fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Why Perfect is the Enemy of Good
By: Paddy Corry
Tags: Work, Programming, Software Development, Serious Scrum, Product Development

Why ‘Done’ is Important for Scrum Teams

Scrum (n): A framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. (Scrum Guide)

Complex, adaptive problems are tricky and elusive. Understanding customer needs can be tortuous. Design is difficult and coding is hard. Testing is gruelling and releasing is painful. It’s all complex. We get it.

This post is about the demands of adaptive problems. Immediately after traversing the complexity of simply getting something done, we might need to change our approach and respond to feedback.

In other words, building products, we need to get work done and into our customers’ hands early. However, ‘done’ is only the start of the journey. ‘Done’ helps us to learn from customer feedback.

When we receive this feedback, we might need to change course. We learn more about our problem and may need to adapt based on that new information.

Adaptive is about what happens next. Our problems are adaptive, but how adaptive are we?
Fingers and Toes — A Poem-prayer
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Spirituality, Mindfulness, Poetry, Prayer

Fingers and Toes — A Poem-prayer

This too shall pass

Photo by Monica Gozalo on Unsplash

You who feed me fingers and toes

to play, walk, touch, dance, hug,

Let not sorrows of the past hold me back -

Help.

Let not sorrows of the present hold me back -

Help.

Let not sorrows of the future hold me back -

Help.
Robe Project — 28
By: Sam Frybyte
Tags: Courtesan, Humanity, Clothing, Poetry, Gilgamesh

To tame they sent a woman

She lay with the creature unclear if human

Then said “you are naked, now you know,”

Tore the garment in two covered them both

Said “your hair is too much too long too covered,”

brought forth the razor rendered him

Now more human but a child

She thought she could train him

Thought she had tamed him

but it took more than her charms

She was left with regret

The effort was great and of value

The torn half, her skirt, his

he left on the floor.

This is Enkidu companion to Gilgamesh
The Eternal Quest For Emptiness
By: Esther Patrizia
Tags: Human Design, Personal Growth, Mental Health, Writing, Self-awareness

One year ago, I began an experiment. I had learned about Human Design some time ago, and this interesting system that feels more like science than any other New-Age-y philosophy quickly became a major obsession.

At some point, I found out that my digestive system, per my shockingly layered body graph, is the most primitive of them all. Dating back to caveman times, when the only food and information humans consumed were those directly in front of them, “Consecutive Appetite” people’s brains only work as they should when they are given one ingredient at a time. Hunters eat their fill when they have it. There is no variety. No cooking — if any, a roast over the fire. Eating everything there is until nothing is left, then waiting until the next thing appears, or is killed through great physical effort.

At first, I was deeply annoyed by this information. I’m a trained chef, for fuck’s sake, and these fuckers were trying to tell me there would be no more cooking for me? No more pasta, no sushi, no pastries and ice cream and all the amazing things I have been obsessed with most of my life?

What a strange way to prescribe eating habits.

So I ignored it. But my thoughts percolated around this new idea.

I caved.

My stomach rejoiced. A new kind of hunger emerged. A joyous yes! from somewhere deep within. Three apples in a row? Mmmm-hm. The entire salad spinner full of lamb’s lettuce? Oh, my. Half a pot of plain, cooked carrots? My goodness, my body craved these foods like nothing else before, and it was satisfied so much sooner every time, so completely, in a way the fullest of stomachs never did.

When I let myself ponder it, memories surfaced: Eating all the peas out of the pasta salad. Then, the corn, afterward the pickles, and at last — finally — only the pasta. One thing at a time. It had always felt weird and unsatisfying to eat these chaotic foods. I didn’t know why, of course. I just didn’t like the “bits”. I abhor ice cream with mix-ins. Everything that has discernible parts, I always thought, would be strangely bettered if its admittedly delicious extras were stripped away, the dish pared down to its most basic form.

Classic three-component dishes were always eaten in order, not at once. When plain lettuce, no dressing, was available and lying on the counter, I would devour it. It was too good.

I remembered gorging myself on buffets. Fearing I would burst. Worrying about my eating habits — at age eight. Why could I never stop?

In this new context, I mused that my body wasn’t getting enough of one-thing-at-a-time, so it was doing the next best thing, intelligently, stupidly, squeezing in so much of everything that perhaps, enough of one may come together in the end.
JDBC Multi Data Sources in WebLogic server
By: Albin Issac
Tags: Weblogic, Oracle, Programming, Servers, Software Development

A multi-data source is an abstraction around a group of data sources that provides load balancing or fail over processing between the data sources associated with the multi-data source. Multi data sources are bound to the JNDI tree or local application context just like data sources are bound to the JNDI tree. The Multi Data Source can be used in the same way as we use a Data Source.

When an application requests a connection, the Multi Data Source determines which data source will provide a connection based on the selected algorithm.

Create two or more data sources, and then create a Multi Data Source and assign data sources to the Multi Data Source.

Configurations for the Multi Data Source.

Algorithm Type

Load-Balancing

Connection requests to a load-balancing multi-data source are served from any data source in the list. The multi-data source selects data sources to use to satisfy connection requests using a round-robin scheme. When the multi-data source provides a connection, it selects a connection from the data source listed just after the last data source that was used to provide a connection. Multi data sources that use the Load Balancing algorithm also failover to the next data source in the list if a database connection test fails and the connection cannot be replaced, or if the data source is suspended.

Failover

The Failover algorithm provides an ordered list of data sources to use to satisfy connection requests. Normally, every connection request to this kind of multi-data source is served by the first data source in the list. If a database connection test fails and the connection cannot be replaced, or if the data source is suspended, a connection is sought sequentially from the next data source on the list.

FailoverRequestIfBusy

With the Failover algorithm, this attribute enables failover when all connections in a data source are in use.

TestFrequencySeconds

This attribute controls the frequency at which Weblogic Server checks the health of data sources previously marked as unhealthy to see if connections can be recreated and if the data source can be re-enabled.
【共鳴讀書 no.163】~支持創造力的教育~支持創造力的教育
By: Jinna Sun
Tags: Creativity, Education, Book Review

in Both Sides of the Table
365 Ways to Persuade And Motivate: #5 Point Out How People Are Connected
By: The Team W
Tags: Motivation, Gregory Walton, Psychology, Research

When people feel connected to each other then they are more motivated to work together. Even pointing out how people are connected in small ways affects behavior.

Gregory Walton is a professor at Stanford who has studied the effects of belonging on behavior. In one of his experiments, Walton found that when college students believed they shared a birthday with another student, they were more motivated to complete a task with that student and performed better on the task. He found the same effect with four and five year olds.

In another study Walton put two people in a room. One was a study participant and the other was part of the experiment. Walton told the participant that they had the same birthday as the other person in the room. When the other person jogged in place and raised his or her heart rate the participant’s heart rate went up too, even though he or she was not jogging in place, as long as Walton had established a connection (i.e., the same birthday). Walton concluded that it’s easy for people to take on the goals, motivations, emotions, and even physical reactions of people whom they feel even minimally connected to.

In other research Walton found that when people feel they are working with others as a team to reach a goal, they are more motivated to achieve the goal, even without any extrinsic reward, than if they are working alone. They work harder and longer at the task, become more absorbed and perform better.

You can persuade people to work harder and to work together if you have them interact with other people and point out to them two things: that they are connected to the other people and how they are connected.

What do you think? Have you found this to be true?

Here’s a reference for the Gregory Walton studies:

Walton, Gregory M., Geoffrey Cohen, David Cwir, and Steven Spencer. 2012. “Mere belonging: The power of social connections.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102(3): 513–32. doi: 10.1037/a0025731.

To learn more check out our 1 day seminar on The Science of Persuasion.
Heavy Reading: Bubbletone is one of the Leading Blockchain Technology Vendors
By: Bubbletone Blockchain In Telecom
Tags: Telecom, Heavy Reading, Blockchain, Telecommunication, Communication

Heavy Reading, one of the most authoritative media in telecom, has published a detailed report on what relevance blockchain has for the telecom industry. The report profiles seven blockchain technology vendors with interesting propositions in the market — Bubbletone has the first position in the list.

Called Blockchain Opportunities for CSPs: Separating Hype From Reality, the report explores the drivers for adoption of blockchain by communications service providers (CSPs) and evaluates the main opportunities for blockchain in the telecom sector. It also considers how to evaluate whether blockchain is appropriate for a particular use case and examines the main use cases that CSPs are investing in currently.

About Heavy Reading

Heavy Reading, the research division of Light Reading, offers deep analysis of emerging telecom trends to network operators, technology suppliers, and investors. Its product portfolio includes in-depth reports that address critical next-generation technology and service issues, market trackers that focus on the telecom industry’s most critical technology sectors, exclusive worldwide surveys of network operator decision-makers that identify future purchasing and deployment plans, and a rich array of custom and consulting services that give clients the market intelligence needed to compete successfully in the global telecom industry.
Top Ten Sounds From 2016
By: Little Fiction
Tags: Year In Review, Nonfiction, Life

About the author

Alvin joined the Little Fiction | Big Truths team earlier this year and we feel like he instantly made us a little bit cooler. Also earlier this year, we got to go drinking with Alvin in LA’s Little Tokyo district, which also made us feel a little bit cooler. In conclusion, that Alvin’s alright.
After 4 Months I Finally Made My First $1.00 on Medium
By: Lars Schipper
Tags: Tıp, Médium, Writing, Motivation, Writing Tips

This morning when I woke up and took a look at my phone, I saw a text message. Being just awake and still half asleep I was a bit confused. I mean, I rarely get a text message nowadays.

Ok, so what was this text message about? It was a message from Stripe. Telling me that a transaction was sending my way. My very first $1.00 made by writing. Surprised I was. This text message was totally new to me.

Yes, after 4 months of being in the partner program I finally made my first dollar on Medium. It took a bit.

When reading on Medium you must have noticed that there are loads of writers telling their audiences that they’ve made $1000 or more in under 4 weeks. And, that’s probably true. Yet to me it’s a bit discouraging too. I feel like I won’t ever be able to pull that off.

People who made $1000 in under 4 weeks on Medium must have figured out something on forehand before they started writing here. They most likely are experienced writers. Knowing what works on a platform like this and what doesn’t.

I’m still in the learning phase. A student of Medium. I don’t know yet how to write an article that gets accepted in a huge publication and get tons of views. It’s a strategy.

If you’re like me and you’re also not getting great results from writing on Medium you just might be still a student as well. The writers who made that $1000 under 4 weeks are the teachers, so to say. We can learn from them. We should learn from them. They too were students at some point, but they learned, evolved, and kept writing.

When I began writing on Medium I had a mindset that many beginning writers have. It was something along the lines of:

If I just keep writing, the audience will come.

This is false. You can’t just write whatever you want expecting people to come and love your work. You need to write a piece the audience wants to read. Only then people are likely to come and love your work. This is where things get hard.

Because, what does the audience want to read? That’s the question. Knowing the answer is what’s separates the students from the teachers.

Something in the favor of the students is that the teachers ‘teach’ on Medium. There are also loads of articles on ‘How to find your writing voice’ or ‘How to make good money with writing’ and so on.

We, as students, need to study these articles. Study them and actually do what these articles are telling us. I know, I’m struggling with this too.

Only with studying and writing we can graduate and become teachers ourselves one day. What follows, are all the benefits that come with being a teacher on Medium.
How To Check If a List Is Empty in Python
By: Jonathan Hsu
Tags: Software Development, Programming, Python, Data Science, Technology

How To Check If a List Is Empty in Python

Learn multiple techniques to check for an empty list

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

There are many options to check if a list is empty. Before getting into the syntax of the solutions, let’s lay out the different factors involved in deciding which method we want to use.

The expression we craft can fall into one of two camps, an explicit comparison to an empty list or an implicit evaluation of an empty list. What does that mean?
Announcing the Be You & #LiveCivil College Tour, LiveCivil.com
Tags: Live Civil, Press Release, Karen Civil, Newsletter

Announcing the Be You & #LiveCivil College Tour, LiveCivil.com webiste revamp and new Civil-merchandise.

Read the third #LiveCivil newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/39Grf

Subscribe here: http://eepurl.com/L4YbX
Why remote working is so hard
By: Mattias Petter Johansson
Tags: Programming, Coding, Software Development, Project Management, Teamwork

I talk a little bit about the challenges with remote work. Full video below:

🔗 Discussion topic for this episode on Fun Fun Forum

https://www.funfunforum.com/t/why-remote-working-is-so-hard/2995

🔗 Why become a patron?

https://patreon.com/funfunfunction

🔗 mpj on Twitter

https://twitter.com/mpjme

🔗 Help translate the show to your language

http://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?tab=2&c=UCO1cgjhGzsSYb1rsB4bFe4Q
What if
By: Lisa Renee
Tags: Questions, Menopause, Women, Humor, Poetry

I peeled off

my clothes

right here

in the terrifyingly

bright lit aisles

of the grocery?

What if I stuck

my tongue

in a stranger’s mouth,

swerved inches

into oncoming traffic?

What if I loosed

the birds chattering

in my skull

at dinner

or on the phone

with my mother?

What if I called north

south and disdain

desire? What if closed

doors were invitations?

What if, instead of

dishes in the dark,

I waxed witty in a bright

sliding dress

among the knot

of wags under

the center lights?

What if we don’t?

Or we do, depending

on the light

and the particular tremor

of expectation and years

gone by?

What if we changed

all the rules,

turned the clocks

on their heads

and crowned the fool?
Why We Serve
By: U.S. Digital Service
Tags: Government, Civictech, Team And Culture

The best of technology.

The best of government.

And we want you.

We’re looking for the most tenacious designers, software engineers, product managers, and more, who are committed to untangling, rewiring and redesigning critical government services. You’ll join a team of the most talented technologists from across the private sector and government.

If you have questions regarding employment with the U.S. Digital Service, please contact us at usds@omb.eop.gov and visit usds.gov/join.
Take Your Time
By: Galit Birk
Tags: Empathy, Loss, Poetry, Heartbreak, Self-awareness

Sign up for Growing in Empathy

By Age of Empathy

Growing in Empathy is sent weekly on Saturdays. It highlights recent stories, shares celebrations of our writers, and may contain prompts. Take a look
Are we ready to abandon the desktop metaphor?
By: Rubens Cantuni
Tags: Ts, Interaction Design, Design, Data Science, UX

I recently did a lot of research about the computer desktop, a metaphor that all current operative systems have in common and that is going on for almost 50 years now (!!!), since the Xerox Alto that first to introduce a graphical user interface.

Offices were very different 50 years ago. Files were, for the most part, actual pieces of paper, the work was carried on on the physical surface of a desk and people were digitally illiterate, so the desktop metaphor came to help smooth the transition from the physical world of the office to its digital counterpart. Even though the graphic capabilities of computers and screens weren’t enough to actually mimic the realistic look and feel of paper, folders and so on, the desktop metaphor is to all intents an example of skeuomorphism.

Even the screen ratio was vertical, resembling a standard sheet of office paper
Move
By: Parijat Bhattacharjee
Tags: One Lined Poem, Move, Writing Prompts, Chess, Poetry

Here, a writer and sometimes a reader too.

Follow
Kindness Starts When We Listen
By: Jocelyn Soriano
Tags: Spirituality, Catholic, Advice, Christianity, Kindness

Kindness does not begin when we speak; it begins when we start to listen.

Listen with patience. Listen with an open heart. Listen with forgiveness. Listen with love.

Let us not listen only with the intention of speaking back. Listening should not be a mere method of gathering information for our arguments.

Listening should instead be that blessed time when we start to make a bridge of peace between ourselves and the one who is talking to us.

It is not a weapon but a tool. It is not a gate that should be shut but a door that invites someone in.

Just for today. Practice a little kindness as you listen with your heart.
Hard Reset Your Frozen Fitbit
By: Thomas Smith
Tags: Ionic, Wearables, Smartwatch, Reset, Fitbit

Hard Reset Your Frozen Fitbit

What to do when your Ionic of Versa freezes or locks you out

Credit: Gado Images

Is your Fitbit Versa or Fitbit Ionic frozen? Can’t access any of the buttons? Did you fail to enter your password too many times, and get locked out? Seeing the dreaded “Sync with your phone to unlock” message?

If your Fitbit is frozen, there’s a simple procedure that will help you restart it. It works most of the time, even if the watch is frozen or has locked you out.

It’s simple. Press all the buttons on the watch, and hold them down. At first, nothing will happen. But if you hold them for 20 seconds (I know, it feels like forever), you’ll see the Fitbit logo, and the watch will restart.

Here’s a video showing the process on the Ionic:

And on the Versa:

Again, this works most of the time to restart a frozen Fitbit. If your watch still has challenges, you’ll have to wait for it to run out of battery and restart fully. But again, try this first!

See Fitbits on Amazon.
Father’s day al sale
By: Olivia Darmanin
Tags: Recipes, Fish In Sea Salt, Fish Recipes, Oven Baked Recipes, Fish

With Father’s day round the corner I thought of proposing this straightforward fish recipe. The salt crust gives a sophisticated appearance to this dish however to prepare it is neither time consuming nor complicated. And don’t worry about the heavy amount of salt required this will not make the fish super salty! But don’t forget to ask your fishmonger to leave the fish with the scales on. You can choose sea bass or meagre but other varieties will do. If you trust your fishmonger advise him of your cooking intentions.

Fish baked in sea salt

Photo by David Caruana

Serves 4

1.5/2 kg fish, cleaned but with scales on

4 kg sea salt

3 egg whites

4 sprigs of fresh thyme

4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

Extra virgin olive oil

Beat the egg whites until fluffy. Add the sea salt to the egg whites and mix well. Sprinkle the salt with some cold water, to make it damp. Take a large ovenproof dish, place a layer of salt at the bottom. In the meantime, drizzle the fish with olive oil from both sides and place on the bed of salt.

Take the sprigs of rosemary and thyme and place them in the fish’s cavity. Cover the fish with the remaining salt, making sure that there are no uncovered gaps. You can leave head and tail uncovered.

Cook in a preheated oven of 200?C for 40 minutes. Remove fish from oven, break the salt crust with a knife. Scrape off any excessive salt from the fish, and serve with lemon wedges and good quality olive oil.
Grief, Empty Nest, and My Relentless Longing for the Past
By: Jacqueline Dooley
Tags: Nonfiction, Parenting, Family, Self

My girls in 2008, ages 4 and 7 (photo by author)

There is a moment each morning when, having just filled the bird feeders with black oil sunflower seed, I walk back toward my house, and feel the loss anew.

My daughter is gone.

I turn and stare at the feeders and fall into nothingness.

I remember that a swingset once stood near the spot where the feeders hang and a green sandbox (shaped like a turtle) sat beside it. I remember that a tetherball hung from a pole, askew in the hard ground. I remember the little girls who used to knock it around, laughing and running in circles.

Now there are only the feeders in the overgrown yard. There are three lawn chairs instead of four. The mornings are quiet — all my own — the way I’d once wished it would be when little feet rose at dawn, bringing little mouths to my bedside for their morning hugs and breakfast.

The dog nudges my leg, calling me back to the present.
Interconnecting Through Our Bridged Different Networks
By: Francine Fallara
Tags: Spirituality, Spiritual Weekly Prompt, Connection, Relationships, Poetry

Twirling our tongues on bridged teeth kisses

Climbing solidly on your trick-taking bridged card game

Rolling me over my faulted bridged obstacle path

Your prose bridged our prior lives to our introduction

Building our own timber-truss covered bridge

Interconnecting through our bridged different networks

Connecting to provide our bridged communication togetherness

Ensuring structural protection bridged from the upcoming storms

Our paused prior lives are now bridged preparing for our climax

Protecting our bridged enclosure from weathering effects

Francine Fallara, 2020
How to remove an element from an array in JavaScript
By: Kitson Broadhurst
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, Arrays, Technology, Software Engineering

How to remove an element from an array in JavaScript

Two ways to quickly remove an element from an array in JavaScript

So you want to remove an item from an array in JavaScript?

Well, you’re not alone!

It’s one of the most upvoted JavaScript questions on stack overflow and can feel a little unnatural considering how simple it is to array.push() .

Method 1 — remove an element with Array.filter()

If you want to remove an element while leaving the original array intact (unmutated) then filter() is a good choice!

Removing a single element:

const itemToRemove = 3 const originalArray = [2, 51, 3, 44] const newArray = originalArray.filter(item => item !== itemToRemove) console.log(newArray) // [2, 51, 44]

console.log(originalArray) // [2, 51, 3, 44]

Breaking that down.

We define a variable newArray and set it equal to the return value of our array filter. Inside of our filter, we pass an ECMAScript 6 arrow function.

This function tests each item in the array and returns:
Weekly Watch Lists for the Week of 6/11/17
By: Blake Urban
Tags: Trading, Bitcoin, Bittrex, Cryptocurrency, Stock Market

Originally published at Speculate Freedom.

Disclaimer

The advice provided on this website is general advice only. It has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on this advice you should consider the appropriateness of the advice, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs. Where quoted, past performance is not indicative of future performance.

SpeculateFreedom.com disclaim all and any guarantees, undertakings and warranties, expressed or implied, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever (including human or computer error, negligent or otherwise, or incidental or consequential loss or damage) arising out of or in connection with any use or reliance on the information or advice on this site. The user must accept sole responsibility associated with the use of the material on this site, irrespective of the purpose for which such use or results are applied. The information on this website is no substitute for financial advice.
The Beginners’ Guide to Automating Websites and Tests With Selenium
Tags: Testing, Tdd, Front End Development, Programming, Technology

So What Do We Do With This Newfound Knowledge?

With the basics laid out, let me show you some examples of how to apply Selenium in the real world to save yourself time and effort.

Automate your posting queue

Let’s say you have a Tumblr blog about, I don’t know, books spread open in nature, maybe. I think that’s what people use Tumblr for ever since the big ban in 2018. Let’s also assume you have a curation blog that reblogs the best content from a hundred other blogs — a couple posts each day.

You spent a long time collecting 1,000 good posts, but Tumblr being Tumblr, you can only queue 200 of them at the same time. So instead you used something like Session Buddy to collect all the URLs in an efficient manner and saved them to a spreadsheet.

I may or may not have a couple decaying spreadsheets that were decidedly not about books, so now they’d be completely useless, but I digress. Tumblr got sold for $3 million — that’s eased my pain.

So with this long list of great, earth-shaking posts, you could now write a little Selenium script that logs into Tumblr, goes through 200 posts at a time, and adds them to the queue. You could even write randomized captions and experiment with Spintax to make it all look natural — not that anybody would do something like that, not with books.

You could then even put this script on a scheduled task so it runs once per month and then loops once it’s done because no one will even notice that you’re recycling posts when your list is 1,000 long and lasts three months before looping over.

Test, test, test

Besides task automation, you’ll most likely be using Selenium for automated testing of anything that faces the interwebs. Here are some things you could easily set up to automate testing:

Do an automated login into your customer dashboard every couple minutes to check that everything is working, send an email, or raise an alert if that fails.

Download a file to ensure that the database is online and all connections run smoothly

Check that these tasks don’t take considerably longer than they usually do; raise an alert if connection speeds are slow

Automated reporting

The last important thing Selenium can do for you is automated report generation.

I already touched on this in the testing portion with the alerts for slow or nonworking connections, but let’s assume you were running a bunch of different ads on your Tumblr blogs about books and also had some affiliate links, and now you might want to get a daily reporting of which of these avenues performed best.

You could manually log into all of those different websites, copy the daily sums, and transfer them into a spreadsheet — but why not automate that task?

Or you can get yourself a daily digest of news headlines or stock prices. Other people pay money for those things. In fact, why not set up a paid service that supplies those values to hundreds of people who, in turn, happily give you their money for saving them hours of time and giving them an edge over the competition?
Write With Us
By: Stacey Herrera
Tags: Relationships, Love, Advice, Sex, Writing

Relationship-ing is about intention. Connecting on purpose. Being. Doing. Loving. It’s a verb.

Our Mission

To help people get better at relationship-ing. Because money can buy a lot of things, but meaning isn’t one of them. Only relationships can do that.

Every relationship is optional. Yet, we treat our cars better than we treat our family, friends, and lovers.

We maintain our cars with diligence. Oil changes and tune-ups. Keeping the tank filled and washing it regularly. Rotating tires and changing bulbs. Doing whatever needs to be done to keep the car on the road, for as long as possible.

What if we made relationship maintenance this important?

Relationship-ing is a publication committed to telling stories about the sticky, messy, deliciousness of human connection. So that we can all get better!

We are Looking for Writers Like You!

True stories about loving and losing. Thirst and craving. Unraveling. Lust and longing. Disappointment. Joy. Pleasure. Wonder and awe. Forgiveness. Anger and frustration. Redemption. Angst. Recovery. Satisfaction. Courage. Devotion. Because…

Honesty is sexy. Truth-telling is courageous. And love is messy.

We want it raw and real. Your writing should tell a story the reader can feel, connect, and learn from. Tales that real people, like you and me, can relate to and be inspired by.

Submission Guidelines

We accept non-fiction articles written in English. Original content ONLY. All submissions must be unpublished drafts. There is a 500-word minimum. Try to keep articles under 8-minutes when possible. Please include at least one of the following tags in your post: Relationships, Advice, Love, Sex, Marriage, or Polyamory. All content must be MPP eligible. Make sure all images are properly captioned and credited. Edit and triple check your work. Using tools like Grammarly and Hemmingway is recommended. All posts must comply with Medium Rules and Ad-free policy. Review the Medium Curation Guidelines before submitting. Write it like you felt it. We may lightly edit articles for heading, grammar, spelling, and/or formatting fixes. Articles requiring extensive edits will not be accepted.

The most popular Relationship-ing posts have a relatable and conversational tone. So keep it simple and light. Tell it like it is or how it happened. No fluff needed.

Every submission will be carefully reviewed. We will only accept works that feel aligned with the intention of this publication.

Write with us

If you are interested in writing with us, fill out this form. Once you’ve been added as a writer, you can submit your unpublished draft for review. Don’t forget to edit! ;-)

We will do our best to keep turnaround times between 24–28 hours.
Final NBA Mock Draft With Trades
By: Marc Delucchi
Tags: NBA Draft, Sports, Nba Trade Rumors, NBA, Golden State Warriors

Final NBA Mock Draft With Trades

Marc Delucchi projects where prospects will fall and which trades will go down in the first round of the NBA Draft.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Final NBA Mock Draft With Trades

Marc Delucchi projects where prospects will fall and which trades will go down in the first round of the NBA Draft.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

After months of scouring through scouting reports, watching highlight reels, and reading various rumors, the NBA Draft is finally here. With plenty of unknowns still up in the air, I take my best shot at how the first round will shake out.

The 2020 class is known best for what it lacks: obvious top-end talent. It’s become clear that James Wiseman, LaMelo Ball, and Anthony Edwards are in a tier of their own to most teams at the top of the draft, but how they rank among themselves seems heavily undecided. Still, people sour on the top of the draft should look down most big boards and mocks to see what this group has to offer.

This class is deep with prospects that will contribute to NBA rotations. Figuring out which players projected as secondary pieces are the next Jimmy Butler or Kawhi Leonard will define this year. There are just too many well-rounded prospects for someone not to emerge from outside the top-five as an All-Star. In most years, betting on whether there will be more All-Stars in the top-ten picks or the rest of the draft is an easy choice for the former. However, this year, I’d lean heavily toward the field.

With that said, I think we’re set to see some significant action at the top of the draft. Minnesota and Golden State hold the top-two picks, and neither seems particularly committed to keeping their selection. As the rumors keep swirling, here’s my projected picks and trade for the first round of this year’s draft.
Tre’s Morning On A Lake In The Mountains
By: Tre L. Loadholt
Tags: Photography, Audio Poem, Nature, Challenge, Poetry

It is cold.

And the breeze

That lifts itself from the

Mountains

Showers us in pain.

We are stringed along —

Little pieces of

Nuances chiming in

At the right time

To give life an

Uppercut to its naked chin.

We calmly sneak a peek

At the sunset,

Making wishes

Like a shooting star

Passed us by.

In the vastness of

A mighty world —

We are still

Too small to be

Heard, even with

The mountains carrying our voices.
Hannah Arendt
By: Patricia Rivas Lis
Tags: Español, Filosofía, Hannah Arendt

in Both Sides of the Table
The Downside of Dating a Writer
By: Julia Beaudett
Tags: Dating, Literature, Relationships, Love, Writing

Some writers often deal with emotional problems or mental issues

Looking at the lives of my favorite yet problematic writers, I can see that the drinking problems, though highly romanticized in literature, don’t come from a good life.

Just like psychiatrists often chose their profession out of difficult childhood and problems they couldn’t resolve when they were younger (I don’t know any passionate about his work psychiatrist in both Russia and America who hasn’t had a truly difficult childhood or at least an abusive family), most writers start writing to express all the emotional pain and self-reflection they couldn’t hold in themselves anymore.

In my experience, the writers I know suffered or still suffer from suicidal thoughts, severe depressions, Borderline, or Bipolar Personality Disorders. I am not sure if it is a simple coincidence that out of all people I met, writers always seem to be so affected by mental issues, it’s probably made them much better and perceptive writers.

This frequent inability to process a heartbreak, the way they see the beauty where others see the ordinary, the way they challenge the things, that others have no doubts in. They express themselves in a way others might not like, but that is exactly what makes them so good.

If we, highly or slightly unstable or emotionally miserable people couldn’t write and express what’s going on inside our soul, I don’t know what we would do. Writing is healing but at the same time, it may be damaging for the person one chooses to share their life with.

Writers, though perfectly capable of taking control of their own life can seem problematic to others. They can express their emotions in a way you’re not used to, they can see this world and lead this life in a way you might not be ready for.

I’m not going to lie, you will never be bored with a writer, and your life might accumulate some new deeper meaning. But is it really hot to date a writer, as they show us in books and the movies? Maybe.

But maybe not.
Make Better And Quicker Decisions With This Productivity Hack
By: Anshul Kumar
Tags: Life Lessons, Change, Productivity, Education, Life

Did you know that our brain struggles with making decisions when there are multiple options?

This is why it can sometimes be so challenging to order your main meal off a dinner menu — too many choices and a serious case of food-FOMO!

I am struggling every week on the topic or subject to write an article on Medium or create a weekly video for my youtube channel. And this is even more so the case when making important or complex work-related decisions.

Managing your dilemma of multiple choices and options.

The reason why is because of something called ‘the paradox of choice’.

The Paradox of Choice — Why More Is Less is a 2004 book by American psychologist Barry Schwartz. In the book, Schwartz argues that eliminating consumer choices can greatly reduce anxiety for shoppers.

Schwartz assembles his argument from a variety of fields of modern psychology that study how happiness is affected by the success or failure of goal achievement.
Tanka Poetry — A Brief Introduction
By: Brett Christensen
Tags: Writing, Poetry, Poems On Medium, Tanka, Haiku

Tanka is a form of poetry that originated in seventh-century Japan.

It is similar to Haiku, another popular form of Japanese poetry. Like haiku, tanka poems have a defined syllable structure. A tanka poem has 31 syllables.

While haiku has a 5–7–5 syllable structure, Tanka has the structure 5–7–5–7–7.

So, a tanka poem is like a haiku with two extra lines added. Sometimes, this extra length can offer a little more scope to tell your story. And, unlike haiku, tanka allows metaphors, similes, and personification.

Traditionally, Tanka poems were written as one continuous line. But modern versions written in English are usually formatted over five lines.

Tanka poems typically have a turn or pivot in the third line. An article about Tanka on poets.org notes:

Like the sonnet, the tanka employs a turn, known as a pivotal image, which marks the transition from the examination of an image to the examination of the personal response. This turn is located within the third line, connecting the kami-no-ku, or upper poem, with the shimo-no-ku, or lower poem.

Modern English tanka tends to be more flexible than traditional forms. Because consonant clusters in English are longer than in Japanese, some Tanka poets do not strictly adhere to the 5–7–5–7–7, 31 syllable structure.

Traditionally, tanka poems do not use punctuation, although I’ve seen plenty of examples that break this rule.

Getting Started

Probably the best way to get started with tanka is to jump in and write one.

As I’ve noted above, modern English tanka is quite flexible. But, if you’ve never written a tanka before, I’d suggest sticking to these guidelines at first:

Five lines with the syllable structure 5–7–5–7–7.

A total of 31 syllables.

Try to avoid punctuation such as full stops and question marks.

Try to incorporate a turn in the third line as discussed above.

To double check your syllable count, you can use this Haiku Syllable Counter. It works for tanka as well as haiku.

Here’s a Tanka poem I wrote recently. This example should serve to illustrate the form:

Dark spicy essence

Thick rich droplets fall slowly

On the waiting food

To dance sweetly on my tongue

Well loved Worcestershire sauce

Submit a Tanka to House of Haiku

We’ve decided to open up House of Haiku to tanka as well as haiku to spice things up a bit. You can view our submission guidelines here.

Resources

If you would like to dig deeper into Tanka, the following resources are a good starting point:
Yes, Your Cat Can Get Coronavirus
By: Nancy R. Gough
Tags: Pets, Coronavirus, Science, Family, Covid 19

This is just a photo of a cat. This cat does not have coronavirus, but cats can get SARS-CoV-2. [Credit: Nancy R. Gough, BioSerendipity, LLC]

Cats can transmit SARS-CoV-2 to other cats.

With reports of felines testing positive for the virus or antibodies to the virus that causes COVID-19, researchers set out to determine if domestic animals or livestock were susceptible to infection with the virus.

Shi and colleagues found that ferrets and cats were susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, but that the virus did not replicate in when inoculated into dogs, pigs, chickens, or ducks. In an experiment with 3 pairs of cats, one of the pairs showed airborne transmission. One of the cats inoculated with the virus transmitted the virus to a cat housed in an adjacent cage. The other two pairs did not show evidence of transmission. This study consisted of 10 subadult cats (6–9 months old) and 10 juvenile cats (70–100 days old).

Halfmann and colleagues focused solely on cats and SARS-CoV-2. They also found that within 3 days of inoculating cats with the virus, the virus was detectable in nasal swabs. Furthermore, housing the inoculated cats with non-inoculated cats resulted in all of the cats becoming infected within 5 days. This study consisted of 3 inoculated animals and 3 non-inoculated animals. The animals were between 15 and 18 weeks old (105–126 days).

In the Shi study, one of the inoculated cats died; in the Halfmann study none of the cats exhibited any symptoms. In both studies, animals that tested positive for the virus also developed antibodies against the virus. In the Shi study, these antibodies were found to neutralize the virus (prevent virus replication in cultured cells).

Whether cats can transmit SARS-CoV-2 humans is unknown, although it appears that humans can transmit it to cats. The CDC recommends keeping cats indoors, not letting cats interact with people or other animals outside the household, and using a mask if you have to care for your cat while you are sick.

Highlighted Articles

J. Shi, et al., Susceptibility of ferrets, cats, dogs, and other domesticated animals to SARS-coronavirus 2. Science, eabb7015 (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.abb7015

P. J. Halfmann, et al., Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Domestic Cats. N. Engl. J. Med., 10.1056/NEJMc2013400 (2020). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2013400
by Martino Pietropoli
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Illustration, Tuesday, Humor, Comics, Neighbors

First thing in the morning: a glass of water and a cartoon by The Fluxus.

Follow
Cleveland Gets Ready To Rock The RNC
Tags: Rnc Cleveland, Politics, 2016 Election, RNC, Donald Trump

Cleveland Gets Ready To Rock The RNC

Day Zero in Pictures

Youth Radio landed in Cleveland, Ohio ahead of the Republican National Convention. Our reporters headed out to different corners of downtown to uncover the lay of the land. From a peace vigil to a lively anti-establishment protest all the way into the heart of the event: the floor of the Quicken Loans Arena.

Here are some of our favorite images from Day Zero of the convention.

Hope Memorial Bridge (Chaz Hubbard)

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the Hope Memorial Bridge for a locally organized event called Circle The City With Love where they participated in a half-hour long moment of silence.

Demonstrators took to the Hope Memorial Bridge in Cleveland to #StandForLove (Chaz Hubbard/Youth Radio)

Hundreds joined hands on the Hope Memorial Bridge. (Chaz Hubbard/Youth Radio)

Across town a smaller, but altogether louder, group of activists from a cross-section of organizations gathered for an march to denounce candidate Donald Trump, the RNC, and the mainstream political parties as a whole. Their aim: to give voice to those who they see as oppressed and marginalized by establishment politics. A taste, perhaps, of what’s to come.

The crowd gathers at a corner in Midtown, ready to march towards the Quicken Loans Arena, site of the DNC. (Noah Nelson/Youth Radio)

March organizers negotiate the route for the protest with the Cleveland Police Department in the minutes before starting. (Noah Nelson/Youth Radio)

A contingent from CODEPINK joined the march against Trump. (Desmond Meagley/Youth Radio)

Protestors with anti-capitalist, pro-Black Lives Matter, and anti-fascist signs reflect the wide range of concerns shared by this multi-generational, ethnically diverse group. (Desmond Meagley/Youth Radio)

Meanwhile, at the Quicken Loans Arena — better known locally as “The Q” — reporter Soraya Shockley had a chance to tour the floor of the convention floor where delegates will gather to nominate Donald Trump for president.

A triptych of photos from the floor of “The Q.” (Brett Myers/Youth Radio)

Outside the Arena, within the security perimeter, Soraya ran into this familiar face.
Lost
Tags: Lost, This Happened To Me, Dreams, Nightmare, Poetry

A dream, returning three, four, ten times a year

for decades

Lost in a school, sometimes high school, usually college

late for class, a test, something

Wandering hallways that should be familiar

but aren’t

Can’t remember room number or professor or when I

was there last

Did I attend last week, last month, ever?

Apprehension, then panic, running down long

dark empty halls

Looking for something I don’t know and

can’t find

How will I graduate, make a living,

have a life

If I can’t find that room, that teacher,

that test —

Where am I going?

A never-ending dream that ended

when I left him

and found

you.

A never-ending nightmare that ended

When I left that life

and found

me.
3D Photography Inpainting: Exploring Art with AI.
By: Vlad Alex, Merzmensch
Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Art, Published Tds

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