fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Build an AWS SQS Background Service with .NET 5 — Part 2
By: Martin Massé
Tags: Sqs, AWS, Dotnet, Csharp

This is the Part 2 of this series. You can read the Part 1 here.

https://medium.com/nuages-org/aws-sqs-background-service-net-5-part-1-63e3e730e3a2

Introduction

As mentioned in my previous post, we need to code a “more production ready” version of the tutorial.

This post will focus on implementing best practices so you will have a good starting point for your worker application.

You want to go straight to it? Go directly to the source code available here :

https://github.com/martin-masse/SQSDemoBackgroundService_Part2

What’s in the box ?

The solution includes three projects:

Nuages.QueueService : A class library to support generic queue services.

Nuages.QueueService.SQS : Implementation of the IQueueService interface from AWS SQS

Demo.API: A demo Web API with a worker.

The idea is to have a reusable, non SQS dependant queue service that can be easily reused in other projects.

To achieve this goal, we need to work with the IQueueService interface, which do not depend on SQS.

The IQueueService is defined as :

The IQueueService.ReceiveMessageAsync method allows us to poll for QueueMessage. The process of reading/processing/deleting those messages is all taking care of by the QueueWorkerService abstract class.

Since all processing is encapsulated in an easily reusable class, we can now create much simpler concrete worker service with very little code.

All you have to do is to override the ProcessMessageAsync method to do whatever is required.

Full source code available here:

https://github.com/martin-masse/SQSDemoBackgroundService_Part2

What’s next?

What if I have multiple queue, with multiple types of messages doing various things? It can get very complicated very fast…

Would that be great if we had a single queue and a single worker service able to process any kind of messages ?

That will be the subject of my next post in this series.

UPDATED: Part 3 now available here https://medium.com/nuages-org/sqs-background-service-with-net-5-part-3-3dfff137947d
Ocelot ile API Gateway Üzerinde Caching Yapısı — .NET 5.0 & Redis
By: Emre Kizildas
Tags: Api Gateway, Dotnet, Redis

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
For starters, F# and .NET suck. tl;dr I tried getting started with F#…
Tags: Fail, Dotnet, Experience, Onboarding, Fsharp

tl;dr I tried getting started with F#, VSCode/VSCodium, Ionide and .NET 3.1 and .NET 5 — and failed miserably. Right now, the entry experience into F# is a big time waster.

Like Haskell, or OCaml, the F# language has always interested me due to the refreshing approach to programming, garbage collection, performance and the helpful community. The recent hype regarding the release of the .NET 5 platform and reports on its astonishing performance tempted me enough to give it a go.

Today I tried to give F# and a spin. Unfortunately, the start towards my functional adventure did not turn out as expected. It was a couple of hours of my life wasted.

Where to start?

It is hard to get an overview of the F# ecosystem and best practices on the .NET platform. Actually, it is worthy of a theatrical parody — .NET, the CLR, and their relation to C# and F#, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web Api, Blazor vs Razor, .NET Core vs .NET Framework vs .NET Standard. Folks, are you joking? It’s not good off the top when you’re trying to figure out the way in the ecosystem. It goes from bad to horrible when you’re looking through docs and Stack Overflow answers. It’s definitely a hard problem, and the experience is sub par in this regard.

Tooling, performance, configuration?

I failed to get a system running that had gave me a reasonably ergonomic working experience, and that did not kill my notebook capacity. Unfortunately, VSCode and .NET brought my X220 to its knees, completely blocking my system during writing and compiling code. Multiple instances of .NET and VSCode seemed to start up, overwhelming my CPU to 100%.
New Udemy Course Released ! Using gRPC in Microservices Communication with .Net 5 — BEST PRICE FOR YOU
By: Mehmet Özkaya
Tags: Microservices, Grpc, Udemy, Dotnet, Aspnetcore

New Udemy Course Released ! Using gRPC in Microservices Communication with .Net 5 — BEST PRICE FOR YOU Mehmet Özkaya ·Nov 20, 2020

I have just published a new course — “Using gRPC in Microservices Communication with .Net 5”

if you haven’t developed gRPC yet, most probably you have to develop gRPC in the next microservices project when communicating your microservices.

In the course, we are going to build a high-performance gRPC Inter-Service Communication between backend microservices with .Net 5 and Asp.Net 5.

Through 92 lectures and 7.5 hours worth of HD-quality content, you’re going to journey through some of the deepest depths of the gRPC in microservices — experiencing all the development steps of run-aspnet-grpc repository on github.

As a token of my appreciation for your support, I will also be offering a LIMITED BEST PRICE OFF DISCOUNT FOR YOU at the launch. This offer EXPIRES IN 5 DAYS.

USE BELOW LINK :

https://www.udemy.com/course/using-grpc-in-microservices-communication-with-net-5/?referralCode=58488D38B3C39FBA0D70

Microservices are modern distributed systems so with gRPC in ASP.NET 5, we will develop high-performance, cross-platform applications for building distributed systems and APIs. It’s an ideal choice for communication between backend microservices, internal network applications, or iot devices and services. With the release of ASP.NET 5, Microsoft has added first-class support for creating gRPC services with Asp.Net 5.

This course will led you get started building, developing and managing gRPC servers and clients on distributed microservices architecture.

Below some useful links;

Check the Code on Github -> https://github.com/aspnetrun/run-aspnet-grpc

Check Explanation of this Microservices Repository on Medium -> https://medium.com/aspnetrun/using-grpc-in-microservices-for-building-a-high-performance-interservice-communication-with-net-5-11f3e5fa0e9d
What are the steps to learn ASP.NET?
By: Narendra Chinuu
Tags: Programming, Computer Science, Dotnet, Aspnetcore, Software Development

It is very good to learn the ASP .Net from the basics. Because we should learn any new technology from their basics. You should be very strong in the basics of ASP .Net. Instead of studying from home by searching I suggest you, to learn from a trainer who explains all the basics and other advanced concepts detailly.

Please keep this in mind that your trainers should be a strong industrial expert who currently works in ASP .Net. While I search for such trainers, I found Hope Tutors. They are providing the best ASP .Net training with industrial field experts. Do you know one thing about them. Trainers are preparing the course syllabus and materials. This is the reason for them to provide industrial standard training.

Before starting asp dot net , start studying C# get familiar with c# as you are going to use c# as backend language for asp dot net , but in simple words let me construct a simple road map for you :

c#

database ( ms sql sever )

web forms ( asp dot net )

ado dot net

entity framework

asp dot net MVC

while you studying asp dot net , study side by side JavaScript as will , implementation of JavaScript with asp dot net help you to develop a complete functional websites.

The steps that involve are:

Try to pick a language and read some books.

Create something and watch the ASP.NET from scratch MVC screencasts.

Read Some MVC Books.

Rewrite Something using the MVC Framework.

Follow the Masters.

Meet The Experts : https://nareshit.com/asp-net-mvc-online-training/
Log date & time with the .NET core console logger
By: Hamza Sabljakovic
Tags: Logging, Microservices, Dotnet, Aspnetcore, Csharp

Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash

By default, once a new .net core project is created, the logger configuration provided by Microsoft does not print the date & time of when the log was created. It goes without saying that time when the event happened is an extremely useful part of a log line. Sooner or later, during the development but especially once the application is deployed to a live environment and used by multiple users/consumers you will need to know when a specific event occurred. Luckily, it’s very straight forward to change the console logger configuration to include the date & time as a part of the log line.

.net core console logger with date time

All we have to do is update the CreateHostBuilder method in the Program.cs file from:

.net core host builder configuration

to:

.net core host builder configuration for console logger to include date & time

The AddConsole method is the one where we configure the date & time format, the other one, ClearProviders is responsible for disabling the default console output. Without the ClearProviders we would end up with duplicated logs as shown in the image below.

Log example without invoking the ClearProviders method

However, the Console logger is not suitable for every use case, therefore I would like to mention a very good alternative — Serilog. Besides being highly configurable, it also has integration with all major log processing solutions such as ElasticSearch, AWS cloud watch, new relic, etc.
Understand Logging in .Net Core in 3 Hours
By: Neetish Raj
Tags: Programming, Logging, Tutorial, Dotnet, Dotnet Core

Assumptions

We already have some familiarity with C#, .NET Core and Logging.

We created a fresh web application in .NET Core and wanted to understand how Logging is already configured in the template code.

We have only 3 hours to understand Logging so that we can customize the logging behavior for our Project.

First 2 hours

Rather than jumping into the docs upfront it’s always awesome to get a technical walkthrough of the whole topic through a video. Let’s go through this 1 hour video and simultaneously try the examples on our machine. Take 1 more hour to fiddle with the code to understand the overridden APIs.

Next 1 Hour

Now let’s go through the official Microsoft documentation for Logging in .NET Core. Naturally, after going through the video, documentation will feel more comprehensive and by covering the topics there we’ll make sure that nothing is missed.

Conclusion

We now understand the in-built Logging providers like Console and Debug.

We also understand ILogger interface, ILoggerFactory , categories and default Log-Levels .

interface, , and default . We can configure Logging behavior through appsettings.json file or command line arguments.

What’s next?

Moving forward, we can improve our logging based on the complexity of our project and logging requirements by knowing few more things.
Hotel Management System Project in ASP.NET with Source Code
By: Ravi Kumar
Tags: Software, Dotnet

A web-based online Hotel Management System project in ASP.Net that allows you to manage residential hotel businesses and designed to assist with the day-to-day management of a hotel, resort, or similar property. This hotel management system is developed for hotels that are using a manual system to handle hotel processes. It helps you to manage your guest, one-click guest check-in/check-out, reservation, hotel billing, food services, etc.
Types of Session State in ASP.NET
By: Soumya Patil
Tags: Dotnet, Sql Server

Types of Session State in ASP.NET

InProc | In-Memory Object StateServer | Aspnet_state.exe SQLServer | DataBase Custom | Custom Provider

InProc:

When the session state mode is set to InProc, the session state variable are stored on the web server memory inside the asp.net worker process. This is the default session state mode.

InProc

Advantages:

Very easy to implement. All that is required is, to set, the session state mode-InProc in web.config file. Will perform best because the session state memory is kept on the web server, within the ASP.NET worker processes (w3wp.exe) Suitable for web application hosted on a single server. Objects can be added without serialization.

Disadvantages:

Session state data is lost, when the worker process or applicationpool is recycled. Not suitable for webforms and webgardens. Scalability could be an issue.

StateServer Mode:

When the session state mode is set to StateServer, the session state variables are stored in a process, called as asp.net state service. This process is different from the asp.net worker process. The asp.net state service can be present on a web server or a dedicated machine.

State Server

Advantages:

ASP.NET worker process independent. Survives worker process restart. Can be used with web farms and web gardens.Suitable for web application hosted on a single server. State server offers more scalability than InProc.

Disadvantages:

StateServer is slower than InProc. Complex objects, need to be serialized and deserialized. If the StateServer, is on a dedicated machine, and if the server goes down all the sessions are lost.

SQLServer:

When the session state mode is set to SQLServer, the session state variables are stored in a SQLServer database.

SQL Server

Advantages:

SQLServer is the most reliable option. Survives worker process recycling and SQL Server restarts. Can be used with web farms and web gardens. More scalable than State server and InProc session state modes.Objects can be added without serialization.

Disadvantages:

Slower than StateServer and InProc session state modes. Complex object, need to be serialized and deserialized.

Note:
Top 10 nice free Blazor components
By: Alexandre Malavasi
Tags: Aspnet, Blazor, Dotnet, Aspnetcore

Link: https://blazorise.com/

3. Ant Design Blazor

I like the way the components are structured in general in UI framework and it has a really good reputation on Github, being largely used by the Blazor community. They are doing a great work updating constantly to the latest version of .NET.

Link: https://ant-design-blazor.github.io/en-US/

I would like to highlight the chart components which don’t have an intrusive way to associate data sources in general. The components are well structured.

4. MatBlazor

This UI framework has been constantly updated and is based on Material.

Link: https://www.matblazor.com/

5. BlazorStrap

As the name suggests, the one is a UI framework for Blazor focused on Bootstrap. Despite there are many options to Bootstrap nowadays, it still being extremely important and used in the market. So, I recommend you to take a look at it.

Link: https://blazorstrap.io/

6. PanoramicData.Blazor

This one can be used combined with one of the others as it does not have a complete list of standard components. However, it has a really nice components for File Explorer and other cool features that could be used for many purposes. Have a look:

Link: https://panoramicdata.github.io/

7. MudBlazor

This seems to be more simple than the other ones mentioned so far, but I think it deserves to be checked as well:
Implementing a recursive projection query in C# and Entity Framework Core
By: Michael Ceber
Tags: Entity Framework Core, Recursion, Dotnet, C Sharp Programming, Sql

Imagine we have a table in the database called Category where each row may have a parent Category such that we end up with a hierarchical tree of categories and subcategories to some unknown depth.

Each Category contains an optional ParentCategoryId forming the basis of the table structure.

In C# you would have the corresponding class:

Using Entity Framework Core this would be configured like this:

So let's say we wish to produce a query to return a list of of the root most categories such that they also contain any child categories and in turn these child categories contain their subcategories and so on. Our first thought might be something like:

Unfortunately this will not work as the first levels subcategories children will not be loaded.

One way to get around this would be to load all categories first by enumerating a general select all query, like the following:

This is ok for a small amount of data, but what if you have thousands or millions of rows and perhaps you are only interested in one root item this is not very efficient.

Furthermore we more often than not don’t want unnecessary data to be queried as typically we might be returning the data via a rest endpoint so would use some kind of DTO representation of our class, for example:

Finally, one way to query the hierarchical would be to write a recursive method which applies a projection of Category to CategoryDTO and queries all subcategories as needed to a maximum specified depth.

Why do we need to specify a maximum depth? Well the recursive function which ultimately generates SQL needs to know when to stop and we want to achieve all this in a single query.

To do this we create a method which contains the required projection, in which makes a recursive call back to itself.

For each layer down we apply the projection recursively to the SubCategories property until we read the maximum depth. Ideally when picking the maximum depth a knowledge of the depth the hierarchy extends to is helpful to ensure nothing is missed. Going a few levels deeper than required is not a big problem as the underlying SQL left joins will just be populated with null data so not too costly.

Finally to use this we simply query the categories in the typical EF way, but noting for the root we only include Categories with a null ParentCategory and in the Select we initiate the recursive call to the projection method passing in a maximum depth and a starting depth of 0.

Thankyou and enjoy!
.NET Core —Adding JWT Claims To Web API — Part 1 The Setup
By: Vaygeth, Abdulmohsen
Tags: Security, Jwt, Dotnet, C Sharp Programming, API

How to add JSON Web Token to protect your web APIs and authenticate users

What We Going To Build

A web API that allows users to

Sign Up (obtain JWT token) Sign In to obtain JWT token Get User Profile API (Protected by JWT authorization)

The Required Packages & CLIs

Here shortcut if you are using dotnet CLI

dotnet new webapi -n JWTProtectedAPI dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.JwtBearer dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.EntityFrameworkCore dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef

The Setup

appsettings.json

Open appsettings.json and add JWT configurations. these configurations used to modify the JWT settings like when it’s expires, the Secret Key used to authorize the claim….etc. ExpiryTimeInMinutes is set for JWT to expire in 2 hours, you can set it to whatever you want.

Also add your Connection String, I’m using my own config for SqlServer

appsettings.json

Startup.cs

Inside ConfigureServices method add the following to configure our AppDbContext and Connection String as well the coming of JWT setup. Note the Sign In/Password security policy, make sure you update it to suits your security policies

Also inside Startup.cs after ConfigureServices() define setUpBearerJwtAuth

setUpBearerJwtAuth()

Also inside Startup.cs in Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)

AppDbContext.cs

Create AppDbContext class conventionally under Models folder in the root of your project folder (JWTProtectedAPI/Models/AppDbContext.cs) and add the following code.

We going to use ASP core identity for creating Users so that’s why our DB Context extending IdentityDbContext<IdentityUser>

Migrations and Database Update

To create migrations and apply them into the database run the following commands.

dotnet ef migrations add Init -c AppDbContext dotnet ef database update -c AppDbContext

What we did is tell our framework to create Asp Dotnet JWT identity configurations and tables migrations and apply them into our database.

You will see several new tables if above were successful

JWTProtectedAPI database

Conclusion for Part 1

This concludes Part 1 for .NET JWT Setup, Part 2 The APIs implementation will be published this Friday.
Face Recognition Attendance System Project Source Code
By: Ravi Kumar
Tags: Software, AI, Dotnet

A facial recognition attendance system project source code uses AI technology to identify and verify a person using the person’s facial features and automatically mark attendance. The software can be used for different groups of people such as employees, students, etc. The system records and stores the data in real-time.
C#.Net Code— WebAPI to allow saved data from database to be downloaded as a file
Tags: Webapi, Microsoft, Dotnet, C Sharp Programming, Web Development

in A Journey With Go
赤い林檎 Red apple
By: Aoki Eita 青木瑛太
Tags: Poem, Aokieita, 青木瑛太, Words, Apple

The words that come out from the heart are added to the walk scenery. Please feel free to follow me. ●Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/aoki_eita/
dead ends
By: Patty Brown
Tags: Roads, Dead End, Words, Poetry, Sail

so often i see a road

in front of me

there are street signs

directions on my phone

i drive and drive

i see the destination

in my head

suddenly

out of nowhere

the road becomes hard to see

it narrows

and falls off gps

as i struggle to see

I grab my glasses

out of my bag

but still the road

is hiding from me

i panic

and stare intently at the lines

then they too

fade away

before long

i am on a gravel road

it soon

sadly

turns to dirt

in my head

i see the place

but i hit a dead end

i back track

to the last fork

i veer to the left

i have no idea

where it goes

i drive and drive

i end up in a place

i regret

i then return

to where

i call home

i sit by the window

play on my phone

i decide to try again

i take a different road

fog sets in

i think

oh no

but off in the distance

there is sun

breaking the clouds

it looks intriguing

but the road up ahead

it is closed

the bridge

washed away

i turned around

i drove to a spot

i knew

i stood on the sand

looked out to sea

down boardwalk three

felt the breeze

tasted salt

gazed in front of me

i saw only blue

as far as the eyes can see

maybe i should set sail

the open sea

come with me

i think

i heard it is free

— patty

*****

photo@unsplash
Words i recreate in my mind
By: Hira Malik
Tags: Words

Words i recreate in my mind

To support the idea of madness

The least i forget, escape is the act of coward

And than,

There is no way to eacape, as well!
Coach! Want to Transition Online? Read This…
By: Nick Maier
Tags: Health And Fitness, Communication, Words, Marketing Communication, Copywriting

Bledsoe simply stood there. Huge smile on his face

He looked like a kid in a candy shop

Or a middle aged man who was high-on life and observing another human about the have a breakthrough

Take your pick…

I’d just expressed my desire to transition my focus from The Youth Academy and it’s Brick-and-Mortar System to an Online Business

“I feel like I’m starting again”…

That’s what had Mike about to laugh

“Are you? Truly though… Are you starting again? Is that accurate?”

No. It wasn’t. It was a story I was telling myself

A lie

Now I knew what was so funny — I was sabotaging myself

The truth is that the principles are always applicable. The environment and vehicle may change when shifting from offline to online — but the principles stay the same

Do one and you can do the other

I took what I’d learned from building The Academy to 6-Figures inside a year and applied them online

We sold-out our Beta Group inside a week with no advertising We formed strong relationships with powerful coaches to serve their communities We created amazing content We created an amazing experience We stayed consistent with our intent and focus

And we saw traction and momentum that allowed for a smooth transition

The key for coaches looking to transition online is to breathe. It will be overwhelming. You will think you need to do it all

First, it’s about identifying systems

Client Experience + Delivery Leads + Marketing + Onboarding Relationships

From our experience — begin with the client experience and delivery. NOT the specific content, but more the flow

What’s it like to work with you? From Day 1 to the end, what are all the touch points? What are all the value ads? What do you want me to feel? How can you convert me from a client to a lifelong friend?

Where are our clients showing up? What are they interested in? What are their pains and problems? How can we get a conversation with them? When we do, what’s the system that moves them from simply being interested to buying? What content can we produce to support this?

Who can I connect with online that supports my ideal clients in a way that compliments the work I do? Can I connect with them, build a relationship and seek to offer value to their clients/community as a way of lead gen?

Then, it’s patience and tweaking. It’s testing assumptions, testing strategies and evolving them to better the execution

It’s not rocket science. It can be overwhelming because it’s new — but the truth is you’ve done this before. It’s scary because the perspective can be that you’re now “competing” with the world — not simply your local community

That’s bullshit. There is no competition. Life is abundant

Take the first step. Gather momentum. Have patience and focus on your communication

Nick Maier

@nickmaier__
Words, The Strongest Stimuli…
By: Wistful Writer
Tags: This Happened To Me, Words, Stimulus, 50 Words, The Bad Influence

50 WORDS

Words, The Strongest Stimuli…

Photo by Jack Sharp on Unsplash

“I need to eat, my favorite food” He texted.

“Will you deliver it now? Warm and Juicy?”

His words, arousing. The perfect stimulus, even from a distance.

My body responded, spontaneously.

Feeling warm moisture pooling, I replied,

“It is ready for you to devour, am on my way to deliver”
My Word For 2021 Is Choices!
By: Amy Caswell
Tags: 2021, Words, Inspire, Choices, Goals

My Word For 2021 Is Choices!

I usually write a lot of goals for the new year!

The thought of a new year, like a blank page brings me immense joy! I love starting fresh and that is exactly what January 01 is!

This year however like most people I started the year with numerous goals, broken down into categories, family, personal, health, spiritual, financial, career, and there were possibly a couple of other categories too.

Then 2020 hit! And boy did it hit big! I honestly don’t know how long we will be feeling the after affects of 2020 and a worldwide pandemic. As much as I would like to believe that January 01 will bring with it a clean slate and the pandemic and after effects will have vanished with 2020, I am a realist!

So this brings me to what to do? Do I set myself up to fail by setting numerous goals that are potentially possible and at the same time can be wiped out in an instant and leave me feeling deflated come December when I do my annual review of the year that is almost over?

Or do I do something slightly different?

This coming year 2021, I have decided to structure my year a little differently, in that I am not going to write a huge list of goals and break them down into quarterly and monthly or even weekly goals.

Instead I am going to focus on a word. For me this word is CHOICES. I know for lots of people a word for the year is not new. I have used a word of the year before, but I used it more to centre my goals, which again is not my focus this coming year.

I am not saying don’t make any plans or have any dreams for the year. What I am choosing to do is to view each situation and opportunity based on my word.

So I have the choice to make goals if I really wanted to as that is a choice and fits in my word for the year.

Yet I want to focus more on the deeper meaning for me. Being that each action has a choice, each day I can make new choices. I can choose to embrace the world around me or I can choose to spend some quiet time.

For me the important part will be intentionally making my choices and ensuring that they are the choices I want to make.

I can choose to get fit and healthy, I can also choose to eat a tub of ice-cream and watch a movie, both options are reasonable as long as I have made the choice and choose to participate in them.Much like I can choose to spend some down time watching a tv series or I can choose to spend some quality time working on my dreams.

As you reflect on 2020, I would love to know if you are going to have a word for the year or if you are setting more traditional goals.
Instead of getting mad on the holidays say this..
By: Trin Carl
Tags: Words, Slang

Instead of getting mad on the holidays say this..

Photo by Trin Carl

‘You got beef with me?’

Although a slang phrase that means, ‘do you want to fight?” This term is also hysterical and you may be unaware of its power.
Color Palette
By: Suntonu Bhadra
Tags: Poem, Words, Canvas, Poetry, Colors

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
the christmas star
By: Patty Brown
Tags: Poem, Words, Great Conjunction, Poetry, Christmas Star

jupiter and saturn

so far

so near

i stood at the top of a hill

in the pitch black night

a winter storm’s winds

ushering in a bitter cold chill

as i shivered

with my eyes to the sky

the stars looked like trillium

blooming on heaven’s forest floor

to the right

of a half moon was

the christmas star

so bright

twinkling

a sacred hue

the wise men’s vision

they saw from afar

i felt so small

in the scheme of things

a miracle

us all

i stood there watching

contemplating the mystery of why

the universe

us

me

you

the deer

a cow

love

and fear

and in all the stardust

there is a sacredness

a reverence of trust

that what we do not find

inside of a sanctuary at church

but instead

when god speaks to us

in the wonder of awe

the universe

earth

its ebb and flow

the concept of faith

in what we do not know

the same is true of love

when we reach for it

from above

in the words that we pray

place inside of our hearts

to carry each day

it is the light of the stars

that burns through the night

and our goodness

that conquers unimaginable hate

i bowed my head

as i watched a rare sky

said amen to the holy divine

creation

reverence to home

and know in this magic

we are never alone

— patty

Numbers 24:17b “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob…”

~ photo taken from the bsu planetarium
↳➦ ➜ ➼ Arrow in Word 🔝💘
By: Joana N.
Tags: Text Symbols, Arrow, Symbols, Word

1. Insert Arrow in Word [Method 1] ↳➦ ➜ ➼🔝💘

One method to quickly insert arrow in Word is to use the Num Lock key.

What is Numlock?

Num Lock (⇭) is a key on the numeric keypad of most computer keyboards.

The Num Lock is on the top-left corner of a keyboard’s numeric keypad. The numeric keypad is commonly located to the right of the main keyboard.

The Num Lock is a lock key, like Caps Lock and Scroll Lock. Its state (on or off) affects the function of the numeric keypad. It’ s commonly displayed by an LED built into the keyboard.

The numeric keypad on your right contains:

A set of 10 digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

10 function like for example: Home, Page Up, End, Page Down

4 arrows: Arrow up, Arrow right, Arrow left, Arrow down.

The NumLock ON, allows you to use the numbers.

These have been designed for accountants to do Math, because they are easier to handle than the numbers on the top on the keyboard.

If you deactivate NumLock, you can use the function keys.

Where is the “Num Lock” Key on a Mac Keyboard?

There isn’t a Num Lock key on the Apple Wired Keyboards.

But, you can achieve the same function by hitting the CLEAR button on the numeric keyboard. You may need to hit Shift+CLEAR instead, depending on your individual keyboard and settings.

So, to insert an arrow symbol in Word you need to click on the Num Lock key.

Then, keep the ALT key pressed and the number that corresponds to an arrow symbol .

↑ ALT+24 (Upwards arrow)

↓ ALT+25 (Downwards arrow)

→ ALT+26 (Rightwards arrow

← ALT+27 (Leftwards arrow)

↔ ALT+29 (Left right arrow)

▲ ALT+30 (Upwards filled arrow)

▼ ALT+31 (Downwards filled arrow)

► ALT+16 (Rightwards filled arrow)

◄ ALT+17 (Leftwards filled arrow)

TIP! People who type -> probably don't know that if you type --> you get the default right arrow in Word.

Do a similar thing for inserting a left arrow.

If you actually want --> to be shown in Word, you can type --> and press backspace, which will undo the automatically conversion to the arrow image.

Actually, this also works for Medium.

2. Insert Arrow Symbol in Word [Method 2] ↳➦ ➜ ➼🔝💘

The second method to insert arrow in Word, is to copy paste symbol.

Check out this arrow symbol list and pick any arrow you like.

Select the arrow using your mouse. Press Control-C to copy symbol. Return to Word and press Control-V to paste symbol.

Curved Arrow in Word

This method is also useful if you want to insert curved arrow in Word. The list contains lots of curved arrow symbols.

If you are looking for arrow PNG images to insert in Word, check out this list with arrow images.

Text Symbol (Copy and Paste)

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Forget Resolutions and Choose a Word for the Year Instead
By: Randye S Spina
Tags: New Year Resolution, Personal Growth, Words, Life Lessons, Personal Development

In January, I went about my usual decluttering. Cleaning out closets, drawers, files, and donating items I don’t need or use anymore. I do this every year but for 2020 I did it with the mission of clarity, not simply to make physical space, but to clear headspace as well.

The decisions I made were strategic this time. I combed through every corner of my life and I rid myself of things I rarely use. I didn’t renew the dozen or so URLs I’d been holding onto, I closed accounts I didn’t need anymore, I canceled Netflix because I spent more time searching for movies to watch than actually watching them which sucked up so much of my time and didn’t support finding clarity, and I unsubscribed from email lists for things that I’m no longer interested in.

As it often happens, the universe will send you signs of synchronicity to let you know you’re on the right path.

I began seeing the word clarity everywhere. It was in dialogue spoken by a character in the novel I was reading, then it was in every article I read, I saw it on a billboard along the highway, and I even clicked on a story I was interested in to find the author’s last name was Clarity.

Then, boom! The pandemic hit. No longer commuting, I had more time for myself. I continued teaching my classes and I had client work for my agency at the beginning of the year, then the clients dried up. Two large already-signed contracts were canceled and I let them both go. I panicked a bit, but then I remembered clarity.

She showed me that I hadn’t been enjoying running my business for some time. It all had started to feel heavy and confining. The prior year was tumultuous and I even fired a client for the first time in many years.

June 30th, I legally closed my business.

You could say, I Marie Kondo’d the heck out of all the parts of my life.

And, it worked. It gave me focus and I also realized at some point that I began setting better personal boundaries too. I stopped saying Yes to everything and everyone and I started to say No to things I didn’t want to do.
The World’s Most Dangerous Instrument
By: Reuben Salsa
Tags: Words, Music, Salsa, History, Ideas

Glass fingering

Hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica is the musical practice of rubbing one’s fingers along the rim of a glass or glasses. The sounds are created by using cups or bowls of glass in increasing and decreasing size to produce different pitches by the sheer friction of the fingers.

Does it take much musical talent to become a great armonica player? You wouldn’t have thought so, but Wolfgang Mozart was so impressed with the style he created a few pieces for the intrepid to play.

The first public display has been credited to the Irish musician and inventor Richard Poekrich in 1740. Cut-glass talent at it’s finest! He named the ‘newly’ invented instrument an ‘angelic organ’. Dickie became a virtuoso performer of glass. At first, his rudimental playing was performed with the use of sticks. As he became better accomplished he switched to the ‘wet-finger-around-the-wine-glass’ method. Dick liked to lick his fingers in public before each encore performance. Apparently, he was very popular.

The earliest references date back to the Renaissance. Galileo wrote about the armonica in Two New Sciences. Of course, any child would tell you how they created music by rubbing their fingers along the rim of a glass. The full name translates from Greek. ‘Hydro’ (water), ‘daktulo’ (fingers), ‘psychic’ (soul), and ‘armonica’ (derived from Harmony meaning soul). Or ‘harmonica to produce music for the soul by fingers dipped in the water’. The Oxford Companion to Music mentions that this word is ‘the longest section of the Greek language ever attached to any musical instrument’.
My favorite Christmas carol mondegreen is in the song “The First Noel.”
By: Tina L. Smith
Tags: Short Form, Words, Holidays, Mondegreen, Lyrics

My favorite Christmas carol mondegreen is in the song “The First Noel.”

We’ve all misunderstood lyrics. A friend of mine thought for many years that the Huey Lewis song “I Want a New Drug” was “I Want a New Truck.” Once she knew the real words, the song made so much more sense to her.

That misunderstanding is called a “mondegreen,” which is, itself, a mondegreen (see link).

Photo by Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash

As a kid, I remember singing this carol with absolute “certainty” that the phrase “was to certain poor shepherds” used the virtually unknown infinitive verb form “to certain.” To my young mind, “to certain” seemed a highly plausible verb, meaning to make someone feel sure or, you know, certain.

The meaning “was for particular poor shepherds” isn’t quite as comforting to me.

To me, it will always be the verb form: “the first Noel was to assure poor shepherds.” Yep. I still like it.
Our Words
By: Priyanka Srivastava
Tags: Poem, Writing, Words, One Line, Micropoetry

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Lasting words
By: Peterson Blanc
Tags: Words Matter, Remakes, Words, Legacy, Destiny

I need someone that challenges me and doesn’t blindly support me. Because that is the only way we each can grow. People say I’m difficult, to where I will most likely fight at every turn. Because with everything, my passion can’t help but show.



I know that I once laughed at the thought of you being president. And in no way was it a lack in believing what you’re capable of. Rather trust how you will impact and leave the world, can only be equal to a President. Just in a different smaller white house.



Obama, Ali, Oprah, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson. I have a fascination with game-changer and in dough time. I too plan to be one I am a person most devoted to my wife, a creative art form that puts out to the world and continues the legacy that pre-dates parents and all I look to achieve as a benchmark for my children. Unforeseen circumstances are what I have had to deal with personally and professionally in my life. The death of a best friend, a loss of job, and doubt if I would ever amount to what my full potential is? Problems we can all relate to and coin as “shit happens”. But know that I’m gone. Looking back I wouldn’t change a thing.



The opportunities I was afforded in life. Were already made to happen, assuming I took the traditional path. I glad to say I didn’t rather instead took what allowed me to grow and become the best I can be. While I won’t be around to friend to most father, son, brother, and husband to the ones I love. In the end, it never was about me, when it came to the gifts I gave, the moment spent with every person in my life. The gifts of all the smiles and open hearts are what I hope and pray that I leave filled with love.



May the memory of me never be forgotten if only when looking back at the most embarrassing time. To my kids, know that you all don’t have to be the persons I want you to be. Become the best people you each want to be. Just do walk a path of faith awareness and much gratitude. I think your mom would agree to that. My love, you all are only equal to hers. A woman, what was there for me matter what it was. I was the happiest when I was around her. Even if she often had the biggest smile. She was the biggest reason why I was able to make the most of my life. So goodbye, farewell, Peterson out.
Extreme Abecedarian
By: Terry Mansfield
Tags: Poem, Abecedarian, Words, Letters, Poetry

Extreme Abecedarian

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

A

Boy

Called

David

Encouraged

Family

Going

Home

In

July

Keep

Learning

More

Now

Online

Preparing

Quizzical

Reading

Stuff

That’s

Used

Viewing

Xrays’

Yellow

Zones

Note: I challenge all of you out there to try to do your own Extreme Abecedarian. Good luck!

__________________

Thanks for reading. (Copyright Terry Mansfield. All rights reserved.)

Check out my online daily newspaper, “The Social Media Daily” (it’s free), and stay up-to-date on the fascinating world of Social Media, Marketing, and related topics.

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words of being
By: Abigail Siegel
Tags: Poem, Words, Living, Poetry, Self

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

belief (n.) / bɪˈlif /

something that takes you far far away

from the self

believe (v.) / bI’liv /

the act of taking yourself

far far away

now (adv.) / naʊ /

a place I must stay

must must stay

real (adj.) / ril /

what on Earth is it

what oh what is it

nothing (n.) / ˈnʌθ ɪŋ /

me the self of selves

when I do not believe

I am real

~~~~~~~~~~

©Abigail Siegel, 2020
Can’t or Can?
By: Terry Mansfield
Tags: Life, Words, Choices, Poetry, Humor

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
dandelion
By: Patty Brown
Tags: Dandelion, Everything, Poem, Words, Poetry

i often wonder

how it would feel

to have everything

i ever wanted

to sit content

with all my stuff

boots lined up

past the door

a farm

sixteen beautiful doors

eight are dutch

a garden of flowers

to keep me aware

pick door number three

i said to myself

a lagos golden heart

on a chain

around my neck

i reach for it

to make sure

it is really there

all i ever wanted

somewhere over there

elusive

in a dandelion

as it blows past me

in the wind

— patty

*****

photo@unsplash
I take you to the trees.
By: Andrew Smith
Tags: Illustrator, Short Story, Words, Artist, Art

I am mostly drawing birds, and I cannot seem to stop. I am @littleworries on instagram and my drawings can be bought from littleworries.bigcartel.com
自己に告ぐ。Said to me…
By: Aoki Eita 青木瑛太
Tags: Poem, Aokieita, 青木瑛太, Words, 言葉と風景と

The words that come out from the heart are added to the walk scenery. Please feel free to follow me. ●Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/aoki_eita/
Powerfully Concise
By: Nadir Ait-Laoussine
Tags: Language, Communication, Words, Semantics, Business

Words have so much power. A single word can have a devastating impact, or rise people to action and lift nations. Throughout my career, I’ve come across powerful expressions that capture a very deep and multi-layered meaning in just a few succinct words. I call these expressions powerfully concise as they are short but incredibly powerful in their direct and layered meaning. Here are a couple of examples:

The Obligation To Dissent:

Among McKinsey and Company’s core values is the “The obligation to dissent”. Originally from Marvin Bower, the famed “father” of McKinsey’s culture and values, this synthesises not only the relationship that consultants must develop with their clients but also that which junior consultants must develop vis-a-vis senior consultants. But this obligation is not just a free pass to disagree. It’s also not an option, or permission, or privilege. It’s an obligation, a duty, a commitment.

Further, this obligation does not come freely. To retain credibility, the dissenter must present a reasoned argument for their dissent. This is implicit in the language, rather legal-ese, being used.

This requirement, in the context of consulting, is the basis for critical thinking and questioning the assumptions laid in front of you. Of course with such an obligation comes a burden, a burden of critical thought and completeness of thought. In other words, just because you can dissent, you must articulate clearly the reasons why. This goes further: The obligation to dissent creates an opportunity for new ideas to enter the discussion that may not have been considered before. After all, companies hire consultants for new ideas; consulting firms hire junior consultants to get the next generation of senior consultants.

Duty of Care:

Before moving to the UK, I had come across the concept of duty of care predominantly in legal documents — not a staple of discussions. It’s a term that now has taken greater importance in my current role, but also a term that I am seeing more regularly in the obligation, beyond the contractual obligation of the responsibility of a person or business.

This is another powerfully concise expression. It starts with “duty” which is “a moral or legal obligation, a responsibility”. That last word is the most powerful in my mind. It means that the duty care is not purely a legal obligation, but a moral and ethical obligation.

Care, we all know what it means. It is to look out for someone. It connotes support (as what you would get from your mother), well being, and the act that medical professionals do. However, it’s interesting that the choice of words is care as opposed to one of the many close synonyms: Protection, control, management, etc…

So the duty of care becomes a really powerful statement of the moral and professional obligation one has towards their customers, their company, their industry, and the broader community.
Aoki Eita(青木瑛太)
By: Aoki Eita 青木瑛太
Tags: Poem, Aokieita, 青木瑛太, Words, 言葉と風景と

The words that come out from the heart are added to the walk scenery. Please feel free to follow me. ●Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/aoki_eita/
Words
Tags: Identity, Vocabulary, Words, Hiraeth, Biracial

Hiraeth (n.)

Coming from Welsh origin, the first word I am going to write about on this site is Hiraeth. We have all felt a sense of longing in our lives, whether it was for company or for something a little more specific. Sometimes, while sipping on a cup of coffee in the morning, I find myself feeling lost. The same feeling of longing, but for a place I don’t belong.

Hiraeth, by definition, describes a sense of homesickness or nostalgia for a place that was never yours. This word has come to be one of my favorites, as it captures my exact emotions on days where I cannot describe my feelings in the English language.

Personally, I am biracial and growing up I found myself craving a sense of belonging. I felt that I didn’t belong in either race group that I was born into. Hiraeth sums up the loneliness that conjured up in my heart while gazing upon each culture I couldn't fit into.

One day I hope to find my home, a place where I can truly belong, but I am certain I will still crave for a home that never was.