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We tend to think of a day as that single block of time, a finite time in which you can either triumph or fail. But you may find that you have fewer bad days – and more good ones – if you think of a single day as something that can be broken down into smaller periods of time.

If you tend to get discouraged when perceived failures pile up against the clock, think of your day as four distinct quarters, each of which is full of opportunities for success.

Visualize your day like a basketball game

If you’ve seen the NBA playoffs, you’ll understand that plenty of ground can be made up in a short timeeven if it looks like you’ve already lost. And while sports analogies may seem too simple, thinking of your day as four distinct quarters can help you stay on track over time.

The concept was so illustrated by the Author Gretchen Rubinwho, as The last Reddit post points this out, described it this way:

Instead of feeling like you’ve faded away the day and think, “I’ll be back on track tomorrow,” try to think of each day as a series of four quarters: morning, noon, afternoon, evening. If you blow a quarter, you’ll get back on track for the next quarter. Errors small, not big.

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The idea here is to accept that failure is a given. Nobody goes through life (or pursues a career path) without stumbling unexpectedly. Looking at the day in quarters normalizes the inevitability of failure and the notion that there is still a chance to recover – because there is again and again a quarter to make up for lost ground.

Obviously, reorienting your thinking like this takes some care, because to be truly successful you need to get used to spreading and investing your efforts over the four quarters of your day – morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. However, this also gives a sense of empowerment, as it is up to you to decide which neighborhood is the most momentous or the least significant and rank it accordingly. Today, even if you’ve spent a quarter of the day scrolling aimlessly on the Internet while important work was left unattended, the whole day isn’t wasted.

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There’s no shortage of apps and online courses that are purportedly the best way to learn a new language. Whether you want to brush up on your high school Spanish or start over, you can turn to Duolingo (the been accused looting users’ personal information) or a paid option like Rosetta Stone or Coursera, but there is another proven, completely free alternative: you can learn a new language like a US diplomat.

The Institute for the Foreign Service (FSI), which trains professionals to live overseas serving the U.S. government, is known for its excellent foreign language teaching – and you have free access to its course materials and detailed audio instructions.

How to use the Foreign Service’s language courses

Unfortunately, you can’t call the FSI and ask to send you the full curriculum of their Yoruba or Hebrew courses, but you can find both languages ​​- in addition to many, many others on the Live Lingua language learning site. The FSIs were previously available online elsewhere (we even wrote about them.) more than a decade ago), but this site is no longer accessible.

While Live Lingua is primarily an online Spanish teacher, the website has much of the official FSI curriculum for 40 languages, including audio lessons and downloadable PDFs. All FSI offers include 127 courses, 161 e-books and 4,169 audio lessons.

The curriculum has proven effective; It was developed to prepare people to live and work in countries where they have important tasks to perform, even though they have a limited understanding of the mother tongue. You need to be somewhat self-sufficient and commit to studying with only audio files and PDFs (although Live Lingua offers online tutoring for a fee).

The materials you will be consulting are quite old – several decades or more – which is not ideal if you prefer your teaching to be anchored in a more modern context, but the very foundation of a language has not really changed dramatically since then, let’s say in the 1980s, so the materials will still be quite effective. And don’t worry about abusing government resources or stumbling over something that is only for civil servants, as all of the FSI materials Live Lingua hosts are in the public domain (as are other free language learning resources on the website of the Peacekeepers and the Defense Languages ​​Institute).

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Fresh herbs are beautiful, fragrant, and vibrant, but they lose their look and taste when simmered in soup pots or fried with stews. Losing their flavor is kind of the whole point – they eventually lose it to your dish – but the look and texture of soaked, heat-parched herbs is unattractive, as is fishing out small stems and bits from a pot with steam liquid. Fortunately, there is a very elegant French solution: the bouquet garni (or “garnished bouquet”).

These little herb bunches are used almost all the time in French cooking, so you can buy them dried and pre-tied at almost any French grocery store. (A few years ago I brought some from France as souvenirs, and everyone who got one was accordingly bewitched.) But you don’t have to go to France to use the ostrich garni; Like most French things, the name, which sounds fancy to American ears, belies a very simple maneuver. Just tie a few herbs together with some kitchen thread. There. You now have a bouquet garni. (Sometimes people tie dried herbs in a little cheesecloth to make a pouch, but I prefer to bundle them up.)

You can use any herbs you like, although the combination of parsley, thyme, and a bay leaf is considered classic. Grab about five sprigs of fresh parsley, two sprigs of fresh thyme, and a single bay leaf, tie everything together with twine, and toss it in your soup, sauce, sauce, or braised beef. If you mix it up and want to add to the classic range, then tarragon, chervil, savory, marjoram, or any herbs that you happen to grow in your garden will work wonderfully. You can also add lemon, orange, or lime peel, some fresh ginger, or some vegetables like celery, spring onions, or carrots.

You can also match your bouquet to your meal: My Thanksgiving bouquet garni, for example, contains a mixture of sage, parsley, rosemary and thyme. You can also make bouquet garni for drinks and syrups – just add your herb bundle to a saucepan with water, bring it to a boil, simmer for 15 minutes, then add the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Let it steep for at least an hour, then remove the bouquet and use the syrup to flavor your lemonade, tea or cocktail. Lavender and rosemary are a good start, but don’t keep sleeping Bay leaf. Bay leaves don’t get nearly enough play in beverages and syrups.

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If you’re an avid stargazer, June alone was a crowded month in an otherwise busy year of heavenly events. A Solar eclipse, a planetary conjunction, and an asteroid is racing Somewhat close to the planet have added a nice cosmic intrigue as the days get warmer and longer.

When it comes to super moons, however, the book will end soon in 2021, as the last super moon of the year will light up the sky for three days later this week, June 24-26, and the common practice of nicknamed moons will be this one special moon called Strawberry Super Moon, although unfortunately it is not strawberry colored.

This is how you see the strawberry supermoon

It’s either the last full moon of spring or the first full moon of summer, depending on your seasonal loyalty. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, this moon derives its name from a variety of Indian tribes who associate this season with certain “June-bearing” fruits such as strawberries (at least in certain parts of North America). Every 20 years the strawberry moon coincides with the summer solstice, which is a beautiful cosmic coincidence.

The June full moon has also been given other names, reflecting the wider abundance of crops that are typically harvested when spring turns into summer.

As the Notes on the peasant almanac:

Blooming moon (Anishinaabe) indicates the flowering period while Green corn moon (Cherokee) and Whore moon (Western Abenaki) suggest it is time to take care of young plants.

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This moon is nicknamed “Awesome,” but it shouldn’t be quite as dramatic as April’s pink super moonwhich lived up to the name. The concept of a “supermoon” is a kind of false scientific term that is supposed to inspire some anticipation, but technically it only occurs when a moon is within 90% of perigee, which is closest to Earth within a radius Orbit. Super moons are slightly brighter and larger than normal moons.

As NASA says:

At its next point, the full moon appears about 17 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than the weakest moon of the year, which occurs when it is furthest from Earth in its orbit.

The Strawberry Moon will be perigee on Wednesday, June 23 at 5:56 p.m. ET. according to NASA. The space agency says the moon will appear the next day, June 24th at 2:40 p.m. east through Saturday.

The moon is relatively easy to see by looking up at the sky, but virtual resources are available if you want to view it through your computer screen or mobile device. The Virtual telescope project has a livestream of the rising of the moon over Rome, which is likely a more romantic view than looking out of your own window.