#would be better than a blueprint drafting program

[earwig5]

it's wesker wednesday

#resident evil #albert wesker #chris redfield #jill valentine #william birkin #this is my first foray with krita #who knew actual art software #would be better than a blueprint drafting program

[wonkytensions]

August 12, 2022 (Part 1?)

I have a lot of thoughts so far about today. First of all, I set several hours of things to do for the afternoon as well as stuff for this morning, but I don't know how motivated I'll be to do them. I don't have work today, and there's a part of me that wants to laze around and binge watch movies and TV.

Also I recently learned about Kim Jong Gi, who's a Korean artist. I was really into drawing with just pen a while ago, and I really like the simplicity of it. I still do. Part of the reason I ended up trying to use other materials is for a couple of reasons: 1) I decided that there would be an upper limit of how good I could get while just using a pen, and 2) it wasn't financially feasible/I couldn't make money off of it. I'm trying really hard to not use money-making as a core reasons of why I do my hobbies, but it still sneaks in there. It's consumed a lot of my thoughts for a really long time; I can't just put it down.

But seeing this artist made all of that interest come back, because he's really good and he also doesn't use construction lines or anything like that, he essentially "freehands" everything. (Well, not everything, he does do blueprints/mockups/first drafts of commissions) but a lot of stuff he does is straight out of his head on the paper. I don't think I'd ever be as good as him, since I won't devote the time/energy to it, but it's still a worm in my head that's making me excited to do drawing.

This has several complications. The schedule I wrote up does have an emphasis on doing programming stuff, but there is some drawing stuff (like 60/30 or so). It makes me want to change the whole schedule to just drawing, which defeats the purpose. I did the schedule in the first place to get programming knowledge with the hope of changing jobs. Getting sidetracked by doing drawing defeats the purpose. It also doesn't help that my work situation has gotten a lot more palatable, and the very action of doing some kind of structured hobby stuff is making me feel a lot better and less interested in searching for a new programming job. I can be very emotional and arbirtrary sometimes, and I don't give that enough credit.

I'm also struggling with motivation in some of the courses, as I mentioned about Khan Academy. I'm someone who's very prone to quitting things, and I don't want that to derail any progress. I'm also very prone to being "inspired" and changing everything I do to follow that inspiration. I still don't have a good framework in order to accomodate those impulses without driving myself mad.

Something else I want to keep in mind is whether I should be "allowed" to do work outside of the assigned time. I'm also prone to burning out on stuff, in that I get really worked up in a thing, do a lot of it over a short period of time, and then never want to do it again. The schedule I have right now (50 min of work, 10 min break, then 50 min of something else) is working really well to mitigate that. But I like doing stuff while I'm watching TV or movies, just doing something with my hands, and it would be easy to let myself do some drawing. But I know in that kind of environment, the chances of me getting upset about the quality of my drawing is really high, so I've been avoiding that setup. I'm not really sure what to do about it.

This is a lot more thoughts than I thought it was going to be. I think for right now I'll continue with the schedule that I have and not make any big changes. I need more data and experience with it before I can do anything helpful, I think.

So on to this morning. The first thing I worked on was the Missing Semester. I didn't get really far in it today. I was at the exercises for Chapter 2, and I ran into a lot of problems. Like I said before I can't get any kind of virtual machine running, so I'm doing it all through Cygwin. I didn't want to use a word processor (?) inside Cygwin, so I was trying to find some kind of GUI program. I found the fake Linux filesystem that Cygwin set up, so it was pretty easy to save files written in N++ in that filesystem. That ended up being a big mistake. The exercises wanted me to write several bash files, and something about either the way N++ saved the file or Cygwin ran them kept on leading to a bunch of very confusing and unhelpful errors. I would get EOL errors constantly, a lot of errors about illegal characters, and my program was literally

function marco { marco=$PWD; }

I was getting very frustrated and couldn't figure out where in my short program I was having problems. I spent near an hour trying to figure it out. The only thing I could think of was that it had something to do with me being on Windows and running Cygwin. I reached out to a couple of friends of mine who would be much more likely able to run a Linux computer, with the intent of having them run the program and see if they ran into any errors. Eventually I got impatient and just wrote the program in Vim in Cygwin, and it ran totally fine without errors, but I was frustrated enough that it distracted me from doing the next thing on the schedule, which was finishing up an Udemy course on drawing anatomy.

Before I realized what the problem was, I worked on bash through the break and into the next segment, so I started the anatomy course late. I couldn't focus for a couple reasons, 1) I wanted to go back and do more stuff from the Missing Semester Course because I got very little work done due to the difficulties I was having, 2) I was talking with a friend now about our experiences with programming, and 3) because of being inspired by Kim Jong Gi, I really wanted to work on perspective with Drawabox and not anatomy on Udemy, and the Udemy course recommends using pencils and I'm feeling very pro-pen right now. I ended up just watching one video from that course before moving on.

I made myself start the Programming Languages A class on Coursera, and I'm glad I did. It wasn't particularly interesting or anything (just first day stuff for the course), but it made me feel like I got work done rather than just scrambling like I had done for the rest of the morning.

I think with practice I'll get better at sticking to the schedule, even if that means abandoning a frustrating program in the middle of working on it. Right now I've got a break until 1, and then some more things after that until 4pm. After that I can hang out and do nothing for several hours. I really want to draw right now, not gonna lie.

[mewtwowarrior]

I did a total rewrite of the second part of Ark’s backstory. The skeleton’s the same, but I did major alterations to one part and altered other bits. I definitely like it better than my first run of it, but it still needs some work.

-

First drafts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Second drafts: Part 1 | Part 2 version 1 | Part 2 version 2 (you are here)

Final draft: Combined Parts

-

Tron and Beck kept getting ambushed by Ark. Again and again, she'd show up with a group of Sentries, instigate a fight, and then flee.

They catalogued everything about every instance, especially the location, and a pattern began to emerge.

She was slowly leading them somewhere. But, at this point in time, it was hard to tell exactly where. There were many buildings in that direction, and quite a few of them were under the Occupation's control.

If they could figure out where quickly enough, they could spring the trap before the Occupation could set it.

Most of the time, she attacked them when they were together, but she wasn't afraid to fight just one of them.

So, Beck and Tron made a plan to split up and track Ark. Since she knew Tron and seemed focused on him, he'd fight her, while Beck would follow her when she fled.

It took a few tries to get it right. Several times, she attacked before they split up and ended up targeting Beck a few times.

But, soon, everything lined up in their favor. When she was focused on Tron, Beck was able to stay back and keep eyes on her.

He kept a safe distance from Ark, making sure that she didn't know she was being watched. After they traveled several blocks, finally, she entered a large building.

Memorizing everything he thought was useful, he met back up with Tron to give him the information.

Thanks to being a System Monitor and his close association with Flynn, Tron had access to schematics of all the buildings in the city. The Occupation would've modified the building to their needs, but they had enough to work with.

Based off the blueprints and their experience with the Occupation, there were a couple places that they were likely to be holding Ark.

One of the sides of the building had a loading area, so, when Occupation members were busy unloading a truck, Beck and Tron slipped right past them.

They silently headed up the stairs, the first two floors they tried didn't look like holding areas, but the third was lined with cells.

The floor was dark, and only one cell had an active barrier and an occupant. As they crept closer, it was clear that Ark was in the cell. She was standing there with the blank expression on her face that she always had.

It didn't take long for them to deactivate the barrier and set her free. Tron darted in and quickly stunned her with a low-power pulse, just enough to knock her out for a short while.

Tron scooped up Ark in his arms and followed behind Beck as they left faster than they came.

Things continue going smoothly until they reach the loading area and are greeted by a group of Sentries.

With Tron's hands full, all the fighting came down to Beck, while Tron dodged discs left and right.

They weren't trying to win, just make a path to freedom. As soon as there was an opportunity, they ran for it, though Beck still had to knock down a few opponents.

Paige arrived on the scene just in time to see the two Renegades escape with a captive Occupation member.

Tron and Beck had set up a temporary base in the city, so they secured Ark and hid there while the Occupation searched the city for them.

Once they rested up from their frantic flight, they started investigating Ark's disc. Ark herself had woken up and was just staring blankly off into space.

The Occupation code seemed to be overlaid over her original code, though there were a few older memories that were mixed in.

A quick check of the memories revealed her repeated torture at the hands of the Occupation. There was nothing else before or after that of Ark's memories, the torture suddenly stopped, there was a gap of time, and then her memories of being with the Occupation began.

Since Ark had seemed to respond to Tron's voice before, they tried it again. Tron stood in view of her and said her name.

Like before, her eyes widened and she gasped softly, before returning back to her empty gaze.

Beck had been monitoring her disc, when she recognized Tron, a memory had briefly bubbled to the surface and he had managed to activate it.

It was a short memory, and the timestamp indicated that it was from some time before the Occupation took over.

There was no context to it, it just consisted of Ark standing there in her System Monitor armor, while Tron praised her for doing a good job.

Beck looked to Tron, "Looks like she really thought a lot of you."

Tron nodded quietly, and with a heavy sigh, he went back to looking at Ark's disc, "There has to be something else we can use to bring her back."

Beck thought this over, "I'm just a mechanic, but, my wrench works with a lot of things, lemme try it."

He took the disc from Tron and attached his wrench to it. More information popped up and he started scouring the data.

The Occupation code was straightforward, except for one section, where it seemed to go around and bypass something. The more he looked into it, it was clear that something was wrong, but since he wasn't a medic, he had no idea what it meant.

"Hey, look at this. Something's off here, but I don't know what."

Tron gave it a look, "I'm not sure, either. We need a medic to figure it out."

Beck sighed, "I only know one medic, and I don't think she's too interested in helping us."

With nothing more they could do right now, they both took a much-needed rest.

As time rolled on, they both investigated Ark's disc, but came to no new conclusions. Time passing also lessened the search against them, so much so, that they decided to take turns going out into the city. Maybe a change of pace would help, and maybe they could find a medic willing to assist the Renegades.

Their brief jaunts into the city were unmemorable for the most part, right up until Paige found Beck.

He had continued to wear the Renegade armor and helmet, in the hopes that someone sympathetic and loyal to the cause would offer their help, but, this time, he got slammed to the ground instead.

"Where is she?!" Paige yelled, "What did you do with her?!"

Beck saw the opportunity this presented, and the many problems that came with it, and took a leap of faith.

"She's safe, but she needs help."

Paige hissed, "She needs help because you kidnapped her."

Beck shook his head, "It's more than that. There's something wrong with her disc."

Paige growled, "She could get the proper care with the Occupation, not with a couple of vigilantes."

Beck sighed, "Look, I'll make you a deal."

Paige interrupted, "I don't make deals with kidnappers."

"Just hear me out. If you can fix her, you can take her back to the Occupation, no trouble. I just ask that you watch her memories and make sure that you think that going back to the Occupation is the right thing for her."

This gives Paige pause and she considers it. If this offer was valid, the Renegade would take her straight to his hideout, then she'd have the location of both Renegades and the kidnapped Occupation member. There was a chance that this was a trap, but, she knew that she could take both Renegades, or at least hold them off long enough while she called for backup.

There was no way she could lose. "Fine. Take me to her. The sooner we get this done, the sooner she'll be back where she belongs."

Paige let Beck up and he lead the way, "Do you even know who she is?"

"I can't possibly know every member of the Occupation."

Beck looked back to her, "She was locked up in a cell. Did you ever think that maybe they didn't want you to know who she was?"

Paige didn't like this, but found a plausible reason, "If something's wrong with her, maybe she was quarantined."

Beck turned his gaze ahead, "Maybe. You'll be able to figure it out once you look at her disc."

He took her around a long path, trying to obscure the location as best he could. It might be a temporary lair, but he didn't want to just hand the Occupation an invitation.

As they entered, Beck warned Tron by saying loudly, "I brought a guest."

Paige eyed the sparse room, "Nice place you got here."

Beck just shrugged, "Hey, you work with what you've got."

Paige went over to Ark and started examining her. Once she's done, she looks to Beck, "Nothing seems wrong with her physically, except for some scar remnants and the fact that she never reacted to me looking her over, did you sedate her?"

Beck shook his head, "No. All of that is the Occupation's doing."

Paige snorted, "We'll see about that."

She carefully undocked Ark's disc and started looking at the files, "Her code's a mess."

Beck gestured to Ark, "The Occupation again."

Paige rolled her eyes and got back to work. Clearly the Renegade was going to be no help to her.

She got down to the code bypass and frowned as she saw what it was going around, "Her energy processor is completely burned out, only a large amount of electricity could do that. She was unconscious when you took her, how much did you shock her with?"

Beck shook his head, "Not that much. We didn't want to hurt her, so we used the minimum amount."

Paige gestured angrily at him, "Then why is her processor destroyed?"

Beck gestured right back, "You'll find that answer in her memories. The older ones before the gap." He paused, then added, "You're not going to like it, though."

Paige snorted, "We'll see about that."

She confidently went to the indicated memories, sure that she'd see some sort of injustice acted upon this program by the Renegade.

Instead, she watched in absolute horror as a red-circuited Occupation program brutally tortured the program again and again.

She's about to accuse the Renegade of rewriting the memories, but she keeps looking, there's far too many matching memories for it to be a rewrite. Something on this scale would be far too dangerous for the program involved.

Paige wavered, her faith shaken. But, she quickly came back to her senses. She had a patient to take care of.

She went back to the damaged portion of the disc and went to work. She's not seen this kind of damage often and she wasn't prepared for it, so it's slow going.

After quite a while, she finally gets the energy processor fixed, but she's not done yet. Digging through the files, she sees that the Occupation code is locked into default.

Paige does some experimenting, and after seeing the old memory featuring Tron, she uses it to make a backdoor. Combining the bypass with the remnants of older code from the memory, she's able to reconnect the original code. Once it's in place, she locks the original code to default and seals away the Occupation code.

With this done, the mess of code cleans up, confirming that the Occupation was behind all of this.

She double-checks her work, and once she's confident that everything's correct, she hands the disc to Beck.

"This should fix her. I have to go."

Paige quietly leaves back out into the city, and Tron enters the room.

"I don't think she liked what she saw."

Beck nodded, "I think maybe her faith in the Occupation was finally shaken. I hope so, anyway."

"We can only hope."

Beck then put Ark's disc back on her dock and they waited while all the changes loaded and took place.

Tron stood in front of Ark, so that he'd be the first person she saw after coming back.

The process takes a while, but, finally, Ark's face warms up from the cold look they had been accustomed to seeing and she blinks while looking around.

Finally, she realizes that Tron's there and she gasps, "Tron! You were right, it was a trap, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you."

Before he can reply, more memories hit, "Wait...they...they rectified me. How did you fix me?"

Tron gave a small smile, "With the help of a friend." He gestured Beck over, "This is Beck, and he knew someone that was able to help you."

Ark smiled and nodded to Beck, "Thanks and thanks to your friend for saving me."

Beck gave her a grin, "You're welcome. And, welcome back to the Resistance."

Tron walked over and freed her from her restraints. Ark stretched out the stiffness, then gave Back a grin of her own, "It's good to be back."

#idea bag #writing #story #stories #fanfic #fanfics #fanfiction #fanfictions #OC #OCs #Tron OC #Ark #Tron #Tron: Uprising #Tron Uprising

[lacquerware]

Death Stranding wrote my essay

Apart from its striking relevance to current events, Death Stranding also holds a personal relevance for me that’s equally uncanny.

Last year, after three years of unrewarding freelance work, I moved to Brooklyn to study writing and reset my life’s trajectory. I joined a small, intensive writing workshop that sounded like an exciting way to develop my skill and connect with other writers in the New York scene. It would be the entry point to a new community that I so badly needed after three years of isolation.

↑ Artist's rendering of the freelance lifestyle.

Sure enough, the first draft I submitted for workshop was a fragment of a non-fiction essay on the power of community and connection. The essay was set against the backdrop of New York Comic Con 2012, which had been my first time visiting the city, and looked at community from three angles: geek culture, which over the last decade or so had shown us how a word once used as an exclusionary epithet could be taken back by its targets and turned into a mainstream value; New York itself, which felt to me like an idealized microcosm of the United States—a land that, by design, could be home to anyone from anywhere and was better for it; and 3D printing, which I humbly predicted would soon revolutionize virtually every industry.

3D printing in particular was interesting to me as the next logical extension of the internet, allowing the exchange not only of ideas and information, but now physical objects—almost instantly, almost anywhere. We were already seeing its world-changing potential. Two men in Wales developed a blueprint for cool-looking prosthetic arms for kids that only cost twelve dollars in materials. Industrial 3D printers could print an entire home in twenty-four hours for four thousand dollars. Doctors could print custom-fitted surgical implants, and were already experimenting with 3D bioprinting—generating working organs out of real tissue cells. I’d even felt its impact at New York Comic Con over the years—namely in the cosplay scene, which was rapidly evolving as amateurs gained access to printable innovations.

↑ 3D-printing a bridge is a metaphor for 3D printing, a bridge.

But each of these things had a dark side. We’d seen in recent years through swatting and organized harassment campaigns how “geek” communities are susceptible to gatekeeping, toxicity, and bigotry. 3D printing was a wild new frontier, and people had figured out how to print undetectable, metal-free guns before legislators had even considered the risk. This posed considerable concern for all large-crowd gatherings, New York Comic Con among them.

New York itself had a downside too, of course, which was that was only as good as its people, who could be anyone from anywhere. Every day lately felt like a reminder that New York had produced some of the worst people humankind had to offer.

I never finished the essay. Ironically, I failed to connect with any of my classmates. It was not the entry point to a new community. In fact, over the following months the experience proved powerfully demotivating. I tried to complete the essay on my own after the program ended, but the scope grew longer and more daunting every time I even glanced at it, and eventually I stopped opening the Word file altogether. Eventually I stopped writing anything. I ended 2019 more depressed, stressed, and isolated than ever.

------

Death Stranding essentially covers everything I had to say in that essay, and so much more. It’s a comprehensive meditation on human connection. Its narrative engine, the UCA, is a literal idealized microcosm of the United States. The game is obsessed with 3D printing, making it the primary way players shape the world and forge connections with other players. The protagonist, like the narrator of my essay (me), is more a witness than a character. And the game is both optimistic and cautionary, illustrating the healing power of community (the UCA) as well as the destructive potential of reactionary groups that form in silos (the Homo Demens terrorists and the MULE bandits). Eerily, it even touches upon the cosplay scene.

Even if COVID-19 hadn’t happened, Death Stranding’s timing would have been impeccable on a personal level, because I’d just given up on writing out of a general sense that no one would see it or care, which somehow both proved and undermined the point of the entire “community” essay—that connection is what gives anything meaning. If I’d known the extent to which Kojima and his team had been going through the same thought process as me, slaving for years and spending millions of dollars on making the same points I'd abandoned for fear no one would care, I might’ve kept that Word doc open.

Death Stranding is a game with many valuable takeaways, but maybe the most important to me is that somewhere out there are people who care—you just might not be able to see them. The only way to find them is to keep putting out your voice. So to anyone reading this: “This one’s for you.”

#death stranding #kojima productions #kojima #hideo #video games #games #gaming #ps4 #playstation #analysis #criticism #review #reflections #3d printing #new york #brooklyn #writing #new york comic con #nycc #uca #symobolism

[littlepanduh-writes-365]

Day 46

Title: “Sand”

Description: So as you may or may not know, I got laid off due to COVID. I used to be a coastal/geotechnical engineer. One day, I sat by the beach and just thought about life. I was reading milf smackdown and there was a scene where Haseul and Vivi were sitting by the ocean and thinking about life. I used to do that with my friends in college so it really just brought back a lot of memories. Anyways, I was thinking about this phrase I always read how “life falls apart as quickly as you pick it up, similar to the sands at the beach” or something like that. I wanted to empathize with that, but I actually wasn’t experiencing it and it made me think. This is just a bunch of my thoughts and it kinda pertains to engineering. It’s okay if you don’t fully understand it or disagree with it. tbh, don’t bother reading it unless you have nothing to do and have time for a diary entry about life. 

Features: Jinsoul (Loona)

Word Count: 1,598

Tags: Angst

Jinsoul sits at the beach, contemplating her life. 

It’s been three months since she’s been laid off and she’s trying to find a sense of direction. Suddenly, the world is full of options and she doesn’t know which ones she wants to take and how to even go about those options. 

It drives her nearly insane, which is why she sits by the water. It’s an open and endless void where she can spill her thoughts, even the crazier ones. It’s the deep blue that engulfs her with loneliness. It’s her safe haven.

The sounds of the waves crashing and the seagulls crying keep her grounded, yet her mind is still scrambled with all the problems in her life. 

She has an endless list and she doesn’t know what to tackle first. It’s impossible to organize her thoughts.

Happiness. Work. Housing. Family. Friends. Hobbies. 

Work. That’s what Jinsoul decides to focus on today. It’s the heaviest topic and the one that’s been affecting her the most. If she can figure out what to do about her career, she’ll be able to fix the other problems. 

Again, she starts listing what her frustrations are. Why can’t I get a job? Where did my motivation go? What was the point of this degree? Did I choose the wrong path?

Her mind drags to darker thoughts. If she was sitting at home, she’d probably backpedal everything and start at square one.

You’ve already earned your degree. You can’t turn back time. 

She’s beyond annoyed. She had always thought that after she got her degree, her life would come together. It was the exact opposite. 

This is where she gets stuck.

The wind blows at her hair and the sun makes it slightly unbearable to see, but Jinsoul refuses to leave, not without an answer.

Like the openness of the ocean, she decides to let her messy frustrations out. 

Okay. What do you regret about your degree? Let’s just let it out.

I regret not taking my time with my classes. I regret having horrible time management. I regret taking specialized classes because I can’t use them anywhere. 

Jinsoul comes into terms that she can’t do anything about her regrets and decides to throw them away into the unknown of the ocean. 

Do you… really want to change career paths?

It was a thought she was scared of. The idea of starting over wasn’t new, but was terrifying. 

Ever since she was a little kid, Jinsoul had dreamed of being an engineer. She enjoyed building Gundam models and excelled in her math and science classes, so counselors encouraged her to take this course. Of course, in university, she explored other options, but didn’t dare to dig deeper.

Maybe she should have.

Jinsoul hugs her knees as she thinks about those what ifs. 

What if she pursued music? She loved choir so much. She loved her composition classes. Jinsoul never chased that dream because she knew it was going to come with a lot of emotional baggage, competition, and potential failure.

She bitterly laughs thinking that she was going through all of that right now. 

Jinsoul sulks over the “dream”, but not for long. 

The young adult remembers where she came from. 

She studied at a prestigious polytechnic school for four years. She had won many design awards and scholarships. There were many times that she wanted to give up, but she never did. This all had to count for something. 

What was that something? 

JInsoul remembers late nights at the labs. She would yell at her computer when errors popped out on her screen or when her modeling program crashes. Her colleagues would share coffee and tears together. 

She remembers the catharsis after she finished a proof, the relief of submitting a final design at 11:58PM, the drinks she had with her group mates after finals’ season. 

It was painful. It was pleasure.

“Have you been eating well?” Her mom would say during a phone call.

“Yes,” Jinsoul lied.  

It was her motivation: to stop lying about her wellbeing, to grow up. 

It was 12-year-old Jung Jinsol building a little Gundam and then 22-year-old Jung Jinsol drafting the blueprints of a biomechanical arm. 

Those four years in university meant a lot to Jinsoul. It was tiring and rewarding. Why did working for six months and getting laid off for three put that to waste. 

Everyone says that working is different from school. Was it going to be this different?

Let’s take another step. What was wrong at work?

This list was much more constructed, but also longer. 

First of all, her boss was aloof all the time. Sure, she could have been more independent, but her boss didn’t check on her work, even in the beginning. She had a hard time adjusting to her coworkers since they never really did any sort of team bonding and just kept to themselves.  

Jinsoul. It’s not your fault. No one knew COVID was going to happen. 

You can’t control the economy crashing. You can’t control the fact that you’re the newest hire and you were first in the chopping block. 

Yes, it sucks. It sucks you moved away from home to pursue your job. It sucks that your peers still have their jobs. It sucks that all the hobbies you started had no chance of developing. It sucks that you’re going to have to move back with your suffocating parents and starting from square one again. 

It’s still not your fault. You knew there were going to be risks in joining a small company. That doesn’t replace the fact that something as crazy as COVID-19 was going to turn your world upside down.

Why did it happen to me though?

Jinsoul grips at the sand at her feet. 

She’s reminded of people comparing their downfalls to the sands at the beach. How their life is like the sand falls in your fingertips despite grabbing onto it so tightly. How it falls apart as quickly as you pick it up. 

That… wasn’t the case for Jinsoul.

Sure, the finer pieces of sand fell, but there were tiny clumps that stuck to her hand and had to break apart on her own.

Jinsoul stared at the clumps in her hand. She ponders as to why she wasn’t experiencing the universal metaphor that many people used.

Is it because she’s closer to the water? Is it because it’s not too hot outside?

She remembers the foundations classes she had to take. She remembers how permeable sand is and wonders how much water she needs to achieve a relative capacity in order for it to be used as a solid foundation.

Then it hits her. 

Maybe that’s where she is in life. 

She hasn’t strayed too far away from the ocean. There was enough saltwater and maybe even some algae that could bind the pieces of sand so it wouldn’t fall apart immediately. 

Even though she’s a few feet from the tip of the waves, she must’ve been sitting where high tide may have been a few hours ago. She’s so close to the water, and who knows, maybe the tide will come back again soon. 

She can’t be too close, or her foundation will be unstable, similar to her drowning in work. She just needs a little more moisture. She needs more compaction—motivation to get her back on her feet. 

Jinsoul still had a chance. She just needed to take it. 

She closes her eyes again, listening to the calmness of the waves. 

She wants this, but how does she go back to it again? Where does she find her motivation?

It’s a new realm, but she’s creating another list. Maybe she can ask her friends about their research. She’ll try applying for a new job. She’ll reread her textbooks and solidify her knowledge. 

Her train of thought is interrupted by a vibration in her pocket. She pulls out her phone to see a text message from her best friend. 

“Are you still at the beach? Do you want me to pick you up?”

Jinsoul smiles, thankful that in these hard times, she still had friends she could rely on. Before replying, she checks the time, only to realize that she’s been pondering at the beach for nearly an hour and a half. 

She stands up and collects her flip flops. Deciding that was enough thinking for the day, she makes her way back and asks her friend to pick her up. 

Maybe Jinsoul didn’t get all the answers she wanted, but she found some clarity and that was better than nothing. 

Life is like the sand at her feet. It may fall quickly in between her fingertips, but when compacted together, it could hold her entire weight and much more. 

She was feeling hopeful. 

People make castles out of sand. You just needed water, maybe some molds, and a little creativity and motivation.

Maybe when Jinsoul comes back, she’ll be able to build her sandcastle. Sure, there are many things that could break down a sandcastle, like the wind, the waves, or an unaware passerby, but maybe at least she knows she could always build it again. It’ll be frustrating, but all she needs to do is clear her mind of negative emotions and fill them with innovation again. 

Who knows? Maybe she’ll add a mote or just build a completely different sculpture. She’ll use different materials (sand isn’t really the best thing to work with anyways) and maybe she’ll build it with someone else. 

It wasn’t the end for Jinsoul. 

Part of her thinks she’s such a nerd for comparing her life to the structural stability of sand at the beach, but maybe that’s exactly what she needed. The connection was comforting. She hadn’t lost herself under the tide just yet.

--

Socials: Twitter | Curious Cat

#this is literally a semi organized diary entry #thank you for reading this #i can talk about engineering all day #i kinda miss it tbh #i chose jinsol because i think she couldve been an engineer haha #anywho maybe ill clean this up after i clean up my life #365 Challenge #diary entry #littlepanduh #welcome to my life #loona fanfiction #loona #jinsoul

[dearduende]

DID

this all really happen? the way it’s written, no— scratched into the spiral bound, composition, college-ruled everything. each waking moment and fights and fears. and the dreams. including those crushes from afar with code names that I must piece together from hints over months and years, and then tracing back cryptic love notes tucked into lockers now pinned as if evidence pointing to the mens rea— the furtive phone calls in hushed tones from my bathroom as if my parents didn’t notice me flush and steal myself away from the dinner table and the nightly status reports. the secrecy (and the hormones) (and the embarrassment of my existence) (but mostly the hormones) blooming acne across my chin, my forehead, my nose within the grooves of its parentheses willing its contents—each pore—to shrink into an afterthought. I remember now how I had prayed to God to absolve my skin problems and to solve my boy ones. even bargained with Him in bed that I’d stop touching myself— or at least a bit less—as if these whiteheads were His chosen form of punishment. a dozen constellations across my shoulders from which my mother would weave the story of her same hidden shame, shared scars and bumps across our backs like labels in Braille of all the parts I want to hide, she promised: it’ll lessen and pass with time.

yet it still manages to haunt the next generation.

pull out the red string and the pins to map the evidence, the eye witness accounts, the threats and the retaliation and the heartache onto the faded bamboo floors of my parents’ house. the times I willed myself not to cry, stone woman as my mother avalanched again over the granite before me her voice booming and crumbling daring to swallow us. the way I stoically thrilled in the lust of our mutual destruction, first: the sticky salt of our wounds lashed by sharp tongues and second: the umami of it seared and grilled to perfection. still bleeding. medium rare. or when my father stampeded the room. seeing red. throwing a metal water bottle, denting it permanently against the wall then landing on the cold tile. how their swear words were only ever in English (that’s when I knew shit was serious) a rare violence uncondoned by both their mothers’ tongues.

I’m just realizing now: no wonder my brother and I, or I’ll just speak for myself, why I still burst into tears in the middle of their war zone, or whatever else might feel remotely like it. I now know instead of acting as an unsolicited diplomat caught in the crossfire it’s safer to seek asylum in the Switzerland of the next room, one ear still wired to their rising voices (I can’t help it) and their talking points, only to draft peace treaties for a civil war where they’ve long forgotten what it is they’re really fighting about anymore. but back then, this was the only way to snap them out of self-destruct mode by overriding their programming with the parental unit fail-safe. their child crying.

I could walk backwards through it with my eyes closed and show you exactly how the sun slants through the windows. how in late spring afternoon the crystals hanging in the dining room explode a universe of rainbows, little galaxies of light scattered among our dark matter, across the white walls and the floors and the crumbs on the pale table cloth. I could point out all the favorite sun spots of Tiger and Lily (may he rest in peace) and somehow always end up back at the grand piano. there is a tenderness only fingertips know.

dig out the mental blueprints from the archives. the different schools. the cliques and the quacks. the start of another year. short shorts and sweaters. (refer to your diaryjournals for the details).

and then another new journal. how they all somehow begin with the just-after-waking subtle scent of short stories germinating in my mind. they seem to disappear just before I can finish transcribing them and then I’m left empty handed, dumfounded, foolish and doubting and then writing the only kinds of stories I do know, the ones I’m still learning to place in the light sprouting tender roots between sheets of paper, pressed tightly like all those flower petals— if only I could preserve their bright pigment tones. but even imagination fades. and seemingly so do memories. these spines loosely bound and knees and elbows now cracked, scuffed, and crinkled. just a bit creased and water damaged. over the years. but mostly tears—watermarks from another era. once, an errant sprinkler jet from the lawn tap tap tapped against my bedroom window just barely cracked open, as fate would have it. waterlogged stacks of books my pillars now pink and black and blue with mold and flooded the bamboo floors. trying to put out the wrong fires a decade too late, or maybe the right fires as in the written ones, to destroy the evidence. I now keep them sealed in a plastic box.

I plead the fifth. there must be some limit after all these years, when it’s way too late to apologize anyway— I’ve considered, and then talked myself down, from texting or DMing all the people I have wronged. and memory serves no one now. if my handwriting has changed at least a dozen times does that mean I’ve lived a dozen different lives? the Hubba Bubba gum tape chewing preteen blowing bubbles over every i and j and under each ! and then there’s the jagged purple glitter pen cursive as if going slower helps it turn out better— one of those things you realize later in life isn’t always true. there’s the one seemingly always in a rush, skinny and slanted and caffeinated (there are coffee spill stains to prove) always as if she’s just about to topple over. breathe, I want to tell her, no need to move so fast. you will concuss yourself doing so. and two weeks later also topple down the stairs. (both true stories.) life will force you to slow down. I almost forget the one more rounded and grounded printed in ballpoint extra fine so as not to bleed but what’s the cost of living for the sake of perfection? what even is my handwriting now? I had to dig out one of my scrap paper lists to figure out how its a blend, less measured and more movement without being driven purely by entropy.

loosely held together.

and now, how often do I write, like with pen and paper the letters carved and inked their ghosts passing through the walls between pages bumping up against other memories. these lives and voices call out to me across the decades, some more familiar than others almost like specimens in a museum glass box too fragile for the dust or the humidity or the air or the light of day. I’m an archeologist glowing at her simple discovery which really just involves showing up onsite and digging and dusting and continued search over and over into the pits of my being delicately brushing away at the dirt around my bones, the silt and sediment compressing into a cross section of history held in my hand. look! here it is.

so I write again, if only for this moment to leave my future self some clues (in no particular order): the return of my freckles. Craigslist apartment daydreams. I’m building my callouses learning a new landscape of metal strings and broken chords. say a little prayer. tonight, I made choong yao bang from scratch with Mom. I’ve been staying up way too late (it’s 4:35am right now... why?) and then falling asleep to ASMR videos (specifically, Emma). Mom and Dad are actually not fighting much these days despite spending all day under the same roof (find your Google doc, love in the time of quarantine).

my younger self might not even recognize these people inhabiting our same house.

Mom and Dad are both still here. and I’m trying not to take it all for granted, I promise. we’re together for now but he’s gone again (eerily, much like 10 years ago but this time on his own terms) or at least he’s far away, who knows, who’s to say. we’re giving him time and space. and we’re learning how to hold each other while we fall apart, sometimes all at the same time. usually in different ways.

how I’m scared and excited for my life to unfurl one leaf at a time. allowing myself the gift, the anticipation, the surprise, and then counting the splits.

reach for the sunlight, keep reaching.

and I still don’t know what I wanna be when I grow up but when have I ever had it all figured out and what fun is that.

and a note to my younger self: PS—not only will you continue to write for emotional release (reference my pure bewilderment of this cathartic power in diaryjournal dated February 10, 2007) you will also connect with other humans in your words and we’ll play in our world and revel in theirs too. keep writing, for yourself. and dare to share it with others.

gather what others refer to as the weeds, make a bouquet, blow and scatter the dandelion seeds.

#writing #poetry #poem #words #poets on tumblr #new poets society #spilled ink #spilled poetry #reflection #i found old journals #late night writings #late night poetry #4am #spilled thoughts #poets corner #written by me #writing about writing

[lifesciencepotluck]

Figuring out structure

Proteins are like molecular machines. Unlike actual machines, proteins can fold into intricate 3-D structures on their own. Wouldn't it be convenient if your bookshelf from IKEA could do that? If we want to understand how proteins work, we need a blueprint. Some parts of the protein are essential for stability; other parts are crucial for getting things done through binding or catalysis. We need to understand how different parts of the protein fit together; this is where Structural Biology comes in. Getting the 3-D structure is one of the main steps in characterising new anemone toxins. I will cover some of the techniques we use to investigate the toxin structure.

The hierarchy of protein structure goes like this: primary structure-->secondary structure-->tertiary structure-->quaternary structure. For anemone toxins, we don't have to worry about the quaternary structure. Usually, anemone toxins have one polypeptide, not multiple polypeptides.

Figure 1. Structures of anemone toxins (Source: Norton, R. S, 2009)

Primary structure:

It's the amino acid sequence or 'code' for the protein. You can get the amino acid sequence from DNA, mRNA or protein sequencing. Protein sequencing just gives you the sequence for your protein. However, if we use DNA or mRNA sequencing, then we have to figure out the 'mature' peptide sequence. DNA and mRNA code for the 'first draft' of the peptide. After translating mRNA to protein, the signal peptide and pro-peptide are attached to the 'mature peptide.' Those two parts of the protein get cut out before our mature peptide can go out in the world and decimate prey.

Secondary structure:

Our flat polypeptide chain will fold into different secondary structures like alpha-helices, beta-sheets, beta turns, etc. Circular dichroism and Fourier transform infrared radiation (FT-IR) can tell us about the secondary structure of the toxin. CD and FT-IR are commonly used to predict the amount of each secondary structure in proteins. For CD, we measure how much of circularly polarised light in the far-UV region is absorbed by the sample. We use curve fitting programs to determine which combination of secondary structures fits the spectra the best (e.g. 50% beta-sheet, 10% alpha-helix, 20 % random coil and 20 % beta-turn). FT-IR works similarly, but we use infrared radiation instead of polarised light. FT-IR is a better option for investigating the interactions between pore-forming toxins and lipid membranes. The lipid vesicle or 'sacs' scatter polarised light, which it makes challenging to use CD for the same purpose.

One of the best things about spectroscopic techniques is that they are not as time-consuming as, X-ray crystallography. You can have multiple CD, and FT-IR runs in 1-2 hours and get the processed data before lunch. However, CD and FT-IR are low-resolution techniques. They don't tell you the exact position and orientation of tryptophan 32. We need atomic resolution structures to get an in-depth understanding of how anemone toxins work.

Tertiary structure:

The full 3-D structure of proteins will have secondary structure plus the disulphide linkages, salt bridges, hydrophobic interactions. There are two main ways of getting atomic resolution structures: X-ray crystallography and NMR. X-ray crystallography can give high-resolution 3-D structures—if you manage to please the crystal gods. If you don't have the ideal crystallisation conditions—no crystal for you. I know PhD students who spent 12-18 months on crystallising their protein. However, once you get past the crystallisation bottleneck, the diffraction experiments and data processing doesn't take as much time. In theory, you can get better resolution with X-ray crystallography than NMR. Let's assume you don't have time for crystallisation and you go with NMR. NMR is excellent for finding the structure of smaller proteins, but for larger proteins, you have to use isotopic labelling. Some proteins that are too big for NMR. In X-ray crystallography, the protein is a 'frozen' state. However, NMR also lets you study proteins in solution to understand the dynamics of the protein. You can observe how the protein changes when it binds to something.

We can also predict the 3-D structure of the toxin-based on the sequence alone.

How?

Computer magic !

With the protein data bank and structure prediction tools like SWISS-MODEL, you can predict the 3-D structure of a new toxin. If there is an anemone toxin in the database with an experimentally determined 3-D structure and it has high sequence similarity with your new toxin, you can use homolog modelling. If you can't use homology modelling, you can use de novo structure prediction like I-TASSER. In de novo modelling, the program predicts the structure for smaller sections of the protein and uses those bits to build the full predicted model. Model prediction isn't 100% accurate, and we still have to determine the 3-D structure experimentally. However, predicted 3-D structures act as a guide.

Every technique has its strengths and weaknesses. A good researcher tries to use the most suitable method for their project to its full potential. You have to realise the power that's inside.

So, what can you do once you have the 3-D structure of a toxin?

I am going to use APETx1 from the clonal anemone as an example. APETx1 is a potassium channel toxin, which targets the Ether-a-gogo channels in heart cells. Since APETx1 is a small potassium channel toxin, Chagot and company could use NMR. They found that APETx1 belong to the Defensin family. A variety of anti-bacterial proteins and ion channel toxins belong to this family. Proteins with Defensin-4 domain, have double or triple-stranded antiparallel b-sheets linked to a short a-helix by two disulphide bridges. Since NMR can reveal disulphide linkages, Chagot found APETx1 has an inhibitor cysteine knot (ICK). The inhibitor cysteine is a very popular protein fold because it's so stable that it makes proteins resilient against heat stress and proteolysis. Getting the structure of a toxin allows us to classify the toxin and compare it with structurally similar toxins. Since APETx1 has structurally similarity with two other toxins BeKm1 and CnErg1, you can infer it would have a similar mechanism for blocking potassium channels. Chagot suggested that five key amino acids on APETx1 (i.e. Tyr 5, Tyr 32, Phe33, Lys8 and Lys 18) 'block' the Ether-a-gogo channels through electrostatic interactions.

Figure 2. 3-D structure for APETx1 (Source: Chagot et al, 2005)

In short, we can use a variety of biophysical techniques to get structural information for new toxins  and the structure provides insight into the function. Protein structure and function are different sides of the same coin. Next time, I will flip the coin by covering how we figure out function.

Citations:

Chagot, B., Diochot, S., Pimentel, C., Lazdunski, M. & Darbon, H. Solution structure of APETx1 from the sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima: A new fold for an HERG toxin. Proteins Struct. Funct. Genet. 59, 380–386 (2005).

Jouiaei, M. et al. Ancient venom systems: A review on cnidaria toxins. Toxins (Basel). 7, 2251–2271 (2015).

Norton, R. S. Structures of sea anemone toxins. Toxicon 54, 1075–1088 (2009).

Norton, R. S. & Pallaghy, P. K. The cystine knot structure of ion channel toxins and related polypeptides. Toxicon 36, 1573–1583 (1998).

Dauplais, M. et al. On the Convergent Evolution of Animal Toxins. J. Biol. Chem. 272, 4302–4309 (1997).

Belmonte, G. et al. Primary and secondary structure of a pore-forming toxin from the sea anemone, Actinia equina L., and its association with lipid vesicles. BBA - Biomembr. 1192, 197–204 (1994).

Honma, T. & Shiomi, K. Review Article Peptide Toxins in Sea Anemones: Structural and Functional Aspects. Mar. Biotechnol. 8, 1–10 (2006).

Bernard Gilquin, Judith Racape, Anja Wrisch, Violeta Visan, Alain Lecoq, Stephan Grissmer, Andre´Menez, and S. G. Structure of the BgK-Kv1.1 Complex based on distance restraints identified by double mutant cycles: Molecular basis for convergent evolution of Kv1 channel blockers. J. Biol. Chem. 277, 37406–37413 (2002).

#anemone toxins #Anemone toxins 201 #Structural Biology #sea anemone #Protein Science #bioinformatics

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

The liberal wing of the Democratic caucus in the U.S. House is going to be bigger than ever when the new Congress starts in January. It’ll be much larger than the conservative wing, and that has major implications, both for the next two years and potentially for 2021.

“Duh,” you might say, “of course there are more liberal than conservative Democrats.” But the two wings used to be much more equally matched. And 2018 represented a big jump in the progressive ranks.

In 2010, when Democrats last controlled the House, there were 80 House members in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a bloc of the most liberal members of the House and Senate, according to a caucus spokesperson. The Blue Dog Coalition, a group of the most conservative House Democrats, stood at 54 members. And the conservatives rivaled the liberals in influence. The Affordable Care Act, for example, grew more conservative in a number of ways thanks to pressure from conservative Democrats.

But many of the Blue Dogs back then represented more conservative-leaning areas, particularly in the South. Between 2010 and 2016, more than two dozen of them either lost re-election bids or retired from the House (often anticipating defeats). Even amid the Democratic wave this year, the number of Blue Dogs will likely only grow from 18 to 24. (More newly elected members could join the Blue Dogs later.) Meanwhile, the Progressive Caucus ranks held steady during the Obama years (these members tend to be in fairly liberal districts), so the group stood at 78 members before the 2018 midterms. That number will grow to 96 in 2019, according to the group, as a number of progressive candidates won in previously Republican-held districts.

Put another way, in 2010, there were about 1.5 progressives for every Blue Dog in the House. In 2019, progressives will have a 4-to-1 advantage. This is the biggest the Progressive Caucus has ever been, according to a spokesperson for the group.

Why does all this matter? After all, liberal policies like Medicare-for-all are almost certainly not going to be signed into law as long as Donald Trump is president and Republicans remain in control of the Senate. That’s true enough, but some legislation — most notably bills to fund the federal government — must be approved over the next two years, divided government notwithstanding. Ultimately, those bills will be hashed out in negotiations led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Trump and whoever leads the House (likely Nancy Pelosi). But the bills will have to be approved by the full House and will likely need a lot of Democratic members backing them.

I don’t think the progressives are going to just placidly follow Pelosi’s lead and vote for whatever she negotiates with Trump and the Republicans in the Senate. Instead, I expect the group to push the party to the left in these negotiations. In some ways, the progressives in 2019-20 could act a lot like the House Freedom Caucus did in 2017-2018. The Freedom Caucus, a bloc of the most conservative members of the House, often successfully forced House Speaker Paul Ryan to make bills more conservative. Democratic leaders in the Senate, for example, were hinting earlier this year that they would agree to fund Trump’s border wall in exchange for a provision basically turning the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program into a federal law. Trump didn’t take the deal, so it never came to a vote. But I don’t think that kind of deal will be much of an option going forward — progressive Democrats are unlikely to view such a compromise favorably, and would likely fight to limit any wall funding. (Some of them were pushing a provision earlier this year to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.)

All these fights will help set the Democratic agenda for the future. There is a very real chance that a Democrat will be elected president in 2020, and that that victory would come with a Democratic House and maybe even control of the Senate. So House Democrats are likely to consider, draft and pass bills in 2019 and 2020 that will go nowhere right now, but would provide a blueprint for a 2021 agenda, if Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the presidency. This is what Republicans did during the Obama years. The repeal of the Affordable Care Act that passed the House in 2017 wasn’t a new idea: House Republicans had approved such a proposal when Barack Obama was president, even as they knew he would veto it.

So now is the time for the Progressive Caucus to start pushing the Democrats to adopt more left-leaning ideas. And they are already starting to do that — even before the new Congress starts. For instance, New York’s newly elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other House progressives are calling for a “Green New Deal,” an aggressive, comprehensive proposal to address climate change. The progressives are also opposing a Pelosi initiative to require a three-fifths majority in the House to pass any bill that would raise income taxes on any Americans except the wealthiest 20 percent. That rule, the progressives argue, could hamstring Democrats if they want to pursue more aggressive proposals, like free college or Medicare-for-all.

What might limit the progressives’ influence? Well, University of Chicago political science professor Ruth Bloch Rubin, author of a 2017 book on congressional caucuses, argues the group might be too big.

“The Blue Dogs may now be dwarfed by the Progressive Caucus, but historically they have been much better organized, and thus in a better position to credibly bargain with party leaders and threaten to defect from the party line as a bloc,” she said.

“The comparison to the Freedom Caucus reveals the same dynamic. The Freedom Caucus when the Republicans were in the majority deliberately chose to keep their size down …. The Progressive Caucus doesn’t have a similar barrier to entry, and this may mean that some opportunists will join but ultimately won’t share the hardcore progressive ideals of their colleagues,” she added.

I think Bloch Rubin is right — this bloc will be hard to organize, and it will be tough to get everyone behind one position at the same time. That said, the progressives in the House are part of a broader tide moving the party to the left: More Democratic voters are identifying themselves as liberal; a huge swath of the party’s politicians are embracing Medicare-for-all; fairly liberal candidates are running and winning, even in traditionally conservative areas. The liberals in the House are very likely to push their colleagues left. The only question is how far.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Perry Bacon Jr.

[matthews24ralston]

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[mrscitty]

What happens after death (Part 1); Detroit Become Human Reader Insert (Anon Request)

Anons said:  if you're still open for requests,, a character who was killed on duty, having to have their consiousness uploaded into an android would be neat. the aspects of transitioning into life like that, assisted by your coworker are interesting, i think., I’m not entirely sure that’s how they meant the request because I spun it way more than it probably needed to but I just couldn’t stop myself and write something a bit more elaborate bc this just gave me such a good idea. I’m on page 8 and still counting so I thought since it’s clearly becoming something bigger I’m just gonna post the first part to get some input while I’m writing on the next! I already started on it but it’s still just a draft so yeh

Also I’m sorry for not being active the last weeks. I had a lot to take care of before I could seriously sit down again to write but I’m not going into the details bc it’s honestly boring just so you know I’ve figured the most out and can get back to writing! So I would love some input on your part! Tips, request etc!

When you woke up  you noticed immediately that something was immensely wrong. For starters when you opened your eyes you were blinded by a bright light combined with a white environment. This was not your bedroom. At first you thought you were in a hospital but when you looked around you noticed that the room was too furnished to be a simple hospital room.

There were paintings and other kinds of fancy furniture all around. These art pieces that were scattered all around really gave you a feeling of familiarity but you couldn't put your finger on it. Mainly because you were too busy figuring some other things out.

Your body was different. To be more precise it felt different. You knew your arms and legs were outstretched under a beige blanket but your body felt numb. A slow panic was spreading through you.

Where the hell are you and what is happening to your body?

Sitting up you took your environment in a second time. The sense of familiarity still present. Now that you were sitting up you took a good look at your body but it seemed normal. The only thing not normal was when you were touching your own skin it felt like there was a blanket in between the touch and your skin. What happened?

You wanted to freak out but something in you kept you level headed which you were thankful for at the moment. First you needed to find out where you are. So you threw the blanket away and stood up. Only then did you notice that you were in some white and blue pajamas. Those were not your pajamas.

Feeling even more uncomfortable you took a few steps around the room. There was this weird strength to your movements. As you walked around you looked into a few drawers. The most were empty but in one you found a framed article from a newspaper. It was a fairly old interview with Elijah Kamski. In fact you remembered this article. You read that years ago. It was one of the first interviews Kamski ever did.

Now why would that be here? Seeing the furniture, the art, the color scheme of the room and then this interview, you had a pretty good idea where you were and it made you angry. But first you wanted to make sure your suspicions are right.

Opening the door to your room you walked out in an equally bright hallway. You knew this hallway. Now you pretty much ran towards a door at the end of the hallway knowing it will lead to the lounge where he would probably be.

You slammed the door open to see the one and only Elijah Kamski sitting on a couch, watching TV.

Truth be told you and Kamski knew each other since you both were children. You both even started the project that later turned to the Androids you see today. He took on the programming while you tried to figure a way to implement it into actual machines. You were always handy with engineering.

You even considered him family at some point.

But when your both mentor, an old and sweet man, died he started a new project. He called it the Transfer project. Goal was to basically upload the memories of one person into a machine. There were reasons why you tried to convince Elijah to stop. You knew your mentor didn't want this, he always considered this to be the big taboo.

But Elijah wouldn't listen so one day you grabbed your tools and blueprints and left him with his projects. You really tried to stay and make him stop but at one point he just referred to their mentor as a subject which was the final straw for you. Humans were not just experiments to play with to see how far technology could go.

Standing there in the door frame, Elijah just looked at you. He had big circles under his eyes. Said eyes were slowly closing and opening like he had trouble to stay awake.

“What's going on? Why am I here? What happened?” you finally asked.

Elijah just nodded slowly and then pointed at the couch he was sitting , signaling to you to sit down which you did. Elijah has turned into a prick over the years but you couldn't help but be a little worried about him.

“What do you remember before coming here?” Elijah asked you.

You put your hand against your chin “I think I was on duty. We were chasing someone. I think I got shot in the arm, then I passed out. That... why am I here then? How long was I out? No, what is going on?”

Elijah nodded “Yes, you got shot in the arm. The shooter managed to hit an artery of yours. When the paramedics arrived it was too late. You bled out in some alleyway.”

“That... That is impossible. I'm still here... how... wait.” your voice gave out, tears were involuntarily rolling down your cheeks. So much was going through your mind that you couldn't properly build a sentence. Then Elijah just pointed at his right temple.

Following his movements you touched your right temple. There was some sort of smooth ring.

“Elijah... how... how could you. I'm... I'm an Android? You made me into an Android?” you croaked out. There was a god damn LED at the side of your head.

“I couldn't let you die” he tried to defend himself.

Not knowing better you slapped him “You knew very well how I think about this! I'm...I'm just a copy of my true self now! Hell I bet you have another copy of me on some of your super computers! If I die again will you transfer my memory into another Android?”

Elijah put his hand over the place were you slapped him, not looking at you “You don't get it. I just couldn't let you die by an Android! It was my fault!”

You scoffed “Elijah, I need clothes and I want to go home. Also delete whatever copy of me you have and never talk to me again! I don't want to see you and hear you ever again.”

“You've been away for nine months. Everybody thinks you are dead.”

“I am dead! I should be dead!” you interrupted him.

Elijah ignored this comment and continued “Listen, you don't have a home anymore to go to.”

“Elijah, give me clothes and a way to go to my old precinct. After that I never want to talk to you again.”

He nodded and pointed at a Chloe to get over “You heard her. Help her out please.”

“Very well. Please follow me.” The Chloe spoke softly and walked off. You following her not even giving Elijah a second glance.

Chloe took you to the room were you woke up in and opened a drawer exposing some of your old clothes. Did Elijah get them? Did he expect you to stay here?

“Thanks.” you muttered out as you walked towards the drawer.

Chloe nodded and was about to leave but you stopped her “One question. What do you think of me? We are... We are Androids right? So do you have an opinion on what he did with...me?”

The other Android seemed a bit confused that you would ask her something like this “I cannot say. Though I do know that when Kamski first heard of your death he immediately took action because he saw you as family.”

You nodded and turned back around, grabbing clothes to put on. Chloe took this as the sign that she could go which she did.

He brought you back because he considered you family, eh? What did that leave you with? Were you still human enough? You had emotions otherwise you wouldn't have reacted how you did but this could just be emulated? Was this real?

It surprised you how calm you were right now. Was it because of you or because you are an Android?

You put on just some jeans, a big sweatshirt and a beanie that you found in between. Before you walked out of the room you made sure that the beanie was covering the LED on the side of your face. Of course you could get rid off the LED but something stopped you. Is it because it's a reminder that you are in fact not a human anymore?  You didn't know. Wait, where you considered a Deviant? You had to talk to someone. Your friends back at work would help you, right? Even though you changed? Even though you are not human anymore and should be dead?

Knowing your way through the mansion you walked towards the lobby of the place. Elijah was waiting for you. Ignoring him you stomped towards the door. As soon as your hand touched the actual door Elijah spoke “People will treat you differently now. You can always stay here (Y/N). I'm just saying that... be careful...”

“Thank you,  Elijah. Though I have to ask that you please shut up.”

Then you left. Outside stood a self driving car. Ready for you. You got in and drove off towards the precinct. The snow didn't feel the same. You missed it. Though at this point only memories were left of it and in a way there were only memories left of you either.

You were holding yourself together pretty well during the drive but once you managed to get back to the precinct it felt so unbelievable. You were afraid. Afraid that your friend will treat you differently. Think of you differently. How they will react. What will happen to you now?

Are you officially now just an Android? If so are you considered Deviant and therefore considered a threat?

Since you had no real plan on how to get into the precinct in order that you could talk with your friends, you decided to go somewhere else. You knew of a certain food truck a friend of yours frequented either in breaks or after work for a quick bite of some fast food.

It seemed fate finally decided to throw you a bone.

While walking towards the food truck you noticed a familiar car. A car you mostly involuntarily spent a lot of time in. The memories made you chuckle, and yet an uneasiness still spread throughout your body. Memories are such a precious thing but now they leave a bitter after taste. The memories you remembered were just copies of the real thing.

Standing on the other side of the street you looked over to the tables where your old partner in police force was enjoying his favorite meal. How should you go on? Just walk up to him and say “Hey! Surprise! I'm not dead! Kind of! I'm dead but also I'm here now as an Android!”

Hank hated Androids, everyone back in the precinct knew that so whatever you needed to do it needed to be a bit more tactful. Gathering your thoughts you begun formulating a plan in your head while leaning against the wall. As you pulled your beanie back down to make sure your LED was hidden an idea was forming in your head. Seems like the straight forwards way is probably the best course of action, you just needed to be slow and careful with your approach.

This whole situation was really nuts. To be honest you wouldn't have believed this was possible and that this was all real if you actually didn't work with Kamski back a few years ago and saw how he started the project.

You wanted to do good with what you were working on with that prick Kamski but after the whole ordeal with his Transfer Project you left and pursued a career in the police department where you met Hank Anderson. An old grizzly man who has been a delight to work with. Well not at first but after a few weeks Hank opened more up and you would now even consider Hank a close friend of yours.

That's exactly why you knew you just needed to take all the confidence you got and march on over to him. Admittedly you put a lot of trust in the friendship you and Hank shared hoping that this would save you from an ...immediate rejection at least.

Your legs almost moved on their own. This strength in your movement was weird. It was just not as you remembered how movement should feel. Do you feel though? As angry as this thought made you, you shoved the feeling into the back of your head. Not the right time to deal with it.

Before you fully realized it you stood a few feet in front of Hank who in return slowly put his burger back down in the carton the burger was previously put in. He was visibly confused that some random person was standing in front of him, looking down and not talking.

“Can I help you?” he finally asked. Annoyance was clear in his voice, after all you interrupted him eating his food. Also it was maybe a tad bit creepy how you just stood there.

Your plan to just slowly reintroduce yourself seemed suddenly really stupid. If you could you would take in a deep breath and finally look him in the eyes but since you don't need to breath anymore, which was a weird feeling in general but that was something for later to unpack, you just looked up and walked even more towards Hank so he could get a better look at you.

Honestly  you wanted to cry when you saw Hank staring mouth agape at you but you pulled yourself together.

“(Y/N)? How?” Hank croaked out.

'How?' he asked, eh? To show him 'how' you pulled your beanie off and showed him your now yellow LED ring. Though this probably offered the thought that you were either always an Android but considering he saw you bleed red blood this was off the table or the other question for him was now if you were the real you which you couldn't even answer yourself.

When Hank suddenly grabbed the edge of the table you talked again “Good morning, Lieutenant. I'm ready to solve some murder cases!”

This was the first thing you said in the first few weeks when you arrived to work after meeting Hank and it annoyed the ever living shit out of him so of course you had to continue this as long as you could.

“It's really you? I saw you dead on the ground in a pool of your own blood! Hell! I've been to your funeral! What the ever living fuck is going on (Y/N)!” he cried out.

“It's a long story so … Listen … I did … die. I really did. I remember being shot and falling unconscious and then I suddenly woke up as an Android.” you begun explaining everything to Hank. Absolute everthing. Telling him everything that happened back at Kamski's place and what you yourself knew of the Transfer Project and where it originated from.

After hearing all of that Hank took slow steps towards his car and pointed at it “I... need to sit. Come on, kid.”

He didn't even wait for affirmation on your part. Following Hank to his car you opened the door to the passenger seat and sat next to Hank down. A wave of nostalgia hitting you. You spent a lot of time in this car when you were on stake outs with Hank.

For you those nine months passed without you. It felt like you fell unconscious in that alley way and woke up maybe a few days later and yet you couldn't help yourself getting a little bit nostalgic.

The next minutes you both just sat silently in the car. Silence hung in the air like blanket making everything more awkward than it already was and yet there was nothing you could think of to say. You looked towards Hank who was deep in thought. Sometimes he would shake his head or look over at your for a brief moment.

You were desperately thinking of something to say. Something to take the tension away but nothing came to your mind instead Hank resolved it by turning on his car.

Surprised you looked over to Hank awaiting an explanation. Said explanation came after he drove off the parking space “I have someone you need to meet back in the precinct but he is... home already.” There was this bitterness in his voice you couldn't really decipher the origin of.  

“You don't have a place to stay so until we figure things out so you can stay with me.”

“Thank you, Hank” you blurted out.

“Of course, don't sound so surprised.”

“Honestly I thought you would somehow reject me? I guess? Seeing how I'm... I'm an Android now and all. I don't even know what I really am now. What this means for me.”

“I hope he will clear some things up maybe.” Hank muttered under his breath before answering you “If everything is true what you told me then that's enough for me. You are clearly still you. Your body might be different but honestly if you didn't have that damn LED on your temple I probably would've thought you straight up dug yourself out of your grave.”

Your grave. Right.

“Hank, before we drive to your place I need to see something.”

#Detroit become Human #Reader Insert #Hank Anderson #Dbh Hank #dbh fanfiction #reader

[brandingninasem2]

Mock Presentation Feedback (Reflection on moving forward)

The notes I wrote down after presenting our draft presentation were:

Logos

straightforward PR working best

Left one is dynamic but perhaps not as strong

Colour palette

make it clear what are the colours for the brand and which are for the publication

Brand name

rookie publishing is working better

Look what is does stacking horizontally because reads as an N

Saved as: appeals to artists and designers

Raul

decision time for brand direction

Rookie by itself rather than rookie publishing, could be publishing house or press. Things rookie is stronger

PR logo would be clearer to read and recognisable, but hard to see, perhaps use colour to separate the letters more

Saved as: or save as: ideation, creative process, idea generation,

Typography: Dunbar may be too 70s for type. Gill sans only show type weights that will be in the working publication

What is so special about rookie, is it cheeky, is it fun ect..

Define one and go into it

I gave the response below alongside with the feedback to my group chat so we have some pointers to work on moving forward:

Based off Raul I think we should just stick with rookie and develop that clean logo that Ayla made. Probably also a strong word mark too.. Otherwise I think that iconography that Taylor introduced could be a very nice way of establishing some personality in our brand especially if the type is going to be quite minimal. We need to consider creating a strong guideline on how the Dunbar typeface should be used for headings to make sure it is effectively used.

Raul also mentioned that we should take inspiration from our mood board so maybe we can incorporate that kind of bolder design into some of our grid/ layout mock-ups.

We could even make the iconography relate back to the logo since both will be simple shapes. Maybe talk about how they follow similar forms?

We should also establish a colour palette for our brand as we have the colours for the publication but only black and white for the logo.

The other half of my group that presented received this feedback from the same presentation:

First logo for our group is a bit confusing and might get mixed up with the publishing brand

- Page by Page logo, no text just icon 

 - Brand Vision crafty, goes well with page by page and stick to people’s minds better 

 - yellow could be hard to read when in lighter tones 

 - Rookie Publishing can be taken as the brand identity is we are rookies? You wouldn’t want a rookie publishing your book unless they were the rookie (We could counter this by saying that we are a start up company that publishes peoples books who may be rookies? Like it’s the first book that this person is publishing their books? Also back up that Rookie can stand for everyone being a rookie at something until they learn about the subject which will be in our books?) 

 - Saved as? Save as might be better because this is what the button says in design programs 

 - Rookie Publishing is more unique (lots of people had different opinions on which one was better) Books as the logo is obvious and too literal 

 - Brand vision, relatable, talking to young designers/up coming designers, rookie is more suited towards this target audience 

 - Go with one name and then put the other name into the blurb on what the brand is about (e.g Page by Page - we are there for the rookies of design) 

 - Brand appears to often on one slide 

 - More efficient with slides, mock ups or show it in use are better for displaying text? 

 - Show fonts in use with the point size 

 - Architecture blueprints for grid layout? Make the grids in use stand out more. 

 - Logo, likes page by page but rookie logo is more successful. Could change R in to B. Easier to scale down.

- Rookie logo pile of books, sometimes read as R.N 

- Change background of book spines to a different colour, maybe mid grey? Or guide lines for the outline of book spine

This feedback gives us a lot of pointers to work on for the presentation next week and I am confident in our direction to correct all of these. Our group is committed to meeting up outside of university lectures to mend these gaps. I think we have a strong direction of where our brand needs to go and what needs to be done to get it where it needs to be in order to establish a strong brand for our publication.

[usabsportdevelopment-blog]

The Bright Lights of the Big Leagues: Your Dream or Your Kid’s Goal?

FUNdamental Skills 

By Darren Fenster / June 1, 2018

Twenty-four years ago, I graduated from Thompson Middle School in Middletown, New Jersey, and as was tradition back then (and may very well still be today) my classmates and I would sign one another’s yearbooks with a short note reflecting back on memories of the past three years, and added well wishes for the next few in high school and beyond. Skimming through the pages of mine, still to this day, I am amazed to read the number of entries wishing me luck as a professional baseball player, in addition to the many ticket requests for when I got to the Major Leagues. I had just finished the eighth grade. Little did I know at the time that my professional career would begin some seven years later, because at that point, the bright lights of the Big Leagues were just a dream to me. 

A dream… like just about every single kid has when they don their first youth league uniform.

Looking back to that eighth grade yearbook, clearly as a 12- or 13-year-old kid, I was talking - and probably talking often enough for people to mention it as much as they did - about wanting to be a baseball player when I grew up. It’s very easy at an early age to pick any far-fetched, odds-against profession, and say, “I want to be this,” or “I want to be that when I get older,” but at one point or another, reality sets in for most and those dreams remain just that- dreams. For a very fortunate few, myself included, there comes a point and time when that dream becomes a realistic and attainable goal. Now while I am not sure of exactly when that was for me personally, what I do know is that it would have never happened without the support of my parents and coaches, as cautiously optimistic as they may have been.

To be honest, when sights are set so high to the point of turning a dream into a reality, there are going to be naysayers every step of the way. Being part naïve, part driven, and probably part stupid, negative talk from those who didn’t have my trust did nothing but motivate me even more. Truth be told, the only people who I actually would have listened to had they told me I couldn’t do it were the exact ones who never did. I cannot underestimate the importance of those close to you truly believing in you when setting your sights on something, whether it be in sports, or any other challenging facet of life.

I mentioned the cautiously optimistic support of those around me, because that’s exactly what it was. By no means did those who I trusted above all others give me blinding support, without any idea of how difficult accomplishing such a lofty goal would be. While their support was unwavering, it was more along the lines of, “OK… if you want to do this, then you have to work harder than everyone else, and figure out exactly how you plan on getting there,” rather than, “you’re the best and it’s just going to happen for you.”  They made me well aware of the things I needed to do, and the challenges that were going to cross my path, and as long as I was willing to go about it the right way, then they were going to be behind me, because this was my dream… NOT theirs.

And therein lies one of the biggest differences I have seen between today and what I experienced some 15-20 years ago when going through the same process of working to advance in the game. So before moving on, I’d like to ask one simple question:

Are those bright lights of the Big Leagues your dreams, or your kid’s goal?

My name is Darren Fenster, and as a self-proclaimed baseball-lifer, I have lived a pretty cool life in the game, having worn a number of different hats over the course of my years on the diamond. From a playing career that garnered All-American honors as a shortstop for Rutgers University, in addition to twice being named a Minor League All-Star while coming up with the Kansas City Royals, to becoming Director of Baseball Operations, Assistant Coach, and Recruiting Coordinator at my alma mater before returning to professional baseball as a hitting coach in A-ball, to my current position as Minor League manager with the Boston Red Sox, I have enjoyed a wide array of experiences around baseball that have helped give me a very unique perspective of the many different sides of the game. In those roles over time, I have witnessed firsthand the change in the way both players approach the game and their futures, and the unrealistic, uneducated, and ill-informed support and expectations of those around the player, where many have come to believe that a college scholarship is a foregone conclusion, and that playing professional baseball is like signing up for a youth league.

The odds are staggeringly against you when it comes to moving up the ranks:

2,200,000 play in youth leagues. 455,000 play in high school. 48,000 play in college. 5,480 play at a Division I college on a baseball scholarship. 1200 get drafted. 750 play in the Major Leagues.

.03%  of youth leaguers will play in the Major Leagues. .2% of high schoolers will play in the Major Leagues.

Also consider this when looking into playing in college:

Every year, the maximum number of scholarships Division I baseball teams are allowed to offer is 11.7. That’s not 11.7 scholarships each year for each new recruiting class of players, that’s 11.7 divided among 27 players within a program. One of the biggest misconceptions out there is the full scholarship. They are about as common as a solar eclipse: for the most part, they barely exist. Baseball is not like football (85 full scholarships) or basketball (12 full scholarships), but rather a sport that is forced to divide up their scholarship allotment amongst an entire roster. So when you hear every Tom, Bob, and Harry brag about their kids getting full rides, well unless their last names are Trout, Harper, and Kershaw, well then I’d be willing to bet the only thing that is full is them… of hot air.

10.5% of all high schoolers will play in college. That includes Division I, II, and III, all junior colleges, and NAIA schools. 1.2% of high school players earn a Division I baseball scholarship.

These are stats that your kids must see. By no means are they meant to deter them from going after it, but rather for them to understand the true difficulty in doing so. For the ones who will move on, those numbers will serve as motivation to work harder, and for the ones who get depressed after seeing them, it was probably never meant to be.

To many parents and coaches, those numbers will mean nothing and have little impact, leaving them unfazed in their conviction that their kid will have no trouble making it. To many players, those daunting statistics will barely even register, since in their minds, the odds won’t apply to them, because they have been told how great they are by those same parents and coaches who have no idea what it actually takes to make it. And therein lies the problem…

There is a fine line behind blind optimism, cautious support, and downright naysaying that will kill any and all hopes, but there are a few things that can be done to create reasonable expectations and attainable goals for your kid’s future in the game.

CREATE A BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS

Knowing what you want to do is great, but knowing how you plan on getting there is better.  You have a starting point. You have a finishing point. What happens in between? Write down all the steps needed to climb toward the ultimate goal. Focusing on short-term goals is much easier and much more doable than just looking at the end-all, and not having a clue of how to get there.

KEEP THE GAME FUN

The game is supposed to be FUN. The younger the kid, the more fun we, as coaches, have to make it. Players and parents shouldn’t even think or talk of scholarships or the draft until the sophomore year in high school, at the earliest. One of the more frustrating things to witness during my time as an assistant coach at Rutgers was going out to games where the players were more concerned with who was in the stands watching than they were actually going out and competing between the lines. Their joy of playing was, for all intents and purposes, non-existent. On very rare occasions, I would get a chance to see teams who had been playing together for years, playing the game the right way, playing the game to win, and most importantly, playing the game for fun. It’s disappointing that those teams are the exception in this day and age, and not the rule.  Bottom-line: in order to advance in the game, you have to love to play, because the higher you go, the more time you will spend out on the field. If you don’t enjoy it, then why play at all?

BUYER BEWARE

Be careful. In an age where baseball has somewhat turned into a pay-to-play sport, be very cautious with ANYONE who makes promises of scholarships or getting drafted. The only people who have that power are members of a college coaching staff, or professional scouts. Too many times have I heard stories of empty promises by private instructors or travel teams who sell their connections that will get the exposure the player needs. Here’s the simple truth about exposure: if the player is good enough, he will be found. Period. Money can buy some of the most overblown evaluations ever written, and the majority of coaches will not invest limited scholarship funds on a player he’s never seen. Just because the guy you’ve been paying since little Johnny was six for private lessons says he’s the best player ever might not mean anything other than he enjoys cashing your checks. Consider the source before trusting it.

GO TO A GAME. GO TO A FEW.

As you get older, and college and professional baseball are legitimate goals, it is vital to get a feel for what collegiate level is best for you, and how talented those in the pro game truly are. There are various levels of the game just within Division I. Some conferences and programs could be viewed as comparable to low-level minor league baseball, whereas others are barely a step up from high school. I cannot tell you how many times we got calls from coaches, players, and parents saying how their kid is a perfect fit for us (when he wouldn’t even survive the first day of walk-on tryouts). We would respond with the question, “Well, have you ever seen us play?”  Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the answer was no. Well then how on earth do you know that little Johnny is perfect for us when you have no idea how good we are??

HONESTY IS STILL THE BEST POLICY.

As noted above, the guy who’s been on your payroll since little Johnny’s 3rd grade is not an unbiased party. Coaches of their own players will almost always give rave reviews, where the spotlight can be on him or his team. Search out an objective third party coach and ask for an honest evaluation. An opposing high school coach who may have seen some of the best players in the area over the years would be a great reference. Maybe there is a professional scout or player who can watch you play and note the things that must be improved upon in order to reach whatever level you are looking to get to.

GET AWAY FROM THE GAME

With the explosion of travel baseball and private training facilities, while the game itself has not changed, the approach to it, has. We have moved into a culture of specialization and sport-specific training year-round, and it is saddening to see that the three-sport athlete is all but extinct, while the kid who plays two is now an endangered species. Players now have access to work on their game twelve months of the year, and had I have the same resources available to me when growing up, I’m sure I would have become one of the Joneses as well. But that’s not necessarily a good thing. Major League Baseball players- the very best in the world, who play from the start of spring training in mid-February well into October if they are lucky enough- DON’T play 12 months of the year. From that very last day of their season in the fall, they will pack up their gloves and bats, and not pick up a ball for a couple months. So if the most well conditioned athletes in the entire sport don’t train year round, then how on earth is it appropriate for kids ages 8-18 to do so?? If you have your kid pick one sport too soon, and you’ll risk him playing none before all is said and done. It’s amazing how much more they will appreciate the game when they don’t have to play it every single day.

My story is unique, and by no means would I expect anyone to follow the same path as I have over the years to get to where I am today, as we live in a completely different world. But there are definitely experiences that SHOULD translate to today’s player, and first and foremost it all starts with having a love for the game and a passion to play it. For me, while growing up, playing baseball was 100% about having fun playing a game, and it remained that way even when it became my job. I couldn’t get enough of it because I loved to play, not because I wanted the exposure to college recruiters and professional scouts. One of the best compliments I ever received as a player is the one that I enjoy giving most now as a coach: you show your love for the game by the way you play it.

In my current position with the Red Sox, I am fortunate beyond belief to be working with some incredibly talented players, from completely different walks of life, with completely different paths into the game, but all with the same goal that I had just a short time ago: to get to the Big Leagues. Beyond their athletic ability, there are three things that stand out with those who do move up and eventually make it: they absolutely love to play the game, they want to work at getting better each and every day and they will compete at all things, at all times. The simplicity of those three things is really amazing. If you don’t love the game, you aren’t going to make it. If you don’t work hard, you aren’t going to make it. If you don’t compete, you aren’t going to make it.

Now, let’s think about this one again…

Are those bright lights of the Big Leagues your dreams, or your kid’s goal?

For more resources, check out the links below:

Online Education Center USA Baseball Mobile Coach Long Term Athlete Development Plan  Keeping Perspective  The Play Ball Parent Building a Baseball Experience

Darren Fenster is a contributor to the USA Baseball Sport Development Blog, and is currently the Manager of the Boston Red Sox Double-A affiliate Portland Sea Dogs. A former player in the Kansas City Royals minor league system, Fenster joined the Red Sox organization in 2012 after filling various roles on the Rutgers University Baseball staff, where he was a two-time All-American for the Scarlet Knights. Fenster is also Founder and CEO of Coaching Your Kids, LLC, and can be found on Twitter @CoachYourKids.

#FUNdamentalSkills #DarrenFenster #Parents

[berniesrevolution]

IN THESE TIMES

In the summer of 1995, Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association, and Helen Bernstein, former president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), organized a group of union leaders from 21 locals across the country to discuss how teacher unions might mobilize their resources to strengthen and improve public education. The Teacher Union Reform Network (TURN) launched one year later, and over the next two decades, the voluntary network would convene several times per year to share ideas on how their American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) locals could do things differently and better.

In October, marking a notable shift for this generally loose, informal network of locals, TURN released their first-ever national report—a chance, they say, to revitalize public education and strengthen democracy through “the collective wisdom of teachers.” The report emphasizes priorities that have been largely sidelined by corporate school reformers over the last few decades, such as strengthening citizenship, promoting racial integration and providing wrap-around social services. However, lacking a well-defined organizing strategy, it’s not clear how TURN’s ideas will amount to more than an aspirational blueprint.

The report is divided into four sections: promoting “learner-centered” schools, recognizing teaching as a profession, promoting excellence with equity and promoting collective bargaining for educational equity. Within each of these sections, TURN lays out policy ideas—ranging from the relatively specific (supporting pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten programs for all children) to the fairly vague (developing “authentic, performance-based and broad-based assessments”).

Funded by the Ford Foundation, the report has four lead authors with deep ties to the labor movement. Adam Urbanski is still president of the Rochester Teachers Association, and Ellen Bernstein is president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation. Tom Alves is the executive director of the Sun Juan Teachers Association, and Richard Kahlenberg is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. Urbanski told In These Times that between soliciting feedback from other TURN members at national gatherings and distributing the evolving draft for electronic input among their TURN regional networks, close to 1,000 educators helped them write it.

“This was a huge change for the TURN network to come to a consensus,” said Bernstein in an interview with In These Times, explaining that the project took them a little over three years to complete.

“We’re advocates of improving public education, not replacing it with charters and vouchers and privatization,” Urbanski said, emphasizing that traditional public schools can be leaders of change, and that the report “could be viewed as a summary of our learning over the last twenty years.”

(Continue Reading)

#politics #the left #education #public education #organized labor #labor movement #in these times #progressive #progressive movement

[alboobx2-blog]

How to Start a Real Estate Business?

Introduction to the Real Estate Sector:

Among the booming sunrise businesses in the world is undoubtedly Real Estate. Today, it's been recognized as one of the most lucrative investment choices. A fantastic number of individuals despite the demographic aspects are seen considering property as a critical investment mainly because this is one sector the value of which is guaranteed to take up in the long term.

Furthermore, this business has ended up making a win win situation for all of the stakeholders that have been hold direct or indirect interest in the same. This is one of the very important reasons that has led to the increase of property business in general, which is precisely why we see a range of real estate businesses and agencies laying foundation in every nook and corner of the road.

There might be plenty of people around who are looking forward to establish their own successful real estate businesses. However, they are frequently confused as to where they ought to start from. So as to bring an end to the problem faced with such individuals out there, we'll be assisting you with a concise blueprint which we believe may wind up playing a critical part in your real estate journey.

The Starting Point - Boost Your Start Up Capital:

1 main requirement for kick-starting a business is to start by raising the essential start up funds, the core function of which is to fulfill the different fixed and variable expenses. This notion holds equally true in the event of a property business. So as to give birth to your fantasy, you will need to start by finding and eventually investing in the office area, purchasing the essential office equipment, designing logos and preparing additional marketing material and of-course diverting funds towards insurance. Similarly, you'll also require funds to meet the regular operating expenses in the days to come. After the funds are in place, the first step is readily met.

Meet Regulatory Requirements:

It's vital for you to remember that you can't truly begin transacting in the real estate arena on any day randomly. In the majority of the states, you want to maintain a valid license so as to have the ability to function as a consultant. It's a good idea that you get on board a trusted legal counsel in order to better acquaint yourself with the rules and regulations which are widespread in the real estate platform of the nation. As soon as you have the required permit in hand, you may start your operations as a property consultant.

Get into Your Hiring Boots:

Next up you'll be asked to initiate the recruitment and selection processes so as to employ agents to your group. At this time, it's vital that you draft an independent contractor arrangement in order to maintain clarity and clear communication between you as the employer as well as your unique agents. The arrangement should necessarily house details concerning the ratio in which the commission will be dispersed, code of ethics that will need to be imbibed from the brokers and of-course the general office associated policies and processes.

Repair in Your Mind - Client is your Whole & Sole:

As soon as you're through with the above 3 steps, you want to proceed further so as to construct a loyal customer base. To be able to survive and succeed as a real estate entrepreneur, a stable clientele becomes crucial. You may reap results in this region by investing towards direct and indirect advertising, integrated marketing communication models and of-course a bit bit of public relations. Similarly, you may even put weightage on joining hands with a Search Engine Optimization firm, which is thought to play a vital role in boosting your visibility and presence on the market.

The Greatest Add-on - A professional looking site:

The above mentioned elements are essentially the preliminary droplets that would wind up contributing to your broad ocean of property business. Aside from the aforementioned aspects, there's still another element, which if added to your business initiation program is guaranteed to benefit you in a gigantic way. The building block about which we're speaking here is the requirement to develop and present a relevant, innovative and of-course different looking professional site for your business unit.

If we were to require the statistics, then we can easily arrive at the conclusion that at the recent times it's been discovered that over eighty percent of those individuals begin their home search online. This is precisely why a professional site is very likely to come useful to your property unit. Similarly, a website may also help you endure the cut-throat competition by making your details available to the potential clients at large.

But one area that the majority of the companies wind up giving a miss is with respect to the listings. The majority of the actual estate agents rely heavily on the Multiple Listing Service and don't recognize the value of listing out all of the properties which come under their basket, on their respective sites. It's fairly obvious that only once you provide a holistic listing in your site will you be able to listen to your cash registers ringing, that is really the final result of a broad number of sales.

Why Should I Invest My Money in Real Estate Business?

Now a days we can see the trend of investing money in real estate business is growing day by day. It ranges from acquiring one little house or plot to acquiring a significant estate. Nowadays we can observe the existence of high level companies in real estate business as well as ordinary buyer. It shows how important this property business today. None of the big players neglect the significance of real-estate industry. There are a number of factors behind the success of the business. Some of them are:

1. More security for your investment

2. Cost of land and properties will always go high

3. Investing in real estate is similar to increasing assets

Real-estate appears to be low risky business in contrast to other important investments. Let's consider the share market business. Investing cash in share market is high insecure. We can't predict the specific income generated from discuss marketing as a result of high volatile nature of the business. If we're lucky we will have the ability to get a fantastic amount from share market business. If we're unlucky we may face a big drop of cash. Real-estate business don't have such a risk. We can anticipate a minimal money back guaranty in real-estate business. It's due to some characters of real-estate market. Properties we acquire are strong rather than a paper money like in share market. It's an asset which also can contribute extra income.

If we invest our money in buying a building, it's the process of acquiring additional advantage. Even if we don't sell this building to another individual we could get rent from it. It's an extra source of income along with an investment for future business. Besides this, market value of a building and property will always go high. So we can always anticipate more by investing our money in real-estate market. This feature make our business a low one.

It's important to be aware of the basic tendencies in real-estate before investing your money in it. You ought not invest your money in a business without understanding the pulse and fashion of it. So if you're seriously planning to spend your money in purchasing property and building, you might consider the advice from the experts in the area. There are lots of regional consultancies that are prepared to guide to correctly and guidance to how and when you should invest your money.

Their head office is at Trivandrum (Capital of Kerala) and in most significant areas in kerala they have their own branches. Kerala Real Estate is a promising spot for investing money.

#real estate #investing #business #real-estate business #successful real estate

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Write Your Book Now - 10 Ways to Overcome Your Procrastination

Producing a book can seem like a daunting project - worthy of procrastination. We all know that procrastination is the take action of putting off something until a later time. Like writing this article. I started last night - and additionally wished I'd finished then - but I didn't. So here I am bogged down with it. Since William James said, "Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. " Procrastination is considered a coping mechanism for dealing with the anxiety or fear. If anxiety or fear don't exist, we wouldn't put things off. We would go for it! So procrastination is self-sabotaging-keeping us from beginning to see our dreams. In regard to writing your book, you may have put it off for any number of reasons. Perhaps it's fear of fail - or success. Or you think you're not a good enough writer; you don't know enough to write anything; you will never get your book published; no one will like your book or what you have to say; you don't have time to write, you may plain HATE TO WRITE. non-etheless, you really want to write that book. You have an expertise you want to share that will helps others; you help to write a book. You just finished a book that you could have published better. You've got a story that's been bouncing around in your head for years. Still - you haven't started writing an individual's book. Why? Maybe your anxieties are overwhelming your desire-and you need to change that. Visualize your wish as a published author. You are the expert. See yourself holding your book, talking to others about it. Maybe you're at a book signing or giving a talk about it, or being interviewed by the media. Your result? Your status is bolstered and you enjoy success because of the book. How badly do you want to attain this want to find themselves publishing book? Write a number 1 to 10 (highest). If it's 7 or above, what's stopping any from pursuing your dream? Ask yourself: What's the worse thing that could happen? Even if your book has been a failure, you would learn from the process and move on. The literature is replete with the failed stories of flourishing authors. Remember, the worst regrets are on the chances you never took! Once you identify those demons forbidding your success, you can overcome them-and take action. Let's look at ten major excuses for not writing your current book - and how to overcome them. 1 . I don't have enough time. Set aside just 15 minutes every day to figure on your book. Perhaps, get up 15 minutes earlier. Commit to focusing at least 15 minutes a day of uninterrupted writing. Within your "writing time, " do not answer the phone, e-mails, or text messages. Just like you plan uninterrupted time to workout in order to meditate or to be with your kids, devote at least 15 minutes every day to work on your book. 2 . I'm way too busy and "forget" about writing my book. Set a schedule and put writing on your "to do" list. Now that you have committed to just 15 minutes, schedule it into your day on a regular basis-preferably once every day-so it becomes part of your routine. That way you won't forget or avoid it. Hold one self responsible to working on your book each day. Check it off your "to do" list as a way with acknowledging your success in following through with your goal. Then reward yourself with something that works for your needs. 3. I don't know where to begin. Start at the endpoint to create a structure-a plan for your book--like an architect. People wouldn't begin building a house without a blueprint. Likewise, you need a plan for your book. Rather than start by writing without the need of direction, the first step is to give thought-a great deal of thought to the structure of your book. 4. It's too mind-boggling. Create your plan in manageable steps. Identify your vision, goals, and expectations for your book. Set off from there, in small steps, to identify your target audience, branding, positioning, even your table of ingredients. At AuthorAssist, we offer 15 exercises that result in a personal guidebook for writing your book-- your strategy. Realize, you haven't yet written a single word! But now you have a plan-a direction for starting-and completing your book. 5. I hate to write. Consider dictating your manuscript. Choose from a variety of voice recognition software programs or dictate into a digital recorder or even your cell phone. The digital file can be imported into the voice recognition program or you can hire someone to manually transcribe the file. Since we talk sooner than we write, this can be an efficient and less stressful method, for getting a first draft of your book. 6. My workspace is too cluttered and uninviting. According to Salvatore Manzi of Feng Shui Life Mapping. com, "Start by setting up an office that is free from such distractions. Anything on your desk or office environment that is unfinished, unloved, or unused is clutter eating up the energy that could be used creatively with your succeed. As you spend time looking for something you need, you'll get distracted by the desire to finish something else and put things on their place. " Remember your dream of writing your book? Incorporate a visual image-a mock book cover and also photo of yourself at a book signing. This will motivate you and provide focus on your writing. 7. I want a deadline to get things done. Give yourself a firm time frame for completing one manageable step to your plan. If you're devoting only 15 minutes, it may take several days to complete one step. That's okay. Just connect with your deadline. Create a calendar to show when that step will be completed and the next one started-and progress from there. 8. I feel alone in trying to start my book. Enlist a writing coach or even buddy to get you going-and keep you going. Writing is a solitary endeavor and it's easy to feel by itself in your thoughts and words. Hire a writing coach or enlist another writer to help you overcome the procrastination associated with starting your book. A coach provides the specific steps for developing your blueprint. Then you can get started the actual writing, dictating subchapters at a time to get to that vital first draft. Your coach or buddy might check up on you regularly to ensure you are making progress. As one client said, "Working on the exercises together in addition to having someone out there giving me instant feedback was extremely helpful. " 9. Writing/publishing my booklet is too expensive. How much is it worth to succeed at your dream - and boost your status? Yes, there are actually costs, as with anything worthwhile. Like the tasks involved, the costs are manageable and can be budgeted in small to medium sized chunks. 10. It doesn't matter if I put if off a while longer. Where will you be a year from now: hoping you had started today-or holding a copy your published book? When it comes to taking the first step toward writing your own book, it's easy to but it off until tomorrow. Remember, the best way to get something done is to begin. Do It Now.

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5 Steps to Writing A Winning Business Proposal

Stop losing business deals to your competition when the tips to fix your proposal are simple.

Your business proposals must not only appeal to your prospective clients, but they must also capture and keep their attention by illustrating their definitive ability to solve their problem in the most direct way possible.

clashgraphics.com has gathered information to help you assemble the most appealing content and gives you the steps to write a winning business proposal for any product or service.

What Is A Business Proposal?

A business proposal is a written or digital collection of appealing information that introduces you, your company, your business ethics, your product, and your prices to another company that may benefit from your product or service.

There is no one-size-fits-all proposal. Your business proposal should be flexible enough to scale up or down depending on the company you want to do business with. The following steps will guide you through the creation of a versatile and winning business proposal.

Step 1 - Gather Relevant Information

When a promising business opportunity arises, you may feel pressured to send a business proposal as quickly as possible. However, reserving the necessary time to collect data about the business, their needs, and your competition will help you create a better overall proposal.

Before writing your proposal, answer the following questions:

Who Makes the Decisions? - Learn as much about the company and their decision making processes as you can. Knowing who is included in the selection process (CEO, CFO, COO, etc.) will help you tailor your proposal to be more appealing.

Are You Working Against a Deadline? - Many well-structured companies make their purchasing decisions during specific periods of the year. Make sure you ask questions about time constraints, budget cycles, and internal deadlines.

How Are You Going to Solve Their Problem? - Once you have a clear perspective of what the company’s problem is, you must decide which of your products or services are best suited to solve it efficiently.

Has the Company Established a Budget? - Ask about the company’s budget or anticipated investment for this product or service. The more you know about how much they are willing to invest, the better you can refine your proposal. In some cases, this information may force you to walk away when there is little to no chance to make a profit.

How Much Will You Invest in This Project? - Before sending your proposal, calculate your company’s expenditures versus the full contract value (FCV) if your proposal is accepted. By doing this, you can determine your company’s projected revenue.

Who Are You Competing Against? - If you are entering into a competitive bidding process, take the time to research your competition. Knowing their strengths and weaknesses will help you highlight how your products and services can better solve the company’s problem.

Step 2 - Define The Project Scope

The scope of your project is a blueprint of how the products and services will be delivered and is as essential for you as it will be for your prospective client. It will also help you determine whether or not you have the necessary resources and logistics in place to fulfill the commitments you are proposing.

The following questions and their answers will help you define the project scope:

Who? Who will oversee/manage the work? Who will be tasked to do the work? Who will the customer call for problems and troubleshooting? Who will be responsible for billing?

What? What service or product is being promised? What time/manpower will be required to deliver it? What will your customer expect weekly or monthly? What will all of this cost the client?

Where? Where will the work take place? Where will products be delivered?

When? When will the project begin? When will the project end? When will payments be due? When will contract renewal be negotiated?

How? How will work deadlines be met? How will the work be managed? How will you guarantee product quality? How will you determine customer satisfaction? How will your product or service solve your customer’s problem?

Why? Why did you choose this project? Why did you choose the product or service as the solution? Why should you be selected?

Answering these questions will give you insight into your company’s ability to honor the proposal’s requirements, as well as expand or grow to meet its needs.

Step 3 - Draft Your Business Proposal

You can personalize an unsolicited business proposal to appeal to a specific customer. There are no set standards unless you are responding to a solicited RFP (more on this below). Throughout your proposal, never make promises you cannot keep and be realistic about your product and service.

Ethos, pathos, and logos are related terms used in business proposals. Ethos refers to the credibility of you and your company, pathos refers to the passion and enthusiasm used to represent your company, and logos to the logic or reason used when making business decisions or proposals.

With these ideas in mind, the general flow of your proposal should include the following:

Introduction - Relevance is essential when introducing your company and its mission. The introduction tells a story about your company, product, services, and brand. Be sure to highlight your credentials, accomplishments, and what distinguishes your company from your competitors. The length of your introduction should be relative to the relationship you want to build with your potential client, but no more than one page.

Executive Summary - This is not a detailed summary of the proposal, and should also be kept to a single page. This is where you pitch your reasoning for why your company should be selected while offering the takeaway message of the proposal. Use objective language to focus on the conclusions the reader should reach after reading the proposal.

Table of Contents - Unless directed to do so by the requirements of an ‘RFP,’ or you are assembling a proposal with a lot of detail, inserting a table of contents is optional and in most cases unnecessary.

Body - The body of your proposal is where you get to expound on what you stated in the Executive Summary and provide the answers to the questions about the project scope.

The following can be used to fill the body of your proposal:

• Project Timeline • Project Pricing • Project Logistics • Market Analysis • Marketing Plan • Graphs and Data Charts • Financial Projections • Client Testimonials • Website and Social Network Links

The body is where you should include your company’s limitations or “terms.” While it may not seem necessary, without doing so, your prospective customer may develop expectations for your company to provide services outside the scope of the proposal.

It is common practice to end the body of a proposal with a signed agreement that facilitates the closing of the contract. By adding this agreement, your proposal will double as a contractual agreement.

Conclusion/Call to Action - Conclude your proposal by emphasizing the benefit your company brings to the table, and encouraging the reader to take action. Even in the simplest form by visiting your website for further information, contacting you for further details, or by detailing how to close the deal and begin the terms of the contract.

Appendix - The appendix allows you to showcase material that may not have been appropriate for other sections of the proposal. The following can be added to your proposal’s appendix:

• Resumes • Certifications • Awards • Additional Graphs • Additional Customer Testimonials

For guidance on how to write a winning resume, visit clashgraphics.com/printing-tips/how-to-write-winning-resume/. For help with graphic design, layout, and professional printing options, contact clashgraphics.com/pages/print-shop-in-atlanta-ga.html

What Is an RFP?

Business proposals are sometimes solicited through a request for proposal (RFP). This document requests proposals for an agency interested in the procurement of a service, asset, or commodity.

RFPs will generally be specific on how proposals are to be structured and what information should be included. In these business proposals, do not deviate from the given instructions. If you are writing a proposal for an RFP, please refer and adhere to the guidelines in the RFP.

Step 4 - Editing Your Business Proposal

Never send a first draft proposal to a prospective customer. Typos, grammatical missteps, and calculation mistakes can be enough to get your proposal eliminated before it even gets to the review table.

A second set of eyes will help you catch mistakes that you may overlook. As well, there are several online editing programs like Grammarly which can help you fine tune the proposal’s vocabulary, spelling, and grammar.

During the editing process, work to remove repetitive or information which may not be necessary for your proposal. By keeping your proposal concise (without sacrificing valuable content), you are giving it a better chance at winning the selection process.

Also while editing, read the proposal from your potential client’s point of view and ask:

• Is the information clear and concise? • Is the tone of the proposal professional and using industry vocabulary? • Is the call to action compelling? • Would you sign the proposal into a contractual agreement?

Step 5 - Submitting Your Proposal

Depending on the content of your proposal, and the delivery requirements of the company it will be submitted to, the following delivery options should be addressed:

Email - When sending a business proposal via email, there are a few things you should take into consideration:

• Who is the recipient, who will be copied, and will there be anyone blind copied? • Is your subject line populated with direct and brief language? • Is there a size limit for email attachments with your or the customer’s service? • Be prepared to change the document format to accommodate a size limitation?

If your email provider offers a “read receipt” turn it on so you’ll be notified when the email has been opened. This will help you determine a time to follow up with your potential customer.

Portal - In many cases, the customer or entity requesting the proposal may have an online portal set up. Portals are advantageous as they can handle larger file sizes, permitting more thorough proposals to be submitted.

If this is the case, all of the documents comprising the proposal can be named and uploaded to the portal for the reviewers to see at their discretion.

Hand Delivery - Some companies (especially those issuing an RFP) will request that multiple copies of your proposal be hand delivered by a particular deadline.

Mail - Finally, there are times when your proposal will have to be mailed using USPS, UPS, FedEx or courier, and stamped by a specific deadline.

Increasing Business with Winning Proposals

Don’t miss business opportunities when there are references and easy to follow proposal writing instructions.

In this article, you discovered the necessary steps and content to write a captivating and winning business proposal.

Your failure to efficiently write, assemble, and deliver a winning business proposal can cost your company significant revenue and prevent its ability to grow.

Sources: http://jsmith.cis.byuh.edu/books/communication-for-business-success/s13-03-business-proposal.html http://kmh-lanl.hansonhub.com/pc-26-58-seisler.pdf https://www.score.org/blog/8-ways-make-your-business-proposal-stand-out

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