An Experience in Article Writing and Submission

It was a big and significant decision for me to participate in an article submission site in English. Being a nonnative English speaker, I originally thought it is too much to take part in an English Article site. But, I liked writing an English Article, I decided to join in an English article site. They regularly host article submission event writing one article in one day every day. When I tried in summer last year, I failed miserably. I gave up in the earlier stage. I was sick in the early July. Even after recovered from my sickness, I did not feel up to writing articles for a long time. Suffering from a sense of failure, I did not have the courage to write another one.

It was middle of September, 2010, when I received an email invitation to the next event. My first reaction was negative. I thought there is no way I could participate in the challenge, again. I had not thought about it for a couple of days. Then, I received a personal message from a Japanese friend on Facebook. She wrote that she had noticed that I had been writing articles in English. She introduced herself, saying that she studied English by herself, dreaming about making friends with people in the world. She said she had enjoyed my articles, especially the ones which talked about Japanese culture. She wished to write her own articles some day. She concluded by asking me to continue writing articles in English.

It was beyond my imagination that my Japanese friend sent me an encouraging message like it. Her message was helpful. I started to feel fortunate because I could write articles in English. Suddenly I remembered that I had not written an article for one and a half months. Needing some motivation to start writing articles, I decided to take part in the next event of article writing.

During the event, my account was suspended for about two weeks because one of my articles was rejected too many times. It was October when I got a new project to create a website for a Japanese client who hoped to have his site both in English and Japanese. I became busy working on my new web development work. This new project took much of my time. When I found my own time to start writing articles, it was already past midnight. However, I did not want to give up this time. I decided to wake up at least one hour earlier than before to start designing my new article of the day.

When I finished this event on December 29th, 2010, I felt so relieved and happy. This time I had done it. When I received a congratulatory email from the site owner, I was proud of my accomplishment. I was glad I started to write and submit my articles in English.





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How to Find Topics for Articles

The people who write articles for their blogs or for article sites tend to think that the more time they have, the more articles they can write. Such is not necessarily true. When Mr. Suga started to write blog articles, he enjoyed it and wrote at least one article per day. In the first sixty days, he came up with many topics to write about. His experience traveling overseas was one of them. General business matters were the other ones, which led to ideas for many topics. He came up with many topics by thinking back over his forty years of life.

After the first sixty days of writing articles and posting them to his blog, Mr. Suga suddenly ran out of topics to write about. Thinking harder, spending more time thinking, and browsing the Internet for topics did not even help. He had not written an article for about ten days by then. He was annoyed, irritated, and frustrated, and still had no clue about his new topic. He thought he would not be able to find a topic anymore.

One day, his wife found out that a new fitness center had opened nearby. She asked Mr. Suga to join the new gym. Mr. Suga was more frustrated since he wanted to find a topic that day, and had planned to browse the Internet. He was about to reject his wife's idea, but then he remembered that he had not exercised for about a month. He agreed to her idea and they went together to the new fitness center that had opened just that month.

The new fitness center was clean and fresh. They joined in a group exercise. It was a new style of aerobics, combining dancing, aerobics, and shadow boxing practice. After an hour of group exercise, Mr. Suga took a swim, and his wife did machine exercises. They both had an excellent time.

Even their conversation while driving back home was better than usual. They talked, joked, and laughed. Back at home, he turned on his PC. Now he was full of new topics. They included "the effectiveness of exercise for health," "review of a new gym in the area," "review of a new style of exercise," "how to refresh one's relationships with spouse and family," "suggestions for being active for life," or "enjoying conversation with your family."

It appears that the only way to pick topics for article writing is to stay active and participate in different and new activities. If someone stays inside his brain, continuing to think about his topics, he needs to think again. There are websites which give you ideas or suggestions for your writing topics. I will not deny that they are useful, but, in order to write a quality article, we need our own participation and action.




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For International Writers

It has been more than four years since I started to write and submit my articles in article submission sites. Since English is not my first language, it was not easy for me to continue writing in English. My problems include not just English but also topics, contents, messages, and time. Time is always running against me. An author is always under pressure to write an article in a short time without sacrificing the contents. A writer would never be able to secure enough time to write an article that satisfies him.

Since I have reached the highest level for an author in an English article submission site, I would like to take a moment to advise international authors whose native language is not English.

First, in selecting an article submission site, my recommendation is that an international author should choose one that has strict rules on article content and language. Although an international author would struggle at first, because the site regulations and rules are stringent and exacting, such as he cannot publish whatever he writes, his English ability and communication skill would significantly improve along the way.

I have three suggestions for selecting an article submission site:

1. Select a site that has strict policies and rules, especially on the language.
2. Select a site that provides a program requiring continuous submission of articles.
3. Select a site that recognizes your effort.

After writing an article, an international writer needs a proofreading service to correct the English, logical arrangement, and content of his topic. There are also sites offering software-editing services.

Although I found the machine services useful to understanding grammar and basic rules, I discovered that they are unable to check whether one's writing sounds natural. I recommend using sites that provide human proofreading services. Only native speakers can check to see if your English sounds natural or not.

I actually use both software and a human proofreading site to check my writing. Here are four tips for selecting a proofreading service:

1. Understand that software proofreading services cannot check whether your English sounds natural or is even grammatically correct.
2. Software proofreading services can still be useful for checking your grammar and learning the basic grammatical rules of the language.
3. Only native-speaking human proof-readers can check to see if your English sounds natural. It is better to use proofreading services that use people to write articles themselves.
4. Sometimes you may want to ask questions about corrections. It would be ideal if the service had a two-way communication option.

My English improved considerably during this process and I earned the highest-level author position. It is worth continuing English article marketing. If you are an international writer and struggling, do not give up; you will be successful if you continue to strive.







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The Fight of Kenshin Uesugi, A Seeker of Justice

Kenshin Uesugi was a legendary local lord in my parents' hometown, Niigata. Niigata is located on the Japan Sea side of the main island of Japan. It is snowy country. Every winter, there is 6-12 feet of snow accumulation. Kenshin was a local lord in this snowy country in the sixteenth century.

Kenshin Uesugi was unique among local rulers in sixteenth-century Japan. He dedicated his life to protecting "Gi" which means ultimate righteousness or justice.

In 1530, when he was born, his mother dreamed that the General of Spiritual Protection, Bi-Sha-Mon-Ten, jumped into her mouth, and he believed himself to be the incarnation of that spirit. His army was well-trained and motivated: they were willing to give their lives for this "Living General of Buddhism". Out of more than 100 wars, he never lost a single one, and his army never betrayed him.

He was spiritual, inspirational, and religious. It was almost as if he believed he must have been spiritual, otherwise he would lose all his strength. All of the local lords needed motivation to fight each other. Some believed in building a peaceful country by unifying all of Japan, which was a mess at that time. Others wanted to prove they were stronger than their rivals. They were all ambitious, including Kenshin Uesugi. What made him unique was that the mission that drove him to fight was to protect Gi. He fought to ensure that Gi prevailed. In the Dark Age, power and greed were almost the only things that drove any of the other local kings.

According to historical records, Kenshin explained, "Gi, for me, was the every reason for human beings to exist. I need to protect it by all means." There were many times that he practiced Gi when he could have been more ruthless, such as in his dealings with another local lord, Shingen Takeda, who constantly fought against Kenshin over the area between their territories. When Shingen's castle was under siege from another local king, his supplies of salt-a necessary provision-were cut off. Kenshin, hearing of Shingen's problem, sent his own troops to supply Shingen with enough salt to support his army for a year. This was only one of many of Kenshin's kind actions.

Kenshin's strength was in his power to remain determined to continue his efforts. Gi was his motive to govern and to fight. It was his vision. He believed so strongly in it that that he felt he would never lose. Two years before Kenshin died, he fought against Nobunaga Oda, who was very close to unifying all of Japan under his rule. Oda's army consisted of 30,000 soldiers with 3,000 guns. Kenshin brought his army with less than 10,000 soldiers and only 500 guns. Kenshin defeated Oda's army easily.

Kenshin could simply have attacked Oda's castle and ousted him from power, but he did not. Later, he said of his victory, "I showed Oda it is not just power, greed, and ambition which decides victory. It is enough for now." He might have had his own strategy to get rid of Oda and unify Japan, but unfortunately, he died shortly after this battle, in 1578. Despite being unable to live to see his dream of a unified Japan fulfilled, Kenshin gave an important lesson to the Japanese people: he showed that idealism and motivation are the most important things.





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Seimei Abe and Japanese Paranormal Activities

In order to describe him, I need to first explain about what he was. He was "Onmyoji" in the Heian Era (794 - 1192 AD) of Japan. I had unexpected problems selecting the best English description for onmyoji. The best definition I can give after my study is a shaman coupled together with functions of an astrologist, an exorcist, a medium, a prophet, a seer, and a sorcerer. In the Heian era of Japan, onmyoji was a formal position in the imperial government. In addition, they were doctors, healers, and spiritual advisors and consultants for emperors. I believe that Egypt and China had the same or similar positions in their government in ancient times. Seimei Abe was the first one of his kind and founder of his position in Japan.

Seimei Abe was born in 921 AD. It is said that he died in 1005 AD, at the age of 86. 86 seems like extraordinarily long life as in his days the normal life-span was 40 - 50 years old. It may not be abnormal to have a long life if he had lived for 86 years. His life is known from an official document of that age. However, his name appears in many Japanese folklore stories. If a historian carefully kept a record of folklore, it seemed to be that his life was more than 300 years serving almost every emperor in the Heian Era.

We can find many of his legends in folklore. When he was 15 years old and just a trainee, he accompanied his master to see the emperor. When he was walking along his master's cart, he recognized ghosts marching on the street going in the opposite direction. His master was sleeping in his cart. Seimei woke him up and told his teacher the ghosts were marching. His teacher spelled the words and avoided the marching ghost.

Later, when a mistress who could not be an empress consort cursed an emperor, Seimei used a reverse curse and saved the emperor. This incident gave Seimei fame and an unchallengeable position. As it is said, when a curse is reversed, the cursing person would be brutally harmed and usually killed, but Seimei managed to save the cursing mistress. However, the mistress killed herself later because she was ashamed by her own selfish conduct.

Seimei's residence was positioned in the protective direction of the imperial palace. Folklore says that his house lit up at night and opened it's gate in the morning, despite that, as his position, a person would never do these actions by himself and his house did not have any sign of a servant. He could kill frogs and turtles without touching them. He could bring them back to life later. Some myths even say that his mother was a white fox whom his father saved in a mountain.
Seimei has been gone in the history a long time ago. However, there may be still someone, today, who could do what he could do. He or she just would not show it to the public. Such a person may be your next-door neighbor.




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Do Not Abandon Topic Ideas

Writing articles is lots of fun. People enjoy posting their opinions on article submission sites. Many have blogs they update daily. Though writing is enjoyable, it can be difficult. Time-management is important for article writers, who need to continue learning effective ways to write. We must remain open to the things we see, listen to, and touch so that we can obtain article ideas from our surroundings. We must improve our creativity to form interesting article ideas. Anyone who writes articles or blogs is likely to experience problems on topics. Many of us sometimes cannot think up a topic no matter how hard we try. It is not easy to find and keep a topic that enables you to write a lengthy quality article. There are some web-based services that give bloggers and writers topic ideas. Many blog hosts provide bloggers with ideas. This shows that there are many who have problems coming up with topics.

Since finding a topic is an important process in article writing, I have my own method to finding and keeping topics. The followings are the list of my action items to find, keep, and maintain my ideas:

- Pay attention to a shift in emotion

- Write a topic idea with questions

- Take note or make a list of ideas

- Regularly or irregularly revisit listed ideas

- Do not abandon topic ideas because of difficulty developing a story

- Review used topics regularly. They are seeds of new writings.

No matter what I am doing, whenever I feel a shift in my emotion, that is the key to my topic. This may happen when I am reading a book, watching a TV program, watching a DVD, or walking my dog. Whenever this happens, I write about it, which shows how and why I felt that way. I also write down any questions I have. If my PC is available, I open my word processing software, name a document with the topic idea, and save it to my PC desktop. When I am out and away from my PC, I write my topic ideas down in the notebook I carry everywhere. I also use voice recording on my smart phone or call my home phone and leave a message with my topic idea. I then save my ideas to my PC desktop when I am home.

In this way, I constantly keep five to ten topic ideas. When I feel like writing based on the topic idea that has just come to mind, I start writing. When I find it is not so easy to write a quality article about my most recent topic, it is saved on my desktop to wait. Some topics stay there for a long time. However, in most cases, I use these ideas saved on my PC desktop within a few days. I do not abandon any topics.

I review unused topics regularly and irregularly. I revisit my list of topic ideas at least once in 2-3 weeks. It is somehow funny, but a topic once was difficult to develop a story become a good topic to write over a time. Used topics are still useful, too. Many of them give me a new idea of writing. I revisit used topics at least once in a month.

Using this method, I keep track of all my topic ideas. The topics will not abandon you, as long as you do not abandon the topics.




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5 Stages of Decision-Making Process

When one study on successful people in human history, he may find that these people listened to others. In addition, they had selected persons to whom they could listen. It is, however, not all they do for decision-making and implementation of their plans. First they think. Then, they listen. They use opinions of others to think again. It looks as they had certain cycle of decision-making and implementation process. They are as listed below.

1. They think by themselves.

2. They listen to others, whom they selected as opinion makers.

3. They think again with others opinions.

4. Finally they make a decision.

5. They implement the decision.

It is essential to point out that they had their own opinion before they listened to others. They develop their opinion first and then listen to others. Therefore, they can judge others' opinions in view of own opinions. It is useful to evaluate and judge others' opinions. If they did not have their own opinions, they would not be able to assess if others' were right or wrong. They always have their trusted people who give valuable opinions. Those are people who can give opinions, which are neutral, unprejudiced, facts-based, valuable, or unselfish.

The crucial here is above No. 3. They use opinions of others, but they do not blindly obey or follow the others. There is a lot of leaders, who at a glance, look like respectable leaders because they accept their subordinates opinions and follow them. Many of them failed due to lack of their own views over the opinions of others, even from own people. Real, capable leaders do listen to others and use their opinions. Final decisions are, however, not by their subordinates, but by themselves in case of capable leaders. Sometimes, exemplary leaders looked inflexible because they did not change their own opinions. In this sense, they can adopt or reject others' opinions based on their judgments.

They listen to their people, but the decisions are theirs. They make decisions based on theirs and others, but they take full responsibility of decisions. They never blame others for inappropriate decisions or mistakes. They must be this confident. Otherwise, they would not be successful on what they planned to do.

The decision-making process lacking any one of the above 5 process is not complete. If it were lacking any one of these, it would incline to lead to wrong decisions or mistakes. They are as parts of the automobile engine, power distribution mechanism. If one were missing, a car would not move an inch. Others' opinions and leaders' opinions are like both sides of car wheels. If missing either side, the car would circle around and go nowhere.



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Balance Sense

There is an old song in Japan, which sings about Judo. The song goes; "Do not think you are winning. You will lose." It meant that if you hope to win too much, you will be over pressured and lose. This is true. If a fighter thought too much about the result of the coming fight, he would lose flexibility. His body would not function like normal. As a result, he would lose the fight. The question is if the fighter should not think about win or lose at all. The dilemma is that he would not be able to win if he did not hope to win.

Everybody hopes to win in fighting. The point is if one had too much hope, it changes shape to be a desire. The desire takes the form of greed. When one became greedy, the state of mind desiring endlessly, he could no longer control his mind. As a result, he will lose his freedom of thinking and moving. If one does not have freedom of thinking and moving, the one would never be able to win a fight. A fight requires a lot of flexibility and free mind to win.

At the same time, however, if one did not have any hope to win, he would not train him, he would not think on his strategy how to fight, and he would not take pains and effort to prepare for his fight. Under this condition, a fighter will lose. It is as if too much is as harmful as too little.

As observed, too much is not good. Too little is bad, as well. There is a delicate balance point where one can walk on a tight rope stretched in the air. If weighed too much to right, the one would fall to his right. If weighed too much to left, he would fall to his left.

Let us consider an example of Japanese Sword Art, Kendo. When the opponent swings down his sword to cut you, if your head is half an inch far from the tip of his sword, you will not be cut. You are safe. In addition, if you keep your body as close as half an inch to your enemy's weapon, you are close enough to effectively counter-attack. If you are three feet away from your opponent, you are safe, but you are not close enough to strike-back your opponent. This space of half an inch between the tip of sword and your head is the balance point. If you keep the space, you will win.

As this physical example, there is a delicate balance point of mind, too. It is essential to keep the balance point. Hope to win so much that brain and body maintain energy to be ready for a fight. Be careful not to hope too much to become greedy or disparate to win. This theory appears to be useful not just for a martial arts, but also for success in business, academic achievement, and happiness in lives.


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Chain Reaction

In Japan, there is a short saying about chain reactions: "After the wind blows, coopers make money." This comic saying is about an unlikely chain reaction that could occur. There are several pseudo logical explanations to how this could happen.

First, when the wind is blowing, the air gets dusty. Dust will get into people's eyes, and will cause problems. Those who lose their sight will become shamisen players. Japanese shamisens use cat skin. It is a Japanese tradition that sightless musicians play this instrument. The more cats that are killed, the more mice there are. Mice bite barrels, damaging them. Barrel owners need to repair or replace barrels, which is why coopers make money.

Obviously, this is a kind of joke. Most people would never believe it to be logical. However, in the real world, things more peculiar than this happen.

Hisashi had never thought about moving from his apartment in San Francisco. It was one bedroom, and good enough for him and his wife. Later, his wife's mother moved in, and one bedroom became too small. They looked for a two-bedroom apartment, and found a house to rent in San Mateo, south of San Francisco near the airport. They decided to rent it, and then Hisashi's wife wanted to get a dog.

Hisashi wondered if the rent agreement allowed them to keep a pet, but his wife bought a puppy anyway.

When their landlady found out they had a dog, she told them that renters were not allowed to keep dogs. Therefore, Hisashi's family was forced to move out in 30 days. They looked for a new place that would accept the new family member, a puppy. They found a house for sale in East Bay. Although they thought it might cost too much, they believed they could afford it and decided to buy the house. It appeared that the puppy gave them an opportunity to buy their first house.

This narrative is based on a true story. People might think they are lucky, and everything that happens is accidental. What if they had decided not to keep the puppy? What if they had decided to sell the puppy and keep their residence? There seemed to be a reason why it happened the way it did. However, some people might think that the events were coincidences. Others might believe that the puppy was a godsend, and the result was a blessing.



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Self-Employed and Being Employed

When one stayed in the same environment, he got so much used to it that he took it granted. It would be okay if one kept staying in the environment. If, for any reason, one needed to get out of his long-stayed environment, he would get lost for various things. It is true in a working environment. If one were working in an office of relatively large organization, he would take it granted for some certain things, which his organization provided. He would lose supporting function. If he was in sales department, he had marketing, accounting, finance, delivery, and, in many cases, technical support from his company.

If he decided to go for his own business and resigned his organization, he is not quitting his company. He is quitting these supports, too. One gone independent sometimes found him to get lost, losing all supports he used to get. In his office, someone else planned, drew, and printed, and brought his own company brochures so that he could give them to his clients. Being independent, he needs to prepare a media, even not a brochure, which explains who he is and what he does. Somebody else used to take copies for him when he needed them. He needs to take his own copies after his independence. Papers! Who prepare papers for his copies? He needs to do it.

Facing a difficult client, he had office fiends, who he could discuss the situation. He now needs to consider and decide his action by himself. One needs to be careful on his mental situation in dealing with this change of environment. There are people who are depressed with these changes. Some may become even sick.

There was a real estate agent who went independent quite recently. He used to work in a good and wide office. He did not have to worry about who run his financial. He had support to do basics for him. His assistant took copies and stapled documents so that documents were ready for submitting to his clients.

He needed to take his own copies and stapled his documents for his clients. He could not invite his clients to her office, because his office was simply his garage room. He did not get depressed. He thought he should play smart. He tried to use resources of others as much as he could. There were several related people with his deals, such as banks, title companies, financial institutions, and agents from his counterpart, sometimes buyers' or sometimes sellers'. Oh, yes, he should not forget about his clients. His clients are prestigious people, since they are the ones who buy and sell properties. They had resources this independent real estate could use. He started to use PC in his client's home. He took his copies, using printers they had. He emailed documents and asked recipients to print. Gradually, this agent started to lose trust from his clients. These seem trivial things. However, human relationship could be harmed from small things. These are the ones, which people gone independent, should pay attention.


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