fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Pytorch Lightning Transfer Learning on custom dataset
By: Prashant Singh
Tags: Machine Learning, Transfer Learning, Pytorch Lightning, Pytorch

Although PyTorch is great but when task becomes complex there’s lots of small mistakes that can happen this is where PyTorch Lightning shines it structures your training and preparation such thatits both extensible for advance users and easy to use for beginners

For this Blog we will be using Butterfly Dataset which contains images of 50 different classes of butterfly.

Imports

This is pretty straight forward and dose not require much explanation

Dataset

PyTorch Lightning has a clean way of handling data using classes, it has pre-built hooks which automatically get attached to the required method of the class and also are customizable.

Few things to note here prepare_data function is called only once during training while function setup is called once for each device in the cluster.

Lets say you have 8 cores in a TPU then prepare_data would be called once (generally for downloading data ) then setup would be called once for each 8 cores

Model

This is where most of the PyTorch lightning work is done, PyTorch lightning has preconfigured hooks that allows us train model carefree for example it automatically save checkpoint after each epoch, implements early_stopping if loss metrics is available and automatically setups device for you this allows us to run same code on CPU,GPU and also TPU

Here we are using ResNet50 for 50 classes and Adam optimizer with fixed learning rate of 1e-4

Training

Training is as simple as calling trainer.fit in PyTorch Lightning
經典網路系列(五) — TextCNN
By: Mz Bai
Tags: Textcnn, Deep Learning, Pytorch

gitE0Z9/classical-network-series

GitHub is home to over 50 million developers working together to host and review code, manage projects, and build…
Long-term Recurrent Convolutional Network for Video Regression
By: Alexander Golubev
Tags: Neural Networks, Computer Vision, Deep Learning, Pytorch

I am a movie fan and have already watched about a thousand films. Based on this, I decided to apply deep learning to movie trailers and to predict their ratings. Unfortunately, collecting a training dataset was hard enough because apart from downloading videos, I needed to mark them up. To expand the dataset, we can apply some data augmentation, which for videos can be rotating, adding different kinds of noise, changing speed, etc. However, the original camera angle, the quality of the images, and the speed of the film are part of its future rating, so preserving the score but changing these features seems wrong. I decided just to take several non-overlapping parts of one video and then slicing each into the frames getting n training samples eventually

Image by Author

Now we can move to building network architectures and training the models. The CNN base in the original paper is a modification of CaffeNet, but for simplicity and faster training, I just created two convolutional layers with batch normalization, dropout and max pooling as an encoder, and two dense layers as a decoder.

Although this technique was applied for visual recognition by averaging LSTM outputs, we can use the same method for video regression, but without the softmax function on results.

Once we have prepared data and models, it is time to start training. I have chose the default parameters that do not lead to high quality but fast training.

Training even a simple end-to-end LRCN model demands a lot of computational power and time since our task consists of both images and sequences. Moreover, the training dataset has to be rather large so the model can generalize well. As we can see from the chart below, the model after training is underfitted significantly.

Image by Author

Conclusion

LRCN, a class of models for processing visual and temporal inputs, provides a lot of flexibility to be applied to various tasks of computer vision and to be incorporated into CV pipelines. So then

Such an approach can be used for a great variety of problems with time-varying visual input or sequential outputs. LRCN offers an end-to-end model architecture that can be easily implemented and trained.

All code is available on the GitHub repo: https://github.com/DJAlexJ/LRCN-for-Video-Regression. I hope I could introduce the idea behind this paper briefly. Feel free to experiment with it and ask any questions. Thanks for reading!
經典網路系列(四) — Long short-term memory
By: Mz Bai
Tags: Lstm, Deep Learning, Pytorch

gitE0Z9/classical-network-series

GitHub is home to over 50 million developers working together to host and review code, manage projects, and build…
Creating a custom Deep Learning container for AWS Sagemaker training
By: Santhosh Puttaraju
Tags: Sagemaker, Containers, Pytorch

Amazon SageMaker provides a suite of built-in algorithms to help data scientists and machine learning practitioners get started on training and deploying machine learning models quickly. For most use cases, you can use the built-in algorithms and frameworks without worrying about containers. Alternatively, you can use the built-in algorithms and frameworks using Docker containers. SageMaker provides containers for its built-in algorithms and prebuilt Docker images for some of the most common machine learning frameworks, such as Apache MXNet, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Chainer.

But there are instances where you want to add specific python libraries not present in the base container image. And for this, SageMaker allows us to extend a prebuilt SageMaker algorithm.

Here, we’ll try to extend a PyTorch container to install the python-snowflake-connector and other libraries. The example below shows how to extend one of our containers to build your own custom container for PyTorch.

Please note that in addition to the normal SageMakerFullAccess permissions, you would need permission to create a new repository in ECR. For this you can simply add the managed policy AmazonEC2ContainerRegistryFullAccess to the role that you used to start your notebook instance.

Open your SageMaker Notebook Instance and open a Terminal window and cd to /Sagemaker.

2. Get a base PyTorch docker image from this repo: https://github.com/aws/sagemaker-pytorch-training-toolkit

Clone this repo into your sageMaker instance.

3. On the sagemaker, navigate to the sagemaker-pytorch-training-toolkit directory and create a requirements.txt file

And add all the libraries that you would want for the model training.

4. Navigate to the docker file in the cloned repo directory.

5. Open this docker file and add the following lines (boxed in red). The environment variables for setting proxies are required if you are using a firewalled AWS account (like your office account). The masked part is the username/password that would give access to the proxy server.

6. Run the docker build command. Again, proxies need to be set/passed only if required in your environment.

7. On AWS console navigate to ECR and create a repository.

8. Back in the terminal login to Docker using the aws command cli.

9. Now that the docker image has been built locally, tag using the image id and then push it to ECR with the full name.

10. You can validate by running the container using the image id and trying to import one of the custom libraries.

Please leave your questions and comments below.
A Quick Example Using LSTM in Stock Market Prediction
By: Mengliu Zhao
Tags: Machine Learning, Lstm, Deep Learning, Pytorch

First, let’s discuss how to tackle this problem.

For LSTM, the most important thing is to reformat the data into sequences and decide the corresponding input and output size. In the given case, we only have one long sequence of 253 values (suppose we’re simply using the ‘Close’ column) and LSTM can’t efficiently learn on this. So the first task is to break this data down into smaller pieces.

The data we used is a single column comprising 253 scalar values

Since we want to make predictions, a natural way of thinking is, to predict using a smaller period of time than the given 253 days. We use the previous 19 days to predict on the 20th day as in this Kaggle version, but the user can change this number into any sequence length and see whether this would improve the results.

sequence_length=20. Input X here is a sequence of the previous 19 days, while the output Y is a single scalar, which is the value predicted on the 20th day.

Note we normalized all the stock values by dividing 10000 (change the number if you’re using a different scale) to avoid the neuron saturation phenomenon, otherwise, the predictions could become constant.

Then the LSTM architecture simply follows the standard construction. Since it’s stateless LSTM, we reset the hidden states to 0 during each training.
How to deal with missing values in the dataset? (Pandas&PyTorch Code Example)
By: Beyza Cevik
Tags: Deep Learning, Pytorch, Pandas, Handling Missing Values, Machine Learning

Missing values are inevitable when solving real-life problems.

Fig1: An example small dataset including ‘NaN’ values

There are two approaches to getting rid of these ‘NaN’ values.

Deletion Imputation

The first method is basically ignoring missing values. However, the second one imputes new values instead of ‘NaN’. There are a variety of techniques to calculate this new value. Let us examine some of them.

Imputation Techniques

a. Numerical Value Imputing

Replacing the ‘NaN’ value with the mean/median/mode value of the same column.

Considering the dataset in Fig1, we can separate input and output using iloc.

Mean: Imputing with mean value means averaging the same column values.

Considering the fig1

Mod: Imputing with mode values means using the most frequent value.

Fig2: Imputing mean

Median: Imputing with median value.

Fig3: Imputing median

Different approaches such as K-NN result imputing can be implemented. However, these are very fast solutions.

b. Categorical Value Imputing

Encoding is the most common way of discrete value imputing.

Fig4: Encoding categorical value

In our example, we had only 2 values for categorical features ‘Pave’ and ‘NaN’. We can see that pandas automatically creates 2 columns for these values as ‘Alley_pave’ and ‘Alley_nan’. And encodes them as 0 and 1 according to the alley type of that instance of data.

Finally, we can convert our numerical values to torch tensors.

So we can conclude that there are different approaches for continuous and discrete data types. Statistical methods such as mean/median/mode calculating are very efficient ways. However, predictive models can be developed for finding more realistic values.
[pytorch] No module named torch-sparse error while using torch-geometric
Tags: Torch, Torch Geometric, Pytorch

A solution for “No module named torch-sparse” error while using torch-geometric package in Python.

Environment: MacOSX, python==3.8, torch==1.7

After I’ve installed torch-geometric package which is an extended package of torch, it showed that “No module named torch-sparse”.

(Failed) operate the pip command straightly: pip3 install torch-sparse

(Successful) Download the wheel file.

Download them in this page:

https://pytorch-geometric.com/whl/torch-1.7.0.html

2. Remember to replace the torch version number with the number you are using. I chose torch_sparse-latest+cpu-cp38-cp38-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl and torch_scatter-latest+cpu-cp38-cp38-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl

3. Operate the pip command:

pip3 install torch_sparse-latest+cpu-cp38-cp38-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl pip3 install t orch_scatter-latest+cpu-cp38-cp38-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl

Then you can import torch-geometric successfully!
5 cool PyTorch Functions that are beginner-friendly
By: Tharun Chowdary
Tags: Tensor, Pytorch

PyTorch is a Python library with a wide variety of functions and operations, mostly used for deep learning. Data is stored in tensors. A tensor is a vector, number, matrix, or an n-dimensional array. Let’s see a few simple functions which can come in handy for you.

torch.randn

torch.cat

torch.reshape

torch.unbind

torch.take

torch.randn

This generates a tensor filled with random numbers from a normal distribution with mean 0 and variance 1. The shape of the resulting tensor is determined by argument size.

size can be a sequence of integers defining the shape of the tensor or it can be a collection like a tuple

requires_grad specifies if autograd should record operations on the tensor

you cannot give two tuples as argument as that doesn’t define a valid shape

torch.cat

This function is used to concatenate given sequence of tensors. To do thus, all tensors should either have the same shape or be empty

This works since all tensors are of same shape

concatenates according to the given dimension

breaks since all tensors are not of the same shape

torch.reshape

This function is useful when you want to change the shape of a given tensor if it is possible

returns a tensor of shape (2,6) from a tensor of shape (3,4)

This fails because we cannot obtain a tensor of shape (4,4) from a tensor of shape (3,4)

torch.unbind

This is used to remove a dimension of a tensor

By default, the dimension is set to 0

torch.take

This function is useful to extract the elements at specific indices from a tensor

simple use case of the function

You cannot access elements out of range

Conclusion

This wraps up the 5 useful torch.Tensor functions that are simple to use.
List of deep learning losses for regression
By: Alvaro Durán Tovar
Tags: Regression, Numpy, Deep Learning, Pytorch

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Mean absolute value

Useful when having outliers but you don’t want them to have a big influence.

(y-ŷ).abs().mean()

Couple downsides with this loss:

The derivative is always the same (+/- 1).

The function isn’t differentiable at 0.

Huber loss is a good alternative for this reasons.

Mean squared error

Useful when you want to penalize big differences (high errors).

(y-ŷ).pow(2).mean()

Root mean squared error

The problem with MSE is that the obtained value is not in the original unit but on the root of the original unit, that means if we are using seconds, the value will be in seconds², which isn’t really useful.

To recover the original unit we take the square root obtaining something like an average where we penalize strongly big values. RMSE can be useful to use on reports in combination with other metrics like the MAE.

(y-ŷ).pow(2).mean().sqrt()

Huber loss

Similar to MAE, but differentiable everywhere with a smooth change in trend near 0. Stronger against outliers than MSE. It’s like a combination of L1 and L2 (MAE and MSE), depending on the magnitude of the difference between the target value and the predicted value. 𝛿 is another hyperparameter that indicates where to start applying a calculation similar to L2 (when approaching 0), L1 like otherwise.
難道愛情中的傷害都是故意的嗎？
By: Henry Chen
Tags: Gay, Heder, Podcast, 男同志, 愛情

in THE SIX FIFTY
Wooden Shavings on a Dusty Floor.
Tags: Erotic Poetry, Gay

Photo by Oscar Castaño Chavez at Pixabay.com

Drifting into thoughts of you, I had an epiphany of a floor covered in sawdust with scattered piles of curled up wood shavings.

The scent of freshly shaved pine infuse the air – the oil lubricating the fragments. And, I see the trails of your cum glistening…forms teardrops that hang from the wooden curls.

I imagine falling down on my knees compelled to inhale the scent of your cum mixed with the stinging pine aroma of the oil. The fragrance cuts me down to the ground,…giddy. Judas – I hear them shout – I am felled.

I raise my head to see your planted marble thighs. Blue skies – and I bathe in the liquid pearls raining down on my face. They collect in pools in the corner of my eyes – teardrops streaming down my cheeks. Dare I wipe my eyes? I lift my head, and it falls unto my tongue. I taste the weeping sap from inside of you – this be pure joy, ecstasy and bliss.

My tongue climbs up the marble walls textured skin, with tributaries of green and blue veins. The patched mouth seeking the lactic juice to quench its thirst. I taste the enzymes seeping from your skin, fermented through the night. The sinus craves the warm scent to envelop the cavities so that the mind can descend into the realms of the sensual, giving in to lust, the scent of you hangs on my top lip, the acid bites has my attention tied.
From my heart
By: Alexandra Leonard
Tags: Poem, Gay, Love, Innocence, Poetry

We wonder the streets at 12 am looking for an excuse not to leave. Among the stars, while the snow falls we tell each other our fears, our passion. Everything black is forbidden in eden, yet we still roam. The streets are filled with nothing as you like and at the end of the night we say our goodbyes even if we don’t want to leave. Up until the last second our talk will go over. Until 24 hours passes I will think about the way your hand crushed mine or how the soft kisses felt against my forehead or those blue eyes I get lost in. When we meet again my love will only grow.
Sapiosexual & Pretentiousness
Tags: Sexual Orientation, Gay, Sapiosexual, Sexual Identity, Pretentiousness

I will get back to this essay, but I really think this article at Daily Beast says it fairly well and I will leave the reader with this link.

OUR FACEBOOK PAGE
Hello everyone it’s onlyfans, if you need fun, flirt messages, romantic messages, love and so on…..k
Tags: Instagram, Gay, Instagay, Bbw, Promotion

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Well said, there’s no way to understand even if he is gay that he is attracted to you.
Tags: Gaydar, Gay

Well said, there’s no way to understand even if he is gay that he is attracted to you. Being shy or feeling uncomfortable with prolonged eye contact is anything issue but all this stealth romance was created by straight men who would “kick my ass" if i hit on him.

We have come along way from requiring a earring on your right ear only to now having A4A or Grindr remove the mess of public flirting.
Intense Desire
By: Ronak Saha
Tags: Desire, Love, Teenage, Gay

I want to talk to him

I want him

I want to slip my palm into his, intertwine our fingers, pleading- never let go. I want to lean on his shoulder, saying, not out loud, but through my body, I want you to hold me, to support me, for I feel weak- weak in the mind with the thought of you and weak in the knees, because of you. Take my weight- and when the time comes, I shall take yours. Listen, if not to me, my heart, which aches every time you enter the room, aches to leave my body, only to admire yours.

I want to stand facing him, embrace him, and finally lock my lips on that contour on his lower face that I dare look at for too long, else I shall start drooling. Not let go of him, or his being, all the while signaling- don’t leave, stay with me forever and I will be everything you ever need, a friend, a lover, your family.

if only you knew what I wanted.

if only you wanted, what I wanted.

~ronak saha
Gays with Kids
By: Hansel Huang
Tags: LGBTQ, Gay, Culture, Movies, Surrogacy

Some thoughts on “Sublet” and “The Surrogate”

Sublet. Illustration by Hansel Huang, 2020. All rights reserved.

I recently watched two new gay movies, coincidentally, both about surrogacy.

In “Sublet”, Michael (John Benjamin Hickey), a travel writer for the New York Times, visits Tel Aviv. In order to get a more authentic local experience, he has decided to stay at an apartment sublet by a young man, Tomer (Niv Nissim), whose sexual orientation is ambiguous for a hot second. This is a simple story about a guy who “travels”, and another guy who “hosts”, quite literally. The former, a middle aged New Yorker with a wedding ring on his finger, which obliges him to pick up regular FaceTime calls from his immensely caring and moderately naggy husband–“Is your landlord cute? Is he gay? Take your sleeping pills,” he says. Michael already has some lines you don’t want to see on a man’s face. Tomer, an irreverent film student, who gives off major “top who doesn’t text back” vibe, has all the lines you want to see on a man’s body. Of course, the two of them hang out.

Tomer learns that Michael wrote a book once upon a time about his first boyfriend who died of AIDS. Michael learns that Tomer does not take criticism well and is indeed a gay man who doesn’t text back. Michael witnesses Tomer’s sexual encounters, whether first or secondhand, and visibly mourns his youth as Tomer turns to his phone in the middle of conversations and bursts into random laughter. But this is not the reason that keeps him awake at night, or jet lag. Tomer invites Michael to his mother’s for dinner. And it is there that Michael finally confides with unhinged vulnerability that he has just lost a surrogate baby at birth. The two consummate this short encounter with a souvenir lay, and eventually Tomer, who has been confused and defensive with his emotions this whole time, erupts into tears at the airport. Michael goes back to New York.

We are so used to seeing John Benjamin Hickey play the nice guy that I can’t even bring myself to blame him for infidelity: he’s had a hard time. He deserves some fresh meat. After all, how threatening can a guy be when he brings a stack of blue shirts on his trip that all look the same? With this said, I struggle to empathize not because he’s going through something I couldn’t possibly fathom–a middle-aged gay man who lived through the AIDS epidemic grieving a child he barely saw. As a matter of fact, my mind kept wandering elsewhere: is it ethical for someone in his 50s to fuck someone who’s brain isn’t fully developed yet? (The prefrontal lobe of the human brain, the rational part, isn’t fully developed until around age 25.) Is the loss of the child a metaphor for the mournful nature of youth? Does the bond between Michael and Tomer reflect a generational gap native to the community, if there necessarily is one, of gay men in gay capitals like Tel Aviv and New York. The movie doesn’t give Hickey a chance to show us more. There he is, smiling all so bitterly over his own sufferings and just simply being a nice guy.
Take Two
Tags: LGBTQ, Gay, Lesbian, LGBT, Alphabet Mafia

Take Two

So I have realized that im not very current on music so i investigated. Turns out i like gay shit! Anyways I made a playlist on Spotify called im a fucking lesbian bitch if whomever reads this is interested! Anyways, I came out to one of my friends so thats an improvement! And she likes the playlist too! Im pretty sure shes really straight buy the Alphabet Mafia isnt for everyone. So I suppose all of us members have made ranks, basically military positions that coordinate with our sexual orientation, so im a lieutenant in the alphabet mafia! Get it? Lesbian, Lieutenant they both start with L, i think the gays are Generals but ill copy and paste something

here we go:

pan - private. ace - admiral. omni - officer. bi - brigadier. enby - ensign. poly - pilot officer. - gender fluid- group captain. skolio - squadron lesbian- Lieutenant gay - general

so thats basically how it goes. anyways thats all for today and sorry about grammer and shit, thats not my style!
CONFESSIONS OF A NIGHT OWL
By: Anthony Mayfield
Tags: Poem, LGBTQ, Gay, Gay Poetry, Poetry

And I’m insecure

I only want to be your friend and say hi

But I can’t find the words

And I just can’t be nice

But I’m trying

I’m trying

Everyday I keep trying

This is me trying my best

And living with a broken brain
“My son is a thug,” the father reportedly told the hitman. “Break his fingers.”
By: Nadim Uddin
Tags: LGBT, Homophobia, Gay, Fathers

The 75-year-old retiree paid a hitman €2,500 in April to attack his son, a 43-year-old surgeon, and his boyfriend. Neither the suspect nor the victims were identified by authorities.

Homophobic father hired a hitman to break his gay son’s fingers and attack his boyfriend

But the plot was thrown into disarray when the goon, after two weeks of stalking the victim and slashing his car tires, decided the attack was “senseless”, according to a local activist group, via La Repubblica.

He decided to betray the father and revealed the plan to the son.

The father was charged with aggravated assault and stalking by law enforcement in Turin, Italy.

The alleged plot was no isolated incident — he had previously hired goons to beat his son’s partner in February. The boyfriend was rushed to the hospital requiring treatment after the attack.

Animosity had festered between the father and son for years, the police said. When the son came out to his father, he tersely said: “Too bad for the grandchildren,” and denounced him.

Four years ago, at a beach house in France, the son sought to reel in his father as he physically fought with his mother.

The father, as a result, threatened to break the son’s legs — but not before filing a police report claiming he was the victim and that his son had removed some of his teeth during a scuffle. This never occurred, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors added that the son and his mother, ensnared in a culture of fear fostered by the father, had “well-founded fear for their safety and that of the people connected to them, forcing them to alter their habits”. The mother eventually separated from her husband after 42 years of marriage.

The son often changed the locks on his property and travelled with friends for protection, fearing he was being tailed. “Apart from the patients I knew, I was afraid to make visits, never knowing who I might meet,” he added.

In a Facebook post, Turin LGBT+ campaign group Arcigay Torina wrote: “The ruling leads to the closure of a tormented path, in which a parent has become executioner towards their child because they love another man.

“Arcigay Turin expresses all his solidarity with the victim: no person should live in fear due to their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The group said the case illustrates why lawmakers in Italy must urgently plug the gaps in the country’s stringy anti-discrimination legislation that punishes racial, ethnic and religious hate crimes, among others, but not anti-LGBT+ attacks.

The Italian parliament is currently considering an LGBT+ hate crime bill that would bring it in line with its European neighbours, but far-right parties and religious leaders have expressed virulent opposition to it.
LGBTQ+
Tags: Lesbian, LGBTQ, Gay

Let me start off by saying LOVE IS LOVE. This is a phrase that should be heard and practiced everywhere. People of the LGBTQ+ community are being targeted instead of loved. This is our home all together, why not choose to be kind to our neighbors. Someone’s sexuality, or lack thereof, does not prompt you to treat them any differently. If I put you in a room with a bunch of random people and all you knew about them was their name, there would be no room for homophobia. As a part of the LGBTQ+ community, I can 100% say that I am the same person that I always was. My sexuality is a part of me and always has been, it just so happens to not be the “normal” sexuality. So instead of judging eachother for our differences, let’s LOVE.
the stars and the rooftop- a short story ❤
Tags: Stars, LGBTQ, Gay, Lesbian, Rooftop

The sky was a shimmering murmuration of stars. We stared at them, me and her, and we stared at each other. Her hair reflected the light from the moon so she radiated ethereal light. What was more enchanting? Her or the sky? My breath got caught somewhere down my throat when I looked at either of them.

I was completely awestruck by the beauty of us on that rooftop, her and me, stargazing- it makes me want to cry, a little bit. It makes me want to cry and scream and shout and laugh and dance and die. Or is that just love? My love for her overtook rational thought last night. She makes me love life so much more then I ever let myself allow to think I could.

But- she is a she, and I am also a she.

My parents still think I’m straight. Straight A’s, straight hair, straight forward, straight path to Cambridge. Straight. Straight. Straight. But… I don’t want that. I want to push my fingers around her tangles her, I want to dance with her, I want to kiss her neck. And we do sometimes, during those precious magical moments under the cover of a night sky filled with stars.

But I have to hide her from my mum. I have to hide me.

follow for more ❤
Adult gay romantic, get your video download for free,
By: Adi Goon
Tags: Adulthood, Romantic, Gay, XXX, Indian Xvideos

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Since no one is going to read this…
Tags: LGBTQ, Gay, Lesbian, LGBT, Lgbtqia

Since no one is going to read this…

Hi, my name is Kaytie, I’m 16, and my pronouns are she/her. I live in a quiet town in cornfield land and as a lesbian, that can be quite tricky. You see, being gay isn’t common around here, that’s why my closet is really spacious. I’ve grown to accept this normality, in fact its quite beneficial in my favor. I get to do this thing called ‘blending in’. I’m never seen, like a ghost, to everyone else I’m no different than them. I cuff my jeans, wear bold eyeliner, and have tiny cartoon rainbows on my mask but I’ve never had the main character moment where someone asks me if I listen to Girl in Red in the classics section at Barnes and Noble. My fellow members of the Alphabet Mafia are all on the internet, they’re my only connections to the gayness. I suppose thats good in its own ways, but I want a girlfriend, I want to hold hands, watch movies, complain about period cramps and them understanding. Its a long shot for me, of all places my parents decided to live in cornfield land. I HATE CORN! Well if you’re still reading this, this is my new journal, you can read it if you want, or don’t, I suppose it doesn’t really matter. So I watch a lot of television with my mom, does anyone else get uncomfortable when a gay scene comes on? Does she know? Does anyone know I’m gay? I’ve only told a few people in real life but you never know. So I made a new friend, she lives in Nevada and she actually texts back and she facetimes me, I know thats nothing to most people but it means everything to me. I suppose I dont really have friends ya know that feeling, the ones that you have to text first before they’ll text you? Anyways enough of that. I’ve been writing for about 5 minutes now so if you’re still reading this, thank you and I hope you like it atleast. Its currently 2:30 in the morning and I’m in a pitch black room letting out my thoughts in hopes that maybe someone somewhere understands this, but I think Im going to close off here, so goodnight, good morning, good afternoon!

See ya,

Kaytie
3 Confessions of a Former Closet-Case
By: Till Kaeslin
Tags: LGBTQ, Gay, Life Lessons, Coming Out, Self Love

1. I treated discovering my sexuality as if it were a late-stage cancer diagnosis.

When I first heard the news, I chose not to hear it. I went into deep denial.

‘Hey,’ my mind would poke me. “Why don’t we play back that gif of those two guys kissing again?’

‘I can’t,’ I would answer, right before curiosity got the best of me, yet again.

Once my “curiosity” developed a label, I could no longer deny it. So, instead, I chose to ignore it. Yes, I was most likely inflicted by gayness, but maybe I could fidget, and run, and study, and date my way out of it. Maybe if I didn’t think about it, the curiosity would go away.

No dice. Eventually, I just had to own up to reality and accept my diagnosis — I was gay, and I hadn’t caught it in an early-enough stage to do anything about it.

Clearly, it was time to tell people that the old Till was going to die.
Best Gay Holiday Destinations
Tags: Gay, Gay Holidays, Gay Travel, Gay Destinations, Gay Marriage

Gran Canaria — Spain

Gran Canaria — Spain

Gran Canaria, a destination that will blow your mind and drop your jaw. A Spanish island located in the Atlantic Ocean is always welcoming to the gay community all-year-round. Whether you’re a man who loves to swim under the sun or just want to lie in the sand and get a gorgeous tan, Gran Canaria is one of the gayest destinations in Europe

This year-round island is always bathing in the rays of the sun, complemented by the sparkling blue of the sea, and riddled with nudist beaches where gay men can forget about those pesky tan lines.

If you’re looking for a gay, fun time under the sun, consider visiting Maspalomas, which may as well be the number 1 spot for the gay community. I’m going to have to repeat the phrase sun, sun, and even more sun! The weather in Maspalomas rarely falls below 20 degrees Celsius, with a light winter during January and February, which means it is a sunny, gay adventure just waiting to happen! For the gay men out there, who are looking to travel on a budget, Gran Canaria is surrounded by affordable food, drinks, accommodation options, transportation, and an overall lifestyle.

1) Playa Del Ingles — a popular gay, sea resort that is strictly for the LGBT community! Yes, you won’t find any straight people, so you can feel comfortable in your own skin. Playa del Ingles is the definition of freedom. No matter who you are or what you identify as, you can be yourself and hold your partner’s hand without any judging looks.

2) Kiosk 7 — this trendy location will make you proud to be gay. It boasts a popular nudist beach with a rainbow flag that has set it apart from the rest. Bask under the rays of the sun or swim in the crystal-clear waters. If you were spending your time in Play Del Ingles, Kiosk 7 is separated by dunes that make for a walk surrounded by a breath-taking landscape. Be prepared for the journey since it would take you around 30 to 45 minutes. For those who are looking to swim naked even faster, just grab a taxi and get there in 10 minutes.

3) Yumbo Center — this is where the nightlife begins. Around this area, you have many options of restaurants, terraces, bars, and clubs. The crowd will keep you engaged, excited, and eager for the music, drinks, and food. Be prepared to stay up all night if you want to be a part of the party crowd!

You can do this day after day because there are always new things for you to see and do and, trust me, boredom does not exist in Gran Canaria.

Enjoy!
Two Men Holding Hands in Vatican City
By: Sean Bennett
Tags: LGBTQ, Gay, Love, Religion, Catholic

I have never been a man of faith. Even before I knew I was gay, I was a fairly staunch atheist. Science was always my muse and so the teachings of religion were never really of any interest.

But the catholic city. The city of God, home to the apostolic successor to Saint Peter himself. I couldn't miss the chance to see that.

I am as much a fan of opulence and art as the next person, but fine architecture and great riches can be seen all over the world in far less holy contexts. Even as one of the faithless, I recognise that there is a power in the Vatican that goes beyond aesthetics and craftmanship. You do not have to believe in a doctrine to feel its weight when you enter its temple.

Nervousness is not an emotion I am used to feeling when taking in culture and history. Excitement and curiosity in spades, of course, but not nervousness. And yet, nervous I was.

And it wasn't because of my lack of faith.

There is something very peculiar about stepping into a place where your very existence is considered to be in defiance of creation. As a gay man, the first few steps into the Vatican were like taking a brisk jog over no man’s land and hopping into the enemy trenches.

But there was no danger.

There are plenty of places in the world that share the Catholic doctrines on homosexuality, many of which are distinctly unsafe for LGBTQ people. The Vatican is different though. It serves as the centre of so much hate towards our community, and yet we can walk freely in its borders without fear of death or imprisonment. The declarations, sermons, and impassioned teachings of this land have led to our murder and ruin time and time again, and yet its gates are open to all who would enter.

There exists a kind of dichotomy in the Vatican. In theory, there are few places on earth that should be less welcoming to LGBTQ people, and yet, in reality, there is nothing to fear beyond the looks and remarks we suffer the world over.

Its the only time that I felt like I should be in danger, even though I wasn't.
Growing Into Myself
By: Virtually Hijacked
Tags: Pride, Gay, LGBTQ, Freedom

Growing up in the Midwest had been no easy thing.

I assume that if you were the kind of rough-and-tumble, party-till-the-cows come home, beer-drinking, women-attracted guy that had surrounded me most of my life, maybe it was a lot more fun. At least when someone waved a Bible around they could nod and smile without wondering if the religious folks would personally try to send them to Hell themselves.

Although that would only happen if they knew who you really were.

That was another thing: how were all they so sure of exactly who they were, and who I was, when sometimes it felt like I didn’t know myself?

After so many years of hiding myself, with no one to talk openly to, the internet had been a life-saver. Not because it gave me a place to spend hundreds of hours mindlessly scrolling, but because it literally saved my life. Without someplace to go, and someone to talk to, I not sure I would have made it out.

Things are pretty grim when you’re a young gay man in the Midwest.

Shaking my head, I thought back to the dark phase when I had seriously considered doing something to get sent to prison. Apparently there were more people “like me” there….and I so desperately had wanted to be around people who understood.

No judgment. No religious scorn. No raised eyebrows.

Looking back now, I feel only compassion for the young version of myself that had thought prison was the only place to find belonging.

As the music pulsed, I looked around The 10, one of my favorite gay bars in the area. There were a few other good ones, but they tended to be pretty heavily skewed towards men. Not that I minded, but Sasha Rae was working through some things, and she needed some women in the mix.

As I watched her, my heart twisted a bit. It was clear to me she was struggling. Even if she hadn’t been in the midst of massive chaos in her own life, she wouldn’t be 100% herself. Something just seemed off. And no matter how beautiful she was to me, I knew that something in her inner world was going to have to change for her to feel it herself.

The bartender brings my Old Fashioned to the counter, and I toss it back and then head for the dance floor. Even though this is my life now, and I get to be seen and heard and fully myself with everyone I let into my life, I can’t help but feel a surge of joy as the beat drops.

I am still here. I am me. I am free.
I have to get rid of it.
Tags: Feelings, Choose Your Own Adventure, Challenge, Japanese, Everyday Life

Hello.

Thank you all for your hard work.

My dream is to be an intern for Mr. Nishino and go to the world.

I’ve actually been practicing Othello lately.

I’m trying to improve my ability to judge situations and think ahead.

To be able to do it like breathing.

Today, let’s dig a little deeper into yesterday’s article.

This kind of article id good once in a while, isn’t it? hehehe

What you didn’t choose will come back.

This is based on my own experience.

A year ago, I abandoned my friends to take an exam.

I decided to become alone and face myself.

I desperately struggled to cope with reality.

But you know, it’s strange.

My friends disappeared, but I made friends.

People who I never talked to before.

“You’re working really hard!”

“Let’s go to the study room together!”

The friends I just hung out with disappeared.

Now I have friends that we can work hard together.

My “feeling” were infections.

They brought me friends.

In fact, the day before yesterday,I had fun with them.

It doesn’t matter what your “feeling” are about. Put your feeling on what you choose. If your “feeling” are strong, what you throw away will surely come back to us.

I believe in it.

“feeling” are “magic” that anyone can use.

You can do anything.

So there is absolutely no need to feel guilty.

You can continue to choose with pride.

We are standing on the corpse of our choice

I wanted them all. I wanted to choose them all.

We all don’t want to threw away right?

Last year, I threw away a lot of things.

Friends, fun, freedom, school, sleep.

It’s very hard.

Because even if We choose with determination,

there is no result at all.

The hands of the clock don’t overlap at all.

It’s frustrating.

Even so Mr. Nishino, the most amazing person in Japan, said

The hands of the clock will overlap.

He is proven it to us.

When in doubt, you can always look up.

It’s looking down that makes you sway.

Don’t worry.

Mr. Nishino is behind us, gently pushing us forward.

We can go as high as the amount of things we couldn’t choose.

From now on, let’s continue to have “feelings” and

let’s keep choosing.

Thanks for reading.

Yusuke

【My activities】

Japanese note

Drawing
嘗試一次自己討厭的事物
By: Katy L.
Tags: Challenge, 經驗, 實踐, 嘗試, 路跑

An observer whom has a panoramic vision of heritage, cultural industries, and technology. 跨領域的文化觀光研究人, 現職科技公司產品經理.
UI Design League — December 2020. Design League (DL) is a weekly design…
Tags: Challenge, Design, UX, League, UI

Design League (DL) is a weekly design challenge or design practice for 1 year straight. In collaboration with Design Jam Indonesia, Ngedesain Tiap Minggu, and Dribbble Indonesia

In this article I will show you the results of the design league for December 2020 :

DL Week 10 : Calculator Application

Calculator App

In this week’s challenge, I created a mobile calculator application that has a light and dark theme.

I used the colors HEX : FBF6F4, FFA6A6, 0F1A26 and 767A8A and for the typography I used the Asap font type.

DL Week 11 : Streaming Application

In this week’s challenge, I created a mobile streaming video application that features trending, watchlist, home and account.

I used the colors HEX : F5F6F8, FFFFFF, 292D36, 22252C and FAE8E1 and for the typography I used the Proza Libre font type.

DL Week 12 : Clock Application

In this week’s challenge, I created a mobile calculator application that features world clock, alarm, timer and stopwatch.

I used the colors HEX : FDC830, F37335, 2E3C40, ABB1BB and for the typography I used the Karla font type.

DL Week 13 : Flight Tickets Application

In this week’s challenge, I created a flight tickets application that features to book flight tickets from Jakarta to Tokyo.

I used the colors HEX : 5F9E98, 404241, 0F554E, FFFFFF and for the typography I used the Roboto font type.
Challenge 1: Design Thinking. Challenge 1: Design Thinking
By: Anass Elouali
Tags: Design Thinking, Ironhack Prework, Citymapper, Challenge

Empathize :

What problem are you solving?

The problem of having to purchase a ticket between each mean of transportation.

Who is your audience?

All people that use either public transport, including cycling, driving, and walking.

Who is your client’s competition?

Our competitors are Google maps, Moovit, Transit, Waze, Ridlr, Ridepal, Trafi, Fanzone, Charoit, Loup.

What’s the tone/feeling?

The application offers an amazing service. Having the possibility of getting the best combination (that includes waiting time, prices…) is very convenient. Also, the interface is user friendly with the map that shows clearly how you can move.

After conducting the interviews I came up with the defining part.
Challenge Brings Prosperity
By: Randy Gage
Tags: Success, Life Lessons, Prosperity, Challenges

by Randy Gage

Posted By: Randy Gage / December 26, 2020

Most people are on the lookout for great opportunities in life. The reason most never discover one it is because they simply don’t recognize them — because they are disguised as challenges. Every once in a great while you’ll have a golden opportunity that screams opportunity. But most of the opportunities (and usually the most lucrative ones) are the ones that come from solving problems, overcoming challenges, or otherwise remedying a difficult or negative situation.

In my book, Risky Is the New Safe, I suggested that in the new economy, the most sought-after currency in the world will be ideas. I believe we’re there now. Want to get wealthy? Look for problems, challenges, and obstacles. Then nurture the ideas that could solve them.

It’s not that prosperity is meant to be elusive or difficult. It is not. But prosperity comes to those who are equal to it.

A big part of the process for most people is experiencing the necessary challenges to shape their character and develop their wisdom. You gain wisdom by learning from the mistakes of others and your own mistakes. The more you learn by observing what others do, the fewer mistakes of your own are necessary. But all of us have some lessons we must learn through our own trial and error. Prosperity-conscious individuals understand this and welcome those challenges as the stepping stones they must traverse to become the person they need to become. It’s not that they like to fail or be thwarted; they hate it. But they recognize the gift in the challenge — the chance to change, modify, or otherwise learn the lesson that allows them to break through.

Chase the challenge…

Peace,

- RG

Previous post: The Night Before Christmas, 2020
Every Circumstance Represents an Opportunity
Tags: Challenge, Opportunity, Stoic, Stoic Phiosophy, Stoicism

Takes every circumstance as an opportunity. A blessing. A boon. Everything that happens — death, illness, accident, loss, misfortune. No matter what it is, it can give you something good.

Things that lie outside our control are indifferent. You can’t do anything about them. Further, things in themselves are not good or bad: it is what you do with them is good or bad. Things are indifferent, but what you do with them is not.

Health is indifferent, but what you do with health is not. You can make good use of your health or you can make bad use of your health. Likewise, illness is indifferent but how you treat it is not. How you act when you fall ill is not indifferent. In other words, you can derive something good from illness or you can derive something awful from it.

How, do you ask? When something unfortunate happens, you have two choices. Either act like most people — curse, blame, complain, cry, whine, lament. Or act wisely — summon your principles to aid, look at it as an opportunity to test what you have learned, take it as a training ground for your character.

To illustrate the point: “A boxer derives the greatest advantage from his sparring partner — and my accuser is my sparring partner.” Epictetus explains. “He trains me in patience, civility, and even temper.” This should help you look at events in a different light.

Circumstances, or people, can harm your body. They can take away the things you have — your house, your clothes, your money. But none of them — not even God (if you’re a believer) or any other force in the entire existence — can harm your mind. Nothing can hinder your will.

Come what may, you can keep your mind calm. You can act according to your own nature and the nature of the whole.

Train yourself to see things as they are. Examine every situation thoroughly. Apply the appropriate principles to every event. Extract something good out of anything and everything that comes your way.

“The wand of Hermes promises that ‘whatever you touch will turn to gold’.” Epictetus told his students. “For my part, I can say, ‘bring what challenge you please and I will turn it to good account: bring illness, death, poverty, slander, a judgment of death: they will all be converted to advantage by my wand of Hermes.’”

Until Next Time,

Pooran