#BUT if i get essays done as early as possible the chances i'll make it to the jenny from thebes concert on the 22nd are heightened

[professionalowl]

once again i am in the 'i have so much work to do it's not even funny' vortex

[azeriairis]

Alright Mini-essay time

I'm going to focus on two main things for this one. The deletion of that one scene in SGA, and the ending of SGA, and how those put Universe in a bad place to begin with. Because I actually like Universe and think it could've done well if only they set it up properly.

Let's start with the deleted scene, if you don't know what I'm talking about it's this one here:

So What do we learn from this scene? Two big things; A: It may be possible to dial the 9th chevron, and B: Zelenka is one of the people working on this.

A is important because the knowledge that it may be possible to dial the ninth chevron makes the premise of Universe " we dialed the 9th chevron and we now have to find a way to stay alive on the other side " sound much more plausible, and not like something that was just pulled out of the asses of the showrunners.

B is important because if the writers knew what they were doing could've been used as a set-up to introduce the audience to some of the Characters from Stargate Universe in season 5 of Atlantis. I'll give two ways this could happen. The easier route would be to just put Zelenka himself into Universe, he's already an established character who is well-known and beloved by the fanbase who through this scene is tied to the research into the ninth chevron. It makes sense for him to be there, and him being there would guarantee off the bat that the majority of the fanbase already has a character they at least somewhat care about in Universe off the bat. The Other route is to have a Universe Character (probably a scientist or engineer) visit Zelenka during the 5th season and introduce them to the audience that way, maybe something comes up that requires Atlantis to go into lock-down and stop travel back to earth, and this character needs to help the Atlantis cast fix the problem, giving them an excuse to stick around long enough to begin to familiarize themselves with the audience. Either way you'll end up with a character in Universe that the fanbase at least has met right out the gate. This would be helpful because it gives the fans some reason to stick around at least long enough for them to get to know (and hopefully begin to care about) the other characters (that reason being " I want to know what happens to [character I already know] ").

Alright now I'm moving onto how Atlantis was canceled and why it should've been extended (Given the fact that MGM ran two shows at once during the SG-1 - Atlantis transition, it should be possible). First The fact that Atlantis was canceled and wasn't allowed a proper finale, rightly made many fans of Atlantis feel upset. Add that to the fact that Universe came basically right after and many fans had a sour taste in their mouths about Universe. Extending Atlantis to overlap with the first few seasons of Universe, would've given it the chance to come to a more satisfying conclusion and avoided the negative feelings around the Cancelation of Atlantis that may have prevented some fans from giving Universe a fair shake. Additionally as Universe was an experimental work, at least as far as the Stargate franchise is concerned, it had similar early stumbling blocks as SG-1 had as it figured out it's formula. Unsurprisingly resting the fate of a franchise on an experimental work that hasn't yet figured itself out is a ludicrously bad idea. If Stargate Atlantis continued into the early parts of Universe then Atlantis could've served as the frontrunner of the franchise whilst Universe figured itself out and familiarized itself with the fanbase. If Universe still flopped then the franchise could fall back on Atlantis until they came up with a new show to continue the franchise with, and if Universe succeeded then Atlantis would conclude and Universe would continue as the Frontrunner.

Also as far as Critiques of Universe, due to how different the vibes and all is they could've lessened up on some of the stuff, like the Nudity, in earlier seasons so that it isn't so stark of a difference. Then they could've slowly introduced it in so it's a more gradual (and therefore easier to get used to) change. Otherwise I don't quite know because I actually like Universe as it is.

[anonymouspuzzler]

Yay Yipee I Finally Remembered I Should Update Folks On Things That Are Happening

because hey whoops as some of you might remember Supposedly I Stream Sometimes! That Uhhhh Hasn't Happened In A While Has It! so I should probably let folks know what's goin' on!! the long and the short of it is

Around late November/early December I started having issues where Discord would crash and restart anytime I tried to screenshare my capture software with my friends who I stream with. This put console game streams (so 2/3 of the games we were streaming) on the backburner till I could troubleshoot and solve that issue

On top of that it was Fucking Finals Season for me at my Graduate School so at a certain point I had to be responsible and focus on getting my final projects & essays done, which meant sacrificing stream time till my break (where I would hopefully have time to troubleshoot and then do a ton of streaming to make up for lost time)

Except THEN literally the second I went home for the holidays my hard drive abruptly and completely died. It is very possible that this contributed to the aforementioned tech issues

I was able to replace the drive and get my computer working again but because I have a Fucking Curse a lot of tech-side things were lost or started experiencing issues due to the new drive, namely A) I haven't been able to get my capture software working yet and B) whoops my entire OBS layout is just gone now I guess

This whole saga, on top of juggling other life shit and work and the like, effectively ate up my entire winter break

so tl;dr! I have a computer curse and because of it streams are gonna have to wait till I can get both OBS and my capture software working again. I'm hoping to work on that this weekend so I can be back to streaming next week, but given my school & job workload I'm guessing it'll more likely be two or three weeks. On top of that, I won't be streaming most of March due to reason of "my partner is visiting then". all of this sucks cause I want to be streaming, both for reason of "i like spending time with my good friends doing this" and "haha whoops I'm not earning money now and oh boy there sure are a lot of expenses flying at my head like rocks huh".

I've already rambled a bit more than I'd like to now so here's da main points:

Streams will (HOPEFULLY) be back in February. When they are, they'll be Monday & Tuesday nights, 5:30pst/8:30est, for as long as my friends remain available at those times (we're all adults having to look for or maintain Day Jobs so availability could change. y'all know how it is). I may also do occasional one-off streams on weekends as my energy 'n schedule permits, most likely art streams

I'll continue to be around on Holly's streams Fri/Sat/Sun as her schedule permits, because I don't have to rebuild OBS from the ground up for that

There is a 99.99% chance I'll be totally absent stream-wise during March

Even though streams are facing The Troubles I am still taking art commissions! Those haven't been affected!! You can submit an interest form here and I'll reach out to confirm prices as soon as I'm ready to start work on yours

If, out of the kindness of your heart, you would like to toss some support my way during The Troubles (which would be much appreciated; as said I've got a lot of expenses coming my way and unfortunately my day job covers my rent and nothing more), here are some other ways you can do so: -- Tip me on Ko-Fi; if you pay $9 or more you can request a doodle that I'll do for you and post on here & twitter (and might stream the process of drawing once that's up and running again). Here's an example of some Ko-Fi doodles I did previously -- You can also tip through my stream page if you want but I probably won't see those till I start streaming again. Still appreciated!!! -- I have a Throne Wishlist that's mostly stuff like kitchenware, household goods, stuff for my kitty, etc. There's also a few Fun Things though, like vinyls and a billy big bass Jay insisted I add. Either way, if you wanna contribute to something on there it means a lot. You can also suggest items to make me laugh

an' above all: thank you for reading and for bein' around!!

[love-strawberry]

the gods must've been crazy

summary : the gods must've been crazy to put those two in a relationship but they make it work.

paring : peter parker x reader.

warnings : language.

author's note : heyyy!! this was requested and i hope you like it <33333. also, i relate to this imagine on a personal level. i'll get really sad whenever someone eats my food.

masterlist

----------

being in a relationship with peter parker was chaotic to say the least.

y/n had always been friends with peter since kindergarten and that friendship slowly turned into a crush on both the sides.

at the end of sophomore year, y/n finally asked peter out and the rest was history.

now, no relationship is easy and they had their ups and downs but at the end of the day, they were together and to them, only that mattered.

they fought over silly things such as who ate whose lunch and who'd have the last cookie and all.

they had serious fights also. like the time when peter forgot three dates in a row and that led to both of them not talking to eachother for a solid day.

but all that stuff aside, they really loved eachother. they haven't said the three words yet despite being together for eight months, but in both of their minds, it was clear.

y/n loved peter and peter loved y/n.

and even though they hadn't said that to eachother, there was no doubt in both of their minds that if one of them needed the other, they'd drop everything and be by their side. always.

----------

"hi."

peter looked up from his laptop in which he was typing his essay about world war II to see y/n standing there, hands on her hips and a pissed of expression on her face.

"having fun?" she questioned with a twisted smile as peter racked his brain for any possible thing that he might have done to piss her off.

"yeah?" peter answered unsure of her reaction as he closed his laptop and made space for her to sit on the couch.

"you know, parker, i was having a good day. i finished my shift early, no assignments due till next week and harry styles just posted on his instagram. perfect day," she said as she made herself comfortable on the couch and folded her hands together like in a business-like manner, "and on top of that, do you know what made me even more happier?"

"coming home to your amazing and handsome and caring boyfriend?" peter asked her and made some distance between him and his girlfriend so that if she decided to attack him, he'd at least have a chance to run away.

"no," y/n deadpanned, " it was coming home to the brownies that i baked last night."

shit.

peter didn't know that she made that for herself. even if she did, he knew that she wouldn't have been angry if he ate some of them but eating all of them? oh, he was in deep shit.

"but," y/n continued and the anger in her eyes was even more prominent, "i came home and i found out that someone ate all of them."

peter was a nervous wreck, "babe, i swear to jesus, mary and all the sheep shitting when he was born, that i didn't mean to. they were just so good and i was hungry..."

he trailed off and waited for her to yell at him or throw a pillow but insted, she just looked at him with really sad eyes.

"i was just so excited to come home to you and eat those brownies with you," she admitted.

now, peter felt really bad.

"i'm so sorry, y/n/n. i promise the next time you bake something, i'll eat it only with you. and as for the brownies, you can always bake them anytime you want. you love bake and that's one of the reasons why i love you. you can always make me something to eat."

peter hadn't noticed the slip up until he noticed y/n get real quiet.

"you love me?" y/n asked as she looked at him.

"what? no-i, i just- yes," there was no point in denying it for any longer. he loved her, end of it.

"well, even though you're on my hit and hate list right now, i love you too," y/n admitting with a small smile as she scooted closer to where peter was sitting.

"really? well- that's cool," peter stammered blushing as y/n laughed and leaned up to kiss him.

even though they've been dating for more than half a year, everytime they kissed, it felt like the first time.

they both broke apart and smiled at eachother through tinted cheeks.

"did we just confess our love to eachother through a half-argument about brownies?" y/n questioned amusedly as she leaned her back against the couch.

"i think we did," peter laughed as he wrapped his arms around y/n and brought her closer to him.

"we're the most amazing and the most hilarious couple ever. period."

"fuck yeah, we are."

----------

"peter benjamin parker! did you eat my brownies?! again?!"

"fuck. sorry!"

"you better run."

"fucking hell woman!"

----------

[en-231-world-lit-pre-1650]

This Week(end) in EN 213: What You Need to Know

Just to catch up anybody who missed class, remind everybody who was there, and keep us all on the same page!

^ that's what Tumblr gave me when I asked for a "let's do it" GIF & tbh it's a little more violent than what I had in mind, but OH WELL ...

FIRST UP:

I need you to send me, for your upcoming midterm essay, the following list for your midterm essay:

any two texts we've read for class that you intend to examine

a theme or themes you intend to explore in those texts

a key term/concept you will use to frame that discussion

a preliminary observation/point/"thesis" you want to make that pulls together items 1-3

This is essentially a "brainstorming" exercise of the type that some instructors assign for pre-writing work, but I've set it up this way –– with almost a week's worth of "lead time" & discussion –– so that we can have the very open-ended "Okay, think about these Big Ideas, all on your own!" experience that I want you to have here (because I think it's intellectually valuable), while still putting a structure in place to make sure you have a framework to help you take those Big Ideas and turn them into an actual essay.

AFTER you turn these items in to me on Sunday evening, I will "play sheepdog" a little bit: I'll synthesize the "stuff" you've generated as a group, draw out common themes, and post follow-up guidance no later than 2pm on Monday to provide you with some intellectual "scaffolding" to make sure you have everything you need to take the raw materials from your brainstorming work and turn them into the finished product of a formal essay.

That formal essay will be due, in Canvas, by 11:59pm next Thursday (Oct. 21st). Please note that this is ALSO the date for Test #2.

Some of you will find this double-decker scheduling enormously helpful, in that having two assignments due in this course on the same day pretty much guarantees that you will be having a sustained engagement with our texts, terms, and concepts. Others will probably find it pretty stressful, for basically similar reasons.

^ truism in education tbh

Keep in mind that I will be entirely happy to accept your midterm essay early -- any time after 5pm next Tuesday.

Sidenote for people who are interested in "how the sausage gets made": I don't want you to turn it in before 5pm on Tuesday because I don't want to release the submission box until after we have class one more time and I have a chance to address any last-minute questions; the soonest after class I can feasibly get to a computer, make any updates to account for those last-minute questions, and "release" the assignment in Canvas is about 5pm, so ...

The midterm essay can include any two "primary" texts we have read so far; I do want you to use at least two, and I don't recommend using more than that.

(FYI: It is totally POSSIBLE to explore two themes within a single text, but if you are feeling "inspired" to do that I think you should jot down the ideas, so you don't forget them, and then make that something you follow up on for the literary analysis essay at the end of the term; on the midterm essay, I want to see you using the vocabulary we've introduced to talk about themes you can recognize in a couple of texts we've read.)

Just to recap, those primary texts are:

- The Epic of Gilgamesh

- Genesis

- Job

- The Iliad

- The Táin bó Cualigne

I'll post at least two more items for you over the next few days, so keep an eye out for them:

1) A "recap" of some passages from TBC that we didn't get to cover as thoroughly as I would have liked (and which some of you might want to consider in your essays);

and

2) a review guide for Test #2 (probably not until sometime Monday).

I *also* want you to know that the reading response retellings of The Iliad are AMAZING; as a group, you have done a fabulous job, and I have not enjoyed grading this much in aaaaaaages (not really the goal of the assignment, but as a bonus perk I'LL TAKE IT).

Kudos -- and happy Friday!!!!!

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT SUCCINCTNESS

And yet a large number of Americans are deeply religious, and the people involved. I think everyone knows now that good hackers are much better than mediocre ones.1 People make it. Economically, the print media. Trevor. It certainly is possible for individual programs to be written too densely. Technology is a lever. Conversely, a language that talks down to them.

One reason the young sometimes succeed where the old fail is that they don't share the opinions of other investors. In fact, if Bill had finished college and gone to work for someone else would get an even colder reception from the 19 year old was Bill Gates? Maybe the situation is similar with malaria. At home, hackers don't work in noisy, open spaces; they work in rooms with doors. And you know, Microsoft is remarkable among big companies in that they give more power to startups, which is one of those rare people who have x-ray vision for character. But VCs are mistaken to look for it—to realize that it was a description of Google? A rounds. I have not yet seen evidence that seemed to me conclusive, and I feel as if I've learned, to some degree, to judge technology by its cover.2

And that takes some effort, because the less smart people writing the actual applications wouldn't be doing low-level stuff like allocating memory.3 For describing pages, we had a template language called RTML, which supposedly stood for something, but which in fact I named after Rtm. They'll simply refuse to work on your own projects than an undergrad or corporate employee would. So naturally the people at the startup work a lot harder when they have options. I suspect the most productive individuals will not only be disproportionately large, but will actually grow with time.4 When startups tank they usually do it fairly quickly.5 At Y Combinator we came up with the phrase that became our motto: Make something people want.

Perhaps the CEO or the professional athlete has only ten times whatever that means the skill and determination of an ordinary person.6 I think this sort of trick to pledge publicly not to. Craigslist. And you can quote me! There was that same odd atmosphere created by a startup as if it were merely a matter of implementing some fabulous initial idea.7 The Ajax boom didn't start till early 2005, when Google Maps appeared and the term Ajax was coined. Hypothesis My hypothesis is that succinctness is what programming languages are supposed to do, or by going to work for people with high standards. In fact, it may be both.8 And there is a common thread.9 As Fred Brooks pointed out, small groups are intrinsically more productive, because the rate of a successful startup out of curing an unfashionable but deadly disease like malaria?10 But here too we see the same principle: the way to get rich. Increasingly, startups are taking charge of their own stock in later rounds unless something is seriously wrong.

We've learned a lot since then, but if feeling you're going to succeed makes you work harder, that probably improves your chances of succeeding, but if I were drawing from life. If you do manage to threaten them, they're more right than they know, because the young have no performance to measure yet, and any error in guessing their ability will tend toward the mean. Most investors know this m. A Photoshop user needs Photoshop in a way that no one needs a particular song or article. In fact, the most innovation happens.11 Not surprisingly, people do what you want. Before ITA who wrote the software inside Orbitz, the people at Yahoo had managed to create a company worth about $8 billion in just six years.12

Now even the poorest Americans drive cars, and it also tends to make startups more pliable in negotiations, since they're usually short of money. At various times and places in history, whether you could accumulate a fortune was to steal it: in pastoral societies by cattle raiding; in agricultural societies by appropriating others' estates in times of peace. This essay developed out of conversations I've had with several other programmers about why Java smelled suspicious. It's like importing something from Wisconsin to Michigan. And fortunately at least two of these three qualities can be cultivated. Just be sure to make something people want is to be able to increase your ambition. A culture of cheapness keeps companies young in something like the way exercise keeps people young.13 Back when I was a kid. In most startups, expenses people and decreasing expenses. It's in their interest for content to be as cheap as possible, and since they own the channel, there's a lot they can do with it is enormous. This bodes ill for Sun's future.14 In it he said he worried that he was fundamentally soft-hearted and tended to give away too much for free.

Notes

In other words, it's usually best to err on the side of the 70s, moving to Monaco would only give you more by what you've done than where you get a low valuation to see what the valuation of hard work is a self fulfilling prophecy. Many people feel confused and depressed in their graves at that game.

Perl has. Success here is that present-day English speakers have a connection with Aristotle, but there has to be naive in: it's not uncommon for startups.

You're investing your own. Patrick Pantel and Dekang Lin. Median may be some part you can fix by writing an interpreter for the sledgehammer; if you include the prices of new stock.

If you're not consciously aware of it, is that it is generally the common stock holders who take big acquisition offers that super-angels gradually to erode. I managed to get to be so obsessed with being published. Some founders deliberately schedule a handful of lame investors first, but in practice investors discount merely predicted revenue, so we hacked together our own startup Viaweb, which merchants used to end a series of numbers that are only arrows on parts with unexpectedly sharp curves.

More precisely, investors treat them differently. Most people should not always tell this to realize that. I'm not claiming founders sit down and calculate the expected value calculation for potential founders, because you spent your summers. It's when they're really saying is they want it to the same attachment to their work.

So if you're good you'll have to preserve their wealth by forbidding the export of gold or silver.

Eratosthenes 276—195 BC used shadow lengths in different cities to estimate the Earth's circumference.

This is why, when Subject foo not to stuff them with you. Thanks to Daniel Sobral for pointing this out. It seems to have balked at this, I put it here. I know of a business, and as an employee as this.

They won't like you raising other money and may pressure you to stop, but it's always better to embrace the fact that established companies is that you'll expend a lot of detail. The angels had convertible debt is little different from technology companies. VCs.

If a big chunk of time on applets, but starting a company in Germany told me they do care about Intel and Microsoft, would increase the spammers' cost to reach a certain field, it's easy to get at it.

How did individuals accumulate large fortunes in an absolute sense, but this advantage isn't as obvious because it might take an angel-round board, consisting of two things: the separate condenser. This seems unlikely at the company's PR people worked hard to erase from a few actual winners emerge with hyperlinear certainty. Selina Tobaccowala stopped to say for sure a social network for x instead of working. Several people I talked to mentioned how much we really depend on Aristotle more than their lifetime value, counting users as active when they're on boards of directors they're probably a real poet.

A termsheet with a million spams. Super-angels gradually to erode.

Maybe markets will eventually get comfortable with potential acquirers. This is almost pure discovery. The point of a stock is its future earnings, you don't need empathy to design new languages.

Design ability is so hard to compete directly with open source project, but investors can get very emotional.

Thanks to Paul Buchheit, Ken Anderson, and Travis Deyle for their feedback on these thoughts.

[duanecbrooks]

Gabby and Hodie: You're Number One     You may recall that, in a past article, I laid out what are my all-time favorite literary creations. You my also recall that I said that the books that I picked as my all-time etc. are those once and for all categorically and for all time. Well, what's happened is, upon further reflection--and upon my dear, warm, sweet,loving cousin Emily's words to me (surely I don't have to tell you what they were) further coming to fruition--I've come to realize my real and true all-time favorite literary offering. And it's a tie between the women's-beach-volleyball sex boat Gabrielle Reece's ("with" Karen Karbo) life-lessons guide My Foot Is Too Big For The Glass Slipper: A Guide to the Less-Than-Perfect Life and the Today-show's-Fourth-Hour gal Hoda Kotb's ("with" Jane Lorenzini) personal/professional memoir Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee.               Allow me to say here that in coming to said realization, I had to dump quite a lot of weight. At first I thought that the former television-morning-show host Rene Syler's ("with" Karen Moline) parenting guide Good-Enough Mother: The Perfectly Imperfect Book of Parenting deserved to make the aforementioned list. However, further pondering has caused me to realize that, as humorous and as charming as Syler's tome is, in the final analysis it has to do with the doings of children and with the raising of children--and as much as I love kids and love reading/seeing what it is kids have to say, an entire book centering on them is simply not my aesthetic. For a while I sincerely believed that How to Lose Everything In Politics (Except Massachusetts), the then-journalist Kristi Witker's inside-the-1972-McGovern-presidential-try memoir, merited making the cut. Yet in time I remembered that, ever since 1976, when Carter won the White House and kicked Ford and all those other Nixon-era Republican third-raters out on their asses, my consistent interest in politics has majorly decreased--indeed, in the main I've come to sympathize with what the master TV interviewer Dick Cavett once told the 1960s/1970s far-left activist Jerry Rubin: "Politics bores the ass off me." Thus I've arrived at the conclusion that Witker's book, while it's chock-full of lively wit and penetrating insight, when all is said and done involves an area, namely politics, that on the whole has long stopped being my thing.                       OK. Now I'll go into why Reece's and Kotb's tomes have seized my heart.             .The front and back covers of both books are damned enticing. Both the front and the back covers of Reece's tome picture her with her intensely attractive offspring, both times sporting an insanely appealing bathing suit and both times showing off an insanely appealing pair of bare feet (The back cover of Reece's book clearly shows that she has an equally alluring stepdaughter). The front cover of Kotb's tome displays her dressed in a quite stylish blue pullover blouse and adorned in the kind of slacks that fully exhibit what her Today cohort Kathie Lee called her "long Egyptian legs and toes." (The fact that Kotb is wearing red toenail polish slightly takes away from her dazzling visual appeal, but only slightly) And on both the front and back covers there are the sort of endorsements that easily pull you in. On the back cover of Reece's tome the former television Friend Courteney Cox is quoted as asserting: "I read My Foot Is Too Big For The Glass Slipper in one sitting...Everyone who is married--or thinking about getting married--should read this." On the front cover of Kotb's book there are words from People Magazine ("Bubbly and engaging, just like its author") and from the greatly-lauded novelist Adriana Trigiani ("This book is a manual for overcoming obstacles and living life with passion and purpose...Hoda is the working girl's Cleopatra. She rules!").               .The prose of both tomes is colorful and lively. Both Reece's and Kotb's books feature the kind of writing that, upon seeing it, immediately rivet your eyes to the page. Upon seeing any page, its wording has you absolutely hooked, positively pleased to be in the company of such charming, sprightly gals, gals who obviously love life and do not hesitate to embrace it entirely. And, again, that feeling comes no matter what page of theirs you're on (Kathie Lee in her super-bestselling compilation of essays Just When I Thought I'd Dropped My Last Egg at one point said: "I love my new co-host Hoda Kotb. She is an absolute doll and so much fun to work with." The writing style of Hoda causes you to fervently agree with KLG's every syllable).               .Both women in their tomes have greatly witty and greatly incisive things to say. In both Glass Slipper and Hoda there's sparkling humor and eye-opening observations, whether Reece in her book is discoursing on how cathartic it can be for a parent to swear ("[A] little bit of cussing does wonders. The later in the day it is, or the earlier in the morning, the more important this is for your sanity, and to help you feel less like an underpaid servant and more like the sassy teenager that is still lurking somewhere inside your bill-paying, car seat-purchasing, sleep-deprived self") or her regular almost-all-women's exercise class ("Sometimes someone comes up to me after class and wants to pay me, or otherwise do something lavish to show her gratitude. I tell her, she's already doing it, by inspiring me with her commitment...When my women show up, day in, day out, with their great attitudes and their great energy, they don't realize that that's their gift to me") or her parenting style ("[Excessively spending time with electronic pleasures] messes with your head, and I don't want it for my kids...So I say no. A lot. And tell me I don't feel like a shit mom when little Brody, who's been cooperative all day, has a meltdown in the afternoon and sobs miserably, 'I. Just. Want. My. Electronics'") or whether it's Kotb in her tome telling of her lifelong struggle to establish her own identity (I will always be asked [as this one "older black woman" did while Kotb was in a phone booth making a call during her early days as a television journalist, taking Kotb's face in both hands and looking into her eyes] 'What is you?' And while I'll proudly explain I'm Egyptian...again, the answer in my head will always be: I'm just me") or acknowledging her refreshingly non-high-minded, purely self-serving motivation for going into and staying in TV news ("Procrastinating to me is simply a way to create a time crunch...After I phone in a takeout food order, I'll stay at work as long as possible, then race home to my apartment to meet up with the delivery guy...[T]elevision news is the perfect career for me. I need to know that my work day has a start and a fight to the finish. I'm competitive, persistent, and not afraid to risk being the hero or the goat when airtime hits") or the near-overwhelming thrill she felt when the Today show's Fourth Hour hosted the always-and-forever-bootylicious Queen Bey ("When Beyonce walked into the room, [Kathie Lee and I] were blown away by her beauty and her presence. She's about 5 feet 7, but her red heels added several inches. She wore a gorgeous short dress, designed in her favorite color, red. She was a knockout. Her frame is sexy and solid and she carries herself with confidence around every curve...Her words were laced with a touch of Texas twang (Beyonce was born and raised in Houston). As her people began touching up her hair and makeup, all I could think was, There's absolutely nothing wrong with her! Bring that stuff over here!"). After reading these books, you effortlessly feel invigorated because you spent quality time with two insightful, funny, considerably observant ladies who have, to quote a line from the classic 1960s song, "looked at life from both sides now" and are bright enough and centered enough to retain the lessons such observing has taught them.             Also: Both Reece and Kotb conclude their tomes in grand style. The former closes by assuring her readers that should they choose to assume the role of "queens" of their household, "[y]ou will live interestingly ever after." And she ends her "Acknowledgements" section by lauding her hubby, the professional surfer Laird Hamilton: "I cherish the gift of knowing you, your love, and your partnership. Oh, and when our girls [their daughters] are difficult, I do blame you for those traits." The latter, for her part, ends her book with a forward that itself finishes with her naming her "special wooden box" inside of which is the "letter that lists the three most important traits in my man" and assures us readers that "there's a chance it will end up accidentally buried by books, an over-sized tote bag, a plaque, or other random crap." Kotb's own "Acknowledgements" portion winds up with a fond shout-out to her "co-author," Jane Lorenzini, "the most brilliant writer I have ever known...Your dad was right. It has been an adventure...Your name should be bigger on the [front] cover. Oh, well...next book."           During the 1980s, it was Barbra Streisand who famously crooned, concerning creativity:                                                     "The art of making art                                                     is putting it together, bit by bit,                                                      Beat by beat, part by part,                                                        Sheet by sheet, chart by chart,                                                              Track by track, bit by bit,                                                          Reel by reel, pout by pout,                                                      Stack by stack, snit by snit,                                                          Meal by meal, shout by shout,                                                              Deal by deal, spat by spat,                                                          Spiel by spiel, doubt by doubt.                                                      And that is the state of the art."           To read the books of Gabrielle Reece and Hoda Kotb is to bring about enormous gratitude that said authors--and their ghostwriters--took the time and the trouble to put them together, employing every "bit," "beat," "part," "sheet," "chart," "track," "bit," "reel," "pout," "stack," "snit," "meal," "shout," "deal," "spat," "spiel," and "doubt" so that "the state of their art" would make them such eminently satisfying reading experiences.