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Entries Tagged as 'Journal'

Exceeding the Job (Caution)

November 13th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes I can do more than my job. I can exceed and excel. I recommend caution. I read an editorial recently about newspapers. Perhaps that editorial was agreeable or not as it delved into the politics of the English language (thoughtful and fraught with peril). The topic was journalism, journalists, and journal-ing. […]

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Tags: Communication · Competence · Expectations · Expertise · Growth · Ideas · Journal · Management

Writing at Pulp Speed

June 2nd, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I have been able to write drafts faster and with much higher quality than other writers I know. I have, unknowingly, been writing at “pulp speed.” I stumbled across this concept of writing at pulp speed recently. It came from a blog post by Dean Wesley Smith. Back in the old days […]

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Tags: Communication · Education · History · Journal · Learning · Stories · Writing

Data Visualization (A Calendar)

September 7th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Let’s not get carried away with things like “data visualization.” We’ve been looking at data for a long time. I have heard a lot lately about data visualization. This blog post should indicate that I have heard far too much lately about data visualization. The folly hit me recently as we were […]

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Tags: Calendar · Communication · Data Science · History · Journal · Knowledge · Technology · Visibility

The Dark Ages at a Personal Level

October 21st, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There are tools that help me remember the things I need to remember. They prevent a fall into the Dark Ages. Define Dark Ages: it isn’t that we forget how to do something, it is that we forget than we once could do that. Personal Dark Ages: it isn’t that I can’t […]

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Tags: Competence · Information · Journal · Process · Remember · Tools

The Government

August 23rd, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I guess we will never stop putting individuals into a group and attributing the actions of some individuals to an entire group. Hence, we discuss “the government.” I have been a citizen of the United States since birth. I was an employee of the United States Federal government for 28 years. The […]

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Tags: Accountability · Communication · Government · Journal

Throw Away or Put Away (for now)

July 22nd, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We don’t have to “throw away” or discard ideas. We can always put them in a place to visit later. I have lots of ideas for writing, speaking, and generally contemplating. I don’t always have the time to use the ideas right now. That is fine. I save them for later, i.e., […]

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Tags: Communication · Ideas · Journal · Knowledge · Library · Notebook · Writing

Words per Sentence

May 13th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This is perhaps the once piece of writing advice that has more return per ounce of effort there is. How many words do you have in a sentence? Here is an example of the first sentence of an article in a nationally famous newspaper (The Washington Post, 1 April 2021, and it […]

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Tags: Engineering · Journal · Mathematics · Writing

The Memorandum for the Record

March 26th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A few thoughts on an item that has been forgotten in the workplace and society in general, the Memorandum for the Record.   Question: Can you believe what just happened? We should tell somebody. Somebody needs to know this. What do we do?  Answer: Write a Memorandum for the Record or MFR.  Follow-up […]

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Tags: Accountability · Communication · History · Journal · Record · Writing

Now That I’ve Said It…

January 2nd, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Yet another reason that writing in a weblog or a paper log is helpful. I find many benefits to writing in a log whether that be in a paper book or in an Internet thing like this one. One benefit is that whatever thought I write is now out of my head. […]

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Tags: Journal · Notebook · Writing

Page Zero of My Journals

September 28th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips On the first page of each journal book, I first write a few things to keep me in the desired frame of mind. Journal Writing A tool for self awareness events people things feelings insights questions experiences with ideas dreams and fantasies The Examen Spiritual Exercises Thank God for all gifts Ask […]

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Tags: Journal · Writing