Many people who read particularly slowly do so because they have an undiagnosed vision problem. Even if you think you have perfect vision, if you haven't had an eye exam recently, there's no time like the present.
Time your current reading speed. It is important to find out how fast you read now so that you can track your improvement through subsequent timings. Not only will timing help you to tell if you're improving, but it will also keep you motivated.
- You can break out a book and a stopwatch and either time how long it takes you to read a certain number of words on a page or find out how many words you read in a given amount of time.
- An easier way to time yourself is to take an online reading speed test. There are a plethora of these available: just enter "reading speed test" in your search engine. Many of these have reading comprehension tests, as well, so you can see how well you're understanding what you're reading.
- Regardless of how you decide to time yourself, be sure to read at your normal speed during the timing, and time yourself on a few different pages - the average of your times should approximate your average reading speed.
Get rid of distractions. Even if you think you read better when you have music playing or when you're in a crowded coffee house, you can probably increase your speed if you reduce distractions to a bare minimum. Try to find a solitary place to read, and turn off the TV, radio and cell phone. Even being in a room of people talking is distracting. If no solitary place is available, try using earplugs to block out any distractions around you. In order to maximize comprehension while reading quickly, you will need to focus on the material at hand as closely as possible.
Adjust reading speed depending on the material. Often, we must trade off comprehension for speed, so an important part of increasing reading speed is deciding how thoroughly you need to comprehend a particular piece of writing. So before you even start reading, decide how fast you intend to go. If you're reading a newspaper article, chances are you just want to get the main ideas, and you can skim through the passages quite rapidly. If, however, you're reading a mathematics textbook or a demanding philosophical treatise - and you need to fully understand the material - you do not want to rush.
Learn to separate the wheat from the chaff with pre-reading. No matter what you are reading, there is frequently a lot of "filler" that you can read quickly through or even skim over. With practice, you will be able to identify the most important parts of a book as you skim through it. When you get to such a passage, slow down. Before you begin a chapter or book, look over the entire piece very quickly. Try to find patterns of repeated words, key ideas, bold print and other indicators of important concepts. Then, when you actually do your reading you may be able to skim over large portions of the text, slowing only when you come to something you know is important.
Train yourself not to reread. Most people frequently stop and skip back to words or sentences they just read to try to make sure they understood the meaning. This is usually unnecessary, but it can easily become a habit, and many times you will not even notice you're doing it. One exercise to help you avoid rereading is to take a sheet of paper or index card and drag it down the page as you read, covering each line once you've read it. Try to drag the card in a steady motion; start slowly, and increase your speed as you feel more comfortable.
Stop reading to yourself. As you read you probably subvocalise, or pronounce the words to yourself. Almost everybody does it, although to different degrees: some people actually move their lips or say the words under their breath, while others simply say each word in their heads. Regardless of how you subvocalise, it slows you down. (You are concerned with speed reading here, not reading to practice communicating the material verbally, which can be done later if you find it necessary.) To break the habit, try to be conscious of it. When you notice yourself pronouncing words to yourself, try to stop doing it. It may help to focus on key words and skip over others, or you may want to try humming to yourself or counting "1,2,3,4" repeatedly in order to prevent subvocalising. One exercise to stop your lips from moving is to put a finger on your mouth and keep it there while you read.
Read with your hand. Smooth, consistent eye motion is essential to speed reading. You can maximize your eyes' efficiency by using your hand to guide them. One such method is to simply draw your hand down each page as you read. You can also brush your hand under each line you read, as if you are brushing dust off the lines. Your eyes instinctively follow motion, and the movement of your hand serves to keep your eyes moving constantly forward. Note, however, that many speed reading instruction books warn off using a tracking member in speed reading as it inhibits the process.
Practice reading blocks of words. Nearly everyone learned to read word-by-word or even letter-by-letter, but once you know the language, that's not the most efficient method of reading. Not every word is important, and in order to read quickly, you'll need to read groups of words - or even whole sentences or short paragraphs - instantaneously. The good news is you probably already do this to some extent: most people read three or four words at a time. Once you make an effort to be aware of your reading style, you'll discover how many words you read at a time. Now you just need to increase that number. Using your hand as a guide may help, as may holding the book a little further from your eyes than you usually do.
Practice and push yourself. While you may see some gains in speed the moment you start using these tips, speed reading is a skill that requires a lot of practice. Always push yourself to your comfort level and beyond - if you end up having to reread a section, it's not a big deal. Keep practicing regularly.
Time yourself regularly. After a week or so of practice, time yourself as in step two. Do this regularly thereafter, and keep track of your improvement. Don't forget to pat yourself on the back every time your reading speed increases!

Video

Tips

Try books with large font to start. A book with small letters might be hard at first because it is easy to skip lines by mistake.
Start by reading a book or article that you have already read. It will be easier to skip words and keep up a smooth flow if you're familiar with the material.
When using your hand or finger to guide your eyes, start slowly, but at a challenging pace. Even if you don't think you're keeping up with your hand, keep going for a page or two and then test your comprehension. With practice, you'll be able to move your hand and read faster that way.
Take frequent breaks. Your comprehension and focus will be better if you take a five-minute break every hour or half-hour. Taking breaks is also important to keep your eyes healthy and avoid eye strain.
You may not want to read some things quickly, even if you can. Fiction for example, is usually relatively easy to read quickly, but you can miss out on a lot of the nuance and beauty of the fiction writer's craft, even if you understand everything that's going on in a story. The same is doubly true for poetry. If you're reading for enjoyment, it may be best to savor the words.
An index card, bookmark, or other page-width item might help increase speed more than a finger. By obscuring surrounding text, a card prevents your eyes from wandering.
Read every day at least 10 minutes.

Warnings

While faster reading can actually improve your comprehension by making you a more active, focused reader, reading too fast can also lead to decreased comprehension. You read in order to get important information; if you're reducing your comprehension dramatically, you might as well not read at all.
Beware of expensive speed reading products. Try the tips above before you spend money on a speed reading book or kit. If you're still not making progress after a few weeks of regular, serious practice, you may want to consider paying for a product, but do some research and compare your options before you do.
Sleep well! You won't be able to have a good understanding of the text if you don't. It will make you spend a lot more time on reading, and even like that, the comprehension isn't going to be as high as you may wish.

Things You'll Need

Reading material
Good eyesight
Patience
Earplugs

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Learn Speed Reading. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

I Agree!!

Okay, I finally watched "Slum-Dog Millionaire" and "The Wrestler" and they were fantastic!!! It makes absolute sense that Slum-Dog Millionaire cleaned up at the golden globes and that The Wrestler earned Mickey Rourke with best actor.

The story of "Slum-Dog Millionaire" is gripping, touching and spirited; and the way it was shot, the camera angles, the way the shots were framed and the colour was absolutely fantastic!! I couldn't pull my eyes away. When I first heard the premise I must admit I didn't think much of it... A contestant on India's version of "Who wants to be a millionaire" didn't sound very interesting to me. The show part of the movie made for an excellent and original device to tell us the lead characters life over a broad time frame. "Thumbs-up to "Slumdog Millionaire"! Briliant!

Mickey Rourke portrayed Randy (The Ram), a wrestler who's past it and struggling to find his place now. His fear of being alone spurs on the best of intentions but alas he is eternally flawed and destined to be a tragic character. You can't help but feel sympathetic towards his character and his failures break your heart.

So, now my friend Dan can be happy. He's been driving me nuts trying to get me to watch these movies. Well he was right, they were awesome!

I'm a smarty pants!!

I was bored again and decided to smack my brain into working... I only had to smack myself around for an hour or so... lol... Anyway, look how smart I am!!

Free-IQTest.net - Free IQ Test

Friday, January 16, 2009

A Personality Test! --My Results!

Rational Portrait of the Architect (INTP)

Architects need not be thought of as only interested in drawing blueprints for buildings or roads or bridges. They are the master designers of all kinds of theoretical systems, including school curricula, corporate strategies, and new technologies. For Architects, the world exists primarily to be analyzed, understood, explained - and re-designed. External reality in itself is unimportant, little more than raw material to be organized into structural models. What is important for Architects is that they grasp fundamental principles and natural laws, and that their designs are elegant, that is, efficient and coherent.

Architects are rare - maybe one percent of the population - and show the greatest precision in thought and speech of all the types. They tend to see distinctions and inconsistencies instantaneously, and can detect contradictions no matter when or where they were made. It is difficult for an Architect to listen to nonsense, even in a casual conversation, without pointing out the speaker's error. And in any serious discussion or debate Architects are devastating, their skill in framing arguments giving them an enormous advantage. Architects regard all discussions as a search for understanding, and believe their function is to eliminate inconsistencies, which can make communication with them an uncomfortable experience for many.

Ruthless pragmatists about ideas, and insatiably curious, Architects are driven to find the most efficient means to their ends, and they will learn in any manner and degree they can. They will listen to amateurs if their ideas are useful, and will ignore the experts if theirs are not. Authority derived from office, credential, or celebrity does not impress them. Architects are interested only in what make sense, and thus only statements that are consistent and coherent carry any weight with them.

Architects often seem difficult to know. They are inclined to be shy except with close friends, and their reserve is difficult to penetrate. Able to concentrate better than any other type, they prefer to work quietly at their computers or drafting tables, and often alone. Architects also become obsessed with analysis, and this can seem to shut others out. Once caught up in a thought process, Architects close off and persevere until they comprehend the issue in all its complexity. Architects prize intelligence, and with their grand desire to grasp the structure of the universe, they can seem arrogant and may show impatience with others who have less ability, or who are less driven.

Albert Einstein as the iconic Rational is an Architect

Dr. David Keirsey, Robert Rosen, George Soros, Gregory Peck, James Madison, Ludwig Boltzman, Charles Darwin, Adam Smith, and Thomas Jefferson" /> are examples of the Architect Rationals

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

No way to work

Okay, so this bus strike is finally starting to get to me. I just had an unplanned vacation over the Christmas holidays. My only ride was going on vacation so therefore so was I. That was kind of fun but scarcely affordable and now, my first week back to work, she is staying home again and therefore again, so am I. Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all angry with my ride... My getting to work shouldn't be her problem to begin with. As this bus strike continues though, and the OC Transpo Union leader and our major continue their pissing contest I would just like to point out that the little people like myself, who only clear $1200 to $1300 per month anyway, are struggling to survive. Since this bus strike started I've lost approximately $790 worth of work spread out over just December and January so far! So no, I really don't care about a 3.8% raise or 8 extra sick days and free choice of scheduling for our drivers here in Ottawa. I care about if my bills get paid and how I'm gonna eat when my groceries run out. This is the reality behind our public transportation strike.

Self Important Mumbo Jumbo