fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Az104 — Azure Routing. · Network traffic in Azure is…
By: Setumo Raphela
Tags: Az104, Microsoft, Azure, Cloud Computing

· Network traffic in Azure is automatically routed across Azure subnets, virtual networks, and on-premises networks.

· This routing is controlled by system routes, which are assigned by default to each subnet in a virtual network.

· With these system routes, any Azure virtual machine that is deployed to a virtual network can communicate with all other Azure virtual machines in subnets in that network.

· You can’t create or delete system routes

· Every subnet has the following default system routes

· Within Azure, there are additional system routes.

· Azure will create these routes if the following capabilities are enabled:

Virtual network peering

Service chaining

Virtual network gateway

Virtual network service endpoint

· System routes might make it easy for you to quickly get your environment up and running.

· But there are many scenarios in which you’ll want to more closely control the traffic flow within your network.

· For example, you might want to route traffic through an NVA or through a firewall from partners and others.

· This control is possible with custom routes.

· You have two options for implementing custom routes: create a user-defined route or use Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to exchange routes between Azure and on-premises networks.

If multiple routes are available in a route table, Azure uses the route with the longest prefix match

For example, if a message is sent to the IP address 10.0.0.2, but two routes are available with the 10.0.0.0/16 and 10.0.0.0/24 prefixes, Azure selects the route with the 10.0.0.0/24 prefix because it’s more specific.

· A network virtual appliance (NVA) is a virtual appliance that consists of various layers like:
SlidesClicker
By: Kanwar Singh
Tags: Microsoft, Slides, Presentations, Google, Productivity

Have you been in a town-hall or meeting where you are one of the multiple presenters and one person coordinates and runs the presentation? And usually you have to say ‘Next Slide’ or ‘Sorry you jumped ahead’ or ‘Can you go back a slide?’ a couple of times during your session. You own the presentation but you don’t control the presentation when it matters the most. And more often than not it destroys the flow of the presentation, impacts your thought process and causes unnecessary interruption. One of the common alternatives is to not have any central person coordinating but each presenter giving control to the next as and when their slot comes up. This again involves giving control in the middle of the session.

To address this common but neglected issue, Slides Clicker introduced an advanced multi presenter tool that lets multiple presenters control slides from their PC (Windows/Mac) or their phone, in a conference room or remote from anywhere in the world. It lets you provide access to all presenters before the session or real time and presenters can seamlessly switch. Presenters can access via the web or use their own phone as a remote control to move slides forward and backward. They no longer have to ask others to drive the slides and can present at their own pace to engage and interact with audience

In addition it provides two additional functionalities. Timer and Speaker Notes.

Timer — Time management is critical during presentation and Timer allows presenters to keep track of time so as to pace themselves and manage time effectively. It helps the presenter stay in allotted time and leave enough time for post presentation Q&A if applicable. Speaker Notes — Speaker notes can be used in various ways but primary usage is for the presenter to write reference material or tips that can be referred to during the presentation. Notes are only viewable to the presenter.

Slides Clicker takes flexibility to the next level. It works with any presentation application such as Microsoft Powerpoint, Google Slides, PDF, Zoho Slides, Libre Office, Canva etc.

For more details and latest updates you can head over to www.slidesclicker.com
Microsoft Full Course FREE
Tags: Microsoft, Course, Software Engineering, Software Development, Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office 2016 Access Complete Video Course - Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced - John…

Nowadays almost every job in the business world involves office products. Whether you're an administrative assistant…
How to protect your data with Dynamic 365 Finance and Operations
Tags: Microsoft, Ms Dynamics Crm

Security is one of the most crucial aspects of maintaining a successful business. Several matters can go wrong in an unsecured organization. Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations has security features that play a vital role in keeping information and data security of any business or organization. With role-based security, MS Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations can manage and maintain the role-data of employees, keeping data and customer information safe and secure. Here are a few ways that Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations keep your organization’s data secure:

Role-Based Security Through role-based security, organizations can set parent and child accounts, which helps to manage and maintain the secured information. Role-based security is hierarchy based. For example, a manager account can be the parent account to a salesperson account. Administrators can limit the data that only certain users access using data security policies. These administrators assign duties, privileges and permissions to the users, which can determine how much access the users have to information. Role-based security keeps the data secure and accessible to the right people.

Authentication & Authorization Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations uses Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AAD) to spot users. MS Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations has security permission that controls access to information. Based on the roles of employees, privileges as assigned. Every employee does not have access to information unless they are authorized by the administration to do so.

• Out-of-box Security Reports Finance and Operations equip users with the option of out-of-box security reports to guide the administration in maintaining security. These reports include user role assignments, role to user assignments, security role access, and security duty assignments. These reports help to view and administer security roles for accounts and with batch processing, the administration can run these reports as a batch job. With Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, users can be confident that data and information are safe. Are you looking to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations in your business or organization? Do you want to be trained or want your employees to get trained in MS Dynamics 365? Consult Varnaaz Technologies pioneers in learning and training MS Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.

For more information

Visit: www.varnaaz.com

Call: 9035013640
5 Ways to Ignite Your Sex Life
By: Lindsay Soberano-Wilson
Tags: Sex, Advice, Relationships, Essay, Love

Share Fantasies with your Partner

That’s right. Don’t be shy. Tell your partner what it is you want to try. Don’t filter yourself. Start small. Then go big. For example: maybe you want your partner to watch you play with a toy. Or perhaps you want your partner to try the toy on you. Don’t have a toy? Buy one.

2. Talk Dirty

Try it. Even if it doesn’t come naturally – fake it to make it. Say something. Open the door. Linger there for a while. See what pops up in your mind. And encourage your partner. It needs to be a mutual language of love. Timing and delivery are key though. You’re going to want to ensure things are hot and heavy before you add a layer of enticement. And you’re going to want to speak confidently and loudly enough to make an impact.

3. Sext your partner

Sexting isn’t just for teens. It’s for adults too. Send your partner a sexy pic in the middle of the workday. Or simply let them know what you want to do to them later. Even just setting an intention to have a “date” can grow excitement and anticipation.

4. Explore light BDSM

Okay, okay, it’s not for everyone and you didn’t even like 50 Shades of Grey, BUT BDSM isn’t all about chains and dripping wax. Have you ever tried a flogger? What about a collar? Or a feather? Handcuffs? Rope? Blindfolds? Try it. Explore the art of sex through your own imaginations.

5. Role Play

Since we’re already talking about using your imagination we may as well consider the art of role-playing. So maybe you’re not ready for that wild threesome you’ve both been fantasizing about since like forever. Then, by all means, act it out. Set the stage. Read the script. Know your role. Or write a new script. And when you discover who you enjoy being then learn and explore that persona.
The Ocean
By: Rn Nabila
Tags: Essay, Poem, Poet, Ocean

As someone who lives in an archipelago country, I have this kind of urge to live in a house near the ocean. I always thought the ocean is beautiful and somewhat magical. The air tastes different, and the wind felt like it’s calling you. When I gaze into it, I couldn’t see the end of it. And it just felt,

free.

It’s funny how I always longing to see the ocean. But when I am inside it, I felt

scared.

I couldn’t touch the ground.

I couldn’t hold on into anything.

I couldn’t see what’s lurking below my feet.

I don’t know what kind of creatures live in a place where the light’s couldn’t touch.

I felt powerless against the wave. I felt like I’m going to drown.

So I prefer to stay on the shores. Picking up all the pretty seashells that got washed out from the ocean. I gather it in a jar, that I put beside my bed. Every night I tuck myself in and stare into all that pretty things. It remains me of the ocean. A place that beautiful to see but never brave enough to explore.

Just like the freedom that I always seek.

I know the freedom that I always wanted, nor the sea itself won’t be as pretty as the seashells that I collect from the shores. It could be scary. But the seashells is just one in a million things inside that ocean. What else pretty thing the ocean could possibly hide from us?
The pen is mightier than the sword expansion of the idea
Tags: Student Life, Articles, Technology, Essay, Students

Introduction ‘expansion of idea a pen is mightier than the sword’

The famous phrase ‘pen is mightier than the sword’ was first written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton which later became extremely popular all over the world.

Everyone knows that the sword is a sharp weapon while the pen is a means of writing but the power of the pen is much greater than the sword. What a sharp edge of a sword cannot achieve, a small tip of a pen can easily achieve.

Meaning of per is powerful than the sword

The pen and the sword cannot be compared because the pen is used for writing purposes and the sword is used for fighting purposes but the author wants to say this through the saying “pen is mightier than the sword”

The power of writing is stronger than the effects of war. War is always destructive and ends life.

The sword can only kill and only results in defeat, loss, and death. Although a team can win a war the loss of many lives is the biggest loss while writing is harmony, peace, and precious.

Books written with pen give us education and knowledge that is always with us. We cannot forget the lessons we heard in our childhood from our grandparents, parents, teachers, etc. All these stories give us lessons that we preserve for our lifetime .

It has been written about books and it has been said that ‘books are the treasure of knowledge’, ‘books are the best companions’, ‘books are the path of truth’ etc. A book written with a pen teaches important and correct lessons.

Not every book is wrong because it teaches some wrong lessons. Some books may be banned or blocked. It is the pen that makes the book powerful.

The power of the pen can also be understood from the fact that a wrong answer written in the answer during the examination etc. can weigh heavily on us.

We are able to read and write about history, geography, religion, science, etc. which has played an important role in imparting important knowledge and information to the writers for the coming generations.

History is proof that writers have changed the world through their writing. Mahatma Gandhi, John Keat, Swami Vivekananda, William Wordsworth, etc. have created magic through their writings. Penn has the power to break demographic barriers.

A book is written in another country but it can be read all over the world. Through their propaganda and knowledge, the writers fought against various social evils which resulted in a change in society.

Writing has the power to create or destroy the image of political leaders, actors, players, etc. The writer must be careful and prudent to know how to write through the power of the pen…….Continue reading here
Holiday Heat
By: Elle Beau
Tags: Erotica, Sensual, Newsletter, Essay, Poetry

Some of our favorite Sensual submissions from the past week

Licensed from Adobe Stock

Happy Holidays! Here are just a few of our favorite submissions to Sensual this week. For more, please check out Sensual: An Erotic Life’s main page.

Essays 🧠

Sexual Submission: What Are You “Giving Up” When You Submit? by Anne Shark

Masturbation Is Very Natural by Nosh Komen

Women Want Great Sex; Men Want Emotional Bonding by Elle Beau

Hell Yes, I’m A Kinky Librarian by Zara Everly

My Experience Using A Yoni Egg by Yael Wolfe

Erotica 💋

Wind and Unwind by Jupiter Grant

Poetry 🧝‍♀️

April Mists by Fleur Sauvage

This May As Well Happen by Barry Dawson IV

Eighty by Patrick M. Ohana

My Lover’s Flaccid Penis by Mysterious Witt
Nibandh Hindi Mein
Tags: Hindi, Essay, Hindi Essays

Second Things About this term Nibandh Hindi Mein Essay. There are some important facts of an accurate essay. Such as reading the essay, we receive a serial idea of any author. By reading the essay, we get special knowledge about the specific topic.
Perseverance
By: Phyoe Min Thant
Tags: Essay, Writing, English

We work hard and go on working hard until we finish the work. I think that is perseverance. Perseverance means keeping on trying until we succeed. If we had perseverance in our work, we would get the blessings on earth. Perseverance never fails to bring success in the end.

Man is the architect of his own fate.

If we make proper use of our time, we will surely prosper in life. If we do not, we will fail.

Perseverance is to work hard and regularly and not to give up. It is a very good habit, but only a few persons have that habit. We must work regularly and very well. Our work may be difficult but we must go on doing our work until we finish it successfully.

A student begins to work for an examination at school. His subjects are new and interesting. At first, he finds them easy, and works well. After a few months, the subjects become more difficult. He loses his interest. At last, he gives up his regular work and wastes his time. So, he fails in the examination.

Many of students do not work hard. They want to do only easy work. If work has become difficult, they give up. They should work very hard but they waste their time. No wonder they fail in their examination. So students must have perseverance if they want to pass their exams and get good marks. If they want to be doctors or engineers, or university teachers, they must work hard now. They will then get good marks and they will be allowed to take up higher studies.

We should have perseverance. If we don’t have, we will not succeed in life. First, we will fail in our exams. If we fail, then we will not be able to get a good job after our school. We will not prosper. We must have the habit of working hard. Then only we will be able to work hard in jobs later. Then only we will become successful people.

We must always work hard. All men must work hard. All women must work hard, too. There are many things to do in our lives. If we do not have perseverance, we will not become rich or powerful. We should get that habit now.

To gain perseverance we must be punctual in our work. We must do our work with great care so that we do not make mistakes. We must be punctual and careful. People who don’t go to work on time and people who don’t care to do the work properly, will become useless. They will become poor people.

Man has strength and ability to do any kind of work. We must do it even if we don’t like it. If we work hard, the work will be quite easy for us. Nothing is difficult to a hard worker. So we should become regular hard workers. Regular work helps to build our character. It teaches us such good habits as punctuality, carefulness and perseverance.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF STUDYİNG ABROAD?
Tags: Essay, Teknologi, Disadvantages, Avantage, Internet

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF STUDYİNG ABROAD?

The world has become a very well connected place thanks to the developments in technology and transportation. Due to globalization, many students now prefer to study abroad for various reasons. People want to improve themselves, follow innovations and be international. There are of studying abroad advantages and disadvantages. Its advantages are learning a new language and making international friends. The disadvantages are missing family and friends.

The first advantage of studying abroad is to learn a new language. Learning a new language allows you to get to know their different worlds and self-confidence to increase. People studying abroad find work easier because they know the language. For example, an import-export company needs an employee who speaks a foreign language. Therefore, they take people who speak foreign languages.

The second advantage of studying abroad is to make international friends. Students who study abroad meet many other students from various countries. And this situation gives people an advantage in both social and business lives.

However, there are disadvantages to working abroad. Such as missing family and friends. If you’re studying abroad, you can’t always go home. If your home is far away, it will be harder for you to go home. In conclusion, working abroad has its advantages and disadvantages. If you want to study abroad, you need to know these.
Capturing Essences: A Writer’s Experience — Chapter Two
By: Alicia Cahalane Lewis
Tags: Humanity, Creativity, Human Experience, Writing, Essay

Author’s note: This is not a book of essays “just for writers,” but a few thoughts I’d like to offer to all creative spirits wishing to make a difference in helping to lift the energy on this planet and what I feel are some important steps we can all take to bring solutions through creative expression.

CHAPTER TWO

Capturing Essences. What exactly does this mean? In this chapter I want to explore nuance, the difficult part of every relationship. Nuance is the struggle, or the under-appreciated attempt to define equanimity, but either way you look at it nuance is struggling to gain a foothold because we’re composites of yes and no, black and white, right and wrong. The planet is dualistic, although nuanced, but respectfully an either/or kind of place.

Capturing the essence of something, to me, is about building equanimity. It is returning softness to a hardscrabble existence. Let’s face it…not all of us have it that bad, and I’m certainly in a fine position so that my life probably would never be perceived as a struggle, but struggle is how we create, and through struggle, which we define as personal or societal, the presence of needing to overcome something just for the sake of the experience has been what we all do. Struggle wears many different clothes and has many faces.

Creation comes from a series of explosive actions. Creation comes as a result of action. Take a thought, such as writing a novel, and the only way we’re ever going to get that novel started, let alone finished, is to take the action called desire, the action called crafting form, and write it. All creativity is born from taking action.

Capturing the essence of creation is about capturing the truth of oneself, construct or reconstruct it so that you and I become the whole beings I believe we’re capable of, and retuning to that place of essence. Theologians, philosophers, and scientists all reconstruct theories. We all do it. Capturing the essence of something isn’t about right or wrong but about capturing the nuance of all that is.

More Chapters On Medium

Read The Full Work On My Website
Mahatma Gandhi Essay in Hindi — Anmol Hindi
By: Anmol Hindi
Tags: Information, Essay, Hindi, Hindi Kavita

Hello, I am a Hindi blogger, I was very fond of writing since childhood, and I want to take my mother tongue Hindi forward.
Hey Clipper Art!
By: Shinjitsu Muku
Tags: Photos, Poem, Life, Essay, Fancy Conversation

Hey Clipper Art!

Recent cool young are fashionable with shaving on their head.

I heard that it’s like an adult.

Hair clipper Art !

Wow cool.

Huh, you noticed I’m different from the other citrus fruits there.

Thank you about that.

Me too, I am the art citrus that I got a little modified.

In my case using chisel instead of hair clipper.

I don’t care about the details.

In any era, fashionable is important.

Because of that, nobody eat me.

So what ?
How to Select the Right Research Topic?
By: Stacy Miller
Tags: Essay, Research

Choosing the right lookup topics requires right research skill. If you want to take your assignments seriously or opt for to give up a paper writing service, then you have to decorate your writing intelligence too. Only a paper creator can recognize the actual charge of a problem matter have an impact on the ordinary content material cloth of the article or an essay.

However, deciding on the proper theme makes many matters convenient for you. Here in this article, I am going to mention some of the recommendations you can use to find out the best theme lookup topics:

Brainstorm Some Research Topics

The first step of any lookup is to have some brainstorming session. It’s the first-rate begin of any lookup method. Try to hit upon something you locate interested, so you don’t have to lose interest at the same time as writing the content. Look at proper here and there, continue to be updated or do some social participation. See the spark of the cutting-edge topics, see which are the trendy things these days.

Select a Topic

After brainstorming, the next step is to pick out the right topic. This step is very effortless on the other hand time-consuming. Spend your time in deciding on the proper topic; otherwise, you have to face the penalties whilst writing the content. Don’t go for a exact subject matter instead, then pick out board one. This will provide you an concept about what you choose next.

Get Super Specific

Once you have chosen the wide challenge topic, now its time to get into specific one, determine your interest and understanding on the concern matter you like the most. Change your case even in the ultimate minutes if you don’t come across any pastime in it.

Define Your Topic as a Question

The title of your situation ought to be question-based. Now the question arises why it be like that? Because it will entice the reader and make him curious to examine the full look up paper.

Create an Outline

Now you are performed with the title and preliminary research, its time to create an outline. Having an outline will assist you to cowl the content material from all aspects. Make sure to consist of all the headings and subheadings according to the context.

Conclusion

Finding the right theme to write essay for me is now not an effortless challenge for writing a proper research paper and gaining ideal grades. One’s having to have to choose a theme in accordance to his interest.
Well then, Byeeeeee
By: Shinjitsu Muku
Tags: Photos, Poem, Life, Essay, Fancy Conversation

Well then, Byeeeeee

I fell down….

from cliff

I maybe think.

Because I don’t have any memories.

well….I wonder 1 week ago.

It was pour down and I felt bad that I was at edge of the cliff.

Soil at my foot, maybe I should say my roots, collapsed then I noticed I’m here.

Waterside sandy beach.

The high tide time, I’m miserable.

I feel good slow waves touch my body, I can sleep lightly, then my half body is soaking. And I am flowed a little sometimes.

The water power move my body is amazing, isn’t it ?

I’m concerned if this condition continues, it will happen oysters lay their egg to my beautiful afro roots.

My driftwood body is too big, and my damp body has no sex appeal.

Hah…I wonder what is my future.

Anyway it is not bad, grow at will, live here at will.

Furtherer more I can talk like this.

Oh, you already go ?

It’s a little pity, because we are in good spirits.

Well then, Byeeeeee

Just kidding!
On the run
By: Jeremy B. Yoder
Tags: Fitness, Running, Los Angeles, Covid 19 Crisis, Essay

On the run

The Sunday before Election Day 2020, I ran my 2,000th mile of the year; now, in late December, I’m closing in on mile 2,300. In a typical week this autumn, I spent maybe a dozen hours outside the cloistered courtyard of my apartment building. An hour of that is a weekly trip for groceries; about four hours for two trips to campus to give video lectures over a maximally stable Internet connection. The other seven have been on the run.

By my fragmentary records — a decade and a half of running spread over three different fitness apps and a spreadsheet so old its file extension is .xls — in 2020 I’ll best a previous annual distance of 1,973 miles, which the total for the year I finished a PhD and ran my third marathon. I started training for one marathon this spring, and then another in autumn, but they’ve each been deferred, like so many other plans this year.

I started training for one marathon this spring, and then another in autumn, but they’ve each been deferred, like so many other plans this year.

At first the training was the reason for all that time on foot, but when the first marathon was postponed I kept on training anyway. Working from home, I had about ninety minutes a day that I would’ve otherwise spent commuting. (“I wish I didn’t have to drive so much”; the monkey’s paw twitches.) And what else should I do? All around Los Angeles, people limited interpersonal contact to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-19 virus, coping with the cabin fever by porting their social lives to videochat, by watching even more television, by ordering food delivery, by improvising home gymnasia — I set a personal weekly distance record on sidewalk-less suburban streets.

Los Angeles is not a great city for running. My regular routes string together patches of green and relative quiet in the east Valley: around the park that’s wedged against highway 170 in North Hollywood, down the paved-over rail bed from NoHo to Burbank, up the steep dusty trails of Fryman Canyon, past studio lots to the concrete banks of the Los Angeles River and the balding slopes of Griffith Park.

On every street and trail, I’m among other people. Outdoor activity has been one consistent allowance for everyone’s mental health, even through the hardest isolation orders. Parents push strollers the size of ice cream carts, trailing children on training-wheeled bikes; elderly women power-walk in platoons or shepherd husbands on evening walks; dogs turn their leashes into trip-wires with detours into the bushes; people of every age and gender on pass on skateboards, scooters, vaguely science-fictional electric wheeled conveyances. Also other runners, to be passed or let past. When another person comes within the six-foot zone of Distancing, I pull up the bandana I wear as a mask, and maybe we trade a nod or a wave or raised eyebrows.

Mostly, though, I’m alone with the podcast voices on my headphones as I slalom through slower pedestrians, counting up the miles.
Her Story
Tags: Family History, Essay, Feminism

Family portrait 1

Here should be a portrait, or at least a drawing of a Rachel Steere (1756-?). Of course there were no photography studios back then, to capture one of those unsmiling oh, so very casual shots that family historians, those collectors of data like to collect as proof, evidence of how we arrived here.

She was born, according to records, on January 3, 1756. She had a son, Shadrach, born August 17, 1779.

I finally confirmed this fact, not the date of his birth, but the ‘fact’ at least by existing records, in this case, her will, stating that she was a single woman and she was leaving her entire estate to her son, Shadrach.

We know a lot about him, he is there in the Rhode Island histories, in learned, doctoral theses, and yes, we even have a ‘snapshot’ taken sometime before his death on January 8, 1870.

I think she would be tickled to know that her great great great great, honestly I’m not sure how many greats we are, I believe we are her 4th great granddaughters, still carry her surname. I named one of my daughters Rachel. I thought, at the time, that it was by chance, but I wonder if her ghost lightly tapped me on the shoulder the day I chose her name, and whispered, “Remember me.”
Best Essay
Tags: Movies, Challenge, Essay, Challenges In Life

Good morning.

My dream is to be an intern for Mr. Nishino.

Today, I finished reading Mr. Nishino’s essay, “Garbage People.

I’m going to write about it as a note article today so that I don’t forget my thoughts when I read it.

I like Nishino

The day I picked up Fanfare for Revolution.

I immediately fell in love with the words that Mr. Nishino spelled.

I love it.

So I immediately bought Mr. Nishino’s new book right away.

It was really

It was the best.

There it was, the words of Mr. Nishino that I had fallen in love with.

There were many hardships and harsh realities.

But I felt a very gentle “feeling”.

A dream that was laughed at by the whole of Japan

Mr. Nishino wrote a final letter to all those who would take up the challenge.

Don’t lose. Go crazy learning and be strong. Get overwhelmingly strong, and be stronger than anyone else.

We’ll get muddy, we’ll get humiliated.

I’ll keep failing.

I will become stronger than anyone else.

And to all the people I made friends with.

“My dream is to be an intern for Mr. Nishino!”

I’m going to go around saying that!

【My activities】

drawing
Dear 2020
Tags: 2020, Covid 19, Essay, Life

Photo by Rachel Lavelle December 2020

I don’t think I’ve ever tried to write one of those letters that you write in order to give those who live across the country an idea of what has happened over the last twelve months. I’m not sure why I decided that this year was the year to do it — no, that’s not exactly true.

I’ve spent most of this year trying to write my way out of it. I am a writer, after all, writers are, at heart, escape artists. We spend our days creating other worlds to lose ourselves in.

This morning, just a little over a week before the end of 2020, I find I cannot escape to a few lines of poetry, or a short story, and so I find myself trying to explain what it means to live right now.

I didn’t take a drink from May 2018 until early on the morning of November 4, 2020. At two thirty that morning, I had finished baking 9 dozen Snickerdoodle cookies. I was shaking, because I knew that in spite of everything, in January 2021, we would get to start again, and I realized I hadn’t really felt anything since November 2016. I made it through most of a pandemic and the years after a failed relationship without taking a single drink, but that morning, I needed something to yank me out of that numbness. So, I got out my roommate’s whisky and poured myself a double.

Some people may see that as a failure. I don’t. It was a choice I made. I made a choice to stop drinking, and I made the choice to drink again.

This year has been about choices. Choices that we make as individuals in the present moment, and choices that we or our ancestors have made in the past. I can only speak for myself, but this year has taught me that we are all addicts in one form or another. I know I will always be in recovery, not because I’m an alcoholic, but because I’m human. I’d like to think if I had to, I could give up my laptop, and my access to all the voices out there on the internet, but I think it would be worse than not being able to reach for a drink for over two years. We all are dependent on something, whether it’s a drug, or a person, or getting a tweet to go viral. We still have not learned, even now, that we should be interdependent. We (I mean this a general we) have not yet learned that how we treat each other really matters.

I have four children, or I should say, I have given birth to four people. They are all remarkable in their own ways, and one day I hope that they will live in a better world. A world that invites all of us to live as we wish, regardless of the color of our skin, our gender, and who we love. I hope that no matter how the world evolves from this year we won’t forget when a hug was more precious than anything else on the planet.
Numbness
By: Parishi Bachkaniwala
Tags: Personal Essay, Numbness, Emptiness, Abstract, Essay

This is a creative writing peace which I wrote for an assignment. The exercise consisted of writing an abstract and making a 3D space in a cube out of that abstract. This is the very abstract which I wrote. It consists an experience and only the emotion and the feel which was felt during that specific moment in time. This is the essence of the feeling and not the feeling itself.

I was afraid to tell people how I feel. I felt it would let them down, rather I would let them down with my problems. I didn’t want them to come close to it. So I buried it deep within. Four walls surrounding it and let it destroy me. Little was I in the knowledge of, that I could understand what I did. Little was I in the knowledge of, that burying it in the four walls within me was the very thing it wanted me to do. And I had done it. These walls are always very unimportantly dangerous, very unexpectedly fathomable and very unrespectably simple. They are extremely fickle when it comes to making decisions. They have a conscious of their own. They understand that supremiety is the only goal and hence they try and expand themselves. Unknowingly we get trapped inside these very walls and become one of it. It’s our own little jail. Where no one is going to come and bail us but ourselves.

When we go to therapists, they tell us to come out of these walls. But they don’t realise that these walls have grown themselves into the Walls of Nanjing(thickest walls of the world). They were a maze now. A closed maze. Like the big bang, it made life as well. The horrific demons, the sadist animals, the fervour beasts. Not evil. Never evil.

I didn’t go to a therapist if that’s what you are wondering. I was never a child to give up. And I didn’t. It’s said that, with time everything will corrode. Hence, I made him my master. I let him corrode. Turn it weak while I was making myself stronger. Gaining energy from its crumbles. Like a virus it had infected me and like a virus I now infected it. Humour. Sadistic humour. Not evil. Never evil. But infectious than was expected.

I thought when it would go away, I would be free. But I was wrong. I had made it a part of my existence. And now when it was nearly gone, I could feel nothingness. Again. I was afraid. Again. But now I knew what exactly to do. I let it build again. I let it consume me again. But this time “I” made it. I rose from it. Like a phoenix. I made it into a kingdom, a kingdom of those demons and beasts, whom I still pet till this very day. A mild entirety of my existence. History repeated… but the lessons learnt? Vastly different. The contortion could be seen and in that I regained my posture and laughed it out.

Written by Parishi Bachkaniwala
真的東西真的很難被取代
By: Licheng Hsu
Tags: Lofiography, Toy Camera, Taiwan, Photography, Essay

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Left us behind…
By: Shinjitsu Muku
Tags: Photos, Poem, Life, Essay, Fancy Conversation

Left us behind…

“What? They took us off suddenly after coming to a sandy beach.”

“It can’t be helped. Because if we got wet, we’d be covered in sand.”

“But They have to think about our hard labour during summer time.”

“Indeed, we are trampled hardy by sweating terrible smell foot without socks.”

“It would be so. Even so we are not allowed to play in the sea.”

“However, think about it…..now we are alone on the beach.”

“Oh yeah….this is rare situation. Normally we are taken off in the dim entrance.”

“How beautiful the sky is.”

“You right. The sun is shining on us.”

“We can see the sea enough from here.”

“Yes, beautiful, it is not bad They left us behind.”

“Yes it is.”

The Love one scene of Jandal.
On the Nature of Entropy
By: Bradley J Nordell
Tags: Entropy, Physics, Creative Non Fiction, Essay, Science

Entropy and Death

As I said earlier, entropy is ubiquitous, which means it also affects you and I. For example, the reason for cellular death lies is because of increasing disorder. This is why we use cryogenics to reduce the entropy of a system (remember, reduce heat and temperature, lower entropy.) Folded proteins have a low entropy — because it only has one microstate, it can be in. Whereas an unfolded one has higher entropy since there are more microstates in the unfolded case, entropy will always go from low to high [6].

We are back once more to time and age. As entropy increases, you decay and get older. Even with research and possible nanotechnology to keep those proteins from unfolding, we may extend this inevitability out farther, but never will we defeat it. If the speed of light is the universe's speed limit, then entropy is truly the limit of death and immortality.

Image depicting unfolded (left) proteins with high Entropy/S and folded protein or low entropy. Image from Wiki Commons

Final Random Thought

So, there is entropy between our eternities of life and death, bound by increases energy configurations. It is also responsible for the heat death of the universe (link). Lastly, we will never have a perfect machine where the energy output > energy input because of entropy(law 2). So, when anyone tells you they have made a perpetual motion machine with free energy, you can say, “Hey, what about entropy?”

But, it's not all death, nihilism, and lost keys. Entropy is also the reason for the complexity and diversity in nature. Because we are always increasing our microstates — this also means more “states” for atoms to exist in and hence more forms and different possibilities. These possibilities also filter into art, writing, story ideas, and poetry. An aspect of creativity maybe that it emerges from random connections and an increase in entropy in your brain. Why? Because you have more brain states to try out different combinations until something finally looks “beautiful.” And lastly, I believe entropy is truly what gives us free will from determinism. Because no matter what you do, randomness will always give you a little bit of indeterminism in life. And therefore, the future can never be written or known.

So go now, my fellow reader, and choose your entropic course.
Making homemade music
By: Alex Polise
Tags: Makers, Music, Learning, Independent Music, Essay

A year ago, I was writing my very first music. Before then, I’d never really tried to write a song. I always thought making music would be impossible.

Maybe like most people, I always saw a song as a whole and perfect package — a perfect representation of a moment, a completely original thought or idea. At the time, I only really listened to songs that had millions of hits on Spotify and so my suspicions were confirmed with every play — from what I heard, music seemed like it was always a perfect sounding version of all of those things.

And from what I could hear, it was completely inaccessible to someone like me, who knows nothing about sound production and is only average at singing and playing instruments.

From what I could hear, music was made by people in Los Angeles — some woman with bleached hair and a guy with sunglasses and a baseball cap on in studio, both seated at a mixing desk with so many buttons and switches that it looks like it could take you to the moon. While they were working on a beat, they had fifteen writers working tirelessly in the other room, generating lyric ideas around a boardroom table:

OK, how about this: it’s summer in California but winter in Sydney. Lovers are split by COVID. The distance is made even larger by the different weather. And so they sing something like ‘Damn the cold, damn the heat, Autumn is where we’ll meet.’ H ow about this: Let’s call the song Grapes of Wrath and make it about a daughter of a vineyard stuck working on the farm while all of her friends are hanging out at the mall I got it: Jesus comes back in 2020 and he proclaims that God isn’t real

Despite feeling like making my own music was impossible, I was inspired by my boyfriend, Dan¹, who is always making new music and can whip up a new song in thirty minutes. So, I set aside a month where I would make some songs and, at the end, perform them at an open mic night.
On Honoring My Feelings
By: Ravyne Hawke
Tags: Self Improvement, Feelings, Self Love, Prompt, Essay

How can I honor how I feel?

I can go through a myriad of emotions in any given day. My feelings can range from neutral, to joyful, to dismal and all points in between. I used to harvest the sad, mournful, melancholy and dismal feelings while disallowing any joyful ones from lingering. For some unknown reason, I didn’t think I deserved joy, which is why it is probably difficult for me to define happiness.

After decades of therapy and practicing mindfulness, I now know the importance of recognizing all of my feelings. However, I also know that while each of my feelings is as important as a heart beat, I also know that some feelings are not essential to sustaining my life. So while I recognize all of my feelings, those that do not serve me well and uplift my soul do not get to linger and be served tea. I recognize them and then let them go. Those feelings that do serve me well and uplift my soul, I try to hold on to them as long as I can until another emotion floods through me.

And so, I honor how I feel by allowing myself to do just that — feel. And then I let go of any negative or sad feelings and embrace positive and uplifting ones.

© 2020 Lori Carlson. All Rights Reserved.
Wizarding Quests
By: John Jamieson
Tags: Magic, Fantasy, Humor, Fiction, Wizards

All wizards have a quest. They are not told what this quest is, which is a bit of a pain. A wizard must search out his true Quest. That is why so many of us seem to be just wandering around, stopping in at various places in numerous kingdoms and just shooting the breeze with people. Oh we like to talk in riddles and sound a little better than thou but really all we are doing is gossiping. Trying to find our one quest, indeed our meaning for having been created. Oh yes, maybe you didn’t know Wizards are not born. No. We are created, but that is a topic for a different post.

Yes, so a wizard just kind falls into the world and then has to figure out why in the 12 circles of Muin they are here. Honestly, it is a pain in the arse. I mean I literally spend every day walking around not knowing what I am supposed to be doing. It sucks. Sure there are the times when a wizard gets hooked up with some adventurers and sets off on a grand or maybe just a little quest.

Let me tell you how those go. You travel with your band and conquer some evil or something like that only to find out…guess what? NOT YOUR WIZARDING QUEST. I mean talk about a kick in the yarbles. I have lost count how many loud mouth cragging muscle bound, too-big-a-sword swinging, bonehead fighters I have healed on these stupid side quests. Oh and don’t forget your high and mighty Cleric. All full of themselves and whatever God or group of Gods is the latest craze with the peasants. And their little rule about not using bladed weapons, which I am sure they just made up so they don’t have to help prepare meals while on these pain in the neck quests. Sometimes there’s a thief. They aren’t so bad. They don’t usually talk much and they tend to keep to themselves. But if you run into some heavy crap. You know like…oh…maybe a Gelatinous cube or something like that guarding a treasure in some dank dungeon or stinking tower, that’s when a thief is pretty much useless. With their tiny daggers and stealth skills, ya, ok, thanks for nothing bud. It is my advice that you get the muscle bound fighter to just toss the tiny thief into the cube, it may distract it from attacking the rest of you, or at the least the treasure gets split one less way.

So, friends, you find me searching for my true Wizard Quest. But first I must take care of this nasty bought of Tolkienitis I seem to have come down with. I think I shall head to the village of Uln. I hear they have an exceptional Apothecary.
The Naming Ceremony
By: John Jamieson
Tags: Magic, Fantasy, Humor, Fiction, Wizards

Greetings travelers, ye call me Thorgath the Mauve. Yes, I said mauve. It’s not my fault, well maybe a bit. You see I thought the naming selection ritual was at one so I had a little nap and well, when they woke me for the ritual it was almost over. Ok, that’s not exactly true. It was over and everyone was standing around waiting for me. So, surrounded by a bunch of miserable looking elder wizards (wizards hate being late, oh and they despise mulling about, both of which many were doing now because of yours truly) I chose my Heraldic wizarding name: Mauve.

Why Mauve? Well it was that or Fucia and I don’t even l know what Fucia is. It’s like peach or something a student of color in the tower of Ventule told me. A small imp fellow, small for even an imp he was, went by the name Frazin Nar if memory serves. he was pleasant enough or so I thought until I caught him swiping coin from my purse. Ok, it’s not a purse it’s a carry all, or a man bag, or ummm…ah hell it’s a purse. So what? I carry a purse. Not just any purse, no, this is a special wizarding purse. You should see the coins disappear from it.
Der Chronist
By: Daniel Weiers
Tags: Rpg, Short Story, Fantasy, Kurzgeschichte, Deutsch

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The reign of Hybrid Monster
By: Syeda Asra
Tags: Comey, Fictional, Bls, Fantasy

by Syeda Asra

Chapter 1

_______________

Onset of dominion

♦️

It was a mid-summer vacation when Riki — a boy of the middle-high school whose only motto of life — was to act normal in every situation. He was popular in school as he was good in his studies and especially for his looks; bright eyes, attractive face, silky black hairs, and tall height. But no one knows the real story of that boy. Riki was the third child in a family of five, he has 2 elder siblings Bella and David, and a younger brother Travis. His father died years ago, his only mother who runs a food truck used to adore Riki as her best child who never brings any complaints home, even Riki’s mother doesn’t know much about him. he rarely speaks at home and sometimes acts strangely, no one, not even a single person knows that Riki has the power to sneak in peoples mind and he can even control minds of people around him. He was born with a red mark on his head covering one right side-eye but inch by inch it keeps vanishing from the moment he turns 1 year old and it vanishes from an eye when he turns 12 and that mark remains only on his head and covered by hairs. Riki always sneaks into people’s minds for reading their thoughts but he rarely uses his power of controlling the minds of peoples.

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