fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
When not to @Autowire in Spring / Spring Boot
By: Mohammed Atif
Tags: Spring Boot, Dependency Injection, Clean Code, Spring, Solid Principles

When not to @Autowire in Spring / Spring Boot

Dependency Injection is cool, but many misunderstand the purpose of it and most importantly don’t understand how to use it correctly. Mohammed Atif Follow May 1 · 3 min read

Senior Dev : Why are you using field injection instead of constructor injection? Junior Dev : What is field injection? I am using @Autowired

A simple conversation that happens pretty often. Sounds trivial but have deep meaning within. Lack of knowledge on why and how things work can lead to catastrophic codes.

Let us dive deep into different type of dependency injections even before we discuss about when and why to use which one

Types on Dependency Injection

Field Injection Constructor Injection Setter Injection

Field Injection

In simple words declaring a variable, hopefully private, and then annotating it with @Autowired

@Autowired

private UserService userService;

Constructor Injection

In simple words, letting the Spring Container inject the dependencies directly through constructor

@RestController

public class UserController {

private final UserService userService;

public UserController(UserService userService){

this.userService = userService;

}

}

Setter Injection — Rarely used

It is similar to Field Injection but here setter is Annotated with @Autowired tag.

private UserService userService; @Autowired

public void setUserService(UserService userService){

this.userService = userService;

}

How do they differ?

Keeping it short,

Field Injection uses reflection to set the values of private variables

Constructor Injection happens at the time of creating the object itself

Setter Injection uses setters to set the value

Now that you have got the gist of dependency injections you can explore more about it outside this blog.

No more suspense. Jumping right to the point…

Verdict

Constructor Injection is always the first choice when it comes about Dependency Injection because of its reliable and strict nature.

Field Injection can also be used in the scenarios where Constructor Injection is absolutely not possible (and Circular Dependencies have to be avoided even as a work around).

Other Considerations

One key point that is widely discussed when talking about Field Injection vs Constructor Injection is Required and Optional Dependencies

Many debate that we can use Field Injection for optional and Constructor Injection for required dependencies, but having optional dependency itself seems to be a bad design in most of the cases.

Since the scope of optional dependency is an Unrestricted Territory, any developer can randomly add multiple dependencies by calling it optional and eventually reduce the quality of the overall code.

Personally I feel if you need a dependency in your code then it implies that it is required and if it is optional then why to even include it. This statement is debatable and can vary from person to person.

Let me know how you use dependency injection in your code and how it improves the overall quality of your project
Importance Of Conical Compression Spring And Its Applicability
By: Indian Business Pages
Tags: Compression Spring, Spring

Importance Of Conical Compression Spring And Its Applicability

These springs are open-coil helical springs created to resist any type of compression. They are typically either positioned within an opening or are positioned over a pole. Whenever tons put on the springs it creates them brief as well as drives them against the bunch, acquiring the bounce back to its usual span. These are known to become the absolute most powerful and dependable making them prominent.

Offer more Reliability to the Maker

Among the primary perks, you receive from using a conical squeezing spring season is that it aids to supply a much more dependable setting for other springs that usually possess a huge ratio when it relates to slenderness. When it happens to curvature, this proportion usually figures out if spring will bend or distort. To summarise, this kind of spring has a tendency to off sidewise reliability and this avoids it coming from bending. The chances of the springs sliding are slim, keeping compressor secured from damage.

Have Uniform Variable Price

This sort of spring season is wonderful given that they are known for providing a consistent pitch that is likewise steady. As opposed to possessing a consistent pressure fee like routine springs, they are known for their boosting power fee. When these springs are used, a changeable pitch may be developed to produce an even more uniform cost, if needed.

They Lessen Resonance

One famous advantage of these cone-shaped squeezing springs is that they are recognised for minimizing both vibrations as well as vibration. This is considering that the pitch of the spring seasons is consistent, so the time period of vibration naturally boosts as the roll bottoms, instead of remaining the exact same each of the moment.

Capable of Match Small Areas

Considering that they are able to fit into slim and also little spaces, these springs are excellent. Due to the fact that they are huge on the base as well as little on top, they can do this. The result is that the squeezing that is needed happens by means of to aid the compressor feature properly, and you carry out not utilise up a bunch of areas in the process.

These are merely a few of the important things that make these things thus terrific. It is a really good suggestion to discover a top quality air springs and compression springs maker from a reputed business directory like IBPHub that can easily supply you with wonderful springs to use for your compressor.
Java Stream -Step 05 Comparator
Tags: Stream, Java, Spring

Comparator

package stream; import java.util.Arrays; import java.util.Comparator; import java.util.List; import java.util.function.Predicate; import java.util.stream.Collectors; class Course { private String name; private String category; private int reviewScore; private int noOfStudents; public Course(String name, String category, int reviewScore, int noOfStudents) { super(); this.name = name; this.category = category; this.reviewScore = reviewScore; this.noOfStudents = noOfStudents; } public String getName() { return name; } public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; } public String getCategory() { return category; } public void setCategory(String category) { this.category = category; } public int getReviewScore() { return reviewScore; } public void setReviewScore(int reviewScore) { this.reviewScore = reviewScore; } public int getNoFoStudents() { return noOfStudents; } public void setNoOfStudents(int noFoStudents) { this.noOfStudents = noFoStudents; } @Override public String toString() { return "Course [name=" + name + ", category=" + category + ", reviewScore=" + reviewScore + ", noFoStudents=" + noOfStudents + "]"; } } public class FP04CustomClass { private static void println(String str) { System.out.println(str); } public static void main(String[] args) { List<Course> courses = Arrays.asList( new Course("Spring", "Freamework",99,25500), new Course("Spring Boot", "Freamework",67,26600), new Course("API", "Microservice",98,27700), new Course("Shin", "Name",78,20000), new Course("Kim", "Name",89,20990), new Course("RectJs", "Freamework",91,20000), new Course("Angular", "Freamework",75,20550), new Course("MariaDB", "Database",100,20044), new Course("MsSQL", "Database",94,20088), new Course("Oracle", "Database",83,23000), new Course("Lambda", "AWS",100,20033), new Course("EC2", "AWS",91,21220), new Course("CDk", "AWS",90,20110) ); Comparator<Course> comparatingByNoOfStudentsIncreasing = Comparator.comparing(Course::getNoFoStudents);

System.out.println( courses.stream().sorted(comparatingByNoOfStudentsIncreasing).collect(Collectors.toList()) ); Comparator<Course> comparatingByNoOfStudentsDecreasing = Comparator.comparing(Course::getNoFoStudents).reversed(); System.out.println( courses.stream().sorted(comparatingByNoOfStudentsDecreasing).collect(Collectors.toList()) );

Comparator<Course> comparatingByNoOfStudentsAndNoOfReviews = Comparator.comparing(Course::getNoFoStudents).thenComparing(Course::getReviewScore).reversed(); System.out.println( courses.stream().sorted(comparatingByNoOfStudentsAndNoOfReviews).collect(Collectors.toList()) ); // comparingInt thenComparingInt... Comparator<Course> comparatingByNoOfStudentsAndNoOfReviews_2 = Comparator.comparingInt(Course::getNoFoStudents).thenComparingInt(Course::getReviewScore).reversed(); System.out.println( courses.stream().sorted(comparatingByNoOfStudentsAndNoOfReviews).collect(Collectors.toList()) ); } }
Java Stream -Step 04 allMatch noneMatch anyMatch
Tags: Stream, Java, Spring

allMatch noneMatch anyMatch

package stream; import java.util.Arrays; import java.util.Comparator; import java.util.List; import java.util.function.Predicate; import java.util.stream.Collectors; class Course { private String name; private String category; private int reviewScore; private int noOfStudents; public Course(String name, String category, int reviewScore, int noOfStudents) { super(); this.name = name; this.category = category; this.reviewScore = reviewScore; this.noOfStudents = noOfStudents; } public String getName() { return name; } public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; } public String getCategory() { return category; } public void setCategory(String category) { this.category = category; } public int getReviewScore() { return reviewScore; } public void setReviewScore(int reviewScore) { this.reviewScore = reviewScore; } public int getNoFoStudents() { return noOfStudents; } public void setNoOfStudents(int noFoStudents) { this.noOfStudents = noFoStudents; } @Override public String toString() { return "Course [name=" + name + ", category=" + category + ", reviewScore=" + reviewScore + ", noFoStudents=" + noOfStudents + "]"; } } public class FP04CustomClass { private static void println(String str) { System.out.println(str); } public static void main(String[] args) { List<Course> courses = Arrays.asList( new Course("Spring", "Freamework",99,25500), new Course("Spring Boot", "Freamework",67,26600), new Course("API", "Microservice",98,27700), new Course("Shin", "Name",78,20000), new Course("Kim", "Name",89,20990), new Course("RectJs", "Freamework",91,20000), new Course("Angular", "Freamework",75,20550), new Course("MariaDB", "Database",100,20044), new Course("MsSQL", "Database",94,20088), new Course("Oracle", "Database",83,23000), new Course("Lambda", "AWS",100,20033), new Course("EC2", "AWS",91,21220), new Course("CDk", "AWS",90,20110) ); courses.stream().allMatch(course-> course.getReviewScore() > 95); Predicate<Course> reviewScoreGreaterThan95Predicate = course -> course.getReviewScore() > 90; Predicate<Course> reviewScoreGreaterThan90Predicate = course -> course.getReviewScore() > 90; Predicate<Course> reviewScoreLessThan90Predicate = course -> course.getReviewScore() < 90; // allMatch() 모든 요소들이 매개값으로 주어진 조건을 만족하는지. System.out.println(courses.stream().allMatch(reviewScoreGreaterThan95Predicate));; // noneMatch() 모든 요소들이 주어진 조건을 만족하지 않는지. System.out.println(courses.stream().noneMatch(reviewScoreGreaterThan90Predicate)); // anyMatch() 최소한 한 개의 요소가 주어진 조건에 만족하는지. System.out.println(courses.stream().anyMatch(reviewScoreLessThan90Predicate)); // anyMatch() 최소한 한 개의 요소가 주어진 조건에 만족하는지. System.out.println(courses.stream().anyMatch(reviewScoreGreaterThan90Predicate)); Comparator<Course> comparatingByNoOfStudentsIncreasing = Comparator.comparing(Course::getNoFoStudents); System.out.println( courses.stream().sorted(comparatingByNoOfStudentsIncreasing).collect(Collectors.toList()) ); } }
Art Prompt: Make a Nest
By: Emily Willow
Tags: Nesting, Spring

I admire the nest as a form for its seeming contradictions

from Edges & Fray, entropymag.org

The seed was planted this winter, when I first encountered Danielle Vogel’s book Edges & Fray — which features images of nests not made by birds, but by Vogel herself. Danielle is a poet interested in embodiment of language, who found that intellectual study only brought her so far. She wanted to burrow inside natural materials and processes and report back what she experienced. So she became a potter as a way of exploring this return to the elemental aspects of language— by working with material literally made of earth.

Ever since then, I have had a secret desire to build a nest.

I admit that part of this probably stems from the cliched form of nest — from my hope to start a family with my partner in the next few years. The metaphorical nest-building that happens when we negotiate who will cook and who will wash the dishes, learn how to work through an argument, and share our vulnerabilities. For me, this nest is not physical but is a structure built out of both the solidity and the fluidity needed from our relationship.

But I also think that I admire the nest as a form for its seeming contradictions. A solid home where eggs are placed, yet one that is ultimately made of fragments and easily decomposable. A shelter that is compact and simple. A form born solely of utility but with its round vessel one I find immensely beautiful.

I’m interested too in how a nest requires constant attention — repatching and literally rebuilding. It is a structure that requires constant cultivation, just as relationships — to the self, others, and the world — do.

To build your nest:

Begin with modeling clay. You can also make your own clay out of flour, salt, and water by placing the mixture in the oven for twenty minutes or so to solidify. Next, go on a walk to gather materials. Spring is an interesting time to search for materials, as it is the dead grass at the base of new plants that will hold together best. Feel free to gather embellishments — fresh flowers, alfalfa shoots, feathers.

Next, roll the clay into a ball. Pinch down the center with your thumbs until you have a vessel shape. Use extra dabs of clay to act as glue. For lighter materials like dead grasses, you can coil them to fit around your nest and attach the bunch. For slightly heavier materials, like a fresh flower, use one dab of clay for each one.

Household materials like bits of paper, scraps of text from an old book, or yarn can add more color and contrast. Since it had just rained, I chose to gather some mud to use as adhesive on the inside of the nest.

Finally, let the nest dry for a day in the sun.

finished nest, 2020

In Vogel’s book, form dictates the flow of her language. How can attention to form inform other artistic endeavors? How can building a nest, as Vogel’s text does, “act as incubation of the self”? For me, there is something humbling, too in walking the woods with the intentions of a bird. What can these moments of interweaving the intuitive and the intentional teach us?
Spring Flowers
Tags: Floral, Spring, Flowers, Seasonalflowers

Aside from seeing many common flowers on the street, park, and garden, there are also some flowers that are very rare to be found. Or what they call the Seasonal Flower. In which they only Bloom during their time. During Spring, Autumn, Winter, and Summer.

So if you are wondering why you can’t see the flower you’ve been looking for, well maybe it’s not their time to bloom and shine yet, cause all of us have a “Perfect Timing” just like the flowers.

So if you want to learn about flowers, stay tuned and read all the details below to learn more! And I am sure after reading it, you will be amazed at what you are about to find out.

Flowers That Grow During Spring Season:

Cherry Blossom — are usually found in Japan, it is a very symbolic flower in which only bloom during Spring Time, a time of renewal, and the sudden nature of life. Cause their life is very short. After their beauty bloom around two weeks, the blossoms start to fall. And it also makes people merry and happy.

2. Hyacinth — maybe you are not familiar with it and could have never seen one, but this flower is a bulbous plant that belongs to the “lily family”, with bell-shaped fragrant flowers and straplike leaves and a compact spike. They say that it symbolizes grief and sorrow, but Legend says it symbolizes Sport. And it is also named after a Young Greek Boy “Hyakinthos”

3. Tulips — bloom on bulbous plants, with large, showy flowers with six petals. It is often seen in Amsterdam, where you can see millions of tulips. And in Amsterdam, you can also see the most beautiful tulips on earth. Many people love to go there because plenty adores “tulips”. It symbolizes “perfect love”, but each color also represents something else.

4. Sweet Pea — are climbing plants that bear clusters of flowers in a wide variety of colors including red, pink, blue, white, and lavender. They are often blooms during Spring Time, When it comes to floral language, the sweet pea flower is associated with delicate pleasure, blissful pleasure, departure, goodbye, thank you for the lovely time and adieu.

5. Cosmos — If you’re looking for a flower that will stay in bloom for months and can be grown by simply scattering seeds, this flower is a great choice. Cosmos are freely flowering annual plants that are ridiculously easy to grow. The word Cosmos in Greek means orderly, beautiful, and ornamental. The flower’s fragrance and vibrant colors give it the attributes of peacefulness, wholeness, and modesty. The typical meaning of this flower is ‘love flower’. This flower is often used to illustrate one’s deepest feelings of love.
Balance traffic with Nginx on SpringBoot v2.0+
By: Ankit Maurya
Tags: Java, Spring, Nginx, Spring Boot 2

Suppose you have a spring boot application running on 8080 and overnight it starts getting huge traffic. That’s a nightmare to many developers :)

Internet Traffic

The very first thing that you can do is setup an internal embedded tomcat configuration which can internally route the requests to additional ports. Also, it’s a good practice to change management port to some random 8883 or 8884. This eventually helps in unblocking the single node that’s accessible to end client. To do so, you can add the following configuration to your application.

import org.apache.catalina.connector.Connector;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;

import org.springframework.boot.web.embedded.tomcat.TomcatServletWebServerFactory;

import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.server.ServletWebServerFactory;

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;



@Configuration

public class EmbeddedTomcatConfiguration {



@Bean

public ServletWebServerFactory servletContainer(@Value("${server.http.port}") int httpPort) {

Connector connector = new Connector(TomcatServletWebServerFactory.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL);

connector.setPort(httpPort);

TomcatServletWebServerFactory tomcat = new TomcatServletWebServerFactory();

tomcat.addAdditionalTomcatConnectors(connector);

return tomcat;

}

}

And in application.properties add the designated port

server.http.port=8882

In your application runner class you have to import this configuration and then you can successfully have internal routing in your spring boot application.
Brain Storm
By: Alon Samuel
Tags: Life, Lightening, Personal Essay, Seizures

Your brain is made of a bunch of little things, and there’s constantly lightning going between them. These are scientific terms, by the way. The lightning is not at all random — it goes in very specific directions from one thing to another thing, and thanks to these things and the lightning you can breath and walk and talk and think about stuff, like how incredible it is that some child stars are able to stay sane in a world that attempts to crush them under capitalistic cultural consumption.

A doctor once told me that sometimes, but rarely, but sometimes, the lightning in your brain is not so intentional. Sometimes people get what’s called, scientifically, a lightning storm in their brain. When this happens, your ability to walk or talk or have conscious thought disappears. First it happens slowly, and then all at once: you’ll feel something akin to lightheadedness, but that’s not quite how you’d describe it, and you’ll recognize that something odd is going on and you’ll think, “this is weird, huh?” You might be looking at some words on your phone and want to use your phone to send words to people but suddenly the words don’t make sentences and even the letters don’t make words anymore. That’s when you realize something is really up, but at this point the parts of your brain in charge of being scared have already been overtaken by the storms, so you go peacefully into unknowing, and when you wake up your mom and your sister and a bunch of paramedics are in your room asking you questions.

The questions will be something like, “what day of the week is it?” or, “who’s the president?” and you’ll be able to answer questions like the latter but not the former. This is due to a scientific reason that I forgot. When you get to the hospital, things will finally start to make sense and a doctor or someone will tell you you’ve had a seizure and you’ll say, “oh, okay, thank you.” Your parents will tell you that they love you, and you’ll tell them you love them too. If you have good health insurance, you’ll be able to get some tests done and a doctor will explain to you the bit about the lightning in your brain and tell you everything’s fine but you should get more sleep, maybe. Then, when it happens again eight months later (you’ll be trying to crank out an essay in the library sometime around 8 PM, Your last thought will be “oh I know what this is”), they’ll give you more tests and find out that they don’t know what’s wrong with you, and they’ll give you a relatively common medication that helps out.

A political science professor who was really into the Greeks once told me that they used to believe seizures were a sign of divinity and that Alexander the Great used to get them. I don’t believe in divinity, but this idea makes me smile; I smiled when the professor told me this, and then I asked if I was OK to get an extension on that paper.
West Portal, San Francisco’s Small Town
By: Robin Galante
Tags: Bay Area, Cities, San Francisco, Art, Personal Essay

I took Muni for the first time in 1998. It was the M line. I picked it up on 19th Avenue across from San Francisco State, where I was a student at the time. Having just moved to San Francisco from the small town of Los Altos, I had never taken public transit, and standing on the platform the day, I felt like I had “arrived.” I was a real city girl.

I had no real destination in mind, I just wanted to get out of the fog and into the action, wherever that was. I imagined the “action” was downtown, and pictured tall buildings and lots of people in suits and blinking neon signs. I had only a vague idea which direction it was, and followed the blue sky to the northeast.

I boarded the train and grabbed a pole with white knuckles as the ground seized and lurched beneath me. I fell a bit to one side and bumped against a woman reading a newspaper. She didn’t even look up. I spotted an empty seat across the aisle, and as the car jolted back and forth I counted to three, let go, and flung myself, as casually as I could, into a seated position.

Sign up for The Bold Italic newsletter to get the best of the Bay Area in your inbox every week.

Thankfully I was able to snag a window seat. Though the thought grosses me out now (especially now), I’m pretty sure my nose was pressed up against the glass. Just a few stops into the ride, the bus crossed a busy intersection and entered another world: the neighborhood of West Portal.
New Year, Old Bullshit.
By: Dr. Leonina Arismendi Žarković
Tags: Memoir, Life Lessons, New Year, New Years Resolutions, Personal Essay

The days between Christmas and New Year feel like singing the L,M,N,O,P parts of the ABC song in English. In Virginia these days are spent either working or worrying in bed. During my childhood in Uruguay, these days were spent with trips to the beach and preparations for New Year’s Eve.

This time a year usually brings me little joy, warmth is missing from my life. Summer is synonymous to Navidad for me and our festivities are more like fourth of July and less cold and somber.

We left Uruguay late on December 25th twenty years ago. That Christmas day at the airport I promised my little cousins I’d see them soon, I lied. My younger cousins and two sisters, we grew up together, they are like sisters to me. By now we have missed the most important times of our lives together. My grandmother did not come to see me fly away that day. During the hours before leaving, I sat in my chair in her room. As we both watched Home Alone 2 in the dark, we silently cried, trying to not let the other notice and sat watching a movie, our last bit of normalcy together. Because our airplane almost crashed, we made it to New York much later than planned.

Days later, my family and I counted down to midnight, wished each other a happy new year and stepped to the cold outside, looking forward to fire works and greeting new neighbors. We heard a gun shot and ran back inside, the streets were empty and quiet. No one was out dancing or celebrating. That night, my mother found out of my father’s infidelity during their time apart. New year, new bullshit traditions.
Patient Motivation
By: Keenan Goldin
Tags: Life Lessons, Personal Essay

Bolinas-Fairfax Rd, Marin County — A place where I learned to appreciate the patience and earn motivation.

When I was in the first grade, my teacher read us Aesop’s fable, The Hare and the Tortoise. The moral of this story is somewhat nuanced, especially for a first-grader. For me, it was puzzling to imagine how a slow tortoise could have possibly beaten the much quicker, hare. What my teacher tried to explain to us from the phrase “slow and steady wins the race,” was the idea that the results we seek do not always come instantly. And that perseverance, as well as resilience, are both needed when faced with a challenging objective. The small message I was able to grasp at age six was that I would have to try harder when things didn’t go my way rather than giving up.

In the following years, in trying to apply the mindset of the tortoise to my daily life, I struggled because I identified much more as a hare. Each time I was faced with a challenge, I told myself to “keep going”, to “hold on”, to “stand my ground and never give up”. There were many times when I did give up. I simply didn’t have the grit I needed. I lacked motivation. And worse, I lacked the patience to cultivate motivation.

It wasn’t until I was injured over the majority of the past year that my views changed. It all began last June with a pothole. In a weak moment, I hadn’t looked where I was about to land my right foot. The edge of my Nike caught the edge of the pothole. I heard a loud “POP,” and found myself on the ground in excruciating pain. I went to the emergency room and was told it was a bad sprain. My fast-paced life, like the hare, had been, by chance and without deliberate choice, slowed to the speed of a tortoise’s. If I wanted to play sports ever again, I would have to do physical therapy for the next year. To heal I would have to harness the qualities of the slow-yet-steady animal and persist. Twelve long months later, despite all the physical therapy, I was told that I had actually severed a major tendon in my ankle, the ATFL, and fractured my fibula. The fix for both would require surgery and three-month recovery time. I was devastated, and just about ready to give up. The dedication I had given to recovery the last year went to waste in the short hour it took to complete the surgery. But here we are now, six weeks post-op, in a walking boot, and back at physical therapy once again.

One of the biggest motivating factors about needing to develop patience is that there is no alternative. It’s not an option for me to live my life without a functioning ankle, one that can support my weight and moves on the tennis court. Giving up, and accepting a lack of motivation only makes things worse. Instead, I have learned to celebrate life’s incremental successes, fueling my motivation.
The Test of a Lifetime
By: Nicholas Lee
Tags: Black Belt Exam, Perserverance, Epic, Taekwondo, Personal Essay

Eight and a half years of my life had led up to this point. The ups and downs. The wild ride that was my career in Tae Kwon Do. Then, finally, the moment I had been waiting for. The test for my black belt. Squeezing eight and a half years into three and a half hours was a grueling experience. Constantly on the move and out of breath, our task was to remember every single thing we had learned since our first class. The test started with the basics: single kicks, punches, and blocks. From there, it got progressively harder with spinning kicks, jumping kicks and spinning jump kicks. The phrase “fake it till you make it” was the only thing going through my head. When I forgot a specific step, I would anxiously try my hardest to make it look like it was on purpose. My first mistakes were forgetting a couple of combos. A combo is several kicks, blocks and or punches in a particular order. Each time I forgot something in front of my family, friends, and teachers, the pit in my stomach grew. However, I knew I had to persevere and pretend I knew what was coming next instead of showing how flustered I was.

Then came Forms (five-minute combos compared to 20 seconds). We went through ten forms, each one unique and progressively more difficult. Just like the combos, owning my mistakes was very important. Every time my move order or timing was off, I had to keep going.

Finally, we moved on to the part that I had dreaded the most: sparring. I was never good at sparring, in fact, I lost most of my fights. I was scared to be hit by people despite all of the required protective gear. Unlike in regular class which was just one-on-one matches, I knew from the past tests I had seen, the student had to start with a five on one fight and every two minutes a fighter would be removed until it was one on one. Luckily, I did not have to go first and I was given time to breathe and mentally prepare myself for the hardest part of the test. Ten minutes later, my name was called. I stood up, stepped into the ring, and bowed.

As soon as I knew it, I was hit by punches of five black belts whose job was to attack me with no mercy. I ended up in a corner trying my hardest to defend, putting in my fair share of punches and kicks. While I knew I couldn’t win, I also knew that I had trained for eight and a half years for this moment and I wasn’t about to give up. After what felt like two hours it was down to a four on one, then three on one, then two on one, and finally a one on one. I was so close yet so far but I had to keep going, despite feeling on the verge of tears. The sweat plastered my hair to my head, I struggled to see because of the condensation in my face mask. I had two minutes to go, and then I was done. I could feel every muscle in my body screaming at me to stop, but I had to keep pushing, each punch put another five pounds onto my arms, keeping my feet moving.

Two minutes later, I was done; I had finished the test.
Dear Cecilia
By: Ilise Angel
Tags: Life Lessons, Personal Essay

Dear Cecilia,

Just like it said on the bracelets, necklaces, and photobooth strips: Best Friends Forever. I know that it’s been years since we’ve talked and longer since I’ve seen your face in person, but I still remember the stairs to your playroom, the songs we would sing in Guitar Hero, and that you didn’t like pancakes unless they were thin and rolled up like crepes. I remember where we played in your neighbor’s bamboo garden and picked leaves through the cracks in the treehouse. Do you remember the late-night movies when we still thought midnight was late? Or the youtube videos we’d watch on my iPod under the cover of my sleeping bag? Because I remember it all.

I still remember our sleepovers and how whenever one of our parents would arrive, we’d run off to hide in the spider-infested shed just to extend our time together. One night sleepovers morphed into doubles, triples, and quadruple night stays. I hated going to sleep at 8 at your house, but we would whisper under the covers until late into the night and wake up extra early to spend as much time together as possible.

Just as clearly as every happy memory, I recall when my parents told me that we were moving and the sinking realization that someone would take my spot. You’d find someone else to braid your hair and to have sleepovers with. You’d stop wanting to talk to me because you’d found someone better, someone closer to you who could go on playdates all the time. Once I moved, I never found another best friend, not like you. Not like the way we were.

As the years have passed, I wonder if we’d still have things to talk about. As we slowly grew apart, the monthly meetings dwindled and the birthday invites ceased. Was it you who changed or was it me? I hated that the time and distance flowed between us and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I wish I could’ve told you to wait, wait for me, don’t change so fast. Please, just stay a little longer, long enough so we can make up for the lost time. If I could do it again, I wouldn’t let you fade away. I wouldn’t let you disappear.

Occasionally, I see your posts on Instagram. You look the same, older, of course, but I’d still recognize you anywhere. I wonder, if I saw you again, would you even recognize me?

But, it’s never too late to try. Even if we don’t “click” anymore, even if we ended up complete opposites, I wish I could see you again if only in passing, just to remind myself that it was real, that you were real. So, maybe our forever just wasn’t meant to be. But I won’t forget you, Cecilia, I’ll remember our hysterical laughs and nonsensical games. Unlike the changing people in our lives, our memories can’t grow apart.

Maybe, this is what we meant by ‘forever’.

Always,

Ilise
The Price of a Popsicle
By: William Taylor
Tags: Regret, Personal Essay

When I look back at almost a decade of experience at my middle school, I see thousands of decisions I rushed into without thinking about, actions I took without examining the consequences. There were plenty of times I said things I shouldn’t have, didn’t prepare enough for an exam or missed out on an opportunity. Out of all of that, only one day stands out.

It was like most advisory meetings before, except instead of the controlling Mrs. Gigounas, who was on sick leave, we were meeting with her substitute, the beloved Mr. Penn. His steel-rimmed glasses, jackets, vests, and slacks made him look like a college professor, and he always ready with a story from when he was our age at boarding school, nearly everyone in the class held him in the highest regard — he was safe from the ridicule that most teachers were subjected to every time a group of students was out in the halls. But that being said, he was still a substitute, and they never knew the rules; that’s why when Conner, a friend of mine who always seemed to be ahead of the coolness-curve, told me about the extra popsicles in the teacher’s lounge freezer, I figured it was an easy way to earn some low-risk street cred.

I got us some popsicles and easily deflected the little suspicion that Mr. Penn cast on me. We always get a snack, and he didn’t seem to pay much attention. We had been a well-behaved advisory, attentive and enthusiastic. He trusted us.

Everything was going according to plan, we just had to finish and dispose of the evidence. Just as I was enjoying the bites, it all came crashing down around me. Mr. Lee, a teacher battle-hardened from other schools and constantly on the lookout for plots such as mine, had decided now would be the perfect time to check in on Mr. Penn about something. He noticed instantly.

“Where did you get that Will?”

“Uhhh. My locker.”

This exact moment is where it all went wrong. I am sure that up to that sentence, there were dozens of escapes. If I had eaten a little faster, or maybe even sat in a different seat, I would have gotten away scot-free. Of course, confession would be an easy out as well. But such a feeble attempt to deny the deed had completely sentenced me to my fate. What kid would keep popsicles in a locker?

The rest of the conversation turned trail was a blur.

I confessed to Mr. Lee almost instantly and he quickly delivered my sentence. Friday detention, in which I would write a letter of apology. Completely standard. But the real punishment was when he left the room. Mr. Penn stared at me for an instant. It was more than enough. Suddenly, as though it had been building up, a wave of emotions hit. I felt shame I had attempted to sneak by a man I had so much respect for, I was furious at myself for violating his trust, and I was filled with regret that I had violated the trust of a man whose opinions I deeply valued and whose ideals I admired. I was borderline whiplashed from the speed of it all.

It felt a whole lot for a stupid popsicle.
An After School Delight
By: Brandt Maxwell
Tags: Dogs, Personal Essay

My dog is crazy. Although she is commonly known around our house under countless nicknames, at four years old, Remi is still a puppy at heart. Whenever I walk through the door, whether I’ve been gone twenty minutes or the whole day, she acts as if it has been years since we last met.

Every day after school, I am greeted by her uncontainable joy. Ear to ear she smiles, conveying her excitement through a series of jumps, wiggles, and barks as I set down my backpack. We always have the same after-school greeting routine. I walk through the door, and happily great her: “ello, love” I say to her in a broken Australian accent.

And then, it starts.

She leaps toward me, often grabbing one of her cherished stuffed toys. Shaking with excitement, she continuously looks at me directly in the eyes; not breaking eye contact throughout her dance as she jumps, twists, and trots about around me. Toy in mouth, she prances in circles around me, weaving through the space between my legs; brushing up against them as if saying “HELLO!” over and over again. I run away just so she can chase me, she loves to chase. I retreat to the couch, open my arms and yell, “REMIII!” and watch as she leaps further than I previously knew possible for dogs, and lands in my arms. She nuzzles her head next to mine, still shaking with excitement, smiling, and presenting her toy to me as a token of her love for me while continually trying to embed herself further in my arms.

With Remi, each day is the same; the expression of our mutual love and joy in the presence of each other is unwavering. I know dogs can’t speak, but with Remi, it doesn’t even matter. Her expression of love and the happiness that she brings to me every day has taught me that love can be demonstrated in ways that surpass words. See, to me, it doesn’t really matter if Remi can talk or not, although that would be very cool if she could because every day she reminds me of how much she cares for me via her jumps, twists, and other spontaneous spastic movements.

Even on days when I have had a difficult day and am feeling down, without being able to tell Remi, somehow, she knows. She reads my body language and curls into my lap, always with a toy to bring to me to offer her condolences. With another human, perhaps we would talk about what was difficult about my day or what had me in a mood, but with Remi, she just sits with me. She offers her support simply by showing up for me and physically being there when my days go astray.

Although Remi and I communicate solely through physical encounters, we often have the same level of connection as I do with my human friends. Through this, I’ve learned that there is more than one way to interact with someone and have a relationship; it doesn’t always need to be spoken. Sometimes, a snuggle or extreme puppy excitement is enough to build a connection that can last for a lifetime.
Searching For Infinity
By: Grace Grassi
Tags: Personal Essay, Skiing, Awe, Spirituality

When the snow gets slushy in the afternoon it will catch on my skis as I start gaining speed. The whistle of wind rushing by my helmet is another reminder of the potential to accelerate or even jump, as well as the presence of danger.

Thinking back to some of my earliest childhood memories, I realize that I learned to live like I learned to ski: informed by the sensations more than the experiences themselves. I vividly recollect the exhilaration of building speed down a hill and taking off from the snow to get air. It is just as easy to remember the blood-draining anticipation of missing a turn and losing all control. I have noticed that these same extreme but undefinable feelings are the same reactions I have to other extraordinary experiences in my life. Being suspended in midair, I forget not only about the windburn on my face and the numbness in my hands but almost everything about who I am. I am in the face of something so strikingly vast in time, scope, and power.

Most people, regardless of their stated religion, will tell you that their spirituality is defined by a belief in “something greater” or the pursuit of enlightenment. Many of these people spend their entire lives discovering and practicing whatever induces awe. In my own endeavor to uncover the “higher meaning” of my existence, I have realized that the experience of awe is brief and fleeting; so brief in fact, that it may be over before I know it even happened. I sometimes feel that I am without value or purpose when I cannot find anything to be inspired by in life. Now I think that this inspiration cannot be searched for and instead is usually stumbled upon. In the midst of college applications and the introspection required to complete them, I have been trying to pinpoint what in day to day life will produce the sense of awe I have felt so briefly in skiing and what would extend it to other parts of my life. This, I believe, could very well be described as “my calling”.

After recognizing this sensation skiing as a child, I cherish the feeling of oneness when I can find it. When I am truly in awe of something, I get to dwell on that point of singularity for a bit longer than my moment of being suspended in mid-air. The problem is getting to that jump. Maybe one day I will “discover my passion” and my own sense of wonder. Until then I will keep learning new paths to ski down the mountain and find the jump and that is itself my spirituality.
Improve your Solar Cell Efficiency
By: Soumyanil Nath
Tags: Solar Energy

Have you ever thought of why solar cell efficiency is such an important thing to consider? The energy that the sun radiates onto the surface of the Earth far exceeds the global consumption of energy in a year. With the help of solar cell, we are able to convert the sunlight into electrical energy. This is achieved without the need for any moving parts or chemical reaction. Therefore, it is very much important that this energy is harnessed in an efficient and cost-effective manner. We took the liberty to talk with few commercial services who offer solar and electrical panel installation in Burbank and compiled a list that you can help you to improve the efficiency of your solar cell in order to obtain the maximum output.

Making an Informed Decision

This may be the most important thing you can do before you purchase a solar panel for your power needs. When you conduct thorough research, you will be able to determine which system offers the best value for your money as well as suiting your requirements. Always keep an eye out for newer models of solar cells that are able to give you improved levels of energy conversion. The internet can be your best friend in these cases.

Using a solar concentrator

With the help of a solar concentrator, you will be able concentrate the sunlight. As a result, the sunlight is concentrated on smaller areas rather than the light falling on a large area. Large mirrors or other devices are used as solar concentrators. Thus, you will be able to improve the overall efficiency of your solar cells, which generally speaking can be sometimes expensive. Not only will you get more energy but you also save money.

Proper installation of your Photovoltaic Panels

It is imperative that photovoltaic panels should be installed properly. Their orientation, as well as the tilt, should be exact. This would help to ensure that the panels receive optimal sunlight throughout the day, all round the year. The tilt of the panel should be in such a way that they receive direct sunshine from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. You can always hire out companies offering installation and solar panel repair in Burbank if you are looking for a professional touch.

Avoid shaded spots

You will need to ensure that your solar cell is not installed in a shaded spot as this would have a drastic effect on the total power output. This can be especially true when the solar cells are connected in a series. If a photovoltaic cell is under a shaded area, it causes the energy that is generated by its neighbouring cell to be drained quickly as it acts as a resistor and helps in determining the total current produced.
ProBit Exchange Lists KARVUON (KVN)
By: Probit Exchange
Tags: Blockchain Solution, Kavurma, Solar Energy, Listing News Events

KVN(KVN/KRW) Trading Pair

- Available for deposits starting from February 10, 2020, Monday, 12:00 KST.

- Available for trading starting from February 10, 2020, Monday, 17:00 KST.

※ProBit Exchange reserves the final right to make amendments to the dates in this announcement.

About KARVUON

⯈ Introduction (https://www.karvuon.com/)

Karvuon is founded on the belief that blockchain can completely change the structure of the energy market and was established with the primary goal of building and nourishing infrastructure for the fourth industrial revolution.

Karvuon will build a state-of-the-art industrial park in Mongolia which is rich in land and resources. The main goal of the facility is to provide the entire blockchain industry with a sufficient amount of power and establish a highly profitable company for our stakeholders.

The Karvuon Smart Grid is an integrated solution system to be developed at Karvuon LLC. It will act as the main control panel for all participants in the grid and aims to meet the business objectives of both major and minor players of energy production and consumer demand by offering a smart, cost-effective solution.

⯈Social Media

Twitter: https://twitter.com/karvuon

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karvuon/

Telegram: https://t.me/karvuon_group

Medium: https://medium.com/karvuon-token

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/karvuon

⯈ Press

https://medium.com/karvuon-token/the-karvuon-story-90e91d253178

⯈ About ProBit

ProBit Exchange is a global cryptocurrency exchange. ProBit Exchange only lists promising, qualified and deserving cryptocurrency projects. ProBit Exchange boasts order matching speed of over 1.5 million orders per second, superb security which supports hardware security keys and a customizable user interface.

ProBit Global: www.probit.com

ProBit Korea: www.probit.kr

⯈ IEO at ProBit Exchange

ProBit Exchange is able to support an IEO with more than 5 currencies, multiple sales round, different bonus rates, and various lock-up structures. The funds received are stored with the same high level protections that ProBit Exchange uses for exchange’s deposits.

Preferential listing treatment is given to projects that conduct IEO on ProBit Exchange.

For more information on running an IEO on ProBit Exchange, please send an email to partnership@probit.com