Thought Record Form

Payoff.com is a social finance platform enabling communities to fulfill their individual and collective dreams. We launched public beta in January 2011 and have collected 1,000+ dreams, of which over 90% are related to money. Payoff helps people fund their dreams and signNow their goals, like saving for a house or vacation, adopting a child, paying off credit cards, and starting a business, in addition to connecting them with other people working towards the same things. The current product enables users to share their dreams, set up goals, link and track financial accounts, earn badges, and receive cash Sur-Prizes for progress. We provide tools from top-quality partners, as well as educational content to help move users to action and success. Ultimately, we provide a more intuitive way for users to understand how they are spending their life -- it’s not about the dollars, but it’s about the positive use of money, time, talent, and charity. We aim to own dreams and achievement on the web.  Payoff will create meaningful social connections and dialogue through dreams, goals, implicit communities based on personal transactions (the “real-life check-in”), and our partners.  In addition, our relevance and recommendation engine is guided by a Science Advisory Board, with leaders from Cal-Tech, USC, and Northwestern. We recognize that achievement and financial behavior, like most decisions, is driven by emotions, not budgets and lists, and we are signNowing people in this emotional space. One user told us, “I feel more encouragement from these badges than I think you will ever know.  I'm not the most emotional person but I have been so poor for most of my adult life trying to get through school that the day  [the] "STASH" badge was awarded to me I cried!” Payoff is founded by Scott Saunders (Walz Group, Inc 500) and Eden Warner (pre-revenue to profitability CFO at Fandango), along with folks from Yahoo! and SpotRunner. You can view a video about us at and contact us at scott@payoff.com. Also, check out what folks are saying: AOL WalletPop: http://www.walletpop.com/2011/01...Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/p...U.S. News Money: http://money.usnews.com/money/bl...

Not at the diagnosis itself but getting here has been kind of amusing.A few years back, a doctor looking at a chest x-ray noticed that I had a healed crushed vertebra. I knew that I had hurt my back a year earlier but didn’t realize it was a crushed vertebra. When I told her that I got it lifting a shop-vac into my pickup truck, she was suspicious. As a (then) early 50’s male, I shouldn’t have bones getting crushed for something that innocuous. She ran some tests that showed that I had abnormally low bone density but everything else was fine. She suggested that I see a specialist.After a (long story) while I get to see an hematologist/oncologist. They start doing some measurements of protein in my blood. The value keeps rising. Bone marrow and biopsy tests from my hip shows unusual cells. The doctor says I have Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. But … they keep testing and the protein value roughly stabilizes. It’s too high but not high enough for a definitive Waldenstrom’s diagnosis. I have Monoclonal Globulinemia of Unspecified Significance, MGUS. Treatment is to watch and wait to see if it develops into something more serious.This summer, I crush another vertebra lifting up a computer. MRI scan shows a tumor in the crushed vertebra and the vertebra next to it as well as some other damage. Diagnosis? Multiple myeloma.I get signed up for a clinical study for multiple myeloma. Doctors need to get another bone marrow and biopsy from my hip to baseline my condition before starting treatment. Diagnosis? Not multiple myeloma. It’s Waldenstrom’s.The hematologist wants to have a back specialist take a look. When I see the very experienced back specialist he says that he’s never seen Waldenstrom’s lead to crushed vertebra. Diagnosis? It’s probably multiple myeloma.But, importantly, he says we can’t keep guessing. We need to get a bone marrow and biopsy test from the vertebra to be certain. Result? It’s Waldenstrom’s. Everybody is now in agreement.I know way more about my immune system than I ever expected to know.

When I was twelve, my dad died. I have five siblings and we ranged at the time from seven years old to eighteen. The eldest was leaving for college that week, but came back and spent the year at home at my mom's request.Before Dad had been dead a whole month, my mom started sort-of dating a sort-of homeless guy (he had been homeless and then was living in an RV on someone's property as their caretaker) my family had helped before (we volunteered for years prior to this at the local homeless shelter).A month. Our father had died of unexpected of complications from heart attacks just a month prior. We four youngest didn't know what was going on at first and she didn't let our older two siblings know. All we knew was that almost every night mom would have us get in the van, and she'd be in her pajamas and robe, and we'd drive down to his place and she'd send us to go play in the yard while she "said goodnight" and "ministered" to him.Eventually she'd come out with a shit-eating smirk, load us up in the van and drive back home.Less than two months after that she moved him into the house and started claiming they were married to everyone. (They weren't.)Why this was so incredibly selfish was because we weren't allowed to grieve anymore after that. We all had to be happy because mom had a new boyfriend-then-husband, and we all felt like we couldn't even talk about Dad anymore. Mom still talked about him but only to force our good behavior, ie: "You are all such terrible children! Your father wanted you to be raised this way and I've sacrificed so much for you...!" He wasn't even a good stepdad. He could have been worse, sure, but he'd fight with mom then storm out of the house and she'd blame it on us.Less than six months after my dad died he and my mom went on a drive and left me to change a curtain rod. I was still twelve and very small for my age, and I couldn't signNow the curtain rod. I tried, hard, but I kept falling off the back of the couch. They got back and saw that I hadn't done it, so the step-dad kept saying to me "Hah, I knew you were useless." while laughing and repeating it over and over like it was hilarious. I lost my temper and said "You're just a fat old man!" (he was 13 years older than my mom so he seemed quite elderly to me.) He, in front of my mother who had been laughing at his denigration of my handyman attempts, grabbed me, shook me hard, and screamed in my face "You stupid little b***ch!" and stormed out of the house.Mom then spanked me for trying to ruin her marriage.I just wanted my dad back, but I couldn't even say that because what if it made the step-dad feel bad?

I’m banned from the United States of America.It happened in early May this year. I drove down from Toronto to Niagara Falls because I’ve never seen the big leak before, and while I was there, I thought I may as well pay a visit to the land of the free. I walked through Rainbow Bridge (there is a $.5 toll, quite like an exit fee from Canada), and arrived to the border station.I immediately noticed how itchy the Americans are. They thoroughly scrutinized and tapped down every pedestrian. Before me there was a group of three Canadian teenagers. It was pretty obvious that they are not al-Quaeda or Mexicans, also that they are just headed to Buffalo to have a good party, yet they questioned them for several minutes like there was an actual danger of them staying illegally and disrupting the precious national security of the U. S. of A.At my turn, I handed over my Hungarian passport, to which the border guard made a face like I casually dropped a hand grenade on his desk. Granted, we are a rare sight at the land border, but I still wasn’t from fucking Narnia. The guy suspiciously went through the pages, found that there is only one single stamp in it, the one which I got when I landed in Toronto, and there came the questions.“What is the purpose of your visit?”“I would simply like to take a look at the waterfall from the US side.”“Have you ever been to the US before?”“No, this is the first time.”“How long do you plan to stay?”“About an hour perhaps. As you see, I am here with just a camera and a credit card.”“Where do you live?”“I live in Hungary, Budapest.”“What were you doing in Canada?”“Visited a friend and looked at the big white north.”“Do you have a family?”“No, I am single.”“What do you work?”“I am a software engineer.”“What kind of software do you make?”“Currently I am building mobile applications.”“Who is your employer?”“I’m a freelancer.”The border guard shut my passport, looked at me suspiciously and said:“Sorry sir, you’re denied from entering the United States.”“Denied? Why?”“I am not satisfied that you’d leave the country after your visa expires.”“Why on earth would I stay?”“I don’t know sir, but you definitely lied to me. There is no such thing as a freelance engineer!”No amount of explanation cut it any more. I told him to look up “freelance software engineer” and he’ll find a plethora of agencies looking for them, or just take a look at the job section on Stack Overflow. He told me to follow him to a room where they took my mugshot and fingerprints like I were some criminal. I was told that if I want to try again, I will have to go to the US embassy, present my employment papers, evidence that I have strong roots in Hungary and they may lift the ban. I’ll also need a new passport.I was given some document stating that I am persona non grata and pointed out. When I walked back to the Canadian side, I told the border guard that I’ve been booted. She laughed. “You too? Welcome back then.”

ohhh… it’s been a long journey for me to finally get that TeDx stage.Step 1: Filling the Self Nomination form in TeD WebsiteSomeone in Quora suggested that I can nominate myself to become a TeD speaker. But after waiting for 6 long months when I did not hear anything from any TeD organizers, I decided to take a leap forward.Step 2: Requesting Family and Friends to Nominate me.I Requested all my followers in Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/ ResearchGate - Share and discover research / Academia.edu - Share research to fill nomination for me. I thought maybe a larger number of nomination will help me to get recognized by the TeD organizers.“DID NOT WORK”Step 3: Doing the Ground WorkStarted working with ADORE INDIA , Abhyuday IITB,Teach for India.Delivered free lectures. Conducted free of cost student interaction’s across INDIA. Started offline personal counseling firm “White Matter”Even gave a 35 minutes long webinar for ADOREPresented in Many Engineering and Architectural College across INDIA.At the end of the presentation, as a feedback , I requested all student to fill the TeD nomination for mesignNowed out to students in cities like Raipur, Jabalpur, Mumbai, Bhopal.As the ultimate aim was to speak at TeD, it was important to show the TeD curators that i am capable of handling public speaking. Created a fusion of Inspirational and technical talks in the lectures.Speaking wasn't enough. I had to record my lectures as a proof and to share it with the organizers as and when needed. So made a series of you-tube videos.Step 4: Approach the Curators directly.Visited the TeD website and shortlisted upcoming TeD events. Then one by one started sending Emails, Messages , Friend Requests to the TeD Curators. ( Even got blocked by few )Curator 1:Curator 2:Curator 3:Curator 4:Curator 5:Curator 6:Curator 7:Curator 8:The Email which was sent to almost all the curators :Step 5: Skype Interview for TeDi was interviewed by 2 curators. unfortunately the theme of the event did not match with my idea and i never received a call back from the curators. But i did not get disheartened and i continued my pursuit to signNow more and more curators.Step 6: The successTheme : “Rethink the approach towards you”Title : “ At 18, why I chose Academics over being a Bully “…………………………………………………………………….The journey towards your dream is a road that you alone can take, it is paved with silver as well as stones. There is no stopping now. You must work incessantly and persistently towards your dream and persevere to the outcome you desire.June 17th- 2017, will be the most important day of my life and is approaching very fast. I really don't know whether i am capable of sharing the stage with such magnanimous personalities or not . But i will do justice to the stage.Through TeD platform I will tell the world that;“ If a 11th class failure can do this, then anyone can do this?Stay active, be bold, energetic and keep holding the beautiful flower of positive attitude.God Bless you and Love You AllPS: In case i have violated any of the Quora policies in the answer, please don't report it to Quora. Nobody gains anything writing here but it is just out of curiosity we share our experience.

It depends on the state, and I’m not an expert - but I wanted to share my personal experience for a couple reasons.It may surprise some people - especially non-gun ownersI feel it illustrates that gun control and gun laws are two different things and before jumping to the conclusion that we need more (or fewer) laws pertaining to guns, everyone should take a few minutes to educate themselves and use common sense (gasp)This is my first time gun buying experience from about 4–5 years ago.I’d done quite a bit of research online, pretty much settled on what I wanted and decided it was time to walk into a gun store to look and make the final decision in person. After about 15 minutes I’d settled on a gen 4 Glock 19. The store was running a special on the gen 4s and I received a free box of ammunition, as well as an extra magazine. Awesome.Next up it was time to go through the background check and pay. I had to wait, because there was an older guy and his son in front of me. He was purchasing the gun for his son (because he wasn’t 21) - apparently his son was joining a junior police academy and needed a handgun. Well, his background check came back - he had some kind of domestic abuse charge - no gun for you, no gun for your son. The owner of the gun shop chastised him for even wasting her time since he clearly knew that was on his record.My turn. They ran my details, everything came back clean and it was time to pay. Something people may not realize is that guns aren’t cheap. Mine was close to $500. That’s a decent chunk of change and puts them out of many people’s signNow economically. Of course, I’d imagine criminals acquire weapons for much less - but then again they don’t go through the proper channels.Great, background check cleared, I’ve paid and ready to go. The guy behind the counter bags things up and hands it to me - then the owner starts berating him. Apparently by putting the newly purchased gun (still in the case) and the box of ammunition, into the same bag they were setting me up to get a felony when I walked out of the store. They also gave me specific instructions about putting the gun and/or ammo in the trunk of my car - NOT the passenger compartment. Again, throwing the now two separate shopping bags into my back seat would have potentially been criminal (felony).This is where things get crazy. In Ohio, you can load up a gun - put it in a holster (on the outside of your clothes) and walk around in most public places. But, as soon as you cover up the gun - or get into a car with it - you’re breaking the law (felony) unless you’ve gotten a special license/permit. This requires more background checks, fingerprinting, attending a class, paying more money, etc.Now, let’s say you’re all about following the letter of the law and you go through all of these steps so that you can carry your gun in your car. Things don’t get easier - because each state can be different. Despite having a permit, passing the background checks, etc - if you happen to drive into Chicago you could be in a lot of trouble. Apparently, you can drive right through with no problems, but if you step foot outside of your car (even to get gas, even if you leave the gun in the car) you’re now in a world of trouble (felony). It makes you wonder why Chicago has so much gun violence when the gun laws there are so strict.The laws are very strict for gun owners, they can be very confusing, and it seems, by definition, only followed by law abiding citizens.

I have wrote this answer on Quora before and I'm going to put this here. Though this is not my idea.HOW TO STUDY BASED ON HOW MEMORY WORKSMemory works (to put it simply) in 3 stages: attention, encoding (storing/associating with other info), and retrieval(remembering)To optimize the final stage, you have to optimize the first two stages. This means you have to pay attention to the material, and you have to encode it well. (Which I'll explain below.) Additionally, if you repeat the process, you reinforce it. By retrieving something, you start to pay attention to it again, and then you are able to re-encode it better than before.To optimize encoding, remember GOAT ME.G is generate and test. i.e., quiz yourself, or otherwise come up with the answers on your own without just reading them. Even if you get it wrong, it helps more than if you just read the answer off the bat, because you're forcing yourself to think more about it (why was it wrong?). Test yourself in a way that will resemble what you'll actually have to do during the real test. (e.g., if you have to write essays on the test, instead of just writing and memorizing bullet points, actually write an essay multiple times without cheating, review it, and repeat until you can write it without forgetting any important points.) Other effective ways of testing yourself are teaching the material to someone else and talking about it out loud to yourself.O is organize. This reduces the load on your brain and helps create reminders just by coloring, position, or associations with nearby material. For instance, a time line helps remember that event A came before event B in history, not necessarily because you memorized the dates but because you organized the info so that event A was written earlier and you happen to remember that it was written earlier. The position of the information becomes meaningful. You can organize with outlines, pictures, color coding, related material, etc. My use of "GOAT ME" can be thought of as organization. Another fun example (chunking) is as follows. Which of these seems easier to memorize: "CIAFBIKGBCNNUSABBCUK" or "CIA FBI KGB CNN USA BBC UK"?A is for avoid illusions of learning. There are two kinds of memory: familiarity/recognition and recall. Recall is what you want. That's where you can remember the information on your own, as you might be expected to do on a test. Recognition is where you can't think of it on your own but if you see it you suddenly remember it. That's not good. You won't necessarily see it on your test, so you won't get a blatant reminder of it. Avoid study methods that rely on recognition. Similarly, a major problem with rereading material is "fluency". The more you read it, the easier reading it becomes, and when it feels easier to read, you assume you have learned it. You have not. You've just become more skilled at reading it. Don't bother highlighting your textbook in the first go either. You feel like you're picking out the important parts of the chapter but you can't know what's really important until you've read the whole thing. And then all you're gonna do anyway is go back and reread all the highlights, and as we've established, rereading is useless. If instead you actually organize the highlights and quiz yourself on them, highlighting may be useful. For a similar reason, rewriting information is also not very helpful unless you use it as a method of quizzing.T is take breaks. This is HUGE. If nothing else, walk away with just this tip. Your memory works best if you study in frequent, short sessions rather than one long cram session. You don't give your brain a chance to store the earlier info you studied, so it just slips out of your mind, and you'll have wasted your time studying it. So study for awhile, go do something else for a bit, and come back to it, and repeat. One of my students said she taped information in front of her toilet so whenever she went to pee or something she could study for just a couple minutes. It sounds strange but it's actually a great idea (I'd advise, in line with G and A that you tape questions in front of the toilet and tape answers elsewhere so you can quiz yourself.) Another important part of this is that you need to sleep to keep that info in your head. Even if you take regular breaks, an all nighter will do more harm than good. Your memories are stored more permanently after sleep. This is just how the brain works. You can even try to work naps into your study sessions. It's a break + sleep! [EDIT: I do not know how long breaks SHOULD be, but I believe this varies from person to person. Just try to study over the course of days instead of hours.]M is match learning and testing conditions. This is based off the principle ofencoding specificity[1] , which states that, if you want to optimize memory, then the conditions surrounding encoding (e.g., where you are when you study, how tired you are when you study, etc.) should be the same as those surrounding retrieval (e.g., where you are when you're tested, how tired you are when you're tested, etc.). This is because the conditions themselves serve as reminders. (Have you ever walked into the kitchen for something, forgotten why you were there, and as soon as you return to the other room you suddenly remember why you went to the kitchen?) This includes your environment and your physiology, serving as reminders. Think about noise level, size of room, lighting, types of furniture, mood, intoxication, sitting position, and even the way you work with the material (remember G and A). Studies show that learning while drunk is best remembered while drunk again. Learning after exercising, also best remembered after exercising. The alternative to this is that you should study under MANY different conditions. This way, the information comes easily to you regardless of your surrounding conditions. Otherwise, the information will unfortunately be associated with the specific circumstances you studied under and will be difficult to remember in any other situation. If you want to remember this stuff outside of being tested in class, STUDY UNDER MANY CONDITIONS. Study in a noisy place AND a quiet place, with and without coffee, etc.E is elaborate. Think deeply about the material and make other associations with it. At the most extreme, this can mean truly understanding the concept, why it works, how it relates to other concepts, and how it's applied. But on a simpler level, it can be the following: Does it remind you of something else? Can you make a song out of it? Can you visually imagine it? How does it apply to you or your life? Instead of taking the material at face value, do something with it. The reason this is important is because of reminders. Memory works by having a network of associations. One thing reminds you of another. If you've thought deeply about it, you've probably associated it with something else in memory, which can then serve as a reminder. You can think, "Oh yeah, this is the term that inspired me to draw that silly stick figure to represent it. And I remember what the drawing looked like so now I remember what the term means." Additionally, the quality of the memory will be better if you have elaborated on it. Elaboration allows for a lot of creativity and individuality among studiers. Choose whichever method of elaboration works for you. Maybe you enjoy making up songs, drawing doodles, creating stories, visually imagining it, relating it to yourself, or just pondering about it. If you're studying history, you might try to think about it visually, imagine what people would have said or looked like, watch them in your head doing their historical stuff, or maybe you'd like to draw a quick doodly comic about a particular event, or maybe you wanna think about why this even was signNow, or how it relates to another historical event.If I had to summarize this in fewer points:Keep similar conditions during studying and testing. This includes environmental surroundings, mental and physiological state, the way you think about the material, and so on. But if you want to remember this outside of class, study in a VARIETY of conditions, so that you don't associate the material with any particular condition.Study briefly and frequently, and sleep.But one other good point I would add is this:Take notes BEFORE class if possible, and add to them whenever necessary. Do this by reading the textbook chapters ahead of time (and take notes; refer to your syllabus to find out which chapter is next, if applicable) or see if your teacher posts Powerpoints online ahead of time. This way, you're not just frantically writing notes in class and you'll actually be able to more fully pay attention to what the teacher is saying (remember: attention is the first step of the memory process!). You may think you can pay attention to the professor as you're writing, but you are actually dividing your attention and hurting your memory.Props to Salticido in https://www.reddit.com/r/AskRedd...

Just a little over four years ago, Snapchat was supposedly just an idea that founder Evan Spiegel and friends had while in a class at Stanford.Now, over 100 million active users and 7 billion daily video views later,the White House has joined, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is running a campaign on it and senior ad buyers are starting to take notice and planning to advertise on the platform over other social media sites.How did Snapchat, an app that first made headlines as the“sexting app”, get here?THE HISTORY OF SNAPCHAT: HOW DISAPPEARING PHOTOS CHANGED THE GAMEI was surprised early on that people didn’t realize that the way Snapchat works is much closer to how we communicate face to face than any other social network. What I mean by this is that: when we talk to each other, passing in the halls or just living out our lives, those moments disappear. Snapchat emulates that behavior and psychology.Snapchat was started at a time when everybody and their mom thought they were an entrepreneur who could launch a successful social app. Facebook was where you went for updates on family and friends, Instagram was beautiful photo content, and Twitter was the conversation at a cocktail party. These three social giants dominated most of the conversation, but they all played off of each other in terms of functionality, and, most importantly, audience. However, Snapchat was able to counterbalance the strengths of all three players and create a new social pipeline.The norm of the internet age is to create platforms in which everything is saved—everything is stored and documented digitally. Snapchat went the opposite direction and is predicated on our reality: moments are temporary and that’s exactly the feeling and behavior that Snapchat mapped to. Snaps could even be compared to television the first fifty years it was introduced: the broadcast aired, and that was it. Snapchat managed to tap into a lot of historical truths, instead of creating something entirely new.FACEBOOK OFFERS TO BUY SNAPCHATAll these things quickly led Snapchat to come to the attention of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Just one year after launch, Zuckerberg reportedly tried to buy the app for $3 billion.Let me just say this: Zuckerberg is the greatest trader in consumer attention of all time.He understands the value of attention. He recognized that Snapchat was well on its way to winning the attention of a generation, much like he did with Instagram (which Facebook bought in 2012 for $1 billion). He saw it as a vulnerability and saw that a Snapchat generation could emerge, much like there was a Facebook generation before it. Facebook acquired a monopoly on 18 to 24 year olds with Instagram, they had a monopoly on an older demo with Facebook; they just needed Snapchat to fill the gaps.But Spiegel turned the offer down. He saw what Zuckerberg saw: the potential to fill-in the social pipelines that other platforms had ignored. He knew he had one of the hottest apps of the time; now it was just up to him and the team to blow out their user base and execute against their core function.THE MATURATION OF SNAPCHAT’S ATTENTIONBut, let’s be honest: what really makes a new social network become popular fast?Teenagers.There are two things that are very true when it comes to teens. One, it’s not cool to hang out at the same club as your mom. And two, you want to lock your room.Snapchat solved both those things. Parents were starting to join Facebook in droves, so teens were looking to leave and looking for somewhere to go. And, the disappearing photos function was essentially the same thing as a “do not disturb” sign on your door, except much more effective. Both these things led to Snapchat’s extreme and sudden user growth. Just a year after launching, Snapchat hit 10 million active users.In October 2013, Snapchat made a signNow update to the platform:Stories. Users could now also add Snaps to a feature called their “Story”, which acted like a longer narrative of snaps strung together. The stories last twenty-four hours after being posted and are public to all their followers.I’m going to be very clear here: I went on the record saying I thought the update was a bad idea. I thought it was absurd to imagine that users would actually go out of their way to watch something on a platform where things were historically delivered to them (Stories live on their own page and you have to click into a Story to watch it).But boy was I wrong. This update marked Snapchat’s first big move into becoming a major platform by creating it’s own social language and context. It already had functionality very different from any other social network at the time; you could draw on top of photos, content disappeared, and the gestures of swiping up, down and to the side were relatively new. But after Stories the platform began to take off and mature as a content destination. By August 2014, 40% of 18 year olds in the US were using Snapchat on a daily basis.The biggest update in recent Snapchat history, and the one that really changed the game for me to push it towards the mainstream, has to be Discover.SNAPCHAT BECOMES A MEDIA DESTINATIONIn early 2015, Snapchat launched Discover. It’s a feature that allows users to receive content provided by top media companies. Launch participants included National Geographic, Vice, ESPN, and more. Eleven participants in all started it off. It was, and still is, a serious play to be part of Snapchat Discover because it puts a company in a very aggressive place within the overall user interface of the app and delivers an unmatched form of attention from their youthful user base. It also completely changed the swipe navigation and how the app is used.It was very exciting step forward for Snapchat. It was obvious they were paying attention to current trends and were ready to act: the explosion of content and companies becoming media companies, putting out their own content, the importance of mobile being first.Using Discover as their platform, Snapchat went out and made deals that allowed them to curate some of the top content providers in the world in this one spot. This gives them more power in the micromanagement of what shows up on the Discover page.The brands that launched as partners, and the 18 brands now currently in the space, have an enormous relationship with Snapchat, and they are getting great equity for it. Why? 45% of Snapchat’s users are under 25.There are over 100 million users, nearing 200 million. Snapchat is basically handing these brands the 25-and-under demo. So it’s no surprise that these media companies have hired entire teams around the initiative. Their only job is to make content for Snapchat.Now, Snapchat is partnering with the NFL, the White House has recently joined, and it’s safe to assume they’ll continue to broker relationships with more content creators as they’re proving that they are a real media property to be reckoned with.THE BASICS OF SNAPCHATSo now that you know everything there is to know about the history of the platform, let’s get down to the most important part: how the fuck do you use this thing? On every article I have written about Snapchat in the past, most of the comments come back to me saying something like “Yeah, but how the hell do I use this this?” or “It’s so confusing!”No problem. Below are some handy guides I have put together to teach you guys the basic functionalities of Snapchat, as well as some cool hacks.THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SNAP, STORY, AND CHATSo…how exactly do you define a Snap?Great question. A Snap is the main functionality of the app and is what the disappearing photos and videos are called. You send these directly to friends in the app. They last anywhere from one second up to ten seconds after being opened, then the “snap” disappears.And the difference between that and a Story is…?A Story is a collection of Snaps put together to create a, well, Story. Unlike direct Snaps, these can be viewed by anyone who follows you. When you send a Snap to your Story, it becomes public to your followers. Stories last up to 24 hours before disappearing, but still can only be up to 10 seconds long.There’s also chat right?Yep. When you swipe right on a person’s name in your direct Snap inbox, the chat function will appear. You know you’ve received a chat when a blue speech bubble appears next to someone’s name. Chats also disappear after being opened.QUICK GIF GUIDES TO USING SNAPCHATSNAPCHATTING A VIDEO V/S PHOTOHOW TO ADD FILTERS AND DOUBLE FILTERS ON SNAPCHATHOW TO USE SNAPCHAT VIDEO FILTERSHOW TO SAVE A PHOTO OR VIDEOSNAPCHAT ACCOUNTS TO FOLLOWThis is just a short list of people who are killing it on the platform. There aren’t that many yet because people still aren’t taking it seriously. So get on it now.DJ Khaled: @djkhaled305Shonduras: @shondurasCasey Neistat: @caseyneistatLACMA: @lacmaDiplo: @diploOh by the way, I’m on there too: @GaryVee.THE HISTORY OF SNAPCHAT IN ONE TIMELINE

NOOOOOOO. You are talking to a military romance scammer. I received an email from the US Army that directly answers your question that is pasted below please keep reading.I believe you are the victim of a military Romance Scam whereas the person you are talking to is a foreign national posing as an American Soldier claiming to be stationed overseas on a peacekeeping mission. That's the key to the scam they always claim to be on a peacekeeping mission.Part of their scam is saying that they have no access to their money that their mission is highly dangerous.If your boyfriend girlfriend/future husband/wife is asking you to do the following or has exhibited this behavior, it is a most likely a scam:Moves to private messaging site immediately after meeting you on Facebook or SnapChat or Instagram or some dating or social media site. Often times they delete the site you met them on right after they asked you to move to a more private messaging siteProfesses love to you very quickly & seems to quote poems and song lyrics along with using their own sort of broken language, as they profess their love and devotion quickly. They also showed concern for your health and love for your family.Promises marriage as soon as he/she gets to state for leave that they asked you to pay for.They Requests money (wire transfers) and Amazon, iTune ,Verizon, etc gift cards, for medicine, religious practices, and leaves to come home, internet access, complete job assignments, help sick friend, get him out of trouble, or anything that sounds fishy.The military does provide all the soldier needs including food medical Care and transportation for leave. Trust me, I lived it, you are probably being scammed. I am just trying to show you examples that you are most likely being connned.Below is an email response I received after I sent an inquiry to the US government when I discovered I was scammed. I received this wonderful response back with lots of useful links on how to find and report your scammer. And how to learn more about Romance Scams.Right now you can also copy the picture he gave you and do a google image search and you will hopefully see the pictures of the real person he is impersonating. this doesn't always work and take some digging. if you find the real person you can direct message them and alert them that their image is being used for scamming.Good Luck to you and I'm sorry this may be happening to you. please continue reading the government response I received below it's very informative.   You have contacted an email that is monitored by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. Unfortunately, this is a common concern. We assure you there is never any reason to send money to anyone claiming to be a Soldier online. If you have only spoken with this person online, it is likely they are not a U.S. Soldier at all. If this is a suspected imposter social media profile, we urge you to report it to that platform as soon as possible. Please continue reading for more resources and answers to other frequently asked questions:  How to report an imposter Facebook profile: Caution-https://www.facebook.com/help/16... < Caution-https://www.facebook.com/help/16... >   Answers to frequently asked questions:  - Soldiers and their loved ones are not charged money so that the Soldier can go on leave.  - Soldiers are not charged money for secure communications or leave.  - Soldiers do not need permission to get married.  - Soldiers emails are in this format: john.doe.mil@mail.mil < Caution-mailto: john.doe.mil@mail.mil > anything ending in .us or .com is not an official email account.  - Soldiers have medical insurance, which pays for their medical costs when treated at civilian health care facilities worldwide – family and friends do not need to pay their medical expenses.  - Military aircraft are not used to transport Privately Owned Vehicles.  - Army financial offices are not used to help Soldiers buy or sell items of any kind.  - Soldiers deployed to Combat Zones do not need to solicit money from the public to feed or house themselves or their troops.  - Deployed Soldiers do not find large unclaimed sums of money and need your help to get that money out of the country.  Anyone who tells you one of the above-listed conditions/circumstances is true is likely posing as a Soldier and trying to steal money from you.  We would urge you to immediately cease all contact with this individual.  For more information on avoiding online scams and to report this crime, please see the following sites and articles:   This article may help clarify some of the tricks social media scammers try to use to take advantage of people: Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/61432/< Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/61432/>   CID advises vigilance against 'romance scams,' scammers impersonating Soldiers  Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/180749 < Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/180749 >   FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center: Caution-http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx< Caution-http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx>   U.S. Army investigators warn public against romance scams: Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/130...< Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/130...>   DOD warns troops, families to be cybercrime smart -Caution-http://www.army.mil/article/1450...< Caution-http://www.army.mil/article/1450...>   Use caution with social networking  Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/146...< Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/146...>    Please see our frequently asked questions section under scams and legal issues. Caution-http://www.army.mil/faq/ < Caution-http://www.army.mil/faq/ > or visit Caution-http://www.cid.army.mil/ < Caution-http://www.cid.army.mil/ >.  The challenge with most scams is determining if an individual is a legitimate member of the US Army. Based on the Privacy Act of 1974, we cannot provide this information. If concerned about a scam you may contact the Better Business Bureau (if it involves a solicitation for money), or local law enforcement. If you're involved in a Facebook or dating site scam, you are free to contact us direct; (571) 305-4056.   If you have a social security number, you can find information about Soldiers online at Caution-https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/sc... < Caution-https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/sc... > . While this is a free search, it does not help you locate a retiree, but it can tell you if the Soldier is active duty or not.  If more information is needed such as current duty station or location, you can contact the Commander Soldier's Records Data Center (SRDC) by phone or mail and they will help you locate individuals on active duty only, not retirees. There is a fee of $3.50 for businesses to use this service. The check or money order must be made out to the U.S. Treasury. It is not refundable. The address is:  Commander Soldier's Records Data Center (SRDC) 8899 East 56th Street Indianapolis, IN 46249-5301 Phone: 1-866-771-6357  In addition, it is not possible to remove social networking site profiles without legitimate proof of identity theft or a scam. If you suspect fraud on this site, take a screenshot of any advances for money or impersonations and report the account on the social networking platform immediately.  Please submit all information you have on this incident to Caution-www.ic3.gov < Caution-http://www.ic3.gov > (FBI website, Internet Criminal Complaint Center), immediately stop contact with the scammer (you are potentially providing them more information which can be used to scam you), and learn how to protect yourself against these scams at Caution-http://www.ftc.gov < Caution-http://www.ftc.gov > (Federal Trade Commission's website)

This Daily Record of Dysfunctional Thoughts is an adaptation of the original cognitive therapy thought record by Aaron Beck and colleagues (Beck, Rush, Shaw & Emery, 1979).

Thought Log (blank) ... Thought logs are used by psychotherapy clients to become more aware of their irrational thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and the relationships between all three. After identifying harmful irrational thoughts, the client will be able to intervene, and begin changing them.

Thought records are one of many skills taught in CBT. ... A thought record is a way of putting your thoughts to the test. It's designed to help you change your moods by finding a more balanced way of thinking about things. In short, you identify a dubious thought and “put it on trial.”

Negative automatic thoughts (NATO), as first described by Beck, are a stream of thoughts that we can notice, if we pay attention to them. They are negatively framed interpretations of what we think is happening to us. And they usually have an impact on our mood and our feelings, that isn't positive.

Automatic thoughts, a concept in cognitive behavioral therapy, are images or mental activity that occur as a response to a trigger (like an action or event). They are automatic and 'pop up' or 'flash' in your mind without conscious thought. Automatic thoughts can be beneficial.