fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
A Client Hated My Work. So, Why Did He Want More?
By: Hannah Haefele
Tags: Life Lessons, Entrepreneurship, Freelancing, Career Advice, Clients

What does this mean for you?

I learned a lot from this experience, and I think these lessons can help all of us freelancers.

Do a Test Run

No matter what work you do, always do a test run with a new client. Don’t commit to a long-term relationship before you both make sure you like working together.

Use the test run to feel out how your client likes to communicate and what they want from a freelancer. Consider if they have realistic expectations or if they need to hire someone else.

If you aren’t happy with the relationship, don’t be afraid to say that. Even if a client wants to keep working with you, you have the right to say no.

I realize now that I should have paused when the client didn’t like my test article. I should have either asked for specific feedback or not written more at all.

Review the Brief

If your client provides a brief or writing guide, review it. Check it before you start the work and again before you submit your work. You can easily miss something, so you can never be too safe.

You’ll probably still miss things anyway, so be prepared for edits or changes that your client requests. But your client’s brief usually provides what you need to know.

Ask Questions

If you aren’t sure what your client wants or they don’t have a brief, ask them to be specific. Yes, you’re the expert, so you should give your input.

But you can’t read your client’s mind. They may want something and not know they should tell you. You’ll save yourself a lot of time asking questions.

While you wait for a response, you can always start on another client project or work on another part of your business. Then, you don’t have to feel like you’re wasting time.

Don’t Take Things Personally

When freelancing, you will face a lot of rejection. You may send out a hundred pitches and applications only to receive one response.

Your clients may not like your work. And sometimes, they may not be able to pinpoint what it is they don’t like.

That’s a sign that they aren’t the right client for you. So instead of fighting it and wasting your time, focus on other clients who do appreciate you and your work.

Being Picky

One of the reasons people freelance is for the flexibility and choice in their work. If you ever get a bad feeling about a client, listen to your gut.

You don’t have to take verbal (or written) abuse. You don’t have to deal with difficult clients who don’t specify what they want. And you don’t have to waste your time.

Freelancing has been one of the best things for my career. And while I wish I didn’t have this experience, I’m grateful for what it taught me and what it can hopefully help other freelancers like you.
Vital World Online Newsletter
By: Rejoice Denhere
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Newsletter, Self Improvement, Business, Fiction

Hello!

September is here. We hope you have had a great start to the month.

This week we present you with highlights from August. We were joined by three new writers. A very big welcome to:

James Moynihan

Matthew Hyatt

Aborode Prime Olusegun
They called me Harambe
By: Danna Reich Colman
Tags: Creative Nonfiction, Harambe, Parenting, Animals

Photo credit: Robert Streithorst

They called me Harambe. I lived at the Cincinnati Zoo until recently when I was shot down in my exhibit because a little boy fell into the water to play with me. I was just as surprised as everyone else when it happened, and I wasn’t at all sure what to do. At first I lifted him up to check to see if he was okay, but then when I saw the crowds and heard all the noise, I felt quite anxious and scooped him up with one arm and pulled him over to the other side of the moat where it was less congested.

I can certainly understand why everyone was terrified. I mean I weighed four-hundred plus pounds and could have injured this three-year-old boy with my size and strength alone, even if all I wanted to do was protect him. I’m not sure what would have happened if someone didn’t shoot me, but the whole thing seems such a shame. I loved my life in the zoo, and people loved to visit me. I was a real character! I reveled in posing for the camera and would have enjoyed participating in selfies, too, had I been able to get close enough to all my visitors. And I always got a kick out of shooting the bird while watching all the reactions! But I have to say I delighted most in pretending to splash my fans without getting them wet. Not even a drop!

I’ve heard that the woman who filmed everything said the mom wasn’t holding her son’s hand, and at one point he was behind her clearly out of her sight. She could hear him say to his mother that he wanted to jump in the water and play with me. And then she heard his mother say, “No, you’re not. No, you’re not.” Hey, there are signs all over the place that say children must be supervised at all times for a reason! And it seems to me that when a mother says “No,” a child should listen.

If you ask me, children need to be disciplined, and they actually thrive when parents set boundaries and follow through. The truth is that children feel safer when they know they won’t be allowed to break the rules without consequences. And I think that teaching “no means no” should be accomplished well before children are taken to potentially hazardous places. But you know what? People make mistakes from time to time, and everyone is entitled to make a few. But my dream for the future is that our mistakes are of little significance and that they don’t have the potential to alter lives with terribly tragic outcomes. To accomplish this, modification will need to be made to the majority of our public spaces.

Thank you for letting me tell my story and for all your concern, love and support. Hopefully, we will see each other on the other side ❤
Optimizers be TensorFlow’s Appetizers
By: Aditya Ananthram
Tags: Deep Learning, Machine Learning, TensorFlow, Gradient Descent, Neural Networks

Stochastic Gradient Descent is a method in which we start taking downward steps as soon as we finish computing on each one of the training set examples. This helps us make progress in our downward journey as soon as possible by using the gradients from each of our training set examples to update parameters. With this, we would have taken ‘m’ steps toward the bottom in one pass through the whole training set as opposed to taking just one step in Batch Gradient Descent.

This method is gives fast results but has 2 major disadvantages:

The first is that as each one of our training set examples are different, the gradient computed on each one of them points to a different direction and hence we don’t take direct steps towards the minimum cost but non uniformly , effectively move towards the point of minimum cost. And as a result of this, the parameters will never in fact reach the point of minimum cost but will just keep circling its vicinity.

The second disadvantage of Stochastic gradient descent is that we will loose the effect of vectorization on our code. Vectorization is at the heart of deep learning, it is the reason that our computer can perform such complex computations in such speed. in stochastic gradient descent, as the computation happens on each of the training set examples one by one, for-loops have to be used to pass through the training set and it will probably take a lifetime, compared to computation with vectorization.

this image shows stochastic gradient descent

Notice how the cost effectively takes steps towards the minimum point of cost but does not get there directly. It can also never actually reach the very point of minimum cost, it can only be circulating in its region.
DR. STAN MEIBURG JOINS THE WAKE FOREST SUSTAINABILITY GRADUATE PROGRAM
By: Wake Forest Mas
Tags: Epa, Academia, Wake Forest University, Sustainability, Higher Education

WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY, you’re basically asking a question about the future of the planet. For somebody who’s thinking, “Gosh, do I want to work in this area?” My response basically is that you get to get up and go to work every day and think that something I am doing is helping to save the planet. How cool is that?

I’m almost embarrassed to admit this, but I ended up in environmental protection almost by accident. I worked at the EPA for 39 years, from November of 1977 through January of 2017 — with a very short interval of about five months in the middle when I thought I was retired.

I started in the Carter Administration and went all the way through the Obama Administration. A lot of presidents. When I first came into the EPA, I was really really fortunate. I fell into the hands of some outstanding mentors. And I’d like to be able to work with students in that way as well.

The reason I wanted to take on this role with the Sustainability Graduate Program at Wake Forest is that it fulfills what really was my ambition the first time that I retired. That is, to help train the next generation of environmental professionals.

It is an interesting experience to come back to Wake Forest after 40 years away. Even though the campus is a lot bigger — there are many more facilities here than there were when I was an undergraduate — it still has the same feeling it had. The same feeling and collegiality. People greeting each other as you walk by on the quad.‍

My ambition is to help train the next generation of environmental professionals.

We are still in the early stages of this journey. Both at the University and in a larger sense in society. Thinking about what sustainability really needs. For students who are coming in now — what a great opportunity to take your gifts and skills and apply them to this great challenge. Sustainability is the challenge that is going to influence everything that occurs for humanity over the next 50 years.
Self-Care Leaves You With Fewer F*cks to Give
By: Zita Fontaine
Tags: Inspiration, Fitness, Self, Self Improvement, Mindfulness

I have always been envious of my friend, Anne. She has had the attitude that I have wanted — she cares, but she doesn’t care too much. She can put herself first. She doesn’t stop to worry about what others might think — she does everything in a way that she could benefit from it without hurting others. You might call her selfish, but she is a good kind of selfish. She knows her priorities — and she is always on the top of her list.

I, on the other hand, overthink everything. I care about others and I am willing to put them first. I care about what people think of me and it leaves me overthinking every single thing I say or do. No matter how much I try to act like I don’t care — I do. I care too much. And this is bad.

In trying to always keep others in mind, trying to cater to everyone else’s needs — I forget myself in the process. I have a hard time saying no — because that would collide with my image of being a selfless, caring person. I am always the bigger person, avoiding conflict, generously letting go things that hurt me — only to be able to say that I am better than this. But this is an act. When I let things go easily it might seem that I don’t care — but deep down I do, and I constantly question myself.

It leaves me lonely, empty, completely drained. To care and then to pretend that you don’t is a vicious circle with no exit.
Blaming Evil Actions on Fickle is Not Worth A Nickle
By: Suzanne V. Tanner
Tags: Humor, Creativity, Future, Poetry, Satire

“Oh, he is just fickle.”

She said, dreaming of his pickle.

(Always defending the evil one, she is.)

Spends as much time as she can at his winter palace. Sipping gross watered-down wine from a golden chalice.

Told me she joined a ladies who lunch bandette. Decked out as cheerleaders hoping to blow the trumpette.

“Politics, what’s that,” she asked, wearing a blank stare. “All I care about is steak well done, never medium-rare.”

“He looked my way today and scanned my rack. If that means I am counted, watch me plop down on my back”.

“All I want is inclusion, so don’t feed me fake news. I don’t believe those tales you tell me he spews.”

“What is more important,” I asked her today. “Saving democracy or being a prop in his play?”

Alas, insisting her king is just fickle.

She lustily imagines the coming of his pickle.

( Trying to establish her identity through blind, insecure, superficial greed, that was her downfall)

© Suzanne V. Tanner, 2020. All Rights Reserved.

This piece was inspired by a prompt from the fabulous and talented Sherry McGuinn. Her word: fickle. My brain was also motivated by reading an excellent book last weekend: The Grifter’s Club by Sarah Blaskey, Nicholas Nehamas, Caitlin Ostroff, Jay Weaver.

Sherry tagged this gifted band of sisters and brothers: P.G. Barnett Joe Luca Desiree Driesenaar Caroline de Braganza Timothy Key Gurpreet Dhariwal Helen Cassidy Page Robin Klammer Tree Langdon Stephen Dalton Kristi Keller Tina L. Smith Rasheed Hooda Chris Hedges and any others wanting to play a tune with this orchestra. I would like to add Navya Gupta Manasi Diwakar Paroma Sen Amy Marley R Tsambounieri Talarantas Eli Snow Suntonu Bhadra J.D. Harms Elle Rogers David Grant Tony Young, Jr.

Thanks again for your time, my dear reading and writing friends.

If you would like to be in email touch: vtanme@gmail.com
Good News For Storymaker Readers
By: Larry G. Maguire
Tags: Weekly Letters, Stories, Creativity, Art, Letters

Good News For Storymaker Readers

With a new editor, Storymaker has a future

A couple of weeks ago, I emailed you guys to let you know Storymaker was to be wound up. Several people made contact with me to ask how they could help, and as a result, you folks have a new editor.

Jimmy Cerone has been appointed and his tenure as Chief Editor commences straight away. Jimmy will be responsible for ensuring your articles are scheduled and published, adding new writers, helping you with spelling and grammar and making suggestions to how we all can make better content for readers of Storymaker. I will remain in the background and will assist Jimmy where he needs it and to also consult on adding assistant editors where required.

In the meantime, you can continue to add new submissions as you have always done, and it will be Jimmy who will offer feedback and hit publish.

Reminder: The Kind of Content We’re Looking For

Nothing has really changed here, we’re seeking content that speaks of the creative spirit, is non-promotional, and reflects your passion for your work.

Submissions of the following are welcome;

Poetry

Short Stories

Articles describing your creative process and experience as an artist/writer

Culturally relevant articles on Art & Creativity

What We’re NOT looking for;

Self-help

Life hacking

Political discourse

Pornographic writing

Please Use Tags

Tags are important, they help readers find your work. So, if you’re submitting poetry use the tag Poetry. Submitting a short story? use the Short Story tag. Writing on creativity? Use the tag, Creativity. And of course, try always to add the tag, Art to your submission.

That’s all from me, here’s a word from your new editor. Jimmy, take it away.

Greetings Everyone!

My name is Jimmy Cerone and I’ll be the new editor of Storymaker! First, I want to make clear that Storymaker will still be about good stories and how to tell them. Second, for all you writers out there, I want to offer myself as an editor. I am committed to actively helping you improve your writing through private comments. I will, as editor, correct for grammar, but anything beyond that I will leave up to you in the form of a private note. If you don’t respond to the note / make a change in 24 hours I will go ahead and publish!

For a bit about me, I’m a college student, reluctant entrepreneur and computer science major. I love to read and I love when a story is finished, but struggle with the writing of it. I’ve been writing for a couple of years now and come from a family of communicators (my father is a speaker and host).

What You Can Expect for Me:

Private notes for feedback on each piece

Corrections for grammar and spelling

Comments/Edits within 48 hours

Publication within 24 hours of my last edit or your incorporation of feedback

Sharing your new article, short story or poem on Twitter

I’m looking forward to receiving your submissions. And for those of you who love to read the content and not submit, I’m looking forward to sharing new material with you.

Regards for now, Jimmy (& Larry)
React .focus(). A simple explanation of .focus() use in…
By: James Dorr
Tags: React, JavaScript, HTML, Software Development, Web Development

Many React tutorials describe long processes that lead to the successful use of .focus() with React. The .focus() method tells the browser which element is being acted on, similar to .click() or an actual click. At least with React 16.9.0, using .focus() with the React’s virtual DOM isn’t too difficult.

In this article, we will first discuss the easy way to use .focus() with React and then go into an example.

Note: This example only works for searching elements within the same class.

Why?

The .focus() method can guide users to enhance the user interface and clarify appropriate use, and it is especially useful to mobile users where clicking and navigating can be more difficult.

A finished project of .focus() helping enhance the UI

Making a Reference — “ref”

Inside a class, you can add a “ref” attribute to an element, which takes in the following value.

ref={ x => this.y = x }

Above, “x” represents the iterative variable, and “y” is the name you chose to represent that “ref.” You can name both whatever you like.

Calling .focus() on the “ref”

After the step above, you can access that element within the same class by calling “this.y” (or whatever name you chose instead of “y”). If you would like to focus on that element, it’s as simple as

this.y.focus()

Example

I recently made a bowling scoring app, where .focus() helped increase usability (especially on mobile, because there are lots of inputs) and also helped guide the user through possibly confusing scoring rules. Here, we will cover a simplified version about creating the ref and then calling .focus() on it.

The finished example

Creating Elements and Their References

First, I used a “for” loop to create an array of 21 empty strings, which represent 2 possible rolls for each of the 10 frames of bowling, and the 10th frame can possibly have 3 rolls. Inside state, put this array as a value to a “rolls” key.

Next, we need to make the elements and the references inside the elements. Inside the return(), I mapped over each empty string to create the inputs and their refs.

Now we have our inputs, each with their own references.

Using the References

As described above, we can access each of those references using this[“roll-0”] or whatever the index of the desired roll is. I added the logic to determine the next .focus() in the .handleChange() function.

In this .handleChange() function, we determine the index of the input and make a copy of “this.state.rolls” before updating the appropriate index with the new value and setting the state to make the new value appear. Lastly, if we are on any input except the last one, this will focus on the next input automatically to help move the user along.

The finished working example

Thanks for reading! Happy coding!
Año Nuevo
Tags: Stanford, Literature, West, Año Nuevo, Poetry

Año Nuevo

after Charlie Smith

By Mini Racker

In Año Nuevo, I combed through crushed mussel shells

and broken deer pelvises like papier-mâché masks

until the caves spit the ocean back at me and the water shone



like a last will, the wind wailing and the sand, which no one

bothered to clear, piled up in heaps at noon while

the male elephant seals charged at each other



and dark pups poked their noses out where they didn’t

belong, their mothers tossing sand for makeshift

air-conditioning, as if flipping burgers, and I had a sliced avocado



sandwich on the picnic bench and chattered

to the moon-skinned boy from Santa Cruz, saying

I’m here to finally see the world and he said it can’t be done.
Tapping on the glass
By: Ginger Mcmurray
Tags: Life Lessons, Philosophy, Transgender, LGBTQ, Life

Waving through a window

Pinterest (original source unknown)

Some days I grieve for the life I lost. The girl who never was. The scared boy who didn’t know who he was or that it was ok to ask.

Life is great. Love is strong. Work is challenging but doable and brings recognition. My community is hurting sometimes, but we hold each other. That doesn’t always hold the pain at bay.

This song triggered that just now. Hard.

On the outside, always looking in

Will I ever be more than I’ve always been?

’Cause I’m tap, tap, tapping on the glass

I’m waving through a window

I try to speak, but nobody can hear

So I wait around for an answer to appear

While I’m watch, watch, watching people pass

I’m waving through a window, oh

Can anybody see, is anybody waving back at me?

Some days I think that there’s this beautiful tragedy in the transgender experience. A pain nobody can understand except the community. By finding ourselves and each other we rise above it. Turn it into light and strength.

That last bit is true. The first part is self-serving crap. I’m not a unique Shakespearean play with a romcom ending. None of us are.

In a way, we’re all a mix of Shakespeare and Shakespeare in Love. Pain, comedy, joy, and uncertainty.

We’re all waving through a window and hoping someone waves back.

Hi.
Unholstered: Data Visualization of Police Shootings in Texas
By: Ambar Mejia
Tags: Police Shooting, Police Brutality, Multimedia Storytelling, Data Visualization, Texas

Unholstered is a multi-section story produced by the Texas Tribune that takes a look at police shootings across Texas. I think this is effective use of data as a storytelling tool. The data visualization allows the audience to get a solid overview of police violence in Texas, which lays the groundwork for the subsequent sections that dig deeper into specific pieces of the police violence in Texas. I also think it’s an innovative way to present short snippets of information that keep the audience engaged. I really appreciate how this approach makes nuanced information easier to understand. For example, when they were representing 50% of 17% of the cases where race was known. Personally, I find it hard to visualize percentages of a percentage, and this made it very accessible.
How I exploited Sentry to find sensitive details of customers
By: Shitij Goyal
Tags: Cybersecurity, Tech, Bug Bounty, Hacking, Security

The world of security and hackers has always fascinated me and I thought finding bug bounties would be a good way of learning some basic stuff.

I started with a subdomain listing of a popular Indian medical e-commerce company. After going through the list I found that the their sentry URL was open for everyone to register and make themselves a part of the team. Nice! I signed up and joined all the organizations. This enabled me to access all the issues that had occurred on the website.
“Through rain, snow, sleet, or hail, and the gloom of night”
By: Jazmine Hughes
Tags: Postal Service, The Post Office, Service Industry

Finding herself underemployed, Jess Stoner got a job at the United States Postal Service. She lasted twelve weeks.

In my short three months on the job, I developed a strength I hated: staying silent. I did not contradict my supervisor when she told my coworkers and union steward that I smoked in my vehicle (I never did); I kept quiet when she screamed at a clerk standing next to me that CCAs shouldn’t be allowed to complain about her to the union (I never did, but it was my right to do so); I raged quietly when an assistant supervisor told my fellow carriers that I said I had finished earlier than they did because they went out to lunch (I said no such thing).

The ludicrous complexities and red tape of the postal service are an unhidden secret, but this is the first thing I’ve ever read that’s ever really humanized that struggle for me, especially in the face of the deluge of news stories we hear about evil postal workers who dispose of our precious mail. “When I watch videos of them tossing packages into a river,” Long writes, “I think: Anyone who delivers your mail has dreamed of doing that. Not because they’re lazy or vindictive. But because many have no days off, no job security, and an unhealthy work environment where they are constantly forced to work in violation of labor laws.”

Stoner asserts that the problem isn’t with the system, nor will privatizing the service result in any substantial changes (it’s true: UPS has recently been sued for racial bias, and FedEx for using loopholes to withhold pay and benefits) — — it comes down to, Stoner believes, the people. The higher ups are under stress to perform and save money, the unions are losing power, the postmaster general was just named Scrooge of the year — — all this trickles down to the daily delivery workers, who get blamed for the incompetence of their superiors. Stoner reminds us to be kind: holiday tips, water and Gatorade, cookies and treats are all good ways to start. (*thinks about all the drunk Amazon orders I’ve ever made, slinks away in shame*)
In Pictures: Royal Navy photographic awards
By: Ministry Of Defence
Tags: Photo Essay, Photography, Military, Operations, UK

In Pictures: Royal Navy photographic awards

The role of the Royal Navy Photographer helps capture the significant moments as operations are carried out across the world. Here are this year's winners of the Peregrine Trophy

The hardy bunch of photographers follow warships and commandos wherever they go, sharing their important missions with the world through still images and video, providing a behind-the-scenes look at life in the Royal Navy, from emotional homecomings to frontline ops.

Now these skilled photographers — all of them serving sailors or Royal Marines — have been recognised for their stunning imagery in the Royal Navy’s annual photographic competition, the Peregrine Trophy.

In the last year, the photographers have been there on the frontline as the Royal Navy continued to deliver during the Covid-19 global pandemic, protecting the UK’s interests at home and abroad.

📸Take a look at some of the award-winning photos below:
Cocktail of the Week: Shandy
By: Jonathon Howard
Tags: Sudwerk, Lemons, Lemon Juice, Ginger Beer, Shandy

Seems the Shandy gets a bad rap. Before making them I thought this might have something to do with the low regard in which people hold mainstream American beer. Also, the low regard mainstream beer has of itself… The cocktail has a long history in the UK and Germany (where it is known as the Radler). But, on this side of the Atlantic I’ve never heard anyone order it or seen anyone drink it.The most common recipe for the cocktail is really simple: equal parts beer and soda, usually a ginger ale or lemon/lime soda. That’s fine but I wanted to class the drink up a little and I didn’t have any Sprite or 7Up. I did some looking around the internet and found a few alternative recipes and using them as a guide and a little experimentation I came up with this.

[caption id=”attachment_4916" align=”aligncenter” width=”579"]

The ingredients[/caption]

Shandy

8 oz. blonde beer (I used a lager from the local brewery)

4 oz. ginger ale (I had ginger beer so I used that)

2 oz. fresh lemon juice

lemon slices for garnish

Pour into glass and stir.

[caption id=”attachment_4920" align=”aligncenter” width=”584"]

Turns out, It looks as tastes as good as it look…[/caption]

These were a disappointment. D couldn’t finish her’s; she said it tasted too much like beer. I thought mine tasted like ginger beer with lemon in it. Perhaps I could have used more beer? Perhaps I should have just gone with the traditional recipe and used ginger ale or Sprite? Or maybe I needed a different beer? I don’t know… I like to have my cocktails be a little escape from the day and the Shandy didn’t offer that. It’s a mediocre beer or a mediocre soda. Why drink that when you can have a superb beer or a superb soda? Or better, a superb cocktail?
The Ride Home
By: Addey Vaters
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poetic, Poet, Poetry, Poem

The Ride Home

A poem.

Photo by Vidipt Saroj Kalla on Unsplash

Sometimes a crisp

ash night before a dull

melodic rain unfurls

hardened fists and

cranks the windows

down. Hair dancing

on the tongue,

radio scrubbing

off the pain.
Knowledge (KNW) Trading Live On BiteBTC!
Tags: Knowledge, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

KNW Token trading is now live on BiteBTC! Trade KNW with BTC, and ETH trading pairs.

The Knowledge team is pleased to announce KNW Token listing on BiteBTC. BiteBTC is a Top-100 cryptocurrency exchange according to CoinMarketCap’s volume rankings, with over 75 trading pairs.

TRADE KNW NOW: https://bitebtc.com/
The typefaces of London
By: Daniel Ran
Tags: City Of London, Places, London Bridge, Temple, Typography

Albertus

On the south side of London Bridge sits a road sign worn by the elements. Having just passed the dragons that watch over the border to the City of London, the typeface is different from the modern, clean sans-serif style of the others — it is Albertus, designed by Berthold Wolpe in the 1930s and named after the German philosopher Albertus Magnus of the 13th century.

Its straight stems and sharp edges are reminiscent of the classical lettering used by the English royalty throughout much of the 19th century and the slight outwards serifs make me think of the old Blackletter script from hundreds of years before. Unsurprising, perhaps, as the font was designed to imitate the style of engraved lettering, often featuring the same slight serifs, dating all the way back to Roman times.

As the typeface of choice of the Corporation of London, it is prevalent throughout much of the City; on plaques, road signs and buildings, not to mention its own coat of arms: two dragons holding a shield, with the Latin phrase Domine dirige nos written below, “Lord, direct us.”

The lack of an inwards tie on the capital G is unusual for its time, the pivotal and fundamental geometric font Futura having been released only a few years prior, forsaking the highly ornamented style that had been pervasive ever since the advent of lettering.

Nonetheless, the stark and proud Albertus is excellently legible in capitals whilst still retaining enough identity to be recognised as an English regality.

In closing

As a designer and avid fan of typography, I find that even the subtle and obscure of London bring with them a great deal of inspiration. All the people that have passed through this city have lefts marks on it, many of these marks surely the process of years; of passion and dedication. The more time I take to examine the pieces that have been retained for many years, the more I see the reason why they were kept around.

Typography is the voice of the written word and it has yet to cease impressing me, in a way that only the oft-unexamined and overlooked can.
The Unforeseen Feminist Icon Who Enchanted Our Screens
By: Mirek Gosney
Tags: Film, Female Empowerment, Women, Feminism, Fairy Tale

In this version, Vaclav Vorlicek, a reputable fantasy director, opted to dispense with several of the components which formed the original story, including the fairy godmother, the ‘midnight’ trope, and condensing the two evil step-sister characters to just one.

Alternatively, Vorlicek and his creative team chose to reinvent Cinderella as a defiant, witty, but still compassionate character, evidenced by the love and admiration she derives from all her fellow peasantry and animal companions.

She extends unconditional kindness to everyone who she meets and actively refuses to succumb to the torment of her wicked step-mother and step-sister, who routinely force her to engage in laboriously menial tasks.

In a further unexpected but welcome subversive twist of convention, the narrative situates Popelka as the object of the Prince’s desire and it is subsequently he who pursues Popelka, even after she departs from the ball, of her own accord, following their brief albeit climactic ending encounter.

Popelka teases and outwits the Prince during their every interaction, serving only to add to their mutual attraction and respect for one another. Although they eventually wed, it is clear from the outset that Popelka has little interest in marriage and only entertains the idea on her own terms.
‘The Godfather Part III’ to be Re-Edited and Re-Released
By: Matt Taylor
Tags: Cinema, The Godfather, Film, Entertainment, Extended

Francis Ford Coppola’s conclusion to his iconic The Godfather trilogy is to be given a re-edit and re-release this December, just in time for the film’s 30thanniversary.

The new version of the film, which has been given the lengthy title of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, is reportedly slightly shorter than the original theatrical run and will hit US cinemas over Christmas (where available) before arriving on VOD, DVD and Blu-ray shortly after. An international release has not yet been announced.

The Godfather Part III is seen by many fans as the outcast of the trilogy; arriving sixteen years after Part II took home six Oscars, the film opened to lukewarm reviews, with many criticising its inconsistent tone and some of the performances. Despite its mixed reception, it went on to gross over $135 million worldwide, and scored seven Oscar nominations.

Coppola was initially not keen to revisit the franchise — both he and author/screenwriter Mario Puzo saw the series as a duology, with The Godfather Part III as a coda (hence the new title). The pair eventually did join the project, but the rest of the production was not without its issues: Robert Duvall refused to return to star opposite Al Pacino, and Winona Ryder dropped out before shooting a single scene. She was swiftly replaced by Coppola’s daughter Sofia, whose performance was the subject of much of the criticism aimed at the film. Coppola hopes the new cut will ‘vindicate her.’

Of course, Coppola is no stranger to revisiting and re-cutting his own films. Three versions of his Vietnam war epic Apocalypse Now have been released (the 1979 original, the 2001 Redux and last year’s Final Cut), each with a wildly different running time to the last.

He is also far from alone in undertaking such endeavours: Ridley Scott famously tinkered with Blade Runner for years after its release, only settling on the finished version in 2007, 25 years after the film’s initial release; after nearly three years of campaigning on social media, the so-called ‘Snyder Cut’ of 2017’s Justice League is being released on HBO Max next year; Peter Jackson’s extended versions of his The Lord of the Rings and trilogies clock in at around twenty hours in total; Steven Spielberg released three different versions of his sci-fi flick Close Encounters of the Third Kind; and George Lucas infamously recut the original trilogy as recently as last year, when the films became available to stream on Disney+. One has to wonder what a female director would have to do to be given the same amount of freedom…

Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone hits cinemas this December.

Words by Matt Taylor
The Writer’s Craft: Your Guide to Regional Expressions — and Spicing Up Everyday Conversations
By: Wendy Cohan
Tags: Colorful Language, Colloquialisms, Writing Craft, Regional Expression, Writing

Photo by Brian Chan on Unsplash

As a writer, I’ve always had a warm place in my heart for colorful words, uttered in the local lingo, wherever I happen to be. They’re not always PC — but they’re memorable. For example, although I believe in body positivity, I also appreciate the highly descriptive phrase, “she was big enough to be warm in the winter and shady in the summer.” I can almost imagine it in a Mark Twain novel.

Such expressions are a boon for every writer, helping to spice up dialogue and create a sense of place. But, why stop there? Peppering our daily conversations with colorful phrases that describe the human experience allows us to slow down and savor the richness of regional language and culture.

Why settle for, “he’s a few bricks shy of a load,” when you could easily substitute “the porch light is on, but nobody’s home” — or come right to the point: “if that boy ever had a good idea, it would die of loneliness.”

Cultivate a folksy persona by sprinkling your conversations with phrases like “well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit,” and “if you can’t run with the big dogs, stay under the porch.” Or, convey a warm sense of empathy with, “well, don’t that just knock your hat in the creek?” That’s the kind of pure disappointment we’ve all experienced at one time or another.

Without naming any names, you could accurately describe a braggart as someone who “blew in on his own wind,” or, tag him with my personal favorite: “I’d like to buy him for what he’s worth and sell him for what he thinks he’ll bring.”

Southerners, in particular, know how to strike a blow with a few choice words. “She’s so ugly she could make a freight train take a dirt road,” or, “he’s so cheap he wouldn’t give a nickel to see Jesus ridin’ a bicycle.” I don’t know which is worse, but neither expression is particularly forgettable.

Maybe your mother-in-law “speaks ten words a second, with gusts to fifty,” or your brother “learned to whisper in a sawmill.” I recently played on this expression in a short story, describing a woman with a “voice that could be heard clearly in a sawmill facing a tight deadline.” It worked.

Self-awareness is equally important. You might rethink your clothing choices if you hear folks whispering: “Pull that skirt down — we can see all the way to the promised land.” And it’s hard to think of a more subtle insult than to extend the following polite invitation, “anytime you happen to pass by my house, I’d sure appreciate it.”

But colorful regional expressions aren’t always derogatory. I might warm up to a man who exclaimed, “that woman looks so good I could sop her up with a biscuit,” or, the slightly racier version, “I’d rather watch her walk than eat fried chicken.”

Culinary-themes aside, I think I could fall hard for a man who truly got me — the kind of man who might say, admiringly, “she’s sure got some snap in her garters.” And, I do. But any comparison to fried chicken is a pretty good place to start.
13 steps towards your dream pitch
By: Julian Paul
Tags: Resources, Development, Pitch, Remote, Pitch Deck

Presenting in physical vs. remote

1. In person presentations

In late August 2020, I had the pleasure to design & execute a 5-day program for entrepreneurship students at a Stockholm High School. AEDI Week’s purpose was to enable the students to go from Nothing → Idea → Concept with a validated product-market fit approach.

Julian Paul @VENTRY AEDI Week 2020

The real challenge was maintaining the energy and focus levels of the 120+ 16 year old students. And let me tell you… It was tough. But a challenge is only an opportunity to learn & grow. Here is what I learned:

Always keep a consistently energetic & confident voice.

Search for constant eye contact. Especially with the distracted ones.

Move around as much as you can. Even step into the audience.

Have fun with disrespect or the audience not paying attention.

Don’t take anything personal. We were all teenagers once…

One thing I noticed is that presenting in person is much more nerve racking than speaking into a camera in the comfort of your home…

2. Remote-first presentations

Working and delivering effective remote presentations is a whole different story. Online, getting distracted is much easier and therefore capturing peoples attention without a face to face is the biggest hurdle to overcome. Here are the things I have found really make people listen online:

A beautifully designed deck.

Use of visual aids such as images, videos, graphs, gifs etc.:.

Intro/Outro animations for text and other content.

The least amount of text possible.

Energetic & engaging performance when taking the mic.

I cannot stress the last point enough. A visual aid such as a Google Slides presentation is already a given nowadays. But step it up. There is nothing worse than listening to a dry, monotone voice and reading a lot of text whilst someone else is speaking. Make a joke here and there, relate what you are saying to something your boss or teacher mentioned in class, or what you discussed in a group discussion. Engage people by including them in what you are speaking about. And finally get through what you are saying as quickly as possible. Say only what is necessary and leave the remainder for follow-up questions. Your colleagues will thank you later 😉
How I increased my curation rate from 26% to 64% on Medium
By: Tesia Blake
Tags: Self, Medium, Creativity, Writing, Writing Tips

How I increased my curation rate from 26% to 64% on Medium

An update on the practices that worked for me.

Last month, I achieved the exciting mark having 64% of my stories curated by Medium. It felt like fireworks were required to mark the occasion.

My curation rate in the past four months has been:

April: 26%

May: 51%

June: 42%

July: 64%

How I increased my curation rate

By posting less.

Yes, really.

In April, I posted 41 stories, and had 11 of those curated. In May, I posted 30 stories, 16 of which were curated.

I put in a concentrated effort to write slightly longer stories (more 6 and 7min stories, less 3 and 4 min stories), and make sure I actually had something of value to say in every one of them.

In June, I posted 28 stories, and 12 were curated. You might think that 12 isn’t much better than the 11 I had back in April, but considering I wrote 41 stories in April to get 11 curated, that’s a much bigger effort than writing 28 stories to get 12 curated.

Second step: increase quality

Writing on Medium every day increased the quality of my writing. Once I understood how to focus on each story so that more of them would be curated, I increased my output again.

In July, I wrote 39 stories, 25 of which were curated.

At that point I had become more accustomed to figure out what I wanted to say, why I wanted to say it, and how to put it on the page in a clear, concise manner that would keep readers engaged.

I don’t resist inspiration

A while back, I wrote a story about how I wrote some of my most successful Medium stories in 40 mins.

Everything I said in that story is still 100% valid.

When a story wants to come out, I know. I feel like I just have to write, and it has to be now.

When I don’t feel like I have much to say, however, I don’t force anything. I know the story won’t be half as good as it should be, it’s not likely to be curated, and it won’t resonate with readers half as much.

Getting used with curation

I don’t take curation for granted, but getting curated more often gave me a good idea of what Medium is looking for, and what they’ll definitely pass on.

If your stories don’t get curated as often as you’d like them to be, don’t give up. Keep trying different angles, keep honing your voice, and keep reading stories that do get curated.

The only way to increase your curation rate is to keep trying. It’s all about the at-bats.
Longing for God — Haiku. Spiritual Secrets Weekly Prompt
By: Sharon Brandon
Tags: Spirituality, Spiritual Tree, Haiku, Illumination, Spiritual Secrets

With each breathe I take

With every move I make

I search desperately for You
Radical Candor
By: Danny Sheridan
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Business, Amazon, Technology

Source: Radical Candor

Published: March 2017

Radical Candor

Circulated: April 24, 2020

Author Kim Scott was an executive at Google and then at Apple, where she worked with a team to develop a class on how to be a good manager. Radical candor is the idea that to be a good boss, you have to care personally at the same time that you challenge directly.

This framework can help you build better relationships at work and fulfill your three key responsibilities as a leader:

creating a culture of feedback (praise and criticism) building a cohesive team achieving results you’re all proud of

Radical candor: When you care personally and challenge directly.

Ruinous empathy: When you care, but don’t challenge.

Manipulative insincerity: When neither care, nor challenge

Obnoxious aggression: When you challenge, but don’t care about how your words are received.

Bonus: 1-minute video posted by Amazon on YouTube #DayOneInsights
Drone Photography
Tags: Drones, Photography, Instagram

If you have ever watched those heart-in-your-stomach action movie sequences featuring a guy leaping off a steep cliff and into a moving airplane, you would have experienced the wonderful cinematography that can be achieved by using aerial drone photography.

Follow @dronesdaily on Instagram for the best aerial footage — featuring a drone video or picture every day.

After just over a year of posting daily aerial pictures and videos, we celebrated hitting the 10K follower mark on our Drones Daily Instagram page last week. We wanted to take a moment to reflect on the last year, which has been a fun experiment in learning what types of aerial photography work best on Instagram (we’ll write a bit more about this in detail in a future post), as well as exploring all the creative methods people are using drones to capture content from very unique perspectives.

Recently, technological developments have made drones available to the mainstream and many drones are used in everyday activities such as spraying crops, covering the news, navigating neighborhoods and recording criminal activities, saving lives by delivering medical supplies in emergency situations and of course, aerial photography.

Drone photography is becoming increasingly popular due to the ability of drones to capture great quality, high resolution images in areas that are inaccessible or difficult to reach such as cliff tops, the middle of the ocean or even deep, dark caves.

Some low flying by @tommyiff

Aerial photography is not for the fainthearted but if you are willing to invest the time to learn the best practices, you will reap the rewards in terms of amazing photographs and videos that you will enjoy for years to come.

Here’s our essential tips to help you get started on making great aerial photographs with your drone:

Invest in essential props: Props like the gimbal allow you to mount the camera and set it in any direction you wish thus allowing you to capture shots in multiple angles. Location, location, location! Heavily wooded areas with many birds and low buildings mean that you will not be able to capture good quality images due to interference and blockage. As much as possible, try and select areas that are free from these elements in order to get the best pictures. Pay attention to the weather: Clear, sunny days without too much wind and light are essential for capturing good images. It goes without saying that you should avoid taking photographs in cloudy, rainy and snowy weather unless it is your intention to capture these extreme conditions. Mild weather protects your drone from water and snow damage.

Aerial photography is a great way to capture the wonders of nature, the beauty of human settlements and myriad other interesting subjects from different vantage points. After you’ve got the best out of your drone and camera the next wonderful element is sharing your images with friends and fellow enthusiasts. If you’re an aerial photographer and want to join our ambassador network, we want to hear from you! Just click here to get in touch.

Happy droning!
Release Note — March 14, 2019. Updates for greatescape.co
Tags: Travel, Updates

We intend to simplify this process through a series of data visualisations that help you plan your next trip within few minutes. Ready? greatescape.co

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I Made it Through Today
By: Alex Hanna
Tags: Poetry

I made it through today:

One day beyond yesterday.

Not worrying about tomorrow,

Nor the hardships which may follow.

I’m sitting in the now:

Just in this hour,

This minute,

This second,

This instant.

Rejecting all discord,

My mind is anything but bored.

Watching clear blue skies

With the whitest clouds passing by.

No animosity to find:

Negativity resigned.

Now brings me closer

To the place I’ve so longed for.

Sitting in this moment,

In this moment.

Solace in this place;

Serenity I embrace.