The History of Taps in the Military

The History of Taps in the MilitaryThe History of Taps in the MilitaryOf all the military bugle calls, none is so easily recognizableor more stirring and able to render emotion than Taps. Up until the Civil War, the traditional call at days end welches a tune borrowed from the French called Lights Out. Then, in the aftermath of the bloody Seven Days battles in July of 1862 and hard on the heels of losing 600 men and being wounded himself, Union General Daniel Adams Butterfield called the brigade bugler to his tent. He thought Lights Out was too formal and he wanted to honor his men with something different. Taps were born. How Taps Came to Be Oliver Wilcox Norton, the bugler, tells the story ...showing me some notlagees on a staff written in pencil on the back of an envelope, (he) asked me to sound them on my bugle. I did this several times, playing the music as written. He changed it somewhat, lengthening some notes and shortening others, but retaining the melody as he first ga ve it to me. After getting it to his satisfaction, he directed me to sound that call for Taps thereafter in place of the regulation call. The music was beautiful on that still summer night and was heard far beyond the limits of our Brigade. The next day I was visited by several buglers from neighboring Brigades, asking for copies of the music which I gladly furnished. The call was gradually taken up through the Army of the Potomac. This more emotive and powerful Tap was soon adopted throughout the military. It was officially recognized by the U.S. Army in 1874, and it became standard at military funeral ceremonies in 1891. Theres something singularly beautiful, mournful, and appropriate in the music of this wonderful call. Its strains are melancholy yet full of rest and peace. Its echoes linger in the heart long after its tones have ceased to vibrate in the air. Why Is It Called Taps? The origin of the word taps is thought to have come from the Dutch word for tattoo, which is ta ptoe. More than likely, Taps comes from the three drum taps that were played as a signal for Extinguish Lights when a bugle was not used in the rendition. As with many other customs, the 24 notes that comprise this solemn tradition began long ago and continues to this day. Official Lyrics Perhaps unsurprisingly given the nature of the songs origin, there are no official lyrics for Taps. The following unofficial verse is often used. The author is not known. Fading light dims the sight,And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.From afar drawing nigh Falls the night.Day is done, gone the sun,From the lake, from the hills, from the skyAll is well, safely rest, God is nigh.Then good night, peaceful night,Till the light of the dawn shineth brightGod is near, do not fear - Friend, good night. The above information is courtesy of United States Army Center for Military History

How to Bond With Your Team as a Remote Worker - The Muse

How to Bond With Your Team as a Remote Worker - The MuseHow to Bond With Your Team as a Remote WorkerDear Remote Worker,I love working remotely. But, Ive found that it can be challenging to bond with my anfhrer and my team members when we dont have the luxury of things like lunches and happy hours.How can I forge a solid, somewhat personal relationship with my manager and team when we only ever connect over the internet about work-related matters?Signed,Connecting From AfarDear Connecting From Afar,Im so glad you asked this question, because I know firsthand that its something so many remote workers struggle with. You want to develop strong working relationships, but it can be challenging to do that from a distance.Ill let you in on a little secret I actually work remotely for The Muse, while the rest of my team sits next to each other in the same arbeitszimmer. Despite the fact that Im the one who isnt there, Ive never felt like an outsider.Of course, much of that is owed to my awes ome employer. But, I like to think that Ive had a little to do with the success of this arrangement as well. Here are a few tips Ive put into practice to feel like a core part of the team- regardless of the fact that Im hundreds of miles away. 1. Dont Neglect the Power of Video ChatEmail and instant messaging are convenient, but they dont empower you to make a more personal connection. Thats why Im a big fan of using video chats whenever possible. From our weekly pitch meetings to one-off brainstorming sessions, being able to interact with my team face-to-face makes me feel like Im actually in the room with them. Its the next best thing to actually being there. 2. Get a Little PersonalParticularly when youre remote, its easy to fall into the trap of all work and no play. Because so much of your communication with your colleagues is written, it feels odd to include personal anecdotes or casual small talk.But, that doesnt mean you can never get a little more personal (while always kee ping it appropriate, of course). Whether you want to ask if anybody has recommendations for your upcoming vacation or mention the latest show youre binge-watching, those seemingly inconsequential personal details can go a long way in solidifying your bond. Weve even instituted some different traditions- from sharing photos to ending each meeting on a lighthearted elende- that help us connect over things that dont involve our to-do lists. 3. Schedule Some One-on-One TimeOne-on-one time is something that would naturally happen if you were in the same office as your co-workers. Maybe youd grab coffee with a colleague one day and then have lunch with a different one the next.When you work remotely, its less likely that youll be able to have that time with just one team member at a time- unless you make it happen yourself.For example, I have regular one-on-one video chats scheduled with a few different colleagues. And, when we had a new employee join our team, I reached out to her to set up some time when the two of us could chat directly. That little bit of effort goes a long way in helping you get to know each of your team members- and vice versa. Ive been fortunate enough to get together with my co-workers in-person a couple of times, and I love the opportunity to interact with them outside of a computer screen. However, thats not feasible for everyone. Fortunately, I know from experience that these tactics will help you feel like an equal part of the team- even though youre not in the office.

4 Smart Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Personal Website - The Muse

4 Smart Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Personal Website - The Muse4 Smart Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Personal WebsitePersonal websites are a great place to showcase who you are and what you do, whether youre simply sharing your resume or uploading an entire portfolio. They can also be incredibly helpful in landing new opportunities and growing your career.But heres the thing With a personal website, the rule if you build it they will come doesnt really apply. Unless youre Ariana Grande, you wont automatically rack up thousands of views, clicks, and conversions.You have to put in the work to get people to visit your site. Luckily, there are a lot of solid strategies and resources out there that you can- and should- leverage to get mora besucherzahlen to your website.1. Optimize Your Site for SearchYou may have heard the term SEO (search engine optimization). Broadly speaking, this refers to fine-tuning your website so that search engines (mainly Google) can crawl all the pages and u nderstand what theyre about. The goal is to get your site popping up on page one when someone inputs a relevant search term- which drives more trafficThis may sound a bit intimidating. But thankfully, there are plenty of places to learn about SEO. For example, Squarespace provides a guide to improving your SEO to help you understand some of the ways you can make your site more visible to search engines, plus an SEO checklist you can reference when building your site. (If you have a Squarespace site, theyve also got you covered on the technical elements of SEO.)A few simple ways you can boost your sites visibilityStructure your content with headings. Split up blocks of texts with relevant headings. This makes it easier for both readers and search engines to understand the most important points on every page.Add tags and categories. Categories are a great way to organize content by topic or type, and tags operate like hashtags- they help people find specific things you mentioned more easily, and help search engines understand the topics on your site.Include a site description. This is a small block of text that usually appears below your site title in search results. It tells readers- and yep, search engines- what your site is all about.List your geographical location. This is especially helpful if you only provide services in a specific area.2. Promote It As Much As You CanGood SEO wont do all the work for you. Youve got to promote your site to real live people, too. Try doing the following to help drive your traffic to the next level.Put the URL on all of your profiles. Any social media profiles you have, your LinkedIn, you name it. Its all about exposure, even if a lot of that exposure is passive.Include it in your personal email signature. Think about it- how many emails do you send in a week? (That said, I hope it goes without saying that you should probably leave the URL for your side hustle out of your official work email signature.)Announce it. Share you r site with your Instagram followers, tweet it to the world, send an email to your personal and professional connections. And while you may not want to email people about it more than once, you can plug your site on social media far more frequently- say once a week or a few times a month.Leverage social sharing. Many website builders offer something called social sharing. With this tool, you can link your site to your social media accounts. Every time you publish new content, its pushed to your feeds for your friends and followers to see. All you do is set it up once and voil3. Send Out a Regular NewsletterNewsletters can be a great way to encourage readers to visit your site. Make sure you feature a newsletter sign-up option on your site (on Squarespace, you can do this using Newsletter Blocks), and promote the heck out of it.You can use your newsletter to tell your target audience what youre up to, share new content from your site, advertise your services, even provide extra tips and advice. Your newsletter doesnt need to be every week, nor does it need to be an incredibly heavy lift. But you should be consistent and always provide some value. Otherwise, your newsletter will end up hanging out in everyones spam folders.4. Analyze Traffic DataYou opened this article because you wanted to figure out how to increase traffic to your website, right? If thats your goal, you need to pay attention to the numbers. Not just because math is fun (or is that just me?), but because Squarespace traffic analytics can help you see if all your efforts are fruitful and where you could make some changes. Here are some examples of data points you might track.Unique Visitors How many people are coming to your site?Popular Content When users get to your website, what pages do they spend time on?Traffic Sources Are people finding your site directly (because you texted or emailed them the link), via social media or your newsletter, or through organic search? You can even break it do wn to see which social media channel is most popular.Image courtesy of Squarespace.comAgain, this isnt just for fun. Youll want to track the data, interpret it, and take action. For instance, lets say you see a spike in traffic one day. When you dig a little further, you see that most of it came from Twitter. Youd only been posting on Twitter a few times a month, but after seeing this result, you decide to up the frequency to twice a week.Or lets say you analyze your traffic sources and see that almost no one clicked through to the site from your newsletter. You spend a lot of time on that newsletter, and it doesnt seem to be paying off, so you decide to table it for now and revamp it later. Now, you can spend that allotted time on other more fruitful efforts.As much as Id like to tell you that theres a magic spell thatll automatically send your traffic numbers through the roof, well, that just doesnt exist. The good news is, with a little bit of effort, you can start bringing the c licks- and the opportunities- your way. Good luck