fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
How many tech skills are enough for a data scientist?
By: Esther Liu
Tags: NLP, Topic Modeling, Towards Data Science, Data Visualization, Data Science

How many tech skills are enough for a data scientist?

Analyzing data scientist job listings with LDA topic modeling

As the job market for data scientists expands these days, many data scientist job listings are really looking for different sets of tech skills. For all data science-related job postings on Indeed.com in 2019, there are 464 different skills mentioned.

Obviously there’s no way for us to master all those skills, so it’s important to know what particular set of tech skills are required for the kind of data scientist job you’ll be looking for.

To solve this problem the data science way, we performed LDA topic modeling on tech skills mentioned in each data science-related job listing on Indeed, to find out which sets of tech skills are most likely to be mentioned together in a job listing. Our dataset came from this Kaggle data.

# Data Preprocessing on the skill column

df=pd.read_csv('indeed_job_dataset.csv')

text_data=[]

for skills in df.Skill.dropna():

lst=skills[1:-1].split(', ')

words=[]

for item in lst:

words.append(item[1:-1])

text_data.append(words) # Topic Modelling

from gensim import corpora

dictionary = corpora.Dictionary(text_data)

corpus = [dictionary.doc2bow(text) for text in text_data]

import pickle

pickle.dump(corpus, open(‘corpus.pkl’, ‘wb’))

dictionary.save(‘dictionary.gensim’) # Setting the total number of topics to be 3 here

NUM_TOPICS = 3

ldamodel = gensim.models.ldamodel.LdaModel(corpus, num_topics = NUM_TOPICS, id2word=dictionary, passes=15)

ldamodel.save(‘model5.gensim’)

topics = ldamodel.print_topics(num_words=4)

Visualizing our topic modeling outcome

dictionary = gensim.corpora.Dictionary.load(‘dictionary.gensim’)

corpus = pickle.load(open(‘corpus.pkl’, ‘rb’))

lda = gensim.models.ldamodel.LdaModel.load(‘model5.gensim’)

import pyLDAvis.gensim

lda_display = pyLDAvis.gensim.prepare(lda, corpus, dictionary, sort_topics=False)

pyLDAvis.display(lda_display)

We can see that when we set our num of topics to be three, the first job type is the more traditional data scientist role, where the employer is looking for skills in R, Python, SQL, and Machine Learning.
Sass คืออะไร? + สอนวิธีเขียนแบบเข้าใจง่าย
By: Suranart Niamcome
Tags: Coding, Highlight, Prepros, Compass, CSS

SiamHTML

The collection of articles for front-end developers
Easy Comparison Value in DAX
By: Rasmus Bøgelund Christiansen
Tags: Comparison, Power Bi, Data, Dax, Dashboard

Working in digital marketing, comparing numbers over time, is as in most business’, crucial for reporting and understanding how well we perform over time. This is why a dashboard that can tell the story over time is powerful.

Why Compare at all?

The reason why we compare values is to create a context for the numbers, we are presenting. The context gives us a reference point to which we can value the numbers. See, okay it is a lot higher than yesterday, where else, we wouldn’t know if the numbers are good or not. This is why we create a comparison value.

The obstacle

If we just open PowerBI and connect and to compare the numbers, it most likely would not work. See, a lot of my training in Power BI has come from learning how not to use hacks, which I did A LOT in the beginning. One of these was to import two different sources (2018 and 2019) data and expect it to show it the same graph. This didn’t work, because the dates were not compared.

Hack #1: Change the year-value (2018) to the most recent (2019).

Now the data appears from the same year. This works. However, we now have a static table, which may or may not be large and have an impact on your data model.

Solution: What if you want to compare data within the same dataset?

Then we need to make use of the measures. Several functions do this out of the box, however, the one I use, due to the granularity level of the comparison is the DATEADD-function.

DATEADD( ('_Connector: Date'[Date], -1, MONTH)

In this measure, I am referring to a date table. Read this article to make your own:

In the above example, we add a date from our date table and we add -1 MONTHs. So the first part is the table with he date in, the second the amount and the last day, month or year.

If we are to use this in a context of a specific number we can put this in a CALCULATE it looks like this:

CALCULATE( [REVENUE], DATEADD( ('_Connector: Date'[Date], -1, MONTH ) )

What the above measure does is to calculate the [REVENUE] when the DATEADD is “TRUE”. This means that it takes revenue, but on the date, we asked for in our DATEADD-function. That’s it! It is easy to compare values over time in Power BI.

If you want to make the comparison for the last day use this:

DATEADD( ('_Connector: Date'[Date], -1, DAY)

If you want to make the comparison for the last week (7 days) use this:

DATEADD( ('_Connector: Date'[Date], -7, DAY)

If you want to make the comparison for the last month use this:

DATEADD( ('_Connector: Date'[Date], -1, MONTH)

If you want to make the comparison for the last year using this:

DATEADD( ('_Connector: Date'[Date], -3, YEAR)How to make one slider to rule then all

Other ways to compare data in DAX

Another way to achieve the same result is to use some of the functions built into DAX.

Previous Day

PREVIOUSDAY(<dates>)

Previous Month

PREVIOUSMONTH(<dates>)

Previous Quarter

PREVIOUSQUARTER(<dates>)

Previous Year
What I Wish People Knew About Forgiveness
By: Daniel A
Tags: Personal Growth, Life, Life Lessons, Relationships, Self

What forgiveness does not mean:

I have read many articles about forgiveness. They all gave good lessons but many were based on the wrong definition of it. Even if we’ve already established what it means, here’s what it doesn’t.

Forgiveness does not mean oblivion. Don’t forget your past experiences! It does not mean you should sweep it under the rug or shove it in the back of your emotional drawer and never look at it again. Any moment in life is important and happens for a reason — I know it sounds stupid but I truly believe this to be true.

I think we all can learn from our relationships, even those that affected us very negatively. Forgiving means analysing the reasons why a relationship did not work out, seeing what you can do better and implement it next time. Not forget about it and repeat it over and over. I know this is easier said than done but I know my friendships improved after this.

As to a situation or a group of people, that’s the same. Identify your feelings, the reasons why you feel uncomfortable or wronged. See what you can do to improve it. We can’t change others, but we can change our response.

Forgive. Never forget. Never.
Rocks
By: Eli Snow
Tags: Poetry, Self-awareness, Grief, Emotions, Death

Sometimes I would

Climb down onto the rocks

By the sea

And imagine

That the wind and spray travelled right through me

As if I were a spirit, or wraith

Just like you would be

If souls were real.

And if there were tears

You couldn’t tell them from the dried sea salt on my face.
Conversations with the Dead
By: Katerina Canyon
Tags: Poetry, Writing Prompts, Poem, Poetry Prompt, Writing Tips

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

There are moments when something I am reading will trigger emotions of my past or will trigger thoughts about something happening currently. When that happens, I will use what I’ve read as inspiration for my next piece.

A good way to write a piece inspired by another piece is as a conversation. Another good way is as a response poem. Emanuel Xavier has a very strong example of a response in his poem, “Urban Affection”, which he cites as a poem “for Walt Whitman.”

While Xavier’s poem does not specifically mention a certain poem, “Urban Affection” does allude to several poetic themes used by Walt Whitman. The power of Xavier’s poem is that he adeptly references the differences and commonalities between Whitman’s time and Xavier’s own.

In my response poem, “The Tyger, Interrupted”, I incorporate my poem within the poem “The Tyger”. This is one of my favorite styles, as I am often inspired by other things I’m reading. When I write a poem this way, I feel like I’m sharing my inspiration with the reader.

Poetry Prompt: Find a poet or poem from the past and write a poem that talks to the poet or interacts with the poem. Try to write a poem that compares or contrasts itself with the past.

Katerina Canyon is a writer currently living in Seattle, Washington. She served as Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, California from 2000 to 2003. She has a MALD from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a BA in English, Creative Writing, and International Studies from Saint Louis University. She has been published in the New York Times and Huffington Post. Her most recent poetry was published in From Whispers to Roars. Her latest collection Changing the Lines is currently available on Amazon and Elliott Bay Book Company. You can learn more about Katerina at PoeticKat.com.

References: Poetry Foundation, Poetry in Voice
My Back Hurts.
By: Amanda Dalmas
Tags: Funny, Achesandpains, Poem, Limerick, Poetry On Medium

If you purge your soul onto paper and are doing it for the love of writing. Then this publication is for you. We love gritty, raw, emotional, thought-provoking, rebellious, sexual, spiritual, nature-related writings and comic strips.

Follow
dBFT -民主的なコンセンサスアルゴリズム-
By: Blockchain Research Institute
Tags: Blockchain, Ethereum, Tips, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

in Eudaimonia and Co
Lynch Mob
By: Tejas Suresh
Tags: Prose Poem, Poetry, Religion, Communal Violence, Riots

Pale moonlight casts calm on a quiet night, save for the grasshoppers chirping and content birds belching with a belly full of worms hard-earned. The grass however, is in a state of frenzy, dew rapidly forming at its tips like a leaky faucet —

vertically above lies a broken traffic light, a constant green for ambitious teens and overworked humans eager to save ten milliseconds seemingly for tonight, as stray dogs take their place, snug under makeshift shelters of dried leaves, plastic bags and chewed up Paan.

A low rumble begins at the end of the street — Thump Thump Thump — unorganized stomping feet ring rhythmically against cacophony causing sleepy pebbles to mumble dissent and peek, stunned stone-still at a dazzling bonfire merciless and bloodthirsty.

Nature’s premonition rings loud amongst cries of injustice — blood-curdling screams of war punctuated by angry barks over an interrupted siesta. Each bark results in bloodier tarmac until headless whimpers exit the scene to tunes of tragedy.

Lynch mob ideals ideated by blind belief conquer centre-stage.

Some religious sod played god and incited uncouth youth with truths and proof that shooting projectiles leads to salvation; naïve battle cries redden the city sky as blood floods gardens- human blood. I apologise, I meant Hindu blood, Muslim blood and Christian blood . Crows feast on communal carcasses while death sews secular stitches through beaks of scavengers and familial tears — Through flags of half-mast we find melting wax candles placed on shrines while the latest celebrity makes headlines for crying crocodile tears on brown leather Gucci.

Divide divide divide say divine men stirring god’s intentions served cold with politics and a dollop of money. Honey words sickeningly sweet attract bristling bees buzzing; the yellow fuzzballs rush to unwitting suicide as they pierce raging thin-skinned riot-blooded elephants who promptly pass messages from sages with sticks, bricks and sickles. Hack hack hack until flesh pieces sticky with h̶u̶m̶a̶n̶ blood cover burning metal with wooden handles harangued by god’s medium, who saw to it that heaven would keep the business lounge open for the kind folks.

The stench of burning flesh pervades as honeybee and Pachyderm carcasses stack impressively against red-tape housing inaugurated by public servants.

Cue the activism.

Crusaders of the online realm, come let us rise and unite to fight slights with verbosity of our own and in doing so drown real opinions with crowded emotion! Disagreement is war! Bring your best keyboard and uninformed bravado to silence threats with emotion and empty slogans —

Opinions matter when you’re the benefactor!

Report threats that stoke your ego!

Bully sinners with sadistic satisfaction!

factional mindsets mix fractions of secularism with necessary violence.
5 Types of People To Avoid Dating
By: The Good Men Project
Tags: Romance, Life, Dating, Advice, Relationships

5 Types of People To Avoid Dating

Dating is scary enough. Here’s a list of people to avoid to make it easier.

Dating is a trial and error process. A “numbers game” so to speak. One of the only ways to determine what type of person you really want to be with, is to be with people who aren’t completely right for you.

But, there are ways to avoid unnecessary heartache and skip over the wrong types of people in a better attempt to find the right one.

Here are five types of people to avoid dating.
College Babies
By: Background Noise Comics
Tags: Humor, Comics, Moms, Motherhood, College

“‘Sunrise, Sunset’ from Fiddler on the Roof was one of Lisa’s mother’s favorite songs. Now we know why.
BLM in a Post-Trump World
By: Brian Sansom
Tags: Activism, Politics, Society, Blm, Trump

There need to be well-defined and attainable goals

The fight to end prejudice and discrimination is a laudable objective. Ending systemic problems on a social and economic level to achieve better class mobility for minorities is also an admirable objective. The problem with rallying behind these ideas, alone, is that there is no way to measure progress.

If a person picks up a guitar with the intention of learning the most complicated song by day two, they will fail. If a person wants to write a novel by the end of the week, they won’t put a single word down on paper. However, if you measure progress by the notes you learn and the words you put down on paper, eventually those greater aspirations will be attainable.

The broader concepts are a good source of inspiration, however, advocates need to identify specific rules, laws, and regulations that they want to be abolished or reformed. Throughout BLM’s activity during 2020, some important issues were touched on such as police accountability, no-knock warrants, and criminal justice reforms.

The lack of cohesive leadership makes it difficult to focus on initiatives to promote those more specific changes. In one state, you can have a push for police bodycams and the use of trained de-escalation specialists. In another state, you will have demands for the complete abolishment of a police force. In 2015, “Campaign Zero” was an attempt at formulating a plan for police reform, based on input from protesters nationwide. Yet, the result was a shallow list of ideas without action behind them.

When a movement cannot articulate its goals clearly and concisely, at best they will be ignored. At worst, they will be vilified by media and government organizations that will ascribe motives that may be contrary to the movement’s objectives. When I googled, “BLM goals,” ten links came up. Four of them were to news sites and right-wing organizations that label BLM as radical and portrays them in a negative light. Two of those links were for Brittanica and Wikipedia. One link was to the “about” page of Blacklivesmatter.com, which talks about general values.

Since there is no central body to rally members around specific objectives, the BLM movement gets focused on the “we want” portion of the movement. However, there isn’t a strategic approach to the “how to get what we want,” part, which is where the most progress is made. Moving forward, without the benefit of anti-trump popularity, BLM is going to have to keep people invested in the cause. The biggest step to accomplishing this is by having a greater focus on the effective and efficient use of a platform.
Should You Check Yourself For Skin Cancer? Spoiler: YES
By: James Goydos
Tags: Skin, Melanoma, Skin Cancer, Skincare, Cancer

Should You Check Yourself For Skin Cancer? Spoiler: YES

One of the easiest ways to spot visible signs of skin cancer is to check yourself in the mirror.

Photo by Andre Mouton on Unsplash

Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers diagnosed worldwide. We all quite literally burn under the same sun, rendering us vulnerable. There may be environmental risk factors, but there are actions that we can all take to reduce the risk of harmful UV exposure and a potential skin cancer diagnosis.

Conducting regular skin checks is an essential factor in the early detection of problematic skin lesions. Skin cancers, and other cancers in general, are best combatted with early detection. Early detection can help to increase options for treatment, and subsequently improve long-term survival rates. In addition to attending your normal doctor appointments, it is recommended to take health into your own hands — literally.

Adding a routine skin check onto your monthly calendar can make a world of difference. Speak to your doctor about a regimen that is specific to your health needs, as well. Your doctor may recommend more frequent check-ins relative to your needs and potential risk factors for developing skin cancer.

One of the easiest ways to spot visible signs of skin cancer is to check yourself in the mirror. Both hand-held and full-length mirrors are essential to make sure you are able to see the whole body. Examine the front and back of your body in a full-length mirror with arms raised, to check under the arms, as well. Be sure to take a good look at the forearms, palms, between the toes, the soles of the feet, and even your nailbeds.

Skin cancers can present themselves on the feet and underneath the nails, too. This is a characteristic of acral lentiginous melanoma and is important to note when conducting skin checks. There are several different types of skin cancer, so be sure to understand the potential visible warning signs of the various types.

The ABCDE’s of melanoma is a useful method to remember when looking to spot any harmful skin lesions. Understanding the symptoms of potential basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is also important, as this is one of the most common forms of skin cancer.

Hand mirrors are also quite, well, handy, when doing your skin checks. Use a hand mirror to check your head, scalp, and neck. Parting your hair can help you get a better look at your scalp. Hand mirrors can also be quite helpful when examining the buttocks and back for any potentially harmful skin lesions.

Caring for your skin is important. The skin is the largest organ of the body, and is one of the body’s first defenses from the outside world, in addition to being essential to protecting the internal organs. Protecting your skin, spotting the warning signs of skin cancers, and conducting regular skin checks can make a world of difference to your health.
Exploring UX methods: a case study
By: Becky Sroufe
Tags: Design Process, User Experience, Design, UX, Ux Design Process

Author note: In several articles, I’ll be exploring my UX process and sharing experiences and learnings through a specific case study.

Often times, it can be a challenge for UX designers to bring user experience efforts in to an already existing product. Depending on the maturity and UX awareness of the product team and/or organization, you may find UX can be seen as an afterthought — “hey, we already designed and built this, but can you make it a great experience now?”

TFW someone brings UX in after things are “done”

While sometimes frustrating for any designer, it’s an understandable issue in today’s tech landscape — many of us live in a world where deadlines are quickly set and often looming, markets are fast-paced and ever-changing, and everything feels like it should’ve been done yesterday. However it certainly creates a challenge for any UX specialist, especially when striving for product experiences that are founded on being user-centered and letting customer insights lead to data-driven experiences. How do you find and make the time?

Getting the chance to dive into product work with a team that is open to effectively bring UX in to make the greatest impact is always an exciting opportunity. I’d like to share some of my experiences and learnings getting to tackle product design work with an existing product idea.
Mostly Mute Monday: A final view from the Moon
By: Ethan Siegel
Tags: NASA, Moon, Space

From December 11th to the 14th, 1972, astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt set foot on the lunar surface, becoming the last two human beings to do so as part of the Apollo program. This brief exploration included feats such as:

Setting the lunar downhill rover speed record (of 17 kph),

Becoming the only mission to perform the Traverse Gravimeter Experiment, measuring the Moon’s surface gravity over distance,

Also becoming the only mission to perform the Surface Electrical Properties Experiment, determining the electrical properties (and water content) of the lunar soil,

And driving the lunar roving vehicle a distance of 22.3 mi (35.7 km), the longest distance driven across the surface by another world by a human, in-person.

The panorama above consists of 24 images (AS17–134–20408 to AS17–134–20431) stitched together, and represents one of our last views of the lunar surface of all. The very last lunar panorama ever taken from the surface — by Harrison “Jack” Schmitt — is shown below. Note that Gene Cernan appears twice, as he appeared in two of the images that were stitched together.
If There is None, Make Your Own Tools
By: Kelvin Tan
Tags: Python, JavaScript, Range, Sum, Problem Solving

Village Blacksmith by John Henry Hintermeister

Sometimes when I am used to a particular convenience or tool when working with one technology, I tend to want to default to using the same feature with another. However, core developers across technologies do not always agree on what are the most fundamental functions that should be built-in.

Take Python and JavaScript for instance. The humble sum function allows one to quickly compute the sum of individual elements in a list / array. MS Excel users would also be familiar with this.

Python: sum is cool

However, the sum function is not built into plain JavaScript. If we right click on any browser page and select “Inspect”, a bunch of tabs would pop up on the side. One of them would be a console, which we could punch some JS code in.

For example, if we tried to sum the array defined below — an error essentially saying “I don’t know what you are talking about” would appear. But this problem could be fixed in an idiomatic way by “reducing” the array by summing element by element, starting with the value 0 as defined in the second positional argument (which is optional in this instance as this is the default setting).

JS: I don’t know what sum is

What if we wanted to call sum repeatedly and wanted to avoid rewriting similar lines as per above? We could refactor by making our own little sum function.

Hey JS, do this when you see sum

If we return to the console, we can let the browser know how it should handle the array passed into sum.

JS: OK cool, I get it now

Another nifty function that has been in my core Python toolbox is the range function. When three arguments are passed into range, Python would create a generator — which I treat it as a self-destructing list — that allows iteration beginning from the first argument (the “minimum”), up to but not including the second argument (the “maximum” that is excluded), in increments as per the third argument (the “step”). We let mn, mx, and s represent minimum, maximum and step respectively.

JS does not have a native range function, but we can approximate one with the one-liner below. First, we initialise an array with maximum less minimum empty elements, fill them with some placeholder value (0 in this case), and map to each element their index plus minimum value (index starts with 0 in JS). Once that is done, we drop elements that do not fall in step with the filter method — any element less the minimum that is not fully divisible by the defined step would be discarded.
The Decentralized Library of Alexandria
By: Aneddotica Magazine
Tags: 3d Printable, Elf Publish, Devon Read, Books, Bitcoin

The Ancient Library of Alexandria is a perfect, and tragic, example of the

problem with centralization. Today’s information architecture is similarly

vulnerable because the it’s hub and spoke network relies on centralized hubs

to store and distribute information. Decentralized technology eliminates

central points of failure.

The Decentralized Library of Alexandria protects transparent access to art and

information.

The Decentralized Library of Alexandria allows any application to capitalize on a

protocol that both monetizes and distributes media across a variety of

applications. It means content creators can sell the same artifact in countless

di erent methods and fans won’t be limited to available content within their

favorite service.

Speaking at the San Diego Bitcoin Meetup, The Founder of the Decentralized Library of Alexandria, Devon Read, shares his insight on why the world needs a decentralized, permissionless publishing platform and some of the infinite possibilities it presents.

Alexandria is a decentralized library and marketplace for sharing and preserving art, history and culture. Imagine a platform like Youtube, Soundcloud, or Netflix, but without ads or the costly server or bandwidth overhead. Content creators can self-publish anything, including videos, music, books, 3D printable, recipes, and more. End users will have the same experience they currently get from Spotify, iTunes or Netflix, with easy credit/debit card one-time payments or pre-paid subscriptions and content creators will have complete control over how their work is published and will be able to choose from several different monetization options.What Bitcoin did for money, Alexandria aims to do for digital content publishing and distribution by removing central points of failure and financially incentivizing users around the world to contribute to it.

You can learn more by visiting http://blocktech.com

Thank you to the sponsors of the event:

Airbitz — http://airbitz.co

Coinstructive — http://coinstructive.com

Tradebitcoins.com — http://bitcoinconsultant.net/trade/
The to-do list
By: Virginia Savage
Tags: Divorce, Life, 100 Naked Words, Social Media, Work Life Balance

Put up a curtain

Hang another

Craft a closet, fix a door

Pain the room, but nothing too bright

A calm, warm white

Check this box,

Cross another

Send the email but not the other

(Too much there to uncover)

Wash forty-one dishes, scrape them all first

Then take out the trash

Pay seven bills, and only one’s past

Traffic school, PowerPoint, plaster holes to be filled

Not to mention the shed in the back to be killed

So many boards to take down and move over

Into a fence that might never get built

(if I’m perfectly honest about all of this guilt)

Make divorce appointments and don’t forget blood work

Oh, and your career! There’s so much to plan

Make sure to text friends, too. Maintenance spam.

Self-care, childcare, charity work

Weeding, darning, personal branding

Forget it. I think I’ll drink whisky instead
Being Labeled ‘Gifted’ as a Child Made Me an Idiot
By: Taylor Foreman
Tags: Childhood, Intelligence, Personal Development, Life, Life Lessons

I Didn’t Understand Tradition.

By tradition, I mean meaning structures that create half of human perceptual reality. In contrast to measurable reality, which is sums and science but not meaning.

When I was a kid, I was one of those people who didn’t understand pep-rallies and football. It all seemed so “illogical” to me. I can see now that people who think like this are annoying. They are missing literally half of what it means to be human: the meaning half. Football, America, and cheerleaders were part of the mythology of what it meant to be a high schooler in the South. If you thought all of it was meant to be “logical” then you were seriously missing the point.

No one could “explain” to me exactly what point I was missing, though. Because mythology and tradition isn’t something that rests in the front, thinking part of the brain. It’s the value structures that dictate how we should behave toward and with one another. They just rolled their eyes at me. Looking back, I would have too.

Yes, there is nothing measurable or logical about playing football, but it is a complex meaning structure that gives a whole lot of utility to the individuals involved and the community. Kids are given a place where they can grow confidence and learn to climb social hierarchies. Athletes tend to be more successful later in life, and for good reason. Obviously, sports have a huge social utility. But measuring it wouldn’t capture what it really means.

It would be a long time before I understood how much I was taking for granted. How much these built-in meaning structures allowed us to compete and cooperate in ways that were mostly functional and mutually beneficial. In nature, that is certainly not a given, and you only need to look at our brutal history for proof that it was something seriously hard-won.

I was more focused on the faults. While I wasn’t wrong about the faults that I noticed, the point I was missing was that it’s easy to point out faults. Any meaning structure is going to be imperfect. It’s harder to be constructive.

People who are less verbal don’t need to put this into words or even think about this. They just feel it and understand it. They had an intuitive grasp of mythology; one that I abandoned because I couldn’t make sense of it in my “gifted” thinking mind. By the way, I don’t mean to imply that people who love sports are stupid. The smartest people I know are also great athletes.

But for kids like me, who were on the more verbal end of the bell-curve and not great athletes, we can misunderstand an entire aspect of what it means to be human.
Spinning
By: C.J. Obikile
Tags: Mental Health, Tanka, Poetry, Anxiety, Poetry On Medium

On and on

the wheels turn

visions and thoughts

blur into one

disorienting…

the mental gymnastics,

it’s all so exhausting.
How to quickly and easily open a free Bitcoin Account
Tags: How To, Bitcoin Wallet, Finance, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

Simply fill in your details, choose your location, choose a password and click on the “Sign Up” button on the bottom right hand corner.

Note: make sure that you choose the location from the drop down and ensure that your mobile number has your country code.

Once you’re signed up, you will receive an email to verify your account. Clicking on the link will confirm your account and take you to the login screen.

Opening your first Bitcoin Account

Once you have signed up to BVNK, you’re ready to enter the world of Bitcoin. To do this, you need to open a Bitcoin Account.

When you log in, click on the “Accounts” tab on the left hand side.
The Lifelong Struggle To Be Yourself
By: Larry G. Maguire
Tags: Art, Creativity, Philosophy, Self, Psychology

The Lifelong Struggle To Be Yourself

In a world that wants you to be someone, there is an eternal struggle to find out who you are. Perhaps you’ll never find it

What does it mean to be yourself?

From our earliest days, we are told to follow a rule — a staple advisory for successful life and work. “Be yourself”, they say. “Don’t try to be someone you’re not”.

What does this mean?

As children, our parents and carers discourage us from playing certain roles. They encourage us to adopt more desirable ones that fit in with the design of our social group. They buy us trucks and dolls and guns, plastic kitchens and superhero outfits. We watch TV shows and visit the movies. We mix with other kids who are sculpted the same as us. These things comprise the force that sculpts our identity.

Ever-increasing circles of society mould us into mini-others. The adults, who appear from our naive position to know better than us, set the rules of the game and they decide in large part, who it is we should be.

But beneath these outer layers of personal identity, there is something subtle, quiet, and unidentifiable. Although we sometimes sense it, we can’t quite put our finger on it. And despite the pervasive nature of the surface level self, it exists, waiting for us to uncover it.

To do so means undoing years of conditioning towards the ideological self. But for individual creative expression, we must embark on the journey. We have no choice if we are to break the mould, bring about innovation and create beautiful things.
摘字集：Encore
Tags: 交換學生, 摘字集, 加拿大, 渥太華, Ottawa

ENCORE en·​core | \ ˈän-ˌkȯr \

Definition of encore

1: a demand for repetition or reappearance made by an audience

2: a reappearance or additional performance demanded by an audience

3: a second achievement especially that surpasses the first (Edited from Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

我在渥太華住的地方是一處小小的社區。公車行駛停靠的大路叫做Baseline，車站叫做Baseline/Farlane，就是Baseline與Farlane交叉口的意思。這裡的公車路線大多都這麼命名。出了市區之後一眼望去全是小幢小幢的屋子，根本沒有什麼商店、學校或市場可以當地標。渥太華是新的城市，市區街道寬直中正，以前還規定沒有建築物可以蓋得比國會大廈高。公車常常一條路開到底，兩邊一些小店餐廳也只密集的出現在三五個街區。常常搭6號公車從Billings Bridge來回，從Lansdowne到Parliament中間的一段路名我都很喜歡，Downtown最熱鬧的Bank street搭上Flora, Gladstone, Somerset, Gloucester這樣對我來說沒什麼意義的好聽音節。從Billings Bridge轉搭88號公車就會回到Baseline，沿途慢慢記下了Prince of Wales, Lexington, Fisher, Marson, Zena這樣的先後順序。

Night trip on baseline

從Baseline/Farlane下車後，沿Farlane往裡走會先經過一個有著義大利名字的養老院，大門前偶爾會有小黑板昭示周末會舉辦的活動。養老院斜後方有一小塊用腰高的鐵絲網圍起來的空地，裡面擺著鮮豔塑膠滑梯與小座車，平日早上會有很多保母帶著小小孩來玩，冬天也在積雪裡跌跌撞撞。往後再走一小段便會看見Encore Private的藍色小路牌，右轉進去就都是格局相似的紅褐粉橘小屋子，其中前庭自由種著花草的就是我住的地方了。左邊的窗子是我的房間。窗子用的是木製的百葉窗，用手搬著連動的白木條開關，氣密窗則要自己安上把手逆時針旋開。冬天時站在窗下的暖氣風口開一會兒窗，帶著冰氣的風雪吹進來，我無法想出任何符合台灣華文脈絡的比喻來代替這個句子。

住在別人的房子裡而且那個別人也還住在自己的房子裡，大抵不是一個明智的決定，但我的房間在那一段時間內的的確確是我的房間。不想被別人看見的東西可以不用被別人看見，書架上的書可以平平整整的貼牆，衣櫃高處低處都沒有衣服以外的東西；牆上可以貼滿寫著莫名其妙點子與亂七八糟字句的便條；想要放零食在床底下就放零食在床底下。我把房間鑰匙跟大門鑰匙一起串在插著學生證和U-Pass的卡夾上，出門時還會在鎖門後拍張照以免忘了自己有沒有鎖門一整天心神不寧。我曬得黑摀得白凍得青熱得紅的左手壓著門把的照片，一年下來應該拍了超過一百張。同樣成為習慣的，還有從Baseline/Farlane下車後走回來的那段路。冬天太陽落得早，六點天就漆黑，走在空無一人的街道上我常常大唱安九，五分鐘的歌剛好搭配五分鐘的路，唱完最後一次副歌就到了。

House on Encore

住在Encore的日子大致都開心，離開渥太華也四個月了，下一個篇章也要好好的前進。希望寫完這個系列的時候我也會開始下一段旅程，也希望這個系列可以好好的寫下去，有時候我更相信我寫下來的東西，而我想相信這個。

「在快樂與悲傷都寫在我們的臉上／的那些時代裡／我們不需要去隱藏／我們的情緒」
A Little Wining
By: Valori Maresco
Tags: Haiku Hub, Haiku, Wine, Contemporary Haiku, Poetry On Medium

I have a love/hate relationship with writing. Love writing and hate that I don’t have time to do more of it. Wife, mom, grandma(!), accountant … and writer.

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The Foundations of Islam (7 classes)
By: Muslim Open Online College
Tags: Muslimopenonlinecollege

The Foundations of Islam (7 classes)

SHAYKH HAMZA YUSUF covers five areas: the Qur’an, basic practices, core beliefs, spirituality and the end of time

One of the most popular and effective series for teaching the basics about Islam. Given at the annual Dar al Islam Teachers’ Institute in New Mexico, these lectures are meant to provide a comprehensive overview of the religion and world of Islam for non-Muslims. The classroom style presentation covers five main areas: the Holy Qur’an, basic practices, core beliefs, spirituality and the end of time.

The program is based on the well-known hadith (prophetic saying) of Angel Gabriel that teaches Islam, iman (faith) and ihsan (spirituality). Although he focuses on the basic teachings, his deeper exploration of the subject results in a series which any non-Muslim, new Muslim or life-long Muslim can appreciate and benefit from.

These lectures are essential for any person or organization seeking to educate others about the true teachings of Islam. Some of the topics discussed: Islam as the teaching of previous prophets, rationalizing God’s rulings, the problem of evil, God’s imminence, capital punishment, suicide, losing the spirit of the Law, Dajjal (anti-Christ), and secularization in the Muslim world. (Duration: 8 hours, 55 min)

Prescribed Reading: Being Muslim: A Practical Guide by Asad Tarsin
to sleep, perchance to dream
By: Michele Catalano
Tags: Dreams, Nightmare, Anxiety

I am submerged. I am gasping for air, reaching, trying to propel myself up. This time it is water. Other times it is sand, dirt. I swim or claw my way out, wake up breathless, panicky.

I am driving over a bridge. It’s a familiar bridge, I know it by heart by now, every wild turn and deep rivet. I know it’s going to plunge me into the water and I drive slowly, hands shaking until I reach the point where the bridge dips into the ocean. I hold my breath even though the water doesn’t enter the car. I keep driving, blinded by the dark water, guided only by the feel of pavement underneath me. I emerge, breathless, panicky. I keep driving toward my destination.

There’s a hotel. It is expansive and opulent, there are more rooms than any hotel should have. I know where my room is, I just can’t get there. The elevator never comes. I go to another bank of elevators and get on the first one with open doors. It takes me to the wrong floor and I have to traverse miles before I can find the stairs that takes me to my floor.

I’m trying to reach you. At first I can’t find my phone. When I do find it, numbers are missing. I try to call you but can’t hit the right combination of numbers. I need to talk to you, desperately. It’s been days. You’re probably worried. I want to let you know I’m okay. I try to text but the message never goes through. I feel disconnected from you, I’m a balloon that’s been let go.

I don’t know where I’m supposed to be. Work? School? I’m in a parking lot. I know I’m late but I don’t know what I’m late for. The building is nondescript and I try door after door. I gently jiggle the handles. They’re all locked. I look at my watch, panic sets in. I walk the halls. I bump into people, I drop the notebooks I’m holding, I stumble in my heels. I wake up, sure I’m late for something. It’s midnight.

I’m trying to run but my legs feel like weights. I just want to lie down, right there in the street, but something tells me to run, run, and I try but my feet drag on the ground and then I’m crawling across the road and there are cars coming. There’s someone waiting for me on the other side, beckoning, but I can’t. I lay down in the middle of the road, my body heavy, my energy depleted.

I am trying to wake up. I can’t open my eyes. Wake up, wake up, I whisper to myself. I’m half in, half out of a dream. I can hear things around me in my waking world; a car passes, a sprinkler goes off, the radiator hums. I can’t move. My arms, my legs are immobile. I am dead weight. There is something, someone on my chest. I feel the pressure, I feel the heaviness sinking into me, I could swear I feel someone’s breath. I want to push them off of me but I’m paralyzed and I panic, I try to force my eyes open, I try to shake my head to pull my out of this state of wakeful dreams. Finally, the pressure relents. I open my eyes. My breaths come deep and furious, I gasp, then scream.

I am awake. I am alive. It is 3am and I will not go back to sleep, to dream.
Imaginative Proposals, Part Zero: a Call for Writers
By: Black Cat
Tags: Socialism, Writing, Politics, Anarchism, Imagination

I have a small but dedicated fanbase of people on twitter:

Many do not actually agree with me, per se. Instead, they seem fascinated with weirdness-for-the-sake-of-weirdness — my draw for them is not so much that they necessarily agree with all of what I have to say, but that what I have to say is novel.

Novelty is sorely needed, and I — anarchist but accelerationist, pro-market but anti-capitalist, iconclastic, divorced of most subcultural ties but appreciative of them regardless, always controversial but rarely edgy — provide it. A friend recently described me as a writerhobo, in analogy with the term murderhobo, from tabletop role-playing games. For those unfamiliar, wikitionary defines it as:

A player character who wanders the gameworld, unattached to any community, indiscriminately killing and looting

I am a writer, surfing the wave of political radicalization, unattached to any community, indiscriminately writing and thinking.

This is why I am in some sense socially empowered to do what I am about to do: lay out a series of totally contradictory political programs simply for the sake of stimulating your political imaginations.

This is sorely needed right now. Most people are simply not that imaginative. Of course, the state goes to great lengths to make it so.

The impression, even amongst radicals, seems to be that there are basically only two possible (modern) societies: American-style capitalism, or Soviet-style socialism. Of course, mild variations are allowed — less or more government intervention, mostly. But everything is seen as basically being one of those two things.

Even the anarcho-communists — who, are, unfortunately, the largest group that I tend to find myself in general coalition with — seem to have the impression that they can run what is essentially a Soviet-style planned economy, but without any of the internal structures (an expert planning bureaucracy, police and soldiers to enforce the plans and the state’s property claims, and so on) that made that possible.

As someone who considers himself to be on the Left, and who believes that the Left is the politics of the imagination, this is very upsetting to me. This belief, I should mention, will likely persist beyond all evidence to the contrary:

I will always believe that the Left is the politics of the imagination — and if the actually existing Left ceases to imagine, then it is not the true Left, but a mere imposter grown up like a cuckoo in the nest that something greater should occupy. That this seems to have happened does not deter me:
This Is What Straight Men Are Afraid To Tell Their Girlfriends (In Bed)
Tags: Feminism, Women, Sex, Sexuality, Relationships

If You See This in A “How To” Article, It Might Be Time to Stop Reading

I’m cautious when I see articles that give advice about a specific sex act, even though I write these articles myself. When I stumble upon an intriguing “How To” there are two problematic trends I look out for.

When personal experience reinforces sex-negative culture.

Everyone’s body is different. Gender is a spectrum. Sexuality is unique and unfolds as we grow. On top of all this, disability, race, age, and class status influence our sexuality. There is no one size fit all.

Personal essays are a vital member of the Journalism family. They break barriers, inspire compassion, and give the microphone to diverse voices. They can also magnify dominant narratives if we aren’t careful.

When a personal essay is turned into a “How To” article about sex, the reader’s ability to explore pleasure and connect with their sexuality is limited to the bias of the author. Now, sometimes that’s exactly why we enjoy these articles — because we relate to its nuance — and I will discuss this in the next section.

The sexual empowerment industry, like all other industries, is predominantly heterosexual. It caters to straight people and was defined by famous heterosexuals like Sigmund Freud (though it’s significant to note that Alfred Kinsey was bisexual). On top of being predominantly heterosexual, the industry is crowded with straight women who have been robbed of pleasure by patriarchal systems. Unfortunately, this means that many personal essays turned “How To” articles become a crash course in heterosexuality or another damaging norm.

To be clear, no author can perfectly include everything or everyone. I also believe that most sex writers (even the ones with PhDs) don’t mean to reinforce sex-negative culture, but we make mistakes too.

“As you continue on your journey to understand sex, remember, you are really just asking if you understand yourself.”

As a reader, if an article doesn’t encourage you to use their tips as a guideline to get to know your body, your lifestyle, or your sexuality — it might be time to stop reading.

The sex article that teaches you to prioritize someone else’s pleasure.

The other big no-no that I see in “How To” articles is that only one person’s pleasure is a priority.

This is especially popular in articles written for straight women. Unfortunately, sexual empowerment has been monetized. And companies have recognized that heterosexual women will spend time and money to learn how to please a man. This trend is turning around and I encounter many straight men who want to learn about vulva’s as well.

Nevertheless, if you are reading an article that asks you to focus on one gender’s sexual pleasure. I recommend moving on to another source.
Introducing Talks @ HapRamp
By: Rajat Dangi
Tags: Ideas, Talks, Indian Startups, Press Release, Knowledge Sharing

We’ve added something new to our work culture, we call it ‘Talks at HapRamp’.

By working together for the last six months on our platform we have realized that people in the team loves learning and sharing new ideas with each other.

So, we started these short idea-sharing sessions in the form of organized talks.

The sessions are usually 20–30 minutes long followed by a short discussion or Q&A.

Every weekday a team member shares an idea or learning with all of us in those talks.

We are planning to bring these talks to a bigger stage or host invited talks. Until then we’ll keep sharing the topics and what we discussed on our blog.

Stay tuned!
Brand Name
By: Elizabeth Helmich
Tags: Self Improvement, Self Love, Poetry, Self-awareness, Literally Literary

Louis Vuitton shoe art in Venice — source

I’ve decided to be French,

Now I don’t have to care

About anything that goes

Into my mouth, only no excess,

That’s the secret key to success!

Now that I’m French

My purchases — fresh, bright things,

Accessories make a lady, you know

If I become permanent bling, a gold rush

Entrance in lamé, apropos

It’s easy, when you’re French,

A path will greet me when I take

The next step, lively out a painted door,

My needs to be met, just as soon

As I choose to give the world — more!

Since I’m an all-new me,

My high heels match my highlights,

A smile lightbulbs my whole day,

Faking it until making it

Only works when we fail to play

I’m really not French,

Still the very same old me,

Learning how to be, more

Than an inner plea, my outer

Surface reflecting all that I see

Hello there, how do you do?

I’d really enjoy a glimpse

Of a less faulty point of view,

The pleasure’s all mine, truly,

To meet, to greet…you.
Ode to Candles
By: Veronica Georgieva
Tags: Mental Health, Depression, Poetry, Anxiety, Self

Ode to Candles

Inspired by the prompt: Ode to Common Things

Photo by Mercedes Bosquet on Unsplash

To that candle,

burning while my thoughts

were vibrating in their anxiety,

my lungs were uncontrollable

and my eyes couldn't perceive

anything but a flame,

I say

Thank you!

To that candle,

letting its warmth hug me from afar,

while cold tears were reminding me

how scared and alone I still was

and screams in my head were

cutting away from my brain,

I say

Thank you!

To that candle,

making me concentrate on something

other than suffering,

making me connect with the right reality

thus allowing me to battle

irrationality,

I say

Thank you!

To that candle,

calming me with its fire,

letting me remember I’m still real

and here,

bringing me back in my mind,

from which I had escaped,

I say

Thank you!

Thank you

for I have found peace inside of your flame.
Contrails
By: Shringi Kumari
Tags: Sky, Poetry, Path, Life, Self

Enquiries are lines in the sky. They give us a path on an abstract-abundant canvas. They tell our eyes, how to look at the expanse. To observe those contrails, one must have the willingness to follow other’s journey.

How earth opens to the sea? Consumes water in simpler formats: river, lakes, glaciers, streams. Allows its contours to start forming in the sky or the ocean, long before they appear on earth’s surface. This is how a human life is. It begins much before its conception and ends in trails we can barely follow. It is only when some abstract lines meet the soil, that we emerge. Bodies bearing the soft weight of waiting contrails.

Here,

Unwind

Follow, dive Argue, cry

to the ice dunes, to the hung kites

Laugh, close those eyes

Walk — for every step

is a contrail, appearing Let words tumble

Frame and face disappear

Let the human tumble

Fall, fight, fold into a yellow bug Sing prayers, lose mothers Here,

Shine. Assemble a contrail

that carries rainbows

to their birthing seas

to their temples — the ride.

~