fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
A Little Night Music
By: Esther Spurrill-Jones
Tags: Writing Prompts, Storytelling, Music, LGBTQ, Writing Challenge

When I was in high school band, we did a Mozart piece called “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” which is German for “A Little Night Music.” The idea of “night music” captures my heart. One of my favourite songs is “The Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera and it is this idea of the beauty of darkness and night that once again stirs my imagination.

Can you grasp it, sense it, feel it secretly possess you? How does a little night music intersect with the queer experience?

Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams

Purge your thoughts of the life you knew before

Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar!

And you’ll live as you’ve never lived before — Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Music of the Night

It’s time for the Prism & Pen writing challenge, time for your story!

It’s time for a little night music.

Take this challenge and run with it. Make it yours. We want fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry. If you can dream it, if you can write it, we want it. Go dark, make it funny, or do something wild and weird. Be creative.

I want wait to see what you can do with this!

P&P’s challenge round 6 starts today —

Not written with us before? Here’s the link to our submissions guidelines:

Don’t forget our master classes —

If you want help polishing your prose, David Wade Chambers is offering a series of interactive workshops for P&P writers and prospective writers. Wade is an accomplished author and creative writing professor volunteering his skills at the Master Class link at the top of every Prism & Pen page and story.
Thought
By: Danna Reich Colman
Tags: Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Poem, Mindfulness

Written by

Writer and copyeditor. “What doesn’t kill us gives us something new to write about” ~ J. Wright
5 Recommended Leadership & Productivity Books for 2020
By: Austin Walker
Tags: Productivity, Work, Books, Business, Leadership

Anyone who reads my articles with any regularity knows I am a firm believer in books. In fact, one of my best received and most-read articles is just a list of the 10 books that changed my life.

Recently, I asked a handful of people what Leadership & Productivity based books I need to prioritize in 2020, and this article summarizes them. I’m not sure which ones I’ll read, but I started to realize I was sitting on a gold-mine of a list that could help others, as well.

So here it is…a list of five recommended leadership & productivity books I plan on reading in 2020. For each book, I’ll include a picture of a cover, a link to the book, and a the author description. If you read any of them, or have read any of them, leave me a response or note and let me know what you think!
Don’t Live Your Life by the Numbers
By: Ross Mccammon
Tags: Life Lessons, Life, Rankings, Success, Worth

Photo: Jana Krause/EyeEm/Getty Images

Do you know how many posts you’ve put on Instagram? Your number of Medium followers? The number of steps you’ve taken today? Yesterday? Last Monday? Our lives are increasingly quantifiable. And the numbers can be motivating — but they can obscure the reasons why we work out, read Medium, take a walk.

In “Stop Keeping Score,” published on Forge, Paul Ollinger writes about how he’s used his Peloton rankings to compare himself to other riders. He figured out ways to manipulate his workouts to go higher and higher on the board. Going higher had replaced getting healthy as a goal. That’s because our brains will always choose the easiest path for validation. Ollinger writes, “Left to their own devices, our brains will measure success by our net worth or TikTok views, because those things are far easier to quantify than the amount of creativity, joy, and connection we experience every day.”

For Ollinger, the numbers themselves aren’t really the problem. It’s what they’re measuring. He writes, “Try this: Instead of counting the number of friends you have on Facebook, count the number of meaningful conversations you’ve had in real time this month. Rather than comparing your results against your neighbor’s efforts, set a personal goal and track your performance over time.”

In “The Thing About Numbers,” Maya Kosoff, a frequent Medium contributor, writes about disordered eating and how numbers have been both friend and enemy to her since college. She writes about her Peloton rankings, which she finds just as motivating as Ollinger, and connects that to losing 30 pounds after a bad breakup, and connects that to her time working for a website that prominently displayed every writer’s current traffic numbers. Kosoff writes, “It is impossible for me not to actively compare myself to everyone else. Not try to beat my own personal best every time, and not try to make a harmlessly gamified system into a bigger deal than it actually is.”
The Inebriating Tale of James Badger
Tags: True Crime, Crime, Mystery, History, Time

San Francisco Chronicle, (San Francisco, California), 28 May 1901

Wealth and Drink

On May 24th, 1901, James Badger of San Francisco had been on a three week drinking binge enough to become severely blackout drunk. He had been binging on drink for around 4 months. He had just recently become a very wealthy man, with real estate valuing around 50,000.

Running to Safety

Around 8 pm, his wife Kate Badger, suddenly ran from the home to a nearby grocery store at Laguna and Ellis Streets. Shockingly, she was covered in blood from a head wound, just above her left eye on her forehead. Fred Raschen, local grocer, and neighbor James A. Gibey tended to her immediately and called doctor Dr John Laigin. Before the doctor arrived, Kate confessed to Mrs. Gibey that her husband had hit her over the head with a log for the stove. Dr. Laigin took her to his home where he dressed her wound, but she succumbed to Erysipelas from her injuries the next day.

Multiple Wives Named Kate

No records of children for James exist, but interestingly enough he did have two wives named Catherine “Kate” Badger, like he, immigrated from Galway County, Ireland. James Badger was known for a good reputation, except for an occasional indulgence in liquor

Obituary for the second Kate Badger (murdered)

Obituary for the first Kate Badger

Legacy of Defunct Address

The San Francisco Call, (San Francisco, California), 27 Dec 1905, Wed, Page 14

James Badger was then tried for his crimes, but acquitted due to lack of evidence as was common for the day. Property records indicate he later gifted some of the land he owned in part to a Mary Badger, his third wife. His address of 1221 Laguna street in San Francisco died with he and his wife. The property was then sold and the address never used again formally after his death in 1906. In addition to his residential address not existing, his gravesite and that of his wives were reinterred in Colma when San Francisco decided to move an entire graveyard.

Obituary for James Badger

Let Us Honor Those Who Came Before Us, Especially Those Taken Too Soon.

In ode to lives lost, or potentially forgotten, I’ll record this here. Research of both technical matters and historical matters always fascinate me, so I make attempts to record them. Even if not a lengthy research project, this the tragic way someone’s life ended violently is worth recording, She deserves to be remembered.

R eference/Resource/Bibliography

Because my references and resources are about 100 sources and very long, often times, this tanks my stats. I’ve opted to record them on a different page as to not ax my required reading time. You can find them recorded accurately here.
Satire and Humor Writers Are Facing Financial Ruin
By: Robert W. Locke
Tags: Politics, Election Result 2020, Humor, Writing, Satire Ahead

Politics

Satire and Humor Writers Are Facing Financial Ruin

Writers face precarious four years

Writers clinging on for dear life. Photo by Matthew T Rader on Unsplash

Top satirists and comedy writers were wringing their hands last night when they heard that Donald Trump had been defeated. Trump had been a gold mine for them.

There was such a rich (in every sense of the word) supply of ideas. You never had to look very far. Scroll through his tweets and the parodies. Immediate inspiration!

Rhyming words with Trump such as a bump, dump, take a dump, dumpster. His tweets were a constant source for brilliant wordplay and alliteration.

Fake hair and fake tans. These made fancy fables.

Blundering, blustering bullshit made for great subtext.

Punctuation, spelling mistakes, and ALL CAPS made writers wriggle and twitch every time they opened their Twitter accounts. Soon to become just a memory.

Pussygrabbing, fake news, hoaxes, and all the whining. These would still go on for 76 days but readership would go into a deep nose dive very quickly as the “election fraud” fizzled out.

They could see their main line of inspiration for four years fading away before their very eyes. They could also envisage their bank accounts dwindling month by month.

I visited the Sad Satirists Forum.

It was really heartbreaking to read the posts there. They have 3,456 members and that number jumped exponentially in the last 24 hours to 5,678.

“I will have to take to begging on the streets.” “How do you open a Patreon page and ask for donations?” “Buy me a coffee? How many coffees do you need to survive? How many coffees will buy me a burger? Any thoughts?”

Any dirt on Biden? This was a popular topic. But the answers were really so predictable, sad, and quite frankly, boring.

“No nepotism, I guess. His wife is a teacher so she could be United States Secretary of Education, couldn’t she?” one member suggested desperately. “I tried to get some dirt on Biden to write a really funny post but I fell asleep!” one ex-writer complained. “How many posts can you write about a sleepy President?” another author whined. “Even his hair isn’t interesting!”

Biden’s slogan “Build Back Better” could never compare with “Make America Great Again.” Who wrote that Biden slogan?

There were some very rude and hateful answers to that one which were removed by a moderator.

As writers face a grim four years ahead, they can only resort to telling each other diluted jokes about Sleepy Joe and Trump on WhatsApp like:-

What’s the most progressive thing about Joe Biden? His dementia.

Why can’t Trump go to The White House anymore?

Because it’s forBiden.
What Is A Healthier Lunch After Skipping Breakfast? Science Explains.
By: Jj Lim, Bsc, Hons
Tags: Food, Lifestyle, Health, Science, Nutrition

Skipping breakfast increases post-lunch blood glucose

Breakfast skippers consume more calories at lunch [3]

Source: JJ Lim, BSc (Hons).

When a Japanese clinical trial put a group of participants to consume 100% of calories spread across two meals (each lunch and dinner provided 50% calories) as opposed to three meals (each breakfast, lunch and dinner provided 33% calories), their post-lunch glucose level was higher.

The same trial tested the same participants again after 6 consecutive days of skipping breakfast. Having accustomised to the lifestyle of skipping breakfast, will their body able to normalise the blood glucose? Yes, the post-lunch glucose spike was alleviated. However, the average blood glucose level over 24 hours was still significantly higher.

After consecutive days of skipping breakfast, the elevation of blood glucose level occurred in the late afternoon and early evening, without any sign of high fasting blood glucose in the morning. Consequently, a single fasting blood test routinely carried out in the morning cannot detect how well our body manages blood glucose over 24 hours. Certainly, we don’t want our glucose to spike as sustained high blood glucose damages our blood vessels in the long term.

But, not all breakfast skippers eat more at lunch, what if they eat the same amount of lunch as breakfast regulars? [4]

Source: JJ Lim, BSc (Hons).

This scenario is set in the case of intermittent fasting, where dieters conveniently restrict themselves from having breakfast in order to achieve a negative calorie balance to lose weight.

In another clinical trial, the researchers put the participants to consume identical calories at lunch, one day with breakfast, and another day without breakfast. I thought there is not going to have any difference as the calories were identical.

Surprisingly, despite identical calories were consumed at lunch, breakfast skipping still exhibited the pronounced post-lunch glucose spike!

Not only the post-lunch blood glucose level was higher, but the overall 24-hour blood glucose level was also higher. I was perplexed by this fact. Yet, fascinating!
Selma to Montgomery
By: Danielle Gibson
Tags: Civil Rights, Poetry, BlackLivesMatter, History, Racism

Note:

On March 7, 1965, a 25-year-old activist by the name of John Lewis led a group of over 600 peaceful protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The Selma to Montgomery marches consisted of three protest marches along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital of Montgomery. The goal of this peaceful protest was to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the repressive segregation tactics that were still being upheld in Alabama and throughout the South.

The first of the three marches took place on March 7, 1965. On this day, unarmed protestors were attacked with clubs and tear gas by Alabama law enforcement as they began their march from Selma. The Alabama Governor George Wallace had ordered state troopers “to use whatever measures are necessary to prevent a march.” The violence implemented by law enforcement toward peaceful protestors was caught on footage, shocking the nation.

The Selma to Montgomery marches were initially organized in response to the murder of 26-year-old Jimmie Lee Jackson. On February 18, 1965, Jackson was fatally shot in Marion, Alabama. Jackson and his mother had both been involved in a peaceful voting rights march in the city that day. The protest ended when state troopers attacked the demonstrators. While Jackson’s mother was being clubbed by police, he stepped in to protect her and was shot by the Alabama state trooper James Bonard Fowler. Jackson died from the gunshot eight days later.

The black citizens and their allies, who marched from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, had two primary goals. The first goal was to highlight the racial injustice that was still permeating throughout the south. The second goal was to secure proper voting rights for all black citizens.

The Civil Rights Acts of 1964 was a landmark movement in the Civil Rights era. However, the Act had done little to ensure that basic voting rights would be ensured to all black citizens, especially those residing in the south. The Selma to Montgomery marches turned out to be a major event in the civil rights movement.

The marches and the public response toward them led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This Act forced Alabama and all southern states to allow black citizens to vote without restriction, discriminatory practices that made voter registration more difficult for black citizens was no longer legal in the United States.

The murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson and the violence enacted during the Selma to Montgomery marches were pure injustices. The only consolations to these injustices are that they served as the catalyst to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and inspired a generation to never stop the fight for equality and justice.
How To Circumvent Decision Fatigue As A Leader
By: Anthony Boyd
Tags: Productivity, Advice, Mental Health, Business, Leadership

What Is Decision Fatigue?

Photo by Diggity Marketing on Unsplash

“As a senior executive, you get paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions.” — Jeff Bezos

Coined by social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister, decision fatigue is a psychological phenomenon that describes the persons capacity, or lack thereof, to make decisions.

Each decision consumes a certain amount of energy. With each decision you make, you have less energy to make future decisions.

The psychological effects of decision making vary. Each decision comes with a different energetic load.

One decision might consume much of your energy for the day. Beyond that decision you might not have sufficient energy for other important decisions. This can cause you to make bad decisions which lead to detrimental outcomes.

One of the most important things you can do as a leader to manage your energy levels, and to stay productive, is to monitor your decision-making output. Failure to manage your decision-making output can lead to decision fatigue.

A few months ago I came across a video clip where Jeff Bezos was explaining productive habits he practices as CEO of Amazon.

The video started off by highlighting the fact that Jeff Bezos doesn’t take meetings before 10am and he likes to get 8 hours of sleep every night.

He says he likes to have his “high IQ” meetings at 10am in the morning when he has the highest amount of energy.

The Amazon CEO also highlighted that:

“As a senior executive, you get paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions.”

He also goes on to say:
BECC Listed on COINEGG
By: Coinegg Exchange
Tags: Altcoins, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Currency Exchange

Dear Supporters:

The deposit for BECC will be enabled at 7:00 (UTC) on Aug 14. Trading pairs will be added at 7:00 (UTC) on Aug 15.

Introduction to BECC

BeePay is a superwallet for all types of crypto asset. It integrates wallet, exchange, investment, market analysis, social networking functions. It not only a wallet to secure and store asset, but also an inclusive blockchain ecosystem.

Website: http://www.beepay.pro/

Whitepaper: http://www.beepay.pro/Beepay_Whitepaper_EN.pdf

Block Explorer: https://etherscan.io/token/0x7d4d05abcadbdbf877c5cd5eb9dac6ddaa17ff89

Risk Warning:

Digital assets are innovative investment product, and the price is volatile and unpredictable. Please make rational decisions when investing.

Enjoy your trading on CoinEgg!

COINEGG

Aug 13, 2018
How Much Should We Give Up to Save the Planet?
By: Angie Vuong
Tags: Self Improvement, Climate Action, Psychology, Sustainability, Climate Change

Give up nothing.

Save yourself the misery.

The more you focus on something, the more it consumes you. This time last year, I couldn’t go to the supermarket without feeling all doom and gloom.

Why are they double-bagging their vegetables? Don’t they care that all this plastic ends up choking Nemo and Dory? Why are they idling their car? Don’t they care about their kids’ future?

When all you can think about is how everything is fucked, all you see is how fucked everything is.

You stop seeing the good in the world. You stop seeing hope.

And when you stop seeing hope is when you throw in the towel.

You can’t save the planet if you’re checked out.

Your willpower is finite.

Like a strict diet without a cheat day, where every forgone ice cream cone of joy is a sacrifice for that revenge body — completely dependent on your willpower — you will eventually crack and overindulge.

If you see the mission of saving the planet as a series of sacrifices you have to make, you will eventually crack and overindulge.

And as anyone who’s ever cracked and overindulged knows, the impact of that overindulgence is much bigger than simply doing things imperfectly.

Personal sustainability is just as important as environmental sustainability.

You can’t save the planet if you’re burnt out.

You’ll hurt the cause more than you help it.

Once you see something, you can’t unsee it.

Once you see how we’re all contributing to climate change and the impacts of it, you can’t unsee it. And you can’t comprehend when other people don’t.

That is why vegans won’t shut up. Once they see the cruelty, they can’t unsee it and can’t understand how anyone would want to play a part in it.

But the more obsessed you get and the more you try to change other people’s beliefs, the more miserable and hopeless you feel because it will never be within your control.

Earlier this year, I reached my peak of misery and crazy. I crashed and tapped out, and finally learned to chill the fuck out.

In the words of my best friend, I had to “Stop being a vegan about it.” Meaning: Let people live their lives.

Because at some point or another, people will see for themselves why they should care. And it will be because it affects them one way or another, not because you told them to.

You can’t save the planet if you’re turning people off from the movement.
About
By: Rj Verity
Tags: Featured, Rj Verity, About Me, Words On Writing

I have finally plucked up the courage to start writing fiction full time.

I am embarking on my first novel–it’s the first book in a trilogy. The ideas have been going around my head for a while, and now is the time to start putting them down on paper.

I’m a bit nervous, but I am also relishing the journey. It’s already a huge learning curve, and I’m excited about the whole process.

I’m writing a blog about my experience, so come with me on my journey…
Burned
By: Background Noise Comics
Tags: Beach, Summer, Covid 19, Humor, Comics

Written by

Daily comic by Lisa Burdige and John Hazard about balancing life, love and kids in the gig economy.
mind field
By: Cindy Letic
Tags: Life Lessons, Creative Writing, Self Love, Poetry, Self-awareness

pixabay.com

I

matter.

did you catch that?

I. MATTER.

in all of the ways that you aren’t convinced

in all of the ways that they say I don’t.

you believed it.

You believe it.

I guess,

sometimes,

it’s easier

to go

with

the flow..

isn’t it?

Sure it is.

That’s where you’ve resided your entire life.

It’s externally reaffirmed

every second of every day.

cursing mantra flowing through

your oxygen deprived cells

How can you breathe like that?

Soar like that?

Of course, it’s simple.

Of course,

it’s comfortably

destructive.

What does it matter?

What does it matter?

It matters.

Because YOU MATTER!

Let’s try this again.

But this time, with feeling.

Now….

get out

of bed!
ProShares ETF, Bitcoin Shorts,
By: Coin Observatory
Tags: Futures, Cryptocurrencies, Proshares, Bitcoin, Proshares Etf

What makes Proshares different?

For starters this ETF is Futures based and not settled in Bitcoin with no actual exposure to Bitcoin. ProShares submitted several proposals, the two main highlights are, a Bitcoin Long ETF, and a Bitcoin Short ETF.

Bitcoin Long ETF would expose investors to an investment vehicle that profits from the price increase of BTC. Conversely, the Bitcoin Short ETF would expose investors to an investment vehicle that profits from BTC declines.

As for us weighing in the relevance of this upcoming ETF announcement, ProShares had submitted their application in September of 2017, hence this is old news.
Here’s The Truth About Rock Climbing You Don’t Hear In The Media
By: Cynthia Marinakos
Tags: Fitness, Life, Outdoors, Health, Sports

Drop into the Cliffhanger climbing gym in Altona, Victoria and you’re sure to bump into Steve and his boys, Luca (9) and Jakobi (11). They climb at least once a week during the school term — and up to 3 times a week on holidays.

I love chatting to the boys about what they’ve climbed, and what projects they’re working on.

It’s incredible to see how far they’ve progressed, and how easily they’ve adapted into the climbing community over the 2 years they’ve been climbing.

They often stick around for 3-hour sessions, laughing and mucking around together in between climbs. They’re determined and calm climbers.

I asked Steve and his kids a few questions:

Why do you take your kids climbing?

Rock climbing is a great family activity we can all do together. It’s also suitable for all ages and abilities and we can climb locally indoors and also enjoy the outdoors at some cliffs.

How did they feel at the start compared to how they feel about climbing now?

When they first started climbing it was a fun thing to try but now they appreciate the challenge of solving the puzzle of finding a way to the top.

Boys: what’s your favourite part of climbing?

Luca: You get to go to lots of cool places and explore.

Jakobi: Trying new climbs and working them out.

Have you noticed anything different in them since they began climbing?

Initially, Luca ( 9) was a bit scared of heights, but since climbing, he has overcome this and now climbs 30m cliffs indoors and outdoors. His confidence and self-belief have increased a lot.

Jakobi (11) has developed his physical strength and confidence to take on new challenges. He also finds the social aspect really enjoyable.

Have you ever taken the boys outdoors?

Yes, we have been to several different cliffs around Victoria. The kids really enjoy the adventure and being with other people outdoors.

Besides the fun of climbing, there’s the hike through the forest to the cliff, seeing different lizards, eagles, and animals along the way.

If it’s a hot day sometimes we have a swim in the river nearby. If we are camping they enjoy just hanging out with the group at the campfire, sharing stories.

Are you at all worried about the safety of your kids when climbing?

Climbing gyms have quality equipment and safety devices. They show each person how to belay safely. We also do our buddy safety checks every climb.

Outdoors we also use helmets and carry a basic first aid kit.

What would you say to parents unsure about taking their kids climbing?

Take them to a local indoor climbing gym and make it a fun activity where you climb with them too. Try not to rush them and praise their efforts, even if they can’t make it all the way up. Like any sport, it takes a few months to learn most of the basics.
Türk Telekom Logosunun Anatomisi
By: Mehmet Gözetlik
Tags: Marka, Tipografi, Tasarım

Future-proof invisible design systems, data-driven strategies, powerful visual identities, and memorable experiences to connect people to your brand.

Follow
“Backchannel”: How Conversations Flow and People Bond
By: Mckinley Valentine
Tags: Self Improvement, Life Lessons, Psychology, Life, Relationships

“Backchannel”: How Conversations Flow and People Bond

This little-known term will help you understand the patterns of how you connect

Photo by Bewakoof.com Official on Unsplash

I’m going to tell you about an incredibly useful linguistic concept — one of those things where you’re like “oh there’s a word for that, that’s so useful! Now I have a way to talk about it.”



You know how when you say something, sometimes you want the other person to literally hear the content of your message (“pass the salt”) and sometimes it’s a social action that happens to use words — but the words themselves don’t matter (“you’re welcome”). And a whole lot of awkwardness comes about when people can’t gauge whether they’re supposed to listen to the content of the words, or treat it as a social action (“How’s it going?”)



And of course, most things you say operate on both levels. If you message your partner to tell them about a funny thing someone said at work, you’re saying both the funny thing, and “I think about you when you’re not around.”



So backchannel is one of the kinds of speech that’s all action, no content. It’s the mm-hmms, yeahs, right of courses that you say when you’re listening, and it means “I’m still paying attention.”



It’s super important! And different cultures have different ideas about the amount of backchannel that’s appropriate. East Asian people tend to do a lot more of it than Westerners, for example. Too much feels like the listener is bored and trying to hurry you along; too little feels like the listener has drifted off, so cultural mismatches cause problems. There’s also confusion around “Yes” (I heard you, I get what you’re saying) and “Yes” (I agree with you, I’m going to do that).



I often use “that makes sense” as backchannel, and occasionally people respond with annoyance — “I know it makes sense!” like I’ve said “I’m judging you, and you’ve passed” (which is just as insulting as “I’m judging you, and you failed”).

But now I can say “no it’s just backchannel!” and… well, then I have to explain what backchannel is and then I’ve totally derailed the conversation, which is even ruder. I should probably just try to wean myself off “that makes sense.”



And sometimes I go blank because I can’t think of the right backchannel to give. A Facebook Like is kind of like backchannel, and you know, before reacts, when someone posted some bad news, you didn’t know whether you should Like it or not? Does it mean “I Like that” or “I read it and hear you”?



But now that more people know the word, if I can’t think of the right backchannel, I can just say “backchannel” instead of “um, I’m listening, I just don’t really have anything to add.”
Souls Don’t Understand Break-ups
By: Ellen Nguyen
Tags: Relationships, Inspiration, Love, Heartbreak, Dating

My soul is bright like the July stars, but sometimes she’s so frustratingly stupid.

She’s still moping around looking for you, asking for you, wishing she could meet the one in you again.

She doesn’t understand that the business of the souls is not the same as that of civilised grown-ups.

Our souls might have found the moon and stars in each other, but we have a reality to deal with.

You have a reality to deal with.

You carry the world on your shoulder, which makes me so proud of you, but that doesn’t always permit wild dreams and spontaneous adventures.

That doesn’t always allow for moments of vulnerability, naked truth, and being a little kid again — or sometimes even finding ourselves.

My soul doesn’t understand your silence.

My soul questions me every night where her friend is; why he isn’t here sharing his stories and silly jokes with her; why he isn’t lying by her side wondering out loud about rain forests and universe mysteries.

Trust me, I’ve tried to explain it to her.

I’ve used all my power to shut her up and reassure her that things will be alright — she will meet someone else who loves her, cares for her, and shows up for her.

She nods and tells me, of course, she knows, but that doesn’t change anything right now. That doesn’t make the hurricane in her any lessened.

Because, in the midst of this spiritual pain, she isn’t looking for just someone.

My soul is looking for you — her special friend — and the magical escape out of the castle I usually lock her in.
Back To School Survival Kit: For Parents
By: Lynn I. Hsu
Tags: Homeschooling, Back To School, Parenting Advice, Humor, Comics

Back To School Survival Kit: For Parents

Essential gear for schooling at home

Whether your kids are signed up for hybrid, remote learning, or homeschooling, here are some essential supplies to help parents at home survive these challenging times:

1. Acoustic Blankets

Use as a soundproofing curtain in your open plan apartment during simultaneous Zoom meetings. Blanket also provides a hiding place where parents’ screams are muffled.

2. Coffee Bladder Backpack

Provides continuous caffeine supply for managing kid schedules, mediating fights, solving IT problems, and taking in feedback that your traditional teaching methods are obsolete and wrong. The heated bladder soothes your aching back after extended periods of redirecting kids and picking up floor trash.

3. VR Technologies

Escape to your virtual reality breakroom. Go to the beach and get energized with a sunrise cocktail to kick off the morning. Relax while your kids studiously engage with their online curriculum.

4. Reward Sticker Chart For Parents Only

Good job! Acknowledge your hard work and perseverance with calendar stickers. Redeem each sticker for a special reward at the end of the school day.
You Know What’s True
By: Kamga Tchassa
Tags: Immigration, Poetry, Justice, Poem, Race

You Know What’s True

A Poem

1.

Justice is the grandmother on the roadside, her wares carefully staged

To attract Mango lovers.

She looks up to the fine young lady

Who sneers with coin toss and bags fruit.

Grandma does what she must.

School fees must be paid —

Doesn’t matter how much dust she swallows.

She’ll be back tomorrow — life is never late.

2.

Call me yellow. Black. Brown. Red.

Hold my tongue — like ugly lead.

Write my story without my pen.

Only victors decide what’s to be left undead.

3.

Justice caves in at the airport on the day before a holiday.

She’s swamped for speed, anxious, passing tickets to angrier neighbors.

Her snarl is not a maskt, it’s —

Pressure built from a thousand cuts, a thousand slurs.

What happens to cheeks that smile hard while being slapped?

4.

Spirits on a boat.

Dead yonder — dead hope.

Chains heavier than heart’s load.

Ebbing ink — same through media veins flow.

5.

Justice stammers in the guest’s house.

Language unknown, new customs rites.

Should he pray, before, during or after the meal?

Should he pray on the mat, at all, or on the hill?

If there’s a God over this house blue, round, when should he visit? When is he not around?

6.

Migrant mauling over methods to move.

Myriad ways, wits ends, nothing here to choose.

Desert. Sea. Air.

Who planted greener pastures over there?

7.

Justice can’t stay dead for too long. If you bow long enough, her ghost shrieks- her blood erupts : a thousand suns burnt, a thousand sons dead.

She comes at night, at dawn, at dusk, on the street, on the living room.

She’ll take what’s hers, our soul is the task.

8.

“Treat others as you would want to be treated”

I say persecute others as you would want to be persecuted.

It starts with me. It starts with you.

You know what’s true. You know what’s true
9 Digital Trends to Watch for in 2016
Tags: Digital Marketing, Media, Future, Media Trends

Photo Credit: Magic Leap

In 2016, the media landscape will be more complex than ever. Audiences already discover, read, and share content across a multitude of media platforms and channels, and the ecosystem’s growth shows no signs of slowing down.

We don’t live in an era of binary choice — we fluidly shift from device to device, from channel to channel, and from moment to moment at will. And this trend is only accelerating. Imagine a future media landscape filled with augmented reality platforms and new one-to-many messaging apps that span across all of the moments of your day — the future is not as far away as you might think.

We want to help you carve out some clarity in an uncertain media landscape. Our team came together to identify the most important trends we’ll see in 2016 across the digital and media ecosystem—from the death of the website to the rise of adblockers. We want hear from you too—chime in with your own thoughts as responses.
How to Be a Good Social Media Manager
By: Jordan Mendiola
Tags: Social Media, Marketing, Management, Social Media Management, Business

How to Be a Good Social Media Manager

Lessons from my one-month stint with an investing startup

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

What job has dozens of posts to approve, loads of content to create, all while trying to keep everyone happy? Social media managing, that’s what.

For the past month, I’ve dipped my toes into being a social media and marketing manager for the Haikhuu Trading Community. The company’s goal is to help investors and traders with a community where we provide resources for everyone to have more success in the stock market. It’s been an incredible journey learning the ropes of a company and using social media as from a business perspective versus a personal one.

According to Digital Marketing Institute, social media managers create and maintain brand promotions, company information, and marketing campaigns for their company across several different social media networks. Social media manager positions typically require a bachelor’s degree in marketing, public relations, or similar.

If you’re curious about what it’s like to run a company’s social media, then you clicked on the right article. I’m going to be going over ways to deal with the stress of creating content and keeping everyone in the communities happy.
Mooning Forever
By: Robert Faron
Tags: One Line, Poetry, Sadness, Chalkboard, Dating

Thanks to Ana-Maria Schweitzer for the moving poem and moody prompt, Moon.

https://medium.com/chalkboard/improbable-sleep-c49d3bcb81e0

And thanks to Kathy, Harper Thorpe, and the rest of the Chalkboard team.
Cloudflare Loves to Mess With Incumbents
By: John Battelle
Tags: Technology, Management, Internet, Business, Leadership

Cloudflare Loves to Mess With Incumbents

And that’s a very good thing for the Internet

We don’t usually cover news here at Shift, this is more of a place for analysis and Thinking Out Loud. And it’s rare that one company appears more than once here in any given year. But today — again — Cloudflare has upended an important piece of Internet’s real estate, and it’s just too rich to not note the why of it.

So first the news. To celebrate the company’s eight birthday, Cloudflare is announcing the launch of a domain registrar. And because the company operates at massive scale, and can afford to do things most companies simply can’t (or won’t — looking at you, Google, Amazon, Facebook) — the company is offering domains *at cost.* In other words, Cloudflare isn’t making one red cent when you register a domain with them. What they pay to register a domain (and yes, that number is fixed, and the same for all domain registrars), is what you pay to register a domain.

Go ahead, go sell (or short) your GoDaddy stock. I’ll wait.

OK, you back? Look, I’m not writing this post because I think the news is *that* exciting, though I’ll tell you, I’ve not found many folks who love their domain registrar. I certainly don’t. Most of them are experts at confusing you, at upcharging you, and at scaring you that you’re about to either lose your domain or miss some important feature you didn’t know you want or need. I pay an average of about 15–20 bucks for each of the domains I own each year. Cloudflare’s price is about eight dollars.

I own close to 50 domains. That means I’ll save nearly $400 a year when I move all my domains to Cloudflare. That’s real cheddar.

But the real reason I’m writing this post is to point out what a merry market discombobulator Cloudflare has become. (Read more over at our new open web site).
Collectibles in Lumi wallet
By: Lumi Blockchain Wallet
Tags: Ethereum Wallet, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Bitcoin Wallet

Over the last month crypto collectibles are becoming more and more popular. There are different kinds of them. All the cryptopets, celebrities and different experience can be collected on the blockchain platform. This is the way to combine your interest to cryptocurrency with your interest to collect something.

Here we deal with ERC-721. ERC-721 is better suited for digital collectibles than ERC-20. The first difference between collectibles and ERC-20 tokens is that each Crypto Kitty, for example, needs to have unique attributes, such as age, breed or color. Some mixture of attributes can be super rare, making them remarkably valuable. For example, one such cat on CryptoKitties traded for $110,000.

The second difference is ERC-20 tokens are divisible. It means users can divide them up into small amounts for buying, selling or trading.Collectibles cannot be divided. A half a cat wouldn’t be so fun or valuable to have.

Like coins or tokens all the collectibles are to be held in a wallet. For now most owners of crypto collectibles use Metamask digital wallet. It is functioning as a bank account.

However, you can work only with Ethereum based crypto in Metamask. It could be much useful to hold tokens, coins and collectibles inside one wallet.

Lumi wallet takes care of its users and wants to present a new option for you. Soon Lumi presents a new app for your collectibles. It will be a very user friendly app. There you can easily swipe from one card to another.

Lumi wallet is highly secure and user friendly device! Our developers always broaden your opportunities. Starting from BTC, we already support ETH and most popular tokens, launched web interface and are going to present in-wallet exchange. And now we extend our opportunities to collectibles! Hold them in new Lumi app and enjoy proven ease of use and security provided by Lumi Technologies. We never sit still and always offer our users new services!

You can download Lumi for iOS or Android in two clicks!

Follow us on Twitter and read our Blog to keep up with Lumi news and updates.
How to Use ForEach() in JavaScript
By: Jamie Pittman
Tags: Nodejs, JavaScript, Angular, Front End Development, Programming

How to Use ForEach() in JavaScript

For loops used to be my everything. Not anymore

Photo by Thomas Kinto on Unsplash.

I don’t know about you, but when I started learning how to write JavaScript, forEach() was not on my radar. If I needed to iterate over an array, for loops were my everything.

When I was going through my coding bootcamp several years ago, we were not being taught JavaScript array methods. I’m not sure if coding bootcamps are now being more thoughtful in including them in the curriculum, but if not, then this article is for you!
Someone changed your terraform!
By: Juan Matías De La Cámara Beovide
Tags: Terraform, DevOps

What?

So, someone deployed to production using a terraform file set. Then someone else modified something there and after a looooooong time, it’s your turn to fix some stuff.

Specifically what?

Ok, for this example, at first moment you had a Google Service (here we are working with Cloud Functions), activated in the main file of this terraform structure:

.

├── env

│ └── main.tf

└── function

├── http_trigger.js

└── http_trigger.zip

This means, the service address was: google_project_service.cloud-functions

Then someone had the great idea: using modules! :)

So the Google Service activation moved to the main.tf under modules:

├── env

│ └── main.tf

├── function

│ ├── http_trigger.js

│ └── http_trigger.zip

└── modules

└── main

└── main.tf

Here the service address is: module.main.google_project_service.cloud-functions

And for a while (while you were in development) was ok. But then, one day, you went to production… where the tfstate still had the service under the old address… so terraform said: “hey, dude, I will destroy your service resource (disable) and then I will create it again (enable)”. To do this all resources dependent on this one needs to be destroyed as well.

So, what to do?

The solution

You have a real activated service. And in the tfstate you have a resource (google_project_service.cloud-functions) that is not in your tf files (so it will be destroyed) and in your tf files a new resource (module.main.google_project_service.cloud-functions) that needs to be created… but wait, that you already have in the Google Cloud infrastructure!

So, delete the old resource from the tfstate, import it again under the new address… and voilà, you can have a beer and a success!

First delete the old resource from the tfstate:

terraform state rm google_project_service.cloud-functions

Then import the actual service as resource into your tfstate:

terraform import google_project_service.cloud-functions your-proyect-id/cloudfunctions.googleapis.com

(change the project ID)

Ok, now you can run your terraform again a enjoy watching it not trying to delete your service!

Conclusion

Don’t panic and carry a towel…
What’s New in React Native 0.63?
By: Joan Saum
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, Reactjs, React, React Native

Native Colors

There are two new things here: PlatformColor and DynamicColor.

PlatformColor allows users to use the native colors of the device from either iOS or Android.

DynamicColor allows users to configure colors depending on the appearance mode of the mobile (light mode/dark mode).

Here is an example of how to use it that combines both:
Communication Tools for Distance Learning
By: Sanna Sharp
Tags: Distance Learning, Higher Education, School Closure, Covid 19, Edtech

A guide to the communication platforms available for higher educators.

Courtesy of You X Ventures on Unsplash

Our team’s trip to Portland for SIGCSE 2020 went awry when Oregon Governor Kate Brown banned gatherings of more than 250 people, canceling the conference the same day it began. We spent the rest of our unexpectedly short time in Portland working out of coffee shops and a WeWork. Fortunately, it’s easy to communicate with team members at your home base in New York City when your startup is building a teaching and learning tool — the features that you need for remote communication and collaboration are inherent in the technology.

Online, we saw other universities were following U. of Washington’s lead by canceling in-person classes. We began to discuss how Campuswire could help professors while they transitioned to remote instruction, ultimately deciding to offer our recently-released Pro tools at no charge for the remainder of the Spring term.

But, having worked closely with professors, we know that different people need different types of EdTech to optimize their instruction. We wanted to highlight the other excellent tools available to professors as they move their classes online. So, we used social media to crowd-source a list of recommendations made by other higher ed instructors.

Jump to:
A Piece of Me
Tags: Poetry, Love, Intimately Intricate, This Happened To Me

Standing before you

I am naked and shivering

Anticipation grips tight

And I am powerless to fight

Standing before me

You are mesmerizing

You inhale me deeply

Knowing full well the havoc

you have wrought

Know what it is

that I seek

Standing before you

I inhale your redolence

Your smoke and spice

Intoxicate me

Captivate me

Steal my soul

Standing before me

You are glorious

Sensuous

Delicious

And I must touch you

Feel your silk covered steel

Explore that which I seek

Give to you

yet another

piece of my soul
How We Helped This Fertility Tracking Startup Find its Ideal Audience Through Social Advertising
Tags: Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Advertising, Digital Marketing, Lead Generation

How We Helped This Fertility Tracking Startup Find its Ideal Audience Through Social Advertising Ideometry Follow Oct 20, 2017 · 2 min read

Ovatemp is a fertility tracking app and ultra-accurate thermometer combo aimed to help women get pregnant or abstain from getting pregnant.

The Problem

Like many new products, Ovatemp needed help finding and reaching their highest yield targets to drive meaningful downloads and sales.

The Solution

Ideometry built out an extensive app download and sales generation campaign. And when we say extensive, we’re talking custom ads on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, as well as custom landing pages.

Through the data from this campaign, we were also able to present Ovatemp with an overview of their highest yield targets for use in future marketing campaigns to aid in their continued success.

***

If you liked what you saw here, check out some of the other branding and creative campaigns we’ve done for a major credit union and a BBQ catering startup.

Need help creating an amazing brand? Get in touch with us today.
We are in the stone age of interaction design
By: Helge Tennø
Tags: Ia, Interaction Design, Design

Anand Agarawala of BumpTop proclaimed this (see title) during his TED presentation of the BumpTop software in March 2007.

A quote I might even be accused of overusing, but I do believe it to be correct, and am constantly searching for example of future interfaces and proof that todays interfaces are far from being human friendly, intuitive or logical. Fortunatly for us we have learned to use the interfaces of today, but that does not mean they are good interfaces.

In this post Smashingmagazine lists a handfull of future interfaces and links to demos, websites and images of there application. I have presented many of them previously, but the Reactable was brand new. Amazing piece of UI.