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Spike Speaks
By: Jenine Bsharah Baines
Tags: Blue Insights, Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Magical Realism, Spirituality

Spike Speaks

From harrowed to hugged

“they care for injured companions.” From Living with Wolves

Spike the Wonder Wolf with me in my office. Photo by poet

I slid out of my seat in the theater

seeking retail therapy

to release

the documentary’s harrowing tale

of the party that was no party

doomed on the Donner pass.

Like icicles encasing pine needles in spring,

our virtuous veneers

may well melt while catastrophe’s fires

stalk us.

A wolf minding the gift shop’s register –

Heidi, her lanyard read –

read my face.

We did try to warn them, she sighed.

In their arrogance, they knew better.

When we showed them a way clear,

their fears kept them frozen.

From a shelf

over ranges of postcards paperbacks

dolls in period costumes

a stuffed wolf leapt.

Hi, Spike, I said, catching him –

register pealing as Heidi rang him up

and the stuffed creatures sang

bon voyages and benedictions.

Then to celebrate our pact

the pack of us –

Heidi, Spike, you, and I –

howled at the eleven noon moons

forever chiming Lauds.

©Jenine Bsharah Baines 2020

Pre-Covid, I took Spike with me wherever I traveled. “I like your dog,” invariably someone would say. “He’s not a dog,” I’d reply. “He’s Spike the Wonder Wolf.” So when I read Gregory D. Welch’s article on bringing back the magical and surreal in poetry, I knew I’d write about how Spike and I met. Thank you, Desiree Driesenaar, for guiding me to Gregory’s story. Isn’t it interesting how you and I have often spoken about/written about re-wilding and wolves?

Regarding Heidi, the real wolf — as opposed to stuffed Spike — at the gift shop register, I played a game with the Muse. Heidi was the first name that popped into my mind. Prompted, or so I thought, by the children’s book I read of that name. Heidi lived in the snowy mountains with her grandfather. When I looked up the ‘meaning’ of Heidi, I learned the name means “of noble birth.” No animal is more noble than the wolf — as evidenced by the quotation opening the poem. Eleven moons? Why not? Plus, I love the number 11, symbol of spiritual enlightenment. When I went through the toughest period of my life, my apartment number was 9211 — double 11s — and my parking place, 11. Epiphanies arrived like raindrops during monsoon season. No doubt the Muse sent the ending lines to remind me/us that the living world is a ‘monastery’ of sorts. A place where, ideally, we reverence all that is sacred. Even the harrowing, gruesome parts. To learn more about the Donner party, visit

Thank you, Thomas Plummer and team at Blue Insights for providing a home for my poetry. And thank you, dearest readers, for visiting today. You’re the real magic!

https://medium.com/about-me-stories/about-me-jenine-bsharah-baines-1b7652c9561b
Three Poems by Tim Gavin
By: Beautiful Losers
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poems, Haiti, Poetry

THE ARTIBONITE RIVER

This brown river (splitting a gash in the country from west

To east) is more than a god, for god’s are myths that twists

And plots, unrefined unlike this river running abreast

At high tide and wide unlike a god that dwindles as it slips

From its pedestal as its clay feet break; but

This river brown and strong, broad as truth, deep

As sorrow furrows to the depths of justice,

Buries infinity, shrouds flesh, packs spirit, tombed in a rut,

Vaulted and concealed for no one to see but the banks

Of this brown being of its own course broadened, unrestricted

In convulsions and contractions as the heat rises and

And falls, fluttering into a heartbeat devoid and nicked

To bring up the dead that the gods merely have forgotten,

As it rushes and washes, gushing over all that’s rotten.

FOOT WASHING, AN EXCHANGE

We climbed toward the summit, the trees

Groaning from thirst; their leaves

Shimmer — a foil scorching wilderness;

Their roots — foot like — solder in cracked earth.

I squint at sun-bursts of broken bodies

And shy away from intensity.

Longing for dark breaking west.

A long trot from the closest road, our necks

Ached. Our lips burned as we downed Coke’s

And sucked on ice, hoping the parasites couldn’t

Survive the freeze; we trudged. Upward with our

Culture squeezed into our backpacks,

We hoped to leave part of ourselves at the feet

We cleaned. Wiped dry with our shirts.

BROKEN

So what is a conquered mind? Is it

Simple? A question that we ask while shadows

Dance on the walls? While the candle flickers?

A light wind blowing off the Artibonite River? Ships

In the bay? One shadow seems to be chasing another

While third plays blind man’s bluff.

It listens to some far off

Radio station playing gospel,

with a piano that has its middle

C broken. The hammer hits thin air. Nothing.

Off balance. This evening as poverty enters the witness

Dock and play tricks.

Two lovers merge

To quench, leaving each broken.

Spinning off balance. The conscience

Of one is not of the other.

The two return to their spouses empty — shadows

Trying to catch rainwater.

Interrupting another draught.

Battered and conquered, tempting all to deny it.

Tim Gavin is an Episcopal priest, serving as the head chaplain at The Episcopal Academy, located in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. He oversees the school’s volunteer service cooperative and its partnership program with St. Marc’s School in the Central Plateau of Haiti, which he visits three to four times a year. His poems have appeared in many journals and most recently in The Anglican Theological Review, About Place Journal, Chiron Review, Digital Papercut, Screech Owl Review, HEArt On-Line Journal, The Lake, decomP magazinE and Blue Heron Review. He lives with his wife and sons in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
Arecibo Heartbreak
By: Dennis Sanders
Tags: Memories, Space, Astronomy, Science, Puerto Rico

Puerto Ricans tend to be a proud people. It’s not the kind of pride that believes they are better than others. No, it’s that feeling that you’re special that you have something that no one else has.

I learned that pride from my mother a proud Puerto Rican woman. I remember hearing stories about the island and all the things she loved about Puerto Rico. She would talk about El Yunque that massive rain forest on the east side of the island. She talks about the fact that she knew Roberto Clemente, the great baseball player for the Pittsburg Pirates. There is one thing that made her swell with pride and I can imagine it was a source a pride for millions of Puerto Ricans both on the island and on the mainland United States. It made me feel proud to be Puerto Rican and when I was a kid, I had never seen this place or really understood what it did. Arecibo was the world’s largest radio telescope from 1962 when it was built until a few years ago when a larger radio telescope was built in China.

It hurts to say “was.” Not simply because it isn’t the largest telescope anymore, but because it is no more. In the early morning of December 1, the massive 900-ton platform collapsed into the telescope. The platform which was suspended above the telescope was already unstable because the cables that kept the platform up broke in August and November. So now the end of Arecibo isn't fictional, it is here.

I think that all Puerto Ricans right now are feeling a sense of sadness. Arecibo brought so much joy to people; whether it was local kids that came to the telescope and left instilled with love for astronomy to scientists who knew of all the great discoveries the telescope found. Arecibo reached out into the depths of space to find planets and stars. Puerto Ricans could look at Arecibo with pride in knowing they were contributing to science, inspiring people around the world.

I am thankful that I visited Arecibo in 2012 with my parents and my husband. It was wonderful to see this gigantic telescope. I was awed by its sheer size, nestled into the mountains west of San Juan. I’m thankful for the experience and I am so sad that other generations will not get the chance to see this scientific jewel.

There is a gaping hole in the heart of many Puerto Ricans now. This beautiful island has gone through so much in the past few years from hurricanes Irma and Maria to the earthquakes and the fiscal crisis. Now, this. I join in mourning with the scientific community and with other Puerto Ricans near and far. Today, Arecibo the pride of Puerto Rico is no more.

But I also give thanks that mi Boriquen was able to give the world a chance to see the heavens. Thank you for your service, Arecibo.
The World of Sensations
By: Blithe Anderson
Tags: PTSD, Emotions, Trauma Recovery, Poetry, Poetry On Medium

I’ve been reborn into

The World of Sensations

Baby pink sweater

Child laughing

Brown soda pop dancing on the tongue

I find it hard to believe

How much there is to feel

~to attune to~

Have you noticed the camera angles on The Office?

One can say a lot just by zooming in

I think I’m finally able to zoom in on life

The mundane is extraordinary

The shower, makeup, hair extravaganza is pleasurable

The way I check my body in the mirror each day

for impurities and fat is saddening

But I had hardly noticed that on

AUTOPILOT

Where do we go when we exit the present moment?

They took my autonomy too many times, so

disappearing into random brain synapses and

the whims of old memories scares me the most

More than drowning

Okay, maybe not more than drowning

but it’s comparable

I’ve been reborn into

The World of Sensations

My amygdala is losing its power

so I threw out the oatmeal

that spilled in the pockets of my winter coat

For the record, it wasn’t quirky when I forgot

everything

It was really sad for me

But I’m glad we could all laugh about it at the time

I’ve always wanted to be an entertainer
Breathe, But Don’t Stop
By: Ash
Tags: 2020 Presidential Race, Golden Shovel, Poetry, Politics

Breathe, But Don’t Stop

A golden shovel poem, after Theodore Tilton

Photo by Radu Florin on Unsplash

Fear and grief so stiff and solemn

Now broken by hopeful words

Cutting through legacy hate and

Such unprecedented times as these

We’ve told the world who we really are.

But there’s still the problem of us and they

And a race that was way too even

We had to work so hard for this

There’s more to do but we can and we shall

Bury the bigots and let their ideas pass

Into history, for time to sweep away.

Ash & Feather 2020
Human
By: Tre L. Loadholt
Tags: Human Nature, Fulfillment, Poetry, Life

Flaws--

Too many to count

Too difficult to name.

They greet me in the morning;

Say, "Hi. How are you today?

How can we become Them?"

Them always have it together.

They're related to They.

They know everything

And if you're not with

They, you're against Them.

Human is the creature

Who does not remember

There was a time when

"Outside" was "Outside"

And not some digital image

Concocted on a canvas made

Of lies.

It yearns for sustenance

Buried deep in

Soiled forests but

Will not take the time

To harvest.

Woe to the

Creature who is looking

For approval in

Sweaty bed linen

And overpriced vehicles,

She will become her shadow.

Gifted tongues ululate

At crescent moons, surely

Their voices will be heard.

Human is the creature

Who smiles in your face

And sharpens a knife

Behind your back.

It is unprepared for

Danger and never has a plan.

I bow, this species so thick

On my skin,

Washing it off would

Be suicide.
“This Was Me” isn’t working
By: Yellow Duck
Tags: Streaming, Instagram, FAQ, Facebook

When you will be trying to link your Instagram account with YellowDuck you may get the verification request from Instagram.

You can easily pass it by opening Instagram on your mobile device and selecting “This Was Me”.

Notice: It is always better to have a recovery email and phone number set up for your Instagram account.

Important: When YellowDuck asks you to click “This Was Me”, but you don’t see this option in your Instagram application, make sure you are logged in to the same Instagram account.

Sometimes “This Was Me” isn’t working, you can try the following steps:
Nézőpontok, ha találkoznak: egy nap négy szemüvegben
By: Zita Botás
Tags: Service Design

Our publication is a (kind of) personal journal of meet. We tell stories about our work to inspire you. We also tell stories about our mistakes so you don’t make the same ones. We tell our stories but want to hear yours too. So let’s meet.

Follow
그렇게 중요하다는 탈중앙화 네트워크, 왜죠?
By: Color Platform
Tags: Color Platform, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Bitcoin

in Both Sides of the Table
The Mill
By: Sylvia Clare Msc. Psychol
Tags: Amsterdam, Poetry

Yet there is harmony

between the present miller

and the ancient craftsmen

who hewed and chiselled each beam,

each joint, engineered perfection.

Each part in its place

and all is well with the mill.

All is well with the world

as we watch the sails spin,

waving us on our day.

Later we share the whoosh of the fins gathering speed

the song of the sails

the moan of the wood

the sighs of history, echoing still.

As we retire for the night,

we hear the miller gathering in

the sails, calming the songs.

As daylight gives way to twilight

and we all shelter

under the protecting arms

of this gentle giant of the waterways.
They Said What?! Find Out What Thorsten Integrity, Mandy Moore, and Mandy Patinkin Have To Say
By: Gavin Byrnes
Tags: Brandhole, Mandy Moore, Brandon Lowden, Mandy Patinkin, Learned League

“Fallingwater”

— Thorsten Integrity

On what rain is

— — — — — — -

— — — — — — -

— — — — — — -

“Congress approached me in 2007 about making it the National Anthem, but I’d already signed a very lucrative deal with Guinea-Bissau”

— Mandy Moore

On her song “I Wanna Be With You”

— — — — — — -

— — — — — —

— — — — — —

“Mandy Moore, then me, then Mandy Moore again, then the grocer down the street, then Amanda Peet (I call her Mandy), then Howie Mandel (I call him Mandy), then Bruce Willis, then Mandy Moore again. Barry Manilow’s Mandy is last.”

— Mandy Patinkin

On his favorite people named Mandy
16 Simple Ways To Reduce Your Plastic Consumption
By: Tom Stevenson
Tags: Society, Plastic, Lifestyle, Environment, Life

How bad is the plastic problem?

Just from walking around in my everyday life, I can see there is a serious problem with plastic. My hometown of Chester has big issues with plastic. It doesn’t matter where you go in the city, there is plastic everywhere.

If you consider that Chester is a small city and then extrapolate to the whole of the United Kingdom, then to Europe and then the rest of the world, the problem starts to hit home.

Plastic pollution is a gigantic problem, we’re just oblivious to how big it is.

Plastics are oil-based and are usually derived from crude oil. Instead of breaking down into its constituent parts, which is oil, plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, which remain as plastic.

This is not the same as glass which becomes sea glass if it ends up in the ocean, while aluminium cans are slowly oxidised by the air and water returning to aluminium atoms.

As plastic doesn’t break down, if animals end up digesting it, the plastic remains in their stomach. The more and more they eat, the fuller their stomach gets until they cannot digest anymore and die.

The main issue is that we are consuming plastic which is designed to last for a century in a matter of days and hours in some cases. To put this into perspective, as of 2015, approximately 6300 Mt of plastic has been generated, of which, only 9% has been recycled.

This is a huge problem and the main reason we need to cut back on our plastic use. As the levels of plastic that is recycled are so low, recycling is not the answer. We need a different strategy and that strategy is to reduce plastic consumption as much as possible.
It’s Okay to Make Slow Progress
By: Hapsari Listya
Tags: Writing, Jealousy, Motivation, Reflections, Self Improvement

Motivation

It’s Okay to Make Slow Progress

Track your own progress instead of comparing with others.

Credit by Daria Rem @ Pexels

We all want to be successful.

Therefore, we often share our resolutions at the beginning of the year. We share our achievements on social media. Sometimes, we talk too much about ourselves instead of listening to others’ stories.

We want to be the best of the best.

But how you know if you already become the best of yourself? How you know if you have given your best on your work — or even in your community?

Are you comparing your progress with others? Or your own journey?
Brea Canyon receives prestigious award
By: The Wildcat
Tags: Teaching, Education, Canyon High School, News

Brea Canyon High School (BCHS) was named a Model Continuation School of 2016 by the California Department of Education on March 26. BCHS was recognized at the 2016 CCEA State Conference (held April 20 to May 1) for innovative teaching styles and helping students with a variety of different needs to conclude their high school education.

Continuation schools are designed for students ages 16 to 18 who either haven’t graduated from high school or are behind in school credits and are at risk of not being eligible to graduate. As of the 2014–2015 school year, there were approximately 460 continuation high schools within the state of California, according to the California Department of Education, of which, 37 were named a Model Continuation School.

BCHS participated in an extensive application process to qualify for the award. After submitting the application in September of 2015, representatives visited BCHS a month later. A team of two then visited the school to validate what was stated in the application.

“BCHS is a great school just like all the other schools in BOUSD, and now it has been validated,” Carol Christman, BCHS principal, said.

“Obviously, as the principal, I was very elated to have BCHS named as a Model Continuation High School. However, it goes much deeper than that because I know BCHS is a great school just like all the other schools in BOUSD, and now it has been validated,” Carol Christman, BCHS principal, said.

Despite being categorized as a “continuation school”, BCHS uses the same textbooks and largely the same teaching methods as BOHS.

BCHS will continue to be recognized as a Model Continuation School for up to three years, the duration of the award.

“BCHS is an amazing school that supports students who need a smaller environment in order for them to excel and to be successful. We are still responsible for preparing our students for college and career readiness,” Christman said.
Interns without Borders
By: John Abi Farah
Tags: Work, Internships, Edtech, Company Culture, Innovation

Interns without Borders

Fresh Ideas Into our Company

“Who’s the new employee?”

“Oh, that’s just the intern…”

That phrase does not exist here!

Looking for a job can be daunting. For some reason, it seems everything requires three to five years of experience. You’re probably either still studying at uni or just a fresh graduate. The fact is, what employers love more than individuals with a solid education is someone with good experience. This is where internships come in.

Internships help in a number of ways: Raising your employability by giving you hands on experience, coaching you on being independent, as well as helping you find your dream job. While the benefits of internships are wide and very well known, hardly anyone talks about the benefits companies receive from these interns.

No, it’s not finally having someone to do the grunt and menial work or get the coffee.

Internships should be designed to cultivate the best out of fresh young minds. The business world hasn’t stained nor tamed them yet. Innovation and experimenting are still their primary drive. The work they do and the results they can generate are highly beneficial to any company, especially those working with youth.
Landlady is full of land-dudes
By: Maci Sepp
Tags: Hipster, Music, Men

Last year, the band Landlady released their first full studio album “The World Is A Loud Place.” Their eclectic music is described as strange and soulful alternative rock. As a band, Landlady is still relatively new to the music scene, but their fanbase is slowly gaining momentum.

Most of the songs in the album contain lyrics that are left fairly ambiguous and in need of some deep interpretation. Because of this (and the fact that many of their songs aren’t even on Genius yet), I could be completely missing the point, but for me, their songs are very poetic and romantic, and the speaker often appears to be serenading a distant lover.

Forced to realize

There is thunder in her eyes Nina won’t you let me

Be a servant to your every breath

These lyrics give a sense of submission on the part of the speaker to a woman named Nina. In some ways, it’s a bit progressive and contradictory to the typical stereotypes we have of men and women. This form of (what I’m calling) genuine masculine endearment is a unique message that is not usually communicated in Western culture, and it’s a trend throughout several of their songs.

One of the things that strikes me most is the fact that this band is composed of five guys. Five millennial men, four of which are white. I am sure their band name is some hipster reference I will never understand, but it is nonetheless a bit paradoxical. Perhaps their band is actually a tribute to some unnamed landlady they all knew. Or maybe it’s meant to be some grand ironic statement. Either way, they have a distinct and quirky presence that definitely resonates with the male-hispters-in-a-basement-venue-band trope.

Check them out on NPR’s Tiny Desk here!
Personal Courage in Queer Stories
By: James Finn
Tags: Poetry, Storytelling, Creative Non Fiction, Fiction, LGBTQ

by James Finn

P&P storytelling goes deeply vulnerable this week. Many of our stories took courage to write.

Loren A Olson MD explores cheating and intimacy in a hard-hitting two-parter that makes no excuses and spares no pride.

theoaknotes thinks hard and publicly about their top surgery.

P&P newcomer Cam takes a searing look at the ties between queerness and alcoholism.

Tima Loku ponders sexual orientation and sexism in Sri Lanka.

We have lots of gems to offer this week, including one of Chandler Myer’s comic delights. He’s back and at the top of his form!

If you’re not a Medium member, please click on the underlined links to read for free. If you can afford a membership, you help support your favorite writers.

Editor’s Picks —

Artist Interview

James Finn

Life, Love, Death, and Porn: Creating During Covid

I sat down with queer actor/screenwriter James Patrick Nelson to discuss creation during covid-19 and give P&P readers a sneak peak of an exciting new project that might just take the LGBTQ media world by storm next year. Jamie’s take on constructing queer art is as interesting as the art itself:
The Chapter Writing Adventure
By: Zara Altair
Tags: Characters, Chapters, Mystery, Writing

Each Chapter is a New Beginning

Both planners and pantsers start each chapter with an idea of what will happen. As you write, the creative process leads you into the setting. You get in the flow. You see the characters and hear them speak. And, that’s where the adventure begins.

As a novel writer, you build your story scene by scene. Whether you are a discovery writer or have a detailed outline, each scene drives the story forward.

But during the writing process characters take on a life of their own. They do something you hadn’t planned in your outline. Or, they say something to another character that leads the story in an unexpected direction.

The Balance Between Diversion and Direction

New writers can be thrown off-kilter when characters take on a life of their own. Or a supporting character’s action can be so intriguing they go off on a tangent to explore that character’s charm or wit or threatening presence.

It’s just at this point where neuroscience provides answers about what to do with an engaging character action. Your brain created the unexpected action and you are in charge of how you respond to the new information.

Your decision to keep exploring the character action depends on your mental awareness and the objective you have for your story. This awareness helps differentiate between direction and distraction. As writer David Amerland explains in his article on Goodreads,

More importantly it helps identify when distraction leads to direction through the serendipitous connection of fields of overlapping interest.

Think of what your brain concocts as you are writing as serendipity. In order for your character actions to work in your mystery, you need to find that balance between diversion-expanding a supporting character-and staying true to your story vision.

Consider your character’s unplanned action. For the sake of checking your new character vision consider either dialogue or action as an action. Then ask yourself these questions to help determine how to continue.

Does the character action fit the scene?

Does the character action move the story forward?

Does the character action change the direction of the story?

Does the direction fit the story?

Does the direction alter the course of the story?

When you answer each question honestly, keeping your story vision in mind, you can make clear decisions about where to go with the character’s unplanned action that occurred in your writing flow.

As you gain experience with writing, you will automatically respond to unplanned character actions with these questions. You will stop thinking of these character actions as part of the writing process. And, most importantly, you will acknowledge the questions as part of the writing process, too.

Trust Your Story Vision

Each scene, each chapter, you write is a puzzle piece that leads your reader into your mystery. Trust your story vision and you will trust the writing process. As you work the writing process you’ll come to discover the adventure your characters give you as you write each chapter.
People Are Not Their Past
By: Megan Minutillo
Tags: Poetry, Community, Change Your Life, Personal Growth, Creativity

People Are Not Their Past

A poem.

Photo by Max Felner on Unsplash

What would happen if we all

remembered that people

are not their past?

Maybe we would hold them

in the present, looking at them

in the here and now, instead

of turning our heads backward,

gazing at what happened

yesterday, and the day before

that, and the day before that.

Or, perhaps we would resist the

urge to paint their future for them,

and encourage them on the path

in which they’d like to go. We

wouldn’t dare to keep them in

a box, or mold, or build a fence

around them.

Maybe we’d even give them

space, and the freedom,

to grow, and shift, and thrive.

Perhaps if we’re lucky, we’d

even give one another the

space to change.

To change direction, and

to change our minds, and

to change our circumstances.

Maybe, we’d see that our

past is not our present, and

that the beauty of the human

spirit is the knowledge that

brings us to someplace different.

What would happen if we all

remembered that people

are not their past?

Maybe we’d see the nuance

that exists within each of us.
What is Sacred Sexuality?
By: Michelle Garfinkel
Tags: Sacred, Sex, Tantric, Spirituality, Tantra

Like many concepts in the realm of the Divine, knowledge of sacred sexuality is truly an experiential knowledge. Words can only point to and talk around what it is. It’s like reading a score of music instead of listening to the song. You might be able to get the gist, but until you have heard it, tried it with your own body, your knowledge is incomplete. But I’ll do my best to get the main points across.

My quick, “cocktail party” definition is: Sacred Sexuality is using sex as a spiritual practice similar to meditation and yoga.

I base my teachings on the Tantric premise that everything, from prayer to shit, is sacred. The Divine/God/Goddess/the Universe/The Cosmos is the foundational ground of being for everything that exists. Therefore, sex can be sacred as well.

The primary way of having some type of spiritual experience is to connect to the Divine in some way. More traditional ways of doing this are things like prayer, ritual, and fasting. But, if everything is sacred, than anything you do can potentially bring this connection. This includes things like folding laundry, scrubbing toilets, going to work, sitting in traffic, and having an orgasm.

If you learn to see the inherent Divinity inside yourself, your body, your genitals, your partner, the experience of pleasure, and so on, you can leverage the inherently intimate nature of sex to connect to the Divine itself.

Though connecting to the Divine has obvious spiritual benefits there are more practical benefits as well. You can experience things like full-body orgasms, cosmic orgasms, universal orgasms, and chakra orgasms. Seeing your partner as inherently divine does wonders for relationship problems. In general, sex becomes incredibly meaningful and profound. It’s no longer a routine release of sexual tension (though that’s ok sometimes too), but a gorgeous ritual that brings you to the peak of your aliveness.

Sacred sexuality is an art and I have dedicated years of my life to learning it. However, here are a few basics that you can incorporate into your sex-life with relative ease, either by yourself or with a partner.
To Salvation
By: Christine S.
Tags: Magnet Poetry, Poetry, Writing Challenge, Poetry On Medium, Creativity

To Salvation

The Writing Cooperative and Chalkboard Magnet Poetry Prompt

Photo by Thư Anh on Unsplash

There he was

Intoxicating her mind.

His words:

One moment sweet,

His touch:

Both light and strong,

His sight:

Beyond the borders

She had always known —

No one else could know,

For no reason but one.

He leads the immigration.

They go hand in hand,

Against the bitter winds,

To salvation.

Poems Used

Immigration (Book Spine Poetry) by Tim Monreal

Poetry and Wine by Rachel B. Baxter.

Poetry. Ugh. by Nate McCowan
Heeding the starlit night
By: Neha J
Tags: Life, Humanity, Challenge, Nonet, Poem

“A nonet is a nine-line poem. The first line containing nine syllables, the next line has eight syllables, the next line has seven syllables. That continues until the last line (the ninth line) which has one syllable. Nonets can be written about any subject. Rhyming is optional.” — Poetry Dances
12 Life-Changing Ideas from Smart People I Have Never Met
By: Tim Denning
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Work, Life Lessons, Self Improvement, Life

Wisdom jam-packed into 1-2 sentences can change your life.

An idea is a seed. You can plant a seed inside your mind and watch it grow into a bamboo forest of abundant thinking.

Each of these smart people you are about to hear from are people I have never met. I have spoken to a few of them via text message, but that is it. These are experts I look up to, who help me understand the world and how I fit into it. I believe they can do the same for you, too.

These ideas are heavily curated and enormous social proof is behind each one — that’s right, hundreds of thousands of people have shared these same ideas from unknown, unfamous people. I bet you have never heard of most of them.
‘Goat’ and masc-ochism
By: Daniel Holliday
Tags: Film, College, Review, Movies, Masculinity

It’s here that you have to wonder exactly what the film is doing. Just like Apocalypse Now can be seen through the lens of glorifying war as man’s ultimate stage, Goat too perhaps is guilty of undermining what seems to be its goal. The opening shot, one of the creamy flesh tones of topless young men, jumping and howling in gloriously smooth slomo is anthropological, ethnographic — treating these subjects almost as animals to be studied. The straight white American male, this sequence says, is a bald chimpanzee: lusting for blood, vomit, semen, urine, and shit. But when our protagonist Brad willingly submits to “Hell Week”, a trial-by-fire that he hopes will cement his place in the hallowed (and presumably “pussy”-lined) halls of Phi Sigma Mu, his and other goats’ struggles seem symptomatic of them, really, just being a bunch of pussies. The pledge masters, led by the brilliantly cast Jake Picking as Dixon, are clad either in muscles and square jawlines or effortless cool like Chance. Sure, they’re cruel cunts, but they’re playing the college game perfectly, enviously even. Within the ranks of the goats, we see none of these traits. Instead, we see bad haircuts, contacts-covered myopia, and social awkwardness. No wonder these goats are having a hard time with their hazing.

Produced in part by James Franco’s Rabbit Bandini Productions, Franco’s own cameo is both memorable for its content and a perfect condensation of the precarious threading-the-needle Goat ultimately fails at. Franco plays Mitch, a long-left member of Phi Sigma Mu, his wrinkling face and scrappy facial hair a marked departure from the male youth that now populates the fraternity. But not a minute after his arrival, after he acknowledges he can’t stay long because he’s “got a kid now”, he’s yelling at a current member to “come down here you faggot and suck my fucking dick!”. Apparently, you can take the man out of the frat but you’ll never take the frat out of the man. A solid, well articulated point. …Until Brad comes face-to-face with a drunk Mitch screaming at him to punch him in the face. Brad, after protesting, is finally riled up enough to lay a punch in Mitch’s gut before the pair exchange aggressive slaps to each other’s face. Brad, our hero, finally belongs for standing up to Mitch the man-child and hitting him as hard as he’s getting hit. As far as the film seems concerned, here Brad did good.
An Extremely Easy Tip to Improve Web Performance With Async/Await
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, Angular, Nodejs, React

Promise Brings the Magic

The reason that we can get a huge benefit from a few lines of code changing is because of Promise. Basically, Promise is known as an API that works asynchronously. However, the secret is actually hidden in the event queue.

JavaScript is a single-threaded method, as many of you already know. That means no matter what, there must be only one task running in the program. The container, which is a queue type that keeps tasks until it’s their turn to be executed, is called an event queue or a task queue; this could be different depending on the documentation you’re reading.

The examples of tasks that could be considered a normal task are console.log(1) , obj.foo() , or anything like that that isn’t an asynchronous job.

Promise is an asynchronous API. At runtime, JavaScript sends a Promise task (or a Promise-based task) to the Promise event queue. And the tasks in the Promise queue also have to wait for their turn to be called. But note that any tasks in the Promise queue can only be pulled out and run if the normal task is completely empty.

const banners = await fetch('/banners');

const events = await fetch('/events');

const notices = await fetch('/notices');

Because of the await keyword on each line, the Promise queue can’t receive more tasks. Firstly, fetch('/banners') is executed. The program waits for its response and put the next fetch task into the queue.

const bannersFetch = fetch('/banner');

const eventsFetch = fetch('/events');

const noticesFetch = fetch('/notices'); const banners = await bannersFetch;

const events = await eventsFetch;

const notices = await noticesFetch;
Daily Bit #94: ETH In Limbo
By: Daily Bit
Tags: Crypto, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Fintech, Bitcoin

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Word On The Street

Security Alert

Next Monday, May 7th, will be a big day in the world of digital currencies. That’s because SEC and CFTC officials are tackling the question that’s been on our minds for weeks: is Ether a security?

What’s going on: Several regulators have said that Ether (and Ripple, for the record) are currently in a “gray zone”. Former CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler stated last week that “there is a strong case that one or both of ETH and [Ripple’s] XRP are noncompliant securities.”

For that to be true, officials need to obtain evidence indicating that investors purchased Ether with the expectation that it would increase in value. That prognosis is administered via The Howey Test, which has been the pitfall for numerous ICO projects in recent weeks as most investors purchased tokens with the belief that the efforts from the team would lead to a rise in value.

But is that outdated? Some crypto developers and lawyers think so. It’s clear that digital assets weren’t accounted for in existing laws — that’s why governments are churning out new ones. So does it make sense that they’re graded by the same rulebook?

Reviewing The Sides

Ether is a security. Again, this calls to The Howey Test and whether investors expected to cash out in profit. Regulators are also studying the impact that The Ethereum Foundation has on price fluctuations. It could be argued that bounties paid to developers who identify software bugs impact prices by improving the quality of Ether’s codebase.

Ether is not a security. Backers such as Andreessen Horowitz argue that Ether is (1) too decentralized for one party to exert undue control over the network, and (2) it’s main use is to access the utility offered by applications built on top of the platform.

Fractions of Ether are paid as transaction fees when users wish to access applications. If enough demand is driven by those requests, the argument that Ether is a security could fall apart.

What’s your stance, and how do you think this will impact the markets? Tell us how you feel at hello@thedailybit.news
Take Care of Your Iron Passions
By: Francine Fallara
Tags: Inspiration, Life Lessons, Poetry, One Line, Self Improvement

Patiently sitting on my folds for months, the uncertainty of my stagnant life oxidizes the decomposition of my iron passions, I fear the rust corroding and scraping off my dreams.
The lingering joy of snapping candid photographs
By: Rose Mary Griffith
Tags: Travel, Writing, Photography, Wales, Italy

When I travel, I love taking sneaky photographs. I don’t do it to catch people doing anything wrong. That would be done by accident since I’m always looking for the funny or the endearing, the sweet and unexpected bit of niceness. Nor do I want to click as someone misses a step and falls even if they execute the trick with non-RoseMary acrobatic grace. My goal is always to nab that special shot of a person, of people, especially the elderly, sharing a tender moment in a setting that ties place to person.

My sister Jackie taught me the fun of I-Spy snaps when we were in the Cinque Terre National Park, Italy. She takes exceptional photographs of people and nature and I work to emulate her talent.

Here’s one I like:

Elderly man in Manarola, Italy — photo by Jaculyn LoPresti

My snapping of candid pictures have been a game ever since. She’s the first person I show when I think I’ve taken a good one.

Like this one of sister & hubby in St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, Wales — caught them good, eh?

Then there are the moments you catch a group of friends chatting and, language barrier aside, I want to listen, to hear the stories they’re sharing.
Space in Design — A look behind the scenes of No.One System
By: Aiga Los Angeles
Tags: Design Thinking, Design, Sneakers, Product Design, Los Angeles

We are very fortunate to have had the opportunity to talk with both Mark Gainor & Anthony De Rothschild, founders of No.One. And to ask them some questions about what ‘Space’ in Design means to them and how they use it in their design process -

Do you utilise ‘negative space’ in your design work & if so how important is it in communicating your design?

I love negative space. If I had a band I would name it that!

Order and disorder is one of my favorite themes or framework for viewing life and work. As a designer I love the order and structure of a grid system, I enjoy working to create clean compositions that favor negative space. That level of control really pleases the control freak in me.

But I also appreciate and crave disorder and once I have created order with a nice negative space I usually like to crash a big piece of type or an organic illustration or line through it.

Almost like defacing my own work. This is actually my favorite and, possibly, only trick!
Arm Rests
By: Not Another Tv Dad
Tags: Poetry

By CL Bledsoe

Sometimes, when we’re watching

a movie in the theater, or sitting

on the couch, she pulls my arm

close and holds it, little hands,

until it’s numb, or buries her head

in my shoulder during a scary part.

Or, when something catches her,

she laughs a deep guffaw, disarmed,

beside me. Whatever is happening

on the screen, I miss, sitting there,

arm out of place beside her. I’ve made

it through so much I hope you never

see. How lucky am I to be here

with you, watching you enjoy yourself.
Marketable Job Skills. Use Transferable Job Skills to Land a…
By: Danita Hall
Tags: Job Search, Career Advice, Careers, Illumination, Resume

Business

Marketable Job Skills

Use Transferable Job Skills to Land a New Career

Photo by Nikita Kachanovsky on Unsplash

Finishing College or University with job experience in your desired field is very rare and sometimes not existent. How many times have you been passed over for positions because of lack of experience? Meanwhile you’re thinking “If no one ever hires me I will never get experience”.

My position as an HR Recruiter was to find and hire qualified candidates. Being qualified doesn’t necessarily equate to being experienced. As a recruiter I found qualified candidates by combing their resumes for transferable skills. Transferable Skills are skills they would have gained from working in other sectors that would set them up for success in a new field.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Information Technology: Transferable skills gained from Customer Service employment

IT professionals spend a great deal of time helping others fix their technology problems. They need to be experienced working in a Customer Service environment. They have to be patient. They have to have good listening skills. They have to be able to see a problem and be able to fix a problem.
This Week in Wizard Activism: Six Ninteen
By: The Harry Potter Alliance
Tags: Juneteenth, Pride, Activism, Black Lives Matter, Week In Wizard Activism

This Week in Wizard Activism: Six Ninteen

By Meagan Caicedo

Graphic of our This Week in Wizard Activism logo! It features the words “This Week in Wizard Activism” and our logo on a blue background.

Happy Thursday, y’all, let’s get right to it!

Harley Quinn, Huntress, and Black Canary from Birds of Prey, saying, “Yeah.” “Are we ready?”

Six Nineteen

Tomorrow, June 19th, across the US Six Nineteen is organizing marches to demand the defunding of the police, investment in black communities, and much more. On their website you can find an event near you, more information about the organization and their demands, and a place to donate if you can. As always, if you attend an in-person event, please be careful. We remind you that COVID-19 is still active, masks, hand sanitizer, and hand washing (is possible) is still greatly encouraged if you attend. If you’re feeling unwell, please consider staying home, and look to support in other ways.

Sign Up For Camp GLA!

Image of the Camp GLA logo, featuring two wands (one with a marshmallow skewered on it) over a fire. Text on the bottom says “Nothing is Impossible.”

It’s here! Camp GLA is coming to your home July 17–19, 2020 as we embark on the new adventure of GLA online! As of today, we are only 28 days away from the start ofCamp GLA.

Tickets start at just $25, and include:

20+ programs from fandom leaders, community organizers, academics, and creators

Wrock concert featuring Tonks and the Aurors, Lauren Fairweather, The Lovegoods, and Ludo Bagman and the Trash

Community Mic Night presented by Wizards in Space

Community activities like pajama parties and s’mores around the virtual fire

Options to add on shirts, GLA bandanas, recordings, and more!

We can’t wait to hang out with every single one of you. Grab your ticket and we’ll see you at Camp!

Small Things Con: Pride!

We’ve wrapped up our events for this year! Thank you so much to everyone who had a hand in this year’s events, whether you were organizing, participating, or just spreading the word, it could not have been such a success without you! If you missed the events you can find some links for them here. It’s been a wild Pride month, so thanks again for celebrating with us!

Volunteering

Harley asking Canary, “Hair-tie?” Canary replies, “Yeah.”

Interested in volunteering or know someone who could be? Have a passion for Harry Potter and social justice? Why not join our amazing volunteer family! Whatever your strengths may be, we’re certain to have a place for you here at The HP Alliance. Check out our Volunteer page for more information and position openings!
Uncle Jokes 101
By: Samarjai Mitra
Tags: Try Not To Laugh, Hilarious, Uncle Jokes

What do you call a person who makes bad jokes? Uncle.

14 hilariously horrible jokes just for you.

Bos taurus

Why do cows have hooves? Because they lac-tose! Get it?

What do you call a cow without legs? Ground beef! Ha!

man slapping forehead: adobe stock images

2. The Dad

Daughter: ‘Dad, I’m hungry.’

Dad: ‘Hi hungry, I’m Dad!’

Daughter : ‘Oh God!’

Dad: ‘Really? Where?’

3. Back To School

Teacher: ‘Who can make a sentence with the words: defeat, deduct, detail and defense?’

Student: ‘I can ma’am: de-feet of de-duck went over de-fence before the de-tail!’

Teacher: ‘That’s de-tension for you.’

Teacher: ‘What animal family do elephants belong to?’

Student with lisp: ‘Mammoths ma’am!’

sleeping dinosaur: cartoonclipart.com

What do you call a sleeping dinosaur? A dino-snore!

4. Terribly Good Jokes

Sacre: *blows on a leaf*

French guy: ‘Sacre-blew!’

Mother: ‘Son, who was that very funny alien in that movie, um what’s his name, Baba Ji? No, Baba Jinx? Or was it Bim-Bam Kinks?’

Son: ‘You mean Jar Jar Binks?’

Mother: ‘Yes, that’s it! Jar Gar Dinks!’

Son: *slaps forehead*

My friends: *talk about Jughead from Archie*

Me: *hearing the word “Jughead” for the first time and thinking:

drake meme on jughead: made on lucidpress.com by me

How do trees go online? They log in!

Why are leopards horrible at hide-and-seek? Because they are always spotted!

Why did the bee go to the doctor? Because he had the hives!

Why do sailors take so long to learn the alphabet? Because they get stuck at c!

Why do fish not play sports? Because they are afraid of all those nets!

Kudos to you for being able to get to the end of this article. I hope you enjoyed these horrible uncle jokes as much as I did when I wrote them.

More by me:
How much is 1 view worth on YouTube?
By: Nida Imran
Tags: Social Media, YouTube, Money, Revenue

Image is made by the author Nida Imran through Canva.

HOW MUCH A SINGLE VIEW IS WORTH TO A CREATOR ON YOUTUBE?

In this topic, most people get it wrong or have no idea what they are talking about which is why we are talking about it.

Yes, YouTubers do in fact get paid from their YouTube channel. However, it is extremely hard to do because you need to pull in a decent amount of monthly views on your channel. The question is how many views, how many likes, how many subscribers, and how many comments? Well, contrary to popular belief subscribers mean almost nothing when it comes to getting paid for YouTube. It’s all about the views which hopefully all of you know since that is why you are reading this.

So YouTubers get paid from numerous revenue sources. However, I am going to be talking about ad revenue today, not YouTube ad revenue donations, sponsorships, merch sales, etc. Just how much money does a single view generate for YouTubers when someone watches an ad on their video? Now people always break it down by how much a YouTuber makes per 1000 views but no, I am doing it by a single view today because it makes much more of an impact on us.

I have done a case study where I took monthly add revenue from 3 different YouTube channels and divided it by the amount of monetized playbacks, so basically by the number of ads that were played that month. I then took this information from these 3 channels and averaged them together. So again, while this number I am about to give you isn't 100% accurate for every single channel in YouTube, it’s pretty dang close to what most YouTubers are making.

ALRIGHT,…….

DRUM ROLL………………………….

On average when a viewer watches an ad on YouTube that specific YouTube content creator of that video makes a whopping

= $0.0029