#Beyond Performance

[raffaellopalandri]

Book of the Day - Beyond Performance 2.0

Today’s Book of the Day is Beyond Performance 2.0, written by Scott Keller and Bill Schaninger in 2019 and published by John Wiley & Sons Inc. Scott Keller is a consultant, an author, and a Senior Partner in McKinsey’s Southern California office, leading their global CEO and Board Excellence service line. He studied as Mechanical Engineer and has been consulting companies on business strategy,…

[markscherz]

I put it to you that Scaphiophryne marmorata is peak frog.

Why?

Well first, it's pretty round, which is key.

Now get a load of those fingers.

Big, expanded discs at the end, ideal for climbing.

But what's happening back there with those toes? No discs there. Those are good for walking and hopping around on the ground.

Now, let's gently turn them over

First, excellent tum, 17 out of 10, no notes.

But what's that at the base of the foot? Those big projections? Yep, those are spades. This climbing, hopping frog is an excellent digger!

I like to think of these Scaphiophryne as all-terrain frogs. They're basically good at everything. They defy our categorical labels of 'arboreal', 'terrestrial', or 'fossorial', and say 'por qué no los tres?'—but in Malagasy, so 'nahoana no tsy izy telo?'

[steddieas-shegoes]

Steve and Eddie go through the whole adoption process in 1996, despite how difficult it was to find somewhere willing to help them at all and despite their conflicted feelings on adoption.

The way they saw it though, providing a loving home for a child who needed one was better than the alternative. Eddie had enough experience with temporary foster homes to know stability was better than constant moving and questionable foster parents.

They get a foster placement almost immediately, a six year old girl named Amelia. She’s quiet, but not in a way that worries them. She’s very focused, and enjoys going to school more than any regular children’s hobbies. Neither of them know what to do with that other than keep encouraging it.

She stays for months, months turn into a year, and the agency finally gives them the go ahead to complete the adoption process.

But they don’t do anything without talking to Amelia.

She’s happy there, her therapist signs off on it immediately and explains that Amelia has shown more personality development and less signs of trauma with them than she had even living at home. Not to mention they actually brought her to appointments, unlike her previous guardians.

To celebrate, they throw a party with all their friends and family and tell Amelia she can invite anyone from school she wants. She invites everyone.

Turns out their daughter is a social butterfly and is friends with everyone.

At the party, Eddie pulls out his guitar, plays a bunch of popular kid-friendly songs after a very scathing look from Steve as a reminder to behave.

Amelia walks over to him after a few songs, on a sugar high like he’d never seen on her before, and asks to play the guitar.

He’s hesitant, but not because he’s still protective of his guitars, more because he doesn’t want her to embarrass herself in front of her friends. Kids are cruel, even and especially at seven, and the last thing he wants is this to be the thing that kids talk about for the next ten years.

She sits on the couch and holds it, arranging her fingers…correctly. Eddie watches.

Steve is watching from across the room.

She starts strumming, very quietly at first, not as confident as she’d been a moment ago. And then she starts really playing.

It’s one of the songs Eddie wrote. He played it for the last four months nonstop as he perfected it, and she’d apparently been watching.

Eddie’s jaw is on the floor and he quickly looks over to Steve, who has a similar look of surprise on his face.

He doesn’t interrupt her. She makes it through the entire song.

She looks up.

“When did you learn to play guitar?” Eddie asks.

“When I was watching you.”

“But have you played before tonight?”

Amelia shook her head, looking down. “Didn’t wanna touch it without asking.”

Eddie pulls the guitar from her hands and sets it aside, then pulls her into his lap and hugs her. Steve sits down on the couch next to them, hand on her back.

“You can always ask, sweetie. And if you’re this interested and this natural, we can buy you your own guitar if you want. I didn’t think you were interested in playing.”

“I wanna be like you,” Amelia admitted against his shoulder.

Eddie was done for. He looked at Steve, half-panicked, trying not to cry in front of these people, but Steve wasn’t faring any better.

“Then we can go get you a guitar tomorrow. You can get your own picks, too. They might even have purple ones.”

“Can I have red? Like yours?”

“Of course, sweetie.”

It only took them two days after that to realize she could play by ear, just like Eddie.

And then it only took another day after that to realize she had taught herself to read music too.

They spent hours and hours every week playing together while Steve cooked dinner or checked her homework or just watched them.

When Eddie’s band decided to record another album and go on tour when Amelia was 12, Eddie insisted that she get to be on it.

She ended up helping write one of their songs, played on the track on the album, and with a lot of work, convinced Steve to let them homeschool her for the entire 8 months they’d be on tour so she could perform on stage with her dad.

“Can’t believe she’s not even genetically yours. Are you sure you didn’t have an affair?” Steve asked the night before they were leaving for Europe.

“When would I have had an affair? I came back to the tour bus or hotel with you every single night,” Eddie kissed him softly. “She’s amazing, huh?”

“She is. What happens when she wants to be a full blown rockstar like her dad too?”

“Then we make sure she’s protected and has good people around her like I have. She could be a rockstar easily. She’s got the talent and the presence,” Eddie smiled. “And she’s got me to make sure no one takes advantage of her. But she’s only 12. We’ve got time to worry about that later.”

“You’re bringing her onstage every single night all over the world for the next eight months, baby. I think later is now.”

Eddie sighed. “She’s gonna blow them all away. I’m proud of her. Let’s focus on that for now.”

And she did blow everyone away. The fans and the media had nothing but good things to say, and Steve didn’t have to go into overprotective mom mode at all until she was 15 and signing a record deal of her own.

But between Eddie and him, the entire industry knew better than to fuck with her or them.

They made rules, of course. School still came first, she still had required family events to be at, she still had regular friends at home. She wasn’t allowed at any parties, not even the events for award ceremonies.

But she didn’t really need those rules. She had no interest in parties or abandoning her friends or family, and she was a straight A student who still had hopes of getting into Brown for Journalism like her Aunt Nancy. She had a passion for music and wanted to share it, but not at the cost of the rest of her life.

And Eddie and Steve did everything they could to make sure she got to have everything. That’s what they’d promised her from day one.

[shadyhouse]

if anyone is able to help me out i'd appreciate it, im still broke as hell. this month has been really difficult for me. i worked a total of 5 days all month and my bank account is in the negatives again after paying bills and getting some living essentials. i dont know how im going to pay my rent like this. i applied to a financial relief fund from a local trans advocacy group but it's going to be a few weeks until anything comes from that. if you have literally anything to spare it would help me out a lot 😭🙏 i feel bad ive been asking for help so often and i know everyone is struggling, im working on getting my life back in order but everything fucking sucks and is difficult right now :( even just spreading this is a huge help

pp: paypal.me/bewearrr vnm: tobias_leviathan

thank you 💕💕

[rickybaby]

Yuki answers the question of whether he wants Daniel or Liam as his teammate

“No comments, but I’d say I’ve learnt a lot of things from Daniel. He’s probably one of the formula one drivers I respect the most. He’s very consistent [even after a bad race]. He never shows his frustration. He’s able to separate his mind. I’ve learnt a lot of things from Daniel.”

[nhura]

What's up guys I'm going to be a panelist at RATIOCON 2024 giving an improvised presentation on how silly and weird this guy is

[artbyblastweave]

Garth Ennis's oeuvre is pretty consistently interested in examining the corrosive effects of toxic masculinity and machismo in a way I think goes pretty underdiscussed. Most likely because discussing it requires drawing the world's attention to the fact that you read enough Garth Ennis to notice such a throughline

[dreamaze]

OFF ROAD ꩜ Beyond the Studio

[hikarisbeam]

Why can't you pull the trigger? Do you see the monster again?

Hwayi: A Monster Boy (2013)

Beyond Evil (2021)

[liminalweirdo]

and another thing re watcher. lots of people saying "we don't need the high production value, we liked the blue and yellow text on the screen." like SAME! old unsolved had a charm and specialness to it that was unmatched!

but hasn't it occured to you that maybe the boys want to make stuff with higher production value? that these guys who love editing and collaborative creation and film?? might want to make stuff with higher production value to challenge themselves and see what they're capable of nearly 10 years on?

i just. what if it has nothing to do with you? we can't tell people to create/write/draw for themselves and then shit on them when they uh... do that. we can't say "pay artists" and then backpedal and say "i didn't mean I had to pay. I meant everyone else should."

why would you tell someone not to strive for their bigger goals if you have their best interests at heart?

[dykedivorce]

just thinking about beyond evil. what if we all watched beyond evil rn. what if this entire website decided to watch beyond evil. one episode a week for the next 3 months. don't you want to watch beyond evil. i would like you all to watch beyond evil. please. please please please can we watch beyond evil

[linddzz]

2016: "get your pink pussy hats and safety pins on!!! #resist!!!!"

2024: "get your blue friendship bracelets!!! #resist!!!"

[lepidjester]

i wasn’t super sold on royalteeth/kingleader/kingmaster until i discovered my partner kins kinger and i kin caine. therefore, i had to draw them being dumb gay old men

they r holding handz <3

[idlesuperstar]

- As far back as I can remember, I had a passion for dressing up and playing games of 'Let's Pretend', which are, of course, the basic principles of acting, and if you are lucky enough, you get paid for so doing, hard work though it may be.

[yangjeongin]

HYUNJIN in every BACK DOOR PERFORMANCE: 230923

[mrsandypants]

Hwiyoung's "It Is L0ve ♥" Beyond the Studio Live