fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Hallmark Writer’s Room Brainstorms Movie Titles
By: Catherine Weingarten
Tags: Satire, Family, Hallmark, Humor, Christmas

Fair Use: Hallmark Channel

**Co-Written with Gracie Beaver-Kairis**

“Blake executive produced his first Christmas movie for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries — Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas — back in 2018. Since then, he produced Time for You to Come Home for Christmas in 2019, and now, fans are eagerly awaiting his third film in the [series], Time for Us to Come Home for Christmas.” — Country Living

Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas

Time for You to Come Home for Christmas

Time for Us to Come Home for Christmas

Time for Everyone to Come Home for Christmas, Or Else

Christmas? Time to Come Home

Do The Coming Home For Christmas!

Home is Where the Christmas Is

It’s Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas Because I Heard It’s an Important Holiday as a Human to Appreciate

What Day is It? December 1st and My Calendar Says It’s Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas

What Time Is It? Time to Get My Ass Home for Christmas

Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas To Meet Your Mother Who Seems Nice

Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas Because I’m Bored AF

Grandpa Died So I Guess It’s Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas Even Though We Weren’t That Close

Time for Me to Come Home For Christmas Because Aliens Have Told Me I Have To Or Else They Will Kill Me

Time Has No Meaning But If It Did It Would Be Time to Come Home for Christmas

The Voices In My Head Whisper, “Time to Come Home for Christmas”

What’s This? I Specifically Said I Wasn’t Coming Home For Christmas But I Woke Up Naked On the Floor of My High School Sweetheart’s Book Store And There Are 18 Hooded Men Chanting “Time To Come Home And Meet Your Estranged Child Who Has Been Slumbering Under the Christmas Tree For 1000 Years And Is Ready to Be Awakened”

Now I Am Home for Christmas, Forever
How to Customize Ubuntu for Distraction-Free Programming
By: Shalitha Suranga
Tags: Technology, Software Development, Productivity, Programming, Ubuntu

How to Customize Ubuntu for Distraction-Free Programming

Don’t adapt to what you got with the installation, simply customize targeting your productivity instead.

The workspace, screenshot by the author

People use different types of operating systems based on what they do and their preferences. The majority of die-hard fans use their first operating system forever even though it has some drawbacks. Meanwhile, some people switch operating systems so often until they find the best one for them. Also, a few persons do a quick research about the history of operating systems and the modern state of those to find the best matching operating system for them. I used many versions of Windows for 10 years and switched completely to Ubuntu around 2 years ago.

Before switching to Ubuntu, I did a small research about the Linux kernel and eventually became a fan of Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel. The GUI of an operating system initially shows us the default configuration that was made for a general-user by its developers. For example, Ubuntu has its navigation icons set (also knows as the dock) on the left of the screen, and also the top bar is visible all the time. I also didn’t like the default UI configuration of Ubuntu because it didn’t give the productive workspace I expected. I think for most users who have a Windows background, it’s a bit unfamiliar. I did the following customization in the GUI using the GNOME Tweaks application and some extensions to boost productivity for programming on Ubuntu.
ICO REVIEWS
By: Katherine Romaniuk
Tags: Technology, Token Sale, ICO, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

PEP Network REVIEW by Martins Hacks

Professional presentation and great review! Good job and big thanks!
Punch Up
By: Kevin Moore
Tags: Religion, Satire, Gary Trudeau

Sign up for Taking Stock of COVID: New comics from The Nib

By The Nib

New comics from Matt Lubchansky, Keith Knight, and Niccolo Pizarro. Plus How Seniors Are Living With COVID-19. Take a look
A Mama Bear’s Message in a Bottle
By: Tracy Luk
Tags: Poetry, Relationships, Mothers And Daughters, Parenting, A Cornered Gurl

It gleams

The smile plastered on your face

as you grip a pencil

scribbling letters to a boy

on colorful origami paper

In drifts a breeze of spring innocence

Sunlight flickers

a reflection

In ten years you’d be the same age

I met my first love — a boy

All hope I devoted to

writing page after page

A message in a bottle

I’d address to my past self

Hello, Earth to Tracy

once on top of the world

only to drop and discern

you knew nothing

A tight grip

twisted around a finger

Had me teeter between attachment and affection

Asking if it was genuine or an illusion?

May you love yourself enough to know the difference

It took me ages

Through the looking glass with thorns

I peer and see clearly

Fiery flutters and firsts of infatuation

warped the world in a kaleidoscope

but hindsight tells me it was tunnel vision

Promises and potential

present themselves as a gift

leave you entrapped with a neat bow

Examine the whole package

Relationships are magic

as is conjuration

bound to second chances

Even if his voice makes you melt

He can stick a kiss to your lips, over and over

and smear empty words

To hear a heart beat loud

like the ceaseless thumping of a drum

let what starts with “I” and ends with “You”

fall on deaf ears

Watch it unfold

spelled out through actions

Let side effects be a lesson

Love is a drug

potent enough to obscure your senses

Are you met halfway

and treated as a person?

Or like a trophy to be won

then left up on the shelf to collect dust

Don’t hope to see tomorrows together

if they make you question your worth

Your history

Your position

Yourself

Music to your ears

but does he inch closer to listen?

Do compliments drip with sincerity

or screech like a broken record?

As sweet as a candy necklace

with others strung along

A smooth talker is never wrong

and a familiar melody echoes to seduce

However colorful your days are

like origami paper

don’t bare your soul to someone

who can’t even paint white lies with the truth

Let your emotions guide you

but not get the best of you

Time will tell

and sift diamonds in the rough

After the inevitable ebb and flow

of relationship woes

you’ll drown in the throes

Learn the hard way how bouquets will wilt

in diluted waters

But, still, today

in drifts a breeze of spring innocence

I see you by the window

scribbling letters to a boy

with a gleaming smile plastered on your face

when the writing’s on the wall

One day, you may break and fall

You won’t know what you’ve been missing out on

until you have it all

What’s real will not go astray

And my hope is for you to meet a man

like Daddy someday
Feeling in public
By: Francis Pedraza
Tags: Taoism, Poetry, Philosophy, Love, Authenticity

Poem: 9

Wednesday, 08 February 2017

Is so dangerous.

We contain multitudes.

So much going on inside of us, all the time.

Hyper-rational emotions, mutating, crawling around.

But present exterior calm.

Outside stoic, inside riot; outside priest, inside prostitute.

All we get are these narrow pipes.

This English. This culture. These manners.

Synchronization mechanisms.

Allow us to connect.

But can we get past that?

Maybe we just can’t. Loneliness may be the universal doom.

Even with those we share everything with; our lovers and soul mates.

Deeper irony still, even with our selves.

Do we really know?

What is going on?

So much.

Zeno paradox me.

Achilles of my mind can’t catch up with the tortoise of my emotions.

By the time my racing mind reaches distance,

Life has happened, horizon has extended.

There is no more about me to process.

And who is processing the processing?

Or processing that meta processing?

Or meta meta processing… Oh gross.

Just shut the fuck up.

I’m sick of myself by now.

I see myself trapped in the same strange loops.

Round and round I go. There goes Achilles! Still chasing tortoise.

Lover, friend, I would study you.

Make you my science, my art, a lifelong sketching.

But the Mona Lisa sucks.

Likeness is not form.

Take me backstage!

Show me the inner workings of your being.

Subtle patterns, hidden beliefs, little reflexes.

Your stage is boring, really.

I’ve already seen the play, twice. Yes, yes, very nice.

But show me your script. Show me your thought-log. Your brain dump.

Your animal desires.

But we have a trade war.

You won’t show me because I won’t show you because you won’t show me.

And there’s no pipe to make it okay.

Feelings are so strange.

What are these things, these things we call feelings.

These intense romantic notions aren’t accounted for by mere neural firings.

I want to understand why public speaking paralyzes people.

Write poetry, suffer rejection — induce sheer panic, grown man.

Go beyond all ends

Accept the heaping shame, or more likely,

Endure being silently ignored and separated, ostracized;

And

What will I find there, Gilgamesh?

Hercules goes down to Hades.

We glorify those who do these things.

But I would rather die than have them say unto me,

Ecce homo!
Power Up Your Vue Skill With Nuxt
By: Kevin Alexander Surjadi
Tags: Vuejs, Nuxt, Nuxtjs, Vue, Web Development

Vue has been a popular JavaScript framework since 2014. Vue is designed to be easily adoptable with other libraries or existing projects. Vue is perfectly capable of powering sophisticated Single-Page Applications (SPA).

But, have you ever felt confused in structuring your Vue applications because Vue starter is too simple to begin with? or perhaps, have you ever countered a problem like how to deal with SEO in Vue SPA?

That’s when Nuxt comes in handy!! Nuxt will make you more confident with your Vue skill.

Why Nuxt?

Nuxt provides you a powerful modular architecture. This will make your development faster and easier. You don’t need to think about where to put your router, your components, etc. The starter project should be enough for you to start development. Below is what it looks like:

Nuxt Starter Project

Assets

The assets directory is where you put your uncompiled assets such as styles, images, or fonts.

Components

The components directory is where you put all your components besides pages and layouts. Nuxt provides auto import feature, so you don’t need to import generic components in your pages or layouts.

Layouts

The layouts directory is where you put your layouts that don’t dynamically change. In example, header, footer and sidebar will be the same in every pages, so that is called layout.

Middleware

The middleware directory is where you put all your defined functions that can be run before rendering either page or layouts. In example, checking auth, user agents can be put here.

Pages

The pages directory is where you store your views and routes. Nuxt reads all the .vue files inside this directory and automatically creates the router configuration for you.

Plugins

The plugins directory is where you put Vue plugins to inject functions or constants.

Static

The static directory is where you put files that likely won’t be changed. All included files will be automatically served by Nuxt and are accessible through your project root URL. In example, robots.txt will be serve in host/robots.txt.

Store

The store directory is where you put Vuex Store files.

nuxt.config

This is where Nuxt is configured to cover most use cases.
Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind
By: The Analyst
Tags: Romance, Book Review, Bibliomystery, Books, Romance Novels

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Amazon Book Link) Series: Cemetery of Forgotten Books (Book 1) Language: I have read the English Translation. Original is in Spanish. Verdict: I enjoyed the way the story unfolded. However the story itself tends to be a melodramatic soap-opera. (3.5/5)

Book cover from amazon.in

The Shadow of the Wind is a haunting bibliomystery.

Bibliomysteries are a genre of books where the main plot revolves around a book.

It was a very slow read. It took me nearly a year to finish the book cover to cover 😔. Although slow; it was always able to keep the interest high and I rarely had to skip a paragraph or two. At the beginning it was a bit tiresome. You see, I am so used to read books from England and America, that I am used to the names of the places, the history and the idioms. It took me some time to get accustomed with the culture and history of a new city, Barcelona.

The story

It is a coming of age story of young boy called Daniel. He had found the only remaining copy of a book called The Shadow of the Wind, written by Julian Carax. And then things started to happen around him. Shadowy characters started to pop up at the end of the road. He had found too many people were interested about this particular book and not everyone in a good way. The book changed the flow of Daniel’s life. Obsessed with Julian Carax, Daniel embarked on a journey to find all he can about the mysterious author along side with his best friend and confidante Senor Fermin.

The storytelling

The story telling is one of the best I have read. The style of telling the same story from multiple person’s viewpoints in itself is a mystery to untangle. As you can see that a single observer does not have the whole story and then they fill up the missing bits with their imaginations and prejudices. And if someone is omitting the truth or altogether lying then everything gets more complicated. Stitching all these overlapping stories together is a monstrous job itself 😀. I loved every bit of it.

Final Thoughts

However, the story that emerged form this storytelling is far from prefect and has all the component of a melodramatic soap-opera. Also the author has no idea about female anatomy, he has mentioned in the book that a doctor can find out if a woman is pregnant with 24 hours of conception (it takes at least 8 days). I don’t think that it is even possible in 2020, where as the story took place in 60's.
Ever heard of new oil? — It’s DATA!
By: Muhammad Usman
Tags: Data, Data Science, Data Is The New Oil, Data Analysis, Big Data

Data is the new oil. It’s valuable, but if unrefined it cannot really be used. It has to be changed into gas, plastic, chemicals, etc. to create a valuable entity that drives profitable activity; so must data be broken down, analyzed for it to have value. - Clive Humby

Over the centuries, Oil has been a valuable resource to the world’s economy but the passage of time has taken over this concept. With the banks, lawmakers, marketers, social media users, advertisers, sociologists, doctors, space scientists etc. producing trillions of data every day, it has now become an oil of Digital era.

A person with no or less understanding of authenticity, quality and worth of data may disagree but an individual directly involved with information management knows that Data is worth billions if it is reliable, verified, authentic, sustainable and accurate.

For the world with decreasing oil reserves, oil has become difficult and expensive to extract. In contrast, data availability and production lies on an exponential curve. Digital giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft dealing in Data have collectively racked up profits up to 25 billion in first quarter of 2017. Data-mining is cost effective as compared to oil refining. For those responsible for controlling its flow, have established themselves as Masters of the century, just as once oil industrialists did over some decades ago.

Big Data, an entirely new commodity, is available in quantities. It is far more productive because of how it is stored, treated, modified, used and reused. Data, at least causes no physical disruption and destruction as oil has brought to this world over the last century. Data generates value to the economy and brings benefits to humans in education, healthcare, business intelligence and helps in hunger reduction to fight drastic change in climate.

It wouldn’t be fallacious to state that those who have data can control the economical evolution of a country. Besides, Data provides intelligence. It can be interpreted and converted into information valuable for multiple business advertisements and long-term goals. For example, customer data collected from a clothing store can be used to make customer experience better for the next time by suggesting them the product of their choice. A doctor can collect data form his patients which can be later anonymized and fed into some machine learning programs for providing insights to help many more.

Let’s compare the growth of data and oil.
Upcoming FAB Events in April
By: Fab Info
Tags: Events, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Tech, Conference

Here is the list of upcoming events in April that we will be a part of:

13th Washington Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Investment Forum & US Eastern Startup Contest

April 8th 2018, Washington, D.C. (GWU Engineering School)

This event brings together Chinese and American university scholars, government leaders, industrial R&D experts, and successful entrepreneurs, to exchange ideas on increasing innovation and growth. Innovators receive a platform to share their unique business solutions, connect with investors and make connections with industry experts. Dora Tang is honored to be invited to represent FAB.

IOT Toronto Blockchain Opportunities Summit Canada

April 10, 2018, Toronto ON

The Blockchain Opportunities Summit brings together established professionals from varied sectors to discuss opportunities and risks that the blockchain revolution presents, and identify use cases that have the biggest potential for Blockchain technology. Mohamed El Kandri will be representing FAB to share our strategies for incorporating distributed ledger systems to improve contracts, financial transactions, identity management and many other facets of business.

Interview with WowTV

April 17, 2018

WowTV is a 24h Cantonese/ Mandarin channel serving the Chinese community in North America. They cover news and create content in many areas such as entertainment, finance, culture, and technology. Paul Liu from FAB has been invited to educate the audience on blockchain and promote the new technology to the general public, one of FAB’s core missions.

Cyber, Tech, and Risk — Sponsored by RBC

April 19, 2018

Emily Sit and Mohamed El Kandri will be representing FAB with a speaking engagement at the Cyber, Tech and Risk event sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada. Industry leaders, pioneers, and experts will share their insider views of this game-changing technology and help professionals establish a solid understanding of what blockchain means to business and technology as a whole.

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cyber-tech-and-risk-blockchain-tickets-44517079784

JH China-US Summit

April 20–21, 2018

The Johns Hopkins China-U.S. Summit (JHCUS) brings together distinguished speakers involved in intensive research and active participation in Chinese-American business cooperation. The summit broadens its focus to include topics on economics, technology, healthcare, and entrepreneurship, creating an interactive forum for dialogue and insights on issues directly related to Chinese-American commercial reciprocity.

Paul Liu and Dora Tang were invited as speakers with pleasure and they will be presenting the FAB solution on solving the scalability problem.

2ND Annual Blockchain Conference: Toronto 2018

April 24th, 2018

Paul Liu, Mohamed El Kandri and Emily Sit will be joining the 2nd Annual Blockchain Conference in Toronto where they will be participating as panel members for several exciting topics in the crypto space.
Writers Gonna Write
By: Jessica Hillis
Tags: Writing Life, Positive Thinking, Positive Attitude, Writing, Time Management

You know and I know it’s been one hell of a year. I wasn’t expecting much but I can tell you I wasn’t expecting this. Obviously, a damn global pandemic wasn’t on anyone’s radar but, come on! Really?

It’s not like I had any grand plans but I had hope that it could be a good year. Frankly, for me, 2020 hasn’t been that bad in terms of my personal life. But had you told me I would be where I am right now, I wouldn’t have believed you.

I had every intention to continue to do what I was doing; being a mom, working, and writing. It wasn’t the most fulfilling life ever but it was good enough for me.

I really enjoyed writing and was having some pretty good success with it. The thoughts were flowing, I was getting them down on paper (or the computer screen), and people were reading and liking what I wrote.

Then March 2020 hit

We all know what happened. We entered a world we had never seen. Our lives were flipped upside down and we had to readjust everything to keep up.

And it has not let up! One thing after another, we have been knocked down and then gotten back up, readjusting once again.

I don’t know about you but this has all fried my brain.

Am I functioning? Well, kinda sorta. I mean, I’m here right? I’m still standing and life is moving along. The dust is starting to settle but only because I am now mentally aware that this year is just going to keep throwing us for loops.

Might as well keep moving. My world has been rocked and things aren’t how they were ten months ago. But I have realized that the best thing I can do for myself (and my children for that matter) is to act as if things are normal and deal with things as they come.

I’ve missed writing so much

Even when I wasn’t writing, I was still thinking of things as if I were still a writer. I’d write articles in my head and hope that I could remember what those topics were about once I could get back to it.

Writing is in my blood now. Not much I can do to change that except to find a way to write. I’ve been using the excuse that I didn’t have time. My kids are home all the time now and I got a new job. Oh and I planned a wedding and got married.

Mostly I was afraid to come back. What if I’m not good at it anymore? What if I’m too rusty to come up with something to write? No way people are going to remember me and I’ve fallen behind.

Fallen behind what though? I had to think about that a bit. I don’t write for the fame and fortune. I don’t have goals to become a world famous author. I just like to write. It’s therapeutic for me to get my words out there.
Android Top Camera Libraries
By: Amit Shekhar
Tags: Mobile App Development, Android App Development, AndroidDev, Android, Libraries

All the Android top camera libraries.

CameraX

CameraX is a camera library by Google. In Google IO 2019, Google added another powerful tool for camera development in Android development called CameraX as part of Jetpack. It is backward compatible till Android 5.0 / Lollipop (API 21) and it works with at least 90% devices in the market.

Getting Started With CameraX Jetpack Support Library

CameraView

CameraView aims to help Android developers easily integrate Camera features.

Features

Camera preview by placing it in a layout XML (and calling the start method)

Configuration by attributes

Aspect ratio (app:aspectRatio)

Auto-focus (app:autoFocus)

Flash (app:flash)

CameraKit-Android

CameraKit takes one of the hardest Android APIs and makes it into a high level and easy to use the library that solves all of your problems.

With CameraKit you are able to seamlessly do the following…

Image and video capture seamlessly working with the same preview session.

Automatic system permission handling.

Automatic preview scaling.

Create a CameraView of any size (not just presets!).

of any size (not just presets!). Automatic output cropping to match your CameraView bounds.

bounds. Multiple capture methods.

METHOD_STANDARD : an image captured normally using the camera APIs.

: an image captured normally using the camera APIs. METHOD_STILL : a freeze frame of the CameraView preview (similar to SnapChat and Instagram) for devices with slower cameras.

: a freeze frame of the preview (similar to SnapChat and Instagram) for devices with slower cameras. METHOD_SPEED : automatic capture method determination based on measured speed.

: automatic capture method determination based on measured speed. Built-in continuous focus.

Built-in tap to focus.

Built-in pinch to zoom.

Fotoapparat

Camera API in Android is hard. Having 2 different API for new and old Camera does not make things any easier. After several years of working with Camera, the developer came up with this library.

What it provides:
Stuck in the Tutorial Loop as a Developer?
By: Angad Singh
Tags: Software Development, Impostor Syndrome, Programming, Web Development, Learning To Code

Impostor Syndrome

The lack of a formal structure from a college program has certain benefits but also some drawbacks. Many self-taught developers may think that they are not worthy compared to their colleagues with bachelor’s or master’s degrees in computer science. It sounds ridiculous just writing this. However, I noticed this with myself early on and have a suspicion that this is the case for a few of my fellow risk-taking, self-taught peers. I go into more detail about getting over the impostor syndrome in this article.

Essentially, as a self-taught developer, you will always feel that your colleagues who spent four years getting that degree know something you don’t. With the huge diversity of things you can learn from Udemy, YouTube, Medium, and several other websites, I promise you there will always be something you see there that you don’t know — no matter how experienced you are.

You will simply have to accept the fact that you can’t learn everything. Forcing yourself to go through every single tutorial you come across is like trying to catch every snowflake when it’s snowing outside.

I get the appeal. You are trying to “outdo” your university-taught colleagues by learning things they don’t know. But instead, what you’re doing by going through more language tutorials is learning the same operators, different syntactical sugars, and implementations of data structures like hash tables, arrays, linked lists, etc. in different languages. That’s all. If you are not stuck in the tutorial loop of programming languages, then maybe you are stuck in the loop for frameworks. Do you really need to learn how to create a REST API in Django, Ruby on Rails, Koa, and Spring if you know how to do it in Express.js? Or learn Vue, Angular, and Svelte if you know how to create a full-fledged website in React? True, there are special cases for several other frameworks, but you should only look to branch out into other frameworks once you have mastered one. This will also make you acknowledge the quirks of the framework/language and appreciate it more.

The points I mentioned above even go for developers who have graduated with computer science degrees. With the wide array of tutorials available and the pace at which newer technologies are released, it is quite easy to feel overwhelmed and think that you don’t know as many technologies as you should. This is mostly never the case.

Instead, the issue with a lot of developers is that they don’t know their few core technologies deeply enough.
Parched
By: Tre L. Loadholt
Tags: Breakups, Music, Collaboration, Love, A Cornered Gurl

Drained of everything

I need, my lips crack

And burn into the sun.

I have watched my words

Find a home in the clouds,

Buried among the stars.

Surrendering is an honor

No longer bestowed upon

The hard-headed, too engulfed

In the flames of intense love.

I stand guarded, waiting for

The right moment to

Signal you in for safety.

Landing gear exposes itself,

I bide my time in

Solid coffins of oak.

Under each lid, is a note

Carved by a younger you,

Full of wit and shine.

I follow the scent

Of memories, yearning

For water

In a tall glass,

Half empty and half full.

Your arrival flatlines me.

Waiting has taken

Too many turns I can’t

Navigate, game

Became lifestyle.

I no longer know how

To squint down the sun

Before pale stars yank

Me into lost stories,

Clutched to chest

When lampposts go out.

My stolen fire held

Captive, out of reach.

The chisels of your eyes

Set to work on my chin.

After a time my gaze

Braves yours and recalls

The outline of your face;

You break me back to life.

Stepping carefully out

Of my shattered shell,

I tremble as your hand

Finds my lips, bringing

The plump oasis.

I follow the scent

Of today, and yearn

For fluid clay to yield

More pots, overflown

With our saturation.

Guilty of loving you

Too much —

Of holding on

Too long —

I let go

And watch my world

Run back to the source.

Thirsty, no more.
Transformando viajes en experiencias con la estrategia de UX
By: The Fuzzy Fish - Digital Works
Tags: Diseño Web, Tff Es, Investigación Ux, UX Design, Diseño Ux

We are a software factory specialized in developing digital products for forward thinking brands. We address client needs starting with the knowledge and analysis of people’s perception.

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Why Teaching English for Qkids?
By: English Teaching Jobs
Tags: Online Teaching, Teachers, Teaching, Hiring, English Language

Awesome Interactive Teaching Materials and Great Support

Awesome Teaching Materials

The teaching materials are provided, and its computer program seems like one of the most interactive and joyful ones out there.

Strict Requirements

Qkids are strict when it comes to hiring teachers that are based in the United States and Canada. The degree requirement is either you’re holding a Bachelor’s degree or currently pursuing one from an accredited college.

Class Structure

You’ll be teaching up to 4 students per class where children aged around 5–12. You will be working on the typical peak hours in China, where classes are running between 6:40 pm and 9:10 pm on the weekdays and additional late night Friday and Saturday hours from 8:40–11:50 pm for 30-min class each. Minimal 6 hours commitment per week.

Pay Rate

QKids doesn’t seem like the best pay around the blocks, ranging $16–20 per hour, but so far we heard great reviews from teachers who have taught them. It can be a great starting point for a beginner!

QKids = JiuQu = 97 kid

Qkids is founded in 2015 as JiuQu English and 97 kid and as of September 2017, they rebranded to QKids. HQ in Fujian, China.

Read more about Job Requirements on OETJobs

Interview Tips

Interview Process

Initial screening — Demo Interview 1 — Demo Interview 2 — Trial Classes — Hired

What is Demo Interview 1 and 2?

The Demo Interview is a unique combination of interview questions and demonstrating your teaching skills and knowledge.

In Demo Interview 1, you will spend most of your time demonstrating technical proficiency (i.e. knowledge of the Qkids’ teaching platform buttons, tools, and how to manage sound and video quality). Then you will answer a few questions about teaching and student interactions.

In Demo Interview 2, you will have a full Q&A interview session for about 25 minutes. Afterward, you will briefly demonstrate some of your teaching skills and personality.
There’s Always an Opportunity to Surrender to joy
By: A Singular Story
Tags: Mindfulness, Life Lessons, Psychology, Self, Mental Health

I can still feel the warmth through the paper bag even though the loaf came out of the oven at least an hour ago in a village several kilometers away. From the corner of my eye, I spot the baker’s green van pulling out of the parking lot and, for a split second, I want to run outside and wave at him to stop. But I don’t. Instead, I just stand here with a grin stretching from ear to ear, holding my warm bread with reverence and gratitude for the artisan who made it.

The shop assistant gets it, she looks radiant, too, delighted to have facilitated such simple joy. If going to the boulangerie is a daily occurrence in France, this shop is the local natural foods co-op and the loaf is no ordinary loaf. I’m celiac so I cannot go anywhere near gluten and accidental ingestion causes my immune system to rebel. The smell of fresh croissants still makes me drool because I grew up with them but I can never have another one again.

When I notice the co-op sells freshly baked gluten-free bread, I get curious even though I haven’t ordered any in advance. Unable to ignore the delicious smell tickling my nostrils from behind the counter, I ask if there are any loaves unaccounted for. The co-op ordered extra that day so I even get to choose which one I want. As the shop assistant hands me the wrapped warm rice and chestnut flour loaf, spontaneous joy is irrepressible. And perhaps a little odd to unsuspecting onlookers as it’s just bread and yet it means so much more to me.

“This is the very first time in my life I get to have a fresh, warm gluten-free bread and it is… it is beyond amazing, merci beaucoup!” I tell her, a little emotional.

Every mouthful is pure delight so for three days, I enjoy delicious tartines with assorted vegan toppings. And of course, I start making plans to go visit the bakery at some stage for nostalgia’s sake; I come from a family of bakers and boulangeries have always been my happy place because of their unmistakable smell. Even though I can’t partake, I visit them often to get treats for my family because food is both an art form and a love language in France.
The Fascinating World of Women as Roman Gladiators
By: Mythili The Dreamer
Tags: Sexuality, History, Culture, Feminism, Women

The story of the gladiatrices

The historian Tacitus notes that gladiatrices first came into prominence during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero. Tacitus expresses disapproval over the high-ranking women who enter into the gladiator arena just for thrills as he writes.

“Many ladies of distinction, however, and senators, disgraced themselves by appearing in the amphitheater.”

But not all women belonged to the nobility. There were many women who were prisoners sold into slavery and enter the arena to get freedom and wealth. It was a high-risk gamble but the fame that comes along with it was worth it.

And since most gladiators fought without their shirts, so when women started to fight, they needed to wear the same outfits as the men. That meant they would be fighting topless with a loin cloth covering their lower parts that would easily fly much to the delight of a voyeuristic crowd.

While some people argue that fighting topless was a convenience so that they can freely use their arms and legs but that fact that there was intense howling, shouting, and whistling every time a woman’s derriere gets exposed meant that the show was meant to excite the lusty crowd.

In many ways, gladiator shows worked like TV soap operas where TRP ratings are important and it is obvious that a half-naked, sweating, bloodied gladiatrix will push the ratings up like crazy.

Another interesting point was that unlike male gladiators who become respectable Roman citizens after they taste fame and get their freedom, the female gladiators were still treated the same as prostitutes and were seen as a disgrace to society.

Their male admirers would openly curse them accusing them of polluting the society while secretly lusting after their bodies and even paying them to perform in private gatherings. They were outcasts in society and were seen as off-limits for any Roman man to marry.

But as slaves, the suffering was the same as their male counterparts. Emperor Nero loved to make them hunt wild animals in the arena with only a small pocket knife to defend themselves irrespective of man or woman. The emperor Domitian would make them fight in the dark with Roman soldiers whipping them all around. The cruelty imposed on them was exactly the same, be it man or woman.

For most gladiatrices, all the humiliation meted on them was acceptable as part of a larger plan; to work for a few years, survive, and then retire in peace with wealth without depending on any man. They absorbed all the insults with a pinch of salt while continuing to entertain the bloodthirsty crowd with a gory concoction of blood, brutality, and sex.
When you need help befriending someone who hates you, only one man can help.
Tags: Humor, Comics, Indie, Beard

Written by

I make cartoons and t-shirts at www.dieselsweeties.com & @rstevens. Send me coffee beans.
Underground Vignettes #1
By: Rosie L
Tags: Life Lessons, Travel, Self, London, Mental Health

Sometimes, during rush hour, when the tracks are overcrowded and the trains are running every minute, the one I’m on will suddenly grind to a halt between stations.

Logically, I know this is because there is still another train waiting to pull out. Some moron tried to hop onto it just as the doors were closing, forcing it to stop and delaying all the others behind in the schedule.

When this happens, when the movement stops and your little neon-lit carriage freezes in the dark tunnel, no one (save for small children who aren’t usually on the train at those times) shows any sort of reaction. People continue staring at their phones, their newspapers, their feet. They act as if everything is fine.

The ability to not react to the horrifying is an assertion of self-mastery.

It makes me want to scream every single time. Because, in that moment, nothing is fine. There is absolutely nothing fine about being stuck in an airtight metal container tens or hundreds of feet beneath a screaming city that bulges at its seams. There is absolutely nothing fine about confronting the decades of grime coating the walls of the tunnel through the window. There is absolutely nothing fine about the way you know nothing until the train lurches forward again.

I’ve never been scared of the underground, even as a child. The only exception is when the trains stop. In those moments, my mind flips straight to panic. I get inexplicably claustrophobic — something I presumably inherited from my mother. I imagine some catastrophe. An atomic bomb has gone off overhead and we, those who were underground at that moment on trains around the world, are the sole survivors in our metal cages.

I wonder how long the train would have to stay still for someone to act. I survey the people in the carriage and wonder who would be the one to stride to the driver, to hear the news that they don’t know what is going on, the power is dead, the lights are running on a backup generator. I envision the panic, the hopelessness, the overpowering fear. How long would it be until people start fainting, until someone prises apart the door and squeezes in the sliver of space between train and tunnel wall, all the way to the station and climbs up on the platform. I wonder if you can do that without getting electrocuted.

Then I wonder how long before everyone on the train is forced to do the same. The thought of all that grime makes me sick. It would leave every bit of skin on my body raw and peeling, I think. Then I get mad at myself for caring about my skin in the context of a nuclear attack, when I envision climbing up out of the station and surveying the flattened city, the flames, the loss.

Then, the train moves again and I snap out of it and laugh at myself for thinking like this, for letting my mind go that far. I wonder if, behind their tranquil masks, anyone else thinks of this when the train stops.

Such a prospect never enters my mind normally.
I Know What It Means to be a Man, I Used to be One.
By: Stella Yanakieva
Tags: Human Rights, Women, Transgender, LGBTQ, Equality

After spending 60 years as a man, Paul came out as transgender to his family and Paula was born into the world. Before Paul was Paola — that is officially Paula, in her heart she’d been Paula a long time before her transition — he was a CEO of a major religious non-profit organisation. He was a host on national TV. He preached in mega churches.

I was a successful well-educated white American male.

In her words, Paula knew of her female identity as early as her first years into the world, but nonetheless she followed a life designed to fit her original body and the expectations attached to it for as long as she could.

The call toward authenticity has all the subtlety of a smoke alarm. Eventually decisions have to be made. So I came out as transgender.

Paula came out as transgender in 2013, two years before Caitlyn Jenner. It was a more judgemental time, one with more unanswered questions. But the story of Paula Stone Williams is one of many where the pain of living a lie eventually collides with the bravery of following one’s heart to embrace a more authentic self.

Now Paula shares her story with the world in pursuit of bringing acceptance and self-love for everyone who’s willing to listen. Hers is a journey filled with hardships, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
How React Context can come to the rescue if you don’t know Redux
By: Harsh Makadia
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, Tech, Redux, React

React Context

React has become a fuzzword in front end development over the past few years. React is getting stronger and stronger with the new updates rolling out. This article will help you learn about React Context, which is a pure blessing for developers struggling with Data management between multiple components.

Wait what does REDUX do?

Redux is an open-source JavaScript library for managing application state. It is most commonly used with libraries such as React or Angular for building user interfaces.

In short, Redux helps to maintain a global state which can be accessed throughout the application.

Here is how typical redux works:

Redux Workflow (Image credits — The New Boston)

Whoa whoa, that escalated quickly. What just happened? There are a lot of concepts to learn about in redux like Store, Action, and Reducers. But there is no need to learn all these things. You can do similar things with React Context. Wondering how?

Introducing React Context

What is context?

Context provides an awesome way to pass data through the component tree without having to pass props down manually at every level in your application.

Until React 15, you could only make use of props to pass the values from the parent to the child component. But there is a lot beyond that: what do you do when you need to pass data between pages (different routes) within the application?

You have to either make use of redux or local storage, using cookies within the browser. Context solves all those problems. Context provides a way to share values like these between the components without having to explicitly pass a prop through every level of the tree within the application.

Main blocks of React Context

Context has 3 main blocks:

Let’s try to solve a real-world scenario with context. Assume we want to create an application where products can be added to a cart. There are two pages (routes): one which displays the list of products, and the other which displays items in your cart.

If you were using only react without redux, it would become difficult to manage the state. We will look into how we can use context to manage the global state.

Live Demo
The British Army has arrived in Mali: Here’s what you need to know about the deployment
By: Ministry Of Defence
Tags: UN, Mali, Peace, Military, United Nations

Why are they going?

The Sahel is one of Africa’s poorest and most fragile regions. Marked by chronic poverty, instability and high levels of gender inequality, it is very vulnerable to violence and conflict from extremist and criminal organisations.

Mali is at the forefront of countries in Africa affected by instability. With terrorist violence and conflict between communities sharply on the rise, it is costing civilians their lives and preventing the development of one of the poorest countries in the world.

The UN mission has been operating in Mali for seven years, working towards a peaceful and prosperous future. The capability the British Army brings will both enhance the mission and strengthen our international military alliances and partnerships.

A soldier from the UK Task Group crosses the skyline of Salisbury Plain Training Area during their Mission Rehearsal Exercise in October 2020

It is in all of our interests to work together to protect civilians and help build a safer, healthier and more prosperous future for the people of the region.

By helping to stabilise fragile states and tackle the root cause of conflict we help to secure people’s basic rights, as well as preventing conflicts growing beyond boundaries and causing instability in other countries.

Alongside this deployment, the MOD currently has three Chinook helicopters and 100 personnel in a logistics role supporting the French-led Counter-Terrorist mission, Operation BARKHANE. This is entirely separate from the UN mission, but they will be operating in the same region.

Find out where else the UK Armed Forces are deployed here 👇
Firebase Retention Cohort Query on BigQuery
By: Ilker Cam
Tags: Hyperloglog, Bigquery, Firebase, Cohorot, Retention

A Weekly Retention Report, Exported on Firebase UI Console.

The cool features aside, Firebase is also a powerful analytics platform with built-in funnel and retention reports. You can filter your user segment on various dimensions such as platform, stream, demographics or custom user properties. Firebase can also attribute your installation marketing channels down to the ad-set and creatives. Although this powerful feature is free of charge there are some caveats such as Apple Search Ads and Facebook Ads that are not supported. If you’re focused more on marketing conversions, you can even filter your user segment on marketing data, if you’ve integrated your marketing channel.

TL;DR Composing an efficient retention query on BigQuery using probabilistic cardinality estimation function: HyperLogLog++, if you’re here for this jump here. No idea about Firebase’s canonical data structure on BigQuery, here

You can get answers to many questions with the builtin report that the UI provides you. But if you have the following needs, you need a bootstrap.

Realtime data.

Ability to filter on all event attributes.

Filter the segment using external data (I.e: Marketing attributions from Adjust, S2S events from BigQuery).

Select first and returning action.

Firebase only lets you create a retention report from the New User segment, also you can not select a returning action. For example, I’d like to see the retention cohort of All Users performed any event, come back and did Checkout event. For such a detail report, you’ll have to work on the SQL level. Luckily, Firebase can export your event data to your BigQuery project in real-time. Just navigate to Settings -> Integrations -> BigQuery and enable the BigQuery export feature.

BigQuery integration settings on Firebase UI

The BigQuery schema of Firebase is in Canonical form, a single table will be holding all your events as rows, user and event properties as an array of records in columns. For more details check out our previous post. You have linked your Firebase data and got a basic understanding of how your data is stored in BigQuery. Now it is time to go in deeper.